Which Font Type is the best?

Which font type is most favored by readers? Which font would keep them hooked to your website?

Learn about different fonts and font types. Find out what fonts do award winning websites use to keep their readers eternally happy and loyal.

A primary article on smashing magazine asking 'which font should I use?' was among the best ones which explain in detail what fonts are, what families do they belong to and which one should be used where. So if you're generally confused about the names of fonts or font families, you should probably go to the linked pdf.

The same question was asked by me during the research at Google Product forums on Maximum User Interaction for fonts, and was presented with some of the best answers ever.

The Findings

In the blogging sphere, it was found that majority of bloggers used Georgia in their creations. Helvetica and Arial came in second with a near equal prevalence. The important fact to be looked is that Verdana with a mere 4% usage was the least preferred font for any blogger.

Font Families at Blogs

If yours is a personal or a professional blog, written by on or many authors about one particular subject and the views are of the author only, then we're talking about a simple blog. Examples include any blog.

During the research, I found that Georgia, which was the most preferred, was often used in blogs which featured miscellaneous content (i.e. the content that no one dared to pick up). Helvetica on the other hand was preferred by web design and development blogs.

Font Families at News Websites

If you are not into information or Ideas, and just want to talk about current affairs (i.e.) what is happening currently in the world, country or your locality, you are a newsman (or a newswoman). Examples include websites which host news as individual articles.

News based websites had virtually no sample using Georgia, Verdana or Times New Roman. The reasons were simple enough, Georgia and Times New Roman feels archaic and Verdana in my opinion doesn't feel authentic. The most used font in News websites was Arial (About 60%).

Font Families at Academic Journals

If you do not blog or write about facts and events but like to experiment and jot your results down for others to see, then your website is an academic journal.

To determine a trend from the data in journal based websites was difficult. However, one thing was clear; here too Arial was the winner with 34 % websites using it, (Followed by Helvetica and Verdana)

Font Families at Information Based Websites

And if you're not interested in events or ideas or your opinion, but just want to create a ready reference for others which would help them find information, you have an information based website.

Surprisingly, Information based websites followed the trend of News websites. Virtually no website used Georgia, Verdana, Times or Trebuchet. They just used Helvetica (35%) and Arial (55%).

Discussion

From a psychological study in Wichita, the following were the emotions attributed to the fonts. The study included attributing 15 personality traits to 20 fonts and the top three personality trait for each font was considered (i.e. the maximum number of occurrences of a particular trait for each font).

Concluding Remarks

• So if you have a blog, the best bet would be Georgia, Helvetica or Arial in their order of precedence.
• If yours is a News based website, you need to give an illusion of updation and authenticity, which can be achieved with Arial.
• If yours is an academic Journal, then use Arial. If it’s an information based website, use Arial or Helvetica (in their order of precedence)
• If you could not categorize your website, just close your eyes and type Arial.

More in font research Series

Find out Which Font Color is the best? - Did you know font colors can alter moods? Learn how professional award winning websites change text colors to ensure maximum user interaction and understanding.

Find out Which Font Type is the best? - Which font type is most favored by readers? Which font would keep them hooked to your website?

Find out Which Font Size is the best? - How do you know if your font size is readable enough? What font can be called too large and how many pixels are too small? 

This answered,

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An Amusing Interview at SafelyEndangered with Chris McCoy

Here, at codemakit we have a UK based comic artist, Ladies and gentlemen, presenting you the creator of SafelyEndangered, Chris McCoy! 

I've already pulled Reza Farazmand from PoorlyDrawnLines for the interview series but this is something different. Instead of ranting about him as an introduction, 

I'll let you find out about him in the article below (also because he has a 2 line about page).

An Introduction

Mohit: Tell us about yourself, I gather you are situated in UK and you started in 2012 end. How did safely endangered start?

Chris: Hey, I’m Chris and I’m a comic artist! I’ve been drawing and sketching comics since I was in school but only started putting stuff on the web in late 2012. I enjoy making people laugh and spend a lot of time online. I was originally planning on creating a website that allowed other users to share their own content. I never thought people would enjoy my own stuff, so I’m truly grateful to those who read my comic!

On works

Mohit: I once asked the same question to Reza Farazmand and all I got was a few grunts. So Chris, tell us about your process of comic creation. How do you do it? And what is the thought process when you start with a comic?

Chris: Grunt. Grunt. Grunt.

