Google Voice: The New Coolest Thing Ever
- Posted by Mike McDonald in MAKE MONEY ONLINE, WEBSITE SEO |
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What would you say if a company asked you if you’d like to have all of your home, work and cell phone calls, all your text messages, all your conference calls, all your voicemail — pretty much anything you say or type into a phone — ALL of it — go thru their 3rd party service? You, like me, would probably say; Thanks but no thanks.
But wait. What if they were going to give you a bunch of really cool features and capabilities in the process?  For free? Oh, and what if the company were Google?  Now you might be saying; Oh yeah?  Well… what kind of cool features?  I would.
Are you Interested in Google Voice?  Let us know in the comments.
Google Voice is the new ‘Coolest Thing Ever’ coming out of Google.  Basically, what they are doing is allowing you to centralize your multiple phone numbers (work/home/cell etc).  In the process they have come up with all kinds of handy tools and features that give endusers more control over their telecom than they have ever had before.
Essentially, here’s how it goes down.  You get a new Google assigned phone number.  Then, you route all of your other phone numbers thru that number.  So, your office phone, your work phone, your home phone - whatever. Google voice will allow your calls to selectively ring thru to any of the destination handsets you choose.  It really is a handy idea in concept.
Beyond that, Voice adds all kinds of cool little bonus features for example:
- You can selectively ring calls thru to multiple destinations.
- You can selectively block and screen calls
- You can send, receive forward and store SMS text messages
- Check your voicemail online, read it via email or text (you can even forward it)
- You can create personalized voicemail messages per contact
- You can group your contacts and manage their preferences on a group level
- Conference calling, call recording, call switching, 411 info — all that kind of thing is in there.
Now, rephrase my original question and substitute Google for ‘a company’. Do you still flatly refuse? I’m thinking a lot of people will just say “Oh, it’s Google” and after that, “Well sure, that sounds fantastic! Wow. Man, Google is cool aren’t they?” So, my question is:  why is that?
Yes, Google Voice is cool.  Yes, I have signed up. Yes, I realize using it means everything I use it for becomes more data for Google to ‘organize’.  But I might do it anyway and I won’t be alone.
The way I see it, Google Voice users will be made up of three groups of people:
Group 1: Realize how much data the service gives Google access to, but trusts Google enough that it isn’t a concern. These folks also elected Obama and only eat tuna clearly labeled dolphin safe.
Group 2: Realize the data issue but don’t care, because they realize their ‘data’ is all over the place anyway - Google might as well have some (more) too. These are also the  people who told their classmates about Santa in the 3rd grade.
Group 3: No idea or thought paid to the matter of their data and who sees it. This the reality TV set.  As long as the Bachelorette is still on Monday night… they’re good to go.
Add those guys up and Google Voice will do just fine.  Even some of the people that refuse to use over privacy issues will trickle in after a while.  Peer pressure and the whole, ‘man I wish my phone did that’ factor is not to be lightly discounted (just ask Apple).
Google Voice does lots of neat stuff…  Sure you give up a little in the way of data privacy, but hey… selective call block?  How cool is that? I can go to the lake and have my office line ring to my cell?  Well that certainly has it’s practical applications.  We are, most of us, used to trading a little bad for a little good. So what’s it going to be for you? Are you Pro or Con on the Google Voice thing?  If you are, which of my groups do you fit into, or are you a group unto your own? 
GoDaddy Makes Twitter Part Of Domain Registration Process
- Posted by Doug Caverly in MAKE MONEY ONLINE, WEBSITE SEO |
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GoDaddy is sometimes hard to take seriously; its marketing department seems to be run by the same bunch of teenage boys in charge of Axe commercials.  But GoDaddy is still the world’s largest domain registrar, and it’s poised to help Twitter with a new step in its registration process.
GoDaddy seems to have made the assumption that anyone wanting to create a website will also want to establish a presence on Twitter.  Adam Ostrow reports that it’s actually "integrated Twitter registration into its domain manager, allowing you to see if the Twitter username that matches your URL is available, and if so, register it."
This says a great deal about how important Twitter has become to the people at GoDaddy (and indeed, you can find GoDaddyDeals, GoDaddyJobs, and GoDaddyGuy Twitter accounts, with that last one being rather popular and putting out about ten tweets per day). 
 
It says something about what GoDaddy thinks its customers want, too.
And since every single GoDaddy customer probably hasn’t been switching back and forth between the domain registrar and Twitter while trying to name a company, this development may introduce Twitter to a lot of new people.
