Friday, January 30, 2009

Google dismisses click fraud report

"On Wednesday, Click Forensics said the incidence of click fraud rose to 17.1 percent in the fourth quarter, the highest rate since the company began tracking this problem in April 2006. Click Forensics provides services to monitor ad campaigns for click fraud.
Google questions the report's validity. 'These estimates continue to count clicks Google does not charge to advertisers as fraudulent, so they are not actually click fraud estimates,' a Google spokeswoman said via e-mail when asked for comment about the report."

ITworld

Twitter is a Cash Cow in the Making

"We have been talking a great deal lately about how Twitter should be monetizing their service. Most of this talk comes after news that Twitter secured $20 million in venture capital, to push its total valuation to $250 million. It wasn’t long ago that Twitter started looking for a product manager to define a revenue stream. This is a smart move for a company that has relied solely on venture capital from day one."

MarketingPilgrim:

The Legality Of Social Media Gaming

"Cease and Desists letters are are not uncommon in the business world. They are simply threats of legal action if person or company does not stop engaging in a certain type of behavior that the sender considers detrimental to its business and in violation of particular principal of applicable law. The sending of a Cease and Desists letter does not necessarily means that there is any legal basis to win the day in court. It means an attorney has an argument that they will win the day."

THE CUBAN REVOLUTION

MediaPost Publications Study: Company Blogs Lead Social Media Options


"Compared with the rise of newer marketing tools such as Facebook and Twitter, the corporate blog may seem a bit stodgy. But a new study finds blogging to the most important lead-generation source among social media options, followed by StumbleUpon, YouTube, Facebook, De.lic.ious and Digg."


MediaPost Publications Study: Company Blogs Lead Social Media Options

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Google Not Recession Proof?

"“We are seeing certain companies slow down their advertising spend, at the same time we are seeing smaller companies continue to spend because they rely on the online world for their instant revenue,” Nikesh Arora, Google’s president of Europe, Middle East and Africa operations said in a Bloomberg Television interview today in Davos, Switzerland."

Bloomberg.com: Technology

Yahoo's Share Of Search Market Has Stabilized (YHOO)

"After Yahoo's earnings on Tuesday (YHOO), we repeated our usual refrain: Yahoo's search revenue is growing, but Yahoo is still losing share of search queries, and queries are the real long-term value driver. In the US, at least, we appear to be wrong."

Silicon Alley Insider:

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

How Search Fits Into The Web Site Design Process

"I've been in search and online marketing for many years, and I've learned that while some messages may seem old and familiar (or at least well-worn), they may still be new to others who are guiding the enterprise Web site development and creation process."

@RobGarner - Search Insider - MediaPost

A Whopping 44% of CMOs Have Faced a Reputation-Crippling Attack!

"@andybeal - I’m a sucker for any new research that has data on how well companies are managing their online reputation. So, like a moth to a flame, I’m drawn to a new report from the CMO Council and Satmetrix."

Marketing Pilgrum

Click Fraud Reaches Record High

"Click Forensics has released a study showing that click fraud has hit 17.1%, an all-time high. For those of you who are unfamiliar, click fraud represents the act of clicking on a web advertisement to inflate click-through rates.
TechCrunch points out that over 30% of click fraud is via automated bots—another all-time high. This is a 14% increase over last quarter. I’m surprised the search engines aren’t doing a better job at keeping the bots down. This clearly continues to be a problem and needs to be addressed. I think the search engines need to release a state of the industry report on how they plan to cut these rates now ASAP."

Marketing Pilgrim

The Definitive List (75+) of Link Building Techniques in 2008

"Below, I’ve compiled a list of techniques I personally know of being utilized in the industry. It is by no means comprehensive, but is one of the most complete lists I’m aware of. I’ve tried to keep each technique as mutually exclusive as possible."

Search Engine People | Toronto:

Google Video search results poisoned to serve malware

"From the real-time syndication of hot Google Trends keywords, maintaining AdWords campaigns, to the plain simple blackhat search engine optimization tactics, cybercriminals are constantly looking for new ways to acquire traffic by enjoying the clean reputation of each and every Web 2.0 property. From LinkedIn, Bebo, Picasa and ImageShack, to Twitter, everyone’s targeted efficiently using automated account registration tools."