Mohit: Hmm, that was enlightening; OK next one, How different are gif comics than the png ones? Do gif comics receive more response?

Chris: I've only made one gif comic and so far the response has been pretty positive! I've had a little practice animating frames before. The concept isn't too difficult but it’s incredibly time consuming! The final animation is usually worth the effort, though. 

On Revenue

Mohit: Where does majority of your revenue come: Advertising, Greeting Cards or Merchandise (like mugs or iphone cases)?

Chris: Most of the revenue comes from advertising. I hate having ugly adverts on my website but it helps pay the bills! I've recently began using Patreon, a website were people pledge donations in exchange for rewards. My hope is that it becomes more popular and, at some point in the future, I can remove the adverts from my site completely. I’d love to create a book at some point as well. I’ll put you down for 6 copies.

Mohit: Wow, I’d love to have a book from safelyendangered, thanks!

Something Personal

Mohit: What gives you happiness (other than drawing)?

Chris:  I’m an enthusiastic guitar player. I've always loved watching live music and playing with friends. I hate it when the crowd is too noisy at a concert though. Just be quiet so I can sing my duet. Jeez.

Lastly

Mohit: Lastly, what advice would you give to budding enthusiasts?

Chris: If you enjoy a thing. Don’t stop doing the thing! Actually, don’t listen to me; I’m just an idiot with a graphics tablet.

That’s all for today guys; Thank you Chris for such amusing responses. Readers can connect with Chris at his Twitter handler and his Facebook page too. If you have another question that you would like to ask, drop it in the comment below and I’ll make sure you are answered.

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Which Font Color is the best?

Did you know font colors can alter moods? Learn how professional award winning websites change text colors to ensure maximum user interaction and understanding.

I recently read an article 'Evoke Emotion through typography' where the author talked about connecting emotionally with people with the help of fonts.

The author stresses on the need of creating a relationship with the visitors on the website, a concept loosely labeled as 'emotional design', which isn't that illogical. Emotions help in decision making, increases motivation, affects memories and much more.

So here's an analysis on different colors (or different shades of grey) that award winning websites use for exceptional user experience. However, before going any further, you must first determine which category your website falls in.

The Study

For better understanding of the readers, the color  variations used by different websites have been clubbed into 7 parts  i.e. #000000, #111111, #222222, #333333, #444444, #555555, #666666 which can be assumed to contain  the color black as percentage 100.0, 93.3, 86.7, 80.0, 73.3, 66.7, 60.0 respectively as shown in the following table.

% of Black	Red	Green	Blue	Hex Code
100 % Black	0	0	0	#000000
93.3 % Black	16	16	16	#111111
86.7 % Black	34	34	34	#222222
80 % Black	51	51	51	#333333
73.3% Black	68	68	68	#444444
66.7% Black	85	85	85	#555555
60% Black	102	102	102	#666666

Font Colors for Bloggers

If you have a personal or a professional blog, written by one or many authors about some particular subject and the views are of the author only, then its blog.

The color variations used by bloggers varied a lot, however majority of them about 75% never crossed the 73.3% black mark (Or 75 % websites had fonts darker than #444444 hex).

If you're a blogger I would suggest #222222 or #333333 as your best bet.

Font Colors for News based Websites

If you are not into information or Ideas, and just want to talk about current affairs (i.e.) what is happening currently in the world, country or your locality, you have a news based website in your hands.

News websites on the other hand were fairly obvious; half of them used the color #333333 (Which contains 80% of Black and 20% white).

So If you run a news based website close your eyes and use #333333.

Font Colors for Journal based Websites

If you dig research with charts and tables, then your website is an academic journal.  Examples for such might include anything ranging from journals from academic institutions to private research diary.

Journal websites showed a different trend, in those websites there were two classes. One had the darkest possible color #000000 (i.e. 100% black), which were 44% of the websites.

The second class believed in a lighter approach which used #333333 (i.e. 80% of black and 20% of white), which were 30 % of the websites in the sample.

For research minded Journals, You have an option between #000000 and #333333.

Font Color for Information based Websites

And if you're not interested in events or ideas or your opinion, but just want to create a ready reference for others which would help them find factual information, you're involved in an information based website. E.g. Websites like Wikipedia, dictionary.com or thesaurus etc.

Information based websites too had nothing concrete to show, there was no definite trend visible in information based websites.

In short you can use anything.

