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June 10, 2015
0

How Can Your Business use Internet Marketing Effectively?

By | Internet Marketing, Vroooom | No Comments

Internet Marketing: The Largest Market

Internet is the largest market for businesses. With the amount of people spending their time on the internet each day, it is not surprising that it has now become the greatest tool for marketing your business to your targeted market. What’s more important is that Internet offers you with effective marketing campaigns unlike those that are used before.

If before television, radio, and print media are the most common ways of promoting your business, today the most common and effective way to do that is through internet marketing. The Internet proposes a lot of tools for people to market their business. They can utilize these tools for the benefit of your business. But the question is, how can you effectively market your business online?

Marketing Your Business Online

When it comes to marketing your business online, the very first thing that you have to consider is to have a website for your business. Virtually, businesses have their websites with the focus of their service on online or offline. Even if your business is small, medium-sized or large, website is a prerequisite when it comes to internet marketing.

But having a website is not necessarily enough. Whether your business is a brick or mortar business or an e-commerce, you can’t just rely to your website because having a site for your website is only the first step in marketing your business. If you really want to successfully market your business online, what you need to do is to incorporate and combine all of the marketing tools that the Internet has to offer you.

Internet Marketing Tools

Website is the most common internet marketing tool that is used by businesses. But, there are still various tools and internet marketing campaigns you can use.

These tools include the following:

  • SEO
  • Social media
  • Emails
  • Pay-per-click advertising
  • E-Newsletter
  • Blog
  • Backlinking, etc

These tools are the most commonly used in promoting your business through the internet. Apart from just building a website, optimize the site using SEO keywords and make its content relevant to the services and products that you provide. By optimizing your website with SEO, you can increase your search engine rankings. More people will be able to know about the service and product that you provide.

Blogs that are infused with SEO keywords are also effective in increasing your rankings which in turn drives more traffic to your site. Backlinking is an effective way to promote your service and products to other websites and forums which will increase the number of traffic to your site as well. On the other hand, pay-per-click advertising is an internet practice effective in driving traffic to your site as well. Advertisers simply need to pay a publisher which is typically a website owner every time that an ad is clicked. You can use emails and e-newsletters to reach specific target customers. They are effective internet marketing since you are able to send them to people based on their buying habits and interests.

Social media is the most commonly used marketing campaign online because of the number of people participating in social media networks. By having multiple social media accounts, you can effectively increase the number of people who knew about your service or products as well create a relationship with your customers.

By utilizing these internet marketing tools and campaigns, you can effectively promote your service and product online. You only need to familiarize yourself with how to effectively utilize them. When you do, you can guarantee that more people will use the products and service that you offer them.

June 3, 2015
0

Consider These Factors for SEO in Marketing

By | Search Engine Optimization, Vroooom | No Comments

SEO in Marketing: The Primary Goal

The search engine optimization procedure is actually the fundamental and essential part that will help to position your website properly on the search engines when people need to visit your site. Before you delve into the essential factors for SEO, the first thing that must be clear is what the actual function of SEO in marketing for any website is. The primary goal of any SEO is to achieve a good ranking and communicate to the search engines regarding your intentions so that your website can be presented or recommended for the relevant searches. Now that the function of the SEO in marketing has been briefed, here is the list of the following factors that must be considered while carrying out SEO for any specific website.

The first factor that you must consider is, SEO adds the essential ingredient to your articles, but at the same time it must be remembered that the content information, architecture, content management system acts as the important factors that are necessary that makes your content really appreciable by your target audience.

Regarding SEO in marketing the next factor that is to consider what are the search engines looking for. In simple terms, the search engines intend to perform their jobs by referring to the users regarding the websites and the contents that are most relevant to what the users are actually looking for. Thus the content needs to be provided with a proper theme, a text, titles and subtitles that are given.

At the same time, what the search engines are not looking for is really important for any content. Overstuffing of the keywords is a flaw that can inhibit the content to get spread. If you purchase links, it will lead you to nowhere and lastly, your website may be too popular, but covering a page with too much ads will make your content hard to find for the users, which is definitely a backdrop.

