| LED Digest 2477: Who's Editing the Wikipedia |
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================================================== The LED Digest Moderated Discussion List "Effective Online Advertising, Since 1997" Data > Information > Knowledge > Wisdom www.GetWebContent.com/LED : the LED's Key Sponsor The Web's Most Experienced SEO Content Providers. www.SEOToolSet.com/training/ : the LED's Premier Sponsor Bruce Clay's Search Engine Optimization Training & Certification ================================================== List Moderator: Published by: Adam Audette LED Digest adam, led-digest.com http://www.led-digest.com .............................................. August 23, 2007 Issue no. 2477 .............................................. .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ====== NEW ===================== --== Recommended Web Awards? ==-- ~ Renee Kennedy "I'm looking for web awards that are renowned." --== Who's Editing the Wikipedia ==-- ~ Michael Linehan "...Wikipedia.com is not a very reliable source for factual information, since entries can be edited by anyone..." ==== CONTINUING ================= --== Competitors Bidding on a URL ==-- ~ Ralph Hudson "In all fairness to Google, they do offer a remedy to this situation..." ~ Hein van der Honing "...maybe using a TM in your adtext can help you distinguish?" --== The Hell of CSS ==-- ~ Lori Smart "Cascading creates a sort of hierarchy that allows many styles to affect the same text." ~ Mary Lee "We completely redesigned our site last year, and my main requirement was a total css." =========== NEW ================================== From: Renee Kennedy Subject: Web Awards Could anyone recommend any respectable web awards or ways that I could find them? I'm looking for web awards that are renowned. Thanks, Renee Kennedy -------- new post - new topic -------- From: Michael Linehan Subject: User Generated Content & Wikicrapia Ah yes. User generated content is sooo important and useful.............. NAAT! Everyone knows (or at least should already know ;-) that www.Wikipedia.com is not a very reliable source for factual information, since entries can be edited by anyone "anonymously" (or so they thought). Recently, an American student sent major corporations, governments and even the Vatican on the defensive after coming up with Wikipedia Scanner, a software program that reveals who changed Wikipedia entries. The WikiScanner is a search engine that reveals who is making edits, and is searchable by organization name, location, or IP range. The WikiScanner search engine was recently reported on in the media, including: WIRED magazine http://www.wired.com/politics/onlinerights/news/2007/08/wiki_tracker BBC News http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6947532.stm The Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/aug/15/wikipedia... ABC News http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/PCWorld/story?id=3487321 It's fun to play with WikiScanner, and you can find this search engine here: http://wikiscanner.virgil.gr That's the basic. Now for some points I have not verified. Supposedly, among many revelations, some of the more interesting (and funny) ones are: MSN Search is "a major competitor to Google". That's what MSN added to their page Microsoft edits Apple entries, adding more negative comments about its rival In the 9/11 Wikipedia article, the NRA added that "Iraq was involved in 9/11" Exxon Mobil edits spillages and eco-system destruction from oil spillages article FBI edits Guantanamo Bay, removing numerous pictures Dell Computers deletes negative comments on customer services and removes a passage how the company outsources work to third world countries Microsoft tried to cover up the XBOX 360 failure rate DieBold, the company that controversially supplied computerised polling stations in the US elections, removes numerous paragraphs with negative comments Michael Linehan Marketing-Alchemy.com ======== CONTINUING =============================== From: Ralph Hudson Subject: URL bidding > Why would Google allow another company > to use our URL as a keyword in their sponsored > links and AdWords listing, and what can we > do about it? - Ralph Hudson, LED Digest 2473 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1884/190/ Thanks for the input. Here's some feedback... At the advice of the good people at SEOMOZ.org, I did send an email, registered, to the offending company asking them to "cease and desist infringing on our 'legitimate-use' trademark in all advertising and marketing efforts with Google and other agents." That seems to have worked and the sponsored ad was removed within 24 hours. I am 'on-notice' now and realize that I'll have to be diligent in watching for a repeat of this. I realize that "American Builders" is generic and I can't control the use of that phrase, but in this case the actual URL, "AmericanBuilders.com", was used. The real puzzle is why would Google or any other search engine allow a URL in any ad, other than a link to that specific URL. It seems that would be an easily automated control. In all fairness to Google, they do offer a remedy to this situation at http://www.google.com/tm_complaint_adwords.html but I did not have to pursue that route. Thanks again for the help. Ralph Hudson AmericanBuilders.com -------- new post - same topic -------- From: Hein van der Honing Subject: URL bidding > Not saying you are wrong here, but trademark > and URL are different things. - Maty Matyszak, LED Digest 2476 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1887/190/ You're absolutely welcome to say I'm wrong. I was assuming the name American Builders (trademarked or not) and the url was the same (like americanbuilders.com). As I recall, and actually have experienced nobody can use a url in their ad that does not reflect the landing page. The display url in the