Today is the last day of the first work week of 2012 & I have resolutions.

 

Lots of them.

And like every year, many of these resolutions will be forgotten by February. Dropping resolutions is part of the human condition. So I may not write as many blog posts as I promised myself I would, and I may not run as regularly as I had planned, but I have made one resolution that I won’t let fall by the wayside.

Here goes: Every Friday, I will write a recap of the most interesting posts from the week before.

The Internet is less a stream than a flood of information. It’s easy to hop in and float along with the current, swallowing what you can, but it’s impossible to ingest everything – you don’t have the time. No one does. But if we aggregate content that lots of people liked and found interesting, the likelihood that you might the enjoy the content increases.

What are the rules?

I use Google’s url shortener to shorten & track almost all of my links, and have been doing so for nearly a year. (I switched from tinyurl in April because it doesn’t offer robust tracking capabilities. Plus, Google automatically creates QR codes for every shortened link and everyone knows that you should use QR codes if you want to be taken seriously.)

Each week, I’ll look at which links got the most clicks during the previous week & I’ll post those links here, along with a short description. Since this is the first week of the new year & since I’m doing this for the first time, I’m going to start with the top ten links from last year.

2011′s most popular links:

Facebook users no longer have to “like” your Page (and what that means)?

Though the title punctuation drove me crazy, the post was was worth a read. For the first time, Facebook users did not have to “Like” a Facebook page to comment on the wall of that page. It was a major change for Facebook marketing, though most SM professionals I talked with said that the change didn’t affect their Facebook marketing strategy one bit.

Google just got ZAGAT Rated

2011 was the year Google absorbed Zagat and gained massive credibility chops in the restaurant review space. Google made this move just as they were being brought to task by companies like Yelp and TripAdvisor for what they considered unfair localized search result practices. At the time of this acquisition, the general concensus was that Google was attempting to create a one stop shop for local business searches. With the release of Google+ business pages that tie into the rest of the Google tool set, this guess doesn’t seem far-fetched at all.

A TRUE MEASURE OF INFLUENCE

This is my favorite blog post from 2011. It’s insightful, interesting, actionable, and Tom Webster wasn’t afraid of writing a long  post to get his point across. I’d only suggest reading this one if you have an interest in marketing, a little time, and curiosity.

A Single Day Of Uploaded Flickr Photos Printed Out

No question as to why this link was clicked on so much. I think you should click over right now, even if you’ve already seen pictures of the exhibit, because a picture is worth 1,000 words, and these pictures are pictures of thousands of pictures. Words cannot do justice.

It’s Official: To Protect Baby’s Brain, Turn Off TV

I became a father about a year ago, and all of a sudden I found myself posting about babies. I’ve always had a  soft spot for any science article concerning the brain and how it’s formed, and since this one was about infant brain development this article was a slam dunk.

Study: Older Siblings Have Higher IQs

As the oldest of three siblings, I found myself nodding my head as I read this article. Unless one of my sisters ask, then I haven’t read it, and the title sounds suspicious.

How To BATCH BLOCK Google+ Spammers Avoid Spam Messages ?

Google+ is still so shiny and new that pretty much any “how-to” post concerning the platform will catch online interest. Of all the Google+ posts I linked to in 2011 (which toward the end of the year ended up being quite a few), this one got the most click-through. Believe it or not, people really hate SPAM.

What teachers really want to tell parents

This is the link that sparked the most offline conversations for me last year. I’ve always wanted to be a teacher, my wife is a teacher, and about half of my extended family teaches. I have strong convictions about education, and I found this article interesting. Take a sec and give it a read – you’ll be glad you did.

McAfee: Nearly All New Mobile Malware In Q3 Targeted At Android Phones

If you work in the online marketing space, you already know that phones using an Android OS make up the largest share of the smartphone market. If you work in the information technology arena, you know that malware is almost always developed to attack the largest market share. Malware in the mobile space doesn’t buck the trend.

How hackers gave Subway a $3 million lesson in point-of-sale security

If you used your debit card at any Subway last year, you and your bank account may be at risk. Subway takes credit cards/debit cards in payment, and by law they are required to go through, and pass, PCI Compliance testing. PCI Compliance is a relatively easy process of ensuring that a organization’s firewall is up to snuff and configured properly. (Our company, Global Business Solutions does PCI Compliance testing for most of our clients.) Unfortunately, many Subway franchisees didn’t go through the necessary steps to ensure that their network was secure, and hackers were able to steal financial information and use the data to steal millions of dollars. For some, it looks like a footlong was significantly more than five dollars.

Hope you enjoyed this summary of last year’s top news. Tune in next Friday for interesting posts from this week.

Written by Joe Robb

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