It’s a two blog day!!

Under the auspices of striking while the iron is hot, Search Engine People is beyond thrilled to announce that we are among the first, if not the first Canadian company to become Google Adwords Qualified.

Not only has Search Engine People met the minimum standard requirements for qualification, we have surpassed them. (Google requires two Google Adwords Qualified Professionals, Search Engine People has no fewer than four.)

And, ripped from the press release, in the words of my boss:

Search Engine People reports it is one of the first, if not the first company in Canada to become Google Adwords Qualified.

“We have received notification from Google that we have, in fact, met all the requirements of a Google Adwords Quality Company,” states Jeff Quip, President and CEO of Search Engine People, a Toronto based search marketing agency. “In Google’s own words, this is an important milestone of authentication. To do so as one of the first Canadian companies is a point of both personal and professional pride and characteristic of our leadership role in the Canadian search marketing space.”

90 minutes, fifty bucks and a little bit of knowledge goes a long way towards becoming Google Adwords Certified, which The (SEP) Guy is pleased to report he in fact did yesterday.

The exam, at over 100 questions is for the most part user-friendly. And there is a handy little study guide. Of course, for the really challenging questions, there’s the thing called Google that you can search with. (I think this Internet thing is really going to catch on!)

Under the auspices of better late than never, and after phone calls, emails, protestations and enquires, not the least of which may well have been a phone call from Andrew Wahl of Canadian Business Magazine, Google has reversed its policy, now allowing Canadian companies to become Google Adwords qualified and as such, a Google Adwords Qualified Company.

Becoming a Google Adwords Qualified Company requires:

Well, first of all, it requires being listed in the Google country participants which Canada is, here.

Sometimes the coolest things are the simplest.

One of those things is inserting your company logo as an icon at the beginning of your browser string or URL.

And it’s surprisingly easy to do.

Well, according to our multi-talented technical search guy, (Shout out to Wisam) it’s really easy.

In fact it can be done in four, count ‘em, four easy steps.

1. Get a copy of your company logo in Gif or JPEG format
2. Use a tool like http://tools.dynamicdrive.com/favicon/ to generate the favicon.ico
3. Upload favicon.ico to the root directory of your site
4. Insert the following

I do.

I’m relatively new at this company and I have those moments where I feel pretty clueless. It’s the little things. Remembering to set the alarm but forgetting to turn out the lights. (The last thing I was told was and don’t forget to set the alarm.) Right. Got it. Set the alarm. Set the alarm. New guy moment. Singular focus out of that need to get it right.

We all want to make our mark, especially when we’re new. And we try desperately hard not to step on toes. Doesn’t always work.

Content may rule, but there are a few rules for content that need to be considered.

From a search engine perspective, there was absolutely a time when they (they being machines) did not care. In essence, blah, blah, blah, keyword. Yada, yada, yada, keyword. Da da da keyword. And there you have a winning strategy. Seriously.

But times have changed and the search engines are trying to change with it. But, and this is a big but, the search engines are trying to create a logical automated process to a fundamentally human experience.

Every morning I get asked by two associates what I’m going to blog about today. It’s fun and fulfilling even if it is only two people. And every morning I tell them I don’t know. Mostly because I don’t. I like to write either first thing in the morning or early afternoon. If the morning, I’ve had an opportunity to think about things. If in the afternoon it’s because something has happened in the process of the day that intrigues me.

It’s 2:36 PM now.

Today it’s .pdf files. To me, pdf files are the Internet equivalent of Michigan J Frog from the Bugs Bunny cartoon. You know the one.

Certainly, the biggest thing to come out of the Internet of late, capturing media, analysts and users like is Web 2.0 or user generated content.

In fact, Business Week, in their article Retailers Take A Tip From MySpace, detailed how ecommerce sites are letting customers post comments, reviews and photos with regard to products, and the benefits it’s having on online commerce. And some of them are intriguing.

After being snowed in (Or was it plowed under?) and enduring windchill that makes it feel like -30 out there, I’ve decided I could either whine or wish.

I wish it were warmer, I whined.

Ensuing conversation… blah, blah, blah, warmer. Blah, blah, blah, Florida. Blah, blah, blah, passport. Blah, blah, blah, lazy.

And then the voice of God my boss intoned: Well, if we’d annexed Turks & Caicos you wouldn’t have that problem. You could go somewhere warmer and still be in Canada.

Don’t toy with me, I said suggested with a look. It’s cold out and I haven’t finished my coffee yet.