what is seo

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The Next Level Of Google Marketing!

Monday, April 29, 2013

Google Webmaster Tools: Site Links Bug

Featured Home Page Discussion This 76 message thread spans 3 pages: 76 ( [1] 2 3 )  > >   Anybody lost a ton of link data in Webmaster Tools ?
 4:48 am on Feb 5, 2013 (gmt 0)
I'm seeing a huge shift in what's being reported by the "Links to your Site" page across all the domains in my WMT account.

Something like 50-75% of Links that still exist and were previously reported are now gone.

 7:08 am on Feb 5, 2013 (gmt 0)
I just saw that i have less than 10% of links on all sites.. apparently some link cache was flushed..no change in traffic
 8:13 am on Feb 5, 2013 (gmt 0)
:: detour to check ::

woo hoo, down by 20%.

I am cheering because in my case it can only mean they've got rid of some garbage links-- things like search-result pages that should never have been crawled in the first place, let alone contaminate other people's link lists. Makes it that much easier to pick out the real ones.

:: memo to self: work out how to say Duplicate Content in Inuktitut ::

 8:37 am on Feb 5, 2013 (gmt 0)
Yep, came in tonight because I just noticed something very unusual in WMT. Seems that many thousands of our backlinks disappeared from the "links to your site" tab. We had some totally junk sites like a o l s t a l k # # that each had thousands of links to our pages, and they are suddenly all gone, the highest now on the list is a recognized fairly legit site that has just over 100 links. Maybe this means we no longer have to disavow all this garbage because they finally figured it out on their own... Oddly enough pint-r-st is still on the list.. oh well, guess there's no accounting for taste.
Noticed a while back that a lot of our duplicate descriptions and titles disappeared too. Good thing I printed off a list earlier.
 9:12 am on Feb 5, 2013 (gmt 0)
I've noticed the same... Except the links that have disappeared are the vast majority of links to my homepage and some of the more popular inner pages of my site. These are genuine natural backlinks.

I'm sure this has happened before. It coincides with the recent PR update so there may be some recalculation going on for that metric?

P.S. Checked the official WMT forums and it seems the issue has been noticed by several others and has been escalated to Google reps.

 10:01 am on Feb 5, 2013 (gmt 0)
All links to my homepage are now missing from the report. My homepage is also missing from the Internal Links report.
 12:21 pm on Feb 5, 2013 (gmt 0)
We have a site that has been in existence since 1998. Our Links to our Site in WMT dropped from over 60000 to 8700. I have been freaking out all night. I assume this is a bug.

If anybody gets an update on the situation, please let me know.

We have also noticed that our site position on some critical keywords has been degrading over the last several weeks. Anybody else noticing that?

 5:08 pm on Feb 5, 2013 (gmt 0)
I see the same on my sites - all the homepage links are gone? Rankings so far don't seem to be affected. Seems like a bug to me. At least I hope it is because most of my rankings are home page rankings. No links to homepage = no rankings to follow
 12:35 am on Feb 6, 2013 (gmt 0)
Some 'comfort' in that I am not alone in this. I noticed today that ALL of the backlinks to my homepage have now gone in the 'links to your site'. Although the rest of the links seem to remain.
 1:02 am on Feb 6, 2013 (gmt 0)
If this sticks, it could make it harder for people to prepare a list of backlinks to disavow. They would have to depend more on other backlink checking tools, most of which aren't as thorough as webmaster tools has been up to now.
 3:13 am on Feb 6, 2013 (gmt 0)
I site I track lost 60% of it's links last month in WMT
 4:14 am on Feb 6, 2013 (gmt 0)
Same for me. Went from 61,000 backlinks to 1,900! My site has been around since 1999! Started to freak out until I saw this thread.
 10:31 am on Feb 6, 2013 (gmt 0)
Yesterday I had 2,616 links. Today I have 299. 88% of my links gone (but not forgotten)
 11:03 am on Feb 6, 2013 (gmt 0)
Yes I lost a load of links too and the homepage links are not showing either. Anybody know if this is permanent?
 12:47 pm on Feb 6, 2013 (gmt 0)
I lost 75% of links and dropped one slot in page rank. My site is 13 years old and has had the same page rank for years.
 1:59 pm on Feb 6, 2013 (gmt 0)
Yes I lost a load of links too and the homepage links are not showing either. Anybody know if this is permanent?
Like others here, all data for my homepage have disappeared in WMT. It really seems to me that this is a bug. 100% of my homepage links/data are missing...but most internal page data remain (although I see two or three internal pages that are missing from in my data).
 4:34 pm on Feb 6, 2013 (gmt 0)
Reporting the same issue here, went from over 3,500 links down to 953.
 4:42 pm on Feb 6, 2013 (gmt 0)
Same thing here - I never tracked the total numbers but I can clearly see that all the *good* links that I've been tracking over the years are gone! All what's left is the junk like mrwhatis, askives and the rest of the automated scrapers / content farms, and the list of links now looks like something I would feed straight into the disavow tool. WTF?!
 4:53 pm on Feb 6, 2013 (gmt 0)
@1script

That's EXACTLY what I am seeing! Just junk links.

 5:10 pm on Feb 6, 2013 (gmt 0)
Same for me, for one of my site. Lost about 90% of the links listed one week ago...

I don?t if it is coincidence, but also that site loose positions...

 5:24 pm on Feb 6, 2013 (gmt 0)
Has no one heard anything from the Great Goo? I'm beginning to think this is permanent. Which is.... disturbing to say the least. Some of those links I had were 10 years old and good quality.
It's like someone coming to your Facebook page and removing 100's of friends just because. LOL
 7:09 pm on Feb 6, 2013 (gmt 0)
Come to think of it: the list of reported links has been in need of big overhaul for the longest time. I have a number of sites where more than 95% of all reported links were verifiably not true - they showed that all my sites are interlinked. Since the links they showed were all my other sites, there could be no mistake that those links they show did't *actually* exist, and I verified that time and time again. I hope they will fix this now, although I'm not holding by breath - all of these non-existent bad links are still there whereas all the good ones are gone!
 7:17 pm on Feb 6, 2013 (gmt 0)
I just came to the forum to ask advice to why I have no backlink data for my homepage only and found this thread. In my case the homepage does not appear for any external backlinks or internal links.
 7:22 pm on Feb 6, 2013 (gmt 0)
All links to my homepage are now missing from the report.
There is a thread on the Google Forums discussing exactly this point. Google's JohnMu replied:

This looks like an issue with how the data is displayed in Webmaster Tools, it shouldn't affect your site's crawling, indexing or ranking. I don't have any specifics at the moment, but the team is looking into the details to see what we can do here. Thanks for your patience & sorry for the confusion!

http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!category-topic/webmasters/_r3YwCyJvB4


 7:24 pm on Feb 6, 2013 (gmt 0)
about 70% of links hit the road on my sites.
 7:31 pm on Feb 6, 2013 (gmt 0)
Looks like most of the good links are gone, crap links stayed. Just other move by Google to push sites down than don't pay $$$ to advertise or are not part of the Google collective of properties.
 7:34 pm on Feb 6, 2013 (gmt 0)
No one has reported losing any traffic when the links vanished. IMO this is just some kind of reporting glitch in WMT (they have always been common), it's nothing sinister.
 7:49 pm on Feb 6, 2013 (gmt 0)
@Tedster
You're my hero. I can now at least breathe. Thank you :-)
 9:05 pm on Feb 6, 2013 (gmt 0)
I tried posting this link, but it's not working... so extract it from the brackets. John Mueller seems to think it's a glitch as well.

