Sunday, June 26, 2011

Why Is Facebook Shutting Down Apps?

By James Hobson
Facebook, the social media juggernaut, has abruptly began shutting down apps, leaving tens of thousnads of people wondering why. There was no asvisement of the action prior to execution, just BAM,and it's done.

Supposedly, Facebook has launced an algorithm that automatically shuts down apps which are deemed to be posting "too often" to a users wall. No one seems to know what constitutes "too often", much less why it matters.

At this time we do not have a list of any particular apps affected by the algorithm induced app death, or any information on further implications. We'll post more info as it becomes available from our sources.

Friday, June 24, 2011

Google Under Federal Scrutiny - It's Feds vs Microsoft Revisited

By James Hobson
The federal government is preparing to go after Google on the grounds that Google has "abused its dominance in Web-search advertising". I don't know what that means other than they have very popular products, they promote them very well, and they are wildly successful. Only through a socialist or communist view could being successful in business be viewed as criminal.


A person could easily argue that this pending action is an adaptation of the assault on Capitalism similar to when the Clinton Administration sued Microsoft. Oddly enough, despite a seemingly cozy relationship with the current Administration, the Obama Administration seems to have no reservations in harrassing Google. When nothing else makes sense, follow the money trail.

Because I don't hear a clamor among consumers, or advertisers such as our company, it's easy to assume that this is all about a shakedown to confiscate money from Google for Federal coffers . . . . or "encourage" donations to a political party that desperately needs money to polish their image for a 2012 presidential election campaign.

For information from professional journalists we have provide below, a snippet from a Wall Street Journal article by THOMAS CATAN and AMIR EFRATI
You can also read the full article here


Federal regulators are poised to hit Google Inc. with subpoenas, launching a broad, formal investigation into whether the Internet giant has abused its dominance in Web-search advertising, people familiar with the matter said.

On today's digits: the FTC is poised to serve Google with subpoenas as the Commission looks to explore the company's dominance on the Web; Walt Mossberg gives us his review of the Google entirely cloud-based laptop, the Chromebook; and, tips for creating protective passwords (first step: stop using "QWERTY", maybe?)

The civil probe, which has the potential to reshape how companies compete on the Internet, is the most serious legal threat yet to the 12-year-old company, though it wouldn't necessarily lead to any federal allegations of wrongdoing against Google. read more

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Bing Webmaster Tools Are New

By James Hobson
This is a reprint of an anouncement about changes to Bing Webmaster Tools

As of June 7th, the Bing Webmaster Tools site that you know has changed.

Bing has been investing in building its Webmaster Tools for a while now and we have recently launched a revised webmaster experience that offers expansion in tools, data coverage and content. The site redesign makes it easier for you to find content, tools and data to help meet your needs. Our new features include expanded functionality, and the data that coincides with these new features. With over 40 new self-help documents on hand, publishers now have access to a wide range of help and guidance content across various topics such as how to use our tools and search engine optimization.

Dear Bing Webmaster User,

As of June 7th, the Bing Webmaster Tools site that you know has changed.

Bing has been investing in building its Webmaster Tools for a while now and we have recently launched a revised webmaster experience that offers expansion in tools, data coverage and content. The site redesign makes it easier for you to find content, tools and data to help meet your needs. Our new features include expanded functionality, and the data that coincides with these new features. With over 40 new self-help documents on hand, publishers now have access to a wide range of help and guidance content across various topics such as how to use our tools and search engine optimization.





As part of our investment, we’ve built new functionality to help publishers find relevant data and control their accounts. Here are some of the major features and improvements Bing Webmaster account users will see:

– Crawl delay configurable by the hour
ο Control when and at what pace Bing crawls your website
– User and role management
ο Control who can access your Bing Webmaster account and what functions they can use
– Index Explorer
ο Improvements to reliability and how fast data appears in your reports
– URL Normalization
ο Manage which URLs from your site Bing holds in its index
– Deep Links Management
ο Manage which deep links are shown for your website, when your domain is selected


Beyond the updated and enhanced features, Bing Webmaster Tools has also launched detailed self-help guides and how-to documents. We’ve covered a wide range of topics, from how to accomplish tasks within Bing Webmaster tools, to what you should be focused on when performing search engine optimization. Here’s a quick peek at some of the new content topics in the 40+ new guides and how to documents launched:

• Using Bing Webmaster Tools
• Webmaster Tools Data explained
• How to perform Link Building
• Removing or blocking pages from our index
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO) guidance
• Managing URL parameters
• Implementing Rich Snippets (www.schema.org)
• Managing Canonicalization (duplicate content)
• Managing redirects
• 404 page management
• Rich Media and Search


Watch for new content to appear monthly as we invest further in explaining features and highlight areas of work webmasters are focused on.

Visit Bing Webmaster Tools to see the new features in your account, and to access the new content.

Saturday, June 4, 2011

SEO For Wordpress Templates

By James Hobson
There is a widespread use of templates in general, and for Wordpress in particular. Due to the unique functionality of the Wordpress platform, it can be challenging to get proper SEO work done on a Wordpress template. We will offer some suggestions here.

To properly SEO any website it is important to first understand the principles of on-page SEO. From there you can develop a specific strategy for the overall site, and each page in particular. You should certainly avoid all forms of black-hat SEO and use only proven white-hat SEO methods.

When you are confident that you understand SEO basics, and have your plan ready to implement, you should add to you Wordpress account the plugin named All In One SEO Pack . This is an extremely good SEO tool for managing basic SEO elements on your site.

In addition to utilizing the All In One SEO Pack, it is important to develop optimized content (text), use strategic intrasite linking, and take steps to meet Google's webmaster guidelines. We personally recommend making certain that your website meets W3C validation standards, and is fully cross browser compliant.

For more information on effective SEO strategies you can explore Google or Youtube.