President Obama is already way ahead of Romney in terms of Facebook presence, which may prove to be a decisive factor in the election if Obama can parlay Facebook supporters into actual voters. Continuing with that social media momentum comes the latest implementation that builds on the medium of online communication, Obama’s re-election campaign has launched a new organizing app that harks back to the President’s roots in community organizing.

Simply called Dashboard, the platform is designed to put supporters in touch with each other in order to organize meet-ups as well as keep up on the latest news from the Obama campaign. For those joining, you will have the option of logging in with your Facebook account or, if you’re not sure you want to publicize your support for the President just yet, you can also simply sign up with your email address.

Once you’re logged in, you’ll be able to link up with other volunteers based on what district is near you. Also, you get welcomed by this guy, Obama Campaign National Field Director Jeremy Bird:

One peculiar campaign tool on Dashboard that immediately struck me is this one:

Upon clicking the “Make Calls” button, I’m presented with a primer on one of three campaign issues – economy, environment, and women’s health – along with a related phone script replete with various responses I’m to say according to how the person I called answers the question, “Who do you support for President in 2012?” I’m also given the name, telephone number, city, and state of (what I presume to be) a documented supporter of Obama or, at least, a registered Democrat. With this person’s information, and aided with my script of answers, I’m to call these people and then submit my feedback to Dashboard by indicating whether or not the person I called wants to volunteer with Obama’s campaign.

And I’m to do all of this from my personal phone.

This is wildly peculiar to me because I’ve worked at political phone banks before where this is exactly what we did except I was required to go to the physical location of the phone bank, get briefly trained, and then I was put into a desk farm of other people all calling supporters. However, the Obama campaign has seemingly outsourced its phone banks to supporters’ personal phones, which is not only leaving a lot of faith in the fact that this service won’t collect opposition trolls but also trusting that the sincere followers are competent enough to follow directions and not go off-script.

I realize by what I’m about to say could potentially inspire some insidious behavior, but I had to go through zero vetting to become part of Obama’s network of supporters and within literally a minute I had phone numbers of real people. Maybe the campaign has some type of secret shoppers who Dashboard members unknowingly call just to make sure everybody’s behaving – in fact, I hope there’s something like that in place because it seems that this novel idea of a campaign hub could easily get turned on its ear by a few dedicated trolls. As we’ve already seen with the insurgency of jokers using Romney’s “I’m With Mitt” app (although it didn’t help that Romney’s campaign misspelled the name of the country that Romney wants to be president of), people don’t really consider these sorts of campaign promotional tools as off-limits. However, Obama’s Dashboard could make for some slightly more serious trouble than Romney’s camera app did.

It’s a shame that Dashboard appears so vulnerable because it really is a brilliant concept. It’s nice that the Obama campaign has that much faith in people that they wouldn’t believe that anyone would take advantage of Dashboard, but if anything should be painfully apparent in politics, it’s that there is no such thing as stooping too low.

The features that you know and love in Webmaster Tools have been regrouped which facilitated a change in the navigation structure. Some of the features have been renamed as well. The example provided is HTML Suggestions is now called HTML Improvements. All the features can now be found in one of four new groups:

Configuration: Things you configure and generally don’t change very often.
Health: Where you look to make sure things are OK.
Traffic: Where you go to understand how your site is doing in Google search, who’s linking to you; where you can explore the data about your site.
Optimization: Where you can find ideas to enhance your site, which enables us to better understand and represent your site in Search and other services.

The dashboard has received a complete redesign. With the new design, you’ll find recent, important and prioritized messages regarding your site sitting at the very top now. Equally important, there is now a brief summary of your site’s current status just below that. Three of the new feature navigations have widgets with Crawl Errors, Search Queries and Sitemaps representing Health, Traffic and Optimization. In what may be the best change, however, is that more messages and charts are now on the front page. With this, you can see how your site is doing without having to dive into the tools if you don’t have the time to do a thorough check.

The final change is the addition of a “compact” layout. This allows you to see your sitelist without having to view the site-preview thumbnails. You have a choice between the two, but I personally like the compact view more. It also has the added benefit of loading faster since it doesn’t have to stream in large images.

These new updates should make it easier to see site statistics at a glance. You can still dive in and get all the detailed information you’ve expected from Google Webmaster Tools, but now a lot more of it is on the front page. If that’s not convenience, I don’t know what is.

Oh that Microsoft.

First things first, one small but head scratching change looks to be a switch in controls for looking up game details and ejecting a disc. What was once “X” to eject and “Y” to look at details is now switched in the latest update. One upset 360 user couldn’t have summed it up any better.

While the change above is something noticeable and will affect a large amount of people, the second change is something which will go unnoticed by many but is actually pretty scary. In order to download the update, you must accept a new Terms of Service (ToS) agreement. Usually, ToS’s are ignored by everyone because who wants to read through a bunch of law jargon, when they just want to play Gears of War?

