MyCleanPC.com - Buyer Beware

Here's an edited version of the commercial with a humorous end, but the only bit I could come up with on short notice:



Now this has been around for a few years, and that tells me that someone's making a heap-load of money because it's become even more prevalent on television in the past few months. Or maybe I'm watching more late-night television.


More Than 3 Seconds

So aside from the spokesman looking and sounding like he's nursing a nasty cold (purposeful? virus?), the line that always bugs me is "Does it take more than three seconds for your email to load?"

What exactly does that mean?

• Should I be clocking Outlook to see if the program opens in 3 seconds?
• Should I be clocking the email load once Outlook opens?
• Should I be clocking how long it takes to complete a send/receive request?
• Is it how long it takes my browser to open in the process of checking online email?
• Maybe the length of time it takes to bring up Gmail?
• Does typing time count?
• What's a jiffy?!
• I'm so confused!

That's just my off-the-cuff process. Many people watch that commercial and respond "Yeah, slow email: bad."

And then they've got you.

But here's a tip: the whole thing is meant to be vague, indirect, and misleading, especially to people who find computers to be a little complicated and confusing.


What's the Harm?

You're going to go to their website and you'll see the giant green button and the word FREE all over the place and OMG you computer's so slow *click* and you're downloading and installing the executable file which will scan your registry. And it will tell you that you have registry errors. Want to fix them?

Oh, that's easy. We just have to discuss the little issue of purchasing the activation for the software so it can fix your computer.

Ah, but you're savvy, so you looked ...all over ...two links? Why won't they tell me how much it is before I scan and then have to buy it?

Exactly.

MyCleanPC.com is shilling for a program called CyberDefender. I don't care if it's the best dang registry scanner in the fracking world: The deliberate misdirection and manipulation of people who very simply may not know better is a SHADY practice and something to be abhorred.

Feel free to contact them to let them know they're shady.


But What Can I DO?

I know. I understand. Your computer is still slow and the most obvious solution on the teevee is actually a potentially dangerous bogeyman. Why not take a look at my post on The FREE Way to Clean & Protect Your Computer. It is completely legit: It highlights truly free programs that I have found work quite well and I get absolutely nothing for telling you about them. This is about making you a more savvy consumer.


That's one down. What scams or shady practices have you run into recently or in the past? Hit me in the comments and don't be afraid of the sidebar - I'm always available in a variety of ways and happy to take the time to chat about your thoughts or questions.


P.S. Depending on the branch of science, jiffy has several definitions as a length of time.

Another Note on Drudgery

Earlier this week, I caught another praise for traffic over at The Drudge Report that went like this, captured in all-caps glory with bonus ellipsis:

A TRILLION THANKS FOR MAKING AUGUST 2009 THE TOP AUGUST IN DRUDGEREPORT'S 14 YEAR HISTORY! VIEWERS FROM ALL CORNERS HIT THE PAGE 669,392,126 TIMES, UP 8% OVER AUGUST 2008 [614,577,960]...

I'm rehashing this because I am not a fan of cheaters and I've covered this from a web programmer's standpoint. Please check out my post on how Matt Drudge is gaming the system and why the numbers are misleading. Both interesting and informative.

French Phishing!

My French may be a little rusty, but I can spot a scam email a mile away. In all my years of broken English lottery or money transfer spam, a foreign language one is a new one on me. Thought you might enjoy:

Très Chère;

Depuis notre dernière rencontre à la diaspora internationale du bénin sur Internet, je n’ai pas laissé votre E-mail adresse;

Dans le seul but de rentrer en communication plus profond avec vous dans un cadre bénéfique a tous deux. Par ailleurs je passe par cette opportunité précieuse pour vous proposer une affaire d’une grande importance ;

Je voudrais sollicité votre aimable et discrète concours pour la récupération d’une mallette contenant une importante somme de: (§12,000.000.00us) douze millions de dollars us.

Ainsi je vous faire comprendre que c’es après le crashe d’avion Libanaise qui c’étais produis en décembre 2003 en Afrique notamment au Bénin que mon feux patron a aussi connu la mort ;

C’est bien là que je suis rentré en possession de ces fonds ; Alors pour ne pas susciter l’attention malveillante des autorités compétentes de la banque ;

J’ai déposé la mallette dans une maison de haute sécurité de bien privé, ou j’ai déclaré que elle comporte des documents précieux pour un partenaire qui viendra la récupérer dès sa présence.

Alors très chère ami je vous propose si vous acceptez mon offre une commission total de 20%sur la somme total dont 5% pour couvrir vos petite dépenses effectuer pour la réussite de cette l'affaire.

Espérant vous relire sous une bonne discrétion.


Contact Téléphone : (00229) 93- 30-49- 33

Cordialement Monsieur Christ Prince

It's Twitter! Somebody Call 9-1-1!

Twitter is apparently back online after a Denial of Service attack earlier today disappeared it from the internets. However, on the best of days Twitter can have a tough time keeping up with traffic. With one hand fighting the continuing attack and the other trying to keep it online and millions of people more insistent than ever to get on and update and thousands who never would hearing about the DoS attack and pinging the address and a handful of malicious fools sitting all morning hitting F5 because they have some misplaced aggression targeted directly at Twitter users, I'm guessing it's going to be a while.

(Why Twitter? Is the Iranian government posturing for the aftermath of Ahmadinejad's swearing in?)

The interesting thing is how one link in the social media chain breaks and everything else falters a bit. Twitter is down so when I post this, I won't be able to tweet about it for a while and that reduces potential clients getting to my website. So I'll settle for posting it on my facebook account and EJM Designs Limited fanpage for now and might even resort to friendfeed, which I just posted on my friendfeed is "like reading when the electricity goes out."

