blogging tips

Web Hosting Domain Registration

2010-03-19T12:28:00.003-07:00

Web hosting essentially allows your website to be online through the renting of space. Each web host - whether they are a company or individual - possesses a server which is a high-powered computer system that can openly communicate with

the network of computers that make up the World Wide Web. A website owner rents space on the host's server in order to have access to the Internet and allow visitors access to their website. Web hosting domain registration requires finding the web host that offers service most in line with your website's needs and making a purchase through the host to secure your space online.

Web hosting domain registration must take place only after you have determined if that particular host can effectively meet all your needs. Space, more than anything, is the primary concern when making this decision. Often, the monthly fees paid to your web host depend on the amount of space that you have purchased. If you are website that receives a lot of traffic - or one that anticipates growth down the line - then you may be interested in finding a host that offers unlimited space as an optional choice.

Other things to consider before web hosting domain registration are the security measures that the web host can offer you. This is especially important if you plan to offer a website where customers can purchase goods and services on your site. Because such customers will be releasing personal information - including, in some cases, their credit card number - it is imperative that you have the latest security measures in place.

Finally, any web host that you consider should offer consistency and quality customer service. While you can't avoid all technical difficulties, you should expect an overall dependability in accessing the Internet. You should also expect responsiveness from the customer service representatives of a quality web host.

Once you have made a decision regarding a web host you must then tackle web hosting domain registration. With a virtual web host, you can choose or keep your own domain name while still purchasing space through your host's server. With a non-virtual web host, you are dependent upon the host to choose your domain name; often your web site falls within the domain name of the web host.

Ultimately, the choice is up to you regarding the host with which you partner. But no matter what you choose, web hosting domain registration will bring you one step further to establishing your unique online presence.

Cheap domain registration

2010-03-19T12:28:00.001-07:00

The cost of domain registration varies tremendously from provider to provider and it is important that when a person is looking for a cheap domain registration service that they know exactly what they want when they review the service.

Some cheap domain registration service sites offer web hosting, web page design, and several enhancements with the domain registration which, if a person is starting a web based business will be something that they need. These enhancements required added fees that can create an expensive investment and sometimes people are quite surprised to find that their cheap domain registration has become several hundred dollars by the time they have paid the added fees.

Cheap domain registration service as advertised on most sites is only for the domain name. Most of these sites offer a service which will check the domain name before you purchase it to be sure that it is not being used by another website, but some do not and it is important that you check before buying the domain name that it is not already owned by someone else. Other cheap domain registration sites charge an extra fee for the services that you will need when you purchase the site and the cheap initial price is increased if you want to keep the domain name for a longer period than the one that the cheap domain registration service is offering.

In most cases the initial cheap domain registration service price includes the domain name for one year. To include the SSL certificate which will allow your domain name to be viewed by many internet users, there will be an extra fee. In addition, there will be an additional fee if you want to extend the exclusive use of the domain name for over one year. Many companies offer cheap domain registration service but you will want to find out what you are getting before you invest your money in the service. Whether a domain registration service is cheap or not, there are some basic services that should be included in the package that you are purchasing. It is especially important to find out what is included in your cheap domain registration service package.

It is also important that you make sure that the cheap domain registration service offers on-line technical support. You will find that having technical support available to answer questions and concerns will be invaluable to you once you begin using the domain and setting up an effective website for your new business. The on-line assistance offered by reputable cheap domain registration service will also be able to help you decide whether or not to increase your domain through several servers or use only one as well as what name will be most effective in attracting the audience you are trying to reach.

It is important that you review and research the services offered by a cheap domain registration service. By going online now and doing the necessary research, reading the fine print, and finding out exactly what enhancements are offered you will be able to get a cheap domain registration service that will provide you with all the products and services that you need in a very short time.

Domain Registration For A Business

2010-03-19T12:27:00.001-07:00

When business people create a business plan for a new business, they will generally identify whether the business will operate at an online web address or if it will be establish in a land-based location with a street address. Most business people want to own every aspect of their business and by registering a domain address for the business they feel that they own a piece of the internet.

Some business owners prefer to start out land-based but move to the internet because more people will have access to the products that they offer for sale. The domain registration is a critical point in making sure all customers can find the business site once it joins other retailers who are located on the internet.

