Good Monday morning. It’s March 76th. 

Things change fast. At this point ten years ago, Blockbuster was still in business, Haiti was trying to recover from an earthquake that killed more than 300,000 people, and BP’s Deepwater Horizon exploded, killing eleven and creating the largest environmental disaster in U.S. history.

If that all seems long ago, take solace in knowing that we will one day view the COVID-19 novel coronavirus in the same way. Meanwhile, be kind to yourselves and to others.

Reach out to George if you need to brainstorm about your organization doing new things in a digital way. We’ve already had these conversations with clients and friends. Now more than ever, we need to all work together and support each other. Just press REPLY in your email client to send a note.

Today’s Spotlight is 1,595 words, about a 6 minute read.

Google news page for a viewer in France.

1. News to Know Now

a. Google must pay French publishers for using capsule views of their content in the Google News product, the French government ruled late last week. European officials have cracked down on Google and other American Big Tech companies over the past several years. Last year, Google was charged a $1.1 billion tax penalty and required to honor “right to be forgotten” removal requests from European consumers. Google said that it would comply with the decision and create content deals with EU publishers.

b. Facebook is rolling out a “Quiet Mode” for its mobile apps. Quiet Mode isan optional user setting that stops most notifications and displays a countdown timer if you try to access Facebook before the time limit you created. Yes, you can go around it, but it’s a circuit breaker that helps you pause long enough to distract yourself with something else. Read more here to learn how to configure it.

c. The one space people have won. Law professor Alan Chen posted to Twitter that Microsoft Word now defaults to a single space after each sentence as the Good Lord intended. If you press the spacebar twice after a period, Word will now reward you with an error. Or you could use Google Docs for free. And, sure, you can change Word’s settings too if you want.

Last week’s poll results:

Wowsa! Half of you are using Zoom for videoconferencing. The next most popular conferencing platform was Google Hangouts/Meet. We even got a vote for Facebook Messenger.

Don’t forget to make your voice heard this week on whether people should space once or twice after a sentence-ending period. The one click poll is at the end of this newsletter.

2. COVID-19 Online Resources and News

Trackers

Covidly — my go-to.
Johns Hopkins — the one you see on the news.
Bing — much improved. Now includes color coding and graphs by U.S. county.
NY Times State Level Restrictions — hotels, driving, and restaurants rules.

Resources

Free NY Times for HS students and schools
Hoax and inaccurate news checklist video — BBC on Twitter
Fact check analysis of misinformation online — Reuters Institute at Oxford

Tech News

Apple & Google collaborate on contact tracing — Washington Post
NJ and FL using drones to police social distancing — Intelligencer
Facebook misinformation pages originating from Kosovo — Snopes
NASA sees exponential jump in malware attacks — Ars Technica

We suggest reading this summary of tweets posted by Steak-umm (yes, the meat company) about understanding all the data we’re seeing.

Bonus points: “we’re a frozen meat brand posting ads inevitably made to misdirect people and generate sales, so this is peak irony, but hey we live in a society so please make informed decisions to the best of your ability and don’t let anecdotes dictate your worldview OK” 

Read the whole thread.

3. Search Engine Optimization News

Google review functionality is slowly being restored.Search Engine Land reported Thursday that Google had quietly restored merchant review replies and that “new user reviews, new user photos, new short names, and Q&A will gradually return by country and business category.”

Google search engineer John Mueller also confirmed that Google sometimes creates its own snippet to describe a link in its search engine results. A website can propose that a certain snippet is used, but Google’s software may create its own.

One big reason that this happens is if a website doesn’t follow best practices for creating snippets. Google also may change the description if a person searches for something specific that is also described on the website’s page. You may have seen examples of this when a question and answer is  excerpted or when a video result is displayed and the video is cued to the answer in a Google result.

4. Also in the Spotlight — Delivery Slot Shortages Create Opportunity

Georgetown senior Adrian Hertel showed last week that necessity truly is the mother of invention. Hertel told CNBC that his parents have health issues and couldn’t get an Amazon Fresh or Whole Foods delivery slot.

Hertel wrote a program that uses a Macintosh’s web browser to constantly poll the site for delivery slots. There is a healthy debate at the download site over whether tools like this empower hoarders, but someone better give Mr. Hertel a job. It’s hard to find developers who think like marketers.

