We’re just pumped that we’re across the alley from Lugiron. Not quite sure what they do yet, but they’ve got a coffee pot, so I’d say that we’ll be making friends with them within the hour.

Things are starting to pick up over here, so we’ve got to get rolling. Come on by the booth if you want to talk links, though. We’re at 1110, right next to the phone booths (and the coffee pot), and just to your left as soon as you walk through the doors.

Just had a great talk with Angela over at the JavaFX booth. She was showing Ace and me this crazy new infrared-activated glove that she created. Truth be told, right now it’s just an athletic glove with an infrared sensor that connects to a Wii controller, but she was using it to draw on a screen without any assistance from an external tool.

Angela’s screen allowed her to change the density of the drawings, mess with the colors, and basically treat the screen like a blank and infinite canvas you could manipulate with a single finger. Pretty cool, and something that web designers could get a lot out of once they take this thing public.

We’ll be demoing WhoLinksToMe PRO all conference – Saturday through Monday – and would love to show you what we have to offer. We’ll show you the ins and outs of the operation, be it anchor text , top domain,  top urls, and country linking reports reports. Stop by and talk to one of the many WLTM team members on the scene if you have any questions!

Austin Downtown Districts

Below is a color-coded guide of the various downtown districts where many of our featured venues can be found. It will give you a glimpse of what each district has to offer.

Red River

The Red River district is home to music venues that aren’t hung up with trying to be pretty or impress the people looking for the raw, uninhibited rock talent they showcase. The Red River district has risen from Austin’s rough underbelly to become city’s epicenter of live music.

East 6^th Street

The heart, soul and history of Austin lies in the 7 blocks that make up 6th Street from Congress to I-35. Here visitors will find any type of music that tickles their fancy and dozens of bars all within walking distance of the Austin Convention Center.

West 6^th Street

6^th Street entertainment couldn’t be contained in just 7 blocks so the good times continue as you head west. West 6^th Street is the more grown up, less rowdy side of 6^th where you’ll find plenty of patio hangouts and upscale surroundings.

South Congress

New and trendy, the SoCo district boasts a kitschy combination of everything eccentric. South Congress Street is sure to please those looking for awesome music venues, vintage shops, tattoo parlors and some of the best food in Austin.

Warehouse District

The Warehouse district takes a step back from fast pace of 6^th Street with a variety of laid-back bars, restaurants and shops that are housed in former warehouses. Those looking for live music in a more relaxed atmosphere should check out this area.

2^nd Street

Urban cool is a running theme in the 2^nd Street district. Newly renovated, the 2^nd Street district took a few notes from European cities by incorporating wide sidewalks, lots of outdoor seating, and pedestrian-friendly features.

The East Side

It doesn’t get more authentic than the East Side. It’s an up and coming district that features flair from south of the border, oodles of art, and new hipster hang outs that are sure to peak pique the interest of SXSW attendees.

The Great Outdoors

Northerners and internationals that come to South by Southwest are sometimes surprised by how nice weather is during the conference. Austin in March is like an adult playground for locals that know 100 degree temps are right around the corner.

Just a few blocks south of all the hullabaloo downtown you’ll find Lady Bird Lake, one of the most serene and beautiful spots in all of Austin. Take a run on the Hike and Bike Trail that runs around the lake or just find a spot to chill out for a minute or two. You can also rent canoes and kayaks at a number of locations.

If you’re looking for a swim Barton Springs is your spot. The natural spring pool is open 365 days of the year and always registers at a revitalizing 68 degrees. Right around the corner you can warm back up with a short game of golf at Butler Park Pitch and Putt or putt through a whale’s mouth at Peter Pan Mini Golf. BYOB (no glass)!

Of course we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention Zilker Park, Austin’s Great Lawn, which spent the past year getting a major facelift and looks more like a golf course than a city park.

Other highlights include the shopping districts on South Congress and UT’s Drag, and the Bats under the Congress Street Bridge, the largest urban bat colony in all of North America, always draw a lot of attention on a nice night. BYOB.

Make Sure to Also Check Out:

Deep Eddy Pool – take a dip in Austin’s oldest public pool.

Zilker Botanical Gardens – acres of beautiful flora and fauna with bits of outdoor art

SegCity – It’s a little pricy but touring Austin downtown on a SegWay is super fun.

Auditorium Shores

Waterloo Park

Entertainment

Austin is stocked with an entertainment culture that’s second-to-none. Of course there’s 6th Street and all the madness that comes with the entire downtown district during SXSW, but we’ve got much, much more for you to check out if you’re up to it.

Just west of downtown you’ll find three of our favorite watering holes - Donn’s Depot, The Deep Eddy Cabaret, and Mean Eyed Cat – that offer a good change of scene from the hustle and bustle of their central counterparts. Donn’s and Mean Eyed Cat both offer live music if you’re looking for dancing, and Deep Eddy boasts one of the best jukeboxes in town, but the real allure of these three spots is that they make it easy to sit around a table, have a drink or two, and share a few laughs.

Other great musical spots off the beaten path include The Continental Club, The Hole in the Wall, The Broken Spoke, and both Threadgill’s locations. Be sure to bring your dancin’ shoes – and by that we mean cowboy boots – to the Spoke.