»Zero Day | ZDNet.com

Yahoo Should Buy the New York Times? Puh-lease

"As everyone waits to find out how new Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz plans to resuscitate the struggling Internet giant, in the meantime, the stress of watching Yahoo bungle one thing after another — such as coming within inches of a merger with Microsoft, only to blow the deal at the 11th hour — seems to have taken its toll on some otherwise perceptive stock analysts. Take Gene Munster from Piper Jaffray, for example. As described by Barron’s blogger Eric Savitz, Munster recently wrote yet another “open letter” to Bartz (man, she must be getting sick of those) in which he suggested that Yahoo buy the New York Times. And maybe Gawker Media as well. Oh yes, and Twitter too. And maybe FriendFeed."

GigaOm

The Difficulties Bartz Faces at Yahoo

"Better-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings and more plain talk from the new chief executive gave Yahoo (YHOO) investors something to cheer about on Jan. 27. But with a downbeat forecast for coming months, Carol Bartz's honeymoon likely won't last for long."

BusinessWeek

MySpace fights Yahoo and MSN for ad cash

"MySpace is squaring up to Yahoo and Microsoft’s MSN internet portals in an attempt to win marketing campaigns from big brands reluctant to invest large sums in social media advertising."

FT.com:

The Great Internet Video Lie

"Internet Video. Its the salvation for content creators everywhere. Its the end to dependence on the big bad meanies, the cable and satellite companies. Right ? Hell no. The concept that “over the top” video creates a valid business alternative for content creators is as misguided an internet business myth as there is."

« blog maverick

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Heads-Up, Google: Broad Match Controls We Need

"Last week, the Rimm-Kaufman Group disclosed what is apparently an inadvertent bug in Google’s Broad Match algorithm. Last summer’s switch from minimum bid to first-page minimum bid wasn’t supposed to impact broad match logic at all, but it did in a big way. The result? Agencies and advertisers who pay attention to the numbers saw a dramatic and essentially unmanageable decline in the performance of broad matched keywords, forcing down bids to remain efficient, dropping traffic and sales, with damage to Google’s revenue as well."

Search Engine Land

Microsoft steps up browser battle

Microsoft steps up browser battle
By Maggie Shiels
Technology reporter, BBC News, Silicon Valley


Microsoft has stepped up the battle to win back users with the latest release of its Internet Explorer browser.
The US software giant says IE 8 is faster, easier to use and more secure than its competitors."

BBC NEWS | Technology

FYI... i use vista.. i've been using IE LOYALLY.... after IE 8 beta.. i have switched to chrome exclusively on my vista machine.

Stories From The Tell-All MySpace Book

"Wall Street Journal editor Julia Angwin’s tell-all book about MySpace is set for official publication on March 17, 2009. We’ve got our hands on a draft of the 268 page book. Some of the more interesting stories are below (you can pre-order it here).
The book, which is really being published a year too late, goes into excruciating detail about the history of MySpace, its founders Chris DeWolfe and Tom Anderson, and others involved in the business. Most of the details are already public knowledge, but there are a handful of facts that I didn’t previously know about. Or mere rumors that Angwin presents as facts."

TechCrunch

Should Facebook–or Someone Else–Take Another Run at Twitter?

"Twitter–the non-money-making start-up that lets a user update status in a pithy manner–had a banner day last week with the inauguration of President Barack Obama, which followed all the tweets about the successful airline crash in the Hudson River in Manhattan, which came after…well, you get the point."

Kara Swisher | BoomTown | AllThingsD:

Layoffs at Fox Interactive Media

"News Corp.’s Fox Interactive Media digital division is laying off about 5% of its work force, or about 100 people, amid continued cost-cutting efforts, according to a person familiar with the situation."

WSJ.com:

Blogger To Keep Anonymity For Now

"The blogger who trashed model Liskula Cohen on the site 'Skanks in NYC' will remain anonymous for at least four more weeks, a judge in New York ruled Monday.
Judge Joan Madden said in court she wouldn't unmask the blogger until he or she had been served with papers and given an opportunity to object. Madden ordered Google to email the blog creator with the court papers by Wednesday."

