“At this time, We regret to inform that the data, sites and emails that were hosted on Drought, Hurricane, Blizzard and Cyclone can be considered by all the experts to be unrecoverable,” the company reported to the Herold.

Security experts asked why Distribute.IT. had no backup facilities in place.

Customers hit the Whirlpool forums to complain that Distribute.IT had not adequately responded with information about the break-in and that the hack “has probably killed my business”.

So you’ve probably heard about the Google Panda and it’s serious panda slap. For those of you who haven’t, here is a small insight to the panda. As of 22th Feb 2011, a major update by Google on how it ranks sites was introduced! Statistics show that 12% of search results have being affected and halved many sites’ visitor numbers. Are you one of those victims?

Some points why you could be a victim:  (points summed up form wordtracker.com)

• Conduct qualitative research (that’s speaking with individuals and not a big questionnaire) to find out which of a sample of sites they considered to be low quality and why.

• Use the results to define low quality sites with the factors that Google can measure. This gives Google a mathematical definition of low quality.

If we start here, we can think of a number of factors that Google might be able to measure to define low quality, including:

• A high % of duplicate content. This might apply to a page, a site or both. If it’s a site measure then that might contribute to each page’s evaluation.

• A low amount of original content on a page or site.
• A high % (or number) of pages with a low amount of original content.
• A high amount of inappropriate (they don’t match the search queries a page does well for) adverts, especially high on the page.
• Page content (and page title tag) not matching the search queries a page does well for.
• Unnatural language on a page including heavy-handed on-page SEO (‘over-optimization’ to use a common oxymoron). Eg unnatural overuse of a word on a page.
• High bounce rate on page or site.
• Low visit times on page or site.
• Low % of users returning to a site.
• Low clickthrough % from Google’s results pages (for page or site).
• High % of boilerplate content (the same on every page).
• Low or no quality inbound links to a page or site (by count or %).
• Low or no mentions or links to a page or site in social media and from other sites.

So here is some advise to the panda slap!

Track the links to your site as well  and request the low-quality sites to take down their links. It’s a matter of negative association, and it’s not worth the backlink!

In the same vein as #1, focus your attention on cultivating backlinks from very high-quality and reputable sites in your niche, and register with directories with well-chosen keywords.

Continue with your content creation. Do you have a blog? It’s surprising how many small businesses don’t have a blog attached to their websites or store fronts. Blogs are one of the best ways to keep your site fresh and continually updated with new content.

Social Media marketing: learn it, live it, love it! Social Media sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and others are where your audience is now. People would rather connect with a friend online and build relationships with new people than be sold on a product. Share value!

Share us your ideas and sites that have being effected by the panda slap!

Pearce Delphin, whose Twitter name is @zzap, admitted exposing a security flaw which was then pounced upon by hackers, affecting thousands of users and causing havoc on the micro-blogging site for about five hours.

Delphin, who lives with his parents in Melbourne, said he tweeted a piece of “mouseover” JavaScript code which brings up a pop-up window when the user hovers their cursor over the message.

But the idea was soon taken up by hackers who tweaked the code to redirect users to pornographic sites and create “worm” tweets that replicated every time they were read.

Apology

“I did it merely to see if it could be done (…) that JavaScript really could be executed within a tweet,” Delphin said via email.

“At the time of posting the tweet, I had no idea it was going to take off how it did. I just hadn’t even considered it.”

Twitter apologised to its millions of users after the “mouseover bug” raged through the site, opening pop-up windows in web browsers and automatically generating tweets from other accounts.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs and Sarah Brown, wife of Britain’s former prime minister Gordon Brown, were among those hit by the bug before engineers were able to patch it.

The Netcraft security website traced the malicious code back to Delphin, who said he got the idea from another user who employed a similar code to make his profile and tweets rainbow-coloured.

“After that, it seems like some of my followers realised the power of this vulnerability, and within a matter of minutes scripts had taken over my timeline,” Delphin said.

The glitch was mainly used for pranks, but Delphin said it could have been used to “maliciously steal user account details”.

