RustyBrick, Inc. - Blog

The RustyBrick Baby Girl Streak Is Over

Barry Schwartz — Fri, 11 May 2012 15:31:43 EDT

I am so excited and a bit relieved to say that the RustyBrick baby girl streak is officially over!

Mordy had a healthy baby boy a few days ago!

About two months ago, Ronnie had the tenth baby girl and then about 4 weeks ago, I had the eleventh baby girl born to the RustyBrick family.

Note, there were no boys born to RustyBrick Geeks during their employment at RustyBrick before Mordy broke that streak earlier this week.

Number twelve is a baby boy! Here is a picture:

Maybe this will set a new streak for the company to have eleven boys in a row?

Congrats Mordy and your wife on your beautiful new baby boy!

Image credit to ShutterStock & Mordy

Source: The RustyBrick Baby Girl Streak Is Over at RustyBrick.

The Day I Realized My Wife Is Geekier Than I

Ronnie Schwartz — Wed, 18 April 2012 09:14:12 EDT

On a recent trip to my inlaws, my wife, Civia, discovered a gem of history.

Turns out her 1st grade notebook was wrapped in an Apple II ad that read, "IIe or IIc. That is the question." The journal also features a Apple logo on the back and is dated August 1987 - June 1988.

Besides the improvement of penmanship, vocabulary, etc, I noticed at this moment that my wife is geekier then I.

Just amazing how the timing works. This week marked the 35th birthday of the original Apple II.

For a better look, see the IIe/IIc notebook in more detail.

Source: The Day I Realized My Wife Is Geekier Than I at RustyBrick.

Adobe Browserlab

Sebastian Puerta — Sun, 01 April 2012 11:47:20 EDT

Now that there are multiple browsers to choose from, one of the biggest obstacles in web development is making sure that your website displays and functions properly all across the board. Whether it is Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome or Safari, each browser will act differently and will require tweaks to get them to function properly. As a QA tester, this task can be quite time consuming and requires multiple environments in order to run different versions of each browser. That was until Adobe updated their Browser Lab Services.

BrowserLab allows the user to select from a variety of web browsers on multiple operating systems to ensure that their website is compatible on all popular browsers. It renders a screen shot and displays the website as it would appear on the specific browser the user has selected. A nice feature that is built in to browserlab is the “2-up-View” which splits the screen in two and allows the user to compare the site in two different web browsers side by side. This makes it easier to focus on a specific area that might require some modifications rather than switching from browser to browser. Another useful feature that Adobe Browserlab provides is the “Onion-Skin” view. This view layers two copies of the webpage on top of each other so that the user can see how well the website lines up on different browsers. My favorite feature about Adobe Browserlab is that it is an online service and there are no applications to download. Try it for yourself at browserlab.adobe.com

Source: Adobe Browserlab at RustyBrick.

Jewish Press Selects RustyBrick Siddur As The One Must Have App

Barry Schwartz — Fri, 23 March 2012 11:59:51 EDT

Yoni Glatt from the Jewish Press said in an article published yesterday in the magazine that the RustyBrick iPhone Siddur is the must have app have for any Jew with an iPhone. His words, "I can say that if I could only have one Jewish app on my iPhone the Siddur would be it."

I am biased but it is definitely the most used non-Apple App I used on my iPhone. I use email and Safari maybe a little more than I use our own Siddur. But I run into people all over the world who tell me they live by the iPhone Siddur. It is a true honor to be able to contribute our portion to the Jewish community with this Siddur.

Yoni wrote:

I remember that before getting an iPod touch (and later an iPhone), I would carry a tiny siddur in my wallet. It certainly added unwanted bulk, awkwardly making my wallet protrude from my pocket. I immediately downloaded a free app with tefillah on it, but then came across the Siddur app – and became sincerely awed. It had full prayer services in Ashkenaz, Sephard, and nusach Ari, could find a shul or minyan near your current location, and had a full luach with daily z’manim. For these reasons alone, I felt (and still feel) that it’s worth the $9.99 price tag. And that was only the early version of the app. Two weeks ago RustyBrick updated the Siddur app to version 5.0.

