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Cross-cultural Barbeque

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Well, we’ve been immersed in Sowuth Cahrolinah culture for 2 days now. Last night, we were invited to the rehearsal dinner at Jakie’s Barbeque. Being from Texas, I was really excited. Barbeque is one of my favorite food groups!

As I walked down the buffet line, I kept looking for the meat. It was obvious their selections were incomplete. I mean, there was no BEEF! How can a self-respecting barbeque shop, especially one written up in USA Today, not serve real barbeque?

Finally, I got through the buffet, having decided I could live with pulled pork and something that looked like it got ground up in a food processor on steriods. I think they call it hash. It was ground up pork. They even had one dish where this hash was mixed in with rice. Never saw such a thing before.

Arriving at my table with this “pretend” barbeque, I started looking for the sauces. There were two. One was mustard masquerading as barbeque sauce. The other was vinegar with a similar pretention of being barbeque sauce. I mean, where is the Bodacious Barbeque sauce when you need it?

But as I looked around, others were chowing down on this “barbeque”, squirting the pretend sauces. I guess they just do things different here in the palmetto state. I decided to call it a cross-cultural experience. It made the “barbeque” and “sauce” taste better!

Prayer, Internet, Discipleship

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I read a very interesting article. It is an interview between Rick Warren and David Cho (pastor of the largest church in the world, located in Seoul). There are a several very important parts to this discussion: the priority of prayer, the role of internet technology, the role of cell churches (discipleship groups). All are crucial elements of Cho’s strategy to grow strong disciples, grow the church, and reach the world.

Very interesting combination…

Thanks to John Edmiston for alerting me. (John is President of Asian Internet Bible Institute Using computers and the Internet to facilitate the Great Commission.)

Keith

Silence is the measure of the power to act

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A friend sent this today. Very profound, in my opinion.

Silence is the measure of the power to act; that is, a person never has more power to act than he has silence. Anyone can understand that to do something is far greater than to talk about doing it. If, therefore, a person has a plan or idea and is fully resolved to carry it out, he does not need to talk about it. What he talks about in connection with the proposed action is what he is most unsure of and most unwilling to do.

Soren Kierkegaard, in Provocations

Search Engine Secret’s from Google’s Patent Filing

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To all of us interested in having our websites rank high in Google’s search engine, called search engine optimization, Google revealed some of it’s ranking algorithm secrets in a recent patent filing. I have not read the patent, but an article by Daniel Yates was a very helpful summary.

The bottom line confirmed what I’ve thought for quite some time: we should do our job well, ethically, grow links because we are providing top quality content, be faithful to keep our sites current. We should avoid tempting shortcuts that promise overnight success.

Several words come to mind — patience, goodness, faithfulness from Galatians 5:22. Sowing and reaping from Galatians 6:9 — “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”

Kind of sounds like a plan for building high-ranking websites…
… or how to grow in our journey with Jesus called the Christian life.

Succeeding in the search engines

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“How do searchers find what they want online?” Tony Whittaker links to a very interesting article for those engaging in search engine optimization. The current issue of Web Evangelism Bulletin reports on a story from a search engine recent conference. Read the full article online.

The article reports some very interesting things. The study monitored volunteers as they performed tasks to identify products. Some of the findings I thought very interesting:

  • Most people click on one of the top 3 listings.
  • More than half click on the first sponsored link.
  • People don’t usually start searching for brand names, but for products.
  • 60% click on one of the first 3 organic listings (the natural search results which come from search engine optimization work).
  • 85% click on one of the first 3 sponsored listings (the results which come from purchasing ad words).

The final two points are amazing to me. I would have expected people to prefer natural results more than sponsored listings. I do. Maybe it’s because this study was for product searches, not “quality of life” type searches (how do I raise teenagers, understanding Star Wars Episode III, etc).

I really liked the closing observation:

From time to time people type in same search string trying to get new answer.” It seems the only hope is for smarter search engines, rather than smarter users, she added with a smile

It seems that people trust frequent improvements in search technology more than improvements in their search techniques. It also means that even if you’re not in the top 3 results (natural or sponsored), keep working on it. You may be there when the same person searches for the same search string tomorrow.

What strikes you about this study?

[By the way, if you are not subscribed to Tony’s Web Evangelism Bulletin, why not? To join, send a blank email to mailto:bulletin-subscribe@web-evangelism.com.]