Out for a few days: my grandfather is in the hospital
My grandfather has been seriously ill this week, so I’m flying tonight to be with him in Tennessee. If you’re waiting on me for a reply about something, it will probably need to wait.
Google life
Submit video topics and webmaster questions
I’m planning to record some new webmaster questions next week. I made a Google Moderator page where you can submit topics and vote for different questions
“Why did our PageRank go down?”
Recently a newspaper contacted me. Their PageRank had dropped from 7 to 3, and they wanted to know why.
Please turn on two-factor authentication
You should read Mat Honan’s heartbreaking tale of a hack attack and the ensuing discussion on Techmeme . Much of the story is about Amazon or Apple’s security practices, but I would still advise everyone to turn on Google’s two-factor authentication to make your Gmail account safer and less likely to get hacked.
“Fetch as Googlebot” tool helps to debug hacked sites
One of the most tenacious blackhat webspam techniques we continue to see is hacked sites.
New 30 day challenge: No sending email after 9 p.m.
Last month (June 2012), my 30 day challenge was to try to eat mindfully (eat more slowly, don’t eat while distracted by TV or web browsing, chew more, stop eating when I’m full, etc.). It turns out that eating mindfully is hard . I’m the sort of person that eats whatever is on my plate, so a couple tricks that worked for me were to 1) get smaller plates and utensils, and 2) don’t put a serving of food on your plate unless you know you want it
Example email to a hacked site
Beyond clear-cut blackhat webspam, the second-biggest category of spam that Google deals with is hacked sites. The most common reaction we hear from webmasters is “The problem is with the Google search. There is nothing wrong with our website.” That’s a real quote from an email one site owner recently sent us.
Eventful Events
Every so often real life catches up with you in ways you didn’t expect. My wife broke her foot a few days ago. She took a unfortunate spill off a stepstool, but she’s telling everyone it was a ninja fight
It’s time to stop PROTECT IP
A couple months ago , I wrote this about SOPA: SOPA galvanized the tech community, from start-ups to venture capitalists to the largest web companies.
Larry Lessig on the corrupting influence of money
Larry Lessig has a new book called Republic, Lost which discusses the corrupting influence of money on politics.