Sunday, April 26, 2020

Saying Goodbye to Google Authorship Photos

by Sienna Luard Just when everyone begins to get used to Google Authorship profile photos, it announces that it’s not going to display them anymore in search results pages. In a bid to â€Å"clean up† the design of its results pages, Google has removed profile photos and the Google+ circle count where authorship is assigned to a web page. While some content publishers and marketers are concerned about how this will affect their visibility, others aren’t so troubled by the change. But could this affect click-through rates, and how should you react to this tweak to Google Authorship? Do You Need to Change Your Content Strategy? Fortunately for authors and content marketers, there’s actually nothing you need to change about the way you produce content. Your authorship still remains in place and all of the Google+ author profile structure stays the same. There’s no need to delete your profile picture, and it should still help strengthen your credibility in the eyes of Google. Before, if you were an author on a higher ranking website, you would get your profile picture displayed in Google’s search results pages. Now, just your profile name and the date of the post will be shown. Writers that produce new content less than once per week on a website with a lower domain authority could get their profile name removed completely. To a certain extent, the new format levels out the playing field, in that none of the search results will have profile images next to them. But if you want to see your profile name displayed, you still need to regularly publish content on a high-ranking website. Cons istently writinginformative SEO content also remains the best way to gain higher search engine rankings. Although Google experts claim that after tests, CTRs are similar in the new format, most people know that in reality this is likely to have a negative impact on the number of people that click on your content. Without an image, your listing simply doesn’t stand out as much on the page. The best way to improve click-through rates is to continue to use compelling titles that are intriguing, surprising, or revealing. Should You Forget About Authorship Altogether? You should definitely continue to use Google Authorship to verify your content. Google may decide to make more use of Author Rank data in the future, so doing everything you can now to improve your credibility could help you in the long term. Besides, having your profile name listed in the search results is still a boost to your online visibility and should still influence the click-through rate. Ultimately, if you develop a content strategy that informs, educates, and entertains your audience, you don’t have to worry about whether a picture of your face appears in search results pages. The Take-Away When it comes to Google, you can be sure that its algorithms and the way it displays search results will continue to change from one year to the next. However, one thing is likely to remain the same: Google will reward high-quality, unique content. As long as you continue to publish great content that engages your target audience, you will continue to increase your credibility with the search engines and your readers. The profile picture was a good way to attract attention to your content, but it didn’t actually improve your search rankings directly. While your Google Authorship profile picture will disappear from search results pages, it doesn’t stop your voice from being heard.

Wednesday, March 18, 2020

Stereotypes essays

Stereotypes essays Stereotypes are the organizational factors that virtually shape the way we think in 20th century America. They somehow manage to categorize some of lifes most complex matters into nice distinct sections. Classifications and organization, at first glance seem to be useful in distinguishing various aspects of modern life. However, these grouping methods can be very inaccurate, leaving erroneous ideas in the minds of citizens on a global level. Stereotypes, though originating as convenient sorting mechanisms, instead, influence our thinking process. By instituting broad categories, establishing virtually immovable terms, and, often, being mistakenly identified as facts, stereotypes affect the mental process of humans. Originally used as an organizational tool, stereotypes were simply broad generalizations about subject matters. These ideas werent necessarily meant to cause the feelings of anger that they do today, but to classify ideas. However, possibly the most apparent problem with stereotypes is that the sort very intricate subject matter into large, broad categories. For example, human beings are too complex to use generalizations like, all blondes are dumb or all smart people are nerds. Stereotypes use wide terms, to simplify subject matter, but this attempt often ends in an inaccurate result. Despite their wide generalizations, stereotypes establish virtually immovable terms. For example, Third World countries were hastily grouped together not because of social or economic similarities, but out of convenience. Since that time, the industrialized nations have harbored this stereotype that the third world is land of starving children and savage tribes. Despite decades of vast improvement, this stereotype remains unchanged. This rigid stereotype has caused many citizens to embrace a false view of the Third World nations and its citizens. Stereotypes, clearly, should not be mi...