Some business names are used for the domain registration process and other names are used by the business owner to create a unique presence on the web that is just as identifiable to shoppers who know where to go. Since there are so many businesses on the World Wide Web there is only one organization that assigns names and stores those names in a database to ensure that every address assigned is unique.

People can apply for a unique domain name by contacting any domain name registrar. The registrar's charge a fee for the services that they provide but these fees are considered to be very reasonable. The domain name registrars work in conjunction with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. The databases that they maintain contain all domains registered worldwide.

The business owner can create a unique web address and determine exactly how they want it to read to the internet customers that will visit their online business everyday. The same business name can operate on the World Wide Web but will be assigned a different hierarchy to use to ensure that it is unique to all others on the net.

Several hierarchies are used in the domain name registration process and they were created because so many people asked for a web address for one reason or another and there will probably be many others in the future because the internet grows bigger every day as more new businesses form. The most common hierarchies in use today on the internet are .com, .net, .org, and .biz.

Whichever ending the business owner chooses will be checked against the one database that holds all other domain registrations on the internet. The domain name registrar might control ownership of the requested name or the business owner might own it outright. Registering a domain name is considered to be a contract and every business owner knows that they should read and understand the contract that they sign when they apply for domain registration.

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2010-01-15T06:33:00.001-08:00

$2049.43 with Adsense in a single day

2009-12-15T07:10:00.003-08:00

Is it possible to still earn money with Adsense? A lot of the Gurus will say no, but I disagree. I’ve been trend blogging for a little over a year and I’ve learned a few things about this technique and it pays off for me. Now those of you who know me know I don’t normally talk about how much money I earn and exactly how I earn it, but this day really got me excited and I had to brag a little to my good friend Jay of Datmoney about the accomplishment. I promised Jay’s readers that I would show some proof, so here goes. The following shows a single day’s earning on Adsense and the majority of it is from a post I wrote over a year ago in about 15 minutes.

This day was a couple of weeks ago and needless to say this was a good day. While I’ve had good days before I’ve never had a single day quite this good. Lets show one I took about 10AM this morning which shows the last 7 days. This one does not include the 2K listed above.

Since I normally get the majority of my traffic in the late afternoon and evening today will likely turn out to be a $400-$500 dollar day. Now I realize I have not really told anyone how I did this. I did mention trend blogging, but its my method of trend blogging and for many it would not even be referred to as trend blogging.
I thought of just writing it out here on the site, but then people would read my methods and implement them causing competition for me, without me getting any benefit. So that is not going to work.
I did have an idea on how I can release some of these tips in the manner which stays in line with the mission of No Nonsense Internet Tips and still allows me to protect my strategy.
I purchased an autoresponder last year for a tax deduction, but haven’t really used it. It was one of those off the cuff purchases where I really did not have a plan for it, but bought it anyway. Well my accountant( who is also my wife) has been asking me about ROI for certain expenses including the autoresponder account. Well so now I can solve two problems at once. I will start sharing some of my better tips to people who subscribe to my list. I’m not saying I will not ever push you a product which I think you may be able to use, but I’m not like a lot of Internet Marketers where I have to push a product on you with every email. Nor will I email you every day. So if you want some of my strategies then look in the top right corner and subscribe to my list.
There is actually a couple of tips waiting right now in the queue that helps me with SEO and SE ranking for my posts right now. I will likely put together a step by step guide of how I set up a trend blog and get it to earning more than a couple of bucks a day on adsense soon. I do have a couple of items on my plate so I won’t have time to do this for a few weeks, but I will put it together and make it available to people who are loyal subscribers to my list.
Good luck to everyone in their blogging endeavors.

40 Unusual Websites you should Bookmark

2009-12-15T07:10:00.001-08:00

If you’re a long time makeuseof reader, at one point or another you may have seen several of these websites before. We have covered lots of lists and round-ups and plenty of cool websites, but this one is quite different: it lists undiscovered webservices that are original, rather unique, unusual, useful, free, and must-be bookmarked type. You won’t find any collaboration, storage or ToDo service here. Enjoy!

