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marți, 16 decembrie 2014

Your Start-to-Finish Guide to Using Google's Disavow Tool

Posted: 15 Dec 2014 04:16 PM PST

Have you used Google's disavow tool? You might want to. If you have been actively involved in SEO for your website over the last few years, there is a good chance that you have unnatural links pointing to your site. These can hurt you in the eyes of Google's Penguin algorithm. Or, in some cases they can even get you a manual unnatural links penalty.

In this article we will talk about some very practical things that will help you when using the disavow tool. These tips should help you whether you are an experienced SEO or a small business owner who is trying to clean up a few unnatural links.

What is the disavow tool?

Introduced in October of 2013, the disavow tool is Google's way of allowing you to ask Google not to count certain links that point to your site. You can find the tool here. And here is Google's documentation on how to use the tool.

The scariest part of this documentation is this:

Google disavow warning

Using the disavow tool incorrectly can hurt you. You should only be disavowing links that you know were made with the intention of manipulating Google's results. Many articles have been written to help site owners decide which links are unnatural. But, there are not many articles written that take you through the process of auditing and disavowing your links from start to finish.

My hope is that this article will help answer any questions you have about using Google's disavow tool. If there is something that I haven't covered, then leave a comment below and I will do my best to answer.

Creating an audit spreadsheet

There are many services out there that can give you a list of your links. Some of these are great resources for organizing your links into a manageable format. I'm not a fan of services that try to audit your links for you as I believe that manually reviewing each link is necessary. But, some of these tools may be useful when it comes to putting a link auditing spreadsheet together. This Moz post contains a good review of many of the tools that are out there.

If you would like to create your own list of backlinks rather than using a tool or a program, then here is what I would recommend:

First, download your links from all available sources

You will want to start by downloading your links from Webmaster Tools. When you go to Search Traffic --> Links to your site --> More, you'll see this:

downloading links

Download both the sample links and the latest links.

Disavow Tip: If you have a site that has more than 1,000 linking domains, sometimes you can get more links from Webmaster Tools by downloading the sample list of links daily for a few days.

I would also recommend downloading links from the following sources:

majestic.com - Majestic has an option where you can get your links for free if you follow steps to verify your site. It's definitely worth it.
opensiteexplorer.org - This is Moz's tool. It won't give you as many links as Majestic, but occasionally you can find some links in there that are not in the other sources.
ahrefs.com - This is a paid option. In my opinion, it is worth the money. I will often get links reported in ahrefs that are not found in any of the other sources.

Combine the links into one big spreadsheet

As you get your spreadsheet from each source, find the column that contains the url of the sites linking to you. Copy this entire column into a new spreadsheet. You can do this in Excel or in Google Docs. In the last year or so, Google Docs has gotten much better at handling large amounts of data. As such, the directions I'm going to give in this tutorial are for use in Google Docs as not everyone may have access to Excel. If you have a Google login or a Gmail account you have access to Google Docs.

You'll end up with a big spreadsheet containing every link reported by each of the tools. At this point, this spreadsheet will contain a lot of duplication, but don't worry, we will deal with this soon.

(Note: It's not a bad idea to also include other columns that may help you with your audit such as the anchor text or nofollowed status, but for the sake of simplicity in this tutorial, we will just include the urls.)

Break these urls down to the subdomain level

Create a new column to the left of your urls. At the top type in the following formula:

=left(B1,find("/",B1,9)-1)

Then, highlight column A and press CTRL-D. This will fill the formula down the column and you will end up with something that looks like this:

url audit

Now, highlight column A and we'll ask the spreadsheet to convert the formula results to values. You need to do this in order to be able to copy and paste in this column. To do this, do CTRL-C to copy and then select Edit --> Paste Special --> Paste Values Only.

Now we're going to use the Find and Replace feature to break these down to the subdomain level. Keep column A highlighted and click Edit --> Find and Replace, and type in http://. Leave the replace field blank and press "Replace All".

removing http from url audit

Now do the same thing for the following phrases:

https://

www.

Don't forget the period after "www."!