Optimizing multi channels is also important for your website. The strategy of a keyword is not only to implement on the site but it must be implemented off site also and this is the reason the multi channel optimization is important. If you are consistent with the keyword phrases, it will not only help you in branding efforts but it also trains the users for using specific phrases that you are optimizing for.

June 1, 2015
0

How Search Engine Marketing Can Create More Traffic For Your Website

By | Internet Marketing, Marketing Tips, Online Marketing Agency | No Comments

Search Engine Marketing: Why Its Needed

The success of any business depends on its ability attract and keep customers. With the growing number of internet users, it is not a surprise that many entrepreneurs are embracing online marketing to the boost sale of their products and services. Since most internet users depend on search engines to locate products and services, business owners strive to ensure that their websites or sales pages get a high ranking in order to drive traffic.

There are basically two strategies employed by entrepreneurs to drive online traffic to their website:

  • Using a well articulated Site Engine Optimization (SEO) Strategy to increase your page rank for free organic traffic
  • Using Site Engine Marketing (SEM) to get paid traffic and generate targeted leads.

Due to the high level of competition and the sheer number of websites available, achieving a high ranking on a Search Engine Ranking Page (SERP) is not an easy feat. Even with a good SEO strategy, there is little guarantee that your website will get the needed exposure and traffic.
While it is important to pay attention to SEO, relying on it alone wouldn’t get the job done. In order to increase your website traffic, Your SEO strategy must be combined with a well implemented SEM plan.

As earlier mentioned, SEM involves paying for traffic and there are different strategies used in achieving this.
Foremost among these are

  • PPC (Pay per Click) advertising on platforms like Google: AdWords, Bing Ads and Yahoo: Search Ads where you bid for keywords relevant to your niche.
    Paid search advertising
  • CPC (Cost per Click) advertising
  • CPA (Cost per Action) advertising

Benefits of Search Engine Marketing

The goal of SEM is to direct traffic to the relevant section of your website that demands action or decision making from your visitors –a contact form, a sales page or video with a Call-to-Action etc. You are not only increasing traffic to your website, you are also eliciting action. The potential for conversion is therefore higher.
SEM strategies are easier to implement and do not require as much technical know-how as SEO.
SEM gives you better visibility on search engine results because you are given preferential listing on SERPs.

Organic traffic does not necessarily imply relevant or targeted traffic but with SEM, you have some level of control over the kind of leads you get because searches are more related to your line of business. The use of negative keywords in a PPC campaign, for example, increases your chances of getting targeted leads.

With SEM, it is easier to monitor the success of your campaign and review when necessary. Metrics used in measuring performance include click through rate (CTR) site engagement (newsletter subscriptions, downloads, completed contact forms etc) and conversions.

May 13, 2015
0

The Truth About Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

By | Search Engine Optimization | One Comment

The Truth About Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

The term “Search Engine Optimization” (SEO) can be an intimidating use of words for those who do not understand it. The details, design work, technical work and analysis that goes into developing a good SEO plan for a new website is extremely extensive, but it doesn’t have to be intimidating.

I’d like to give you a brief overview discussing the truth about SEO, why it’s important, some of the work that goes into it, and some of the myths that have evolved over the years.

What Is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the use of basic and advanced techniques used to help your website show up in organic search engine results for targeted keyword phrases. This means that more people will see your website, which means that more visitors will visit your site. At the end of the day, the purpose is for you to generate increased targeted customer traffic and convert them into leads.

Organic Search Engine Results are results that are generated “naturally” through the use of proper SEO methods. There are many factors that make up a great SEO plan, but the saying that “content is king” still holds as being the most recognized, influential factor.

How Search Engines Work

The reason why nobody knows everything about SEO, is because of the ever-changing algorithm that search engines use. The algorithm is a unique set of equations that create steps in solving a problem. For you, the problem is finding the website that matches your search query. The algorithm for finding the website that best matches your query is extremely complicated, which is necessary in providing you with quality results.

