Adam Ok Dot Net

Scour search engine

2008-07-24T11:00:00.004+01:00

Just found out about Scour a new search engine with a difference. You get results from Google, Yahoo! and MSN search on one page and you get to vote and comment on the results. Thus, you become part of a online social network. Best of all you are awarded points for your activity on the site, which can be redemmed later for Visa gift cards.

Scour originally started off as Aftervote.com, a search engine with an AJAX backbone. The new brand name - Scour, came about after it was was acquired by Internext media, owner and operator of the ABCSearch Network.

Right now it is still in Beta and I am looking forward to see how it does.

Now you can blog in Melayu

2008-07-23T23:51:00.004+01:00

Good news for all my Malaysian friends- Blogger is now available in Bahasa Malaysia (BM). This is a sign of recognition for all the Malaysian bloggers out there.

I am not really sure how this works whether it makes any difference because BM also uses the normal Latin alphabet. A lot of people have been blogging in BM for a long time. However, this might make it easier for some newbies who are not really familiar with the Blogger interface.

I am what?

2008-07-21T23:45:00.005+01:00

If you live in the Uk, I am sure you must have seen the "I Am" ad on TV. The tag line is part of a multimillion global ad campaign launched by UK mobile operator Orange. I was driving to the city centre when I noticed the sentence below: search online for "I am".

Intrigued, I did search it in Google and found out that it was there on top of the results page but it was not # 1 in the actual results but rather a sponsored link with a light yellow background. I am not sure whether anybody searches for "I am" on search engine. Clearly they are not going for Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). However, I guess the ad campaign is working because it got me to search for it and ultimately go to ther special site where I hung around for a while. I will bet that there are a few other geeky guys around doing the same thing as well.

BTW, according to the Gadget show, Orange' Dolphin 15 is the best mobile phone deal along with 3's Mix and Match.

I should point out that in another show, they pointed out that the Flext 35 (£27/month) was the best because it came with a free Nokia N95. I tried to find it on the T Mobile site but the offer is not there any more. However, they did have the Combi 30 (18 months) plan where you only pay £30 per month for FREE phone, 700 minutes and unlimited texts. That's even better.

Best that Orange.

Apple iPhone 3G shortcomings

2008-07-18T22:02:00.007+01:00

Updated: 24 July 2008

I was really blown away by the hype surrounding the launch of the new Apple iPhone and was even looking forward to getting one for myself. I was telling one of my friends about my plans to get one. However, according to him the new iPhone is still not good enough to beat the Nokia N95 he's using right now and he may be right.

No doubt the the new iPhone looks great and has loads of great new applications. However, it obviously has some shortcomings.

1. I guess the most obvious is that it does not have a camera on the front which means that proper video conferencing (where people on both ends can see wach other) is out of the question.

2. Another great new feature, the GPS capability apparently does work but using it for navigating your car around the city night be a problem. According to an article on Businessweek, the phone still does not allow "turn-by-turn, voice-enabled directions". This means that I still have to carry my TomTom sat nav around with me. I read on Engadget that TomTomwas working on a sat-nav version that works with the iPhone but am not sure whether it has.

3. I was also dismayed to find out that it is still not possible to copy and paste text on the new iPhone (source: Reuters). I would have thought that the Apple engineers would have added this simple functionality but they didn't.

4. Just found out that the iPhone doesn't record videos. I simply couldn't believe it. Even my 3 Skypephone can do that.

Clearly the iPhone 3G is not perfect but as a lady friend told me " who cares about all those functions, it's the sexiest phone in the market". I agree wholeheartedly.

Faster boadband

2008-07-16T15:02:00.006+01:00

I am so sick and tired of the broadband service provided by TalkTalk and the previous provider AOL, was no better. That's not surprising as a survey by price-comparison site uSwitch.com indicated that many broadband customers in the UK are dissatisfied with the service offered by their current provider. So I was really happy when I read about BT's plans to invest in super-fast broadband.

How fast you ask? Well they plan to have top speeds of up to 100 Mb/s with the potential for speeds of more than 1,000 Mb/s in the future.However, I realised that I might not be around in the UK to enjoy that kind of speed. Anyway, the £1.5 billion programme to give up to 10 million homes access to fibre by 2012.

People keep on asking me for recommendations for a good broadband provider. I don't really have any idea but according to the Moneysupermarket.com, O2 is the best broadband provider followed by Sky and TalkTalk.