"Thanks for the report, Anne (and thanks for escalating, Stevie!). This looks like an issue with how the data is displayed in Webmaster Tools, it shouldn't affect your site's crawling, indexing or ranking. I don't have any specifics at the moment, but the team is looking into the details to see what we can do here. Thanks for your patience & sorry for the confusion!"

[http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!category-topic/webmasters/_r3YwCyJvB4]

 2:41 am on Feb 7, 2013 (gmt 0)
I would like to believe this is a wmt glitch, but I don't think it is. I only noticed it because someone in another thread asked about a page rank update, so I checked my page rank and found I had gone down a slot after many years at the same ranking. I immediately checked wmt and saw the link issue. Aren't backlinks a large part of page rank? I wonder if others who have lost backlinks in wmt have lost page rank in the past few days.

I then noticed that I had lost a place or two in the search results for various keywords where there is a lot of competition in my niche. I do buy Google ads, precisely because IME, no matter how illogical it might seem, that even if only a small amount is spent, if I buy ads, my rankings are higher than if I don't buy ads. For the links I am losing position on, none of them are keywords with ads associated with them. Coincidence? I wonder. I had planned to start spending on the other keywords in the near future, and now I will notice whether those come up again in the rankings once I start doing that.

This 76 message thread spans 3 pages: 76 ( [1] 2 3 )  > >  

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Sunday, April 28, 2013

Google+ Adds Application Sign-In

Featured Home Page Discussion Google+ Adds Application Sign-In
 9:55 am on Feb 27, 2013 (gmt 0)
Google+ minus social spam. Today we?re adding a new feature to the Google+ platform: application sign-in. Whether you?re building an app for Android, iOS or the web, users can now sign in to your app with Google, and bring along their Google+ info for an upgraded experience. It?s simple, it?s secure, and it prohibits social spam. Google+ Adds Application Sign-In [googleplusplatform.blogspot.co.uk] If you?re building an app for Android, iOS or the web, and you?d like to include Google+ Sign-In, simply dive into our developer docs and start checking stats once your integration is live. Android apps will require the latest version of Google Play Services, which is rolling out to all devices in the next day or so.
 3:27 pm on Feb 27, 2013 (gmt 0)
But Google has already offered "Application Sign-in" for quite a while. How is this different or better than Using OAuth 2.0 for Login [developers.google.com]?

It appears that G is moving more functionality under the G+ umbrella to pump up their G+ numbers.

albo


msg:4549515

 5:38 pm on Feb 27, 2013 (gmt 0)
Danny Sullivan was saying he could reap most of the benefits of a Google+ signin (aside from app signin, I suppose?) simply by signing in with a regular "Google account". This led me to wonder how long it'll be before the distinction between "Google account" and "Google+ account" becomes *fully* meaningless. BWC
 

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Thursday, April 25, 2013

Google's Interactive Guide To "How Search Works"

Featured Home Page Discussion How Search Works: Interactive Guide From Google
levo


msg:4550178

 5:17 pm on Mar 1, 2013 (gmt 0)
Google has just launched an interactive guide that "follow[s] the entire life of a search query, from the web, to crawling and indexing, to algorithmic ranking and serving, to fighting webspam."

[google.com...]

The best part of it is the Live spam screenshots, you can see the example pages that Google has just removed from its index.

 6:10 pm on Mar 1, 2013 (gmt 0)
Here's the official announcement on the launch of Google's How Search Works Today we're releasing a similar website called How Search Works.

Here you can follow the entire life of a search query, from the web, to crawling and indexing, to algorithmic ranking and serving, to fighting webspam. The site complements existing resources, including this blog, the help center, user forums, Webmaster Tools, and in-depth research papers.

A few things you'll find:

An interactive, graphical explanation of Google Search
A view into major search algorithms and features
A 43-page document explaining how we evaluate our results
A live slideshow of spam as we remove it
Graphs illustrating the spam problem and how we fight it
A list of policies that explain when we'll remove content
How Search Works Launched [insidesearch.blogspot.co.uk]
 9:39 pm on Mar 1, 2013 (gmt 0)
I'm loving the live spam removal screenshots. Actual page title: BUY CHEAP LOWER BEST PRICED WHERE

I've seen several examples of thin affiliates. Plenty of content, but all duped from affiliate sponsors' sites. And boatloads of telephone number lookup sites.

It's kind of fascinating, a new guilty pleasure.

 10:20 pm on Mar 1, 2013 (gmt 0)
I'm loving the live spam removal screenshots.
I'm waiting for a modern-day reenactment of the scene where Walter Cronkite is reading out the hot-off-the-press Nixon Enemies List ... and comes to his own name.

:)

I think my favorite title so far is
Intitle Network Camera Inurl Cgistart Page Single, Bach Cello Suite ...
Now, is that the actual title of the actual page on the actual site ... or yet another example of g###s much-commented-on Renaming To Match The Search?

 10:49 pm on Mar 1, 2013 (gmt 0)
The eye-opener for me is that they still have to manually remove some of this stuff. A grammar check combined with topic detection could certainly flag most of it. Still, it's nice to know human spambusters aren't completely obsolete for the time being.
 1:09 am on Mar 2, 2013 (gmt 0)
The eye-opener for me is that they still have to manually remove some of this stuff. A grammar check combined with topic detection could certainly flag most of it. Still, it's nice to know human spambusters aren't completely obsolete for the time being.

There are many flaws in math (the algorithm) where you simply cannot perfectly detect spam with a 0% threshold without including a montage of false positives.

Getting rid of spam is a high priority but accidentally getting rid of quality because in emulates your math in some way is a higher priority to avoid.

 5:14 am on Mar 2, 2013 (gmt 0)
Getting rid of spam is a high priority but accidentally getting rid of quality because in emulates your math in some way is a higher priority to avoid.
Well said! Google always looked at positive signals, long before they added a spam detection team. Retuning good sites is their #1 priority, even if they do struggle with it.
 8:38 am on Mar 2, 2013 (gmt 0)
< moved from another location >

Amazing information from Google here...

