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Beanstalk's SEO News Blog

At Beanstalk Search Engine Optimization we know that knowledge is power. That's the reason we started this SEO blog. We know that the better informed our visitors are, the better the decisions they will make for their websites and their online businesses. We hope you enjoy your stay and find the SEO news contained within this blog useful.

May 3, 2012

Presentations, Patents, and Panic

Google Docs adds 450 new Fonts, themes, and image import options:
I tried making a normal document which gave me a chance to see some of the great new fonts:

… but it crashed on saving and now we can’t use Google Docs because the servers are flooded with people trying out the new fonts!

If only I hadn’t already used that face palm image too much.. Oh wait! I can see the new presentation themes and they have a LCARS theme?!

So we’ll have to come back to this later on when the service isn’t packed full of people checking things out.

Motorola’s Mobility division wins in Germany against Microsoft

Just when you thought you were done with the ironic face palming?

Apple and Microsoft’s heavy handed patent abuse forced Google to buy Motorola’s Mobility division, and now Microsoft is scrambling to avoid insane fines or a complete ban on sales of Windows 7 and XBox 360 consoles in Germany because they clearly infringe on H.264 video encoding and playback patents owned by Motorola.

Microsoft has two remaining strategies left to save them, and neither are that great.

Microsoft themselves have calculated that if they were to pay the licensing demands set forward by Motorola they would have to pay $4 billion per year, a figure that Motorola has already dismissed as incorrect.

If Microsoft can get a judge to accept their math as correct they could try to appeal the decision on the grounds that such excessive fees would violate Motorola’s Frand obligations. This is a bit hollow in terms of legal defence because the Frand-commitment is simply:
“a promise to licence innovations deemed critical to widely-used technologies under “fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory” terms”

The other strategy is appealing to Motorola’s humanities with statements like this:

..we are confident that Motorola will eventually be held to its promise to make its standard essential patents available on fair and reasonable terms for the benefit of consumers who enjoy video on the web

Yep, Microsoft wants Motorola to ‘do the right thing for the consumers’ like some professional shot-putter standing in the middle of a glass window manufacturing plant.

Google’s Fiber Causes Fear for MPAA

Typical of Hollywood, any advancement that could be used to unseat the unnecessary roadblocks between consumers and entertainment must be met with fear vs. evolution.

Google is currently laying down fiber optic cables in Kansas City that will bring tornado like speeds of over 900 Megabit downloads to houses and businesses in the area.

While most people are very happy with this advancement, the MPAA is ducking for cover fearing the worst for it’s industry if even more people have even easier access to downloadable content while they have yet to make a system that can handle selling said content.

It could just be me, but if they spent less time hiding under the bed with Toto, and got to work building a system that makes piracy less tempting, they would welcome faster internet access?

Considering that the MPAA had to refer to South Korea’s high speed internet as an example of how fast internet access impacts a film industry, literally taking the long walk for the short drink of water, we’re doubting they will do much more than ‘remark’ on the potential for piracy, but even that seems really disappointing.

This wraps up the week of face palming for me; Hopefully next week we’ll be able to cover some more ‘positive’ stories and show off a bit more of the new Google Docs features!

SEO news blog post by Ryan Morben @ 11:38 am

Categories: Google,Technology
Tags: fiber optics, google docs, motorola, mpaa, patent law, piracy —

May 2, 2012

One Little Victory – for Online Privacy

Recently there have many claims by job seekers that they have been asked to provide their personal login credentials for their Facebook accounts. After much public outcry from potential employees and several complaints that were filed, it initially seemed that Facebook was threatening legal action to protect its 845 million users by either getting politicians to pass a law stopping this practice, or by suing employers outright who are shown to have asked persons to divulge their information.

Facebook then decided not to pursue this course of action. Following this disappointing decision by Facebook, House Republicans also voted down a bill that would have prevented employers from doing asking for login credentials.

While some Maryland took steps to protect individuals from being asked for private, sensitive information, the ACLU seemed to be the only group willing to deem these practices as a blatant invasion of privacy. They even went so far as to produce a video called "Want a Job? Password, please!"

