WEBSITE STATUS :  The virus was a bigger affair than we had bargained for so after cleaning out the initial bug, we realised that there were two more different viruses embeded in the website so we are in the process of removing those.  This will take, approximately, a further two weeks and then we will resubmit the website to Google for re-verification.  Firefox is not showing the website altogether so we urge our clients to continue using the website via MSN and Yahoo.

RENEWALS :  Notwithstanding the virus, we started approaching clients for renewal on the 26th of January, 2012.  We thank the following companies for not only renewing, but for paying their renewal fees promply and for the wonderfu, beautiful and heartfelt words of support. Hillbright Science College, who not only renewed, but upgraded their service, to include Hillbright Business School, Brapt Security, Surveytec Land Surveyors, Allied Insurance, Ezekiel Guti College, Heritage Corporate Kings, VGP Technologies, Vali Chartered Accountants, Cartridge Zone, LBN Saw, Bridges Real Estate, Bretton Motors, Afrimune, J. Digital Systems and Onesky Travel.

NEW CLIENTS :  We thank our new clients Z.H.D.T. Properties and Southbay Real Estate who registered, even after being alerted of the virus.  We also want to thank the following professionals who listed with us from the 26th, Mr. Talkmore Takura, Mr. Reason Maponga, Mr. D. Kachire, Mr. Simplisio Bvuta, Mr. N. Musweni, Mr. Sheddy Nyandare & Mr. Masimba of Green Cab.

COMPANIES/PROFESSIONALS/TRADERS DATABASE CD :  There is excellent feedback from people using the Databese CD, which is really a duplicate version of the website.  Our apologies go to Picmost and Majoc who were erroneously left from this month’s version of the CD.

TWITTER : We apologise for the late Twitter updates.  As promised, we started featuring companies for this year from the 27th of January, 2012.

While we still appear first on the Google search engine results, from the 17th of December, 2011 the search result has been appearing like this:

Zimbabwe Companies- Company contact Names, Phones, Emails …
zimbabwecompanies.com/
This site may harm your computer.
The Home for Zimbabwe Business, property, accomodation, cars, cell phones, electronics, telecoms, bookshops, building supplies, granite, entertainment, law, …

On the 17th of December, 2011, the people who orchestrated this search result wrote us the following email, which we have forwarded to internet police (there is internet police and it works!)

vintage logo design
qhlogodesignguru.com
Haren@email.com
94.63.4.228
Submitted on 2011/12/17 at 9:36 am

Hi How are you? It’s good to know that you are still around this website. How did you pass the latest Google update? Just checked your rankings and it seems like you are doing a good job Hope you will maintain the quality, just don’t forget about your friends C ya soon!

We checked MSN (bing) and the search result was like this:

Zimbabwe Companies- Company contact Names, Phones, Emails …
The Home for Zimbabwe Business, property, accomodation, cars, cell phones, electronics, telecoms, bookshops, building supplies, granite, entertainment, law, mining …
zimbabwecompanies.com

Then we checked Yahoo and the search result was like this:

Zimbabwe Companies- Company contact Names, Phones, Emails …
The Home for Zimbabwe Business, property, accomodation, cars, cell phones, electronics, telecoms, bookshops, building supplies, granite, entertainment, law, mining …
zimbabwecompanies.com – Cached

And we checked Ask, Dogpile and other search engines and it appears that the only search engine compromised was Google.  So we went to work and found the virus.  Then Google wrote us the following letter.

TO:
abuse@zimbabwecompanies.com
admin@zimbabwecompanies.com
administrator@zimbabwecompanies.com

5 More…
Message flagged
Wednesday, December 28, 2011 2:06 PM
Message body

Dear site owner or webmaster of zimbabwecompanies.com,
We recently discovered that some of your pages can cause users to be infected with malicious software. We have begun showing a warning page to users who visit these pages by clicking a search result on Google.com.

Below are some example URLs on your site which can cause users to be infected (space inserted to prevent accidental clicking in case your mail client auto-links URLs):
http://zimbabwecompanies .com/grammyshop.htm
http://zimbabwecompanies .com/tabobabycompany.htm
http://www.zimbabwecompanies .com/sdeczimbabwe.htm
Here is a link to a sample warning page:

http://www.google.com/interstitial?url=http%3A//zimbabwecompanies.com/grammyshop.htm

Although some sites intentionally distribute malicious software, in your case, we have evidence to suggest that your site was compromised.
Since  your site was compromised, it’s important to not only remove the malicious (and usually hidden) content from your pages, but to also identify and fix the vulnerability. We suggest contacting your hosting provider if you are unsure of how to proceed. StopBadware also has a resource page for securing compromised sites:

http://www.stopbadware.org/home/security

Once you’ve secured your site, you can request that the warning be removed by visiting
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?
and requesting a review. If your site is no longer harmful to users, we will remove the warning.

