Successful Blogging.com: September 2008

Election 2008 Goes Twitter

Twitter once again has proved their presence in the 2008 election. Twitter has launched the first niche website - Twitter E08 . This site is focused on the presidential election campaign.

Twitter says they are filtering hundreds of Twitter updates per minute to create a new source for gathering public . The site is updated with new topical messages in real time.

Twitterers are able to follow the debates and everything else together. Users can send their own messages right from the Twitter election site and the messages will be sent to their Twitter timeline .

Also participating, are the candidates and their reps.

Is this a new turn for the growing online networking site?

This past summer, Twitter announced that it had acquired Summize. Summize is a popular search tool based on the Twitter application program interface (API) and is now called Twitter Search. Using this technology is what will be fuling the feeds for the Twitter election site.

Twitter has partnered with Current TV on election coverage. They have used live "tweets" to be displayed on-screen during its debate coverage.
Current calls it "Hack the Debate" . According to Current, this is how to participate;

1. Tune in on October 2nd at 9pm EST/ 6pm PST for the Live Vice Presidential Debate. Find Current TV on your local cable/satellite provider or come here to watch the live stream of our broadcast.
2. Make sure you’ve registered with Twitter to participate.
3. During the debates, chime in by including "#current" in your tweet. Example:
"This discussion about universal healthcare makes me want to pop some pills! #current"
4. We won't be able to air every single tweet on TV, but you can see all of the #current tweets by searching #current on Twitter search.
5. If you have any questions about participating, send us a tweet @current.

Creating a blog network from your social network

Over the past week I have been focusing on the world of social networking to promote your blog. This is something that has become very popular over the past year because it works. Whether the end result is to get more traffic or simple to get your blog noticed, social networking is a proven method.

Once you have created your network of friend and you have all shared and have visited blogsites, the next step could be to create a blog network from your social network.

Here are some tips for forming your blog network;

Have a mutual purpose to all of the blogs invited into this network. The mutual focus can be a hobby or common interest.
Don't go over-board with the number of blogs in the network as there will be a point will that will distract from one another.
If there are too many blogs, say over 20, to add to your blog network then it is time to split them up into subcategories.
It is okay to belong to more than one network.
Start a blogroll for your network. Post it proudly on your blog.
Use an image or catchy phrase for your blog roll. This will help in establishing credibility.
Keep in contact with members on a weekly basis to keep everyone motivated.
Inspire members to visit member blogs and leave inspiring comments.
Share information with and be sure to site and link to the other blogs in your network.
Consider having a contest, writing an e-book, or using another marketing tool with your network buddies.

The purpose of joining a network is to promote, be promoted and support one another. IT's a great tool for any blogger.

Weatherbonk.com

One of my favorite sites on the internet is Weatherbonk.com.
This is a site that lets you see weather, traffic, and other conditions for pretty much anywhere. My favorite thing to do is check out the webcams from all over.

How does it work?

Weather Bonk is a mashup that lets you view real time weather information on a map. This can provide some very interesting information, particularly in areas with microclimates, such as San Francisco. The data comes from a combination of personal weather stations that are run from homes and schools as well as national weather services. Weather Underground, Weather Bug, Citizen Weather Observer Program, and National Weather Service are four of the major sites that compile this data. By default the map only displays a limited amount of data. Selecting 'All Weather' will display additional points but may take longer.

Much of Weatherbonk is based on Google map technology which must be good because everyone else it using it too.

Shakespere

The Facebook Phenomena

Social Networking Do's and Don'ts

Just as with most anything else in life, social networking comes with it's do's and don'ts. It is important to follow these usually unwritten rules if you want to fit in and thus, have some success.

Here are some suggestions.

Do's

Market yourself just as you would market a business. Think branding and image. Decide on what kind of image you want to be known as in the social network and follow it.
If you are going to use the same persona for more than one social network sites, be sure to stick to the one image. You want your followers to remember you without confusion.

Remember to be personable to a point. That point would be where your integrity in relation to your on-site persona may be questioned. It's important to share a bit of your yourself such as a hobbies or volunteer work as a small part of your profile to make you appear human .

Always be honest. Like in any other arena, honesty is the best policy. It is a lot easierto be honest than trying to keep mistruths organized.
Do go into social networking slowly. Take time to observe how things are done.
Take time to familiarize yourself with the site and its community.
Do remember that courtesy in contagious. Be friendly and cordial with other members. Remember - it is a "social" site.
Do remember to keep the social in networking. A random message or post on a wall can go far.

DON'T

Don't skip important details that make you personable. Include your hobbies on your profile.
Don't get into religion or politics unless your blog and your network is based on either. You wouldn't want to insult or steer away a potentially good ally.

Don't assume that your network is all about you. On the contrary, if you want to build relationships you must show genuine concern for the other guy.

Don’t advertise using an aggressive or pushy market strategy. People aren't stupid and if they sence that you only want to network with them to benefit yourself they will never trust you.

Don't forget to update your status daily. It reminds people that you are there.

Don't have a "self promotion" agenda. If your only reason for being there is to promote yourself, you will not be successful.
Don't use bad, vulgar or offensive language. Remember to behave yourself.
Don't stalk. Give people their space and leave their contacts alone, unless they are mutual from a group or association.

It isn't difficult to get acclimated to social networking and make it work for you. It is just a matter of sticking within the norms of the network society.

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Using LinkedIn

Using LinkedIn is a two way street.
Recruiters can find recruits and job seekers can find a job. For this reason, LinkedIn is a more serious and 'less fun' social networking site.

What is the success rate? Your success rate improves from not using LinkedIn as a source.

According to the company, LinkedIn provides these tips for using their services.

Using LinkedIn as a Job Seeker

Whether you’re actively seeking a job, or just keeping tabs on where your industry is heading, LinkedIn Jobs leverages your professional relationships to help you achieve your career goals.

