Can you use “equals”, “equal to”, “=” in an SEO page title?
I was just doing a few tests and wondered, from an SEO standpoint, could you use an equal to symbol (=) in a page title, and would it display properly in a SERP? Don't ask me why... it's just something I was curious about!
I will obviously update this post once the results are in :)
Full Tilt Poker License Revoked
Following on from my post back in June when Full Tilt's License had been suspended, it has just been announced that the Alderney Gambling Control Commission have revoked Full Tilt Poker's license with immediate effect.
Here is the announcement from the AGCC in full:
AGCC Commissioners, sitting as a tribunal, have today revoked the licences of Vantage Limited, Filco Limited and Oxalic Limited, trading as Full Tilt Poker (FTP), with immediate effect. This follows the earlier suspension of the licences on 29th June 2011.
At a hearing held in London over six days, it emerged that FTP had fundamentally misled AGCC about their operational integrity by continuously reporting as liquid funds balances that had been covertly seized or restrained by US authorities, or that were otherwise not actually available to the operator. Serious breaches of AGCC regulations include false reporting, unauthorised provision of credit, and failure to report material events.
At the commencement of these proceedings on 26th July, AGCC made clear its preference to hold the hearing in public, to the benefit of players and media alike. However, the tribunal was persuaded that the hearing should be held in camera on the basis of claims by FTP that this would maximise the chance of a commercial rescue of the business for the benefit of players. For this reason an adjournment of 54 days was allowed.
It is important to note that the revocation of FTP’s licences does not, as has been suggested, prevent a reactivation of the business under new ownership and management. Unresolved claims by players against FTP become a matter for the police and civil authorities. Now that FTP’s licences have been revoked, AGCC no longer has jurisdiction over these companies.
The licence of Orinic Limited, a recently added geographic sub-division of the FTP poker room, remains suspended.
The determination notice containing the decision of the Commissioners and reasons for it is available athttp://www.gamblingcontrol.org/userfiles/file/Determination%20Notice%20290911.pdf
What this means for the players who are still trying to extract their funds from FTP is as yet unknown, but it certainly isn't looking good...
How to get the Facebook Timeline Profile Update
I registered my interest for the new Facebook Timeline profile a week or so ago but it hadn't activated, so I had a search and found an article about how Facebook Developers using OpenGraph were being given access to Timeline already. So, here's how to sign up to be a Facebook Developer (don't worry, it's just going through the motions) and get the new Timeline:
Become a Facebook Developer
Search for the Developer App on Facebook using your search bar:
and accept the relevant permissions:
Create an OpenGraph Enabled App
Don't worry, you're not going to publish the app or anything like that, we're merely going through the motions so your Facebook profile is flagged as Developer. Click on Create New App within the Developer home page:
and give it a name and namespace, anything will do:
You'll be prompted with a CAPTCHA at this point, just fill it in and move on to the OpenGraph tab on the left hand side of the App page:
Now, OpenGraph allows apps to use the notifications where "X is [action] a [thing]" - eg: "Andy is reading some news on Newspaper". It does this by having certain words, etc, built into the app. Fill the main ones in here:
You can simply click "Save Changes and Next" on the following two pages and "Save and Finish" the final page.
Enable Facebook Timeline
Now, go back to Facebook, click on your name at the top right to go to your profile and you'll be presented with a notification for your new Facebook Timeline profile:
All done :)
No More PPC Brand Bidding?
Back in December of 2008, two large companies in the UK went head to head in the High Court in London over something completely and utterly intangible: a brand name. The offending company wasn't using the trademarked brand name, nor were they copying it or trying to sell a product as that trademarked brand - they were simply bidding on that keyword on Google's AdWords PPC platform so their advert shows when a user searches for "interflora":
The trademark in question is Interflora, the offender, none other than UK high street superbrand: Marks & Spencer. You can read more about that case over on The Register, but yesterday's news is of much more importance.
Yesterday, the EU Court of Justice (full judgement can be found here) ruled in Interflora's favour stating that M&S are in breach of trademarks in place and should not be allowed to profit off of someone else's trademark. The UK High Court needs to now follow suit with the Court of Justice's ruling, which Interflora expect to happen during the course of 2012.
If/Once the High Court applies this change, this will set the precedent for all other companies to block their competitors from bidding on brand names thus taking away potential profits from that company. That leaves a really important question ringing through my head:
Will Google block people from advertising on partial brand names?
For example, could I bid on "inter flowers" "flora inter" etc? The reason I ask, is because within this great iGaming industry in which I work, there are a lot of major players who have a pretty important word in their brand name: bet. If no partial brand-bidding will be allowed either, is it going to be a matter of advertising spend that decides on who gets to use "bet" as part of their brand name? Betfred (who, incidentally finally relaunched their site after over a year of planning, preparation, development and deployment), Betfair, Bet365, 188Bet, SkyBet, SportingBet, UniBet, BetDaq and plenty more will be fighting over it!
Broke My Humerus
and no, it wasn't very funny.
As some of you may or may not know, I broke my arm pretty much in half back on the 30th of March this year in a rugby accident. It's been a long road to recovery and I recently got the news that the metalwork they had put in to stabilise the break back in June has failed, quite catastrophically.
In order to keep a record (as well as keep myself sane), I have decided to backdate everything that happened thus far on a seperate blog and I'm currently in the process of writing up the posts.
For now, I've got an appointment with the surgeon tomorrow to discuss what to do about the buggered metal in my arm and to formulate some plan of action. I leave you with a link: Never Fracture Your Humerus and a picture:
Recent SEO (ish) Posts
- Can you use “equals”, “equal to”, “=” in an SEO page title?
- Full Tilt Poker License Revoked
- How to get the Facebook Timeline Profile Update
- No More PPC Brand Bidding?
- Broke My Humerus
My Twitterings
- Pie! (@ The Hung Drawn and Quartered) http://t.co/LiVfhzbZ
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