Once this is complete, then column A contains the domains/subdomains of each url.

list of domains and subdomains

De-duplicate so you just have one link from each domain

Now what we are going to to is dedupe this list so that we just have one link from each domain. Most spreadsheets have a dedupe function built in. However, I have found that when you are dealing with a large number of rows, this will often crash the spreadsheet, so what I do is first, sort column A using alphabetical order, and then create a new column to the left of my domains and add the following formula:

=if(B1=B2,"duplicate","unique")

Copy this down so that the spreadsheet will now show you which entries are duplicates. You can then filter this column to show only the duplicates and delete each of these rows.

What you will be left with is one url from each domain linking to you.

Audit!

Now you need to visit each url on your spreadsheet and make a decision on whether or not you should keep links from this domain or disavow. On your spreadsheet, mark each url as either "disavow" or "keep":

disavow audit

In some cases, I'll mark some links as "debatable" and then review them again once I have seen all of the links in a link profile. Sometimes there are patterns of unnatural linking that only become visible after reviewing a good portion of the backlinks.

Here are the questions that I would ask when looking at each link:

Was this link made solely for SEO purposes?
Does this link truly, honestly have the possibility of directing clients your way?
Would you be worried if a Google employee or a competitor saw this link?

Disavow tip: When Google penalizes a site, or affects it algorithmically because of unnatural links, their goal is to demote sites who have been actively cheating. Every site has weird looking links that make you think, "Where the heck did that come from?" But there is no need to go disavowing everything that you don't recognize. Penguin will not affect a site just because it has some odd looking links.

If you're having a hard time deciding which links to disavow, then here are some resources that give more advice on how to make disavow decisions:

After reading those, if you are still unsure about the majority of your links and whether or not they should be disavowed, then it may be best to hire someone who is experienced in disavow work to do this audit for you.

Making your disavow file

Add "domain:" in front of the domains

Once you have finished assessing each link, you'll want to filter your disavow column so that you just see the links that you have decided to disavow.

disavow or keep links

Then, create a new sheet on your spreadsheet, copy your domains column and paste it into this new sheet:

url spreadsheet

Now we're going to add "domain:" in front of each domain name.

Disavow tip: You ALWAYS want to disavow on the domain level. If you disavow on the url level, you run a very high risk of missing bad links. For example, if you are disavowing a link on http://www.example.com/article.html, that same link may also exist on http://www.example.com/articles/ and http://www.example.com/tag/links, and http://www.example.com/article.html?utm=fb and so on.

To add "domain:" in front of each domain name, type the following formula into B1:

="domain:"&A1

Copy this formula down the entire column. Then, as before, do a copy and then paste special --> paste as values.

Now you've got your disavow directives in column B:

domail list

Make a text file

Your disavow file has to be a .txt file in UTF-8 format or 7-bit ASCII. There are a few ways that you can do this. On my Mac, what I do is open TextEdit, copy and paste my "domain:example.com" column (column B), and then click "Format" --> "Make plain text". I then save this as a .txt file.

Another option that works well is to create a new Google Doc document, copy the disavow directives into this document and then click "File" --> "Download As" --> "Plain text".

Disavow tip: There are many other ways to make a .txt file. But sometimes these files create odd characters that can throw errors when you file the file. If you are getting odd errors once you file, then try creating your text file using the Google Doc method mentioned above. This seems to be the most reliable way to produce a text file that Google won't reject.

What about comments?

I have seen disavow files that look like this: comments in disavow doc

You can leave a comment in your disavow file by starting a line with a "#". However, no Google employee will look at your disavow file. It is completely machine processed. Comments are there just for your own use. I will insert comments where it might be useful for me when I'm editing the disavow file in the future. For example, I might say the following:

#The following links were disavowed on December 16, 2014. These links are ones that we know are low quality directory links.

Filing your disavow

To file your disavow file, go to the disavow tool, and select your site from the dropdown list.

filing a link disavow

Click "disavow links" and then "disavow links" again and then "choose file". This is where you will upload the .txt file that we just created.

If you've been successful, then you'll see something that looks like this:

successful link disavow

But, you may find that you have errors:

errors in link disavow

Common errors

Here are some things to look for if you have an error message:

If you have typed "domain:http://www.example.com", you need to remove the http://www.
Sometimes the backlink tools will give you domains with odd characters in them that the disavow tool doesn't like. For example, sometimes ahrefs.com will give me domains that look like this:

_¼_¡_á_ü_____ü__„â_µ„Û___µ„â.„Û„ã.com

If I try to disavow domain:_¼_¡_á_ü_____ü__„â_µ„Û___µ„â.„Û„ã.com, that's going to throw errors. These domains never resolve. I just delete them from my disavow.

