Posts from ‘General’
Icon finder search tool for webmasters
A few days ago I stumbled onto a brilliant site called Icon Finder. The web icon search database claims to hold more than 5,000 icons in its index and offers the tool free for anyone needing a tool to help find them. Continue Reading
I haven’t touched much on the Sitemeter/Spyware saga as of late. The original post, which made it to the homepage of Digg and has had more than 15,000 readers since it was published, is now ranking fairly well in search engines and I believe it is keeping the debate alive and well.
I then followed it up with a couple more posts, including a post with the “official” response from the Sitemeter team.
Before we get to Shane’s post, let’s take a look at Sitemeters response. Continue Reading
WashingtonWatch.com is now a part of the wiki using family. It’s a choice that I believe will have negative effects on the quality of the site.
Washington Watch has been a great place for me to find information on bills. The site tracks bills in Congress, providing a fair amount of sound estimates about costs or savings regarding specific bills and proposed laws.
Until now, the bias has been kept to a minimum. While there has been disputable postings, it’s probably safe to say these debates can be had for all sides of the political spectrum. Generally the site is fair and to date has presented information in an unbiased fashion. Continue Reading
Rachael Bell, an 18 year old MySpace user in the United Kingdom, learned a very hard lesson in what you should and shouldn’t post online.
Recently Rachael posted an invite on her MySpace site for a house party at her place while her mom was away. Instead of the handful of friends she had intended on showing up, she landed several hundred people who completely trashed and ruined her house. Continue Reading
Matt Cutts really knows how to stir controversy. In a recent post titled, “How to report paid links“, Cutts lays out the simple process on how to bring paid links to the attention of the Google team.
Sign in to Google’s webmaster console and use the authenticated spam report form, then include the word “paidlink” (all one word) in the text area of the spam report. If you use the authenticated form, you’ll need to sign in with a Google Account, but your report will carry more weight.
I can see it now…
Google’s purchase of Doubleclick is stirring a lot of discussion. Most of it isn’t pretty.
Cocoa & Medicine says:
If you aren’t familiar with them, DoubleClick is in the business of selling banner ads — those flashing, annoying advertisements that sit above, beside, and even above those web pages you visit. That, in and of itself, is not why I dislike them — in fact, thanks to Privoxy, I almost never see their ads. But I’ve been doing the web thing long enough to recall back in 2000 when DoubleClick announced an frighteningly Orwellian scheme to identify every single web user and track the pages they visit.
After DoubleClick’s announcement there was an uproar. Numerous organizations including EPIC and the ACLU filed petitions with the FTC, which launched a 10 month investigation. Eventually DoubleClick backed off of its position and the investigation was dropped.
Fast forward several years and the poster child of online privacy invasion is getting hitched to the poster child of online corporate responsibility. I suppose we could interpret this in a positive way and hope that Google’s values infect those of the DoubleClick unit more than the other way around. But I can help but feel a bit nervous.
The timing of this buy is not at all comforting after seeing Matt Cutts pronounce that Google is now looking down on paid links. Sounds like big G wants the throne to itself. Continue Reading
TellMe, a new company seeking to get in while the getting is good, has just launched its 100% FREE 411 information service!
To find a phone number, simply call 1-800-555-TELL. When prompted say “business search”. The fully automated system will then search its database to find a relevant result for your query.
No more cell phone bill fee’s for talking to an operator. The service is free of charge and you can use it as often as you like.
I could have used this last week when I called for a cab. I’ve now plugged the number into my Treo so charges for the service are now a thing of the past.
OH! Google has a similar service as well. I love it!
This is a great video that explains the dangers posed by search giant Google and several other online companies who support net regulation.
The video was created and provided by NetCompetition.org.
-Eric Odom
