Author Archives: Cynthia Closkey

OOH! Google Places and local web search

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Big Big Design is a favorite Google Place

This week in Online Office Hours, we’re looking at Google Places, Google’s local search and business directory. It’s a valuable tool for any business or organization that has a local clientele, and it’s easy to use. We’ll talk about how to verify your listing, what to include in it, and how to encourage your patrons to post reviews.

Online Office Hours webinars are free, but you need to register online. Sign up now for tomorrow’s session, and while you’re thinking about it you might also join our mailing list to get reminders of upcoming webinars via email.

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Clay Shirky: “Sopa and Pipa would create a consumption-only internet” on guardian.co.uk

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Clay Shirky elegantly explains the most chilling aspect of SOPA/PIPA:

“The scary bit of legalese here is the idea that the law would apply not just to actual copyright violations (the nominal goal of the law) but to any site that was “facilitating the activities” of copyright infringement, a term nowhere defined but vague enough to include mentioning the existence of such sites, which is enough to make them findable. Like a fast-spreading virus, the proposed censorship moves outwards from the domain name system, to include any source of public web content in the US.

“If the phrase “any source of public web content” seems like a dry detail, substitute the name of your favourite web publisher: you.”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2012/jan/18/sopa-pipa-consumption-only-internet?CMP=twt_gu

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SOPA/PIPA Blackout

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What the web could look like under SOPA and PIPA

As you may know, there have been two bills proposed in the U.S. Congress to combat online piracy. One, the “Stop Online Piracy Act” or SOPA, was proposed in the Senate; it has been tabled. The second, the “Protect Intellectual Property Act” or PIPA or PROTECT_IP, remains under consideration in the House and will come up for a vote later this month.

This is a bad piece of legislation. As written, it fails to create tools that will meet its goals and it creates a too-easy way for anyone to block websites, effectively creating a powerful form of censorship. Even the White House opposes it.

The video below eloquently explains what the bill intends to do, why it fails, and why it would be a terrible thing for the Internet and society. Continue reading →

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Online shoppers shopping smaller

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“Giant e-commerce companies like Amazon are acting increasingly like their big-box brethren as they extinguish small competitors with discounted prices, free shipping and easy-to-use apps. Big online retailers had a 19 percent jump in revenue over the holidays versus 2010, while at smaller online retailers growth was just 7 percent.

“The little sites are fighting back with some tactics of their own, like preventing price comparisons or offering freebies that an anonymous large site can’t. And in a new twist, they are also exploiting the sympathies of shoppers like Dr. Pollack by encouraging customers to think of them as the digital version of a mom-and-pop shop facing off against Walmart: If you can’t shop close to home, at least shop small.”

From “Online Shoppers Are Rooting for the Little Guy,” by Stephanie Clifford and Claire Cain Miller, New York Times, 1/16/2012.

 

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