Everybody Else is Reading This.
So I probably care more about server usage stats than most people. (Don’t judge me, I have too). I just sort of stumbled on a page on the BBC site which displays their stats public, in real-time and sliced up by continent. It even covers what’s hot where, and whether or not usage in an area is above or below normal (and by how much).
Kinda neat. Good for a solid 45 seconds of entertainment. But i also wonder if it influences which stories people read. Are you more apt to read what everybody else is reading? Share what everybody else is sharing?
Twitter and Facebook aren’t enough. Why?
Do you think you only need a Twitter account and Facebook page? If you do, Joel Postman (and I) think you’re wrong. Said Postman: “Twitter is excellent for distribution, but if you’re going to communicate original ideas, you’ll need a blog (or something similar).” He then goes on to cite 7 reasons why Twitter and Facebook are insufficient.
My use of Twitter reflects Postman’s beliefs on steroids. I use Twitter to drive traffic to our Business Blog and to our site. I rarely use Twitter as the location of content… 
Yes! You Need Feed…
Razorfish just released the 2009 version of Feed. This report is probably the best analysis of online consumer behavior. Here are some of the major conclusions:
Contrary to popular belief, consumers are not shutting out brands – they’re interacting with them. According to FEED, 77 percent of consumers surveyed have watched a commercial or video advertisement on YouTube with some frequency; 69 percent have provided feedback to a brand, either through a website or a third-party service like GetSatisfaction.com; 65 percent have played a branded browser-based game, and 40 percent of consumers have friended a brand on Facebook. Moreover, 70 percent have participated in a brand-sponsored contest or sweepstakes.
Digital experiences create customers. The overwhelming majority of consumers who actively engage with a brand in digital fashion are much more inclined to purchase products and recommend the brand to others.
Digital can make or break a brand. Sixty-five percent of consumers say that a digital experience, either positive or negative, changed their opinion of a brand. Of those, 97 percent said that their experience influenced whether they eventually purchased from the brand.
Feed is a must-read if you’re interested in social media and marketing.
Good Looks of “Google Wave” Coming to Gmail, Other Google Apps?
A lot of people aren’t that keen on the current look of most Google applications—hence the popularity of redesigned user skins. On the other hand, many users really like the look of Google Wave, the newest invite-only service from Google. (See our first look, or just read the book.) If you happen to be one of the people who love Wave’s look, you’ll like this rumor: According to gadget weblog Engadget, the Google Wave interface may become the default style across all Google Apps.
+ Read the Full Article
By Anitha
[Video] 17 Hours of JavaScript from the Masters
Douglas Crockford. John Resig. Peter-Paul Koch. Nicolas C. Zakas. If you recognize these names, you probably know what they all have in common: they’re amazingly talented JavaScript Developers. Today, you’ll hear from all of them, in this roundup of JavaScript presentations. Be ready to stretch your brain!
1: Javascript: The Good Parts
2: The JavaScript Programming Language
3: An Inconvenient API: The Theory of the DOM
4: Advanced JavaScript
5: Games, Performance, TestSwarm
6: Speed Up Your JavaScript
7: Best Practices in JavaScript Library Design (or Building a JavaScript Library)
8: Drop-In JavaScript Performance (or Perfomance Improvements in Browsers)
9: JavaScript Events
10: Scalable JavaScript Application Architecture
11: ECMA Harmony and the Future of JavaScript
12: The State and Future of JavaScript
Others
There are many videos and presentations out there that aren’t just about JavaScript, but certainly involve it. Check these out:
The JSON Saga
- Length: 49 minutes
- Speaker: Douglas Crockford
- Slides
Server-Side JavaScript
- Length: 23 minutes
- Speakers: Isaac Schlueter and Matt Hackett
Advanced JavaScript with Libraries, and part 2
- Length: 56 minutes
- Speaker: John Resig
Ajax Security (mp3 link)
- Length: 51 minutes
- Speaker: Douglas Crockford
- Slides (slideshare) and (powerpoint)
The DOM is a Mess
- Length: 1 hour, 12 minutes
- Speaker: John Resig
- Slides (slideshare)
That’s It!
+ Read, Watch Video here: Article
Google Doodles From Many Places
[Video] Intro to HTML 5
Are you interested in HTML 5 and what’s coming down the pipeline but haven’t had time to read any articles yet? We’ve put together an educational Introduction to HTML 5 video that goes over many of the major aspects of this new standard, including:
- Web vector graphics with the Canvas tag and Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG)
- The Geolocation API
- HTML 5 Video
- The HTML 5 Database and Application Cache
- Web workers
In the video we also crack open the HTML 5 YouTube Video prototype to show you some of the new HTML 5 tags, such as nav, article, etc. It’s chock full of demos and sample source code.