Monday, March 2, 2020

Definition and Examples of Headlinese

Definition and Examples of Headlinese Headlinese is an informal term for the abbreviated style of newspaper headlines - a register characterized by short words, abbreviations, cliches, noun stacking,  word play,  present-tense verbs,  and ellipsis.   Headlinese combinations are not in themselves sentences, said linguist  Otto Jespersen, and often cannot be directly supplemented so as to form articulate sentences: they move, as it were, on the fringe of ordinary grammar (A Modern English Grammar, Vol. 7, 1949). Nonetheless, says British journalist Andy Bodle, [m]ost of the time the meaning of headlines is quite clear (to native English speakers, anyway). They generally achieve their aim of provoking interest without misrepresenting the facts too grievously (The Guardian [UK], December 4, 2014). Examples and Observations Perhaps a copy editors best test for headlinese is the question: How often do I hear this word used in ordinary conversation with its headline meaning? If hardly ever, the word is headlinese.(John Bremner, Words on Words. Columbia University  Press, 1980)In their quest for concision, writers of newspaper headlines are . . . inveterate sweepers away of little words, and the dust they kick up can lead to some amusing ambiguities. Legendary headlines from years past (some of which verge on the mythical) include Giant Waves Down Queen Mary’s Funnel, MacArthur Flies Back to Front and Eighth Army Push Bottles Up Germans. The Columbia Journalism Review even published two anthologies of ambiguous headlinese in the 1980s, with the classic titles Squad Helps Dog Bite Victim and Red Tape Holds Up New Bridge.(Ben Zimmer, Crash Blossoms. The New York Times, January 10, 2010)[W]hen the folks at Variety toss around insider lingo and cryptic headlinese like B.O. Sweet for Chocolat and Helmi ng Double for Soderbergh its hard to tell what the heck theyre talking about.(Scott Veale, Word for Word/Variety Slanguage. The New York Times, Feb. 25, 2001) Plane Too Low to the Ground, Crash Probe Told(Headline quoted by John Russial in Strategic Copy Editing. Guilford, 2004)Police: Middletown Man Hides Crack In His Buttocks(Headline in the Hartford Courant, March 8, 2013)Man Shoots Pictures of Wolf Chasing Him on Motorcycle in CanadaBANF, Alberta – A Canadian man says he was chased by a gray wolf while he was riding a motorcycle in British Columbia. . . .(Headline and lead at FoxNews.com, June 21, 2013)Short Words in Headlinese: Thinnernyms- Headlinese  might be defined as words that no human being would utter in context but that headline writers use because they fit into tight spaces.(John Russial,  Strategic Copy Editing. Guilford Press, 2004)- The grandest, oldest and arguably finest headline tradition of all, of course, is the use of short words. Instead of disagreeing, people clash. Rather than competing, they vie. Instead of divisions, we have rifts. And instead of a Mexico president promising reforms of the policing s ystem in an effort to mollify people’s anger over the murder of 43 students, we get Mexico president vows police reform in bid to quell massacre rage. I was inordinately pleased with myself for coining the word thinnernym to describe these short words, although I’ve since been informed that I’m not the first to do so.(Andy Bodle, Sub Ire as Hacks Slash Word Length: Getting the Skinny on Thinnernyms. The Guardian [UK], December 4, 2014)- [B]revity is a whip-bearing  dominatrix in the discipline of headline writing.(William Safire, Hotting Up. The New York Times Magazine, June 10, 2007) Life on Mars- War of the WordsThis is a headline from The Friday Review Section of The Independent of 21 August 1998. It introduces an article reviewing a fierce scientific debate about the possibility of life on Mars. Headline writers use a wide range of devices to create a very specific style, which is sometimes called headlinese. Their one-liners must put in a nutshell the main point of the news story they relate to and at the same time capture the readers attention. . . . [I]f we pad out the above headline, we might get something like The life on Mars debate remains a war of words. It will be noticed that the headline as it stands contains no verbs: this is replaced by the dash (- ). The structure has the effect of all the focus being on the balanced phrases, Life on Mars and War of the Words.(Peter Verdonk, Stylistics. Oxford University  Press, 2002)Telegraphic EllipsisA form of written language which typically uses telegraphic ellipsis is the newspaper headline. . . .Grammati cal clues present in  the headlines themselves . . . interact with contextual information from the setting to encode retrievable meaning; This process is essentially cataphoric in that headlines refer forward to the main body of the text, a fact exploited by editors and sub-editors on a daily basis to encourage headline-spotters to read on.(Peter Wilson, Mind The Gap: Ellipsis and Stylistic Variation in Spoken and Written English., 2000. Rpt. Routledge, 2014) Noun Stacking in HeadlinesA string of unleavened nouns will form a whole headline. Three nouns stuck cheek by jowl was once the limit, but now four is standard. Some months ago two tabloids gave their front pages to SCHOOL COACH CRASH DRAMA and SCHOOL OUTING COACH HORROR and a week or two later one of them achieved five with SCHOOL BUS BELTS SAFETY VICTORY. There is some loss of seriousness here, as if anyone cared.(Kingsley Amis, The Kings English: A Guide to Modern Usage. HarperCollins, 1997)A colleague points out: It sometimes seems that any time anyone writes a piece about Africa (or, in fact, dark-skinned people), the first (and usually last) headline everyone comes up with is Heart of Darkness. Its unimaginative, and boring, but more importantly perpetuates lazy colonial attitudes, ideas of ignorance and benightedness, etc.(David Marsh, Mind Your Language. The Guardian, February  14, 2010) See Examples and Observations below. Also see: Block LanguageCopyeditingCrash BlossomJargonJournaleseTelegraphic Speech