MediaPost Publications:

MySpace Extends Conversations 365 Days Per Year

"The days of sending holiday letters to update receivers about the year's events has transformed into portals in social media platforms. Social media also gives brands the opportunity to continue the conversation with consumers every day during the year, according to MySpace executive Angela Courtin, who gave one of the keynotes at OMMA Social Monday in San Francisco."

MediaPost Publications:

Monday, January 26, 2009

Startup Mistakes: “Just launched my site, now I need SEO”

"The pain of launching a site and then worrying about Internet Marketing efforts is because of the affect on time, money, resources. Also, you take away from great opportunities that are out there for startups in the form of buzz. Building marketing strategies into your product is ever more critical in today’s internet marketplace. (I’ll stick to SEO on this post to keep a unified theme, but minor semantic tweeks would really speak to entire Internet Marketing strategies.) That said, understanding the mistakes that people like myself have made in regards to SEO will help you to learn and build strategies for obtaining search traffic when launching a new site."

Tony Adam

Twitter Raising New Cash At $250 Million Valuation

"Twitter, which just recently turned down a half billion dollar acquisition offer from Facebook (albeit to be paid mostly with Facebook stock), is dipping back into the venture capital market, we’ve heard from a source with knowledge of the deal. They’ve signed a term sheet with at least one venture fund to raise a new round at a $250 million valuation. We are still gathering information on how much they’re raising and from whom."TechCrunch

Friday, January 23, 2009

Measuring The Sharing: The Metrics Of Social Bookmarking

"Almost every Web site you go to these days has some sort of social sharing functionality implemented. So what is sharing or social bookmarking? According to Wikipedia, social bookmarking is a method for Internet users to store, organize, search, and manage bookmarks of Web pages on the Internet with the help of metadata."

MediaPost Publications

iProspect, iCrossing, 360i Top Forrester's Wave

"Digital agencies iProspect, iCrossing and 360i took top stops this year in The Forrester Wave: U.S. Search Marketing Agencies Q1 2009 report, which evaluates search marketing agencies against 72 criteria."

iProspect, iCrossing, 360i Top Forrester's Wave:

Google Clicks Past Estimates, But Profits Decline

"Google said Thursday the Web search market remained strong in the fourth quarter, helping the company post better-than-expected earnings and stronger click rates. But even though Google's operating profit rose sharply, the Internet giant posted the company's first decline in net profit."

MediaPost Publications

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Carol Bartz - One tough Yahoo!

"WHO is Carol Bartz? This week Yahoo!, a huge but floundering internet company, appointed her as its new boss. Ms Bartz is one of only a few women at the top in Silicon Valley, now that the female bosses of Hewlett-Packard and eBay have departed."

The Economist:

More Yahoos Leaving? Good Riddance (YHOO)

"One thing that Jerry Yang had to do and never did in his disastrous tenure as Yahoo CEO was clean house of Yahoo's extraordinarily uncommitted management team. As you'll recall, at the time, we recommended that Jerry call one of those famous thousands-of-Yahoo-VPs-fly-in-from-all-over-the-globe meetings and then pull a Robert DeNiro: Deliver a passionate speech about commitment while stalking around the room with a baseball bat, and punctuating it by firing several hundred VPs in one go."

Silicon Alley Insider:

Eric Schmidt Talks Google, Apple, Energy, Obama With Jim Cramer

"Google CEO Eric Schmidt was on Jim Cramer’s Mad Money this evening to talk about a wide range of issues, from Obama to Steve Jobs."

TechCrunch:

Google Evolves Back To Its Core

"By any sane analysis, Google is doing very nicely, thank you. Jeffrey Lindsay, an analyst quoted in the MediaPost article, expects to see 23% year over year revenue growth, with 14.3% growth expected for 2009. In the rational world, that would be cause for popping Champagne corks and backs bruised from vigorous patting."

MediaPost Publications

Do you have a ‘phone-a-friend’ in search marketing?

