Sheara Wilensky . com

I’ve already blogged my opinions on coffee retailers. While I am not a crazed fan of the overpriced, made-to-order coffee that Starbucks offers, I was surprised to hear that the coffee giant is planning to close 600 under-performing locations nationwide. I don’t really care one way or another, it doesn’t bother me one bit that there are 3 Starbucks locations within a 10 block radius of my apartment. I could understand that in a weakening economy, many people across the nation are trying to cut down on a $100 a month or more coffee-drinking habit.

I was reading some responses to the Starbucks closings online at ireprot.com, and it seemed more often than not people were happy about this. One person commented “It’s about time. Their coffee tastes like charcoal.” Another person said “I already spend $4 a gallon on gas. Why would I spend another $4 for a 12oz coffee?” Point taken.

However, along with these Starbucks closings come thousands of store managers and baristas out of jobs. Empty buildings with landlords losing rent. Coffee machine manufacturers and paper-goods manufacturers losing income. Clearly there is not going to be a good economical after-effect of all the closings. So, all the people out there that think corporate Starbucks is evil, well, they were actually stimulating the economy. Wow look at me now defending them!

Opened just this past Thursday on Rivington between Essex and Norfolk is Neighburrito, a tiny restaurant featuring homemade Mexican food. Menu items include burritos made with chicken, steak, pork or tilapia, and they even feature an “all vegan” burrito made with lime-marinated tofu, soy cheese and soy sour cream. I tried it, it was quite good. I felt healthy eating it, and the flavor was not compromised. It was smothered with a home-made sauce. For a $6.50-$7.50 burrito, they throw in free chips with salsa (your choice of mild, medium and hot), which is a nice little freebie. They also have a make your own burrito menu, quesadillas, salads, and specialty fruit drinks. I actually watched as my burrito was being made behind the counter and the ingredients did in fact look fresh and homemade. Definitely not your typical take-out burrito joint.

Neighburrito stays open until 2am from Tuesday to Saturday nights, which should be popular with the Lower East Side late night bar crowd. It’s a welcome new addition to the hood.

127 Rivington Street (between Essex and Norfolk)
New York, NY 10002
212-260-2277

My friends at Pocket Change have just discovered the most expensive Hamburger in New York at the Wall Street Burger Shoppe, on Water Street in the Financial District. For $175, you too can enjoy this juicy Kobe beef burger, topped with foie gras, black truffles and eatable gold flakes. Just wanted to say thanks to Pocket Change. We don’t know what we’d do if we hadn’t found out about the delectable piece of meat.

Check out some coverage at the Daily News and The Street.

I manage the accounts for my clients who are enrolled in the Google Adwords Program. I am currently setting up a campaign for a new, boutique NYC area brokerage, and just Googled some relevant terms to get an idea of the current sponsored listings. Number four in the sponsored listing for my query “Manhattan Apartment” yielded the following ad:

NYC Apartments for Sale
www.XYZCompany.com
Condos, Coops, First Time Buyers
www.XYZCompany.com

Now, some of you out there are familiar with the advertising program and know that Google limits the amount of characters per line to 25, 35, 35, 35 - with the display URL in the last line. Each character is very valuable - and you need to carefully choose your words! To waste line 2 with the URL is just a stupid thing to do! I actually don’t think I have seen anyone make this error until today. Now the ad might be relevant, but there is no call to action and so they are probably not attracting qualified traffic.

In the same set of sponsored listings for the query “Manhattan Apartment”, the second sponsored ad was a listing posted by an individual agent, with the agent’s name in the ad, and a landing page that takes you to the agent’s profile page. Now, I also happen to manage the account for this agent’s firm…and guess what…the agents do not have access to the Google Analytics! Which brings me to mistake #2. Do not advertise in Google (or on any other search engine for that matter) if you are not tracking the performance data! How can the advertiser modify their ads, see which ads are achieving high click-through rates, high ROIs, are performing poorly or performing well, etc., without having access to the data? Yet another way of throwing money down Google’s drain. This agent is probably wasting a lot of money on the campaign.