Things You Need to Know About Twitter Security
- Posted by Chris Crum in MAKE MONEY ONLINE, WEBSITE SEO |
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There has been more than one story in the news recently about Twitter accounts being hijacked. The most recent examples of note include the accounts of Britney Spears and famed blogger/entrepreneur Guy Kawasaki. These issues have highlighted some potential dangers of using the service, or really social networks in general. Have you encountered security issues with Twitter or other social networks? Share with WebProNews readers.
Amit Klein, CTO of Trusteer, a security firm, who counts the nation’s largest direct bank, ING Direct, among its customers, feels that Twitter account hijacking is an issue that more people need to be aware of. WebProNews asked Klein a few questions about it, and the following is the resulting Q&A session.
WebProNews: Please talk a little bit about what is happening when Twitter (and other social network) accounts are hijacked.
Amit Klein: Typically, criminals hijack Twitter accounts in order to spread malware. That is, they abuse the hijacked accounts to post messages to all the "followers", with a link to a site that serves malware. In the Guy Kawasaki incident, for example (not a classic account hijacking, but still a malware spreading campaign), of the 139,000 followers, it is estimated that hundreds got infected. Earlier this year, accounts of 33 celebrities (among them Barack Obama - 1.6 million followers, and Britney Spears - 2.1 million followers) were hijacked.
WPN: How big of a problem is hijacking of Twitter (or other social network) accounts?
AK: This is quite bad, since a twitter account enables one to send malware links and plain spam to all followers. Of course - the more followers, the more widespread the attack is.
WPN: How common is it?
AK: Over the last 10 days, we’ve seen two high profile incidents, in which an account was abused to serve spam and malware. One is the Guy Kawasaki incident, and another is Britney Spears.
WPN: Has it been limited to "high profile" accounts, or is it becoming common for regular users as well?
AK: Obviously the media covers only the high profile attacks (celebrities, politicians, etc.). We believe that attacks against more average accounts are also taking place - quite possibly via mass production utilities.
WPN: What are the dangers that come with it?
AK: The most obvious danger is that a hijacked account can be used to serve malware and spam automatically to all a user’s followers. An account can be hijacked a long time before it is abused. Attackers usually wait for the right opportunity to hit as many users as possible.
While twitter is currently used to spread malware, it’s a perfect platform to commit fraud as well. Followers trust the messages that come from the person they follow, while in reality the message could be spam trying to convince followers to fall to a scam. A very simple example would be a request to donate a small amount of money to charity (for example to support the situation in Iran). The link would go to a fraudulent website that records credit card numbers. A high profile account that sends such a message could result in hundreds of thousands of compromised credit cards.
Another example is false rumors about companies and stock, which could result in pump and dump attacks.
WPN: What can users do to protect their accounts?
AK: To secure their Twitter presence, users needs to take several actions:
1. Protect their twitter credentials - users need to be vigilant and keep on the look out for Twitter phishing attacks, and pharming (DNS poisoning) attacks. Users can install client side security tools that ensure they are only providing their Twitter credentials to the genuine twitter website. In doing so, they will protect their credentials against keyloggers or malicious browser plug-ins ("man in the browser" attacks).
2. Control and protect their twitter information. As tempting and convenient as it may be, using 3rd party applications and services that enhance Twitter may increase the exposure of users to abuse. Every website which is allowed to automatically post to a user’s Twitter account adds attack surface that criminals may exploit.
WPN: Please feel free to discuss anything else related to the subject that you feel people should know.
AK: Somewhat akin to phishing, is a practice called "twitter-squatting", wherein names of people/organizations are registered by fraudsters (or sometimes pranksters). It makes a lot of sense to monitor for such registrations, or better yet, to register brand names and individual names as early as possible to thwart such attacks.
Another threat associated with Twitter is abusing "Trending Topics" to serve malware. The attack involves sending many tweets (with malicious links) with some special keyword in them, so that this keyword will show up as a trend in the "Trending Topics" list at twitter.com. A user that views a sample tweet for this keyword and clicks on the malicious link will be served malware.
Both examples show how well established web attacks carry over into the twittersphere. Cyber squatting is a well-known practice on the web, which is now occurring in Twitter. Likewise, search engine poisoning is a common practice on the web, and now in Twitter also.
Security-wise, Twitter should be treated both as an individual website with its own potential security issues, and as a microcosm into which many existing web attacks can be mapped. This makes securing Twitter harder than protecting typical websites.
Wrapping up
WebProNews would like to thank Amit for sharing the above insight into Twitter security issues. Has your Twitter account ever been hijacked? Have you been a victim of Twitter abuse of any kind? Tell us about it.