Utilize the advanced job search to take that first step towards that dream job. Along with specific keywords you can tailor your search by specifying an experience level or job title to find the right job for your specific situation and career goals. Additionally, you can refine your search using the following criteria:

Location
Experience level
Date posted
Title
Company
Job Function (ex: Writing / Editing)
Industry (ex: Entertainment)

Browsing Jobs

Jobs that match your search terms and filtering criteria will be returned in two clickable tabs:

LinkedIn Jobs: positions posted directly on LinkedIn, including exclusive listings
The Web: positions from partner sites all over the web

Regardless of the source, LinkedIn will display who in your network can help you with the position. With LinkedIn you can reach out through your network and find the right person at the company for more information, to answer any questions, or even introduce you to the hiring manager.

Once you’ve returned search results, if you’d like to expand or refine your query, click the “refine search results” button and make changes without losing the information you’re already entered.

Application/referral process

Applying for a job is as easy as clicking the “Apply Now” button on the specific job listing page and filling in a few pieces of information. Information you provide during the application process along with your LinkedIn profile will be sent to the job poster.

Referrals are powerful tools that will help you get your foot in the door. Click on the “Request Referral” button to see whom in your network connects you to the job poster. You can then request an Introduction, which lets you contact people through those that you know. If you want to contact a user who is two or three degrees away from you, you can request an introduction through one of your connections. Your connection will, in turn, decide whether to forward it on to the desired recipient (if in your 2nd degree) or to a shared connection (if in your 3rd degree).

Forwarding a job

See a job that you think would be a perfect fit for one of your connections? Click the “Email this job to a friend” button and pass it along. This virtuous cycle completes when one of your connections returns the favor by one day forwarding you an interesting opportunity.

I am a Hiring Manager

Using LinkedIn you can reach 20+ million candidates, both those actively searching for a job as well as passive candidates. Passive candidates will often receive a forwarded job listing because one of their contacts felt that it could be a great fit. Additionally, with a job module on every user’s home page, new opportunities frequently come across their radar. Industry wisdom proclaims passive candidates as the very best and most valuable candidates, but are notoriously hard to reach since they are rarely actively seeking a new job.

Begin your posting on the Jobs home page, by clicking on the “Post a Job” button. Posting is quick and easy with only a few simple steps:

Compose job: Provide company, job and location details.
Contact information: Choose how you would like to view and manage applications
Confirmation: Review and confirm all details for your job posting
Payment: Enter payment information

Did you know: Jobs posted exclusively on LinkedIn receive special promotion at no extra cost

How much does it cost?

Each job posting costs $195 and is visible for 30 days. Corporate accounts and bulk discounts are available.

Leverage the power of your network to announce your job opening. After entering payment information and posting your position, you will be able to forward your position to your network.

15 Great networking tips

All this week I have been focusing on using Social Networking to promote. Along the way I have picked some tidbits from readers and my sources.

Limit the number of networks that you belong to.
Choose to belong to the most popular networking sites rather than the smaller ones.
Connect people and build relationships, not limiting yourself to one location .
Start out slowly and learn how to function within the networking society that you belong to.
Observe how the more successful networkers function and learn from them
Observe how the lesser successful networkers function and learn from them.
Use an image of yourself in your profile as you would like the world to perceive you.
Join groups related to your purpose.
Be polite, politically correct, and in good taste.
Update often.
Respond to messages and requests.
When you post in your blog, be sure to let your networking friends know about it.
Don't be too obvious when you are promoting something that involves money.
Build trust with your community.
Get ideas from your networking friends about what groups to join.

Social networking is a great way to promote almost anything. Your blog should be no exception.

Social Networking for your business

This week I have been focusing on using social networking. My emphasis is mostly on using networking for promotion of something, whether it is you, your blog or your business.

A social network is a powerful businesses tool .

Social networking can;
Promote you as a professional to enhance your ability to et promoted or seek another job.
Provides a way for clients, customers, vendors, and coworkers to share ideas and learn from one another.
Serve as a motivational means by inspiring people.
Assist you in keeping up with the latest trends that can affect your business.
Is a simple way to advertise, if anything.

When using social networking it is important to put some kind of an effort into it on a daily, or regular basis. Here is how.

Keep your followers informed. Update them with articles, posts, and other information.
Keep the information fresh, new and exciting . Not unlike a blog.
Be personable with your followers. This is easy to do with e-mails, messages, and more.
Interact with people through polls and questions.

Recruiting and being recruited via social networking.

One of the biggest names in social networking for the sole purpose of recruitment is LinkedIn.
LinkedIn launched in 2003 and is designed to grow professional referrals and interactive exchanges with colleagues. With LinkedIn, members submit contacts and invite friends and associates into their loop. Members can then tap into a database of new business contacts that are nested within their contacts' circle of friends/contacts. LinkedIn is more serious and professional than other sites.

LinkedIn has more than 10 million users. Some of their users are big. LinkedIn has secured more than 350 corporations paying upward of US$250,000 each to advertise job postings.

Tomorrow, I will focus on using LinknedIn

10 Tips on How to make Social Networking work for You

People have been social networking for as long as there has been social communication. The mode of networking has changed over the years however, one thing stays the same. Social networking can work for you.

Today's social networking is mostly internet based. Why not? The internet can provide access to millions of people from all over the world, within seconds.

Here are 10 Tips to help make you successful.

