Forensics and Facebook: How Cernam Plans to Collect Social Network Evidence

 

There's been a bit of a firestorm lately over employers seeking Facebook passwords. Despite the outrage, employers occasionally have a legitimate need for access to documents in their employees' social network and online service accounts. Cernam, a company that specializes in digital investigations, is looking to help employers dive into employees accounts without abusing the privacy of employees.

As I mentioned recently, I had a feeling there'd be a business in providing this sort of access to employee accounts. But I wasn't thinking along the lines of forensic searches.

 

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Become Your Own Techmeme: Curating Big Data in the Cloud

 

Easily the largest contributors to ReadWriteWeb's overall traffic on any given day include technology news aggregation services, one of them being Techmeme. It's a service that pulls interesting headlines from amid the ever-flowing sea of content, and compiles them into an amalgamated front page of what's happening; it's directed toward a specific audience, which Techmeme hopes includes you. It's done largely by humans, as opposed to automated services that glean articles' potential relative interest level through semantic analysis.

The CEO of a company called Flow has demonstrated to ReadWriteWeb what he describes as a tool that conceivably enables anyone to do for their businesses or even for a mass audience what Techmeme does for its audience, and with relative ease. Eric Alterman (not the noted professor) showed ReadWriteWeb a tool created for his Flow Platform that essentially enables any user to navigate selected streams of digested Web information on any number of filtered topics, and effectively generate a cultivated, "curated" stream of related content. Imagine a Techmeme that pertains only to what you do and who you are.

 

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How to Find Profitable Keywords For Your Website

 

Keyword research is the most important step in the SEO process. Targeting the wrong keywords or keywords in the wrong order can provide lackluster results. Here's how to target keywords that stand the best chance of providing you a solid ROI.

 

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Google Research: Even With A #1 Organic Ranking, Paid Ads Provide 50% Incremental Clicks

 

When marketers have scrutinized Google's research on how organic and paid search results work together — the search giant concluded that nixing the paid ads would result in a 89% drop in clicks — it's been clear there's more to the story. What happens if your brand is…

 

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Targeting the Right Search Engine for Your Market

 

Most businesses and organizations recognize SEO as a vital part of any online marketing strategy. The closer you are to the coveted Number 1 ranking, the more likely it is users will visit your website. According to a  study by Optify, the top ranked site on Google enjoys a click-through rate of 36.4 per cent.

 

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4 Pieces Of PPC Conventional Wisdom You Should Possibly Ignore

 

Best practices are called such because in most cases they work. In the PPC world, they are a set of processes or layouts for which conventional wisdom has concluded they are the best method for creating or managing accounts and landing pages. Conventional wisdom is an idea that is widely accepted…

 

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Google Integrates New Display Interface Within AdWords

 

Google has unveiled changes to AdWords designed to make it easier to buy and track display advertising on its network. The new AdWords interface will include a new Display Network Tab that lets advertisers bid, target and optimize display campaigns.

 

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SES New York 2012 – Day 3 Coverage #SESNY

 

A keynote on integrated marketing, big ideas and big data kicked off Day 3 of SES New York. Marketers were also educated on SEO, paid search, link building, email marketing, and more. Here's a roundup of Day 3 live blogging and coverage.

 

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Top 10 PPC Campaign Mistakes

 

PPC advertising is a powerful mechanism for creating new customers. It is; however, one that is ripe with trip wires, snares, and third rails. Here are the top 10 most common PPC campaign mistakes that prevent companies from finding a pot of gold.

 

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What People Do Is The New SEO

 

This article is all about the lies we tell. I know everyone loves when a post starts this way, but SEO is not dead, or dying for that matter. At least I certainly hope that's not the case, considering I and many others reading this make a livelihood working in it. But SEO is certainly...

 

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What You Need To Know About Facebook's New Privacy Policy

 

Perhaps the first thing you need to know is that after Friday, Facebook will no longer be calling it a privacy policy. The name is being changed to "Data Use Policy."

And most importantly, if you "use or access" Facebook on or after Friday, you are agreeing to that name change, as well as all of the changes Facebook is making to its policy. We were given public comment from Sarah Downey of Abine, which she describes as "an online privacy company in Boston that is concerned with anti-privacy behavior by Facebook and other companies."

Her comments, which are being submitted to the FTC as part of the public-comment period that closes Friday, are a good breakdown of what the changes entail and a warning of why users may want to read the entire policy before agreeing to its terms.

 

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The Social Search Revolution: 8 Social SEO Strategies To Start Using Right Now

 

Google's searchbots have long relied on humans to endorse relevant and useful links. Recently, however, Google upped the human ante by introducing Google Social Search. Google recognizes that one personal endorsement from someone we know easily outranks endorsements from 10,000 strangers. 

 

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The Curious Case of Social Buttons in E-commerce

 

Shopping search technology company, The Find, shared some research into the implementation of social buttons on e-commerce sites exclusively with SEW. The study reveals how which social buttons and plugins are the favorites among e-commerce sites.

