Happy December everyone!

In exactly 3 days it will be Christmas. If you have kids, just remember to wrap Santa's presents with different paper (a tip from your friendly, neighborhood Mowaffaq Tahir :). Ok, moving on, it's time to present this week's Moment of Zen. For our moment we'll be looking at Netflix, and a new lawsuit the online movie rental company will be combating soon.

I'm guessing at least some of you reading this have a Netflix account. If so then you should know the company is being sued for sharing private information with other users, and anyone on the internet who's interested. If the lawsuit proves successful, it would mean Netflix violated fair-trade laws, and federal privacy law, not to mention their own privacy policy. A trifecta, indeed.

This all started with a contest, where Netflix gave 50,000 contestants an opportunity to make the company's recommendation algorithm better. A honorable enough pursuit, however, it's within the execution where things get muddled. In order for the contestants to develop the algorithm, they were provided data from 480,000 customers which contained - movie ratings, date of rating, a unique ID number, and movie info.

Ok, so no names were provided and it appears anonymity was protected. Unfortunately, this didn't turn out to be the case. Here's a direct quote on how users were able to be found with the information provided: "So it wasn’t surprising that just weeks after the contest began, two University of Texas researchers — Arvind Narayanan and Vitaly Shmatikov — identified several NetFlix users by comparing their “anonymous” reviews in the Netflix data to ones posted on the Internet Movie Database website. Revelations included identifying their political leanings and sexual orientation."

Yikes! The lawsuit was presented by a Jane Doe, an 'in-the-closet' lesbian who's afraid she could potentially be outed due to this information. I have to say researching this story taught me how personal people take their movie renting, and rating habits. The real kicker is that the information is now out on the public web for marketers to get a hold of, and you can bet they're going to use this information for financial gain.

I'm not a mind reader but I truly believe Netflix wasn't trying to be nefarious in this. They were however irresponsible with how they handled information, and when you're a corporation that big handling private information should be handled with complete discretion. I am glad someone has stood up and held them accountable, as this could be a good lesson for them moving forward.

On a personal level, I honestly could care less if it's my info which was used. Here's my Top 5 Favorite Movies of All Time: Braveheart, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, Batman (1989), The Incredibles, and The Lion King. If you can devise some kind of marketing strategy, or discover something on a personal level from my favorite list, then I applaud you. I hope everyone enjoyed their Moment of Zen today, and have a great holiday.

Bing and Ping

Bing, are you a fan? If you aren't a fan then you might have some incentive to become one, on Facebook that is. If you do decide to 'fan up' on Facebook then you'll be privvy to Bing's latest project - 'Bing and Ping'.

What is 'Bing and Ping' you ask; well I'd be happy to explain. Microsoft has this crazy notion that social media and search can fuse together and work off each other. Is it crazy enough to work though? Ok, actually it isn't crazy and I have to say it's pretty savvy of the big house of M to give it a shot.

So, how it works is that when you search for something on Bing you'll be provided an option to share your results with others. On their community Blog, football and flights are used as an example. So, if you're searching for a flight time and want others to know when you're leaving you can share it through Bing's search results. Right now they're showing four options, Facebook, Twitter, Email, and a simple copy.

I think that the idea for this is novel in concept. Bing can only stand to gain from this in my mind. First, you're in better graces with two of the most popular websites on the internet. Secondly, you're in a way virally marketing the Bing name. If one person shares something, then that person will link to someone else. Before you know it people are binging and pinging all over the place.

The one problem that I have with this idea is the name. Bing and Ping? Do we really need it to rhyme? What happens when they add more features like having the ability of a friend to reply back, will it be a 'zing'? Or if you provide the ability to text message a search result, 'ring'? Before you know it you've got yourself a rap song: Just got on Bing, gave my friend a ping, just hit me back with a zing, figured I'd give my other boy a ring. :) Yea, let's not do that.

