INTERNET SOUL

Apple Introduces the iPhone

noreply@blogger.com (soul) — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 14:30:00 +0000

Steve Jobs was on stage at Macworld 2007 just some time ago and he officially introduced the iPhone that everyone has been yearning for for years.

The iPhone is being described as a widescreen, touch-controlled iPod, a mobile phone and an ‘internet communicator’, all rolled into one device.

The iPhone runs a version of OS X, allowing for full fledged apps to be created for the phone, rather than the limited versions of other mobile phone applications.

The iPhone is a fully touch screen device with no keys at all or even a stylus. The screen is a large, 3.5cm one with a high resolution. It uses Apple’s new, patented ‘multi-touch’ input method that supposedly prevents any accidental touches or presses, boasting of a new level of accuracy with touch input.

When required, a full QWERTY keypad is displayed on the screen, similar to Windows Mobile or Symbian UIQ phones, but this one supposedly is easier to type on, automatically eliminating any mistakes you may make from typing.

The iPhone has interesting features such as iTunes’ CoverFlow running on the phone in widescreen mode. It can play not only music, but also videos and photos. Photos can be zoomed in or out by using finger gestures such as moving them closer together or away from each other.

The device seems a little large in the hands, but it’s ultra slim at just 11.6mm, which is thinner than the RAZR. It comes with a standard 3.5mm stereo headphones jack and a built-in speaker. It has the iPod connector to sync with iTunes on the PC or Mac. It will come with a wired, stereo headset and also a Bluetooth headset.

The iPhone also has a 2 megapixel digital camera built into the device.

There’s a choice of 4GB or 8GB of space available on the iPhone to use. There is no option of adding any extra memory via memory card slots.

The iPhone is a quad-band GSM device with EDGE support. Unfortunately, there is no 3G/WCDMA support, which would have been expected of a device being touted as ‘revolutionary’. It also runs Safari, the web browser, for full HTML support. The phone comes with Google Maps built-in.

Email is covered by a POP3/IMAP client. They’ve mentioned support for Microsoft Exchange as well, but that may just be over IMAP. Yahoo will be providing free push-IMAP email to iPhone customers, giving them BlackBerry-like features.

Personal and local connectivity is handled by Bluetooth 2.0 and WiFi support.

The device is expected to offer around 5 hours of talk time and 16 hours of music playback time.

The iPhone will be available this June, exclusively on Cingular in the US. The 4GB version will cost $499 (Rs. 22,500) and the 8GB version will cost $599 (Rs. 26,700).

Google, Indian Police Combat Orkut Offenders

noreply@blogger.com (soul) — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 14:19:00 +0000

The recent controversy surrounding social networking site, Orkut has prompted parent company, Google, to work towards making it safer and friendlier for Indian users. Google has assigned a team from its headquarters, to work closely with the Delhi Cyber crime investigation cell. A Google spokesperson has confirmed the initiative and revealed that the team will be meeting the police from various Indian states, to develop a special 'reporting tool' for Indian authorities.

The spokesperson said, “We take the misuse of Orkut very seriously and are reaching out to the appropriate authorities in India to address this." The initiative is directed towards supporting the law enforcement authorities in their investigation against Orkut and Gmail abusers.

This reporting tool will enable the police to have a direct line of contact with Google, to remove objectionable material or aid in investigation and prosecution. The spokesperson elaborated that this new reporting tool will not affect the way Google treats users' data. Authorities will be required to follow the standard legal process in order to get user-identifying information from Google, but the tool will offer a faster, direct communication between Google and Indian authorities.

The spokesperson said, "Orkut is a community website, so we take the obligations set forth in the Community Standards seriously. We want to foster an environment in which users feel safe, as well as free to speak and interact. Criminals cannot hide behind privacy and use the service for illegal purposes. We will balance all requests with the interests of our users. When we learn about violations, we review and take the necessary actions, which can include removal of the inappropriate content. We have done in many cases, and will continue to do so. That said, we believe that the Internet should be a place that allows and encourages free expression, including controversial and unpopular ideas and opinions."

In response to the recent controversy regarding the Shivaji Community, which caused an uproar in Maharashtra, the Google spokesperson said, "We reviewed the community and have removed it, as it violated our community standards. The case for 'We hate India' community is sub-judice and we cannot provide any comments on the case or the proceedings of the case. We respect the authorities in India and are committed to working with them."

When asked if Google is working on any special filter to weed out objectionable content from the site, Google says it has implemented numerous tools to receive, handle and respond to complaints about content on Orkut. "At the same time, we put a certain amount of trust in our users to notify us of violations; the energy and attention of the Orkut community has proven to be very effective in identifying and reporting inappropriate activity. Orkut users can report content to our reviewers by clicking the 'report as bogus' button. There are also tools for community owners to delete posts or topics, ban users and delete anonymous posts."

YouTube Back in Brazil, Sans Steamy Video

noreply@blogger.com (soul) — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 14:14:00 +0000

Brazil has lifted the ban on video sharing site, YouTube.com, after a Brazilian court reversed its decision to block the site in the country. The Brazilian court had previously asked all internet service providers to block YouTube, after famous Brazilian model Daniela Cicarelli's sex video was posted on the site . The judge had demanded that the site be blocked off until the objectionable video was pulled down.

