 |
 |
|
|
|
Moguling.com
|
Check out the new blogging software that I am currently working on. Adds a lot of advanced features that other blogging software either doesn't have or are just releasing. Keep in mind it is in beta format right now, but it is developing fast. We are very excited to release it as a beta and look forward to releasing the full version in the next month or so.
http://www.moguling.com
Labels: Blogging, Technology
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Windows Vista
|
|
All I have to say is it SUCKS!!! Labels: Technology
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Stealing the Internet
|
Domain names a really heating up. What is also interesting is that the legal issues around domain names are heating up right alone with them. Microsoft has a aggressive program to stop people from holding domain names that are closely related to their product offerings. The university of Iowa recently bought a bunch of domains related to their athletic program, more directly having to do with firing and negative information about their coaches. Companies threaten to sue and do sue over trademark issues having to do with domain names each day. My issue is that these companies can just go to ICANN and say that this person has a domain name that is close to our trademark and that person usually loses that domain name even though they paid for it. The company in most cases doesn’t even reimburse the owner for the registration fees nor is there a refund from the registrar.
I guess my real problem is that companies are using laws that weren’t nessasarily written for domain names to capture what comes down to internet property. Items that do have value to people other than the companies that own the trademarks. It is one thing if it is blatant infringement but these companies are strong arming misspellings. Now it is also one thing if the person is trying to capitalize on the other companies brand but I know of cases where domain names were taken from people and companies who were not harming the company.
I believe that in the next 5 years this will come to a head and there will be some big court cases and hopefully some changes in the law. If it is going to be like this than it should be put on the registrars to check trademark issues or to atleast warn the person registering the domain name that there is a possible issue and that they could lose their registration fees or could be taken to court and loss much more than that.
I listened to an interview with the lawyer leading the team for Microsoft working to “recover” trademarked domain names. He said that in a lot of cases the domains were given to Microsoft without any legal action and most without the exchange of money and that any money paid was paid to Microsoft.
So basically the Domain registering companies and ICANN are the companies making money on this. New laws are needed to help protect the consumer and to further define what infringement is and to define what is squatting, which honestly I think is a bunch of crap, and what is legal. I look at this a lot like the land rush for the late 1800’s. I didn’t see too many Oklahoma Sooners going to jail or having their land taken from them, some may have gotten shot over it, but other than that the worst thing that happened was they got a college to use them as their mascot. But in the early 2000’s you get your property torn from you and given to large companies. Now it might be a little different, but like I said before if it isn’t blatant then I don’t see the issue.Labels: Technology
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
404 Errors
|
You know there are a lot of people out there that think that they know how to build a good user friendly and SEO friendly website. Unfortunatly for most people there aren't really that many. One of the biggest things that I keep seeing are custom 404 error pages. A 404 Error is a "Page Not Found" issue. You can create a page that will be displayed to the user and/or search engine spider if they come accross a bad link or a link to a page that has been removed from the site.
This is such a bad idea. For the user it serves no purpose except to make your site look like it has a page for anything. For the spiders they keep getting the same page over and over if you have a lot of bad links. If your site has been up for a while and you add, update and remove pages you will not be doing yourself any favors by doing this. The spiders want to save time and only crawl pages that are relivant. If you keep returning the same page that is not really there that page will not be updated in the search engines as quickly. But when the spiders figure it out it will most likely hurt your rankings all over.
So what should you do. Well you can always return the 404 error, create a page that does return a 404 error but looks better to you or return a 301 redirect.
A 301 redirect, redirects the user and spider to another page. The spider reads it as a permant change, the user just sees the page you are redirecting them too. This solves the issue and actually allows you to control traffic.
If you have a product page and that product has been replaced with a new one. You created a new page and pulled the old one down. You would get on your server and create a 301 redirect to the new page. So all of the old links that are on other sites now redirect to the new page. When a spider hits one of those links they are redirected as well.
Don't confuse a 301 redirect with a 302. 301 is like having your mail forwarded because you moved, a 302 is like having a post office box that is then forwarded to your house. People have used 302's for spam and there for the search engines look on them in a negative light.
In any case using custom 404 error pages will hurt your site unless they actually return the 404 error to the browser, which 99% do not. So becareful with those custom error pages.Labels: Technology
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
World of Warcraft -- Too Adictive
|
|
One of the guys at work got me hooked on this game. It is a blast and very time consuming. Too Much Fun. They should change the name to, World of Warcraft "Internet Crack". Labels: Technology
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
DMOZ.org
|
So DMOZ.org has been down as far as any new submissions or any new dynamic content for some time now. I guess they had a serious system failure and are having a hard time recovering from it.
This could be a big turning point in the web, or one that goes by virtually unnoticed. DMOZ has been around for so long and is the basis for the early success of Google. If DMOZ can't recover from this may search engines that rely on it to some point will have to rethink their ranking systems. I wonder right now how much this is effecting Google. One of my sites only has any relivance at this point because it is listed in DMOZ. I haven't touched it for years. So if DMOZ goes away or isn't fixed to where Google can reference it by the time the next big update happens, it will be very interesting to see what happens to my site.
If it goes away, I really don't think it will be a bad thing. Over the years it has gotten a bit bloated. Look at my site, that I won't give the URL to, so I don't get kicked before I have too, it hasn't been updated in years. There is very little relivance left to it. I do need to update it. But I am sure that my site isn't the only site in DMOZ that is like that.
It would be sad to see it go, but if it does, I am sure someone will have a bigger and better version to take it's place.Labels: Technology
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Internet Explorer 7
|
|
Just downloaded Internet Explorer 7 and installed it. What a huge improvement over 6. May not be perfect, but a huge step forward. Labels: Technology
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Adobe v.s. Microsoft
|
So Adobe doesn’t want Microsoft to add it’s “open” PDF document encoding to the next version of Office. That is kind of strange. “Open” means anybody can use it right? Also adding the ability natavily to save documents from Word, Excel or any other program in the office set of tools is a good thing for Adobe, right? I guess that Adobe is worried about something, probably money. Other “Office” programs offer this ability and Adobe doesn’t charge them for it. Strange?
Well now Microsoft has a flavor of the PDF coming out. See if Adobe likes competition now from the largest software company in the world. They say that Adobe is going to file an Anti-Trust suit in Europe. But isn’t the fact that Adobe has the only wide spread PDF style software and picks and chooses who it charges for the rights to use it’s “open” software, is that a little bit of a monopoly? I am not a lawyer, but that seems more than a little off to me.
Microsoft has learned from the Anti-Trust cases in Europe and the US. So if you want to add the ability to make the Microsoft XPS files you at this point will be able to download the plug-in. This keeps Adobe from claiming that Microsoft is trying to push them out of the market because it comes pre-installed. Which by the way the PDF software was supposed to come pre-installed with Office 2007.
I personally this politics are playing way to big a roll in this whole thing. I think Adobe is trying to make Microsoft look bad, but in this case I think Microsoft has played their cards right, at least with the information out at the current time.
Just my two cents.Labels: Technology
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
