TOP 10 TECH » Web

Google’s Knowledge Graph Shot Across Bow for Content Farms?

Brett Bumeter — Wed, 16 May 2012 18:35:46 +0000

Starting today with English language users who are signed in to the site, and expanding soon to all English-language queries, Google will serve up a concise summary box on the right side of the results page with key information on many queries.The company says there are already 500 million people, places and things that will trigger a Knowledge Graph-based summary box; Google expects the boxes to show up in roughly the same number of queries that now trigger Google Maps in search results. commentary:

While reading this article by Forbes, I couldn’t help but envision who on the web would suffer the consequences.

Content Farms, all those websites that hoped to provide the answer a click past a google search, the About.com’s, the Wikipedias, the Yahoo! Answers and many millions of blogs.

How are content owners at risk?

Well Google’s Knowledge Graph is simply going to provide the answer in the search window before anyone every visits a primary source.

Google has just farmed content from sites all around the world and claimed ownership as the primary source!

Sure it took them over a...

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(Is?) Engagement, Not Views, is Driving Todays YouTube

Brett Bumeter — Tue, 15 May 2012 20:33:03 +0000

What Does This Mean For Creators/Advertisers On YouTube? Viewers will stay with you if you provide good content, even if it’s longer than normal. For creators this means they don’t have to worry about length as long as the content is sound, and for advertisers, it means they need to get on the ball with unique content that someone on YouTube will want to watch. I’ve always preached go the Red Bull/Go Pro route and create stories, not ads. Sell your product in more of a product-placement way rather than splashing the logo everywhere and going with a typical TV advertisement. The longer a viewer is engaged, the more likely they’ll want to stick around and see ads that are tailored towards that content. This requires different thinking on the part of brands. How will they get people to watch their ad, and even if viewers are “forced” to watch, unable to click out of it, how do brands ensure that a viewer will watch the ad and not play Words With Friends while they wait? Source: Engagement, Not Views, is Driving Today's YouTube http://www.reelseo.com/engagement-vs-views-youtube/#ixzz1uyK6O3DW ©2008-2011 ReelSEO.com Online Video Guide commentary:

ReelSEO.com put out a very interesting article as they analyzed some findings from an AdAge article on YouTube’s views and engagement levels thus far during the year in 2012.

Someone (not sure if it is ReelSEO or AdAge as the level of curation sometimes obfuscates the source of the analysis) points out that even though total video views on YouTube decreased, Engagement on those videos increased. This means people are watching videos longer and getting more engaged, but not increasing the total number of videos they watch.

ReelSEO does hypothesize on the potential for those very long anti-Kony videos that picked up...

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PowerPress 4.0 Offers Hot New Features iTunes Podcasting

Brett Bumeter — Mon, 14 May 2012 17:23:16 +0000

Blubrry PowerPress 4.0 brings the latest essential features for media creation to WordPress, including the hottest updates to the new iTunes specifications. iTunes upgrades include: An updated iTunes image requirement -- RGB 1400x1400 -- throughout the plugin for better cover image quality throughout. “Feature Episode” that allow podcasters to designate a primary episode, which can be used to introduce the podcast or lead in to a new series. An iTunes Order feature that allows a podcaster doing a series of episodes to have each listed in the desired order. Other PowerPress 4.0 offerings include: A new video player option: VideoJS HTML5 JavaScript player -- a player that has its own plugin. By adding this plugin, the new player will be available as an option in PowerPress video players list. "I am proud of this release of PowerPress, in supporting the latest iTunes podcast specs, additionally this update introduces innovative features first to market for the 10's of thousands of media creators that rely on PowerPress," said Todd Cochrane, CEO of RawVoice. commentary:

My good friends at RawVoice and Blubrry have just kicked out version 4.0 of PowerPress, the podcasting plugin system for WordPress. For any podcaster this plugin is essential and the new features in 4.0 are going to be huge as they allow people to Feature a podcast and identify the order of multiple episodes among other things.

Hat’s off to Todd and the development team at Blubrry and Raw Voice!

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Google Penguin Targeted WordPress Blogs W Hidden Links In Plugins/Themes

Brett Bumeter — Fri, 11 May 2012 18:25:39 +0000

If you have a WordPress blog and you still scraping your head trying to find out why you’ve been attacked by the Penguin although you did nothing wrong, it just might relate to your blog’s theme or plugins. I recently revealed that there are much more than a few WordPress plugins, widgets and themes that injects hidden links into the page! Google clearly stating on its content guidelines for webmasters that hidden links are a violation of its guidelines which may even result a complete removal from Google index! Some plugins’ developers insert the hidden links so they will rank higher on search engines manipulatively and the Penguin update was set to target sites that use exactly those type of sneaky patterns. Therefore, I suspect that there are lots of site owners which penalized by the Penguin just because they’ve installed the wrong plugin or theme. commentary:

Omri Shabat has put together a great article identifying one of the sources of pain stemming from the recent Google Penguin updates. He lists a number of plugins and themes that you should definitely review to insure that your website isn’t being targeted by Google. He also mentions a great plugin the Theme Authenticity Checker (TAC) plugin on WordPress that helps insure that whomever you received your theme from didn’t load it up with hidden/invisible text and links, which is a big foul in Google’s book.

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/tac/

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WordPress Automatic Update Compromises 1,000+ Sites

Brett Bumeter — Fri, 04 May 2012 15:16:15 +0000

More than 1,000 WordPress blogs have been modified to redirect visitors to sites serving malware, affiliate and pay-per-click redirectors, and low quality PPC search result aggregators, through the WordPress' automatic update feature. The individuals behind the attack have discovered how to add the malicious code to the update.php file, which prompts WordPress to update. This code then injects other code in the wp-settings.PHP file, and effects the redirects. The update.php file contains the "wp_update_core" function, which is used by the WordPress Automatic Update feature, says Sinegubko. commentary:

For years web developers and WordPress developers will told the world and their clients if you want to keep your site secure, you need to keep it updated. The best (easiest) way to do that is simply to run auto updates (within reason) when they come available.