Fighting Spam
http://www.webmasterworld.com/r.cgi?f=30&d=4550176&url=http://www.google.com/insidesearch/howsearchworks/fighting-spam.html [google.com]:

1. A live screenshot of spam sites - which are totally out of Google.

2. Types of Spam: We SEO's say it Panda but i think Google say it "PURE SPAM". They had defined all terms related to it.

3. Spam stats: A graphical representation of manual actions taken against spam.

4. A list of spam updates with timing from February 2005 to April 2012 of Penguin.

5. A graph for Notifying Website Owners each month from May 2007 to February 2012

6. Feedback for reconsideration requests from December 2006 to June 2012
.

[edited by: Robert_Charlton at 10:04 am (utc) on Mar 2, 2013]
[edit reason] moved from another location, added section title [/edit]

 12:58 am on Mar 3, 2013 (gmt 0)
:: pause for belated "D'oh!" as I realize why LinkedIn thinks I know some guy named Charlton ::

Has anyone else noticed this exasperating detail? Once you're in the How Search Works area it's but a short step to the Google Playground, leading to the Demo Slam, leading to an illustration of posterizing {basketball player whom I've no idea whether I'm supposed to have heard of or not} with in-your-face visible illustration of using G### Image Search to grab a picture straight off the internet without the tiresome formality of visiting the page it lives on...

Sigh.

If it was just removed 37 minutes ago (this number changes, as does the total number of examples) why is the first page always the same?

We?ve removed some pornographic content and malware from this demo, but otherwise this is an unfiltered stream of fresh English examples of ?pure spam? removals.
Mmm well, for a given definition of "English" anyway. Dang! The one about how to beat a mouth-swab test isn't there any more. Was going to bookmark that ;)

If you do not currently use polysyllabic point loans you are making your existence
many ticklish than it needs to be.
We need a sister thread in Foo where people can record their favorites.

 12:32 am on Mar 4, 2013 (gmt 0)
In the section that shows live spam screen shots, it says that the first page shown was "Removed from search results 38 minutes ago" .

My question is: If this page is such obvious spam, then why was it ever allowed to get into the search results in the first place?

Why doesn't the Google algorithm screen newly-discovered pages and immediately discard all the obvious spam, so that it never gets into the index at all?

 10:36 am on Mar 4, 2013 (gmt 0)
wow, downgrade dynamic DNS is something i allways thought about. Now they confirmed it and we use dynamic DNS for downloading PDF Files and have been hit badly.
To downgrade all users form a specific dynamic DNS shows me that g* will although downgrade complete IP ranges and "nearby" hosted pages.
 2:49 pm on Mar 4, 2013 (gmt 0)
Excerpt from the Raters Guide:-

Utility: The utility of the landing page is a measure of how helpful the page is for the user intent. Pages with good
utility are helpful for users. Pages with no utility are useless. Utility is the most important aspect of search engine
quality, and is therefore the most important thing for you to think about when evaluating webpages.

An insight for Panda sufferers into what quality is perhaps....

 11:41 pm on Mar 4, 2013 (gmt 0)
A fuller description that Martin Ice Web is talking about is - "dynamic DNS provider that has a significant fraction of spammy content." Know your neighbors seems to be the motto here.
 8:36 am on Mar 5, 2013 (gmt 0)
tedster, thanx, thats what i meant. Although i don?t catch it why g* downgrades a whole dynamic DNS provider? DOn?t they have the power or are there really most of them spammy and harmfull pages? To mayn pages to compile? to expensive in regard to quality? I know that many Security/virus scanners are doing it the same way.
In 12/2012 i began not to link my PDF files dirct do a dynamic host but to do it by rewriting it with php. I saw a siginificant jump the next panda update. But i don?t know how long g* will look back at page history to evaluate trust? And, will g* be able to loop back the php rewrite?

@claaarky, now the point is to know how g* measures utility ( your favourised users stats like pages views, bounce rate )? or are they able to calculate a pages usability by comparing it with templates?

 3:30 am on Mar 6, 2013 (gmt 0)
i don?t catch it why g* downgrades a whole dynamic DNS provider
Truthfully, I don't either. I always thought the idea should be to rank by domain, not IP. Still, this kind of bad neighborhood problem is not something new with Google.
 

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SEO Benefits of Responsive Web Design

Featured Home Page Discussion This 41 message thread spans 2 pages: 41 ( [1] 2 )  > >   Responsive web design... any SEO benefits?
 7:00 am on Mar 20, 2013 (gmt 0)
We are about to complete a project of implementing RWD, responsive web design, to our websites.
We worked quite hard to bring almost the same content for every screen size. The only differences are in content presentation were with tiny pixel screens (lower than 320px) we have no choice but to remove one of the sidebars.

My question is - Does any webmaster who accomplished RWD has seen any SEO benefit? Such as -
1. Better site performance for mobile users, tablets and other visits from small desktop screens - page per visit, time on site, BR.
2. More traffic from Google (well, I doubt. At this point of time! But shouldn't they, soon? :-).
3. Conversion rate increased.
A note - Google Adsense (and many other ad networks) has yet to provide a solution that supports adaptive ads. I think this puts many webmasters on hold.

 1:23 pm on Mar 20, 2013 (gmt 0)
Good question I have been wondering this myself about RWD.
 1:31 pm on Mar 20, 2013 (gmt 0)
From a pure SEO standpoint, if you change the code, you'll see ranking changes commensurate with how well your code change matches algorithmic relevance.

I haven't seen any direct impact on rankings at all (nor did I expect any). User metrics all improved on sites I've done this with (as expected) including increased conversions from mobile users.

 1:31 pm on Mar 20, 2013 (gmt 0)
I don't have responsive ecommerce sites as yet. On my information sites though, my mobile users are probably more than half the traffic now, with millions and millions of pageviews. The first thing I noticed is that time on site and number of pages per visit for mobile went way up. I definitely think the usability improved - not just because I try to fit most screens now, but also it caused me to trim some of the excess for desktop, so that it wouldn't get in the way of mobile.

I have at least one long form on the site (for event submission) and I never thought anyone would fill it out via mobile, but darned if they don't. So I looked into how I could shorten that up some.

But I don't know that I could say it was an SEO improvement; the sites were doing pretty well to begin with.

 4:41 pm on Mar 20, 2013 (gmt 0)
I switched my sites to responsive a few months ago. It didn't have a positive impact on SEO but it wasn't negative either - more status quo.

I saw a 2-3 day slight drop in rankings in Google until it adjusted to the new layout.

I did this because my mobile traffic was increasing and after research determined that the responsive layout was the way to go (as opposed to a mobile only version of the site).

The thing I love about responsive is that my sites look normal no matter whether i look at them on my computer, my phones or my tablets (2 different screen sizes). I also have a blog that has a mobile version of the site (not responsive) and while it looks fine on the smart phone screen it looks crappy on the tablets.