However, in the latest ToS, Microsoft added this nifty little clause which is very eye-opening. If you don’t want to read all of it, I’ll summarize afterwards:

IF YOU LIVE IN THE UNITED STATES, YOU AND MICROSOFT AGREE THAT IF YOU AND MICROSOFT DO NOT RESOLVE ANY DISPUTE BY INFORMAL NEGOTIATION UNDER SECTION 18.1.2 ABOVE, ANY EFFORT TO RESOLVE THE DISPUTE WILL BE CONDUCTED EXCLUSIVELY BY BINDING ARBITRATION IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE ARBITRATION PROCEDURES IN SECTION 18.1.7 BELOW. YOU UNDERSTAND AND ACKNOWLEDGE THAT BY AGREEING TO BINDING ARBITRATION, YOU ARE GIVING UP THE RIGHT TO LITIGATE (OR PARTICIPATE IN AS A PARTY OR CLASS MEMBER) ALL DISPUTES IN COURT BEFORE A JUDGE OR JURY. INSTEAD, YOU UNDERSTAND AND AGREE THAT ALL DISPUTES WILL BE RESOLVED BEFORE A NEUTRAL ARBITRATOR, WHOSE AWARD (DECISION) WILL BE BINDING AND FINAL, EXCEPT FOR A LIMITED RIGHT OF APPEAL UNDER THE FEDERAL ARBITRATION ACT. ANY COURT WITH JURISDICTION OVER THE PARTIES MAY ENFORCE THE ARBITRATOR’S AWARD.

THE ONLY DISPUTES NOT COVERED BY THE AGREEMENT IN SECTION 18.1 TO NEGOTIATE INFORMALLY AND ARBITRATE ARE DISPUTES ENFORCING, PROTECTING, OR CONCERNING THE VALIDITY OF ANY OF YOUR OR MICROSOFT’S (OR ANY OF YOUR OR MICROSOFT’S LICENSORS’) INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS.

and…

18.1.6. CLASS ACTION WAIVER. YOU AND MICROSOFT AGREE THAT ANY PROCEED­INGS TO RESOLVE OR LITIGATE ANY DISPUTE, WHETHER IN ARBITRATION, IN COURT, OR OTHERWISE, WILL BE CONDUCTED SOLELY ON AN INDIVIDUAL BASIS, AND THAT NEITHER YOU NOR MICROSOFT WILL SEEK TO HAVE ANY DISPUTE HEARD AS A CLASS ACTION, A REPRESENTATIVE ACTION, A COLLECTIVE ACTION, A PRIVATE ATTORNEY-GENERAL ACTION, OR IN ANY PROCEEDING IN WHICH YOU OR MICROSOFT ACTS OR PROPOSES TO ACT IN A REPRESENTATIVE CAPACITY. YOU AND MICROSOFT FURTHER AGREE THAT NO ARBITRATION OR PROCEEDING WILL BE JOINED, CONSOLIDATED, OR COMBINED WITH ANOTHER ARBITRATION OR PROCEEDING WITHOUT THE PRIOR WRITTEN CONSENT OF YOU, MICROSOFT, AND ALL PARTIES TO ANY SUCH ARBITRATION OR PROECCEDING.

Basically, both of those clauses protect Microsoft from being sued should you desire to take them to court over Xbox Live or your Xbox 360 console. Instead of going to court, any dispute will be handled by private arbitration. These arbitrations keep these disputes out of the public eye, which really only benefits Microsoft.

There are many states which provide citizens’ rights to always be allowed legal action, so you might want to check your state before accepting Microsoft’s ToS.

This is certainly not what you wanted to hear before starting your Xbox 360 dashboard download. Just don’t shoot the messenger.

In addition to the latest polls, the dashboard also tracks current search buzz for each candidate as Yahoo users look for more information. It also keeps track of how much money each candidate has raised.

But what’s also neat about it, aside from the slick look of the thing and the demographic breakdowns, is that users can break down results by state. For example, if you know that Kentucky has a long tradition of voting for the candidate that eventually wins, you might pay extra attention to who’s leading in that state, at least according to search buzz.

Currently, it’s Barack Obama piquing Kentucky searcher interest, as well as Ron Paul, by an overwhelming majority (74%) on the Republican side.

On a national scale, though, when you include polls, searches, the prediction market, and money raised, it’s a much different picture, with the old standby political powerhouses like Clinton and Giuliani in the lead overall. 
 

Metrics from Yahoo Buzz became part of the political dashboard Yahoo opened.

Yahoo News general manager Alan Warms said on Yodal Anecdotal, "This is the first time search data has been presented alongside traditional campaign metrics."

Along with the trends in Yahoo Buzz, the political dashboard features the trends in polls for the candidates (Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani lead the two parties). Money raised by each has a place in another column.

Warms also noted the addition of prediction market stats. These come from Irish-based Intrade, where users try to make money by buying and selling their predictions about major events, including the race for the US Presidency.

We found the Intrade inclusion amusing, as if it accepted real money from US citizens, the full force of the law would hammer those predictors for violating onerous American online gambling laws. The data does provide an interesting snapshot of how some non-US citizens feel about the election, to the point of betting on it.

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“Be it products, housing, jobs or vehicles, we want to make it easy for you to upload and manage your content in Base,” announced Dimitris Meretakis on the Official Google Base Blog.  “The new dashboard provides a better overview of the status of your bulk uploads and your items.”

