Blogger Transliteration: A Good Thing Indeed
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Blogger quietly has announced some transliteration software improvements that will help millions of people. Many are designed for the convenience of people who speak Hindi, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada and Tamil.
These languages predominately are spoken in India. But they're also spoken in Malaysia, Mauritius, Fiji, Reunion, South Africa, Trinidad, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and elsewhere.
Language can be a barrier to economic success, so seeing barriers start to come down is a good thing indeed.
Blogger also tweaked its software so comments will appear on multiple pages if there are more than 200. There also is a fix for a bug that resulted in incorrect label counts and slow loading times for the post editor.
Returning to the language issue for a moment, well, the world is constantly shrinking. As economic and political barriers are removed, more and more entrepreneurs enter the marketplace.
They're your future customers and suppliers. It may seem trite, but a rising tide does lift all boats. That the marketplace is expanding is an exciting thought indeed.
Read about Blogger improvements.
Patrick Pretty
The "Most Beautiful Little Boy In The World" -- 1964
Labels: Blogger blogspot malware scraping content, Blogger software improvements, languages spoken in India transliteration software
posted by Patrick Pretty @ 9:51 AM,
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Abusing Blogger To Deliver Malware
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Yesterday we released Hotlink Alarm Case Study HA-3-08. We've updated the Case Study today to reflect an emerging pattern.
http://hotlinkalarm.com/news/HotlinkALARMCaseStudy3-08.pdf
Malware-delivering Blogger Blogs have triggered a number of HotlinkAlarm Alerts on a customer's website in recent hours.
Blogger blogs are free, of course. And Blogger itself gives users a choice between hosting the blogs on blogspot.com or the blogger's own website. Blogger itself is a marvelous blogging platform.
But some people aren't satisfied with what Blogger provides for free. They seek to abuse the very tool the good folks at Blogger are providing them.
The blogs that triggered the Hotlink Alarm Alerts were scraping content from the HotlinkALARM user's website -- code, image URLs, html and text -- and simply pasting it into their sites.
HotlinkALARM detected hotlinks to images the customer chose to protect. After the customer received the HotlinkALARM emails, he visited the URLs listed in the Alert emails -- and was relieved to see the HotlinkALARM substitution graphics on the page. :-)
Without HotlinkALARM, his company's logo and other graphics would have been showing on pages delivering malware.
People frequently stoop to new lows to make money online. Here's what the illicit bloggers using Blogger and blogspot.com are doing.
1.) They're getting free hosting.
2.) They're stealing fresh content from other sites, taking code and graphics right along with it.
3.) They're posting it on free Blogger Blogs to make it appear legitimate.
4.) They're embedding malware on the page -- literally driving traffic to their sites with someone else's legitimate work.
We're pleased that HotlinkALARM exposed these abusive sites and took away the thieves' power to abuse intellectual property, dilute brands and confuse customers.
Patrick Pretty
The "Most Beautiful Little Boy In The World" -- 1964
Labels: Blogger blogspot malware scraping content
posted by Patrick Pretty @ 4:20 PM,
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New Record: Hotlink Alarm Detects 284 Hotlinks To A Customer's Website, Exposes Malware Site
Saturday, February 9, 2008
Hi Friends,
HotlinkALARM.com has been in business only three weeks. Our customers are reporting notable successes with the product rooting out hotlinkers -- but a case reported February 7 set a new record.
That's why we've made a Case Study based on the customer's experience: Case Study HA-3-08. The case study is available in PDF form from this website (or see the link below):
Visit the Hotlink Alarm Case Study HA-3-08 website:
We've also made a video of the Case Study:
HotlinkALARM not only revealed that the customer had a serious hotlinking problem, it also revealed the the customer's logo and website graphics were being hotlinked on a website that distributed malware.
The customer in this HotlinkALARM Case Study is feeling more secure today. :-)
But he was less than chipper on Thursday. He said he was stunned to learn the extent of his hotlinking problem -- and you could have fried an egg on his forehead when he learned that the key digital assets of his business -- the company's logo and sales graphics -- were being displayed by a hotlinker on a malware page.
So, on Thursday, HotlinkALARM set a new record for the number of hotlinks detected from a single website: a whopping 284.
Here's a link to the PDF of Hotlink Alarm Case Study HA-3-08:
http://hotlinkalarm.com/news/HotlinkALARMCaseStudy3-08.pdf
Have a piracy-free day, Friends.
Patrick Pretty
The "Most Beautiful Little Boy In The World" -- 1964
Labels: malware hotlinking image piracy case study
posted by Patrick Pretty @ 7:57 PM,
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Instant Slide Up Debuts: New From Rob Chuah
Thursday, February 7, 2008
InstantSlideUp is a new advertising script and program that commands the attention of your website visitors.
Rob Chuah of Instant Slide Up has produced a winner. I was one of the earliest adopters of the technology, putting it on this website and a few others a couple of weeks ago. We're using Instant Slide Up to help promote HotlinkALARM, our new product that detects hotlinking as it occurs.
A review of InstantSlideUp would not be possible without mentioning customer service. Rob Chuah has demonstrated a commitment to excellence. When I downloaded a prerelease version of the software, for instance, a set of ioncube loaders had been accidentally left out of my testing pack.
Rob responded immediately. And he also has demonstrated flexibility when other customers asked for additional product features, such as the ability to create customized designs.
Visit Instant Slide Up.
Heck, I was able to include some existing Hotlink Alarm art in the SlideUp ad at the bottom of my Blog, and I made the "HotlinkALARM" (words) portion of the ad with Paint.net.
