News and Information Blog 06 2009

Google Launches All For Good

Google, Craigslist Foundation, YouTube, FanFeedr and UCLA have partnered to launch a new site called All for Good, which is designed to connect volunteers in their local communities with charitable organizations.
All for Good helps people find ways to get involved in their community, from being a mentor to helping design a website for a nonprofit. The platform allows people to sign in to Facebook or Google to share volunteer activities with others across social networking services.
"By bringing together amazing service opportunities from existing volunteer organizations, we hope to amplify their efforts and share ways to do good across the web," said Paul Rademacher, a software engineer at Google and a tech lead on the project.
"Built as a free, open-source project, the All for Good platform and search API allow the community-at-large -- from software developers to community organizers and local activists -- to contribute innovations to the site and drive the direction and growth of the platform."
The All for Good platform and API allow community organizers and nonprofit leaders to each more volunteers. Developers who want to build volunteer applications can visit the site for more information. The All for Good Apps page provides examples and instructions.
In partnership with All for Good, YouTube is launching "Video Volunteers," a platform aimed at connecting non-profit organizations with video needs and skilled video makers who can help communicate their causes via video.
The All for Good initiative was part of a Google 20-percent project and the search on the site is also powered by Google.

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EDC grants $700K for renewable energy

PROVIDENCE – The R.I. Economic Development Corporation has awarded $681,875 in renewable energy grants to 17 local projects – the largest amount of grants awarded through the Renewable Energy Fund since the EDC took it over last year.

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Easily Find Twitterers You're Interested In

Twellow has made it easier to find Twitter users you are interested in following. That is what Twellow has been about from the beginning, and this simply highlights the fact that our Twellow team is always looking for ways to improve the service.

There is a new feature on search results pages that shows any categories that might match your search terms. This is designed to make it easier to find profiles you are interested in, as well as let you see if there is a category that matches your interests without needing to scan the entire list of categories on the "All Categories" page. This will make Twellow easier to use and understand for a lot of people.

"This is something internally we've been wanting for a while, and Twellow users have also been asking for it. It really helps people see the bigger picture of Twellow when searching by pointing out other possible avenues for finding people," says Twellow Lead Developer Matthew Daines.

Twellow now has over a thousand different categories available for browsing and searching. What this means for Twitterers is that they have a great resource for finding Twitterers related to topics they are interested in. This makes Twitter more useful in my opinion, when you look at it from the "microblogging" perspective - meaning you're reading tweets for information as you would blogs.

The Twellow team is always adding new categories. A good way to keep up with what has been added is to follow Twellow on Twitter, where the new categories are regularly mentioned. If there is a category you would like to see in Twellow, but it not there, you can simply contact the team, and there is a good chance they will add it. Twellow makes Twitter more useful, and I promise, I'm not just saying that because it's a WebProNews service.

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Foreclosures booting rent payers too

As more Rhode Island homes end up in foreclosure, a growing number of those being evicted are rent-paying tenants, according to advocates such as community organizer Tom Judd and Rosalina Collazo of the Rhode Island Coalition for the Homeless, left.

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Secure E-Mail with Open Source Software

Strong e-mail security isn't just for the enterprise. With Thunderbird and GnuPG, you can protect confidential information with industrial-strength encryption.

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IP Address Filter 2

Use this script to block IP addresses. Just add the address to the script and it will be blocked from entering your site.

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EV-SSL Gains Adoption, May Boost Web Sales

Can better security certificates increase business in a recession? VeriSign thinks so.

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Could Comments Hurt Your Search Engine Rankings?

I am a strong believer in the idea that comments increase the value of articles. This holds true on small blogs as well as large news sites. Comments expand the conversation, and can provide insight into the original subject matter that was lacking from the piece to begin with.

It is my opinion that the more discussion there is around any given topic, the more informed the reader is likely to be once they finish reading. That said, there are certainly plenty of useless comments out there as well. I'm referring specifically to spammy ones, and they can do more than just damage the reader's experience, but in some cases, they may even affect search engine rankings.

Google Search Quality Analyst Fili Wiese recently tweeted about (hat tip to Barry Schwartz) an article from Richard Baxter at SEOgadget, which details how some spam comments appear to have affected the ranking of a specific page of his in Google's search results.

Breaking out some Google Analytics data, Baxter shows us that one of his most popular keywords for driving traffic to his site had him ranking high in a search for that keyword until a few spammy comments about things like "hairy asian men naked," "nude female superheroes," and "large nipple galleries" were left on the page. Shortly after that, the page fell out of the rankings, but was re-included within 24 hours once the comments were finally deleted. See Baxter's article for a graphical analysis of how all of this went down.

The moral of the story here is that while encouraging comments on your articles/blog posts is a good thing, it is also in your best interest to keep spam at a minimum. Sometimes this is easier said than done, but if you know that your rankings might be affected, you will have a little more motivation.

"Comment spam, missed by Akismet," says Baxter. "Don’t get me wrong, I think Akismet is amazing, but it can miss some types of comment spam. It’s probably my fault for not adding a verification or a CAPTCHA to my comments are but I don’t enjoy the experience on other blogs personally, so I choose to leave that off."

To be clear, Google has not come out and said that these spammy comments directly lead to a penalty. Even Wiese simply said the article was an interesting read. I would hardly call this confirmation. Baxter's analysis is quite intriguing nonetheless.

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Connolly resigns as Citizens’ president

PROVIDENCE – Citizens Financial Group Inc. says its president, James G. Connolly, left, is stepping down. The Providence-based parent of Citizens Bank said Vice Chairman Robert D. Matthews Jr. would take over Connolly’s responsibilities in …

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iPhone vs gPhone: No Competition?

