Based off an internal e-mail about search engine optimization strategy:

When you start determining the SEO strategy for your site, the first instinct might be to try and figure out how search engine bots think and act and go from there, but that’s only half the battle. It doesn’t really matter if you know how a bot interacts with the web if you also don’t think about how it sees the web. So, what follows is a little thing I like to call “SEO and Your Grandma”.

Something that you need to understand about bots is… they’re dumb. Okay, maybe that’s a bit harsh. It’s more that bots don’t comprehend as much as a regular web browser. Since what they’re really concerned about is text and links, that’s how most of them see the world. They can’t parse what’s in images (only what they link to) and they don’t really care about new-fangled things like CSS (first working draft published in 1996) and JavaScript (first implemented in 1995). They’re sort of like your grandmother in that sense, and not the cool one who listens to Coldplay and tells dirty jokes. They’re more like the traditional granny that sees the world simply, doesn’t really keep up with the latest trends, and if they encounter something they’re not familiar with, they just ignore it, or even forget about it altogether and head back home. Therefore, if we want granny to pay attention to something, we have to try and see how granny sees.

So, how do we do that? Easy–turn off CSS, JavaScript, and images. Yes, it can be done. There are prefs to disable all three in every major browser, but if you want to do it much more easily in Firefox, check out Chris Pedrick’s Web Developer extension. You’ll have a nifty new toolbar that will let you turn off images, JavaScript, and CSS in a couple clicks each, and you’ll also have a bunch of new tools that let you handle cookies, window sizing, validation, and some other stuff you’ll find fun (if you’re a front-end web developer). If you’re really hardcore, though, you can try looking at pages in just a text-based browser. There’s Lynxlet for OS X, some Lynx ports for Win32, and I’m sure most of you *nix people already know what to do. After trying to browse for a few minutes with those, you’ll have a new understanding of the word “tedium,” but on the plus side, you’ll have one app that instantly puts you in bot mode.

And that’s all there is to it: just a small install and you’re ready to go. If you start making sure to give your public pages a quick look with your granny goggles before letting them loose, you’ll be able to eliminate a lot of potential SEO problems. Looking at pages this way can also help you figure out where you can make improvements, since you’ll be seeing things more from a bot’s perspective. At the very least, it’ll help put you in the correct mindset for SEO, and you can start building from there.

Tony Changho :: Dec.04.2008 :: Comments
Angel Group Manager, Entrepreneur, Startup, Technology, VC

TechCrunch posted an article yesterday about Kleiner Perkins accidentally publishing 588 entrepreneur applications to the open web. Kleiner Perkins has a home brewed online submission form for entrepreneurs to submit through. According to the TechCrunch post:

That data was accidentally published on the web by Kleiner Perkins’ former hosting provider, Meteora Technologies Group, in a SQL file, which is easily readable in a text editor or other application. The file was then indexed by Google and found in a query on one of the companies (the guys from Fruux found it). Applications from 588 companies are in the file (Google has cached an incomplete version of the file here). A quick perusal shows very detailed information from each of these companies.

This “oops moment” at Kleiner Perkins’ is exactly why funds trust Angelsoft to manage all of their deal-flow. VC funds are in the business of finding and funding the best new companies - not in managing a software database or application.

When entrepreneurs apply through Angelsoft the data is encrypted and secure. Our database itself exceeds the most stringent security standards. We have a dedicated staff of engineers that works every day to ensure the integrity and the security of the data held within Angelsoft. These are full-time employees, not interns or associates who spend a portion of their time maintaining an in-house system.

The blame is really not on Kleiner Perkins. Until Angelsoft, there was no choice for proper deal-flow management software. Many firms just need to find a moment in their hectic schedules to move their data over to Angelsoft. Over 50 VC funds have entrusted us with their deal-flow management, and we are signing up more each day. The funds that have moved over tell us that they feel better knowing that their most valuable asset, their deal flow, is in a safe place with a team of professionals watching over it. Even better, they spend more time looking at DEALS - which is where they want to focus their time anyway.

Mark I LaRosa :: Dec.04.2008 :: Comments
Entrepreneur, Investors, Technology, Uncategorized, VC

Last weekend, Angelsoft was migrated to our new infrastructure at Rackspace. eApps, our old hosting provider has not been able to give us support and servers that we need. We spoke to several leading hosting providers and chose Rackspace for their excellent infrastructure and ultra fast support response times: during the installation, I stopped one of the web servers for about 20 seconds, a Rackspace technician contacted me immediately to check whether we are aware of the problems.

Angelsoft is now running on 3 application servers (we had only two at eApps) and a dedicated database/file server. All cutting-edge, multi-CPU machines, running on a gigabit network internally and with 100 Mbs connection to the internet. As Angelsoft’s user base grows, we will be adding more application servers, scaling virtually indefinitely.

To add even more stability and high availability, we will install new monitoring software in next few days. And, to top it all, our document storage will move to Amazon’s S3 service this summer, decreasing delivery time for documents, logos etc, while allowing us to effortlessly expand the storage requirements.

Enjoy it…

Michael Kostadinovich :: May.07.2008 :: Comments
Technology