The Saturday Summary – 1/21/2012

Here are some articles which caught my eye during the week of January 16-20, 2012 covering such topics as online security, SEO, SOPA, PIPA, QR Codes, social media, traditional media and blogging …

Monday

• With some big security problems reported recently, Frank Reed gives us an apt reminder to keep security in mind as conduct online business on Marketing Pilgrim: Is 2012 the Year of Social or Security?
• Miranda Miller did some interesting experiments with Google Search Plus Your World and personalized search results, which she reports on Search Engine Watch: Rank for Anything You Want on Google Search Plus Your World
• If you were so inclined to temporarily shut down your web site to protest SOPA or PIPA or even for server maintenance, you might want to check out these reminders from Pierre Far on Google+: Website outages and blackouts the right way
• I’ve written about passwords before. A colleague shared a great infographic on creating more secure passwords on Lifehacker: Use This Infographic to Pick a Good, Strong Password

Tuesday

• Over on the SEOmoz Daily SEO Blog, Rand Fishkin has 21 ideas to help increase traffic to your blog: 21 Tactics to Increase Blog Traffic (Updated 2012)
• Frank Reed shares a post from Dan Zarrella about timing posts in social media on Marketing Pilgrim: In Social Media Timing Can Be Everything
• If you’re going to use QR Codes, you need to make sure you’re prepared to give those who scan it a good experience. Lisa Barone shares her thoughts on this on the Outspoken Media Blog: Even Bill Cosby Can’t Make Bad QR Codes Funny

Wednesday

• If you’re looking for a quick checklist of things to cover when doing SEO, Gareth Owen has a handy one on Search Engine Watch: 10 Elements of a Perfectly Optimized Page
• There was a lot of talk regarding the boycotting/blackout/protests of the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect IP Act of 2011:
• One well thought-out post pointing out, not the problems with the proposed SOPA, but in regarding legislating to keep the status quo comes from David Meerman Scott on the Web Ink Now Blog: Stop SOPA Silliness
• Seth Godin has some very interesting thoughts about how our “leaders” in Congress aren’t really leading: Learning leadership from Congress. Unfortunately, I don’t think there are any real leaders in government any more.
• If you’re interested, you can read the whole text of H.R. 3261, SOPA and S. 968, PIPA

Thursday

• Over on the aimClear Blog, Marty Weintraub shares some tips on creating headlines: Harnessing Headline Theories! Flashpoints To Final Polish
• On the SEOmoz Daily SEO Blog, Wil Reynolds shares a general history of search engine algorithm changes and the importance of hard work to make your web site stand the test of change:  Never Worry About an Algorithm Update Again, a History
• Thomas Ballentyne found an interesting ad placement on Google Maps which he shares on his Pest Control Marketing & Such Blog: New Ad Space in Google Maps?

Friday

• Dave Nuttycombe has an interesting perspective on media subjects – and he’s a very funny guy. We had a conversation in the comments on my post about unplugging cable a while back. Today, he tells the story of how he tried to influence a print newspaper to embrace digital on his blog: That Time I Predicted the Future For Newspapers…
• If you’re not a member of WebmasterWorld, you might want to consider it. There is always some great information there. I caught a discussion revolving around the latest Google update by Matt Cutts: Page layout algorithm improvement. Although Matt specifically writes about ads, I wonder if “Hero” shots are also going to be taken into consideration?