According to thehill.com, it seems now that a bill titled: "The Social Networking Online Protection Act" introduced by Democratic Reps. Eliot Engel (N.Y.) and Jan Schakowsky (Ill.) would prohibit current or potential employers from demanding a username or password to a social networking account.

They bill was summarized with the following statment:

"We must draw the line somewhere and define what is private," Engel said in a statement. "No one would feel comfortable going to a public place and giving out their username and passwords to total strangers. They should not be required to do so at work, at school, or while trying to obtain work or an education. This is a matter of personal privacy and makes sense in our digital world."

Ars adds, "The bill would apply the same prohibitions to colleges, universities, and K-12 schools. … Facebook has already threatened legal action against organizations who require employees to reveal their Facebook passwords as policy."

It would appear that many states are getting on board with the new laws to protect their citizens. Many feel that the bill will be successfully passed this time as it is a bill of its own and not an amendment to an existing bill that would have attempted to reform FCC procedures. Certainly we have not heard the end of this and if this bill fails, then a large public outcry will surely be inevitable. But if it passes it will certainly be more than One Little Victory!

(On a side note I have been looking for a way to incorporate a tune from Rush into my blog post for sometime…but I also get to mix Queen meme with Rush

SEO news blog post by Kyle Krenbrink @ 11:30 am

Categories: internet security,Privacy
Tags: ACLU, Eliot Engel, FCC, Jan Schakowsky, the social networking online protection act privacy act —

May 1, 2012

Search Engine Experiment in Spam Surfing

If you took a very heavily spam-influenced search engine like Bing for example and removed the first 1 million results for a query, how good would the result be?

How about doing the same thing to the best filtered search engines available?

Well someone got curious and made the million short search engine.

What this new service does is remove a specific # of search results and show you the remainder.

I became immediately curious about a few things:

Where are they getting their crawl data from?
What are they doing to searches where there’s only a few hundred results?
Where is the revenue stream? I see no ads?

Given the lack of advertising I was expecting them to be pulling search data from another site?

There’s no way they are pulling from Bing/Yahoo, there are 14+ sites paying for better spots than we’ve earned on Bing for our terms..

And while the top 10 list looks a bit like DuckDuckGo, we’re seemingly banned from their rankings, and not at #6 at all. It’s funny when you look at their anti-spam approach and then look at the #1 site for ‘seo services’ on DDG. It’s like a time machine back to the days of keyword link spam. Even more ironic is that we conform to DDGs definition of a good SEO:

“The ones who do in fact make web sites suck less, and apply some common sense to the problem, will make improvements in the search ranking if the site is badly done to start with. Things like meta data, semantical document structure, descriptive urls, and whole heap of other factors can affect your rankings significantly.

The ones who want to subscribe you to massive link farms, cloaked gateway pages, and other black hat type techniques are not worth it, and can hurt your rankings in the end.
Just remember, if it sounds too good to be true, is probably is. There are some good ones, and also a lot selling snake oil.”

We know the data isn’t from Google either, we have the #1 seat for ‘seo services’ on Google and maintain that position regularly.

So what’s going on?! This is the same company that gave us the ‘Find People on Plus‘ tool and clearly they know how to monetize a property?

My guess is that they are blending results from multiple search engines, and likely caching a lot of the data so it’d be very hard to tell who’s done the heavy lifting for them?

All that aside, it’s rare to see a search engine that blatantly gives you numbered SERPs and for now MillionShort is, on the left side-bar, showing numbered positions for keywords. That’s sort of handy I guess.

You can also change how many results to remove, so if your search is landing you in the spam bucket, then try removing less results. If your search always sucks, and the sites you want to see in the results are on the right, you’ve apparently found a search phrase that isn’t spammed! Congrats!

Weak one: Google Drive

~~Well my enthusiasm for Google Drive just flew out the window on my second week using it.~~

UPDATE: Turns out the disk was full and Google Drive has no feedback at all. Thanks FireFox for telling me WHY the download failed. Oh man.