 

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March (Link) Madness: Breaking Free of Link-sanity

 

Everybody wants links, but what we think will work, what we want to work, and what we keep trying to make work, aren't always going to work. Don't get drawn into the mania. Avoid link spam. Don't give up on content development. Fix on-page issues.

 

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Video: Google's Susan Wojcicki Keynotes SMX West 2012

 

Susan Wojcicki, Google's SVP of Advertising, spoke at our recent SMX West search marketing conference in a keynote conversation with Search Engine Land's Danny Sullivan and Chris Sherman. The conversation covered many different topics — not just the advertising side of Google…

 

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Inbound Marketing & SEO – Seize Opportunity or Resist Change

 

With a little help from the experts, we dig deeper into SEO and its convergence with social media, content marketing, and other inbound marketing techniques to come up with ideas, questions, and tips that may offer solutions to overhyped problems.

 

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TheFind Joins FairSearch.org To "Restore Balance" To The Search Markeplace

 

In this corner is Google, about to make "major changes" to its algorithm and presentation of search results according to a much-discussed article in the Wall Street Journal. In the other are Google's critics who now scrutinize and critique the company's every move.

 

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US Subpoenas Apple For Details About Default iOS Google Search Deal

 

The US FTC has subpoenaed Apple to provide documentation and information about Google's presence on iOS as the default search engine. According to Bloomberg the FTC is also seeking similar information from handset makers and carriers. This arises in the context of the US government's…

 

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Mashable Acquisition Rumor: CNN to Purchase Social Media News Site for $200 Million

 

The mainstream news giant CNN, which is owned by Time Warner Inc, is reportedly involved in advanced negotiations to purchase Mashable.  According to several recent reports, CNN is expected to reach a deal to purchase the popular social media news site for approximately $200 million. Although the rumored acquisition is expected to take place as

 

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72% Of Consumers Trust Online Reviews As Much As Personal Recommendations

 

The findings of this year's Local Consumer Review Survey (2012) show a positive shift in consumer trust and appreciation of online reviews. Approximately 72% of consumers surveyed said that they trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations, while 52% said that positive online reviews…

 

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Mobile SEO: Managing Googlebot & Your Mobile Sites

 

Implementing an optimized mobile site is becoming increasingly important for many publishers, as smartphones are becoming increasingly pervasive. Here's how to think about Googlebot, Googlebot-Mobile and your mobile web site.

 

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Obama Names Former Entrepreneur U.S. Chief Technology Officer

 

President Barack Obama named a former entrepreneur who took a healthcare company public with a capitalization of more than $1 billion the new U.S. Chief Technology Officer on Friday.

Todd Park, 39, was semi-retired in 2009 when Obama asked him to be the chief technical officer for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. When he was 24, Park founded Athenahealth. He stepped down after taking the company public to spend more time with his family.

 

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Pew Report: 65% View Personalized Search As Bad; 73% See It As Privacy Invasion

 

Personalized search? Both Google and Bing will tell you that it provides better results. But two-thirds say they don't care. They view personalized search as a "bad thing," a new survey finds. Nearly three-quarters also view gathering data to personalize results to be a privacy…

 

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Are You Using the Right Keywords On Your Site? A Simple Three-Rule Test

 

Keyword research is important to online marketing efforts. But even more important than that is the keywords you select for your SEO and PPC efforts. Of course, you cannot select what you have not researched, but finding keywords generally isn't the problem. There are tons of keyword tools available that will help you do that. 

 

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Google Lets Users Thank Those Who Have +1′ed Content Directly Within Search Results

 

A new Google+/+1 feature has been spotted in the wild that further blends organic results with social  information.  Early today State of Search and charliesaidthat noticed a thank you link on an organic listing next to the Google+ users who +1′ed a result. If logged in as a Google+ user we…

 

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Google Webmaster Tools Finally Adds User Administration

 

One of the most sought after features in Google Webmaster Tools was to easily give third-party people access to your Google Webmaster Tools account without giving over your own username and password and without giving them full control of your site. Google has finally satisfied this request by…

 

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SEO & Personalization: An Evolving Relationship

 

The search giants are leading us into a new era with the intentions of providing better search results. This leaves many uneasy in how to accept these changes. SEOs now must now remove their blinders and take advantage of the evolution of search.

 

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Foursquare Ditches Google Maps and More Top Stories

 

Foursquare drops the Google Maps API to use OpenStreetMap. We show you an insider's look at how Google search works. The Pirate Bay starts using unstoppable Magnet Links. All of this and more in the ReadWriteWeb Weekly Wrap-up.

After the jump you'll find more of this week's top news stories on some of the key topics that are shaping the Web – Location, App Stores and Real-Time Web – plus highlights from some of our six channels. Read on for more.

 

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Datasift Selling 2 Years of Searchable Tweets

 

The past two years of Twitter data has been archived and is now available for firms wanting to analyse tweets to identify trends in market sentiment or plan marketing campaigns. The Historics archives includes filtering and search capabilities.

 

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