CompuWorld

I Left Google Blogger!

Here goes one more name added into the list of wordpress users who initially started there journey into blogging from blogger. I was blogging at webtechlog.blogspot.com (now at www.NOFULLSTOP.com) since January 1, 2007 and my blog had gained good fame. With around 100 subscribers and daily 200+ hits from Google search and other regular visitors the blog was receiving good response.

But that touch, that difference was always missing. It wasn’t mine after all. Neither the domain was mine. So after rejection of over 100 domains here I am ready to start the journey after a halt of almost a month. I agree that I didn’t blog for last 1 month but my readers can trust me that they are going to receive some really good content in the coming days. I have already prepared it.

I have registered my blog into technorati and done all the necessary steps to retain my readers in feedburner and Google juice. Lets see how many days it takes to regain the old name and more ofcourse but yeah one thing is for sure. I am feeling better now. More like a real blogger!

Note: I have taken necessary steps and I am sure you wont have to change to my new feed URL in case you are a old subscriber. All should work fine. But if it dosent than please do contact me.

Labels: blogging

Must See SEO Jargons

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is buzz word for anyone who has its own blog/website. And while searching SEO related content online one tends get stumbled upon words which you hear for the first time sometimes! SEOmoz recently published a huge list of many such SEO jargon which you will read every now and then. I read through the list and compiled some of the few very interesting, and unheard ones, which you must read if you plan NOT to read through the complete list.

• alt text A description of a graphic (within the img tag), which usually isn’t displayed to the end user, unless the graphic is undeliverable, or a browser is used that doesn’t display graphics. Alt text is important because search engines can’t tell one picture from another. Alt text is the one place where it is acceptable for the spider to get different content than the human user, but only because the alt text is accessible to the user, and when properly used is an accurate description of the associated picture. Special web browsers for visually challenged people rely on the alt text to make the content of graphics accessible to the users.
• anchor text The user visible text of a link. Search engines use anchor text to indicate the relevancy of the referring site and of the link to the content on the landing page. Ideally all three will share some keywords in common.
• astroturfing (the opposite of full disclosure) attempting to advance a commercial or political agenda while pretending to be an impartial grassroots participant in a social group. Participating in a user forum with the secret purpose of branding, customer recruitment, or public relations.
• bread crumbs Web site navigation in a horizontal bar above the main content which helps the user to understand where they are on the site and how to get back to the root areas.
• cloak The practice of delivering different content to the search engine spider than that seen by the human users. This Black Hat tactic is frowned upon by the search engines and caries a virtual death penalty of the site/domain being banned from the search engine results.
• doorway (gateway) A web page that is designed specifically to attract traffic from a search engine. A doorway page which redirects users (but not spiders) to another site or page is implementing cloaking.
• gizmo (gadget, widget) small applications used on web pages to provide specific functions such as a hit counter or IP address display. Gizmos can make good link bait.
• Google bomb The combined effort of multiple webmasters to change the Google search results usually for humorous effect. The keywords “miserable failure” - George Bush, and “greatest living American” - Steven Colbert Google bombs are famous examples.
• Google bowling Maliciously trying to lower a sites rank by sending it links from the “bad neighborhood” - Kind of like yelling “Good luck with that infection!” to your buddy as you get off the school bus - there is some controversy as to if this works or is just an SEO urban myth.
• keyword cannibalization The excessive reuse of the same keyword on too many web pages within the same site. This practice makes it difficult for the users and the search engines to determine which page is most relevant for the keyword.
• link condom Any of several methods used to avoid passing link love to another page, or to avoid possible detrimental results of endorsing a bad site by way of an outgoing link, or to discourage link spam in user generated content.
• inkerati Internet users who are the most productive targets of linkbait. The Linkerati includes - social taggers, forum posters, resource maintainers, bloggers and other content creators, etc - who are most likely to create incoming links or link generating traffic (in the case of social networkers).
• mashup A web page which consists primarily of single purpose software and other small programs (gizmos and gadgets) or possibly links to such programs. Mashups are quick and easy content to produce and are often popular with users, and can make good link bait. Tool collection pages are sometimes mashups.
• organic link organic links are those that are published only because the webmaster considers them to add value for users.
• sandbox There has been debate and speculation that Google puts all new sites into a “sandbox,” preventing them from ranking well for anything until a set period of time has passed. The existence or exact behavior of the sandbox is not universally accepted among SEOs.
• sock puppet an online identity used to either hide a persons real identity or to establish multiple user profiles.
• stickiness Mitigation of bounce rate. Website changes that entice users to stay on the site longer, and view more pages improve the sites “stickiness”.
• toolbar pagerank (PR) a value between 0 and 10 assigned by the Google algorithm, which quantifies page importance and is not the same as pagerank. Toolbar Pagerank is only updated a few times a year, and is not a reliable indicator of current status.
• walled garden a group of pages which link to each other, but are not linked to by any other pages. A walled garden can still be indexed if it is included in a sitemap, but it will probably have very low pagerank.

