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Even in the relentless news and noise of early 2023, you’ve probably heard about ChatGPT, the GPT-3-powered (technically, 3.5) chatbot that’s eerily able to simulate human-like responses. Consider, for example, this question and answer (created by GPT-3): That’s not bad, and it sounds like something an actual human would write. GPT (Generative Pre-training Transformer) is a deep learning system that generates text based on predicting language patterns after being pre-trained with a large set of documents. For this post, I’ll be using OpenAI’s Playground with the “text-davinci-003” GPT-3 model, which can be programmed to produce shorter answers and is more reli…

Technology can be a conductor or a barrier. Everything we do to market local businesses is meant to culminate in a human encounter. When we get our part right (and external forces smile upon us), technology connects us. When we get our part wrong (or external forces impede us), technology can have the frustrating effect of sundering local brands from their customers, with everybody losing out on the deal. The modern phenomenon of local search exemplifies the concept of a “mixed blessing”. Loss of control over significant parts of the customer journey can be a source of legitimate stress for owners and marketers. Stress isn’t good for us, of course, and that’s why I’m h…

Recorded at SearchLove London in October — in the wake of three Google updates — Tom presents a different take on core updates in this Whiteboard Friday. Click on the whiteboard image above to open a high resolution version in a new tab! [HEADING=1]Video Transcription[/HEADING] Happy Friday, Moz fans. So I'm here at SearchLove London recording this Whiteboard Friday. I don't know when it will reach you, but this is a bit of a different take on how to think about core updates. So obviously, I'm filming this in October. We've just had three updates back-to-back in quick succession. I think it's quite interesting that we had three updates and they were descri…

We have just released new versions of our products: WoltLab Suite 5.5.8 WoltLab Suite 5.4.25 WoltLab Suite 5.3.26 Stability releases (third part of the version number, also known as “patch releases”) aim to solve existing problems in the current version. Like every stability release, they do not introduce new features. It is strongly recommended to apply these updates. [HEADING=1]Security Notice[/HEADING] We have been notified by Chabik Hatim about a vulnerability in the processing of a malformed user account activation code. Accessing the user account activation form with manipulated activation code parameters allowed HTML code to be injected into the ge…

Wir haben soeben Updates für unsere Produkte freigegeben: WoltLab Suite 5.5.8 WoltLab Suite 5.4.25 WoltLab Suite 5.3.26 Stabilitäts- und Fehlerbehebungsversionen (die 3. Stelle der Versionsnummer, auch als „patch releases“ bekannt), beseitigen ausschließlich Fehler in der aktuellen Version und führen keine neuen Funktionen ein. Es wird ausdrücklich empfohlen, diese Updates anzuwenden. [HEADING=1]Sicherheitshinweis[/HEADING] Wir wurden von Chabik Hatim auf einen Schwachstelle bei der Verarbeitung eines fehlerhaften Aktivierungscode für Benutzerkonten aufmerksam gemacht. Der Aufruf des Formulars zur Aktivierung von Benutzerkonten mit manipulierten Parameter…

Business blogging is an interesting concept. Many businesses have a blog, and yet, in most cases, there isn’t much planning going into how those blogs fit into larger business goals. Someone on the team is just assigned to publish content regularly, and that’s what they do. A business blog is usually an island within a company: There’s likely, not much measuring, so no one has any idea if it is generating any traffic, sales, or rankings. And yet, despite a lack of planning or measuring, there may be some good traffic coming. Blogging is a good way to achieve “aссidental rankings” (those you didn’t necessarily plan for) and discover more search-driven sales channe…

There was a pre-search-engine age. It’s hard to conceive of now, but there was. Even in the early days of search engines, when Ask Jeeves, Yahoo, and Excite still competed for the crown, I can remember web portals. Pages that I’d start at, in the “computer room” at school, to navigate and explore the web not by searching, but by clicking on organized links. In the beginning, there were web portals. The internet was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. These were already the death throes of a previous internet age. Search engine dominance, and specifically Google dominance, has been the norm for this kind of journey for decades now. …

Ready for a deep dive into 40+ common features found on Google Business Profiles (GBPs) and the New Merchant Experience (NMX)? Here we go! You may feel daunted by the fact that GBPs are major assets you rent from rather than owning because Google has always taken a crowdsourced approach to vital information that represents your company. You may also be disgruntled right now because you had gotten used to managing your listings in the historic Google Business Profile Manager dashboard, like this: And now Google has ousted you from the familiar dashboard and tossed you into the chilly, unfamiliar pool of in-SERP listings management which we’re calling the New Merc…

Welcome to 2023! In the first Whiteboard Friday of the new year, Paddy walks through three methods to evolve your link building efforts — not reinventing the wheel, but by improving what you currently do. Click on the whiteboard image above to open a high resolution version in a new tab! [HEADING=1]Video Transcription[/HEADING] Hi, Moz fans. Welcome to another edition of Whiteboard Friday. I'm Paddy Moogan. I'm the CEO of Aira. Today, we're going to talk about link building and how to evolve your link building to its next phase and to improve what you do at the moment. So we're going to talk through three methods to improve your link building and evolve it…

Hi everyone, Following many other open source projects, the phpBB project has created the phpBB Collective on the Open Collective platform. Going forward, we will be able to accept donations from individual contributors, and you will be able to track those donations through the Open Collective platform. We have also joined the GitHub sponsors program, so as a GitHub user, you can now sponsor the phpBB project on GitHub! Funds acquired through the phpBB Collective will be used to pay project and development related expenses, like server or code hosting bills as well as expenses for in-person events like team meetings or conference attendance costs for phpBB Team Memb…