Read the CNBC story.

5. Following Up: Zoom

Zoom’s blessing and curse is that the world decided to make the software a de facto standard when hundreds of million of people went to work from home. We wrote last week about the many privacy, security, and scale challenges the company faces. 

Last week’s news was filled with announcements about organizations understandably abandoning ship and going to a competitor from Google, Microsoft, or other companies. The biggest names were New York City’s schools (which have their own issues) to Google (which owns a competitor).

Those systems and any others are vulnerable in their own ways. Zoom has gone from 10 million users in December to 200 million users in March. That explosive growth would make any platform an attractive target for hackers and other bad actors. 

Here are some useful Zoom tips from Elite Daily including this important one for paid accounts: “If you’re hosting a meeting with a paid Zoom account and choose to save the meeting transcripts, all participants will have access to the meeting transcripts … as well as any private messages between the hosts and other meeting members.”

If you are still concerned about Zoom, here is CNET on all of its security issues and the same for privacy and security via Tom’s Guide.

6. Debugging: Sextortion Emails

Good ol’ Sophos is here to remind us that a common extortion scheme involves an out-of-the-blue email that threatens you with the release of images of you looking at porn. The email kindly requests a few thousand bucks or you will face publication of side-by-side images of you and what was on your screen.

Read the sample emails or watch the video Sophos made regarding webcam recordings.

7. ProTip: Instagram Messages on PC

You’ve probably learned that Instagram in a web browser is very different from Instagram on its native mobile app. But now you can finally send Instagram direct messages from the web version.

Read Lifehacker’s for the news.

8. Great Data: Social Distancing by Area

Reuters published a great map animation that shows how well people followed social distancing guidelines on a county level from February forward. We’ve looked at animations before, but this is a county level map and features data from 7 million devices.

See it here.

10. Coffee Break: If High Street Shopping was like online shopping

Is it Christmas in April? 

Sadly, no.  But you have a wonderful opportunity to tag along with Lucy and BBC One since you’ve become quite the expert at online retail over the past weeks. 

I just want some bread rolls!

Hey, we know you love us too since you’re down here at the bottom of the newsletter.  Would you do us a favor and forward this to someone who you think will enjoy Spotlight like you do? Tell them they can sign up for free by clicking the silver button below.

Here are three ways that we can help you:

1. Get a free SEO audit on our website.

2  Have a simple, fact-based question about digital marketing? Reply & ask George for free.

3. If your organization needs help with search, social media, or advertising, have a look at what we do.

See you Monday.

Good Monday morning. It’s April 6th.

The picture below is from the Washington D.C. waterfront on Saturday afternoon and was posted by Facebook user Christie Nieri Troxell. The one below that is from a park authority in Ohio that told local visitors “…it is in no way possible to keep a good distance from others [in overcrowded parks].”

In the simplest possible terms, you need to stay home and not visit parks or restaurant areas. Make sure you have groceries and enough of any medication you take. Being able to work from home is a privilege, not a vacation. If this sounds preachy, it’s because the people in these photos are contributing to the spread of COVID-19. We all get to have a say when people jeopardize our lives. 

How serious is this? The Pope and other Christian faith leaders have canceled in-person gathered worship services through long past Easter. The punchline is funny but indicates how serious world leaders consider the pandemic. They certainly haven’t taken these actions so that people can line up outside Captain White’s for seafood,

Reach out to George if you need to brainstorm about your organization doing new things in a digital way. We’ve already had these conversations with clients and friends. Now more than ever, we need to all work together and support each other.

Today’s Spotlight is 1,729 words, about a 7 minute read.

1. News to Know Now

a. Apple bought weather app Dark Sky, one of my favorites. As part of the acquisition, the Android version of the app known for its hyperlocal forecasts shuts down on June 30.

b. Facebook rolled out a new desktop version of Messenger (iOS or Windows) that is reportedly much easier to use. The app includes free group calls. Here is Facebook’s announcement along with images.

Last week’s poll results: Nearly all of you are working from home, and that’s good! If you don’t do that every day, it’s a hard adjustment. Ask someone who has done so for years for any hints or tips they have developed.

2. COVID-19 Online Resources and News

Trackers

Covidly — my go-to
Johns Hopkins — the one you see on the news
Covid Tracking Project — great for state level data (hospital beds, tests, etc.)

