Google’s Virtual World Conquest Continues.

I just read that Google has programmed googlebot to now crawl forms. The report suggests Google will honor no follow directives in robots text files. Google marches on in its quest for domination and control of information on the net. Ok, I don’t really believe this is a part of a Google conspiracy for world domination but sometimes their experiments make me wonder what’s next.

Read more about it at:
WebProNews

…and from Google at:
Webmaster Central Blog

The way Google explains it makes the experiment seem innocent and useful and they point out it’s only for “high-quality” sites. Hmm…I can already here the wheels grinding as someone somewhere is devising software to exploit form crawling for SEO.

Twilight Zone Moment: You are illegally displaying my personal information!

Twilight zone moments are those situations where a customer asks a question that makes me lose all sense of time, space and reason because it just doesn’t compute and leaves me disoriented for a couple minutes until I realize what the problem is. To be fair, I can have one of these moments from perfectly normal questions if I haven’t had my first cup of coffee in the morning.

This month’s Twilight Zone moment:

Q: I am very angry! You are displaying my personal information for the world to see! What gives you the right to display my personal information like this?

A: Hello. First, I can’t find a record of you being one of our customers. Second, after reviewing the information you sent I see that you visited our site’s “whois” search function. This allows anyone to search for a domain and view details including ownership information. We are not revealing your personal information. This information is available for public viewing through the registrar, the site where you purchased your domain. Visit your registrar and ask about privacy options that will cloak your personal information when a whois search is performed. Let me know if you have any other questions.

Help Desk: MySQL Database Won’t Work!

Questions about a wide variety of subjects regarding hosting, marketing and other subjects come pouring in to the help desk each week. I’m taking some of the most often asked questions and some unusual ones and posting them here each week for you to ponder and/or or receive enlightenment. Names removed to protect privacy.

Todays Question is:

Q: Why is my software not connecting to the database I created. I followed the instructions and created a user-name and a database but when entered in the software install program, I get errors that the database can not be found. Can you help?

A: You did almost everything correct except one step. After you create your database and user-name in the MySQL control panel, you have to attach the user-name to the database. There is a drop-down menu showing the user-names on the left and a drop down showing database names on the right. Select the user-name and the database you want it attached to and submit. Now your software install program should recognize the database and continue with the install.

Wordpress Multi-Purpose

Wordpress has become much more than just a blogging platform. Not everyone is happy about this but I think it’s a good thing. Wordpress allows quick installation of blogs and a wide variety or re-purposed blog sites. With the right plugin and tweaks Wordpress can become just about any type of site you want it to be. Since starting our new outsourcing service we have installed word press sites featuring ebay, Image directories, image rating systems, ecommerce stores, article directories, membership sites, sales pages, datafeed stores, clickbank stores, and more.

Here is a shortlist of sites completed or in the building stage demonstrating the varity of Wordpress configurations currently available.

1) Ecommerce store with drop shop.
Quilting Foldy Stuff Store
2) Data-Feed Store
Survival Store
3) Auction Affiliate Site
eBay Store