1. BugMeNot – instantly get disposable login details for any popular website that forces you to register.
2. DailyLit – read your favorite books by email (on your PC, mobile, etc.).
3. FranceRadio – neat MP3 Search Engine that lets you Find, Play and Download favorite MP3s for FREE.
4. Google SMS – provides mobile users with a quick access (via SMS) to a wide range of practical information and tools (i.e. business listings (pizzerias, shops, etc.), weather, movie listings, driving directions, currency converter and lots more.
5. Podlinez – listen to your favorite podcasts from any phone. Just enter the RSS feed URL for the desired podcast and get a free-toll number to access it from a phone.
6. RetailMeNot – locate fresh discount coupons for thousands of web merchants and services right from your browser toolbar. Video demo.
7. SoLow – on a daily basis SoLow auctions 4 different items (iPhones, HD Screens, etc.). Anyone with a mobile/PC can participate in the auctions by placing their bids via text-messaging. The user with the lowest unique bid wins the auction.
8. TeleFlip – auto-forward your emails to your cellphone as text messages. Video demo.
9. UrbanDictionary – hilarious (and practical) 100% user-maintained dictionary where users provide and vote on definitions for urban words (slangs).
10. Yak4Ever – make free international calls from US, UK and Ireland to 50+ countries.
=== Mobile – related ===
11. Bitbom – schedule free text message reminders to your phone. Schedule online or using mobile. (Similar PingMe.)
12. Flurry – follow up on your emails (send, receive) and receive latest articles from favorite blogs/websites on your mobile.
13. Foonz – place group calls and send messages to multiple people for free (from your mobile or any other phone).
14. GameJump – lots of free games for mobile phones.
15. GrandCentral – single phone number for all your phones and a web-based centralized voicemail system. (Similar: YouMail, GotVoice)
16. IQzone – post your classified ad to a number of online and print classified networks directly from your mobile.
17. Jott – simple and convenient service for leaving yourself notes and ToDo reminders using your mobile.
18. Mosio – text any question from your mobile phone and shortly receive up-to 4 answers.
19. mShopper – instantly check up on the bargain deals for any product (or even order) right from your mobile phone. Video demo.
20. NoPhoneTrees – simple phone directory that lists direct human access numbers to support employees in hundreds of companies.
21. Nutsie – takes a copy of your iTunes library file and creates an online copy of your library. Access this library from PC or mobile phone.
22. Google SendToPhone – forward anything you find on the web (maps, address, text, etc.) to any mobile phone for free (US only).
23. Qipit – take quick document pictures and turn them into properly formatted PDFs. Save online, email, or fax documents right from mobile.
24. Soonr – handy application that lets you access your PC remotely using your mobile or any other PC (work, school, etc.). Video demo.
25. TelePixie – quickly schedule and receive daily (or one time) wake up phone calls, reminders, weather forecast calls, jokes, and more.
26. TellMe – free local directory service for business listings (Car Repair Shops, Pizzerias, Restaurants, etc.), maps, and directions.
27. PhoneZoo – convert your MP3s to custom-length ringtones and forward them to your phone. Plus 1000s of free ringtones from other users.
=== Other ===
28. BossBitching – fun and active community where people can bit*h about their bosses anonymously.
29. eSnailer – send free postal mail letters (to anywhere in the US) right from the desktop. From Canada? Check out EasyPost.
30. Yapta – get a refund (or credit) from the airlines on a purchased ticket in case its price drops.
31. ListenToaMovie – lets you ‘listen to a movie’, i.e. stream the audio part of various movies and some TV-shows.
32. OpenDNS – provides a safer, faster, smarter and more reliable way to navigate the Internet. More details + video demo.
33. PodioBooks – search, subscribe and browse through a variety of totally free audio books (100% legal).
34. PriceProtectr – tracks the price of items you bought online and notifies in case of price-drops, so you can request a refund.
35. RateMyDrawings – excellent place to draw, share your drawing creations, learn to draw, and watch other people drawing. Video demo
36. SwitchPlanet – cool and active marketplace where you can switch (or trade) used DVDs, CDs, Video Games and Books. Video demos.
37. Scribd- search, browse, rate, share various types of documents (jokes, facts, stories etc.). It’s like Youtube for text documents.
38. ViaTalk – make up-to 10 minutes long free phone calls to anywhere in the US and Canada. You don’t even need to sign-up.
39. VideoSift – popular Digg-like voting community for user-submitted videos.
40. Wordie – make lists of words (words you love, words you hate, or whatever) and share them with others.