Big Tech is having pandemic issues too although thankfully we’re doing this in 2020 instead of 1970. Can you imagine stay-at-home orders without the Internet, grocery delivery, and access to  darn near any movie or music ever released?

Although scientists knew that a pandemic was likely, our reliance on Big Tech for functions like video conferencing and grocery delivery underscores the pivotal role companies like Amazon and Google play in our nation’s infrastructure. Amazon’s vaunted Prime delivery times have regressed as it deprioritized anything other than essential items. The company simply can’t hire enough delivery drivers or warehouse staff to keep up with orders. 

Companies like Netflix and YouTube have had to scale back the quality of their streaming. Before the pandemic, Netflix accounted for 15% of global internet traffic. YouTube and Amazon Prime video represented another 15 percent or so, which means that streaming video for everyone could cause problems for other internet traffic.

Zoom is one of the established internet companies currently having its moment in the sun after spending nearly a decade as a regular ol’ video conference provider. Big tech is often gargantuan and can scale for any issues. Zoom is a $600 million company and lacks the financial resources of Microsoft or Google. And although analysts are generally pleased with the way that Zoom is addressing problems now cropping up as its user base more than doubles in only one month, the company has had a number of unfortunate stumbles.

There are significant Zoom vulnerabilities that previously allowed people to view private calls or to take over a group call. Those have mostly been addressed, but Zoom has become one of the top apps targeted by bad actors. We’ve compiled a list of articles about Zoom for you. For now, there’s enough attention and activity that allow us to say that Zoom is still an acceptable tool for small businesses, but we’ve also contacted many of our clients that use Zoom or similar programs to tell them about the threats and give them options, notably a new form of Skype called Skype Now that offers free video conferencing.

Smartlinks: Zoom during the Pandemic

A Feature on Zoom Secretly Displayed Data From People’s LinkedIn Profiles — NY Times
Zoom Sends Data to Facebook Even if You Don’t Have a Facebook App — Motherboard
FBI Issues Warning, NY Attorney General Makes Inquiry into Zoom — Gizmodo
Thousands of Zoom Video Calls Left Exposed on Open Web — Washington Post
Skype Unveils Free Meet Now Video Calls — Tom’s Guide

3. Search Engine Optimization News

This is worth repeating from last week. If you run a business that is temporarily closed, there are Google processes for you to follow that will help inform potential visitors and keep your search visibility intact for when you reopen. You can also use this to designate different operating hours and canceled events.

Here is a link to their official guidance. If you run a small business and need help with this, we’re happy to lend you a hand. Click the silver “Write George” button at the bottom.

The internet is abuzz about a lawsuit in a UK court that could compel Google to disclose part or all of its search engine ranking algorithms to a digital marketing firm. Search Engine Journal addresses the case, which was filed eight years ago and dates back as early as 2006. In short, Google provided the relevant documents to the court and the plaintiffs are now arguing that they want their expert to review the documents. My favorite tweet from their expert was made back in 2015 when he wrote and linked to an article about, “Google steals over 550 million clicks from #Wikipedia in 6 months, Jimmy Wales confirms.”

As you collaborate remotely with more people, there are also new Google Drive shortcuts to help simplify folder structure and sharing. 9 to 5 Google unpacks them. 

IMPORTANT for federal and state agencies that publish information about COVID-19. Google has created a special, secret group that will provide hands-on technical support for search engine optimization to ensure that your agency’s information is visible to as many searchers as possible. I can’t think of them or any other search company ever doing this. There is an application to complete and admission is on a case-by-case basis only. But if your agency publishes this information, you can use help from Google in optimizing that information to be disseminated. Here is last week’s announcement.

4. Also in the Spotlight — Coronavirus Advertising

Google and Twitter have reversed their positions and will allow advertising that includes information about the pandemic. Many advertisers told the companies that they wanted to advertise about their organization’s response to the pandemic. Google and Twitter previously considered “COVID-19” and “coronavirus” as prohibited words in advertisements.

Making false advertising claims, especially related to health, remains illegal no matter what company accepts money for advertising. In theory, that should mean that all advertising claims are completely accurate. In practice that means that you should double-check everything, especially about your health, and not from someone trying to sell you something.