Join a platform that seems easy for you to navigate and popular with your target audience. If you are unsure of which one(s) to join, ask your colleagues. They can point your in the right direction.
After you join take some time to observe how things are done and how to maneuver through the site. You want know what you are doing because it is obvious to others when you do not.
Do a search on the specific subjects that you are interested in. This will point you to a group that you can join. Group members share a common interest and can often provide many leads.
Make friends as long as there is a common friend. The original users of many networking sites get caught up in this unwritten rule because many of them joined without the intent of networking for promotion. While most of the users that are like you may be happy to be your friend, having a common friend is like having an introduction.
Start by subtly getting noticed. Send messages thanking new friends. Update your profile often . Join groups and post 'happy messages' on their wall.
Make people want to come back to you by reminding them that you are there.
Don't be too obvious by sending cheap looking money making invitations or messages.
Always return a comment or message. Simply make it short and sweet.
If you have a product or service to offer, talk about it to your network of friends. Inform them about the products you sell or services that you offer. Don't be phony in your presentation.
Be yourself. The successful net workers put a bit of themselves out there. People respond best when they can relate to another human- genuine human.

Social networking sites can help us succeed in our businesses, provided we learn how to use our connections wisely

Remember Sincerity when you promote your blog through social networking

Yesterday I started a series of posts about promoting your blog with the help of social networking.

I was surprised at how well this post worked. Within 24 hours I had well over 100 friend requests on Facebook and Twitter. It is proof that we all want to help one another and we all can help one another promote our blogs.

I found an interesting article on Articlebase.com written by Karl Glantschnig .

When it comes to promoting your blog on social networking websites, you have a number of different options. Your first option is to include a link to your blog in your community profile or profile page. This will allow other community members to checkout your blog, only if they wish to do so. The other way is to inform your online friends of your blog through private messages. Once you join a social networking website and create or join a network of friends, you should easily be able to communicate with those friends. Sending each of your friends a private message with information and a link to your blog tends to be more effective than just placing a link in your profile or on your profile page.

These two steps are widely used by many people promoting not just their blog, but other interests. The secret to winning a reader base is sincerity.

When you post a link on the group page, be very careful to not step on anyone's toes. The group creator has been nice enough to let you into the group to network. Don't tick that person off. Not only will you be kicked out of the group but, others will know what is going on. By others, I mean potential networking contacts.

When you send out those e-mails or messages, don't just send them out for personal gain- such as referring the reader to your $149.99 one day seminar. Start out nice. Simply thank your new friend for the follow. Building trust for a long-term relationship is far more important that getting that $149.99 today.

In closing, I wish to thank everyone who has followed me and requested my friendship.
Supporting one another is what networking is all about.

Promote your blog through social networking

Promoting your blog can take a lot of elbow grease. But, it is important to do if you ever want to build up a readership.

Social networking is probably the best way to promote your blog if you want a consistent and supportive reader base.

Social networking gives you the opportunity to promote and be promoted. You help promote someone else's blog while they help promote yours. We all work together.

Here are some great tips to get you started using social networking to promote your blog.

Twitter. Five ways that you can use Twitter to promote your blog

Every time you make a new post, update your Twitter
Follow everyone who follows you in addition to adding new people every day.
When you get a new follow, be sure to respond to the follower with a link to your blog, after you thank them for the follow.
Ask advice. Many Twitterers will post a question to get their followeres involved. They will then write a blog post in response.
Place a follow widget on your blog so that readers who arrive there from elsewhere can also follow you on Twitter.

Facebook.
Four ways to promote your blog on Facebook.

Join many groups which promote blogging and internet promotion. After a while you will see the same people and it will make it easier to request them as a friend.
Use your group membership to network and make friends. This is a great idea because most of these people are genuine and are doing the same thing that you are- promoting themselves. These leads can lead to other leads.
Learn where and when to pick up on a lead. Sometimes it will come in the form of a friend request and sometime it will come in the form of a group invitation or message.
Lastly, I have formed a group Blog Promotion through Social Networking to help you get on your way. Join today and learn how to promote your blog with the help of fellow blogger.

LinkedIn

While I am not that saavy or a big user of LinkedIn, I do believe that it can lead to positive leads. The more your do, the more you can promote.

Blog Promotion Through Social Networking
http://www.linkedin.com/e/vgh/889087/

If you are interested in getting the most out of your blog, look into social networking.
It's free, easy and fun.

20 tips for Hobby Bloggers

Most of us enjoy spending our free time with a hobby. Some of us have a specific hobby that we are passionate enough about to start a blog about.

Here are 10 tips for the hobby bloggers.They are designed to help you share your passion

Choose your subject. Let your subject choose you as well.
Decide what kind of point of view you will take on the subject.
Do your research to see what kind of similar blogs are out there.
Do your research to be assured that you will always have ample information to keep your blog running.
Make sure that you choose a topic and point of view that you have some authority on.It will be all too evident if you are a novice with simple information
Align yourself with similar hobby bloggers. This is easy to to with a blog roll.
Show links to the next step for you visitors. By next step, I mean once they have read your post, what will their next step be.
Choose your advertising to complement your topic.
Use a variety of resources for information.
Also include images and possible embedded videos.
Always quote and tag your resources.
Never steal information and call it your own.
Use at least 2 links in every post.
Attempt to present old information in a new and freshened look.
Don't be afraid to complement a similar blogger by leaving a comment and a link.
Offer a newsletter with the latest updates of news and other information.
Share yourself as part of the hobby in your blog.
Take pictures of yourself enjoying the hobby and post them on your blog.
Draw attention to your blog by joining social bookmarking sights,
Always make your appear fun and interesting by using good descriptions in your post.

Hobby blogging is fun and eciting. It's also a wonderful way to share your hobby with others.

Facebook users getting use to the new look

Facebook recently underwent some changes to their layout. They updated their site to give more 'pages' to users to display their information. There were several reasons, according to Facebook, for doing this. One reason was to allow for more advertising space. Yes, to pay for this wonderful and free social networking service, there must be advertising.

Unfortunatly, users in general are not too happy with this change. As of this month, they have had to switch over to the new look. Many people have epressed confusion over trying to find everything. Other users are upset because it is not fully compatible with Firefox.

