Why should it even matter?

Because Google knows lots about you.  It knows about you because you have shared with them what you search for, what kind of videos you like on YouTube, which circles you move in on Google+ and who you correspond with on Gmail.  And you have told them that it’s perfectly fine for them to do so.

When did you tell them that?  Every time you use the service as well as explicitly giving consent when you accept the terms to use services like Gmail.

“By using our Services, you are agreeing to these terms. Please read them carefully.” – From the new Terms of Service Policy

I’m not saying that Google is the evil empire.  In fact they do better than many in my opinion when it comes to making privacy policies clear and giving you options to opt out of sharing your data.  Facebook collects even more personal data under murkier privacy rules and we’ve been happily giving away our spending habits to credit card companies for decades.

It is simply wise to understand what you are giving away when you agree to share your data.

For example, here is the new policy terms relating to the content that you publish:

“Your Content in our Services

Some of our Services allow you to submit content. You retain ownership of any intellectual property rights that you hold in that content. In short, what belongs to you stays yours.

When you upload or otherwise submit content to our Services, you give Google (and those we work with) a worldwide license to use, host, store, reproduce, modify, create derivative works (such as those resulting from translations, adaptations or other changes we make so that your content works better with our Services), communicate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute such content. The rights you grant in this license are for the limited purpose of operating, promoting, and improving our Services, and to develop new ones. This license continues even if you stop using our Services (for example, for a business listing you have added to Google Maps). Some Services may offer you ways to access and remove content that has been provided to that Service. Also, in some of our Services, there are terms or settings that narrow the scope of our use of the content submitted in those Services. Make sure you have the necessary rights to grant us this license for any content that you submit to our Services…”

From the new terms of service, Emphasis mine

So in other words:

• Content that I produce belongs to me
• But Google has the right to use, reproduce and even create derivative works…. anywhere in the world
• Not only that but that licence carries on indefinitely, even if I stop using the service
• They limit that right by only using my content for the benefit of their own services and do not sell this information

This is generally a good thing and I want them to use the information.  I am publishing this blog for example. I want Google to read it, index it and reproduce it in their search results.  But if I were a protester in Syria right now I would be pretty concerned about what I write and where it may be stored to appear later.

From a business point of view, these new and improved policies should allow better ad targeting across the Google services.  This should be of benefit to the end user with more relevant, and thus less disruptive, advertising appearing.

I should commend Google on making the policies easy to understand and writing them in good ole plain English.

Is summary, nothing is really free

We use Google every day for all kinds of reasons.  It has a important impact on the way we live and work online and therefore we should take the time to understand what it costs us to use that service.  Nothing is really free online, information is the currency you hand over for the benefit of using the service.  Just be careful in what you are willing to give and why.

This is the little, often overlooked, text snippit in the footer of most web sites that says something to the effect of “”Copyright 2012 Some Company.  All rights reserved.”

There are several good reasons for keeping the year current on your web site.

1. Audience. First and foremost consider the impression your visitors will make of your web site when they notice that your copyright date is set to 2007.  Does that mean you have not updated your site in 5 years?  It can be enough to cause the visitor to click the back button and head to the next site.
2. Search Engines. While it is unclear whether search engines use copyright date as a factor when ranking the page, it probably does have an impact on the quality score.  An old copyright notice date indicates that the site is not maintained and therefore suggests the information may also be out of date and unreliable.  Google is big on the quality of the page and a very old date most likely has negative effect on your search rankings.
3. Legal.  Obvious I know, but the copyright notice is a legal statement and not just window dressing for the site.  The content you produce is unique and should not be in the public domain unless you expressly want to make it available.  If your notice states your material was copyrighted in 2009 is everything you produced since fair game?   I recommend using a date spread for your copyright notice.  State the year your site was launched up to the present year (eg. copyright © 2009 - 2012).  This covers all content produced in this time and also demonstrates longevity of the site for your audience.

How to update the copyright notice

•  HTML: you’ll need to update your code.  It is typically hiding in the footer area of your page.  In your preferred html editor, do a search for the previous year to track it down.  Or check out the exact copyright notice as it appears on your site now.  Then using your editor do a site wide search and replace.  Warning: don’t do a blanket search and replace for the year only (“2011″ replaced by “2012″ for example).  This could wipe out any date specific content on your site.  Use a specific search like “Copyright © 2011 Newgate” and replace with  ”Copyright © 2012 Newgate”.
• WordPress: the copyright can be tucked away in a few places in WordPress but here are the likely suspects:
  • As a widget if your theme has footer widget areas.  Edit in the WordPress Admin area under Appearance > Widgets.
  • As a theme option of your theme is supports it.  Edit in the WordPress Admin area under your theme settings.
  • in the footer.php of your theme.  Edit with a text/HTML editor.
• Dot Net Nuke: In the Admin > Site Settings menu.

Automating your copyright year update

Better yet, instead of the yearly update ritual, use a little JavaScript to update your copyright year automatically.

I use a few different scripts including this a great little snippet created by Gloucester Web Design:

<p>Copyright &copy; 2006
<script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript">
var d=new Date();
yr=d.getFullYear();
if (yr!=2006)
document.write(" - "+yr);
</script>
Company Name. All rights reserved.</p>

Enter the year the web site was launched on line 1  and 5.  If the site was launched in the current year the code will produce:

• Copyright © 2012 Company Name. All rights reserved.

If the current year is later than the launch year then it will produce:

• Copyright © 2006 – 2012 Company Name. All rights reserved.

Happy New Year and may all thy copyright notices remain current.

I’ve noticed many small to medium sized businesses and solopreneurs miss this step and miss out on free marketing to a wide web of people.

To create your company profile:

1. Log into LinkedIn
2. Click on the Companies menu option
3. Scroll all the way down and look in the bottom right hand corner of the screen.  If you see your company you already have the start of a profile.  Click on see company profile to start editing.  Note your email address registered with the company must be in the same domain to be able to edit it.
4. If your company does not appear scroll back up the screen and click Add a Company
5. ?You will be prompted to enter the company and your email address.  Make sure the email address is associated with the company domain.
   
6. Submit the form and check your email box to confirm you are associated with the company.

Congratulations, as Obi-Wan once said,  ”You have taken your first step into a larger world“.  Take some time to develop your Company Profile as you would your own profile.  Fill in the blanks and complete the profile as much as possible.  Also, go back to your personal profile on LinkedIn and under your current position make sure it is with your newly created company:

1. Log into LinkedIn
2. Click on Profile, Edit Profile
3. Scroll down to your current position in the Experience section.  Edit it.
4. Click on Change Company next to your company name (yes I know it already says it, but that name may not be associated with the company profile you just created).
5. Start typing your company name in the box and you should see the company profile you recently created in the drop down list.  Select this one.
6. Click on update to save the changes.

There is more than one way to create and edit your company but I have found this method works for us old LinkedIn users who had profiles before the company profile feature was added.  If you are creating a new profile the system will prompt you to add the new company if there is not already one in the list.

Enjoy and all comments are welcome.

Basic CSS Cheat Sheet (PDF)

This reference uses the xHTML 1.0 strict rule set.

Enjoy.

Basic HTML Cheat Sheet PDF