For many of us, Google is a life line to the worlds information…..anytime we have a question, we “Google it”…….type in a few words and voila….there you are….pages and pages of information related to your search. There is, however, a controversy brewing regarding companies taking advantage of Google’s search engine and adwords by purchasing “pay per click” ads that use a competitors name in their ads.

For example, if company A and B are competitors, A can buy an ad using B’s name. When someone searches on B, Google will show links for both companies. To make it worse, the paid ad will at times appear above the “natural search” link…..making the competitors ad come up FIRST. Now companies have to pay to be the first link for their own name.

Think about it….this does not happen in any other marketing or media. If I buy commercial time on Fox Baltimore, my competitor’s ad does not run before or during my ad. If I buy an ad in the Daily Record, my competitor cannot make sure that his ad runs at the same time.

Pay per click ads are displayed on Google’s search pages and are a major source of revenue for Google. Each ad is presented as several words and a link on the top and on the right side of all the natural search terms. When you click on the link, Google is paid a small sum that is usually from pennies to a couple of dollars. Most of Google’s revenue comes from pay per click ads as they are paid every time someone clicks and they serve millions of ads on a daily basis.

So why is this a problem?
The problem is on many levels….first of all, it allows a competitor to “profit” from their competitors marketing and branding. Every time someone searches for your company and/or product names, your competitor’s ads will be displayed at the same time and potentially take business from you. Some reports indicate that this could cause confusion in the marketplace since more than one companies information is presented when a customer/prospect searches on a company name. Lastly, this forces you to “pay” for your own name…..since you are now bidding against your competitor for your name to come up first in the search ads that are displayed.

So what should you do?
If you have a business website, then you should go to Google as well as all the other search engines. Search on your company name and see what results you get. Pay particular attention to the paid search ads that come up. You should perform this search at least once a month. If you find that your competitor is coming up every time you search, then you should consider contacting your attorney to see what your options are.

This article was contributed by guest blogger Tim Kulp.

In 2008, SQL Injection attacks were up 134% from 2007 according to IBM’s X-Force report (http://www-935.ibm.com/services/us/iss/xforce/trendreports/xforce-2008-annual-report.pdf). Previous years have seen Cross Site Scripting as the main attack vector but this year hackers went for the web application’s jugular by attacking the very data foundation of the system. 

SQL Injection attacks occur when a user placing SQL commands directly into the controls on a web page, like a textbox. These commands tell the database to do something other than the action intended by the developers. An example SQL Injection would be to delete all the rows in a table, return schema information about the database or access data such as user information. Crafty attackers can even use SQL Injection as their initial attack method but then snowball the attack into a collaboration of Cross Site Scripting (XSS) and Clickjacking. When you examine the possible damage done by a SQL Injection, the outcomes can be frightening.

The good news is the SQL Injection attacks are easy for developers to defend against. The first and most simple protective step is to use Stored Procedures to call the database instead of direct SQL statements. Instead of dynamically building out a SELECT statement with dynamic WHERE clause, use a Stored Procedure with parameters. Another measure to stop SQL Injection, and perhaps the most important one, ALWAYS validate the data that is coming into the system. Many development frameworks have Anti-SQL Injection capabilities such as the ASP.NET Regular Expression validator control and the Custom Validator control. Check incoming values for SQL comments or key words such as DELETE, CREATE, DROP, etc… Remember, check more than your textboxes when validating. Hackers will not use the site how you expect them to and will craft their own HTTP POST messages to force values that are not possible using your site.

When in doubt, try SQL Injection on your own site or hire a contractor to check your site for you. There are many automated tools on the web that will check for SQL Injection flaws in a site and many of them are free. In the end remember, validate requests, use stored procedures and log every action that is coming into and out of your data store.

Web applications are currently the hot targets for hackers. With SQL Injection being a popular and easy attack, developers must make sure that they are protecting their sites. Being aware of threats and proactive in securing your site will reduce your attack surface leaving the developers, users and business happy and safe.

Do you do the ChaCha? It is fun and NOT a dance that your Mom did in the 50’s!!!

Ever want an answer to a question only to have your favorite search engine give you pages and pages of potential places to find the answer…..instead of just the answer!!! Well, ChaCha fixes this issue, by using a mix of technology and human experts to find you the answer you are seeking and send it to you via a text message.

ChaCha is a question answering service which uses a technique known as the Human search engine. This means that humans assist in the search to provide answers and not a long list of places to look for the answer. This is called “human-guided search”

The humans that help are called guides and come in four varieties….Expeditors, Generalists, Specialists and Transcribers.

Expeditors categorize questions, convert them into standard form, provide direct responses for certain question types, and also make sure that an answer doesn’t already exist for that question.

The Generalist, finds an answer to most of the questions using the internet, formats the answer into a text message, and formats the answer to give it a human quality….almost conversational…..they call this the “magic”.

Specialists are expert guides for those tough questions. They have all of the same purposes as a Generalist but they sign up for specific categories of questions based on their interest in and knowledge of those categories.

Transcribers listen to questions recorded by customers who call into 1-800-2ChaCha then convert the recorded message into text form so that Generalists and Specialists can answer them.

Expeditors receive $0.03 per question, and transcribers receive $0.04 to transcribe a message. Generalists and Specialists receive between $0.10 and $0.22 for each answer. A guide may work as little, or as much as they would like from the comfort of their homes. ChaCha tells potential guides that the average earnings are $3 to $9 per hour.

Try it…it is incredibly simple. The best part of ChaCha is how easy it is to use…..simply text a question to 242242 (chacha) or call 1-800-2ChaCha. All answers come via text to your phone and usually in a minute or two…..pretty quick. This is good as time is of the essence with a lot of questions. Questions submitted via text are limited to 4 in every 7 days. There is no limit to questions submitted via telephone.

Have fun with this….when you need an answer quickly don’t want to or can’t look it up….www.chacha.com is the answer.

On Friday we launched a brand new redesign of g1440.com, and as cliche as it must sound… we’re pretty excited!

Here’s what John Hill, our Vice President of IT Solutions had to say:

Good People of G.1440, you gotta check out our new website! At the end of a Friday workday and workweek, take a moment and check it out. You’ll be very impressed with your company and your team of web designers, developers and marketing experts. The new site is a GEM.

Kudos to Matt Deville for leading the effort (and producing most of the design and graphics all by his little ‘ole self) and special thanks to Tim, Buddie, Nat, and Adam for all their hard word. It’s a real beauty, folks…

Stay tuned… spring is springing and so is G.1440.

Have a great weekend. We’ve got a lot to celebrate!”