In July the Facebook blog told us about a change that was coming. According to the blog;

Over the past six months, 100,000 of you have offered to help improve the user experience on Facebook by giving your feedback and suggestions, and we're excited to show you what we've come up with. Here are some highlights:

The Wall now surfaces the most recent and relevant information—in the form of posts of stories—about you. We believe that having a constant stream of information, or "feed" is the most effective way to learn about and keep up with friends. Just as News Feed helps you know what is happening in your social circle, you can use the Wall as a way to give your friends the full story of what's happening with you.

A big piece of the Wall is the Publisher, which enables you to publish content—photos, notes, your status, and so on—directly to your Wall. The Publisher works with most applications so that you have one place to go to add content to your own profile or to a friends'.

The profile is very personal; it's important to us that everyone have control over their own profile. Along those lines, once you've published stories or posted content, you can adjust the size to promote the things you care about most, and demote the stories you don't find as interesting.

One of our key goals of this project has always been to make the site simpler and cleaner. The new tabbed profile should help a lot in this respect, breaking your information into tabs by type. The Wall tab displays most recent and relevant information both about you and by you. The Info tab shows information about you that doesn't change frequently. The Photos tab shows photos of you as well as your albums. The Boxes tab features all of your existing application boxes. You're also able to add tabs for your favorite applications.

Keep in mind, nothing with your privacy is changing with this; in fact, the new story formats should offer even greater control over what and how information is shared. We still respect all the same, trusted privacy controls as before. Thanks again for the feedback, and enjoy the new Facebook.

Facebook founder Zuckerberg posted the following statement;

“After months of hard work, we’re at a point where almost all 100 million people around the world on Facebook are using the new design. As we continue to roll this out, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on what we’ve built and why I think it’s an important step for us.

Facebook’s mission is to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected. In the last four years, we’ve built new products that help people share more, such as photos, videos, groups, events, Wall posts, status updates and so on.

As people share more, sometimes we need to change the site to accommodate how much information people are posting. Back in 2006 we launched News Feed, which brought all of the most recent and interesting activity from the people you care about right to your home page. Similarly, the new Facebook design replaces all the big boxes on profiles and brings all of your friends’ most recent and interesting activity to front and center.”

But then goes on to say “We realize that change can be difficult though. Many people disliked News Feed at first because it changed their home page and how they shared information. Now it’s one of the most important parts of Facebook. We think the new design can have the same effect.

With this release, we’ve worked harder to get more feedback about what we can improve. Starting in March, we created a Page where we gave updates on the changes we were considering and more than 150,000 people joined and participated”. Despite the positive noise he admits that around a quarter of the users who’d tried the new design had immediately reverted to the old system but says that supporting both designs just wasn’t feasible.

The new Facebook will be a work in progress for some time but it’s clear that a significant slice of it user base are averse to the change, literally millions of people are signing up to the anti-change groups. Whether users vote with their feet remains to be seen.

Not all users of Facebook have been happy.
Being social network users, they show their unhappiness by forming and joining groups.
Here are a few of the groups;

How to get the old Facebook back group has over 360,000 members.
This groups shows how to hack into the old Facebook.

1,000,000 AGAINST THE NEW FACEBOOK LAYOUT!

has 2,379,816 members

on the flip side 1,000,000 PEOPLE AGAINST PEOPLE AGAINST THE NEW FACEBOOK LAYOUT has 185 members

Users can either stay with the new Facebook and join groups opposing thechange or they can quit using the source of a social addiction. It will be interesting to see if Facebook ever allows users to go back to the old interface or to see how many people quit as a result.

For now, people will have to deal with the free networking service.

shakespere

How to become a Successful Blogger

To some it's a secret. To others it's a gift. To everyone, it's hard work.

Becoming a successful blogger doesn't happen overnight. It takes work and strategy.

Here are 5 essential steps to successful blogging.

Define what successful blogging is to you. To some, it means name recognition while to others it means having followers. Defining what it means to you will help you plan your blog strategy.
Plan your blog strategy. This means to set goals. Where do you want your blog to be in a month, six months, and in a year from now. List your goals on a piece of paper so that you can clearly see them.
Map out how you will reach your goals for your strategy. If one of your goals is to have a traffic count of 100 visitors daily in a year from now, how to your plan to make that happen?
Find out what works and what doesn't work. Use measures such as kind and number of comments left on each post. Which posts generate the most interest? When do you get the most traffic.
Finally, evaluate and re-evalute. Is it working? Do you need to adjust your blog look or topic?

Each of these steps takes work on their own. This is meant as a general over-view of how to become successful at blogging. I will focus on each of these in upcoming posts.

Bad Hack Attacks

By now you have probably heard about Governor Sarah Palin's Yahoo e-mail account being hacked into. But, do you know how prevalent hacking on the internet actually is?

First of all, there are good hacks and there are bad hacks. Hacking is the act of finding a better way to do something on the internet. The good hacks are the ones that help you do something without violating any laws or infringing on anyone else. The bad ones can break laws or infringe.

According to 3W.net

GENERAL MISUSE of the Internet

One-third of time spent online at work is non-work-related. (Websense, IDC)

Internet misuse at work is costing American corporations more than $85 billion annually in lost productivity. (Websense, 2003)

80 percent of companies reported that employees had abused Internet privileges, such as downloading pornography or pirated software. (CSI/FBI Computer Crime and Security Survey, 2003)

HACKING

75% of companies cited employees as a likely source of hacking attacks. (CSI/FBI, 2003)

45% of businesses had reported unauthorized access by insiders. (CSI/FBI, 2003)

INSTANT MESSAGING

Nearly 80 percent of instant messaging in companies is done over public IM services such as AOL, MSN and Yahoo, exposing companies to security risks. (Radicati, 2003)

There are more than 43 million users of consumer IM at work. (IDC, 2003)

Only one quarter of companies have a clearly defined policy on the user of IM at work. (Silicon.com, 2003)

