Social media
There are millions if not billions of people who have joined social media with the most popular sites being Facebook and Twitter. There are studies that have shown that facebook took over pornography as the number one activity online. This implies that it definitely has an impact on the marketing field due to its rising popularity. It is also safe to say that the medium has connected millions of consumers all over the world. This is because they can exchange reviews and other details of the products in the forum which gives a positive edge to the social media revolution hype.

Consumer Information
Nowadays consumers are well informed about the products they get from companies because they can get all the information they need within a split second. For this reason, the social media revolution hype has also kept marketers as well as manufacturers on their toes as they strive to provide the market with high quality goods. This is because any bluff from them will spread like wildfire and they might end up losing a lot of clients for a simple mistake. They could even end up closing shop as a result of this.

Social media hype
For the persons who say that the social media revolution hype is all about hype they base their arguments on a few circumstances that might be quite justified at the end of the day. For starters they say that the social media avenues do not posses the prowess when it comes to the marketing tools. This is because there are some studies that ranked social media marketing at the bottom of the list when compared to other advertising mediums such as TV and word of mouth. The studies went a step further to claim that social media only affects the consumption of various products such as music, TV shows movies and books.

Conclusion 
So what can be analyzed about the social media revolution hype? You have to appreciate the fact that it has gained popularity over a short period of time and thus it cannot be blown out of proportion as a company is coming up with the marketing strategies. The fact that it uses people as the main feature makes it quite viable as this is one of the main strongholds that marketers use to pass the message across about its goods. It therefore goes without saying that it is a strong promotional tool that can be used to penetrate markets from various parts of the globe.

It can however not be termed as a revolution per say as the fact that it is becoming more popular as the day goes by means that it can be a trend that will be phased of with time. However only time can tell this but marketers should definitely exploit the avenue for their campaigns.

Author Bio: – This post has been written by Sara Marie. She loves to write about various aspects of Web Development. She works as a Drupal Developer for a well known Drupal Development Services Company.

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An open DNS resolver is a server that accepts Domain Name Service requests from clients outside of its administrative domain, meaning that any machine connected to the Internet can make a DNS request of these resolvers. The originating IP of the request can be spoofed so that responses are sent to the attack’s target rather than the originator of the request.

Open DNS resolvers are responsible for the bulk of the bandwidth produced in the recent  headline-grabbing attack directed at the Spamhaus spam monitoring service, which created significant problems for its bandwidth providers and potentially caused slowdowns by impacting the throughput of major European hubs.

“We’re calling on all members of the Internet community to urgently act to reduce the number or fix the large number of open DNS resolvers,” affirmed Steven Job, President of DNS Made Easy, “The problems that open DNS resolvers are causing now outshine any purpose they might once have served.”

Open DNS resolvers have become an increasingly popular method of carrying out Distributed Denial of Service attacks. Often, such attacks employ botnets, but with the easy availability of open DNS resolvers, anyone with a minimal level of technical expertise can create an enormous flood of packets and direct it at their target, knocking sites offline and consuming a significant proportion of the bandwidth resources of Internet Service Providers.

“The fact that open DNS resolvers can be so easily exploited by anyone setting a few cloud instances and running a script that will cripple sites and degrade ISPs is an untenable situation,” said Job, “The Internet community needs to act to remove this menace as quickly as possible. In order to do this properly DNS and network administrators need to take three proactive steps. First we would like to see many of the open DNS resolvers shut down or closed as many are not intended to be open to the world. Secondary, rate response limiting (RRL) should be implemented where possible for appropriate name servers. Third, we would like to see ISPs and network administrators take a larger role in implementing BCP 38 network ingress filtering, which would help eliminate IP spoofing.”

DNS amplification attacks rely on the fact that DNS response packets can be much larger in size than the original request. For example, an initial request of 81 bytes may result in a response that is over 300 bytes, a quadrupling of bandwidth consumption. So for every bit the attacker has at their disposal they can create an attack of over 4 times the size by using the actual DNS response for the attack vector. Using DNSSEC for these attacks increases the amplification ratio near 20 times the size. In the recent attacks, the attackers appear to have been trying to use DNS amplification with DNSSEC for maximum bandwidth consumption and damage. Using open DNS resolvers an attacker with access to about 500 Mbps of bandwidth can flood their targets with over 10 Gbps, more than enough to crush most DDoS mitigation appliances.

The Spamhaus attacks claimed bandwidths of up to 300 Gbps. Last year DNS Made Easy has graphed statistics of an attack they successfully handled that was over 200 Gbps.
While the Internet as a whole is  not put at risk by DDoS attacks because of its multiply redundant connections, they are capable of causing regional slowdowns, site service interruptions, and consuming the necessary capacity of bandwidth providers.

