Joe Laratro Named To Top 40 Under 40 List

I was named to The South Florida Business Journal's Top 40 Under 40 List. It is quite an honor.
Here is a link to more info about the event: http://southflorida.bizjournals.com/southflorida/event/5071

Very Conflicted About Star Trek Movie's Ending

I have to start by saying the movie was spectacular. It was probably one of the best of the entire franchise. I would put it right up there with the last Transformers movie, but with even more action.

Spoiler Alert!!!

I have a problem with Timeline movies. I do not appreciate walking out of the movie and thinking "So that last 20 years of my life watching Star Trek movies and TV shows just got thrown out the window because of a major timeline change?"

What if Anakin Skywalker did not become Darth Vader at the end of Star Wars Episode III? We would have to trash the original 3 movies (Parts IV, V, VI).

I could take the timeline change to save the whales.
I could sort of take the timeline change where Data sacrifices himself to save Picard, but leaves behind his memories in a Data twin.
I had a hard time with Enterprise's massive killing on Earth, but so far all things things maybe did not affect the future that we knew.

Now, at the end of Star Trek, there is a new timeline. No "Next Generation", no "Deep Space 9", no "Voyager", No original Star Trek movies.

Poor Gene Roddenberry

We are left with a new vision of Star Trek. I think I will like it. I may even love it. But I am left conflicted - The Star Trek that I know is now gone.

I will write more about this after I see how other's respond to the change in timeline. It is only SciFi.

Google's Ad Auction from Google's Chief Economist (Quality Score)

This is an excellent video from Google about the Adwords ad auction and how some of the variables like bid, click through rate, and quality score affect the price of the click.

Google Adds Small Dots to Map Results

I always encourage my clients to learn about about SEO and stay up on the latest trends and information. Larry from Hallandale Law came by my office today and pointed out a relatively new feature in Google Maps. He was searching for Hallandale Realtors and stumbled upon more information on the map. Now there are "little" dots. You can double click the little dots, see information about the listing and even see the source where Google Maps is getting the info. Pretty cool!

Local SEO Todos:
Check the map for your geocentric search terms.
Make sure you are showing up.
Poke around and make sure your site is listed on any / all of the sites where Google Maps is pulling data from.

Recovery.gov - Cool

We are in the midst of very historic times. President Obama just mentioned a Web site in his speech for the US public to visit to see where the money is going. I wonder if that is the first time a president has done something like that? (direct traffic to a Web site, I mean).

http://www.recovery.gov

The site works! I thought it would have crashed from the traffic. It was better thought out than the Simpsonize Me campaign. :)

Speaking At The MIT Forum On Social Media Marketing at UM This Evening

http://mitforumfl.org/

I will present a very short educational few slides on the types of Social Media sites that exist today and a little about using them for link building and reputation management. This should be a very interesting topic at my Alma Madder, the University of Miami!

A Little Salute For My Pal, Adam Ura In Iraq

Adam is one of my dearest friends since High School. He just sent me this link from Iraq. http://www.iaff.org/comm/spotlight/iraq.html

He is the bald one crouched down. We are all proud of him and wish him a safe trip home!

Thank you for serving your country.