October 30, 2019, 4:17 pm CDT
The owners of a home that was destroyed by police pursuing a fleeing suspect are not entitled to compensation under the takings clause, a federal appeals court has ruled. The Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday in an opinion that does not constitute binding precedent in other cases. The court held that the officers acted under the state’s police power rather than the power of eminent domain, so any damage to the home fell outside the scope of the takings clause. The Washington Post has coverage. The incident occurred in June 2015 in Greenwood Village, Colorado. An armed shoplifting suspect fleeing police holed up inside a home where John Lech was living with his girlfriend and her 9-year-old son. The boy was home at the time, but he escaped after the suspect entered. Police negotiated with the suspect for about five hours after he fired a shot that struck a police car. When the negotiations failed, police fired several rounds of gas into the home, breached the front doors with an armored vehicle, sent in a robot and used explosives to create points of entry to the home. A tactical team tried to enter the home but the suspect, Robert Seacat, fired at the officers. Police once again employed the armored vehicle to open multiple holes in the home. This time, the tactical team was able to arrest Seacat. The home had to be demolished. The city of Greenwood Village offered to help with temporary living expenses while the home was rebuilt but refused to provide any other compensation. Lech and his parents, the homeowners, were the lawsuit plaintiffs in the suit against Greenwood Village and several of its officers. They alleged violation of their constitutional rights stemming from destruction of the home and refusal to compensate them. The Lechs argued that the takings clause should apply because it was designed to bar government from forcing some people alone to bear public burdens that in fairness should be borne by government. They also argued that precedent distinguishing the power of eminent domain and police power should not apply to cases of innocent owners whose property is destroyed. The appeals court rejected the arguments. The court said the innocent owner argument “is not without support,” but it was joining the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in holding that there was no taking. The panel was made up of judges appointed by Presidents Barack Obama, Jimmy Carter and George W. Bush. Lech’s father, Leo Lech, told the Washington Post he may ask the Supreme Court to hear the case. “It just goes to show that they can blow up your house, throw you out on the streets and say, ‘See you later. Deal with it,’ ” he told the Post. “What happened to us should never happen in this country, ever.” Lech said it cost nearly $400,000 to rebuild the home and, “This has ruined our lives.”Affordable Internet Marketing Services is our specialty and we employ a holistic approach to achieve and maintain first page rankings for your online business within the major search engines. We do have one goal in mind…to generate more revenue for your business.
Thursday, October 31, 2019
DuckDuckGo Study Finds More People Would Use Google Alternatives if Given a Choice via @MattGSouthern
“…those who do attempt to change their Android search defaults face obstacles like hard-to-change homescreen search widgets. Google’s pervasiveness in search is difficult to dissipate; the company has many levers that exert magnetic forces, pulling people into its search engine.”The study goes on to say that DuckDuckGo was the #2 selected search engine in the preference menus, which is an indication of consumer demand for a private search option. As part of the study, DuckDuckGo also asked users what would motivate them to change search engines. The second most selected answer was “if it didn’t collect any personal data about me or my searches”, with “better quality results” being the top answer. Results of the study are based on survey responses from over 3,000 adults in the US, UK, Germany, and Australia.
DC Circuit stays judge’s order requiring release of Mueller grand jury documents to Congress
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October 30, 2019, 11:27 am CDT
Publishers Report a Spam Exploit in Google via @martinibuster
“Several competitors have created “review” websites where they feature a dozen of their own sister sites from the same business niche. These sites have an order form that is processed by the same (their own) company. To make it look “legit,” they added a couple of real competitors to the “review list” (with lower “ratings” of course). They wrote 100% fake reviews of their own services and attributed a scale from 1-10. Top 10 sites have “rating” between 9.1 and 10 (and they own all of them). The “ratings” are 100% fake and bogus. Google happily shows domains and fake ratings in the answer box on a very competitive term (eg. best service). It’s been going on for years, but now their dishonest efforts pay even more.”Another member named samwest responded:
“…blackhat still pays and Google is still none the wiser.”WebmasterWorld member Milchan added:
“my niche is dominated now by one competitor that does exactly what you are describing and I know for a fact that google has been made aware of this, as well as all the fake false google reviews they made and yet chose to not take any action. They have lots of doorway page sites (which is specifically mentioned against something google will ban you for in their guidelines), they have blog review/tips sites that do nothing but favor their own products and even talk down and scare monger to the point of slander other companies… They even have one site that purports to be an official site for something when it is not in any way shape or form an official site… but (offer)… top 5 recommendation… all of which lead to YMYL sites that they own.”