AP Charges $12.50 To Quote 5 Words

If there's one word, or thought that has really changed in the past decade it's 'journalism'. Ten years ago you thought of a journalist as someone who was on the TV reading you the news, or a reporter writing in a newspaper. Nowadays, anyone can be a journalist. Hell, you can almost call what I do journalism.

You can bet that this change of cultural definition concerning journalism has many of the traditional outlets upset. Don't believe me? Check out this story, reporting that the AP is going to start charging for having their content quoted. For example, if I wanted to quote something from the AP here and it was 20 words long, then I would owe them $12.50.

I almost couldn't believe this story when I read it. I could understand them charging if the person quoting them wasn't linking back. I guess it really comes down to how much they value their incoming links. I really don't want to relish on this too much, as it has been known for awhile that the AP really has no clue how to handle the online arena.

The story that really has me interested is from the New York Times, and it concerns YouTube. Earlier in the year, YouTube launched a service called 'News Near You'. It's a platform that generates videos concerning news in your nearby area. It's still relatively new, so not many affiliates have signed up yet. Where I live, only one news affiliate has posted videos on the channel.

This scenario is interesting, because station owners have a decision on their hands. Do they try and build traffic to their own site where they receive greater revenue? Or dance with the YouTube devil and get their company name out there and take a hit for ad revenue? Talk about some tricky market analysis; have fun with that one you experts.. ;)

How To Identify If Your Website Has Been Penalized

In the world of search engine optimization (SEO), there are 2 definitions for the sanctions that can be placed on your site by a search engine. The first is a penalty, and the second is a filter. Each one has different causes and remedies, but if you've dropped out of the first few pages of results then there are SEO issues that need to be addressed.

What is a penalty?

Generally speaking, a penalty is one of the worst sanctions you can get from a search engine. It can involve losing all of your page rank and essentially having your site "de-listed" from the search results. Penalties are caused by violations of search engine guidelines including cloaking, keyword stuffing, spamming, and using prohibited or "black hat" optimization methods. A penalty is more difficult to fix than simple filtering.

What is a filter?

A filter is considered any factor applied by the search engine that moves your actual ranking below the position it should occupy. For instance, if you normally had a #1 ranking but a search engine wanted to penalize you for over optimization, you could end up in the #30, #95, or #950 position on the search engine. Normally when the filtering factor is changed or removed, your search engine ranking will go back to its proper position within a few weeks.When a site or page is filtered, you are still getting indexed and cached by the search engine.

What Causes Filters to Get Applied by Search Engines?

• Duplicate Content - Pages on your site, another site owned by you, or a competitor's site have substantially similar or identical content. Even if your site had the original content, a search engine may consider it to be duplicated if it was found on another website first.
• Over Optimization - Obvious optimization tactics can trip up a search engine filter, sometimes even unintentionally. If you have too many keywords, too many links pointing to a page with the same anchor text, too many instances where site content elements (Title tag, Header text, and regular text) match up with anchor text, or keyword stuffed internal site linking, then you can be tripping up an over optimization filter.
• New Site - Also known as a "sandbox" filter, new sites are generally filtered by search engines. This filter has been put in place to keep people from spamming search engines with multiple new URLs containing questionable content. Essentially, your site will need to earn the trust of the search engine, and time is a factor in trust. In some cases a new site can avoid this type of filtering, but usually the factors involved are beyond even advanced optimization.

What kinds of filters can get applied to my site?

There are 3 Major Filter Types:

• Keyword filters - If you find yourself filtered for only a few key phrases, and especially the ones for which you are using heavy anchor text linking practices, then a keyword filter may be to blame.
• Site wide filters - If your whole site has been impacted, than there is a factor that is causing your whole site to lose rankings. If your site is new, it is likely filtered.
• Link filtering - Links to your site may have lost popularity. Search engines continually reevaluate all sites on the internet, and link popularity involves hundreds of factors. If a powerful site linking to yours lost its trust for any reason, the link to your site would lose its value and you would see a rankings drop. Therefore, it is always best to diversify your inbound link popularity.

