Over the last few years, mobile apps have become the main driver (get it?) in changing the way we solicit rides to get around town. Two of the primary companies offering alternative modes of transportation are Uber and Lyft. While there are certainly other rideshare companies, these are easy to compare because they have a few things in common: Most used transportation apps. Both founded in San Francisco. Both fighting aggressively and publicly for business. Uber was the first of the 2, starting in 2009 and paving the way for similar companies. In 2012, Lyft joined the game and scooped up much of the riders - and drivers - Uber used to have all to itself. Today, both are faced with fighting each other for a better reputation, more riders, and more drivers. As such, the fight is starting to get dirty. War for Drivers The rideshare apps are seemingly struggling to maintain a reliable fleet of drivers. The remedy? Stealing drivers from each other. Since 2014, both companies have aggressively been poaching drivers from each other, with offers targeted at drivers of the opposing companies and offering sign up bonuses. As 2015 was just getting its start, the fight became stronger. Uber launched a full assault specifically targeting Lyft drivers to make the switch. The promotion offers that if you can verify that you are a Lyft driver, Uber will give a $500 bonus to make the switch to driving for Uber. The Lyft driver only has to have been driving for Lyft for a matter of weeks to qualify for this promotion.   GET $500 AFTER YOUR FIRST TRIP Already a rideshare driver? Great! We're giving experienced rideshare drivers like you $500 after you sign up to drive with Uber and complete your first trip. To qualify, you must prove you have driven BEFORE 1/8/15 on another ridesharing platform. Ostensibly in response, Lyft put together a promotion for Lyft drivers to stay aboard while at the same time beefing up the Lyft driver base. This particular promotion was developed for Lyft drivers to invite their friends to get started driving. Lyft offered that the current Lyft driver and the new driver would get to split $2,000 upon the new Lyft driver’s first ride. Yep, $1,000 a person. “Refer a Friend. Split $2,000. Friends don't let friends miss out on Lyft promotions. Refer a new driver in San Diego starting today, and you'll both get $1,000 if they give their first ride before March 5.” As such, Uber’s offer suddenly increased to $1,000...   GET $1000 AFTER YOUR FIRST TRIP Already a rideshare driver in San Diego? Get $1000 after you sign up to drive with Uber and complete your first trip. To qualify, you must prove you have driven BEFORE 1/8/15 on another ridesharing platform. Don't live in San Diego? No problem, you can still sign up to drive here. All seemed too good to be true, especially for current and new Lyft drivers able to both earn a grand over one ride.   In Over Their Heads Too good to be true it was as the plan backfired, leaving scores of angry Lyft drivers and newbie Lyft drivers furious with the company. The promotion launched February 26, 2015 required that the new driver must pass background checks by the end of the very short deadline - March 5, 2015 - to receive the funds. Apparently, Lyft became overwhelmed, per an email sent to applicants the night before the deadline: “Last week's invitation - apply to be a driver, give 1 ride by March 5, and make $1,000 - brought the biggest wave of applicants in Lyft history. As we're processing the applications, it's important that we continue to fulfill our safety obligations. Some of these steps, including DMV and background checks, are outside our control and can vary in length for different applicants. It is possible that you won't qualify for the promotion if all steps aren't completed by the March 5 deadline, along with the ride requirement. In the meantime, you can check the status of your application at lyft.com/drivers. We'll be in touch again via email with another update on Friday. Thank you for your patience.” The day of the deadline, Lyft really seemed to be reeling on their heels: “Lyft learned a lesson this week, and we're sorry for the frustration it caused you. We vastly underestimated the volume of applications we would receive for our $1,000 sign-on promotion, which was created to help us keep up with record-breaking passenger demand. We owe it to the driver community and our passengers to make sure our approval process is rigorous and complete. All elements of our safety process are imperative and can take time - that means some applications haven't been approved yet even though the applicant's DMV and background checks are in. We know this can be frustrating. Based on ideas from our community, here are the actions we're taking: Extension of deadline to March 12 for those who applied for this promotion and pass their DMV and background check by March 5. We're still completing our internal review of many applications, but if your DMV and background checks pass by end of day today (March 5), we're providing an extension until March 12 to meet your ride requirement. We, at Lyft, will not benefit from an application if an applicant does not qualify for the promotion and does not want to continue through the application process. By default, we won't use any information from the applications of drivers who don't qualify for the promotion, unless they would like us to continue with the application. You'll receive an email from us tomorrow evening with your eligibility for the extension outlined above. If you are not eligible, you will have the choice of whether or not to continue with your application.” Uber must be enjoying the seeming implosion of the referral program gone wrong. Race to the Bottom? Both companies have aggressively sought new funding for their services, which provides the backing for such expensive promotions. But can offering promotions like this offer a sustainable model for new drivers? Especially if the promotions are not followed through, the trust of the driving and riding community must be reaching new levels of skepticism. All this funding must be paid back...but if the drivers get fed up with empty promises, there could be trouble for the companies. What are your thoughts? Do rideshare apps offer a sustainable model for business? Were these promotions doomed from the get-go? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

