Isharashehan

Panda, Fresher Results, Spelling Top Google’s January 2012 Search Updates

2012-02-09T04:50:00.000-08:00

A minor update to Google’s Panda update was released in January. This was just one of 14 other search changes Googleannounced. Others included fresher results, improvements to autocomplete, better spelling corrections, and auto-disabling Instant.

Google also made note of a couple other significant algorithmic updates: the launch of Search Plus Your World, which brought “social” results into Google’s search results, and the page layout algorithm, which targets ad-heavy websites.

Google also reminded website owners that Google reserves the right to change how your title appears in Google’s search result pages – which is hardly a new practice. As Google explained:

"We use many signals to decide which title to show to users, primarily the title tag if the webmaster specified one. But for some pages, a single title might not be the best one to show for all queries, and so we have algorithms that generate alternative titles to make it easier for our users to recognize relevant pages. Our testing has shown that these alternative titles are generally more relevant to the query and can substantially improve the clickthrough rate to the result, helping both our searchers and webmasters. About half of the time, this is the readmore

Article written by Danny Goodwin, February 7, 2012 for www.searchenginewatch.com

Serious Robots.txt Misuse & High Impact Solutions

2012-01-26T01:16:00.000-08:00

Some of the Internet's most important pages from many of the most linked-to domains, are blocked by a robots.txt file. Does your website misuse the robots.txt file, too? Find out how search engines really treat robots.txt blocked files, entertain yourself with a few seriously flawed implementation examples and learn how to avoid the same mistakes yourself.

The robots.txt protocol was established in 1994 as a way for webmasters to indicate which pages and directories should not be accessed by bots. To this day, respectable bots adhere to the entries in the file...but only to a point.

Your Pages Could Still Show Up in the SERPs

Bots that follow the instructions of the robots.txt file, including Google and the other big guys, won’t index the content of the page but they may still put the page in their index. We’ve all seen these limited listings in the Google SERPs. Below are two examples of pages that have been excluded using the robots.txt file yet still show up in Google.

Cisco Login Page

The below highlighted Cisco login page is blocked in the robots.txt file, but shows up with a limited listing on the second page of a Google search for ‘login’. Note that the Title Tag and URL are included in the listing. The only thing missing is the Meta Description or a snippet of text from the page.ReadMore

Original Article from:http://www.seomoz.org and the Author is Lindsay

Google Upgrades Punctuation Search Results

2012-01-24T00:32:00.000-08:00

Google has updated its search results for queries involving punctuation marks and symbols. Searching for the symbol equivalent of a period, comma, carat, percent sign and more symbols now will return search results – though they aren't always exactly relevant, Google Operating System reported.

Punctuation marks now generating search results, generally where the Wikipedia page about the symbol ranks as the top link, include:

. (full stop/period)
, (comma)
: (colon) – however, the colon that is a piece of the large intestine currently outranks the punctuation mark of the same name
; (semicolon)
# (number sign)
% (percent sign)
@ (at sign)
^ (caret)
( ) { } [ ] (bracket) – parentheses, brackets and curly brackets are all combined into the same search result
~ (tilde)
| (vertical bar)
“ (quotation marks)
< (less-than sign)
> (greater-than sign)
$ (dollar sign)

Other symbols and punctuation marks that Google can recognize and will return results for:

! (exclamation point)
‘ (apostrophe)
& (ampersand)
_ (underscore)
- (minus sign)
+ (plus sign)
= (equals sign)
\ (backslash)
/ (slash) – however, guitarist Slash currently outranks the punctuation mark of the forward slash Read More

SOPA, PIPA On Hold, But a New Threat on Horizon

2012-01-24T00:24:00.000-08:00

Late last week, announcements came down putting both PIPA and SOPA on hold. Nevada Senator Harry Reid has postponed the Protect I.P. vote, while House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith announced the committee will “postpone consideration of the legislation until there is wider agreement on a solution.”