Conclusion

News based websites can use #333333 as their font color. Academic Journals have a choice between #000000 and #333333. However for Bloggers and news based websites, instead of using any color combination, I would like to attract your attention to the following paragraph.

According to the research conducted on 'The Impact of Web Page Text-Background Color Combinations on Readability, Retention, Aesthetics, and Behavioral Intention', the author contests that color combinations with a higher contrast will ensure higher readability and retention than the ones with lower contrast. According to them, the priority of the color combinations looks like this,

Rank	Background color	Text Color	Example
1	White	Black	Example
2	Dark Blue	Light Blue	Example
3	Cyan	Black	Example

If you're not sure, which category your website falls in, close your eyes and use #000000 or 100% black as your default font color with a white background.

Website Category	Font Color
Blog Based Websites	#222222 or #333333
News Based Websites	#333333
Journal Based Websites	#000000 or #333333
Information Based Websites	#000000

Related reading,

• For those who would like to understand more about colors and their combinations, you can view the information at tiger colors.
• You can check out a thread at stack exchange on User experience on the best type of color combination too.

More in font research Series

Find out Which Font Color is the best? - Did you know font colors can alter moods? Learn how professional award winning websites change text colors to ensure maximum user interaction and understanding.

Find out Which Font Type is the best? - Which font type is most favored by readers? Which font would keep them hooked to your website?

Find out Which Font Size is the best? - How do you know if your font size is readable enough? What font can be called too large and how many pixels are too small? 

This research was about,

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An interview with Vinay at TechPrevue

Here we have an eminent blogger with us today. He isn't like the type you see every day. He helps vernacular blogs. 

What attracted me towards TechPrevue was the desire to understand the challenges faced by a vernacular blogger. My understanding that SEO techniques do not work at blogs containing vernacular language was further cemented by Vinay's admittance. 

Read as Vinay explains how he overcame the most formidable of hurdles in SEO, making Google understand something other than English.

An Introduction

Mohit: Tell us about yourself. Being a NIFT alumnus, how did you stumble towards Website SEO?

Vinay: As a person it’s difficult to identify myself. I am a human who love creative things. I am involved in blogging since 2007. I created first blog to publish my poems. But after sometime I got many requests to reveal the secrets of blog design, widgets and template. So I created my Hindi tech blog तकनीक द्रष्टा(2009) to help bloggers. After that I learned about monetization of blog and tried it on my blog but after few months AdSense made Hindi unsupported language. That was the main reason why I switched to English and renamed my blog to Tech Prevue (2012).

I dint stumbled to website SEO because I never quit blogging after 2009. In May 2010 I joined 2 year program Master of Fashion Technology (Strategic management in Apparel production and Fashion retail) at NIFT, Gandhinagar. After completing MFTech in 2012 I tried to continue blogging because many of blogger friends always want me as blogger to help them. 

Again I started तकनीक द्रष्टा in January 2014 when I met with kind people from Google. We talked about Hindi content promotion on web, Hindi software and Android localization. After a healthy discussion I found Hindi blogging as an opportunity because Google AdSense for Hindi content will be available very soon. So now [I’m] still doing blogging as hobby and extracurricular activity and monetization in my second objective.

Mohit: Tell us something about Tech Prevue and the Blog.

Vinay: Tech Prevue is a platform where we publish articles related to blogging, monetization, web development, Smartphone and technology etc. It is in existence because of people who love it. Our objective is to simplify tech noesis and make it understandable to audience. First we targeted only bloggers but now we are concentrating on all including business persons who want to keep their business alive with the help of technology. Now number of software companies relies on techprevue.com and sponsor article to promote their products and services.

Tech Prevue is not only a blog. We are consultant to bloggers about blog, blogging, design and SEO. We are crafting beautiful blogs and giving cent percent satisfaction to our clients. 

Mohit: What are your upcoming Projects?

Vinay: We are working on two projects Fashion Reveries and Digital Brainiac.

‘Fashion reveries’ [is] in alpha stage but serving fashion aspirants and professionals.  We are planning to build a new name for web consultancy and development job apart from Tech Prevue. 

So Digital Brainiac is different project of early age and yet not fully implemented. We are constantly working on it before providing our services. 

On Social Networks

Mohit: Be it Facebook or Twitter, Social Media was never the strong point for a majority of bloggers, yet, you boast of more than 3000 Fans on facebook and more than 2000 Blog followers? How did you manage it?