Labels: blogging, SEO

Top 10 Ways To Improve Your PageRank

Stanford University is famous for producing few of the very happening technologies which are running in market presently. One of them being PageRank. For a small introduction, PageRank technology was designed by the Google co-founder Larry Page, while he was a student in Stanford, thus the name PageRank. Google uses PageRank (PR) to rank websites on a scale of 10. Then those rankings act as crucial point of consideration to get listed in top Google Searches.

• Content is the King: If you provide quality content then you will get regular readers and many of those will copy a summary (or sometimes the complete article) into there blogs plus linking back to you. Good content may sometimes get renowned bloggers linking to you which will drive traffic and will give your site more weight due to there high PR.
• Keyword management: See, whatever your PR be if you do not use proper keywords into your blog you wont get listed into Google searches. So use right keywords in the URL, the "title" tag, the article's heading, the text and the links which you make. Considering my own blog, webtechlog contains all the words which indicate that this blog is all about technology. The "title" tag contains the name of my dream company CompuWorld. That again very well indicates that this blog is about computers. And same goes with all the article headings and content.
• Follow the "nofollow" revolution: When you comment on any blog you might see the name of your website under the comment authors name. But know this very well that those links aren't considered by Google for PR calculation. But these days many bloggers are removing the "nofollow" tags from there links in comments. Thus when you comment on there blogs you will earn a link to your blog too. Pretty cool!
• Post on forums: There are so many forums available over the Internet that its tough to know which is good and which isn't. A good way could be to check PageRank of these forums. Now post mostly in those forums which have high PageRank. Each link into these forums will be considered by Google bot as a backlink to your site. This way you earn good amount of visitors, a high PR link plus some knowledge too!
• Order reviews: Investment is required whenever you want to outshine others in this world of competition. So if you are capable of investing then go order some reviews into high PR blogs which again gives you visitors plus link.
• Link Exchange: Blogroll as many of us call it, is a nice way to increase the number of backlinks to you blog. For those who do not like the LONG blogroll list in there blogs could ask the other author to copy some content from your blog and indicate the source. And you do the same too. That way you earn the same weight backlink.
• Text Link Ads: Why not pay maximum $30/month to high Pr websites and get listed into there blogs home page. The only downside is that you need to pay that amount every month to keep the link running.
• Your own websites network: If you have more than one website than why not link back from each website to you other websites. That also brings you good backlinks and that too without spending a dime!
• Submit links to online directories: Online directories mostly have good PR. Start submitting your link to these directories to get high quality backlinks.
• Start online contests: Various contests in different blogs is a new way to earn traffic and to get large number of backlinks. Giving you an example, ask your readers to review your blog in there blogs and ask them to link back to your blog in return. Inform them that the best review will earn some cash prize or something unique from your collection if you do not want to spend money.
  

Labels: blogging, google tips, tips tricks and hacks, tutorial

10 Windows Live Features - Must See

Top 10 Windows Live features/mini-services that most people aren't currently using but should be...

1. Windows Live Mail desktop has a "View by Conversation" option that groups an email and its replies together, something which Gmail users love. You can try this out for yourself in the most recent Windows Live Mail desktop beta by selecting the following option: View - Current View - View by Conversation
   
2. Live Feed Search is a great way to find blogs on niche topics, or if you want the majority of your search results to be from blogs. Power users will probably want to stick to Technorati however. Try it out at http://search.live.com/feeds.
3. Live Search has a nifty "prefer" operator to help you refine your search results. Here's an example of it in action: Without | With. You use this in the same way as all the other search operators; add "prefer:" followed by your refining term.
4. Live Map Search has several "hidden" features, but the one we've chosen is using the line tool to measure distances - great if you plan on walking between locations. You can access this by clicking the Collections menu, choosing Open and then selecting the line draw tool from the bottom of the scratchpad.(Screenshot)
5. Active Contacts has a huge amount of potential yet not many users seem to understand the benefits of using it. Active Contacts allows you to share personal information with the individuals you wants and if they subscribe to you, keep them updated on any changes you make. Of course this also works in reverse too, the more contacts who you subscribe to, the more connected you are . You can share your own contact information from the menu you use to change your online status in Windows Live Messenger - Click your Display Name - Share Contact Information.
6. Windows Live Mobile Messenger (G2) allows you to send a voice clip from your mobile phone to a contact running Windows Live Messenger. While the ability to send a voice clip from the desktop client is not particularly useful, in the mobile client it is a killer feature, allowing you to quickly send a message to your contacts without having to type it out on your mobile device. Definitely a handy feature for situations when you're in a hurry. Currently G2 is only available on windows mobile 6 devices
7. Windows Live Messenger users seem to have an unquenchable desire for the weirdest and wackiest names they can think of, as if the personal status message feature didn't exist. Tidy up your contact list by using the nicknames feature in Messenger: In the contact list, right click the offending contact - Add a nickname.
   