Instant Slide Up impressed me as a company that listens to customers and produces a product that reflects their needs. I like our InstantSlideUp ad for HotlinkALARM. So do Willie Crawford and Will Bontrager, my partners.
Installation was easy. The back office area has a certain spartan elegance to it. What's there is what needs to be there -- and nothing else.
After installing Instant Slide Up, I configured the script easily. It took me about 30 minutes to get everything up and running for the first installation. My second installation took less time.
Installation instructions are included, of course. I found them easy to follow. As is my practice with all scripts, I deliberately slow myself down, making sure I follow directions line-by-line without skipping steps.
Ad templates also are included and are accessible from your Instant Slide Up back office. You program the target URL from your back office by typing the URL on a single line. People who click on the ad will be delivered to the site you're promoting.
Very easy indeed.
From the InstantSlideUp back office you also specify your announcement title, announcement title font size, announcement message and the message's font size and color.
The words "Real-Time Hotlinking Protection For Websites" in our slideup ad for HotlinkALARM were inserted in the Instant Slide Up back office. So were the words "New: Click Here To Protect Your Images, PDFs And More."
Yes, the back office is very convenient. Simply copy and paste a short line of code to your website and you'll be telling the world about your product with your very own Instant Slide Up ad.
The product appeals to me because it draws attention to an offer without chasing customers all over the page. Instant Slide Up simply slides up from the bottom of the page and remains there. It forms an impression in viewers' minds without bashing them over the head or chasing them all over the page.
I don't like advertising solutions that chase and hound customers -- in fact, "solutions" is a poor word choice. Alienating a customer is no solution at all.
One thing I've been able to do is color-match Instant Slide Up to the design theme of certain websites. On one page, for example, I wanted to box in some YouTubeVideos in a gray background, using Instant SlideUp to complete the effect.
Here's that page, which we're using to educate visitors about Hotlink ALARM:
http://hotlinkalarm.com/freeinfo/
In the weeks ahead I expect to see Instant Slide Up on websites across the globe. It is a handy tool that's easy to use and adds value to your online business.
Make sure you visit Instant Slide Up.
Patrick Pretty
The "Most Beautiful Little Boy In The World" -- 1964
Labels: Instant Slide Up InstantSlideUp Slideup Ad Slideup review of Instant Slide Up
posted by Patrick Pretty @ 10:41 AM,
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How We Ruined An eBay Thief's Day
If you sell information products online or create audios, videos and other content to keep your website visitors informed, there's a good chance somebody is hotlinking to your files.It also could mean they're stealing your files.
We found out the hard way in October 2007. An eBay thief stole our bestselling eBook -- "20 Ways To Make $100 Per Day Online" -- and posted it in a fraudulent eBay auction. The eBay thief slashed our price by two-thirds and even used our graphics and other intellectual property in his illegal auction, linking directly to the image files on our server and using our bandwidth to power his eBay sale.
The eBay thief stole our product and our brand identity, using them to drive traffic to his auction and collect illegal profits from our hard work. He even received positive eBay feedback from customers.
Upon learning of the illegal eBay auction, we decided to create a piece of software to address hotlinking, digital piracy and the theft of intellectual property online.
HotlinkALARM was the result. It detects hotlinking and informs users instantly via email. When HotlinkALARM detects image hotlinking, for example, it replaces the hotlinked graphic with a special graphic that alerts a hotlinker's website visitors that the site is displaying unauthorized images.
HotlinkALARM has a broad set of features that enable users to maintain control over their intellectual property.
We've highlighted the basic features on a special, HotlinkALARM videos page:
http://hotlinkalarm.com/freeinfo/
Thieves could be pulling images and files off your site and serving them with your bandwidth. We found out the hard way on eBay and set out to do something about it. Hotlinking is a big problem -- not just on eBay, but on sites worldwide.
eBay is one of the Internet's great business success stories. eBay traffic is the envy of all online merchants. The site received 67.4 million unique visitors in December 2007, and its average visitor spent nearly two hours on the site, according to Nielsen Online.
That's an astronomical amount of traffic -- and, unfortunately, thieves and digital pirates can't wait to exploit eBay's success for ill-gotten gains. They know that people love eBay, so they set up shop there, literally hiding in plain sight.
If a thief is hotlinking to your images and other files on eBay or elsewhere, he or she is diluting your brand and stealing your profits. HotlinkALARM gives you a tool to deal with the unauthorized display of your intellectual assets.
Learn more about Hotlink ALARM by watching our videos.
Patrick Pretty
The "Most Beautiful Little Boy In The World" -- 1964
Co-developer of HotlinkALARM and owner of PatrickPretty.com
Labels: eBay feedback, eBay traffic, exploit eBay traffic, hotlinked graphics, hotlinking to files, theft of intellectual property online
posted by Patrick Pretty @ 8:10 AM,
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HotlinkALARM Back Office Basics On YouTube
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Hi Friends,
We've created a short YouTube video to give visitors a tour of HotlinkALARM's back office. You'll be able to see the Standard set-up areas from which you'd "tell" the program to email you when it detects a hotlink.
You'll also be able to see how easy it is to "tell" Hotlink Alarm which files to protect -- whether they're image files such as jpg, jpeg, gif and png or files such as PDF, Zip, wmv, flv and more.
HotlinkALARM is able to safeguard virtually all file-name extensions. Hotlinking images and other files is a major problem online, draining profits, creating higher bandwidth charges and confusing customers.
Watch the video and visit HotlinkALARM.com today.
Regards,
Patrick Pretty
The "Most Beautiful Little Boy In The World" -- 1964
Labels: eBay fraud, eBay thieves, Hotlink Alarm back office, hotlinking images
posted by Patrick Pretty @ 10:59 AM,
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