Look for domains with ports attached. For example, you may see domain:example.com:8080 on your list. Just remove the :8080. A colon will cause your disavow to throw an error.

As mentioned above, if you are getting errors and you can't figure out why, try formatting your file with a Google Doc and saving as a .txt. This usually works for me.

Modifying your disavow file

If you have unnatural links, then it is a really good idea to do regular checks of your backlinks. I have several clients for which I do monthly backlink audits and even though they are not currently building links, each month I will see a good number of new unnatural links. Many of these are old links from as early as 2006 that are just surfacing now. Some are new spammy links that perhaps are the result of previous automated processes that continue to propagate. And some may even be attempts at negative SEO. My point is that most sites that I have seen that needed to have disavow work done will need to continually update their disavow file.

Disavow tip: When you upload a new disavow file, you are COMPLETELY REWRITING your old file. If your old file has 300 domains in it and you want to add 30 new domains, your new file will have 330 domains in it.

In order to update your disavow file, you'll need to go to the disavow tool, select your site, select "disavow links" and again, "disavow links" and "download". I have no idea why, but Google will give you your file in the form of a .csv and not a .txt file. What I do next is copy column A and paste it in either TextEdit (on a Mac) or into a Google Doc. You can then add your new links and save the file as a .txt and file it as before.

When does the disavow start to work?

As soon as you upload your disavow file, Google will start to apply the disavow directives to each link of yours as they crawl the web. Let's say that I have a link on

http://www.spammysite.com/article.html

and I have disavowed

domain:spammysite.com

The next time that Google crawls http://www.spammysite.com/article.html, or any other page on this domain that links to you, they will apply an invisible nofollow tag to each link that points to your site. This means that these links will no longer be included in algorithmic calculations (i.e. Penguin) for your site. If your site is affected by the Penguin algorithm, you will not likely see changes right away. You will need to wait until Google reruns the Penguin algorithm and regathers information about your links. Google has hinted that soon this will happen continuously rather than on a sporadic basis. Hopefully this will mean that sites will be able to escape Penguin quicker. You'll still need to wait for Google to recrawl all of the links on your disavow file though. John Mueller from Google has said that it can take up to a year for all of your links to get recrawled. However, in my experiments, the longest a link took to be disavowed was three months. Most links were disavowed within a month.

Should you be removing links as well as disavowing?

This is a subject that deserves its own article. In fact, I have written a full article about this here. In general, if there is a link that I control, and I know I can easily remove it, then removing it is the best option. But, if you are dealing with an algorithmic issue such as Penguin, in my opinion, there is no need to go on an exhaustive email campaign to ask site owners to remove links. These campaigns are expensive and depending on the niche, the success rate is often very low. If you have a manual penalty, however, then yes, you need to make attempts to remove every unnatural link.

Can you reavow a link?

What if you made a mistake and included domains in your disavow file that were actually good links? You can remove a disavow directive by modifying your disavow file so that it no longer contains that domain and then re-uploading it. However, Matt Cutts commented earlier in the year that it takes much longer to reavow a link than to disavow it. You would think that the next time it was crawled, Google would remove the invisible "nofollow", however, there is some type of lag time built in before the link starts to count again. The purpose of this is to make it harder for spammers to find ways to cheat the system.

Questions?

You need to be careful when using the disavow tool. But, this doesn't mean that the average webmaster cannot use it. If you know you have low quality links pointing to your site, then this tool can be a good way to ask Google to not to count these links against you. Still, I have found that in over two years of helping people use this tool, questions often arise. If you have questions I'll do my best to answer. Or, if you have used the disavow tool and have hints to add, I'd love to hear your comments!

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

A user-centered approach to building content

A user-centered approach to building content

Posted: 11 Dec 2014 03:33 AM PST

At the end of November I had the chance to present in one of SEMRush’s excellent webinar series. The topic: how to take a user-centered approach to content building for more traffic and links.

It was certainly an exciting, if a little nerve-wracking, experience, and one I really enjoyed, as being able to share ideas and ways of thinking is one of the great facets of the SEO and online marketing industry.