Hashtags Now Linking in Twitter
- Posted by Chris Crum in MAKE MONEY ONLINE, WEBSITE SEO |
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Twitter has started linking hashtags in tweets to Twitter searches. A few other Twitterers have started to notice as well:
The move makes sense, considering that the hashtag phenomenon has reach tremendous popularity. They often appear in the trending topics.
The move also illustrates a greater emphasis being placed on Twitter Search, which only this year has become a focus of the company. It wasn’t that long ago that it was added to the Twitter home page, and it is already sparking big interest in real-time search throughout the entire search industry.
Realty Company Sues Craigslist Over User-Generated Ads
- Posted by Chris Crum in MAKE MONEY ONLINE, WEBSITE SEO |
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Craigslist is reportedly being sued for trademark infringement. A real estate company in Texas called First Call Properties is saying that it began posting ads on Craigslist in March, and that after that, a competitor called AAA Apartment Locating began posting ads using phrases like "first call," "call first," and "call us first."
According to MediaPost, First Call named Craigslist, AAA and two individuals as defendants. The case has been sent to Federal Court.
Clearly, this is not the first time cases like this have made the news. It’s just the first time that Craigslist has been on the receiving end of such a suit. Google has certainly been there. MediaPost’s Wendy Davis points out that these cases don’t usually get too far in court, but one between Google and Geico was settled.
 
"This is misguided in any number of ways: first, as long as the ad itself is not confusing such that the reader (or a moron in a hurry reader) would think that the ad is from the original company rather than the competitor, there’s not likely to be a trademark violation," says Mike Masnick at TechDirt. "More importantly, even if there is a trademark violation, it should not be Google’s liability, since they’re simply the service provider. The liability (if there is any) would be on whoever created the ad."
There is another interesting aspect to the Craigslist case. According to MediaPost, First Call also says the AAA ads are libelous, and say things like "First Call Properties is a Scam," but Davis points to a section of the Communications Decency Act, which says sites can’t be sued for libel based on user-generated content.
It will be interesting to see the outcome of this case. Craigslist could settle, but based on past Google experience, it will probably just disappear.
Google Maps Gets You Ready For The Fourth
- Posted by Doug Caverly in MAKE MONEY ONLINE, WEBSITE SEO |
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We’ll admit it from the start; this development doesn’t amount to Google’s execs weeping while singing "My Country, ‘Tis of Thee."  Still, a sort of self-promotional Fourth of July blog post from the search giant may be of interest to you as we head into the weekend.
If you haven’t figured out how you’re going to celebrate the Fourth, you may be able to get some ideas by using Google Maps.  Elaine Filadelfo of the Lat Long Blog Team writes, "If you’ll be in DC . . . you can find a map of the various events going on throughout the holiday weekend and a map of fireworks shows throughout the entire region."
Or if you’re planning to spend time elsewhere in the country, there are plenty of other events maps available, including ones for Baltimore, the Milwaukee region, Myrtle Beach New Hampshire, Northern Alabama, the San Francisco Bay Area, South Central Indiana, and Western Michigan.
Finally, if you intend to do your own thing, Filadelfo writes, "[Y]ou can make your own My Map to show friends how to get to your BBQ or where exactly in the park you plan to meet to catch the fireworks."
Anybody who’s going to be close to his or her computer might keep an eye out for a special Google Doodle, too; last year’s is pictured below.
 
FriendFeed Offers Real-Time Search
- Posted by Chris Crum in MAKE MONEY ONLINE, WEBSITE SEO |
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Today FriendFeed has launched a real-time search feature. Now when you perform a search on the service, you will be presented with real-time results as they roll in. That means you don’t have to continuously refresh for the latest results.
If you’re searching a particularly hot topic, you might find it hard to even browse results because they’re coming in so quickly. Luckily FriendFeed has acknowledged this.
"While we were testing this internally, we could barely keep up with the non-stop activity regarding Michael Jackson (That’s when we knew we needed a pause button)," says Jim Norris on the FriendFeed Blog.
You can access real-time search on FriendFeed by using the regular search box, but you can also use advanced search options and saved searches and still get real-time results. You can also embed a real-time search on your site:
On another FriendFeed-related note, the service released some new themes the other day. These allow users to customize their pages to suit their personal tastes with regards to aesthetics.
Google Blog Search Gets New Features and a Gadget
- Posted by Chris Crum in MAKE MONEY ONLINE, WEBSITE SEO |
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Google has launched several new features for Google Blog Search today. These are: RSS AND Atom feeds, an iGoogle gadget, a "hot queries" features, and a "latest posts" feature.
