Tag Archives: Law

Antitrust Group Wants to Break Up Google

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This could possible be the worst anti-trust action hauled against Google to date. The Santa Monica Group which recently received a grant to investigate Google’s privacy practice is about to ask the Justice Department to impose an antitrust lawsuit against Google, The San Francisco Chronicle reports.  The Group is even calling for the possible break up of Google if proven guilty of antitrust violation. The said group is about to announced its investigation through a press conference called – “The Antitrust Case Against Google.” “We, as an organization, have concluded that there’s enough evidence on the table to warrant this, to go beyond the reactive steps that the regulatory agencies have followed up until now,” said John Simpson of Consumer Watchdog. The press conference will surely be a well attended event with some of the confirmed attendees include Gary Reback, a former Silicon Valley lawyer which spearheaded the antitrust case against Microsoft. Reback is also actively running after the Google Book Deal. Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal . Antitrust Group Wants to Break Up

When (Not) To Use Target=”_Blank” Link Attribute

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More and more sites are using target=”_blank” for links to make sure they will open the link in a new window and keep the visitor on the site. I confess, I am using them myself because I assume the visitors are using FireFox browser that opens those links in a new window. But is it really a wise thing to do? When Target=”_Blank” Can / Should Be

And the winners for the 2010 Search & Social Spring Summit are…

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We are all excited that the 2010 Search & Social Spring Summit is less than a month away! With 52 tickets left, we are quickly approaching our capacity limit. With topics such as Doing Business on Twitter & Facebook and Outsourcing Secrets: Cut Costs & Spend More Time on the Beach, you really don’t want to miss it. We have 5 free tickets (valued at $525) to give away. One has been given to our Twitter contest winner, Ben Cook. Now, I am proud to announce our YouTube, Your Story and SEOtini contest winners. Drum roll please…   1)      The YouTube contest winner goes to Ethan Stanislawski! Ethan posted a video response on YouTube about his first day on the job doing SEO. He tells of how the Paris Hilton DUI incident, CNN and the Daily Show made him realize that SEO is about marketing.     2)      The Your Story contest winner is Joshua Titsworth! Joshua told his story about how he got into internet marketing. He went from working at a non-profit organization to being called “The Repair Man” to being hired by another company for his experience (where he gained from self-taught SEO). In 2007 I started working for a non-profit in downtown Kansas City, KS. I was hired with the directive to help raise funds, write press releases, and update the website. The more I got involved with the website the more I liked it and the more time I started to give it. After the website was looking better than it did before (I was stuck using Frontpage ‘98), a board member complained to me I was spending too much time with it. If they can’t find us what good are you? So I started looking for cheap ways to market NPOs online.   I came across seomoz and few other sites. I was a little shocked at first, not at the material, but at how quickly I was able to read and understand it. In the past it has taken me hours of reading and homework to comprehend what was in front of me. With the information about SEO I could read it, process it, and use it right away. Pretty soon the website was doing well, patients were finding us easily, their mission teams were getting filled and all from the web. After that a board member (a different one from before) asked me to look at his site. I applied the same measures as I took to ours, and the same results took place a few months later. But with all non profits, what is written in the contract is not always what you will do. I was ordered to take a break from the web to focus on facility repair. Pretty soon I was known as the repair man, which I didn’t mind, but I really wanted to do more internet marketing. I ended up leaving that non-profit to get more involved in SEO so I could get a job one day. I applied for everything I could. I had two years of limited experience, but I never got a call back until I applied at Chemidex. They called me, and I made it down to the final interview. My boss told me on my first day the deciding factor was so much experience, as it was they wanted someone with a heart for SEO and someone young enough in his/her career that they could get their start with Chemidex. I’ll admit, I’m still pretty new in this field. But I love it, and I can’t imagine not working in this industry.   3)      The winner of the SEOtini contest is Vivian Hoang! Vivian has given us an award-winning recipe for our signature drink, The SEOtini. Everyone who attend the Search & Social Spring Summit will get a complimentary round of this drink. 2 parts Grey Goose vodka 1 oz Blue Caracao 1 oz Cointreau 1 oz Champagne Mix the vodka and liqueurs in a mixing glass. Add ice, stir to chill, and then strain into a martini glass. Top with champagne, stir gently, and garnish with a lemon peel.   Congratulations to Ethan, Joshua and Vivian for each winning a ticket to the 2010 Search & Social Spring Summit. We have one last contest (THE GRAND PRIZE) to be announced on April 15 th , 2010. That’s exactly ONE WEEK from today! You can still enter here .   For questions or more info about the conference, you can reach Thao Tran at thao@searchandsocial.com or (813) 932-4SEO.   Please check out this video on the 2010 Search & Social Spring Summit: Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal . And the winners for the 2010 Search & Social Spring Summit