Think about it. When you type in something like Georgia Website Design Company into your search field, you’re expecting to find a company or companies that design websites. The algorithm is what is used to search out that term, index quality websites, and display correct results to the user. The algorithm is designed so that when you search for “Georgia Website Design Company” you don’t end up with results that have nothing to do with your search.

On top of learning and understanding the algorithm, you must relearn it every time a major change occurs to it. These changes are unscheduled, unannounced, and usually never discussed until after they’re implemented. They are in place as a way of always trying to better the results, and streamline unique information to the user as easy as possible.

Debunking SEO Myths

There are many myths that have developed in and around the world of SEO. Let’s take care of debunking some of these myths before we get started.

The Secret SEO Magic Tricks
Many SEO companies often claim that they can “get your website to the top of Google,” or they offer you up some magic formula for online success and traffic to your website, without ever explaining anything to you. Many SEO companies say they can “get you to the top of Google,” but that’s a very misleading statement when used as a blanket generalization. Search engines are much smarter than so-called “magic formulas,” and black-hat SEO tactics will render your website disabled, blacklisted, and banned from Google.

The truth is that there are no magic tricks used in a good SEO plan – just proper methods and techniques, hard work, and fresh, unique content.

I Know Everything About SEO
If you have ever heard anybody say that they know everything about SEO, then they’re not being honest. The fact is that nobody knows everything there is to know about SEO, including the employees at Google! The algorithm is too complicated for any one person to understand fully, and its constant changes and updates make it difficult to be all-knowing. However, a great SEO company can master the methods and techniques that are proven to work.

May 13, 2015
1
Marketing

How does online marketing benefit my business?

By | Business, Internet Marketing | No Comments

Your business is a huge aspect in your life and you are going to want it to thrive and grow as much as possible. Tricks that worked in the past do not work anymore and online marketing has taken their place. Online marketing could be anything from directories to social media marketing. Without a doubt, your business needs online marketing to get exactly where you want it to be.

  • First of all, making your mark online is one of the most important tasks you can have initially. Your online brand is necessary for increasing product or service awareness. Your name and logo should be recognizable, memorable and what your target audience is searching for when they are browsing the web.
  • A majority of your consumers are internet active depending on your business and prefer it over their local newspaper or phonebook, so they use it quite frequently. Consumer preference is important, considering the consumer is what makes your business work. The internet conveniently puts almost everything at the tip of your fingers so make sure your site is one of the first ones that comes up when they are searching in your field.
  • Cost efficiency is a big plus to internet marketing when comparing modern to traditional. The costs of hard copies, printing and blowing up images is dramatically higher than digital designs, a website, marketing articles and social media. Take advantage of the option to avoid busy print shops as much as you can and find your way to online advertising.
  • Convenient availability is a rather large advantage to online marketing. Yourself and the consumer are both busy with your own personal daily agenda. Internet marketing allows scheduled advertisements, 24 hour availability for customers who aren’t on an identical schedule and the allowance of purchases, day or night, by the click of a button.

Save your money and both you and your customers time by investing in online marketing. Social media, online advertising, and marketing via the internet can not detriment your business growth if done correctly.

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May 13, 2015
0

How SEO Marketing Can Help Your Business

By | Blogging Tips, Search Engine Optimization, Web Development, Website Tools | No Comments

Getting Up To Speed with SEO Marketing

In today’s internet savvy society, SEO marketing is radically changing the way businesses can reach customers. SEO marketing can improve a company’s internet presence tremendously and we at Vroooom Web feel nothing is more important in the current market.

The goal of SEO marketing is increase traffic to a company’s website to the company’s target audience. This is done by increasing the chance that the company we represent is found easily on search engines.

The goal is to provide users searching for keywords or phrases to be directed to the company we represent. Relevant key words and phrases are chosen after thorough analytical research in order to ascertain the correct target audience.