Judge Enio Santarelli Zulianio has now revised his ruling and allow internet service providers to reestablish access to the site, but only on the condition that YouTube permanently removes the particular sex video, which was the most viewed video in Brazil for days last year. However, technology experts say that getting rid of the video entirely, is difficult because users can repost it under different titles, which may be tough to track down.

Cicarelli and boyfriend Renato Malzoni, had filed a lawsuit last year, to force YouTube to take the video down and demanded $116,000 in damages for each day the video remained. The case dragged on for several months so Malzoni filed a third suit in December requesting that YouTube be shut down as long as the video is available to users.

Microsoft Criticized For Gifts to Bloggers

noreply@blogger.com (soul) — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 08:51:00 +0000

Microsoft has been accused of trying to influence and even bribe tech bloggers by 'gifting' them Acer Ferrari PCs, loaded with Microsoft Vista. The two models (Acer Ferrari 1000 and 5000), worth approximately $2,400 each, were handed to big and small bloggers as Christmas gifts.

Microsoft issued a statement last week, saying the company "sent out machines loaded with Windows Vista, to bloggers to encourage them to experience the product and to solicit their valuable feedback, offering full disclosure that no editorial commentary was expected as a condition of acceptance." However, the issue has drawn criticism from some of the bloggers themselves, as well as others, on grounds that these bloggers are bound by journalistic ethics which prohibits 'gifts' from companies they write about.

After the matter was publicized on the net and widely criticized by internet surfers, a Microsoft employee sent an e-mail to some of the recipients of the laptops, asking them to return or give away the machines when they had finished evaluating Vista. However, the spokeswoman for Microsoft stated that the follow-up message had caused confusion and that the bloggers were still welcome to keep the computers they had been given.

Beat the bad guys.

noreply@blogger.com (soul) — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 04:46:00 +0000

Beat the bad guys.
Here's the free software to help browse incognito.

Every computer on the internet communicates using a traceable address. This means that a third party with the knowwho can determine what websites you visited and who your Internet Service Provider (ISP) is. Even the content of the webpages you view or mail you read can be intercepted and seen if encryption isn't used. But there are ways to beat such snoops.

JAP Anonymizer

The JAP Anonymizer is a software that was developed as part of an ongoing research project at the University of Dresden. Instead of connecting directly to web server, users take a detour, connecting after the encryption through several intermediaries, so called mixes, which are linked in predetermined sequences know as mix cascades. Since many users use these intermediaries at the same time, the Internet connection of any one single user is hidden among the connections of all users.

Tor can help you improve your safety, anonymity and security on the Internet. It also has a platform on which new applications with built-in anonymity, safety, and privacy features can be created. It uses a very simple and ingenious method where communications are bounded around a distributed newtork of servers, called onion routers. Instead of taking a direct route from source to destination , data packets on the Tor nework take a random pathway through several servers that cover your tracks so no one can tell where the data came from. Tor was designed and developed by the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory.

Fans of the web world

noreply@blogger.com (soul) — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 03:55:00 +0000

If your idea of fans is a group of Star Wars geeks marching around with fake light sabers or football freaks crying out - and crying - in pubs, then you probably aren't very far from the truth. Once considered the cash cows of their chosen passions, fans are now getting savvier, and using their numbers to rake in the moolah through fan sites. We take a look at some of the most popular sites in the category.

Ain't It Cool News

Probably the first and the most successful site of it's kind, Ain't It Cool News is one of the most influential and widely read film fan sites in the world. Founded by Harry Knowles, a film buff, in 1996 to review and inform people about the film and television, the site soon acquired reputation for breaking news provided by anonymous insiders and Knowle's colourful reviews.

Comic Book Resources

"The comics site you have to visit," says the tagline, and anyone who has visited Comic Book Resources would find it hard to disagree with that statement. Founded in 1996 by Jonah Weiland, CBR is literally a treasure trove for fans of comics and graphic novels. It has very active message boards and like AICN, gets news and gossip through fans and industry insiders.It's most popular feature is it's extensive database, which has led many to draw a comparison between CBR and the Internet Movie Database(IMDB), the world's most extensive movie database.

Fansfc

This Essex-based site is a model of internet-style democracy. It is a soccer fanzine run for fans, by fans, with most of the content generated by users. Most of the news consists of sideline and transfer gossip, but the biggest USP of this site is that it has customised pages nad newsletters on all clubs in the English Premier League, Serie A, La Liga and Scottish Premier League. Fansfc, however, remains a predominantly England-centric site, and falls short when it comes to European football.

Mugglenet

Harry Potter fan sites outnumber most other franchises on the Net, but the best among them is one created in 1999 by a 12-year-old, Emerson Spartz. Left with a little too much time due to home schooling, Spartz created Mugglenet.com for fun. Mugglenet's features aren't very different from the most Potter fan sites but are easier to access and offer a wider variety. They include descriptions of the first six Potter-books, rumours about the seventh book, and information on the first five movies. The site also has an e-newsletter, games and editorials.