So my advice to all you novice Google advertisers out there: read through the Google Adwords Help Center, join the forum, buy Google Adwords for Dummies, arm yourself with enough knowledge to run a successful campaign. Pumping more money into the system will not guarantee you top placements; you can achieve great results without going broke. If you write compelling ads and monitor your results, you can do very well. If you don’t know how to do this or need a little guidance, you can contact me. I am achieving very healthy ROIs, and my ads are very well written, if I do say so myself (gettin’ great click-throughs).

So over the past few weeks we have all been reading about the on-again, off-again possible Microsoft acquisition of Yahoo for $47 billion. Now I am reading on Search Engine Land that Microsoft wants Facebook for $15 million!

Now, I am all for big companies coming together to create a new user experience for the consumer (see my post about tech firms joining forces to invest in a new WiMax network. And I have nothing against Microsoft - I am a Windows user and proud of it! But Microsoft clearly wants a piece of the search and social media action. And why not, there is nothing wrong with that. But I think Microsoft is resigned to the fact that Live Search is never going to make any kind of dent in the search search demographic, so rather than coming up with something unique, something big (which of course is not easy to do), Microsoft would rather just take their money and buy something shiny. I see zero benefit to a Microsoft-Facebook merger - except of course the Microsoft execs. And don’t forget, Microsoft already has a $240 million stake in Facebook which they purchased in October 2007.

Here is an interesting article on the subject:

http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article3893228.ece

You can also read about the latest in MicroHoo here:

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/PCWorld/story?id=4808236

In celebration of Israel’s 60th birthday, a fabulous display of celebrities, politicians and musicians entertained a sold-out audience last night at Radio City Music Hall in Rockefeller Center.

The night began with speeches from various political figures, including Israeli ambassadors and consuls, Governor David Paterson and Mayor Michael Bloomberg. We even heard video messages from Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, and President George Bush, which was actually pretty cool. Natalie Portman then came on stage, as she was introduced as the host of the evening…what a cutie! Never heard her speak Hebrew before.

Rami Kleinstein and his orchestra opened the musical portion of the show, followed by a beat-boxing Matisyahu, who sang his hits “I Will Be Light” and “Jerusalem”. Matisyahu was surprisingly mellow, he usually jumps around like a Chasid and I expected him to be more crazy in celebration of Yom Ha’atzmaut. He became a bit more lively upon joining Idan Raichel for a duet. Idan Raichel gave a great performance, as usual. When David Broza came on (I love him - amazing guitarist) he made the right choice performing his two most well-known songs, “Banu Lechan Mitachat LaShamayim” and “Yihieh Tov”.

David Broza was followed by Paul Shaffer of David Letterman fame, who came on together with Richard Belzer, aka “Munch” from Law and Order SVU. They did some sort of odd Yiddish musical shtick, not quite sure what that was…it was strange humor which maybe we could have done without, but hey, more Jewish celebs showing their support of Israel we’ll take.

The highlight of the evening for me was Yael Naim. You probably know her song “New Soul” from the MacBook Air commercial. She has a stunning voice and can really perform! Yael sat down at the piano, and gave a rendition of Britney Spears’ Toxic. It was awesome, a slow, sensual version of the song. I guess she was making fun of Britney (?) but her version was pretty excellent. Very unexpected from a poor-English speaking Israeli Frenchwoman. Hopefully someone was able to record that performance. I did however catch the second half of “New Soul”, check it out.

I came across an article in the Wall Street Journal this morning entitled “Big Tech Firms to Invest In Wireless” about how major telecom firms will be joining forces to create a new $14.55 billion communications company. Called Clearwire, the company will set out to develop a mobile network based on a technology called WiMax, promising to offer faster speeds for mobile and other data services. Sprint would be the front-runner on the deal, with a $1.05 billion investment from Comcast, $1 billion from Intel, $500 million from Google, $550 million from Time Warner and $100 million from Bright House. Google is promised to be the default search engine on the mobile devices employing the new technology.