I am not really sure about the third provider. However, what really surprised me was their finding that customers taking slow 2MB/s deals are actually receiving faster download speeds than those advertised. I am tempted to shift to Sky after reading this. I actually would have but I am tied down to TalkTalk by a contract for approximately another 10 months.

Check out the full news release by BT: "BT plans UK’s largest ever investment in Super-Fast Broadband".

Keyboard failure

2008-07-15T12:00:00.003+01:00

It's been less than a year since I bought my cheap Dell PC. I had hoped that cheap not equal to low quality and so far, I have been very happy with the performance. Just found out that the accessories that came with the

I have been using a BenQ wireless keyboard all the while. I never liked the keyboard that came with the PC. It is noisy and uncomfortable. However, yesterday I found out that keyboard has stopped working. My wife had wanted to use it with her laptop but it wouldn't start. Quite surprising because I had only used it a couple of times to type on my wife's laptop. I hate typing on the tiny keyboard.

Well it's truly dead and as my wife took my old BenQ keyboard, I had to look for a new one for my PC. Looked around on the net and found out that the best deal I could afford was the Microsoft Comfort Curve Keyboard 2000 costing £14.99 in Argos.

So I reserved it on the Argos website. All I had to do was drive down to the store at Gallagher park, go to the automated payment kiosk, type in the reservation number and pay. They had the new keyboard ready for me to take away in a few minutes.

I love my new keyboard. Took me a bit to get used to the curved ergonomic design but it's really comfortable. I wish I had bought it earlier. Also just ound out that it has spill resistant keys. I have had a few hot coffee accidents in the past and I may have a chance to find out if it is really "spill proof" one day.

5th edition of the Search Marketing Benchmark Guide out

2008-07-14T19:13:00.006+01:00

MarketingSherpa's 2009 Search Marketing Benchmark Guide is out. This is the 5th edition. To come out with this books, they surveyed 1,928 search marketers. It also contains 170 charts and 45 tables along with 12 eyetracking heatmaps.

The executive summary points out that Google is indeed the biggest player in the search World but also points out the latest developments, such as "mobile search" that a lot of people miss out.

Some of the fresh data in the book includes:
- The impact of analytical tools on search budgeting strategies.
- How search advertising affects brand metrics?
- Impact of mobile search, geotargeting, and local search on local business markets.
- Effect of new analytics tools on the industry.
- What analytics are critical to follow to improve campaign performance?

If you are planning to come up with your company's online marketing budget, I suggest you get a hold of this book.

iPhone 3G sold out

2008-07-09T15:24:00.006+01:00

The new Apple iPhone 3G has already sold out on the O2 and Carphone warehouse sites here in the UK. However, you don't have to worry as both companies have assured that they have stock in their stores when it is launched on Friday (11 July, 2008).

In case you are wondering, the only significant difference between the old and the new model is that the new iPhone has 3G capabilitie, meaning faster internet browsing speeds. It also has GPS built in. Now you don't have to depend on static Google Maps anymore. I was thinking of getting the Nokia N95 but I may have to reconsider.

As for the physical characteristics, it will be slightly thinner on the edges and thicker in the middle as compared to the old model.

If you are just interested in the look and not concerned about the features, you don't have to upgrade to the new phone. I predict that eBay will soon be flooded with old iPhones and you might be able to get your hands on one for a few pounds.

Read the Reuter's report: "iPhone UK websites swamped before Friday launch".

New recent comments widget

2008-07-04T15:56:00.003+01:00

For quite sometime, I have been using the "recent comments" widget provided by Blogger templates. However, I noticed that they have stopped working. A number of Blogger users have been asking for a "recent comments" widget for quite sometime but the guys at Blogger don't seem to be listening. Going through all the gadgets you can add to your blog in Blogger in draft, I came across the Blogger comments gadget provided by Tigersyard.com. It shows the latest comments of any blogger blog. However you need to know your Blog ID. It's not perfect but it is the best working wigdet for this purpose. I am sure others will come and improve it further. I would prefer to have a few lines instead of the whole comment listed. Please tell me if you have a solution.

Firefox breaks World record

2008-07-03T12:23:00.003+01:00

Firefox, the popular open source web browser has set a set a new Guinness World Record for the most software downloads in 24 hours.

It was downloaded 8,002,530 times on "Firefox Download Day" June 17, 2008. However it may have been even more if you consider the fact that it was also downloaded from sites such as Download.com

Really proud that I helped set the record.