The Jewish Week a few weeks ago listed seven of our apps as the top 30 Jewish apps in the Apple iTunes App Store. Now to see the Jewish Press say that if they were only allowed on app on their device, it would be our Siddur App, that is tremendously meangingful for us.

We are really excited for the future and working with Artscroll, with endless rich content, the possibilities are endless. Hold on - exciting things to come.

Image credit to ShutterStock.

Source: Jewish Press Selects RustyBrick Siddur As The One Must Have App at RustyBrick.

Keynote At SEMSEO Germany Conference

Barry Schwartz — Thu, 22 March 2012 10:07:08 EDT

I am honored to be the keynote speaker for the upcoming SEMSEO conference taking place in Hanover, Germany on June 15, 2012.

The German press release is out and lucky me, there is Google Translate.

Hanover, 22 March 2012 - Speaker-coup for the sixth SEMSEO! Barry Schwartz, CEO of RustyBrick, is the keynote speaker at the conference on 15 June in Hannover hold. The American SEO expert and founder of the "Search Engine Roundtable," and co-author of the popular blog "Search Engine Land" speaks for the first time at a German conference. The theme will get a recap of the major Google update and what changes the algorithm on SEOs and webmasters in Europe yet. Barry Schwartz has been one of the most sought after consultants, the U.S. media when it comes to SEO. Schwartz thus represents a worthy prelude to the SEMSEO, which features traditionally associated with high-profile keynote speakers. Last year, inspired Vanessa Fox, the founder of Google Webmaster Tools, the 600 conference participants.

"We are proud to have won with Barry one of the most popular heads of global SEO scene for our keynote address. This shows how important the SEMSEO has become internationally as a conference and networking event," says Uwe Tippmann, CEO of ABAKUS Internet marketing, will accompany the SEMSEO 2012 with Alan Webb as a moderator.

Alan Webb and I go back about ten years now. I haven't heard from him in maybe 5-7 years and then I get an email from his asking if I'd speak. True honor! Alan Webb is one of the leading SEO experts in Germany. So a true honor.

You can see the full agenda plus pictures from last year where Vanessa Fox did the keynote. A tough act to follow up on.

My focus will be on the history of Google's updates and based on that history, what can you expect to happen in the future. Instead of being reactive to Google updates, think a few steps ahead and be proactive.

Last year I was privileged to speak in Spain. So I am really happy about continuing the international tour. The only issue, I need to brush up on my German.

For all those near Hanover, please attend the conference. I'd love to meet the SEOs and SEMs out there.

Source: Keynote At SEMSEO Germany Conference at RustyBrick.

RustyBrick's New Social Network - The Wall

Barry Schwartz — Fri, 09 March 2012 13:14:25 EST

I have been pretty bad at updating my personal blog this year, mostly because I am out of the groove. It is not a busy issue, because I blog like mad at my search blogs and even keep this site fairly updated. The real reason is because RustyBrick and us personally here have a new place to share our content, thoughts and feelings when things are good and bad. It is our server closet wall.

Here is a picture of the wall that is updated fairly often:

For example, this morning I was upset because the internet upload speed in our office was at about 1 Mpbs. It was bad, so I called and CableVision came in and said it is an outside thing and it has been going on for over a month at the building across the street. So I decided to post a screen shot of the speed test on the company social wall.

Two minutes after posting it on the RB social wall, the upload speeds bounced back to normal. So I posted a revised speed test to show I am happy again.

Typically, when you complain about a company on Facebook or Twitter it can get a response quickly from that company. But it seems like posting a complain on the RustyBrick social wall has the same impact. ;-)

Source: RustyBrick's New Social Network - The Wall at RustyBrick.

RustyBrick Dominates The Top Jewish Apps List by The Jewish Week

Barry Schwartz — Fri, 24 February 2012 13:31:54 EST

Rabbi Jason Miller (@rabbijason) posted his annual top Jewish apps list at The Jewish Week today and I am happy to say we dominated the list. Out of the 30 apps who made the top list, 7 of them are RustyBrick Jewish iPhone Apps. For those math geeks, that is 23% of the apps on that list.