Indianfootball

Although not in the same league as foreign sites, Indianfootball.com has managed to carve a niche for itself. Started in 1998 by Arunava Chaudhuri, a football fan looking to do something for the game in India, IFC is today the most widely visited Indian football website. With a relatively good database and extensive coverage of domestic football, it is the first major site of its kind in the country and can hopefully start a trend in India.

Fans of the web world

noreply@blogger.com (soul) — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 03:55:00 +0000

Ain't It Cool News

Comic Book Resources

Fansfc

Mugglenet

Harry Potter fan sites outnumber most other franchises on the Net, but the best among them is one created in 1999 by a 12-year-old, Emerson

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2007

noreply@blogger.com (soul) — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 13:09:00 +0000

Happy New Year 2007 to all my dear readers. Enjoy the new year to the fullest and take care of yourself's. Let me know if you want to know about any specific topic regarding any thing.

What Can We Learn From 2006's Top Searches?

noreply@blogger.com (soul) — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 12:27:00 +0000

Here I present the Top 10 Takeaways From 2006's Top 10 Search Queries. First, a quick recap of the Top 10 queries in 2006 across each of the Big 3 engines.

Yahoo

1. Britney Spears
2. WWE
3. Shakira
4. Jessica Simpson
5. Paris Hilton
6. American Idol
7. Beyonce Knowles
8. Chris Brown
9. Pamela Anderson
10. Lindsay Lohan

Msn

1. Ronaldinho
2. Shakira
3. Paris Hilton
4. Britney Spears
5. Harry Potter
6. Eminem
7. Pamela Anderson
8. Hilary Duff
9. Rebelde
10. Angelina Jolie

Google

1. Bebo
2. Myspace
3. World Cup
4. Metacafe
5. Radioblog
6. Wikipedia
7. Video
8. Rebelde
9. Mininova
10. Wiki

So what can we take away from this smorgasbord?

Naughty or nice? The Frienemy keeps us guessing. While knowing what queries increased in volume over last year is interesting, wouldn't it be nice if Google played along for once and gave us hard data by which apples-to-apples comparisons could be made? At any rate, assuming that the searches that topped Yahoo and MSN were also tops on Google (if not steady risers year over year), it's worth noting that...

Search engines are not yellow pages. Notice that the top searches (again, in terms of absolute queries) are not destination Web sites, they are people or topics. And they're not transactional, they're informational. It appears the long tail of the Web is attached to a very good-looking celebrity head. So, I think it follows that...

One of the major search engines should go on an acquisition spree of TMZ.com,, TheSmokingGun.com, DrudgeReport.com, etc. I mean, seriously, if this is all people are looking for, why not just own the gossip content and keep consumers within your domain? Oh, yeah, it's not that easy because ... 4. We need to find a way to monetize these queries. And I'm not just talking about marketers selling movies, CDs, T-shirts, etc. For many marketers, there is value in having your brand associated with these queries--just as there is value in having your product associated with a celebrity. The key to unlocking and measuring that value lies in continued research around search impressions and engagement metrics. And, traditionally, where have marketers been able to generate the deepest levels of engagement?

Video. The seventh biggest gainer on Google's list (with video site Metacafe clocking in at No. 3). And, no doubt, one of the main forms of content consumers were looking for when searching celebs and athletes. Mark my words, 2007 will be a watershed year for video search. From deeper integration of YouTube into the Google machine to continued innovation by specialty players like Blinkx, to heavy pushes from AOL and others, video search will continue to get smarter and more popular. And, while it may not happen in '07, it won't be long before we are searching video content on our TVs the same way we do on our computers. Which reminds me...

Search advertising must remain relevant and non-interruptive. With the plethora of Hollywood content available on TV and in print , why are so many people turning to search engines to get their fix? Because it's easy to find what you want without being bombarded by ads. We must maintain the sanctity of search real estate, especially as we expand into other channels. And, even though consumer intolerance of irrelevant push advertising is universal...

We must understand, respect, and leverage International nuances. Bebo, Rebelde, etc. There's a lot of innovation happening outside the U.S. For marketers with global footprints, it's crucial to customize search programs to match the mindset of consumers in foreign countries. And this means more than just translating copy into different languages. It means truly immersing your brand into the local culture.

Welcome to the social. More than just a witty tagline for the Microsoft Zune, this invitation sums up the state of the Web as we head into 2007. Just about every query on Google's list relates to some sort of Web 2.0 application. With new content being published every second by anyone with Internet access, search takes on a heightened role of connecting consumers with the content they desire, as well as that which they did not know existed. And that's not search's only role...

Search can be a great PR tool. With Web entries often mentioning negative news, from drug use to divorces, 2006's most searched individuals certainly could benefit from some positive spin. How better to get your side of the story in front of inquiring minds than by intercepting them at the point-of-query, before they have a chance to find those racy photos or read that police report? After all, at the end of the day...

