Destroying My Blog - I Don't Want to Be Dishonest Like Getty Images

The Internet was supposed to be this wonderful playground for us all to explore and make friends... But it isn't that at all. It's full of traps and minefields that one must be ever mindful of. If you blog, you must be particularly careful as, if your blog becomes popular (and that is the point of blogging, right?) then you will become a target.

Recently, I've destroyed my daily pages views numbers. A few weeks ago, I got a particularly nasty email from a lawyer representing Getty Images (insert booing here) who claims that they want to sue me for use of their images (well, no... That's not right. They want to sue me for use of one image). This is the trap.


Why is it a trap? Well, I guess I must be confused, but if you have something that you want protected, but you don't protect it, then you are negligent if someone else comes along, picks it up and borrows it. 


I certainly didn't steal it. They still have it to use as they wish.


Say you left a baseball bat on a baseball diamond and some kids came along and started using it... Then you come along and then you think you can claim that they owe you money for rental fee? Ha! 


If you go to Google image search and search for some particular picture (all blogs are nicer with pictures) then you will see lots of pictures that are watermarked, "Getty images" or the like. Many aren't. In fact, after I checked, you'll see the exact same images that have the Getty Watermark and some that don't.


Being stupid (or thinking like most people would think) then if they aren't watermarked, they aren't copyright protected. WRONG! You could get sued. As I was threatened with. I think that Getty's way of doing business is quite distasteful and disturbing (I can see them asking that you delete - but aggressively and threateningly - like Yakuza - screaming at you over the phone over court? And for one image on a freaking blog!???)

Two men playing Chinese Chess. This looks exactly like a Getty Image...

But it's not. I took it. Use it all you want!

So now there are no photos on this blog at all unless I or my wife or friends took them. No Getty Images at all... My company will never use Getty again and I will make sure our designers at the media and broadcasting section never do again either...


I think Getty is sneaky and dishonest... I do know that their way of doing business is very bad business and they are getting tons of complaints from people all over Japan. I don't like it. I especially don't like their lawyer (who talks with an Osaka Yakuza accent) screaming at my wife (who has no idea what they are talking about) over the phone. Sure, it's nice that someone is out protecting the rights of artists (well, hell, they're getting paid to do so)... But the tactics are deplorable.


Getty Images in Japan is run by a bunch of a*sholes... Poor public image will ultimately result in very bad business. You'll see, Getty. (Here is the horrifying story of someone who has dealt with this in Japan. Use Google translate: http://blog.livedoor.jp/kiku0319/archives/4314460.html)


That also means that if you see an image you like on this blog, then use it as you wish. Just call it my little war with Getty. Over time, I will have thousands of images (and I hope that you will do the same if you are a blogger) that people can use freely as they wish.

Businessmen at Tokyo intersection at lunchtime (use this photo free!)

Blogs need photos. It's no big deal to take your own as I do from now on. Please use any images on this blog as you wish.


This has also caused me to go through this entire blog and delete every single photo that I didn't take (and even some that I did because I wasn't sure)... That means the cheesecake photos of the sexy Japanese girls won't be appearing anymore.


And that brings me to the next part of this missive; I've written many times that this blog is an exercise and study in how the Internet and Google search works. I've pretty much figured most of it out until Google comes out with a new algorithm for its search engine.


And that's where I've destroyed my blog page views!


They say that 70% of all Internet users are guys. They also say that 70% of all Internet surfers surf porn. Well my research bears this out!


Before the hassle with the photo Nazi's at Getty Images (insert booing here) this blog consistently rated between 7,000 ~ 9,000 page views a day, every day. Now after deleting all the photos of sexy girls, as well as a few hundred others, where do we stand?


I'm down to about 2,000 a day... (But the number has been steadily rising these last 2 weeks.)


That's OK, though. This blog is about Japan, marketing and the media.... Guys sitting at their computer and looking at hot girls and masturbating are not exactly my target audience...


I mean, I don't look at this particular blog for that, I don't expect that my readers do either.


I've also found out how to turbo and "double" my page views simply by using a different format for the blog, but I find that sneaky and dishonest too. That's why I am now back to the old format (sort of) that I used for the first 1.5 years of this blog's existence.


Sexy Japanese girls photos and others do not exist on this blog site anymore. I do not use sneaky blog templates that double or triple my page views. I've bled lots of page views (readers?) because guys don't come here to masturbate to photos anymore.

Unless, of course, you like long, hard things like subway trains in tunnels (use this photo free!)

Making a blog and using tools to drive people outside of my target audience to this site is dishonest and sneaky.