But we'll carry on. We'll bring out the candles and cards and Trouble with its pop-o-matic bubble. And we'll wait and hope and flinch every time a car goes by because maybe, just maybe, the power is back.

Old News Education: Flash Can Still Kill SEO

I would say that [potential] client education is one of the most important parts of what I do. And sometimes I forget, because I do it all day long all the time, that there are still some items that need clarification to most people. Today's education will talk briefly about Flash animation and how it should and should not be used.

There are basically 2 points:

1) Flash will kill your search engine optimization (SEO) - still
Search engines are still having trouble with Flash websites. While Google and those other two or three have said they are making strides to pick up on that Flashy content, it is still a crippling venture to choose to develop your entire website in that flowing, textured beauty (when done well, of course).

In the very best case scenarios and future scenarios where the search engines can pick up every word of copy on your site, your Flash site is still, functionally, a single page because the entire Flash piece exists on one page. So even if you have hundreds of Flash "pages" of content, even if you knock out best practice SEO for that page aside from the Flash bulk, you have an entire site that is essentially your homepage. And that's it. And you are effectively irrelevant.

I'm specifically nailing this to the ground right now because we had a nice little chat about it at Podcamp Ohio 2 and I just saw - today - that one of my favorite places to get a haircut and massage redid their website: entirely in Flash. Almost 1/3 of my business over the last year has been re-designing the work of a mediocre - or worse - designer/developer. And that shouldn't happen.

The people and businesses who are in the market for a website redesign need to know this information and the development companies providing these sites are either ignorant or deliberately misleading for the "wow" factor. And that makes me sad for the businesses and angry at the service providers.

Now, with that said...

2)Flash is NOT the Devil
Flash is - and has been since its inception - an excellent and attractive (again, if done well)addition to a site. If you want some of that pretty-pretty moving picture stuff on your site and don't want to make it invisible by creating the entire site in Flash, that is the preferred method of execution. The only thing that you must remember is that any text that lives in Flash components is potentially un-readable to search engines. So either reiterate that in copy or keep it to lovely images retaining all copy for straight-forward HTML text.


In the spirit of full disclosure, I am a web designer and developer that works hard for my clients to get them the best SEO results. In the spirit of honesty: I'd rather see a business spend money elsewhere knowing what they really need to purchase as opposed to wasting money and ending up with me, angry, distrustful, and just wishing they'd done it right the first time.

Get it right the first time: Never pay for a website that is entirely designed in Flash.

UK Not "Too Much" Big Brother

From the AP:

The British government said Monday it wants communications companies to keep records of every phone call, e-mail and Web site visit made in the country. But it has decided not to set up a national database of the information, a proposal that had been condemned as a "Big Brother"-style invasion of privacy by civil liberties groups.
...
Under current rules, British Internet service providers are already required to store records of Web and e-mail traffic for a year. The new proposals would also require them to retain details of communications that originated in other countries but passed across British networks - for example if someone in Britain accessed a U.S.-based e-mail account.

Quick recap: under current law, communications companies are required to keep info on web and email traffic in Britain for a year. New law says all phone is to be added as well as any communication even passing through Britain. And they think a centralized database would be overbearing? This is ALREADY Big Brother. They're placating some of the masses by requiring a phone call or email from the police as opposed to just having it there for them? And that's not to mention how ripe it is for stealing, losing, or abuse.

Does this sit well with you? How do you feel about information privacy and technology? I'd love to hear what you think.

Domain Hosting - What You Don't Know Will Cost You

I've spent some time discussing the sad state of affairs that exists because some people are simply ignorant about what it means to hire a professional and expect a professional website. Unfortunately, that ignorance of the basic day-to-day dealings of the internets can hit people in many different ways, one being Domain Name Hosting.

To clarify: I'm talking about where the name of your website lives, not where the website files themselves are hosted. Yes, those can both be in the same place, and yes you can get ripped off on web hosting, but we're focusing on Domain Name Hosting. Web hosting is a completely different beast.

In the last month, I've run into two separate clients who sent me a copy of their domain name hosting renewal statements. These hosting companies were Domain Registry of America and Affordable Multimedia. Both of these companies were charging between $25 and $30 per year to renew the domain name. If I had not intervened, both clients would have unknowingly paid 3x what they should have.

Affordable Multimedia's email was especially pernicious. It stated that if you let your domain name lapse, it would be suspended and require an additional activation fee.

[Mini-lesson: What happens when your domain name expires
Nothing. When your domain name expires, it immediately belongs to no one and can be purchased by anyone. Which means that if Affordable Multimedia's email is true, what they are actually doing is sniping, or purchasing your domain name as soon as it is expired for the express purpose of holding it ransom for extra money. They are also counting on the fact that you don't know what actually happens and do not understand that this is unethical. But now you do.]

To be clear:
You should never pay more than $10 per year to own your domain name (as long as they're .com, .org, .net).

Now, I'm not fancy enough to endorse for a profit, but I will call out three names that I've had experience with in the past that will not rip you off: godaddy.com, eNom.com, and namecheap.com. For an added (corporate) layer of credibility, GoDaddy and eNom are the referral sites Google Apps lets you choose from if you want to buy your own domain name through them.

I'm sure readers have their own good and bad experiences. Please share your + and - companies in the comments!

Google Street View Goes Wrong

Because Fridays are a little more aloof...


Run, Bambi, Run!

This is one of the images captured by the Google Street View truck. The rest are not so great. Hit the link below to see the sad story unfold.

Yes, it's as bad as you think.

h/t to Peng Xiao