PEER-TO-PEER FILE-SHARING

Forty-five percent of the executable files downloaded through Kazaa contain malicious code. (Trusecure, 2004)

73 percent of all movie searches on file-sharing networks were for pornography. (Palisade Systems, 2003)

A company can be liable for up to $150K per pirated work if it is allowing employees to use the corporate network to download copyrighted material. (RIAA, 2003)

PORN

70 percent of porn is downloaded between 9am and 5pm. (SexTracker)

37 percent of at-work Internet users in the US had visited an X-rated Web site from work. (ComScore Networks, Dec 2003)

SPYWARE

1 in 3 companies have detected spyware on their network. (Websense UK Survey, 2003)

There more than 7,000 spyware programs. (Aberdeen Group, 2003)

STREAMING MEDIA

77 percent of weekly online listening to Internet Radio takes place between 5 a.m. and 5 p.m. Pacific time. (Arbitron, 2004)

44 percent of corporate employees actively use streaming media. (Nielsen NetRatings, 2002)

VIRUSES/MALICIOUS CODE

Although 99% of companies use antivirus software, 82% of them were hit by viruses and worms. (CSI/FBI, 2003)

Blended threats made up 54 percent of the top 10 malicious code submissions over the last six months of 2003. (Symantec Internet Security Threat Report, 2003)

The number of malicious code attacks with backdoors, which are often used to steal confidential data, rose nearly 50% in the last year. (Symantec, 2003)

According to Web Applications Security Consortium;

Breach Labs which sponsors WHID has issued an analysis of the Web Hacking landscape in 2007 based on the incidents recorded at WHID. It took some time as we added the new attributes introduced lately to all 2007 incidents and mined the data to find the juicy stuff:
The drivers, business or other, behind Web hacking.
The vulnerabilities hackers exploit.
The types of organizations attacked most often.
To be able to answer those questions, WHID tracks the following key attributes for each incident:
Attack Method - The technical vulnerability exploited by the attacker to perform the hack.
Outcome - the real-world result of the attack.
Country - the country in which the attacked web site (or owning organization) resides.
Origin - the country from which the attack was launched.
Vertical - the field of operation of the organization that was attacked.
Key findings were:
67% percent of the attacks in 2007 were "for profit" motivated. Ideological hacking came second.
With 20%, good old SQL injections dominated as the most common techniques used in the attacks. XSS finished 4th with 12 percent and the young and promising CSRF is still only seldom exploited out there and was included in the "others" group.
Over 44% percent of incidents were tied to non-commercial sites such as Government and Education. We assume that this is partially because incidents happen more in these organizations and partially because these organizations are more inclined to report attacks.
On the commercial side, internet-related organizations top the list. This group includes retail shops, comprising mostly e-commerce sites, media companies and pure internet services such as search engines and service providers. It seems that these companies do not compensate for the higher exposure they incur, with proper security procedures.
In incidents where records leaked or where stolen the average number of records affected was 6,000.
The full report can be found at Breach Security Network.

Who investigates bad hacking?

The FBI for one.

The collective impact of bad hacking is staggering. Billions of dollars are lost every year repairing systems hit by such attacks. Some take down vital systems, disrupting and sometimes disabling the work of hospitals, banks, and 9-1-1 services around the country.

Who is behind bad hacking attacks? It runs the gamut—from computer geeks looking for bragging rights…to businesses trying to gain an upper hand in the marketplace by hacking competitor websites, from rings of criminals wanting to steal your personal information and sell it on black markets…to spies and terrorists looking to rob our nation of vital information or launch cyber strikes.

Today, these computer intrusion cases—counterterrorism, counterintelligence, and criminal—are the paramount priorities of our cyber program because of their potential relationship to national security.

Combating the threat.

A Cyber Division at FBI Headquarters “to address cyber crime in a coordinated and cohesive manner”;
Specially trained cyber squads at FBI headquarters and in each of our 56 field offices, staffed with “agents and analysts who protect against investigate computer intrusions, theft of intellectual property and personal information, child pornography and exploitation, and online fraud”;
New Cyber Action Teams that “travel around the world on a moment’s notice to assist in computer intrusion cases” and that “gather vital intelligence that helps us identify the cyber crimes that are most dangerous to our national security and to our economy;”
Our 93 Computer Crimes Task Forces nationwide that “combine state-of-the-art technology and the resources of our federal, state, and local counterparts”;
A growing partnership with other federal agencies, including the Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security, and others—which share similar concerns and resolve in combating cyber crime.

Help the FBI catch suspects wanted in computer intrusion cases: Visit our Featured Fugitives—Cyber Crimes webpage to use the power of the web against the very criminals who seek to exploit it.

Among our recent cases and accomplishments:

CoveritLive.com

With all of the opportunities for bloggers to cover an event live, via their blog, one company has come up with a method to make it easier to do.

According to coveritlive.com;

Since its release in late 2007, CoveritLive has been used by thousands of writers to engage millions of readers around the world. It has been well received by traditional bloggers as well as those in mainstream media. Users are finding millions of usage occasions from niche events like chess tournaments in Germany or local elections in London, to marquee events like the NFL draft and American Idol.

Before CoveritLive, writers were struggling to create so called ‘live blogs’ for sports, political events, television shows, conferences and earnings calls but their existing software was holding them back. Chatrooms, forums and discussion boards often denigrated into a place for spammers and a small handful of people who felt the need to dominate the group. We love hearing our users say, “THIS is what I was looking for”.

When you use CoveritLive, your live blog is displayed in a Viewer Window on your site or blog. Readers don’t have to set up usernames and passwords to watch it, send in comments or participate in polls. In short, we are a software company that respects your brand and your objective of attracting and keeping your readers.
The Viewer Window can be inserted (and removed) from any web page as easily as a hyperlink. (Demo) All text, polls, images and video appear in the Viewer Window, in a clean and easy to view format. Readers are not required to download anything to watch your live blog.