Meanwhile, Smith is again pushing his Protecting Children from Internet Pornographers Act of 2011; it has been amended, passed the required committees, and was put back on the Union Calendar December 16, 2011. Who wouldn’t want to protect children, you ask? They must be monsters! This is precisely the mentality that may see H.R.1981, known as the Data Retention Bill by protesters, pushed through, as it aims to force all U.S. Internet service providers to retain all customer IP addresses for 18 months.

Don’t count either PIPA or SOPA out for the count. Though this type of backlash is a politician’s worst nightmare in an election year, vested parties are none too pleased the bills didn’t pass and will continue to pressure lawmakers to enact anti-piracy legislation. ReadMore

Tablet Visitors Spent 54% More Than Smartphone Visitors in 2011

2012-01-23T00:04:00.000-08:00

People using tablets spent $123 on average per purchase in 2011, 54 percent more than visitors using smartphones, according to an Adobe study.

"Mobile is no longer a one-size-fits-all-strategy. It's like saying you have an Internet strategy. You have to get more granular. Audiences are really different," John Mellor, VP of business development for Adobe's Digital Marketing Business, said in an interview. He recommends that retailers segment their customers to account for the different audiences and their behaviors. ReaMore

World IPv6 Day

2011-06-08T00:31:00.000-07:00

World IPv6 Day is an event sponsored and organized by the Internet Society and several large content providers to test public IPv6 deployment.^[1] It started at 00:00 UTC on June 8, 2011 and will end 23:59 the same day.^[2] The main motivation for the event is to evaluate the real world effects of the IPv6 brokenness seen by various synthetic tests. On World IPv6 Day, major web companies and other industry players will come together to enable IPv6 on their main websites for 24 hours.The goal is to motivate organizations across the industry – Internet service providers, hardware makers, operating system vendors and web companies – to prepare their services for IPv6 to ensure a successful transition as IPv4 address space runs out.

For more information :http://www.worldipv6day.org/

HOW TO: Talk to Children About Online Safety

2011-05-26T20:00:00.000-07:00

The Internet didn’t arrive for most of today’s parents until after they had passed adolescence. Online behavior was something they were able to approach with the disposition of an adult (even if some chose not to).

Their children, however, were born into a very different situation. It’s not uncommon to see an iPad next to the crib, and 7.5 million children younger than 13 have Facebook profiles.

If parents don’t teach online safety, their children might not recognize imprudent online actions or realize their consequences.

“Younger kids certainly don’t know that what they post is out there for everyone,” explains Jeff Godlis, the director of communications for Internet literacy education publisher i-Safe. “As you get older, the kids keep pushing the barriers… Parents need to be parents, and they have to be involved.”

1. Understand Internet Safety Before You Explain It

Many adults aren’t savvy Internet users themselves. A 2010 study, for instance, found that only 51% of participants recognized that ad companies frequently determine what ads to show based on the history of prior websites that they visited.

“Kids are learning about all of the facets of social media online. It’s happening much earlier,” explains Hilary DeCesare, the CEO of tween social network Everloop. “It’s parents that aren’t keeping up…The real dilemma is, how do you teach kids about something that you’re uncomfortable with?”

For instance, DeCesare says, many parents list their first and last names on social networking sites, and may not realize that their children shouldn’t do the same.

Fortunately, it’s easy to brush up on Internet safety guidelines. The American Academy of Pediatrics, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Federal Trade Commission are just a few organizations that provide robust resources.

2. Teach, Don’t Rule

“We have always been on the education side,” Godlis says. “Teach someone and they’ll learn it and they’ll understand it. They are empowered to do the right thing.”

The right message, DeCesare says, is “I care.” Not, “if you do X, I’ll ban the Internet.” When it comes to keeping your children safe on the web, the goal is to ingrain positive behaviors rather than just enforcing strict rules. Threatening children with revoked Internet privileges might even create a dangerous environment.

“Kids aren’t comfortable telling adults [about problems they encounter online like cyberbullying] because they think they’re going to get in trouble, or worse, they’re worried that they will pull their privileges of being able to use the Internet,” she says.

3. Consider Age-Appropriate Social Networks

Legally speaking, children younger than 13 shouldn’t be on Facebook, MySpace or Twitter. The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act prevents websites from collecting information from children without their parents’ permission. Many children bypass this law, even on sites that enforce it, by simply adjusting their birthday. But DeCesare says that parents should still be wary of social sites designed for adults.