I noticed my mobile traffic had been increasing the previous months. When I hit about 12-15% of total traffic I made the switch to responsive on my main domains and my mobile traffic has increased. Is that because google recognized my responsive design and decided to give me more referrals? Hard to say since my mobile traffic had been steadily increasing beforehand. But my feeling is I did get a slight preference in Google mobile searches because of it.

The other reason for switching is that I do expect having a responsive site WILL be a ranking factor (if it's not already) later this year.

FYI the sites I switched are Wordpress sites - one uses a customized version of the "responsive" theme while the other users a different named, but still responsive theme. The theme choice has not made a difference either.

 6:01 pm on Mar 20, 2013 (gmt 0)
Thanks for the responses.
Since site's overall performance must impact ranking, RWD may have an indirect positive effect on ranking (if it hasn't have any direct effect).
@netmeg
Have you taken care to serve the appropriate size of ads on every screen size or you just left the ads of the wide screen version?
Our sites also see millions of visits per month where many of them are from mobile devices.
Thanks for your tip. The very basic reason for switching to RWD is our eCommerce sites.
@canuckseo
I agree with you.
Responsive layout is the future. No doubt about that. Our sites are Wordpress sites too, but the original theme we use wasn't responsive. Now it is. It took us ~ 3 days to get the idea of responsive design and 3 days more to implement. It's a way better design approach. Very flexible.

I still can't ignore the risk of switching to a new design. It exists, but we will do it even if Google screams. That's how we always work.

 6:10 pm on Mar 20, 2013 (gmt 0)
Have you taken care to serve the appropriate size of ads on every screen size or you just left the ads of the wide screen version?

Yea we came up with a solution and got permission to test it.

 6:39 pm on Mar 20, 2013 (gmt 0)
The item from adsense concerning the use of alternative sizes of ads on responsive sites..was also posted on the official adsense blog in French..

[adsense-fr.blogspot.fr...]

Why Google have still not posted this "google approved" method of integrating adsense into "responsive sites" in English ( so as to make it clear for the non French and German speakers is strange )..I, or anyone else ( or even Google's translation engine ) can translate it..but no "translation" is as definitive as if Google were to just post it in English on their own inside adsense pages..

Either their approved method can only be used on responsive sites whose TLDs are in the languages that Google's approved method pages are in..( Fr and DE )..or the lack of this info in English from Google is a mere oversight ?..

Or they have got so used to using FUD..that they are hedging their bets in case adsense on responsive sites on mobile devices results in a flood of complaints from advertisers about inadvertent clicks..that they don't want to take the risk of sanctioning this method is the far bigger English speaking markets..

Below is what is at the foot of their French article giving this Google approved method..

Publi? par Dairine Kennedy, au nom de l'?quipe Google Mobile

I find it very hard to believe that Dairine Kennedy ( Irish ) has for a "mother tongue" , French or German..So surely this approved adsense implementation for responsive sites version was written in English first..and then translated internally by Google..

So they should repost in English..and clear up the "confusion"..unless the "test it in smaller markets first"..is the reason..

Responsive sites SEO benefits ? ..bounce rate reduced ( mobile and tablet users land, and stay to read, and as G measure such things ..and track mouse movements and IMO touch gestures )..I'm recoding my old sites ( with the exception of one which I'm leaving as a "control"..it is falling in SERPS slowly ) to "responsive" and creating my new sites in "responsive"..

Long hours and late nights..a lot of sites to do..But based on observed results ..well worth the effort..

 6:45 pm on Mar 20, 2013 (gmt 0)
I don't have ads on my site but I was looking for a way to put a responsive google map on the page. I wonder if that code works? It uses some css and div tags:


/* Responsive iFrame */

.responsive-iframe-container {
position: relative;
padding-bottom: 56.25%;
padding-top: 30px;
height: 0;
overflow: hidden;
}

.responsive-iframe-container iframe,
.vresponsive-iframe-container object,
.vresponsive-iframe-container embed {
position: absolute;
top: 0;
left: 0;
width: 100%;
height: 100%;
}

And then wrap your Google Map or Google Calendar iframe in a div like this:




<... iframe code >


 7:45 pm on Mar 20, 2013 (gmt 0)
Google AdSense told me (last week) that an English announcement was coming "very very soon" to the AdSense blog. They added the extra "very", I didn't.

My sites are mostly naturals for responsive design because most of them are event sites of one type or another, and most lend themselves to a ton of mobile visits (in some cases I get more mobile users than desktop users)

But I'm not convinced that mobile users in every instance search or use the web the same way on their phones as they do on their tablets or their desktops. I don't have any other types I'm working on now, but some of my clients' sites - if they wanted to go responsive, I'd really have to think and do some research about how mobile users might use the site first.

Responsive design is a relatively easy solution, but I don't necessarily think it's the *only* solution. You really have to delve into how people use your site.

 8:15 pm on Mar 20, 2013 (gmt 0)
Google AdSense told me (last week) that an English announcement was coming "very very soon" to the AdSense blog. They added the extra "very", I didn't.
That would make sense ( thanks for the useful news for the English readers here :) if they have "tested" our smaller markets and not had flack from advertisers..interesting to see if the name of the English announcement is "Dairene"..or if it is the translation of what she posted on Google France or Germany..

Agree with you entirely about responsive being the easy way, but possibly not being suitable for all sites..:)

There is never a, "one size fits all" solution..for anything..:)

 9:21 pm on Mar 20, 2013 (gmt 0)
I find it very hard to believe that Dairine Kennedy ( Irish ) has for a "mother tongue" , French or German.
You don't spend a lot of time in Canada do you?

Can't help but note that over the past couple of years G### has used three separate Googlebot-Mobile UAs, as against just one for, er, Googlebot-Desktop. Obviously they're doing something with that information.

:: detour here for massive train of thought involving feature detection and recent pleas for access to .js files ::

 9:51 pm on Mar 20, 2013 (gmt 0)
Does anyone in Canada speak French ;)

Qu?b?cois is not the same thing..

 5:11 am on Mar 21, 2013 (gmt 0)
Google AdSense told me (last week) that an English announcement was coming "very very soon" to the AdSense blog. They added the extra "very", I didn't.
@netmeg
I guess/hope you are talking about enabling Arbitrary Sized Ads (non standard ads) to all publishers.
The moment this feature will be released, hundreds of sites will go responsive.
 5:30 am on Mar 21, 2013 (gmt 0)
Qu?b?cois is not the same thing..
Well, it definitely isn't English :P

Aigu on both e's? Really?

