Blog Post #5500

 It's hard to believe I've reached 5,500 posts on this blog, and I'm still averaging over one post per day. Sometimes I think I need to cut back a little and give my eyes a break from the computer, but my hard drive is bursting with images I haven't shared yet, and I'm addicted to taking photos!

On blog anniversaries I usually switch from my usual topics (such as the mountain-valley region of Virginia), and write about my personal story or about blogging. There are a few news items about blogging that I'd like to share.


First of all, those annoying Captcha puzzles turn out to be breakable by software. An automated code-breaker had a 70 percent success rate over 2,235 CAPTCHAs with an average solving time of 19.2 seconds. Since my own success rate isn't much better, I imagine a robot will soon be better at this than I am.

No doubt robots have already beat my efforts at solving those select-the-squares puzzles. I find myself squinting at them, trying to make out the pictures. And when I come across one in another language, I pretty much have to guess! Google Translate doesn't work on images (and it barely works on blog stories, although I can get the general idea of what they are saying).

Speaking of Google, they have published guidelines for reviewing products that you got for free. These rules apply to Google sites such as Blogspot, so you may want to read them.  They include adding a "no follow" command to the supplier's link, and fortunately Blogger has an option for doing that.  The rules also require that you disclose the relationship, such as "I got this in exchange for writing a review."

It's very rare that I review products on my blog. I do review products on Amazon and yes, they require disclosure if you got the product for free. I am one of the fortunate people who gets free items to review there as part of their Vine program, but before you get envious let me tell you that I have to pay income tax on these goodies.

One other thing, and this is about the big social media sensation that has eclipsed blogging as a means of self-expression: Facebook. It's fun to use but several of my online friends have had their accounts polluted by spammers so be careful! Do not trust every app and game that you see there, even if your friends are using them. You may end up giving some spammer permission to post on your behalf, and suddenly something indecent shows up under your name or your friends get bogus requests pretending to be from you. (Read Why you should NOT install ‘Fun and Entertaining’ Facebook Applications.)