While methods exist to mitigate the effects of such attack, including  anycast DNS hosting , DNS Made Easy believes that it is both more prudent and more efficient to tackle the root cause of the problem by closing down or fixing as many open recursive resolvers as possible and educating both those within the industry and the wider public about the negative consequences of running an open DNS server.

For further information, visit the  Open DNS Resolver Project , and the  DNS Made Easy blog .
About DNS Made Easy
DNS Made Easy is a subsidiary of Tiggee LLC and is a leader in providing global IP anycast enterprise DNS services. DNS Made Easy implemented the industry’s first triple independent anycast cloud architecture for maximum DNS speed and DNS redundancy. Originally launched in 2002, DNS Made Easy’s services have grown to manage hundreds of thousands of customer domains receiving more than 6.0 billion queries per day. Today, DNS Made Easy builds on a proud history uptime and is the preferred DNS hosting choice of most major brands, especially amongst those comparing price and performance of enterprise IP anycast alternatives. For more information, or for a free trial of their DNS hosting services, visit  http://www.dnsmadeeasy.com .

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A computer is so ubiquitous that when we meet someone who doesn’t use one, it’s like coming a across a caveman preserved in ice. We use PC’s every day. We use them at work. We do research with them for school projects. We use them to stream music and videos for our entertainment. We connect with friends and family daily via chat rooms, e-mail and social networking sites. In short, PC’s are firmly entrenched in just about every aspect of our modern life. It’s hard to believe that a small device like a laptop can accomplish so many tasks and can satisfy so many of our demands that is until your computer stops working. Suddenly, you feel like one of those cavemen out of the loop, cut off from the world and lacking in some of the creature comforts that make the day bearable. Many people use their PC’s as their television, their library, their stereo, their journal, their calculator and their primary communication method. A dead hard drive or a particularly pernicious malware can leave your computer bereft of all function, rendering it little more than an expensive paperweight. However, all is not lost. A Miami computer repair service can restore your computer back to its former glory and get you back to your work, your play and your social network.

Eradicating Malware

Although we often use the term virus for any problem with our software, in truth viruses are just one type of malware that can negatively affect your computer’s performance. There are computer worms which don’t necessarily target specific files or programs on your PC’s, but can eat up all of your bandwidth. Some malware goes by the name Trojan horse. Just like the mythological battle plan, a Trojan horse pretends to be a program with a desirable function. However, when you download and run this program, stowaway malware is allowed to access your computer. There is malicious spyware, which gathers your personal information without your knowledge and there is even ransomware, which restricts access to your PC’s and forces you to pay a “fine” or a “fee” in order to get everything running smoothly again. When your computer is stricken with malware, it may seem like all is lost. However, professional computer technicians are more than adept at safely removing viruses, spyware and any other kind of attack on your system, without losing your important files. They can even resurrect your computer from the dreaded blue screen of death.

Other Repairs

A Miami computer repair service can also help you if you’re experiencing faulty hardware on your PC’s. From replacing a hard drive to fixing a faulty video card, computer technicians work fast and effectively, because they know how essential your computer is in everyday life. If you end up needing new equipment, many computer technicians can make qualified recommendations on the products that will best serve your needs. If your computer is under the weather, take it to a professional who will get it back up and running at its full potential.

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In your search for a business domain name, you never want to get too cute or artsy that your domain name ends up being associated with a geographic region you do not reside in. While .co used to be associated with Columbia, it is now so widely registered that Google is treating it as a generic domain extension. Your .co website now has a good chance of competing with the .com. But, there are other domain extensions which come across as geo-specific.

Domain Name Scarcity

Don’t let good domain scarcity drive you to seemingly good alternatives that are not well thought out. In the event you come up short within your budget, the niche specific keyword domain extensions are going to make more sense for your business domain name than domain extensions that are being used to complete a word (ignoring the dot in between the letters) such as mortga.ge, in which case the .ge extension represents the state of Georgia. If your business is in Georgia, great. If not, you’ve got a problem.  If you want your website to rank well in a particular region or country, it’s wise to set the geo-targeting from within Google webmaster tools. But, if your domain extension reflects the extension of a particular country that is not your own, your website will have a more difficult time ranking and you won’t be able to set your geographic region.

Local Search

Geo-specific domain extensions do work well for local search and you will have a much easier time finding an available domain if searching for one with your geographic domain extension. Is it the best choice for a domain? That depends. If your business service area does not extend past your region, you should be fine. If you plan to do business in other states, you will have a much more difficult time showing up in search results for those areas unless there is no provider in that area and your location is closest.

Other Options

If your budget is your biggest barrier, as it is for many small businesses, you might still be able to lease a premium domain and afford monthly payments. This option opens up domains your company might never be able to afford and you might be able to work out a deal with the domain owner to apply payments towards an eventual purchase.