Austin also has a wide array of museums if you get a little free time during the day. Learn about the history of our 36^th President at the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum on the UT campus or check out some art at one of Austin’s three hot spots: the Blanton Museum of Art, the Mexic-Arte Museum, and the Austin Museum of Art.

Make Sure to Also Check Out:

Esther’s Follies – People regularly pack the house to see Esther’s original mix of music, improve and comedy.

The Ginger Man – more beer on tap than you could ever choose from.

Lovejoys – You can find locally brewed beer just down the road from the convention center at LoveJoys.

Live Oak Brewery – Live Oak also calls the east side home. Get to Live Oak on Saturday at noon and you can go on a Free tour of the brewery.

Food

Oh yes, the food. However you spend your time during SXSW, please take the time to eat some local fare.

There are a few notable places in town where you can get your brisket fix – we are still in Texas after all. Check Stubb’s Barbecue and Iron Works, not too far from each other on Red River Street, or Lambert’s if you want to get a feel for what ‘gourmet’ barbecue is, or just walk out of a bar smelling like meat instead of cigarette smoke. And remember, beef is what Texas does best.

Looking for Mexican food? There are great spots to be found all over town, and out-of-towners always tend to gather around Chuy’s and Guero’s, but our allegiance lies at Curra’s and Polvo’s, both of which specialize in interior Mexican. Clear your schedule before you delve into a Strait Plate at Maudie’s. Just the thought of three cheese enchiladas and topped off with a fried egg is enough to put us out for the rest of the day.

And if you get a craving for some food in the later hours, the new 24 Diner is your answer for everything from pork chops to chilli hash. Austin staples Magnolia Cafe and Kerbey Lane are up all night, too. Try the gingerbread pancakes at either spot.

Of course there are all kinds of treats and delicacies to be had that may not constitute as actual meals. Torchy’s makes some of the best tacos in town, and the Hey Cupcake! and Mighty Cone trailers on South Congress Street both tend to always have people lining up for sweet treats that are uniquely Austin.

Make Sure to Also Check Out:

Flip Happy – Crepes out of a trailer! No wonder Bobby Flay brought his TV show here.

Home Slice Pizza – The best New York style pizza in Austin. Don’t be surprised if there’s a wait.

Frank – Who knew hotdogs could be so good. You’ll be amazed at how many things they’ve successfully put bacon in.

Best Wurst – Look for the food carts downtown for some of the city’s best late night eats.

Juan in a Million – The Man vs. Food show just found this small Austin staple last year, but locals have been singing their praises for years.

Amy’s – This is the place to go for ice cream in Austin. It may sound plain, but the Mexican Vanilla is anything but.

We’ve highlighted a handful of the activities and places we think make Austin such a great place, but we’ve hardly scratched the surface of the city’s appeal.

However, if you find yourself still struggling to find what’s going on, The Austin Chronicle, Austin American-Statesman, and The Austinist are all great resources for those who want to be in the know.

Have a great time, and welcome to Austin!

Well, it appears as though Matt Cutts and company are embarking on another initiative to rid search results pages of spammy links, and they’re calling on YOU to help. In a post on Cutts’ personal blog, the Webspam guru has requested that users submit reports on sites with spammy links. Those who want to help out should keep a look out for sites with paid links that pass through PageRank, blog spammers, and guestbook spammers.

While it’s unclear exactly why Cutts and his organic search squad are refocusing their efforts on this initiative now, there has been plenty of speculation floating around the net. The most logical explanation is that Google wants to highly refine their search results and get everything in place for when Caffeine launches.

That said, this will be good news to WhoLinksToMe users who are focused on putting together a reputable link profile. If it works, and we have no idea how successful a largely populace-led initiative like this can be, those with link profiles built the “right way” will find themselves to have a much greater advantage over others. Remember, in the end, cheaters never win.

Those looking to help can report spammy links here.

In anticipation of the WhoLinksToMe.com Pro launch at SXSW we’ve put together Austin Texas travel guides to help those attending the festival make the most of their few days in Austin. It’s a local’s look at what makes Austin a truly one-of-a-kind city that keeps people coming back for more.

Check out the video to get a glimpse of the city then delve into the details with our full guide and maps that help you find your way around town.

What to See During South by Southwest

A big THANK YOU goes out to local band Uncle Lucius for supplying us with the awesome soundtrack ‘Everybody Got Soul’ to accompany the video.

courtesy SEO.com

First things first: if you currently do no business with Bing and Yahoo! and don’t intend to in the oncoming future – if you use Google for adSense and and have little involvement with Microsoft’s adCenter – then the merge between Bing and Yahoo! will mean very little to you on a personal level. Market shares will fluctuate (it’s expected that Microsoft and Yahoo! will soon be able to lay claim to 28% of the market), and it’s likely that we’ll see Google try a move to outpace the competition, but you can expect for the merge to happen very quietly if you’re not already playing their game.