How an Improper Domain Name Redirect Can Forfeit Your Site Top Rankings
Can my site rank better with a keyword-rich domain name? Sure.
Can my site rank better without a keyword in the domain name at all? Absolutely.
I get questions (or assumptions) like this regularly. Actually, there are many other things going on behind the scenes that impact rank, and the domain name is rarely a significant factor.
Let’s say your website has been out there for 6 months or more and you assume, for whatever reason, that you can get a higher search engine ranking if you were using a keyword in your domain name instead of the one you have. In addition to your company web domain,maindomain.com, you rush to purchase keyword1.com, keyword2.com and keyword3.com.
From Google’s perspective, there is both a good way and a detrimental way to assign these additional domain names to your site. This can cause a much greater problem in terms of organic ranking if you get it wrong in terms of duplicate content and trust. Have you ever heard of duplicate content? Which domain name does Google have more history and trust with, your current domain name or one you just bought?
Common methods webmasters use to point multiple domain names to your web server include:
• Domain Mirroring/Masking
• Domain Cloaking
• Domain Alias/URL Alias
• Domain Redirecting
Domain mirroring/masking is sometimes called a pointer domain. It looks like it is the domain name when it is used in a browser, but it is simply a mask overlaying the real domain name and its content. When someone types in www.domain.com, it’s really forwarding todomain.blogspot.com without the address changing in the address bar. The user continues to seewww.domain.com in the address bar, although the site and its contents are really fromdomain.blogspot.com.
Domain cloaking uses an iframe or embedded frameset to display the content of another site.
Domain redirecting (also called URL redirecting) requires all traffic that is sent through the new domain name to be redirected to the main domain name. This can also be a domain redirected to a subdirectory of the main domain, or multiple domains redirected to a complex URL. This is different from domain mirroring/masking and domain cloaking because, when a user types inwww.domain.com, they end up on www.maindomain.com and the address changes appropriately in the address bar.
But, let’s back up a second and look at the issues you must consider before making this decision.
1. To limit confusion, it’s better to change the brand (or company) name to better reflect the keyword-rich domain name. This could be as simple as recreating the company logo, but you might consult your customer base first.
2. The technical procedure of redirecting domain names must be done so that the search engines do not get confused about what you are trying to do. Otherwise, you risk tripping a duplicate content filter, which would force Google to accept only one domain with that content (explained below). But the biggest risk is setting off an alarm at Google that you are trying to trick them to get a better rank.
Just for fun, let’s say you’ve gone through the trouble of changing the company name to reflect your new keyword-rich domain. Now it’s time to get technical.
If you use any method other than domain redirecting, you are going to be disappointed with your search rank. Domain mirroring, masking, cloaking and aliases confuse search engines because they see the same content under a different domain name. Google then selects one of the domain names to display that content and leaves the others out of the search results. Google chooses for you – since you are not aware of how to manage your duplicate content issues – and no one knows which domain name Google will choose. You could be saying “bye-bye” to all the hard-earned link juice pointed at your main domain name.
The more serious issue with domain mirroring/masking is the probability that Google suspects you are trying to manipulate search rank by suddenly using keywords in additional domain names. The result is either loss of whatever good ranking you did have or your site is banned from Google altogether. Ouch!
This is precisely what happened with a client. Despite my warnings, but thinking they might change the company name eventually, they bought additional keyword-rich domain names and had the webmaster point them at their server (using domain masking). Within a couple weeks Google dropped their domain ranking across the board, but did not ban them.
Of course they came to me with their issue. I gently reminded them about how this should have been done, redirected the domain names properly (using a 301 redirect) and asked them to consult me next time they’re considering a marketing or technical decision regarding the website. It took about 6 weeks – a long and painful 6 weeks – for Google to restore their good rank again.
When a company acquires additional domain names, they should be permanently redirected to the main domain name – the one, central location on the web for all of the company’s or brand’s content.
Redirecting a domain name should be handled differently depending on the type of server hosting your site (Apache or Windows), how much control you have over that server (hosted on a shared or dedicated server) and the purpose of the redirected domain name.
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We build websites that make you happy. get to know us.
Email: hello@silex.co.in Web site: www.silex.co.in Phone: +91-44-4314-4790
Google Closure Compiler with PHP
Today Google released their new Closure Compiler, you can use it to optimize and minify your javascripts.
Now i show you how to use the new Google Closure Compiler over the RESTful API with PHP5. First of all, you don’t need to install anything, we will connect the free API via cURL usually activated in PHP5.
