Promoted Accounts utilizes algorithms that calculate whether you’d be interested in a specific promoted account before displaying it as a suggestion. This format is just in its testing phase so only a handful of companies will currently have their Twitter accounts promoted, with expansion inevitable if the campaign proves successful.

Along with Twitter’s announcement regarding Promoted Accounts, the company also released information regarding their testing of Promoted Tweets and Promoted Trends to third-party apps. This will begin with the popular Hootsuite, which has been preparing for this rollout for months.

At this time, only select partners can utilize Promoted Tweets and Promoted Trends, though they are both referenced in the Twitter API. They’re being marketed as a way for third-party developers to monetize their apps, which is good news as Twitter has grown increasingly competitive with its developers.

Malware is an attack on components, a worm, that spreads via a USB drive and takes advantage of any unknown weakness in Windows and the Trojan backdoor looks to see if an the machine infected is running that particular software. This software was created by Siemens to control systems in manufacturing, utilities and yes, even in nuclear powered aircraft carriers.

This worm is being called, Stuxnet, and it makes the most of a hole that is in all versions of Windows code that is processing shortcut files that end in .lnk. Just by browsing the removable media drive using that application the application that shows the shortcut icons, as in Windows Explorer, will run this malware without even having a user click on the icons.

The worm infects the USB drives and or other removable storage devices that are connected to the machine that is infected. That USB drive will then infect the other machines.

Malware includes a root kit and this software is designed to hide the fact that the particular computer is being compromised as well as other software that sneaks onto computers by using digital certificates.

Once a machine is infected, this Trojan looks at the computer it landed on and checks for the Siemens’ Simatic WinCC software. This malware automatically uses a default password that seems to be hard coded into the software to access control of Microsoft SQL database. The even scarier part is that this password has been on the internet for years!

What is the malware does is steals industrial automation layout designs and control files that are specific to the control system. Once the malware locates this data it starts looking for encodes and attempts to upload it to the remote server.

This malware was discovered approximately a month ago from the antivirus vendor Belarus with its VirusBlikAda. Microsoft has released the security advisory on this and states that it shows that the targeted attacks are limited.

This is impacting countries such as India, Indonesia and Iran as well as the U.S. At this point Siemens has no idea how many systems are being or have been affected. It is advised that plant operators restrict access to critical control system data via USB drives to prevent any compromises.

Siemens is saying that they are hoping to have a fix for this worm to the major antivirus software companies sometime this week. Siemens is addressing the issues and will provide a software tool this week to its customers that they will be able to use to check for the virus on their PC’s, while for the moment, Microsoft is working on a patch and will provide instructions for a workaround.

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IT staff’s will be able to handle the workaround and will be able to adopt other fixes so that it will not allow files to execute that are not on the C Drive, which would prevent a computer from running the software on the USB drives.

VeriSign as well as Microsoft have revoked the digital certificate that is used to sneak this root kit onto computers; however even with the tests going on this malware is still loading up and without warning despite the revocation.

In the meantime it is still being debated as to who is behind these attacks and actually why they are attacking, so there rush is on to get the fix to all that are being effected as quickly as possible.

To cancel the customizations then choose the reset personalization button.  The customization will let you decide on the news sources you would like to view through the “news setting” option.

The larger news stories of the day named “Top Stories” are shown on the left-hand side of the column. Now on the right-hand of the column they now have a location for local breaking news and less time specific news.  Users will be able to find the most recent stories, local news and weather. They also have a Spotlight section which shows relevant stories over time.

Google said these sources will rank lower or higher for the user but not for others in the Google News’ story clusters and search results.  Google added shortcuts to make the navigation easier throughout Google News. When you hit the question mark key while in Google News it will provide a popup list of additional shortcuts you can use.

Google has also added links to topics that many other news outlets are covering and they will be listed in the Top Stories section so that you won’t miss the major news posted throughout the day.

Blog Catalog

Blog Catalog offers a large directory of categories from education, business, social activism, humor, SEO, fashion, movies, design, photography, blogging, software, health, music, marketing,  sports, news, media, food, arts, travel, family, politics, tech and more.  The site allows you to search by user, language or country.

Blog Search Engine

Blog Search Engine is a part of the Performancing SplashPressMedia  company. This search engine has a big selection of categories available to choose from including advertising, blog news, business, charity, car, education, diet and exercise, DIY, books and literature, environment, health, inspirational, job and career, lifehacking,  writing, relationshops, news and more.

Bloggeries – Blog Resource

This is an easy directory to place your blog links. Bloggeries are known to have the best categories available.  Some of the topics available are business, computes, education, finance, foreign, health, humor, podcasting, shopping, writing, sports,  vlogs, resources, and more.

OnTopList.com is a free blog directory where you can submit the RSS feeds of your blogs to their directory.  OnTopList.com can also setup your own blog ranking or also known as a micro-directory and basically put together a list of all of your favorites blogs you visit in one location. OnTopList is also a social networking site that allows you to communicate and socialize with other bloggers. The social network also allows you to promote your blogs which will allow you to attract additional more readers.

The new AdWords interface features a bid simulator that shows you the estimated impact of the bid you make on your results. Of course, there’s no way for Google to be absolutely certain. It can offer you a good guess as to what would have happened with different bids, however.

The simulator uses data from the past week, recalculating the number of impressions if you had used a different maximum CPC. It also estimates the number of clicks you might have gotten for those impressions and the overall cost of those clicks. This means that AdWords auctions just got a lot less opaque. The information from this simulator can offer the insight we all need to make a really informed bid.

