Latest News 

Cambridge Analytica Announces Closure, Files for Bankruptcy

Cambridge Analytica, the controversial firm embroiled in the mishandling of Facebook user data, has announced its shut down on Wednesday. Its British parent SCL Elections Ltd. will also be shuttered as the data analytics company reported a significant decline in business. In a press release, Cambridge Analytica blamed negative media coverage for the data scandal. It lost suppliers and clients while facing mounting legal fees, prompting the company to file for insolvency in the UK and begin bankruptcy proceedings in the US. Moreover, the company stated that it will meet…

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Technology 

Microsoft is Making Office 365 Better, Here’s What to Expect

Microsoft revealed last week that major updates are headed to Microsoft Office. These changes are for Office 365 and Office.com users and are expected to start rolling out beginning this month and will continue throughout the year. People can expect to see changes like a simplified command ribbon, new colors and icons, and enhanced search function coming to Microsoft Word, Excel, and Powerpoint. Microsoft said in a blog post that their customers have revealed that they continue to use Office for important work because of the power that the software’s…

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Social 

Facebook, Google Get Sued by Washington State Over Political Ad Records

Washington has filed a lawsuit against Facebook and Google over their inability to show their records on who purchased political ads on the platform. The two companies were reportedly paid millions for political ads but have failed in publishing key information, like the advertiser’s address, that’s required by law. Washington legislation mandates that advertisers collate and store key information on political ads, including the advertiser or buyer’s name and address, cost of the ad, and the candidate’s name, party or the proposal that’s being opposed or supported. The lawsuits have…

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SEOs & Publishers Mock Yahoo For Discovering Search Trends For News Creation

One of the most basic SEO strategies for content development is the process of determining what people are searching for in your niche so you can target those keywords. When it comes to news sites, even sites with a niche as specific of this one, you must look at search trends. SEOs and publishers have been using search trends reports, such as Google Hot Trends, Twitter Trends, Yahoo Buzz and other keyword tools to discover trending searches and benefit from them. Like I said, we occasionally do it here and…

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SEM 

Turning Your Data Into Compelling Stories – SMX Advanced Recap

Want to know how to turn unorganized data into compelling presentations? Contributor Keri Morgret recaps three SMX Advanced speakers as they share how to transform data into valuable insights. This session focused on using data-driven storytelling to support and promote paid search marketing campaigns. Bill Hunt, Back Azimuth Consulting Bill started the session by sharing experiences he’s had in trying to sell stories about his data. To be effective in telling stories with your data, the data must be adapted to your audience. Executives tend to see things one way,…

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Marketing 

5 Ways to Boost Your Brand Using Social Media Polls

If you’re managing a small business or start-up brand on social media, getting people to interact with you can be challenging. This is where polling comes in handy since it encourages engagement and improves the visibility of your brand. Social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, have polling features that you can tweak and use to listen to your target audience, similar to doing marketing research. Because choices are provided, users can participate in the polls without fear or apprehension of giving a wrong answer. And since replies…

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google 

Google Search Console Crawl Errors For News Publishers Gone

Google told us earlier that two News publisher features is going away. Specifically the ability to highlight mobile apps in the Google News Publisher Center and News crawl error tool on Search Console. Well, when we reported it and days after as well, the News crawl error tool on Search Console was still there. Now, as of today, you can no longer see your crawl errors in Google Search Console specific to news sites. Here is what it looked like a couple weeks ago: I should note, the Google News…

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Bing 

Bing Building Massive Index For App Indexing Content

I covered this news at Search Engine Land last week, but now it is making its way to the SEO community. Bing is beginning to build their index of native app content for iOS, Android and even their own Windows 10 apps, for search and discoverability purposes. Bing said: Now that we’ve seen how to apply app linking and app actions using markup, you may wonder when it is a good time to start to do this for you site. Well, we’ve already started analyzing the web specifically for App…

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Latest News 

Microsoft Buying LinkedIn

Microsoft announced that they are buying LinkedIn for $26.2 billion in an all-cash transaction. LinkedIn will retain its distinct brand, culture and independence according to their press release. Jeff Weiner will remain CEO of LinkedIn, reporting to Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft. Reid Hoffman, chairman of the board, co-founder and controlling shareholder of LinkedIn, and Weiner both fully support this transaction. The transaction is expected to close this calendar year. “I’ve always had a great admiration for LinkedIn and what Reed, Jeff and the team here have built,” stated Nadella.…

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Marketing 

How EMVs Made Credit Card Processing More Secure

Due to rising incidents of fraud and data theft, credit card issuers and merchants switched to using EMV technology to authenticate transactions. Taking its name from Europay, Mastercard, and Visa, EMV was developed as far back as the mid-1990s, but the technology was only widely adopted in the US with the advent of the liability shift in October 2015. This shift meant that the least EMV-compliant party in a payment process would be the one held liable for fraudulent transactions. The use of cards with magnetic strips slowly gave way to…

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