The benefits of Firefox and Internet Explorer

I find it humorous that something as simple as a web browser has such a profound impact on people. Some people live and die by a certain one. I've gotten into heated discussions with people regarding the benefits of Firefox and Internet Explorer. Depending on who I'm arguing against, I'll take one side over the other. Just because I'm a huge fan of debating.

I've heard all the compelling points for browser support. IE displays content in a way that is more pleasing to the eye. Firefox has security measures that you won't find on any other browser. Those are just a couple of arguments I've heard before.

The truth I find is that the more I use various browsers, the more I find that they're the same. Of course there are some subtle differences. If you're a very particular person then Firefox has a slew of add-ons to take advantage of. However, that doesn't make it the great escape from IE that everyone makes it out to be. At the end of the day, both products bring us the glorious internet.

The debate of web browsers in my eyes paints a perfect picture of the idiocies of human behavior. We become so engrained in thinking a certain way, or staying with a certain product that we can't be told anything different. I believe I've mentioned it before in my writing, but think about the debate between Coke and Pepsi. Which one is better you ask, well that depends on who you talk to.

Along with Firefox, and Internet Explorer there are a slew of other browsers out there. All of which do primarily the same thing -- act as a portal for the world wide web. So, what little things keep you from using one web browser over the other? Are you a designer and hate all the browsers, with the intricacies you have to mind when designing a site? Come on, I know you're out there.

Client Management (for Web Designers)

I've noticed that some design studios or web design companies offer private client areas, whre the clients can login and do some things. Having never actually been into any of these areas, I've always wondered what kind of information or what kind of special resources you would offer your clients in such a client area where they would have to login?

I'm considering having some kind of web-based client management system to better service my clients and be able to keep all of my web design related communications in one place instead of scattered in my email inbox among other things like personal emails.

Additionally, your client may actually be a group of people more likely than not, say for example if you're doing a job for a company where the President, VP or director of sales all want a say in the design process. Having a client management system would be a better way to centralize communications for everyone involved.

My question, for web designers, is what kinds of features would you make available to your clients in this client management system to most effectively service them. Some things that immediately come to mind is:

- Some kind of messaging system, that would work just like emails, just all consolidated in the system

- A progress bar that I can update manually to show them at what percent I believe their project is complete, with an ETA of their web site.

- Scheduled Billing system, set up to properly charge the client on their quoted invoice. (Like for example, charge 50% of the total invoice when 50% complete, then require the client to pay the rest, then make their files available in the client area once paid)

Anything else? These are just the basic things I deal with for any client via emails.

Microsoft and Yahoo Finally Announce Deal

The white whale has been killed, the leprechaun has been captured, the holy grail has been found -- Microsoft and Yahoo have finally reached a partnership deal. I'll let you ponder as to what those things all have in common.

In case you hadn't already heard the news, Microsoft and Yahoo have finally agreed on a deal to combine forces. Which I'm hoping will form some kind of mega search robot. Now that the deal is done, here's what Steve Ballmer has to say about the impact of it,

"Through this agreement with Yahoo!, we will create more innovation in search, better value for advertisers and real consumer choice in a market currently dominated by a single company," said Ballmer. "Success in search requires both innovation and scale. With our new Bing search platform, we’ve created breakthrough innovation and features. This agreement with Yahoo! will provide the scale we need to deliver even more rapid advances in relevancy and usefulness. Microsoft and Yahoo! know there’s so much more that search could be. This agreement gives us the scale and resources to create the future of search.

"The details of the deal are quite interesting. The first thing to note is that this is a partnership, not a buyout. So there's quite a bit of give and take going on. I think the biggest aspect of the deal to keep an eye on is Microsoft is implementing Bing's search algorithms on Yahoo's sites. Will there be an improvement in search, or a decline? When Microsoft gets it going, we're sure to find out.