The iPhone comes out TOMORROW (6/19/2009)! But wait...when is the Google myTouch 3g releasing to public? Hype about the Google phone is virtually nonexistent. Is it T-Mobile’s marketing ineptitude? Is it some production delay? Have there been bureaucratic pitfalls? We have no idea, but while everyone is foaming at the mouth over the latest iteration of the iPhone, news on it’s Android competition is conspicuously hard to come by.

Did T-Mobile and Google miss the boat by not promoting a new Android? Your Thoughts?

Apple told everybody what the iPhone does and when we could get one weeks ago. What’s more, despite the fact that ‘what it does’ is pretty much the same as ‘what the old one already did (but faster)’ they still made enough people want one that the pre-sale models were gone almost a week ahead of release.

So...my question is...When does this new Android device come out? we don’t really even know the name of the thing. MyTouch 3G, G3, gPhone, ION, HTC Magic... I mean really. Forget about the tech specs (which would also be nice to be able to talk about), we don’t even know what to call the damned thing.

Apple deserves a lot of credit (I guess?) for being good marketers. Of course what have they had to work against? It’s not hard to out market something that isn’t being marketed. What is the new iPhone competing with? The new Google phone we know nothing about aside, we’ve got the Palm Pre from Sprint and what? Who has seen a single Pre commercial or ad? Who’s left? Verizon’s touchscreen trainwreck ‘Storm’? Please. Nietzsche said; “At times one remains faithful to a cause only because its opponents do not cease to be insipid.” It definitely fits here.

While Google/T-Mobile are hiding little details, people are running as fast as they can to the next shiny object, which just so happens to be the iPhone 3Gs. I’m not saying Google’s new phone doesn't have a chance, but the way things are going, they aren’t even making Apple break a sweat.

Michael Martin, who maintains a Google-approved blog for Android called Google And Blog, talked with WebProNews about the upcoming Google phone. Michael likened the iPhone and gPhone to the Mac vs. PC conflict in the 1980's. When asked what he thinks Apple’s response will be to Google’s (what he calls) "ION", Michael says “we'll see what happens”. As for his predictions on consumer reaction to the Google phone vs. iPhone, he says; “there is a trash-bin not too far away, so if you have an iPhone you can put it in there and pick up an Android." Not that we have any idea WHEN we can pick one up - or even what to ask for... Just for the record, Michael Martin gave us more information about this mystery phone than T-Moblie has, so we actually owe him a thank you.

More WebProNews Videos

To me the most frustrating and baffling aspect of all of this is the fact that the HTC Magic (which will be renamed to ‘something’ in the USA) has already been out for weeks in Europe. The good news is, if you dig around hard enough, you can find specs and even some (mostly positive) reviews of the Google phone. So, all the more reason to wonder why most people in America have no idea about the thing.

The truth is, I’ve heard non-stop chatter about the iPhone but until my manager mentioned Google's new phone, I didn’t even know there was such a thing. After researching Android a little, I found that any information on it was unreasonably difficult to come by. By contrast, type in iPhone 3g into Google and anything you want to know is right in front of you.

Google is clearly motivated and highly interested in encouraging application development for Android. This was made clear a couple of weeks ago when they gave away a couple hundred of the new handsets at the I/O conference. Certainly that did some good insofar as generating some Buzz, but they (or maybe T-Mobile) have made little or no effort to engage consumers. They just let Apple have a free ride with the new iPhone without putting so much as a bug in the public ear about their competing product.

Would the announcement of a Google Phone have effected your decision to buy a new iPhone? Comment Below.

T-moblie has not done well (to put it mildly) with marketing their product and really needs to get the ball rolling if they expect the newest Android to compete on any level with iPhone. Understand, I find Google's up and coming phone very intriguing (from what i have seen), I just don’t think it’s ideal from a marketing standpoint that I have to look so hard for information about it.

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What's a Business App Appliance, and Why Should You Care?

Think Xbox or Tivo…but for work instead of play. Analyst Laurie McCabe explains what a business application appliance can do for your bottom line.

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Nortek gets outside help on debt burden

PROVIDENCE – Nortek Inc. on Wednesday disclosed that it has retained a top investment firm and a major law firm to advise it as the company tries to get out from under a heavy debt burden.

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VerticalResponse and Intuit: Marketing Meets Finance

New SaaS offering lets you use the customer data you keep in QuickBooks to drive e-mail and direct-marketing campaigns.

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Bezos: Amazon Had to Learn Hardware for Kindle

Amazon's CEO said that not only is the company changing others' businesses, it's also ready to change its own.

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iPhone OS 3.0 Update Available NOW!

UPDATE 4: The iTunes Activation Server is ~~currently down~~ , confirming what some commenters on here already knew. Read more about the inopportune downtime here.

The iTunes Activation Server is back up and running.

UPDATE 3: After an eventful morning, the iPhone OS 3.0 update is now ready for download, on June 17th... just like WebProNews has said all morning.

Learn how to download the OS 3.0 Update here.

UPDATE 2: It should be noted that it IS June 18th, 2009 in Singapore. Sites basing their information based on the Singapore date are misinformed.

Here is a link to the current date and time for Singapore.

UPDATE 1: Mike McDonald recently informed me that PC World is reporting that the iPhone OS 3.0 Software Update has been pushed back a day.

Upon further research I've found that PC World is linking to the Apple Singapore site, which does say June 18, 2009, when talking about Apple US. So it seems that there was a slight link mix up.

