UK Passes Laws About Anonymity in Blog Comments or on Websites
Hotels, restaurants and online shops that post glowing reviews about themselves under false identities could face criminal prosecution under new rules that come into force next year. businesses which write fake blog entries or create whole wesbites purporting to be from customers will fall foul of a European directive banning them from falsely representing oneself as a consumer . UK Passes Laws About Anonymity in Blog Comments or on Websites
ASP Script for RSS2HTML Updated
ByteScout has updated their ASP script that converts RSS feeds to HTML web pages, it now includes support for blogger. (Here is a similar script in PHP)
Common Errors that Kill Search Ranking
Tricking the search engines just does not work. The search engines do not look kindly upon webmasters who attempt to deceive the search engines about the content contained on a webpage. Common Errors that Kill Search Engine Ranking
auto Discovery Code Generator
Many webmasters struggle with the auto-discovery code that should be added to the header of an HTML web page to automatically indicate to web browsers that an RSS feed for the contents is available. There has been debate, and of course controversy on how the code should be formed, making it ever more confusing for webmasters. The solution, use a free online tool that will auto generate the code that can then be inserted into your website.
NewsGator Partners with Motorola
Motorola has signed an agreement with NewsGator Technologies to mobilize RSS content for enterprises. According to the agreement, Motorola will extend NewsGator-aggregated RSS content from behind the firewall to mobile users on a broad range of devices, including the Motorola Q, Samsung BlackJack, the Palm Treo family and many other standards-based smartphones. complete article
Microsoft Responds to RSS Patent Application Hoopla
A lead programmer from Microsoft responded to the blogosphere’s fury and anger over Microsoft’s filing of RSS patents. Here are a few quotes: First, these patents describe specific ways to improve the RSS end-user and developer experience (which we believe are valuable and innovative contributions) — they do not constitute a claim that Microsoft invented RSS. Applying for a patent on your innovation is common industry practice, and one which, by incenting and protecting the companies and people involved, encourages everyone to contribute to the community. Complete Response
Reputation Management
The Internet is a bit like the old wild west, and sadly, people often post material about an individual, product, company, or service that is inaccurate or simply nasty. businesses and individuals alike are struggling with how to best deal with online inaccuracy and defamation. The normal steps for dealing with defamation typically involve litigation, but this is not always realistic for Internet-based situations since the Internet is global, and not managed or governed by any single set of laws. If you have the good fortune of being located in the same legal jurisdiction as the offending poster and their website hosting company, you might be able to successfully prosecute them; or at the very least, you might be able to get the webpage with the offending material taken down by the website host. Keep in mind that most defamation court cases require that you show that actual harm was done by the offending material, which can often be difficult. Reputation Management
Reflecting on 2006 and Predicting for 2007
For the most part in 2006, the world escaped Natures wrath, but people were far less kind to their neighbors. 2006 is scarred not by the winds and oceans but by political turmoil across the globe. The Middle East quagmire is the epitome of how wrong things can go, with the war in Lebanon, infighting in Palestine, Iran’s nuclear ambitions, and Iraq’s sectarian violence the deepest scars of 2006 were self inflicted with man being his own enemy. Of course, the Middle East is not alone with it’s own self-destruction. Genocide in Chad and Sudan show how truly intolerant the human race really is. North Korea’s impatience and nuclear activity have disrupted Asia. In fact, few areas of the world were left unscathed by man’s ambitions in 2006. Again technology has brought the tragedies of war and the personal stories of families from the farthest corners of the earth, to the door steps of the west. Citizen journalism and Internet propagation has added a complex layer to the stories. The growth of YouTube, Blogs, Podcasting and RSS have personalized the media and given listeners and watchers a personal connection to the reports. 2006 Reflections, 2007 Predictions
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