What are your thoughts now that Microsoft and Yahoo have come to an agreement? Do the terms of the deal seem fair in keeping with the definition of a 'partnership'?

Key Terms as highlighted in the announcement:

- The term of the agreement is 10 years;

- Microsoft will acquire an exclusive 10 year license to Yahoo!’s core search technologies, and Microsoft will have the ability to integrate Yahoo! search technologies into its existing Web search platforms;

- Microsoft’s Bing will be the exclusive algorithmic search and paid search platform for Yahoo! sites. Yahoo! will continue to use its technology and data in other areas of its business such as enhancing display advertising technology;

- Yahoo! will become the exclusive worldwide relationship sales force for both companies’ premium search advertisers. Self-serve advertising for both companies will be fulfilled by Microsoft’s AdCenter platform, and prices for all search ads will continue to be set by AdCenter’s automated auction process;

- Each company will maintain its own separate display advertising business and sales force;- Yahoo! will innovate and “own” the user experience on Yahoo! properties, including the user experience for search, even though it will be powered by Microsoft technology;

- Microsoft will compensate Yahoo! through a revenue sharing agreement on traffic generated on Yahoo!’s network of both owned and operated (O&O) and affiliate sites;

- Microsoft will pay traffic acquisition costs (TAC) to Yahoo! at an initial rate of 88 percent of search revenue generated on Yahoo!’s O&O sites during the first five years of the agreement; and

- Yahoo! will continue to syndicate its existing search affiliate partnerships.- Microsoft will guarantee Yahoo!’s O&O revenue per search (RPS) in each country for the first 18 months following initial implementation in that country;

- At full implementation (expected to occur within 24 months following regulatory approval), Yahoo! estimates, based on current levels of revenue and current operating expenses, that this agreement will provide a benefit to annual GAAP operating income of approximately $500 million and capital expenditure savings of approximately $200 million. Yahoo! also estimates that this agreement will provide a benefit to annual operating cash flow of approximately $275 million; and

- The agreement protects consumer privacy by limiting the data shared between the companies to the minimum necessary to operate and improve the combined search platform, and restricts the use of search data shared between the companies. The agreement maintains the industry-leading privacy practices that each company follows today.

Microsoft Speaks Out About Google's Chrome OS

As was widely reported this week Google is venturing into the world of operating systems, which is kind of like walking into Microsoft's living room and saying "We're here!". Microsoft has been trying to for years to make a dent in the complete dominance of the search space that Google has. The introduction of Bing as served to move them in that direction but no one really expects them to unseat Google as the #1 search engine.

What is different about the Google announcement of looking to jump right in the middle of the pasture where Microsoft's cash cow grazes is the thought that maybe, just maybe, Google has a shot as making a dent. They have built most of the competing products already that many have adopted in the Google Apps offering so now they are starting to move down to the foundation of desktop computing but with HUGE brand trust and awareness. At the same time Microsoft is often portrayed as the Evil Empire and many want to see them fall. Are the circumstances right for this to actually happen?

According to an interview conducted by Anthony Ha of Venture Beat with Microsoft's VP of Developer and Platform Evangelism (huh?), Walid Abu-Hadba Microsoft isn't worried.

Some of his remarks about Chrome consisted of entertaining bluster: "I love competition." But he also had thoughts about why Google is trying to muscle into the operating system business. And no, he said, it's not because Google wants to make computing simpler and faster (as Google executives claim), nor is it part of a grand plan to undo Microsoft's dominance (as VentureBeat writer Dean Takahashi speculated).

"Most of what Google does is defensive," Abu-Hadba said.

Now that's an interesting take. Most people don't usually see Google as being on the defensive with their efforts to do anything. It's all Google can do to not appear too aggressive and look offensive in their steady march to world dominance through the browser.

