At the end of August 2011, Google announced that it was working on offering their Google Apps offline. Yes, you heard me right, offline. Google is already offering Gmail and Calendar offline and Docs has some offline functionality with more coming in the future. To access these, click the gear icon in the top right corner of the web app and choose the offline access option.

To find out more information, read Google’s blog post Using Gmail, Calendar and Docs without an internet connection.

.COM will go up by 7% and .NET by 10%.

The increase will be passed to registrars (like HAI Hosting) and then, unfortunately, to customers.

So, as of January 15, we will be forced to raise prices for both .COM and .NET domain name registrations and renewals.

If you want to avoid this price increase, at least for a while, renew your domain name now for a year or more. But, you have to let us know before the end of the day on Friday, January 13, 2012.

The BBB has issued an urgent scam alert to businesses and consumers. Fraudulent emails are being sent that appear to come from the BBB. The emails have the subject of "Complaint from your customers," return addresses that the BBB does not use (for example: riskmanager@bbb.org), and are signed with the address of the Council of Better Business Bureaus. The email contains a link to a non-BBB web site.

If you receive an email like this, delete it immediately! If you have already clicked on a link in the email, run a full virus scan. You can also report any information received to the BBB via their Report a Scam form.

The BBB is working with law enforcement to determine its source and stop the fraudulent campaign.

Visit the BBB News Center for more information as well as a copy of an example email.

Google+ continues to grow. More features are being added and more are coming, including business pages which are rumored for later this year.

If your site isn’t taking advantage of social media, contact us to get your site connected with a Facebook fan page, Twitter account, LinkedIn account, Google Profile, and Google +1 button.

Read the original article at Website Magazine.

The longer answer is that Google’s +1 is a button added to your site. When visitors click that +1 button, they are giving a public stamp of approval on that page of your site, blog post, etc. Your visitors can then immediately add a comment and share that +1 click with their friends on Google+. When someone searching Google is logged into their Google account, the amount of +1s your site has received is displayed next to your listing as well as if any of their friends +1′d your site. Anyone logged into Google can also see all the +1s they’ve done in the past within their Google Profile.

You can find more information at the Google +1 Button site.

Don’t forget to check out High Aspirations, Inc.’s Google+ profile and click that Google+1 button below to add us to your +1′s.

If your site doesn’t yet have a Google+1 Button, please contact us and we’ll get it added to your site and set you up with you own Google Profile.

The longer answer is that Google+ is a collection of social products or apps. You have Stream (a newsfeed), Sparks (a recommendation engine), Hangouts (a video chat service), Huddle (a group texting service), Circles (a friend management service) and Photos. Google plans to add more products in the future.

You can find more information at Google+ or by reading Google+: The Complete Guide.

Don’t forget to check out High Aspirations, Inc.’s Google+ profile and click that Google+1 button below to add us to your +1′s.

If you’d like to read the news article that caught my eye, visit Website Magazine’s Web.com Buys Network Solutions or you can check out what Network Solutions has to say at Web.com to Acquire Network Solutions.

Network Solutions was most people’s registrar of choice when High Aspiratios, Inc. was started back in 1999. I remember all too well the hoops I had to jump through in order to prove to NetSol that my clients were indeed the owners of their own domain names and that they wanted to transfer them away to another registrar.

Luckily, this purchase won’t affect majority of our clients as almost all domains we handle for clients on maintenance are with HAI Hosting, our own host using the Wild West Domains/Go Daddy infrastructure, who we’ve found to be cheaper, provide quicker transfers, and better support.

If any of our clients are worried about their domain names, wonder who they are registered with, or want them transfered away from the unknown of a new Network Solutions owner, just let us know and we’ll take care of it.

Please view the ICANN press release for more information.

Based on Google’s +1 button FAQ there is the potential for increased search engine visibility by adding this feature to your web site and/or blog.

This video from Google will help explain the +1 button:

Some important notes to help site owners:

• The +1 button should only be added to public pages on public sites. Google will crawl and index any page with the button code on it so you do not want it added to private or password protected pages, posts, or sections.
• All visitors will be able to see the +1 button on your site.
• A Google Profile is required to click the +1 button on your site.
• Your site’s visitor must be logged into their Google Account to see the +1 button information on their Google search results pages.
• There is no limit to the number of +1 buttons you can add to your site.
• The annotations that appear on the Google search results are currently only available in English.
• The Google +1 button is currently not available on mobile Google search results.

If you want to give it a try, look below my signature on the left. You’ll see the Google +1 button to the left of the Share/Save feature.

If you are a maintenance client and would like to have the Google +1 button added to your web site or blog, just let us know and we’ll get it done right away. If you are not on maintenance, please do not hesitate to contact us and we’ll give you a quote to do the project.

Since Monday, I’ve received two emails about the data breach – one personal, one for High Aspirations, Inc. Yeah me! I’m not really worried about myself since I’m usually the one telling others how to not fall for the scams and oh, how those scams will be coming! Now that hackers have our email addresses and can associate that info to a particular company, they can make those scam emails we’ll be getting look that much more real.

Make sure your scam meter is in tip-top working order! Remember emails from companies never come from gmail, hotmail, yahoo, etc. addresses. They always come from the company address. Legitimate emails never ask for personally identifying information and they never send you to a web site that isn’t theirs (look up at that address bar!). When in doubt, contact the company in question by phone or via the web by typing in their URL yourself – don’t click any links or call a number in the email. Always, err on the side of caution.

If you want more information, here are a couple of news stories:

• Banks, retailers warn customers of data breach by Stacey Vanek-Smith, American Public Media’s Marketplace, 4/4/11 – Read or Listen
• Massive data breach hits big retailers, service companies by American Public Media’s Marketplace Morning Report, 4/4/11 – Read or Listen