PALM BEACH, FL – The Internet domain name “Money.com” and its live website was all that was left when failed Money Magazine ceased printing its tangible physical copies last July. The entire business was for sale including its 400,000 or so monthly subscribers for $10 million by it’s owners Meredith Corp, publishers of newspapers, magazines, television stations and websites; with no buyer in sight, they ceased print and planned to focus only on its digital edition; lo and … [Read more...]
How Google Search Worked (Back in 2010) With Quality Search Engineer Matt Cutts
PALM BEACH, FL – The below video was uploaded by Google’s YouTube account back in 2010. As of the time of this writing the video has been watched over 5.2 million times. It explains, in layman’s terms (a very simple way), how Google works, at least, how Google ‘worked’ back in 2010. The video includes Matt Cutts, who was at that time, Google’s quality search engineer. He also acted as somewhat of a communications contact between Google and the entire webmaster community. … [Read more...]
Two Year Investigation Leads to Take Down of File Hosting Site “Share-Online.biz”
PALM BEACH, FL – An investigation which began in 2017 has eventually led to the take-down and removal of a content hosting network using the domain name “Share-Online.biz”, which was particularly popular in Germany according to SimilarWeb. The site served up to 10 million visitors a month with millions of files stored across unknown number of servers which is expected to be in the hundreds Those 10 million visitors are now met with the following take-down notice: This … [Read more...]
First Google (GOOGL), Now Facebook (FB) Under Attack by 47 Attorney Generals
PALM BEACH, FL – In September, word started circulating across major media that Google (GOOGL) was expected to face scrutiny by 50 U.S attorney generals regarding alleged bias and antitrust violations from the tech giants advertising and search businesses. The probe, which would be the first of its kind since Microsoft was sued in 1998, was expected to potentially expand into other areas of the business later in the investigation. It's an investigation to determine … [Read more...]
FTC Settles with Two Marketing Firms Over Fraudulent Reviews and Social Media Likes
PALM BEACH, FL – The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has settled two lawsuits against two separate marketing firms, Devumi, LLC and Sunday Riley, both of which were accused of deceptive online marketing tactics designed to dupe consumers into making false assumptions based on user generated content and activity. In the first case, Devumi, LLC agreed to settle the FTC’s complaint challenging the sale of fake indicators of social media influence. In the second case, … [Read more...]
Think Your Domains Are Safe by Using Two Factor Authentication? Think Again
PALM BEACH, FL – Sometimes I read stories that really make me think (and worry). For those who have great domains under management, you might feel super-safe by using “two factor authentications”, where your mobile device is used to verify each login you make to your registry account by sending you a text message for confirmation. I’ve often thought how horrible it might be if someone got control of my mobile device and was able to use it to verify an account change … [Read more...]
If Google Removes URLs From Search Results, Who Exactly Stands to Benefit?
PALM BEACH, FL – Last week I ran a story about Google’s obvious intent to remove URL’s from search. The story was titled “Google Determined to Remove URLs from Search Results; Replace with Breadcrumbs” and published on October 18, 2019. It was a follow up to “EVIL: Will Google Do Away with Domain Name and Extension Entirely Anyway?” There has been wide reaction from both the SEO and Domain community on the coming change and it warrants added thought and hopefully, added … [Read more...]
Numbers Reported for “.CLUB” Decline Due to Registry Quality Compliance & Cleanup
PALM BEACH, FL – The following is a correction to previously published work which included an embedded Tweet which has been called into question and said, by the registry, to be incorrect; a reader from the “.Club” registry contacted me with a correction request yesterday including some supporting explanations for certain numbers seen on nTLDStats.com and numbers from a Tweet which were embedded and published on StrategicRevenue.com on October 17, 2019. Upon reading the … [Read more...]
U.S. GDPR: The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) Goes Into Effect January 2020
PALM BEACH, FL - The US's answer to European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), enacted in 2018, will create new consumer rights relating to the access to, deletion of, and sharing of personal information that is collected by businesses. It also requires California's Attorney General to solicit broad public participation and adopt regulations to further the CCPA's purposes. The proposed regulations will establish … [Read more...]
New “Mind Your Own Business Act” Allows for Fines, Jail Time for Privacy Violations
WASHINGTON - Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, has introducedlegislation, called the Mind Your Own Business Act, that would make it more difficult for online platforms to collect and use customer data. The bill is in some ways similar to the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Among other things, the bill would: Give the Federal Trade Commission the authority to establish minimum privacy and cyber-security standards. Allow the FTC to issue … [Read more...]
Wild West Domains Must Still Be on List of Registrars Which Facilitate Email Spam
PALM BEACH, FL – Way, way, way back in 2009, Brian Krebs from Krebs on Security, a popular security website came up with a list of the top ten domain registrars (highlighted in a Washington Post article) which facilitate the majority of spam via email, and Wild West Domains, owned by GoDaddy held a spot on that list. Out of roughly 900 accredited domain name registrars at the time, spammers registered Web sites advertised in junk e-mail mostly through the following top … [Read more...]
FTC Warns Consumers of Fake Equifax Data Breach Websites for Settlement Claims
PALM BEACH, FL – The Federal Trade Commission is warning Internet users, all 147 million people who were affected by the Equifax Data Breach in 2017, to beware of fake Equifax settlement websites which have been setup by thieves trying to steal consumers information when they attempt to file a claim online. Typically, users are sent an email that a class action lawsuit has resulted in a settlement making them eligible for credit monitoring services and/or a cash claim … [Read more...]
Follow the Money: IRS Takes Down Largest Child Exploit Domain by Tracing Bitcoin
PALM BEACH, FL – The largest child exploitation website on the Internet “Welcome to Video” which, according to GitHub was using a dark-web address of “mt3plrzdiyqf6jim.onion” was seized and/or shut down last week resulting in over 300 arrests. According to the Department of Justice, the service was the largest child sexual exploitation market by volume of content. Particularly interesting was the way the sites owners were traced as I have been contemplating my first … [Read more...]
Exact Match Domain Names Yielding “Free Ticket to Ride” Long Over on Search Giant
PALM BEACH, FL – Exact match domain names, URLs which are spelled exactly how a top search term is used in popular verbal expression still work to help boost search rankings well when it comes to Bing.com and Yahoo.com, but on Google.com, it doesn’t seem to matter unless there are powerful “brand signals” in play, such as high numbers of inbound links, frequent references to the URL whether linked or not, and other popular signals such as social media activity with matching … [Read more...]
Google Determined to Remove URLs from Search Results; Replace with Breadcrumbs
PALM BEACH, FL – It seems that Google, the world’s most popular search engine, is determined to do away entirely with URLs in its search engine, no doubt further increasing its position in, and not to mention, the value itself of “alternative URLs” by completely removing a person’s ability to subconsciously decide whether a site is trustworthy based on the URL itself. I touched on this topic back in September 2018 when I wrote “EVIL: Will Google Do Away with Domain Name … [Read more...]