AdesBlog.com

This is a great, small and free application (standalone exe file) that can check your entire website and show corresponding PageRank for every page. It was developed by SEOJunkie on the request of one of his blog readers.

Recommendations:

I wish the application had a “pause” button. Currently there are only “start” and “quit” buttons on the toolbar (see screenshot above). The problem arises when the website has too many pages, when this happens, there is no way of pausing the program. It goes and goes… only thing is to quit the program.

Also, “export to text file” feature would be great idea. (just a thought SEOJunkie ;) )

P.S Yes AdesBlog is now PR3, *sigh* big-G is really determined to crush me. But my other new project has a PR5 now, it was launched just 4 months ago. So, at least that’s something to be happy about.

via www.riceblogger.com

You can keep track of discussions about your blog on the web through your blog’s dashboard (incoming links) or through trackbacks. But both of these options only show up when there is a link to your blog from other blogs or sites. They won’t show up if someone just mentions your blog’s name and does not link to it.

However there is a way to track those conversations as well, it’s through Google Alerts. Unlike incoming links and trackbacks, Google Alerts can track words that are not linked to your blog. For example, if I track the word “AdesBlog” I would be sent websites that talk about AdesBlog whether the word “AdesBlog” is linked to my blog or not.

Here is how the Google Alerts page looks:

You have the options to be notified “once a day”, “as it happens” and “once a week”. It can search News, Blogs, Videos, Groups and the Web. I personally keep it to Comprehensive.

I also use it to track my other projects and products. As far as the products are concerned, it can really help you to improve your product. Because you will get a lot of information from the discussions about your product. Based on the discussions and suggestions you can improve and develop new features that meets the expectations of your customers. It will also allow you to be closer to your customers, replying to them personally is another good thing you can do with the help of Google Alerts.

Do you use Google Alerts?

If you are like me, have hundreds of filters in your gmail. Then you must be having this usability problem too.

I have lots of filters, some are important and some are just for organizational purposes. Some of the important ones, just because they start with a letter that are at the end of the alphabet (eg. T,S,W etc), they end up being placed at the end of the list.

And every time you want to check your gmail, you need to scroll down, if there is any email inside that filter. I usually apply “skip inbox” feature for all the emails that are placed in special filters.

Current Solution

Currently you can add symbols or numbers before your filter names and they will show up on top of the list. For example if you have Web2.0 as the filter name, normally it will show up at the end of the list, but if you add * Web2.0 or $ Web2.0 then it will climb to the top of the list. Similarly if you can add numbers like 1 Web2.0 to make it appear on top of the list.

Suggested New Feature

Why not introduce small arrows for pushing up and pushing down the filters? You click once on up arrow and the filter goes up by one position, you click once on down arrow and it goes down by one position. Simple yet effective. And most importantly it would make gmail much more usable - user friendly.

Your opinion

Do you have similar problem? If yes, how do you manage it? And in your opinion how best to solve this usability problem?

Ping: gmailblog.blogspot.com (I am gonna ping gmail blog, so that they will take note of this post, hopefully).

Do you use Google Maps to give out your home address? Well, soon you will be able to send your house photos, better yet, you will be able to send it in 3 dimensional panoramic view. And it’s not limited to your house only, you can actually navigate along the street and view the surroundings.

Google’s StreetView is currently available to cities like New York, San Fransisco, Las Vegas, Denver, and Miami. But should be coming to your cities very soon.

Since Google take these digital images of the streets by hand, there are concerns that some people might be captured in the photos, especially in compromising situations. (eg. throwing your rubbish in your pajamas, or worse without pajamas ;) Therefore, Google provides people to report inappropriate images on the StreetView pages.

Report Inappropriate Image
Google takes concerns about its services very seriously. Please use the link below to report concerns about an inappropriate street view.

If the location that you are browsing has photos, the StreetView button will be enabled on Google Maps, as shown in the screenshot to the right. You can see YouTube video about StreetView and how to use it here.

P.S I hope Google won’t come up with HouseRank next ;)

If you are offering advertisement opportunities that pass PageRank to other sites, in other words SEO friendly ads. And if you are doing this through traditional banners (e.g 468×60, 790×80, 300×250, and now 125×125), then you can be sure that they are not SEO friendly after all.