The interview continued

Abu-Hadba said it's not about operating systems at all; instead, Google is trying to distract competitors from attacking its cash cow, search. He argued that whenever Google enters a new market, like releasing mobile operating system Android, it's trying to force competitors to focus on existing products, rather than challenging Google in search. And the company may actually feel threatened for the first time in years.He then went on to predict the demise of Adobe in 10-15 years. So what's his point? It appears as if the folks at Microsoft have a lot more to lose than Google does in this one. If you are the company that many people simply deal with because they often have little or no choice and would rather lose a limb than use your OS wouldn't you consider a little more diplomacy? While even the start of the Google v Microsoft OS war is still a ways off the talk out of the gate seems to be setting the table for a serious fight.

Right now though the tough talk from Microsoft sounds pretty defensive since Google's OS is still a ways off. Should Microsoft be worried or should they be concentrating on really attacking Google where it would hurt; their search business. Is talk like this designed to distract people from the fact that despite a pretty good start no one is holding any hope that Bing will dent Google's search dominance? This could get interesting or it could get pretty silly. Which way do you see it heading?

Best practices for online child safety

Since the beginning of the internet, it has mirrored physical life in the sense that there are safe places to visit and some not so safe locales. For children this idea is exponentiated as the online world can in many ways provide dangers not seen in real life.

I think we can all be in agreeance that it's vital that we make the internet a safer place for kids to visit. The problem is devising a solution that satisfies all parties involved. Some want a higher grade of censorship, while others see education and providing information to parents and children as the solution.

I find my self in the later category. Much like the world of video games, it's important that we provide information to parents to help keep their children safe from anything that could potentially cause harm. Education is the key to creating a safer environment for our kids.

I'm not alone in this thought as an organization by the name PointSmart, has released a set of guidelines for encouraging internet education for our children and parents. Here's a paragraph summarizing what their mission is about...

"Expanding online safety efforts to emphasize online smarts, through digital media literacy and education programs that empower parents and teachers to prepare kids to navigate the world of online and digital media. These efforts will be significantly improved with more focus on education, rather than only on crime prevention."

The PointSmart organization has a key influential member that I'd say could provide clarity to the situation; Google. They've released a statement regarding PointSmart's guidelines.

After looking at PointSmart and Google's thoughts on the topic, how do you view online safety? What steps should we take as we continue to make the internet a safer environment?

AEGEE-Utrecht European student association website launches

We continue to produce some great work and are delighted to announce the launch of a new website for AEGEE-Utrecht. After over few months of hard work, the site is finally up and running in two languages.

AEGEE-Utrecht contracted us to develop a full brand strategy and overhaul its previous online identity. The website had a major overhaul in terms of everything. With new functions, a new look, Miles Trophy, forum and agenda, new banner manager, and photo albums with two different displaying of their photos. Miles Trophy was completely new for our team, and it was very nice to do it.
Some new features are in the pipeline for our company, as well to complement what is now regarded by many as the most beautiful AEGEE website in The Netherlands and Europe.

'After consulting what our wishes are, they created a really nice website. Alway's had good cooperation and communication and I really liked it that they kept us informed during the whole proces. Their TRE-CMS is very user-friendly, even for people who are not that good with computers. If you need a new website, I can certainly recommend this company!' Says Mr. Timo Dijkstra the President of AEGEE-Utrecht.

About AEGEE-Utrecht

AEGEE-Utrecht is one of AEGEE-European Students Forum and this is one of the biggest interdisciplinary student associations in Europe; it is represented by 15.000 students, active in 241 academic cities, in 43 countries all around Europe, which presents amazing culture variety. AEGEE is a secular, non-profit organization, not linked to any political party. All projects and activities are based on voluntarily work of its members.

The technology behind the AEGEE-Utrecht site

The website uses PHP, XHTML, JSP/JSF, CSS, Javascript, Ajax, Flash and MySQL. It features TRE-CMS, our proprietary Content Management System made to make building complex and high-volume websites easy. It enables the staff at AEGEE-Utrecht to easily manage content with the minimum amount of hassle.

Your feedback is welcome. Take a look around and let us know your thoughts.