So what is this “WiMax”, anyway? WiMax is an acronym that stands for the Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access. It is a technology aimed at providing wireless data over long distances in a variety of ways. It can support fixed and mobile broadband usage and is a powerful alternative to DSL and Cable.

WiMax is a wonderful technology because it essentially eliminates the need for running wires through walls. It works similar to WiFi, but at higher speeds, over greater distances and for a greater number of users. WiMax provides two forms of wireless service. In one way, a small antenna on your computer transmits to a tower station using a low frequency range similar to WiFi. Lower wavelength transmissions are not easily disrupted by physical obstructions and can diffract or bend around obstacles. In the other form of WiMax service, a fixed dish antenna, say on the roof of your building, points to the WiMax tower. This is a stronger, more stable connection using higher frequencies to send great amounts of data via high bandwidth.

Since WiMax equipment is minimal, installing and maintaining the service is more cost efficient than more traditional methods of obtaining internet access. A solution that makes sense in more rural areas due to its greater coverage areas, WiMax is starting to be seen more in cities, especially in older commercial buildings which are not pre-wired for high-speed internet access.

I first learned about WiMax a few months ago doing research for a client. I thought the product was great and the wireless solution logical. In fact I was surprised that more companies were not offering this option. And as it turns out, my office now utilizes WiMax to access the internet (we are in an older building)! I imagined it would only be a matter of time before the bigwigs started to catch on.

Many people I come into contact with still don’t know what Twitter is — except mainly the SEOs and web guys — but I have a feeling that will be changing soon. Twitter is the latest social media distraction addiction application that combines instant messaging, blogging, and setting a Facebook-like status. It’s an interesting concept - members are having conversations, but are posting one or two sentence answers at a time, for all to see. In fact, Google indexes “tweets”. It’s micro-blogging, if you will. And people are addicted.

Some people post one line questions and wait for answers. Some people like to state what they are doing and when. Your tweet can be directed at one person in particular, or be a general comment. And like other social media applications, you can increase your network of friends - who’s following you, and who are you following.

Now as much as I admit to be addicted to Facebook, and a host of other social networks, I refuse to join Twitter. Maybe I’ve seen one too many episodes of Law and Order SVU, but I feel like constantly posting updates of one’s whereabouts for the world to see is going to get a young female into trouble. Do you know everyone “following” you on Twitter?

Twitter has received positive press recently. Just last Friday, April 25th, CNN.com posted an article about a young man “twittering” his way out of an Egyptian jail.  He posted updates of his status on Twitter via his mobile which led to his rescue.

SEO guru Chris Winfield wrote an article recently on Search Engine Land about how Twitter helped him to make an informed purchase.

It seems like everyone gets it but me.

If you have ever been to Le Souk at Avenue B and 4th in the East Village, you have undoubtedly experienced the same thing I have: lines that don’t move, ridiculous waits, and horrible, horrible service. And yet, Friday night after Friday night, Saturday night after Saturday night, the restaurant/lounge continues to draw such large crowds to the point where it takes 20 minutes to get from one end of the bar to the bathroom. I myself have gone a few times despite all of this. But the last time I went was about 3 years ago, and I have stopped going ever since. Here’s what happened:

A couple of friends from Chicago are visiting New York City, and I think it would be fun to have dinner and smoke Hookah at Le Souk on Saturday night. I make a reservation at 10 PM for dinner for five. We get there, the place is so packed that we can hardly get through the front door. After several attempts at locating the hostess and a long wait - apparently reservations mean nothing here - we finally get seated for dinner at close to midnight! We are starving. We order drinks and Hookah, and place a food order as well. Close to 1AM, we have our drinks and Hookah but still no food. We are making the best of the wait time, a belly dancer comes out which is entertaining. But still no food after several polite inquiries from the waitress.