Read More on this at  http://www.news24.com/SciTech/News/Schoolboy-adimts-to-Twitter-chaos-20100922

A playable … logo? That’s exactly what web giant has today, in celebration of the 30th anniversary of Pac-Man’s Japanese release. The doodle (Google’s term for its event and holiday-specific logos) is accessible on its main page and is a full 255-level game complete with a 256th level “kill screen,” just like the original coin-op.

The interactive doodle — a first for Google — is the brainchild of senior user experience designer Marcin Wichary, whose earliest exposure to Pac-Man came at age five while traveling across his native Poland with his father, a game technician, to repair arcade machines. Wichary worked with Google doodler (yes, it’s a real job) Ryan Germick to create the finished design.

So, for today at least, you can tell your boss: “I may be browsing the web and playing a game, but I’m also being part of something historic.”

Read Full Article

Google rolled out several improvements to its search on Thursday.  So i thought i would just share with those who haven’t yet checked it out. The use of more slick and web 2 effects really gives Google search a top class look and feel.

Not so flat as it use to be!

Simple things like this is what really makes a design nice.

If you’ve been hacked

1. Upgrade to the latest version of WordPress.
2. Make sure there are no backdoors or malicious code left on your system. This will be in the form of scripts left by the hacker, or modifications to existing files. Check your theme files too.
3. change FTP config permissions to 644
4. Change your passwords after upgrading and make sure the hacker didn’t create another user.
5. Edit your wp-config.php and change or create the SECRET_KEY definition. It should look like this, but do not use the same key or it won’t be very secret, will it?

Check your .htaccess file in the root of you blog. A simple version of it should look like this:

PS. If your site has been hacked, try the WordPress Exploit Scanner which will try to find any modified files and suspicious database records.

Download this extension .

Try these other Great Chrome  extensions

Woo themes

The guys at Woo Themes are having a April fool’s offer, so best to check it out. If you buy 1 template you might get 3 others. Prank or not, it could be worth it. There templates for WordPress are made from absolute class and they are well profound for their themes.

They  quote: Hurry though April Fools jokes are supposed to be made before midday on April 1st. We’ve extended that a bit, cos we nice people, so you have until midday tomorrow (12pm GMT, April 2nd 2009)

So Check it out!  Woo Themes

With over 40+ staff members, vinny hopes to take SynthaSite to various large ISP’s & PC Manufacturer and to further more distribute SynthaSite to a mass market level.

Vinny writes:

To all my friends, family & colleagues,

Today, I’m proud to announce that Reinet Fund has just invested $20 million into SynthaSite, securing our future and enabling us to continue to build our business model and product offering. This is a massive vote of confidence in SynthaSite. I have attached the press release for your benefit – there is also an article on TechCrunch today about the announcement: http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/02/17/synthasite-gets-a-20-million-boost-for-simple-website-creation-software/

When we began building SynthaSite from our humble base in Cape Town, we sought to create a company whose product would change the lives of millions of people by giving them a voice online. We wanted to provide the opportunity for anyone anywhere to build a website that would achieve their unique goals, from starting a small business to showcasing their achievements.

In 2007, we raised $5 million in venture capital and moved our headquarters to San Francisco (where I am now based fulltime), keeping a good portion of our technical team in Cape Town. Since then, SynthaSite has grown from just a handful of people to more than 40 individuals across both offices, supporting over one million users and growing rapidly.

I’m unbelievably excited about the future of SynthaSite and look forward to building on our success in helping you and many others reach their potential online. These past 15 months have just been the beginning…

Read More….

The awesome way the header is build allows the online community to vote in real time and see how the rest of country feels about the elections.  So many good examples of web 2.0 effect can being seeing, throughout detailed profiles of each political party and the rest of the site.

A few simple settings and you on your way.

Find out more! Google Sites

The second graph gives us a better idea to where the social networking giants are headed.

More info at TechCrunch

There’s no reason for us to discuss the way she looks or the way she models, but the fact that she considers herself victim of cyberbulling seems odd. For the moment Google is going to respect privacy concerns and won’t give her details of the anonymous blogger, unless she has a court order.

“I’m tall, I’m blond, I’ve been modeling for many years, and people get jealous,” she said. “If I had to deal with everyone who is jealous, I wouldn’t have time to do anything else.”

Classic stuff. More can be read at TechCrunch

To find out more Google Friend Connect