Saturday, February 15, 2020

Diversity in Law Enforcement Annotated Bibliography

Diversity in Law Enforcement - Annotated Bibliography Example people belonging to different races and working in law enforcement agencies and to identify the various strategies that are being used by these agencies in order to attract as well as hire individuals belonging to different races in law enforcement agencies. The researchers identified that there is a lack of communication between the recruiters of law enforcement agencies and institutions that belong to racial minorities and they even identified that lower level of information is being supplied to racial minority communities and their institutions. The research article titled â€Å"Gay men in the police: identity disclosure and management issues† was authored by Rumens et al. and published during the period of 2012 (Rumens, 2012). The purpose of this research article was to focus on the research conducted to identify the ways individuals belonging to the LGBT groups were managed when they disclosed that they were gay or lesbian. The researchers identified that police officers who belonged to the LGBT group did not face difficulties in disclosing their sexual orientation and were looking for ways to disclose this information. The research even states that disclosed identities can be managed well in organizations that follow an open culture. The researchers conclude that it is quite difficult for gay police officers to integrate in an organization where masculinity is valued and empowered. Sadler, M. S., Correll, J., Park, B., & Judd, C. M. (June 01, 2012). The World Is Not Black and White: Racial Bias in the Decision to Shoot in a Multiethnic Context.  Journal of Social Issues,  68,  2, 286-313. The research titled â€Å"The World Is Not Black and White: Racial Bias in the Decision to Shoot in a Multiethnic Context: was authored by Sadler et al (Sadler, 2012). The purpose of this research was to identify the racial biasness that is experienced by police officers while they make the decision of shooting or not shooting possible offenders. The researchers identified

Sunday, February 2, 2020

Improving passenger safety Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Improving passenger safety - Essay Example The majority of road crashes are as a result of human error such as exceeding speed limit, ignoring traffic rules and safety systems such as seat belts among others. Improving passenger safety in cars is very important so as to reduce the injuries associated with car accidents. However, this alone will not assist in minimizing accident rates because improving car performance and increasing awareness of traffic rules among individuals will significantly help reducing the rate of car accidents. By increasing the car technical performance, vehicles safety and creating awareness on the same, we can definitely reduce the risk of car accidents and injuries. The purpose of this paper is to describe methods and practices that can improve car safety and reduce car accidents to save more passenger lives. Generally, there are various methods and practices that can be put in place to improve car safety and save many passengers from unnecessary accidents some of which include traffic rules and laws, engineering and traffic management among others (Bartley 14). The use of safety seat belt, airbags as well as routine car testing help in ensuring that vehicles provide a reasonable degree of car protection (â€Å"Autotech 95† 54). Arguably, improving passenger safety should be the first priority for every driver. The most effective way to guarantee passengers their safety is by being an attentive driver, that is, a good driver need to practice good driving habits because with these habits, they are more likely to avoid accidents. More so, they should ensure that all their safety systems are in order and functional. Today, automobiles are properly designed and well equipped with advanced safety features that are very useful in protecting passengers from serious injuries or even death in case of a car crash. It is always important to ensure that all these safety features are used correctly all the time. For instance, it is