Vinay:  We are in existence since 2009 but that time only Hindi bloggers knew us. We are constantly working on quality over quantity. Those have interest in our niche love us and have special care. One of our old gadgets is ‘Google friend connect’. We have 2150+ followers. On Google+ number of followers are 1100+. Yes we opted for Facebook page a year before to give blog updates to our readers who are on Facebook savvy and their count is now 3150+. 

On Revenue

Mohit: How important are web Advertisements to running a good blog?

Vinay:  Monetization is always a tool to run a blog. No one can afford a blog from his pocket for life time. Monetization can be direct or indirect. When you earn a dollar from your blog you earn hundred dollar’s motivation to make a next post on your blog. I have seen many bloggers who invested lots of money in early phase but dint get any revenue from their blog. In Hindi blogging it is happening to every third blogger. 

Thus web advertising is very important to run a blog. When you earn from your blog you can afford more professional resources to promote your blog and content. It is an opportunity to avail professional SEM and SEO. Professionalism definitely brings success in your life whether you blogging or other things. 

On Search Engine Optimization

Mohit: You also host Online Tools at Techprevue.com. So tell me how efficient online tools are in bringing potential clients?

Vinay:  Online tools bring potential clients who have a unique kind of requirement if they found bugs in your tool they need solution for it. A very [few] clients come for additional features in your tools. We host Hindi tools which are used by numerous end users but they don’t ask for additional features because don’t want to pay you. So it seems client is wrong word for users. But for other tools situation might be different. I have no experience other tools so I can’t say anything about it. 

Mohit: Referred to some of your testimonial websites, do you think SEO techniques for a Non-English website (e.g. Hindi) differs from an English website?

Vinay: Yes, I don’t want to take other blog. I will talk about my Hindi blog तकनीक द्रष्टा. It is really difficult to opt same SEO strategy as Tech Prevue, because search engines does not understand Hindi well as they can do English or Spanish. Audience is different for Hindi blogs because most of the blog readers know English and have subscribed English blogs of same niche. If they come to your blog, only come for specific reason. For a Hindi tech blog, second kind of audience [are] newbie in blogging and want to learn everything from scratch. [Since] very few have good command in computer and computing. So you have to calculate for every post and content language. At last, each time you need a different strategy to build new audience for your blog.

Something Personal

Mohit: Now something personal, you’ve used cartoons instead of your real face. Most Bloggers do not mind putting their faces on their creations. Why it that your real face is not visible on the website?

Vinay: Of course, I want to tell you about this. It is part of our research – How do people react when you use cartoon charters of yours rather than using your image. From Google search point of view it is not good to choose cartoon image for face. But if we talk about blog audience it reacts well. In my case I found ten percent audience is appreciating my new avatar and happy with it. I have not any survey report but I got good remarks them about this avatar. Well you can see my real picture on my Facebook account in picture gallery.

Finally

Thank you Vinay; I guess, we’ll all wait eagerly for that research. That was all for today, we wish well and bid adieu to our guest today.

Readers can contact him here and connect with him here. For any question that you would like to ask Vinay, drop it in the comment box below and I’ll make sure, you’ll be replied to.

Further

An interview with an Indian individual is really interesting, but if you need to find something about an Indian web design firm you can read an Interview with JetBro design firm. On a totally non related matter, they actually wrote about codemakit too!

This was,

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A Case Study on Fair Use Copyright Policy

There was a time when I was cleaning up codemakit back-links. This means removing codemakit name from websites that are not relevant or not important or are simply degrading.

The pretense of the exercise was that if the quality of back-links is improved, the website stats will improve.

The exercise dictates opening each and every website from Google search results which looks like a domain analyzer, i.e. a website that hosts information about other domains. So, for codemakit, one would find websites, hosting DNS information about codemakit.com.

An Average DNS Based Website

DNS (Domain Name Server) information hosted on such websites include, the following information,

1. Name of the website, 
2. Name of the Owner of the Domain,
3. Email address of the owner, 
4. Email address of the technical staff of the website, 
5. Contact details for privacy violation

Now obviously websites with such content are not relevant at all. So that means mailing each and every one of them asking them (Politely) to take down any content related to codemakit.com.

The problem however lies in one place. Most websites never respond to your mail. Some do respond after a week or so, apologizing that they were busy. However, there is one type of website which hosts not only the DNS information of blogs but also their content.