ad should be the same as the url of the actual landing page (in theory at least). And because we have posted a trademark at google the problem came up with the .co.uk vs .com because of that. This makes me believe that throwing a trademark into google should resolve the problem with people advertising on the url, although url and trademark are very much not the same thing. And since I'm talking about trademarks now, maybe using a "TM" in your adtext can help you distinguish?? Hein van der Honing Search Analyst Have fun. www.zylom.com ============ Sponsor Message =========== Have you sat down and read your website lately? What your site says is crucial in converting surfers into customers and meeting search engine mandates for fresh, unique copy. Our all-pro writers have Fortune 500 experience. For top-quality, customized, cost-effective copy, visit GetWebContent.com today. http://GetWebContent.com/LED ============ Sponsor Message =========== -------- new post - new topic -------- From: Lori Smart Subject: CSS Hell > is it sometimes hard to understand someone > else's CSS procedures? - Shaun Johnston, LED Digest 2475 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1886/190/ Well, Shaun, John's standing over my shoulder with a whip making sure I'm all CSS now, so how 'bout I answer this for you! ;) Actually, I took CSS courses via the Internet back in '99. It was frustrating to say the least, since 80% of what I was learning didn't work yet. Fast forward to today and you can do some pretty cool stuff through CSS. This doesn't answer your question, though. The answer is a resounding YES! The problem in working with other people's code is that very often, web developers are inexperienced and don't really understand proper coding practices. Let's take Dreamweaver, for instance. In Dreamweaver, you can set the software to use CSS for all style elements. When you do this, the software is pretty cool but lame at the same time. It will create a new style every time you change a font, bold, italicize, etc. By the time you've played around a few times with the look of your page and check out your code, you'll see that Dreamweaver had created several dozen new styles, each named thusly: style1, style2, ..., style579. You get the point. It's crazy! Then there's the whole 3 ways to apply. You can have external style sheets (separate files from your actual web page), embedded (in the page head), or inline (right in the tags themselves). Here's a real nightmare when working with someone else's code. They may have used all three methods. If so, there's where the "C" part of CSS comes in. Cascading creates a sort of hierarchy that allows many styles to affect the same text. So one style could be telling a paragraph to show in Verdana font, but if another style says that a sentence, or even a word in that sentence should be Arial, one style will override another. Their coding could be a nightmare to decipher. Now that I've probably completely scared you away from CSS, take heart. It's easy to learn, and if you stick to a single method, you can simplify creating and changing websites. Start with making an external style sheet template as you learn, and all you have to do for each site afterward is change the colors, fonts, etc. in that template A great place to start learning is: http://www.w3schools.com/css/css_reference.asp If you do take on a redesign of someone else's work, my advice would be to start from scratch. We have found that rebuilding the right way takes a LOT less time that trying to understand someone else's code. Honestly, I believe that CSS is a major component of the future of the web, the whole Web 2.0 thing. We've been dabbling in things that make a website much more interactive, entertaining, and accessible than even Flash by using CSS, Ajax & Javascript. Try Googling 'cool CSS and you'll find a lot of fun stuff! Lori Smart http://www.internetdesign.com -------- new post - same topic -------- From: Mary Lee Subject: CSS Hell We completely redesigned our site last year, and my main requirement was a total css design. No tables at all. My designer loved the challenge. I had the design I wanted in html and he figured out how to convert it to css. I love what he did, and it works great in all browsers. In fact, I have had many people be amazed at some of the things it does. Last week I decided I wanted to brighten the design and change the height of my menu items. A few changes in the css stylesheet, and every page now wore the new design. One great css advantage: Although our menu is on the left, all of our main content shows up at the top of the code, and the code is very clean compared to pre-css code. Our site dropped about 5-8 spots in google with the redesign for about 2 months, then it shot way up. Since then we have been at 1 and 2 for our most wanted search terms! I am tickled with our all css design, and love working in css. Mary Lee Dinner and a Murder http://www.dinnerandamurder.com ------------------------------------------------------- The LED Digest is sponsored by: GetWebContent.com The Web's Most Experienced SEO Content Providers. Free no-obligation proposal: http://GetWebContent.com/LED SEOToolSet.com Bruce Clay's Search Engine Optimization Training & Certification Join the certified SEO directory: www.SEOToolSet.com/training/ The Archives: http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/126/189/ Subscribe: http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/52/187/ Unsubscribe, Change Email, or Hold / Resume Delivery: http://www.led-digest.com/content/category/4/17/201/ (c) Copyright 1995-2007 Orange Wheel, LLC. All Rights Reserved. ----------------------------------------------------------------- "As to virtue... it is an act of the will, a habit which increases the quantity, intensity and quality of life. It builds up, strengthens and vivifies personality." - Alexis Carrel |
