Oyster, the Netflix for books that raised $17 million in Venture Capital funding, has shuttered its services with many of its engineers heading to Google. The deal includes acquiring some of Oyster's IP assets. Many of the 27-person team will work out of a Google Books development center in New York.

Google notes that it has seen an 180% increase in the number of sites hacked and a 300% hacked sites reconsideration requests in 2015 compared with the prior year. The webmaster team is working to prevent hacks through improved and continuous communication, better tools. The team wants to hear ideas on how Google can better support webmasters recovering from a hacked Web site. Richard Stanway would like to see improvements to the email altering system. He writes that currently, "low priority messages like mobile usability issues, inaccessible CSS/JS or transient network outages are grouped with high priority ones like hacked site, user …

Creating Web site content requires careful thought. Marketers need to write for their target consumer audience, but that's not the only focus. Since most consumers land on a Web site after being referred by a search engine, marketers also must think about the technical demands of the search engines. Samuel Edwards explains.

Chuck Price believes there will never be an easier time to use SEO to "game Google" than right now. While I never thought of SEO as "gaming Google," Price runs down tips on how to build high-quality content and links to earn a position in search engine query results. Learn the rules and follow them to gain in the rankings. Price explains.

TorrentFreak discovered huge amounts of spam on Chilling Effects. These fake DMCA requests, with a copyright compliant notice to Google, include descriptions filled with spam URLs -- from Viagra to designer handbags. The descriptions look like typical blog comments, per Jennifer Slegg. 

There are two ways to drive calls with AdWords -- through call extensions and call-only campaigns. Google has released a video to help marketers determine the option that is best for their business. The video also illustrates ways to set up calls, including writing paid-search ad text. Knowing call peak times by factoring in time zones when set-up scheduling is also important.

Moz created a glossary of Google features -- a reference book that the company plans to update as search engine results pages change. Peter Meyers explains that the guide -- for search engine optimization and paid-search practitioners -- covers major SERP features seen on Google such as vertical results, Knowledge Graph, local results, and ads and shopping.

Google has added support for AdWords API v201506 reports in AdWords Scripts. This version adds support for the Final URL Report, the Upgraded URLs-compatible replacement for the Destination URL Report, per Google. It also introduces changes to reporting for Gmail Sponsored Promotions ad stats.

The Walt Disney Co. follows Facebook and Google into the world of virtual reality, as the company and several other entertainment names invest $65 million into cinematic VR company Jaunt. The new money will help the VR firm to scale up production, and advance their professional-grade camera hardware and software production tools. Reports suggest the investment makes it the highest-funded VR startup.

A data-driven push notification back to a mobile app can build loyalty and increase the frequency of active users. Amelia Walkley shows marketers how its done across Android, iOS and the Chrome browser.