Such websites host the following information in addition to the DNS information

1. Meta Description
2. Meta Tags
3. Category of the website
4. Content of the website

New Type of DNS Based Website

Some often say that this was because of web owners submitting their websites to several search engines as a part of their naïve SEO strategy, only finding out later that those were not search engines but just directories hosting such information.

They use specially designed bots to copy information from your personal blog/Website and host it on their websites. On one look this can be called as a blatant violation of your copyright. (Assuming your website has a copyright notice). But only when you visit such websites you find that not only have they shirked any responsibility of violating a digital law, they are justifying their actions as well.

How do they justify or rationalize copying data from a website? By citing a Policy named as fair use Policy.

In the following example, one can see how content from codemakit.com was copied on a website. When one rushes to the contact page in protest of its violation of copyright, one would find that the website is protected by fair use policy and "threats" would not work.

In the following example, "Just one question arises, "Does the snippet provided on the website qualify as a preview?"

Related Reading,

• A really nice article on Fair use can be found at center for social media impact in their article about how journalists think about fair use
• You can also found a FAQ on Fair use at US copyright Webpage
• You can take a look at a previous article by codemakit.com on a method to find out if someone is copying from you. This is exceptionally useful if you think you too are a victim of fair use policy.

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9 Types of Phishing Scams

There are 9 different types of Phishing attacks. How would you recognize a Phishing Scam? How do you know if you've been phished by a scammer and how to protect yourself from one.

Scamsters often try to convince you that they're authentic, respectable, important persons of the society. So let me ask you a question, Name some professions who get respect and adulation from their fellow citizens? 

First Doctor, A doctor is seen as a healer, a life giver and hence people associate many of their positive feelings towards a doctor. Maybe he once saved you or your near one, hence your gratitude gets attached to any doctor you see. He/She might ask for your passwords and you'll happily divulge your web accounts passwords. Another is an Astronaut but since the probability of an astronaut mailing you is excruciatingly low, we'll leave them aside. 

Another profession is a corporate big shot. The directors, chairmen etc are the people who sign your paychecks (Most of you), also a tinge of adulation comes from the fact that they've probably worked a lot and hence have reached at such a position. So, It is actually overwhelming that a corporate big shot actually mailed you something. So you'll be tempted to look for once.

Types of Phishing Scams

There are actually 9 Types of Phishing Scams

1. The Corrie Wright Scam

2. The Scam Victim Compensation Scam

3. Loner Loaner Phishers.

4. The Plastic Money Phishers

5. The ‘Make 400$ in a week’ scam

6. The ‘Damsel in Distress’ Phishing Scam

7. The Phishing Attachment Scam

8. The Dishonest Banker Phishing

9. The Threatening phishing Scam

The Corrie Wright Scam

In this type of Phishing Scam, Corrie is a doctor (Corrie could be an overweight unemployed bald man sitting in front of a computer with a pack of nachos in his hands).

I chose Corrie because majority of phishing scams of this type had the name of Corrie in it.

Now she tells the story of how she got scammed and traveled to Nigeria for her compensation. She finally advises to contact Mr. Michael Craig to whom she gave 420$ for the paper works. It is ironic to note that Section 420 of Indian Penal Code deals with scams and Cheating.

The Scam Victim Compensation Scam

Here the Phisher would innocently offer a way out of scams by shoving your mouth with another phishing attempt. They often disguise themselves as senior official (A director in this case who does not have any work other than sending emails to thousands of people with UPPERCASE subjects) of some really famous bank or a financial institution, who say that they have your file with them. 

Now they will claim that you have been scammed already and they’re here to help you get your compensation back. A dishonest person would think, “Wait! I was not scammed!” But “Sc** it! I’ll receive compensation, which means lots and lots of money!” 

Now, I’ll request you to read through the message first, find out the director’s name then come back to this page.

So be honest and think, “Why would a director of a company offer me compensation by putting the message subject in UPPERCASE? I’ll find out if the director is legal.” and then you’ll find the truth about the director. The director is a reputable figure Mr. Hikmet Ersek and his name nowhere resembles Mr. Mark James as given in the email.

Loner Loaner Phishers.

Phishing Loansters are another breed of scammers that scam you with loans with irresistible interest rates. But as usual, you need to pay some processing fees to make it happen. More than often your loans get rejected and you're left cursing.

The Plastic Money Phishers

They’ll offer you credit cards and an offer to save thousands of rupees. It is usually aimed at the mathematically challenged.