We are fed up and decide to leave money on the table for the drinks and Hookah and get up to leave. As we are leaving, of course the food comes out. We tell the waitress we don’t want it, we have been waiting an hour and it’s one o’clock in the morning and we can’t eat the heavy Middle Eastern dishes.

Now the manager comes out. We are so upset and frustrated, and I feel terrible for having chosen the place. My friends from Chicago don’t deserve this kind of treatment. My friend who is with me just graduated from law school and chooses this particular night to show off what he learned. He is arguing with the manager and the waitress, explains how we had a 10PM reservation and we are now receiving food at 1AM. One of the bouncers/security is grabbing my lawyer friend by the arm and won’t let him go! The manager brings our party to the alley behind the restaurant - holding us against our will - and tells us the owner will come meet us shortly. They simply won’t let us go.

The owner comes out and he is DRUNK. Drink in hand, slurring, can barely stand still. Anyway, more arguing occurs. Finally, we settle the bill for the drinks we ordered and we leave.

What an awful, horrible night out.

Now, I am no stranger to the Manhattan restaurant and nightlife scene. The service industry in New York City pales in comparison with other cities, because well, if you don’t go back, it doesn’t matter! There are hordes of people who will! The shitty service at Le Souk, well, maybe they were understaffed that night and they were too crowded. That’s forgivable. But a drunken management? Holding us against our will? That’s just unacceptable.

I wish I could say that Le Souk is closing because people stopped going. That’s not the case though. They simply lost their liquor license. Check out this post from NY Mag about the closing of the restaurant. Another Manhattan establishment bites the dust. Good riddance.

So today is the last day of the Search Engine Strategies Conference and Expo which has been going on since Monday at the New York Hilton. I’m not there today, because, well, I stayed out too late last night and have work to catch up on from this week. But — Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were awesome!

I was live blogging five of the sessions for my new friend Barry Schwartz of SE Roundtable - so check out the site to read my transcripts. I especially liked the Orion Panel on Tuesday because it was a lot of fun watching John Batelle bash Jack Menzel from Google (the attacks were meant for Google, not Jack). John “suggested” that Google is manipulating algorithms so You Tube and Google Finance appear in the number one spots for video and stock searches (remember when Yahoo Finance used to be number one?). That Google has turned into a media company and is shying away from their original focus which was purely on search. That Google is “capturing a second click” according to John, monetizing still after the search result is clicked. Jack defended Google by saying that they are just trying to give the most relevant stuff, if that happens to be You Tube, it will be up there, and there is nothing biasing the algorithms.

Anyway, it was a highly entertaining panel. What are all your thoughts on this?

Another session I enjoyed was called Search Engine Friendly Design. A lot of back-to-the-basic stuff for SEOs, like alt tagging and breadcrumb navigation structures. But it served as a good reminder of best practices that we sometimes tend to forget, and the panelists all held the attention of the audience.

Last night was fun! We went to the SearchBash party at Spotlight in Times Square. It was my first time at Spotlight, though I had been wanting to go since they opened last year. A karaoke bar that provides backup singers! Brilliant. The naked singing cowboy was there! My brother Avi Wilensky of Promediacorp and a few others were great singing Violent Femme’s Blister in the Sun. Equal shout outs to the woman singing Like a Virgin, and the guy singing Journey at the end. Anyone know who they were? They were fabulous. Thanks to the sponsors of the party, Webmaster Radio, Bruce Clay, Cranberry, ABC Search, Lyris and PR Web.

You can check out more SES coverage on some other blogs:

• Top Rank Blog
• Greywolf’s SEO Blog
• Just Searching

To those of you responsible ones who made it today to the sessions, enjoy. Great week, and we’ll see everyone at the next conference.