Making money during the Holidays

2009-12-15T07:09:00.001-08:00

I was just over at DatMoney where my good friend Jay posted about making money during the holidays. Its actually a pretty good post, but I’m going to have to disagree with Jay on one point.
Now Jay recommends using sites such as shopping.com to find a hot niche or product that people are searching for and then building a blog around the product. Now at the surface this is a good idea, but building a new site for each of these keywords can not only get expensive in terms of purchasing domain names, but since its a new site then its unlikely you will even start to get the traffic needed to make sales.
I’ve seen a lot of people say to build out a small site for each long tail keyword you want to target. I’ve even seen this mention for doing Trend blogging, but I never have really gotten the reason. It just does not make good business sense.
1. If you purchase a domain name, then for a .com you will spend about 10 bucks or maybe a little less per year. Now with a trend, you may not even earn that amount back. Perhaps you could with an affiliate product depending on how many sales you can convert and whether the product continues to be searched for.
2. Even if you don’t purchase a domain name, but instead use something like blogger.com to create your site, then you still have the time it takes to build out the site. Now this may not be much, but if you build out a lot of them then this time can really add up.
3. Now you have either invested money or time or both and you still are not indexed in the SEs, so you are not going to get much traffic if any. So now you have to spend time building links, etc.. to get your new site indexed. I’m not sure if anyone has noticed, but its taking Google a little longer to index items lately.
Now we have another option to accomplish the same thing. Build a single site with a generic domain name. Then optimize individual posts for your SEO efforts. Really after all its not the domain that shows up in the Search Engines, but the individual page is indexed.
Then you can cut out all the additional overhead for each keyword as you only need to build a single page. Also any link building you do will help all your products not just a single product.
This strategy is one where you can also utilize some plugins to help you out. I like a wordpress plugin named ReviewAZON, which allows you to easily add Amazon products to your blog. This plugin not only posts the product, but also the comments left on the product page at Amazon. This allows you to appear that your blog is a lot more popular.
Now you may think that this is duplicate content, but that does not matter, plus if you spend a few minutes writing some keyword rich content at the start of the product post, then a lot of times you will out rank Amazon for the long tail. It may take a little time before you build up enough authority on the domain name to rank easily, but if you give it a little time you will have a domain that you can post almost anything to and it will rank on the first page.
I don’t care what anyone says, the bigger a domain is, they easier it is to rank for individual pages. Look at Wikipedia or Ezine Article. I’m sure you won’t disagree that these two sites seem to show up on the front page for just about any keyword phrase. People will say its because they are authoritive, but I say they are authorities because of the number of pages they have indexed. That is why new pages get ranked so quickly on these domains. Now don’t say that blogger is the same, because someKeyword.blogger.com is not the same as blogger.com/SomeKeyword in Google’s eyes. These are considered different domains.
You may not have the resources or time to build a site of the same size as these sites, but what you can do is to build bigger sites and that will help you. Whether its making money during the holidays or any other time of the year.

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2009-05-24T21:58:00.000-07:00

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Twelve million computers have been hijacked by cyber-criminals and detected by security vendor McAfee since January, the firm has said.

2009-05-12T23:58:00.000-07:00

Twelve million computers have been hijacked by cyber-criminals and detected by security vendor McAfee since January, the firm has said.
It reports there has been a 50% increase in the number of detected so-called "zombie" computers since 2008.
The true number of newly hijacked PCs is likely to be higher than those detected by McAfee alone.
The figures come as a report from Deloitte said a global approach to cyber-security was needed.
"Doing nothing is not an option," said Deloitte's Greg Pellegrino.
Everything that depended on cyberspace face unprecedented risks, said Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu (DTT).
"This issue is moving so quickly, and with so much at stake economically and in terms of safety and security for people, we don't have 100 years to figure this out," explained Mr Pellegrino, who is a global public sector industry leader at DTT.
McAfee also revealed that the United States now hosted the world's largest percentage of infected computers at 18% with China a not too distant second with just over 13%.
"The massive expansion of these botnets provides cyber-criminals with the infrastructure they need to flood the web with malware," said Jeff Green, senior vice-president of McAfee.
"Essentially, this is cyber-crime enablement."