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Even though the Internet has enabled us to easily create our own content and meet people all over the world who share our unique tastes and preferences, we're still obsessed with the same old, er, young, celebrities. Applying this adage to our world, the more things change with algorithms, distribution, quality scores, inventory, and specs, the more the basic best practices of search marketing will remain the same. So, as we look ahead to 2007, let us resolve to stay the course and continue spreading the gospel. It won't be long before all content is searchable and all advertising is query-centric. With the insight gleamed from why people are searching, not just what they're searching, we'll be properly equipped to guide the penetration and convergence of search into all forms of media.
Best wishes for the coming year. May your search for health, happiness, peace, and prosperity yield strong (and relevant!) results.

Top 5 Ways To Increase Your Google Page Rank.

noreply@blogger.com (soul) — Thu, 28 Dec 2006 10:39:00 +0000

Page rank this word really hurts sometime but still if your website is ranked by google things fall in place quite easily for you as compared to others.After a long research on google page rank and going through a lot of articles by some professional bloggers,websites I prepared a note on google page rank and that's what i have listed out here.

Google Page rank is based on back links. Back links are Links pointing to your website from another website. The more back links you have the higher your PR will be.

1. Join forums, forums are a great way to achieve links to your website. In most forums you are allowed to have a signature and in your signature you can put a link to your website. But another important note to look on is making sure the forum is somewhat related to your website. You will still get credit if it's not, but if it's related to your website than you will be accomplishing two tasks at once.

You will be advertising for your website (bringing in targeted traffic) You will also be building your websites presence. Your websites presence is very important to your survival.

The more people see, or hear about your website the more credibility you will have and this increases your chances of having these visitors come back and possibly become leads.

2. Submit to search engine directories. Search engine directories are a good way to get a free link to your website. They also increase your chances at being listed higher on popular search engines like Google, and overture.

Most search engine directories allow you to submit to their website for free. This will allow you to increase your web presence by being listed on another search engine, and it will also be a free link.

Remember the more links you have the higher your PR will be

3. Using ezine ads (or newsletters). Creating an ezine will probably be the most beneficial step you can take to increasing your web presence. When you create an ezine you will be able to keep visitors coming back to your website for more by using signatures and giving special deals.

Ezine's will also allow you to increase your back links. By creating an ezine you can submit your information about your ezine to an ezine directory. This directory will than link to your website(thus giving you a free link).

4. Creating and publishing articles. Articles are an easy source of generating new traffic. You can include your signature in your article. This will bring in more traffic from article submission directories.

Your signature usually consists of 4 to 8 lines. Usually the first line would be the title of the website that you are trying to advertise. The last line would be the link to the website and the lines in between these would be a sales pitch to draw your viewers into your website

5. Links from related websites. Gaining links from related websites can be one of the most frustrating tasks you can attempt.

They are very easy to find, but can be somewhat difficult to obtain links from.

To find related websites, all you have to do is go to a search engine... say Google... and type in your subject. Maybe your website is based on ford mustangs.

You go to Google and type in ford mustangs, than you look around for pages that are somewhat related to your website. After you have done this (which should be very easy) you have to contact them in some way to get your link posted on their website. This can be the most difficult task because a lot of webmasters ignore e-mail's from people requesting links because they don't see the importance of it at the time. Some other reasons could be that they are rarely online, or they delete spam mail and sometimes delete their important emails in the process.

Important note: When looking for link partners don't just link with websites that have a page rank of 4 or higher. Link with anyone and everyone you get a chance to. If you link to someone that has a page rank of zero, this will not hurt your page rank. It will only increase it because you are getting a link back to your website. Google doesn't look at your back links page ranks to determine what yours is going to be. It simply looks at how many back links you have.

So if Google one day decided to link to a website that was just created and this website has a page rank of 0 and has a domain that goes something like this: mywebsite.geocities.com it's page rank wouldn't increase even though Google's page rank is 10, it's rank would still be zero because it would only have that one back link.

Tips to help you stay safe online

noreply@blogger.com (soul) — Thu, 28 Dec 2006 09:52:00 +0000

There are now thought to be more than 200,000 malicious programs in existence - the vast majority of which are aimed at subverting Windows PCs.

These problem programs can arrive via e-mail, instant messenger, through your internet connection or even your web browser if you visit the wrong website. The threats are so numerous and appear so fast that Windows users must feel under siege.
While there is no doubt that attacks on PC users are getting more sophisticated, it is possible to avoid the vast majority of problems by taking some straight-forward steps and exercising some common sense.

If you are worried about your computer it is possible to scan it via the web to see if it is infected. Companies such as Trend Micro, Kaspersky and Microsoft all offer free scanning services.
Organisations such as the Computer Emergency Response Team (Cert) also offer advice on how to set up a safe net connection.

