46 States to Go!Donate today and help us defeat Obamneycare. 1 million dollar money bomb. newt.org/obamneycare/in…

— Newt Gingrich (@newtgingrich) February 1, 2012

Now Fox will make issue of the truth after the Florida primary is over…PPL NEED TO GO TO JAIL!

— John Stout (@johnjstout) February 1, 2012

My aunt in Florida just called me. She said she is glad primary is over. She voted for #Newt because she knew his platform.

— irritatedwoman (@irritatedwoman) February 1, 2012

BREAKING: Florida Primary recount show Romney and Gingrich trailing behind 6-pack of Ensure on sale at WalMart.

— KDM (@KyleDaMaren) February 1, 2012

I’m gonna call the Florida race right now, yo.A rich white douchebag is gonna win. #FLPrimary

— KimJongNumberUn (@KimJongNumberUn) January 31, 2012

In the first hours of his presidency, Ron Paul will abolish the presidency. #flprimary

— Ana Marie Cox (@anamariecox) February 1, 2012

In his concession speech when Newt said “It’s time to move on,” Callista looked visibly alarmed. #FLPrimary

— Andy Borowitz (@BorowitzReport) February 1, 2012

Dear Newt supporters: Stop whining about Romney’s money. Ask Sheldon Adelson for more. #FLprimary

— Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) February 1, 2012

#newt lost elderly women vote in #flprimary. They have already outgrown their daddy issues.

— Dewey Cooper (@dewcooper) February 1, 2012

Don’t underestimate the heart of a champion and a TRUE CONSERVATIVE-Newt Gingrich!!! #FLPrimary

— AnthonyAguillo (@_anthonyaguillo) February 1, 2012

#Mitt beat #Newt like an old Persian rug in #GOP #FLPrimary-big deal.Perhaps Newt should have taken song requests like a piano bar queen.

— Rory K (@TheatreRo46) February 1, 2012

If the winner of the #FLprimary takes all, why are there STILL 4 candidates?The political pundits don’t know any more than us . . .

— Brian Brewer (@Kuntry_Bwoy) February 1, 2012

#Newt was shell shocked last night in #FLPrimary he should drop out #GOP2012 #tcot #tlot

— Eric Lindell (@EricLindell1) February 1, 2012

Gingrich first GOP candidate to win South Carolina and lose Florida #flprimary

— Liberty News Network (@liberty) February 1, 2012

The best primary results money can buy bought by Mitt. #FLPrimary

— Dina (@DinasRuns) February 1, 2012

Earlier this month, Google unveiled Politics & Elections as a way to group all the pertinent election information in one, convenient location. There, you can see all the breaking news about all of the current candidates (including President Obama) as well as news on the specific issues like the Economy, Healthcare, and Immigration. The page also links out to each candidate’s Google+ page as well as a 2012 political calendar of events and bonus election resources.

But the most important feature of Google Politics & Elections today is the results section. There, you’ll be able to see how each county is leaning – Gingrich, Romney, Paul, or Santorum.

Here’s what a filled-in map (the South Carolina Primary) looks like:

Also available today on Google Politics & Elections is the “on the ground” sections that allows you to watch YouTube videos of real Floridians, organized by location.

Google wants to make sure that Google news readers are up to-date on all the political news. They have also added an Election section to the Google News homepage.

LiveBallot, based on Microsoft’s Windows Azure cloud computing system and developed by Democracy Live, allows voters who are overseas the chance to vote in a simple and easy way. The system has been in use since December for soldiers who are overseas, but will be used in the upcoming Florida primary.

This was accomplished with the Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act which allows voters to cast their ballots through a simple web portal. Since voting began, over 1,200 Florida residents from 40 countries have cast their vote using the software.

Virginia just implemented the technology for their citizens who are overseas on January 20. This will let them be ready for the state’s March 6 Presidential Primary Election.

Beginning in late April, the software will also be rolled out to 13 counties in California who will be able to vote in the state’s June primary.

Washington State will roll out the LiveBallot platform this year for their voters with disabilities.

“These elections are a huge step forward for voters living or serving our country overseas,” Bryan Finney, President of Democracy Live said. “LiveBallot allows us to deliver secure voter-specific ballots through the web to any eligible voter, anywhere in the world. By cutting the ballot’s transit time in half, LiveBallot ensures that voters are able to access, vote and return their ballot in time for it to be counted.”

Microsoft’s role in this is their Azure technology ensuring that ballots are transferred securely no matter where in the world the citizen is.

“With LiveBallot, government officials have options that they’ve never had before,” Kim Nelson, Executive Director of eGovernment for Microsoft said. “Because of its scalability, reliability and low cost, the Windows Azure cloud solution makes sense. Elections officials are among the first to realize the benefits of cloud computing for their unique seasonal situations.”

