SearchInfluence

The Mardi Gras Survival Guide and New Orleans Hotels on the Parade Route, Courtesy of NewOrleans.com

It’s your first time in New Orleans for Mardi Gras, you say? Oh, dear. It’s likely that you’ll be overwhelmed by the spectacle, even if you’ve seen many celebrations in many other countries before. After all, everywhere you look there are parades, costumes, beads being hurled, and all other manner of unfamiliar customs. You know, like women taking their shirts off at a moment’s notice in exchange for small trinkets. Yes, hide the children (or at least be prepared to shield their eyes at the speed of light!)

After the ringing success of her Google acquisitions infographic, we’re proud to debut Kate Voisin as this week’s Featured Influencer! Kate is an illustrator and graphic designer who, before joining the SI team, worked as a freelancer. Like just about every New Orleanean, she spends much of her off-time writing what she hopes will turn into a novel, or browsing the stacks at Tulane’s library (where she is not actually a student). Her interests include coffee, dystopian novels, and cartoons.

Hard-hitting question time: if you were an amphibian, what kind of amphibian would you be?

A newt! (I’d get better.)

This week’s profiled Influencer is Assistant Production Manager Scott Shockley. Originally from the Greater New Orleans area, Scott graduated from LSU in 2008 with a degree in Marketing after four years in Baton Rouge. He’s worked for a tech startup and Capital One, as well as serving as Tulane University’s Marketing Manager.

Scott exemplifying the professional demeanor we strive for at SI.

He finds himself interested in the technical side of marketing and business and appreciates SEO’s demand for these skills on a daily basis. Scott’s also a longtime Influencer, tied with developers Luke Ledet and Doug Thomas for longest-tenured Production member — all three have been with us since the company was based out of Will and Angie’s living room!

Have you ever searched for a business by its own name and come up empty-handed? What about searching for its own name PLUS the city it’s located in and still no luck? It happens! Google definitely makes stupid choices at times, but most of the time this happens when we are not telling it the most basic information about ourselves — as redundant as it might seem.

Alligator dogs from Dat Dog's Yelp page.

The world according to Facebook.

Following advertisements for a contest where Facebook fans can enter to win a 60” 3D television, anchors’ guffaws at “The Facebook” and “The Twitter,” and the third run of a talk about how Facebook and social media peacefully brought down a dictator in 18 days, FOX8, our beloved Fox affiliate network channel, ran a special report on Facebook privacy which showed how confused people are about Facebook.