I am a big believer that the Internet is a tool that needs to be used more for the good of mankind. Watching the Haiti trauma unfold before my eyes on Twitter and Facebook, listening to the connections between survivors, loved ones and lost ones – it made me think about how the Internet has no borders. Humans all over the world build applications to help others survive disaster. Here are a few great examples that I found:

Connecting Vital Resources to the Haitian Victims
1. As you are reading this blog post, a volunteer organization called Ushahidi is helping survivors connect and communicate with the outside world. Ushahidi is a free open source project comprised of developers from Kenya, Ghana, South Africa, Malawi, Netherlands and the USA. Their engine is a platform that allows anyone to gather distributed data via SMS, email or web and visualize it on a map or timeline. Their mission is to create the simplest way of aggregating information from the public for use in crisis response. The site is http://haiti.ushahidi.com/. It shows a crisis map – where people are trapped, where food’s needed, and where they need help from police immediately. In addition, they list out what you can do online to help volunteer.

2. Google created an application that can be embedded in your web site to help missing people reconnect with their family called the Google Person Finder.

3. Google also developed a Crisis Response hotline that is providing free Google Voice Calls to Haiti.

Making it Easy to Donate
1. According to Mobile Marketing Watch the Red Cross has raised $24 million and counting from texting. If you have a cell phone you can donate $10 to the American Red cross by sending a text message with the word “Haiti” to 90999. Also, the Red Cross is providing a map of the % of Overall Text Donations By State.

2. Salesforce.com allows you to donate through their site and will match your donations.

3. Amazon.com has added a box on its home page that customers can click to donate to the Haiti Relief Efforts of Mercy Corps.

4. And even missionaries in Michigan, like Great Commission Air raised $15,000 from an email and Facebook campaign. They are now in Haiti helping transport food and fuel.

So please spread the word about these efforts; helping is contagious!

Imagine a world where every human being on the planet has access to the Internet. Even countries where poverty today threatens their existence….what would the power of sharing knowledge with these people do – who could never dream outside of what they already only know.

Yesterday on NPR, I heard that a startup group, called O3b Networks is purchasing 16-low-earth orbit satellites with the help of Google, Liberty Global and HSBC. This venture will bring Internet service to three billion people in Africa, Asia and South America!

I wish I could see their expressions as they see Google for the first time!

We love cake! Every month we have a birthday or two and we celebrate with a gathering around the “cake”. The cake will come in various shapes and sizes, but this month is extra special for a few reasons.
Yesterday, we celebrated some very special birthdays: Jason Young (our Information Superhighway Tour Guide), Daniel O’Neil (our Alchemist), and Dunrie Greiling (our Director of Happiness).

So of course we would need a very special cake for these very special team members! Only the best will do, after all, Jason is a foodie, Dunrie is an exquisite baker, and Daniel…well he loves his cake!

This chocolate raspberry cake with white frosting (design based on a Google search listing) was amazing and who knew that Ann Arbor’s very own Jefferson Market made these delicious birthday cakes! Well of course Jessica Hullman (our Analytics Muse) did – thank you for enlightening us Jessica!

And Happy Birthday Jason, Daniel and Dunrie!!!

Today, the Ann Arbor Chamber of Commerce is unveiling their new personality to the world – They are hip and ready to rock!

Who will be there: Local Michigan business leaders, politicians, and techie types growing companies just under your radar – like us! Based on networking with these people offline and online, I can say we are all helping force a change in Michigan’s economy and I think you need to do some offline social networking with these people!

Now we will be gathering to share stories, inspire business opportunities, seed an idea or two, share some laughter, and collect a pocket full of business cards. What happens next…we go to our computers with our business cards and perform a Google search, check LinkedIn or Facebook, read some articles to get more background information on the companies and connect with them using a social network device like LinkedIn. Can you see the cycle?

If you want to know if your networking event was successful, then go to your Google Analytics and check to see how many people came to your site based on your name and your company name that week…is there a spike? If so, you had a successful offline social networking experience!

So I will be at the Ann Arbor Chamber’s Open House from 4-6pm. I encourage you to drop in any time today to try out some face to face social networking!

Ann Arbor Chamber of Commerce – Open House
115 W. Huron, 3rd Floor, Ann Arbor
Friday, June 6, 11am – 6pm

A few days ago, I read an article in the New York Times, The Humans Behind the Google Money Machine, and a quote continues to linger with me: “I wouldn’t quite go so far as to say we are recession-proof,” said Hal R. Varian, Google’s chief economist. “But we are recession-resistant.”

In the article, this quote speaks directly about how Google is faring in this economy. However the quote specifically made me think about our clients, especially those in the manufacturing industry. They are also recession-resistant online. Is Google protecting them because they continue to see the leads and sales coming in from Google AdWords and Google’s natural search listings? It certainly appears to be the case. Granted the clients do have landing pages that qualify and convert visitors into leads, which is not the responsiblity of Google but instead of us – their Internet marketing firm.

Our manufacturing clients are forward thinking innovators, they followed our recommendations and today they are on a fast growing path to increasing revenue. For example, Saline Lectronics (specializes in manufacturing mid-volume, high-mix electronic printed circuit board assemblies) , is enjoying this growth in many ways, this recent article in the Michigan Business Review “Advanced manufacturing makes gains in Michigan” says it all:

In Saline, meanwhile, Sciberras said Saline Lectronics is in contract discussions with a New Zealand firm that has identified the U.S. as a good place to do business because of the weak dollar.

“We have a company that is in town from New Zealand that looked us up and they’re thinking about bringing their whole production to the United States and they’re asking us to quote it,” Sciberras said.

I am proud of Saline Lectronics and all the manufacturing companies that have learned how to embrace the Internet as a vital part of doing business! No more excuses for those of you living in the world of manufacturing…Google can be your Money Machine if you embrace it!

Ask.com, a second tier search engine, launches AskEraser that protects the privacy of the users searches on Ask.com. This new option located in the upper right hand corner of the search page, may very well make search engine marketing even more interesting. It erases your IP address, User ID, Session ID, and the complete query text. Which means that Ask is not sharing the information with web site analytics and the web site owner will never know if visitors are coming and converting from Ask.

But just how important is privacy to searchers?

It appears this experiment will prove how important privacy is to searchers. If this option is well utilized this will further change Ask.com’s brand to be the answer to “private searches” and perhaps other search engines will adopt the “eraser”. This will produce an interesting challenge for those who rely on analytics to determine how well their site performs on Ask.com. If they do not see visitors coming to their site and converting into sales leads from Ask.com they may continue to consider the search engine as second tier.