On Thursday, Scott posted a contest of sorts to his Facebook page that asked people to share their best reasons for living and working in the state of Florida. According to Scott, the best submissions will be used when he’s trying to sell the state to potential businesses looking to move into the Sunshine State.

Rick ScottI need your help with a new project here on Facebook. Let’s work together to make the case for why Florida is the best state to live, work and play. I will use the best submissions as examples when I’m talking with people interested in expanding their businesses or relocating to our state. We have many success stories and I’d love to hear more of them from you. If someone submits one below that you like, be sure to let them know by clicking the “Like” button. 5 hours ago · 329 likes · 242 comments

Governor Scott has thus far received over 250 comments to the post, many of them espousing the various benefits of life in Florida.

Users pointed to Florida’s lack of a state income tax as one big incentive to move there. Sunny beaches, access to water and only a few weeks of winter were also popular responses. One user wrote: “Rich in history, in diversity and in economic growth. Why wouldn’t someone want to live here?”

Another user said, “Never more than 50 miles from a University that businesses can utilize for research – not to mention having your children attend [and] ripe for solar and wind power development to help companies develop systems with our 300+ days of sunshine.”

But remember when I mentioned the murky waters of Facebook feedback? Governor Scott also received some most likely unwanted responses:

Social media is a crucial tool for elected officials to communicate with constituents. It’s fast, easy and efficient. Just know that if you’ve pissed some people off, don’t expect for anyone to hold their tongues on Facebook.

The lawsuit states that while the companies have been collecting these taxes from consumers all along, they have only been paying a portion of the taxes to the state and keeping the rest as profit.  Florida says the practice denies it of millions of dollars every year in tax revenue.

"Consumers are already paying ‘taxes and fees’ when purchasing a Florida hotel room online, yet the online travel companies have been keeping too much of those taxes as profit," said Attorney General McCollum.

"If these taxes are due to the State, the companies should pay them for the benefit of the people of Florida."

For transactions not completed via an online travel company, Florida hotels pay the "transient rentals tax" similar to a sales tax on the rate they charge the consumer for the room. The hotel which receives the consumer’s payment for the hotel room owes the tax and is responsible for paying it to the Florida Department of Revenue.

According to the lawsuit, online travel companies purchase hotel rooms at a lower, wholesale rate they negotiate directly with hotels. The companies than resell the rooms to consumers at a higher retail rate and keep the difference as profit. The online travel companies are the merchant of record in these transactions and are responsible for paying the taxes to the state.

The Attorney General’s lawsuit claims Orbitz and Expedia have admitted they do not pay taxes to the state of Florida based on the amount a consumer is charged for the hotel room. Consumers are unaware that taxes have not been paid to the state on the rate they paid for the room.

Florida is the first state to file this kind of lawsuit, which will help clarify the application of state tax laws to online travel companies.
 

You can read the lawsuit here.

Related Articles:

> Turkey Asks Google For $47 Million In Taxes

> Legalized Online Gambling Would Bring In Billions

> NY Lawmakers Approve Internet Tax

One of the people on his friends list had a link on their profile that led to an Internet porn site. Gulf Middle School resource officer John Nohejl is being investigated by the New Port Richey Police Department and the Florida attorney general’s cyber crimes unit for making the site available to underage children.

The St. Petersburg Times reports," kids could navigate from Officer John’s page on the social networking site to ‘Amateur Match Free Sex’ in just three clicks." The links have since been removed.

Cybersafety "is the attorney general’s highest priority," said Sandy Copes, the attorney general’s spokeswoman. "I am sure the attorney general would be extremely concerned if a member of the trusted law enforcement community was either inadvertently or directly placing students at risk to being exposed to inappropriate content."

Both the police department and the school principal had given Nohejl permission to use MySpace as a way to connect with students.  Lauren Weinstein of People for Internet Responsibility points to a double standard concerning the investigation of Nohejl.

"And golly, it looks like the school involved has its own indirect link contents problems, too. Gulf Middle School’s ‘Resources’ page links to a variety of clip art sites, and they link to … well … let’s just say that the entire Internet opens up at that stage."

"I’m curious as to why the authorities in Florida are so quick to investigate a school employee for indirect link contents, while obviously the school itself — which has a ‘We can accept no responsibility for content on any pages linked’ notice on their resources page — presumably feels that it should be immune to such investigations related to their own official Web site."

Information now available through the search engine includes reports regarding water and waste permitting through the Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s Web site as well as information on individual schools using the Florida Department of Education’s Web site.

Sounds a lot like Google Custom Search–something Florida surely could have set-up itself.

