My blog was recently hacked – not the most fun experience to say the least. Still not 100% sure how it happened, all I know is that here were the steps I took to secure everything.
I immediately changed all of my passwords. FTP, login, database user passwords, hosting password, the works. Sure, it could have been any of these, but there’s no reason to immediately change all of them. Of course, you should also be updating them regularly, like any password you use.
Remove all files on/reformat your server. This should be ok, because it’s all source-controlled. Right? Right! You have no idea what additional files have been added or which files have been changed, so be heavy-handed.
Replace the files that you removed with all clean copies checked straight from whichever version control client you use.
All in all, it’s relatively simple, though stressful when it happens. I am not a full-on security expert, so full security and preventing an attack is another matter all to itself. My version is, by far, the simpler one, though highly effective in my case. After the initial issue, I have no experienced or seen another problem on the site (and I’m happier about that than I can really explain!).
What really happens with Foursquare, and will more than likely be the case, is that the people who check in are going to check in 5+ times a day are going to be 80% of the check-ins.
What Facebook has going for them is that other people are actually going to see those check-ins regardless of whether or not those other people are checking in as well.
While people are still very wary of check-in services (privacy, etc), I think that this broadcasting on someone’s Facebook newsfeed will quickly make people quickly adopt it. Either that, or it’s going to flop.
Facebook had a major win when they added pictures and applications, but there have been failures as well, like marketplace and gifts. In this case, I think either it’s going to be a major win or a total gimmick that people don’t use.
Regardless, Facebook definitely made the right move in adding geolocation services – with their already established, and more importantly, connected userbase, they have the biggest opportunity to make something out of it by far.
I wanted to elaborate on that and give some more information, so here it is…
Geolocation is clearly going to be a big development in web applications and software. And just like any new development, no one can really know if it’s going to be the “next big thing” or not. Similarly, no one knows exactly how to properly tap the next big development and ride that wave. People do it all the time, but there are plenty of people who miss the opportunity, or take the wrong approach.
Facebook is ensuring that they’re at least going to have a presence. There’s no guarantee of them being a dominant presence, or even a market leader. They are taking steps to make sure they’re there when something happens, however. And that is the best and smartest step they can take right now.
You know when your friends are making jokes based on a commercials, then that is a successful ad campaign. That’s how it was for me with the recent Old Spice commercials. I didn’t quite realize the pure brilliance of this marketing scheme until today.
Old Spice created “The OId Spice Man” – a purely masculine character in every way: “what every woman wants and what every man wants to be.” Sure, it was mostly way over-the-top and ridiculous, but the caricature, which is what he really is – not a believable character in truth, was something very understandable nonetheless. Not that people could identify with him, but they could fully understand him and who he was.
Sure, they could have stopped there with a definitely funny and memorable ad campaign, but Old Spice stepped up it’s game on this one.
By starting to respond to individuals using YouTube, individuals who simply wrote about Old Spice, the ad campaign became pure brilliance. After creating this character, they can continue down the path of original and outrageous mini-commercials by following the overly-caricaturized model.
What made me realize the brilliance behind all of these commercials was how tailored they actually are. Specifically, the response to a Reddit user. Not only was the answer to chmowm’s question great in itself, it was as though it were addressed to the whole Reddit community because of the type of response it was, something Reddit users would find especially funny. And, by singling out the whole group, instantly there are more fans than there would have been. This is not to mention the picture shout-out to Reddit as well.
And that’s where the brilliance lies – this caricature is replying to individuals, but often those individuals are part of a group other people identify with, winning them over, too.
