Yes, due to popular requests of Tweeters (since I put the Tweet Widget onto the Photo Store pages) you can now comment on photos in the store.

*** UPDATE ***

And then after I added comments almost no one used them and I dropped a bit in G engine. So I decided to remove comments from the store. (More on the G. search later on in this post).

*** UPDATE ***

I like this shot so damned much, that I thought it would be a nice place for someone to start:

http://www.beckermanphoto.com/farmhouse-arles-france-fhaf.html

Once I’m sure that the basics are all working properly; I’m going to put a plugin in so that you can edit your own comments.  As the Admin, I have always been able to do this, but I agree, it is a real pain to write something and not be able to go back and change it.  So let’s see how it goes, step by step.

* * * *

This is what I mean about the mysterious world of G.  I was regularly at 3 or 4 on the first page for ‘black and white photography’ during the last few weeks; and then I added the ability to comment in the store.  I only had one or two comments so far.  Yet, when I looked at my G placement for the same phrase, I had dropped down to seven on the first page.  When you add comments, you get a bunch of other words with it, such as Comments closed, or Pings open or follow this or that…  So I removed all the extraeous stuff and just kept the comment box and the phrase leave a comment.

We’ll see if that makes any difference.  One of the new things about G. is that they have tweaked their system so that they pick up on these minor changes very quickly now.  Which is good because you get to see pretty fast what effect your efforts are having.

An annoying Search Engine Optimization point is that for those of us who don’t or can’t rely on advertising – it means that we must design our sites with G. in mind, and always keep an eye on it in terms of any major (or sometimes minor) changes we’ve made.  Although there’s nothing personal about it and it’s just bits and bytes making these decisions (though of course human beings have written those bits and bytes) – the Search Engine can make or break you, all in a very impersonal way.

Reminds me of an old New Yorker cartoon.  Two business guys.  One has just stabbed the other in the back.  Caption reads, Sorry Charlie, but business is business.

Or something like that.

Similar phrase in the Godfather: it’s just business.

Large corporations have millions to spend on Search Engine Optimization.  These are generally not programs, but specialists who design and work on the corporations web design to make sure it has a high ranking.  G. says that you can’t pay for a high ranking; and that is true.  In the sense that you can’t go to them and say, hey, here’s a million bucks.  Please list my site on the first page for this phrase.

On the other hand, if you have the money, you can pay the experts to help your corporation achieve good placement.  And if that doesn’t work, there’s always ads; which are very straight forward.  Whoever has the most money to spend on them wins since your placement is based on bidding.

Social networks, like Twitter, can also be rigged by corporations, but it isn’t as easy.  You have a much better chance to win out over a large corporation if you are offering content that people really want to read about.  However, this can also lead to the Lowest Common Denominator effect.  Here it depends on your view of human nature, and the idea that the vast multitudes are not as sophisticated about art as the 10 percent of experts on the right hand side of the curve…  It’s easy enough to see what the human curve is like in terms of interest by simply going to Twitter and look at what’s trending…

You can view it by city, or country.  If I look today to see what’s trending, there will be new movies that I haven’t seen yet; new stars that I don’t know; and here and there some bits of funny creative stuff.  You’ll find stars that I haven’t heard of that have 100,000 followers.  T.V. shows I’ve heard of, but don’t watch with millions of followers.

In other words, it’s the very definition of popular culture.  And popular culture doesn’t have much to do with “fine art” although every once in a while they will overlap.

Can you imagine what Twitter would have been like if it had been around the night the Beatles went on Ed Sullivan?  Or Elvis (make sure you only film him from the hips up).  It’s as if their is a national, or international water cooler. Is that really such a bad thing?  I don’t think so.  But it’s early in the Twitter Era.