There have been a LOT of agents buying the TREO 650 PDA. Many are loving it, but there are a good many that have been having various software problems.

If you are having problems, be aware that there have been patches to the software made available that may help. You can find them at the Palm site at http://tinyurl.com/brb6n .

DNC - The Do Not Call list

If a FSBO or Expired is registered with the Federal Do Not Call list - ARE you allowed to call them?

I just came across an article in Realty Times I thought I would share with you that updates the answer to that question.

As of February 2005, the FCC said, effectively:

You can not call a FSBO unless you have a buyer for that house. You can not call expireds, unless they expired with your company, otherwise not at all!

The link to the article is http://realtytimes.com/rtapages/20050809_clarifyrules.htm 

Google Autolink

It appears Google is pulling another fast one. Following is a link to an article about what Google is calling "Autolinking", which is slated to become part of the Google Toolbar. It can transform plain text on any Web page into a link that sends the visitor to a related site for more information. AutoLink, though still in beta, is angering many people because it gives Google--not visitors or Web site designers of sites in which links are embedded--the power to decide which sites it sends you to.

Imagine that you have an address of a listing on your site, and unbeknownst to you, Google plugs a link into it, and it takes your site visitor to that listing on Realtor.com. That's what Autolinking could do to you! It looks for text that can be identified, and if Google has an affiliate that fits, plugs a link into that phrase! Read the article at http://tinyurl.com/4ekqb

This is a quick one! This is not a new tool. I had heard of it before, but had never had occasion to use it. Now that I have, and have seen how easy it is to use, I had to make sure you knew about it. Have you ever sent a URL to someone that was about 3 lines long? The person that received it e-mails you back complaining that the link doesn't work. It may have been because it was so long that it "wrapped". This tool allows you to shrink any size URL down to a very short one.

An example. You want to send the following link to someone.                                                  http://www1.us.dell.com/content/products/features.aspx/outrageous_desktops?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd 

Simply go to http://TinyURL.com   In the box that says "Enter a long URL to make tiny", you paste the above URL. Click on "Make TinyURL" and it came up with

http://tinyurl.com/5msf4 . That URL will go to the same place!

Another nice thing about it, is that it's such an easy URL to remember!

JPEG Viruses

This is not a hoax that you sometimes see warning you of viruses. I have researched this. Please note the links you see below.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad tidings, but if you have not already heard - JPEG files can carry viruses. A JPEG or '.jpg' file is the most common type of file for a photo online or in e-mail. It was announced not too long ago that they were now capable of carrying viruses, but now there is an imminent warning that one is about to be/has been unleashed. Following are links to more information about it.

I can't tell you that if you haven't already downloaded the XP SP2 patch, to do it now, because I don't know how safe it is yet. BUT you have to weigh the relatively small chance that it will interfere with your system, versus the potential to get this virus without it. Good luck!

http://tinyurl.com/5yxrb

http://www.easynews.com/virus.html

I also suggest you go to Google, and key in , without the quotes - 'jpeg virus'. You will find much information there as well.

Update your virus files immediately if you are not doing it automatically!

Google and Cloaking

Google may be up to some tricks again. It has been reported that they did an unusually large amount of spidering in September, and that another restructuring or overhaul of their index MAY be happening again. Watch your Web site statistics in the coming months.

Another issue I just read about by people that do this for a living, was about reciprocal linking. They are "theorizing" that Google MAY start punishing people for linking to sites that are optimized using methods of which Google does not approve. I know for a fact that some people reading this are using SEO methods/companies that are using cloaking or similar tools. They may be using it unwittingly, but using it nonetheless. In that case - ignorance is NOT an acceptable excuse, as far as Google is concerned. The issue here is not who links to you, but who you link to. I thought, given the amount of reciprocal linking going on with many of you, that you may want to consider this. I am personally now considering using the tool I mentioned in another post http://www.gritechnologies.com/tools/spider.go, to insure that I do not link to a site which is being optimized using cloaking pages or redirects, on my Agent Referral Network page at http://garydavidhall.com/network.htm. What you need to do is look at the individual pages using the diagnostics view hyperlink. If you see text that isn't on that web page, when viewing that page in a browser, the SEO is cloaking and probably using redirects. That will be a lot of work, and I don't know about you, but I can't afford to be banned from Google!

They also warned about using companies that "Guarantee" you first page rankings for specific key words. These companies have been very successful at one thing in particular - getting you banned from the search engines!

Your name as your domain name

I had a client tell me that a local agent had bought her name as a domain name, such as BettyBoop.com. The agent then "pointed" it to his own site! So if someone was looking for Betty, at ABC Realty, they went instead to her competitors Web site. Not only was he not affiliated with her, but he was from a different company all together. She asked me if this was illegal, or at the least, could she stop him from doing it. I did some research and found that NAR had already addressed this once, and they will not allow it. What follows is the case in which they decided it.

What's the point? Go to the Web and key in yourname.com & yourname.net, to make sure no one is using your name to drive people to their Web site!

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Case #12-17: Use of Deceptive Domain Name/URL ("Uniform Resource Locator") (Adopted May, 2001.)

REALTOR® X, a principal broker in the firm XYZ, was technologically savvy and constantly looking for ways to use the Internet to promote his firm and drive additional traffic to his website.

Being an early adapter to the Internet, he had registered, but not used, domain names that incorporated or played on the names of many of his competitors and their firms, including ABC, REALTORS®.

REALTOR® X and his information technology staff concluded that one way to drive traffic to the firm's website would be to take advantage of the search engines commonly used by potential buyers and sellers. They realized that when potential buyers or sellers searched on key words like "real estate" or "REALTORS®" or on similar words, lists of domain names would appear, and that when consumers searched the Internet for ABC, REALTORS®, one of the domain names that might appear would be REALTOR® X's domain name, abcREALTORS.com.

REALTOR® X decided to take advantage of the domain names that he had previously registered, and pointed several that used, in various ways, the names of his competitors, including "abcREALTORs.com," to his site.

In a matter of days, REALTOR® X learned that he had been charged with a violation of Article 12 of the Code of Ethics by REALTOR® A, the owner of ABC, REALTORS® , alleging that his (REALTOR® X's) use of the domain name "abcREALTORS.com" presented a false picture to potential buyers and sellers and others on the Internet.

At the hearing, REALTOR® X defended himself indicating that, in his opinion, use of a domain name was not advertising or a "representation" to the public but simply a convenient way for Internet users to find relevant websites. Moreover, "When websurfers reach my home page, there is no question that it is my site since I clearly show XYZ's name and our status as REALTORS®," he continued. "These complaints are just a lot of sour grapes from dinosaurs who aren't keeping up and who don't realize that on the Internet it's 'every man for himself.' "

The Hearing Panel disagreed with REALTOR® X's justification, indicating that while his use of a domain name that employed another firm's name might not be precluded by law or regulation, it did not comply with the Code's higher duty to present a "true picture."

REALTOR® X was found in violation of Article 12, presenting an untrue picture in his representation to the public.

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