"You’ve no doubt seen the show “Who wants to be a millionaire.” Contestants answer questions hoping to become filthy rich. Along the way they have three life-lines to help them determine the correct answer. Sometimes the life-lines help, sometimes not. In the end though, the decision is left to one person - the contestant and they are either right or wrong."

SEO | SEM | Internet Marketing | Jack Leblond

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Refresh Legacy Content for a Rankings Boost

"This week's headsmacking tip is extremely powerful and pretty darn simple to implement. The premise is straightforward - you've got old content that ranks in the top 20-30 results, but never achieves first page (or top 5) rankings. Frequently, we see a lot of sites making the mistake of trying to link build (both internally and externally) to the old content:"

SEOmoz | Headsmacking Tip #11:

The Plot to Kill Google

"When Google's lawyers entered the smooth marble hallways of the Department of Justice on the morning of October 17, they had reason to feel confident. Sure, they were about to face the antitrust division—an experience most companies dread—to defend a proposed deal with Yahoo. But they had to like their chances. In the previous seven years, only one of the mergers that had been brought here had been opposed. And Google wasn't even requesting a full merger. It just wanted the go-ahead to pursue a small deal that it was convinced would benefit consumers, the two companies, and the search-advertising market as a whole."

Wired Magazine

The White House - WhiteHouse.gov

"Welcome to the new WhiteHouse.gov. I'm Macon Phillips, the Director of New Media for the White House and one of the people who will be contributing to the blog.

A short time ago, Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th president of the United States and his new administration officially came to life. One of the first changes is the White House's new website, which will serve as a place for the President and his administration to connect with the rest of the nation and the world."

The White House - Blog Post - WhiteHouse.gov:

SEO Experimentation Done Right

Ann Smarty Interviews Old School Organic SEO Steve Plunkett on Search Engine Journal

read more | digg story

Monday, January 19, 2009

Internal Links and Anchor Text

"We've recently gotten to do (and see results of) some testing around internal links & anchor text and have come to some interesting, if not 100% proven, conclusions. As a disclaimer, SEO testing, whether done in a controlled environment or on live sites, is both challenging to quantify and subject to fair critiques both practically and academically. That said, I feel fairly confident in stating the following findings."

SEOmoz Blog | Search Engine Marketing News & Tips

Blogger Toolbox: 100+ Tools and Themes

In an effort to help those devoted Blogger users, we’ve gathered up the best of our lists about tools, themes and shortcuts for your preferred platform. Take a look through and you are sure to find something that will help you, even if you didn’t know you were looking for it!

read more | digg story

Friday, January 16, 2009

Yahoo shares your tweets, other online activity

"Yahoo has fired up a major part of its Yahoo Open Strategy, the ability to broadcast blog postings, tweets, photo uploads, Yelp reviews, and other activity to members of your online social circle.
The change to Yahoo Updates makes the company potentially more competitive with services such as FriendFeed and Facebook, which do much the same thing, though they also offer to show activity on other services including Amazon, Digg, and Google Reader."

Webware - CNET

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Twitter’s Little Known SEO Value

"For too many, SEO is synonymous with ranking on the first SERP page in Google. For too many, optimizing a site for Google means getting links, many links, no matter what. Defining and redefining SEO will not change the way these people perceive it. This is not an article for them. Those webmasters who optimize solely for Google are basically targeting only 70% of the search engine market, and disregarding the rest."

SitePoint :

Yahoo stock: Still not worth it

"Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang is stepping down and Carol Bartz has taken the reins as the company's new CEO. Most hope that she can fix Yahoo and return it to the place of dominance it once enjoyed. Or failing that, at least move it back into favor with shareholders. This will be difficult. The company was shaken by two rounds of layoffs during 2008 and a near shareholder coup over its treatment of Microsoft's acquisition bid, which contributed to its 59 percent stock price decline from its 2008 high of $30 per share to its current $12.31 per share (a $17 billion market cap)."

Webware - CNET:

Google Ends Google Video Uploads, Shutters Notebook, Catalog Search, Dodgeball & Jaiku

"Google’s announced they’re closing or ceasing development of a variety of products as part of an already continuing move to keep efforts focused on other products with greater usage. These include an end to video uploads to Google Video, closure of Google Catalog Search, Google Notebook, Dodgeball, the microblogging service Jaiku and the Google Mashup Editor."

