Server Farms - January 2016

WebmasterWorld Members record and discuss the latest server farms.

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Facebook Launches Canvas Rich Media Ads For Mobile

Facebook has upped the ante with its rich format mobile ads for Android and iOS by launching Canvas, world-wide today.

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Google Opens Up Project Shield, Anti DDoS, To All News Sites

Google's Project Shield is being opened up to all News sites in an attempt to help stop DDoS attacks as a form of censorship.

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Apple/FBI thing backdoor practical discussion

The FBI wants Apple to break the secure wipe provision of their OS. What are the implications?

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Google To Close Google Compare Products

Google will close down Google Compare in the U.S. and U.K. on March 23, 2016.

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Designing the Conversational UI

All Talk and No Buttons: The Conversational UI

Google AdWords Switching to 4 Ads on Top, None on Sidebar

It seems that Google is rolling out a change to Google AdWords that sees 4 ads at the top of the search results, none on the sidebar at all

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This week's sponsor: FullStory

FULLSTORY, a session playback tool that lets you search on any click, event, or page view. Get FullStory free for 14 days

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IAB Says Ad Blocking is a War on Diversity and Freedom of Expression

The IAB's President and Chief Executive Officer, Randall Rothenberg, was pretty scathing in his remarks about Ad Blocking, and what he describes as ad-block profiteers in an opening keynote at the 2016 IAB Annual Leadership Meeting.

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Report: Google AMP SERPs To Go Live Wednesday 24 February

Google's AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) is to officially launch and go live on Wednesday 24th February.

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Yahoo Hires Bankers and Independent Committee Exploring Options

Yahoo continues to investigate its options and has announced it has established an independent committee to explore "strategic alternatives."

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Mobile Operator, Three, To Block Online Advertising

The deal is due to be announced next week with Shine, a technology company specialising in blocking mobile advertising.

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Facebook to Allow Any Publisher to use Instant Articles From April 12

Facebook's Instant Articles will be opened up to any publisher from April 12.

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Validating Product Ideas

Critical Glibc GHOST Bug Leaves All Linux Machines Vulnerable

"The nature of the flaw, its discovery, its potential for widespread vulnerability remind me in many ways of the Heartbleed bug."

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comScore:January 2016 U.S. Desktop Search Engine Rankings, Google at 63.8pct

Google sites once again dominate at 63.8pct, with Microsoft sites at 21.3pct, Yahoo sites at 12.4pct...

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How Brands are Buying Their Way to the Top of Google

Are brands free to sell positions in Google Organic SERPs and Google News and big brands are free to buy their way to the top?

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UK: Streetmap Loses "Anticompetitive" Case Against Google

Although Streetmap has lost the case, it plans to appeal the ruling...

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Google Extends "Right to be Forgotten" Across Its Network for E.U. IPs

Whichever version of Google you're using will no longer show the url, but only if you're in one of the countries where the right to be forgotten is approved.

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Finessing feColorMatrix

Google is Booting the Botnets From its Ad Network

Google is getting to grips with botnets on its ad network.

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Twitter's New Timeline Option Inserts "Best Tweets First"

Users can test it now by going to timeline settings and selecting 'Show me the best Tweets first'.

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Bing Ads Working to Fix Bing Ads Data Reporting Problem

Bing Ads is working hard to fix the data reporting issues.

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Twitter Announces Trust and Safety Council To Tackle Trolls

Twitter has formed a Trust and Safety Council aimed at enabling free speech.

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Opera In $1.2 Million Buyout Offer

Opera's board has recommended acceptance.

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The Pain With No Name

France Tells Facebook To Stop Tracking Non-Users Without Consent

France's data protection authority has given Facebook three months to stop tracking non-Facebook users' web activity without consent.

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This week's sponsor: BUGHERD

BUGHERD. It’s like sticky notes for a website. Just point, click and send to create visual bug reports. Check out Bugherd.com

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What to do When a Site Drops in Google's SERPs

WebmasterWorld Members discuss ideas and solutions when a site has dropped in Google's SERPs over time.

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Report: LinkedIn Stock Dropped $10-billion

Numerous reports suggest that LinkedIn has lost about 30% of its value.

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Google Targeting Bad Ads With New Deceptive Site Label

Google's new deceptive site label will not just target bad sites, but will now show for deceptive ads.

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Facebook Says Its Version of Six Degrees of Separation is Three Point Five

Facebook's huge user base gives it access to some big data, and a massive number of connections, so it's been crunching some numbers.

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http://ift.tt/16fiYnL

Amit Singhal just announced that he’s retiring toward the end of the month. Amit has been a formative part of Google’s search team, but he’s also a good friend. Last year, after he marked 15 years with Google, I wrote this about Amit’s contributions:

Amit Singhal, one of the unsung heroes of Google, just celebrated 15 years at the company. If you’ve ever gotten a magical answer from Google, you probably have Amit to thank for it.

I can’t think of another person who has taken on so many different roles–individual contributor, manager, and head of search, not to mention dealing with press–and done such a superb job in each role. When a regular person hits a wall and gets discouraged, that’s when Amit is just getting started. It’s always fun to see how he cuts to the root of a problem and solves it. I’m proud to call him my friend.

Billions of people have benefited in some way from Amit’s insight and judgment. Google will miss you, but thank you for everything, Amit. I’m also thankful that the leadership of search remains in excellent hands, including an experienced group of contributors and leaders in core ranking.

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The Head Of Google Search, Amit Singhal Is Leaving The Company

"Feb 26 will be my last day at Google."

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Google Updates and SERP Changes - Feb 2016

WebmasterWorld's monthly look at Google's SERPs changes.

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Google Webmaster Guidelines Updated, 2016

Google's Webmaster Guidelines 2016 edition.

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Report: Yahoo's CEO, Marissa Mayer, to Announce Cost-Cutting Plan

If the report is correct, Thursday's figures from Yahoo are probably not going to look too good.

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E.U. and U.S. Agree New Data Transfer Deal Replacing Safe Harbor

E.U. and the U.S. have come to an agreement for a new data transfer pact.

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Alphabet Q4 and Year End, 18pct Up to $21.329 Billion

Alphabet, Google's parent, showed strong growth for Google in the last quarter, and for its FY 2015.

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The Art of the Commit

This week's sponsor: Hired

Get 5+ job offers with 1 application from companies like Uber, Square, and Facebook—plus a $1000 bonus when you get a job—with our sponsor Hired. Join today.

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