“Facebook was never intended for kids younger than 13,” she says. “Kids click on things. Which can be a problem, not just with friending people, but also the malware they pick up online.”

In a recent study by the Kaiser Family Foundation, 75% of 7th through 12th graders surveyed said they had a profile on a social media site. Parents would have a hard time barring social media sites entirely, but they can easily introduce age-appropriate social networks to their children instead of the grown up standards.

Most of these networks restrict content and provide a parental oversight component, either by alerting parents when something seems fishy or asking them to approve certain actions, like new friends.

4. Monitor With Care

No matter your price range or parenting philosophy, there’s an appropriate software option for monitoring your children’s online safety.

But Godlis cautions parents against the notion that using such a service alone is sufficient.

“I think that filters and monitors give parents a false sense of security — as long as the filters are on, I don’t have to worry,” he says. “They certainly can over-rely on it. Kids are pretty smart and they get around everything. They know how to use proxy servers and they know how to do things that parents don’t.”

Resource from http://mashable.com

Chrome 6 Issue Corrected

2010-09-26T23:14:00.000-07:00

Chrome version 6.0.472.55 was an incremental update to a new version of Chrome released on September 7 and announced here. There was a bug in the JavaScript engine that reported the wrong type of some JavaScript objects in a very specific case. This caused Chrome to incorrectly execute Google Analytics' JavaScript, providing an artificially high visitor count for some websites, for their visitors using that particular version of the Chrome browser. Note, not all Google Analytics accounts were affected. The affected period will vary for accounts but would not have appeared before September 7.

A fix was released for all versions of Google Chrome on Wednesday, September 22. Chrome users were automatically updated to version 6.0.472.63 over the last few days.

You can determine whether a profile was affected by comparing visit data from September 7 to approximately September 22 with a previous date range. If you think your account was affected and want to segment out visits from that date range from the affected Chrome release, you can create an advanced segment similar to this one.

We are working closely with the Chrome team to ensure that an issue like this does not happen again. While we believe this issue is fixed, we’ll be closely monitoring this issue over the weekend and beyond.

Posted by Jeff Gillis, Google Analytics Team

Dot-XXX Domain Won't Clean Up the Web

2010-06-27T19:56:00.000-07:00

CANN has approved XXX as a top-level domain. The adult entertainment industry will soon have its own glaringly obvious domain, but unfortunately that doesn't necessarily mean that dot-COM domains will suddenly be porn-free.

From a security (or parenting) perspective, it would be nice. While there are certainly legitimate Web sites offering adult entertainment sans malware, it doesn't take more than a click or two to enter the dark and shady side of the Web--where malware of all sorts lies in waiting to infiltrate and compromise unsuspecting seekers of porn.

It couldn't get much easier to block employee (or child) access to inappropriate adult material than simply banning all access to the XXX domain. As a matter of fact, once the XXX domain is up and running it seems fair to assume that IT administrators and parents (or consumer security vendors) will do just that. It's a no-brainer.

However, porn sites will be like dolphins. All dolphins are whales, but not all whales are dolphins. Dolphins are a subset of the larger whale family. Similarly, all XXX sites will be porn, but not all porn sites will be XXX. Many porn sites have a long and established presence as a dot-COM domain and will not simply abandon that.

As it is, many adult Web sites have multiple domains that redirect. Both Playboy and Penthouse own their respective dot-NET domains as well, but if you try to visit them you will be automatically redirected to the primary site at playboy.com or penthouse.com. Adult sites will simply purchase the XXX domain equivalent and redirect it accordingly.

What is more likely to happen than dot-COM getting cleaner, is that more respectable businesses will be forced to purchase the dot-XXX equivalent of their primary domain simply to ensure it isn't purchase by a purveyor of porn. For example, Disney certainly doesn't want customers to visit disney.xxx, but it also doesn't want disney.xxx to be purchased by a shady adult site. So, Disney will purchase the disney.xxx domain and redirect it to disney.com just as it has done with disney.net and disney.org and many other domains that are even remotely similar to the Disney name. Disney wants to ensure that you get to Disney.com no matter what you enter in your Web browser. More.....