If you venture over to the Apple US site you'll see that the release is still tentatively scheduled for today, June 17, 2009.

Original Article: Today, sometime between 12:00 and 2:30 EST, Apple is releasing the OS 3.0 software update for the iPhone. Like most things from Apple, this release has some really great features, which I'll get to in just a moment.

The free OS update gives older iPhones the ability to run next gen iPhone apps (some features are not available for the first gen iPhones).

Will you be updating your iPhone today? Tell us.

There are literally dozens of new features for the iPhone with this update, but we'll only be discussing the best of the best.

Cut, Copy & Paste - Not sure why this wasn't in previous OS releases

Landscape Keyboard - This makes typing much easier

Tethering - Tether with laptops for Internet while traveling (Not available in US!)

YouTube Login - Easily see your favorite YouTube videos

Push Notifications - Now you'll know when someone is talking to you

Shake to Shuffle - Simply shake your iPhone for a new song

iPhone 3.0 will be available for all iPhone, iPhone 3G's and iPod Touches. It should be noted that the 3.0 OS update for the iPod touch is NOT free, it will set you back $9.95.

To download, simply visit Apple's Software update page.

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House budget moves out of committee

PROVIDENCE – The House Finance Committee Chairman Steven M. Costantino, D-Providence, left, today unveiled a $7.76 billion 2010 state budget proposal that would increase the capital gains tax and the gas tax, among other things, as it attempts to …

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Microsoft Takes a Swing at Click Fraud in Search

UPDATED: Microsoft targets alleged fraudsters after an 18-month-long investigation that involved auto insurance, World of Warcraft and a problem endemic in the paid listings space.

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Concentric's Cloud Now Includes Managed Backup

The hosted-services provider has teamed with Seagate to supply enterprise-level data backup and recovery capabilities to small- and medium-sized businesses.

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Tweet Deck for iPhone now Available for Download

UPDATE: Mashable has just confirmed that TweetDeck for the iPhone will be releasing tonight at 9PM Pacific Time. The app will be available for free at the Appe App Store.

TweetDeck is probably the most famous Twitter desktop app, so it really comes as no surprise that they're now making the jump to the iPhone.

That's right... TweetDeck for the iPhone.

How many of you will make the jump to TweetDeck when it becomes available via the app store? Tell us.

Kevin Rose, founder of Digg.com, got his hands on a beta test of TweetDeck for the iPhone and fell in love.

I can say now that it's going to replace tweetie as my default twitter iphone app.

Features include:

- Column based friend groups! (like TweetDeck desktop)

- TweetDeck desktop syncing (make a change on the iphone and it's reflected back on the PC)

- Facebook toolbar like status updates

Kevin also posted a few screenshots of the iPhone running the app...

So what do you think? Any thinking of jumping on this app when it's released? Tell us.

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‘Compassion center’ veto overridden

PROVIDENCE – The General Assembly today cleared the way for the creation of “compassion centers” to dispense medical marijuana, overriding Gov. Donald L. Carcieri’s veto of the bill co-sponsored by Sen. Rhoda E. Perry, D-Providence, at left, …

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Amazon Pays Toys 'R' Us in Breakup

Amazon is paying a settlement to the toy retailer bringing closure to the two firms' long goodbye.

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Sitepoint Marketplace Getting a New Home

Users of the Sitepoint Marketplace are getting a new home for their community. Sitepoint announced that it is moving to Flippa.com, which is currently in beta, and boasts an updated web 2.0-style design. Do you like the new destination? Tell us your thoughts.

This is quite a bit different from the old school forum style of the current Sitepoint marketplace:

That is one problem that some users seem to have with the change though. You can't expect to make changes to an established community without a little backlash though. You may recall that little Facebook redesign that had many users more than a little perturbed. I think for the most part they got over it though. If not, they at least adjusted. I think Facebook is doing ok.

Still, Sitepoint Marketplace users are sounding off in the comments of a recent blog post announcing the change. Here are some of the gripes:

- More fees

- If it’s not broken why fix it.

- Design (difficult to navigate)

- The name ("scam site flipping" implications and dolphin implications)

- lacks credibility of existing marketplace

That last one is an interesting gripe, considering that the Sitepoint brand is nowhere to be found on Flippa (at least not yet). They guys behind Flippa have not been silent to the feedback though.

"We're still a lot more cost effective than many of the domain name marketplaces who charge a listing fee and/or 10% commission," says Flippa Founder Mark Harbottle. "If price sensitive sellers choose to list somewhere else there’s a good chance it will be reflected in their end result (if they get a sale at all) because the other marketplaces just don’t attract the caliber of buyers we do. Serious sellers with quality sites will know that, and our buyers will be happy for allowing these sites to become a lot easier to find on flippa.com."

"That aside, the business reality is we have to change these fees to sustain and grow the marketplace and provide a professional service at all levels. We’re investing heavily to make this the only place you’d consider selling your web site."

The general attitude seems to reflect the second listed gripe - if it ain’t broke, don't fix it. Sitepoint Marketplace users generally like it how it is. At least this is the impression that I get from reading through the comments on the announcement. Are you a user? What do you think about the change? Discuss it here.

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Is Telework a Fit for Your Business?

A telecommuting policy in the work place can provide a lot of bottom-line benefits, which makes it an appealing option in today’s economy. But, like anything else, it requires due diligence.

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Average car debt up in R.I. amid slump

PROVIDENCE – The average outstanding balance on car loans in Rhode Island increased by more than in all but two other states during the first quarter, according to figures released today by the credit bureau TransUnion.

