Put simply, search engine optimisation (SEO) is the process of getting a website positioned higher in natural/free search engine listings. For SEO to be effective there are several processes that should be undertaken. The processes involved simple continuous cycle that will help any website get listed higher on the search engines.
Analysis / Reporting
Analysis & reporting is the first and the last stage of a SEO cycle. Prior to doing any other work, analyze your own website, your competitor's websites and the leading websites your industry.
Link Building
Link Building is the single most important factor to get any website ranked higher on the search engines and the hardest to do effectively. Inbound links help the Search Engines determine how popular your website is compared to your competitors. Read Exploding Blog Traffic and Link Popularity and Making your own backlink Site optimisation
Optimize your website so the search engines can easily traverse your whole website and establish which keywords you should rank highly for.
Content Writing
Fresh new website articles will help your website expand and appear on more search phrases. New informative relevant articles will also encourage other websites to link to your website.
Directory / Press / Sitemap Submission
Once optimized & expanded your site, submit your new pages to Google & the other Search Engines. Submit your articles to press releases to get quality links. Directory submissions may be needed to speed up the process. Read also How to Rank #1 in Google Search Page? and Submit Blog URL For Free
Search engine algorithms are shrouded in total secrecy. So what works in SEO and what does not is merely the result of an analysis of sites that make it to page #1. Some times the keywords show up sooner than expected, at times they do not.
It's very difficult to measure the effectiveness of an SEO campaign because the time frame for results is prolonged. With the mushrooming of SEO companies and the vagueness of operations, finding the right company can be an issue. And if you are doubtful about the SEO effectiveness performed by a SEO company, you might as well fire them and do-it-yourself. - By Ajay Prasad (c) 2009
True, SEO is no science, but it can have a scientific approach. The results are not instantaneous like pay-per-click (PPC) campaign but results should be visible after 3 months into a program. Okay... give or take a few months for the vagaries of Search Engines that like to alter their algorithms just when your site is all set to take off!
The problem with SEO is that it is too vague a field. We can only guess what works and what does not. Broadly there are five factors that are said to do 70% of the work.
1. Well optimized code
2. Well Optimized Metatags
3. Header Tags, Alt tags
4. Keywords in the URL
5. Backlinks to the site
If your SEO company is smart enough to integrate all these together, chances are that by the fourth month your SERPs should be somewhere around rank 10-12 for moderately competitive keywords. Competitive keywords take much longer and the effort for increasing the positions in page 1 increases proportionally with every position.
There are two ways in which you can check if your company is really working on your website.
1. Set up Google Alert on your company's name. Once an alert is set up, every time a directory picks up your link or a blog picks up your article or the company does a press release, Google will pick it up and deliver it into your mailbox. The larger the number of alerts the more your SEO company is working.
2. Use a tracking account. Google Analytics is free and is improving with feedback. Ask your SEO company to set up tracking in analytics and get your account id and password so that you can check occasionally.
SEO is unfortunately a long drawn out process. How long should one wait before deciding that the SEO company is taking you for a ride? When you are six months into an SEO program and you face any of the following scenarios it's time to fire your SEO company.
Scenario #1: Six months into the campaign there is no improvement in search traffic
Why is it so? Maybe they are not working at all OR Maybe they are targeting all the wrong keywords. Very competitive keywords may bring in more traffic volume but they take longer (read up to 12-24 months) to optimize. To maximize your ROI, professional SEO companies choose a mix and match of low competition, moderate competition and high competition keywords. If your SEO company did not take this approach, it's time to fire them.
How to Check: Insist upon adding Google Analytics (a free tool) to your site and visit it regularly.
Scenario #2: Your traffic has increased but you are not getting conversions
Maybe it's a genuine mistake which can be rectified OR Maybe you are getting a lot of spam traffic because the company has posted the site at improper places just to show stats of increased traffic. Believe me this happens quite a lot with unprofessional companies who want to gain SEO credibility. The unknowledgeable client gets taken in.
How to Check: Visit analytics. Click on traffic sources. Check all the traffic types - Referral, search engine and direct. Check the type of sites the referral traffic is sending, check the type of keywords. If all of these are okay, then you need some serious website marketing not just SEO.
Scenario #3: You have not even made it to page 2 for your targeted keyword.
Maybe the targeted keywords are too competitive OR Maybe all the aspects of SEO are not being covered by your company. This is a tricky issue. If you are satisfied with your keyword movement over the months maybe just a push is needed. Otherwise you need to check what the company is doing.
How to Check: Simply type your keyword in the search bar. Check page #1 for your URL. If it's not on page #1 it should be on page #2 after 6 months of the campaign for at least some of the keywords. It should show up. If it isn't there, call up the SEO company and demand an explanation.