ANTI-VIRUS

The first piece of security software every PC user needs is some anti-virus software. It must also be regularly updated to ensure it protects you against the latest threats.
One of the ways that virus writers try to catch out anti-virus software is by pumping out enormous numbers of variations of their malicious creations. Good anti-virus programs use heuristic techniques to spot viruses that have not been formally identified but have all the characteristics

Many PCs now come with anti-virus installed and though an annual subscription can seem expensive, it might be cheap when you consider how much it could save you if it stops your bank details being stolen

As well as retail versions of anti-virus there are now some free programs that do a good job of protecting you. Avira, Avast and AVG all produce free anti-virus software

Microsoft now sells a package of security programs but, so far, they are only available to US users

FIREWALL

A firewall is also an essential piece of security software for PC users. Newer versions of Windows XP have a firewall built in and this will give you protection against nuisance attacks and many of the more serious ones
However some people feel that the Windows XP firewall is a bit limited in its features. Many anti-virus programs have a firewall bundled with them.
There are free firewalls available too from firms such as Comodo and Zone Alarm

SPYWARE

Increasingly simply browsing the web can subject you to all kinds of dangers. Specially crafted websites can initiate so-called "drive-by downloads" that exploit weaknesses in Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser to install programs you never asked for.
At best these will annoy you with pop-up ads, at worst they will let someone else take control of your PC. Anti-spyware software will help stop these taking hold and help you clean up your PC if you do get hit.
There are add-ons for browsers, such as McAfee's Site Advisor that warn you about potentially harmful sites. Also Google has now started warning when you are about to visit a potentially unsafe site. Search sites such as Scandoo will also flag sites loaded with malware

UPDATE

With Windows it is also important to keep your system up to date. Windows XP now regularly nags people about upgrades and Microsoft produces security patches on a monthly basis.
Microsoft recommends automatic updating so patches are downloaded and applied as soon as they become available. As the time between the announcement of a vulnerability and it being exploited is shrinking, it pays to act quickly

APPLE

Apple users who feel confident that they are invulnerable to attacks should also take steps to protect themselves.
While virus attacks are virtually unheard of, the platform can be subject to malware and adware.
The firewall on an Apple computer should be switched on and common sense regarding potential phishing attacks should be applied.

Vista security flaw blow to Microsoft

noreply@blogger.com (soul) — Thu, 28 Dec 2006 09:43:00 +0000

MICROSOFT'S security experts had an uneasy holiday break after a security flaw was discovered in Windows Vista, the software company's new operating system.

It was the first security flaw discovered since Vista's official release four weeks ago.
The flaw is a symbolic blow to Microsoft, which has spent 5 1/2 years developing Vista.

The software, which was launched two years later than originally planned, is the biggest upgrade to the operating system since the release of Windows 95 and Microsoft focused heavily on improving security.

The company confirmed the vulnerabilities, which were first reported by independent third parties, but pointed out that no malicious programs taking advantage of the flaws had yet appeared.

The flaw allows a user with standard system privileges to gain wider access to system tools and settings without the approval of a network administrator.

This potentially disables a key security feature of Vista but attackers would first need to gain access to a computer through some other means before exploiting the vulnerability.

A vulnerability in the new web browser Internet Explorer 7 was reported at the same time. Mike Reavey, operations manager at Microsoft's Security Response Centre, acknowledged on the company's security blog that it was "closely monitoring developments" over the Christmas period. "Of course these are preliminary findings and we have activated our emergency response process involving a multitude of folks who are investigating the issue in depth to determine the full scope and potential impact to Microsoft's customers," he wrote.

He added: "I still have every confidence that Windows Vista is our most secure platform to date", and said that as always, Microsoft encouraged users to take other security measures such as firewall, security updates, anti-virus and anti-spyware software.

Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer with Finnish security company F-Secure, said the vulnerability was significant for being Vista's first since its launch, but was unlikely to be a big concern either to Microsoft or corporate users of Vista, because attackers would need to already have access to the system to take advantage of it.

However, he said said criminal gangs would inevitably increase their efforts on attacking Vista.
"Within a year or two, there could be tens of millions of computers running Vista, so there will be more attacks."
This was reported by -The Australian News Website.

The Most Useful Sites-III

noreply@blogger.com (soul) — Thu, 28 Dec 2006 08:56:00 +0000

Here i am back again with the next series of the most useful sites.Well i surely hope this list will help in being updated with the best websites around.

Reference

Wikipedia now dominates the reference side of the web, partly because its pages are ranked so highly in Google. It competes with the Encyclopedia Britannica, which isn't free. However, another traditional alternatives is the HighBeam Encyclopedia, which searches more than 57,000 articles from the Columbia Encyclopedia

Applications

If you have tasks shared between people at different locations, it makes sense to access password-protected sets of work. That's where these come handy:

News

The BBC marches on at the front. The New York Times site is vast (though it has shut off some of its content behind a "paywall").

The Most Useful Sites-II

noreply@blogger.com (soul) — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 07:21:00 +0000

Here is the second series of the most useful sites-II.This series consist of the popular sites which have topped their category list by various means.

Video

The crowds are all over at YouTube, the poster child of online video. But it's not the only place to find video. And sites like brightcove and currenttv even let you start your own TV station

Blogs

The open-source and free software project Wordpress has risen to prominence, elbowing aside, many rivals with its blog creation, management and (importantly) spam-beating tools.

Virtual worlds

The key distinction from social sites like Myspace is that virtual worlds give you an avatar - your representation of yourself in the online world.