This increased web presence can only help to maximize total sales and allow the company to reach more markets. By allowing Vroooom to handle the marketing side of the business, this takes the burden off of our clients and allows them to focus their energy in other areas such as production.

Another important reason to get in on the SEO marketing game is simple: competition. The most successful companies know the best way to stay ahead of the competition is look toward the future and new trends. As more and companies begin to utilize this process, the companies that do not will begin to be pushed into internet obscurity.

Another reason to invest in the process is due to the ever growing use of the internet. Internet use continues to grow with the creation of smartphones, tablets, and other portable internet devices. Online shopping has also become a massive industry due to convenience and the ability to compare prices. A company without a proper online presence is missing out on a huge market that could potentially bolster sales.

Contact Vroooom Web today and let us help your company become something more.

May 13, 2015
0

Vroooom And Mobile Web Design

By | Georgia Website Design, Mobile Websites, Web Development, Website Design | No Comments

Mobile Web Design: Changes For the Future

The Internet is changing. While web development is still primarily focused on creating sites that work well for desktop and notebook paradigms, mobile devices such as smart phones and tablets are taking over. It is a trend that show no signs of slowing, and there are more smart devices being sold today than desktops and notebooks. The adoption of smart devices is a trend that is here to stay.Business have to begin focusing more into mobile web design.

The demands of mobile development differ starkly from development for desktop and notebook browsers. With smaller screens and touch-based interfaces, users interact with websites in a profoundly different way. Complex interfaces and excessive text renders web sites cumbersome and, in some cases, completely unusable. Smalls tweaks will not fix the problem; fundamental redesign is necessary. Today, web development often requires two different websites.

Ignoring the mobile web design market is not just a wasted opportunity. Potential customers are not always supplementing their web browsing with these new devices; oftentimes, they are replacing their desktops or notebooks. Concurrent with this increase in smart device users is a decline in the number of people browsing from a desktop or notebook browser. Simply put, ignoring smart devices will cost a company customers.

Having a well-designed, smart device-friendly website will attract customers and send the message that your business cares about their satisfaction. After visiting several competitors’ sites and leaving due to poor design, you future customers will be pleased that you have taken the effort to prioritize you accessibility. A mobile-friendly website shows professionalism and attentiveness. Mobile-friendly websites show that you are proactive.

Vroooom offers cutting-edge website design for the changing marketplace. By focusing on that which makes for a good mobile web design site, Vroooom can create a site that will impress your potential customers and encourage them to stay and look around. Length of stay on a website correlates with the likelihood that they will make a purchase or stop by your store.

And Vroooom offers techniques to integrate your site with social media platforms such as Facebook. With the consumer-based demand for new ways of connecting with businesses, maintaining and driving traffic to your Facebook page will lead to new customers in a way than traditional advertising cannot replicate.

May 9, 2015
0

HTML5 & CSS3: The Evolution of Web Design

By | Web Development, Website Design, Website Tips | 2 Comments

The Evolution of CSS3 & HTML5

There is an almost constant evolution occurring in the world of web design and web development. If you take a look at where web design has come from in the last decade, it’s nothing short of amazing, and the recent announcement of CSS3 and HTML5… things just keep getting better.

Before CSS3 and HTML5 There Was…

Before CSS was really developed, you really only had three options when it came down to the design of your website.

Option 1: Design it in pure HTML
This option was good for loading time and search engines, but terrible on the eyes. Most people resorted to the gaudy effects of scrolling marquee text, terrible page layouts, and no visual balance to break up the page design.

Option 2: HTML With CSS and Images
This option was better, and it allowed for far better visual features, but there were still too many visual aspects that required the use of images. Some of the features even included text – if it was outside of standard web fonts, and before you could reference fonts placed on your server. You also had to resort to using images for anything using a rounded corner, gradient, or special image effects.

Option 3: Flash, Java, and Moving GIFs
Ever landed on a web page that nearly gave you a seizure because of all of the flashing text and moving GIF images? Nothing will make someone click the red X faster than that.