RSS and Atom Feeds
Google says the addition of the feeds has been its most requested feature for Blog Search. Users can subscribe to specific topics or stories. There is a "subscribe" heading in the left-hand column on the site, and underneath that are links for Atom and RSS.
iGoogle Gadget
The gadget lets users embed the Google Blog Search front page on their iGoogle homepage (or other pages that are compatible with iGoogle gadgets). Within the gadget, users can customize the topics they want to follow and "drill into" stories as they wish.
Hot Queries
Hot queries is a feature that has actually been added to the Google Blog Search front page. It’s pretty much what it sounds like. It listsl searches that are currently popular in Blog Search. Google says it’s "an easy way to quickly dive into the trending points of conversation on the web." If you’re not a Twitter user, it’s probably a good alternative to Twitter’s trending topics.
Latest Posts
Latest posts is also an addition to the Google Blog Search homepage. It shows new posts from popular blogs. "While Hot Queries highlights what people are looking for, Latest Posts lets you find out about stories even before people start searching for them," says Google on the company blog.
I’d say the new features are an upgrade for Google Blog Search. Would you agree?
Google and Bing Tips for Site Architecture Issues
- Posted by Chris Crum in MAKE MONEY ONLINE, WEBSITE SEO |
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Google and Bing have both talked about site architecture issues lately on their blogs. Site architecture is an important part of search engine optimization, and crucial to ranking.
"You can have great content and a plethora of high quality inbound links from authority sites, but if your site’s structure is flawed or broken, then it will still not achieve the optimal page rank you desire from search engines," says Rick DeJarnette of Bing Webmaster Center.
If you have time, and site architecture is not your strong suit, I would suggest reading both Microsoft’s post and Google’s, but to sum them up, here a few tips from each of them.
Bing’s Tips
1. Use descriptive file and directory names
2. Limit directory depth
3. Limit physical page file size
4. Externalize on-page Javascript and CSS code
5. Use 301 redirects for moved pages
6. Avoid JavaScript or meta refresh redirects
7. Implement custom 404 pages
Google’s Tips
Google starts out by talking about some site architecture myths, and also shares a couple slideshows (they talked about the topic at SMX London).
Finally, they offer these tips:
1.  Check that your robots.txt file has the correct status code and isn’t returning an error
2. Keep in mind some best practices when moving to a new site and the new "Change of address" feature recently added to Webmaster Tools.
3. Review the settings of the robots.txt file to make sure no pages — particularly those rewritten and/or dynamic — are blocked inappropriately.
4. Make good use of the rel="canonical" attribute to reduce the indexing of duplicate content on your domain.
As I said, Google and Microsoft both have plenty more to say on the topic in their respective posts. The Bing post is actually the third installment in a series.
The Top MJ Song, Album & Lyric Searches
- Posted by Chris Crum in MAKE MONEY ONLINE, WEBSITE SEO |
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If you’re tired of hearing about Michael Jackson already, I’m sorry, but he’s still dominating the news and the web. He’s still responsible for two of the trending topics on Twitter at this time (Michael Jackson and MJ).
You’ve probably read about the effect Michael’s death has had on the web. It also had a huge impact on people downloading and buying his music. It had a big impact on searches as well. Hitwise has released some data about the top Michael Jackson songs, albums and lyrics that were searched for after his death.
"For retailers and publishers looking to prioritize merchandise and content, one measure to predict demand among consumers is through search data," says Hitwise’s Heather Dougherty. "When looking at the variations of searches that included the search term ‘michael jackson’, we classified the top 1000 terms from the week ending June 27, 2009, to find the most popular song & album and lyric searches. Many searches were very broad, looking for the ‘best’ and ‘top’ michael jackson songs, but the specific songs & albums that were searched most were Thriller and Off The Wall. Searches for lyrics were also common, with the most popular being ‘Beat It’ and ‘Billie Jean’."
Here are the top five in both categories.
Top 5 Songs & Albums
1. Thriller
2. Off The Wall
3. You Are Not Alone
4. Bad
5. Ben
Top 5 Lyrics
1. Beat It
2. Billie Jean
3. You Are Not Alone
4. Bad
5. Ben
I guess the real question is how long will this Michael Jackson mania last? On the whole, it will probably last for an eternity, much like that of Elvis, but as far as dominating the web, it’s bound to simmer down sooner or later. How long do you think it will be before Michael Jackson is no longer a trending topic on Twitter? Share your thoughts.
