Curiosity Alert: SEO Changes due to Google's Latest "Freshness" Update

This is really off the topic but a new trouble for some of the people maintaining their blogs and sites on periodic basis.

Not so recently, I noticed that this blog had lost its visibility in search results without me contributing much to it. I thought primarily that it was due to excessive ads displayed on the blog. So I removed all affiliate links to maintain the SEO visibility but still could not manage to improve the search rankings.

Next thing I came to know was that Google had rolled out a fresh update called "Freshness" to increase the popularity of sites that contained more fresh content. Although it did not make sense to me but it had caused enough damage to my knowledge sharing efforts.

 SEO and Freshness from Google

Tech Crunch stated as follows on the Freshness update:

"Google’s most recent algorithm update was announced last week as an extension of its previous “Caffeine” update. The so-called “freshness update,” as it’s called, aims deliver more current and relevant search results, specifically in areas where the most recent content matters. This includes things like current events, hot topics, reviews and breaking news items."

 This primarily means that niche sites that do not have much information to be updated on daily basis have lost their visibility in the Google's search rankings.

So let's hope that Google does not boost search rankings for sites churning out garbage everyday and ignore quality sites for just the matter that they are not being updated on daily basis.

Or least Google does some thing to boost Blogger.com rankings to keep bloggers motivated.

Potential of Privacy Leak due to Social Networks on a Mobile Device

Cell phones and wireless communication has evolved with light speed over the past few years. We have seen a shift of an era starting from Ericsson's giant walki talkies to Apple's iPhones. Cell phones and mobile devices today have changed from a mere communication devices used for simply calling your loved ones or communicating business deals to a medium used for sophisticated data transfer.

However, this improvement in technology have brought an immense danger of privacy leak that can potentially happen due to a smart phone.

Imagine, you are using Facebook or Twitter on your cell and your device also has GPS capabilities, which most of the devices have today. For some of you, who does not know what GPS stands for, it is a location tracking system which is called (Global Positioning System). Any GPS enabled device has the ability to send signals to another GPS device to communicate its exact location. I have already discussed the Facebook and Twitter tracking scenario in previous blog posts. What happens if Facebook or Twitter's mobile version has the ability to tap your exact location based upon your device's GPS signals? They would know where you are at a certain point of time. Won't they? Without you ever authorizing them to find you. Isn't it a privacy leak?

Social Networks and Privacy Leaks on Mobile Devices

And well, it does not only have to wait for GPS functionality. Normal data transfer over mobile social networks can even cause a user to leave traces for his/her friends so that they might know where he has been.

Social network on a mobile device has an immense potential of unintended privacy leaks for any user. Question really matters as how the privacy changed in the internet age. Or do we have to redefine the definition of privacy in the internet age?