The other day I cam across an article on an Israeli news website – a very well known one – that had an article the the word “iPad” in the title. When I clicked on the story, though, I discovered that the iPad really had nothing at all to do with the story. So what was “iPad” doing in the title?

The answer is obvious: Some SEO guy probably told the people at the site that using iPad in a headline will get them more hits from readers. While no longer at the very top of Google’s keyword ratings, there are still enough searches to drive readers to a story or post. It’s like “internet gold” – say the word “iPad” and all the diggers come running!

I know they are doing this because the same thing happened to me – inadvertently. I wrote about prospects of the iPad in Israel months ago, long before the infamous ban that the government imposed on it because of a phony “wifi issue.” The brouhaha, from about a month ago, was well publicized (if for some reason you didn’t hear about it, check out the story here). So I already had a couple of stories on the iPad’s presence, or lack of it, in Israel.

In fact, before the scandal broke in mid-April, my blog post, iPad in Israel? Don’t Hold Your Breath! was the first one you would get when you searched for “iPad” + “Israel” in Google. So when people started searching for information about the ban, thousands ended up on my blog, just because it was on top of the search results! Realizing what was going on, I put together a post on the ban itself – and my theory on why it was being banned – and sent it out to the world, putting a quick link on the original page. And then that post started getting thousands of hits!

It took the “big” sites that wrote about it, like the HuffPost and Pcmag, a couple of days to catch up (my original post is still on the first Google page, although it’s now on the bottom). Lesson learned: If you want hits on a site, make sure you stick in a buzzy, trending keyword.

OK – we knew that. But what if you don’t have anything to say about the subject at hand? No prob – you can easily, automatically generate a first class story that you can tweet, facebook, Digg, Redditize, etc., chock full of keywords and related content. Just go to the Story Generator at the “Dear Computer Generative Art and Interactive Evolution site,” and type in the keyword of your choice. The result? “A story is generated using random pieces of search engine results. Users participate in the interactive selection by saving interesting results.” While perhaps not the most scintillating prose, you get back some serviceable text that does the job.

As an experiment, I’ve generated text based on the number one search term in Google Trend‘ “hot searches” at this very moment – “Joe Cocker,” apparently fresh off his performance on the last episode of American Idol. Let’s see if it does any good!

PS – Is this considered manipulating search engine results by Google? Hope not!

Joe Cocker as generated automatically with Dearcomputer.nl

What a beautiful song from the movie, and she was all I needed as well but I lost her.

Top Ten. Subsequent efforts were less popular, and problems with alcohol (both on- and off-stage) reduced Cocker’s once-powerful voice to a croaking rasp.

The European release Hymn for My Soul, which features cover versions of songs by Stevie Wonder, George Harrison, Bob Dylan, and John Fogerty, was issued on Parlophone in 2007. In the early 80s he made a brief comeback with a hit duet with Jennifer Warnes on “Up Where We Belong”.After a brief spell performing as Vance Arnold, and in the Joe Cocker Big Blues band, Cocker came to prominence with The Grease Band, formed with Chris Stainton.
In the early 80s he made a brief comeback with a hit duet with Jennifer Warnes on “Up Where We Belong”.After a brief spell performing as Vance Arnold, and in the Joe Cocker Big Blues band, Cocker came to prominence with The Grease Band, formed with Chris Stainton.
Joe screams his head off like a white Ray Charles on acid.
What is the first song you play? Trainwreck No. In 1959 he joined his first group, the Cavaliers, playing drums and harmonica.

They played Motown covers in northern England pubs until 1967, when producer Denny Cordell became Cocker’s manager and persuaded him and the band to move to London. The title track, one of many cover versions Cocker would record over his career, went to Number One in EnÂ?gland and Number 68 in the U.S. tour, Cocker met Leon Russell, who wrote “Delta Lady” and coproduced Joe Cocker!, the Grease Band’s swan song. He recorded regularly throughout the ’70s, but without much success.
His 1994 album, Have a Little Faith, hit the U.K. He hit number one in the U.K.

“Peace in our time,” or an underhanded Arab attempt to embarrass Israel? A spokesperson for Microsoft’s offices in Saudi Arabia announced Tuesday that the company would be releasing its Project Natal 3D controller in October – in time for the winter gifting season. According to this,

Speaking in an interview, Microsoft Saudi’s Marketing Manager, Syed Bilal Tariq, has confirmed that Project Natal will be releasing worldwide sometime in October… Tariq goes on to say that more information will be coming at E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo, June 15-17).

Note, btw, that the interview is being broadcast on KSA2, Saudi Arabia’s English language TV service, which I actually receive here in Israel, thanks to my non-YES satellite dish. Unfortunately, I missed the Saudi morning news today, so I’m glad someone recorded it

So what’s so weird? Just this: The Natal 3D controller, which is the key of the system, is 100% made in Israel, by a company called PrimeSense (look for my upcoming great interview with PrimeSense boss Inon Beracha, coming to an internet near you this week!).

PrimeSense has developed a wandless 3D technology that tracks tens of thousands of points in space at one time (as compared to the two points Nintendo Wii trackers can follow), and extrapolates the information to capture every move of anyone or anything that ventures into the sensor’s field of vision. “It’s like wearing a suit with tens of thousands of Wii points,” Beracha told me. Besides being far more effective, the PrimeSense box is extremely inexpensive to produce, meaning that prices on xBoxes could actually come down (or at least not go up!). Note that the video below is from an MS press conference in Tel Aviv last month demonstrating the PrimeSense technology.

One thought that occurred to me was that Tariq was hoping to embarrass PrimeSense by giving an unrealistic date for the system to be on the market, one that would be too early – thus making the Israeli company look bad, either by failing to supply the sensors on time, or by rushing them out to market and mucking up Natal. Fortunately, PrimeSense completed development on the sensor awhile ago, and they are all ready for market, Beracha told me.

So what’s the head of MS Saudi Arabia doing touting a great piece of Israeli technology? Does he have more loyalty to the corporation than to the “ummah?” And considering what an “Israeli outfit” Microsoft is (it’s home to the third largest MS dev team in the world), should a good Israel-hating Saudi even be working for the company?? And how is it that MS isn’t on the Arab boycott list??? Mr. Tariq, if you’re out there – the (Israeli) people want to know!