Recent Changes & Fixes

April 7th, 2000 Version 1.40

1.	Open Directory compatibility has been restored in the Reporter.

2.	Over 30 reported issues have been addressed in this version.  Most
	items were to fix errors that occurred under obscure conditions.  A few
	enhancements were made to make the program more user-friendly.  For
	example, if you listed duplicate keywords in the Reporter in previous
	versions, a message would appear asking you to remove the duplications.
	This new version will automatically remove the duplicates for you.

3.	Issues with the scheduler have been addressed to avoid problems with
	foreign date formats and to support longer path names.

4.	Accuracy of the last position column in the Reporter has been
	improved.

5.	The Page Generator default template has been revised to no longer
	generate pages with 'boiler-plate' phrases that are the same for all
	pages.  This has been done to avoid possible discrimination on AltaVista
	and potentially other engines.  It's recommended any existing pages you
	have that contain phrases on the following URL be revised:

	http://www.webpositiongold.com/critichelp/avdoorway.htm

	The Page Critic will also warn you for any pages it analyzes containing
	those phrases.

6.	The last submission date column in the URL verification report is
	now accurate for engines that "share" the same submission date such as
	Inktomi based engines like HotBot, AOL, and Goto.com.

7.	Support for longer URLs in all modules of the program has been
	added.

8.	Support for the creation of network paths like
	\\server\c\mydirectory\ has been added to all modules.

9.	Page Critic advice has been fine-tuned to work better in certain
	scenarios.  In addition, prominence for the body area should now be
	calculated correctly in all cases.

	As always, we're open to your feedback on how to improve the product.
	Our goal is to continually improve WebPosition Gold to meet your needs.


December 29, 1999 Version 1.30.9

1.	Reporter now multi-tasks more effectively so that it does not
	demand full use of the computer when entering the generating 
	reports phase of a mission.  In the past for very large missions, 
	some people thought that the Reporter may have locked up when in 
	fact it had not.
2.	Reporter speed has been improved substantially so that it is now 
	comparable to version 1.30.7 and earlier.

December 21st, 1999 Version 1.30.8

1.	The search engines are being a real pain in the backside this month.
	This update corrects a compatibility issue with HotBot's latest format
	where they are outputting technically invalid HTML.  Also fixes some 
	compatibility issues on other engines.  We apologize for the frequent 
	updates in the last couple weeks.

December 14th, 1999 Version 1.30.7

1.	Fixed intermittent "printsearchmatches" error in Reporter.

December 10th, 1999 Version 1.30.6

1.	Fixed compatibility issue with Netscape search engine.
2.	Fixed display problem on submitter where last submit date did not display for HotBot.
3.	Support for NorthernLight.com has replaced PlanetSearch (now dead search engine).
4.	Fixed advice in Page Critic where the total frequency and word count range recommendation sometimes did not correspond to the sum of the individual areas.
5.	Many other minor issues addressed to improve reliability.

November 5, 1999 Version 1.30.5

Fixed:

1.	Several problems that escaped notice for quite some time with customizing reports on the 2nd tab of the Upload Manager have been fixed.
2.	Problems with certain customers being unable to access the new engines in version 1.30 in the Page Generator and Page Critic has been corrected.

What's New in this version (1.30):

1. Support for 5 additional major search engines/directories:

a) Open Directory 
b) Netscape 
c) Google 
d) GoTo.com 
e) Yahoo "Web Pages" via Inktomi 

Support for these engines has been added to all the appropriate modules such 
as Page Generator, Page Critic, Submitter, Reporter, and Traffic Analyzer. 
This brings the total engines supported to 18! Always keep in mind that it's
the major engines you want to focus your positioning efforts on, and not 
the so called "hundreds" of link lists, no-name directories, and obscure 
search engines. We've tried to be selective in our additions to add more of 
the largest, highest traffic sites.

2. The Page Critic advice has been improved and fine-tuned for all engines. 
We now recommend changes to your page based on the analysis of the top 5 
ranking Web pages rather than the top 10 pages to gain a stronger focus 
while still maintaining statistical integrity.

In addition, we now exclude pages from the Top Averages that obviously do 
not deserve the ranking achieved. If a page does not include any 
repetitions of the keyword/phrase in its content, then it is ignored. 
The assumption is made that the content of the page has changed since 
the engine last spidered it, IP stealthing/cloaking has been used, or 
something else has occurred outside the norm.

To further increase the accuracy of the Page Critic advice, pages that are 
ranked by purely external factors (versus page content) are excluded from 
the content averages. For example, pages ranked solely by DirectHit, 
or that appear because of a reviewed directory listing, are skipped.

These changes, and others, make the Page Critic an even smarter tool than 
before. We expect this to improve your odds even further of gaining those 
coveted top 10 positions. As always, let us know what you think!

3. Networks that require proxy user names and passwords to be entered before 
accessing the Web are now supported in WebPosition Gold. 

4. The Page Generator can now output completely customizable doorway pages. 
Finally, you can whip out doorway pages that look just as good as any other 
page on your site. The pages will still include the major elements needed to 
rank well, custom-tailored to the preferences of each search engine. On the 
new Template tab of the Page Generator, you can now customize the background 
color, font color, image, etc. You can customize every element of a 
"template" which can be based on the layout of your home page or any other 
page of your site. You can even create multiple templates, each tailored for
a particular Web site or search engine.

5. Other enhancements have also been made in the quest to make the program 
even easier to use. 

Fixes in this version:
1. Scheduler no longer auto-selects all URLs before running a mission. 
Instead, it only auto-selects them IF all URLs in the mission are currently 
de-selected (i.e., completed) and you have the auto-select checkbox on.  
This feature is useful if you want to run the same mission every week or 
month.  That way once it completes all submissions successfully, it will 
re-select them on the next "go around" and submit again.

2. Many other problems reported over the last couple months have been 
corrected.