I don't want to be dishonest and sneaky. I don't want to be like Getty Images. I don't need people masturbating to the images on this site.


If my writing can't make them feel good or feel like masturbating, then maybe my writing isn't good enough for 9,000 readers a day. That's OK. 


At least it's honest.

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Read the follow up to this article: Why Getty Images Cannot Sue You For Damages in Japanese Court and Win; Why Japan Doesn't Allow For Damages Claims in Court  

Google Censors Search Results

This is the beginning of a very bad trend. Google has now announced that humans will begin to subjectively alter search results. This is bad for a very many number of reasons, first and foremost is that it opens the door for censorship of a political nature.

GENERATION X - GIMME SOME TRUTH

This, of course, is not good for a flow of information for a free society. It reeks of information control such as was written in George Orwell's 1984. This means that Google will now become our own Ministry of Truth.


The Register.co.uk reports:   


Google this week admitted that its staff will pick and choose what appears in its search results. It's a historic statement - and nobody has yet grasped its significance.


Not so very long ago, Google disclaimed responsibility for its search results by explaining that these were chosen by a computer algorithm. The disclaimer lives on at Google News, where we are assured that:

The selection and placement of stories on this page were determined automatically by a computer program.

A few years ago, Google's apparently unimpeachable objectivity got some people very excited, and technology utopians began to herald Google as the conduit for a new form of democracy. Google was only too pleased to encourage this view. It explained that its algorithm "relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page's value. "

That Google was impartial was one of the articles of faith. For if Google was ever to be found to be applying subjective human judgment directly on the process, it would be akin to the voting machines being rigged.



It wasn't surprising, then, that when five years ago I described how a small, self-selected number of people could rig Google's search results, the reaction from the people doing the rigging was violently antagonistic. Who lifted that rock? they cried.

But what was once Googlewashing by a select few now has Google's active participation.

This is a terrible result. This means that Google will empower a few people to oversee editorial decisions as to what article get high search results and the rest? The rest head down the black hole.


Well, I guess most people will shrug their shoulders and say, "It's okay with me. I'm doing nothing wrong so I don't care. After all, we've always been at war with Eastasia."


This is a sad day in the history of information and what could be the darkest hour of the Internet and our right to freedom of speech. 


I register my protest and will stop using Google search (you'll also need to stop using Yahoo! Search engine too.) I urge you to do the same. From this very second on, I will set my default search engine page to Bing. 


But you don't need to use Bing. There are many others. Just please join us in our peaceful protest against Internet censorship by switching from Google search. If you don't protect your freedom of information and freedom of speech, no one is going to do it for you. 

Marketing Japan: Japan Makes 20 Billionth Tweet...

By Mike in Tokyo Rogers

When I searched the title, "Japan Makes 20 Billionth Tweet" Google search engine came back with a "Do you mean 20 millionth?"

No, my friend Google search engine, who, after Yahoo Japan's complete capitulation, is now is the reigning king of Japan, just like I wrote, "20 billionth."

In spite of my dire predictions for Twitter world-wide (60% of all Twitter users quit within the first 30 days) see here. Twitter might be able to do OK in Japan. (But I think they are worried about the trend of people in the west quitting and that explains why the big push for events and old media promotion in Japan!)

Why? For almost the same reason that a .com English site with a Japanese language sub-folder or sub-domain is not efficient for Japan: the bit difference between Japanese alphabet and Roman alphabet (English). Japanese language is two bits per character. English, or the Roman alphabet, is one bit per character.

Confusing? I wrote about that here and here.

So, in Japanese, within the 140 character limit imposed by Twitter (117 by Pick including photo) I can write a huge amount of text in Japanese, but not in English. Also, couple this with how very romanticist the Japanese are and how their entire culture is steeped in it, you have a language that Shakespeare would have loved to Tweet upon!

Here's an example of a typical Tweet in Japanese:

The above is just 140 characters including the periods and the exclamation mark (something most of us don't do to save space). But here this girl has space to spare. Here is a rough translation of what this girl is saying:

"I just cannot follow what other people are doing and their logic for doing so. I try to cooperate and work together but find myself getting closer and closer to the point where I feel like I am being betrayed as my feelings seem unimportant. I don't know what the reason is and I don't understand but I wish he was a stronger person. But I forgive him and want him to be happy. I don't know why, and I can't explain, but in order to share memories, we have to take care of things and each other better. I am Miwako and this is my worry."

