Google local is the place to be when someone is trying to find your business.  They put you on the map for the customer, they can see instantly how close you are to them.  They put your number of reviews there, your phone number, and your website.  This all feeds from your "Google Places" profile.

Hey world - hopefully this helps other hosts out there, we just learned of a spam hack that took place - although the holes aren't completely patched I have a good temporary workaround until we can do more research.  This hack is brand new, involves Joomla sites, and a file called writedoor2.php.

Here are some files you'll see in every Joomla installation if you are vulnerable:

/home/USERNAME/public_html/modules/footer_t.php
/home/USERNAME/public_html/modules/defaults.php
/home/USERNAME/public_html/modules/mod_mainmenu/extra/
     extra/feed3.php  extra/index.php  extra/mi.php  extra/writedoor2.php

The easy to find file is writedoor2.php, mi.php, or footer_t.php.

These files combine to insert code at the top of your site with links to hidden menu items on YOUR site that are full of spam link html files.  The link will probably be at the top of the page, visible with a view-source.

As a workaround, if you don't want to restore hundreds of sites to backups on a whim - I came up with a very basic workaround.

Be sure you understand ROOT access and the console.  Do NOT break your server and complain on forums.  If you want my help you can call our office and ask for Troy.

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 8:48 am - from http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=6033


Microsoft has signed the contributor agreement for Joomla, one of the biggest PHP-based open-source applications.

Josh Holmes, a UX Architect Evangelist with Microsoft, has more about the arrangement on his blog:

    “Obviously it means that Microsoft employees can contribute to Joomla!. That’s exciting all by itself as Joomla! is the second largest PHP application in the world. In fact, that’s already happened in conjunction with the signing as Ruslan Yakushev and Don Raman have already contributed code to add WinCache support to Joomla!“

Joomla is a content-management system (CMS) and a Model View Controller (MVC) framework that evolved from the Mambo CMS. Joomla is licensed under Version 2 or later of the GNU General Public License (GPL). According to the Joomla site, Joomla’s customers include MTV Networks Quizilla, IHOP, Harvard University and Citibank.

We put out a new template for real estate complete with google maps, contact form, and twitter widget.  You can watch an installation video here to see how to install and configure it.  You can also get support in our forum!

Adobe Flash Player not installed or older than 9.0.115!

SOBI Templates - http://webeddy.com/community/sobi-templates

Support Forum - http://webeddy.com/community/support-forum

We just launched a new site for our friends over at qaglass.com. They wanted to update the site a little bit, but leave the same feeling that it's a small family owned business.  We put a more modern template on a joomla site and added some SEO features.  It has a sitemap that updates to google, a page linking google testimonials, photo gallery for Customer Letters, and more features coming in the next 3 weeks.  We'll be adding badges for twitter/facebook and creating a "Job Blog" to put up pics of cools jobs they complete as they happen.