Instantly published commentary. No refresh. No preview. No save.

Your commentary is published as if you were using an instant messaging product. Type and click send. There’s no worrying about what your readers are seeing because the Writer Console (that’s what we call the software the writer uses) has an exact replica of the Viewer Window built right into it, so you never have to go ‘check your site’. Whether it’s a bonehead move by Bernanke or a brilliant move by Belichick, you are first with perspective to your audience.

Since the point of a live blog is live coverage; CiL allows for ‘instant’ commentary, not just ‘afterthoughts’.
Speed of coverage is critical during a live blog of a press conference, earnings call or other breaking news.

‘One-click’ publishing of video, images, audio and advertisements.

During a live blog, there are moments where a specific picture would be perfect, or a video clip of a politician contradicting himself would help support your opinion. With CoveritLive’s ‘One-click’ publishing you can use the Google or Youtube search tools, and simply click the mouse once to perfectly display the content for your readers. No more thinking, “wouldn’t it have been great if I could have shown...”.

Use the online Media Library to prepare your media and polls before you start, just like a producer of a radio show.
The Media Uploader allows you to easily upload multimedia from your computer during your live blog.
Google image search tools are built right in so you can find web content quickly and publish it instantly. (Demo for IE users, Demo for Firefox users)
Note: CoveritLive respects all copyright laws so make sure you have the rights to anything you display.

Let your readers vote. Again and again and again.

For readers to be engaged, they need to be involved. One polling question at the right side of the screen created six hours ago is not going to cut it during a live blog. Our ‘Quick Poll’ allows the writer to create and instantly publish new polls throughout the event. You can have as many polls running at one time as you like.

Polls can also be created ahead of your live blog and stored in your Media Library.
Results change in real time as readers continue to vote.
Readers who join your live blog late still get a chance to vote as long as the poll is still active.

Streaming questions and comments from your readers.

It’s not chat, an open thread or a reader forum. It’s a live blog using CoveritLive. We think your readers visit your site to read what you have to say on issues or events that are important to them. With that said, there is a time and a place during a live blog where you should be able to take questions and comments from your readers...immediately. The important point here is that the writer stays in control of the content so it doesn’t go completely off the rails.

Reader comments stream instantly into a window in the Writer Console that only the author sees.
‘One-click’ publishing allows you to quickly add reader comments or questions for everyone to see.
Use the Producer feature to help manage large audiences and provide production assistance.
Feature multiple writers with the Panelist feature or easily invite guest speakers to a Q&A session.

Instant Replay.

When your live blog is complete, the Viewer Window instantly converts itself into an Instant Replay. Readers can then read the live blog even if they missed the live session. We package up all multimedia and polls that you may have used into links that can be clicked to reveal the media or poll results.

All live blogs created using CoveritLive are stored on our servers and can be accessed or deleted at any time.
CiL stats give you valuable insight into your audience, with an up-to-date count of your readers and instant replays.

The President of CoveritLive is Keith McSpurren (email, Twitter). The head of Development is Bob Barnard (email). Our offices are located in Toronto, Canada.

We do not charge our users a fee to use CoveritLive. We also do not place any of our own advertisements into the software. Right now, we are focused on understanding the needs of our users and how our software can help create a new form of reporting. In addition, we are learning with them the true value of this kind of software-as-service. When we figure that out, we will likely follow several paths at once to generate revenue:

A free version with options for additional pay-per-use features
A more robust version with the user’s choice of allowing advertising OR paying a fee for the service
A ‘whitebox’ version where we sell our software to companies with large user bases of their own
An ‘enterprise’ version for large news organizations who want more content and user management tools

We do not believe we’ll need to "reinvent the wheel" when it comes to our business model. Many software companies have started with free offerings until they understood the category better and then, with the appropriate communication, migrated users willing to pay for more advanced features while holding to a commitment to always offer a quality version at no cost.

So, if you are a niche blogger: you get enterprise class software at no cost to you. If you work at a massive news organization that usually pays tens of thousands of dollars for quality software: "free" does not mean "flimsy". Try the software today and imagine the opportunities it can create for you.

CoveritLive.com

10 great details to include on your blog or site

Starting and maintaining a blog requires a lot of planning and time. Often there is so much to remember that it is easy to forget details.
Here is a listing of what not to forget.
Checklist of thing to have on your blog site.

Label or tag. This makes it easy to reference in archiving at a later date. It is essential for keeping organized, especially when you have a lot of posts to keep track of.
Introductory information. This is where you give the visitor a brief overview of the site in general. What is your site about? Make it easy for your visitor to know why they want to stay or come back.
About you. It's okay to put a little bit of yourself into your site. An about me section lets the visitor know exactly who is writing and gives you some kind of authority.
Commenting tools. Make it easy for people to comment. You can always delete the spam or inappropriate comments as they come. The benefit of ease of commenting far out weight the bad comments.
Social bookmarking ability. Don't get carried away with too many. It's easy to do. Have a few, like digg, just to make it look like you are here to stay. Having these can also send you some traffic.
RSS subscription. Have some sort of a feed or newsletter available. Make it easy to subscribe. It is a great way to keep your site in the minds of others.
Referencing. Have a way to refer visitors elsewhere. For example, have a link list. This gives your visitor the feeling that you are a good source for information.
Easy navigation. Once you have your labels, having links to the labels is easy to do. This can give some kind of navigation method if people are interested in reading about something specific.
Welcome. Have something that welcome your visitor. The easiest thing to do is to have a visual such as a banner.
Connection with you. Have a way that people can connect with you. This can be as easy as a 'contact me' with your e-mail address or a link to your twitter or facebook pages.

Adding the above list to your checklist will help your site achieve the over-all look and feel that it needs to be successful.

Current TV and Twitter to take on Debates

Current and Twitter are coming to a Presidential debate near you. Current TV is handing over feedback on the upcoming presidential debates to its audience.

