Although Google Instant doesn’t have any direct impact on SEO and search results, one thing that did occur to me when I first used it was how much it would exacerbate any bad publicity a person or company might have. Particularly now, when search engines are constantly monitoring content from highly active, up-to-the-minute social sites like Twitter, changes in suggested searches can be quite swift and can seem to come out of nowhere.

How to become Google’s number one “drunken moron”.

One recent and topical example is that of Ireland’s current leader (though indicators suggest not for very long) Brian Cowen. Ireland, whilst having a large diaspora throughout the world, is a small island nation of 4.2 million with limited global influence when compared with Britain or the United States. Those living outside the Emerald Isle probably would never have heard of Brian Cowen until a couple of weeks ago. So, if you don’t know who he is already, all you need know for this example is that he recently became the centre of controversy over whether or not he was drunk whilst appearing, incoherent and slurring his speech, on a nationally broadcast radio interview to discuss the economy. The result was an already abysmal approval rating, 18% in July 2010 [source] dropping further to 11% by the end of September [source] following the scandal.
(To compare, George W Bush’s lowest, the lowest of any US President, was a comparatively-high 19%.)

In other words, this was a political and public relations meltdown and it would be hard to imagine how it could be made any worse. Enter Google Instant.

Let’s imagine, in the above example, that I was searching for “Brian Cowen DCU speech”, but by the time I type in “Brian Cowen” I can already see the autosuggestion field with “Brian Cowen Drunk” and related queries, and when I type in the D that seals the deal and I get dozens of results automatically for “Brian Cowen Drunk” appearing in the main Google search results.

Now, as far as the world’s most popular search engine is concerned, the name Brian Cowen is permanently affixed to the word drunk and worse still, the search term has gone viral. Suddenly a man who, lets be honest, most of the world didn’t even know existed the week previous, became a viral phenomenon appearing on sites like the hugely popular tongue-in-cheek news aggregator Fark (playing the drunken Irish stereotype angle) as well as countless Tweets, blog posts and YouTube videos.

Now I might sound like I’m contradicting some of the points I made in my last post about Instant, having already said that generally people, when they have their minds set on finding a specific piece of information, are unlikely to get distracted when Google suggests something else. Thing is, if ever there was something that just might distract the searcher it’s a funny video or nice juicy scandal. And as for both rolled into one, well…

So, getting back to the DCU speech example, whilst the end result will invariably be that I’ll continue my search and eventually find the speech I was looking for, there’s a also very high chance it will be after I watch the parody YouTube video.

This should serve as a dire warning for anyone who still doubts the power of social media. Firstly, companies should be acutely aware of how much influence social media has on search engines in general and Google results in particular. Secondly, that it is these very trends which now also dictate much of the content in the mainstream media. Television is prime example. When stuck for material or content researchers will often go online to find out what is popular and “trending”. The result? The man hardly anybody outside Ireland ever heard of is now famous throughout America as a “drunken moron” thanks to Jay Leno.

Thus begins a vicious circle as the Jay Leno video appears on YouTube (a Google-owned company) and also goes viral. With millions searching for the video “Brian Cowen Jay Leno” becomes a top Instant search term shortly after, and the wheels of Cowen’s PR nightmare keep on turning.

Brian Cowen’s name currently appears top of all results on Google.ie for the term “drunken moron”. He appears on all but the last result on page one and continues to appear throughout the results, right up to page 63 out of 66 result pages. He also tops results on Google.co.uk and elsewhere. Now, knowing what we now do about Google’s Instant/autocomplete technology, we can predict a strong possibility that Google Instant will autosuggest the term “drunken moron” every time someone searches for the name “Brian Cowen” and display those results in real time.

It’s part of the Irish character to find incidents like this hilarious, even when, in fact especially when, they have potentially-disasterous consequences. Right now it’s not only make-or-break time for Ireland, but for Europe as a whole, and the ECB and the IMF are watching developments closely. Ireland, with a crippled economy and a dysfunctional banking system, has already had several negative bond rating readjustments and is desperately trying to assuage jittery foreign investors. Having a leader who dominates Google search results for the term “Drunken Moron” isn’t going to help matters. In other words, Google, and the web in general, has become instrumental in destruction of Cowen’s political career.

Reputation management for Businesses

For companies, rather than individuals, the issue becomes even more dangerous. It can be bad enough with autocomplete, whereby someone typing in searches for “Joe Bloggs” or “Acme Airlines” might see autosuggested terms like “Joe Bloggs scam” or “Acme Airlines ripoff” but now imagine the person can also see the results of those search terms and read their content in real time – not good.