The RustyBrick apps that made the list include:

I am a bit surprised Kosher app and the Jewish Radio app didn't make the list, but 23% isn't bad.

You can see Rabbi Miller's full story at The Jewish Week online over here or in this weekend's print version.

Rabbi Jason Miller can also be found on Twitter @rabbijason and he is the president of Access Computer Technology in Michigan.

Source: RustyBrick Dominates The Top Jewish Apps List by The Jewish Week at RustyBrick.

Nike+ Fuelband Launches

Sebastian Puerta — Wed, 22 February 2012 09:53:14 EST

Today Nike launches their highly anticipated Nike+ Fuelband, a very sleek and modern wristband that tracks your activity throughout the day. It tracks the time of activity, calories burned, amount of steps taken throughout the day and Nike Fuel points – a point system Nike has designed based on how active you are during the day. Once you have set up your daily goal (based on Nike Fuel points) the LEDS on the wristband will gradually move from Red to Green depending on how close you are to your goal. All the data gets uploaded to the Nike+ website through Bluetooth (Iphone App) or on your computer through USB. Although a bit pricey ($150) Nike has had no trouble running out of pre-orders multiple times earlier this month.

Nike has also announced that there will be another opportunity to purchase the fuelband later today at 5PM Est. My goal is to snag one of them along with Jimmy and Alex here at RB. This will give us an opportunity to have some friendly competition here in the office .

Source: Nike+ Fuelband Launches at RustyBrick.

Our Apps On Channel 2 Israel (ערוץ 2‎)

Barry Schwartz — Wed, 08 February 2012 17:40:09 EST

Channel Two (aka ערוץ 2‎) in Israel seems to have featured some of our apps in their segment named "יקציות בסמארטפון לחרדים" or "Orthodox Smartphone Apps." I honestly do not know Hebrew all that well, so I cannot translate the video, but here is the Hebrew and English translation from the description of the video as posted on YouTube.

First the news segment:

חדש: אפליקציות בסמארטפון לחרדים

נראה שהטלפונים החכמים כבר יודעים לעשות, ואפילו היהדות הופכת טכנולוגית יותר באמצעות המכשירים הניידים: תוכנת תפילות, איתור מקווה קרוב וגם הדלקת נרות בלחיצת כפתור -- אפליקציות חדשות הופכות את הטלפון גם לתשמיש קדושה

*מובייל מניין הינו כלי חדשני ביותר המשתמש בפסגת הטכנולוגיה כדי לאפשר ליהודים בכל העולם לקבל את כל המידע הדרוש להם בזמן אמת.
*עשרות אלפי נקודות עניין יהודיות בכל העולם. מדובר במאגר היהודי הגדול ביותר בעולם. בתי כנסת, מקוואות, מסעדות כשרות, בתי ספר, מלונות כשרים, כל הזמנים ביהדות, סידור ועוד.
*כל משתמש יכול להוסיף ולעדכן נתונים למערכת.
*ניתן לקבל גישה למערכת גם מתוך אתר האינטרנט שלנו: www.m-minyan.com , כך תוכל לתכנן את הנסיעה הבאה שלך עוד לפני שיצאת מהבית..
*הרשת החברתית הראשונה בעולם המתייחסת לצרכיהם של היהודים באשר הם. אתה יכול ליצור קשר מיידי עם משתמשים אחרים להגשמת מטרות משותפות.
*חידוש: ניתן בלחיצת כפתור לארגן מניין עם משתמשים אחרים הנמצאים ברדיוס הקרוב אליך ביותר ! נתמך ע"ג מפה (דמוי GPS) בכל מקום בעולם !
*באישור ובהמלצת גדולי ישראל, והרב הראשי לישראל.

