Death and social media are not topics that are usually mentioned in the same sentence but Nebraska lawmakers are considering a bill that will allow executor’s of one’s estate access to their Facebook page if they die. This is the first law in the United States being considered. Here’s a quote from the bill, which includes pretty much any online communication:

“A personal representative shall have the power, unless the personal representative’s authority has been restricted by will or by court order, to take control of, conduct, continue, or terminate any account of a deceased person on any social networking website, microblogging, or short message service website, or email service website.”

Why would you want access to someone’s Facebook account or other social media after they die? There could be hidden assets or secrets on the page that would be important in settling the will. The law doesn’t specify pages, such as those that businesses have, or any other type of advertising.

Currently, if Facebook receives notification that a person has died, they will memorialize the account. But those who are not friends of the deceased, which could be the executor of the estate, do not have access to the account.

Since this is the first legislation of its kind, it will be interesting to see what happens. So far, no other states have filed this type of legislation.

Creating and managing a successful website comes with many decisions, and as I contemplated whether or not I was ready to make these decisions, my co-worker gave me advice that I think will always ring true: Every concern you have should be considered through an SEO lens. In other words, you should always ask yourself whether or not something you’re doing will have a negative, positive, or no effect at all on your SEO efforts. One of the biggest decisions a person makes before they even begin to think about SEO is whether or not they should buy an existing domain or start from scratch. Ironically enough, even this decision can impact your SEO.

It has been a constant back and forth over whether or not the age of your domain matters when ranking for a Google search engine page; unfortunately, the debate still lingers.

Consider the argument and then determine whether or not you are going to make domain age a concern:

The Defense: Age Does Matter

The reason so many people feel that the age of your domain matters is through anecdotal evidence. In other words, there are many testimonials that claim older sites did much better ranking on Google than newer sites, yet no one could explain it. It makes sense that the age of your domain would matter for a few reasons:

• Spam – Sites that are filled with spam or are hoping to scam a few people out of money usually don’t last very long. They don’t want to get caught by officials, so in most cases they will play it safe and ditch the website early. Even if they don’t, it’s usually not long before they’re caught.
• History and Value – To state the obvious: older domains have more history. This generally offers more value to a reader because the site has lots of built up SEO links and other SEO elements.
• Index – Older sites are already indexed in Google; therefore giving Google a history to use as a sort of background check as opposed to little information. This makes it easier for Google to make a decision about a website.

A brand new website could have great content, but it takes a while to develop trust with Google. However, if you are going to buy an existing website chances are they haven’t done the greatest job when it comes to SEO (otherwise why would they sell?). Even so, having any little bit of information to work with is worth it.

Recently, SEO Moz posted a video where SEO expert Rand Fishkin discusses why the age of your domain does not matter. Reporter Ted Ives uses some of the points discussed above as well as a video by Matt Cutts, Principal Engineer at Google, to prove that Rand was, in fact, incorrect. You can read this rebuttle and watch the video by visiting Coconut Headphones.

The Prosecution: Age Does Not Matter

Many experts are saying that age no longer matters. No one is denying that age never matter, they are simply saying that it does not matter anymore. According to Sever Side Design, “Cutts implied that usually within a 3 month period, Google will be able to index your site and from that point on, you are on a level playing field on how a website ranks in Google.” It makes sense that domain age wouldn’t matter for a few reasons:

• Correlation vs. Causation – Some say (including Rand) that people need to focus on the time frame in which accomplishments occurred. It was much easier to rank highly ten years ago than it is today. Rand gives the example of Twitter vs. Ebay. Ebay has had millions more users, but Twitter has grown at an exponential rate. You just can’t compare the two, and Google doesn’t plan to.
• Quality – Links are not getting attention just because they are older, but rather because they have been on a site for a longer period of time. Google sees this as a valuable site. If people continue to link to the site, those links have value, not matter how old.

You can learn more about the reasons why domain age probably doesn’t matter by visiting SEO Moz. Ultimately, the discussion is all about the interpretation of the recent interview with Cutts, and as usual, no one really knows what to make of Google and their algorithms.

The Verdict

Having a brand new site won’t ruin your chances of success. The most important thing to remember when it comes to SEO is quality content. You want to make sure all of your content is unique, and put a focus on linking. You will want to accumulate links back to your website and utilize both internal and external links.

Once again, when making that decision about whether or not to buy an existing website or start from scratch, SEO doesn’t have to play a role. It might matter slightly, but quality content is overall the most important thing. However, if you know how complicated SEO is to understand and you know how difficult it can be to get a website ranked with Google, you know that you take any piece of advice you get. My advice: Domain age might matter slightly, so keep it in the back of your mind and make your decisions accordingly.