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Twitterrific 2.0.2 Fixes All Known Twitpocalypse Errors

This past Friday we told you about the Twitpocalypse's first victim, popular iPhone app Twitterrific.

Well it seems that all known issues, in regards to the Twitpocalypse, have been fixed with the upcoming release of Twitterrific 2.0.2.

Now they just need approval from Apple's Application store.

That's right, before they can restore service to their loyals Apple fans... they need approval. But, this shouldn't come as a shock since they forsaw this issue when they first announced the Twitpocalypse issues this past Friday.

"We are investigating a fix to the bug as we speak, but it may take some time to get the fix completed and through the App Store approval process."

So Twitterrific fans are forced to sit and twiddle their thumbs, while the app gathers dust in a queue awaiting approval.

Will Apple expedite the approval process? Let's hope so as some Twitterriffic users have already began to use other apps.

Can Twitterriffic get most of their users back, or was the Twitpocalypse a huge fail whale for them?

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Facebook Launches Usernames Without A Hitch

At 12:01 Facebook opened the flood gates on their new usernames feature.

Personally, the process went very smoothly for me. I was able to secure my desired Facebook username with no trouble at all.

Ben Parr, Associate Editor for Mashable, was able to find out some early numbers from the usernames launch...

In 3 minutes, there were 200,000 usernames registered. In 15 minutes, over half a million, and it is rising.

Woah! Talk about a success.

I went digging through Search.Twitter to see if anyone was complaining of the site being down or slow... and I couldn't find one negative tweet about the launch (except for users upset about not getting their desired username).

Most of the tweets about the launch were praising Facebook for dealing with a traffic rush of that magnitude.

So, was you able to get your desired username? Tell us.

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Capital One claims flood court

Rhode Island’s small claims court has been flooded recently with cases targeting credit card holders who owe money, with most of those lawsuits filed on the behalf of a lone credit card company: Capital One.

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Bing Bucks: Microsoft Sees Paid Click Lift

After a bumpy start, Microsoft's answer to Yahoo's and Google's search nets promising numbers.

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Notebook Review: The Acer Aspire 3935

Acer's latest notebook measures a scant one-inch high and packs plenty of productivity into just over four pounds. And, at $900, it packs plenty of value, too.

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The Twitpocalypse Claims Its First Victim

It appears that the Twitpocalypse has drawn first blood.

Twitterrific for the iPhone and iPod touch is currently experiencing problems. The issue is leaving some faithful users frustrated and looking for a new app.

The Iconfactory, publisher of Twitterrific, had the following to say about the Twitpocalypse dilemma...

We apologize for problems that iPhone and iPod touch Twitterrific users are currently experiencing due to the so-called Twitpocalypse. A fix for these issues was included in the 2.0.1 release to the App Store weeks ago, but the Twitter mobile API is indeed returning errors at this time for Twitterrific users. Proof that it’s sometimes difficult to test for errors / conditions that happen in the future.

We are investigating a fix to the bug as we speak, but it may take some time to get the fix completed and through the App Store approval process. We will do our best to expedite a new version that corrects these problems to you, but we ask that you please have patience and bear with us. The Mac desktop version of Twitterrific appears to be unaffected.

We ask you to follow @twitterrific for the latest news on a bug fix as well as when you can expect the fix to appear in the App Store. Thank you.

So it appears that only Twitterrific for the iPhone and iPod touch are affected. The desktop version is running normally.

Are any of you affected by the Twitpocalypse yet? Tell us.

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R.I. economy still in doldrums

SOUTH KINGSTOWN – Rhode Island’s economy is continuing to show signs that it is in the early stages of recovery, although indicators such as the job market are still “dismal,” according to University of Rhode Island economist Leonard …

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More Americans Going Online For Health Information

The majority (61%) of Americans are going online for health information and most are reading reviews and comments posted by other users, according to a new report by the Pew Internet & American Life Project.
Among those who have gone online, 59 percent have done at least one of the following activities:

Read someone else's commentary or experience about health or medical issues on an online news group, website, or blog

Consulted rankings or reviews online of doctors or other providers

Consulted rankings or reviews online of hospitals or other medical facilities

Signed up to receive updates about health or medical issues

Listened to a podcast about health or medical issues

In addition, 20 percent of Internet users who have looked online for health information have actively contributed comments, reviews and updates.

Susannah Fox

"We are beginning to see e-patients turning to interactive features both to help them find information tailored to their needs and to post their own contributions," says Susannah Fox, a co-author of the report, and associate director of the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project.
"They treat the internet as a supplement to traditional sources of information, using blogs, podcasts, and other online resources to deepen their understanding of a condition and sharpen their questions for a health professional."
The report also looked at how the online landscape has shifted in the last decade. In 2000, 46 percent of Americans had access to the Internet, 5 percent of households had broadband connections and 25 percent looked online for health information.
Now, 75 percent of Americans go online, 57 percent of households have broadband connections, and 61 percent go online for health information.
"Mobile access allows people to be 'always present' to each other and that seems to draw them into conversations about health," says Sydney Jones, a co-author of the report, and research assistant at the Pew Internet Project.
"The early internet provided e-patients online tools that enabled research. Now the mobile, social internet enables connection and conversation."
When it came to the quality of their online health experiences, 60 percent of respondents said they or someone they know has been helped by following medical advice found on the Internet. This is a significant increase from a 2006 Pew report that found 31 percent of users said that. Just 3 percent of respondents said they or someone they knew was harmed by following online medical advice, a number that has remained unchanged since 2006.