If you wanted to make something more on your website, you were basically left to using flash, Java, or moving GIFs. All of which have “side-effects” of use.

You can create some awesome animation and movement effects using Adobe Flash, but it’s problems outweigh its benefits. Flash loads slow, it’s unreliable, and it is almost non-existent to search engines (especially when used alone). On top of that, you have to hope that the user has the most recent version of Flash installed on their computer, and isn’t using dial-up (or even some DSL connections), that will greatly increase the time it takes to load the Flash. Lastly… Flash is not compatible with every mobile device, like the iPhone.

Java has some great features, but you still risk people not having Java installed or enabled on their computer. This means that a lot of your cool features and design elements may go unused, or become dysfunctional to the user.

CSS5 and HTML5 Save The Day!

New Features of CSS3

CSS3 is vastly improving the way we present information on websites by simply making elements prettier to look at. Although it currently isn’t supported by all browsers yet, the newest major browsers have support for CSS3. In this section we are going to take a look at some of the new features for CSS3 and what you can use them for on your website.

Rounded Corners with Border Radius

This new feature allows you to create rounded borders for those divs with sharp corners without having to usd images with rounded corners. This feature is currently support in the Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and Internet Explorer 9 Beta browsers.

Example:

#div {
border: solid 1px black;
-moz-border-radius: 5px;
border-radius: 5px;
}

Border Images

Instead of using a regular old CSS border, the new CSS3 allows you to upload an image and use it for a more attractive border style.

Multiple Backgrounds

Earlier versions of CSS did not allow you to have multiple backgrounds for a single element on a page. CSS3 changes this and allows a single element to have multiple backgrounds.

Opacity

Before CSS3, you would have to use an image or a css filter to get opacity on an element. Now, it’s as simple as one line of code to change an element’s opacity.

Example:

#div{
opacity: 0.5;
}

Color Options

Instead of using hex codes and have to remember specific codes for specific colors, you can now choose the amount of Red, Green, and Blue in a single element.

Greater Support for Fonts

You can now upload a font file to your server, link to the file from within the CSS file using @font-face, and create a family for it so you can use it within any element on your page.

Text Shadows

This allows you to add a drop shadow for texts on the webpage, giving elements a much more professional look that couldn’t be done before without using images.

Example:

#div p {
text-shadow: 0px 2px 2px rgba(0,0,0,.2);
}

Resizing Elements

This gives users on your page the option to resize an element on a page.

Example:

#div {
resize:both;
}

New Features and Elements of HTML 5

HTML 5 brings a lot of new features to the table, and some browsers already have limited support for some of these new features.

New Doctype and Charset

Possibly the best thing about HTML 5 is how easy to implement it is. It’s as simple as stating the HTML 5 doctype, which follows below:

<!doctype html></code>

This works with just two simple words because HTML 5 is no longer part of SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language), and is now a markup language all on its own. The character set for HTML 5 is very simple as well. It uses UTF-8 and the way you define it is:

<meta charset=”UTF-8″>

New Structure

HTML 5 now recognizes that a website will have a structure, similar to how XML documents or even books are structured. A website will generally have pages that all have a header, navigation, the body (content), sidebars, and a footer. There are also a few other structure elements this new feature accounts for, as seen below.

  • <section> – defines page sections
  • <header> – defines the pages header
  • <footer> defines the pages footer
  • <nav> – defines the pages navigation
  • <article> – defines an article or primary content on a page
  • <aside> – defines extra content on a page (IE, a sidebar)
  • <figure> – defines an image that annotates an article

HTML 5 Inline Elements

These inline elements are used to define some basic concepts, and keep them neat looking and properly marked up. Most of these deal with the time or date.

  • <mark> – indicates content that is marked in some fashion
  • <time> – indicates content that is a time or date
  • <meter> – indicates content that is a fraction of a known range
  • <progress> – indicated the progress of completion for a task

Dynamic Pages Support

HTML 5 was developed with web application developers in mind, and helps them tremendously to more easily create dynamic HTML pages.