Google Webmaster Help Forum Reports
These are not isolated discussions at WebmasterWorld. There are multiple reports in Google’s official Webmaster Help Forums, too. For example there is one discussion titled, Fake Review Websites Are Created For Self Promotion, Stating Competitors As Scam, Hampering Business This is what the publisher reported:“Our competitor has created his self promoting 5 websites, mentioning every other strong competitor as SCAM, driving all traffic and sales to his websites & they deliver poor quality work, so all face failure. “Some major brands create websites that are standalone blogs and communities designed to reach out to potential customers. But creating a site for the purpose of outranking competitors and saying bad things about those competitors have some people upset at Google for ranking those sites. Can Google Catch Fake Review Site Spam? A careful competitor would very likely hide their domain registration information. How would Google identify a fake review spammer, by their inbound links? Could statistical analysis of review ratings reveal abnormal review patterns? This isn’t a new problem. There are discussions in Google’s own Webmaster Help Forum going back years and years. Seems like something that Google might want to take a closer look at. Read the WebmasterWorld discussion here https://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4965610-9-30.htm
https://www.businesscreatorplus.com/publishers-report-a-spam-exploit-in-google-via-martinibuster/
Wednesday, October 30, 2019
11th Circuit tosses suit claiming DNC unfairly disfavored Bernie Sanders in 2016 primaries
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October 29, 2019, 1:38 pm CDT
Selling Likes And Followers Has Been Ruled Illegal By the FTC via @MattGSouthern
North Carolina congressional map drawn to benefit GOP can’t be used in 2020, state panel rules
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October 29, 2019, 11:50 am CDT
The Future of SEO: What SEO & Marketing Pros Need to Understand via @kaliblissyoga
- Enhance media operations.
- Drive organic traffic to websites.
What’s Changing SEO
The interconnectivity of SEO, technology, human behavior, media, machine, and mindset will change the game of SEO and online marketing. SEO professionals are now required to become storytellers and professional marketers that not only can develop a search strategy, but can also communicate and sell a brand online. The digital message must meet the user’s mindset and intent, and deliver what the searcher is seeking while building brand awareness in the long term.What This Means for SEO Pros
SEO pros must be intuitive in getting the right content to the right type of user, making it easily digestible, and inspiring. Marketers need to:- Question the user experience.
- Evaluate the target audience.
- Consider how websites are optimized.
- Consider the language and visuals used to connect with audiences.
The Future of SEO Must Consider Value-Driven Awareness
Brands will need to become value-driven and purposeful in order to appeal to people, especially younger generations. Without having brand awareness and a strong message, people won’t be motivated to visit the site, engage on social channels, click through to the site, or learn more about the company. Marketers will need to understand target audiences and the why behind the actions. Perspective will become everything in order to tap into the user’s mind, wants, and needs. Psychology teaches us that we create our own reality through the lens of our mind. You need to understand:- Consumers’ needs.
- What drives them.
- What causes them to search.
- Their subconscious.
- Their wants and values that govern their behaviors.