The ‘Make 400$ in a week’ scam

One of the most famous and intricate web scam is the make 2000$ or 4000$ per week scam. You'll encounter several testimonials from people who "used" the system and "got rich in a week”. The Website boasts of making you rich in a week. However, more daunting is the attempt from these websites to legalize the mail by adding a small Para at the end of the mail. 

It subsequently explains the readers that the mail was sent in compliance of a law or a bill and is in no way an infraction of the law. 

In this message there are two things wrong; 

• First, a bill is not a law, (It can be called as a draft as it has not been implemented) 

• Second, Spammers never provide actual email addresses/Names/Numbers etc so that you could unsubscribe.

They use the fact that people often don't check if the email was authentic or if the websites were certified. But, when many have used the law card, some often use the god card, i.e. some small phrases in the email like "God Bless us all" or "God bless you" etc. This is said to attach spiritual emotions filled with a theists' adulation. 

Some often use the confidentiality notice which essentially states that the mails between you and the party are confidential and should not be divulged to anyone. This tries to cement your understanding that the mail was authentic.

In short they'll use anything and everything to make sure you read and respond.

The ‘Damsel in Distress’ Phishing Scam

This was instantly recognized as a scam. However for the sake of this article, Reply was provided. They reply was to be short and sweet with a touch of interest and indifference. But to the two words I gave, the Phisher bombarded me with a 1600 worded essay delving into a girl’s heart breaking story. 

The scammer tries to include information based on real world events to fortify its lie. 

Phishing Attachment Scam

It is said that playing with fire will only burn you. On the search towards phishing and email scams, I burnt my hands too. The following message was delivered to my personal mail address, which never happened before.

Attaching a message/letter to an email actually lessens its chances to be read by any email provider’s filter. This sends the email directly into the inbox rather than your spam box thereby increasing the credibility of the mail.

The following mail was attached as a docx file. I’m sure, Gmail servers could not read through a docx file as it was delivered straight to the inbox.

The Dishonest Banker Phishing

There is always one banker who holds millions in his pocket but still wants to share it with you. The banker’s customer died without declaring a next of kin. Now the banker is interested in gulping down the money but instead wants you to pose as a beneficiary and get 50 % of the money.

The Threatening phishing Scam

You’ll be mailed by an authority,( Could be a policeman, toll booth, mail account provider etc) You’ll be threatened to do what they want or your services will be terminated immediately.

The Phisher Below did not provide me with a link, or else we could have gone further.

Related Reading,

You can read all about The Simple Steps to stay safe Online.

Find out about How Passwords are stored on Websites

Download Complete Report

Now you can download the Complete 23 Page Official Report on Different Types of Phishing Techniques.
You can also download the Funny Version of the Official Phishing Techniques Report, where we make fun of the phishers and their useless attempts at scamming people.

This was all about,

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The Dangers of Fair Use Copyright Policy

How often do you feel safe about your work? Do you feel that your work is protected enough by copyright laws?

If you do there is a bad news for you. There is a flaw in the existing copyright law, a flaw known as Fair Use Policy.

What is Fair Use Policy?

The fair use policy is an exemption to the existing copyright law, the one which all bloggers and websites use in order to ward off copiers from your precious creation. Wikipedia on Fair Use states that

'Fair use is a doctrine that permits limited use of copyrighted material without acquiring permission from the rights holders'. 

The fair use policy grants right to use a small snippet of copyrighted material without actually getting permission from the original owner. Though it was created to provide a preview of a person's copyrighted work which actually is not free to use, there is an inherent weakness or a flaw in the policy itself.

Difference between Fair Use and Creative Commons

This is much different that a creative commons concept. In a creative commons concept, the web owner allows the use of content with some limitations (Here you license your work with a creative commons). The first image of this article is a part of creative commons, which allows me to modify and use it for personal purposes. This however is not the case with fair use. A Fair use is an exception allowed for using/ reproducing a copyrighted material.

What is the problem with Fair Use?

Do you know the problem in the policy? It is just a single word in the Wikipedia's version.  The word is "Limited Use"

What is limited use? For a 400 word article, limited use may include hosting a copy containing words ranging from a meager 20 word preview or a 399 word preview "I left out a word you know. I did not use your complete article you know”. For a 20 minute video, the preview might range from a harmless 1 minute trailer or a 19 minute 59 seconds video, thereby leaving out the thank you note at the end of the video.