Fortunately, SEMRush recorded the webinar, and you can hear my dulcet tones pontificating on the beauty of user-centered content here:

Content is the heart of most successful online marketing or SEO campaigns – at least for brands where you don’t have the option to burn and churn domains – and even more close-to-the-bone tactics such as private blog networks still rely on those linking sites having regularly updated and contextually relevant content. You can’t get away from it.

Here at White, this has become a major theme of our work, as has the effort to translate this need to our varied, both in industry and job description, client base.

As Google and Bing have also moved towards a ranking model that seeks to reward strong user experience, such as sites that show little bounce-back to the SERPs, we’ve also found ourselves delving deeper into the discipline of UX (user experience). We’re checking out new blogs, going to training classes and more; anything to develop our SEO results.

And it is from looking at these diverse elements of online marketing that the idea of user-centered content has become very important for us, both as an internal ambition, but as a tool to encourage site owners to think more carefully about their content. This has become part of our ethos of what I’ve taken to call, for lack of a better term, content development.

Taking the best of SEO (such as keyword topic research), UX, content strategy and online publishing can help all sites, big or small, develop their content into something that gains traffic, and wins sales. This is something that we’re excited about working on, and I’ll be writing about and speaking on further in 2015.

The webinar’s focus

In this webinar I wanted to look at the next steps for a site’s content once you’ve covered the basics of your product or service, improved on-page optimisation and perhaps even started a blog for content marketing. There’s fantastic opportunities for a site to build content that answers user needs, as implied by their search query, language or feedback, rather than just turning all content into a sales pitch. That content will then help drive traffic and improve semantic relevancy.

I wanted to encourage attendees to think about adapting a user-centered design approach to their content, looking at practical methods of finding content that encourages a site to transition its expertise online, and diversify and increase its online reach accordingly.

By making the most of in-house resources, simple tactics such as analysing Google Suggest and conducting user research and then putting these ideas through keyword tools, most sites create user-centered assets that will drive long-tail traffic, be shareable by their very nature and expand their relevancy for the product or service they promote.

I’d like to thank SEMRush for letting me talk at their webinar, and most importantly everyone who attended; I hope it was interesting or helpful in some way! This is a big topic, with a glut of different angles and an exciting process of developing your content with the same care as a new design. If you have any questions or thoughts you’d like to share, please leave a comment below or pester me on Twitter or Google+.

Photo Credit: Яick Harris cc

The post A user-centered approach to building content appeared first on White.net.

Seth's Blog : Retribution

Retribution

"He deserved it," is usually the explanation we hear for behavior that strikes us as unproductive, inhumane or counter-productive. The bully is always happy to point a finger at the person he hurt, to cast blame for his inexcusable actions.

Retribution is a habit, usually a learned one. It's tit for tat, the instinct to punish.

That's a very different posture than the one the productive professional takes. She says, "I choose to take actions that are effective." She chooses a response designed to produce the outcome she seeks, actions that work.

We can react or respond, as my friend Zig used to say. When we react to a medicine, that's a bad thing. When we respond, it's working.

When the world dumps something at our door, we can take the shortcut and allow ourselves to react. We can point out that whatever we do is happening because the other side deserved it. Tantrums are okay, in this analysis, because the other guy made us.

Or we can respond. With something that works. With an approach we're proud of, proud of even after the moment has passed. It's not easy, it's often not fun, but it's the professional's choice.

• Email to a friend •

luni, 15 decembrie 2014

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Moscow Hikes Interest Rates to 17% from 10.5% in Emergency Middle-of-Night Action
Insolvent Scranton PA Pensions Rise 80%, Fire Fund to Run Out of Money in 2.5 Years; Bankruptcy Looms
Russian Ruble, Turkish Lira, Ukrainian Hryvnia Hit Record Lows; Global Currency Crisis on Deck

Moscow Hikes Interest Rates to 17% from 10.5% in Emergency Middle-of-Night Action

Posted: 15 Dec 2014 03:15 PM PST

I commented earlier today, that you do not defend a currency by foolishly wasting foreign reserves. The Russian central bank came to the same conclusion.

In an emergency middle-of-the-night central bank action, Moscow Lifts Interest Rates to 17%.

Russia has lifted its key interest rate to 17 per cent, hours after the rouble suffered its worst drop since 1998.

"The decision was driven by the need to limit the risks of devaluation and inflation, which have recently significantly increased," the central bank said in a statement.

