Thread Title: Lycos Anti-Spam Site Compromised Thread Url: http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/12/01/0250244&from=rss Thread Description:

Slashdot bring word of the now infamous Lycos DDos Attack Site being hacked.

Attempting to download the screen saver from lycos results in this message 'Yes, attacking spammers is wrong, you know this, you shouldn't be doing it. Your ip address and request have been logged and will be reported to your ISP for further action.'

Made my morning, i cant seem to reach the site so maybe they're being DDoS attacked aswell? LMFAO! Of course it may be that there server just isnt up to being slashdotted but either way it's a killer funny story - thankyou SD

Thread Title: Ciml - Appointed Admin @ WMW Thread Url: http://www.threadwatch.org Thread Description:

Word just in - via anonymous source says that ciml, long time wmw forum 3 mod has been appointed admin. Callum - nice job mate! :)

Thread Title: MacGuru Resigns at WebmasterWorld Thread Url: http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum19/2322.htm Thread Description:

In my view, MacGuru is / was one of the kindest most generous hearted folks i've met online - he was the first to speak to me at wmw when i made my first newbie post about cloaking and was *always* around when i needed him.

Sometimes, he was there when I didnt know i needed him - the man is a superstar

Hi everyone,

I resigned from moderating WebmasterWorld a while back for personal reasons.

It has been a very pleasent ride along with the finest team on the greatest board on earth about webmastering.

I will still be around to learn the latest trick and also keep you posted with stupid jokes, and toilet related stuff, promise!

Thanks everyone!

Peace

Vincent

Sad news, good luck with whatever you're doing Vincent...

Thread Title: Let's Test Hijacking A Google Listing Thread Url: http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?t=3030 Thread Description:

Following on from DaveN's threat of unleashing the "how to hijack" guide if Google dont sort themselves out Lots0 give us some more to think about:

The Nigitrude Ultramarine SEO contest that SearchGuild promoted, proved in public, beyond any doubt, that anyone can harm your site in google, if they know how. In fact there are several ways (not just one) to accomplish this.

A few twists and turns and even Marcia wants to see some action:

I was sitting on the edge of my chair in anticipation with my fists and teeth tightly clenched. It was getting as exciting as waiting to watch a rocket get launched!

Lets see what happens :)

Thread Title: Living legend maybe an exaggeration...but not by much Thread Url: http://www.threadwatch.org Thread Description:

Word reaches me, in true TW style from an anonymous source that Greg Boser, President WebGuerrilla, LLC has resigned as both an Admin and Moderator at WMW.

I'm sure I'm not on my own in viewing this as news, let me state a few reasons why.

Greg has always been at the leading edge of the industry. I remember as an extreme newbie [just a newbie now] following the pagejacking stuff which is summed up here http://www.webguerrilla.com/pagejacking/

One of the guys that is and was a huge "draw" on the conference circuit, arguably one of the cornerstones and main drivers of the SES conferences.

A guy that seems to have the intellectual capacity to straddle between the SE's and webmasters, having a foot in both camps without falling over is a rare skill.

I have two complaints re: Mr Boser though:

1. I don't see a "thank you" thread at WMW, he deserves one without doubt.

2. It seems Greg is used sparingly on the European SES circuit, I think thats a shame. I'm torn between trying to organising a boycott of SES London next year and trying to let the powers that be know that if he is speaking it will be the sell out of all sell outs.

If there is no "thank you" thread at WMW looks like we will have to have our own here.

Mr Boser, Thank You!

Thread Title: MS uses Firefox screenshot (not IE) in PR, then denies it Thread Url: http://www.osviews.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=2874&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0 Thread Description:

It appears those lemons over at the Microsoft PR department have dropped another gaff.

How about this:

This is funny. It would seem that Microsoft's PR firm uses Firefox rather than IE. The company recently provided the press with a screenshot of MSN Search displayed on the open source browser.

Pure class lol

Screenshot here

Thread Title: [ WMW PAID MEMBERS LINK ] Thread Url: http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum78/7175.htm Thread Description:

Seems like the WebmasterWorld paid up supporters are unhappy with the noise levels in the supporters forum..

You have to be a paid up member to view the link and as it's not a thread open to the public you'll have to settle for some paraphrasing rather than quoting im afraid:

The General Gist Too many Foo threads, stuff about kids, dogs and god knows what else. Lots of rumblings and outright complaints over the supporters forum being rendered useless by the huge amount of non-professionals in there and chit-chat nature of the forum.

One member suggests that she no longer even comes back there as all the good stuff is out in public and all the dross back in what was supposed to be a quieter, more professional oriented forum.

Trouble in the rank and file? - Actually it's nothing that new, even a year ago or more when i was in there it was virtually indistinguishable from the public side off-topic forum Foo - and the good stuff died when toolmans excellent "Confessions of an SE Spammer" thread was removed. - You can only speculate as to why that decision was taking but i dont think it takes a rocket science brain to come to a reasonable guess eh?

This story comes hot on the heels of The Dirty Little Secrets of SEO & How Information Travels blog post i made earlier in the week. Most liked it but a few got a bit irked when i politely refused to part with the goods :) but what's relevant to this are the parts that talke about private forums.