High ranked for Cari Duit

2008-07-01T13:52:00.005+01:00

Someone just emailed me saying that he had found my blog on Google using the key words "cari duit". In Malay, cari duit means "searching for money/ earning money". Being curious I did some research and I was pleasantly surprised when I found out that my old post "Cari duit - Make money" was #6 on Google and #5 on Yahoo! for the above mentioned key words.

On Google

On Yahoo!

It's even higher on their respective UK pages: #5 on Google UK and even higher, #3 on Yahoo UK.

End of google AdSense Referrals program

2008-07-01T12:46:00.003+01:00

Just found out that Google's AdSense Referrals program ends during the last week of August. I used to a few referral ads on this blog but right now the only one is the Firefox with Google toolbar ad banner at the bottom.

The email from Google recommends joining the DoubleClick Performics Affiliate Network, which is now part of their empire.

Do remember to remove the referral codes from your site before the last
week of August.

For more information check out the Google help centre.

Vote on Blogger's Choice Awards

2008-06-24T20:29:00.004+01:00

If you like my blog, please vote for me for the 2008 Blogger's Choice Awards. My blog has been nominated for "The Best Geek Blog".

Voting closes in the next month or so.

Guy sells life on eBay

2008-06-23T00:17:00.005+01:00

Ian Usher, a Brit now living in Australia, plans to walk out of his house with just his wallet and passport. According to a report on the BBC site, Ian "is selling his house, friends and job" on eBay. This includes all his stuff in the house. He apparently made this decision after his wife left him.

Bidding has already started and will end on 5am BST on 29 June. You have to register in order to bid. Go to his site "A Life 4 Sale" for more details.

Read another report on the Daily Mail site: Brit who emigrated to Australia sells his ENTIRE life on eBay after being jilted by his wife

55th most popular blog in Malaysia

2008-06-22T18:54:00.002+01:00

Syed Syahrul Zarizi has compiled a list of the 99 most popular blogs in Malaysia. Initially the list only consisted of the 70 most popular blogs.

It comes as no surprise that the #1 and #2 blogs are Paul Tan's and Kenny Sia's blogs respectively. My personal blog ah ok lah is at #55. However, he has missed this blog. With it's Alexa ranking of 336,472, it should come at #62.

Viscount on Knighthood

2008-06-16T00:09:00.003+01:00

I have been playing Knighthood, a strategy game on Facebook for a while. Read my previous post about being addicted to the game here. I decided to lay low for a while to lick my wounds and build up my defences. Lost a couple of my vassals to more powerful opponents the last time I was in the war mode.

I recently moved up to Viscount, thanks to Count Zaid, my leige. However, yesterday I found out that another player, Count Odd had seized me from Count Ziad and became my new liege. On the request of Zaid I went into war mode and rebelled against Odd but was not successful. I noticed that my profile is now in the "Realm" and was quite happy to find out that I am the #3 player in the University of Warwick.

If you have no idea what I am talking about, you are obviously not familiar with the game. Maybe you should join my army.

What happened to Project Petaling Street

2008-06-09T00:22:00.005+01:00

I have been a member of Project Petaling Street or PPS for a long long time. Started by Aizuddin Danian (if I am not mistaken), it was the best content aggregate site for Malaysian blogs. I say "WAS" because I just found out that the site is now this:

The title says "restaurant wong fook kee pps at petalingstreet.org".

Wonder what happened? Maybe the domain name owner forgot to renew it or he simply lost interest and let it go. I think the former is the more likely reason. It's really sad.

Now where do I go to get my latest on the Malaysian blogging scene? Any suggestions.

UPDATE: PPS is is back up again.

Cannot Twitter from GTalk

2008-06-08T00:39:00.005+01:00

I was introduced to Twitter sometime back and have been hooked since then. I am not sure why but it is nice to read what people are doing or thinking about, especially when you are feeling bored. I usually use my Google Talk application to write my updates rather than use my mobile.

However, I haven't been able to do so for quite sometime now. Previously, twitter@twitter.com used to be in my contact list and all I had to do was click it and write my update as we would normally do to chat with friends. However, the link is no longer seen as online (green). Now whenever I want to post my updates, I would have to go to my Twitter homepage and update from there.

Is anyone facing a similar problem?

MarketingSherpa's Online Advertising Handbook reviewed

2008-05-29T15:52:00.004+01:00

I have been neglecting this blog - not due to blogger's block or lack of topics but simply because I am up to my neck with work. Unlike other full time bloggers, I have to juggle blogging with my research, part-time jobs and taking care of my kids. Really busy with my research work and have my upgrade presentation on the 6th of next month. Anyway, I have had some free time and this is a long overdue review of MarketingSherpa's new book- the '2008 Online Advertising Handbook with Benchmarks'.

