May 28, 2013

Google's Penguin is at it again

Image source Mark93

It's that angry penguin again

It's official, Penguin 2.0 has been released by Google.  The idea behind the update is to target spam that has questionable origins.  While the original Penguin targeted only the front page of a website, the update is rumored to target deeper into the site.  

Mat Cutts, Google's head of spam spoke about the updates in the offical statement from Google. 

"We started rolling out the next generation of the Penguin webspam algorithm this afternoon (May 22, 2013), and the rollout is now complete. About 2.3% of English-US queries are affected to the degree that a regular user might notice. The change has also finished rolling out for other languages world-wide. The scope of Penguin varies by language, e.g. languages with more webspam will see more impact.

This is the fourth Penguin-related launch Google has done, but because this is an updated algorithm (not just a data refresh), we’ve been referring to this change as Penguin 2.0 internally. For more information on what SEOs should expect in the coming months, see the video that we recently released."

... So basically, my site will fall to the bottom of SERP again while my national competitors are placed right back at the top... @#$%* penguin

May 18, 2013

Hosting an open house!

So I'm hosting an open house Sunday May 19, 2013 from Noon till 2PM at 36450 Stanton Hall Avenue, Denham Springs, LA 70706. You can view more information about it here.  I'd love to talk tech with you!

May 16, 2013

That Aggrivating "©" and other such symbols

Ok, so how many times have you needed the copyright symbol for some work related document and didn't want to look it up on google just so you could copy and paste it into your document?  It isn't on most keyboards, but you know the symbol exists.  You've seen it plenty of times.

There are symbol shortcuts in windows called "Alt codes".  To access these codes:


  • place the blinking cursor where you need the symbol
  • ensure your "Num Lock" is on for the numeric key pad
  • hold down the ALT key and enter in a four digit code on the numeric key pad
  • release the ALT key


so what number combinations equal what symbols?

ALT + 0169 = ©
ALT + 0174 = ®
ALT + 0153 = ™
ALT + 0167 = §
ALT + 0182 = ¶
ALT + 0188 = ¼
ALT + 0189 = ½
ALT + 0190 = ¾
ALT + 0162 = ¢

There are plenty more codes which, of course, may be googled.  The one I use the most is that copyright symbol.