AddThis.com Site & Share Counter Service Interruption

This morning October 12, 2011 at approximately 9:55AM NYC time we noticed our site as well as our clients sites using the www.addthis.com share counter were all not loading properly. One  minute after we tweeted the issue @addthis released the following tweet:

“Sorry if the site is a little slow this morning. Should be back to normal speediness soon. :)

Fifteen minutes later they tweeted the following:

“Share counters might be acting up as well but we’re on it. Thanks for your patience!”

They seem to be working the problem but a good idea might be to comment out or remove the following code until the issue is rectified:

<script type=”text/javascript” src=”https://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#pubid=ra-4df8a6f833b62595“></script>

For a more permanent solution you can load the code asynchronously by following the directions here: http://www.addthis.com/help/optimizing-addthis#async

Hopefully they get this resolved soon and folks don’t lose confidence in this handy social bookmarking and sharing service. This is one of our favorite widgets to install on client websites to help them build natural links and social shares. Their handy analytics provide useful data.

As an avid motorcyclist we have a saying “There are two types of riders out there. Those who have gone down and those who will” Anyone in this business knows the same logic applies to hosting. Good Luck working the issue addthis!

Posted in Industry News | Leave a comment

How to Get The Most Coveted Link of All – The Google Homepage Link

It stands to reason for Google rankings a link from the Google homepage is as good as it gets. We took a look at a link Google placed on their homepage today and reverse-engineered exactly how this link was “won”. What follows is the 18 steps one must take to get a link from Google.com

From what we can tell it takes roughly 35 years to attain this link so here is the play by play of how to get a link to your website from the Google homepage:

  1. Go Back to 1976, find a walrussy looking guy who is second to none with a soldiering iron and form a computer company.
  2. Get your company off the ground with some “simple” innovation.
  3. Entice a leading beverage executive to leave his cushy job with one of worlds leading brands by challenging him with a simple question “Do you want to sell sugar water for the rest of your life, or do you want to come with me and change the world?”
  4. Grow the company large enough so within 8 years of its founding you can produce a television commercial which airs during the SuperBowl and launches your third revolutionary product in 8 years – All you have to do now is make sure the product is a game changer for an industry as well as all mankind.
  5. Get Fired so you can reinvent yourself.
  6. Push the boundaries of technology so your old employer has no choice but to buy your new company and hire you back out of abject fear because some smart dude at CERN has already used it to invent an entirely new form of communication and information delivery called the world wide web.
  7. While you’re at it drop $10 million on a failing company with a fantastic culture and a troth of the worlds most creative people simply because you believe it has to work.
  8. When that company fails to achieve it’s original goal of being a high-end graphics hardware developer don’t give up…call Disney.
  9. Executive produce an entirely new revolution in an entirely new industry and reinvent Hollywood.
  10. Stand up to your beliefs and when you don’t like the new deal take your ball and go home – even if it means potentially losing BILLIONS.
  11. Make Disney salivate to the tune of $7.4 Billion and offer you majority shareholder-ship simply becasue you stuck to your guns and they know you hold the keys to the future and all you want to do is share them with the world.
  12. While this is all going on sell your new company to your old employer becasue they are lost without you.
  13. During your second act proceed to once again forever change a third new industry (the recording industry) by tearing apart it’s entire structure through the introduction of one simple device that fits in your pocket.
  14. Make that device smaller.
  15. Take all forms of communication,  untether them, shrink them into one device which again fits in your pocket and once the world is addicted..lower the price so more people can enjoy it.
  16. Then, just so people don’t think you have issues with size, make it a bit larger, remove the phone and produce a device people seem to enjoy touching more than themselves.
  17. During this later period of success when things start getting too easy – battle one of the most deadliest forms of cancer and survive 8-times longer than the average person. Throw a liver transplant in the mix as well just to keep the level of difficulty up.
  18. And when the company you founded in your garage 35 years ago becomes number one in the world bow out gracefully, spend some time with your family and die far-too-young with them at your side.

That, quite simply, is how to get a link to your site on Google’s homepage.

Steve Jobs RIP on Google HomepageApple Homepage Steve Jobs RIP

 

Posted in Industry News, Link Building | Leave a comment

Change Default Search Engine in Firefox Address Bar

Last week I installed a program – a free one. I didn’t really have a choice I had to send a file for a client that was too big. I needed to use their certain program. Of course with any FREE installation of a program there is always a catch. Mine came along with a very un-needed toolbar. There is no one that is more anti-toolbar than me. When I see screenshots from others sometimes it makes my skin crawl just looking at them. What is even funnier is that most windows users may not even realize they are being installed or that their viewing window space is being hogged by them.

I quickly uninstalled it and it did not give me any issues.

Later on I went to search for something using my address bar (naturally) and to my surprise it searched Bing instead of Google. I was so upset – silly I know! But I do not like my settings being changed without my knowledge. I am on the computer 50+ hours a week and when something is not the way I want I get mad. I scrambled with the browser settings. No luck. I tried for a week to figure out what was wrong. The search box was fine, but the address bar itself had another setting. Very annoying. Finally figured it out, this is what you have to do:

[Please be careful doing this do not change other settings unless you know what you're doing]
1. Type about:config in your address bar in Firefox
2. In the filter box search for keyword.url
3. Double click and a dialog box will open where you can edit the search URL
4. You will have to change it to the search string to whatever search engine you want to use.

Posted in How To | Leave a comment