Six in ten consumers require a minimum 4+ star rating in order to consider patronizing a local business and over ⅓ say it’s the star rating that is the key differentiator between local brands. If you’re marketing a company that is just starting out or an established business that has hit a reputational rough patch and your overall ratings fall below this magic threshold, revenue is being lost. But hope is not lost! In today’s column, you will find a set of sensible, actionable steps you can take to raise your Google Business Profile star ratings, improve your reviews, and begin developing the good online reputation you need in order to realize the full profit potent…

If it looks like a cat and sits like a cat, it must be… OpenAI’s ChatGPT is a novelty that most SEOs are exploring right now for its ability to have a conversation with us about complex questions. It may be a major search disruptor and a threat to Google, a useful tool, a source of inspiration, and a societal ill, all rolled into one, but what I want to highlight today is that there is a very good reason the content generated by this system comes with lots of disclaimers. Over the past twenty years, I’ve probably answered tens of thousands of questions relating to local search marketing. I’m sure I’ve gotten it wrong lots of times, but one thing that’s never happene…

[HEADING=1]vBulletin 5.7.2 Changes and Updates[/HEADING] vBulletin Connect 5.7.2 is now available to download. vBulletin Cloud customers will be upgraded automatically over the next couple of weeks. [HEADING=1]Custom Node Fields[/HEADING] This new feature allows Administrators to define text and text area fields that are assigned to channels. When a user creates a new topic, defined custom node fields will be available. [HEADING=1]How it works[/HEADING] The Administrator will create Field Categories in the AdminCP. Each category is assigned to one or more channels. Within each category, the Administrator can create one or more fields that will get as…

Humans are visual beings. Images attract our attention, can communicate ideas faster than the written word and can trigger meaningful discussions. At Invision Community we recognised this very early in the company history and have included a Gallery application for many years. During this time online communities have evolved substantially so we thought it was time to re-assess what it means to offer a community gallery and have some exciting developments to share. Visual Refresh The first thing we wanted to do was to give the look & feel a modern overhaul. @Ehren has done a fantastic job with modern design ideas. We took inspiration from the recent overhaul of t…

[HEADING=1]vBulletin 5.7.2 Changes and Updates[/HEADING] A Preview Version of vBulletin Connect 5.7.2 is now available for download. Please note that using Preview Releases on production servers is not recommended. [HEADING=1]Custom Node Fields[/HEADING] This new feature allows Administrators to define text and text area fields that are assigned to channels. When a user creates a new topic, defined custom node fields will be available. [HEADING=1]How it works[/HEADING] The Administrator will create Field Categories in the AdminCP. Each category is assigned to one or more channels. Within each category, the Administrator can create one or more fields …

Hi all, We have noticed that the CDN that provides loading of emojis in phpBB has stopped working. While a new version that takes care of this is already in the works, you will most likely notice issues with pages taking longer to load and issues with the display of emojis (see e.g. here: viewtopic.php?t=2634321). Until the next version of phpBB is released, you can resolve this issue by applying the following fix that will be included in the next release: Open [iCODE]phpbb/textformatter/s9e/factory.php[/iCODE] Find (~ line 359): Code: Select all [iCODE][/iCODE] Replace with: Code: Select all [iCODE][/iCODE] Find (~ line 362): Code: Select al…

2023 will be a run-up to the Olympics for the world’s top athletes who will be competing in a variety of events to prove themselves ready to represent their countries in the Paris Games, and I have a strong hunch that the coming months will be a strenuous exercise in fortitude for local business owners and their marketers, as well. Having weathered the extraordinary events that occurred in local search in the second half of 2022 – most particularly the deprecation of the historic Google Business Profile Manager Dashboard and a slew of business-impacting bugs – it’s my prediction that 2023 is going to be a year of notable change for the millions of local brands for whom…

MyBB 1.8.33 is now available, and is a security & maintenance release. This version improves cache system stability, and compatibility with PostgreSQL (PDO) and recent PHP versions. 1 security vulnerability addressed: High risk: ACP Languages local file inclusion (advisory) — reported by yelang123 (Stealien), NGA (Stealien) 8 issues resolved Check the Release Notes for more information. Get latest MyBB Full & Upgrade Packages → The MyBB Project extends thanks to reporters and researchers following responsible disclosure. Go to mybb.com/security to report possible security concerns or to learn more about security research at MyBB. If you…

We published 156 posts on the Moz Blog this year, and as is tradition, it's time to look back at the most popular ones! You’ll find blogs on new findings in social media search, tips for e-commerce SEO, trends in technical and local SEO, and so much more. Have a safe and happy new year, Moz friends! See you in 2023. *The top 25 written posts published between January 1 - December 26, 2022, in order by pageviews generated during that timeframe. [HEADING=1]1. How to Win Potential Consumers with Customer Journey Mapping on Google[/HEADING] By Christopher Hofman Laursen | April 20, 2022 If your website is like most others, there is likely a mismatch between t…

WoltLab Suite 5.3 was released on November 11, 2020 and brought many popular innovations and improvements. The successor versions are build upon this foundation and are also compatible with current PHP versions thanks to technical modernizations. We recommend all customers to upgrade to a newer version as soon as possible in order to continue to benefit from up-to-date and stable software. [HEADING=2]Affected Products[/HEADING] WoltLab Suite Forum 5.3 WoltLab Suite Core 5.3 WoltLab Suite Blog 5.3 WoltLab Suite Calendar 5.3 WoltLab Suite Filebase 5.3 WoltLab Suite Gallery 5.3 [HEADING=2]January 1, 2023 - Stage 1[/HEADING] End of the regular support period. …