Google’s New Mobile-First Indexing
Basically, what Mobile-First Indexing means is this: rather than indexing the desktop versions of a website to evaluate & rank the pages, based on their respective relevance, Google will now do it for the mobile site/version FIRST. To answer your question, before you ask it: Yes, you really need 3-websites today. 1-desktop version • 1-smart phone version • 1-tablet version.
Here’s how Google said it in a tech post: “Although our search index will continue to be a single index of websites and apps, our algorithms will eventually primarily use the mobile version of a site’s content to rank pages from that site, to understand structured data, and to show snippets from those pages in our results.”
Google is doing this because mobile website traffic has already surpassed desktop traffic, and by the end of this year, it is estimated that 79% of the world will use mobile devices (which includes tablets) versus 21% using desktops.
Now, don’t be misled! This does not mean that your desktop version is meaningless in the ranking algorithm. It means that it will now take a backseat to the mobile versions in terms of evaluating your site’s rankiing. Also, don’t forget that mobile versions include both smart phones and tablets.
Bottom Line: be sure your website’s mobile version is standing tall – by Google’s standards.
Be Careful Cleaning Up
I’m a big supporter of cleaning up your computer system(s). Over time, they all become cluttered with a variety of useless files and folders. The vast majority of those did not start out useless – they had a purpose. But once they were used, they were never needed again. When you download a program like cCleaner, for example, a file is left on your download directory that ends in .exe. The .exe means its an executable (program) file. Once you install cCleaner, the file is just taking up space. Another common example of clutter is a downloaded image that is used to demonstrate something or share something in personal correspondence. Again, after its one-time use, it is just system clutter. Many people visit their startup files and delete unnecessary files or disable them. This helps your machine load less and run faster – but it’s risky! I usually get one call every quarter from someone who deleted a startup file that they needed – and I get it fixed – usually. Lately, however, as a result of some ne’er-do-wells peppering the internet with comments, folks have started deleting files from their C:\Windows\System32 directory – and calling me to fix their problem, which usually requires reinstalling Windows: very costly! They delete these files because they are running a 64-bit system, and think the directory is not necessary. That directory is crucial to the Windows operating system and contains many REQUIRED system files. So, do NOT delete it, or anything in it. Windows will do all it can to stop you, but their preventive efforts can be [pretty easily] gotten around. Relative to the aforementioned, I’ve been asked frequently what a DLL file is: it is a Dynamic Link Library (DLL) file. These crucial files are shared library files. They are used by Windows programs as well as third-party programs and allow you to perform various functions – like printing, getting on the internet and so forth. Before you delete a DLL file, be sure you do not require it.
Want People to Like You?
You most likely do want people to like you. In marketing and advertising, that equates to wanting people to like your brand – or at least your service(s) or product(s). How do you get that to happen, you ask inquisitively? Large companies have had social scientists working on this for decades. Here’s the latest on how to make people like you – or your brand:
1. Physical Attractiveness: Good looks suggest other favorable traits such as integrity, humor and dependability
2. Similarity: We like people we can relate to in terms of interests, opinions, personality and background
3. Compliments: Receiving praise makes us feel good, so we tend to like those who give it to us
4. Contact & Cooperation: There is a sense of commonality and community when we’re working to fulfill a common goal
5. Conditioning & Association: We like to support values and ideals that are similar to our own
And now you know why you see what you see in ads – and what you can do to help motivate people to like your brand – or you…
Facebook Launching New Tools
Today, the social media giant announced some new tools: privacy controls, including a way to download and delete data, an easier to use (and find) settings menu and some new shortcuts for taking control of your private data. They should be available by the time you read this. I’d suggest going to Facebook and clicking help and then typing “privacy control.”