New: Orthodox smartphone applications

Smart phones seem to already know, and even Judaism becomes more technology through mobile devices: Prayers software, finding hope and candle close at the touch of a button - new applications also become the holy relic phone

* Mobile Where is the most innovative tool for the user at the top of the technology to allow the Jews all over the world get all the information they need in real time.
* Tens of thousands of Jewish points of interest around the world. This is the largest Jewish population in the world. Synagogues, ritual baths, kosher restaurants, schools, kosher hotels, all times in Judaism, sequencing and more.
* Each user can add and update data in the system.
* You can also access the system from our website: www.m-minyan.com, so you can plan your next trip before you left home ..
* The world's first social network relates to the needs of Jews everywhere. You can create an immediate connection with other users achieve common goals.
* Request: You can organize a minyan at the touch of a button with other users in the radius near you! Supported with on a map (like GPS) anywhere in the world!
* Approval of the recommendation of the great men of Israel, and Israel's chief rabbi.

Source: Our Apps On Channel 2 Israel (ערוץ 2‎) at RustyBrick.

The Tenth Baby Born To The RustyBrick Family & All Are Girls

Barry Schwartz — Sun, 29 January 2012 21:33:14 EST

Ronnie's wife just a few hours ago had a baby girl. Congrats Ronnie and Civia!

That is their 3rd child and 3rd girl - 3 for 3! But that isn't the unusual part - what is a bit weird is that of all the kids to be born to the RustyBrick family, all of them are girls. All 10 of them!

Ronnie had 3 girls while at RustyBrick, Joe had 2 girls while at RustyBrick, Steve had 2 girls while at RustyBrick, Jimmy had 2 girls while at RustyBrick. I had a girl while at RustyBrick as well.

So Ronnie's 3rd girl makes that 10 girls to be born to the RustyBrick family with no boys yet to be born to the RustyBrick family.

The big question is, who will break the streak?

Congrats again Ronnie and Civia!

Source: The Tenth Baby Born To The RustyBrick Family & All Are Girls at RustyBrick.

Chairing SMX Israel 2012 On January 15th

Barry Schwartz — Wed, 04 January 2012 20:07:14 EST

The end of next week I travel to Israel to 'chair' SMX Israel 2012.

SMX Israel, formerly known as SphinnCon Israel, a conference I've been running since 2008, is now officially known as an Search Marketing Expo, aka SMX, event. We have grown so much in the years, moving from a free, but very nice, college to a conference hotel to make more room. And now I am worried that the conference hotel that we are in will be sold out as well.

The conference is a week from Wednesday, on January 15th - a Sunday. Earlier this week, we sold more tickets than last year's record and we still have our busiest ticket sales week to go - that is the week prior to the conference. So I expect to sell out.

We have about 50 speakers from both in Israel and around the world. We have official Google representatives. We have awesome marketers, we have outstanding experts and even some spammers joining us.

We even have more sponsors than ever before, which means a lot to me. It shows the SEO/SEM industry in Israel is being taken very seriously. I have to shout out to the sponsors, which include Majestic SEO, Analytics Ninja, Universal McCann Search, Mad Mimi, Go Internet Marketing, Rapid Fire, Responder.co.il, SEO Genie, Sorezki, SEFO, iSEO and Viruous Online.

If you are planning on coming, make sure to check out the agenda and register now - I really think we will sell out.

Hope to see you in the holy land!

Source: Chairing SMX Israel 2012 On January 15th at RustyBrick.

Miracle Lights By Shazak On iBooks

Barry Schwartz — Wed, 21 December 2011 17:28:32 EST

We have published our first iBook on Apple iTunes for one of Shazak's books named Miracle Lights.

This is just in time for Chanukah - yes, as you can tell from the name and imagery of the book, this is a Jewish book for children on the holiday of Chanukah.

You can buy it on iTunes for $9.99. I can't promise the price won't change in the future, so get it while it is hot. Here are book excerpts.

The book is beautifully designed and illustrated and having it on your iPad is a no brainer.

About The Book:

Join Benny and his Zaidy (grandfather) for the thrilling adventure of the CHANUKAH STORY!