8. Live Search activity in Messenger is a great way to find information you need for a conversation, without firing up your browser. One novel use we were told of is using Live Image Search to find new displays pictures, which you can use by dragging them directly to your existing display picture. Note this is a 1-person application and your contact will not know you are running it. From the Messenger conversation window open the Actions menu - Start an activity - Search
   
9. Live Search for Mobile is just so useful that it is worth highlighting in its entirety. Mobile is one of the areas within Windows Live that is consistently producing great products and Live Local Mobile is no exception. Although the regional support is still somewhat limited (currently US and UK only), they now include support for Java-running phones, as well as Blackberry's. Go to http://wls.live.com/ on your mobile device.
10. Windows Live Toolbar has a nifty feature called Smart Menus that enhances the browsing experience, for example getting a map preview for an address on a webpage. While I'm not a big toolbar fan, this is one feature I wish I had. To use this you need Windows Live Toolbar installed, then highlight the information (address, phone number etc) and right click to view the available Smart Menu options. Dennis Cheung has a great set of videos that explain the possibilities in more detail.

Labels: blogging, microsoft, tips tricks and hacks

Post 100: Why I Blog?

1. I blog as it lets me have my own space, in my own way, where I am the King. And hey the territory is actually increasing with daily visits increasing ;)
2. I blog as I just love computers too much. It was my 1st love!
3. I blog as I think I have knowledge which I am sure people will love to learn. I here at CompuWorld try to share that knowledge in an easy way to the new comers in the world of computers.
4. And ofcourse I blog so that in coming days, when I actually have a good reader base, I can earn some money too. I plan to be a full time blogger. But not so early.
5. Lastly I blog because I cannot live without blogging.

1. Villager from Electronic Village
2. Ranjan from Personal Finance And Business Management
3. Sleepers from Crack The Sleep Code
4. Sitinotliza from My Techno Guide
5. Jordan from MamaBlogga

Labels: blogging

Life Cycle Of A Blog Post

The image says it all, in technical terms though!
[click to enlarge via NY times]

Labels: blogging, fun

Fantastic Freebies

It's no wonder that the PC World readers surveyed rate Gmail as their favorite e-mail service. Says Chuck McNevich of Lexington Park, Maryland, "The interface is considerably faster than Hotmail, Yahoo, and the like. I don't have to pay for the huge storage it gives me."

PC World readers also love Blogger, with one reader noting the service's "easy-to-use features [and] nice themes."

One surveyed PC World reader explains his vote for YouTube succinctly: "Billions of videos. Loads fast." Another cites the service's sizable storage space. And yet another reader speaks directly about why people like video sites in general -- it's a "decent source of diversions," he says. We couldn't agree more.

Labels: blogging, fun, google, microsoft, tips tricks and hacks, youtube

Blog At Movable Type Using Office 2007

You see, we’re not gonna be happy until every company can have a blog. To get everybody using blogs at work, we have to connect with the tools people are already using. Some of that's already happened -- you can use Movable Type Enterprise with your Oracle database or build templates in Adobe's Dreamweaver. But the big Kahuna of office apps is Office. And Office 2007 is surprisingly good, so it makes it even more attractive to plug it in to the power of blogs.

• Post to your Movable Type blog right from Microsoft Word.
• Publish your Movable Type blog posts in Microsoft Word format. if you’ve got a guy in your office who is afraid of blogs but just wants to get his information delivered on his desk in the format he’s used to, now you can do that. What about just publishing each category archive as a Word document, so you can have a single file with all the information about that topic?
• Support for feeds in Outlook 2007.
• And lots more. There’s all kinds of other opportunities with the new Microsoft platforms. OpenSearch support in IE7 lets you automatically perform searches of your intranet blogs right in your browser. XML-based formats for PowerPoint and Excel mean you can actually pull in live data from your blogs into presentations or spreadsheets. And we’re sure the best stuff hasn’t even been thought of yet.

Labels: blogging, microsoft, tips tricks and hacks

12 Months, 12 Pictures, Google 2006 Flashback

"In order to operate from China, we have removed some content from the search results available on Google.cn, in response to local law, regulation or policy. While removing search results is inconsistent with Google’s mission, providing no information (or a heavily degraded user experience that amounts to no information) is more inconsistent with our mission."

BookMark the Blog (for firefox)

(for Explorer)

Labels: blogging, google, youtube