Scenario #4: The company's report shows a lot of increased links, but there is hardly any improvement in rank.
Maybe the ranking will improve gradually OR Maybe the company is trying to impress upon you that it has increased your links. This is false reporting and not genuine SEO. In the long run these links will harm your site. Keep away from the company.
How to Check: Occasionally, in the Google toolbar type the following to see the number of links to your website - links:www.gaharuonline.com. Analyze the relevancy of the site linking back to your website. If the links are from spam sites, fire the company.
Scenario #5: Your keywords are stagnated where they were.
Suppose you were already on page #3 or page #2 for the keywords and approached a company to take you to page #1. But you haven't moved. Maybe the company's taking you for a ride OR there is no other reason. Just fire the company. They are showing no results.
There may be other scenarios which have not been covered in this article. It's very difficult to know if the company is working hard enough to get you on page #1. Keeping constant contact with the company is a good idea. Ask for a monthly comparative report and track the improvement in links, traffic and keyword positions. Get an action plan of the month by the company. Track the action plan. You will see results soon enough!
World without men. Would that be possible in the future? Maybe. Scientists has create Human Sperm from stem cells. That's mean men can become redundant in the human productive cycle and the end of male infertility. But for the ladies, I think we should keep a few of them around just for fun. And for those anti-gay, it is an efficient way to cure male homosexuality: abolish men.
Researchers at Newcastle University in England report they have coaxed the first human sperm cells from embryonic stem cells, in a remarkable demonstration of how quickly the field of stem-cell science is moving.
The achievement, described in the journal Stem Cells and Development, comes just 11 years after the first human-embryonic-stem-cell line was created — an eyeblink in scientific terms — in the lab of James Thomson at the University of Wisconsin.
Although the development once again raises the specter of creating humans in a petri dish or custom-designing egg and sperm cells for reproduction, lead author Karim Nayernia says that was not his team's intention. Rather, the experiment was a proof of concept that stem cells can generate any cell in the body — not only the dozens of tissues that make up the human body but also those egg and sperm cells that may give rise to altogether new bodies. "Other cell types don't generate the next generation," says Nayernia, a professor of stem-cell biology at Newcastle University. "This makes a very big difference between our study and the study of other cell types from embryonic stem cells."
Nayernia's in vitro–derived sperm, or IVD sperm, are not exactly like naturally occurring sperm, though they do bear four important similarities to the cells created in the testes. They contain half the number of chromosomes of other human cells (somatic cells contain 46 chromosomes, but egg and sperm cells have only 23, since they combine their genetic payloads during fertilization); they possess a head and a tail; they contain proteins essential for activating the egg during fertilization; and they swim, or move as sperm do in seeking out eggs to fertilize.
On the outside, however, IVD sperm are not identical to normal sperm. "We think, for normal structure development, sperm needs the testes environment," says Nayernia. It takes 15 to 16 years in the testes before the primordial germ cells that morph into spermatogonia, or a primitive precursor of the germ cells, are able to mature into sperm cells that can successfully fertilize an egg.
IVD sperm are not ready for transplantation into human patients — in any case, British law prohibits their transplantation into people — but they may provide valuable clues to the causes of male infertility. Nayernia's group is now working on creating sperm from the skin cells of infertile men (the sperm cells in the current study were generated from embryos discarded by fertility clinics), and by studying the way those sperm develop, researchers may gain insight into the origins of infertility and potential new treatments. Theoretically, for example, if sperm could be created from the cells of a cancer patient who is rendered infertile by chemotherapy, they could be grown in a lab and still enable him to father children.
"This area has potential powerful clinical applications mixed with people's concerns over embryo research," says Insoo Hyun, a bioethicist at Case Western Reserve University who specializes in stem-cell-related ethical issues. "All the ingredients are there for a really, really lively ethical debate."
For now, the IVD cells allow researchers to witness the normal development of sperm for the first time. "In the human, sperm development is a very long process," Nayernia says. "It takes more than 15 years and is not an accessible system. With this system, we can now watch that development in three months."
That's how long it took Nayernia's team to nurture sperm from embryonic stem cells, using a special cocktail of growth factors, nutrients and retinoic acid, a derivative of vitamin A. It is worth noting that researchers could generate IVD sperm only from male embryos; when they tried using stem cells from a female embryo, they were unable to get sperm to mature past the spermatogonial stage. That suggests that genes located on the Y chromosome, which female cells do not contain, may be essential for triggering the maturation of the primitive sperm cell.