Laugh, thrill and cheer as the action-packed adventure of Chanukah unfolds in this incredible illustrated book!

Get it today on iTunes.

Source: Miracle Lights By Shazak On iBooks at RustyBrick.

Testing 50 X-mini II Capsule Speakers

Barry Schwartz — Tue, 20 December 2011 12:40:03 EST

This year's RustyBrick holiday gift for select clients are X-Mini II Capsule Speakers (aff link). They are small speakers that can be plugged into your computer or any audio jack, such as your iPhone or Android device. You can play music out of these little small balls and the sound quality is pretty darn good.

Since we never like to ship anything out of our office that is not tested, including code - we decided to test them out. We actually found a bad one, out of the fifty.

We tested them by daisy chaining them all together and plugging them into my iPad while listening to Weapon Of Choice - Fatboy Slim on YouTube. Check it out:

Happy Holidays All!

Source: Testing 50 X-mini II Capsule Speakers at RustyBrick.

Cyber Monday Results: 712% Jump In iPhone App Sales

Barry Schwartz — Tue, 29 November 2011 13:43:54 EST

Ronnie posted our Cyber Monday deals for our iPhone apps and I wanted to share the outstanding results from the sale.

712.5% Increase in Paid App Sales
500% Increase in Revenue from App Sales
175% Increase in All App Sales (combining free and paid)
Some Apps Had 4,000%+ Increase In Downloads

So this sale worked pretty well and I am glad we were able to give many of you a discount on your app purchases!

Hope you all had a successful shopping on Cyber Monday!

Image credit to ShutterStock : apps icon and sales icon.

Source: Cyber Monday Results: 712% Jump In iPhone App Sales at RustyBrick.

Cyber Monday Sale - Huge iPhone App Savings Across The Board

Ronnie Schwartz — Sun, 27 November 2011 19:54:54 EST

We started writing mobile apps over 5 years ago and this Monday, we will be offering our first - across the board - Cyber Monday Sale!

The savings are really great. You can save up to $4 per app! Apps that have never been on sale, are now on sale. This is a once in a lifetime deal. Grab it now!

Alef Bet $5 -> $2
Expecting $5 -> $1
Guide to the Old City of Jerusalem $3 -> $1
Jewish Radio $3 -> $1
Kitzur Shulchan Aruch $15 -> $12
Kosher $5 -> $4
Mikvah $8 -> $6
Mishneh Torah - Rambam $10 -> $8
Mizrach Compass $1 -> FREE!
My Little Black Book $4 -> $1
Parking Meter $2 -> $1
Selichos $3 -> $2
Siddur $10 -> $8
Siddur HD $20 -> $16
Tanach $15 -> $12
Tefilla Pack $3 -> $1
Tehilim $2 -> $1
Tikun Korim $20 -> $16
Torah for iPad $8 -> $6

Download Now!

Source: Cyber Monday Sale - Huge iPhone App Savings Across The Board at RustyBrick.

Our ShulCloud Booth at Kinus Fair & URJ Biennial

Barry Schwartz — Mon, 21 November 2011 13:09:18 EST

Are you headed to one of the upcoming synagogue conferences? ShulCloud by RustyBrick will be at the International Conference of Chabad Lubavitch Shluchim at the Resource Fair and the Union for Reform Judaism Biennial exhibits. We will also be giving away handouts at some of the other conventions.

Kinus Annual Resource Fair (Chabad):

Meet us at the International Conference of Chabad Lubavitch Shluchim Annual Resource Fair this Sunday, November 27, 2011 from 10:30am to 3:30pm, at Oholei Menachem, 667 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, NY 11213 [Map]. We will be demoing our software, Shul Cloud, synagogue software, between those hours. I currently do not know the location of our booth, but keep an eye out for our signs as displayed below.