 9:05 am on Mar 21, 2013 (gmt 0)
When it comes to those who have carried out responsive design, is it really a case of "light touch" - small adjustments to your site (css widths etc) rather than wholesale changes? I ask this because I do see a lot of sites that completely stripdown their site into something that I personally would consider TOO simple for small screens. Personally I find these sites frustrating because they go TOO far - navigation is cumbersome because they've gotten rid of their standard navigation into Three Big Buttons To Click On The Home Page, then Three Big Buttons To Click For My Next Option. It's like the website equivilant of those horrible phone systems ("press #1 for...") that frustrate you. Traversing backwards and forwards through these sites is a chore. Also, I can't get a grasp of the site's size (in regards to overall content) and what's available to me - it's like they're leading me way too much, rather than letting me roam around their site as you would normally like to do.

I do think the pinch/zoom gesture was a game changer that actually made browsing the web a lot QUICKER and easier. However, I know that even with that gesture, you get sites that could use a little responsive design as they becomes troublesome on small screens (rollover navigation that doesn't really translate to touchscreen, etc).

 12:39 pm on Mar 21, 2013 (gmt 0)
I guess/hope you are talking about enabling Arbitrary Sized Ads (non standard ads) to all publishers.

No, I don't think AdSense is ready to release anything. I think they're just going to give their permission to using a PHP if/then situation to serve ads based on the viewport, as long as you don't alter the code.

is it really a case of "light touch"

I'm not sure what that means exactly. It did force me to think hard about what I put where, because I want the most important stuff above the fold, and the fold changes depending on the viewport.

In my case, most users don't want to roam the site like they might on a desktop, they're looking for specific information, probably while they're out and about, and that's it (although given how the number of pages per visit is going way up, I might be wrong about that)

I still have tweaking to do as far as font sizes, and getting an image header to work okay and look right in all sizes is a serious struggle for graphically challenged people like myself, but at least the *site* part works.

 4:30 pm on Mar 21, 2013 (gmt 0)
navigation is cumbersome because they've gotten rid of their standard navigation into

This isn't mandatory for responsive design - my responsive sites switch to a very functional dropdown menu on smaller screens

is it really a case of "light touch" - small adjustments to your site

nope - mine were complete redesigns - sure they looked similar to what they did but the code did change a lot - plus I added features to one site (social media stuff) that didn't exist there before. I reorganized things and moved sidebars - everything was completely changed.

 7:00 pm on Mar 21, 2013 (gmt 0)
@canuckseo, Your code looks good, except, I would not set any width or height for your div only padding and margins to let it resize correctly and in accordance with the screen that it's being viewed on unless it is absolutely necessary, in which case I would also create css for various media screens. I have it on one of my sites, without any width or height and it works fine.

@Zivush, I have RWD now for almost a year on 3 of my sites. So here is what I have observed, at first and for about good 4 months there was no noticeable changes, but I was kind of expecting it to be like this for a while anyway. So after about 4 months, we have started to see increase in mobile traffic, nothing major, about 3-5% of overall mobile traffic and 1-3% increase of overall site traffic, no major impact on SEO or PR. NO the funny fact, traffic is still increasing, but mostly from social sources, which means that mobile visitors are mostly visiting from Facebook, Twitter, G+, LinkedIn and Pinterest rather then organic search again proving that people is spending more time on the social networks than searching on the mobile platforms. So, we are now little over 1 year with RWD and still no major changes is noticed in relation to SEO or PR, just simple increase in traffic mostly related to the amount of posts we make daily.

At the beginning of this year, I have been discussing the problem of RWD and Adsense with G in London, UK. It seemed that at that point and I am only talking about January this year there was not major movements towards creating add containers for variable screens and devices, but after discussing this with their programmers, one solution, which I am sure most of the guys already either implemented or at least know about is to recognize screen resolution using javascript and populate your adsense block with correct adsense code as JSON object using ajax POST or GET method after your page is loaded. This actually have no negative effect on the page load at all, I have checked it twice and most importantly it all works, at least for us.

 7:08 pm on Mar 21, 2013 (gmt 0)
@AlexB77 thanks for the feedback - i've only used it for google maps and yesterday a google calendar - nothing smaller than that (IE Ads)
moTi


msg:4557259

 11:19 pm on Mar 21, 2013 (gmt 0)
sorry for being slightly off topic, but here is an important note many of you might not consider.

I also have a blog that has a mobile version of the site (not responsive) and while it looks fine on the smart phone screen it looks crappy on the tablets.
the recent years have introduced one fundamental challenge in layout delivery, namely for mobile devices. so there are really only two different basic screen sizes to regard:

1. desktop computers, notebooks and tablets

2. smartphones

the confusion arises, because tablets are commonly labeled mobile devices. in fact, they are, but keep in mind, that in terms of screen capacities, even in portrait mode tablets don't differ that much from devices like small notebooks. in order to correctly cater to tablets, it is more important to keep an eye on things like touch gestures and device compatibility features and integrate them properly.

which has nothing to do with responsive design but rather with usability aspects. so, what is the fuss really about with responsive design when the only new and fundamentally different player in the game is the tiny smartphone screen? which for obvious reasons is actually rather useless to adequately regard with a responsive design approach. why do you think apps even exist? so better come up with a separate mobile version: a webapp.

and it's not hard to detect browsers for smartphones (only smartphones, not tablets) on the server side and deliver a mobile site for them. there are solid scripts in every programming language available for free.

Responsive layout is the future. No doubt about that.
not in my opinion. in my opinion you are subject to a hype that is not thought out.

 11:37 pm on Mar 21, 2013 (gmt 0)
Hey, does anyone know how wide to code for Google Glasses? Someone saw a google class hit on their stats ...
 1:11 am on Mar 22, 2013 (gmt 0)
Just got out of a meeting with Adsense rep talking about this very thing.

They are starting to let publishers (whom they have a relationship with - (ie. you have an account manager) use Javascript to test viewport width, set different ad units accordingly.

This code has been bouncing around online for a long time, but its not good enough IMO (thus the reason for our meeting).

We went responsive about 2 months ago. It is challenging to adapt an existing site, and if you manage to lift metrics on your mobile size you are doing well. We've noticed a small improvement in mobile usage. Ads? They are tricky to get right at the best of times.

 2:35 am on Mar 22, 2013 (gmt 0)
I feel sorry for anyone having to adjust a large, existing site to be responsive. Designing Responsive is like designing three websites at once.

I'm not sure of the effect it has on SERPs, just whatever you do, don't be like NASCAR and design with tablet users in mind first, then mobile, THEN desktop.

 9:20 am on Mar 22, 2013 (gmt 0)
@Panthro
Designing Responsive is like designing three websites at once.
In a way. It is quicker than creating a separate site (or app) in order to serve smartphone users.
Also, using em and % instead of Pixels gives a lot of flexibility. RWD is just a better approach to CSS design.

