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Sep 09

WordPress To Use .ME For Shorter URLs

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WordPress and the .ME ccTLD have teamed up to create WP.me, the first ever two-letter .me domain name that will be used to provide over 225,000 WordPress.com bloggers with shorter URLs… allowing them to offer abbreviated links to their posts for easier promotion on social media sharing sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

“These short links are about 70 percent smaller than the permanent links for a given post,” said Matt Mullenweg, co-founder of WordPress. “Thanks to our friends at the dot-ME Registry, WordPress is able to offer one of the shortest and most effective URLs available today.”

While WP.me is likely to compete with other URL shorteners such as TinyURL, bit.ly, ow.ly, SnipURL and is.gd, there are also a number of significant differences:

Every blog and post on WordPress.com will automatically have a WP.me URL.
They will only work with WordPress.com-hosted URLs.
The links are permanent and will work as long as WordPress.com is around.
WP.me is going to be spam-free thanks to constant monitoring by the WordPress team.

“Dot-ME embraces and celebrates this kind of innovation,” said Predrag Lesic, executive director of the .ME registry. “In the short time dot-ME has existed, our domain extension has broken many barriers to become somuch more than just another ccTLD. WordPress saw the potential of dot-ME and we applaud them for it.”

Visit WordPress.com for more information.

[via Reuters]

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Sep 09

With Real-Time Web, Seconds Matter

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As communications and information access emphasize “real time”, seconds matter.

Last football season I was watching the Texas Longhorns in HD on Time Warner Cable. I was talking on the phone with my brother, who was also watching the game on Time Warner Cable, but not in HD. He kept cheering and jeering plays a full 5 to 10 seconds before I saw them. That’s because HD takes longer to be delivered a decoded by the set top, so it’s delayed compared to standard TV.

The same thing happens on the internet. As we move to a so-called “real time web”, seconds matter.

I was reminded of this thanks to my obsessions with watching the Cardinals on MLB.tv. I subscribe to the premium package, which allows me to watch games live on my computer and also get full access to the MLB “GameDay”, which is basically a pitch-by-pitch graphical representation of the game.

The GameDay updates are in near-real time, whereas the video feed is delayed about 20 seconds or so. I usually have both the GameDay and video window open at the same time, so my wandering eyes tell me what’s going to happen before the video actually shows it to me. Sure, I could just close the GameDay window, but it’s tempting to find out what happens before it actually does.

And even if I closed GameDay and only watched the video feed, there would be other real time distractions. While watching a game a couple weeks ago, I noticed a button on the video feed that read “Twitter”. I clicked on it, and up popped a Twitter feed of people watching the game.

“That was predictable, home run Albert Pujols” read the feed. I was watching the video feed, and Pujols had just stepped up to the plate. I just ruined the fun again.

Between GameDay, Twitter, and MLB.tv, I was watching things unfold in real time, it’s just that everything was off by ten seconds. In a real time web, seconds matter.

I’ve found a solution to my temptations to check GameDay and Twitter when watching the Cards on MLB.tv. You can now watch games directly on TV using a Roku box. While watching on the TV I don’t have access to GameDay and Twitter at the click of a button. There are no spoilers.

Unless I’m on the phone with my brother.

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Sep 09

4 Ways to Reform UDRP NOW

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Here are some needed reforms to UDRP.

Uniform Dispute Resolution Procedure (UDRP) has some problems. Here are four quick ways to improve it.

1. Only allow an additional submission if specifically asked for by panel. UDRP rules prescribe that the complainant in a case can only make an addition submission (usually a response to the respondent’s claims) if specifically asked to do so by the arbitration panel. But most of the time an additional submission is submitted it has not been requested by the panel. This slows down the process and places an additional burden on the panelists. UDRP providers such as National Arbitration Forum and WIPO should only forward additional submissions to the panel if requested to do so by that panel.

2. Eliminate venue shopping. Because complainants can choose which arbitration provider will hear a case, it leads to venue shopping. Arbitration companies that don’t rule in favor of complainants enough lose business and eventually shut down (this has already happened). Filings under UDRP should be randomly distributed or rotated to arbitration companies.