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Nifty Clicks: Xobni, SBA, Acrobat Alternative and FixPicture

Andrew Lock, host of Help! My Business Sucks, shares more cool online tools that make your life a bit easier and help you get more out of your work day.

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Lighthouse receives IBM award

LINCOLN – Lighthouse Computer Services Inc. has won the Outstanding Service Management Tivoli Solution award in the 2009 IBM Beacon Awards competition.

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MouseOver Highlighter

This script makes it easy to highlight different areas of your page.

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Are SEOs the 'Bad Guys'?

There have been a couple of pretty interesting articles written this week that ask a legitimate (if not somewhat sensationalized) question: Does Google consider SEOs to be criminals?

SEOs being SEOs are, by definition, people who make a living trying to manipulate the results of search engines. Now, before you eat me alive here... I don’t necessarily mean manipulate in a negative sense. But in many aspects ‘optimization’ and ‘manipulation’ are somewhat interchangeable terms. An SEO ‘optimizes’ a site in an attempt to enhance that site’s search engine rank or placement. By moving a site in the results, you are, by definition, manipulating the results.

There is nothing wrong with that. There are lots of sites that aren’t ‘search engine friendly’ and lots of sites that just do things ‘wrong’ that, when fixed, will notice an enhancement in their positioning for search queries relevant to their site. Search engines don’t mind this. The existence of resources like Webmaster Central are a testament to this.

So the search engines have rules for SEOs and the SEOs can either choose to follow the rules, or they can not follow the rules and face the consequences. The ‘foul’ being called by Michael Gray and Lisa Barone however is maybe SEOs are being subjected to something of a double standard.

Google is pretty hard line on paid links. That’s common knowledge. All SEOs know this and several of them have been taken to task in the past for paid or ‘incentivized’ linking campaigns. Everybody in the business knows paying for links - whether the payment be cash or some other ‘benefit’ - is considered a big time no-no by Google.

Michael and Lisa suggest however that there are lots of people getting by with just that - paying/rewarding inbound links - without suffering repercussions from Google. Just recently, as Michael points out, Google themselves decided to give away the new and unreleased version of their new Google phone to attendees. The giveaway sparks lots of articles, lots of blog posts and yes... lots of links and attention for the new Google phone. Is that incentivizing inbound links? Is it a promotional stunt? Is there a difference? Michael says that android picked up 50,000 new links within 24 hours of the giveaway.

Sure, lots of sites picked up the news about the Google Ion (the proper name of the phone) ... but I don’t think they posted a specific link for people to point to, nor did they make the awarding of a phone contingent upon some sort of review or plug for the product. So, in that sense, I would have to call this one a little ‘iffy’ - 50,000 links is an AWFUL lot of links though, isn’t it? But does Google care about links? Why on Earth would they? They may have had an agenda with the giveaway, sure... but I would think it would be to generate buzz for Android... not accrue inbound links. But isn’t one just as good as the other? I dunno...

Now as to whether or not an SEO would suffer some penalty if their client gave away some product to generate some buzz, I don’t know. I’d like to think they wouldn’t. I guess the devil would be in the details on that one. It certainly is an interesting thing to think about though. Does this constitute a double standard? Would an SEO or their client catch Google’s fury if they tried a similar promotional stunt?

Here’s another example. Guy Kawasaki, super high profile blogger, Twitterer and all around social media mogul A lister was given a CAR for a while. Audi sent him an Audi R8 in exchange for him blogging about the car. I don’t know if you know what an Audi R8 is, but it’s really really cool and expensive and Iron Man drove one in the movie... and I guess Audi knew exactly what they were doing because we are still linking to them months later over the Kawasaki post.

The Audi example is a little tougher to rationalize. it was clear that Audi loaned Kawasaki a super hot rod sports car on the condition that he blog about driving it and how great and awesome and fun it was. Audi knew that Kawasaki has a huge following, he’s extremely plugged into the industry and such a post would doubtlessly spawn tons and tons of talk (and links) in for the R8. I don’t know for sure, but I doubt he lost any clout in terms of his Google standing.

Now if Ferrari were to send a high profile SEO type fellow a new Ferrari for a month in exchange for him blogging about it, would Google drop the hammer? I don’t know. Maybe? On one hand, I guess if I’m Audi and I loan a car to somebody with the name recognition of a Guy Kawasaki, then I’m just considering that like a compensated endorsement. We see and hear those on TV and radio every day. Nothing wrong with that, right?

I’m not too sure I am ready to fully come down on either side of this one 100%. I hate to come across as a Google apologist, but at the same time I can’t say that Gray and Barone don’t raise some fairly compelling arguments. Do I think Google ‘has it in’ for SEOs? I would have to say no.

If you asked me if I thought Google was maybe a little more... ‘leery’ of big promotional stunts that came directly from SEOs? Maybe, but as any SEO can tell you, there are no shortage of shady SEOs. Sometimes the good guys get lumped in with the bad guys a little bit in the name of the greater good don’t they.... (cough cough) Patriot Act ring any bells?

Anyway, it’s an interesting concept to consider. My buddy Barry has a poll up collecting some responses which should be interesting. I am extremely interested to see where WebProNews readers fall on this concept too, so make sure you sound off in the comments section.

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Scanner Review: HP Scanjet N6350

You don’t need an IT certification to add the HP Scanjet N6350 scanner to your company’s network. And easy one-touch buttons mean your employees won’t need a computer science degree to use it.

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Lawmaker Plans Digital Royalties Probe

Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers could be setting the stage for a battle between the traditional entertainment industry and digital media giants like Apple and Amazon.