@moTi
There are really only two different basic screen sizes to regard:
1. desktop computers, notebooks and tablets
2. smartphones
Agree. I don't see any difference between Tablet users, Laptop users and Desktop users. They all have the same experience.
The main RWD purpose is to giving the all content of an information site to smartphone users while keep providing better user experience than what they could have without RWD.
When it comes to a webapp you compromise with the content. Smartphone users nowadays want the all thing not part of it. Therefore, I see an app as a mini-site, a different approach. Nothing to compare to a website.

@AlexB77
Thanks for you inputs about the traffic movements.
As of Adsense, I know the solution that you're talking about. Since it hasn't been officially recommended by Adsense, I am not going to use it.
As market leaders, they should introduce an arbitrary sized ads. Not a partial solution.

 9:26 am on Mar 22, 2013 (gmt 0)
They all have the same experience.
But they don't have the same range of input methods. And that becomes crucial the moment words like "hover" enter your code.
 12:56 pm on Mar 22, 2013 (gmt 0)
I feel sorry for anyone having to adjust a large, existing site to be responsive. Designing Responsive is like designing three websites at once.

I'm not sure of the effect it has on SERPs, just whatever you do, don't be like NASCAR and design with tablet users in mind first, then mobile, THEN desktop.

There's always been this kind of developer peer pressure to get your site "made for mobile" going back as far as the late 90s. I think if you keep your original page designs simple, you shouldn't have to make radical changes for a smartphone version, if make a version at all (depends how simple the layout is).

 7:16 pm on Mar 22, 2013 (gmt 0)
We're about to relaunch our site with responsive web design.

There's various types that we'll focus on, basically creating a separate css depending on user agent, and the other would be to have responsive design when you shrink your browser.

it's going to remove many elements such as content and various other things, so I'm curious how you guys handled this for SEO purposes.

Does GBOT primarily index and rank based on desktop version?

Thanks for any insight.

 7:37 pm on Mar 22, 2013 (gmt 0)
I think you're looking at the SEO value all wrong here because whether visitors can find your site or not has no bearing on whether they stay more than two seconds after discovering it's not friendly for a tablet or phone.

With tablets and phones sales skyrocketing and exceeding new desktop purchases you should damn well be designing for RWD if you expect to survive at all!

I did 2 sites with help from PageoneResults from scratch which are fantastic and did another experimental site, very technical with lots of form inputs, using Twitter Bootstrap and that worked out really well too and both methods have done extremely well as far as SEO goes.

 8:31 pm on Mar 22, 2013 (gmt 0)
incrediBILL, i understand what you're saying ,just curious on SEO rankings. We rank well now ,and just trying to make sure we can preserve that with responsive design so just looking for tips on that since many "SEO" elements are going to be stripped out in favor of "bare bones ease".

thanks

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Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Stanford Research: Each Facebook Post Seen By One In Three Friends

Featured Home Page Discussion Stanford Research: Each Facebook Post Seen By One In Three Friends
 7:13 pm on Mar 6, 2013 (gmt 0)
According to a study done by data scientists at Facebook, more of your Facebook ?friends? saw what you posted than the average Facebook user realizes.

On average, each post was seen by one in three Facebook ?friends,? according to an analysis of 220,000 Facebook users? posts last June. Over the course of that month, users reached an average of 61 percent of their friends.Stanford Research: Each Facebook Post Seen By One In Three Friends [bits.blogs.nytimes.com]


Stanford study (PDF):
Quantifying the Invisible Audience in Social Networks [hci.stanford.edu] When you share content in an online social network, who is listening? Users have scarce information about who actually sees their content, making their audience seem invisible and difficult to estimate. However, understanding this invisible audience can impact both science and design, since perceived audiences influence content production and self-presentation online. In this paper, we combine survey and large-scale log data to examine how well users? perceptions of their audience match their actual audience on Facebook. We find that social media users consistently underestimate their audience size for their posts, guessing that their audience is just 27% of its true size. Qualitative coding of survey responses reveals folk theories that attempt to reverse-engineer audience size using feedback and friend count, though none of these approaches are particularly accurate. We analyze audience logs for 222,000 Facebook users? posts over the course of one month and find that publicly visible signals ? friend count, likes, and comments ? vary widely and do not strongly indicate the audience of a single post. Despite the variation, users typically reach 61% of their friends each month. Together, our results begin to reveal the invisible undercurrents of audience attention and behavior in online social networks.

 7:16 pm on Mar 6, 2013 (gmt 0)
That research is from before facebook went "pay if you want people to view your posts"..
 9:35 pm on Mar 6, 2013 (gmt 0)
My Website's Facebook page has 65,000 Likes and in 2013 according to Facebook Insights, I've had only one post reach more than 4,000 people. The average post barely reaches 2,000 people.
I've started urging my Facebook "followers" to subscribe via email
 9:42 pm on Mar 6, 2013 (gmt 0)
thedonald123,

I'm curious how frequently you post? We have a page with the exact same number of fans but it typically sees a 4-5k user reach (our stream has one post each day).


We too have begun to push our facebook fans back towards subscribing by email where we can better control delivery.

 10:07 pm on Mar 6, 2013 (gmt 0)
thedonald123, I'm curious how frequently you post?
We post once a day. Images help increase engagement as does a clever remark or question, but not much, certainly not as much as they used to.

I hate to think of the space on my website I've given to the Facebook Like button to increase page followers only to be told to pay $750 to promote my post to my own followers and even then I will only reach a maximum of 36,000! They won't even let me reach them all!


I guess I should be glad I'm not one of those companies that have paid real advertising dollars, some directly to Facebook, to promote their Facebook pages and increase likes and now they have to pay again to reach those same followers. Just incredible.


And at the same time everyone's going on and on how relying on Google for your traffic is nuts. Well, relying on Facebook is suicide ;-)

mack



msg:4551918

 11:12 pm on Mar 6, 2013 (gmt 0)
That research is from before facebook went "pay if you want people to view your posts"..

In not sure how this would be factored in. I recently experimented with this feature..


So far, your post has had 2.6x as many views because you promoted it.


For ?6 I wouldn?t say it was worth it. Its something people may try once then not use again. It probably has the same effect as a "share".


Mack.

 11:27 pm on Mar 6, 2013 (gmt 0)
The number of factors that effect how many users see your post is astronomical.

I have a Facebook post on a page with about 60,000 fans that reached 150,000 people. This post was Liked 1500 times, and Shared 1,500 times.


If you're not getting a lot of views, I'm sorry to say but: you are posting junk your fan don't want to see, like or share.


Remember Sharing is viral, and people will share what they like, maybe you don't produce anything your Fans like and want to share.


As for this study: All things being equal it is right, But All things are not equal when it comes to human being and what they post LMAO.


What a waste of research time, and probably some Grant money paid by Tax payers.

Kufu



msg:4552349

 11:56 pm on Mar 7, 2013 (gmt 0)
If you're not getting a lot of views, I'm sorry to say but: you are posting junk your fan don't want to see, like or share.