Search Engine Land:

Social networks threaten advertising growth

"Two-thirds of advertising agencies are not prepared for the industry changes prompted by social networks and new forms of digital media, a report has found.
The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising, which will publish the “Social Media Futures” report compiled by Future Foundation next week, has warned that advertising agencies face growth of just 1.2 per cent a year by 2016 if the industry fails to tackle the changes to the media created by sites such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter."


FT.com / UK / Business:

Google Sitemap Generator - Google Code

"Sitemaps are an easy way for webmasters to inform search engines about pages on their sites that are available for crawling. By creating and submitting Sitemaps to search engines, you are more likely to get better freshness and coverage in search engines. Google Sitemap Generator is a tool installed on your web server to generate the Sitemaps automatically. Unlike many other third party Sitemap generation tools, Google Sitemap Generator takes a different approach: it will monitor your web server traffic, and detect updates to your website automatically."

Google Code

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Yahoo to name Bartz CEO; Now the fun begins

"Yahoo will reportedly name Carol Bartz, former CEO of Autodesk, as CEO.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Bartz has accepted the offer, capping a two-month search for a new leader. Bartz, 60, is the executive chairman of Autodesk. She stepped down from CEO of Autodesk in April 2006. She had worked at Sun, Digital Equipment and 3M."

Between the Lines | ZDNet.com:

Twitter Metrics Resources

"When I first heard of Twitter, I thought about it much like many of you probably still do. It's just noise. Who needs to know when someone is having a pizza?"

MediaPost Publications:

Monday, January 12, 2009

Semantic Search Technology Advances from Ask.com

"For millions of everyday queries, there is one, simple, direct answer the user is seeking, but the current generation of search relegates consumers to sifting through links and then searching through the Websites themselves to find the answer. Many times users have to repetitively rephrase the query before they finally get the answer they want. That’s because today's search engines are still very sensitive to the way queries are constructed, returning different answers for variations of the same query."

The Ask.com Blog

Yahoo!'s Next Frontier - Internet TV

"It's easy to lose sight of Yahoo!'s role as a Web pioneer, what with the company's recent management missteps, search-market share losses to Google (GOOG), and the distraction of Microsoft's (MSFT) failed takeover bid. But in the mid-1990s, Yahoo broke ground in crawling the disparate information strewn across the young World Wide Web and organizing it neatly for consumers"

BusinessWeek

Parties Settle Libel Lawsuit Over Yelp Review

A San Francisco chiropractor and his former patient, Christopher Norberg, have settled a libel lawsuit arising out of a bad review that Norberg posted on Yelp.
The case appears to mark the first time that a Yelp user was sued for defamation for posting a bad review. Some observers had warned that the lawsuit could scare consumers from posting negative reviews on sites like the fast-growing Yelp, which recently expanded into the U.K."

MediaPost Publications

TOP 25 Most Dangerous Programming Errors

"Today in Washington, DC, experts from more than 30 US and international cyber security organizations jointly released the consensus list of the 25 most dangerous programming errors that lead to security bugs and that enable cyber espionage and cyber crime. Shockingly, most of these errors are not well understood by programmers; their avoidance is not widely taught by computer science programs; and their presence is frequently not tested by organizations developing software for sale.Today in Washington, DC, experts from more than 30 US and international cyber security organizations jointly released the consensus list of the 25 most dangerous programming errors that lead to security bugs and that enable cyber espionage and cyber crime. Shockingly, most of these errors are not well understood by programmers; their avoidance is not widely taught by computer science programs; and their presence is frequently not tested by organizations developing software for sale."

SANS Institute - CWE/SANS TOP 25 Most Dangerous Programming Errors:

Social Networking Still the #1 Growth Area in Online Marketing




"Some optimistic news today in a study dug up by eMarketer: lots of small businesses plan to increase their spending on social network marketing in 2009. In fact, 25% of the small businesses surveyed by Ad-ology Research indicated that they would increase spending on the medium this year, a higher percentage than any other marketing format."