The move in the middle of the Moscow night followed a day during which the rouble had tumbled more than 10 per cent as the implications of the fall in oil prices for the country's energy-dependent economy triggered a rout across Russian markets.

In the bleakest official forecast yet from Moscow, the Russian central bank warned that the country could see a 4.5 per cent to 4.7 per cent contraction in GDP next year if oil prices remained at $60 a barrel.

So far this year, it has lost half its value against the dollar, making it the world's worst-performing major currency, ahead of the Ukrainian hryvnia.

Traders said the central bank had intervened several times during Monday trading but had failed to halt the slide in the rouble for more than a few minutes on each occasion.

The central bank on Monday forecast that capital outflow from Russia would total $120bn in 2015, nearly matching the $134bn estimated to leave the country this year. It also predicted outflows of $75bn in 2016 and $55bn in 2017.

US$ vs. Ruble

At the end of 2013 the Ruble closed at 33.20-per-US$. It touched a low of 66.84-per-US$, a decline of slightly over 50% before settling today at 65.60, just under a 50% decline for the year.

Russia Serious About Halting Ruble Slide

That massive 6.5 percentage point hike may or may not stop capital flight and currency depreciation, but it does show Russia is very serious about the effort. 6.5 percentage points is genuine bazooka action.

Huge Recession Baked in Cake

Even if the hike stops the currency slide, it will come at a cost. A massive Russian recession is baked in the cake.

That recession will spill over into Eastern Europe including the eurozone.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

Insolvent Scranton PA Pensions Rise 80%, Fire Fund to Run Out of Money in 2.5 Years; Bankruptcy Looms

Posted: 15 Dec 2014 12:08 PM PST

The city of Scranton hiked property taxes 57% and garbage collection fees 69% to shore up a police and fire pension funds that will run out of money anyway, in 5 years and 2.5 years respectively.

Amusingly (to outsiders) but certainly not to Scranton taxpayers, Scranton Pensions Increased as Much as 80 Percent as a result of inane mayoral promises.

The 2011 court ruling that awarded huge raises and millions of dollars in back pay to Scranton firefighters and police officers was a windfall for retirees too, with some seeing a more than 80 percent hike in their pensions between 2008 and 2012, a Times-Tribune investigation found.

The increase, most of which was paid in 2011, made the retirees among the highest paid in Pennsylvania, the newspaper's review of the Public Employee Retirement Commission records revealed.

The increased pensions come at a time when Scranton, in distressed status since 1992, is struggling to survive. Faced with a $20 million deficit, council enacted a 2014 budget with massive tax increases — hikes of nearly 57 percent in property taxes and 69 percent in garbage fees. The recently passed 2015 budget hiked property taxes 19 percent.

The plans' actuary, Randee Sekol, recently cited the raises as one of the key factors that have pushed the funds closer to insolvency. With a deficit of $78.8 million as of 2012, the fire fund is projected to run out of money within about 2½ years, while the police fund, with a deficit of $62 million, has less than five years left.

The city had no choice but to approve the pension hikes, issued under former Mayor Chris Doherty's administration, because they are contractually obligated under the union contracts, said city solicitor Jason Shrive.

No Choice?!

Of course the city had a choice. Actually, the city had two reasonable actions and curiously, Shrive even mentioned one of them.

Last week, the city asked the fire and police pension boards to forgo that increase. Both boards rejected the request.

Mr. Shrive made the request based on a section of the Class 2A city code that states no increases can be granted to retirees if an actuary determines the fire and police funds are not actuarially sound. Scranton is the only Class 2A city in the state.

Mr. Shrive acknowledged that the union contracts obligate the city to pay the retirees' raises, but he said he believes state law, which mandates the city follow the Class 2A code, takes precedent.

Tell, Don't Ask

Given Class 2A law, you don't ask police and fire for cuts, you tell them. Then if they fight, you make the final step:

Declare Bankruptcy on the Spot

The police and fire departments would have to plead their case in federal bankruptcy court, most likely getting haircuts of 50% or more.

Ultimately, bankruptcy is where all these cases are headed. Taxpayers certainly don't deserve preposterous tax hikes while inept politicians look for ways out, because there are no ways out.