Robot radiotherapy comes to Britain

2009-05-12T23:57:00.001-07:00

Britain is about to become the 16th country to use the Cyberknife, a robot radiotherapy machine which moves with a patient's breathing so tumours can be targeted with greater accuracy.
The Cyberknife will be available at a private clinic in London but it is expected to cater for some NHS patients.
The BBC's medical correspondent Fergus Walsh asks the practice's clinical director Dr Nick Plowman what makes the Cyberknife so effective.

Thrifty electric motorbike reaches speed

2009-05-12T23:55:00.002-07:00

Neal Saiki, inventor of the Zero S Supermoto, demonstrates the technology behind the machine.
The electric motorbike can go from 0-60mph in around five seconds, and can be recharged from a normal domestic plug point.

French 'net piracy' bill passed

2009-05-12T23:55:00.001-07:00

A controversial French bill which could disconnect people caught downloading content illegally three times has been passed by the National Assembly.
The legislation, backed by President Nicolas Sarkozy, was surprisingly voted down by the Assembly last month.
The bill sets a tough global precedent in cracking down on internet piracy, and is being closely watched by other governments as a potential deterrent.
The global music industry has been calling for tougher anti-piracy laws.
The Creation and Internet bill was passed by a vote of 296 to 233 by the lower house and will go before the Senate for final approval on Wednesday.
Industry backing
The new legislation operates under a three-stage system. A new state agency would first send illegal file-sharers a warning e-mail, then a letter, and finally cut off their connection for a year if they were caught a third time.
It has been backed by both the film and record industries.
But some consumer groups have warned that the wrong people might be punished, should hackers hijack their computers' identity, and that the scheme amounted to state surveillance.
The socialist parliamentarian Patrick Bloche said the bill was "dangerous, useless, inefficient, and very risky for us citizens".
John Kennedy, chairman of the IFPI, which represents the global music industry, has described the bill as "an effective and proportionate way of tackling online copyright infringement and migrating users to the wide variety of legal music services in France".

General David McKiernan's fall from grace is a salutary reminder of what is at stake for the US in Afghanistan.

2009-05-12T23:53:00.001-07:00

General David McKiernan's fall from grace is a salutary reminder of what is at stake for the US in Afghanistan.
US defence secretary Robert Gates dismissed him with some modern management speak about the need for "new thinking and new approaches".
But his departure after less than one year in the job has more of a feel of World War I or II about it, when generals were routinely "broken" or "came unstuck" in the febrile atmosphere of total war.
Gen McKiernan was widely respected for his intellect.
Having interviewed him shortly after the 2003 invasion of Iraq - the ground element of which he masterminded - I can attest to his soft spoken, cerebral presence.
But it also became clear, when my questions about the wisdom or otherwise of disbanding the Iraqi army visibly nettled him, that he was a man uncomfortable with press scrutiny.
Last year, someone who had seen the general in action in Kabul told me, "He doesn't get on well with Afghans".
His downbeat pronouncements about the progress of the military campaign had annoyed people in Washington too, where some regarded him as verging on the defeatist.
Gen McKiernan did not look or sound like a man of the "Yes We Can" school.
His fall reminds us that in the modern age, people who cannot get on with foreign leaders or get their media message across are simply unsuited to high command.

Alleged Nazi war criminal John Demjanjuk is in jail in Munich, facing charges of being an accessory to the deaths of 29,000 Jews in World War II.

