Instagram is a mysterious tool for many. While it has captured the dedication of newer generations, and whole careers have been launched on its back, the photo apps’ use as a branding tool can be hit or miss. For one thing, it is pretty much a mobile tool. You can view images on desktops, sure, […]
Adblock Plus Wins Another Case Supporting Legal Use in Germany
Hot on the heels of another ruling that said users have the right to block ads using Adblock Plus if they wish, we have another ruling, this time filed by a different set of publishers. This time, the lawsuit was brought about by RTL Interactive and ProSiebenSat1, two German broadcasters, against Eyeo, the makers of […]
Hashtag Spam – How NOT to Automate Your Social Media
Oh the crazy life of a Community Manager! Somehow we are supposed to keep 12 different social channels active on 12 different schedules with custom content for each audience without losing our minds. If we are agency and not in-house, we are most likely running those twelve channels multiplied by several clients. There aren’t enough […]
How Affiliate Merchants Can Opt Out of the Bit.ly & Viglink Cookie Dropping
Yesterday we reported that Bit.ly and Viglink were adding their own affiliate cookies to links that are shortened through the URL shortener Bit.ly. And understandably, people are pretty upset about it, not just for the cookie dropping on unsuspecting users, but also because of the high likelihood that affiliate commissions could be hijacked when anyone […]
Google’s PageSpeed Service Shutting Down in August
If you have a website that is utilizing Google’s PageSpeed Service, Google has announced they will be closing the service on August 3, 2015. Any webmasters who do not update their DNS accordingly will discover their sites will be down after that date. After 4.5 years of service, the PageSpeed Service team regretfully decided that […]
Bit.ly & Viglink Quietly Adding Their Own Affiliate Cookies on Shortened Links
If you use Bit.ly for your URL shortener, or you are clicking on a Bit.ly link, you should be aware that those shortened links are now a vehicle to drop Viglink affiliate cookies on the unsuspecting , and most people likely won’t even notice it is happening. The change seems to have happened in February […]
Google Launches Collections, Their Version of Pinterest
Google has announced their answer to Pinterest, a new Google+ feature. The feature is available for both Android and on the web, with an iOS version coming. Essentially the boards are just collections of Google+ posts that you can organize by theme. But the layout and theme seems very close to Pinterest’s design. By default, […]
German Courts Rule Adblock Plus is Legal to Use
Online publishers in Germany have lost a lawsuit against the German company responsible for creating Adblock Plus, stating that the company should not be allowed to block ads from being served on their websites. The two publishers, Zeit Online GmbH and Handelsblatt GmbH, were running advertising on their sites Zeit.de, Handelsblatt.com, and Wiwo.de, but felt […]
Major WordPress Exploit Affecting Sites using WordPress SEO by Yoast
The major exploit has been discovered in the extremely popular SEO WordPress plugin, WordPress SEO by Yoast. All WordPress blogs that are currently using this SEO plug-in need to upgrade to the latest version. This exploit means that blogs using WordPress and this plugin are vulnerable to a Blind SQL Injection. This particular exploit requires […]
What’s Going On! Is Google AdWords Squeezing Out 3rd Party Tracking?
Recent announcements by Google AdWords have me a bit concerned and confused. First, it was the new destination url protocol that separates the landing page from tracking parameters. Next came call only ads. Both of these features have big upside potential and should allow advertisers to up their game. But they also have a significant […]