By Bill Hartzer, April 7, 2020 at 6:29pm CST.

Starting sometime this month (April 2020) Microsoft will begin blocking any email that does not have SPF and DKIM alignment for email sent to Outlook 365 domains. What that means is that if you send an email from your domain name and you have not properly set up the proper email records on your domain name, people using Microsoft Outlook 365 won’t receive your email. To make sure that they do receive your email, you need to make sure that SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records are properly set up on your domain name. [Read more…]

For at least the past 15 years, just about every single year that I have been posting on this blog, I make an April Fool’s post. Usually it’s on and around the 1st of April, and in the past it’s actually been, well, a few days before. However, this year, 2020, is very different. So, officially, I have cancelled April Fool’s 2020, at least my April Fool’s joke. I can’t tell you what it was going to be, as I actually don’t know. I’ve been too busy and pre-occupied with other details that I haven’t even thought about it. But, going along with tradition, I feel as if I need to make an April 1st post. [Read more…]

by Bill Hartzer, February 18, 2020 at 2:38pm CST

Hitwise, the internet data company that has helped global brands and agencies understand how consumers think, search, book, and buy online, is shutting down. In a statement published on their website, Hitwise posted that due to events outside of their control, Hitwise is winding down its operations. [Read more…]

Avast, a digital security products company, has announced that they are shutting down Jumpshot, a company that has provided “digital intelligence from within the Internet’s most valuable walled gardens”. There apparently were some questions about how and to whom the data that Jumpshot shared and sold. Some of the companies that utilized Jumpshot data were SEO tool providers, who then sold the data to SEOs, who used it for keyword research purposes, for example. [Read more…]

Certainly no one expected this.

A Sunday morning helicopter crash with NBA star Kobe Bryant aboard. TMZ, the entertainment news service that first broke the news of Kobe Bryant’s death, did not expect this either. The website is getting so much internet traffic that the TMZ website appears to be down, as well. [Read more…]

Looking for a new web host for your website? Or you’re going to move your website to another web host? Well, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), has a list of four questions to ask when hiring a web host provider. The effort here is applauded. But, unfortunately, the FTC didn’t exactly get all the terminology right, which would lead to even more questions. Or a small business looking dumb in front of their web host provider. Here’s the graphic they put out, and here’s their tweet. [Read more…]