This may be true in many instances, but cannot be the case for every single post.


I have a page with 1.2+ million fans, and the best "...people saw this post" is about a 1/3 of the fan, and even then there (and about 10% of that was viral), and there were slightly over 1400 likes.


So it really depends on the followers. Some pages/sites have followers that impulse-follow/like (which I assume what my page is), but don't really intend to follow the activities of the page, so even when there is an interesting post, the activity it generates is less than desirable.

 12:10 am on Mar 8, 2013 (gmt 0)
Never Build a page from Impulse Likes! All likes are not equal, and bring down you future Impressions and CTR.

It's tempting to use some super attention getting post and picture to get likes, but he like won't be real people who care about your page.


And you need to follow trend and create engaging post and images targeted at you niche. Even spinning something popular, but make it relate to your niche. Harlem Shake, Gangnam Style, current news, etc.


I have 3 goals:


Fan Sharing
Engagement
Conversion


Also increase your posting frequency. I schedule at least 3 post a day.


Also take notice of Time your user normally visit your page, and post during the peak hours of your niche.


i built a collection of funny picture and quotes related to my niche,


I ask emotional questions, and start debated related to my niche, and I split test conversion post related to my niche.


Also consider sponsored post, or Target you existing Fan with Ad by impression to bring them back to your page.

 12:17 am on Mar 8, 2013 (gmt 0)
i built a collection of funny picture and quotes related to my niche,
If you do this..make sure that they are your own artwork, photos, writings, and not copyright to someone else..
 12:57 am on Mar 8, 2013 (gmt 0)
If you do this..make sure that they are your own artwork, photos, writings, and not copyright to someone else..

Or just state the source! Of it's it's used all over the place, just use it, and if the owner shows up and is mad, take it down. No biggie

 12:59 am on Mar 8, 2013 (gmt 0)
Don't over analysis you self out of growth on Facebook. Keep trying different approaches and method, and see what works for your niche.

You fan may not share your content, but they are sharing someone else. Find out what engages them.

 1:49 am on Mar 8, 2013 (gmt 0)
Or just state the source! Of it's it's used all over the place, just use it, and if the owner shows up and is mad, take it down. No biggie
So ..stealing/scraping others copyright work is OK ? ( no biggie ) as long as you don't get caught..?

I think that my fellow artists , designers, illustrators , writers and photographers would not agree..nor does the law.."stating the source" ( like "taken and used without permission from some other site"..I'll bet you don't write that, which is what you are actually saying you do ) is not enough..not for those whose work it actually is ..nor for the law..and is also against facebook TOS..

 8:08 am on Mar 9, 2013 (gmt 0)
Clever spam/fake does well on facebook.

There is a photo on Facebook of a girl holding a placard saying "My mother promised to give up smoking if I got a million likes" and it has got over 800,000 likes so far.


It is on a business page, not an individuals page/timeline/whatever bt I doubt the people "liking" it know the different.

 8:11 am on Mar 9, 2013 (gmt 0)
So ..stealing/scraping others copyright work is OK ? ( no biggie ) as long as you don't get caught..?

Whether you like it or not, most people do not think much of copyright law. In fact very few people consistently obey it: have you never created a mix tape, or ripped a CD (illegal in the UK, but I think legal in the US), or recorded a broadcast?

 6:14 pm on Mar 9, 2013 (gmt 0)
Legosghost chill out!

I didn't say, Go steal pictures lol.


There are site with user created and uploaded funny pictures, who post their picture with they twitter, website, or Facebook page on the picture, for people to share!


Of you can make you own funny picture, or make your own caption picture targeted to the humor of your niche.


People don't have success on Facebook because they don't learn what it take OR they believe in conspiracy theories about Facebook trying to take their money.


AGAIN: If you post something your fans like, their will share the h#ll out of it.


I create a cool caption picture that looked like one of those motivational poster, with a funny quote, and received more impressions that I had Fan! Why? Because my fans thought it was cools, funny, and wanted to share it with their friend.


In one day I got over 1,000 new likes, and in that week my Facebook insights went from average of 40,000 reach, to 440,000 reach!


At one point i was struggling too!


Then I learned the technique to reach more people, and I'm trying to share it with those trying to learn.

 

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Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Study Finds Facebook 'Likes' Predict Personality

Featured Home Page Discussion Facebook 'likes' predict personality
the digital profiles people are creating also threaten privacy. 9:49 pm on Mar 11, 2013 (gmt 0)
Sexuality, political leanings and even intelligence can be gleaned from the things you choose to "like" on Facebook, a study suggests.

The algorithms proved 88% accurate for determining male sexuality, 95% accurate in distinguishing African-American from Caucasian-American and 85% for differentiating Republican from Democrat.

Christians and Muslims were correctly classified in 82% of cases and relationship status and substance abuse was predicted with an accuracy between 65% and 73%.


the results had implications beyond social media to all digital records - from browser histories to search queries.

[bbc.co.uk...]

 10:47 pm on Mar 11, 2013 (gmt 0)
Curly fries correlated with high intelligence
Words fail me.

Possibly because I have never eaten curly fries.

...

 10:52 pm on Mar 11, 2013 (gmt 0)
i should have thought another easy metric would be the amount of time a person spends playing games on facebook

... it would correlate inversely with intelligence

... seriously though, the like button is and always has been a way of profiling people, and we are just at the beginning!

 2:59 pm on Mar 12, 2013 (gmt 0) 5:49 pm on Mar 12, 2013 (gmt 0)
Curly fries correlated with high intelligence

Words fail me.

Possibly because I have never eaten curly fries.

Don't sweat it. Nobel Prizes correlate with intelligence too, but you probably don't have one of those either.

 6:38 pm on Mar 12, 2013 (gmt 0)
Nobel Prizes correlate with intelligence too, but you probably don't have one of those either.
It is true, I do not have a Nobel prize.

Things might have been different if I had known about curly fries earlier.

...

 9:51 pm on Mar 12, 2013 (gmt 0)
I want the meta-statistic.

Number of "likes" clicked as a raw percentage of number of pages with Like button viewed ...

... correlates with what?

Aren't curly fries a regional preference, like brown eggs or colored cheddar?

:: wandering off to investigate ::

 10:21 pm on Mar 12, 2013 (gmt 0)
Curly fries correlated with high intelligence

And now this metric will no longer be valid as lots of people reading that article will now go and click Like on Curly fries.

 10:37 pm on Mar 12, 2013 (gmt 0)
Aren't curly fries a regional preference, like brown eggs or colored cheddar?
I fear I may not be intelligent enough to answer that question.

I had never heard of Curly Fries until I read the cited article.

And my first thought was that he was a member of some new boy band.

The "smart one", obviously.

...