How Parents Deal with Kids' Social Media Use

2010-05-10T07:15:00.000-07:00

Parents who use Facebook are nearly evenly split between those who friend their kids on Facebook (48%) and those who do not (52%), according to a survey from Retrevo.

Meanwhile, a plurality of surveyed parents (36%) say the appropriate age for children to have their own social media page is between 16 and 18, while 30% say it's appropriate for kids to have their own page if they're between 13 and 15 years old. More

Page Speed Optimizers

2010-04-15T21:40:00.000-07:00

Recently Google have officially stated that page load time is now a factor in Google ranking algorithm.Basing on that factor,web developers need to consider more about the page loading speed.

Hear are some of the tools which will help you to optimize the page speed and give a better productivity.

Page Speed, an open source Firefox/Firebug add-on that evaluates the performance of web pages and gives suggestions for improvement.

YSlow, a free tool from Yahoo! that suggests ways to improve website speed

Webpage Analyzer: Their script calculates the size of individual elements and sums up each type of web page component

The Must Have Skill Sets For the New World

2010-04-03T12:32:00.000-07:00

What are the skills that you will need to have in the new economy? If you’ve ever wondered what some of these skills are, this post is for you.

Skill sets for the new world
1.) Social media and Web 2.0 know how:

To understand how social media and Web 2.0 are changing industries gives you a deeper level of understanding on the new economy. It will be a competitive edge as you think through challenges and opportunities in your marketplace.

2.) The ability to write effectively:

The need to be a good writer is increasing every year. We write more email, send more text messages, and write more blog posts than ever before. Good writing skills help you to communicate your thoughts and blogging can help you reach your goals faster.

3.) Ability to create relationships virtually and physically:

Nobody can do it alone; you are going to need a lot of help along the way. Opportunities come to individuals that have taken the time to create their social network both virtually and physically. It has never been easier to have a wide social network. Start connecting.

4.) Knowing how to leverage your network:

Knowing how to approach those in your network so they can help bring you opportunities is an art form. Start getting in the habit of expressing your ideas to influencers in your niche. Some will work, some won’t, but the one’s that work will push you down the path to success.

5.) Knowing how to get to to influencers:

Learn how to get to influencers using social media, email, and yes, even the good old telephone. The more you start to reach out to others to connect with them the more influential connections you will have. Half the battle is just trying, you will be surprised what happens when you try.

6.) The ability to sell yourself:

Get really good at expressing your interests and what makes you different. Have fun with it and just be yourself. This is not about being a walking blow horn, but knowing how to take advantage of the opportunity when it is staring at you in the face. These 30 seconds can make or break you.

7.) Having a platform:

You need to have a home base that can be indexed by Google. You need a place where you have complete editorial control. The easiest way to do this is with a blog. Blogs can launch you into some very exciting and interesting work. You need a platform.

Get good at these seven skills, they will become increasingly important in the evolving world we live in. If you are not good at some of these skills head to Google or Amazon and do some reading. You will be happy you did.

Resource Social Media Today

Twitter Starts Featuring Popular Tweets in Search Results

2010-04-02T09:32:00.000-07:00

Twitter has turned on a new feature in search that lets user filter for what the microblogging service is calling “top results.” As opposed to strictly showing the most recent mentions of a given query, users now have an option to click a “top results” link that displays a few popular tweets on top of the page.

Those top results seem to be based on retweets. Search for More

Happy Birthday, Gmail!

2010-04-01T08:21:00.000-07:00

On April 1, 2004, Gmail was launched as an invite-only beta, instantly creating a revolution in the webmail space. Google’s decision to keep their webmail invite-only kept spammers at bay, leading to the widespread perception that Gmail is spam-proof. While this notion is far from the truth, Gmail to this day does an excellent job of keeping unwanted emails out of your inbox.

Furthermore, by offering storage capacity of 1 GB per user, Gmail dwarfed the competitors which long held the notion that More..