The API (see reference) resides under the following URL and requires four params:
http://closure-compiler.appspot.com/compile
compilation_level is one of three options: WHITESPACE_ONLY, SIMPLE_OPTIMIZATIONS, ADVANCED_OPTIMIZATIONS, i use simple optimizations, it don't need further config (like advanced) but is better than whitespace only. output_format is "text" if you want compile a javascript output_info is "compiled_code" if you want compile a javascript js_code is your javascript source code, instead you can submit "code_url" param, an url to a javascript-file
enough with theory, now the PHP code:
$script = file_get_contents('http://www.domain.com/scripts/script.js');
$ch = curl_init('http://closure-compiler.appspot.com/compile');
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, 'output_info=compiled_code&output_format=text&compilation_level=SIMPLE_OPTIMIZATIONS&js_code=' . urlencode($script));
$output = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);
i use it in a deployer script and replace the content of my script files with the compiled versions. you can tryout the compiler with a simple html-form.
Seven Things To Do After Installing Windows 7
So, after seeing a countless amount of positive reviews, playing around with it a bit on a friend’s PC or at the store, perhaps trying out the Beta and RC, and simply hearing your geek friends talking amongst each other about 7, you finally decided to make the switch. Whether you’re upgrading a current system, or purchasing a new PC, there are a few things you can do to spruce up your experience and make it even better.
Reinstall 7 if you purchased a new PC with 7 – Yes, you heard right. If you purchased a new OEM PC from a store like Best Buy, FutureShop, CompUSA, Costco, etc., or from another similar store, than it’s best to go and purchase a fresh copy of Windows 7 from that same store and re-install your OEM PC right after purchasing it. Why? Because the installations of Windows that come with these OEM systems are clogged with bloatware, causing system crashes, instability, sluggishness and various other issues that can be eradicated with a clean copy of Windows. Myself and many people I know do this with all the systems that they get their hands on, and it’s been proven to make a positive difference.
Run Windows Update – It’s very important to have the latest drivers and security patches on your machine for optimal performance. This is why it’s important to check for updates after an installation, and to let it automatically install important updates to keep your system safe and speedy.
Adjust UAC – If you were one of the many people that were annoyed by User Account Control (UAC) in Windows Vista, than I have good news for you. In Windows 7, you can keep the protection offered by UAC without the intrusiveness. To do this, go to Start > Control Panel > User Accounts > Change User Account Control Settings. From there, you can either disable UAC altogether or simply tone down the intrusiveness.
Skin it – Even though Windows 7 only hit the shelves on October 22nd, there already are a few rather nice skins out there for it. In a previous GeekSmack post, titled 7 Stylish Skins for Windows 7, you will see my personal favorites at the moment. If you’re unfamiliar with the concept of skinning, skinning is basically patching your machine so that you can use custom skins instead of the default Aero look alone. Skinning isn’t harmful at all towards your system, and it’s something that many people do.
Set up a homegroup – Among the many other improvements in 7, networking was also made better and easier. With homegroups, you can set up a password-protected network of PCs that are all running Windows 7, which makes it easier to share files, printers, and stream media. To get started with homegroups, simply go to Start > Computer (or any Explorer window of your choice) > Homegroup (in the left pane). From there, it’s quick and easy to start a homegroup, and all you need to do from there is connect the other PCs to the homegroup.
Learn the time-saving keyboard shortcuts – By using some of the spiffy keyboard shortcuts built into Windows 7, you can save time and interact with your PC more using your keyboard. There’s some great keyboard shortcuts out there, such as the ones listed below:
+ number – Start the program pinned to the taskbar in the position indicated by the number. If the program is already running, switch to that program.
+ Up Arrow – Maximize the window.
+ Left Arrow – Maximize the window to the left side of the screen.
+ Right Arrow – Maximize the window to the right side of the screen.
+ Home – Minimize all but the active window.
+ Shift+ Left Arrow or Right Arrow – Move a window from one monitor to another.
There’s many more keyboard shortcuts to learn about, and you may do so by going to: Start > Help and Support > Type “Keyboard Shortcuts” in the search box > Click on the first link titled “Keyboard Shortcuts”.
Install XP Mode – If you’re one of the many people out there that need to use software not supported by 7 (or even Vista) that works on XP, than there’s no need to fear. XP Mode, a program that utilizes virtualization technology to basically run the incompatible apps in XP while still using 7 may prove useful to you. It will allow you to run applications incompatible with 7, for example IE6, in a Windows XP window alongside the usual 7 applications in their appropriate Windows 7 windows. As XP mode utilizes virtualization technology to do this however, you will need to have a compatible CPU. Check to see if your system supports XP mode and download it over at the XP Mode official website.
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