When you talk to some people about MySpace, they may have a comment similar to one from a popular AT&T commercial—“That’s so 6 years ago.” But in the past month, about 1 million people are spurring new interest in the site. According to CNN, that’s how many people joined in a month.

MySpace was THE popular social network back in the mid 2000s before a little site like Facebook started, allowed people to personalize their pages and share their favorite music. Since then, singer Justin Timberlake and a group of investors took over the site last summer, MySpace is focusing on music again. The site is boasting that 42 million songs are available on its new music player.

The changes put MySpace more in direct competition with Spotify than Facebook. And they may have a good shot at over taking Spotify, the music start-up introduced last year. Spotify says it has 15 million songs that users can listen to, a much smaller number than MySpace is providing. Also, Spotify announced it will begin to charge some for some songs, a move that will make MySpace the largest free music site online. MySpace also has MySpace TV, which focuses on music channels but has potential to offer more.

In the spirit of ‘if you can’t beat them join them,’ MySpace allows users to share their music on Facebook. On the home page there is a way users can directly link to Facebook. However, the true test of MySpace’s new focus is attracting not only users, but advertisers who support them.

Television has changed a lot in the last ten years. It wasn’t long ago that the only other activity a person did while watching TV was to maybe eat a bowl of buttery popcorn or fold the laundry. Nowadays, however, it’s very common for people to watch TV with a computer or mobile device in their hand and comment on their favorite shows and characters via social networking sites. Whenever a big social event like a sports championship or an awards show takes place, we can expect our Facebook News Feeds to be cluttered with event-related statuses and comments. That’s old news though. The most up to date and trendy way to connect a TV watching experience with social media is via Twitter, so bring on the hash tags!

Old School Meets New School

When social media first came on the scene, there were many people who were certain this new technology would crush the old technology. Who will want to watch television when you can be online instead? Clearly this new and shiny digital toy seemed a much more attractive choice.

But instead of killing television, social media has formed a symbiotic relationship with it, breathing new life into the aging medium. In the case of Twitter, the advent of hashtags has made watching television a completely interactive experience. After all, isn’t that the point of television? Wasn’t it TV that got all of us to stand around the water cooler discussing programs from the night before? Now, with social media, viewers are able to watch their favorite shows and comment on them in real time with hundreds, if not thousands of other viewers. This lays a foundation for a much more social and entertaining experience.

Must Tweet TV

Forget “must see TV”. 2011 was the year of “must tweet TV”. Through the integration of social media and television, a new phenomenon has emerged – the masses, once bored with what they felt were TV’s mediocre offerings, are making their way back in front of the small screen (or ridiculously big screen in some cases) in order to take part in this dynamic, interactive experience. TV viewing is no longer a solo spectator sport; it is now a communal event.

Many television shows saw a dramatic spike in ratings last year, and those spikes most likely reflect the addition of a social media component. MTV’s Music Awards, as well as the Golden Globe awards both saw an increase of viewership in 2011. The Grammy Awards actually saw their best Nielsen ratings in a decade. Watching long, and often dull, awards shows is much more fun when you can tweet about heartwarming or obnoxious speeches and awful or fabulous dresses. Some of the topics that are buzzing about the 2012 Grammy Awards include: Whitney Houston’s tragic death and Jennifer Hudson’s tribute to her, Bon Iver’s surprise win, Chris Brown and Rihanna’s toxic relationship, Adele’s sweep of the awards, Nicki Minaj’s debatable performance, and Kanye West’s absence.

Televise to Optimize

Of course, the next thing to figure out is how brands are going to monetize this new social TV viewing trend. Social analytics firms have found definite links between brands and the shows their fans watch most. What is not certain is if people are tweeting about brands during a show because that particular brand is a show sponsor, or is it specific content within the show that inspires a viewer to brand tweet?

The relationship between Twitter and television raises some provocative new questions in regards to brand advertising. For example, it used to be that TV ratings dictated which brands sponsored which shows. The higher the ratings, the more expensive but profitable it was to buy ad time during that show. However, in light of social media’s influence on television, should brands now focus on investing in highly tweeted shows instead? If so, does it also make sense for brands to spend part of their marketing budget on special staffing who would respond to viewer tweets in real time? Can we as viewers then expect to see more targeted ads that reflect our TV viewing and social habits?

Whether advertisers embrace social media or not, one thing is for sure: Television viewers are enthusiastic about the possibilities this new technology offers. When it comes to the social media – TV relationship, Twitter is the pick of the litter.