The most common WordPress updates, WordPress theme updates and WordPress plugin updates are security updates. Someone finds a weakness, reports it and the developer or community jumps in and fixes it.

Ergo if you auto updated a plugin you were putting in a security patch typically.

Hackers however figured that out too and also discovered that...

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Check Your Computer or Malware Might Block it from the Internet #savetheweb

Brett Bumeter — Thu, 03 May 2012 19:13:32 +0000

More than a year ago, some bad guys on the Internet wrote a piece of malware inartfully dubbed DNSChanger. About a year ago, law enforcement tracked down the bad guys behind the malware, arrested them, and took over the servers they were using to cause Internet mayhem. ... the servers are scheduled to be shut down on July 9, 2012. When that happens, nearly half a million Internet users who are still infected could lose access to the web, email, and anything else that depends on DNS. The DNSChanger Working Group has been working to get the word out about the problem. They launched a website (dcwg.org) to provide information about the malware and let people test whether they are infected. The problem with the dcwg.org website was the test was only run by people who were paying attention. What you needed was something akin to an emergency broadcast system that would inform people who were infected that they had a problem as they surfed the web normally. In the process of working with the DCWG, we realized we were in a position to do more. Several engineers from our team worked to create the equally inartfully named Visitor DNSChanger Detector App. Any website on CloudFlare can enable the app with a single click from our apps marketplace. commentary:

About a year and a half ago, I had a client whose website would get hacked every few months. We took security step after step to protect the site built on WordPress but it kept getting hacked. Simple passwords was one of the original problems, but it seemed that once the hackers realized the site was there, it became a huge target even after the password security was boosted. We needed something to make the site a hard target.

Hackers often deploy scripts or software code to search out sites that are easier to hack than others. This script in the...

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PressNomics 2012: The Economics of WordPress Conference. November 8-10

Brett Bumeter — Wed, 02 May 2012 18:10:40 +0000

Organized by Phoenix based WordPress Hosting company Page.ly, the PressNomics conference sessions are focused exclusively on the commercial economy fueled by startups and SMB's leveraging WordPress. Discussion topics will include: bootstrapping to profitability, software licensing guidelines, SaaS, interface and application design, and finance. The open source web publishing platform WordPress supports a very successful commercial economy estimated near $1B/yr. Commercial entities of all kinds serve the market of ~72 million WordPress powered sites and blogs with custom designed themes, plugins, web hosting, and service based consulting. PressNomics is a once a year gathering of international WordPress professionals to learn, foster collaboration, and build new strategies for commercial success in the growing WordPress economy. commentary:

PressNomics 2012 is offering early bird registrations for this WordPress Conference in Arizona organized by Page.ly.

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Interactive Writing Plugins InboundWriter & ScribeSEO Part 1 – YouTube

Brett Bumeter — Tue, 01 May 2012 07:57:25 +0000

Interactive Writing Plugins InboundWriter and ScribeSEO WordCamp Atlanta 2012 Brett Bumeter Interactive Writing Plugin presentation commentary:

This video is part 1 of a multi part series covering SEO Copywriting plugins and tools for writers using the WordPress content management system.

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Adobe unveils CS6 and subscription-based Creative Cloud service – $49/ month

Brett Bumeter — Tue, 01 May 2012 07:36:08 +0000

... those who aren't up for paying $1,299 (and up) for one of the new suites can try something a bit different: monthly installments. That's coming courtesy of Creative Cloud, an quasi-new initiative designed to harness the power of cloud-based app distribution and streaming in a way that'll make CS6 more accessible than any of the packs that came before. You can tap into CS6's amenities over your broadband connection for $74.99 per month, while those who agree to an annual subscription can get in for $49.99 per month. To be clear, that provides unbridled access to any CS6 tool: Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, Premiere Pro and AfterEffects, and the rest of the gang. If you're jonesing for Photoshop alone, that one will be available for $29.99 per month (no contract) or $19.99 per month (annual agreement). There's no set release date just yet, but we're told to expect the new goods "within 30 days," and pre-orders seem to be a go. Head on down to the source links for more details on each individual aspect, and catch a promo video for the cloud-based subscription offering just after the break. commentary:

I have used Adobe’s software for years and it has always been EXPENSIVE!!!! Now with CS6, there is not a large barrier to entry. You can get access to their software for $49 per month instead of the thousands up front.

Other benefits

always up to date software
easier design for would be app builders
content creators get best in class tools without having to pay a development grade software cost

In summary, I’m not sold on the new model yet, but if I were given the old option first and the new option too, I’d probably go with the newer (cheaper) Adobe service options

...

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WordPress security update patches external libraries, several vulnerabilities | ITworld

Brett Bumeter — Tue, 01 May 2012 07:00:53 +0000

April 23, 2012, 12:32 PM —The WordPress development team released WordPress 3.3.2 on Friday in order to address several vulnerabilities in the popular blogging platform as well as in three external libraries that are bundled with it by default. Three media-handling libraries were updated and three native vulnerabilities were fixed in WordPress 3.3.2 The new WordPress version updates the bundled Plupload library to version 1.5.4 after its developers patched a cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerability last week. commentary:

With the new security updates for WordPress, WordPress users should also pay attention to auto updates for plugins and their themes. StudioPress just released Genesis 1.8.1 updating Genesis 1.8.0 for example. Do upgrade your plugins along with WordPress to keep your site safe!

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