by: Robert Wang Internet behemoth Google recently released an expansion to the Google toolbar, designed to give the online community the opportunity to submit unmoderated commentary in a collapsible side dock. Google calls its new creation the Sidewiki. It's going to rock your world. Probably. Users will be able to comment however they want, on whatever site they wish once they install the add-on. For example, a user wishing to leave his 2-cents on a CNN web article could simply type up his assessment, hit submit, and provided his comment met Google regulations, have his words immediately published. Similarly, comments can only be viewed if the add-on has been installed and the viewer is on a page where comments have been left. While statistics show that the toolbar has been downloaded at least 2 million times from CNET alone, it is difficult to estimate just how many individuals actually know about, and moreover utilize the Sidewiki service provided by Google. However, if it ever reaches the mainstream---and there is a good chance of that, given the successful history of Google's other product offerings---the potential for promotion, testimonials, and hidden goodies will probably prove too much for any good marketing business to ignore. Ideally, this new add-on would grant individuals another medium through which it could provide invaluable third-party insight on hitherto unregulated e-businesses. Whether to sound the alarm on an attack page, to trumpet accolades to a well designed site, or give forum to a particularly thought provoking concept, the direction of the entire process would be determined by the masses. And yet, therein lies the problem. The freedom it fosters will forever be its defining redemption, its potential for abuse will forever be it's Achilles' heel. It's far too early in the game to tell whether or not the service will function as it was designed or become, like so many of its predecessors, a cesspool of virtual graffiti. (However, if the early, tentative test runs of the Side Wiki are any indication, the tone will be civil, constructive, and uncharacteristically reserved.) Google claims that comments will be filtered and regulated in much the same way that search results are ranked for relevance. The more pertinent the topic, the higher it will be ranked by fellow users, thereby allowing it to float above the chaff, trash talk, and pointless spamming that tends to plague similar services. Irrespective, if you own a site, its probably a good idea to comment on your own page first so that you can set in motion a more positive precedent and block the potential hard-to-remove negativity spiral. Understandably, a good number of businesses have already begun to raise protest at the thought of having the gateway to a torrential downpour of virtual anarchy unleashed upon their websites without permission. Never before has the public realm been granted such immediacy in its ability to deliver feedback. Users no longer need to navigate away from the page to read reviews, rather any evaluation, good or bad, is now literally a click away. However, this isn't to say this is a bad thing. People prefer to reference like-minded individuals before making a big decision--so in some senses the SideWiki is poised to become a sort of proxy for quality control like the BBB or veriSign Security button. There's potential for something great. Whether that manifests as another layer of detritus or as an invaluable tool hinges on how Google chooses to develop its brainchild. Fingers crossed.

by: Robert Wang | Pagerank is analagous to the Twitter of the SEO world. Everyone wants a piece of the action, but very few get how to leverage it. In the following post, we discuss what it is, how to use it, and what tactics to avoid. Pagerank Defined: For all its mystery and sinister reputation, it can be explained in one line: how likely is someone to end up on your webpage? Back in the day, Google wanted a way to show how likely it was for a "random surfer" to end up on your webpage. Later on, they realized that no one browses the internet by clicking links randomly, its all driven by intent, and fixed their model. Modern pagerank is the result of that. The more BIG websites linking to your brainchild, the better your pagerank and the better you tend to fare--and I say this with the utmost emphasis on 'tend'.There are plenty of webpages out there with garbage Pagerank that still place within the top 3 search results in their respective fields. Most of the time, however, a link from a popular page will drive significant traffic to your door, thereby increasing the likelihood that your page is visited, and thus increasing Pagerank. Synopsis: You care because Pagerank affects how well your search rank fares and the amount of traffic you receive by proxy.(Granted this is an extremely rough cut explanation: if you want technical details check out this excellent article from hubpages.) The Care and Feeding of Your Pagerank: Building Pagerank is just as much about social networking as it is about avoiding pitfalls. Like all things worth having, Pagerank is something you must accumulate gradually over the course of years through your persistent, attentive pruning. Here are the top 3 ways to grow your page rank: 1. Be social. It's a popularity contest. All the content in the world won't help you if you've got zero web presence. Comment on other sites, send out emails, talk to people for the sake of talking. The links will follow. 2. Name dropping. Whenever you're given the opportunity to refer your readership to a valuable resource or alternative perspective, or even a reference, USE IT. Most web savvy individuals check their analytics compulsively. They'll know when you link to them. The nice ones will link back. 3. Link to yourself. Pagerank flows from page to page, as it does from site to site. You can distribute and grow your Pagerank, tailoring it to the pages you want to get the most exposure by tweaking your internal linking (You can test out any potential effects of link Pagerank sculpting here). Additionally, the more pages that Google indexes from your site, the higher your maximum Pagerank. The fastest way to ensure your entire site gets index is by sending your xml sitemap to Google. Synopsis: Communicate to your web community: if your site sells leather goods, its time to start posting in biker forums. Go to town on the linking process: link to as many outside sources as you can---preferably your newfound biker friends. Submit your sitemap to all the major search engines so they can index your ENTIRE site. Finally, channel your pagerank to the desired pages through creative linking. This is Why We Can't Have Nice Things: Here are a few obstacles that you'll want to avoid when growing your Pagerank. 1. Buying links. Not gonna lie. It's possible to buy links from big sites to increase your PR. Google usually catches on pretty quickly, however and removes any potential benefits. You're better off saving your money. 2. Linking to shady sites. A good indicator is the lack of pagerank despite being online for awhile. These pages will drag you down with them. Do your homework before you accept those link exchange requests. If the site seems less than legit, just move on. 3. Traffic farming. Creating viral content is one of the fastest ways to generate fresh traffic. However if you rely on it soley, Google will take notice and penalize your efforts. Keep running those campaigns, but do so in moderation. ...And that about wraps up today's lesson. Till next time: stay classy.