The fb_xd_Fragment and the FaceBook Like button

The fb_xd_Fragment
This is bit of code can appear sometimes in facebook's link back to your site from the facebook like button. However, it's not you, it's them that are creating the extra work for you.

Some sites recommend you correct this in google, bing and yahoo webmaster tools etc. Probably the smarter thing to do is to first ensure you use correctly the canonical  link rel tag. View our How to use the link rel canonical tag.

If you are using apache, you might want to include some code to get around any blank page issue. The following code and the above link are also on our web page that discusses the fb_xd_Fragment

This is the apache code we recommend at this time:

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine ON
#Facebook Redirect For Added String
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} .*fb_xd_fragment.*
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.websiteadministrator.com.au/$1? [R=301,L]
</IfModule>

This either drops enough of the offending code or removes it completely from the browser link (use your own www address). So this seems to do the job but should probably be modified a little further. Feel free to add your work-arounds to this post.

Follow up on the above fb_xd_fragment note:
The above code seems to have correctly resolved the issue i was facing on my host. To follow the error, i was using statcounter's landing page url. The landing page is now correct in my reports. No reference to the fb_xd_fragment is reported in the landing page data anymore, just the correct url.

Zombie Cookies - Back from the Cookie Hall of the Slain cookies

Cookie Valhalla seems to have developed a glitch in it's Matrix. Dead cookies are coming back as undead zombie cookies. No, it is not a cookie with similar or new information you are looking at, it is the exact same cookie you deleted that is back to stalk you from the same place it left off in it's previous life.

We have penned an article on this exact manifestation in our two page introduction to the LSO Cookie article. The Lso is a flash cookie that can stalk you for years and years without you ever knowing it. You have to be online and visit adobe's website to set the preferences for how it interacts with you. And Microsoft has now developed their own version of this type of cookie and use it in their Silverlight software (The Microsoft version of Flash). Visit our link above for more data.

And today I thought i might expand the subject with some facts that were gathered by some people kicking around some study campuses around Berkley in the summer of 2009 and who threw together an interesting pilot study on the subject of cookies in general [click on of the four buttons to download the 2mb .pdf file].

Now, we all take what we want from a study. But here is some of the data:
Inspecting cookies set from a list of the top 100 websites, it was found that 54 of these laid 157 LSOs which resulted in a total of 281 flash cookies. And during that same course of study, 98 of these sites set a total of 3,602 HTTP cookies.

The study went on to find that some of the LSO cookies and HTTP cookies had the exact same identifiers stored in variables which of course means you can match the exact same visiting computer. They also found that some of these cookies re-spawned after deletion. Read the study your self for more data.

But what does this tell you? It can only mean that cookie cutting is essential to an excellent seo result. No?

Adwords and using phone numbers in adsense ads

Some Adwords ads are starting to appear that use phone numbers directly in the ad which is displayed in the adsense ad.

Now, this is a little sneaky and underhanded because it means the owner of the ad can draw in clients with out having to pay the adsense publisher one red cent for the service of building up his website and doing the work to allow the displaying of the ad.

What can the adsense publisher do about sites that display phone numbers in their ad?

Google gives the adsense publisher a tool to sort them out. It is called the Competitive Ad Filter. You'll find it in your adsense setup page. From there, you simply select the Competitive Ad Filter and add the url of the offending site into this list provided and that will ban them from covertly trying to get advertising on your site for free.

And the best way to do this is to fully block their site by entering the domain name without the www part of the address. for example, you would enter www.example.com/deals as simply example.com

Google aussie does it too for their $75 adwords starter kit freebie, but i let that one slide. But the other two that I found today, let's just say you'll not see those businesses advertise on my websites anymore.

I am sure some might say "But these are display ads!" to which i would say "Prove it". There isn't a way to tell at the moment, and as display ads can be as little as 50 cents per 1,000 views, i don't think the lost revenue will be much missed by most. That might explain why some click ads don't convert. But I am certainly not convinced this is true for many of these that are starting to surface.

That'll learn 'em!

How to remove Php 5.3.x. An un-install Php loop solution.

Have you had an endless loop problem when trying to remove Php 5.3.x from your Windows system? You run the install or un-install program and you are continuously told the software is unable to complete the process (install or un-install)?

There is a solution to this problem which lies in fixing the Windows registry keys. We have updated our Php 5.3.5 and Php 5.3.6 troubleshooting guides to assist those in need of a method to break the endless chain.

Installing Guide for Apache 2.2.19 in Windows

Looking for a guide for installing apache 2.2.19 in Microsoft Windows?

WAS has now published their online apache 2.2.19 walk-through guide to step you through the process. The 2.2.17 guide is now archived but still available through the same above link. This is a great release from the guys over at the foundation and comes with an improved httpd.conf file which is much for friendly for those looking at installing ssl on their servers.