A pictorial comparison followed, and the fresh arrangement is definitely a big improvement over the old one; in typical Google style, there’s little clutter and a lot of organization.  The presence of fewer colors even makes the font easier to read.

Meretakis more or less stopped giving out concrete facts at this point in the blog entry.  He did, however, state that other improvements are in the works, writing, “A number of useful features are underway . . . .  We’ll keep you posted as new features develop.”

Now, if I just didn’t have to make six trips to carry in all the paper towels.

From what I have read on the pre-release materials, it sends trackback notifications to create one-way links to your website.

That means:-

• You are not being referenced on the site sending the trackback
• You are not being linked to by the site sending the trackback

This is Blackhat, lots of tools have been available for this kind of thing in the past, and this kind of software is actually fairly unpopular even among most shady web masters.

Fortunately it is not very effective on active blogs for a number of reasons.

• It is becoming much harder to monetise sites which are using trackback spam. Bloggers tend to be quite vocal and keen to report such sites to Google.
• Blogspot uses linkbacks – even splogs have to reciprocate a link – Google should really provide a way to moderate linkbacks.
• WordPress has a number of good solutions to handle trackback spam – my favorite is Spam Karma which always checks for a reciprocal link, and my installation also has quite a growing blacklist.
• Most bloggers who receive a trackback actually check them

There might be some minor success on old abandoned WordPress blogs, and maybe abandoned blogs on other formats, but those generally are low quality, and fairly low traffic.

So even if you want to wear a black hat, this type of tool is becoming more and more useless daily.

Disclosure: I do have some past history with the developer, as I purchased Domain Dashboard his previous product, and whilst many people were satisfied, I have never managed to get Domain Dashboard working consistently for all my domains, the product hasn’t been updated for months, and support was unresponsive.

I didn’t ask for a refund – if the product had worked with my various hosting plans, it would have saved me a huge amount of time daily. Maybe in the future it will, because I am thinking about moving a lot of my hosting.

I don’t think there is much of a legitimate market for this new product. Most people I know who dabble on the dark side already have similar solutions, and those who I would look on as "grey hat" don’t dabble with this kind of trackback spam.

* Originally published at AndyBeard.eu
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For those who don’t use WordPress.com, the Dashboard is where you go everytime you visit your administration page. I visit it dozens of times daily to see if I have new comments. New referers.

I just logged in and EVERYTHING has changed.

Yikes.

I’ve gotta be honest, there were two things on that page I used A LOT.

• The link that showed who linked to me. Now it’s a lot harder to see that (it used to be at the top of the page).
• Who commented on my blog. (There was a link there to the page where I could just read all my comments in one long page – that rocked, this one doesn’t because I have to click on each comment separately to read them).

Yeah, I know where to look to find both of these things, but this new dashboard took away functionality that I was used to.

OK, now that I’ve looked at it for a few minutes. There are some really great things. What are they?

• It’s a ton faster.
• The layout is better overall, and shows you more stuff.
• It shows me what has happened along a timeline (and it separates out pinbacks, posts, and comments, which rocks).

So, overall, this new dashboard reveals me as a Luddite. I want to go back to the old one overall. I found it served me better as a blogger. Show me who is commenting, let me click over to a list of ALL comments where I can delete spam, etc. and show me who linked to me on their own blogs. I really miss the link to Google Blogsearch on the Dashboard.

Those are the #1 and #2 tasks for a blogger. Put them at the top. Put all the fun other stuff below that.

Oh, and Matt, you have two typos in your first post about the new Dashboard.

UPDATE: Matt already posted that he’s bringing back the incoming links feature. Damn, that was fast.

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Robert Scoble is the founder of the Scobleizer blog. He works as PodTech.net’s Vice President of Media Development.

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It allows management of installed Live apps, as well as one-click installation of new products. While Microsoft is not likely to bundle the Dashboard in Vista, it might convince a few OEMs to bundle it independently (or through money, like Google does), or they might have it as an install option with a bunch of software products.

We’ve seen companies release products that are designed to push all their other products, and mostly, they’ve been just plain annoying. I think Acclaim did this with a bunch of their games. Hopefully, the Dashboard is unobtrusive and helpful, and doesn’t push on users products they don’t need (like the Family Safety Settings software for homes without kids).

UPDATE: LiveSide updated their post to reflect that Windows Live Essentials is the larger product, allowing for the one-click installs, and Dashboard is part of that product.

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Nathan Weinberg writes the popular InsideGoogle blog, offering the latest news and insights about Google and search engines.

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The information stacks in three new columns on the dashboard. An impression is counted each time an item appears as part of a search on Google Base or Froogle; each time a person clicks on an item on the results page, a click is counted; each time a visitor views an item on a Google Base page, a page view is counted.

Google Base engineer Jean Tessier informs that impressions and clicks are updated daily, and that page views are updated several times per day. The statistics reflect activity dating back to June 7, 2006.

The page view numbers only reflect page views hosted on Google Base. The service does not monitor page views on websites outside the domain.

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