The Most Useful Sites-I

noreply@blogger.com (soul) — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 13:55:00 +0000

It's a wired world after all!
This statement just seems to be perfectly matching the current status of the world information technology.Undoubtedly 2006 has been the year of the social network.Myspace, YouTube, Facebook have been the outstanding success stories.

I am starting a new series of the most useful sites where i will provide the list of the sites who topped their category list on the basis of popularity and the tremendous buzz they created around in the world of internet users.

Gaming

There are far too many videogame new sites on the internet today; an aggregator like Gametab will help filter through to the best

Music

Microsoft's Being able to find stuff that's similar to music you like is increasingly important, both to listeners and to record companies trying to profit from niches.These sites are a goldmine

Networking

The browser has grown up: now it's the path to meeting people of similar interests and creating your own personal space online in a shared area

Wordpress Blog Pinging - List of Ping Services For Your Wordpress Blog

noreply@blogger.com (soul) — Mon, 25 Dec 2006 14:49:00 +0000

Pinging the blog directories is one of the most important ongoing tasks after listing your blog in the various directories. If you use Wordpress, you can add this list for automatic pinging after every post. Simply add the list in your admin under Options…Writing after scrolling to the bottom of the page.
The current default entry is http://rpc.pingomatic.com/

http://rpc.pingomatic.com/
http://www.a2b.cc/setloc/bp.a2b
http://api.feedster.com/ping
http://api.my.yahoo.com/RPC2
http://api.my.yahoo.com/rss/ping
http://www.blogdigger.com/RPC2
http://www.blogshares.com/rpc.php
http://www.blogsnow.com/ping
http://www.blogstreet.com/xrbin/xmlrpc.cgi
http://coreblog.org/ping/
http://ping.blo.gs/
http://ping.feedburner.com
http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php
http://ping.weblogalot.com/rpc.php
http://www.popdex.com/addsite.php
http://rpc.blogrolling.com/pinger/
http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2
http://topicexchange.com/RPC2
http://xping.pubsub.com/ping/
http://api.my.yahoo.com/rss/ping
http://api.moreover.com/ping
http://rpc.icerocket.com:10080/
http://api.moreover.com/RPC2
http://rpc.blogrolling.com/pinger/
http://rpc.pingomatic.com/
http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2

Tips to get your blog noticed

noreply@blogger.com (soul) — Mon, 25 Dec 2006 14:44:00 +0000

So here are 10 important tips to get your blog noticed:

If you publish directly through wordpress then you can add this List of Ping Services for automatic pinging after every post. Simply add the list in your admin under Options…Writing after scrolling to the bottom of the page.
Submit your blog to all of the directories listed on Pingomatic which allows you to ping a few services all at once.
Submit your blog to Pingoat which allows you to ping over fifty blog ping services all at once.
Submit your blog to all of the directores listed at RSS Feeds directory
Sign up for My Yahoo & My MSN and add your blogs feed to your own "My Yahoo" & "My MSN" account. This will get your blog included in Yahoo & MSN very quickly.
Sign up for Google Pages, and add add some content (non spam) and link to your blog. This will get your blog included in Google very quickly.
Place a link to your blog in your signature, so that any posts to Forums & add your RSS feed( There are some forums which allow you to add the RSS feed of your blog which will be displayed in the Postbit Template), Outgoing Emails, etc, will promote your blog.
Submit your good articles to Ezine Articles
Locate blogs with a lot of traffic and place relevant comments in their comment box . Do not spam or place the ‘I like your site,visit mine’ type comments.
And last, post quality content as often as possible.

Top 5 Free Google Tools For Bloggers

noreply@blogger.com (soul) — Mon, 25 Dec 2006 14:16:00 +0000

Google always provides various ways to encourage webmaster to use their services. Besides, search-oriented services, Google also has other services that will help webmasters. For example, Google Analytics helps webmasters to track websites’ traffic, Google Adsense helps webmasters to earn extra income, Google Trends helps webmasters to find a good niche…

Now, I am going to list out top 5 FREE Google tools which will help bloggers to improve their blogs. And, some of these tools also help to improve their search engine ranking too.

1. Google Adsense

Nowadays, almost every blogger will use Adsense Ads to monetize his/her blog. Google Adsense is so popular that it slowly becomes the main income source for almost every blogger. Even though there are still many other income sources for bloggers, Google Adsense is still the main core income for bloggers.

Google Adsense is a kind of contextual ads which means that it will only shows ads that are related to your contents. For example, if you are writing something about laws, it will only show ads that about laws. Through this way, Adsense Ads only could attract the maximum attention from your readers.

Google Adsense is a CPC( Cost Per Click) advertising program. This means that advertisers pay publisher money based on each clicking. The cost per keyword may range from USD100 to even USD0.01 each. So, you must be smart to target the most expensive keywords for your Adsense Ads.

Link: http://www.adsense.com/

2. Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a FREE service provided by Google to track your traffic in your blog. It has various useful features that helps to improve users experience. For example, you can know where your visitors came from, how long they stayed on your website, and their geographical position. All of these information are displayed on a clean layout:

Besides that, you can also know which keywords help to bring the most visitors to your blog by using Google Analytics. This could help you to target on the keywords that you think that you have low rankings.

