Menu

• Dictionary
• Hot Shots

Directory

• Sponsors
• Billing Options
• Content Providers
• Web Hosting
• Traffic Counters
• Website Designers
• Resource Sites

But please ... not at the same time
Poor Steve, his is in pain and has been ever since I got back from the computer shop last night. You see, his main computer went in for some refurbishment that included a new hard drive and motherboard. Of course that meant that his operating system had to be re-installed and that meant he has had to re-install all of his software and that's where the pain begins.

Now when you have had the same computer running in basically the same configuration for the last three years there is going to be a lot of software to re-install so where are the disks? Where did he get that handy little piece of software that ... and what about that other thing that did ...

Steve's groans tell me that he can't find yet another important tool that he uses on a regular basis. Of course we know where the disks are for all the major programs we use but he may not have bothered to save any of those that he downloaded direct from the Net.

Steve saved all the important work he had on the computer before it went in to the shop but all those little pieces of software ... well I guess he was too interested in using them when he downloaded them to spend time saving them.

And then there are all the Firefox extensions, and the bookmarks ... hmmm there's another groan. Importing the bookmarks that he had saved worked ... well almost. Some just did not come across.

And the network ... ah our wonderful local area network ... yes there is another groan. It seems the network printer does not want to be seen if it's attached to the re-furbished computer.

I guess the moral of the story is that no matter how well you think you are prepared to move your business to a new computer there are always going to be problems. At least it's not good beach weather today so I can keep Steve chained to his desk till he's fixed all the hassles.

Tin Foil Hats
Yes folks it really is tin foil hat time. No the sky isn't falling and big brother isn't watching but it seems that Google certainly is.

At a recent SEO conference Matt Cutts - the Google front man for all things SEO - was doing a presentation that included some site reviews from willing conference participants. One nameless person requested a review of a one of his sites because it seems that it wasn't doing so well in Google.

Matt took a moment to consult something on his laptop and then made reference to the site owner's other sites - sites that had not been mentioned - and the fact that some of them looked a little 'spammy'. And that was definitely a tin foil hat moment.

From what I have read the site owner in question had the various privacy filters on his domain name registrations that would prevent you or I from knowing he owned those domains and yet Google could allow Matt Cutts to see something that clearly identified a number of different sites as belonging to the one person.

Of course it could have been something as simple as the sites all having the same IP address but that doesn't seem to be the case here. In this instance there was something else that enabled Matt to see what sites one individual owned simply by looking at just one of that individual's sites.

Just the possibility that Google can do that certainly has some SEO people worried and since the conference there have been a number of articles written on how to prevent Google from identifying sites as belonging to the one person. Of course there have been a few SEO types who have happily declared that they have nothing to hide but whether you have something to hide or not isn't really the point. The fact that Google can see everything we do on the Web and what it does with that information is the point and it bothers me.

Buying and Selling Links?
We all know that Google is not happy that people might buy and sell links to increase their chance of ranking well in the search engine results pages. And we all know that Google will mark down any site that it feels has been participating in such wicked and unethical practices. (Of course we should just disregard the fact that you can buy links on Google).

But how does Google know that you might be buying and selling links? Well some are obvious and you don't have to be a forensic pathologist to spot those ones but what about the ones that aren't so obvious?

At the latest SEO conference in Chicago there's a rumor going round that Google actually has a team hard at work entrapping those wicked link sellers. The story is that this brave team of Google men and women are protecting the Net by actually offering large sums of money to those who might be encouraged to sell links.

Damn that must be a hard and dangerous job but someone has to do it and we should be thankful that there are dedicated individuals willing to do that work so that the people around the world may rest easy in their beds at night.

Of course it is just a rumor but I still have my tin foil hat on and somehow there is an air of believability about it. So don't be tempted by strangers offering you large sums of money - they may be the men ... and women ... from Google.