5. Following Up: Amazon Bans Most Medical Mask Sales

Amazon has justifiably been criticized for allowing third parties to sell items for inflated prices to panicky buyers. The retail giant has now banned the public from purchasing N95 and surgical masks on its site. The company is also banning the public from buying “facial shields, surgical gowns and gloves, and large volume sanitizers.” Organizations with medical necessity for those items must complete a qualification process.

The story at Recode.

6. Debugging: There is No Phone Number to Track Stimulus Payments

I know that we shouldn’t have to say this, but apparently we do. Do not believe anyone who posts that there is a special telephone number to track your federal stimulus payment. While we’re on the subject, you do not receive a stimulus payment for completing the census either, but look, it’s only a few minutes, and it’s the law. 

Snopes debunking the phone number claim that it charitably attributes to April Fools’ Day.

7. ProTip: Use Amazon Echo as TV Speaker

We’re all spending a little more time at home and if that means a bigger crowd around your television, we have a how to for you that explains how an Amazon Echo device can buttress your television’s speakers.

Learn how at PCMag

8. Great Data: Where Americans Are Getting News

I’ll bet that you’re thinking that the CDC and NIH websites are not the top sources for U.S. adults seeking COVID-19 information, and if you are, congratulations for your correct guess. eMarketer is out with its timely Q1 Social Media Update along with some great data and visualizations. 

Most adults say that they’re getting their information about the novel coronavirus from TV or news websites. Social media was third, and those pesky federal agency websites were fourth.

Get all the data here. 

9.  Screening Room: Jack Daniels & Social Distancing

10. Coffee Break: Every Second

I’m a big fan of this Neal Agarwal site that shows you in non-pandemic times how often things occur online, at famous places like Disney, on Uber, or even at McDonalds.

Spend a few moments watching the counters grow.

Hey, we know you love us too since you’re down here at the bottom of the newsletter.  Would you do us a favor and forward this to someone who you think will enjoy Spotlight like you do? Tell them they can sign up for free.

Here are three ways that we can help you:

1. Get a free SEO audit on our website.

2  Have a simple, fact-based question about digital marketing? Reply & ask George for free.

3. If your organization needs help with search, social media, or advertising, have a look at what we do.

See you Monday.

Good Monday morning. It’s March 30th. 

Thirty more days minimum. Pray if you pray. Help others however you can. Be kind to each other. This is our generation’s time to pull together in a fight where every single person has a role. Please take care of each other.

Reach out to George if you need to brainstorm about your organization doing new things in a digital way. We’ve already had these conversations with clients and friends. Now more than ever, we need to all work together and support each other.

Today’s Spotlight is 1,339 words, about a 5 minute read.

1. News to Know Now

a. Pinterest’s “Verified Merchant” designation is now available to all organizations. When I talk with Professor Dakin’s marketing classes at GMU, I’m constantly reminded how much Late Millennials and Gen Z use Pinterest as a medium for their own creativity. Get more info on applying here.

b. Whisper, the secret-sharing app that people used to tell serious stuff that was allegedly true, was leaking data and left years of user information including their secrets, age, location, and other data accessible online. More than one million of the users self-reported their age as 15. The Washington Post was able to browse nearly 900 million user records from the last eight years. Read WaPo coverage here.

c. Android apps can query your device and report back the name of other installed apps, which can allow researchers to determine gender, religion, relationship status, and even predict impending life events like marriage or parenthood. When queried, some app developers claimed not to know that the data was being harvested. More at Naked Security.

Last week’s poll results: The results were unanimous that we should keep producing COVID-19 online info each week as necessary. This week’s ONE CLICK POLL is at the end of the newsletter and asks if you’re working from home (or working at all).

2. COVID-19 Online Resources and News

Trackers

Covidly — my go-to
Johns Hopkins – the one you see on the news
NY Times infections by U.S. county (free)

You’ve probably heard about phone monitoring being used to understand how COVID-19 spread is caused by people gathering in groups and traveling. The most extreme example was on the beaches of Fort Lauderdale during the first two weeks of March. Tectonix GEO isolated the identity of phones gathered on the beach during that time and then mapped their spread back across the country. How? Well, your mobile company sells data to location companies like Tectonix GEO. 

Click here for the 75 second video on Twitter. Turn on the volume to hear the explanation.