Link: http://analytics.google.com/

3. Google Webmaster Tools

Google Webmaster Tools let you see how Google crawls and indexes your site and learn about specific problems Google is having accessing it. You can also learn which queries drive traffic to your site, and see exactly how users arrive there.

Besides, you can also tell Google about your pages: which ones are most important to you and how often they change. You can also let Google know how you would like the URLs Google index to appear. You can doing so by submitting your blog’s sitemaps to Google Webmaster Tools. Actually, this helps to improve your search engine rankings in Google.

Link: https://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/

4. Google Trends

Google Trends help bloggers to choose a niche for their blog. It is a tool from Google Labs which shows the most popularly search terms from 2004 to now.
Google Trends shows you how popular a particular search term according to the search volume from various countries of the world, and in various languages.

Above is an example of Google Trends for the search term “blog”. The horizontal axis of the graph represents time (starting from some time in 2004), and the vertical is how often a term is searched relative to the total number of searches, globally.

As a blogger, you can use Google Trends to decide which keyword is best for you to target to attract more search engine traffic to your blog.

Link: http://www.google.com/trends

5. Google Alerts

Google Alerts are email updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on your choice of query or topic.

Google Alerts help you to monitor new web pages appear in the top twenty results for the search term you choose. Through this feature, you can know which competitors are competing for the same search term you target in Google Search Engine. Google Alerts will notify you with email once there is a new competitor for the search term you wish to monitor.

Link: http://www.google.com/alerts

MyOtherDrive.com Gets Upgrade For Photos

noreply@blogger.com (soul) — Sun, 24 Dec 2006 09:15:00 +0000

Ohio firm, ByteRocket, has just released a major upgrade to its Web-based file sharing service, MyOtherDrive.com. The free 5GB hard drive with an Internet Explorer -style interface, now provides storage as well as the ability for users to share full size original photographs, music and videos, along with files and documents in PDF.

MyOtherDrive.com users may also use privacy settings, to specify who can access the files on their site. The portal allows its users to add their customized groups, or make all their content public. In addition, the 'invitation by email' feature, builds a "Friends" list out of the users’ social network. Users may also email out a hyperlink to others that lets them view pictures, even if they are not a member of MyOtherDrive.com.

The site runs as a Java applet, similar to the Microsoft Windows Explorer or ACDSee, which allows the user to create a folder "hierarchy" on one side of the screen, with a list of files on the right. Future enhancements to MyOtherDrive.com include more "social networking" features, such as blogging, photo/video tagging, and friends search.

BBC Offers Content on P2P Network, Zudeo

noreply@blogger.com (soul) — Sun, 24 Dec 2006 09:11:00 +0000

BBC Worldwide has announced that it will offer its popular, high-resolution British comedies and dramas, on a new P2P file sharing network, Zudeo.com. The BBC content, will be available on Zudeo’s’ new platform early next year.

According to the agreement with Zudeo’s parent company, Azureus, BBC Worldwide will license international television series, such as Red Dwarf, Strange and Invasion Earth, to users of Zudeo. Other titles include International Emmy award-winning, Little Britain, Doctor Who, Fawlty Towers, Coupling, Keeping Up Appearances, League of Gentlemen and Ideal, among others. Additional content partnerships will be announced in the coming weeks.

Gilles BianRosa, CEO, Azureus said, "BBC Worldwide understands our commitment to providing consumers with a rich entertainment experience and our desire to offer quality content to our diverse global audience. We are thrilled to offer programming that encompasses such a robust fan base, as well as the opportunity to expose a new generation to cult favorites from BBC Worldwide catalog via our new entertainment platform."

Zudeo, a US based, legal P2P file sharing network, enables content providers to publish, showcase, and distribute high resolution, long form content, including video and games in high definition or DVD quality over the Internet, free of charge. The portal also features search, browsing, channels and tagging, as well as easier integration with firewalls. Zudeo will also have enhanced features for P2P streaming, in the near future.

Ajax: A New Approach to Web Applications

noreply@blogger.com (soul) — Sat, 23 Dec 2006 03:55:00 +0000

If anything about current interaction design can be called “glamorous,” it’s creating Web applications. After all, when was the last time you heard someone rave about the interaction design of a product that wasn’t on the Web? (Okay, besides the iPod.) All the cool, innovative new projects are online.

Google Suggest and Google Maps are two examples of a new approach to web applications that is being called as Ajax. The name is shorthand for Asynchronous JavaScript + XML, and it represents a fundamental shift in what’s possible on the Web.

Defining Ajax
Ajax isn’t a technology. It’s really several technologies, each flourishing in its own right, coming together in powerful new ways. Ajax incorporates:

standards-based presentation using XHTML and CSS;
dynamic display and interaction using the Document Object Model;
data interchange and manipulation using XML and XSLT;
asynchronous data retrieval using XMLHttpRequest;
and JavaScript binding everything together.