SEO news blog post by Ryan Morben @ 11:01 am

Categories: beanstalk,Bing,Bing,Browsers,Google,Google,Google Chrome,Google+,Mozilla Firefox,Mozilla Firefox,Rankings,Search Engine News,SEO Tools,Technology
Tags: Google Drive, irony, MillionShort, organic seo —

April 30, 2012

Google Wi-Spy FCC Report Revealed

Following up on a previous blog post, Google has released an FCC report detailing the Street View Probe controversy that has been plaguing the Search giant in what has been dubbed the "Wi-Spy scandal." The report details the FCC’s findings into the investigation of the collection and storage of data by Google from millions of households across the US while operating specially equipped cars for its street view service.

The initially released report has many redacted blackouts after arguing with the FCC over what details could be releases to the public. An updated release only black outs the names of individuals and raises many new questions about how Google captured personal data for over two years. The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) has filed two requests to obtain an un-retracted version of the FCC’s report with the Justice Department.

Google stated previously the cars were attempting to record Wi-Fi hotspots and wireless activity and that any collection of personal data was “inadvertent.” The code was written in 2006 and provided a snapshot of online activity as the Google cars drove by when utilized in 2008 and continued until 2010. This practice was dubbed “wardriving” and its disclosure caused a large uproar in the US and Europe.

"The report points the finger at a rogue engineer who, it says, intentionally wrote software code that captured payload data information –communication over the Internet including emails, passwords and search history — from unprotected wireless networks, going beyond what Google says it intended. The engineer invoked his 5th Amendment right and declined to speak to the FCC."

What the FCC and millions of Americans want to know is whether the engineers and managers of the Street View project knew that data was being collected or if not, why didn’t they know? Following is a breakdown of the investigations highlights:

According to the report, the engineer in question did speak to two other engineers and a senior project manager regarding the data collection.
The engineer also submitted a copy of the document to the entire Street View team in October 2006 in which stated that Google would be collecting this data.
Those working on Street View told the FCC they had no knowledge that payload data was being collected.
Managers of the Street View program said they did not read the 2006 document.
A different engineer says he remembered receiving the document but did not recall any reference to the collection of data.
Another engineer while debugging the code did notice the software was designed to capture data.
A senior manager said he preapproved the document before it was written.
Street View team members told investigators that engineers on the project were permitted to modify the code without approval from managers.
The FCC accuses Google of withholding an email discussing the engineer’s review of the payload data with a senior manager of the Street View project.
Google maintains that it did not authorize the collection of personal data.
Google denies that it stonewalled the investigation and that any delays were caused by the FCC.

"We decided to voluntarily make the entire document available except for the names of individuals," Google spokeswoman Jill Hazelbaker said in an emailed statement. "While we disagree with some of the statements made in the document, we agree with the FCC’s conclusion that we did not break the law. We hope that we can now put this matter behind us."

Google first denied it collected the data.
Google then stated that they were only collecting "fragments of data"
Google admits that it had intercepted emails, passwords, search history and apologizes.
Google temporarily grounds Street View car fleet.
Google appoints a director of privacy to oversee project, trains employees in “responsible collection and handling of data” and incorporates more stringent privacy safeguards.
FCC begins its investigation in October 2010 as the FTC completes its inquiry.
Justice Department investigated and closed its inquiry in May 2011.
The engineer in question in the report was involved with Street View as a side project and stated that he was interested in collecting data from unencrypted wireless networks to determine if it could be used in other Google products or services.
The engineer dismissed privacy concerns stating that vehicles would not be in the proximity of "any given user for an extended period of time." He did have a note in which stated that he should discuss the matter further with a product council.
The report does state that the data was reviewed by the engineer to identify frequently visited website to determine how much people were using Google search but states that it was not pursued due to being told that the data had no value.

The FCC has debated whether Google’s actions violated the US wiretapping laws and considered charging Google with a violation of the Communications Act but stated that there was no legal precedent to do so as Wi-Fi technology did not exist when the Act was established. The FCC states that they still have "significant factual questions" as to why the data was ever collected.

