Hi! First of all I’d like to thank everyone for supporting my Ratified.org project. To thank those who have blogged about it, I’ve given the reciprocal link love on my prior post. If I missed someone, please holler out by commenting here.

Max Limpag commented that there should be something that bloggers could insert on their sidebars to show off their ranks, which was actually on my to-do list. Well, good thing Max sort of gave me that needed nudge to do it ASAP, because our lovely buttons are now available! Please go to your blog’s detail page and click on “Get Button Code” to pick up the appropriate code. If you have several ratified blogs, you’ll need to go to their respective detail pages for the right code.

There are two colors available: Red and Gray. Here’s a sampling of my rank buttons:

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For the past two weeks I’ve been working on a directory that ranks the top 100 blogs in the Philippine blogosphere. Called Ratified.org, it gathers data from Technorati and ranks blogs according to the number of incoming blog links. From an SEO standpoint, links are a measure of importance of a website or blog. It’s always easy to read a blog than actually link to it, right? Linking to someone’s blog means I’m giving it my stamp of approval. It’s like putting up a sign saying, “Read this blog, it rocks!” Imagine that a thousand similar signs have been put up on other blogs. That should mean something!
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I’ve got to hand it to everyone who’ve successfully organized parties (or more like parteehs?) and awards ceremonies. Just like what Hilary Clinton once quipped, “It takes a village.” In my case though, I’m organizing a contest for my site SigShare.com, which isn’t quite as big as the Blog Parteeh and the recent Philippine Blog Awards because there is no formal awards night nor a celebration of sorts. My contest is for the Internet only, if there is such a thing. All participants come from different parts of the world. That alone makes a formal gathering simply impossible. But that hasn’t dampened our enthusiasm. In fact, all my members are excited about it!

To give you a backgrounder, it is a forum sig contest I titled “SigShare Sig Showdown Volume I” (SSSVI). Not many know what a forum sig is, or why the heck I would make a site just for sigs. Sigs aren’t limited to text signatures you know! Forum sigs are banner-like images (though slightly larger) that forum users insert into their signature space to assert identity and self-expression. Most sigs are created from several other images called renders and C4D’s. Popular renders come from images of characters from anime shows and computer games. Renders are usually high-resolution images with plain white or black backgrounds. Their backgrounds are eliminated so that sig makers won’t have a hard time exporting them to a new canvass. C4D’s, on the other hand, are typically used as backgrounds for the sig. These are then continuously distorted through smudging or applying filters until the desired effect has been achieved. SigShare is living proof that forum sigs can actually be a work of art! Some of the digital artists at SigShare (or SS as we fondly call it) come up with the most sensational sigs I’ve ever seen. Here are some samples:

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Anyone else seeing a change in the Adsense homepage?

This is a BIG improvement from the old one:
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I strongly believe that one’s ability to search or browse the Internet can be hindered by their failure to spell words correctly. No wonder domaineers are filthy rich. So many people in the world can’t spell!

Take for example this query made in my search engine:

Initial query:

Freindster

Follow-up query:

Freindster pics

Then:

Freindster pictures

Freindster freinds

I doubt the poor guy found what he was looking for. Misspellings such as this (freind) are more commonplace than you think. About 10% of all search queries are misspelled. That’s why Friendster, like it should be spelled, also bought the domain Freindster.com before them domaineers can snap it up. I have read here and there that optimizing for wrongly-spelled words may also improve traffic, but I tend to disagree. It may increase traffic but definitely not improve it. One of the things I look at in sites such as blogs is the credibility of the writer. Are his posts useful? Do his posts help me make a good decision? Does he spellcheck before publishing?
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With all the controversies being hurled left and right about the recently held Philippine Blog Awards 2007, the Pinoy blogosphere had just become a hundred times more interesting than it was before. One particular raging issue being discussed is whether blogging is a privilege or a right. Let me say this. Blogging is a way of expressing freedom of speech. We are all born to express whatever it is that’s on our minds. I have that right, and I chose blogging. Abe Olandres puts it quite clearly:

Yes, blogging is a privilege. It is not for everybody. It is only for those who have internet access. It is only for those who have enough time on their hands. It is only for those who have something to write or say.

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