Innovation with Technology & AI Will Fuel Less Search & More Voice Activation
In a world where we can find whatever information we want, you will have to discover what will ultimately grow a brand and create long-term consumers who actually care. Brands that can appear more human, less corporate, and that hold underlying values for humanity will win. People want to promote brands they align with. Naturally, they will share, buy, and engage with brands they stand for, beyond just having a product. As technology evolves and new gadgets are created, the power of voice search is gaining new traction. SEO pros will be challenged in adapting with technology and understanding how AI and more are actually driving a lot of what users see and connect with. Because the machine already hears and knows what users talk about and mention, it will be imperative to have SEO pros help optimize creative campaigns and work with media teams to deliver successful messages and content.Everything Now Is Driven by the User & Must Be Optimized to Meet Their Needs
Technological advancements and AI are impacting everything about digital marketing and SEO. Marketers will need to understand machine learning and learn how the machine thinks and interprets language. Understanding AI and technology and the interconnectivity of all things will help craft sustainable marketing strategies that survive the rise of AI. Utilizing tech tools and understanding neurolinguistics and quantum physics can help businesses excel online. Our human mind and emotions create reality and what technology mirrors back to us. We create our reality through what we think and feel, and this also drives our behaviors. Understanding that devices and online technologies are reflections of our internal state allows SEO professionals to become powerful persuaders that need to understand humans in order to optimize for their needs. Knowing that the user is the driver of technology and what shows up makes it even more valuable to optimize content and websites with creative messaging and proper language that can appeal to target audiences and get them to engage with the website. SEO pros will need to understand the mind and how we can unify and utilize marketing strategies to deliver the best messages that actually inspire people to interact with brands and products, as well as support bigger missions that money, links, and Google search results cannot buy. Without developing the creative aspects well, having a team help design the strategy and optimize the content and site and working with media, there will be a disconnect when trying to promote brands and products. Teamwork is key if you want to solve the bigger SEO puzzles.We Will Need to Think Like a Machine & Understand the Human Mind
Because Google and all algorithms are developed by semantics and neural networks working together, it’s imperative we all not only understand how Google and technology are affecting us, but also how our own psyche creates our external reality, including:- How we search.
- What we think.
- What we click on.
- How we act.
- What we see.
- Consider the brand as a whole.
- Understand how they can sell the message to the right audience.
- Fill in the gaps to educate users and get seen in the right channels.
- How Google works.
- How humans behave.
- How powerful semantics and language correlate with one another to create SEO results.
SEO Must Be Utilized with Reverence to Build Trust & Deliver the Best Brand & Web Experience for Users
The future of SEO will be brand integrity and utilizing partnerships and relationships to build credibility and popularity. The importance of PR and gaining traction online through other websites and media hubs will be valuable for SEO success. Real links from authorized sites and media outlets will help validate brands. Creating links through credible media sources and showcasing companies online with PR efforts will help brands seem more appealing and credible through the lens of both machines and humans. One thing is for sure, if SEO and marketing pros are unwilling to adapt, get curious, and live with an open mind, they won’t be able to keep up with technology. The future of SEO is brand awareness – driving messages that can connect to audiences in bigger, long-term, ways. In a world where we all are craving a global change, more unity, more equality, more freedom, and more happiness, we all can collaborate to build marketing initiatives and utilize tech and media to truly inspire people and the planet. Brands and marketers have a huge responsibility to not only get ranked in Google, but also to:- Convey a bigger story that can relate to humanity.
- Inspire new generations.
- Help companies be seen in more humanized ways rather than sounding like a sales pitch or product.
Tuesday, October 29, 2019
Disbarred lawyer loses appeal based on judge’s testimony against him
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October 28, 2019, 4:39 pm CDT
https://www.forlawfirmsonly.com/disbarred-lawyer-loses-appeal-based-on-judges-testimony-against-him/
Scores of inspectors general criticize DOJ response to Ukraine whistleblower
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October 28, 2019, 1:17 pm CDT
Woman gets 22 years in prison after showing up at her lawyer’s office with a loaded shotgun
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October 28, 2019, 10:22 am CDT
Monday, October 28, 2019
Afternoon Briefs: DOJ opens criminal review of Russia probe; DeVos held in contempt
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October 25, 2019, 2:19 pm CDT
Sunday, October 27, 2019
Prisons and jails use artificial intelligence to monitor inmate phone calls
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October 25, 2019, 10:22 am CDT
Welcome BERT: Google’s latest search algorithm to better understand natural language
About The Author
TF-IDF: Can It Really Help Your SEO? via @ab80
TF-IDF: What Kind of Beast Is That?