The first presidential debate is planned for Sept. 26, with two more debates and a vice presidential debate to follow. Current, partnering with Twitter, will have a similar live stream on its Web site, Current.com.In close to real time, Current will display comments on the screen while Sen. John McCain and Sen. Barack Obama face off.

During the debates, the network will broadcast Twitter messages — or "tweets" — from viewers.

Current was co-founded by former Vice President Al Gore. Joel Hyatt, CEO of Current, said the technique — dubbed "Hack the Debate" — was not Gore's idea, but he and Gore both share a dim view of post-debate punditry.

Comments will be filtered, but Hyatt claims they will only be filtered to suit broadcast standards.

According to their website, Current.com is the place to find and share stories and videos that are interesting to you. It connects to Current TV, a global cable and satellite TV network.

Since its inception in 2005, Emmy award-winning Current TV has been the world's leading peer-to-peer news and information network. Current is the only 24/7 cable and satellite television network and Internet site produced and programmed in collaboration with its audience. Current connects young adults with what is going on in their world, from their perspective, in their own voices.

With the launch of Current.com, the first fully integrated web and TV platform users can participate in shaping an ongoing stream of news and information that is compelling, authentic and relevant to them.

Current pioneered the television industry's leading model of interactive viewer created content (VC2). Comprising roughly one-third of Current's on-air broadcast, this content is submitted via short-form, non-fiction video "pods". Viewer Created Ad Messages (VCAMs) are also open to viewer's participation.

Current is now viewed in the U.S. and U.K. in more than 51 million households through distribution partners Comcast (Channel 107 nationwide), Time Warner (nationwide), DirecTV (channel 366 nationwide), Dish Network (channel 196 nationwide), Sky (channel 183) and Virgin Media Cable (channel 155).

shakespere

Blog Carnival

One option for joining like blogs together is a blog carnival. A blog carnival goes a step further than a blog roll.It is a good option for hobby bloggers. Often, the other blogs in the carnival can refer visitors.

A blog carnival is a site where someone take blog posts on a given topic, and then puts all those posts together in a blog post called a "carnival". Carnivals can be very descriptive and they come in edited "editions", just like magazines or journals. The fact that carnivals are edited (and usually annotated) collections of links lets them serve as "magazines" within the blogosphere. Carnival hosts can earn their readership by providing high quality collections.
Since blog carnivals include lots of posts on specific topics, they also serve as a place to connect with those who are expert (or at least highly opinionated!) and those who are interested in that field.
Blog Carnival collect together links pointing to blog articles on a particular topic. Editions of the carnival typically come out on a regular basis . Each edition is a special blog article that consists of links to all the contributions that have been submitted, often with the editors opinions or remarks.

A Blog Carnival is comprised of the following:

The Organizer starts the carnival, decides what it will be about, what the submission criteria are, and how often it will appear. They also coordinate who will host each edition of the carnival. Organizers use Blog Carnival to manage the schedule of who is hosting what and when, so they can present it to their audience in a single, well-known place.
The Host volunteers to host a carnival edition on their blog. They work with the organizer to pick a date that suits them (popular carnivals schedule their hosts for months in advance). In the period leading up their scheduled date, they collect submissions from bloggers, and organize them into a single article chalk-full of links, often with their own comments.
Bloggers who have written an article on the carnival's topic can submit the link for inclusion in the next edition of the carnival. Often, bloggers who contribute to carnivals are experts in their field (or at least, highly opinionated!). Blog Carnival has a carnival submission form for each carnival that bloggers can use to submit links to selected posts to a carnival host. All the blogger needs to know is the name of the carnival, and Blog Carnival takes care of getting it to the right person.
The Audience consists of both bloggers and just-plain-interested readers. They come to Blog Carnival to find out if there is a carnival on a topic they are interested in, and to find out where the carnival editions have been, and where they're going to be in the future.

Browse through the Blog Carnival carnival index, to find carnivals on a topic you blog about. Click on the name of the carnival to see its profile page. The profile page for each carnival has a description that tells you what the carnival is about, and several pointers that you can read.

The Blog Carnival web site has a web page for every carnival it knows about and it also has a page for every carnival edition it knows about.

The Blog Carnival team has already added a number of carnivals that we have found (or that people have told us about). If you are the person who is organizing this carnival, just tell us, and we will assign it to your account. Once that is done, you can update it yourself.

[back to top]

It's your turn to host a carnival on your blog, and you've created a fabulous round-up of links to your fellow bloggers. How do you get that listed at Blog Carnival?

Sign up! In order to add or edit listings at Blog Carnival, you need to have an account.
Find your carnival. If you're carnival is not listed, and you are the organizer for this carnival, Simply add it. (Now, don't confuse the listing for a carnival with the listing for an edition of a carnival!)
Log in! When you log in, you'll see all the carnivals and editions you can edit. Click on the carnival name (example). You'll see a list of past editions, followed by a list of upcoming editions.
Is your edition already listed? There are many ways editions get listed, so your edition may already be here. Review the list of past editions, and see if your edition is at the top of the list. If it is, you can check to see if the listing is correct, in which case you're done.
Is there an upcoming edition listed? Look at the list of upcoming editions. Is yours in it? If so, click on the edit button, and change the edition from "upcoming" to "already posted". You can then enter the Permalink URL (what's that?) of your edition on to the form, then adjust the remaining fields.
Otherwise, click on Add a new carnival edition, check off "already posted", and enter the Permalink URL.

Blog Carnival simplifies carnivals for two kinds of people:

People who read and contribute to blog carnivals, and
People who organize and publish blog carnivals.

contact the Blog Carnival team.

Yahoo MyWeb

Yahoo has introduced MyWeb as their method to find, save, and share knowledge on the Web.
It is Yahoo's answer to social bookmarking.