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State receives $3.6M for worker training

PROVIDENCE – Rhode Island received $3.64 million today from the U.S. Department of Labor for career training and employment and case management services to workers who lose their jobs to outsourcing and foreign trade.

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Integrating Cloud and On-Premise Apps

Cast Iron talks about the business value of integrating SaaS and on-premise applications, and how its partnership with HP can help small businesses.

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More Employers Using Social Media To Engage Their Workforce

More employers are turning to social media tools in an effort to deal with reduced communication budgets and to keep their workforce engaged, according to new survey out today.
In its "Employee Engagement Survey," the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) partnered with Buck Consultants, to examine how organizations are communicating with employees to keep them engaged and productive.

Robin McCaseland

"Communicating for optimal employee engagement is always a timely topic, but even more so during challenging economic times," said Robin McCasland, a director in Buck Consultants' communication practice and 2009-2010 chair of IABC Research Foundation.
"Our results represent opportunities for communicators to have greater influence in delivering messages that encourage employees to remain productive, and to understand how their work contributes toward achieving business priorities."
More than three-quarters (79%) of respondents said they use social media frequently to engage employees and foster productivity, outranking even email (75%). Company blogs are the most popular social media tool currently in use (47%), with discussion boards ranking as the highest for future planned use.
"It's encouraging to see the rising popularity of social media in employee communication," said Julie Freeman, ABC, APR, president of IABC. "Companies are moving away from the one-way communication model where they would send out information hoping people would read it."
"Using the various social media tools, companies can now engage employees in discussions and foster conversations between teams across geographic and other boundaries."
Current use of social networking sites such as Twitter (21%), Yammer (20%), and Facebook (18%) is significant, but organizations are planning to use those tools even more in the future.

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Supreme Court to hear Champlin case

PROVIDENCE – The R.I. Supreme Court today announced that it has decided to weigh in on a Superior Court decision that would allow Champlin’s Marina to expand farther into Block Island’s Great Salt Pond.

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Don't Buy a Netbook. Ten Reasons Why

Never one to hop on a trend wagon, John Mello says that when it comes to netbooks, resisting the irresistible may be your best course of action.

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Twin River threatens bankruptcy filing

LINCOLN – Twin River said today that will file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy at the end of June if it cannot restructure its debt in agreements with its lenders and the state by the close of the legislative session.

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Do You Respect DMOZ After 11 Years?

DMOZ has now officially been around for 11 years. AOL is honoring this birthday with a blog post on the AOL Search Blog. It says:

From its humble beginnings 11 years ago, DMOZ has grown to be the largest human-edited directory on the Web. Today, on the websites anniversary, we take a look at DMOZ's influence on the web.

Before there were specialized search engines, like job seekers, there was DMOZ. Today, contributors still take the time to sort through web content and organize listings into helpful categories on a wide spectrum of topics. The online community has grown such a large directory of information that thousands of search engines still rely on the focused site listings.

Unfortunately for the well-known directory, its 11th year hasn't exactly been the greatest. I talked about this in a recent article. Unique visitors (and visits in general) have fallen significantly in a year's time.

Unique visitors

Visits

"There are numerous ways that people get information from the web. Depending on the circumstances, some people begin by using search engines such as Google, AOL, Yahoo and MSN; at other times, a directory-based approach such as the one DMOZ offers may provide the better path to the desired information," says Emily Kayser on the DMOZ Blog.

Her words echo a similar post from a while back, when DMOZ was looking for a little "R-E-S-P-E-C-T." A common theme among WebProNews reader comments was that they need to give a little respect to get respect themselves. Many feel that they just don't get responses from the site's editors, and are unable to get their sites listed. So suffice it to say, not everybody is as excited about DMOZ's birthday as DMOZ is. Here's a recent tweet for example:

Is this fair though? It will be interesting to see whether or not DMOZ can pull itself out of the slump it has found itself in. They are actively looking for editors, in fact calling for them on the birthday blog post. Perhaps YOU can help DMOZ get a little respect.

What do you think about DMOZ after 11 years? What has it done well? Where does it need to improve? Tell us what you think.

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5 Twitter Tools to Help You Manage Unfollowers

Twitter has an insurmountable number of applications from the very useful to the rather comical . It’s hard to weed through and find the truly great applications/services.

To better help you in your Twittering efforts, I’ve put together a list of 5 great tools to help you monitor your followers and unfollowers… since we all know is about that ratio. Hopefully you find the list useful. If there are some I’ve neglected to add or if you know of other ones please leave a comment with a description and a link.

Are you using any of these apps to manage your unfollowers? Tell us.

Twellow, The Twitter Yellow Pages, has many features that range from extended profiles to Twellowhood (one of my personal favorite Twitter tools on the Internet).

Mixed in with the plethora of features that Twellow offers is an unsung hero which is just simply called "Followers". With this you can easily see who is reciprocally following you. But, the best part of Followers is... you can follow or unfollow directly from Twellow. No clicking to go back to Twitter, you can get the job done without leaving the page.

UPDATE: Twellow has added a new feature that adds to the capabilities of "Followers" and "Friends", called "View Non-Mutuals". (Please note you must be logged in to use "View Non-Mutuals".)

View Non-Mutuals allows you to quickly see "Who your following, but not following you" and vice-versa "Whose falling you, but your not following". Just another simple, yet effective, update from Twellow.

Qwitter is a nice little service that emails you when someone stops following you on Twitter with a message, below is an example.

That's pretty much it... no extra frills.

Friend or Follow is pretty self-explanatory, you enter in your Twitter username and it gives you three tabs of information.