For a human brain, it doesn’t take any math to tell what my article is about. It’s about TF-IDF, right? But when relevancy is evaluated (and, most importantly, compared for several articles) by a machine, we need a numeric representation to see that:- Article A is about TF-IDF (as opposed to, say, link building).
- Article A is more about TF-IDF than article B.
- Term Frequency = (count of the term) / (total word count in the document)
- Inverse Document Frequency = log (number of docs) / (docs containing keyword)
Is Google Using TF-IDF as a Ranking Signal?
The short answer is “no.” TF-IDF is referred to in a number of Google Patents as something that the search engine may use for stop words removal, which is to get rid of all the function words within a search query and in page content: But using this exact mechanism for identifying and comparing relevancy is very unlikely. Simply because being an example of a lexical search mechanism, TF-IDF is unable to look beyond keywords. The model considers keywords as strings of characters and cannot identify semantic relations between them, as opposed to semantic search models most probably used by Google. In other words, TF-IDF itself is not a ranking signal that determines your page’s position. There’s no expected TF-IDF value you need to match for each keyword in your content. And you’d better run from anyone trying to convince you otherwise.Semantic Search & Co-Occurrences
So, Google has moved to semantic search, trying to match the meaning of a search query to topically relevant content, as opposed to matching query keywords to the same keywords on pages. In practice, this means that instead of counting keywords themselves, Google started counting co-occurrences, using the surrounding context to understand their meaning. For example, let’s say you encounter the following sentences and you have no idea what a trout is:- Trout is rich in omega-3 fatty acids.
- Trout has tender flesh and a mild, somewhat nutty flavor.
- When choosing trout we pay attention to a clear red-orange color.
- Salmon is a popular type of fish in Western cuisine, which goes well with white wine.
- Tender salmon meat can be added to pasta.
- Salmon skin is super nutrient-dense, so keep it why you cook.
How Can TF-IDF Help Your SEO?
Finding co-occurring terms is exactly where TF-IDF comes into play. Sure, we don’t have access to every webpage, as Google does. But why would we need those? To get a whole list of co-occurrence ideas, it is perfectly enough to look at a bunch of pages (say 20 to 30). And the beauty is that using TF-IDF isn’t rocket science. All you have to do fits in three simple steps.1. Write Your Content
I’m not urging you to make TF-IDF the purpose of your piece of content. In the end, unnatural writing simply won’t convert even if the page ranks high and brings in the needed traffic. So, first of all, you sit down and write about whatever it is that you have on your content plan.2. Plug in a TF-IDF Tool
Most of the tools I’ve seen work pretty similarly. You enter a URL and the keywords you want to optimize it for. The tool then checks pages that rank on Google for that keyword, parses their content, calculates TF-IDF for all the terms it finds and compares your content stats to those of your competitors. With basic tools, like Seobility, you will get a single-keyword list. If you’re using SEO PowerSuite’s WebSite Auditor, Ryte or Text Tools, you will also have a list of key phrases (or N-grams, if you like a taint of science), which is definitely more informative. (Disclosure: I work for SEO PowerSuite.)3. Enrich Your Content with TF-IDF Co-Occurrence Suggestions
Some of the phrases will simply be synonymous with what you already have in your content. If appropriate, try using them along the way. Some of the phrases will point out the new topics, which haven’t crossed your mind yet. Sift through the ideas and think of ways to use them in your content (without getting obsessed about them).TF-IDF for Keyword Research
A little bonus tip. Picking up the most widely used terms from your competitors’ content might also spur new ideas into your keyword research and content planning, especially when you feel the need for out-of-the-box thinking and inspiration.Conclusion