Very few companies will ever experience the sort of PRmageddon that BP or Toyota did this year, but that doesn’t mean companies should ignore their online reputation. Signing up to Google Alerts is strongly recommend, so as to be notified of new content containing your name or the name of your company so you can be ready to stamp out any dangerous sparks before they become wildfires.

Of course, Instant or not, whatever’s out there, both the positive and the negative, people are going to find it anyway. And to reiterate the point I made last time regarding Instant and SEO, the search engine hasn’t changed and the information on it hasn’t changed, just the interface is changed, making it easier, and faster, for people to find that information.

Therefore the methods used to counter negative press online haven’t changed either; that is to proactively deal with negative press whilst continuing to build your search engine and local search footprint. The game is speeded up now, however, so your company will need to speed up too, or risk being overwhelmed by the web’s ever-changing landscape.

Brionglóid Media can help your company overcome these sorts of issues, as part of an ongoing web maintenance contract. We can help monitor review sites (e.g. Trip Advisor), Local search sites (i.e. Google Places, Bing Local), social networks, blogs, forums and other online communities and, if necessary, engage with customers on your company’s behalf to help mediate disputes or counter libellous claims against your business. We can also help you to diminish the Google search result ranking of articles or pages which may have negative implications for your company and replace them with more desirable articles and press releases, working to positively promote your business online. For more information please contact us today and we can begin an online PR campaign tailored to your specific needs.

Multi-network Instant Messengers

Not too long ago instant messenging (IM) programs, also known as chat clients, where text is typed and shared in real time (along with emoticons) were ubiquitous and all the big web companies had one.

Microsoft’s MSN Messenger, later renamed Live Messenger, was perhaps the most popular, with Yahoo Messenger (YIM) a close second. These services were linked to Hotmail and Yahoo Mail respectively, however with the advent of Gmail, which offered far more in the way of storage and options, Hotmail and Yahoo both lost a lot of market share. Google later integrated its own Google Talk instant messenger program into the Gmail interface so that one could chat with contacts direct from their browser.

Another one-time big player in the IM market (and indeed the web as a whole) was AOL. AOL’s instant messenger, AIM, whilst also quite popular, suffered from a lot of controversy regarding its installation of a component called Viewpoint Media Player which many considered to be spyware.

Other popular instant messenger programs included ICQ, which was also once the property of AOL, and IRC, one of the oldest and also most popular messenging systems, albeit more so with the “geeky” end of the spectrum than with regular users. It was (and still is) highly popular with members of online communities such as the online gaming community.

Over the last ten years, however, use of instant messengers has diminished with the advent of social networks like Facebook and microblogging sites like Twitter, which allow for real time status updates, as well as other Web 2.0 collaborative platforms such as the excellent Google Wave.

With the advent of VOIP programs like Skype IM programs are nowadays more like hybrids allowing old-style instant messenging in conjunction with free, or low cost, Skype-style calls.

Whilst some companies actively discourage staff from using IM programs, because they don’t want their employees chatting when they should be working, many more are unable to function without them. Obvious examples of such businesses include web design and graphic design firms such as ourselves as well as project managers, writers, transcribers or translation service providers where being able to type to a person or persons in real time without having to pick up the phone provides massive time and money savings. Other applications include inbuilt web applets on company websites which allow customers to chat directly with company representatives, for example, to provide real-time technical support.

So, depending on the company type, instant messenging can provide many advantages to one’s company, and that’s not even including the advantages provided by cheap or free calls with inbuilt VOIP telephony. The only real issue is that with so many different platforms from various different, competing companies, it’s all too possible that the person you want to talk to is using a different program than you are. Installing and running seven different IM platforms is not only impractical it would also slow down your computer, and your productivity, dramatically. Thankfully there are programs out there that allow you to use the one program to access all major chat networks simultaneously and best of all, these programs are also completely free.

(Note: to use these you will still need to set up accounts with the various companies, i.e. you will still need to set up an MSN account, a Yahoo account, a Google account and so forth. You just won’t need to download and install all their IM programs.)

Trillian is a lovely little program for Windows, Mac and mobiles, including the iPhone and Blackberry. It allows you to chat with all major clients, such as MSN, Google Talk, Yahoo and AIM, and, depending on your system, is also compatible with Skype as well as Twitter and the instant messenging features of Facebook and Myspace. This is a great all-rounder program, especially because it’s mobile. Plus, what other instant messenger out lets you send an animated octopus as an emoticon?

Pidgin, formerly known as GAIM, is an open source multi-platform instant messenging system available for Windows, Mac and Linux. It is compatible with all major IM platforms including MSN, Yahoo, Google Talk, AIM, ICQ, IRC and other programs such as the popular Polish chat client Gadu-Gadu. Because GAIM is open source it means that it’s constantly being developed and so a number of GAIM plugins exist that add compatibility with Skype, Facebook IM, Twitter and pretty much any other platform you can think of.