Even if those banners do not have “nofollow” tag on them, they can only bring pure traffic and not PageRank to the advertisers. Because, Google now can detect standard banner sizes on websites/blogs and mark them as an advertisement. So those banners are as good as the ones that have “nofollow” tags.

Google’s head of webspam Matt Cutts says on his blog’s comments:

Matt Cutts said,
December 2, 2007 @ 9:42 pm

… my comment on the group said that we were already pretty good at handling banner ads, whether of the 125×125 variety or the more traditional 468×80 variety.

He has also talked about this in detail at Google Groups’ Webmaster Help section.

In addition to that, Google can also detect affiliate links as well. So those links are also sterilized and don’t have any effects on search engine results.

I have read somewhere that Google was also not happy about free WP themes. Because these free themes usually have a link in the footer section that links back to the theme designer’s website. This of course, passes PageRank and Google hates when that happens.

Google’s 3B (big brother behavior - i just made that up ;)

It’s very unfortunate that Google is resorting to this kind of behavior. Instead of chasing every webmaster and checking whether they sell ads or not, they should concentrate more on improving their algorithm. Because its competitors (e.g Yahoo, Microsoft, and others) are continually working on their algorithm and improving their search engine.

If Google wastes too much time on policing people to comply to its rules and regulations, and ignores improving its algorithm. Then one day, it might simply become just another search engine that was killed by its own product - PageRank.

What’s your opinion on this?

Google maps is now showing most of the streets of the world. Below is a very detailed map of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Major streets are conveniently highlighted with light yellow. It even shows the flow of the traffic with tiny arrows (nice!)

If your mobile phone supports Google Maps and has a roaming with internet connection, then you don’t need to carry map anymore. (click images to see the corresponding maps).

This is the satellite version of the same map. You can see the famous Petronas Twin Towers (KLCC).

I wanted to get Blackberry to replace my old SonyEricsson. Now, I have one more reason to get it.

maps.google.com

Is this the beginning of the end for Google PageRank system? Maybe.

TechCrunch reports that Google is experimenting on social marketing style voting system. This is an experiment that is still on individual level, not yet public. In this experiment Google allows you to manage your personal search results. You can promote some websites, and you can also remove some websites from the search results page (see screenshot to the left).

How you use it?

In order to use this feature, first you need to be signed in to your Google account. And I think not everybody will see this feature, even after you sign in to your Google account. But for those who can see this feature, here is how you use it.

I like it! If you like particular result (website) you can promote it by clicking on the arrow-up icon beside the result.

I don’t like it! If you don’t like particular result, you can press on “x” icon beside the result. This will remove the result, and it will remain hidden when you search for the same keyword(s) in the future.

The changes you make are not permanent. There’s a link at the bottom of the search results that lets you view the results in their original ordering.

In addition to these features, you can also add some websites that are not included in the search results. This will allow Google to include the websites that it had missed. But this feature can be misused easily. I think that’s why Google wants users to sign in to their Google accounts first. So that Google can track their activities.

Will it replace PageRank?

In my personal opinion, this is directly related to the latest PageRank crisis. It’s the product that resulted from this very problem. Google now is trying to find a long term solution for its PageRank algorithm (which is open to manipulation), which is responsible for defining search engine results.

Since social marketing and collective collaborative projects are becoming the norm in this age. It’s no surprise that Google is moving in that direction too. Millions of people use Google everyday, so this experiment can actually be proven successful. Because the people who are manipulating the system will be very small, and there will be thousands of other people who will help to improve the search (by removing spam from the SERPs).

What do you think of this? What is your opinion? Is it a good move by Google?

Source: JohnChow, TechCrunch

There are couple of reasons why TLA and its counterparts LinkWorth, ReviewMe, and P-P-P… etc should be considering “nofollow” tags.

Text-Link-Ads has been keeping mum regarding “nofollow” tag integration into its text links, while LinkWorth made it clear that it won’t be giving in to Google’s demands.