2009-05-12T23:52:00.000-07:00

Alleged Nazi war criminal John Demjanjuk is in jail in Munich, facing charges of being an accessory to the deaths of 29,000 Jews in World War II.
The frail 89-year-old arrived in Germany on Tuesday morning after being deported from the US.
He is now in Stadelheim prison, say prosecutors, where he will undergo a medical check and then have his pages-long arrest warrant read out to him.
He denies accusations that he worked as a guard in the Sobibor Nazi death camp.
Mr Demjanjuk, who settled in the US in 1952, says he was captured by the Germans in his native Ukraine during the war and kept as a prisoner of war.
I am not as naive as to believe that he [Demjanjuk] will spend even one day in prison - but we will get a discussion about justice in post-war Germany
Stephan Kramer, general secretary of the Central Consistory of Jews in Germany
Demjanjuk's slow road to Germany
US agents on Monday removed him from his family home in Ohio, and he was placed aboard a private jet which touched down at Munich airport on Tuesday morning.
He has been fighting deportation since charges were levelled against him in March, arguing that he is too frail to be moved.
But the US government, which secretly shot footage showing him walking without assistance, argued he was fit to travel.
An appeals court ruled that the removal could go ahead, saying it was satisfied that Mr Demjanjuk would be provided with adequate care.

Berlin pays thanks to airlift veterans

2009-05-12T23:51:00.000-07:00

"Would you like to see my kitchen cupboard?"
Horst Simon gets up and leads me into the kitchen of his small Berlin flat. I am intrigued. It is the first time anyone in Germany has offered to show me their cupboard.
Mr Simon opens the cupboard. It is bursting with food - tins and packets and bottles all battling for a place on the shelves, far more food than you would expect to see.
"Ever since the blockade, I always make sure I have a month's supply of food," he explains. "Just in case. Berliners of my age - we're a little crazy like that!"

If we hadn't succeeded in the airlift, the Soviets would have taken over Berlin and then they would have pressed further westwards and we might have lost the whole of Europe
Colin Parry, British airlift veteran
Mr Simon was five when Josef Stalin tried to starve West Berliners into submitting to communism.
The Soviet leader ordered all road, rail and river links into West Berlin through Soviet-controlled eastern Germany to be closed.
The city, he thought, would rather embrace the Soviet forces than go hungry; the British, American and French troops would surely abandon West Berlin.
Instead, the Western Allies launched the biggest airlift in history.
Over a period of 11 months, British, American and French pilots flew more than 200,000 missions into West Berlin, bringing food and fuel and machinery.
At times the planes were landing every two minutes.
Stalin could do nothing to prevent the humanitarian effort. He knew that if he gave the order to shoot the planes down, it would have led to war.

Key coral reefs 'could disappear'

2009-05-12T23:49:00.000-07:00

The world's most important coral region is in danger of being wiped out by the end of this century unless fast action is taken, says a new report.
The international conservation group WWF warns that 40% of reefs in the Coral Triangle have already been lost.
The area is shared between Indonesia and five other south-east Asian nations and is thought to contain 75% of the world's coral species.
It is likened to the Amazon rainforest in terms of its biodiversity.
Temperature change
It's 2099, and across south-east Asia, a hundred million people are on the march, looking for food.
The productivity of ocean... is plummeting right now
Professor Ove Hoegh-GuldbergWWF report author
The fish they once relied on is gone. Communities are breaking down; economies destroyed.
That is what we can expect, says the new WWF report, if the world's richest coral reef is destroyed.
And that, it says, could happen this century.
It's billed as a worst-case scenario, but the report's chief author, Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, says it is not as bad as the future we're currently headed towards.
"Up until now we haven't realized how quickly this system is changing," says Professtor Hoegh-Guldberg.
"In the last 40 years in the Coral Triangle, we've lost 40% of coral reefs and mangroves - and that's probably an underestimate. We've fundamentally changed the way the planet works in terms of currents and this is only with a 0.7 degree change in terms of temperature.
"What's going to happen when we exceed two or four or six?"

"Refine, filter and view"Google Search Options

2009-05-12T23:48:00.000-07:00

Google Search Options is a tool that is aimed at letting users "slice and dice" results so they can manipulate the information and get what they want faster.

Search options is a "tool belt" giving new ways to interact with search
They come into play after a normal web search and allow users to drill down into the results by offering an option for different genres like product reviews, forum posts or videos. Other choices include recently added blogs, images, timelines and so on.
Ms Mayer said this new feature should help people who struggle with the "vexing" problem of exactly what query they should type into the search box.
It is meant to give users the opportunity to "refine, filter and view results in a different way."
Another feature is called "Rich Snippets" which are search results that return more information in every listing.
For example, users looking for reviews of a new restaurant might get a "rich snippet" of average review scores, number of reviews and the restaurant's price range.
"This is a step toward making the whole internet smarter," said Google product manager Kavi Goel.