Like I said, this long (and very rambling) Tweet is just 140 characters. In English it is 535 characters; and 395 characters over the limit for Twitter.

So, while Twitter may have a poor future in the west (just my opinion) it could be great for countries that use a different alphabet than Roman alphabet; like Altaic language, that the Japanese use, or Sinitic language that the Chinese use. Interestingly, they are different.... 

These types of language differences pose a challenge for all Internet applications such as Google search engine and Twitter. So, no longer does the future of the Internet belong in the hands of those who understand data and programming, but the language geeks will have a hand....

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Keywords:
20 billionth, Twitter, Mike Rogers, Marketing Japan, Tweet, Google, Google search, Mike in Tokyo Rogers, Yahoo Japan, Japanese, Japanese language, Altaic, Sinitic

Internet and Social Media? Get a Great Name

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet." -  Juliet from Romeo and Juliet (II, ii, 1-2)

What's in a name? Most people would say, "Not much." But in these days of Social Media and with how the Internet is coming to dominate business, then what is in a name means a whole heck-of-a-lot.

Today, I want to talk about how having a unique name is critical to smart marketing for you. And how you will need a unique name if you want to have any hope of creating a buzz.

And this is not only in Japan, but all around the world. Having a great name for yourself for your business, product, service, or Internet idea is critical for success; especially in this day when people are actively searching for a special topic or item.

Take the example of a blog. The other day, a friend of mine, who is not Internet savvy at all, told me that he was thinking of a name for an online television show that he wanted to begin and he called me to ask me if his idea for a name for the program was good. The program was about interviewing foreign businessmen in Japan, in English, about doing business in Japan.

My friend seemed very pleased with the title he thought up for the TV show. It was, Tokyo Exchange.

Sounds like a typical business interview on your typical terrestrial TV station, right? Sure. It does to me. Now just think about how poorly terrestrial TV is doing. Do you want your business to emulate them? I sure hope not.

I told him that this was very old-fashioned thinking and that Tokyo Exchange was a terrible name... Can you imagine what people will think when they see a, er, "catchy name" or press release that says "Tokyo Exchange"? When someone hears this, the first thing that will pop into their mind will be the Tokyo Stock Market.

If you do a Google search on Tokyo Exchange, then you will get 25,400,000 results.

Now think about this for a moment. If you do, you will realize why this kind of name has to be one of the worst ideas a person could have. My friend is going to do an online TV show on a small Internet TV station that few have ever heard of. Now, if someone like you or me want to find his show by doing an Internet search, we would enter Tokyo Exchange in the search engine.

Now, also consider just how many tens of millions, if not hundreds of millions, of people per day search for financial information concerning the Tokyo Stock Exchange... How in the world will anyone find my friend's online TV show? They won't.

The resulting Google search page that shows my friend's TV show will probably not be even in the first 100 pages... It probably wouldn't hit the first 1,000 pages. And, as you know from your own personal experience, if you do a Google search and the result that you are looking for does not show up in the first page - maybe the first 2 or 3 pages - then you'll stop looking.

I know that if it doesn't show up in the first five on page one, I rarely search farther.

My friend would be better off with a name like "ZZXZ Dorky Tokyo." I'd bet they'd show up on the first page of an Internet search with a name like that.

Of course, I'm not saying that ZZXZ Dorky Tokyo is a great name. But it is a heck of a lot better than Tokyo Exchange.

To prove to you that I know what I'm talking about here, think about my name. My name is Mike Rogers. Mike Rogers is a very common (boring) name. If I do a Google search on Mike Rogers, I find a US congress-critter; a K-1 fighter; a professional hockey player; and a zillion others.

But Mike Rogers is a western name and I live in Japan. Ah! A unique name: Mike in Tokyo Rogers.

Now, let me brag to prove to you that I do know what I am talking about here. If you do a Google search of my name; "Mike in Tokyo Rogers", you'll find me #1 on a search. If you search "Mike in Tokyo" (without knowing my last name) you will find me #1. If you search merely "Mike Tokyo" I show up in the top 3.

Now that is a useful and killer name!

So it doesn't matter now what I do. Whether it is Twitter, Pick, blogging, U-Stream or any Internet Social Media or promotion or marketing. I always use the name "Mike in Tokyo Rogers."

So, before you decide on what name you will use, do Google searches. Use your imagination and find something unique. Use your middle name or find a new and cool moniker.

Make and use a name like this and people will find you.... If you don't, you or your service will be just like one of the millions of pieces of paper on the floor at the end of the trading day at the Tokyo Exchange; lost in the shuffle and headed into the trash.

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