• About
    • History of Dallas SEO
    • SEO Expert Witness Services
  • Contact
  • Topics
    • Bing
    • Blogging
    • Branding
    • Domain Names
    • Google
    • Internet Marketing
    • Link Building
    • Local Search
    • Marketing
    • Public Relations
    • Reputation Management
    • Search Engine Marketing
    • Search Engine Optimization
    • Search Engines
    • Social Media
    • Tech
  • Advertise
  • Email Newsletter

Bill Hartzer

Bill Hartzer on Search, Marketing, Tech, and Domains.

Home » Blogging » Merry Christmas! A Final 2014 Weekly Update from Bill Hartzer

Merry Christmas! A Final 2014 Weekly Update from Bill Hartzer

Posted on December 24, 2014 Written by Bill Hartzer

Google’s CAPTCHA reCAPTCHA won’t stop spam bots, Best Buy Oops, ICANN hacked, Freebase is shutting down, and Apple’s mysterious domain names.

This will be my last weekly update in 2014, so I want to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I don’t plan on sending out any more updates this year. There were a few significant updates and blog posts since my last update, and a few other posts worth mentioning.

Merry Christmas from Bill Hartzer

Google’s New CAPTCHA ReCAPTCHA Has Been Hacked
Google recently introduced a new way for websites to try to get rid of spammers and spam bots that automatically fill out forms on websites, such as comments on blog posts. Well, it didn’t take long and someone has already found a work-around, a way for the spam bots to get by Google’s new spam prevention tool.

https://www.billhartzer.com/pages/googles-captcha-recaptcha-flawed-wont-stop-bots/

Best Buy Mistakenly Exposes Their Exclusive Blogger List
Best Buy, in a recent internal communication to their Wolf Bloggers exclusive blogger list, sent out an email to their list of bloggers about an agreement with another affiliate organization. In the email, they CCd everyone. One of the bloggers subsequently Replied All to the list, which then exposed Best Buy’s entire exclusive blogger list. The list contains the email addresses of hundreds of bloggers who Best Buy pays to blog about products sold in Best Buy stores. Best Buy also send those bloggers certain products to test and review.

https://www.billhartzer.com/pages/best-buy-mistakenly-exposes-exclusive-blogger-list/

ICANN Hacked
ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers organization that oversees internet domain names, has been hacked. just goes to show you that just about any organization nowadays is vulnerable, even ICANN.

https://www.billhartzer.com/pages/icann-hacked/

Freebase Shutting Down
Freebase, one of the sites that Google uses to populate the Knowledge Base, is shutting down. It was a site where you can use to get your own personal data or company data into the Knowledge Base. But now it’s shutting down, it’s a Google-owned website. There may still be time to get your data in there, it’s shutting down officially in March 2015.

https://www.billhartzer.com/pages/freebase-shutting-march-2015/

Apple and Afilias Special Projects Register 1800 Nonsense Domain Names
Ever since I originally noticed that Apple was registering nonsense domain names, I have been intrigued about why they would be registering and then not renewing nonsense domain names. And it’s not just one or two domain names, or a dozen of them. Well, now Apple has registered 1800 nonsense domain names, again last week.

https://www.billhartzer.com/pages/apple-and-afilias-special-projects-register-1800-nonsense-domain-names/

That’s it for this week. I usually send an update weekly, unless there is some sort of “big news” or issue that comes up that warrants an update.

Enjoy the holidays, especially if you have kids like I do. They grow up too fast, and now is the time to create fond memories that you, and they, will cherish forever.

Filed Under: Blogging

About Bill Hartzer

Bill Hartzer is CEO of Hartzer Consulting, an SEO Consulting firm that includes services such as search engine optimization, technical SEO audits, domain name consulting, and online reputation management. As an SEO Expert, Mr. Hartzer frequently serves as an SEO Expert Witness and Domain Name Expert Witness in legal cases worldwide. He also oversees DNAccess.com, a company that provides brand protection and monitoring, domain name background checks, and stolen domain name recovery services.

Recent Posts

  • Atly Unveils ‘Ask Around’ Tool, Empowering Influencers to Gather and Share Recommendations from Followers September 29, 2023
  • RedKangaroo Launches World’s First “Organic Growth” Marketing Platform Leveraging Social Media September 29, 2023
  • SmarTek21’s IntelliTek SearchAI September 29, 2023
  • ICANN Marks 25 Years September 28, 2023
  • AI Content Generation Market Projected to Reach $5.958 Billion by 2029 September 6, 2023
  • Indigo Ransomware Attack Impacted SEO, Led to Lost Revenue August 14, 2023
  • Internet Corporation Listing Service Invoice – Fake Invoice Scam August 8, 2023
  • Someone Stole My Domain Name: Here’s What You Do August 8, 2023
  • Pulsr: First AI Search Engine for NFTs Launches July 27, 2023
  • 2023 TechBehemoths Survey: SEO is Most Effective Method for Lead Gen July 13, 2023
  • Meta Launches Threads, Twitter Sends Cease and Desist Letter July 6, 2023
  • Squarespace Acquires Google Domains June 15, 2023
  • How to Submit Spammy, Deceptive, and Low Quality Web Pages to Google June 14, 2023
  • New HIPAA-Compliant Google & Facebook Campaign Tracking Available June 13, 2023
  • Google Search Engine Class Action Settlement: Google Referrer Header Privacy Litigation June 5, 2023
  • I Asked Twitter for SEO Advice. Here’s What They Said June 1, 2023
  • Web.com Launches AI Domain Name Generator and AI Writer Tools May 31, 2023
  • Artlist Launches AI-Powered Footage Search Engine May 30, 2023
  • Google’s Search Generative Experience According to Google Bard May 22, 2023
  • Is AIO the New SEO? May 10, 2023

Hartzer Domains

US Agency Awards Judge

DFWSEM logo

Bill Hartzer is a Brand Ambassador for:



Industry Friends

I Love SEO
WTFSEO
SEO By the Sea
Jeff Lenney
Jeff Gabriel
Scott Hendison
Dixon Jones
Brian Hartzer
Navah Hopkins
DNAccess
SEO Dallas

Connect With Bill Hartzer

Bill Hartzer on Twitter
Bill Hartzer on Instagram
Hartzer Consulting on Facebook
Bill Hartzer on Facebook
Bill Hartzer on YouTube

Categories

  • Advertising (19)
  • AI (2)
  • Bing Search Engine (6)
  • Blogging (42)
  • Branding (12)
  • Domain Names (215)
  • Google (241)
  • Internet Marketing (27)
  • Internet Usage (85)
  • Link Building (53)
  • Local Search (39)
  • Marketing (183)
  • Marketing Foo (30)
  • Pay Per Click (3)
  • Podcast (18)
  • Public Relations (8)
  • Reputation Management (9)
  • Search Engine Marketing (44)
  • Search Engine Marketing Events (48)
  • Search Engine Marketing Firms (19)
  • Search Engine Marketing Jobs (33)
  • Search Engine Optimization (166)
  • Search Engines (208)
  • Social Media (197)
  • Tech (7)
  • Web Analytics (17)
  • Webinars (1)

Note: All product names, logos, and brands are property of their respective owners. All company, product and service names used in this website are for identification purposes only, and are mentioned only to help my readers. All other trademarks cited herein are the property of their respective owners. Use of these names, logos, and brands does not imply endorsement.




Hartzer Consulting



Website, Content, and Marketing by Hartzer Consulting, LLC.

Copyright © 2023 ·