3. Change repeat filing procedures. A complainant can refile the same exact case, causing the respondent to spend more money and resources responding. Panelists frequently decide to not hear a case again, but only after the case has gone through its regular pleadings and the respondent has had to answer. Instead, a complaint should be forwarded to a one person panel for an initial decision on whether or not to proceed. Only if it decides to proceed will the respondent be asked to submit his response. Also, any particular domain should only be allowed to be filed a second time at the same arbitration provider; no switching from NAF to WIPO or vice-versa.

4. Put some teeth into Reverse Domain Name Hijacking. Reverse Domain Name Hijacking (RDNH) doesn’t have any financial penalties. Add some.

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Sep 09

How to Find Similar Sites with Tags

How to Find Similar Sites with Tags

I have been looking at various ways to find similar sites to the one specified: there are tools that analyze visitors’ behavior and generate the list of resources people also like to visit (Alexa.co), there are tools that analyze users’ bookmarking preferences and generate the list of sites having similar tags when bookmarked (Delicious and FoxMarks).

"Similar site" is the tool that is also "mainly based on user annotations or tags on websites". While that remained not really clear to me which database the tool is using (probably it’s own) but I found the results intriguing enough to share with our readers (the interface may look a bit simplistic but the actual job seems pretty well done).

So: type in any page URL and hit "Search". The results page returned contains the following (useful) information:

The confidence level (more about this one below);
The most frequent tags used for the page (you can exclude any or add your own to refine the results);
The list of similar sites;
Most frequent tags characterizing each page in the list;
The similarity score (how similar each page appears to be to the base one, in %);
The quick button to find similar pages to each one in the list.

Similar Site

Thus the accuracy of results returned is basically defined by 2 main factors:

The combination of tags;
The level of confidence.

The level of confidence is the grade given to each page depending on how many users tagged it (obviously the fewer people tagged the page, the less probable it is that the page has most relevant tags, thus the lower the level, the worse the results returned):

very low : The site being searched has been tagged less than 5 times. Fulltext search is used.
low : The site being searched has been tagged less than 50 times. Tag based searched is used.
medium : The site being searched has been tagged less than 100 times. Tag based searched is used.
high : The site being searched has been tagged more than 100 times. Tag based searched is used.

The free tool was reviewed under SEJ disclaimer.

Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.

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Sep 09

How to Find Similar Sites with Tags

How to Find Similar Sites with Tags

I have been looking at various ways to find similar sites to the one specified: there are tools that analyze visitors’ behavior and generate the list of resources people also like to visit (Alexa.co), there are tools that analyze users’ bookmarking preferences and generate the list of sites having similar tags when bookmarked (Delicious and FoxMarks).

"Similar site" is the tool that is also "mainly based on user annotations or tags on websites". While that remained not really clear to me which database the tool is using (probably it’s own) but I found the results intriguing enough to share with our readers (the interface may look a bit simplistic but the actual job seems pretty well done).

So: type in any page URL and hit "Search". The results page returned contains the following (useful) information:

The confidence level (more about this one below);
The most frequent tags used for the page (you can exclude any or add your own to refine the results);
The list of similar sites;
Most frequent tags characterizing each page in the list;
The similarity score (how similar each page appears to be to the base one, in %);
The quick button to find similar pages to each one in the list.

Similar Site

Thus the accuracy of results returned is basically defined by 2 main factors:

The combination of tags;
The level of confidence.

The level of confidence is the grade given to each page depending on how many users tagged it (obviously the fewer people tagged the page, the less probable it is that the page has most relevant tags, thus the lower the level, the worse the results returned):

very low : The site being searched has been tagged less than 5 times. Fulltext search is used.
low : The site being searched has been tagged less than 50 times. Tag based searched is used.
medium : The site being searched has been tagged less than 100 times. Tag based searched is used.
high : The site being searched has been tagged more than 100 times. Tag based searched is used.

The free tool was reviewed under SEJ disclaimer.

Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.

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Sep 09

Yahoo CEO Bartz Reaps $2 Million in Stock Share Sales

Yahoo CEO Bartz Reaps $2 Million in Stock Share Sales

Yahoo top boss Carol Bartz, who started running Yahoo at the start of this year and set up the company for the massive Microsoft Bing partnership, and her team of executives have sold millions of dollars in stock …. not making all of its investors happy.