In its latest sweep Google also punished all the blogs who use P-P-P (and in some cases wrongly punishing those, who merely had mentioned P-P-P in their blog posts, but not actually used the program). This time, Google gave them PR0. What will be Google’s next move? Remove all the blogs from its index? Most probably…

Here are some of the reasons why TLA (and other text link selling programs) should consider using “nofollow” tags:

1. Not all blogs are JohnChow dot com

There are very few blogs if any, which are independent of Google and do not need Google’s PageRank nor its search engine traffic. Most of the blogs in the blogosphere are dependent to Google, and do not want to be de-listed or banned from its index.

2. Bloggers are leaving the system

Everyday there are more and more blogs that are complying to Google’s requirements. That means TLA and others are loosing money every single day.

3. Advertisers do not mind “nofollow” tags

Not all advertisers are chasing PageRanks, some of them just want to get traffic - potential sales traffic. Therefore, they do not care if the link has “follow” or “nofollow” tags.

Personal experience. I made one of my sites Google compliant and removed the TLA script from the site. I also added “nofollow” tags to all the outgoing links. The result: two of my customers came back and advertised on my site directly! They didn’t mind the “nofollow” tags, they told me that the traffic they were getting from my site was more important than the PageRank or the “nofollow” tag for that matter.

Thus, TLA lost all the customers that were advertising on my site, but I could retain some of them. TLA 0 : Me 0.5 (not 1, because I lost some of the advertisers too).

Time to step in

Programs that sell text links (like TLA, LinkWorth etc) might say that they are merely filling in the gap between link buyers and sellers. But the reality is, they are playing (and can play) much bigger role than they think. Because the fact is, currently many bloggers (including me) are standing at the crossroads. They are waiting for a small jolt from Google’s side to make a decision. So far, Google’s actions (especially the last one - giving out PR0) has been very effective on majority of the blogs.

If the next move by Google will be the de-listing of the blogs from its search index. I am sure, over 80% of the blogs will rush to comply with Google’s demands. Then, for text link selling programs, that would mean, simply put - end of business!

It is obvious that the blogosphere is already shifting to Google’s side, slowly but surely. So it would only be natural if the programs like TLA and LinkWorth stepped in to facilitate this movement. The movement of legalizing the text link selling industry, based on Google’s terms. (Search Engine is Google’s, therefore Google has all the rights to dictate the terms.)

Because if they (TLA and others) step in, they will save lots of money. The money that is about to be destroyed by single action of Google. If they don’t step in, then bloggers will comply with Google’s demands anyway - forsaking the current earnings they are making from TLA and other programs. Just like the blogs that have already forgone their earnings, so that they can stay friends with Google.

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All these Google PR updates and de-rankings, and Google’s war on text link sellers have been an interesting occurrence on the web. Google started with one objective, that is to fight (eliminate) PR chasers and punish those who sell PageRanks. But the whole situation had many different outcomes. One of these outcomes is the reality check for many medium sized blogs.

Punishments… more punishments

First Google de-ranked many blogs (including mine) for selling text links (and banners) which didn’t use “nofollow” tags. It also punished all those who use Text-Link-Ads.com and other well known programs that offer text selling services. Then it furthered its fight and showed that it has no intention of slowing down, so few days back, it gave many blogs “zero” PageRanks.

The result was quite devastating to many bloggers. Because it either meant, no traffic from Google or no PageRank (or less PR) but still have some money through selling links. But if the advertisers were buying links from you just because you had high PR, then now you were in trouble. For these bloggers, there was only one choice, to surrender to Google. This meant, almost zero profit but have a shiny Google friendly blog (what’s the point?). But I guess that’s the only choice.

Therefore, content is still the King. Because if you provide quality content, readers will still be coming to your blog. For them, it does not matter if you have zero in your pagerank toolbar, they will still be reading your blog. Only thing you need to keep writing useful articles.

Reality Check

I have never seen SitePoint marketplace being filled with this many blogs up for sale like now. Since Google started punishing blogs, more and more blogs are beings sold. Latest blog joining the ranks of “blogs for sale” is the blog of Kumiko - CashQuests.com.

Her popular, often controversial blog is too up for sale at SitePoint Marketplace at the moment. Highest bid stands at $15,000, with two bids so far.