URJ Biennial:

Then on December 14th through 18th we will be in Washington, D.C. for the URJ Biennial. We are in booth 610, so make sure to stop by. The exhibit hours are Wed, Dec 14th 5:00 - 8:00pm, Thurs, Dec 15th 11:00am - 8:00pm, Fri, Dec 16th 10:00am - 4:00pm, Sat, Dec 17th 6:00pm - 11:00pm and Sun, Dec 18th 9:00am - 2:30pm. The address is Gaylord National Hotel and Convention Center, 201 Waterfront Street, National Harbor, MD 20745 [Map]. For more information, see here.

We've never exhibited before - so please be kind.

Source: Our ShulCloud Booth at Kinus Fair & URJ Biennial at RustyBrick.

Steve Jobs Has Died On October 5, 2011

Barry Schwartz — Wed, 05 October 2011 19:52:39 EDT

On Apple.com, Apple announced Steve Jobs has passed away. There is a tribute post at apple.com/stevejobs.

This is indeed a very sad day for Apple and virtually all people the Apple brand has touched. May he rest in peace.

Source: Steve Jobs Has Died On October 5, 2011 at RustyBrick.

Michael Mozart of JeepersMedia Interviews Barry Schwartz

Barry Schwartz — Thu, 25 August 2011 21:21:02 EDT

Michael Mozart of JeepersMedia, who is best known for his "Fail Toy Reviews" videos on his incredibly popular YouTube channel with 400,000 subscribers and over 100 million video views, interviewed me earlier this afternoon.

The cool part is that he is one of twelve people with access to the YouTube Live feature, which I really really want access to, and even better is that he used Google + Hangouts to interview me, bring in select guests to ask additional questions, stream it live on YouTube Live and then publish the final video on YouTube for later viewing.

What did we talk about for almost an hour?

My background
How I got into search and SEO
Google + and +1 buttons as it related to SEO
Reverse SEO, harming competitors in search
Some past Google updates
Social media and how it helps with rankings
And much much more...

Here is that video:

It is also on his live channel or viewable via my Google + profile.

It was really fun to do. Thanks Michael Mozart!

Source: Michael Mozart of JeepersMedia Interviews Barry Schwartz at RustyBrick.

Google Chrome Preloading in Action

Michael Butler — Wed, 24 August 2011 09:41:56 EDT

I'm currently on Google Chrome 13 and just noticed the web page preloading in a real life scenario. You can reproduce the effect and try it yourself by following these steps:

Go to Google.com
You must be using Chrome 13
Type "USA Today" in the box
Press Enter
Press the down arrow on your keyboard one time to move the arrow next to the first non-sponsored search result, which should point to usatoday.com
Wait about 4-5 seconds and then press enter or click the link with your mouse - get your eyes ready to watch how fast the page appears
In a fraction of a second, the web page appears with everything already loaded, as if you were already there!

To prove that it is pre-loading you can go back to google.com and clear your browser's cache and then repeat the steps. You can compare results by performing the same steps in Mozilla Firefox and all elements on the page will not be loaded until you visit the page.

This does not seem to work on all websites, and may depend on the site's popularity or the webmaster's setting to prevent preloading. Some webmasters may want to prevent Chrome from preloading their site, especially if it means using up bandwidth when the user might not even visit. However if it is enabled and the user does visit your site, even the ads will appear faster!

It seems to be just another chapter in Google's goal of making the web faster for users.

Source: Google Chrome Preloading in Action at RustyBrick.

RustyBrick Indoor 2011 BBQ

Barry Schwartz — Tue, 16 August 2011 13:09:22 EDT

We had the annual RustyBrick BBQ this Sunday. No, it wasn't the best day to host a BBQ, being that it rained all day but we had it anyway!

While Ronnie cooked the food on his grill under the awning outside, the rest of us enjoyed the tasty burgers, hot dogs, chicken wings, salads, desserts and drinks.

Why didn't we postpone? Well, it was a rare day that 95% of us could make it. So we just had it anyway.

As we get larger, it becomes harder to schedule these events. We actually used a tool named Doodle to see who can come when and the day that had the most votes won (well, kind of).

Here is looking forward to a dry BBQ for next year!

Source: RustyBrick Indoor 2011 BBQ at RustyBrick.