SEO news blog post by Kyle Krenbrink @ 12:10 pm

Categories: Google,Privacy
Tags: FCC, Google spy, wi-spy —

April 26, 2012

Week One with Google Drive

Well Google Drive has been making a lot of headlines about ownership of files, depth of file privacy, virus scanning, archive support, etc.. etc..

One item I have not seen anyone mention is the installer/login system that Google Drive is using.

As an SEO who has to be able to test a multitude of browser versions, I’ve managed to work myself into a neat situation where each time IE is called upon to render something I get a warning message about the version I have installed.

The warning message is great because it lets me know when an application is cheating and using IE for displaying information vs. using default system calls built into windows. The most common application I see doing this is VMWare’s ESX console which has a very graphical summary of the virtual devices.

So imagine my amusement yesterday when installing Google Drive and seeing this:

“O RLY?”

Ownership of Files

A certain technical news source (rhymes with SEENET) that’s famous for publishing outright false information, misleading articles, and brainless technical pieces, one-up’d itself yesterday by trying to scare people away from Google Drive by publishing a hard hitting new post about Google Drive an it’s terms of service.

In order to make the story work however, they had to omit the first sentence of the section they were complaining about. Anything less wouldn’t make the post seem worth writing, much-less reading. After considerable hate from readers they actually had the nerve to ‘tack on’ the honest truth, at the very bottom of the post, instead of removing it entirely due to it being completely worthless.

The bottom line with Google and privacy is that NOBODY would use them if they abused your trust so you can rest assured that Google is doing everything they can to keep your files safe. The clauses in the TOS that state Google has rights to your files is clearly there so they can more accurately provide services that interest you.

If you take a lot of high resolution photos of animals, Google knows you work with animals. If you upload videos of cars on a race track, Google can guess you like race cars. Etc..

I’d much rather have my screen space wasted with info about the next WRC event than see a bunch of adverts for a local dog grooming outfit (I don’t hate animals, but I also don’t have pets).

File Privacy

Lots of folks are wondering how private the files are in a Google Drive.

The truth is that unless you’ve changed something from the defaults, every file uploaded is private to you. You can share files and folders with a few clicks, and there’s multiple options for how files are shared (read-only, contribute, full control), but it’s up to you to manually allow sharing.

One fellow even claimed that Google Drive was modifying the JPG files uploaded from his digital camera!?

I tested this on my own this morning with a 5.8MB .JPG @ 3968 x 2976 resolution. Yes, indeed, if I choose to view or preview the image Google isn’t going to waste my time viewing a 6MB .JPG, and instead it renders a much smaller preview to get the image on my screen quickly.

However if I choose to download the image I get the exact same file I uploaded with no changes whatsoever, EXIF data included!

Archive Support

So far I’ve had no problems with .RAR and .ZIP archives in Google Drive, and I have the option of opening the archives which means downloading individual files inside an archive is very easy. I’ve only tested Google Drive with Windows and Ubuntu so far, but as expected it’s making things very easy to share between the machines and the OSes.

.7z (7ZIP) support is not enabled yet, but at the moment the format isn’t very widely used so I doubt many users will mind the fact that you have to download the whole archive vs. opening it on-line. Obviously anti-virus scanning isn’t available on archives that aren’t supported.

Protected archives are also supported in that you can browse the unencrypted contents, but Google Drive doesn’t make any attempts to get passwords out of you, which should help with all the tin-foil-beanie types.

Limitations of Use

This one is yet to be determined. Google clearly won’t allow you to upload a 4.7GB DVD and then share it public with no limits, that would be amazingly poor insight from a company that takes great efforts to plan each move.

How much ‘sharing’ you can get away with seems to be an unanswered question at the moment, but given the lazy pirates around the globe I’m sure someone’s going to put this to the test immediately.

Another rumour floating around is that the largest single file you can store on Google Drive is 10GB. While that’s a MASSIVE file allowance for a single file, it still seems odd that such a cap would exist since you would have to be a paid user at that point. Since the cost of trying the commercial version is very low I’m going to give it a whirl and see what I find.