Many a time, you’ll see TF-IDF used as clickbait – articles either promising the formula to be “Google algorithm reverse-engineered” or “busting the myth of TF-IDF”. But I encourage you to take things for what they are and use the opportunities TF-IDF optimization gives. Without betting your entire SEO campaign on it. More Resources:Image Credits Featured Image: Created by author, October 2019 All screenshots taken by author, October 2019
https://www.businesscreatorplus.com/tf-idf-can-it-really-help-your-seo-via-ab80/
Judge orders DOJ to turn over Mueller grand jury information for impeachment probe
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October 25, 2019, 4:22 pm CDT
Voice assistant study: Microsoft’s Cortana offers most answers, Google Assistant proves most accurate
About The Author
Facebook Announces Program to Help News Sites via @martinibuster
Facebook News Has Five Features
Facebook will make the news accessible via a News tab. Within this tab users will be able access news through four features and be able to personalize the news with a fifth Facebook News feature. One of the features is the “Today’s Stories” section that highlights the top stories of the day. Journalists didn’t trust Facebook’s algorithms to select the news of the day. So the top featured news will be manually curated by a dedicated team of journalists. Facebook will also make it easier for users who pay for subscriptions to be able to access their news straight from Facebook.These are the five features:
“Today’s Stories chosen by a team of journalists to catch you up on the news throughout the day Personalization based on the news you read, share and follow, so you can find new interests and topics and Facebook News is fresh and interesting every time you open it Topic sections to dive deeper into business, entertainment, health, science & tech, and sports Your Subscriptions a section for people who have linked their paid news subscriptions to their Facebook account Controls to hide articles, topics and publishers you don’t want to see “
What Kinds of News Publishers Will be Shown?
Facebook News has created four categories of publishers:- General News
- Topical News
- Diverse News
- Local News
Which Publishers are Eligible for Facebook News
Facebook has guidelines for inclusion https://www.facebook.com/help/publisher/270254993785210 In addition to these guidelines Facebook requires publishers to not violate community standards like clickbait, scraped content and misinformation. Local News on Facebook Facebook will begin with a test group of local news providers in ten areas. The initial ten cities included in Facebook Local News are:- New York
- Los Angeles
- Chicago
- Dallas-Fort Worth
- Philadelphia
- Houston
- Washington DC
- Miami
- Atlanta
- Boston
Takeaway
Facebook News represents an opportunity to grow their audience from a brand new source. It allows news organizations to obtain subscribers and maintain that subscription model on Facebook. Facebook News, developed in consultation with the news industry, appears to be a balanced approach between the needs of journalism and those who wish to read news. Read announcement here https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2019/10/introducing-facebook-news/ Learn how Facebook News will work: https://www.facebook.com/news/howitworks News Page registration overview: https://www.facebook.com/help/publisher/377680816096171 Register your news site with Facebook News https://www.facebook.com/help/publisher/316333835842972https://www.businesscreatorplus.com/facebook-announces-program-to-help-news-sites-via-martinibuster/
Friday, October 25, 2019
Afternoon Briefs: NYC bar calls for Barr’s Ukraine recusal; law school renamed after donor
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October 24, 2019, 4:44 pm CDT
Thursday, October 24, 2019
Justice Ginsburg wins $1M prize for ideas that ‘have profoundly shaped human self-understanding’
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October 23, 2019, 1:43 pm CDT
Wednesday, October 23, 2019
Motion accuses judge of ‘partisan glee’ after $8B Risperdal verdict
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October 22, 2019, 10:10 am CDT
https://www.forlawfirmsonly.com/motion-accuses-judge-of-partisan-glee-after-8b-risperdal-verdict/