Oops ...

Google Can Be So Prejudgy

O for a googlebot of ire

One blog associated with my blogger account seems to have been accused by Google of having done something that is not liked by Blogger.

The email address that is linked to the blog in question was not completely signed up to about 20 email newsletters (probably less), which seem to publish mostly very informative stuff.

Apparently, the email lists had received a request to sign up the email address in question. However, no confirmation of subscription were submitted, so actually the email address is not a subscriber to those lists.

None of the content was actually shared, so I don't really see what the problem was.  When I share stuff, I always give with full and proper citations or links to the best known source.

Strangely, I received a bunch of "confirmation messages" from the email lists into my blogger "Posts" bin. Very odd.

Not sure what triggered the temporary block or ban on the site. When I confirmed my ID to Google, all of those confirmations messages disappeared. I don't know where they are, which is just as well since I did not actually confirm subscribing to those lists.

In any case, it's something I'll be sure to avoid repeating.

Secret Internet Lesson Learned: If you spend a good deal of time online, make sure you check your email accounts daily to ensure that nothing weird is happening. And if you suspect something is happening, be sure to report it accordingly and take appropriate measures to secure your account by changing your password regularly to something very good.  And of course you should be backing up your data separately, but that's another discussion, and you can surely google it, at least until I pump out the ultimate guide to data backups for dumbdumbs.

I love you, Google! :) You are my friend!

Google's blatant promotion of kittens online

You read right.

The GOOG is at least partly to blame for the seemingly unending popularity of the trend that is ... cute kittens!

Now, when you set up a Blogger account, the google-powered dashboard shows you some useful information about how to best use this amazing and powerful tool, which can be used to share just about any kind of information, from the mundane, to the extraordinary, and even life-saving.

In short, Google is telling you and many other blogger users how to optimize your website to get solid rankings in the google search engine index, if not how to get to the top of the search results pages. 

So which of these noble or good causes does the megawebgorilla choose to promote to new users?

Well, have a look for yourself at this screenshot, taken September 7, 2014.

Google Promotes Blog About kittens

When we attempted to contact the publisher of "Example Blog" for more information, said publisher could not be reached.

The same is true for the Google Blogger leader.

Meanwhile, an anonymous, unofficial spokesperson for the group denied denying any involvement, or truth to the rumor that Google prefers kittens to puppies.

So now you know. If you want to optimize your blog, do what "Example Blog" does ... create a page "About kittens" ... even if your website is about pollution management, or other fascinating arts and science.