Free Google Wave Invitations

2010-03-30T08:58:00.000-07:00

I am Isahra Shehan Silva. I have 5 Google Wave invitations left with me. If your interested in experiencing the real time Communication and Collaboration. Please fill our request form and get it totally free.Google Wave request form

Facebook - why your brand should be on

2010-03-29T11:11:00.000-07:00

With 450 million users globally (and millions more being added each week) Facebook is dominating the web in unparalleled ways. Yet, even as the social network has steadily grown over its short but remarkable history, many brands have remained on the sidelines of the social media revolution.

Facebook was the most visited site on the web for the week ending on March 13, 2010, surpassing even Google in week-long stats for the first time in history, more...

Facebook Is Destroying the Sanctity of Marriage [REPORT]

2009-12-23T10:26:00.000-08:00

Stop the digital presses: People use Facebook to cheat on their spouses and said cheating leads to d-i-v-o-r-c-e (in case there are kids in the room), or so says a rather reactionary piece in the Telegraph.

The British paper seeks to cast Facebook as a enemy to the sanctity of marriage, citing evidence along the lines of:

“One law firm, which specialises in divorce, claimed almost one in five petitions they processed cited Facebook.”

Although the ratio of one in five is staggering, the fact that the reporter only mentions a single law firm is wholly unconvincing. I’m sorry, Telegraph, but one law firm does not a trend make.

The piece does make a strong case for how social media has broadened the definition of cheating (Does sex in Second Life count as sex?) and made it easier to reconnect with old flames, but it seems too early to point the finger at Facebook when it comes to couples calling it quits. In fact, the article states that the UK’s divorce rate has fallen in recent years.

Yes, Facebook and social media users have utilized online tools to screw over their spouses — the Telegraph mentions a woman whose husband notified her of their impending divorce by updating his relationship status on Facebook — but it seems rather simplistic to blame the onset of martial malcontent on a website.

Although Facebook may facilitate cheating — as well as public displays of affection (or loss of affection as the case may be) — the old argument comes into play when you start pointing fingers. Is it the medium or the message? Would these marriages have ended anyway, somewhere down the road, even if there were no incriminating chats on the laptop screen?
Contents from mashable.com

Apply Social Media To Your Business. Concentrate On Relationships, Not Technology

2009-12-20T18:50:00.000-08:00

How we get Social Media sites traffic to the sites? To find Answer Follow SMM

Content from www.socialcreeper.com

“Porn” Among Top Search Terms for Kids

2009-12-20T07:36:00.000-08:00

In a somewhat worrying piece of news, security firm Symantec has released the top search terms by kids in 2009. Topping the lists: “YouTube”, “Google”, “Facebook”, “sex” and “porn”.

While that result set might not be surprising in the teen search rankings, it’s interesting to note that “porn” ranks 4th in the “7 and ReadMore...

12 tips to jump start your online marketing

2009-12-19T02:31:00.000-08:00

Since the debut of BizBytes 101 in May, we've talked about ways to successfully use your website to generate buzz about your business online. Experts in PR, social media and technology have given online makeovers to local cash-strapped businesses looking for pointers on how to beat the competition during this tough economic time. As the year draws to a close, BizBytes 101 gives you an early holiday present: 12 ways to jump start your 2010 marketing plan before the New Year.

WIKI YOUR BUSINESS. Write a Wikipedia entry about your business or product. Wikipedia entries rank high with search engines, particularly Google. And they can garner extra exposure for your business in 2010. Considering there are more than 684 million Wikipedia readers on the Internet, it's a great place to Read More

The Ultimate Reason Your SEO Is Under performing

2009-12-19T02:10:00.000-08:00

In the first installment of this series I asserted that your SEO performance is suffering in proportion to how powerfully you are able to communicate the opportunity to executives. Winning the resources required to grow the channel requires a basic set of metrics. In the subsequent installments, I showed you how to use “Jedi” performance metrics to overcome SEO resistance and size up your market opportunity, then how to prepare for SEO growth by summing up your current baseline. Now at last, I will show how to move closer towards the ROI metric that executives require to allocate resources.Read More

Hi

2009-12-18T21:25:00.001-08:00

I have started my Second Blog site in the net