1. SOPA and PIPA would censor the Web

The U.S. government could order the blocking of sites using methods similar to those employed by China. Among other things, search engines could be forced to delete entire websites from their search results. That’s why 41 human rights organizations and 110 prominent law professors have expressed grave concerns about the bills.

2. SOPA and PIPA would be job-killers because they would create a new era of uncertainty for American business

Law-abiding U.S. internet companies would have to monitor everything users link to or upload or face the risk of time-consuming litigation. That’s why AOL, EBay, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Mozilla, Twitter, Yahoo and Zynga wrote a letter to Congress saying these bills “pose a serious risk to our industry’s continued track record of innovation and job-creation.” It’s also why 55 of America’s most successful venture capitalists expressed concern that PIPA “would stifle investment in Internet services, throttle innovation, and hurt American competitiveness”. More than 204 entrepreneurs told Congress that PIPA and SOPA would “hurt economic growth and chill innovation”.

3. SOPA and PIPA wouldn’t stop piracy

To make matters worse, SOPA and PIPA won’t even work. The censorship regulations written into these bills won’t shut down pirate sites. These sites will just change their addresses and continue their criminal activities, while law-abiding companies will suffer high penalties for breaches they can’t possibly control.

There are effective ways to combat foreign “rogue” websites dedicated to copyright infringement and trademark counterfeiting, while preserving the innovation and dynamism that have made the Internet such an important driver of American economic growth and job creation. Congress should consider alternatives like the OPEN Act, which takes targeted and focused steps to cut off the money supply from foreign pirate sites without making US companies censor the Web.

Members of Congress are trying to do the right thing by going after pirates and counterfeiters but SOPA and PIPA are the wrong way to do it.

via Google

Chipotle Restaurant came up with a thoughtful and creative way to illustrate their use of organic ingredients in their restaurants. Quoted from Adweek:

“Chipotle served up the most stirring and thought-provoking environmental spot of 2011 with this stop-motion gem from CAA and Nexus director Johnny Kelly, with a major assist from Willie Nelson. Having pioneered the use of organic, locally grown ingredients in fast food (and launched a foundation to support sustainable farming), Chipotle wanted to communicate its green philosophy in an artful and poignant way. The resulting spot tells the story of a farmer who builds his small operation into a giant industrial machine—penning in his animals, fattening them with chemicals, chopping them up in slaughter machines, and polluting nearby rivers in the process. Eventually he has a crisis of conscience, and reverts to his old way of doing things”

Creating a Facebook page for your business is relatively painless if you know where to start.  Follow these steps below and you’ll be up and running in less than 10 minutes!

1. To get started, head over to the “Create A Page” section of Facebook.
2. Click on the tile that corresponds to your business;  ”Local Business or Place” or “Company, Organization or Institution”.
3. Choose a category, enter your business name, address and phone.  When you’ve completed the form, click the ”Get Started” button.
4. Enter an email account and password.  If you already have a Facebook account you can use your existing email but we recommend using a separate email account for your business page.  When finished, click the “Sign up Now!” button. That’s it, you’ve created a Facebook page for your business.

Now that you’ve got your Facebook page up, try a few of these tips & tricks!

You may have noticed over the last year that searching for something on Google would occasionally lead you to spam based websites. When I refer to a spam based website, I mean a website in which it’s sole reason to exist is to show up on search results in an attempt to make money off the ads displayed on their website. Most spam websites carry no real value to you, the googler.

As you might imagine, the credibility of Google can quickly come to attention if the search results yielded aren’t quality links. In an attempt to rid their search results of spam, Google has recently implemented a new search algorithm that rewards high-quality sites rich in original content.

The good news with this new algorithm is that if you regularly update your website you’ll immediately gain an edge over your competition that isn’t doing the same.

So what can you do?

• Write on your blog! Writing a quality article on your blog once a day would would is ideal, but most of us don’t have the time for it. Set a realistic goal of writing once a week. If it helps, set a recurring calendar reminder to encourage yourself to stay on top of it. If you don’t have a blog or news page in which you can publish articles it may be time to get one.
• Share your blog posts. When you’re done posting your new blog article share it on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn and any other social avenues you’re part of.
• Get quality inbound links. Inbound links occur when websites create a hyperlink to your website. Write quality articles with relevant content and you should get quality links. By sharing/publishing your blog posts on social outlets, like Twitter or Facebook, you immediately create the opportunity for your followers to share your link and generate inbound links to your website.
• Make sure your website is built correctly. Along with crawling your website content, Google checks your website’s code and sites with poor code and/or errors won’t show up in search results. If you’re unsure of how to check your site for errors, consult your web firm or hosting company.

Evian water has rolled out a new marketing campaign called the “evian babies”. “The evian babies are a reminder to make every day an adventure and to live young in all that you do.” Clever campaign and cute video.

We’ll be at the La Crosse Business Expo today, Thursday November 3rd, from 1pm-7pm at the La Crosse Center. Free website consultations all day long. Say hi, get feedback on your website or engage us on ideas for a new website.

Business Expo Brochure

I don’t generally go out of my way to change something I’m happy with, but about a year ago a friend of mine suggested that I try Google Chrome as a web browser. Now a year later, while I don’t have much bad to say about my old go-to browser Firefox, what I can say is that Chrome has changed the way I browse the internet.

Here’s why

• Simplicity. It’s easy to use and enjoyable. You can type in a website address or search for something all from the same navigation bar on top.
• Gmail. If you have a Gmail account you really owe it to yourself to have Chrome.  Need to attach some photos? Just drag and drop them into the attachment area of your Gmail and it does the rest.  No clicking on an upload button and searching for the files on your computer.  If you send or receive an email with a YouTube link the video can automatically play inside your email!
• Syncing. Use more than one computer, at work or at home?  If you do Chrome will sync your bookmarks and stored data such as passwords automatically.  Bookmark something on your laptop, it shows up next time you’re on your desktop!  To enable syncing, click on Preferences, Under The Hood, and then click on Sync.
• Web Store. Think of the Chrome Web Store like the App Store on an iPhone or iPad.  It’s filled with thousands of free apps and your bound to find a few you’ll regularly use. My favorites include Awesome Screenshot, Wunderlist and Flixster Movies.
• Android. If you have an Android based smartphone there is a great Chrome extension available in the web store called Chrome to Phone that allows you to send the current webpage you’re viewing on your computer directly to your Android powered smartphone!  Comes in handy when you’re about to leave the house or office and want to take what you’re looking at with you.
• Speed. It’s fast, you’ll notice sites load quickly and it doesn’t feel bogged down by having countless tabs open.

If you haven’t tried Chrome yet I suggest you give it a try.  Looking for Google Chrome Web Store?  You can find it here.

If this video doesn’t make you want to take off work and go roll around in the mud nothing will! Shot and edited by rising YouTube star Devin Super Tramp. For more fun check out all of his videos. Oh, and the catchy song, it’s by Stephen J. Anderson and titled “The Game”.

The funniest commercials are always the simplest. The brand “Sheets” created a new commercial for their dissolving energy strip that you place on your tounge. Rather than explain, I’ll let you watch the video above. Cheers!