As reported by the Guardian, Carol Bartz has already dumped $2 million-worth of Yahoo stocks after being with the company for only 9 months. She was given options on five million Yahoo shares when she started as an incentive to lead the company.

According to regulatory filings, Bartz has made two major stock sales in the past nine months – more than $830,000 (£500,000) in March and a further $1.14m in June.

The 61-year-old former boss of the software company AutoDesk, who also receives a salary of $1m and is eligible for an annual bonus worth up to $4m, was granted options on 5m shares of Yahoo stock when she took the top job at the beginning of the year.

The news does not fit with the image she has tried to portray since taking over at the company earlier this year, hired as a pragmatic and efficient replacement for Yahoo’s co-founder, Jerry Yang.

Investors are upset and questioning her loyalty with the company, which includes Eric Jackson of Ironfire Capital, one of the companies’ outspoken shareholders. In an email sent by Jackson, he stated that, “Two million already cashed out for Bartz is too much, too soon.”

A Yahoo spokesperson defended the Bartz action with a statement that these share sales are necessary for tax purposes: “We are told that they were re-acquired to satisfy tax withholdings.” Other top company executives followed Bartz’s lead, with general counsel Mike Callahan selling $1.35 million in stock this year.

Shareholders are concerned with the current troubles faced by Yahoo and may be losing faith that this can be overcome, despite its agreement in handing over the control of the Yahoo search engine to Microsoft.

Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.

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Sep 09

Flickr Gets a Native iPhone App, And it’s Good

Flickr Gets a Native iPhone App, And it’s Good

I just snagged the Flickr iPhone from the iTunes App Store and after a few minutes of tinkering with the app, I would have to say that it’s pretty good. It’s not really a feature-rich iPhone but it certainly gives you all the basic functionality that you’ll need to access Flickr on your mighty iPhone.

Although you can already access Flickr before, through a mobile web-optimized version, having a native iPhone application is always a good thing, especially if its a free app.

Feature-wise, the Flickr iPhone app gives you more reason to use your iPhone camera as you can immediately upload it to your Flickr account. You’d also get to see recently uploaded photos of your Flickr contacts, access your Flickr photostreams, search the Flickr universe for interesting photos, navigate through your and your friends’ Flickr photostream, comment on specific photos and share photos to anyone via Email.

Two features that would be a good addition for the app’s future updates – pinch to zoom on photos and direct sharing feature to Facebook or Twitter perhaps?

Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.

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Sep 09

Authors Group Wants Google Book Search Deal Rejected

Authors Group Wants Google Book Search Deal Rejected

Google is getting a new opposition to the proposed settlement of its lawsuit over the Google Book Search project. This time it’s from a group of authors and publishers who are arguing that the agreement will undermine privacy rights for both readers and writers.

The authors and publishers belonging to the National Coalition of Authors include top authors, Michael Chabon, Jonathan Lethem, Bruce Schenier to name a few. It also includes representatives from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, American Civil Liberties Union, the Samuelson Law, Technology and Publich Policy Clinic at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law.

Upon filing their petition, the group expressed their concerns over the fact that Google will be collecting personal identifying information about users who will purchase books online. This, according to the group might affect their readership.

Computer security expert Bruce Schenier told the Electronic Frontier Foundation:

“I believe that the fear of tracking will create a chilling effect on my readers and reduce my readership, and therefore my revenue, from these books. Moreover, I write these books in order to participate in the public debate on security issues. Reduced readership negatively impacts my expressive interests as an author.”

The group is also asking the Federal Judge to require Google to come up with a comprehensive privacy policy that would protect readers similar to what they are getting from libraries and traditional bookstores. They suggest measures such as limited tracking of users, user control of personal information stored by Google, and system transparency.

Hearing on the Google Book Search settlement is about to take place in October 7, 2009. With the National Coalition of Authors and other online entities who recently expressed opposition to the said agreement, it looks like its going to be another tough battle ahead for Google.

Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.

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Sep 09

Google Maps Powers New Monopoly Board Game