According to Yahoo, MyWeb lets you:

* Save favorite web content so you can easily re-find it.
* Connect with others so you can selectively share the sites you save.
* Benefit from other MyWeb users by tapping into their collection of sites.
* Browse tags to identify active taggers on any topic.

According to Yahoo, their MyWeb service allows you to tap into a directory of favorite web content bookmarked by thousands of people. The content is organized so that you can browse through it by keyword or instantly search to find content on a particular subject.

Replace the way you bookmark favorite web content.

MyWeb does it better by letting you "tag" sites with keywords, change the title, and add a note to what you save. Better yet, you can search all your bookmarks by tag, title, note, and page content to instantly re-find what you saved. It's easy to start. MyWeb automatically converts most browsers' bookmarks.

Connect with friends and contacts to share what you know and benefit from what they know.

MyWeb lets you connect with friends and colleagues, allowing you to privately share what you know with each other. You can find better answers through your community of trusted people.

Discover what the world has tagged and shared.

MyWeb users are out there now—discovering new sites, tagging them, and sharing them with the MyWeb community. You can see what the rest of the world is saving, browse tags to discover expert resources, and find new content. Step beyond web content that's ranked by search technology alone, to content ranked by real people!

To get started:

Activate MyWeb.
Install Yahoo! Toolbar: If you don't have a link to MyWeb in your browser, you can only save pages from a Yahoo! Search results page, or manually from the MyWeb management pages.
Import your bookmarks.
Add contacts to your community and start sharing what you know.

After that, whenever you're logged in and find a web page you want to save, just go to your Toolbar and use the Save to MyWeb option in the MyWeb pull-down menu to save it.

Invite friends to join your community or add new contacts directly to your list as you discover them.

Remember, the more contacts you add and the more pages you save, the more you can share what you know and discover better answers from the people you trust.

Hooray for Privacy Mode

I, for one, am more than glad to hear that Mozilla has responded to Google Chrome with an update which will include a privacy mode. I fine it an ultimate invasion of my privacy when my internet use is tracked and I don't know about it. Especially, when this tracking in done by sites who want to sell this information or present me with useless advertising.
Mozilla has announced a "privacy mode" for Firefox 3.1. The update is scheduled to be released in beta form in October.

Simply stated, In privacy mode, a browser doesn't record a history of visited sites or save cookies from those sites.

Developer Mike Connor wrote on the Mozilla Wiki site the three goals for the privacy mode.

"There should be a clear line drawn between your 'public' and 'private' browsing sessions," he wrote, so users can't be tracked when they are doing things they consider private. Information on visits can still be explicitly saved, he continued, such as per-site permissions, bookmarks, and so on.

In addition to not recording visited sites and removing all downloads from a given session, privacy mode will also mean there is no prompt to save passwords, and password fields cannot be autofilled. "Autocomplete" can be available, but entered data will not be kept. When a user enters or leaves privacy mode, any current authenticated sessions will be logged out.

Currently, Firefox offers an extension called Stealthier with private browsing features.

The addition of privacy mode is a response, at least in part, to the recent launch of a beta version of Google's Chrome browser, which features a privacy mode called Incognito. In the Web-published log of Mozilla bug tracking, one Firefox developer noted that "recent developments with Chrome will likely make finally getting private-browsing mode shipped a priority for 3.1."

An issue for many with Google Chrome is that when a user opens Incognito in Chrome, Google points out that its privacy mode is not intended to deal with such privacy issues as identity theft or tricking users. Google says "Web sites that collect or share information about you," malicious software that tracks your keystrokes, "surveillance by secret agents" or "people standing behind you."

The private mode is a 'good for the people' trend in browsers. Internet Explorer's IE8 Beta 2, features private browsing -- called InPrivate -- . Apple's Safari browser from also has private browsing.
Let's hope they progress to a point where we are truly and fully protected to a point that cannot be hacked.

Shakespere

Adding a Favicon to your blog

Adding a Favicon to your site is like dotting the "i's" or crossing the "t's". It's that extra touch that makes your site look professional.

Favicon is short for 'Favorites Icon.' The Favicon is usually displayed on the address bar of your browser and in the Favorites menu. It's display depends on the browser used. The favicon becomes your website icon.

A favicon image is saved in an ico file format. Just like a photograph would be saved in a JPG file format. The ico file is actually a repository of bitmap like images. They are usually a 16x16 pixel image or a 32x32 image.

Once you have your favicon, you must add the following code to your head section (use your html editor). Between the between the<head> </head> put in <link rel="icon" href="Fave/Name.ico"/>

As an example, the one used for Time.com looks like this

<link rel="shortcut icon" href="http://img.timeinc.net/time/favicon.ico" />

Keep in mind that you will need a storage location on a server for the favicon to point to.

Here are some helpful sites;

http://www.iconarchive.com/

Irfanview http://irfanview.com/
"favicon.cc" - draw favicons pixel by pixel
FavIcon from Pics - tool for creating still / animated favicons from regular images http://www.chami.com/html-kit/services/favicon/
Similar "How To Create A Favicon In Photoshop" article at PhotoshopSupport.com

AntiFavicon - An online tool which creates text favicons in different colors. [Italian and English].
Collabyrinth - A free, online icon editor by Andy Deck for producing favicons in the windows ICO format. Requires Java.
DeGraeve: Favicon Editor - An online favicon editor by Steven DeGraeve, which also offers the option to generate a favicon from an uploaded PNG image.
FavIcon from Pics - Generates favicon images for browser address bars, favorites and tabs, from pictures, logos and other graphics.
Favicon Generator - A free online tool which creates a favicon.ico from an uploaded image.
Favicon.com - Online Java icon editor to create favicon.ico files that customize the marketing logo in favorites/bookmarks.
Graphics Guru: Favicon Generator - Free online tool that can create favicon (.ico) images.

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Successful Blogging