Sincerely,
Google Search Quality Team

We are sharing this information for four reasons:-

a)  To warn clients not to access search results for zimbabwe companies via Google but via Yahoo, Bing, Ask or any other search engine until we have finished fixing this problem (we have already identified the virus but we want to make sure that we totally clean it up before resubmission so please bear with us).

b) To educate companies who have websites that while your web host can be the best e.g. Yahoo in our case, there are certain attributes which are beyond your web hosting company and webmaster’s control.  This unfortunate but rude awakening is a case in point.

c) An independent computer expert whom we consulted immediately after we became aware of this problem said the virus will not harm any computer (otherwise Msn (bing) and Yahoo would have also issued the same warning),  but  we still urge all our clients to heed the Google warning until we issue a clearance signal for the Google search result. We take all our service providers advice seriously and we thank Google, Yahoo, Msn, the internet police and everyone of the local and international consultants and Primezone members who are working to fix this problem.

d)   We believe in respecting our clients by telling them the truth, even if it makes us look bad.  Toyota survived one of the worst set backs in history and it brought them improved customer loyalty.  Our company is built on solid fundamental principles and ethics, and we are proud to serve.  To us,  setbacks are learning opportunities and with your continued clientele and support, we will continue to become the website of choice for zimbabwe companies for the online directory and other listings in 2012 and the future.  Our marketing team will be going out in full force for business as usual for renewals and new listings from the 3rd of January 2012.  We are working flat out to fix the Google search results problem.

If we are getting targetted at search engine level, we must be doing something right. We believe that competition must be smart, productive and above all, it has to benefit clients, not harm them. We apologise to all the clients whose Google search result was affected and we will publish the list of affected clients when we finish cleaning up the virus.

Another update: it looks like the the Advermark In Store Agreement has still not materialised.  We, like you will keep checking in store!

To every company’s success in 2012!

Primezone t/a www.zimbabwecompanies.com

RE: WITHDRAWAL, APOLOGY & MORE Hide Details FROM: Nqobani Palane TO: ‘www.zimbabwecompanies.com’ Message flagged Sunday, November 13, 2011 12:52 PM Message body Lets progress go head and print your CD’s we are a sincere group of people we honour our agreements… we are flighting as commited to in the agreement Regards

____________________________________________________</p>

As stated in the above correspondence, there was a misunderstanding which we did apologise for and as far as we know, Advermark do honour their agreements.  We remain sure that the mix up will soon be rectified and the Companies/Professionals/Traders Database CD advert will be flighted in store as per agreement.   In the event that there are any changes, we will post here to let everyone know.  Thanks for reading and point out this to us.  We do try very hard to keep our promises – so does  Mr. Palane, that is why we entered into an agreement with him.  In this day and age, it is very important to choose the people you deal with carefully in business, as we do.   So, from Mr. Palane and our team, just keep looking here for updates regarding the flighting of the advert.

Season’s greetings and happy  holidays!  Dont forget to keep checking in store!

For decision making, speed and efficiency,  especially for the renewal listings which went out last week Wednesday, special mention and thanks goes to:-

1.  Mr. Brett De Villiers – Carswell Meats (he manages his emails promptly)

2.  Mr. Don Chirove – Metal Craft Engineering – (from his mobile, very deft and efficient)

3.  The General Manager, Bolsbury Trading, almost immediate response!

4.   Mr. Boyd Carr of Coghlan Welsh and Guest – these lawyers astonish!

5.  The Managing Director – Decorama, we were pleasantly surprised.

Thank you gentlemen.  You make us proud to have such high ranking management members who are also computer savvy!

The price for the directory online and on the CD for the period 23 November, 2011  to 31 December, 2012  is US $20 per company.  This payment will be for an annual listing and you can submit change of details for free for your entry any time during the course of the year.

We are working hard to reduce the price of the CD from the current US$6 per copy to a price to be made known beginning January, 2012.   We wish to thank all the companies which have continued to buy the CD and we want to apologise for not having the CD in the Kingstons outlets as earlier advised.  This was due to mistiming on the part of our advertising partner whom we are working with to rectify this problem.  The CDs will most likely be available in the Kingstons outlets with effect from December, 2011.  We sincerely apologise for this logistical error.

SILENT BID CHARITY AUCTION

Fri 28th Oct – 12 Noon to 6pm
Sat 29th Oct – 8am to 11am
At 48 Park Road, Suburbs

Viewing from Wed 12noon at 48 Park Rd Suburbs
Deposit US$50-00 Refundable
Goods for Charity also welcome – proceeds as well as
Gate Takings ($1-00 ea) to SPCA
We need your support – SPCA needs your support!
Any inquiries please call Shanon on
0712411955/073342158

And everyone else who let us know that they preferred the old alpha directory to the new one.  When clients complain, or express their views, we listen.  This is to let you know that not only are we going to keep the old alpha directory, but we have started working on improving it and making value additions which ensure than all our clients’ voices are heard and as far as possible, we not only listen, but do what we are asked to.

We hope you like the new alpha version of the directory which we will be uploading one page at a time as we work on it.  Thank you for voicing your concerns and your continued clientele.

Its signed,  sealed and official.  Beginning the 1st of October, 2011, the CD version of the website will be available from Kingstons outlets in the following towns:-

Harare, Bulawayo, Masvingo, Mutare, Gweru, Marondera, Kadoma, Beitbridge, Bindura, Chiredzi, Rusape, Karoi, Chinhoyi, Gwanda and Chivhu.

This will mean greater exposure in the mentioned towns for all the companies listed on the website.  Plus, to celebrate this joint venture, the online and CD listing price will be slashed in October, November and December this year to enable companies and individuals to take  advantage of this offer.  Keep checking this spot.