It's unclear whether IVD sperm may eventually be able to fertilize an egg successfully — the ultimate measure of similarity between IVD sperm and normal sperm. (Nayernia is currently testing whether mouse eggs fertilized with IVD sperm can lead to a healthy animal.) If the researcher can generate human IVD sperm that look like normally developed sperm and can get the artificially created germ cells to fertilize an egg, then he can allow the resulting embryo to develop for 14 days — according to U.K. law, embryos created for research purposes must be destroyed at that point. "We would need to study that embryo before we provide any clinical applications," he says.
That might seem more like science fiction than reality, but given the pace of stem-cell research, it may not be that far off. "We have the potential therapeutic use of a technology that pushes the boundaries of what people feel comfortable with ethically," says Hyun. With more advances like this one likely to come in months if not weeks, that comfort level will have to catch up quickly.
Female genital mutilation (FGM) or Female Circumcision includes procedures that intentionally alter or injure female genital organs for non-medical reasons. The World Health Organization has condemned the mutilations as disastrous to women's health and as indefensible on humane grounds. Despite various protests, lobbying and awareness campaigns, Female Circumcision is still be practiced in some parts of Africa. The good news this week is that, Uganda seeks to ban female circumcision.
In Uganda, President Yoweri Museveni wants to outlaw female circumcision, and those that continue to perform the bloody practice would face the death penalty if a girl dies as a result of the procedure.
"If a girl dies during circumcision that would be murder," Mirundi said. "The punishment for murder in Uganda is death. You will be hanged."
Internet giant, Google Inc. is planning to hit Microsoft Corp. where it hurts by challenging the software giant's dominance in the world of computer operating systems.
The search firm said late Tuesday that it will begin offering its own operating system, called Chrome, in the second half of 2010.
While Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) already offers a host of products that compete with Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500), the new operating system is a direct challenge to Microsoft Windows, which is the most widely used operating system in the world.
"Google really can challenge Microsoft, because the proliferation of Web-based applications makes the operating system much less important," said Zeus Kerravala, analyst at Yankee Group. "As we pave the way towards real Web 2.0, there will be less of a real tie-in to Windows."
The new system will initially be targeted at netbooks, the company said. Netbooks are small, inexpensive laptop computers used mostly for Internet access.
Google said the new operating system will make use of open source programming, which allows third-party developers to design compatible add-ons. (Think of the applications created for the iPhone or Facebook.)
Many netbooks currently run a version of Linux, or Microsoft's old operating system, Windows XP. Microsoft has said its current Vista operating system is too big to run on the scaled-down laptops, but it said netbooks will be able to run its Windows 7 OS, set to debut in late October.
But Google thinks computers need a new operating system solution.
"We hear a lot from our users, and their message is clear: computers need to get better," Google said in a statement. Chrome is "our attempt to re-think what operating systems should be."
The new operating system comes after Google launched its Chrome Internet browser late last year.
The brawl between Han Chinese and Uighurs in southern China was scarcely covered by state media, but accounts and photos spread quickly via the Internet and became a spark that helped ignite deadly riots thousands of miles away in the Uighur homeland.
Even in tightly controlled China, relatively unfettered commentaries and images circulating on Web sites helped stir up tensions and rally people to join an initially peaceful protest in the Xinjiang region that spiraled into violence Sunday, leaving more than 150 people dead.
In China, as in Iran and other hotspots, the Internet, social networking and micro-blogging are playing a central role in mobilizing people power — and becoming contested ground as governments fight back.
In the Internet age, events in "places like Xinjiang or Tibet, which were always considered very remote," can suddenly become close and immediate for people around the world, said Xiao Qiang, director of the Berkeley China Internet Project at the University of California-Berkeley.
Since the outburst in the Xinjiang capital of Urumqi, the Chinese government has blocked Twitter and Facebook, scrubbed news sites, unplugged the Internet entirely in some places and slowed it and cell phone service to a crawl in others to stifle reports about the violence — and get its own message out that authorities are in control.
Key-word filters have been activated on search engines like Baidu and Google's Chinese version so that searches for "Xinjiang" or "Uighur" only turn up results that jibe with the official version of events.
That a fight in one part of China could impact a riot 10 days later thousands of miles away underscores how slippery fast-evolving communication technologies can be even for an authoritarian government with the world's most extensive Internet monitoring system.
State media reports said only two people died in the June 25 fight between Uighur and Han Chinese workers at a toy factory in southern Shaoguan city. In the days that followed, however, graphic photos spread on the Internet purportedly showing at least a half-dozen bodies of Uighurs, with Han Chinese — members of China's majority ethnic group — standing over them, arms raised in victory.