You’ve undoubtedly also heard that a Google-sister company agreed to work with California to test a drive up processing and tracking system. Their demo video is below.

3. Search Engine Optimization News

If you run a business that is temporarily closed, there are Google processes for you to follow that will help inform potential visitors and keep your search visibility intact. You can also use this to designate different operating hours.

Here is a link to their official guidance. If you run a small business and need help with this, we’re happy to lend you a hand. Click the silver “Write George” button at the bottom.

Google also will disallow businesses from advertising about passports, visas, and other government document services such as driver’s licenses, birth, death, or marriage certificates, and applications for government benefits. The official announcement is here.

Google search results will also begin showing the place where an embedded video on a company’s website originates. For example, the video above is from YouTube and will be on our website. When the video shows in Google results, it will show its origin of YouTube rather than our website. We’ve told you before how Google is intent on diminishing the brandability of website URLs and wants to promote content sources like video repositories. Interestingly enough, their parent company owns the world’s largest.

4. Also in the Spotlight — YouTube Quality

Bandwidth congestion is going to be a challenge for most communities over the coming weeks. As more organizations embrace video conferencing and school systems bring kids to online learning, we’re going to have slowdowns and need to exercise patience. The adage of never knowing a person until you see how they act with slow connectivity exists for a reason.

YouTube and Netflix already reduced video quality to standard in Europe. YouTube will soon make standard definition its new global norm. You will be able to access high definition settings if you must, but please make that a rare occurrence. 

Bloomberg coverage

5. Following Up: Twitter Axes Giuliani Disinformation

This isn’t political. We’ve told you that social media orgs and search engines vowed to crack down on COVID-19 misinformation. We’ve seen them make similar vows about conspiracy theories and other disinformation, but this pandemic is empowering many people to make a stand for accuracy.

Pundit Charlie Kirk tweeted a claim that the medicines proposed by the president had 100% efficacy in treating COVID-19. The tweet also made a false claim about Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer. 

Twitter properly deleted that tweet because the medicine that the president wants to test for COVID-19 does not have any proven track record. Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani then posted the entire text of the tweet on his account. Twitter promptly deleted that Giuliani disinformation tweet as well, leaving this message in its place: “This Tweet violated the Twitter Rules.”

Our take: Corporations like Twitter Inc. aren’t required to show any person’s information. There’s no first amendment issue. And we think that it’s time for the world to start embracing science and data instead of conspiracy theories and rumors. Twitter has taken a great first step down that path.

Still, it’s the internet. Don’t believe everything you read. Except, you know, Spotlight.

6. Debugging: Congressional Pay in Stimulus Bill

Multiple memes claimed that Congress was sneaking in $25 million in pay raises for itself in the latest stimulus bill. Sometimes doing the arithmetic helps: a $50K raise per member was going to make national headlines.

The amount quoted by the memes was for the House Child Care Center, food service contracts, and teleworking during the pandemic. You can read the rest of the debunking at FactCheck.

7. ProTip: Windows 10 Graphing Calculator

Your child may be restarting classes without that fancy-schmancy graphing calculator that they need for, um, graphs, and calculating.

Read how to activate the free one in Windows 10.

8. Great Data: The U.S. Water Crisis

First, you really should understand this issue. When we get to go back outside, it’s time to work on climate change, and water is a big problem everywhere. 

But first we want you to see this data visualization winner that embraces colors, zooms, captions, maps, and more to create a stunning short presentation of a remarkably complex topic.

Click and then scroll through Andrew Levinson’s The US Water Crisis. 

9.  Screening Room: Budweiser One Team

10. Coffee Break:  Easter Eggs in Swiss Maps

An Easter Egg is a hidden message or joke inside software. But it’s apparently been practiced by Switzerland’s official mapmakers for years, too. 

Check out AIGA’s great story: “Cartographers Have Been Hiding Covert Illustrations Inside of Switzerland’s Official Maps.

Hey, we know you love us too since you’re down here at the bottom of the newsletter.  Would you do us a favor and forward this to someone who you think will enjoy Spotlight like you do? Tell them they can sign up for free by clicking the silver button below.

Here are three ways that we can help you:

1. Get a free SEO audit on our website.

2  Have a simple, fact-based question about digital marketing? Reply & ask George for free.

3. If your organization needs help with search, social media, or advertising, have a look at what we do.

See you Monday.