Mashable:

Web Intelligence Course @ UC Irvine

"Web intelligence is a combination of web analytics, which examines how website visitors view and interact with a site’s pages and features, and business intelligence, which allows a corporation’s management to use data on customer purchasing patterns, demographics, and demand trends to make effective strategic decisions. As companies expand their reach into the global marketplace, the need to analyze how customers use company websites to learn about products and make buying decisions is becoming increasingly critical to survival and ultimate success."

UC Irvine:

Advertising - A Call for More Blacks in Ad Agencies

"THE inability of the advertising industry to fill its desks, cubicles and offices with a diverse work force is coming under fire again, this time from a lawyer with a track record of extracting large settlements on behalf of employees of giant corporations like Coca-Cola, Morgan Stanley and Texaco who believed they had been the victims of racial discrimination."

NYTimes.com

- honestly, the agency i work at will hire qualified candidates.. nothing else really matters.

Brands Tap Web Elite for Advertorial 2.0

"NEW YORK Among the hundreds of journalists at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week there are five people producing reams of copy, photos and video about the show, new product demos and press conferences. Unlike the reporters, though, they are popular bloggers in Las Vegas courtesy of Panasonic.

The Panasonic program is one of several undertaken by brands carving out a new take on the old notion of advertorial. Rather than relying on magazines, they are contracting with influential bloggers who bring with them their own powerful distribution networks. Rather than a long-form narrative, content is fit for the Web via blog posts, Twitter updates and YouTube videos. And the key differentiator: instead of dictating the content to lead to a sale, brands typically keep their distance to maintain credibility."

AdWeek:

Google: 1 Million Advertisers in 2007, More Now

"There are a few reasons Google makes so much more money than rivals like Yahoo and Microsoft in search advertising. First, it accounts for a lot more searches. Second, its technology is believed to be better at matching ads to queries. And third, it has more advertisers. A lot more."

Bits Blog - NYTimes.com

Google: 1 Million Advertisers in 2007, More Now

"There are a few reasons Google makes so much more money than rivals like Yahoo and Microsoft in search advertising. First, it accounts for a lot more searches. Second, its technology is believed to be better at matching ads to queries. And third, it has more advertisers. A lot more."

Bits Blog - NYTimes.com

BK Offers Facebook 'Sacrifice'

"NEW YORK It's a common problem for anyone who joined Facebook some time ago. You look at your friend list and wonder who these people are.

Burger King wants to help consumers do something about it.NEW YORK It's a common problem for anyone who joined Facebook some time ago. You look at your friend list and wonder who these people are.

Burger King wants to help consumers do something about it."

AdWeek

Scientist Reveals Google CO2 Research; Blatently Puts Planet at Risk

"If Harvard University physicist Alex Wissner-Gross is to be believed, his most recent research has just ruined the environment for future generations!
Why?
He’s calculated that a typical search on Google generates about 7g of CO2–due to the complex system of servers the search engine uses around the world. To put that into perspective, boiling a kettle for a cup of tea uses about the same amount of energy"
Marketing Pilgrim - Andy Beal

Thursday, January 08, 2009

Facebook Surpasses 150 Million Users

"Facebook has passed 150 million active users worldwide, up 10 million from just last month.
'When we first started Facebook almost five years ago, most of the people using it were college students in the United States. Today, people of all ages--grandparents, parents and children--use Facebook in more than 35 different languages and 170 countries and territories,' wrote Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a blog post Wednesday on reaching the milestone."

MediaPost Publications

Microsoft Seals The Deal With Verizon

"Beating out rival Google, Microsoft announced a five-year deal with Verizon Wireless to be the default search provider on the wireless carrier's phones as well as handling mobile advertising services."

MediaPost Publications

SEO implications of Page Segmentation concepts

"One area that is worth looking at for SEO in 2009 (for me at least) is page segmentation. Now this approach really isn’t new and I came across papers as far back as 1997 and beyond. But unsurprisingly most IR methods don’t just appear over night. The big three, (of search) have each had various research papers and patents dating back as far as 2003-4. It just seems to have some traction and is sensible as well."