Expunged from some sites, the photos were posted and reposted, some on overseas servers beyond the reach of censors. Their impact was amplified by postings on bulletin boards and other sites.
Uighurbiz.cn, a site popular among Uighurs, carried an open letter over the weekend suggesting there would be revenge for the factory fight. "You've beaten Uighurs, killed Uighurs and perhaps never thought about the consequences," said the letter posted by someone using the Uighur alias Yadkar.
A flurry of postings on another popular site, Diyarim.com, began calling for action in Urumqi. Diyarim's founder, Dilixati, remembers one: "Gather at 5 p.m. at People's Square. Young people if you have time come to the square." The messages kept reappearing, and he called police to alert them and took the site off-line, said Dilixati, who would give only his first name for fear of reprisals.
Hours after Sunday's riot, when police were still trying to pacify Urumqi's streets, Xinjiang's leaders went on TV to denounce Uighur separatists living abroad for using Diyarim and Uighurbiz to organize the disturbance.
That the riot occurred in Urumqi may be testament to its being the most-wired place in Xinjiang, a remote region of vast deserts and towering mountains that juts into Central Asia.
Mobile phone coverage is typically stable in the city and people use handheld devices to go online, said Dru Gladney, a Uighur expert at the Pacific Basin Institute at Pomona College in California. In Urumqi, "people have these technologies literally at their fingertips," he said.
Elsewhere in Xinjiang, the best services are provided at closely monitored Internet cafes, where Uighurs may be less comfortable posting sensitive information, Gladney said.
Only a dozen years ago, when China was scarcely wired, details of the authorities' brutal quelling of a similar protest by Uighurs in the city of Yining leaked out slowly and even today remain obscure. An official death toll of nine is disputed by exiled Uighurs and rights groups who say fatalities may have been 10 times that or greater.
Unplugging Internet and cell phone service has become standard practice for dealing with civil unrest. The government did so in March over worries about renewed anti-Chinese demonstrations in Tibetan areas.
Though officials usually prefer to keep silent about such tactics, Urumqi's top Communist Party official, Li Zhi, told a news conference Tuesday that the Internet was deliberately cut off in parts of the city. He said it was done "in order to quench the riot quickly and prevent violence from spreading to other places."
Such censorship does not quiet unrest for long, but instead ends up giving rumors more credence than they deserve, said Berkeley's Xiao.
"The more you try to police the Internet, and delete information, the more those rumors become some kind of truth and people just pick what they want to believe," said Xiao. "That's the negative direct consequences of such tight information control."
Sure, the iPhone can store electronic information like credit card data and bank account information (Spb Software, Inc.), and give users the ability to watch TV (SlingPlayer Mobile), play air hockey (Touch Hockey FS5) and jam on a set of drums (Drum FX Pro). But the iPhone can also help you live more sustainably. We’ve trolled the web to unearth the best iPhone apps to make your time on this planet more fulfilling, and a slightly darker shade of green.
1. Piqqo Projects (Free)
I found Piqqo Projects, a new online service for presenting carbon reduction projects around the world, to be one of the most inspiring – and free – apps. The online showcase ranges from a biogas renewable energy project in Hungary that turns waste into green energy while saving jobs, to indigenous Mexican groups that are protecting their land, and a solar powered Kindergarten, also in Hungary. Piqqo shows YouTube videos of the projects and explain carbon savings.
2. 3rd Whale Mobile ($1.99)
If you’re committed to living a sustainable life, then 3rdWhale Mobile could be the best $1.99 you’ve spent in a while. This location-based iPhone app connects you to green businesses in your area, offering 6 categories to choose from, such as food, retail and services. Enter whether you’re traveling by car, foot, or bicycle, and get directions, then rate the review. One of the most simple ways to learn what’s around you, and great for anyone that’s on the move. Now, with the addition of “Creative Citizen Solutions,” users of this app can also make better purchasing and lifestyle decisions, such a using power strips to reduce energy waste from Vampire Appliances.
3. Go Green (Free)
I look at Go Green as a terrific intro to the environment, or an app for the apathetic. For example, if you’re trying to get a friend or relative to be more eco-friendly and you know the only possible chance of success is through baby steps. Each time the application is opened, another bit-sized Green Tip is displayed, then saved to a list, such as: • Wrap your water heater in an insulated blanket, and you’ll eliminate 1,000 lbs. of CO2 a year. Eliminate another 550 lbs. by lowering the water heater thermostat to 120 degrees F. (These metrics have not been verified by EcoSalon). • Buy shade-grown coffee. It’s grown naturally, under the rainforest canopy, preserving forests from clear-cutting and leaving more trees to absorb CO2.