Following (who your following, but not following you back), fans (who’s following you, but your not following them back) and friends (people who you follow and they follow you back.

TweetLater is an online service that has an abundance of features ranging from scheduling tweets to Ping.fm integration. They offer a free account as well as a payed professional account.

Buried deep within the features of TweetLater is the option to "Follow those who follow you" and "Unfollow those who unfollow you". This is completely automated and set by the user.

Twitterless is an online service that notifies you when any Twitterer stops following you, and gives you their username. But, they don't stop there. They take it one step further and give you a graphed out "follower history" over a period of time to help you understand where your gaining or losing followers.

They also offer follower filters that give you a more descriptive view of your followers. You can filter in real time and search using keywords to see if your followers are talking about anything that interest you.

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Warning signs for Financial District

Some of Providence’s commercial real estate professionals see Corsetti Properties’ receivership as a harbinger of future trouble in the Financial District, where leasing activity has slowed to a crawl in recent months. A court-appointed receiver …

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Twellow Adds New "View Non-Mutuals" Feature

Today, on the heels of my "5 Twitter Tools to Help You Manage Unfollowers" article, Twellow released an update to their service. It's a very small, yet vastly appealing feature entitled "View Non-Mutuals".

With View Non-Mutuals you can click on the Friends tab, select View Non-Mutuals and Twellow will show you people who do not follow you back. (Please note you must be logged into Twellow to use this service)

Now to see the other side of this, you'll want to click on Followers and select View Non-Mutuals. Twellow now shows you people who follow you, but you do not follow them.

Lead Twellow developer, Matthew Daines (@iematthew), had the following to say about the new feature...

"The Non-Mutuals feature of Twellow really gives you, the Twellow user, a simple way to see not only those Twitter users who aren't following back, but it also shows people following you that you can review and say, "Hey, this is a great profile! Why am I not following this person"? It's really a tool to link up with those who best match your needs."

It's user-friendly additions like this that make Twellow one of the best "Twitter Tools" on the Internet.

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Is the Domain Name Biz Recession Proof?

As the total number of domain names reaches 183 million, can China's .cn surpass .com?

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A Clear Take on WiMAX

Can a totally wireless connection really deliver broadband speed? Clear, a WiMAX provider makes that promise. Is it enough to pull the plug on cable and DSL?

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Biden, others pull out of conference as firefighters threaten to picket

PROVIDENCE – Vice President Joseph Biden and several members of President Barack Obama’s Cabinet have canceled plans to attend the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Providence next week because of the long-running contract dispute between Mayor David …

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What Ingredients Are in Your Keyword Research Recipe?

At the SMX Advanced conference in Seattle this week, WebProNews discussed keyword research with nFusion's Taylor Pratt. He discusses his "recipe" for it. Do you have a keyword research recipe? Tell us about your ingredients.

More WebProNews Videos

The most critical ingredient in Taylor's recipe is adding a scale to the keywords you're targeting. You need to look at actual search volume, and compliment that with relevancy and competition.

PPC testing is extremely important if you want to know if people are actually going to take action on your keywords. Keep an eye on the above clip if you want to hear what Taylor thinks is the most important ingredient to avoid in your recipe.

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Nifty Clicks: LegalZoom, Widgets, PDFs, Cheap Gas

Andrew Lock, irreverent marketing guru and Web host of Help! My Business Sucks, shares more of his favorite cool tools to make your life a bit easier.

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Colibri brands back on store shelves

EAST PROVIDENCE – Products bearing the brand names of Colibri and Seth Thomas are back in the marketplace.
Alliance Time, Colibri’s parent company based in New York City, announced today that …

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How to Avoid Google Penalties with AJAX and display:none

As you may have read about by now, Google's Matt Cutts participated in a fairly lengthy Q&A session at SMX Advanced in Seattle. One interesting question that Matt got was about how webmasters should deal with display:none and AJAX without being penalized by Google.

Cutts recommends making sure that whenever you write your own mouseover code that you don't roll your own custom solution, which he says might do some really weird things that nobody else has done before.

"We write our algorithm so that we try to detect all the common idioms, so if you're using a mouseover sort of thing where you mouseover this menu and there's five more links here, or some text or stuff like that, we try to handle that in all the common cases," explains Cutts.

"So whenever we're parsing through css or looking through javascript, we're trying to detect hidden text we try to specifically make sure we don't accidentally trigger on somebody who's got mouseover code, so if you're using common mouseover code, go and find sites that are very well known, and you use code the same or similar to that, in terms of how the mouseover works, you should probably be fine," he adds.

"We want the algorithm to trigger on when you use display:none and you're sending it 9,999 pixels that way, and you've got four pages of text, and it's really, really irritating and our users complain about that," Cutts continues. "So we do our best, and when we spot that there are problems, we try to iterate and improve the algorithm, but I dont' think we have very big issues with false positives in terms of that."

The summary of Matt's advice here is that to be safe, just make sure you don't write your own completely weird code from scratch. He says to look and see what other sites are doing.

The guy who asked the question asked him if his advice is basically to just copy other people's code. The audience found this amusing, and Cutts was quick to defuse the notion that this is what he is really saying.

"I think you're oversimplifying it a little bit," Cutts said. "I don't want you to commit theft on someone else's code. But there are for example, libraries that are released...script.aculo.us and things like this that are well known that you can use that aren't just copying other people's code."

What do you think of Matt's advice when it comes to display:none and AJAX? Does this limit creativity with regard to code creation? Tell us what you think.