The book has four chapters and covers everything from budgets and analytics to online branding and method of delivery. This is clearly targeted at practitioners, with real life examples (meaning less theories) and the text is easy to read with easy to understand figures and graphs. For example, a special report on matching rich media design tactics to strategic goals, they have used EyeWonder as an example. The books goes through each of their major campaign objectives along with the strategies used. They are but one of the examples used through out the book to illustrate various online advertising techniques and strategies.

The executive summary points out how online advertisers are ignoring the use of online ads for branding purposes and instead emphasising clicks. I found the book really useful as it is quite relevant to my doctoral research. However, I feel that this book will be highly useful to online advertisers as well as business managers thinking of advertising online. Another feature of the book that I found quite helpful was the Glossary which defines most of the technical terms used in the book and in online advertising circles, some of which have not come into popular academic usage.

This book costs $497/ and I recommend it for both practitioners and academics alike, as well as anyone who's interested in the latest trends in online advertising.

Thanks to Jeanne Hopkins and other guys from the MECLABS Group, MarketingSherpa for sending me a complimentary copy of the book.

Spam Comments - Last Warning

2008-05-17T11:20:00.005+01:00

Sometime back I wrote "End to spam comments". Comments advertising websites, products or services have more or less disappeared. However, most of the comments on my blog are those that look genuine but using key words instead of names. I know that this is a common SEO technique but one that really pisses off bloggers. I am really really Sick of these SEO comments".

This is my final warning, PLEASE use a name or nick or the comment will be promptly deleted.

Cheaper 3 dongles

2008-05-01T13:05:00.003+01:00

Some good news for those who have been thinking about getting the 3 mobile broadband service. Just got to know that as of today, 3 is reducing the price of their 'Pay as you go' mobile broadband dongles (both E220 and ZTE models) from £99.99 to £49.99.

This should be welcome news to some of my friends who liked the service but felt that the modem (the dongle) was a little on the costly side.

Read about it on the Mobile Buzz site.

Testing out the 3 mobile broadband service

2008-04-15T00:06:00.004+01:00

Finally got the chance to give the 3 USB modem a good test run. I am blogging this via 3's mobile broadband service.

I shut of the wireless network in my house and used the dongle to connect to the net.

The first thing I did was to check the connection speed. Here are the results according to Speedtest.net:

The speeds are nothing to boast about but I look at the possibilities - it's amazing to think that I can access the net from almost anywhere in the UK. According to the 3 website, their "network covers 86% of the UK population."

Found this old picture of my son (3.2 MB) in my computer. Uploading it to my Flickr page took around 10 minutes.

Next test area: Nottingham.

Free online storage with MSN SkyDrive

2008-04-11T01:19:00.000+01:00

Good news for all of you guys who have an MSN, Windows Live or Hotmail account. In case you are not aware, Microsoft's Free online storage service known as SkyDrive has now increased the storage limit to 5Gb from 1Gb.

You have the option of keeping your files "personal", meaning that they are only meant for your eyes. You can also put them in the "Shared folder" to share with friends or in the "Public" that anyone can access.

The service is available in 38 countries/regions. In addition to Great Britain, India, and the U.S., it is now available in Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Denmark, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Finland, France, Guatemala, Honduras, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Portugal, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, and Turkey. Unfortunately Malaysia is not in the list as yet.

Do check out the SkyDrive team's blog for more information.

Review of Blogger in draft

2008-04-09T18:16:00.005+01:00

They have loads of new experimental features on the Blogger in draft site.

The best feature is the Scheduled Post Publishing which allows Blogger users to write a post which then appears on a scheduled later date.

There is also the option to add a "Blogroll" which some might feel is a replication of the existing "Link List" widget. However, the later involved multiple steps - first the url followed by the name, then you would have to click the "ADD LINK" button and finally clicking the "SAVE CHANGES" button. Now, you can import all your subscriptions from Google Reader and only need to paste the url of the blog then click "SAVE CHANGES" to add a blog to the blogroll.

Other features that Bloggers users have been demanding for a long time have been such as a Search box and Subscription link have also been added.

However, some of the features I really want to see as listed in my post "New features in Blogger that we want to see" are still not there.

Having said that, I was amazed at the number of widgets under the "fun and games" category that can be added to your blog - a total of 2776 at last count.

There are literally thousands of widgets available and you can add yours as well. Feels good to be a Blogger user.

WordPress users - Eat your Heart out.