  • Context menus – HTML 5 supports the creation and use of context menus
  • href is not required on a tag anymore, allowing you to use the a tag with scripts in applications without requiring you to send the anchor anywhere.
  • async attribute – when this is added to a script tag, it tells the browser to load the script in question asynchronously so it doesn’t slow down the loading and display of the other items on the page.
  • <details> – provides details about an element (similar to a tooltip)
  • <datagrid> – use this to easily create a table that pulls information from a database or other dynamic source
  • <menu> – this allows you to create a menu system
  • <command> – defines the action that should happen when a dynamic element is activated

HTML 5 New Form Types

The old standard form types are still supported, but HTML 5 adds a few more to make forms look more professional. These new form types are:

  • datetime
  • datetime-local
  • date
  • month
  • week
  • time
  • number
  • range
  • email
  • url

New HTML 5 Elements

There are few elements and tags that are completely new in HTML, giving HTML a whole new level of dynamics that wasn’t available before.

  • <canvas> – this element gives you a JavaScript drawing space on the page. This allows you to add graphs or images to tool tips, or to just create dynamic, built on the fly, graphs on your pages.
  • <video> – adds a video to your page
  • <audio> – adds sound to your page

Elements Removed from HTML 5

There are some elements that HTML 5 is no longer supporting that were in earlier HTML versions. Most of them are already no longer used, which doesn’t make them being removed very surprising, but some of them seem a little too useful to just remove, such as the underline tag. These styling tags that are being removed are most likely due to CSS now mainly being used to style fonts on pages. The following will no longer be support in HTML 5:

  • acronym
  • applet
  • basefont
  • big
  • center
  • dir
  • font
  • frame
  • frameset
  • isindex
  • noframes
  • noscript
  • s
  • strike
  • tt
  • u
April 13, 2015
0

The Best Search Engine Optimization Rule

By | Search Engine Optimization, Website Tips | One Comment

Search Engine Optimization:The Best Rule

Throughout the years, what is seen as the best Search Engine Optimization techniques has changed. When the internet first launched to the public in the mid 90’s, search engines relied on keyword tags and hyper-linking as the primary methods of ranking well. It didn’t take long for web developers and Search Engine Optimizers to find loop-holes in the methods used to rank websites, which led to the birth of what is now referred to as “black hat” SEO techniques. Black Hat techniques include methods such as keyword stuffing, meta tag hi-jacking, mirror websites, paid link farms and so on. As the evolution of these Black Hat SEO techniques grew, so did the search engine’s ability to filter honest SEO techniques.

Today’s search engine algorithms are so complex and they can easily spot the old Black Hat SEO techniques that once worked. But one ideology has never, and most likely will never change. That ideology is that Content is King.

Content is King… But What Does it Mean?

The phrase “Content is King” refers to the written content that is published on a website such as your welcome text, written content regarding your services, reviews, product descriptions, etc. At the end of the day, this is one of the most measurable substances on your website, and most would argue that it is the MOST measurable substance.

Now, you can’t just write a bunch of paragraphs and expect traffic. There is work, analysis and knowledge that is required in order to publish good content. Let’s break it down.

Writing Unique, Quality Content

The number one idea that you need to consider before writing your content, is making sure that it is going to be unique and quality content. Unique content would simply be content that can’t be found on other websites, or about a topic that is rarely discussed online. Of course, that content is pointless if the content is never being searched for. If I wrote about purple scallywags, I would probably have the number one article on the internet for purpole scallywags… but it would never get content because nobody is searching for purple scallywags.

You want to write about new stuff. Technologies, products or ideas that are not being discussed everywhere. If you intend to write content for something that is already widely published, then you’ll need to provide more details that your competitor. You can do this by allowing readers to ask questions on the page, post reviews, or vote on things regarding the topic. This will bring more readers to your page.

Google Likes Fresh Content

Search engines, especially Google, love fresh content. Adding new content to your website does several beneficial things for you.