Stay tuned to WebPronews for more coverage of the SMX Advanced conference from Seattle (that goes for articles and for video). You will also be seeing more info from Matt's Q&A session, specifically.

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Toshiba Aims to Raise the Bar on Netbooks

The company makes comfort and style the hallmark of the Toshiba mini NB205, its first entry into the crowded netbook market.

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Electroplating firm expands in Cranston

CRANSTON – Technic Inc., the international electroplating chemical and equipment manufacturer based in Rhode Island, today announced that it has purchased a new headquarters.

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WatchDox Aims to Secure E-mail and Beyond

Confidela announces WatchDox, a free way to e-mail documents securely and control what happens to them once you press “Send.”

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Bankrupt G.M. to close new Norton plant

NORTON – A General Motors parts distribution center in the Norton Commerce Center is among the early casualties of the automaker’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing on Monday.

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How to Create an Image Backup, Part 2

Creating an image backup of your PC’s hard drive can save you a lot of anguish down the road. Ron Pacchiano walks you through Part 2 of the process.

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Google's Matt Cutts Has Some Words with Bing

Everybody's talking about Bing today since the Microsoft's new search engine became unexpectedly available on a widescale. That includes Google, and more specifically Matt Cutts.

An interesting conversation took place on Twitter today between Cutts and Betsy of the Bing account. Cutts was apparnently doing a little ego searching on Bing and does not appear entirely impressed with the results. SEO Services Group has transcribed the conversation:

Matt Cutts: Congrats to @bing on the launch! Sad to see this not-so-relevant result at #4 for [matt cutts] though: http://bit.ly/4a8Q1Y

Bing: @mattcutts anytime you want to give feedback to @bing, we’re here. :) I’m sitting with the devs at present. ^betsy

Bing: @mattcutts I know you are disappointed in ego search stuff tonight w/ @bing, but try ‘mtv movie awards 2009′ and see what you get. :) ^ba

Matt Cutts: Ouch. The #5 Bing result for [matt cutts] is spammy too: http://bit.ly/B2r5F It’s a YouTube->WordPress autogenerated blog. :(

Matt Cutts: @bing okay. First web result was from 2008 instead of 2009, even with 2009 in query: http://bit.ly/SToK1 . Google nails it.

Matt Cutts: @bing but doesn’t it bother you that [mtv movie awards] on Google gives great news results and 2009 url, but w/Bing I only see 2008, 2007, ?

Bing: @mattcutts Uh - the first answer folks see is the news answer, not what you circled. Apparently twilight won. ^ba

Matt Cutts: @bing by the way, Twilight did rock. I’m not ashamed to say it–glittery vampires rule!! :)

That's about it for the conversation between the two (so far), but Cutts referenced that number 4 result again later:

To me, this just looks like Cutts stepping up to market Google in the wake of Bing's launch. Bing's getting a lot of attention right now, and it only makes sense that Google would want to make sure they don't go thinking its better than their own search engine. It's about protecting the brand.

Whether this is Matt's intention or not, Cutts pointing out shortcomings in Bing's search results is going to resonate throughout the industry. He is practically the posterboy for Google, at least among the search and tech savvy crowd. A lot of people follow Matt Cutts. A lot of people hang nearly everything on what he has to say (search-wise).

Cutts has shed some light on some issues with Bing though. It's a little early to burn the search engine at the stake. After all, it's not even supposed to be launched yet, but after trying an ego search for myself (not something I performed in my first Bing runthrough), I am also much happier with Google's results.

What are your thoughts on Bing? How do you like the search engine's results compared to Google's? Share your thoughts.

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National Grid seeks 11% rate hike

WALTHAM, Mass. – In officially requesting approval from the R.I. Public Utilities Commission to hike electricity distribution rates by 11.2 percent, National Grid today pointed to what it said …

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Google Shares 6 Ways to Maximize Your AdWords Investment

Google says AdWords' real-time targeting and reporting are ideal for finding an efficient way to reach customers in the economic downturn. The company has detailed six tactics for maximizing your AdWords investment.

1. Focus your ads on low prices and savings.

"Consumers care about prices more than ever, especially on day-to-day purchases," says Google. "When someone searches on a particular product, you know they're interested; by using your ad to tell them that you've got the highest quality and the best price, you're more likely to earn their click."

2. Use value-related keywords.

People are constantly looking for bargains. Google suggests using keywords that cater to this mentality. The company recommends using the AdWords Search-based keyword tool and Search Query Performance report to find higher-performing keywords that people are actually searching.

3. Make sure your ad groups are targeted and relevant.

"Ads perform best when their ad text reflects the ad group's keywords; this makes ads more relevant to their intended audience," says Google. "Make sure that both the text and the keywords in each ad group focus on a specific topic or product."

4. Don't waste money on irrelevant clicks.

Google suggests using negative keywords to filter out traffic from people looking for things that you don't offer. They use an example that if you sell peanut butter, you might want to use "allergy" as a negative keyword.

5. Make it easy for customers to buy.

This tactic is all bout the landing page. Put some thought into your landing page, because people don't want to hunt around trying to find where they need to go to buy the item they clicked on the ad to buy in the first place. Why make it hard? It should be as easy a process as possible.

6. Focus your money on your high-performers.

Google has a free conversion tracking tool that will let you see what keywords and ads are performing best. It is wise to focus your time and resources on the ones you are getting the most value out of.

That's the six tactics Google provides for maximizing you AdWords investment. Performance is more important than ever when there is not as much money to play around with. If you're using PPC as an advertising method, focus on eliminating the waste of money by getting the most you can out of your campaigns. Google provides more resources for each of these tactics here.

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