- Here's the latest installment of our monthly series on "search quality highlights," with 17 new quality improvements to read about for January. - WebmasterWorld's monthly look at Google's SERPs changes. - WebmasterWorld's AdSense barometer - a monthly look at Google AdSense earnings and observations. - WebmasterWorld Members discuss title changes, and the potential for a site/page penalty. - In a letter to Google's chief executive Larry Page, Europe's 'Data Protection Working Party' wrote that "we call for a pause in the interests of ensuring that there can be no misunderstanding about Google's commitments to information rights of their users and EU citizens, until we have completed our analysis". - WebmasterWorld's weekly roundup of hot topics and discussions you may have missed in the last few days. (-Subscription required) - The VeriSign attacks were revealed in a quarterly U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing in October that followed new guidelines on reporting security breaches to investors.In written Senate testimony on Tuesday, U.S. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper called the known certificate breaches of 2011 "a threat to one of the most fundamental technologies used to secure online communications and sensitive transactions, such as online banking." Others have said SSL as a whole is no longer trustworthy and effective. - The French company provides the same services for a fee and claimed the Google strategy was aimed at undercutting competitors by temporarily swallowing the full cost until it gains control of the market. - Facebook, the vast online social network, took its first step toward becoming a publicly traded company on Wednesday as it filed to sell shares on the stock market. - Moniker once had a reputation for providing the highest level of service to many of the most successful domain portfolio holders.What will Keydrive bring to the domain name game to regrain or restore that reputation? - The .com TLD has broken the 100 Million active .com domains barrier. - Firefox for Windows, Mac and Linux adds powerful built-in developer tools and delivers smoother updates by making add-ons compatible by default. - The changes would not affect registrars' ability to offer Whois privacy services for an additional fee, though other amendments could formalise the process of unmasking such registrants accused of criminal behaviour or cybersquatting. And it's not certain yet that Whois verification will become mandatory. - Work on DMARC started about 18 months ago. Beginning Monday, other companies can sign up with the organization, whether they send emails or provide email services. For email users, the group hopes DMARC will mean fewer fraudulent messages and scams reaching their inbox. - "Have any of you noticed that Google's new "Search Plus Your World" can be shortened to SPY World?" - WebmasterWorld members discuss why this happens to some sites and not others. - Facebook and US state of Washington have filed lawsuits against marketing firm Adscend Media over alleged clickjacking and spam practices, as the social networking giant finally gets tough with scammers operating on the site. - Morgan Stanley, people familiar said, is the strong frontrunner for the much-coveted "lead left" position on Facebook's IPO documents to be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. - We haven't yet used this ability, but if and when we are required to withhold a Tweet in a specific country, we will attempt to let the user know, and we will clearly mark when the content has been withheld. - WebmasterWorld's weekly roundup of hot topics and discussions you may have missed in the last few days. (-Subscription required)
