If you have ever been to the UK then you would know that Banges and Mash is the unique way they call sausage served with mashed potatoes. This post really has nothing to do with that but was an attempt at a cleaver way to introduce a new technology called mashup’s.

A mashup is web application that allows you to combine various data streams together to create a new tool. Some of the mashup technology that is being used today are pulling data from craigslist and google maps into one tool. One that I found allows you to enter your city and it displays a map of all the local garage sales.

To create a mashup there are various tools to make them. One of the more popular tools is Yahoo Pipes. Here is a great video that shows how to use Pipes to make your own mashup.

Have you made a mashup? What mashup can you see being created for future use?

As many of you may already be aware, Google seems to be in the process of doing a PageRank update of some sort, but you’ll also notice that the search engine results page has started to change too. Many bloggers have already commented on how Google appears to be cracking down on paid links, giving little to no weight to backlinks that were provided for a fee or an incentive. John Chow has been punished for “gaming the system” because he ran several promotions where he was attempting to build backlinks for the anchor text “make money online.” To my knowledge, he no longer ranks anywhere near the top for that term. In fact, he doesn’t even rank near the top for his own name.

This crackdown on paid and sponsored links will surely have a rather substantial effect on the blogosphere, because it will inherently hurt services like Text Link Ads. Many advertisers purchased these text links, not because of the direct referrals that may come from them, but rather for the link juice that they would provide for their sites. That’s why they were so selective with the anchor text. This crackdown on paid links will probably affect post-level ads as well.

All this change makes me wonder, though, whether the crackdown will have an effect on services like ReviewMe and PayPerPost. Assuming that the advertiser doesn’t go on a massive campaign, requesting that reviews link back to their site using a particular anchor text, wouldn’t the Google bots just seen the links within the review posts as organic and legitimate? Then again, Google has never ceased to amaze me with their secret techniques and algorithms, so they just may see right through it. Perhaps if they notice a link back to ReviewMe or PayPerPost in the review post, they’ll discount the value of any links found within.

Search engine optimization via paid links is in for a heap of trouble, and I’m starting to believe that Google’s motivation is so that they can sell their own paid links. I’m sure you’ve noticed the sponsored links on the side every time you search for a certain term of Google. This crackdown on paid links may crank up the prices on those links. Google wins again?

I am currently reading a great book on the 22 Immutable Laws of Branding. I will post a full review of this book when I am done. One of the chapters talks about how every business should own a word and build their brand around it.

The book provide the example of Mercedes and how they own the word prestige. When you do think about it Mercedes is well known for being a social status of prestige. Another example is FedEx which owns the word overnight. If you need a package delivered over night the first company that comes to mine is FedEx.

Can you think of any other companies that own a word?

With this idea in mind I have been mulling around with what word we can own at BlueFur.com. The word I always think of when it comes to BlueFur.com is innovative. We are always looking at providing innovative solutions that no other hosts are providing. For example we provide free automated backup software, powerful email marketing software and a unique failover solution for business sites.

We are also looking for new ways to continue to be innovative. We are the only host to have a social group programming site, provide a PHP 5 toggle script for cPanel switch and to blog on a daily basis. From some of my previous posts this week you can see we are working on introducing SaaS and VPS servers that again will push the level of innovation in the hosting industry.

These are just some of the reasons that innovation comes to mind for me.

What word comes to mind for you that BlueFur.com could own?

Late last month, we saw the emergence of WordPress 2.3, introducing several new features and improvements over the outgoing version of everyone’s favorite CMS. The WordPress development team outlined some of these new features, but our very own Gary Jones pointed out two of the most notable: native tagging support and plug-in update notifications.

The first can prove useful for search engine optimization, telling the bots at Google, Yahoo!, MSN and so on what each blog post is all about, in case they can’t figure it out from the content itself. It also helps you cash in on certain keywords if that’s what you want to do. The plug-in update notification will keep you up-to-date with all your plug-ins, just as the WordPress blog reminds you when a new version of the blogging platform is available.

One change that has sparked some controversy is the departure from Technorati to track incoming links. If you’ve installed (or upgraded to) WordPress 2.3, you’ll notice that the incoming links indicated on your dashboard are being served up by Google Blogsearch. This is why many people were complaining that the “incoming links” were largely their own. For example, after this post goes live, I’ll see an “incoming link” from this older post that I am linking to.

For people wanting to know where their traffic is coming from and who’s actually reading their blog material, this switch can be very frustrating. Now, I’m not “in the know”, so to speak, but I’m beginning to wonder if this switch from Technorati to Google Blogsearch is indicative of a relationship building between Google and WordPress. Google is known to buy out popular places like Blogger and YouTube, so WordPress could be the next frontier. Adsense integration as part of the next WordPress update, perhaps?

Along with the announcement of our managed SaaS servers testing we are also working on testing openvz to provide on servers in Canada.

Currently there is only a handful of VPS providers in Canada and those providers only provide end-user VPS servers. We will be marketing our VPS servers to other hosts who can then sell VPS to their own customers. As always we are looking at niche services to expand our offerings.

Do you have experience with openvz? What do you think of openvz?

Some of you may have watched Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby last summer. As you recall, one of the catchphrases from the movie, starring Will Ferrell, was “If you’re not first, you’re last.” Part of the movie was written to disprove this notion and we can see many examples of this on the Internet. It goes to show you that even if you’re not the first person to come up with a certain idea, it does not mean that you can’t make plenty of money from that idea. Do it better than the predecessor and people will notice.

Perhaps the best example of this is Google. Nearly everyone I know relies on Google for their web searches these days. Very rarely do I run into people who prefer to use other services like Yahoo!, MSN, or Ask.com. Google certainly was not the first search engine to hit the scene. I’m sure many of you remember names like Hotbot, Altavista, and Excite. By and large, the mass exodus from these services is because Google has a cleaner interface and it provides more relevant results. People like that.

The same thing can be said about social networking sites like Facebook. Again, Facebook is obviously not the first website of its kind. Many of you may be on MySpace, Friendster, Hi5, AsianAvenue, and all sorts of other services. With talk of a possible Facebook MP3 store, it’s clear that Facebook is rising in popularity and plenty of people are trying to make money from it. I need not remind you of the innumerable Facebook applications.

If you’ve got an idea or a concept that you feel can make money online, don’t let the “copycat phenomenon” deter you from giving it a shot. John Cow copied John Chow and look how far he has gone.