Comment The home button is back! (Score 1) 66
Sure itâ(TM)s on the side instead of at the bottom, but itâ(TM)s back baby!
Submission + - Massive Yandex Code Leak Reveals Russian Search Engine's Ranking Factors (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Nearly 45GB of source code files, allegedly stolen by a former employee, have revealed the underpinnings of Russian tech giant Yandex's many apps and services. It also revealed key ranking factors for Yandex's search engine, the kind almost never revealed in public. [...] While it's not clear whether there are security or structural implications of Yandex's source code revelation, the leak of 1,922 ranking factors in Yandex's search algorithm is certainly making waves. SEO consultant Martin MacDonald described the hack on Twitter as "probably the most interesting thing to have happened in SEO in years" (as noted by Search Engine Land). In a thread detailing some of the more notable factors, researcher Alex Buraks suggests that "there is a lot of useful information for Google SEO as well."
Yandex, the fourth-ranked search engine by volume, purportedly employs several ex-Google employees. Yandex tracks many of Google's ranking factors, identifiable in its code, and competes heavily with Google. Google's Russian division recently filed for bankruptcy after losing its bank accounts and payment services. Buraks notes that the first factor in Yandex's list of ranking factors is "PAGE_RANK," which is seemingly tied to the foundational algorithm created by Google's co-founders.
As detailed by Buraks (in two threads), Yandex's engine favors pages that: — Aren't too old
— Have a lot of organic traffic (unique visitors) and less search-driven traffic
— Have fewer numbers and slashes in their URL
— Have optimized code rather than "hard pessimization," with a "PR=0"
— Are hosted on reliable servers
— Happen to be Wikipedia pages or are linked from Wikipedia
— Are hosted or linked from higher-level pages on a domain
— Have keywords in their URL (up to three)
Yandex, the fourth-ranked search engine by volume, purportedly employs several ex-Google employees. Yandex tracks many of Google's ranking factors, identifiable in its code, and competes heavily with Google. Google's Russian division recently filed for bankruptcy after losing its bank accounts and payment services. Buraks notes that the first factor in Yandex's list of ranking factors is "PAGE_RANK," which is seemingly tied to the foundational algorithm created by Google's co-founders.
As detailed by Buraks (in two threads), Yandex's engine favors pages that: — Aren't too old
— Have a lot of organic traffic (unique visitors) and less search-driven traffic
— Have fewer numbers and slashes in their URL
— Have optimized code rather than "hard pessimization," with a "PR=0"
— Are hosted on reliable servers
— Happen to be Wikipedia pages or are linked from Wikipedia
— Are hosted or linked from higher-level pages on a domain
— Have keywords in their URL (up to three)
Comment Looking forward to another daylight savings time (Score 1) 193
Because someone will say "sure would be nice to have a bit more daylight during certain times of the year..."
Comment Henry Ford said it best (Score 1) 90
"Integrity is crucial for business success - once you can fake that, you've got it made." -Henry Ford
saw it on the internet so it must be true.
Comment Re:How can you block it without a facebook account (Score 1) 81
Yes, this. I don't have an account but it appears the only way to have any voice with FB is to have one.
Should someone open an account for the sole purpose of ensuring tracked data is explicitly tied to a No from the owner?
If so, does anyone have tips like use / don't use a burner email, etc.?
Comment Re:What is AMP? (Score 1) 34
thanks. I could only think of WinAMP the MP3 music player from the 90s.
Comment Re:Can we just outright ban links to NYT? (Score 1) 58
mod up please
Comment haven't seen one yet (Score 5, Insightful) 30
they will make it to PS6 before I can even buy a PS5
Comment Re:More of what kids don't need. (Score 1) 30
You had me at "candy cigarettes".
If I had mod points I would have used them on Insightful.
Comment Would this have changed blackout of 2021? (Score 1) 230
Not an electrical engineer, but I heard this in some media reports:
We were minutes away from the grid going totally down
I also heard this...
Some electricity was not routed to generators themselves, which mean they couldn't run some heating equipment
So here's my question: would these batteries have given ERCOT extra time to figure something out, or will this capacity not make that much of a difference?
Comment Re:Remaining merchandise (Score 1) 305
Yup, I visited a store pre-COVID and it looked like a ghost town. No people, mostly empty shelves, and an air of sadness. When I saw the story this morning my reaction was "I thought they were already out of business"
Comment Re:Bit more than that (Score 1) 114
I played through the game on PC, and I'll never forget the final scene. No spoliers in case anyone cares.
V was walking to his destination in a somber, what should have been emotional finale to the game. But for some reason, his jaw was fully open. I'm talking snake-that-unhinged-for-a-snack kind of open. And that's how he walked until he turned around and it snapped back into place.
It was perhaps the most fitting end to a buggy as hell experience. I learned the most important lesson of all: never buy a game from CDPR again.
Comment Re:You can check out, but you can never leave (Score 2) 179
let me rephrase: he can obtain dual citizenship. He still pays US taxes as a US citizen. IF the US government accepts the renunciation and does the one time tax and he gives up citizenship, then the taxation ends.
The point is that getting dual citizenship and then leaving doesn't mean you give up US tax liability. That's the forever part.
Comment You can check out, but you can never leave (Score 1) 179
The US Expatriation Tax means he keeps paying taxes. Forever. And if he does somehow renounce citizenship he is subject to severe additional taxes.
https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.investopedia.com%2Fterms%2Fe%2Fexpatriation-tax.asp
Comment Re:Time Zones are OK. Daylight Saving Time is EVIL (Score 1) 408
Here are ten more reasons: https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.insider.com%2Fdaylig...
I'm fine if you want to cross off the heart attack item. I can feel my own personal homicidal rage tick up a statistically significant amount. Good thing I'm too tired for a week after we spring ahead.
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