Sell It – Don’t Trade It In
When you’re done with your smart phone, and you’re ready to trade up, you’ll find that most sellers/carriers will offer you a seemingly attractive trade-in allowance for your old phone. If that’s the way you want to go, you will certainly save some money. However, you should consider selling your old smart phone outright. Selling it yourself will bring you in, as a rule, substantially more money than you’ll get on the trade-in. By way of example, a ‘like new’ iPhoneX is pulling in around $300 for trade-in, but around $800 for outright sale. You can sell your smart phone many ways including Craigslist, OfferUp and Letgo for local sales, eBay for a bigger audience, or Swappa for tech-only sales. Of course, there’s a commission with such places, and you can’t sell your phone if it’s leased, but as you can see, it can be worth it. Check the commission rates of online sellers before you begin the process of sale.
It Would Scare You To Know
How filthy and germ-laden your smart phone is – especially if you keep it in a case of some sort. What to do, you ask? There are some costly solutions manufactured that are designed expressly for the pupose of cleaning and sanitizing your smart phone. Here’s my cheap, easy solution to the problem. I bought a quality 16oz spray bottle at Steadman’s ACE Hardware – I hate when such bottles leak or quit spraying, so I always get a good one. I carefully pour Isopropyl Alcohol into the bottle and close it tightly. Then, to clean the phone:
- I remove the smart phone from the case.
- Then I take two paper towels and mist one of them with alcohol.
- I wipe everything down, including the case and the screen.
- I then dry everything with the second paper towel.
- If the screen is still ‘smudgy’ I use the moistened towel again, and polish again.
- Replace the phone in the case and voila – clean and germ free!
- BTW – I clean the screen daily, but only do the entire phone and case once weekly.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Never spray the alcohol directly onto the phone.
Data Encryption
I will not get highly technical here, as usual. Data encryption is very good for a laptop, or if you believe strangers may access your home or business computer, and it’s running the Windows 10 Home version OS. Every other platform: Mac, iOS, Android, Chrome OS, and Linux offers you the option of full disk encryption FREE. But if you want it on your Windows computer, then you’ll need Windows 10 Professional. Once you have that $100 upgrade, you can engage Bitlocker. The only reason to have concern about this is if you have sensitive data on your drive, and that data could be stolen by someone. Otherwise, don’t worry about it. But I did think you should know – especially with the rise of laptop system use. In closing, if you get Windows 10 Pro on your laptop please do not get less than 8Gb of RAM – and I always spec 16Gb to avoid problems. It costs more, but it’s worth it!
The End of Phishing Scams
Yes, it just might be happening soon, but you’ll have to plug a USB device into your computer to make it happen. Firefox already recognizes these devices, and both Chrome and Edge are soon to follow. It’s part of the new, hardware-based, two-factor authentication process from WebAuthn. What the devices will cost and what, if any, technical issues will arise form their use is yet to be determined. (You might refer to the VPN article above for an alternative.)
Deleting Your Facebook Account
The #getoffoffacebook (and all its other names) movement is gaining ground – for reasons I’m sure you’ve read about in the news. Actually, closing down your account is technically quite simple: Go to the account deletion page and click the “Delete My Account” button. You’ll then need to enter your password and fill out a captcha – to make sure you’re a human. Voila! You’re done – almost. There’s a 14 day are you sure period during which you can log back into your semi-deleted account and put a halt to the deletion process. If you do not sign in for 2-weeks, your old account will genuinely be gone. It may take up to 90 days to be completely removed from the FB servers.
Author’s Note: while it may be in vogue right now to exit Facebook, most people who begin the process do not actually make through the 14-day cool-down period – during which you’ll be reminded (by Facebook) of all the great things you are missing, and your friends are not. And so forth. If you’re thinking to sign up for one of Facebook’s competitor’s like Instagram or Snapchat – I don’t blame you. But here’s the problem, Facebook really has no competitors. Even Mark Z., when was asked by Congress about being a monopoly, which he denied, he could not name a single competitor.
Wrapping Up
It’s also easy to delete your Google account – but let me skip all the tech stuff and just tell you this: Google is truly everywhere, if you use the internet, Google is there with you. Google is, in one way or another, present in almost every website and search engine. If you do decide privacy is above all else, then go ahead and delete your Google account and delete all their resident files and cookies on your system. Then, start searching using duckduckgo. You’ll still bump into Google – but it won’t be nearly as system-invasive/pervasive.