Friday, January 24, 2020

Technology and the Invasion of Privacy Essay -- Exploratory Essays Res

Technology and the Invasion of Privacy As citizens of America we are all entitled to our rights of privacy. When something threatens this guaranteed privacy we tend to take extra precautions to prohibit prolonged violation. As the advancing world of technology continues to grow and expand, so do the amount of cases involving privacy invasion. Technology drives these privacy-invading crimes; however, crime also drives technology, creating a vicious cycle. Without technology an invader could not enter that of a stranger’s life. Conversely, without technology that same criminal would evade the law enforcers. So does technology protect citizens’ privacy, or does it expose one’s entire life? In regards to this question, one must consider: before the rise of the world of technology, privacy invasion was not a common issue. With this fact in mind it is not difficult to determine where the problem lies: technology threatens privacy. Computers are main technological features that allow criminals to step into unsuspecting victims lives. With a simple piggy-backing program hackers are able to track every keystroke made by the victim. One such program is called spyware, not to be confused with adware, which is often referred to interchangeably with spyware, but is potentially harmless (Louis 15). Spyware, hidden within downloaded software, implants itself deep within a computer’s hard drive, allowing it to track every move made by the user (Louis 16). Once inside a system, spyware can gather e-mail addresses, passwords, and credit card numbers. This gathered information is then transmitted across the internet to the author of the spyware, who then uses the newly gained information to determine which ads should target... ...and more anti-spywares that protect your computers from viruses, and better care taken by individuals (McGuire), Americans can begin to protect themselves from the privacy predators, and hopefully start a trend that will eventually put an end to the vicious cycle of technology vs. privacy.    Works Cited    McGuire, David.   "FTC Sues Spyware Suspects."   Washingtonpost.com Apr 2004. 9 Nov. 2004 <http://www.washingtonpost.com O'Reilly, John.   An Employer's Guide to Surveillance, Searches & Medical Examination.   Toronto: Thomson Canada Limited, 2003. "Protect Yourself Online."   Consumer Reports Sep. 2004:   12-19 Raphael, Louis.   "Spyware: Technology's Version of Big Brother." Computer Technology Review Feb. 2004: 12-16 Stead, Bette Ann.   Privacy and Rights In The Work Place.   Houston: University of Houston, College of Business Administration, 1998.

Thursday, January 16, 2020

Community News Article: Promoting Health Drinks and Lifestyle Essay

Resumen: This article discusses how in the Appalachian areas of the United States children as young as 6 month are given this high-sugar, highly caffeinated cheap soda to drink called Mountain Dew. This may be because Mountain Dew is cheaper than milk. Parents are allowing far too much caffeine in their systems which cause potential bone damages and mailing causing teeth to rot in the toddlers as young as age two. Lemon and Lime drinks are very damaging to the teeth and Mountain Dew has both. Citric acid is in a lot of lemon or lime- flavored beverages and all carbonated beverages have phosphoric acid that which erode the teeth. Many dentist have tried to educate families and have offered free services to help but these programs can’t work if parents refuse to carry good dental hygiene. The Organization of Public Health Law Research says that West Virginia is so bad that legal action may be necessary, such as implementation of an excise tax on soda, limiting purchases of the drinks with food stamps, educating young mothers and making dental care part of the well-baby visit, especially since many don’t visit dentist until they are 5 years old. Reversing this problem is what health providers are trying to do especially since in West Virginia tooth decay and rotten teeth is normal. Opinion After reading this article, I was very shocked that mothers are given toddlers soda to drink, especially because they find soda cheaper than milk. Parents need to think about their children’s health and their future. I use to love drinking Mountain Dew and I am so glad I don’t drink it anymore. Promoting health drinks and lifestyle is very important to do especially in this century where parents have no time to feed or give children a healthy meal and just solve the solution with fast food or soda. As nurses this is something we must always try to educate families about. If we don’t teach children how to take good care of themselves who will?