Google Squared

2009-05-12T23:47:00.002-07:00

During the "Searchology" event at Google's Mountain View headquarters, Ms Mayer and her team showcased four new products that she said would give users a "different way to look at the web."

Google Squared is still experimental and far from perfect said the company
One of the more experimental was called Google Squared which will go public in the next month or so. It takes information from the web and displays it in a spreadsheet in "split seconds," something Ms Mayer said would normally take someone a half a day to do.
During the demonstration, a query for "small dog" was typed into the search box. Seconds later a table popped up showing photographs of various dogs, their origin, weight and height in a clear and simple layout.
While Ms Mayer described this product as "transformative" she would only hint at the specific techniques that Google uses to drive this feature.
"I think we can open the kimono a little bit without talking about the computer science behind it.
"What they are basically doing is looking for structures on the web that seem to imply facts. Like something 'is' something.
"Different tables, different structures, and then corroborating the evidence around whether or not something is a fact by looking at whether that fact occurs across pages.
"This is all in the secret sauce of what we are doing and it takes an incredible amount of compute power to create those squares," said Ms Mayer.

Google unveils new search tools

2009-05-12T23:47:00.001-07:00

Google said in its quest to create the perfect search engine, it cannot afford to rest on its laurels.
The company's comments came at an event billed as a "state of the union" on search as it unveiled new products that aim to push search in a new direction.
Google has over 63% of the US market compared to rival Yahoo with 20%.
"The race in search is far from over and innovation and continued improvement is absolutely pivotal," said Google's Marissa Mayer.
"I've said this many times but search is still in its infancy. Our engineers are worried about what is the next big thing in search and how are they going to find it," said Ms Mayer who is the vice president of search products and user experience.
She said last year Google released over 365 products and in the first quarter of this year it was 120. Ms Mayer added that this was proof that "Google gets better all the time."
Google has in the past said that despite its lead in the marketplace, users were "one click away" from switching to other alternatives.
Vanessa Fox of SearchEngineLand told the BBC that Google's ability to constantly innovate gives them a leading edge.
"Google is saying we have to provide for all searchers and do things at scale. It means they have to launch all sorts of features while some companies can concentrate on just one thing. The key thing behind why they are still ahead is because they are able to innovate at such a pace," said Ms Fox.

Blue diamond fetches record price

2009-05-12T23:46:00.000-07:00

A rare blue diamond has sold for a record 10.5 million Swiss francs ($9.5m; £6.2m) at auction in Geneva.
It weighs 7.03 carats, is smaller than a penny piece, and is one of only a handful of blue diamonds in existence.
The anonymous phone bidder has yet to name the gem, mounted on a platinum ring, auctioneers Sotheby's said.
The diamond was found in Cullinan mine in South Africa last year, and its clarity was graded as flawless - the highest designation.
Auctioneer David Bennett said: "It is a new world record price for a blue diamond."
It had a pre-sale catalogue estimate of 6.8 million to 10 million francs, excluding commission.

Credit card code to combat fraud

2009-05-12T23:45:00.002-07:00

A credit card with a built-in display is being tested by Visa with the aim of reducing online fraud.
The Emue Card generates and displays a unique code each time it is used.
Developers say that the new technology would make it very hard for fraudsters, as any transaction would require the pin to generate the code.
The card is currently being trialled by 500 employees of Deloitte with the aim of assessing the technology by the end of the year.
The new technology comes against a growing backdrop of fraud. While chip and pin technology has helped reduce crime at the tills, when it comes to phone, internet, and mail order fraud - known in the industry as card-not-present or CNP fraud - the figures are growing every year and now make up more than 50% of all credit card fraud.
These transactions ask for the 16-digit code on the front of the card, and expiry date and some also ask for the three digit security card on the back. All of these details are available to a criminal who has a stolen card.