Free Alternative to Winzip and Winrar

Yes, technically, Winzip and Winrar are not free. They are what is often referred to as nagware. Software that nags you to upgrade to the pro version every time you use it, in the expectation that you will eventually do as you’re told – expect away, because…

7 Zip is an open source archiver program that’s free to download and use, with great superior compression and compatibility with other formats such as .zip and .rar files. Highly recommended.

Download older versions of software

Finally, to wrap this up, I thought I’d mention a favourite website of mine called Old Version.com.
This site, as it name suggests, allows you to download older versions of a large variety of different software programs, such media players, instant messengers, security programs, utilities, etc. This is a good idea for a number of reasons, perhaps because you upgraded to the latest software version before the bugs were sorted out and need to go back. (I find this tends to happen a lot when the makers of one of my favourite programs gets bought out by a larger company.)

Maybe there is some other compatibility issue, for example you are running an older operating system with which the latest version of the software is not compatible. Often, new software also means an increase in its footprint whereas older versions won’t use up so much system resources. Or perhaps, like me, you often don’t like the direction your favourite program has taken over the years and you don’t like all the extra options and superfluous capabilities. Instead you yearn for a simpler time before the bells and whistles and shiny new interface, when the program just done one thing and done it well and just shut up about it and let you get on with it. And I’m sure we’ve all come across a program which made us feel like that.

So, anyway, that’s it for now and that’s the end of this series, though I will, of course, continue to add new free software posts as time continues. If anyone would like to suggest any other free software programs or make suggestions for future post ideas feel free to comment below.

I got this email this morning, it looks almost identical to Twitter emails except for the fact that the account I received it on does not have a Twitter account connected to it. Bit of a dead giveaway that, but still, it’s quite convincing.

The email says:

Hello, Twitter-er!

You have 2 (or more) unread message(s) from Twitter System.

With a URL underneath, which, in the body of a HTML email, appears to be directed to Twitter, but is in fact directing someplace else. This isn’t new, obviously, there have been emails like this around for years, for Facebook, for online banks, for Paypal and eBay – for every service you can imagine, the idea being to either:

A: Get your Username & Password – especially for financial services like Paypal.

B: Get your Credit Card number & related details.

C: Get you to click on a link that will download malware to infect your computer.

D: All of the above.

Whether it’s a phishing attack or a malware attack the results can be equally devastating so always take precautions. In many email clients all it takes is to hover over any hyperlinks to see where they point to. Worst case scenario you can always right click and copy the URL to the clipboard and then paste it into notepad. This way you’ll know for certain whether the hyperlink in the email is really pointing where it says it is.

Even this can be misleading however. Depending on the font used it can be difficult to distinguish from the real URL and a spoofed one, observe:

www.paypal.com – Paypal.com as normal.

Paypa1.com – Paypa1 (number one) in Times New Roman

PaypaI.com – PaypaI (capital i) in Arial

There’s a million other variants one can do with any number of legitimate websites.

So, if you’re still paranoid – congratulations, you should be! – then you can always look at some of these URL malware scanners to see if there are any nasty surprises lurking in the links of your emails.

Having a good virus and firewall protection layer and ensuring that these programs are regularly updated will help protect you from these sorts of attacks. As will ensuring that you also regularly update and patch your email client, browser and operating system.

Vigilance and common sense, however, is the only true protection – so always remember the five golden rules:

1. If you’re not sure where the link goes don’t click on it.
2. If you’re not sure what an attachment is don’t open it.
3. If you receive unsolicited* (spam) email don’t ever reply to it
4. Unless your email client or antivirus program already has an automatic email attachments scanning feature, always download and scan attachments first before opening them

and finally

5. If the email comes from a known contact with links/attachments but with very brief and often baffling and grammatically-questionable text, e.g. “hey u – check this out!” always contact that person and ask whether he/she really sent it or not.

If they reply and say they never sent it then that person’s computer is infected with a virus which has most likely sent itself out to every one of their contacts already. This can be very devastating not just for the security and privacy of a business, but for its reputation too. So if you do suspect you’ve received such a virus be sure to tactfully inform them of that fact, as the sooner they’re made aware of it the better.

Be aware that whilst many spam emails pretend to have an opt-out link at the bottom these are often used to verify that your email address is correct and clicking on them will only result in more spam. It can be hard to tell, sometimes, because you may also be receiving legitimate ezines/newsletters that you subscribed to but have since forgotten about. When in doubt, look the company/organisation up on Google and if you’re still not sure, you can always just flag the emails as spam.

Read more about how to prevent phish emails & spam.