Fresh content, means more content. Since Content is King, that means that you’re building your “Kingdom.” Fresh content also shows Google that your site has life. It’s not a stale, stagnate website that nobody pays attention to, and will therefore schedule to crawl your site more often.

Think of your website as a video store, or these days… think of it as Netflix. You login to Netflix to add a new movie to your que, right? For the first few months you are always able to find new movies to add. One day, you go to add some movies, but you can’t seem to find anything new, or anything that you like. You wait a few more days and go back, just to find that there still are not any good movies. A week goes by… still nothing new. Now you’re waiting even longer in-between each time you check.

You think that “there’s no reason to check today. There probably isn’t anything new.”

Google has the same perspective. If it visits your site and never sees new content up, or changes being made, it has no reason to come back every day. However, if there is new content every time it stops by to visit, then it’s going to come back tomorrow… maybe even later that same day.

In short, it’s important to continually add fresh content to your website. This is where experienced Search Engine Optimization companies really come in hand.

December 31, 2013
0
Privacy

The Privacy of the Internet

By | WWW | No Comments

The Internet has proven to be one of mankind’s greatest inventions in the 20th century. It takes communication to a whole different level of improvement, erases physical barriers on both a local and global level and expands our education and knowledge in almost infinite ways. Its impact on our society and adsorption into our lives has been extraordinary, from where we get our news and information, to how we find friends and business associates. But with something that has such an impact in our personal lives it can also have evasive consequences.

It’s easy to assume that some of the same laws that protect our privacy in the physical world apply to the virtual and digital world as well, but laws that address and govern Internet privacy have always been a great source of debate and controversy and are still in the process of being developed. Currently, private companies have been allowed impunity to track as many of our movements online as technology allows, exchanging and even selling that information to other companies. The technology to track this information is advancing as rapidly as communication technology is advancing, which makes it very difficult for people to keep abreast of what is taking place when they access and surf the Internet, let alone what steps to take to protect themselves and prevent these intrusions.

The issue of privacy and freedom of speech has always been a major debate in regards to the Internet. Even though the policies governing the Internet are underdeveloped as a result, which makes it largely unregulated, the federal government has been increasingly pushing for regulatory laws regarding the Internet. The Stop Online Piracy Acts (SOPA) and the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Acts (CISPA) bills have been some of the attempts to address this issue in the House of Representatives. SOPA was basically scrapped due to immense public opposition against the bill. Then on April 26, U.S. Congress passed CISPA on a bipartisan majority vote.

Though CISPA has faced opposition, including from the White House, it’s gotten much less criticism mainly because of the slight differences in what they represent. SOPA was more about intellectual property rights; whereas CISPA specifically addresses cyber security, but opponents of the latter believe that it has the potential to violate constitutional rights as much as the former. CISPA would basically make it easier for online companies to share data, such as user private information, emails and direct messaging, with U.S. government agencies as long as it’s deemed a “cyberthreat.” In theory, the goal is to enable private companies and government to protect themselves against cyber attacks quickly and more efficiently and keeping themselves up-to-update to security risks.

Opponents against CISPA argue that the guidelines of what define a cyberthreat are too broad and would be difficult to enforce. Another concern they have is that CISPA also provides protection to the private sector against liability of shared user information, just so long as it’s deemed necessary for national security purposes. The most recent version of CISPA defines a cyberthreat as a threat “pertaining to a vulnerability of” a computer system or network, and government is not allowed to proactively use the information provided to them that is unrelated to cyber security. Privacy activists against the bill, such the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Reporters Without Borders and American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) argue that the bill isn’t specific about what constitutes a “cyber security threat” in order to prevent potential abuse, and have currently launched campaigns for public awareness about the issues that are associated with it.

The White House has threatened to veto CISPA and also cite a lack of privacy protections that they say would give too much power to military and intelligence agencies, which would enable them to take on a policing role of a sphere that is still primarily a civilian one. The Obama administration has openly backed a Senate bill proposed by Joe Lieberman, which would instead concentrate the regulatory authority into the hands of the Department of Homeland Security.

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