The new code technology could reduce so-called 'card not present' fraud
According to figures from the Association for Payment Clearing Services (Apacs) - the trade forum for banks, building societies, and credit card firms - CNP fraud accounted for more than £328.4 million in 2008, a rise of 13% from the previous year.
Michelle Whiteman, a spokesperson for Apacs, said there were a number of problems in tackling CNP fraud.
"Firstly, you aren't able to check the card's physical security measures, such as the hologram or signature.
"Then, at present, there is no form of chip and pin security.
"And finally, because of the anonymous nature of internet transactions, there fraudsters have a much lower chance of getting caught, which probably encourages some people who might otherwise not commit a crime," she said.
Visa say the new Emue system could help combat this by adding an additional layer of security. While the three-figure security code would remain, an additional four figure code - generated by the card - would also be required before a transaction could go through.

India election starts final phase

2009-05-12T23:45:00.001-07:00

India has entered the final phase of its marathon general election, with 107m voters eligible to cast ballots.
Voting is in 86 constituencies across nine states and territories, including Tamil Nadu in the south and most parts of the city of Calcutta.
The main fight is between the ruling Congress party-led alliance and parties led by the BJP, although there is a host of regional opposition.
Results are announced on Saturday and an outright majority is unlikely.
A series of exit polls is expected after polling closes at 1700 local time (1130 GMT).

Japan and Russia pen nuclear deal

2009-05-12T23:43:00.000-07:00

Japan and Russia pen nuclear deal

Mr Putin said that it was important both countries developed economic ties
Japan and Russia have signed their first nuclear energy co-operation agreement during a visit to Tokyo by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
The deal will enable the transfer of Japanese technology to Russia and the sale of more nuclear fuel to Japan.
Mr Putin and his Japanese counterpart, Taro Aso, also pledged to study "all options" to end a territorial dispute.
Both claim sovereignty over islands Japan calls the Northern Territories and Russia calls the Southern Kurils.
The four islands have been under Russian control since the end of World War II, and the issue has since prevented the two nations from signing a comprehensive peace treaty.

"We must reach a final resolution on the sovereignty over the four islands in order to remove the obstacle of the territorial issue that lies between Japan and Russia," Mr Aso told a news conference in Tokyo.
"In this meeting, we were able to confirm that the prime minister has a strong resolve to move toward the final resolution of the issue," he added.
Mr Putin said that it was important that both countries developed "economic co-operation in order to create conditions for the signing of a peace treaty".
While president between 2000 and 2008, he refused to make any concessions over the islands.
Tuesday's nuclear accord will also pave the way for joint mining and oil ventures, and commercial contracts worth billions of dollars.

Folic acid protects baby hearts

2009-05-12T23:41:00.000-07:00

andatory fortification of bread with folic acid would slash the risk of babies being born with a heart problem, experience from Canada shows.
Rates of severe congenital heart defects among newborns in Quebec fell significantly after the move to fortify flour and pasta began in 1998.
The British Medical Journal online study lends support to calls for introducing fortification to Europe.
But others argue against this, saying it would inevitably harm some people.
The fear is that adding folic acid to products like bread could harm some elderly people if they are deficient in other B vitamins.
Personally, I do not think mandatory fortification is the way forward. It is like using a sledge hammer to crack a nut
Dr Sian Astley, a scientist for the Institute of Food Research
In extreme cases, this can cause irreversible damage to the nervous system.
There is also concern that it may also increase the risk of certain cancers, including bowel cancer, in some people.
In 2007 the UK's watchdog, the Food Standards Agency, agreed with expert recommendations to fortify bread or flour with folic acid.
Since then, at the request of the Chief Medical Officer, an expert working group on folate has been considering the results of recent trials looking at the effect of folic acid on the risk of some types of cancer.
The group is expected to report back to Sir Liam Donaldson this summer.

TOP TEN UNIVERSITIES IN THE WORLD

2009-04-29T04:19:00.000-07:00

Rank University
1 Harvard University, USA
2 Yale University, USA
3 University of Cambridge, UK
4 University of Oxford, UK
5 California Institute of Technology, USA
6 Imperial College London, UK
7 University College London, UK
8 The University of Chicago, USA
9 Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA
10 Columbia University, USA