More to come!

Beanstalk Minecraft Map Contest!

I haven’t been flogging this very much, which is bad form given my profession, but we still have a glorious brand new Android tablet with Minecraft PE installed to give away!

How do you win this approx ~$300 prize? You play a video game, and you have fun creating a map that will be displayed and recognized by fellow gamers on our website. Yeah, life is rough eh?

Our initial contest winner of the $50 prize, Faragilus from the Ukraine, got his prize this week and we will be featuring his work with the rest of the winners at the end of the contest.

For more information please look at the original post here: Beanstalk Minecraft 1.2 Contest

PPS: I know this is a REALLY long post today but I had to toss in a Google Chrome video that really is neat. While Microsoft is spending time and money trying mock it’s competition, Google’s having fun with demonstrating it’s products and how they help people on-line connect in real life.

SEO news blog post by Ryan Morben @ 12:06 pm

Categories: beanstalk,Browsers,Google,Google Chrome,Internet Explorer,Internet Law,internet security,Privacy,Technology
Tags: Chrome, Contest, Google Drive, Minecraft —

April 25, 2012

Google Over-Optimization Algorithm Strikes

The anticipated over-optimization algorithm that Google’s Matt Cutts announced just a few week ago has now gone live. Nicknamed the "webspam algorithm update" by Danny Sullivan of Search Engine Land, this latest algorithm update is a further attempt to combat the problem of webspam that permeates websites and search results.

A large volume of posts and complaints in the Google Search Blog shows that many have already been affected. Google has stated that they expect this newest update to affect approximately 3% of searches. From the Google Blog:

"In the next few days, we’re launching an important algorithm change targeted at webspam. The change will decrease rankings for sites that we believe are violating Google’s quality guidelines. This algorithm represents another step in our efforts to reduce webspam and promote high quality content."

Webspam refers to tactics that attempt to garner better rankings through unsavory tactics such as:

Keyword stuffing
Link schemes
Cloaking
Sneaky redirects or doorway pages
Purposefully created duplicate content

For a more detailed explanation of some of these webspam tactics, check out Search Engine Land’s Violation & Search Engine Spam Penalties.

Google has been combating similar webspam tactics for several years, but it is only in the last couple that Google is finding better ways to detect such abuses with better algorithms. The targeting of webspam began in earnest with the release of the Farmer and Panda Algorithm Updates in 2010.

Many SEOs realize that it is still very possible to rank using these "blackhat tactics" and that Google cannot possibly address the problem "one fell swoop" (or even several).

It is enough for any SEO to question their usage. SEOs need to remember that Google is fully committed to eradicating webspam and will not be ceasing to do so. It may seem like a good strategy offering short term gains, but the long term penalties will certainly spell disaster when (not if) Google becomes aware of these tactics.

Google’s mandate is clear; to produce high quality, relevant, spam free search results for their millions of users. Ultimately it comes down to individuals and the tactics they decide to employ. If we can all get on board with Google’s Quality Guidelines, we will all benefit from a more useful and friendly web that we can all enjoy.

SEO news blog post by Kyle Krenbrink @ 10:46 am

Categories: Google,SEO Tips
Tags: Google algorithm, over optimization, panda update —

April 24, 2012

Google: Drive to Space

Last week I shot the blog in the foot by talking about Google Drive and Planetary Resources 1 week early. Now that the wraps are off both what’s to talk about?

Google Drive: Go signup!

Drive is alive! You can get started by clicking here: drive.google.com/start

Obviously that video is REALLY bad as it’s not showing any actual product, just some marketing.

I’ve already heard from one friend that the Google Drive app for Android works, so we should see some demonstrations of actual use very soon. I’ve actually got a copy of Chrome OS and Android installed on my Windows PC so the instant they approve me I’ll have something to review and compare how Google Drive works across devices/OS.

As more features are rolled out we’ll also try to cover integrations with GMail, YouTube, G+, Picasa, etc., as they are all apparently going to get some loving from Google Drive integration.

Planetary Resources: Go for mining!