Who’s Using Ajax

Google is making a huge investment in developing the Ajax approach. All of the major products Google has introduced over the last year — Orkut, Gmail, the latest beta version of Google Groups, Google Suggest, and Google Maps — are Ajax applications. (For more on the technical nuts and bolts of these Ajax implementations, check out these excellent analyses of Gmail, Google Suggest, and Google Maps.) Others are following suit: many of the features that people love in Flickr depend on Ajax, and Amazon’s A9.com search engine applies similar techniques.

The above part was some programmer style introduction to the new buzz world of Ajax.Let's see some practical applications of Ajax on the web on different websites,bloggs.And guys didn't i tell u that this new buzz is being used on blogger also.The site Blogger Templates has some good design for bloggers, but u need to wait for some more days as the site is in it's testing status.

There's one more blogger site 3spots who has provided with the good list of Ajax startuppages(or homepages).You can find the list over here.

Internet Tips: New Tools Help Take Your Blog to the Next Level

noreply@blogger.com (soul) — Sat, 23 Dec 2006 03:37:00 +0000

If you're a new blogger, Google's free Blogger service will meet your needs. But if you're a born-to-blog pundit then, you want additional features, personalization, and control.

Blog-o-Matic

Top-flight bloggers are increasingly moving to WordPress, Automattic Productions' no-cost, open-source blogging software. Unlike the basic blogging tools found in Blogger, Microsoft's Windows Live Spaces, and Yahoo 360, WordPress offers tons of plug-ins and widgets for customizing your blog. One of my favorite WordPress features is its spam filter, which weeds out spam posted as comments. You can also make your blog private, allowing only the people you specify to read and comment on your postings.

But WordPress gives you more than a simple chronological Weblog: The program's pages feature makes it a full-blown content-management system supporting complex Web sites. For example, WordPress templates let you keep your bio, contact info, or other static content easy for your blog visitors to access.

WordPress's PHP script files require the MySQL database and PHP software running on the host server. After editing one of the scripts to include your MySQL and PHP user names and passwords, you upload the scripts to the server--and just like that, you have a blog.

If this seems like programming voodoo to you, relax. WordPress and most of its hosting partners provide point-and-click tools that have you blogging in minutes.

If you're happy using a subdomain (such as scottspanbauer.wordpress.com) rather than your own domain (www.scottspanbauer.com, for example) and don't mind an occasional text ad among your postings, you can create a free account on Automattic's WordPress.com, a blog-hosting service much like Google's BlogSpot. At the time of writing, free WordPress.com blogs were limited to 25MB of images, PDFs, and other files. The amount of text that you and your readers can post is unlimited, however. (Automattic plans to add commercial account options that increase storage.)

If you choose WordPress.com as your host, setup is a breeze. When you log in, a toolbar of configuration options appears at the top for creating posts and pages, changing themes, moderating comments, and adding links to a page's sidebar. You can receive e-mail support from WordPress's creators, too.

For collaboration, create additional author and moderator accounts and set the blog to be invisible until it's ready.

Best Firefox Extensions for Power Users

noreply@blogger.com (soul) — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 11:09:00 +0000

Vista still requires antivirus, MS stresses

noreply@blogger.com (soul) — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 05:27:00 +0000

Windows Vista does require antivirus software after all, Windows chief Jim Allchin wrote on a company blog (windowsvistablog.com).“I want to be clear, most users will use some form of antivirus software, and that will be appropriate for their scenarios,” Allchin wrote.

The co-president of platform and services responded to media reports recently that quoted him as saying that the forthcoming operating system didn’t need any antivirus software because of it’s enhanced security. Allchin countered that the remarks were taken out of context.

“I made a comment about how attacks on the Internet are getting more and more sophisticated, and some of the security features in Windows Vista really help our customers. This somehow morphed into people thinking I said customers shouldn’t use antivirus software with Windows Vista.”

The intended point, said Allchin, was that in certain situations, Vista would provide much better security for users.The initial reports stemmed from a comment Allchin made during a conference call recently, when the company announced that Windows Vista had been released to manufacturing and would be launched on 30 January.

Allston was talking about his home computer, on which his seven-year-old son runs a Vista machine without antivirus software.“Even if there is a remote exploit on one machine, and a worm tries to jump from one machine to another, the probability of that actually succeeding is very small. My seven year-old runs Windows Vista and, honestly, he doesn’t have an antivirus system on his machine,” Allchin was quoted as saying.Allchin also said that the machine used strict parental controls that limited access. Allchin recommends that users do have antivirus software on their Vista machines, and that the example he listed was an extreme and very specific situation.

Access Your Favourite Magazines

noreply@blogger.com (soul) — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 05:11:00 +0000

It's not just books that are available electronically- this very magazine can be bought, downloaded and read from a website called Zinio. The site sells subscriptions to a number of popular magazines, usually at a discounted price. You'll need a Zinio Reader programme ,which is available as a free download from the site. Once installed, you can flick through the pages of a magazine as you would with the printed version of the magazine, either page by page, or by jumping straight to the various sections, such as Workshops. The programme will also keep track of when the latest editions of your favourite magazines are available.