 12:56 pm on Mar 13, 2013 (gmt 0)
What's with the fascination of wanting to know everything about US? It's creepy, like some deviant peeping in your back window at night. One day they'll use this data to decide our fate...that day may have already arrived.
albo


msg:4554302

 1:22 pm on Mar 13, 2013 (gmt 0)
Does the position of being able to "Like" (which requires having a Facebook account) also reveal something about a person?
 

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Monday, April 22, 2013

Study: 50pct of All Email Spam Comes From Only 20 ISPs

Featured Home Page Discussion Study: 50pct of All Email Spam Comes From Only 20 ISPs
 4:33 pm on Mar 18, 2013 (gmt 0)
About 50% of all junk mail on the net emerges from just 20 internet service providers (ISPs), a study has found.

The survey of more than 42,000 ISPs tried to map the net's "bad neighbourhoods" to help pinpoint sources of malicious mail.Study: 50pct of All Email Spam Comes From Only 20 ISPs [bbc.co.uk]

Many of these networks were concentrated in India, Vietnam and Brazil. On the net's most crime-ridden network - Spectranet in Nigeria - 62% of all the addresses controlled by that ISP were seen to be sending out spam.

Networks involved in malicious activity also tended to specialise in one particular sort of malicious message or attack, he discovered. For instance, the majority of phishing attacks came from ISPs based in the US. By contrast, spammers tend to favour Asian ISPs. Indian ISP BSNL topped the list of spam sources in the study.


 9:19 pm on Mar 18, 2013 (gmt 0)

This is nothing new. I've been routinely blocking all these countries (plus Turkey, China, Russia and Taiwan) from every server I have set up for the last decade.

 9:21 pm on Mar 18, 2013 (gmt 0) 9:46 pm on Mar 18, 2013 (gmt 0)
That list probably includes the top 20 most popular free mail services. On one site we have a sign up form for a free service and the subscriber needs to validate their email. So many people have so many different email addresses... if they don't receive their confirmation mail they sign up using another email address and so on. Some don't even remember their correct addresses.

Billions of dollars worth of data wasted in spam traffic and all they have to do is stop providing free mail services. What's wrong with the mailbox that one's ISP provides with their internet service?

 8:48 am on Mar 19, 2013 (gmt 0)
What's wrong with the mailbox that one's ISP provides with their internet service?
Most people will change their ISP at least once every few years.
 9:02 am on Mar 19, 2013 (gmt 0)

What's wrong with the mailbox that one's ISP provides with their internet service?

The free services are usually pretty effective and block bulk mailings from their accounts. On the other hand my original ISP regularly had its IP addresses blacklisted because it did sweet F.A. about botnets using its cusomters' infected machines.
 10:04 am on Mar 19, 2013 (gmt 0)
Most people will change their ISP at least once every few years.

Most people change their free mail service more regularly to get away from spam.

 11:49 am on Mar 19, 2013 (gmt 0)
Almost everyone I know has had the same free email address for years, apart from one or two who switched away from Hotmail at some point.

My ISP had its mail server blacklisted for being an open relay.

 8:43 pm on Mar 19, 2013 (gmt 0)
Almost everyone I know has had the same free email address for years

Sure, so do I. But I keep that one for elite contacts. Anything used for general business and correspondence needs to be disposable and is.

 10:29 pm on Mar 19, 2013 (gmt 0)
The e-mail address you get from your ISP changes every time the ISP gets a new owner-- and no, they don't auto-forward. The old address simply disappears. If the phone company worked that way you'd have to tell everyone a new number every other year. The preceding sentence probably had a lot more meaning ten years ago when people didn't change cell providers every five minutes with accompanying change in entire number, possibly including area code. But still.

This is a major annoyance when sites insist on using your e-mail address as your account name. Let's see now, did I join this service when I was on AOL, or Cox, or something dot edu, or...

 6:20 am on Mar 22, 2013 (gmt 0)
@lucy24 - When I sign up to siteA, I create a disposable email from one of our domains that uses siteA@ - if you find spam going to that address you know where it came from. NO, it's not enough to have one or two disposable email accounts, I want to know exactly who lies and who tells the truth "We will never sell or trade your email address... honest".... we'll see.

Waste of time? Not at all: less than 60 seconds to log in to server, create new email, forward that to a "personal" email address and finish the sign up to siteA. The tricky part is replying to those using an email client that doesn't really have those credentials but it's very rare that a siteA type site is going to need replies; like this very forum, the email account is just for notifications.


Spam it, sell it or spoof it, I'll delete it. Anyone remember a time when some sites wouldn't accept signups from email addresses that weren't major ISPs? I don't feel like I missed anything by not having signed up to them, matter of fact, I'm pretty comfortable with it.

 11:50 pm on Mar 25, 2013 (gmt 0)
anyone remember a time when some sites wouldn't accept signups from email addresses?

Sure do. In fact we used to reject mail sent from web forms using Hotmail addresses. Even today, if someone is using a free mail service, we realise that they are not using their domain mail address and probably have many different disposable email addresses. So many in some cases that it takes weeks for them to find your support response.


If your clientele are companies, allowing them to use disposable email addresses for purchases and support is an absolute waste of time. How in the blazes will they ever get proper support and be advised of critical software updates?


With ISPs the old address can disappear


Not if they are using an email based on their domain. After all, if your clients have web sites and email @ their domain, why settle for anything else. What else can they expect when seeking your expert advice at the expense of your time? So they should at least use a legitimate email address.

 12:44 am on Mar 26, 2013 (gmt 0)
After all, if your clients have web sites and email @ their domain, why settle for anything else.
This only works if the person at the receiving end can get your mail. I remember when I first registered my domain name I was told-- by a fellow human, not by the host-- that I wouldn't be able to use it for e-mail because it wasn't an ISP. Remember when cyberpromo sprouted a dozen new aliases every other day? ISPs simply slammed their doors and would accept mail only from known domains, which mostly meant fellow ISPs.

Except, of course, for services like AOL that fought spam with one hand while handing out unrestricted free trial accounts with the other. Sigh. I can remember people getting banned from forums and coming back half an hour later with a new name and IP after, presumably, pawing through that week's trash and fishing out the latest Free Trial CD.

 8:09 am on Mar 26, 2013 (gmt 0)
@lucy24 - I remember when I first registered my domain name I was told When was that, back in the 90s? I remember hearing the same advice back then but in the last few years it hasn't been an issue for any of ours.
 9:03 am on Mar 26, 2013 (gmt 0)
More recent than that-- but the person I heard it from had had her own domain for a lot longer, so she may have been going by early experience. (I just looked it up. She goes back to 1999. Things were different then.)

I've never tried sending e-mail from my own domain, though. I only use it for incoming-- and not much of that.


If nothing else, it prevents the ghastly blunder of forgetting to set one of your addresses to auto-forward. See, ahem, unrelated thread elsewhere in foo.

 

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