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Google thinks it is attacking itself

I was using Google Reader to catch-up on my RSS feeds, and clicked on a link to a website hosted on blogspot.com (a Blogger.com website, which is owned by Google.)

I received the following error telling me that they thought I was an automated computer virus or spyware application.

So, if you use Google Reader to link to a Google-hosted blog, Google thinks it is attacking itself. Nice.

Add comment September 20, 2007 at 12:17pm Jordan

ND Nacho Day

Having just posted about a bad sports marketing idea, here is kinda good one. Ok, it really isn’t a sports marketing idea, but it ties into sports.

In light of ND’s rough start to the football season, Taco Bell restaurants in the South Bend area are offering free nachos to their guests on Sunday because quite frankly, game day for an Irish fan is “Na-Cho Day”. (A play on “not your day” for those who don’t get the play on words.)

Taco Bell is getting all kinds of press and blogging around this (including me, obviously) so I’ll qualify it as a decent marketing idea. It will also get people into the restaurant to buy some tacos and burritos to go with their free nachos, which is always good.

Add comment September 20, 2007 at 12:11pm Jordan

Bad sports marketing idea

I’m not talking much about how Notre Dame is playing football these days because I don’t know what to say. However, when it comes to marketing I have a few thoughts, and it starts with killing this idea for Saturday’s game:

• The stadium is likely to be full of ND fans wearing this year’s version of “The Shirt” which is dark green.
• Adidas is planning to hand out 75,000 white towels to fans, in support of Charlie Weis’ charity, Hannah & Friends, and the und.com website.
• So, fans in green shirts will end up waving white towels during the game.
• This happens on the day we play Michigan State, whose school colors are green and white.

Um… duh. This is a bad idea.

Update: I’m not the only one to notice this… check out Blue-Gray Sky.

1 comment September 20, 2007 at 10:52am Jordan

This would be a good week to win

I’ve remained silent on Notre Dame losing their first two games… mainly because I’m not quite sure what to say. After Georgia Tech, I thought getting rolled over might be a fluke. Then Penn State took us to the mat. I knew this year would be rough, despite Charlie Weis refusing to think of it as a rebuilding year, but man.

There are tons of analysis and opinions out there, but here are my quick, top three observations:

• You can’t under-estimate the value of experience. This is a very young team, and they are still getting use to the speed of the game and need to learn to avoid stupid penalties.
• The offensive line, um, isn’t very good. At least they aren’t showing it. They will prevent the offense from doing anything, until they get their act together.
• The new defense, under Corwin Brown, is much improved over previous years in just the first two games. They aren’t perfect and there is lots of room to grow, but the improvement is obvious. Let’s just hope the offense limits the “3 and outs” so they can get a breather during games.
• Jimmy Clausen is going to be great. He didn’t make any rookie mistakes in his first start (except for the delay of game, perhaps) on the road against a highly-ranked team and looks like he has already been a college starter for a couple years. We just need the rest of the offense (esp. the o-line) to catch up. Although the play of Allen, Tate, Parris and other underclassmen show promise of great things to come.

The game this week against Michigan is especially interesting. U of M was suppose to be good this year, ranked #5 in the pre-season and with three players on the Heisman watch-list. Unless you’re living under a rock, you know that Michigan is also 0-2, after losing to a Division 1-AA school (Appalachian State) and being blown out by Oregon. This is the first time ever that both ND and U of M have been 0-2.

Many think this will be a sleeper game, but it could be interesting. ND’s weak offense goes against a weak Michigan defense. ND’s strength, the defense, (did I just write that?) goes against Michigan’s strength, their offense. It will also be a show-down of true-freshmen starting quarterbacks… Clausen v. Mallet.

While a certain Michigan player is guaranteeing a victory, I’m not sure we’ll have a winner this week. Just a non-loser. Regardless, I can still happily say, “at least we’re not Michigan.”

Add comment September 12, 2007 at 05:05pm Jordan