Don’t let the lack of obvious domain names drive you to poor decisions. Before choosing a domain with an unusual extension, do your homework and keep an eye out for domains that become available. Domains expire every day and in a bad economy, people who don’t want to sell may be forced to do so.

Theresa Happe works with Namefind.com, a site offering a business name search tool to find domains, trademark information and available corresponding social handles.

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We have all heard of Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc and these are all we mean when we say SERP Ranking (Search Engine Results Page). How many search companies are there who ‘guarantee’ you a page one ranking or even a first place ranking on Google, Bing, Ask, or another search engine?  We don’t know exactly, but put it this way, a lot of the time these guarantees aren’t met.

In fact, it is amazing that many companies still get away with making such promises, which is why we would always suggest staying away from them at all costs.

Anyway, if you are spending a lot of time fretting over what your SERP ranking is on Google for particular keywords, you are wasting your time. Not because having a good SERP ranking isn’t important – of course it is – but because you could be spending time doing other things that will have a much bigger impact on your company right now.

Yes, search is important, and ranking on page one could mean limitless additional revenues, but you shouldn’t obsess about it to the point of insanity.

We looked at why.

Personalized Search

You’ve heard about how the internet is becoming more consumer focused, and that it will continue to move in this direction in 2013. While we cannot yet say that search results are 100% customized to ourselves, they are heavily influenced by previous search history, behaviour on social networking sites, where you live, and much more.

Even something as innocuous as whether you are signed into your Google+ or Gmail account can have an impact on where you appear. You cannot possibly control whether someone has signed in or synchronised their browser, so don’t lose too much sleep about personalized search.

Rankings Change

Search engines don’t just update themselves at midnight each day. They are constantly working, indexing new content, finding new links, and deciding that one site should rank above another, or one should be relegated into the backwaters of page three and beyond.

Google update their algorithm over 400 times in a year, meaning SEO is not a perfect science and that you will never be able to keep up with everything. At the same time, there are again things beyond your control that can influence your ranking, such as press coverage and how your content is shared on social media.

Irrelevant Rankings

We turn back to the SEO companies that guarantee you that you will rank first or on page one within a week of signing their deal.

One common way they do this is to make your site rank for reasonably well searched for, yet low in competition, terms. Yes, you might well rank top for a number of keywords, but this is where relevancy comes into play. If you are selling clothes for teenagers and want to rank highly in your local area, there isn’t much point in ranking highly for adult clothes or baby clothes, for example.

It is better to rank a little lower for relevant keywords that will actually bring your site traffic and sales, than higher for meaningless ones that won’t make you any money. Thorough keyword research, whether conducted by yourself or an SEO company, will ensure that your rankings are always relevant.

A high search result is great, but it should not be the only measure of your online performance and success.

Karl is an online content writer across a number of industries, with a specific interest in search marketing trends, including analyzing social search behaviours and the use of SEO software tools.

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Get a SEO boost with Google+ and the new Authorship credit offered to writers by Google+ on their content published on the web. This is not to be confused with Author Rank. For an excellent article on the difference have a look at SEO Myths About Authorship and Author Rank By Michael Martinez.

Why would we want to be recognized by Google as an author? Well we obviously would like the recognition for a job well done but from an SEO point of view it has been argued that it has a strong influence on your contents positioning.

It basically says you wrote this and also a bunch of other stuff.

Google+ Authorship is thought to be part of Google’s Social Search drive. What it is all about is verifying the author of a web page against their Google+ profile. When set up right you will get authorship credit and your photo will appear on Google SERP’s along with a snippet from your posts.

O.K. Now we know what it is and that there is a benefit in having it, how do we go about setting it up?

Your blog would be the logical place to start it all off. We are assuming that you have already set up a Google+ profile with images, if not start there first.

Connect your blog to your Author page by Linking single page to author page with rel=”author”. Next, link your Author page to your Google+ profile with rel=”me”. Finally link your Google+ profile to your website as a contributor.

Now Google will see you wrote that particular page content, your Google+ profile will link to that article or post and your profile will list where you are a contributor.

If your site is on WordPress then check out this simple to follow blog post by The Copyblogger

Build up your circles on Google+ as the more people you have on here the more you can influence in their search results. Google search is different for everybody as they personalize how you do things. If someone is in your circle your posts will appear higher in the SERP’s if they search a topic you have posted about.

Google+ hangouts offer you the chance to host webinars or stream it here and on YouTube, record it for playback and download and allows you to email it out to your mailing list. Upload that Hangout to YouTube, add the link to your blog with a reader-friendly keyword-rich description, and you’ve got a powerful SEO tool that doubles as a branding resource, allowing people to see you in action.

There is far more that can be done with Google+ and I am sure we will revisit in more depth next time. Keep checking out our Blog for more info.

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