Google Gets a Lawsuit from Photographers

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Here’s another twist on Google’s long struggle on the Google  Book Search Settlement issue. The American Society of Media Photograpehrs (ASMP) and other photographic artists groups and concerned individuals have filed a class action copyright infringement lawsuit against Google. Their case? – Google’s alleged copyright infringement on the photos contained on the scanned millions of books under the Google Books Search problem. By scanning the whole volume of books and making it available for public consumptio, Google is infringing on the copyright of the individual photos contained in those books, the group argues. This may seem pretty logical since Google did not obtain permission to reproduce those photographic works from the original creators. Although, it may seem legal as well if Google has obtained permission from the book publisher since the photos are part of the whole book scanned. Interestingly, the lawsuit was filed on April 7 in the U.S. District for the Souther District of New York. This is also where the Google Book Search settlement was filed. According to ASMP, the lawsuit covers Google’s systematic and pervasive infringements of the photographers, illustrators and other visual artists rights. Now, should the Google Book Search settlement which is scheduled to be resolved anytime soon in favor of Google, what will happen to this lawsuit filed by the photographers’ group then?  The lawsuits are  different entities so, ruling for one will not carry over as a ruling for the other. But the ultimate issue of course is whether Google will be given the go signal to continue with the Book Search project. Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal . Google Gets a Lawsuit from

How I’m Going To Pay For Obama’s Health Insurance Reform

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I’m a huge fan of the Obama’s health insurance reform bill.  It’s not that often that such a significant societal opportunity occurs that allows me to take decisive action to better my family’s welfare both presently and for many years into the future. Do you think I’m getting political on you? Not at all…I’m talking about the rare opportunity to purchase relevant domain names at their registration fee which had no intrinsic value before health insurance reform but significant value after the bill became law. How can I figure out which profitable domain names I should purchase? Well, I certainly don’t have to read the 8 billion pages of the legislation.  In fact, I don’t even have to know much about health reform at all.  All I need to do is be able to look at the news coverage and be able to perceive what might be a good choice for a (preferably dot com) domain name. So, let’s take a look at a news article that talks about some of the changes in the new law…and my eyes are drawn to the following words: “ The individual mandate does not go into effect until 2014 partly because it will take a long time to set up the state-run exchanges at which individuals and small-business employees will be able to comparison-shop for policies” State run health insurance exchanges in 50 states…50 obvious possible permutations of domain names…let’s check availability, shall we? If you check “name of state + healthinsuranceexchange” for .com and .org, there isn’t any availability…someone bought almost all of these names last year (and he is my domaining hero). However, if you check .net, you’ll find significant availability (as of the time I am writing this).  .net isn’t as brandable as .com or .org, but if you’re making an SEO play, those names will definitely work well for you. Not as brandable but good for SEO is healthinsuranceexchange + name of state.  Plenty of .com and .org availability for these names (again as of the time I am writing this). A couple footnotes: I’ve already “cherry-picked” the names I’ve wanted from health insurance reform and I’m not going to lead SEJ readers down any paths where I’ve been fishing / might want to fish in the future :.) A cursory study of the health insurance reform law offers many other paths into profitable domain purchases.  If you have the ability to perceive the elements of a good domain purchase (either from a branding or SEO perspective), just study the details of the legislation…I’m sure you’ll be able to make quality choices. Happy hunting :.) Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal . How I’m Going To Pay For Obama’s Health Insurance