Since the implementation and the interpretation of fair use reside only with judges and the legal eagles, you never know if your work has been copied "Fairly" or "Unfairly" (Yes I'm using sarcastic quotes). In short, though it is named as fair use, it actually is a loophole in the system itself thereby enabling a cyber thief to blatantly copy your work without offering an apology.

How does Fair Use affect you?

When your content is available on another website for perusal, you lose valuable readers, your page start coming below the alleged website and hence your website drops in SERPs.

Related Reading,

• A really nice article on Fair use can be found at center for social media impact in their article about how journalists think about fair use
• You can also found a FAQ on Fair use at US copyright Webpage

This was about,

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All about Phishing and Phishers

Have you ever encountered a mail saying you've just won a $#insert huge sum here# lottery? 

Or wondered why does the mail address looks suspicious? Such are just a glimpse into the evil machinations of a scammer that uses his online prowess and apparently your lack of, to scam you of your privacy and your money.

What is Phishing?

First comes the definition, Phishing is basically an attempt at finding personal and sensitive information about you. Such information if divulged can lead to compromised accounts and a lot of grief at the end. 

Where Does Phishing Occur?

'Phishing Nets' (Coined by codemakit) is the place from which the scammer starts getting your attention. Most common Phishing nets (in Order of preference of scamsters) is 

1. Email: The most common Phishing location. You can check if your mail is authentic or not (Too many Phishes out here)

2. Social Networks: By posting malicious links at Facebook, Twitter etc. You can check these too (Talking Phishes out here)

3. Websites: By hosting malicious Websites that let you fill forms thereby phishing for your personal information. You can check for Website Certifications (Fake Phishes around here).

What do Phishers want?

The Phishers want your personal information, everything from your email address (Which they can spam later) to your name, address, credit card information etc. (Though, I've given a few tips to protect yourself from divulging your passwords) Once they have enough information about you they can move on towards monetary pleasures. Meaning? They'll use your information against you. For an example, one of the most common phishing nets are Emails and the most common Phishing Practices include being a bank representative. They will probably tell you, that they're from a reputed bank and have your file with them. 

They’ll throw in a few informative pieces of information gathered from you before to let you believe they actually have an official file on you. Then they'll frighten you by stating that you're password is about to expire and if you do not send the required information, your account will be blocked. Once you send the information you can safely say goodbye to all your hard earned income.

The Types of Phishing Techniques

There are 4 different types of Phishing.

1. The good old Bland Phishing

They just send out millions of spams to every email address they could think of and wait if anyone gets caught in their Phishing net and replies.

2. Spear Phishing

As the name suggests, This technique is usually adopted by Phishers holding extraordinary grudges against some specific person. Which might be their second grade class teacher or a college professor who dropped him or a show-off neighbor who can't keep his dog quiet at night. The Phishers gain personal information about the particular person (Sometimes he/she already knows). Once they have the information, they'll use it in the way given above to scam you of your money.

3. Whaling

Again as the name suggests, Whaling includes phishing for a whale, i.e. a really big corporate honcho or just another person with a lot of green in their reserves. The victims can also be big shot executives who actually hold the rein to the security of their companies' databases. A successful whaling attempt can lead to divulging of company database passwords or the database itself, thus opening the door to countless other phishing attempts. No amount of extreme techniques to store your passwords will keep them safe unless you're willing to save the information from falling into the hands of cunning phishers.

4. Clone Phishing

This is a relatively new technique, where the Phishers create a mail that is really similar to the ones sent by authentic sources. For example, a bank website sending promotional emails are often copied and modified. Then, the modified email containing everything will be sent to the victim. All but one change, the links in the email will be changed so that the user is redirected to the scammers’ website where the user will give its Username and password to login. Only realizing minutes later that he/she was scammed.

Phishing Terms (codemakit)

Phishing: You already Know it.

Phishing Net: The place where Phishing Starts. (Email, Social Networks, Websites)

Phishers: Scammers who phish for your information

Phisheries: Shady places (might be in Nigeria) where scammers often sit in front of computers wearing an overcoat and dark glasses (Bazinga!). These are the places from where they send/create scam.

Related Reading,

You can read all about The Simple Steps to stay safe Online.
Find out about How Passwords are stored on Websites

Download Complete Report

Now you can download the Complete 23 Page Official Report on Different Types of Phishing Techniques.
You can also download the Funny Version of the Official Phishing Techniques Report, where we make fun of the phishers and their useless attempts at scamming people.

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