That said, those who do currently use Yahoo! for advertising won’t see that drastic of a difference in terms of user experience. Yahoo! has even gone so far as to say that “Both companies are committed to making this transition as seamless and beneficial to you as possible,” so if you’ve been using Microsoft’s adCenter and are worried that the merger will make things more difficult, rest assured that you’ll still only need to login to one place to handle all your online advertising needs – for Yahoo!/Bing.

What will change is how Yahoo!/Bing handles your advertising needs on the back end. The plan the two agreed on was that Yahoo! would manage the bigger companies and Bing will deal with providing algorithms for the smaller guys, giving Yahoo! the opportunity to spend more time on making its search experience (which will run on Bing’s platform. Confused yet? Bing is set to pick up 3x the search queries it currently holds.) even more “innovative” than ever before.

As Carol Bartz, Yahoo!’s CEO, explains, “Yahoo! gets to do what it does best: combine its science and technology with compelling content to build personally relevant online experiences for its users and customers.”

Sounds good, Carol, but in terms of the search market, there’s only thing that matters, and that’s the final score. Google still trounces Yahoo! and Bing, and while the merge will make that difference a little less drastic, it’s still a long time before this race is actually something to keep an eye on.

IE6 still holds a 20% market share on web browser activity, but it’s likely that that number will drop in the extremely near future. A number of sites and anti-IE6 campaigns have popped up in the past year, though none have made quite the impact that Google’s recent announcement likely will.

In an announcement made yesterday, Google’s Apps team stated that they would no longer support IE6, choosing instead to phase the browser out of commission over the course of 2010.

Rajen Sheth and his Apps team didn’t offer too much of an explanation for the decision; they didn’t need to. All he provided was that there existed a new guard of browsers – “Internet Explorer 7.0 and above, Firefox 3.0 and above, Google Chrome 4.0 and above, and Safari 3.0 and above” – that would much better fit your security, JavaScript processing, and HTML5 needs. He goes on:

Many other companies have already stopped supporting older browsers like Internet Explorer 6.0 as well as browsers that are not supported by their own manufacturers. We’re also going to begin phasing out our support, starting with Google Docs and Google Sites. As a result you may find that from March 1 key functionality within these products — as well as new Docs and Sites features — won’t work properly in older browsers.

So the question turns to those 20% of Internet users still using what’s just been deemed an artifact: is it time to phase out IE6? Is this decision from Google all that surprising? And something else to consider: do you think that with the advent and development of Google Chrome that we’ll see Google begin to abandon their support of more and more external browsers?

Keywords

Do some preliminary keyword research for each post, and use appropriate keywords in your meta tags on your blog post page. If readers come across your post about a recipe for sauteed asparagus with butter because they searched “health food,” they’re probably not going to stick around to read through your site or even to the end of your post. Using Key words that are related to the information that you’re writing about will help to improve reader interest and loyalty, decrease your bounce rate and increase the number of return users.

Use your keywords in your post content to enhance your post and help strengthen the relationship between your meta keywords and the content. Remember, keyword stuffing is a black hat SEO technique and can get your blog black listed. It may be in your best interest to stick to whitehat SEO for your blog.

Titles

Meta titles appear at top of the window when your blog is opened and on the tab. Just like meta keywords, it’s important that your title tags reflect the information in the blog. Titles are important for spider food, but they are also important for usability. The title will show up in the Search Engine Results Page and is often the first thing a user sees before deciding whether or not to read a post. If your titles aren’t appropriate to their search chances are that they will look right over it.  Cory Doctorow, who writes for BoingBoing offers the following: “Write headlines as though you are a wire service writer.”

Heading Tags

Using H1 tags appropriately is also very useful technique for search-ability. It’s a good idea to use your most relevant keywords in your H1 tags, but also to use them in front of content that is relevant.

Links

Remember to link a word in a sentence to something that is related to that word. Try writing the sentence and then deciding which word(s) to link. The sentence containing the link should sound natural and not feel like you’ve forced that sentence in to your content just so you can add that link. Linking the word “here” or the phrase “click here” is not useful to your user because it doesn’t give them any information about what they are about to click on and where they will end up when they do.

Use internal links as often as possible. When readers find a topic on your blog they are interested in they will want to read more, by linking to other blog posts in your blog you’re making it very easy for them to find that extra information and stay on your blog at the same time.

Make your external links open in a new tab or a new window. You want to give your reader more information and make them feel that they can trust your sources and your knowledge on the subject, but you don’t want them to navigate away from your site completely. Opening links in a new tab is usually easy to select in most WYSIWYG editors and blog software, but it’s not always the default option, so you have to remember to check every time you link something outside of your site.

Content

Like most things in your blog the content is just as important to usability as it is to SEO. You should have an appropriate amount of content and an appropriate use of keywords in your content. Remember that your some of your lead can end up on a search engine result page and goes hand in hand with your title in helping your user decide to read or to skip over. Make your lead clear, relevant to the keywords, and enticing enough to encourage a click.

The average number of words for blog posts can vary, but remember that you shouldn’t limit yourself to a certain number if it means sacrificing your message.

These techniques may seem to be common sense, but they are often over looked when writers sit down to their blogs. Remembering these simple tips can lay the ground work for a very SEO friendly blog post.