In the meantime, collective bargaining of public unions needs to go the way of the dinosaur. Public unions and the hack politicians who support unions have wrecked more city and state budgets than the next 10 things combined.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

Russian Ruble, Turkish Lira, Ukrainian Hryvnia Hit Record Lows; Global Currency Crisis on Deck

Posted: 15 Dec 2014 11:05 AM PST

As oil continues to slide so does the Ruble. Emerging market currencies have gone on for the ride as have the currencies of Eastern European countries, especially Ukraine. The Russian Ruble, Turkish Lira, and Ukrainian Hryvnia are at or near record lows.

Russian Ruble - RUB

Since the beginning of the year, the Ruble has gone from 32.99-per-US$ to 65.51-per-US$. That's a decline of 49.64%.

Ukrainian Hryvnia - UAH

Since the beginning of the year the Hryvnia has gone from 8.21-per-US$ to 15.75-per-US$. That's a decline of 47.87%.

Turkish Lira - TRY

Since the beginning of the year, the Lira has gone from 2.15-per-US$ to 2.37-per-US$. That's a relatively modest decline of 10.23%. However, the lira slide since the beginning of 2013 (not shown on chart) is 25.74%.

Traders Pressure Russian Central Bank

Bloomberg reports Ruble Tumbles Most Since 1998 as Traders Pressure Central Bank.

The ruble tumbled the most since 1998, sliding past 60 for the first time, as traders tested Russia's willingness to defend the currency amid an oil slump that's pushing the economy toward recession.

The ruble weakened 9.1 percent to 64.0005 per dollar at 7:57 p.m. in Moscow, the steepest slide on a closing basis since the year Russia defaulted on local-currency debt. The 10-year government bond yield rose 23 basis points to 13.23 percent. Three-month implied volatility for the ruble climbed to a six-year high as the rout triggered the Bank of Russia to sell foreign exchange, according to BCS Financial Group and MDM Bank.

Traders are pressing the central bank to buy more rubles to limit a selloff that has wiped out 22 percent of the currency's value this month.

"The collapse of the ruble has intensified amid falling oil prices and a central bank that failed to deliver a decisive actions to counteract the ruble decline," Bernd Berg, a London-based emerging-market strategist at Societe Generale SA, said in e-mailed comments. "Russia is facing the risk of a currency and confidence crisis."

The ruble's slump takes its 2014 depreciation to 48 percent, surpassing Ukraine's hryvnia for the first time as the world's worst performer among peers tracked by Bloomberg.

Failure to Halt Decline

Bernd Berg commented the "[Russian] central bank failed to deliver a decisive actions to counteract the ruble decline. Russia is facing the risk of a currency and confidence crisis."

That's a true but very misleading statement.

The worst thing Russia could do would be to blow its currency reserves in a foolish attempt to stop the Ruble slide. Were Russia to blow its currency reserves, Russia would cause or exacerbate a crisis, not prevent one.

The best thing for Russia to do is let the decline play out.The market will eventually find a level. In the meantime, there is little or nothing Russia can do.

Global Currency Crisis on Deck

Yes, Russia is facing a currency crisis. So is Ukraine, Turkey, Venezuela, and numerous other countries.

I believe a global currency crisis is in the works.

For more on the global currency crisis thesis, please see Next Phase in Currency Wars: Yen Plunge, Yuan Devaluation, and "Tidal Wave of Westbound Deflation".

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

Damn Cool Pics

Top Car Speeds Recorded on the Autobahn [Infographic]
Stoners Live in a Completely Different World
South African Rolene Strauss crowned Miss World 2014

Top Car Speeds Recorded on the Autobahn [Infographic]

Posted: 15 Dec 2014 12:42 PM PST

For generations the Autobahn has drawn the world's top drivers where the best cars in the world are pushed to their limits. Often thought of as a singular, lawless stretch of road where there are no speed limits, the truth is that Germany's Autobahns are an expansive highway network designed for performance, meticulously maintained and able to withstand the weight of a jumbo jet.

Top Car Speeds Recorded on the Autobahn in Germany

Stoners Live in a Completely Different World

Posted: 15 Dec 2014 11:32 AM PST

Stoners just don't live in the same world as the rest of us.

South African Rolene Strauss crowned Miss World 2014

Posted: 15 Dec 2014 09:28 AM PST

Rolin Strauss of South Africa won the "Miss World 2014" beauty pageant. became a spokeswoman for South Africa. Here we've got photos of Rolin Strauss.