So if you haven’t heard yet, Stone Temple Pilots are back with a brand new single called Between the Lines.  Local radio station 106.7 KROQ started playing the song recently and after hearing it for the first time I found a distinct similarity between it and Nirvana’s “Stay Away”.

Any die hard Nirvana fans that have heard the song probably picked up on the similarities as quickly as I did.  When Between the Lines reaches the bridge it goes into a sequence that is very reminiscent of the verses to Nirvana’s “Stay Away”.  Below are clips from the new Stone Temple Pilots song Between the Lines and a clip from Nirvana’s “Stay Away”.  What do you think? Strong similarity or blatant ripoff?

Between the Lines Bridge

Stay Away Verse

It’s hard to believe that nearly a year has passed since my first March of Dimes March for Babies walk.  Last year Misty and I entered as a two person team and were able to raise just over $200 to help support the March for Babies cause.  This year we have pledged to walk again, and with the help of my readers and social followers we hope to increase this years donations even more.

The March of Dimes March for Babies is a walking event that helps raise money to support community programs that help raise awareness and help mothers to have healthy, full-term pregnancies. The March for Babies also funds research to find answers to the serious problems that threaten babies and cause premature births.

The March of Dimes March for Babies is more than just a charity event for me; it is a reminder of the value of life and of the battles many babies have to go through just to make it through those first few months of life.  I am a father of twins, and while they have grown to be happy, healthy toddlers, there was a point in time where my wife and I were terrified that maybe they wouldn’t make it. And even after they were home we continued to struggle with my daughter’s digestive problems and had to regularly monitor my sons heart murmur.

Sadly, many parents are less fortunate and many of their babies never make it home from the hospital.  Last year during the event we spoke to many parents who had lost their little ones and heard he heartbreaking stories of being given a life just to have it tragically stripped away again.

To learn more about why the March of Dimes March for Babies means so much to me, you can read about the day my life changed forever; October 7, 2007.  I know first hand the emotional turmoil that comes with a premature birth, and I know the heartache and the hardships parents go through those first months.  I can only imagine how terrifying it must be to be a baby in that condition, to be hooked up to numerous machines and tubes left to sleep in a plastic box only to feel the warmth of a parents touch when visits permit. It’s hard, it’s miserable, and no parent should have to endure it, or the loss of their child.

So please, help us to fight premature births and make a donation today.  Even if you donate only a dollar, your contribution goes a long way when added to all the other money raised by the March of Dimes for this cause.  You can donate to the March for Babies using the link below, or if you’re interested in other ways to help or to join our team that is walking in Riverside on April 24, you can contact me directly.

The social web is one of my favorite online activities, second only to my love for search engine optimization. When Google launched, err, force fed us Buzz I’ll admit I was excited. The opportunity to interact with fellow Googlers in a Twitter-like format inside of Gmail sounded promising; however my adoption of Buzz hasn’t been as promising as I had hoped.

What Google Buzz offers in the ability to connect with fellow Googlers across many Google properties, it lacks in organization and ability to easily sort through conversation.  When I signed up for Buzz I hit up my usual suspects; friends, fellow internet marketers and of course the infamous Matt Cutts. A short while later I was also forced to mute the first Buzz from Matt because the noise that surrounded his first Buzz post was ridiculous.

Since then I have added a number of other friends, marketers, and the like, but also made the mistake of adding the Social Media giant Mashable.  Don’t get me wrong I love Mashable and it’s staff. They are a great resource, that I look to daily. Unfortunately for me, so do a number of other people. Mashable’s quick adoption of Google Buzz lead them to become one of the noisiest channels in my Buzz feed. Thankfully, Google silenced our inboxes to stop the overwhelming e-mails from popular users, but it still hasn’t been enough.

I use Buzz once every few days. I’ll skim it for something interesting, but for the most part don’t find any value that I couldn’t get from Twitter, and what I would get from twitter would be easier to follow and less cluttered.  You see once you dive into a conversation from a popular user like Mashable you are quickly overwhelmed by the sheer noise from the responses that follow.  Unlike twitter you see everything, even if you aren’t connected with the users commenting.

When Plurk launched a few years back and I did a Twitter versus Plurk comparison, I mentioned the value in this and how Plurk changed the way the SEO community interacted. Unfortunately where it was a strength for Plurk, it seems to be a weakness for Google. Whether it’s the lack of graphical representation of users, or simply because the conversations going on are on a much larger scale I simply can’t seem to get myself to dive into the conversation and engage users the way I have on sites like Twitter and Plurk. This lack of engagement has made it really hard for me to accept Buzz into my social habits creating interaction generated solely by Twitter and updates from services like Friend Feed and Google Reader. Unless Google can somehow make conversations easier to follow where there is graphical representation of users or some sort of way to toggle conversation only from people you are friends with, I am more than certain I will never be able to incorporate Google Buzz into my regular social habits.

What are your thoughts on lengthy conversation strings on Buzz? Do you find it hard to engage people when you are digging through conversations like this? Would it be more helpful if there was graphical representation of users?