4. Get Green (.99)
Get Green sends a helpful season-based daily tip to your iPhone, ranging from green workplaces, to throwing a green Halloween party and even greening your wedding. One recent tip: Instead of tossing used coffee grounds, add them to your garden soil. The grounds will provide nutrients that will help your plants flourish. Who knew?
5. iLocavore (Free)
A locavore is someone who strives to eat food grown and produced locally. In fact, the movement is gaining such momentum that iLocavore touts the new Oxford American Dictionary chose locavore as its 2007 word of the year.
There are many reasons why people choose to live a locavore or Locallectual lifestyle: concerns about food miles traveled and the associated increase in carbon footprint, freshness of locally sourced food and the choice to support family farms, craftsmen, independent retailers and eateries to stimulate the local and regional economy.
The iLocavore application supplies this information from the Locallectual.com database to find area producers, independent retailers featuring local and domestic goods, and restaurants featuring local foods based on your current location.
6. GoodGuide (Free)
This iPhone app helps you find safe green products while shopping in the store by providing – what they claim to be – the world’s largest and most reliable sources of information on the health, environmental and social impacts of products and companies. Find over 70,000 product ratings in food, personal care, household cleaners, and toys. View product ratings on the health, environmental, and social performance of your favorite brands, and create personalized shopping lists to search for, and avoid. “We make it fast and easy to get the information you need to help make better decisions on everyday purchases based on what’s important to you,” say the folks at GoodGuide.
7. greenMeter ($5.99)
Here’s an app to track your car’s fuel and power usage characteristics and offer tips on how to save your wallet and the environment. Based on the gMeter vehicle performance app, greenMeter uses the device’s internal accelerometer to measure forward acceleration, compute engine power, fuel economy, fuel cost, carbon footprint and oil (barrels) consumption.
For those of you who love a good interactive metric, you can learn from greenMeter by tipping the device forward and backward to simulate acceleration, and see the effects of both acceleration, aerodynamic drag and rolling resistance, across the speed range. Once inside your vehicle, choose an efficient cruising speed and use the built-in g meter to limit acceleration while you drive.
8. iNewz Green ($2.99)
iNewz Green acts as a portal for eco-friendly, environment-aware news. Select the category of green news you’re interested in, and a list of the latest articles will be displayed. Tap the headline and an integrated browser page will take you straight to the selected article on the source’s website. If you like the story, email it to your friends, save it to your Del.icio.us bookmark, or publish it to your Twitter stream. News is culled from such sources as Planet Green, The Daily Green, TreeHugger, Popular Science, Good Guide and the iNewz Vertography Blog.
9. A Real Tree (.99)
A Real Tree plants trees in 12 countries to fight deforestation. They work with organizations that provide education to local communities to plant trees in an ecologically-beneficial manner, such as avoiding toxic pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers. The trees then produce nutritious fruits and crops that are eaten and also sold. By partnering with award-winning tree-planting organizations such as Sustainable Harvest International (SHI), and having endorsements from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), A Real Tree is gaining momentum. The app also has a few Easter eggs: It includes mini-games to teach a bird to fly and get flowers to drift in a breeze.
10. Carbon Tracker (Free)
This GPS-enabled carbon footprint application allows users to calculate their carbon footprint from daily commuting, business trips or vacations. Users can also create goals for maximum emissions in a month, then monitors progress. Great for individuals, universities and large companies looking to lighten their carbon footprint.
Do you have a favorite green iPhone app? We’d love to learn about it.
Bored with Making Money Online and SEO sites? Not amused by photo of bikini girls from SportsIllustrated? Maybe you need some fresh sources of Internet humor. The Web is full of clever blogs and funny sites, including many that collect amusing gags from users and find comedy in real life.
It's time for you to replenish your list of favorite bookmarks with these 10 new or lesser-known humor sites:
Snapping the perfect family photo creates stress for anyone involved. Should we go casual and wear blue jeans with polo shirts on a beach or be a bit crazy, wear matching outfits and -- wait for it -- lean toward the camera? Ah, choices. This user-powered blog highlights the most well, awkward, family photos submitted by its contributors. Just don't show this to your mom for portrait suggestions.
Breaking news: Your life is most likely mundane and not glamorous or melodramatic like "Gossip Girl." Thankfully, someone has finally created a Web site for average people to commiserate about their average-ness. For a taste, here is a recent posting: "Today, I ate a "Fun Size" Snickers bar. I think that the regular size is more fun. MLIA (My life is average)."