I mentioned that the paid system wasn't a great one:

There are quite a few public forums out there that have private forums - areas set aside either for the invited, or those with the cash to join. The problem as i see it, in my admittedly limited experience, is that once you start to top a certain number the information flow dries up. This kind of thing only really works if everyone trusts everyone else and if there is an answer to the scaling problem i've not heard about it, so do let me know :-)

Thread Title: SearchKing: No longer a search engine/portal network? Thread Url: http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?t=2611&page=1&pp=20 Thread Description:

Bob Massa is the owner of SearchKing. He wanted to create a collection of human reviewed data which gave him access to a ton of valuable data and put him at the center of a huge ad network. He sold the network idea to many webmasters who use SearchKing to power their portals.

SearchKing was penalized by Google (I believe for selling PageRank). Recent hosting at SearchKing has been less than stellar and there has been no easy or responsive communication channel between disgruntaled portal owners and SearchKing. Some people probably made good money from the SearchKing idea. Others gave a ton to help build that network, and feel that in one way or another they got burned.

from the thread Lots0:

I agree that Bob is very eloquent in his written responses and I can say from personal experience that he is just as well spoken, at least over the phone. But whenever I speak to Bob I never forget one thing, he is first and foremost (by his own admission) a salesman.

Later in the same post...

I tell friends, NOT to do business SearchKing. I tell them this based on my personal experience and the experience of others that I have personal knowledge of...

Whenever SearchKing comes out into the light, it always reminds me of a very important tip for any beginner; If you are building a directory or opt-in mailing lists of any kind, anywhere, keep control of your own data. Do not let your hard earned data become “part of a network” because once your data joins a “network” all of that data you laboriously collected is no longer under your control and is in fact no longer just “your data”, the data also belongs to the “network” and is controlled by whoever controls the “network”, maybe that is why some “networks” offer free stuff like hosting and software...

Later Bob talks about building SearchKing and what he sees going forward...including:

The big idea

Thread Title: Microsoft Crawling Google Results For New Search Engine? Thread Url: http://webproworld.com/viewtopic.php?t=31604 Thread Description:

Is Mircosoft trying to use Google's search results to populate their own index?

Microsoft very well could be screen scraping Google (or maybe even using their API, LOL) and crawling the urls it finds. It makes sense from a business case but I wonder if there are any legal issues there.

So now you're saying, so what, big deal. But this really is a big deal. It's a big deal not only because the urls this visitor was making requests to don't exist any longer but because the only place these urls can be found is in Google’s search results using site:www.sitename.com. A similar query on MSN Search doesn't show the urls at all, even on the beta version of their new Microsoft search engine. But then within just hours of the visitors exit from the site the new same search at Microsoft's new search engine shows all of the urls in question being fully indexed within its results.

Thread Title: Search Engine Optimization Expert Offers First “White Hat” Software Tool Thread Url: http://www.emediawire.com/releases/2004/11/emw176580.htm Thread Description:

Credit to Andy for spotting this...

Okay, this has to be the funniest thing i've seen in ages... First, read this jokers press release linked above, then check out his "metawebs" webiste at: www*metawebs.com

Sorry, im not linking to this clown.

From his press release:

Nathan Anderson is a search engine optimization expert who is a long time advocate of ethical techniques. On November 1, 2004 he introduced MetaWebs, the first major software tool specifically designed to aid in ethical SEO.

and from the metawebs website:

"...All Made Possible By Using A Brand New Search Engine Optimizing Software Platform (Available to Only 400 , 300 , 260 More People!) That Dynamically Generates Fresh Website Pages Not Once, Not Twice, But Each and Every Time Someone Visits Your Web Page - Pages That Are Linked To Each Other Optimally (Not Simply Grabbed Off The Internet and Stitched Together Willy Nilly!) Using Statistically Validated Data For What Works With The Search Engines To Catapult You To The Top!

If you dont visit the site, that last quote is in enormous red font.. There's tons of this frothing at the mouth badly written rubish, here's just a bit more:

MetaWebs will automatically create a multiple-page website that has pages linked together in a way that dramatically improves the rankings of each page for your chosen keywords.

There’s absolutely nothing else like MetaWebs. It’s the most sophisticated page-generation software ever conceived

Is this guy a conman? Is he just a huckster out for a quick buck? - In my opinion he ought to be flogged senseless with knotted rope for publishing such crap and targeting unsuspecting business owners with it.

What say you?

Thread Title: I'm banned from WPW Thread Url: http://www.webworkshop.net/seoforum/viewtopic.php?t=3758 Thread Description:

Hey, give me a break, it's a boring evening out there in seo forum land ok! hehe...

PhilC of WebWorkShop has had his account disabled at WebProWorld - turns out that Phil hasnt been there in 3weeks and only just noticed..

PhilC's a troublemaker, or maybe he just gets into trouble, i dont know him well enough to say for sure, but it's because of this that I like him :-) he's an interesting fella..

What are webproworld up to? I understand they're a little trigger happy on bannings over there...

Thread Title: 1P / Traffic Power Fake SEO Forum Thread Url: http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?t=1911 Thread Description:

This isnt the usual type of thread that will make it onto the Threadwatch.org list but it really is quite astonishing how such a diverse and often divided community will pull together when one of their own is made a target. There are other threads, but this is the daddy.