HuoMah.com

- good, wait... great.. article on page segmentation

Wednesday, January 07, 2009

Weak Password Brings 'Happiness' to Twitter Hacker

"An 18-year-old hacker with a history of celebrity pranks has admitted to Monday's hijacking of multiple high-profile Twitter accounts, including President-Elect Barack Obama's, and the official feed for Fox News.
The hacker, who goes by the handle GMZ, told Threat Level on Tuesday he gained entry to Twitter's administrative control panel by pointing an automated password-guesser at a popular user's account. The user turned out to be a member of Twitter's support staff, who'd chosen the weak password 'happiness.'"

Threat Level from Wired.com:

Tuesday, January 06, 2009

Twitter hit by security breaches

"Micro-blogging site Twitter has admitted that some of its most high profile bloggers have been targeted by hackers.
It announced that 33 accounts had been hacked, including those belonging to president elect Barack Obama and singer Britney Spears.
It follows a phishing scam on the site which encouraged users to click on a fake Twitter homepage."

BBC NEWS | Technology :

SEO, Internet and Online Predictions 2009

"Last year I wrote my predictions as something of a narrative, and when I looked back to check how I did, I found it somewhat difficult to mark the scorecard. So this year, I'm going to try to be focused, brief, and calculable. Keep me honest, will you?"

Predictions 2009 - John Battelle's Searchblog:

J.P. Morgan: '09 to Be Rocky for Web and Brand Ads

"2009 is going to be a challenging year for online video, social networking, and pretty much any segment of the Web publishing world dependent on brand advertising.

That’s because the rocky macro-economic climate has caused performance-based advertising to gain market share at a faster rate, a trend that should continue through much of this year says a new report issued by J.P. Morgan.2009 is going to be a challenging year for online video, social networking, and pretty much any segment of the Web publishing world dependent on brand advertising.

That’s because the rocky macro-economic climate has caused performance-based advertising to gain market share at a faster rate, a trend that should continue through much of this year says a new report issued by J.P. Morgan."

AdWeek

Not-So-Banner Year for Digital

"There are two schools of thought when it comes to how digital advertising will fare in the grip of a recession. On the one hand, optimists see tight budgets accelerating the shift from less measurable traditional media into more targeted digital channels. The pessimists, however, point out that stagnant budgets affect all marketing, even if digital outlets fare better."

AdWeek

Report: "Massive layoff" unlikely at Microsoft

"A CNBC report out today appears to put to rest continued rumors of significant Microsoft layoffs coming this month.
In recent weeks, two blogs -- Mini-Microsoft and Fudzilla -- have both reported that Microsoft is preparing to lay off large numbers of employees before the company announces its second quarter earnings on Jan. 22."

Seattle Tech Report:

27 Blogging Secrets to Power Your Community

"Do you like learning about magic tricks? To me, the best magicians are the ones who share what they know. Penn and Teller are like that. They love deconstructing tricks in front of you? So, do you want to learn some blogging secrets from me?"

chrisbrogan.com

Adobe Flash, Apple Safari fail privacy test

"Third party plug-ins like Adobe Flash do a poor job of cleaning traces of your browser sessions, rendering private-browsing features somewhat useless, according to a new study by researcher Katherine McKinley."

Zero Day | ZDNet.com

Twitter phishing… inside Twitter

"Over the weekend I received a handful of reports of individuals using Direct Messages inside of Twitter to phish for Twitter accounts and passwords.

A cluster of compromised Twitter accounts are sending out person-to-person phishing messages inside the Twitter network. These messages and the target website are similar to standard social network phishing messages, except this time they are very very short."

Zero Day | ZDNet.com

Facebook Looks To Control User Data

"As Facebook traffic climbs to new heights, the site also is taking steps to keep control over its most valuable asset -- users' data.

The company has taken its beef with aggregator Power.com into federal court, where Facebook has sued for a host of claims. Power.com allows users to access information from across social networking sites in one central location -- an ability that Facebook clearly thinks threatens its own hold on the information that users have uploaded to their profiles."

MediaPost Publications: