#!/usr/bin/perl

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require "data/varsv5.cgi";    # parses form values

print "Content-type:  text/plain\n\n";

$agent = $ENV{'HTTP_USER_AGENT'};

if ($FORM{"view"} eq "producecode") {
    open(FILE,"<robots.txt");
    print <FILE>;
    close(FILE);
    exit;
}

    # Simple agent check to keep the snoopy happy and to keep bad bots out and good bots in.

    if ($agent =~ /slurp/gi || $agent =~ /msnbot/gi || $agent =~ /Jeeves/gi || $agent =~ /googlebot/gi) {

    open(FILE,"<robots2");
    print <FILE>;
    close(FILE);
}

else {

print qq|#
#
# (C) Copy and Copyright 2006-2010 WebmasterWorld Inc. All Rights Reserved.
#  http://www.webmasterworld.com/robots.txt
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#
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#
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User-agent: *
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# [:][:][:][:][:][:][:][:][:][:][:][:][:][:][:][:][:][:][:][:][:][:][:][:][:] #
#                                                                             #
# ---------------------------=*>  THE BOT BLOG  <*=-------------------------- #
#                                                                             #
# [:][:][:][:][:][:][:][:][:][:][:][:][:][:][:][:][:][:][:][:][:][:][:][:][:] #

# =========================================================================== #
#                                                                             #
# Sleep Deprivation 101                                                       #
#                                                                             #
# by brett tabke                                                              #
# 3/4/2007                                                                    #
#                                                                             #
# =========================================================================== #
#
#
# I was looking at this earlier tonight for the first 
# time in a few weeks. It has been so hard to keep motivated at it.
# So, sorry I haven't updated this in awhile. It has  been a 
# whirlwind bunch of months in a row for me and my family.
# 
# In Dec, me and Erika celebrated the arrival of our 
# first daughter Eleanor. I essentially took an extended 
# couple of months off. I logged in to take care of some fires 
# and make sure everyone was getting paid. Other than 
# that, a couple hours a day to keep the email churning 
# was about it. This was the longest work break I have 
# taken since college in the early 80's. 
# http://www.webmasterworld.com/webmasterworld/3191522.htm
# 
# What a change of life it has been. From the sleep 
# deprivation to the complete restructuring of our lives, 
# it has been a time of adjustment. The biggest change, 
# has been that it really puts the internet and our work 
# here on it into a whole new in perspective. It really 
# reminded me what was important.
# 
# Before that, last falls PubCon was a huge project as well. 
# I have never worked so hard as those last few months. It 
# was 4am to 10pm most days from August to early December. 
# It was so well worth it, as we had an awesome event. Thanks 
# to everyone who participated and attended.
# 
# I am still digging out from a lot of email going back to November. 
# Please be patient as I am still working through it all. 
# Delayed - not forgotten - and thanks for understanding.
#
# The only blog was pretty big, so I moved the old 
# blog entries over to here:
# http://www.webmasterworld.com/robots-blog.txt
#
# I am off to TRAFFIC Vegas this week.
# http://www.targetedtraffic.com/
#
# Brett Tabke
#
# 


# =========================================================================== #
#                                                                             #
# Waiting to Exhale                                                           #
#                                                                             #
# by brett tabke                                                              #
# 9/1/2006                                                                    #
#                                                                             #
# =========================================================================== #
#
#  re: http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum10/9410.htm
#
#  --------------------------------------------------
#   Smart money said that Alan Meckler was going to 
#   do for Search, what Comdex did for the DotCom and 
#   what CES did for home electronics.
#  --------------------------------------------------
#
#
#  August 2nd, 2005. Was a watershed day in the history of SEO/SEM. 
#  That was the day Jupiter sold SearchEngineWatch and the SES 
#  conferences to Incisive Media. After the events of this week with 
#  Danny Sullivan announcing his resignation from SearchEngineWatch, I 
#  think it is worth rolling back the clock to that fateful day and 
#  looking at the sale of the site and conferences again.
#  
#  http://www.incisivemedia.com/
#  http://www.daggle.com/
#  http://www.SearcheEgineWatch.com
#  http://weblogs.jupitermedia.com/meckler/
#  
#  Search was sky rocketing a year ago. Google and the search sectors  
#  growth was spectacular. Adsense and other forms of advertising were 
#  setting new records every month.  From SEO/SEM firms to mom-n-pops, 
#  we not only had survived the dot com crash - we came out stronger 
#  and more profitable because of it. Everyone was making out like 
#  bandits. At the time of the sale, Jupiter was doing great. Sullivan had
#  the conference side of the conferences running like a well oiled
#  machine and the trade show side was also jamming. SES was growing 
#  by 20-50% per-conference. The site was also rocking and hitting every 
#  note a webmaster should be hitting today. There are/were 20+ ads on 
#  the home page alone going for a rumored \$4-5k a month - talk about 
#  your million dollar homepage! Life was good at Jupiter and certainly
#  in the search space.
#  
#  http://finance.google.com/finance?q=GOOG
#  
#  Jupiter didn't appear to be hurting. Sure the stock price was flat, 
#  but not crashing by any means. The outlook for Jupiter was fairly bright 
#  and positive. Alan Mecklers fixation with the images seemed to be 
#  mostly harmless. Who knows, he may have been on to - still might be - 
#  something really big with all that recurring billing. In a few old 
#  school circles, soft licensing and recurring billing are the holy grail, 
#  come-to-jesus, show-me-the-money of business models. Seriously, guys 
#  like Bill Gates did all right by soft licensing (grin).
#  
#  With Jupiter hitting on all cylinders, I just think that at the time 
#  of the SES sale, Meckler should have been standing back screaming at 
#  the troops to saddle up. It was a time to redouble their efforts. It 
#  was setup already. It was a time to hitch up the team and go to town 
#  on a rail.
#  
#  Business maven Tom Peters used to say that the time to sell like 
#  hell" is when "you are already selling like hell"! You have to 
#  strike the iron when the metal is hot. Nothing was hotter than 
#  "Search" was last year.
#  
#  http://www.tompeters.com/
#  
#    The selling of SES at that time, just did not make sense. Everyone 
#  I talked to about it was bewildered. Why sell SES?  It was a 
#  stunning and shocking move to those of us in the industry. No one 
#  could wrap their brain around it.  Daddy Warbucks - dude - buddy - 
#  what the? Go round the bend!? Was Meckler getting ready to retire? 
#  Has he ticked off the major sponsors? Has he been put on notice? Is 
#  there some balloon payment due in the backwaters of Jupiters books 
#  that no one knows about? Contracts due to expire and no renewals in 
#  site?  Someone calling in a loan? Does he think there is another 
#  bubble crash imminent? Missed a margin call? A greedy ex wife? Like 
#  the ponies too much?  Ha! you could go crazy spinning the scenarios.  
#  
#  http://weblogs.jupitermedia.com/meckler/
#
#  Alan Meckler is a seasoned business pro. There are few in the tech 
#  space that have his years of real world seat-of-the-pants first hand 
#  old fashioned education you can only get from decades of on-the-job 
#  training. Aside from that sentence turning a record number of 
#  cliches per column inch, it's true! Meckler is that old and 
#  experienced in this space. His name alone is almost a cliche! 
#  Alan built the awesome Internet World trade show and conference and 
#  he built SES. You don't fall off a turnip truck and wake up with 
#  domains like Internet.com, ClickZ, and SearchEngineWatch. With Alan 
#  at the helm of Jupiter, we were getting that old deja vu Internet 
#  World feeling all over again. It just stood to reason that Alan Meckler
#  was going to do for Search, what Comdex did for the DotCom and what CES 
#  did for home electronics.
# 
#  For our part, we were just trying to stay out of the way - to keep 
#  from ending up road kill. Jupiter needed a wide berth. We mulled 
#  over thoughts of getting on the Jupiter wagon. We even met with the 
#  big guy himself (thanks for the lunch!).  There was no kidding 
#  ourselves about our future direction. We were just caught in the 
#  draft of it all. We were along for the ride whether we wanted to or 
#  not - sucked in to the wake of the SES/SEW vortex. Fates and 
#  fortunes are intertwined. So goes Jupiter - so goes WebmasterWorld. 
#  It is the pure definition of that new catch word from competition 
#  and cooperation: co-opetition. There were days I could see my 
#  handwriting on SES/SEW, and I am sure there are days Danny saw his 
#  on PubCon/WebmasterWorld. And why not!? We are all doing well - 
#  making money - having fun - cranking out 7 figure daily traffic 
#  numbers - traveling the world - partying like rock stars - three 
#  finger snaps in a Z formation - cue the music - baby, we 
#  were Living La Vida Loca!
#  
#  So along comes the SES sale to a no name company that no one 
#  stateside had every heard of and who had no history in this space. 
#  Most analysts felt that the sale price of \$43 million was pretty 
#  cheap at the time. The public explanations about it didn't match the 
#  reality of the sale. Alan Meckler is as wise an old owl as there is 
#  on the net today. This stuff doesn't happen in a vacuum. There was 
#  another shoe to drop.  Befuddled and not a smoking gun in sight. 
#  That left the only plausible explanation to be the simple face value 
#  one: that \$43 million in the hand is better than the vast unknown in 
#  the future bush.
#  
#  We had a sharp consultant working for us a year ago. She was helping 
#  with a long term business plan and strategy. She did a study of the 
#  seo/sem/conference sector.  Her work, was all top notch. Stuff we 
#  read about in business books, but we never thought we could actually 
#  have completed. As she was presenting the competitive Intel on 
#  Jupiter/Incisive to us, she talked a bit about the sale of ClickZ/SES. 
#  She made a comment that now seems pretty insightful: 
#
#     "I would be curious to see Danny Sullivans contract. It is 
#      the only variable we don't know about."
#  
#  As they say; that knowledge and \$3.75 will still buy you a small 
#  coffee at Starbucks. The only thing we could do was go back to work 
#  and continue improving and producing our sites and conferences. We 
#  always knew there was going to come a day when "the rest of the 
#  story" would come out. We put our heads down and focused on our work 
#  - that is all we have ever tried to do. Competition will always be 
#  there. One of my all time heroes Jonny Carson told Dave Letterman 
#  when he was in 3rd place of 3 talk shows to: "forget about the other 
#  guys and what they are doing. Focus on your thing, your audience and 
#  what you do best".  I had a full plate running my own business and 
#  didn't need to dedicate any more brain power to thinking about it. I 
#  knew it would work out. This too shall pass.
#  
#  So, Yesterday when I read the news that Danny was leaving Search 
#  Engine Watch, I honestly was not all that surprised. 13 months 
#  later, Alan Mecklers other shoe hits the floor. I finally exhaled. 
#  
#  From there, you lead into all kinds of questions about the state of 
#  Danny's contract going back more than a year to the time of the sale. 
#  psst: Apparently, he did not have a noncompete. Hello!? I can only 
#  imagine he refused to renew at some point or the right phase of the 
#  moon... Ack, stop that. Here we go again with margin calls and ex 
#  wives... So lets get off that track and say we did but we didn't explore 
#  those possibilities. As much guilty pleasure fun as it would be to play 
#  "what if", I have some sanity to think about you know. We'll leave 
#  the rest of that as an excersize for the reader and ask good old
#  Bones McCoy to bail us out: dam it Jim. I'm a conference
#  producer - not a mind reader!
#  
#  Lets cut to the chase: \$43 million for SEW/SES/ClickZ without Danny 
#  Sullivan locked into a long term contract and no non-compete? (belly 
#  laugh) Raise a virtual glass to Mr. Alan Meckler. You old dog you - 
#  nicely done sir! Daddy warbucks is back at the top of my list! 
#  
#  http://weblogs.jupitermedia.com/meckler/archives/014664.html
#  http://weblogs.jupitermedia.com/meckler/archives/009626.html
#  
#  I know for about six months I have been increasingly concerned about 
#  the industry. There was something soothing and calming about SES San 
#  Jose, but it seemed so status quo to borderline "been there - done 
#  that".
#  
#  I've been thinking the industry was going to see more rapid change 
#  again this year. Last year was about consolidation and acquisition. 
#  This year has been about, huh? Not much really. There has been a 
#  vacum. No defining moment until now. So far, that hole is being 
#  filled with the Web 2.0 talk. Hey, Web 2.0, is proof that people need to 
#  talk about something.
#  
#  Me and a good friend were chatting a few months ago that we knew we 
#  were probably going to see some shake up at SearchEngineWatch this 
#  year. You see, Danny Sullivan just turned 40 this year. I don't care 
#  who you are, the big four oh works on a man in weird ways. I know it 
#  does.  I've been there recently. I have the new convertible sports 
#  car to prove it. We thought Danny would get a dog or something - not 
#  leave SEW!
#  
#  All the possibilities are swirling. It reminds me of something I 
#  have never talked about much. Six years ago I was faced with a 
#  difficult choice between the words: SearchEngine and the word 
#  Webmaster. Those two domains SearchEngineWorld and WebmasterWorld 
#  were both powerful in my mind and both were/are extremely brandable 
#  domains.  I have been telling myself that I choose WebmasterWorld 
#  because I wanted to go horizontal and not vertical with the topics. 
#  I wanted to cover both search and webmaster related site operation 
#  and management. I still feel they are not divorceable from one another. 
#  You can't talk search, without immediatly getting to page and then 
#  server issues.  That intention still covers the basics of my 
#  reasoning at the time and without that desire I never would have 
#  chosen WebmasterWorld over SearchEngineWorld. I knew that I was 
#  choosing the one that would ultimately be the horse we would ride. I 
#  realize that some of that decision process was the gnawing fact that 
#  I didn't want SearchEngineWorld to compete with SearchEngineWatch. I 
#  didn't want to muddle the waters of branding. I can distinctly 
#  remember trying to find another domain because I didn't want the 
#  branding confusion. When I first registered SeearchEngineWorld, I 
#  just thought it was a cool name. Even in 99, Danny had done a great 
#  job at positioning SearchEngineWatch as a good brand. I never 
#  intended to see SearchEngineWorld wither and get forgotten. That was 
#  more from the fact I could never find my Chris Sherman, than any 
#  other factor. Guys like Chris don't grow on trees.
#  
#  http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/technology/archives/2006/08/31/dont_go_danny_we_love_you.html
#  
#  I think the change may do us all some good. Other than our reaction 
#  to it, we dont' have a big choice in the matter. We need a bit of a 
#  status quo shake up. The conferences and the sites are getting 
#  fairly mature. Change is ultimately good.
#  
#  I doubt Danny will have any problem finding work (grin). I can only imagine 
#  he has a tough task of deciding what he wants to do next.  Think 
#  about it for a minute: Imagine you could do anything you want with 
#  almost anyone you wanted to in your industry? The world is your 
#  oyster. How would you decide? Ultimately, I think Danny will follow 
#  his passions and the things he finds most fulfilling in life.
#  
#  It is also interesting to to see that Susan Bratton is leaving as 
#  the Chair of Ad-Tech.  I believe we will see Susan pop up somewhere 
#  very soon. When I first met Susan, it was a huried introduction at a 
#  conference. I recognized the look and the brusque stick-to-business 
#  style. That is the same look I see in clips of me from our 
#  conferences. At the time, I flat out - umm - didn't get her. Then 
#  Mike 'rock on' Grehan took us all out for dinner in London. We 
#  had a nice time and talk with Susan. Then I stumbled on to one of 
#  her shows on WebmasterRadio and she started to make perfect sense. 
#  Maybe she has found her forte in Radio instead of conferences? 
#  Either way, her rolodex is a whos-who of the entire marketing 
#  industry. I doubt she'll have trouble finding work. From the whispers 
#  of the rumor mill, Susan was never highly compensated at Fad Tech. I 
#  could see her doing other conferences soon. However, I wonder if her
#  contract allows it? 
#  
#  http://blog.dmnews.com/2006/07/24/drew-ianni-succeeds-susan-bratton-as-adtech-chair/
#  
#  As for Incisive, this looks like it was a simple 1 plus 1 must equal 
#  2 business decision. It sounds like Danny was already making top 
#  dollar on the circut and Incisive thought any more would be 
#  financial suicide. Although we don't know alot about Incisive on 
#  this side of the pond, they do alot of conferences and small trade 
#  shows around the world. They are very well versed in the economics 
#  of conferences.
#  
#  As for SES, it is an intersting pickle Incisive is in. The large 
#  sponsors are locked in contracts for another year. That's Mr. 
#  Meckler's handy work in action again. Before Alan brought that to Search 
#  conferences, there were only a few super large conferences that 
#  could get sponsors to lock in for a year at a time. That means that 
#  SES is directly funded through SES San Jose next year.  Contracts 
#  are reserved on the conference space and other conference associated 
#  services. You can't just show up at a Hilton in New York or the San 
#  Jose convention center without a year+ advance reservation. 
#  
#  Regardless of the over all appearance or make up of those 
#  conferences - those conferences are locked in for the most part. We 
#  have also heard (know) that many speakers also have had their 
#  expenses covered to these shows. A few of them go back many years on 
#  the circut. Some, simply wouldn't have a career, let alone a 
#  speaking slot if it weren't for Danny and  SES. Many will continue 
#  to ride the SES horse for as long as it has legs. Then there are the 
#  attendees. Most of the NYC crowd is corporate Madison Avenue. Same 
#  goes for San Jose. What that means, is that many of those people 
#  already have it in next years budget to attend those conferences and 
#  whether DS's smiley face is up in front or not, there will be a 
#  sizeable set of attendees present.
#  
#  Then there is the real value of a company and conference - the 
#  people. The SES crew is strong. Karen and the gang have done an 
#  incredible job over the years. I know just how important and 
#  valuable those people are and I have the highest regard for them. 
#  Trust me - running, planning, and executing a conference the size 
#  of SES is no easy task and experienced people are very few and far 
#  between.  
#  
#  I think Chris Sherman has been contributing a ton of stuff to SES 
#  over the last few years. He has organized many panels and session 
#  tracks - exclusively doing many of them.  
# 
#  What I am getting to - tipping toeing around - is that for the short 
#  term over the next year, SES doesn't flounder too far. Sponsors, 
#  exhibitors, speakers, and attendees - it's a dead lock. Attendance
#  may suffer, and the quality of the sessions may suffer - but the
#  beat goes on. Incisive has six to nine months to figure it all
#  out. That is if Danny doesn't throw a curve ball their way.
# 
#  Where Incisive is truely going to miss DS, is on the site. 
#  SearchEngineWatch *is* Danny Sullivan. And despite all the blog 
#  stuff, guest writers and moderators - whatever dude - 
#  searchenginewatch is Dannys off spring. Always has been - and always 
#  will be...
#  
#  For our part - fresh opportunies open up. The phone has been ringing 
#  alot this week. The popular question has been about speaking in 
#  Vegas and next years conferences. Yes, we still have few slots to 
#  fill for Vegas.
#  
#  http://www.pubcon.com/session_proposal.cgi
#  
#  All-in-all, things will work out ok I think.
#  
#  Brett



# =========================================================================== #
#                                                                             #
# BestBBS 4.0                                                                 #
#                                                                             #
# by brett tabke                                                              #
# 7/8/2006                                                                    #
#                                                                             #
# =========================================================================== #
#
# 
# We have just completed a significant update to the forum software 
# (BestBBS) that we run on WebmasterWorld. 
# 
# The majority of this update was an internal database format 
# conversion. It took well over 300 hours of labor to convert the 
# system to the new formats. When completed, we have a faster, more 
# secure system than we have ever had before.
# 
# The change was necessary to fix a long standing database design 
# issue. The problem was exposed as the shear scale of WebmasterWorld 
# grew to what it is today. I first wrote the database routines for 
# this software in 1998. I felt it would handle 10,000 messages. At 
# the time, that was an enormous amount of messages for a web based 
# bbs/forum system. The system now has over 2 million. The old system 
# consisted of two files for every thread. We have converted that to 
# one file per thread. 
# 
# I have often been asked why we did not switch to a true database 
# system such as SQL. The issue has always been one of speed. The 
# issue has been negated somewhat due to faster machines. However, the 
# core of WebmasterWorld is still written in Perl - which is 
# notoriously slow at database routines - when compared to languages 
# with builtin C bases SQL routines such as PHP. That said, we have 
# laid in provisions for major future changes (read: SQL) to all the 
# database routines.
# 
# Unfortunately in spite of all that effort, there is little to be 
# seen new on the user side for the moment. The majority of these 
# changes were under-the-hood.
# 
# The most visible change noticed by members will be the new keyword 
# URL system. We maintain the old files at their existing urls, while 
# at the same time introducing new keyword based urls for the future. 
# For example:
# 
# Old url:
# 
# http://www.WebmasterWorld.com/forum30/
# 
# new URL:
# 
# http://www.WebmasterWorld.com/google/
# 
# It is significant to note, that your old bookmarks to specific 
# discussions will continue to work. However, the index pages for each 
# forum will slowly be changed over to the new keyword URL based 
# system.
# 
# Another thing you will notice, is the spartan look of pages when 
# logged out. By not looking up member info on each message, we remove 
# a massive chunk of overhead on the system.
# 
# More here:
# http://www.webmasterworld.com/webmasterworld/3000001.htm
#
# -bt


# =========================================================================== #
#                                                                             #
# The PayPal Wars                                                             #
#                                                                             #
# by brett tabke                                                              #
# 6/27/2006                                                                   #
#                                                                             #
# =========================================================================== #
#
# disclosure: I am on the PayPal developers advisory board.
# 
# I was just studying the GBuy thread closer than I have looked 
# and studied an issue in years. This could be the biggest 
# competitive struggle we have seen since Microsoft vs Netscape.
# http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum86/4534.htm
#
# Google vs Microsoft/Yahoo/AskJeeves, is/was for the shear horse race 
# and sportsmanship value. I feel like the community has a clear 
# interest in the outcome, but as a whole - regardless of the battle - 
# we will continue and our outcome/survival is assured. 
# 
# GBuy vs PayPal/Ebay though...this is a different kind of front here. 
# Really for the first time, Google is poised to step into unknown 
# water with ZERO experience at a real "all grown up" playing field.
# 
# When we look at some of Googles bigger offerings, a trend towards 
# geekdom comes out:
# 
# Gmail - email systems are so 1996 with off-the-shelf programs 
# available. They are 'techie' things.
# Maps - there we are with window dressing on a Microsoft (Terra 
# server) product from 97.
# Online Advertising buying/selling are essentially off-the-shelf..oldschool.
# 
# What else? When you look down the list of G offerings, there 
# is little that Google has done up until now that is not purely 
# "net related nerdvana stuff". 
# http://www.google.com/intl/en/options/
# 
# But payments? This is an odd-man-out - a sunflower in the 
# daisy patch. I can't help but remember back to when Red Had IPO'd
# and all the *nix geeks freaked out and wet themselves trying to 
# get in on the action or even understand it. Many of those same
# geeks now work for Google. Have they learned anything?
# 
# 
# Apparently - Googles main competitor for GBuy/GPayments will be 
# Ebay/PayPal. How ironic that the last month, I have been using spare 
# time to read, "The PayPal Wars" by Eric Jackson.
# 
# The most striking thing about the PayPal story is just how deep into the 
# financial wars PayPal got. Their attempt at international monetary 
# domination was meet with a full frontal assault by everyone from the 
# powerful financial communities to the Russian Mafia.
# 
# ------------------------------------------------------------ quote:
#   PayPal looked like a gold mine for crime rings as well as 
#   sophisticated independent crooks trafficking in stolen credit cards. 
#   ...With a CD-Rom full of stolen numbers and a robotic script designed 
#   to open PayPal accounts, Internet-savvy criminals could easily 
#   automate the creation of hundreds of thousands of dummy users. Those 
#   feeder accounts could then use the stolen credit cards to send 
#   payments through a layer or two of additional fraudulent accounts 
#   before the criminal initiated an ACH to transfer the balance out of 
#   the system.
# ----------------------------------------------------------- /quote
# 
# To say that PayPal is the most battle hardened dot com on the 
# web today is an understatement:
# 
# ------------------------------------------------------------ quote:
#   When the Russian and Nigerian mafias rung up online charges, 
#   they ultimately plundered PayPal, not the cardholder. While our 
#   customer base continued its explosive growth, these brazen criminals 
#   walked in through our front door and carried on their activities 
#   largely unmolested. In what we would later refer to as "a 
#   significant fraud episode," one such fraud ring cost the company 
#   \$5.7 million over a four month period in mid-2000.
# ----------------------------------------------------------- /quote
# 
# From there we finally get some long over due answers from the PayPal 
# side of things. One doesn't need to dig too deep  on the net to find 
# some very PO'd people teeing off on PayPal. There were a few, but 
# vocal group of people that had their PayPal accounts frozen in the 
# midst of the all out fraud assault on PayPal. It was always assumed 
# that those accounts were some how caught up in the fraud schemes
# PayPal was fighting. For the first time, we have a few comments from
# PayPal on the story:
# 
# ------------------------------------------------------------ quote:
#   PayPals success in fighting back fraud also produced false 
#   positives that inconvenienced honest users.... But as bad as the 
#   false positives experience for innocent users and resulting negative 
#   publicity for the company might have been, it was an acceptable 
#   cost. The fact that spiraling fraud losses contributed to many of 
#   our competitors, like eMoneyMail, PayMe, and PayPlace ceasing 
#   operation made this an easy choice. Had PayPal not found a way to 
#   get fraud under control, it would have destroyed the company.
# ----------------------------------------------------------- /quote
# 
# Whatever the outcome - this is going to get interesting. PayPal/Ebay 
# are clearly not a bunch of sheep.
#
# If you are looking for some insight into GBuy vs Ebay, I would read 
# the PayPal Wars.
# 
# Questions still remaining:
# - Has PayPal still got fight in them?
# - Has Ebay Neutered PayPal?
# - What could Ebays possible response be?
# 
# 
# bt
#
#...The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.
#


# =========================================================================== #
#                                                                             #
# Wavers - Webmasters That Rode The Google Links Wave                         #
#                                                                             #
# by brett tabke                                                              #
# 5/18/2006                                                                   #
#                                                                             #
# =========================================================================== #

#  A few moderators were asking if there was an over-abundance of dissatisfied 
#  Google users these days?
#  
#  Riding the Google wave for a whole host of newbies was easy. They cracked 
#  the Google algo :-) For the first five years of Google, you could  
#  effectively sum up 80% of the Google algo this way:
#  
#  =======================================
#  Google Algo = Get Links = Good Rankings
#  =======================================
#  
#  That was the SEO expertise of an entire generation of Google Wave Webmasters 
#  (I call them "Google Wavers" or just "Wavers"). 
#  
#  I talked with the LEAD senior optimizer for a top 5 seo firm last summer at 
#  a conference. We were talking about my Keyword Density Analyzer utility that 
#  is available here for subscribers. I raised an eyebrow as he did not 
#  understand concept of keyword density. He simply didn't know what it was and 
#  instead wanted to talk about links. That is not the exception - that sort of 
#  ignorance is rampant out there.  There are guys and gals reading this right 
#  now, that are top 50 seo's. There are also people you read every day as 
#  "experts" who couldn't pass an SEO101 class. I know one seo who has written 
#  a successful book about SEO, who I am almost positive has never done any SEO 
#  but her/his blog. 
#  
#  The majority of the SEO knowledge out there today is about links. From 
#  services that provide linking, to sites that sell links, we have a huge 
#  investment in "links=seo". So huge, that even long after linkage as SEO is 
#  dead an buried, there will still be those trumpeting it as the 
#  end-all-be-all of SEO to make coin off it.
#  
#  What happens to all those Wavers that think [i]Getting Links = SEO[/i] when 
#  that majority of the Google algo is devalued in various ways?  Wavers built 
#  their fortunes on "links=seo". When that goes away, the Wavers have zero to 
#  hold on to. 
#  
#  All they can do - is complain. An entire generation of webmasters are forced 
#  to go back to SEO101 and learn what they ignored or never had the fortitude 
#  and passion to learn.
#  
#  -bt
#  
#  ...I have a friend who's a billionaire. He invented Cliff notes. 
#     When I asked him how he got such a great idea, he said, 
#     "Well first I.....I just....to make a long story short..." - Stephen Wright
#



# =========================================================================== #
#                                                                             #
# Password Hell!                                                              #
#                                                                             #
# by brett tabke                                                              #
# 5/15/2006                                                                   #
#                                                                             #
# =========================================================================== #
  
#  In one of the more amusing articles, I have seen in awhile, 
#  silicon.com proposes a set of password guidelines. 
#  While some are very useful - other are dubious - and still others humorus.
#
#  http://www.silicon.com/research/specialreports/idmanagement/0,380001
#  1361,39158933,00.htm

#  My take:
#
#  1- Passwords must not be written down
#  
#  Yes, you must remember that autogenerated forced password like: 
#  "71JU28kIjjL7126" by pure memory power alone. LOL!
#  
#  Fact: There is little chance of your remembering all the passwords 
#  you are forced to use.
#  
#  Tip: Always record your passwords somewhere in some form. We'd 
#  recommend one of the many password keeper programs that can be 
#  locked. Or, write them down and put them in a company safe. We'd 
#  suggest a simple encryption system such as exchanging the first or 
#  last two characters of every password.
#  
#  
#  2: Passwords must be set
#  
#  TIP: If a required secure system allows you to leave a password as a 
#  default (such as password or admin) - then get a new system because 
#  the current one is not secure and there is little doubt that 
#  fundamental security flaws will be found under the skin.
#  
#  3:  Require as few passwords as possible
#  
#  FACT: You have no choices in this matter. You gotta use - what you 
#  gotta use.
#  
#  4: Staff must change their passwords regularly
#  
#  That is a good tip, but fred2006 will change his password to 
#  fred2005 and flip back and forth. Most studies on this one have 
#  shown that people simply cycle between a few default flavors.
#  
#  5: Make new passwords new
#  
#  The only way to do that is to use a randomization routine. Which 
#  brings us full circle back to #1.
#  
#  6:  Avoid obvious words
#  
#  Good tip. Dictionary attacks still happen. Which means most systems 
#  should use a 3strikes and you are out for 15mins programming rule.
#  
#  7: Think long - but not too long
#  
#  Password problems are directly proportional to the length of 
#  passwords. As password length increases - so do support and system 
#  help calls. 
#  
#  8: Automate password changes
#  
#  Good tip, but be sure to lay in more customer support personnel on 
#  the days you force password changes. Sally in accounting is sure to 
#  call with password problems. Be sure to lay in more training for 
#  your support personnel, because as calls increase, so do social 
#  engineering related hacker calls.
#  
#  9: Educate staff
#  
#  Deja vu.
#  
#  10: Look to the future such as biometrics and two-factor 
#  authentication
#  
#  That's great - beam me up Mr. Scott.
#  
#  Fact: real world biometrics are 5-10 years away. Todays finger print 
#  scanners have a high failure rate and are not workable in the real 
#  world.
#  
#  The closest we have are the retinal eye scanners. They have quite a 
#  r&d cycle to go before ready. They run as high as a 25% failure 
#  rates right now, but the future looks very bright for them. They 
#  might also be combine with health scanners to spot the early onset 
#  of eye diseases.
#  
#  Warning - software plug:
#  I use SplashID for desktop and for my phone. Works great...
#  
#  -bt
#  
#  ... For my birthday I got a humidifier and a dehumidifier. I put 
#      them in the same room and let them fight it out.


# =========================================================================== #
#                                                                             #
# Digging Out from Boston                                                     #
#                                                                             #
# by brett tabke                                                              #
# 5/4/2006                                                                    #
#                                                                             #
# =========================================================================== #

# Whew, finally have dug out from the onslaught of work that was Pubcon Boston.
#
# What a great conference it was. The blogging session was my favorite I think.
# Setting in with Matt and Robert, and Jeremy was like being allowed to listen
# in on a private conversation between the three of them. Funny thing was that
# Robert barely made it to the conference. The cab driver took him to the wrong
# convention center.
#
# Attendee numbers were on par with last years New Orleans conference. We really
# had to fight for it thought with the proximity to Easter and the other big
# conferences going on at the same time.
#
# Special thanks to Malcolm Gladwell for helping with charity book signing.
# Together we raised nearly \$3000 for charity.
#
#
#
# Brett
#
# ... It doesn't matter what temperature a room is, it's always room temperature.

# =========================================================================== #
#                                                                             #
# Follow The Money                                                            #
#                                                                             #
# by brett tabke                                                              #
# 3/28/2006                                                                   #
#                                                                             #
# =========================================================================== #

# <advert>
#                 ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
#                                                                  
#                           WebmasterWorlds PUBCON BOSTON                    
#                
#                    Keynote by Malcolm (Tipping Point) Gladwell      
#                
#                               Get the PubCon Edge!                    
#                
#                              http://www.PubCon.com                
#                
#                 ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
# </advert>

#
#   When not conferencing or tweaking servers, the great state of 
#   "newbieness" is my top "blue sky" topics to contemplate. 
#   
#   I can not count the times that people have come up to me at the 
#   conferences and said something to the effect: 
#   
#   "3 months ago I was working in a factory....now I am making more 
#   money and working much less thanks to WebmasterWorld."  There are 
#   plenty of newbie stories out there just like that. 
#   
#   Remember in the 80's when everyone was waxing on about "the life 
#   cycle" of the human? If you understood the life cycle of humans you 
#   could make a fortune (eg: knowing to invest in fitness equipment 
#   when the baby boomers hit 30, or in luxury cars when they hit 40, or 
#   investment schemes when they hit 50, or retirement stuff when they 
#   hit 60). 
#   
#   I think to really understand the current state of newbieness, you 
#   have to understand the life cycle of the web user: 
#   
#   The CIA says something to the effect, "that 88% of all humans will 
#   live 99% of their lives within 25miles of the spot they were born". 
#   Most of us were born on Yahoo and we have not strayed to far from 
#   the nest.  Most of what we do on the web today is still filtered 
#   through those early Yahoo colored glasses. Even Google took it's 
#   starting low impact page que from Yahoo.
#   
#   Today, many new web users and new webmasters are being "born on 
#   Google.com" and continue to ride the Google wave into webmastering. 
#   Understanding the new newbie webmaster phenom is to understand the 
#   Google wave is to understand the Newbie wave. Circular? Yes it is. 
#   The bottom line is that it is Adsense - it is the heart and soul of 
#   the newbie wave. I don't think we have seen anything yet. There is 
#   an explosion of newbieness going on out there and we are just 
#   scratching the surface here. 
#   
#   -bt
#   
#  ...You want to know what is going on? Then follow the money - (Deepthroat 1973).
#


# =========================================================================== #
#                                                                             #
# What is Your EQ?                                                            #
#                                                                             #
# by brett tabke                                                              #
# 3/14/2006                                                                   #
#                                                                             #
# =========================================================================== #

# 
# 
# Sorry for the delay in updating - I got tied up in this tornado of 
# exuberance called PubCon prep work.
# 
# Good friend digitalghost tipped me off to a fresh business quiz.
# http://www.webmasterworld.com/profile.cgi?action=view&member=digitalghost
# 
# This one is by noted marketing guru Guy Kawasaki:
# http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2006/03/whats_your_eq_e.html
# 
# ----------------------------------------------------------------------
#   Here's a quiz to determine your "entrepreneurial quotient". My 
#   intent is to test a person's knowledge of entrepreneurship. However, 
#   scoring high doesn't mean you're the next Steve Jobs, and scoring 
#   low doesn't mean you're not. Some answers are debatable, so there 
#   will be many comments. 
# ----------------------------------------------------------------------
# 
# ok - haven't taken the test just yet.  I got to reading that page 
# and several things besides the test freaking leaped off the page and 
# need major comment.
# 
# a) guy is pretty cool. We thought about him for a keynote at PubCon 
# and may have him in the future. I saw him speak a couple years ago 
# in Chicago and he is a very righteous speaker. 
# 
# <satire>
# b) What is that over on the right where the traditional trashcan 
# blog roll should be? What is a Tag Zoom cloud? That looks brilliant! 
# Where have I been on that one...wow. Take your tags and dump keywords
# on to the page and don't call is page spamming - call it a 
# Cloud! (grin)and people wonder why tagging teams are going at it?
# </satire>
# 
# c) Another Text-Link-Ads ad on that page. Patrick Gavin of TLA is 
# without-a-doubt this last years genius advertiser in the SEO space - 
# he is EVERYWHERE with his product. What and excellent job of 
# brand building with a sometimes controversial product. Nice Work!
# 
# ok - back to the test...
# 
# I missed 7.   
# 
# #4: The foundation of a successful brand is:
# 
# I still think should be A (Effective marketing). It was a trick 
# question because a great product does NOT equal a great brand.  But, 
# a bad product can equal a great brand (eg: Ipod was 2 years late to 
# the market, major under powered, 50% higher than competitors, and 
# broke alot in the early days...)
# 
# #5:  Ultimately, who positions a product or service establishing how 
# customers will come to view it?
# 
# The company positions a product from start to finish. What happens 
# in the market place by the consumers - is not positioning. Any 
# company that believes the product, the message, and the positioning 
# is out of their control - is doomed - go home people - it's over.
# You control EVERYTHING. Yes, there comes a point when every child
# leaves the nest, but even then, they can phone home to get money
# wired after that weekend bender at college. The point being, that
# a culture of accountability, resposibilty and total empowerment
# must live in the product from birth until death pulls if off the
# shelf. Nothing less than a employeement force that takes total
# ownership for a products life cycle is acceptable.
# 
# #6:  If you want your company to be successful, it's most important 
# to strive for which objective?
# 
# Ok fine, life, liberty and the pursuit of a monopoly.
# Tastes like chicken.
#
# ....meanwhile, back in the real world. 
# 
# Ya, i will cut Guy some slack on this one. I know where he is coming 
# from, however I do not believe that you HAVE to be the sole 
# provider of something people really want to be profitable, successful, 
# or even retire early. All of that can be accomplished in 
# a highly competitive market.
# 
# #10: Which part of a business plan is the most important?
# 
# Well, he warned us that it was trick question in his intro. lol. 
# executive summary. Have you ever seen a business plan that had an 
# "executive summary"? (shrug - yes I have) In lieu of that - the 
# competitive analysis is most important. 
# 
# #13: A company that is bootstrapping should avoid which management 
# practice?
# 
# I suppose this is a little too close to home for me to see the
# answer clearly. I said C (Positioning against the industry leader), 
# but b (Trying to recruit a "dream" management team of proven 
# executives) makes very good sense.  Chimps can manage in the early 
# days and you need committed, passionate heavy lifters to lay down 
# the schema and carry out the existing plan as growth overwhelms you
# in the early days.
# 
# #15: You've just met with a key potential account. It could be a 
# large sale and also bolster your company's credibility in the 
# industry. However, the account is afraid to do business with a 
# "startup." The best way to win them over is to:
# 
# 
# 15: I totally knew his answer was going to be C:  Offer to do a 
# pilot implementation at a deep discount.
# 
# Unfortunately, I know alot of companies that have held going out of 
# business sales because they said C too. Just talk to companies like 
# Novell, Stacker, Word Perfect, Lotus, Apple, or Geocities about 
# showing people a "demo" at a deep discount. Never heard of some of 
# those companies? Ya, they all are about dead or suffered extreme harm
# at some point, because they happened to give people deeply discounted
# demos. There is no better way in todays world to get your product
# ripped off than to give discounted demo. Where would Apple be today
# if Steve Jobs hadn't given a mac demo to Microsoft and went with
# some other software house?
# 
# 
# - BT

# =========================================================================== #
#                                                                             #
# The Left and the Right Wing Assault Four Big Horses                         #
#                                                                             #
# by brett tabke                                                              #
# 2/15/2006                                                                   #
#                                                                             #
# =========================================================================== #

# <advert>
#                 ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
#                                                                  
#                           WebmasterWorlds PUBCON BOSTON                    
#                
#                    Keynote by Malcolm (Tipping Point) Gladwell      
#                
#                               Get the PubCon Edge!                    
#                
#                              http://www.PubCon.com                
#                
#                 ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
# </advert>


#  If you happened to watch todays hearings that featured Google, Yahoo, 
#  Cisco, and Microsoft  you saw a double sided ambush. These are some folks 
#  worried about their congressional seat in an election year. These 
#  are same lot who voted for open and free trade with China. Yes, this is
#  the same lot that is now waxing poetic and pointed accusatory fingers at
#  the big four for doing what we do - making money in the market place
#  that our government and lawmakers created by granting China, most favored
#  trade status.
#  
#  The message underneath is pretty clear : "as long as it political 
#  prisoners working for 50cents a day to build designer tennis shoes 
#  for Walmart in Shanghai - it is ok. But once it is "in your face" with 
#  flat out censorship - it is not ok! There is zero difference between 
#  that guy building Nikes for Walmart and Google selling the keyword 
#  "great wall".
#  
#  Dear Washington; 
#  
#  Get over it, or change your damnable trade laws THAT YOU MADE. 
#  Leave the internet alone. It is too big and complex for you to 
#  understand. Let the boys in California do business and quit trying 
#  to make political capital out of a less than ideal situation. It is 
#  not up to the Four Horsemen to fight our national battles or more 
#  precisely - the battles you don't have the nads to fight where you 
#  should be fighting. If you have a problem with the way China is 
#  doing business, then take it up in Beijing.
#  
#  Brett Tabke 
##


# =========================================================================== #
#                                                                             #
# Head Down and Spending Time With The Cube                                   #
#                                                                             #
# by brett tabke                                                              #
# 2/14/2006                                                                   #
#                                                                             #
# =========================================================================== #

#    First, happy Valentines day in the US. I have spent the better 
# part of the last few weeks - locked in combat with "the cube". Yes, 
# it is coming up on conference time (www.pubcon.com) and I am busy 
# finishing the session grid. I have always likened it to solving a a 
# rubics cube. XX number of Sessions with XX number of speakers with 
# XX number of egos ;-) makes for a fun challenge. The good news is - 
# the grid is almost done! Best conference ever.
#
# -bt



# =========================================================================== #
#                                                                             #
# The Richter Scale of Conferencing                                           #
#                                                                             #
# by brett tabke                                                              #
# 2/1/2006                                                                    #
#                                                                             #
# =========================================================================== #

# <advert>
#                 ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
#                                                                  
#                           WebmasterWorlds PUBCON BOSTON                    
#                
#                    Keynote by Malcolm (Tipping Point) Gladwell      
#                
#                               Get the PubCon Edge!                    
#                
#                              http://www.PubCon.com                
#                
#                 ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
# </advert>

# post note: Did I just become the first one to ever put a banner ad in a robots.txt?

#
# re:http://www.buzzmachine.com/index.php/2006/01/29/exploding-the-conference-business/
# 
# Last week Jeff Jarvis (buzzmachine - one of my 'gotta reads') talked 
# about conferences in a blog post. His sentiments have echoed many I 
# have heard. Scoble addressed many of Jeffs comments, but even Robert 
# was a bit conservative in his estimates of what a conference
# costs these days.
# 
# http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/2006/01/29/conferences-vcing-hot-topics-this-morning/
# 
# 2000 of My Closest Friends for 3 Days:
# 
# Lets say you are going to plan a conference for 2000 people for 3 
# days. To hold a conference that size, you are going to be pretty 
# limited in what venues you can use. Those that will work - will cost 
# you. If you are in a hotel, your rates will go down, but in a 
# convention center they can increase significantly. At a minimum, you 
# will pay about \$1 a square foot. Or, a conference of 2k for 3 days, 
# will run \$50,000 to \$80,000 for the space.
# 
# Next, a you will need a contractor to handle the conference setup, 
# and to work with the venue. Most cities and convention centers 
# require union labor to handle things like booths. That will run you 
# another \$20k-\$50k.
# 
# You will need some AV. You can do it for about \$10k on the cheap, or 
# \$20-\$30k if you wanna be real.
# 
# Then you'll need security as mandated by the venue. About \$5-7k.
# 
# Then some labor to operate the thing. Another \$10-15k.
# 
# Conference books. About \$10-15 per attendee (\$20-\$25k).
# 
# Shipping all this stuff - another \$5-20k (it gets out of control in 
# a hurry).
# 
# Figuring out how to get all this to sync - atleast \$10k in 
# consultants (very conservative).
# 
# Computers to manage your registration on site and for presentations 
# \$5k.
# 
# On venue site misc  expenses (trust me) \$10-20k.
# 
# Hey, you want internet at your conference? That will run \$500 to 
# \$1000 PER connection! (or \$8k easy)
# 
# You want a big shot keynote speaker? Figure \$40-\$150k speaking fees 
# (plus expenses).
# 
# Showing your panel speakers some love : \$2k - xx,000
# 
# Then your online site \$7-10k a year.
# 
# You gotta have some of them there perty signs to tell everyone 
# what's where when - \$2k on the cheap - \$5k to get real.
# 
# Then your guys to build and run the conference (1 person per 500 
# attendees min) at probably 70k-90k a year.
# 
# You need to get your people there right? Lets say \$20k in planes, 
# trains, taxis, and hotels.
# 
# Who is that over there? Billy Joe Jim Bob Name tags: \$3 each. (\$5k)
# 
# Taxes, insurance, offices, phones, internet - oh no!. \$xx,xxx - 
# \$xxx,xxx per year.
#
# Decorators? Don't even go there! \$20k just for designs.
#
# Meeting planners? \$10k just for the coffe talk. -$30-\$50k for them to
# actually do some work.
# 
# Still with us? Ok, here is where we shake out the men from the boys: 
# 
# Getting a hotel for the conference? Lets say you reserve a room 
# block of 750 rooms for 3 nights : 2250 times at say \$159 a night. 
# That's a cool \$380,000 you just guaranteed bucko. You still have the 
# stomach for this? What's more? you are probably going to have to 
# make that commitment 1 full year out before the conference! Hello!?
#
# Oh wait - we were doing for 2k people right? And they will be there for
# the 3 nights of the conference plus the travel day. So that is 8000 
# room nights and you will probably spend \$180-\$225 for rooms. So a 
# real figure closeer to \$1.25- to \$1.8 million. Yes, that is MILLION!
# 
# Next you'll need to feed some people. Most conference centers will 
# run about \$50 per person per day for a continental breakfast and box 
# lunch package. Or for a three day conference, \$150 per attendee. Any 
# where from \$300k to \$500k for food total. If you get shmancy fancy, 
# you could easily top \$150 per person per day.
#
# Hey, so you are out of pocket for half a million to one million on this
# "little conference" and committed to several hundred more - you 
# best be doing some marketing. add \$50-\$150k.
# 
# Happy Fun Thoughts:
#
# As scary as that may be - lets think some happy thoughts and talk 
# revenue baby:
# 
# In order to build a conference of 2k, you will end up comp'ing about 
# 25%. Those will include staff, speakers, friends, friends of 
# speakers, and VIP's. Every conference I have been around has a comp 
# rate of 25% or higher. 
# 
# Then you will have deeply discounted rates for exhibitors and 
# sponsors. If you have 50 exhibitors, you can figure on giving each 
# 4-6 passes to go along with their package.
# 
# Next, you will more-than-likely have a discount rate for exhibit 
# hall only attendees. That will run another 10-20% depending on your 
# conference style and attraction. Of that, you will probably have a 
# discounted coupon rate for your exhibitors. I know of one large 
# conference that regularly gives exhibitors a 50% discount rate that 
# they can pass on to their clients.
# 
# Then you will probably have a deeply discounted early sign up rate. 
# 
# Lastly, many conferences will have single "day rates" that cut 
# prices in half for each day.
# 
# So here is the big secret in conferences today - at a minimum, a 
# modern conference of 2k will have less than 50% that actually pay to 
# get in the door, and of those - only 30-35% will pay full price. For 
# example, I know of one big new york conference that had 8k people 
# attend last year. Of those, only 555 were paid in full, 1500 were 
# single day passes and the rest were exhibit hall only and comps.
# 
# Exhibits? Ya, those will require special handling. Rarely do 
# conferences sell packages at full price. Even the largest 
# conferences out there today often discount their sponsorships 50% 
# for multi conference signups.
# 
# So, as Scoble hints, it is exponentially harder to do a conference 
# of 2k than it is to do a conference of 4-5 hundred. It is like that 
# Richter scale thing where things start multiplying out of control.
# 
# Our Orlando conference of 500 in Feb of 2004 was 7000% more 
# profitable than our Las Vegas conference of 1500 last fall.
# 
# I think 2006 will be a big year of shake out in the conference 
# business. We will see many smaller conferences fade and the bigger 
# ones solidify their standing. The Fad-Techs and the CES's will grow 
# in dominance. What will separate the big from the small will be 
# marketing.
# 
# Does Alan Meckler selling Ses makes a whole lot more sense now?
# Alan will not be missed (atleast by those of us that run 
# conferences...lol) 
# 
# Jeff did have some very interesting comments about a conference being
# a conversation, we will tackle those another day.
#
# BT
# 

# =========================================================================== #
#                                                                             #
# Cache This - Or, Setting Up Your Own Vertical Search Engine                 #
#                                                                             #
# by brett tabke                                                              #
# 1/27/2006                                                                   #
#                                                                             #
# =========================================================================== #
#
#   http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum30/32936.htm
#
#   http://www.eff.org/news/archives/2006_01.php#004345  
#
#  I've said for years that in any court case, "the one with the most 
#  money will 99% of the time win. Yesterdays ruling that Googles 
#  republished copy of pages (they call it a "cache") proves that 
#  point.  
#
#  What Does It Mean:
#
#  It means we can now all start "caching" search engines and 
#  republishing works.  Simply download and install a search engine 
#  just as ASPSeek and fed it some URLs. And as added bonus points
#  The search engines will glady cache your cached pages. 
#
#  http://www.aspseek.org
#
#  - bt
#


# =========================================================================== #
#                                                                             #
# Another Search Magazine                                                     #
#                                                                             #
# by brett tabke                                                              #
# 1/26/2006                                                                   #
#                                                                             #
# =========================================================================== #
#
# The third attempt at a search marketing magazine:
# 
# http://www.searchmarketingstandard.com/
#
# Many will probably remember the first big magazine BallyHoo by Troy 
# Perkins.
#
# -bt

# =========================================================================== #
#                                                                             #
# Yahoo, Oh Sorry - She Said it, but We Didn't Mean It!                       #
#                                                                             #
# by brett tabke                                                              #
# 1/25/2006                                                                   #
#                                                                             #
# =========================================================================== #
#
#  http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum35/3819.htm#  
#
#  Yahoo CFO Susan Dreker said earlier this week:
#  
#  http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/256748_yahoo24.html
#  -----------------------------------------------------------------------
#    "We don't think it's reasonable to assume we're going to gain a lot 
#    of share from Google," Chief Financial Officer Susan Decker said in 
#    an interview. "It's not our goal to be No. 1 in Internet search. We 
#    would be very happy to maintain our market share."
#  -----------------------------------------------------------------------
#  
#   So when my email and stickymail started going off that Yahoo had 
#   responded, I was excited. At least until I found out they had 
#   responded on their blog. 
#   
#   They have the phone number of every major tech reporter in the 
#   country in their Rolodex.  So why not call up Bloomberg for a second 
#   interview and respond - or how about the AP - or the New York Times, 
#   - one of a dozen other top news outlets in the country? To publish 
#   a "nondenial denial" on the corporate blog is to be dismissed from
#   top to bottom. It pollutes everything they have to say via that
#   avenue from now until eternity
#  
#   This is a perfect example of why the corporate search blogs 
#   should be ignored. It is why companies should not act this way. 
#   It is also why we do not link to corporate search blogs. 
#
#   If they have something to say - then issue a press release, or 
#   grab the nearest real reporter on any street corner and talk.
#
#  - bt 
#  


# =========================================================================== #
#                                                                             #
# Google to Cofund a AntiSpyware Group                                        #
#                                                                             #
# by brett tabke                                                              #
# 1/25/2006                                                                   #
#                                                                             #
# =========================================================================== #
#
#  
#  The Google toolbar tracks everthing a person does with his/her browser.
#
#  Google knows the following about toolbar users:
#  
#   - searches they performed on Google.
#   - what url they click on.
#   - time they spend on each site.
#
#  A massive set of derived data:
#   - forms they filled out (not actual values).
#   - purchasing actions.
#   - blog entries.
#   - chat rooms and groups entered.
#   - what advertisements they viewed.
#   - competitors urls.
#   - private and https urls unseen to GoogleBot.
#  
#  This is what the web referrs to as spyware. If a user enables the 
#  tracking mode advanced features of the toolbar (every toolbar I have 
#  seen has it on), the above info is tracked forever by Google. 
#  
#  That by itself is benign. It is when you put it in the context of 
#  the US governments request for information from Google that things 
#  get very suspect.
#  
# http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/01/24/google_privacy_poll/
#  -------------------------------------------------------------------------
#     More than three quarters of web surfers don't realize Google records 
#     and stores information that may identify them, results of a new 
#     opinion poll show.
#  -------------------------------------------------------------------------
#  
#  http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum86/4413.htm
#  
#  So from out of no where comes word that Google will cofund a group 
#  that is AntiSpyware.
#  
#  http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1915114,00.asp
#  -------------------------------------------------------------------------
#    Sources say the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law 
#    School will run the operations of the coalition with help from 
#    Consumer Reports WebWatch, a consumer advocacy group.
#  -------------------------------------------------------------------------
#  
#  Ya buddy - Harvard involved in it! Lets to those college boys on the case.
#  After all - they have a ton of leisure time and think they have the world
#  by the tail.  Now maybe we can get some decent legal action on Malware!
#  
#  However, from there - we go down hill pretty fast:
#  
#  -------------------------------------------------------------------------
#    Vint Cerf, the renowned technologist who was recently hired as chief 
#    Internet evangelist at Google, is on board as an adviser to the 
#    coalition.
#  -------------------------------------------------------------------------
#  
#  Can you say "conflict of interest"? This is an attempt at co-opting an
#  isssue that is right in their front yard. 
#
#  And from there - it flat out gets shaddy:
#
#  The groups domain? 
#  Umm, dude - it is owned by Google...
#  -------------------------------------------------------------------------
#    Domain ID:D109507546-LROR
#    Domain Name:STOPBADWARE.ORG
#    Created On:14-Dec-2005 01:04:00 UTC
#    Last Updated On:19-Jan-2006 21:11:56 UTC
#    Expiration Date:14-Dec-2006 01:04:00 UTC
#    Sponsoring Registrar:Network Solutions LLC (R63-LROR)
#    Status:CLIENT TRANSFER PROHIBITED
#    Registrant ID:40225598-NSIV
#    Registrant Name:Google
#    Registrant Organization:Google
#  -------------------------------------------------------------------------
#  
#  And just when I was feeling all Googly about Google again...
#
#  http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum86/4412.htm
#  
# -bt
#


# =========================================================================== #
#                                                                             #
# Google China - Seeds of Revolution                                          #
#                                                                             #
# by brett tabke                                                              #
# 1/25/2006                                                                   #
#                                                                             #
# =========================================================================== #
#
#  Revolutions do not happen when things get worse, or human rights are   
#  walked on. People have better times fresh in their memory. They are 
#  willing to endure some hard times because they feel blessed about the
#  average or good times they just had.
#
#  Historically, revolutions happen when things start to get "a little bit 
#  better".  People start to want, hope, and dream of a better future. That 
#  desire - often along with an empty stomach - moves them to action.
#
#  Not the US Government - nor US companies - are going to single handedly
#  start a revolution in China. Only the Chinese can do that if they desire. 
#  Hopefully, the taste of a little Google brand of information freedom
#  can help things get a "little bit better" in China. 
#
#  From blood stained concret of Tiananmen Square, to the factories of
#  Shanghi, there is a fire in the belly of China. Google in China is
#  not a seed of freedom. Google is potent fuel to the fire.
#
#  As distasteful as many of us find government imposed censorship, 
#  Google did the right thing. It is better to be part of an imperfect 
#  solution, than to be part of the problem.  Lets us hope, the quest for
#  freedom continues to grow.
#
#  What exactly will be censored? www.google.cn
#
# -bt
#



# =========================================================================== #
#                                                                             #
# Windows Install and Active X - They Still Bite the Big One                  #
#                                                                             #
# AKA, How I Learned to Stop Whinning about AdWare and Love Gator             #
#                                                                             #
# by brett tabke                                                              #
# 1/24/2006                                                                   #
#                                                                             #
# =========================================================================== #
#
#
#  The Sacrificial Machine:
#
#  We had a machine at work for awhile that we would install suspect software 
#  on it and let it have its way with the machine. We used to run an mp3 site 
#  for mp3 software and that stuff would often come with AdWare and spyware as 
#  tag alone installs. It was always scary to fire up the sacrificial machine 
#  and look at WebmasterWorld. Via popware and AdWare, we watched benign text 
#  get churned into some ones (often a competitors) advertisement. It was 
#  unnerving and infuriating. It is an over used word, but I did feel 
#  "violated" for my site and my community. It was as if someone was stealing 
#  from us in broad daylight and the cops wouldn't do anything to protect
#  our property.
#  
#  Internet Explorer - And Microsoft ActiveX:
#  
#  On the way to "web is platform" nerdvana, Microsoft ran into a few problems. 
#  The first of those problems was Active X. Aside from making for some great 
#  viruses, ActiveX has done little to live up to the hype. It is so overly 
#  complex, that only major corporations with deep programming departments and 
#  hackers can write programs to take advantage of it. As far as I can 
#  determine, the only real purpose ActiveX has thus far live out, has been to 
#  leave systems vulnerable to easy attack. Although the Microsoft security 
#  patches have fallen from a weekly occurrence to a monthly one (thank God!), 
#  there are still many holes being found in Windows. Any operating system 
#  that could allow a Gator to be installed and not easily uninstalled without
#  heroic measures is fundamentally flawed.
#  
#  It was via many of the ActiveX access points, that AdWare programs have 
#  found a living. It was through those points, that they were able to quietly 
#  be installed.  I am sure we have all seen the reports that some of the 
#  AdWare programs used questionable install methods and ethics. Whether that 
#  includes Gator (now known as Claria), I do not know.
#  
#    http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.12/spyware.html
#
#  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#    "Our idea was a program that would store your passwords and automatically 
#     log you into password-protected sites," says Wally Buch. ...They called it 
#     eWallet.
#  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#
#  Respecting Innovation:
#  
#  I love software innovation in any sector. Take Claria/Gator for example. It 
#  started out as a simple little program that would act as a "wallet" for 
#  people to securely and easily spend money online. It was morphed into an 
#  amazing (but annoying) Ad program. I say amazing, because some of the things 
#  going on at the code level in Claria are break through tactics. Some of 
#  which, you can clearly see showing up in other major ad programs. Gator was 
#  the original contextual ad program that silently fed ads that worked along 
#  side webpages.
#  
#  The Scumware Nonsense:
#
#  I was fundamentally against the webmaster stance that there was something 
#  inherently wrong with Gator. I believe strongly that Claria/Gator is one of 
#  the most innovative products of the last five years. AdSense and its clones 
#  would not exist if not for Gator. More than anything else, Gator points out 
#  the gapping holes in Microsoft Windows. It also pointed out the holes in our 
#  installation routines. Will we ever again blindly click on that agree button 
#  to install software? For that wakeup call, we owe them a debt of gratitude 
#  for teaching us all to question that program we are about to install.
#
#
#    http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.12/spyware.html
#  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#    Google - with its interconnected search, email, chat, blogs, and social 
#    networks - is also in the business of targeting ads based on user behavior. 
#    So are MSN and Yahoo! All three maintain profiles of everyone who signs up 
#    for their services. They use cookies to track what visitors do on their 
#    sites while they're logged in; the downloadable Google and MSN toolbars 
#    track which sites users visit when they're logged out. Like Claria, Google 
#    has amassed a vast database of user profiles that it plans to use for even 
#    better targeting in the future.
#  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#  
#  On side note, I also respect Claria for it's tough stance and business 
#  tenacity. They have taken a tired, beaten, and bruised company and turned it 
#  into a company that works with some of the largest companies on the web 
#  today. I think they will be used in public relations courses as text book 
#  examples of proactive damage control and campaign management. 
#  
#  It is doubtful I will ever learn to "love" Claria. However, the one public 
#  service it has done is to show us where to truly point a finger of blame - 
#  straight at Redmond for giving us an OS that would allow AdWare to make a 
#  living in the first place. 
# 
#  - bt


# =========================================================================== #
#                                                                             #
# Gladwell Sells Movie Rights to Blink                                        #
# by brett tabke                                                              #
# 1/23/2006                                                                   #
#                                                                             #
# =========================================================================== #
#  
# On the day last November that we booked Gladwell to speak at 
# this springs PubCon Boston, he sold the movie rights to Blink.
#  
#  http://film.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,12589,1639421,00.html
#
#  ------------------------------------------------------------------------
#    Leonardo DiCaprio is to play a man with a particular gift for 
#    reading body language in the forthcoming adaptation of Blink, 
#    Malcolm Gladwell's bestseller about how people make snap decisions. 
#    The writer-director will be Stephen Gaghan, who won an Oscar for his 
#    screenplay of 2000's drug trade film Traffic. "[Gaghan] came to me 
#    out of the blue," Gladwell told trade magazine Variety. 'He thought 
#    there was something in the book that was a movie. We took one 
#    chapter from the book and fashioned a story out of it. But most of 
#    it is something we dreamt up together."
#  ------------------------------------------------------------------------
#
# bt
#

# =========================================================================== #
#                                                                             #
# Warren Buffet Buys BusinessWire                                             #
# by brett tabke                                                              #
# 1/22/2006                                                                   #
#                                                                             #
# =========================================================================== #
#  
# We all quietly missed a major story last week:
# Berkshire Hathaway to Buy Business Wire
#
# http://www.wtopnews.com/?nid=111&sid=673683
#
# That is Warrens first buy in internet space.
#
# -bt
#

# =========================================================================== #
#                                                                             #
# Google The Liberal - Google to Decide Next US President?                    #
# by brett tabke                                                              #
# 1/20/2006                                                                   #
#                                                                             #
# =========================================================================== #
#  
#  The Beast:
#
#  And so it begins; the politics of personal destruction turns its' 
#  malcontented eyes upon warm and fuzzy Google. "The Beast" always needs
#  to be fed. 
#  
#  Bush and the right wing have all by dominated the DC news cycle for the last 
#  6 years. Wrong doing at the highest levels of govt - from suspect actions of 
#  the vice president, to questionable activities of the NSA, The Beast has not 
#  has a satisfying orgy since Lewinsky and Clinton left town.  Even Jacko 
#  couldn't keep The Beast contented for long.
#
#  Google The Blue State:  
#
#  CNN reported last year on a USA Today campaign finance analysis of the 2004 
#  election. The story at the time was a page three nerf story that didn't 
#  cause any concern or discussion at the time. The story maintained that 98% 
#  of all Google employee contributions went to Democrats in 2004. 
#  
#    http://money.cnn.com/2005/02/14/technology/google_democrats/?section=cnn_allpolitics
#  
#     --------------------------------------------------------------
#       A USA Today campaign finance analysis found that, of the
#       company's overall political contributions, 98 percent went
#       to Democrats, the biggest share among top tech donors.
#     --------------------------------------------------------------
#  
#  That story is about the 2004 election. Since that time, Google has went 
#  public and grown significantly. Google employee net worth has grown by 
#  several BILLION dollars. 
#
#  So, lets cut to the chase : if Google employees are very generous with their 
#  campaign contributions, they could almost fund the entire democratic 
#  presidential campaign alone. At a minimum, they could be the difference in a 
#  close election. 
#  
#  Think that is a stretch? Imagine what a 1-2 million dollars worth of  
#  public service announcements educating people about "chads" could have done 
#  in Florida in 2000. What about a 5-10 million dollar ad buy in Cleveland or 
#  Pittsburgh in Oct of 2004? Google contributions could have easily swayed the 
#  last two presidential elections the other way!
#  
#  http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/technology/2005-02-13-google-give-usat_x.htm
#  
#   -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
#    Top Google givers last year included CEO Eric Schmidt, whose company stock 
#    is worth about \$2.8 billion. His biggest donation: \$25,000 to the Democratic 
#    Congressional Campaign Committee. His was among several big employee 
#    contributions made shortly after Google's IPO.
#   -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
#  
#  Pre-emptive Pacification Program:
#
#  When Bill Gates had a similar political problem in 1999, he went on a right 
#  wing pacification program. It included lobbyists, massive political 
#  contributions, and speeches aimed at propping up the right wing platform. In 
#  return, the Bush administration took the harsh sentence imposed by Clinton 
#  dominated courts and morphed it into a hand slap.
#  
#  http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=82105
#     ------------------------------------------------------------------
#      Our mission in Washington boils down to this: Defend the Internet 
#      as a free and open platform for information, communication and 
#      innovation, writes Google attorney Andrew McLaughlin.
#     ------------------------------------------------------------------
#  
#  At a minimum, I think we will see Republicans marching to Mountain View with 
#  their hands out repeatedly. Will Larry and Sergey "share the love"? 
#
#  The only question is if Google will be able to survive their ride on The 
#  Beast? Yesterday, Google lost \$50 off it's stock value. The biggest one day 
#  decline for Google ever - and that was but a simple subpoena issue. Imagine 
#  what a real "issue day" for the beast will be. 
#  
#  What happened this week was not a country seeking data from Google - it was 
#  the first salvo of the 2008 presidential election.  This was target practice
#  from The Beast. 
#  
#  This week was your only wake up call Google. The politics of personal 
#  destruction are knocking at the door.  Heads up Larry and Sergey, 
#  The Beast is coming.
#  
#  -bt
#  

# =========================================================================== #
#                                                                             #
# Open House                                                                  #
# by brett tabke                                                              #
# 1/19/2006                                                                   #
#                                                                             #
# =========================================================================== #
#
#  Thanks to everyone who made it to the open house at our new offices yesterday.
#  We had a great time. Thanks to RogerD and LifeTips for the flowers.
# 
#  http://www.pubcon.com/t/t.htm
#
# -bt


# =========================================================================== #
#                                                                             #
# Web 2.0                                                                     #
# by brett tabke                                                              #
# 1/13/2006                                                                   #
#                                                                             #
# =========================================================================== #
# 
# Happy Friday the 13th. 
#  
#  Lets boil the entire Web 2.0 noise down into a simple sentence:
#  
#            The total spamification of Usenet, meant people 
#            had to go somewhere else to communicate.
#  
#  That is all that is at work in all the 2.0 talks, papers, 
#  research, and general huff-n-puff that is going on. People love to 
#  talk. Mankind has taken every opportunity in history to communicate:
#  
#  - stone tablet
#  - runners, horses, carrier pigeons
#  - flag tower to flag tower
#  - smoke signals
#  - quill pen and parchment paper, corn husks.
#  - books, flyers, newspapers
#  - telegraph
#  - radio
#  - phone
#  - television
#  - computer to computer
#  - internet
#  
#  Any time something has interfered with any of those lines of 
#  communication, there was a break through, or a movement to a new 
#  type of communication. In the case of the internet, that is people 
#  moving from the public spam fest known as Usenet, to privately 
#  controlled entities such as bbs's and social networking sites. Spam is 
#  at the root of the Usenet decline. From body part enlargement ads, to 
#  carefully constructed whisper campaigns, people got tired of 
#  fighting it the same way we got tired of fighting it in our inboxes.
# 
#  From there, came this onslaught of irrelevant stuff from web-is-platform
#  to, "a new way to communicate" piled on. None of which had anything
#  whatsoever to do with "Web 2.0" as was originally envisioned.
#  
#  So lets stop pontificating about Web 2.0 and tell the truth - Usenet 
#  is dying, and Tim Oreilly needs to make a buck!
#
#  Everything else you  have heard about Web 2.0 is just bs to fill
#  dead air time.
#  
#  -bt
#  
#  ... The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.
#

# =========================================================================== #
#                                                                             #
# The Banner Buster Grows Up                                                  #
# by brett tabke                                                              #
# 1/12/2006                                                                   #
#                                                                             #
# =========================================================================== #
# 
#
#  This one should be filed under that old "hate it as a user - love it 
#  as a webmaster" file folder.
#  
#  As webmasters, most of our sites life blood is advertising. As 
#  webmasters we enjoy getting those checks every month, but as users, 
#  we all kinda wince at some of the over kill out there on the web 
#  today.
#  
#  From about 1998 until 2003, there was a pretty strong anti 
#  advertising component on the web. A flashing banner ad would send 
#  alot of users into a web rage. That trend was watered down as banner 
#  advertising went bust. I also think it went bust because some search 
#  engines started to devalue pages with banner ads on them. Whether 
#  that was done because it was competition, or because users clearly 
#  didn't want those types of pages is an argument for another day.
#  
#  http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum89/10863.htm
#  
#  Since the rebirth of advertising lead by Googles AdSense program, 
#  the trend has been back towards advertising and webmasters. The 
#  non offensive benign text based ads are rather harmless. However, 
#  with the rise of AdSense, there has been the slow rebirth of 
#  graphical based ads and buttons. What webmaster hasn't wanted to 
#  maximize his or her revenue and ad inventory?
#  
#  Based on the continuing rise in the number of threads dealing with 
#  web spam, it is clear users are once again getting annoyed by the 
#  growing onslaught of visual noise. The blog entry we did here a few 
#  weeks ago about web spam generated a large vocal response from 
#  members. It was equally split between "love" and "hate".  By far, 
#  the largest set of feedback was about ad blockers and how easy it is 
#  for people to cut 75% of the web junk off their machine. Having not 
#  looked at Ad blockers for a few years, I was amazed at the depth and 
#  quality of software available for this specific task.
#  
#  http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/browse/0,cat,1448,sortIdx,1,00.asp
#  
#  From simple ad blockers to users self editing their hosts file, Ad 
#  blocking is back - as big as ever. The raw category niches that the 
#  Ad Blockers have addressed is comprehensive:
#   
#    - Popup blockers
#    - Spyware blockers
#    - Adware blockers
#    - Text Advertising blockers (Google, Yahoo...etc)
#    - Instant Message ad blockers
#    - Flash blockers
#    - Banner blockers
#    - Browser based blockers
#    - Affiliate program blockers
#    - Keyword site blockers
#    - Proxy based ad filter services
#    - Interstitial stoppers
#   
#  It is scary to think of as a webmaster, that those kinds of utils 
#  are available to the public to stop our income. We used to only have 
#  to look at a couple of issues, but now - it seems this stuff is 
#  growing like wildfire and the anti advertising voices are rising 
#  again.
#  
#  I don't know if there is an action item here, other than to be aware 
#  there is a limit to advertising on ones pages. We can't let another
#  antiadvertising trend get started.
#  
#  -bt
#  
#    ... For my birthday I got a humidifier and a dehumidifier. I put 
#  them in the same room and let them fight it out. - Steven Wright
#  
#  

# =========================================================================== #
#                                                                             #
# 2006, The Year of the Independent Webmaster!?                               #
# by brett tabke                                                              #
# 1/12/2006                                                                   #
#                                                                             #
# =========================================================================== #
# 
# There is something going on here:
# 
#     So, How Does One Retire From This Business:
#     http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum78/10455.htm
# 
#     What Did You Learn This Year?
#     http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum78/10365.htm
# 
#     What Would Your Family Do If You Were Hit By A Bus?
#     http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum89/11226.htm
# 
#     Goals For 2006? A Look Ahead:
#     http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum78/10460.htm
# 
#     Inspiration To Get Involved In Web Development:
#     http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum48/2649.htm
# 
#     Building A "simple" Hobby Website, 25 Things To Figure Out:
#     http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum48/2635.htm
# 
#     The Question Every Webmaster Dreads: "What do you do for a living?
#     http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum89/11333.htm
#
# It is time to tune into it. We'll use this esoteric entry as a 
# bookmark and come back to this in about six months.
#
# I think this is our year.
#
# Mom and Pop - We're BACK!?
#
# -bt
#

# =========================================================================== #
#                                                                             #
# WebmasterWorld Open House                                                   #
# by brett tabke                                                              #
# 1/12/2006                                                                   #
#                                                                             #
# =========================================================================== #
# 
# The WebmasterWorld community and the public are invited to a 
# reception to celebrate the opening of the new WebmasterWorld 
# Corporate Offices. 
# 
# In attendance will be Brett Tabke (CEO), Neil Marshall (Director of 
# Forum operations), Monica Rowley (VP Biz Operations), Matthew Olguin 
# (Director of PubCon Conferences), Adam Young (Lead Systems 
# Developer), and Joe Morin (Director of Strategic Marketing).
# 
# The reception will take place next Wednesday January 18th from 3pm 
# to 7pm at our Austin Texas location.
# 
# RSVP for directions to btabke at webmasterworld.com.
#
# More on new offices:
# http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum19/3049.htm
# 
# - brett

# =========================================================================== #
#                                                                             #
# Windows Update Alert                                                        #
# by brett tabke                                                              #
# 1/11/2006                                                                   #
#                                                                             #
# =========================================================================== #
#
# Another fresh (Tuesday 11, 2006) patch for windows:
#
# http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2006/01/11/ms_january_patch_tuesday/
# 
# Update that windows please...again.
#
# bt
#

# =========================================================================== #
#                                                                             #
# An Open letter to Jacob Nielsen                                             #
# by brett tabke                                                              #
# 1/10/2006                                                                   #
#                                                                             #
# =========================================================================== #

#
# re: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/search_engines.html
#
# Dear Mr. Neilsen:
#
# I apologize for losing the faith. I had gotten sucked into the mind
# set that you were a bit out of touch with web realty lately. Just
# when I had found comfort in that wayward thinking, you come back 
# with with of your most insightful and "dead solid center" articles 
# I have ever seen from such a well known web guru as yourself. It
# not only took a quantum leap of insight to come to the conclusions
# you made in this latest column, it was also - BRAVE.
#
# You see, for about 9 years, we have being standing on the position
# that there must be life after the engines. That the engines were just the
# onramp to your site and that your site must stand on it's own two legs
# at some point. In order to make that happen, an alternative method of
# promotion must be at work. We came up with a list of alternative
# traffic sources:
#
# http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum10/906.htm
#
# We stumbled into a test in November as a result of the every widening
# and ever-deeping issue of problem robots. Like SiliconValley, we have
# had an ongoing issue with rogue robots and site scrapers:
#
# http://www.siliconvalleywatcher.com/mt/archives/2005/10/the_lie_of_dist.php
# 
# We have also had a long time desire to see if we could live without
# the low roi search traffic. Those two desires ran into each other
# in November.
#
# http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum9/9593.htm
#
# To partly test out the theory that a community site could liberate 
# itself from search engine dependence (and the every annoying rogue 
# bots), we tried a test in November. We experimented with turning off 
# the bots/search engines and requiring cookie support from all 
# visitor (hens:
#
# http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum9/9618.htm
# 
# We found many interesting things out during that time. Banning the 
# 'bots', was the most enjoyable thing I think I have done in 10 years 
# of web work: 
#
# - the server was faster, 
# - there were fewer scraped copies of the site out there, 
# - less spam and we had fewer problems with members, 
# - the quality of posting went up, 
# - we used less bandwidth.  
#
# All-n-all, it was highly successful in those regards and 
# business wise it was positive too.
#
# Unfortunately, the engines provide us with one service that we have 
# been unable to match: a quality site search. Having been through 
# every major public and private site search engine, it is clear there 
# is a lack of quality site search engines out there for ultra large 
# (2 million+ pages) sites. So, we had to flip back on selected engines
# and stop requiring cookies. 
#
# It is nice to know we can clearly live without them. Ultimately, it 
# has made us refocus on those top alternative traffic sources 
# from the engines.
#
# Aside from the fact your article mixed apples and oranges (paid
# advertising and search), you brought up some excellent points.
#
# This all leads me to a challenge Jacob, and that is, to block the 
# search engines for 90 days to Useit.com and report your findings. 
# As they say -- No guts, No Glory.
#
# Brett Tabke
#
#
# ... Hermits have no peer pressure. - Stephen Wright


# =========================================================================== #
#                                                                             #
# Blogging Today : Please Stand By                                            #
# by brett tabke                                                              #
# 1/4/2006                                                                    #
#                                                                             #
# =========================================================================== #

#  Bob is reporting on his blog, that Chris says on his blog, that he
#  over heard a conversation between Barry, Bob, Darren, and Fred that
#  said Greg read Matts blog about a blog by a guy at Google who used
#  to work at Microsoft who reported on his blog that Bill Gates might
#  say something later today. You heard it here first folks!
#
#  please note, that we were tipped off on this story by George and
#  his personal blog about Spot his dog.
#
# ...Hey, it's no dumber than the blog aggregators about blog aggregators.
#
# There you have it - a perfect text book example of satire.
#
# Seriously - hasn't a great deal of blogging become redundant? Seriously -
# hasn't a great deal of blogging become redundant?
#
# -bt
#


# =========================================================================== #
#                                                                             #
# Diogenes with a Browser - Looking for an Honest Link                        #
# by brett tabke                                                              #
# 1/4/2006                                                                    #
#                                                                             #
# =========================================================================== #
#
# Remember "Punch The Monkey"? Oh how I loved to punch that flashing,
# annoying, seizure inducing ad! I would imagine it was actually the graphic
# designer who came up with that ad on the receiving end of the punch.
# There isn't much I hate in life, but I hate annoying web page spam!
#
# A definition: Web Spam
#
#         So much graphical and textual noise that you can't determine
#         whether you are clicking on a paid advertisement or an actual
#         old-fashioned honest link. When ads are so thick, that you must
#         study the page carefully to determine where the content is at.
#
# There is a point where ads become so pervasive, that they over power
# the content and hurt the credibility of a site. If you have a authoritarian
# site, then that point is much higher than most would believe. I know of one
# site that has over 25 ads on the page right now and is still considered a
# top site in it's field. Other lesser sites, we wouldn't give two seconds
# to in order to find our content.
#
# Whatever the level, I think we can all agree that web spam quietly took a
# huge jump last year. To the point, that I have stopped visiting some regular
# sites because the ads are so thick.
#
# Pet Peeve #2: links that are not underlined. 'nuff said.
#
# -bt
#
# ... I have an answering machine in my car. It says, "I'm home now, but
#     leave a message and I'll call when I'm out." - Stephen Wright
#


# =========================================================================== #
#                                                                             #
# In Search of Larry Page                                                     #
# by brett tabke                                                              #
# 1/3/2006                                                                    #
#                                                                             #
# =========================================================================== #
#
# I have had a strange running bet with an old SEO friend of mine. I bet him
# \$50, that the person known as Larry Page does not actually exist. That he
# was just a figment of Sergeys fertile imagination.
#
# Ever notice that Larry rarely talks? Or that the only time we see him is
# on TV? hmmm. LOL - I really just caulk it up to Larry and Sergey doing their
# best Penn and Teller bit. (teller never talks)
# http://www.pennandteller.com/
#
# I guess we find out Friday in Vegas as Larry is scheduled to talk at the
# CES show. As far as I know, this is Larrys first big tech conference
# speech. Up-to-now, Sergey has always been the spokesmen for the dynamic duo.
#
# I just read down my rss aggregator list. Of the top 50 stories, Google is
# mentioned in 41 of them. Wow!
#
# Saturation. What will Google do? Is it any wonder that they have had Larry
# and Sergey in the proverbial mayonnaise jar on the front porch of Funk &
# Wagnalls since August of 2004?
#
# Dear Mrs Google; Can Larry and Sergey come out and play?
#
# -bt
#
#   post note: 1/7/2006: due to a family matter that came up, I was unable
#   to get to Vegas to see Larrys Keynote at CES. Special thanks to GoogleGuy, 
#   and Google PR for your efforts to get me tickets. -bt
#

# =========================================================================== #
#                                                                             #
# 2005 The Year The World Learned to Love/Hate The Blog                       #
# by brett tabke                                                              #
# 1/2/2006                                                                    #
#                                                                             #
# =========================================================================== #
#
# Forbes called it, "Attack of the Blogs".
#
# http://www.forbes.com/home/free_forbes/2005/1114/128.html
#
# Forbes Writes:
#   --------------------------------------------------------------------
#     " Web logs are the prized platform of an online lynch mob
#       spouting liberty but spewing lies, libel and invective.
#       Their potent allies in this pursuit include Google and Yahoo."
#   --------------------------------------------------------------------
#
# At first glance I wrote this all off to a "refer madness" like scare mongering
# by someone who got vetted or outted by a blog. The allegations are so strong
# that I am outraged that Forbes could publish something so transparently
# vindictive against an alternative publishing medium. I really thought this
# was another case of a competitor fearing the loss of it's personal power
# platform. After all, if blogs give us what we need, then who needs a forest
# killing dinosaur like Forbes magazine?
#
# I read, reread, and even posted about the article published by Forbes.
# Then something weird happened - my thinking took one of those nerve rattling
# fundamental shifts.
#
# Have you ever found yourself suddenly on the other side of a very popular
# issue? You feel a little bit diseased - like there is something wrong with
# you for thinking it? I bet Newton felt that way when he told the world
# that the earth revolved around the sun.
#
# You see, I tried and tried to find some truth to the Forbes statement.
# Other than a couple of isolated incidents, surely blogs are not a
# "online lynch mob".
#
# Then I remembered one of the simplest declarations I have ever heard about
# blogs. It sparked a heated debate about the freedom of speech and the internet.
# It came from a Wall Street Journal article that ended up on /. a few months ago:
#
#   -----------------------------------------------------------
#   "The Internet is not your personal stump to beat up people"
#   -----------------------------------------------------------
#   http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/08/31/1427228&tid=123
#
# Just as I was throwing that quote into Google to see what popped up
# - it hit me that the statement was said in a story in our very own
# space. It was a story about search, forums, SEO, and blogs - it was
# the Traffic-Power story. This wasn't an abstract statement about our
# space by some New York publisher trying to protect his falling
# margins - this was about - and by - US.
#
# No matter what you feel or have read about the Traffic Power story,
# I think it is suffice to say that there was a bit of an "all out
# pile on" action. I really don't have an opinion about the whole
# story myself. This is one we need to let the courts work through.
#
# The fact that this type of incident could occur in our space, pretty
# much proves Forbes general premise that blogs can and do hurt people
# some of the time. It also proves my point to judge your information
# sources very carefully.
#
# -bt
#
# ..."Everywhere is walking distance if you have the time." - Stephen Wright
#

# =========================================================================== #
#                                                                             #
# Om Worries About Content Rippers                                            #
# by brett tabke                                                              #
# 12/27/2005                                                                  #
#                                                                             #
# =========================================================================== #

# re: http://gigaom.com/2005/12/25/wholesale-blog-plagiarism-alert/
#
# Wholesale site ripping has been going on for ages. Site theft is
# one of the top problems on the web today. It just goes to show you,
# that many of the "top guys", are still newbies in our space.
#
# more here: http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum9/9618.htm
#


# =========================================================================== #
#                                                                             #
# Merry Xmas                                                                  #
# by brett tabke                                                              #
# 12/22/2005                                                                  #
#                                                                             #
# =========================================================================== #
#
# What a year it has been!
#
# I hope you have a great holiday.
#
# Merry Christmas from everyone at WebmasterWorld.
#
# Brett
#
# ... Historical footnote: webmasterworld ranked #1 for the keyword
# webmaster today on google. A fun warm-n-fuzzy for a 700 million results
# search - but thats about all. The kw is poor performer.


# =========================================================================== #
#                                                                             #
# The New Content Rich Face of SEO                                            #
# by brett tabke                                                              #
# 12/20/2005                                                                  #
#                                                                             #
# =========================================================================== #

#
# We were talking about the 101 Signals of Quality Series we have
# started in the supporters forum. Some questions came up if we were
# going to ban SE Reps from the thread. I laughed and thought it newbish.
# Here's why.
#
# http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum78/10348.htm
#
# Todays seo is about content, content, content, and - at best - how to arrange it.
# GG is the first one to give up tips on how to structure content.
# Both for crawability purposes and rankings purposes. If you have
# fresh, quality, regularly updated content - Google and GG will be
# the first to support you. That is the direction SEO is going in, and
# that is the direction we have to follow - and lead at some point.
#
# I guarantee you, that in this series there will be little that would
# make a Yahoo or Google programmer wince. We have come a long ways
# from the days of spam-em-if-you-got-em. There is little in the way
# of "blackhat" that will survive in todays engines (mainly G). The best
# "blackhat" tricks your are going to pull are link games aimed at the deep
#  long tail.
#
# Does that mean we will be pure-as-the-driven-snow? No way - our job
# is to generate traffic at a reasonable to low universal risk. That means
# getting listed - getting ranked - getting traffic - is only the
# first step. *ANY* SEO policy MUST focus on ROI as well as
# traffic acquisition. If your seo practices poison your ROI, then
# what is the point?  You can only trick your visitors for a certain
# amount of time.
#
# On the other hand, we can learn alot of "tricks" from the search
# engines themselves:
#
# - Cached pages. Every study ever done, shows that time-on-site,
#   is the #1 criteria for long term site success.
#
# - Text Ads. How many people click on an Adsense ad by accident? It is
#   all about "the blend" as we call it. eg: how to trick people into not
#   noticing that it is an advertisement.
#
# - AdWords. Studies clearly show that the majority of search engine
#   visitors do not know that the right side of a Google SERP is
#   paid advertising.
#
# - Click Tracking. Lets be crystal clear - the G Toolbar is spyware
#   at it's finest. The cool thing is they actually get people to
#   download it, install it, and agree to use it. I have no doubt, that
#   the majority of people that use the toolbar in advanced mode, do NOT
#   know that their urls are being tracked. I also belive that the
#   majority of people that turn on "Advanced" mode, do NOT know what it
#   is about and turn it on to be one of the cool advanced people.
#
# BlackHats? The search engines are the original Black Hats!
#
#
# ... There's a fine line between fishing and just standing on the
#     shore like an idiot. - Stephen Wright


# =========================================================================== #
#                                                                             #
# Google & AOL - I Want My Yahoo Back.                                        #
# by brett tabke                                                              #
# 12/20/2005                                                                  #
#                                                                             #
# =========================================================================== #

#
# The more I hear about the AOL/Google deal, the more I think the real
# winner will be Yahoo.
#
# So word comes to us via New York Times that Google is discussing
# graphical ad placement on Google with AOL.
#
# http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum30/32510.htm
#
# If it comes to pass, will there be any reason to use Google over
# Yahoo ever again?
#
# The pundits have claimed for years that it is search relevance and
# quality of search results that are the prime ingredients to a good
# search engine. Like nails on a chalk board, that claim has made the
# hair stand up on my neck. I have always felt that usability played
# an equal role in the popularity and utility of a search engine. I
# felt that point of view was vindicated with the arrival of Google.
#
# Even when google was in it's infancy, it toyed with the goofiest
# SERPS the net has ever seen. Anyone remember the Search Scout? Or
# the fact that the green bar was actually on the SERPs? Or the myriad
# of other bells and goof ball whistles that Google tried back then?
#
# It wasn't until Google cleaned up those SERPs and went low key that
# they became truly popular. Even now as they try to work in Google
# Image searches into the main index, people notice and complain. One
# of the most often reported "problems" with Google that we have seen
# in the Google forum over the last year, has been people complaining
# about the image search graphics in the results.
#
# If Yahoo and MSN were ever to figure out the low key, low impact,
# low spam, high reward page - Google would be in trouble.
#
# 9 Point Plan to Reinvigorate the "stuck" Yahoo Search
#
# 1 Grab a quality, short domain name. (say http://www.av.com)
#
# 2 Cut deals with Mozilla, Opera, Dell, and Microsoft to get featured
#   as a default search in their browsers and products.
#
# 3 Make the same backroom deal with Opera, that Google did. Opera
#   will play. That mobile phone spot is the future.
#
# 4 Strip down the SERPs for just six months to nothing but the
#   results. Yes, give up the ad inventory on av.com for 6 months.
#
# 5 Raise the relevance in the Algo to favor kw's in Titles, Paths,
#   and Domain names.
#
# 6 Degrade/filter/penalize/whatever any URL with a question mark in it.
#
# 7 Wait. Just wait... and let it cook. (aka, Alta Raging was right, but
#   they didn't let it cook).
#
# 8 Hire a PR firm to convince the higherups that search is more than
#   just a Yahoo loss leader.
#
# 9 Listen to Tim Mayer.
#
# ... I stayed in a really old hotel last night. They sent me a wakeup letter.


# =========================================================================== #
#                                                                             #
# The SERP                                                                    #
# by brett tabke                                                              #
# 12/20/2005                                                                  #
#                                                                             #
# =========================================================================== #

#
# I invented the word SERP (Search Engine Results Page) in 2000 in a
# WebmasterWorld post. I have no idea which post it was, but we were having
# trouble with a new user understanding which page we were talking about when
# we said the "results page".
#
# It has been fun to see "SERP" grow into a main stream.
#
#
# ... I Xeroxed a mirror. Now I have an extra Xerox machine. - Stephen Wright


# =========================================================================== #
#                                                                             #
# Malcolm Gladwell At Boston PubCon                                           #
# by brett tabke                                                              #
# 12/19/2005                                                                  #
#                                                                             #
# =========================================================================== #


# Well, it is out there now, and we are pretty excited about it.
#
# Malcolm Gladwell will keynote our spring PubCon in Boston.
#
# http://www.pubcon.com/press.htm
# http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum19/3088.htm
#
# Malcolm will also hold a book signing in the expo hall directly after his
# keynote address.
#
# Is it me, or does Malcolm look like he is related to Stephen Wright?
#
# ... I went to a general store, but they wouldn't let me buy anything specific - Stephen Wright


# =========================================================================== #
#                                                                             #
# Here a Bot - There a Bot - Every Where a Bot Bot                            #
# by brett tabke                                                              #
# 12/19/2005                                                                  #
#                                                                             #
# =========================================================================== #

# After alot of testing and bot busting, the current robots.txt is what was
# settled on. I felt exposing the code was the best way to explain it all
# (see the actual robots.txt above for the full story).
#
# Testing the bots code and the security code to get it all right took alot
# of time. In the end, we found:
#
# - A surprising 21 bots that were following all the active list posts on a
#   daily basis and downloading that content.
#
# - About 45 trademark and other page monitoring services. The majority of
#   those monitoring services obey robots.txt.
#
# - 15 bots would accept cookies.
#
# - 2 more web sites reselling WebmasterWorld content. One in China and one
#   in the stans. both out of legal reach.
#
#   Sorry Shak - China will continue to be viewed with suspicion as long as
#   it is still the wild-wild-west out there with few legal controls to
#   protect content.
#
# - about 30 people who don't understand the concept that if you look like
#   a bot with a spoofed agent name - you are a bot.
#
# - Some of the worst bot running offenders? A few choice SEO's.
#   These are the same folks that bring you click bots and scrapper sites.
#   I think they have little respect for other peoples content. I also think
#   they don't appreciate just how impactful their actions can be.
#
# - http://www.ojr.org/ojr/stories/051213niles/
#
#   Thanks to Yahoo and MSN for the permission to treat your bots as if they
#   were a tough steak during the testing and coding phase. Cloaking stuff for
#   testing went a long way to being able to figure out the right
#   balance of settings.
#
#  ... I spilled Spot remover on my dog. Now he's gone.
# $ENV{'REMOTE_ADDR'}

#============================================================================#
#                                                                            #
# Robots.txt - Where no Blog has Gone Before?                                #
# by brett tabke                                                             #
# 12/18/2005                                                                 #
#                                                                            #
#============================================================================#

#  As I was messing with the robots.txt for the 1000th time over the last week,
#  I had a conversation with myself, that went something like this:
#
#  me:   Self, can you publish a blog in a robots.txt file?
#  self: Sure you can. Robots would just ignore the commented lines.
#
#  me:   What would be the point?
#  self: Fun and merriment. Who knows, you could find world peace in here.
#
#  me:   Would people still read it?
#  self: Probably. If they will read blogger - they'll read anything ;-)
#
#  me:   Any downside? Any problems with a regularly updated robots.txt?
#  self: This is another fine SEO test you've gotten us into.
#
#  me:   But don't you need to enable comments?
#  self: Posting an article and then taking comments? Hey Dufus,  it is called
#        a FORUM - and everyone knows we already have one of those!
#
#  me:   I love the idea. It has a cool retro BBS feel to it. I almost want to
#        break out my trusty old 64, fire up a copy of Cnet BBS, and start posting
#        some zeroday warez dude. lol!
#  self: I'm going to try it for awhile. Seems like fun for a change.
#
#  The rest is left as an excersize to the reader.
#
#  - bt

#  ... How much deeper would the ocean be if sponges didn't live there?  - stephen wright.




# $ENV{'REMOTE_ADDR'}

# (C) Copy and Copyright 2006 WebmasterWorld Inc. All Rights Reserved.
|;

}

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