Of course, you need to remember a few things. Just spending more money on your bid isn’t a sure way to get more clicks. You also need to know what to do in order to get more targeted traffic without the extra expenditures. Also, the information Google’s offering is just an estimate. Does that mean it isn’t useful? Of course not! Just don’t mistake it for a crystal ball.

When using the internet became so popular for businesses, many began sending out emails to lists they purchased from marketing sites.  Unfortunately, people frowned on this approach.  They didn’t want their emails being sold and they certainly didn’t want spam.  This has meant a change with how businesses can construct their email lists.  Search engines that see sites using purchased lists will penalize that site.  This is where the squeeze page comes in.

Squeeze pages are places where prospective subscribers can opt-in to receive communications from your business.  You sign up for the squeeze pages to create a landing page for the consumer.  The consumer can then enter their email address or decline the offer.  In this method you are obtaining email addresses legally to send out mass communications.  You are also list building. 

Squeeze pages are only landing pages.  There are no hyperlinks allowed on the sites.  The page is just there for you to capture information for “follow up” marketing.  The best squeeze pages use success stories that the prospective client can relate to and thus convert them into a buyer on your site.  The success stories you post are the most important aspect of your page. The stories need to be warm, friendly, and truthful. 

To add to the success stories and the landing page the consumer sees you also need to make the page friendly in appearance.  Colors, catchy sales text, and rich keywords must be used on the squeeze page you design. 

First, color psychology is using perception in order to make the potential consumer comfortable.  Warm colors like red, orange, and yellow are often better to use on your page if you opt against white.  They tend to evoke feelings of comfort.  Blues, greens, and purples are cool colors, but they are associated with calm feelings.  Color psychology helps you determine when to use these colors for your pages based on the feelings you want to illicit. 

Sales copy is extremely important.  You have to fill your landing pages with information that the consumer will find useful.  Your copy needs to have keywords that the consumer will be looking for.  As an example you may sell handmade products, so handmade, handcrafted, and variations of those words will help get the attention of your consumer.  Copywriting techniques like bullets, headlines, testimonials, and scarcity are other ways to get the interest of consumers on your squeeze pages. 

Both the title and the description META tag must be compelling, but the Title tag has special relevance, because so many search engines use the title exactly as it appears on your page. Some search engines will use the site description that you give in the META tags, but others will not. For this reason, the title of the site is more important than the site description.

Longer Titles are More Effective.

Longer titles build a more compelling reason to visit a Web site. Because it takes a certain number of words to persuade someone to to take action, logic dictates that longer sentences have more opportunity to create that compelling argument. It is difficult to discuss time, money, value, and the problem that the Web site solves in just two or three words. People often scan headlines in brochures and magazines, even when they don’t read all the information. Since

the title is usually a hyperlink, it is a different color, and it is generally bold and easier to read than the site’s description in the search engine listing. When it is longer, there are more words with which to “hook” a reader. If something catches the reader’s eye as they scroll down a list of site titles, they will hopefully read the site description. If you have done your work, they will be hooked.

People Don’t Read Text, They Recognize Words.

People don’t read individual letters after about the time they turn 12 years old; they recognize words. Educators know that people glance at words and recognize the words by the shapes defined by the tops of the letters. If you don’t believe it, take a sentence in any newspaper or book and cover the bottom half of the words. You can still read the words with relative ease. Now, cover the top of a different sentence. You will find that words are harder to read because there is not much difference in the shape or line of the bottom of the words. Interesting, but how does this apply here?

Here’s how: Since people recognize words because the tops of words vary in height and appearance, then sentences that start with just one capital letter and then lowercase letters are easier to recognize and get read faster.

Words in all caps are hard to read. People don’t like to read them and don’t read them as easily. Recognizing the words in the sentences is tedious, and these listings are frequently overlooked.

These techniques are advantages that you can realize over your Web site’s competitors in search results.

One of the topics that has many people interested in the world of domain name selection is the usage of dashes and underscores. Many people, including myself, have debated the benefits and disadvantages of using these various methods as opposed to using a domain name with the words not broken up, as in www.youronlinebusiness.com as opposed to www.your-online-business.com or www.your_online_business.com.

To begin with, the usage of underscores in your domain name is highly discouraged. It is frowned upon by the major search engines, including Google, and will only confuse your visitors and potential visitors. That’s because it’s hard to notice the underscore, and some people will think it’s merely a space. You’ll end up losing traffic, and your rankings will be tarnished as your site suffers from the inclusion of underscores.

Dashes on the other hand can be quite successful. The first reason that people may opt to use dashes in their domain name is because their first few choices without dashes were already taken. If somebody already owns www.yourprimarykeyword.com, you can opt to select www.your-primary-keyword.com and still have something that’s as close to your first choice as possible.

One important thing to note is that while dashes can be advantageous, you never want to use more than one or two in a single domain name. Anything more than that and you are simply making things too confusing. Not to mention that you probably are also using a domain name that’s too lengthy all on its own. If you decide you want to use dashes, keep it to one or two at the most to ensure success.

Have dashes been proven to be more successful than no spaces, or vice-versa? They both have their upsides and downsides. Most people prefer to not use any dashes if the domain name they want is available. However, there are many instances where dashes help improve the readability of your domain, by separating the words that may be running into one another. Some people are even beginning to think that dashes are looked upon favorably in the search engines as well, although this is mere speculation at this point.

When you’re ready to select your domain name, you have to be smart about the decision process. Whatever you do, you should avoid underscores at all costs. The debate between dashes and no spaces is still going on, but both can be very advantageous for your site. Just be sure to keep the dashes to use to no more than two and you’ll be on the right track.