Today, my inquisitive nature gets complete satisfaction with instant answers from Google,  celebrating its thirteenth year of existence today. I was eleven years old at the time of it’s creation, and around fourteen when I first started using it, so it’s had a pretty big impact on my life, though most people (myself included) probably don’t realize that anymore.

Anything you can possibly want to know is usually a few searches away, the only limitation being your search skills (something that’s already a marketable skill on CV’s if you’re in online marketing).

However I did find it pretty fun to look at how the company pushes itself online. There was a lot of social stuff, but most of that could be attributed to desperate users since they also tended to drop referral links (the only way you stand a chance of making money). There were plenty of posts on legitimate scam discussion forums. Those were pretty funny to read, threads would often consist of new users – who’d never made a post – talking down to forum veterans with 200+ posts to their name about how they just didn’t understand the site and that it was in no way a scam.

Then there are the obvious fake domains…

• http://varoloscamtest.blogspot.com/
• http://varoloreview.net
• http://varoloislegit.com

…All giving the initial impression that Varolo is a scam only to switch gears and suddenly espouse the greatness of the service.

Overall I’m just hoping a few idiots will read this and stop pushing this garbage all over the place.

As someone with an interest in flying contraptions, I really wish I had this guy for a teacher. He had his students build these tiny origami fliers out of phone-book paper and race them around the classroom. Check out the video.

Is it just the geek in me, or do these things resemble Klingon birds of prey?

This ad for ‘Ribs in a can” definitely tempted me more then previous efforts like the Cheeseburger in a can and Bacon in a can. Unfortunately, the ad is old – by this bloggers estimate: early 70′s to Late 80′s – meaning you won’t be able to enjoy this wonderful canned temptation unless you can dig a dusty one up in the back of someones pantry.

• A) My blog has no value to pass to their clients.
• B) Google doesn’t even place value on comment links anymore.
• C) All the links are “nofollow”.

…It’s that by now, if you’re still doing it, you’re a moron. I can’t believe that companies are paying these guys for a service that doesn’t do anything! Huh, maybe I’m in the wrong industry.

Spend your money on other things.

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Try Out A New Niche

Tired of writing about Steve Jobs’ magical new device? Maybe you need a break from tech blogging. A new blog gives the opportunity to try out a new subject, complete with its own community and style. A fresh start may help you out of your rut and expose you to a whole new subject, but what if you’re happy where you are?

Anon Delivers

If you’re happy about the topic you currently blog about, a year of free blog hosting can give you the opportunity to start a similarly themed blog under a new persona (or perhaps blog anonymously) and let you cut loose with your content. Try radicalizing your opinions or posting more multimedia, you might find yourself expanding your style and gaining attention at the same time.

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My experiences with hosting providers has been hit or miss. Having the opportunity to try someone new – at no cost – is the perfect opportunity to discover whether your current provider has been lying about your constant downtime as being “normal” and if customer service isn’t terrible across the board.