14th June 2008
Felony Hacking and Conspiracy.
That’s what federal prosecutors have decided it is when someone leaves nasty comments on someone’s myspace profile like happened in the Megan Meier case.
The reasoning? (if you can call it that)
According to the indictment, Drew and others allegedly conspired to violate MySpace’s terms of service.
Here’s what they actually wrote on the DoJ Website:
http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/cac/pressroom/pr2008/063.html
To become a member of MySpace, individuals are required to submit registration information – including name and date of birth – and have to agree to certain TOS that regulate their use of the website. Among other things, the MySpace TOS require prospective members to provide truthful and accurate registration information; to refrain from using any information obtained from MySpace services to harass, abuse, or harm other people; to refrain from soliciting personal information from anyone under 18; to refrain from promoting information that they know is false or misleading; and to refrain from posting photographs of other people without their consent. The indictment alleges that Drew and her coconspirators violated all of those provisions.
ergo:
Violate the ToU or ToS of any Website and you are a felon if a Federal Prosecutor wants to press charges.
Apparently George Orwell just jumped the gun by a few years. Welcome to the New Totalitarian Regime of the America. Stalin was impudent next to the power these guys usurping.
Google Guidelines say to no-follow all purchased links? Didn’t comply?
You are a Felon.
Left a comment that is against the ToS of any website?
You are a Felon.
Singed up to multiple Free Accounts in Violation of a sites Terms of Use?
You are a Felon.
Have you ever Entered False information into the user fields of a Website?
You are a Felon.
Sites like the New York Times Say this:
“We reserve the right, at our complete discretion, to change these Terms of Use at any time by posting revised terms on the site. It is your responsibility to check periodically for any changes we may make to these Terms of Use. Your continued use of this site following the posting of changes to these terms or other policies means you accept the changes.”
ergo: You’re a felon whenever we want to change the rules.
Do you know what the ToS of using seoblackhat.com are?
If this Myspace case flies, we’ll all be felons.
Especially you.
14th June 2008
Why isn’t GPS Latitude and Longitude saved into the meta data of a digital picture when it is taken? Wouldn’t’ a compass and level also give great meta data? (facing 20 degrees from north at a 1 percent incline).
Throw in a 1-button-push publishing and you could create the most amazing maps mashup on the Net with a logical extension to video (same idea – encode per frame or minute) to create a virtual reality that’s based on reality.
An idea like that would surely already be patented – right?
14th June 2008
Today Google has a new favicon: ditching the universally recognizable Big G for a little g.
Finally, that Guy who came up with New Coke landed a new job.
Good for him. [golf clap]
14th June 2008
It looks like I will be joining Jim Boykin’s Internet Marketing Ninjas in Edinburgh, Scotland on June 23-24 for their SEO Class.
Jim is one of the most respected SEOs in the game and I’m sure the small gathering in Edinburgh will have a case of the awesomes. I’m not going to prepare a presentation, but I will be answering questions and will probably accidentally spill some cutting edge techniques that work
If you can make it and are looking to take your SEO Game to the next level, I’m sure this one will be worth it (otherwise, I frankly wouldn’t be going). If your at a larger company that is willing to spend money on SEO training, this is the one to tell them to send you on.
Hope to see you there!
14th June 2008
Lisa Barone had tons of questions after attending SMX
“But at the same time, I couldn’t help but notice that this year’s Advanced show seemed to lean a whole lot more to the grey/black hat side of things. I couldn’t help but wonder: When did advanced search engine optimization get confused with being a black hat?“
Right around the time that Google took this stance solidified it:
“Web spam is when somebody tries to cheat or take shortcuts so that their Web site shows up higher [in search results rankings] than it deserves to show up,” – Matt Cutts
If you are not trying to get your client’s websites to rank higher than they “deserve”, why should they hire you?
She continued:
“Here are some of the “advanced search engine optimization” techniques I picked up during my time in Seattle.
* There are lots of old sites lying around on the Interwebz with great link juice. Buy them and capitalize on that. But do it carefully or Google will pick up on it and reset the score.
* Conditional redirects are teh awesome.
* Search marketers don’t need ethics. They’re marketers. Check the ethics at the door.
* You can never have too many .edu links.
* I need to grow some balls, stop fearing Matt Cutts and start buying links.
Where were the white hat advanced search engine optimization techniques in Seattle?”
Hanging out with the Tooth Fairy and the Loch Nes Monster.
“Why was most of the material presented pushing grey and black hat? “
Because black hat seo is the only place where there is any development. White hat can work, but it’s exactly the same stuff that worked 6 years ago. Why do you need to go to a conference to get 6 year old information?
“Are we supposed to believe that that’s what advanced SEO is – spamming? “
Yes.
“If so, that’s a bunch of crap.”
uh oh, call the wambulance . . .
“Or maybe SMX just thinks there’s no one qualified to teach advanced white hat techniques. I guess those folks were out drinking with all the ladies NOT on the Give It Up panel.”
Is she saying she was out drinking with all the advanced white hats?
“I don’t understand.”
ditto!
“To me, advanced search engine optimization is about analytics”,
i see . .
“it’s about siloing”
Siloing is not exactly news. The top Google result for SEO Siloing is a Grey Wolf Article from Almost 2 years ago.
“it’s about perfecting your site architecture so that you don’t have to even worry about tactics like cloaking for conditional redirects.”
Google Cloaks. The NY Times Cloaks. But I have an open mind: maybe your head-in-the-sand theory on SEO is the best strategy. . .
“There have to be other white hat advanced search engine optimization techniques out there.”
Sounds like what they said about SETI.
“Why weren’t they covered?”
Because if you cover a white hat technique that works, the technique gets banned and the site gets bitch-slapped. Off-topic Link bait will probably be next on the chopping block.
Google does not want you or your clients sites to rank ANY higher than they “deserve” to. Google defines deserve; they are a for-profit company. That means that just about any intentional manipulation will be, by definition, black hat.
Want to sum up white hat SEO? It boils down to:
1) Site Architecture – Can be learned in 4 hours or less.
2) Analytics – Can you install a javascript and log in?
3) PPC – Even though we used to call that SEM . . .
4) Content – which is better handled by copywriters.
Alas! The Emperor has no clothes. There are no advanced white hat SEO techniques.