Logging on to Facebook, one is bombarded these days with pointless quizzes, embarrassing photos and a friend request from ... Mom? The inevitable has happened -- your parents are on Facebook. Using submissions from users, this site highlights just what a foreign place Facebook is to parents. If you think associating with them in person is uncomfortable, this blog highlights the awkwardness that comes when your mom takes a "What porn star are you?" quiz.
Someone has found a way to make the Garfield cat comic strip funny: edit out Garfield. The author, who recently released a book of these comic strips, digitally edits out Garfield for a less-than-flattering portrayal of Garfield's owner, Jon Arbuckle. Without his lasagna-loving cat, he looks like a lonely man who talks to himself -- and whose life resembles that of "The 40-Year-Old Virgin." Remember, if you are having a bad day, it could be worse -- you could be Jon.
The 1980s brought great advancements in the photography world, such as the first SLR camera, the BetaCam and ... laser backgrounds. It was a magical world back then, where little Jimmy posed for his school picture not against a typical light-blue background but a "Tron"-like video game gone awry. Looking at these pictures, one has to wonder if the use of those dangerous lasers injured any kids.
Who needs high school when history can be explained in 140 characters? Did you know the origin of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech? @martinlkjr tweets: "Bought a sleep journal. I keep having dreams but forget to write them down."
Safety signs are supposed to protect us from the dangers of big, scary machines and equipment. But most of the time, the signs turn out to be a parody of themselves. This blog gathers photos of actual safety signs with symbols of people being electrocuted, crushed by garage doors and so on. The "No Weapons Allowed" sign would not deter any killer from shooting the place up.
These electronic greeting cards offer wry commentary on everything from birthdays to topical events such as swine flu and the death of Michael Jackson. A recent Father's Day card said, "You're the best father I can imagine unless you lost my inheritance in the economic meltdown in which case I can imagine better."
The task of illustrating a depressing point, like a company's plunging profits, always lands on the poor graph. But no one said the lowly graph always has to be bleak -- or boring. This Web site displays the best user-submitted graphs on a variety of oddball topics, from the percentage of people who dislike Michael Jackson to things people want to do in New Jersey (No. 1 option: Leave). Although GraphJam has been around for awhile, it remains one of the cleverest sites on the Internet.
Feeling regretful about those French fries you had with lunch? Here is a site that makes those greasy treats look healthy. Witness the chicken finger bacon pizza, which is drenched in Thousand Island dressing and baked to golden perfection, or the Pattie LaBurger, a triple-bacon cheeseburger that uses deep-fried burger patties as buns. If you dare to eat any of these, make sure you have a cardiologist on speed dial.
That Universal Serial Bus or USB port in your computer is about to get an upgrade. You know, the one where you plug in all your peripherals (your external hard drives, digital cameras, MP3 players, thumb drives, cooler pad, USB mouse, vacuum cleaner, PDA, phone, etc.)?
If you bought your computer any time after the year 2000, it probably came equipped with a USB 2.0 port. However, later this year computers will start shipping that include USB 3.0 ports. To prepare you for this transfer in transfer rates, we've prepared a quick primer on what to expect.
What is USB 3.0?
Dubbed "SuperSpeed," USB 3.0 is much faster at transferring data than its predecessor. The current 2.0 ports can transfer packets of information at speeds of 480Mbit/s, but the 3.0 version will be able to handle 4.8 to 5Gbit/s. This tenfold increase in speed is accomplished by increasing the number of wires used for transfer from 4 to 9. This large flow of information can also be split into several different streams of information being transferred at once.
USB ports can transfer not only information but also electricity to peripherals, which has yielded many kooky results. While energy transfer is nothing new in USB ports, the new version will help conserve energy. As it stands, USB connections are not specialized, and information packets are broadcast to all peripherals attached. The new ports and cables, however, will target the necessary device and send packets only that way. That allows conservation of power on portions of the cable that are not being used.
The best part is backwards and forwards compatibility. New cables will work in old ports and old cables will work in new ports. When confronted with disparate ports and cables, the computer will initiate polling to decide what the highest speed is that both ends can support.
What will USB 3.0 do for you?
Of course, there's the increase in speed of packet transfer. That'll mean faster uploads of photos or MP3s to and from your cell phone or other handheld electronics. There's also the potential for hi-def streaming. These speeds offer the ability to cleanly stream video at 1080i definition. The process is also scalable for any future developments that Moore's Law will throw our way. USB 3.0 was made in preparation for future computing.
Performance comparison: Transfer of 25GB HD movie:
USB 1.1: 9.3 hours USB 2.0: 13.9 minutes USB 3.0: 70 seconds
When will you get USB 3.0?