But it’s strange that she has not published about the blog sale at her blog. Maybe she wants to keep it secret from the readers, till the blog sale is completed. But I personally think that informing the readers about the sale would have been a better decision. Because readers are the ones who know your blog best, and they could actually be the potential buyers. Also, they could help to spread the word about the sale.

What future holds?

I think Google won’t stop their War On Terror-links in the near future. That said, it will have more affects on the blogosphere. More and more blogs (in the make money online category) will be sold off, closed down, or will be inactive. This means the gap between probloggers and beginner bloggers will widen. Most of the bloggers who are in the middle will decrease in size, over time successful ones will join the ranks of probloggers. And not so successful ones, won’t survive the big tide of Google-tsunami.

This will also create other alternative ways to rank sites. In fact, this is already in process. Izea is in the process of launching RealRank.

RealRank will rank the sites based on three things:

1. 70% weighted towards visitors per day
2. 20% weighted towards amount of ACTIVE inbound links per day
3. 10% weighted towards pageviews per day

Google’s competitive advantage

But Google has an advantage over every single tool that will be created in the future. That advantage is its Search Engine. Izea might rank your site differently, most probably higher than your current pagerank. But it won’t be able to give you higher position on Google’s search engine result pages. And that would make the RealRank quite useless.

So if you rely on Google’s traffic, then you have no choice but to surrender to Google’s demands. And the better decision would be to make it sooner than later. Because you never know what will be Google’s next step on its War On Text-links.

Obviously, this will further increase Google’s power in the future. That means you can expect more rules and regulations from Google. I just hope Google won’t follow the steps of Pharaoh and start claiming to be the god of internet.

Do you use Google Calendar? If yes, do you use it as a “visually enhanced to-do list” application? I do, and in this post I will share with you guys how do I do it. I am sure some of you must be already doing it.

Create a new calendar

First thing is to create your own new calendar, in fact create two calendards. One - for things to be done (to-do). And another - for things that are already done (completed). After you have created and named them properly, give them distinctive colors. So that, when you look at your calendar, you know what is done and what needs to be done.

Here is how my calendar looks when viewed by month (see below). Red colored items are things that I need to do, when the time comes. And light brown colored items are things, that I have already completed.

This is how it looks when viewed by Agenda (see below). Notice that there is one red item among the light brown items. That is the Top5 sites that I was supposed to update. I am planning to get it brown these coming few days ;)

After you are done creating your calendars, you are ready to post some to-dos. So, go ahead and post them. While creating your to-do items, do not forget to assign them your “to-do calendar”. Otherwise tasks won’t look colored and you won’t know if it is a “to-do” item or “completed” item.

Setting Reminders

Another important thing while creating your to-do items is, to set reminders. Usually for weekly tasks or tasks that repeat often I just set one reminder. But for the things that happen once a year, or once in 6 months etc, I will set two reminders. One is, one week before the task, and another, one day before the task.

This way, it gives me enough time (one week) to get prepared for the task. So that on the second reminder, I will be ready to do the task without delay.

When it comes to advertising, one week notice also allows me to send emails to my advertisers notifying them of their advertisement expiry. It’s a good thing to send early notices, because not everybody may check, reply or decide last minute whether to renew the ads or not. So, one week notice will give them ample time to think about the renewal (e.g checking stats, click-throughs, ROI..etc)

Note: There are two types of reminders; email and pop-up. Please choose the option that suits your needs best. Personally, I use the email option.

Task is done!

Finally, when the task is done, don’t forget to assign your “done calendar” to the completed task (see below).

That’s it! I hope you found this article useful. So, will you be using Google Calendar as your to-do list?

Why gCalendar?

Some of you might ask why use Google Calendar when there are many other softwares and web applications specifically developed for to-do lists. I use Google Calendar because it has some advantages that other softwares or to-do programs do not have. Some of the advantages of gCalendar are:

1. I can access my to-do lists from anywhere on the net
2. I can visualize my to-do lists right on my calendar, and not just as a list with some dates
3. I can get reminders right into my email
4. It’s secure and private when necessary

… an many more.

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