Today is a big day for humanity and our future in space. By leveraging the value of near-earth asteroids Planetary Resources hopes to advance the science of space travel/discovery by identifying and mining these valuable hunks of floating rock.

While there’s obviously a lot more to be learned, current predictions of densities of just platinum-group metals alone (iridium, osmium, palladium, platinum, rhodium, and ruthenium in particular) could be more than anything we’ve ever mined in Earth’s history, on a single 500 meter asteroid.

Asteroids are just the ‘low hanging fruit’ of our universe and, by taking this easy first step, we’ll learn and discover so much that the truth is this project is clearly long overdue for humanity.

Until now asteroids have been studied for fear, but we know now that asteroids on a near earth orbit are actually a blessing for gathering resources that are not native to our planet, like the platinum-group of metals which are deposited on our planet by collisions with space debris. Rather than wait for more minerals to fall from the sky, we’re ready to reach out and explore.

I know that I am excited to bear witness to this in my lifetime. Really cool stuff!

SEO news blog post by Ryan Morben @ 11:54 am

Categories: Google,Technology
Tags: android, asteroid mining, chrome os, Google Drive, Planetary Resources —

April 23, 2012

Bursting Personalization Filter Bubbles

There has been a lot of discussion regarding the Google filter bubbles. The premise is that due to personalization features becoming an important part of how we interact on the web as well as the content that is displayed to us. Links that we tend to click more readily given a higher priority in our search results, whereas those that don’t get click on fade into the ether. The inherent danger with this process is that we do not readily gain access to or are shown all the other websites that the internet has to offer.

The personalization of the modern web removes this diversification and creates a self-based bias (usually unbeknownst to the user), putting is in a narrow loop of information known as the "filter bubble."

Microsoft’s Facebook partnership along with the Bing search engine has already allowed for the incorporation of the preferences of users friends into the returned search results. A new patent application from Microsoft describes a "user-following engine" that would not only analyze a users posts on Facebook, Twitter and other connected social networks to deduce a users mood, interests, education level and comprehension of specific topics. The new system would automatically adjust the users search experience and results based on this information to better align with these social signals.

Although the patent was filed in 2010, the details have just been made public. At this point there is no indication that Microsoft plans to move ahead with the patent, but if personalization results are where the net is taking us, I just hope that browsers will allow a user to disable the personalization filters with the click of a button. I think the biggest concern over personalization is where is it taking us? It seems to me that there is a fine line between an enhanced user experience and a decidedly Orwellian future.

SEO news blog post by Kyle Krenbrink @ 11:00 am

Categories: Bing,Google,internet security,Privacy
Tags: facebook, microsoft, patents —

April 21, 2012

CBC’s Free Music Gets Cold Shoulder – retraction

As a follow up to my previous blog post titled "CBC’s Free Music Gets Cold Shoulder" I discussed the new free music service recently launched by the Canadian Broadcasting System (CBC). In my post I incorrectly stated that:

"The main source of contention is the fact that the CBC avoids paying royalty fees because they are considered a not-for-profit corporation."

After speaking with Chris Ball from the CBC’s Media Relations & CBC English Services, Mr. Ball was kind enough to make the following clarification with the following statement:

"(the) CBC does not get preferential treatment because we are a public broadcaster. We do pay fees. We negotiate directly with rights holders on a fair rate or pay the rates ordered by the Copyright Board."

"For example, in January we announced a licensing deal with AVLA, which represents 1000 Major and Independent music companies."

The Audio-Video Licensing Agency Inc.(AVLA) is a non-exclusive agency that provides licences on behalf of record companies and producers for the purpose of broadcasting or duplicating audio and video recordings in Canada.

My apologies to Mr. Ball and to the CBC for incorrectly reporting this detail. Certainly this is a contentious issue in Canada and the United States and we will be reporting further on its developments in upcoming blog posts and on our weekly radio program on WebMaster Radio. Stay tuned!

SEO news blog post by Kyle Krenbrink @ 12:01 pm

Categories: seo articles
Tags: cbc radio, music royalties —

April 20, 2012