Taiwanese PC manufacturers claim they will start shipping 3.0-compatible computers by the end of this year. However, it's estimated that these initial models will only be able to reach about a quarter of the port's potential speed. The technology will evolve over time to reach its maximal rates. Meanwhile, the port will become much more ubiquitous: About 140 million units will be produced in 2011 and up to 340 million units by 2012.
Google is not only famous for its Search Engine and free eMail but also for it marketing tools suited for online business blogs and casual blogs. Internet marketers and webmasters have always had a love/hate relationship with Google. Whatever you think of them, they do provide website owners with some great market research tools.
No matter what market you are in or plan to be in, you will find these free tools provided by Google very useful when researching your market. You should be researching your market constantly, NOT just when setting up your site. The internet is ever changing and, if you're not keeping up with those changes, you will be left behind.
Market Research Tool 1 - Related Searches and Wonder Wheel
When you start typing in the main Google search box you should see a drop down box appear giving you some alternative search terms related to the word you typed. Note these phrases down in a notepad file or write them on a piece of paper. They will be useful as part of your keyword list used in the next tool. You will also see more related search phrases after you click search. Scroll to the bottom of the results page and you will see "searches related to:" Note down any new phrases shown there.
Recently Google has released Wonder Wheel which is also a related keywords tool but is shown in a mind map format. You can also click on the related phrases to find more useful search terms. To access wonder wheel: enter your keyword in the standard search screen, then at the top of the results on the left you should see a show options link. Select that and it will reveal a menu. Near the bottom of the menu you should see wonder wheel.
Market Research Tool 2 - Adwords Keyword Tool
We all know how important keywords and search phrases are. Let's face it, it's what drives the internet. Google has provided us with a tool that tells you what keywords and phrases people are using to find what they are looking for. You are able to search an individual country, more than one if you hold down the Ctrl key on your keyboard as you select, or all countries.
The adwords tool is now more valuable due to the fact it shows actual search numbers. Previously you only had a green bar to indicate how much traffic the search term received. You can also see how competitive each keyword is amongst adword advertisers, showing us which keywords are commercially viable.
Market Research Tool 3 - Google Trends
Now that you have an idea what keywords your market is using you can use the trends tool to check the history of that keyword / phrase. Google Trends supplies data for the last 5 years, giving you an idea if the search term is consistent. You can also see if the search term is popular at certain times of the year, also known as a seasonal keywords.
Another important function of Trends is the section that tells you the popularity of a keyword by country, city and language - very useful if you are targeting particular countries or even cities.
Market Research Tool 4 - Google Alerts
Alerts is underused by webmasters. If you want to stay in touch with what's hot in your market, you can by using Google Alerts. All you have to do is enter the most popular phrases in your market. Google will then send you links via email depending on what type you select.
The types are news, web, blogs, video and groups. If you would like a mix of all, you can select comprehensive. You can decide how often you want to be updated by selecting either: as it happens, once a day or once a week. I hope you can see how powerful this is if you want to be seen as an authority in your market.
Market Research Tool 5 - Google Web Search
Finally, we have Google's standard web search which is not standard in my eyes. It provides a lot of information if you know what to look for. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is an important part of running a website. By performing a search of your market keywords, Google will tell you what type of content it sees as important.
If you see videos, blogs or images this gives you another way to reach the top 10 of Google. If you see Web 2.0 style sites such as Digg, that could be another avenue. If there are adword ads on the right side of the screen, that tells you the market is commercially viable and more importantly that the keyword you entered is good enough to pay for, especially if there are 10 ads or more.
As you can see, even if you don't have money to buy the latest tools, I have shown you there is a way to get some very important information using free tools from Google. Are you starting to love them now?
A real example of how to make money with iPhone App. And what make the example outstanding is that, the iPhone App was develop by Owen Voorhees, an 11-years old kid. iPhone App is now a billion-dollar economy and Owen Voorhees has done a great job making money from it.
Extract from inc.com - Kid Entrepreneurs Build iPhone App
Owen Voorhees may seem like an unlikely tech entrepreneur because he's just 11-years old. But for the last nine months he climbed a mountain of doubt, overcame unfamiliar programming languages and poured over college level computer science textbooks--all to develop his very own iPhone application. Last month, his app, MathTime, debuted in the App Store and quickly rose to No. 13 in the paid, educational apps section.
The premise of MathTime is simple; it takes the old-fashioned flashcard "mad minute" drill idea and adds a new media twist. Participants can practice addition, subtraction, multiplication and division on the phone by quickly solving problems with two taps of the phone, one to show the problem, one to display the answer.
"I thought it would be cool," said the Hinsdale, Ill.-native, adding, "It's really cool to make something work, to make a little money, to do something like this and see it up" on the App Store.
