Given up on Google?
The litany of complaints about the search engine’s effectiveness has gotten louder and more frequent in recent weeks, causing Google to take the unprecedented step of addressing the matter in this post on its website late last week.
At issue is search engine spam and low-quality content put out by a growing number of content farms that’s watering down the usefulness of Google search results.
Meanwhile, how’s a time-strapped writer supposed to find sources for stories?
Find out this Wednesday, Jan. 26, when the monthly WordCount Last Wednesday live chat tackles the subject of Google searches, search engine spam and alternative search techniques.
The chat takes place Jan. 26 from 10 to 11 a.m. Pacific time on Twitter. To follow along, use the hashtag #wclw.
It follows a series of posts on search skills for writers I’ve done recently, including one on alternatives to Google, an update on Help A Reporter Out (HARO), the website that matches reporters’ requests for sources with companies that could provide the information that Vocus acquried last June, and how to get the most out of a HARO query.
Maybe you’ve figured out some sure-fire alternatives to HARO or Google that you’d like to share. Maybe you’re just looking for a better way to filter Google search results.
Either way, join the conversation. At 10 a.m. we’ll all log on and introduce ourselves. After that, the chat will be organized around a list of questions, and we’ll leave some time at the end for a free-for-all discussion.
Although it’s possible to use the standard Twitter interface for a live chat, you might find it easier to follow along with an add-on application such as TweetGrid, TweetChat or HootSuite. This tutorial explains how to set them up.
If you’re afraid you’ll offend your Twitter followers by tweeting too much during a chat, you can suggest they use an app called TwitterSnooze to temporarily turn off your tweets. If you haven’t done this before, right before the chat starts, tweet a message like this: “I’ll be in a live chat for the next hour; if you don’t want to follow, turn off my tweets with TwitterSnooze.com.”
Planning for 2011: I’m planning rest of this year’s WordCount Last Wednesday chats now, so if you’ve got an idea for a subject you’d like to see covered, send it my way. If you’re an expert in a particular aspect of freelance writing, running a freelance business or tech tools for writers and are interested in participating in a WordCount Last Wednesday chat as a guest speaker in 2011, please contact me.