"Every day, millions of people turn to search engines to find the authoritative and trustworthy information provided by their government, and it is our mission to help them connect with this content," said Elliot Schrage, vice president of global communications and public affairs at Google, in a press release. "Florida has joined a growing circle of states that are taking a significant step to make their online information and services more accessible to their citizens."

It’s not the first state to get a custom search engine, California, Michigan, and Arizona are among the others that have previously partnered with the search engine.

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Granted, the average person isn’t likely to consider the information exciting.  “Examples of records that will now be searchable include public school FCAT scores, water and waste permits, employment data and consumers’ commuting patterns,” reports The Buzz.

Still, it’s an interesting development insofar as it involves Google and a branch of government.  Google and Florida aren’t alone in this matter; states including Utah, Michigan, California, Virginia, and Arizona are already onboard.  Add in the company’s previous (and unrelated) relationships with Minnesota and Kansas (and even the U.N.), and you’ve got something of a trend.

Make of that what you will – this article isn’t for finger-pointing or conspiracy theories.  Google just happens to be present in a lot of places, and in reference to the newest arrangement, The Buzz reports, “a Google official, John Burchett, said he hoped his firm would receive increased traffic as a result.”

Burchett may be overestimating the public’s desire to see waste permits, but in any event, there you have it.

Jarboe showed some screenshots including recent phrases in the news done NOT at Google News, but at Google standard search. A half dozen examples brought up in various combinations – news story results (with photo thumbnail), videos, photos, blog results, maps, images and onebox results. The position of each of those in the rankings varied, but news and maps were usually nearer the top or at the top, with video results hovering around the middle of the page and blog results, photos (from image search) at the bottom of the page.

While we’ve heard the term "Google Universal Search" used quite often, this is the first time I’ve heard it shortened to "G.U.S." Sherwood Stanieri of Catalyst Online followed Jarboe and discussed how universal and blended search affects video in the rankings. In researching how positions in the top 10 results change but show inconsistencies in how their rank was determined by relating those results to pagerank, number of views of those videos and numbers of comments to those videos on social sites and finally, the popularity of the topic searched on.

In Universal search it appears that Google "Hot Topics" (formerly Zeitgeist) is a part of the algo since those topics spiking in popularity will bring up video results more often if they are on that list (and likely photos, news and relevant blog posts).

Bill Slawski of SEO by the Sea was up next and pulled his expected studious dissecting of search patents into the discussion. While I’d love to say I did follow a few of his examples and agree with his conclusions and assertions – I can’t outline them effectively here as they seemed to bounce around a bit, pulling bits and pieces out of published patent here and there and back to his own findings, then to search results.

Google engineer David Bailey leads the Universal Search effort and summed up his thoughts on what Universal Search means to SEO by saying "Business as Usual". OK David, I happen to agree, but couldn’t you expand a bit? Tim Mayer of Yahoo briefly how Yahoo’s Blended search intent was to improve user experience, but to me it appeared that Yahoo intends to do all they can to keep searchers on the Yahoo site, with pop-up windows, shortcuts to the giants of ebiz and exclude all but their own pages from click-throughs. Eric Collier of Ask talked about their new 3D search, and how fewer users moved to page two of results, suggesting better relevancy of page one results.

I’ll reiterate what David Bailey had to say "Business as Usual" when it comes to SEO – Google improves results and sends more searchers to relevant sites, Yahoo keeps users on their site and Ask works pretty well, but can’t get a handle on a substantial market.

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About the Author

Mike Valentine is an SEO Specialist offering occassional commentary on Search Engine Developments through his Reality SEO Blog and developed WebSite101 Small Business Ecommerce Tutorial in 1999 to help educate the little guy to the intricacies of online business.

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AOL was accused of ignoring customer’s requests to have services cancelled, reactivating accounts and billing customers for their services on phone bills. “Consumers should not have to keep looking over their shoulders to make sure mega-corporations aren’t trying to take advantage of them,” said Crist. “This agreement is an important step toward protecting our citizens from consumer fraud.”

AOL did cooperate with the Attorney General’s investigation but has admitted no wrongdoing in the settlement.

Any consumers who may have been victims of AOL’s tactics can receive a complaint form at www.myfloridalegal.com. The form should be mailed to AOL and they should resolve the complaint in 45 days.

According to the Attorney General’s Office AOL will pay around $300,000 to Floridians.

The Attorney General’s Office says that it has always been tough for consumers to cancel services with AOL. Their customer service agents were trained to convince customers not to cancel and received bonuses for each account they retained. This practice has since been abandoned.

The reaction on the blogs and posts has been strongly in favor of the Florida Attorney General’s actions. “Yup AOL sucks. Especially their customer service that refuses to cancel an account. It’s normal for a company to try to keep you but not to the extent AOL does it to where they almost dont allow you to quit them. AOL needs to go bankrupt and die!!” wrote prelude619.

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