After he established the basic premise of the game, Owen's 9-year-old brother Finn designed the mathematical symbols in Photoshop. Once the design was done, the boys pitched the program to Apple.
"Nothing's impossible if you don't know it's impossible," said John Voorhees, Owen and Finn's father, who created an app account and provided a bank number for the boys. "He dug into it all by himself, I didn't touch a line of code."
The Apps Store has over 35,000 different iPhone applications and games available for download. "These two kids are unusually young to have done that, but the development environment is so easy, novice programmers with good ideas can now develop something compelling," said Matt Murphy, a partner at venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Murphy also manages the iFund, a $100-million fund devoted solely to investing in start-ups creating apps for the iPhone.
A now billion-dollar economy, Murphy believes iPhone apps will keep growing. In a single day, MathTime, the .99-cent application, was downloaded 141 times. "It started booming," said Owen, "I woke up and I was like, I'm an entrepreneur now."
I don't know about you but the month of June 2009 was certainly eventful with some bad news. The month of June has kept the bloggers busy posting articles. Even the media people are busy in that month. One good thing is that blogs are fresh with new updates but the down side is that, at times, it can be taxing for the blogger as well.
And most bloggers would also noticed that their monthly traffic for June 2009 is higher than the previous months as a result of more events, more posting and thus more traffic.
Where in the World is Mount Mantap? Mount Mantap is approximately 17 Km North-Northwest from P’unggye-yok, a rail-road station, Kilju County, North Hamgyeong Province, North Korea DPR.
North Korea's nuclear tests and their results have been of great interest to us, but the way the lead-up to these two tests has been kept a secret in such a small country has been mostly overlooked. And there has been absolutely no information regarding human rights abuses or radioactive contamination in the area.
The terrain around Mt. Mantap in Kilju, North Hamgyong Province, where the second nuclear test took place, rises to 2,000 m above sea level and is largely virgin forest, like at Mt. Baekdu. Building a large underground nuclear test facility in such a forest would require enormous amounts of manpower and investment.
This GlobalSecurity.org article continues:
In the late 1990s, the South Korean Government became aware that a tunnel was being dug in the area. According to another report, US intelligence had been monitoring the Kilju area since 2002. US satellite imagery detected mounds left from the digging of tunnels. It was possible to estimate the depth of the tunnel based on the amount of soil removed.
Since late August 2004, US intelligence had reportedly monitored activity consistent with preparations for a nuclear test. The activities included the movement of materials around several suspected test sites, including one near a location where intelligence agencies reported in 2003 a series of tests of conventional explosives. Although there were several tunnels deep enough and with suitable terrain for a test throughout the country, there was only one place with a lot of activity.
By late April 2005, there were reports that North Koreans were constructing a reviewing stand and filling in a tunnel, both signs that an underground nuclear test was imminent.
A Yemeni Airbus jetliner, Flight 626 with more than 150 people aboard has crashed in the Indian Ocean off the island nation of Comoros, aviation officials in Yemen said Tuesday. The jet was en route to Moroni, the capital of Comoros, from Yemen's capital Sanaa when it crashed about an hour before reaching its destination, officials from the national airline Yemenia said. There was no immediate news of the fate of those on board.
Yemenia Flight 626 left Sanaa at 9:30 p.m. for what was expected to be a 4½-hour flight. The airline has three regular flights per week to Moroni, off the east coast of Africa about 2,900 kilometers (1,800 miles) south of Yemen.
Most of the 143 passengers aboard the Airbus A310 were Comoran, an official at Sanaa's international airport said. The aircraft also carried a crew of 11, for a total of 154 people on board.
The crash is the second involving an Airbus jet in a month. On June 1, an Air France Airbus A330 Flight AF 447 crashed off Brazil while en route from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to Paris, France. All 228 aboard are presumed dead. The cause remains under investigation.
In a small town, a guy decided to open a Pub, right opposite a Church. The church priest & its congregation campaigned to block the opening of the pub with petitions and daily prayers against this business.
Work however continued to progress. When it was almost complete and was about to open, a powerful thunderbolt of lightning struck the pub building and it was burnt to the ground.
The church people were smug about his disaster. The pub owner sued the church authorities saying that the prayers of the church people were directly responsible for the destruction of the premises.
In its response to the court, the church vehemently denied all responsibility and any connection that their prayers were the reason for the pub owners loss.
Having looked over the paperwork at the hearing the Judge commented:
"I don't know how I'm going to decide on this case, it appears we have a pub owner who believes in the power of prayer, and we have an entire church that does not"
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