The generosity by the G makes it clear how keen they are to get business from India, which as a matter of fact is 3rd largest population on the Internet and thereby a pool of untapped opportunities.

How to avail this offer:

1. Call 1860 266 6622
2. Speak out your business and contact details
3. Google India AdWords representatives will help you with account setup and provide support for running your campaigns.

All those who have never tried marketing their busines online must try this out. Business owners who want to have a trial of what search marketing can give in return should also sign up for it… and what makes it sweet is that you would have Rs.2500 to experiment.

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Bubble Curry!

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For quite some time Google and Yahoo have not delivered the most relevant results and the SERPs show up almost bombed with keyword spam. Things have gotten better though over a past few months but Bing just made it to the first slot in the que of “Evolving Search Engines”.

Microsoft was up to something ever since they were turned away by Yahoo in their bid to acquire the world’s second largest search portal. Now they have bounced back with bang sized Bing!

How is Bing going to make a difference?

1. Results are Transparent – I won’t argue that their results are better, because no one can actually prove it including the other two guys. Bing’s results provide a better access to information – in addition to the description text, it allows you to sneak into the webpage before actually clicking it.

If you use this feature, you are sure to get less BS on the page you land on.

Although it is a good attempt to make search experience better, yet BE CAUTIOUS of over-relying on this tool because it still needs a lot of improvement in order to give you an accurate snap shot of the most relevant text.

Search Engine Optimizers beware and stop using keyword spam – the search engines are evolving into better thinking machines.

2. Image Search just got better

Just try using the filters on the left; they are a handy set of tools which had made searching for desired images easier.

If you hover on an image, there is an option to see similar images. This feature is awesome – I don’t know if they are using some image matching algorithm but it really works.

I tried it and it showed me the image of the same hotel stored on various other websites. Although not 100% precise but the other images shown had a few similarities like water and greenery.

The filters will speed up the work for designers who are continously in need for images that match their concepts.

3. Best Video Search

Bing’s video search is just amazing… The filters are a great help here and Play on Hover is one of the best thingsthat could  happen to Video Search. The relevance, accuracy and precision of the results are also better than Google and Yahoo (sorry guys but it is like that).

All in all it is a good package for any searcher and its easier to search with Bing. On the same note, job of search engine optimizers will become harder because Bing soon will be counted with a bigger market share than Yahoo (unless they really bounce back with a better search solution). So MSN Search (Bing) will now be in every SEO action plan and hey whats going to happen to Live? I’ll write about this soon.

Bing Curry!

Related posts:

1. Optimum Keyword Density is a Gimmick!
2. SEO is Not About Packages

For a thought again, couldn’t that someone or something be the Internet itself? Yeah, why not?

After all, every website or web application we use has a capability to learn about us. Don’t Agree? If not, then lets try and understand what Internet is. To an end user, Internet is email, search engines, social networks, e-commerce and access to information. What an end user does not know is that all these utilities on the web are enabled with a mechanism that captures information about them.

The new Internet – It has a Brain and it Learns

In today’s Internet scenario, data about the users is collected, stored, interpreted and acted upon.

This data or information is not confined to one’s email address, name or telephone number. Internet learns a lot more than that about you.

Who does the thinking here?

In earlier days, webmasters or website owners did the thinking (and they continue to do so). They study and analyze the data captured about their visitors. This data helps them in understanding user-behavior, visitors’ likes or dislikes, visitor demographics etc. In the days of today, various automated software applications do the data capturing and its interpretation.

Internet is trying to become the courteous host at a party. A host who not only takes care of your likes, dislikes or interests but also tries to dress like you, talk like you and tries to be as close to you as possible.

A series of web-enabled software applications are keeping an eye on you; these applications collect information like your:

• your browsing history
• your geography or location
• your what you like on Internet and what you don’t
• what you search
• your age group
• your gender
• your Internet speed or the bandwidth

Intelligent thinking algorithms (or software with artificial intelligence) do the interpretation of this data and come up with conclusions like:

• what type of ads should be shown to you
• what kind of news headlines should be shown to you, whether politics or technology
• which search results should rank higher for you
• the list is endless

There’s a lot more to these conclusions when someone knows so much about you. It becomes very easy for a host at a party to make you feel comfortable once he or she knows you well. Internet or the web Utlities we use are doing the same – they are learning who and what we are and they are trying to become our friends, because we are comfortable being friends with people who are like us and we like them back.

Internet is an economy within itself; advertising and e-commerce fuel that economy and every user on the web is a consumer. By learning about us and how to be like us (the consumers), the creators of the web or the owners of web utilities (the sellers) are trying to maximize their share in the Internet economy pie.

The thought which initiated this post isn’t over yet. This post so far accrues from only a small part of that thought. I will try to write more on this very soon, after all I have resumed writing after a month or so.

P.S. – Don’t feel bad after reading this post because whoever or whatever is learning about us is only trying to be our friend because if it was otherwise, the end result will be the collapse of the Internet economy and people who’re vacationing in space with that money will definitely not want that

Just sip the curry, there’s nothing to worry!

Related posts:

1. Google can create or destroy the Internet
2. Indian Internet Services Industry – Truth the Funnier Way
3. Alexa’s Top 1 million websites globally

According to post by Courtney Mills on SearchNews, an error that occured on Google literally stopped everyone’s access to the Internet; at least the share of Internet routed through Google. As per the article,

This occurred at about 6.30am PST on Saturday. During this period all search results in Google were being flagged as malware with a message stating – “This site may harm your computer“.

Google’s own website was no exception to this glitch either. As rightly put by Courtney Mills in her post, Google Broke the Internet!

Upon clicking a search result, the following page opened.

Global Piss Off – the untold Prophecy

The glitch reportedly, occured due to human error when an anti-malware update was executed on Google. As per the sources, Google made $5.7 Billion in the last quarter, so per hour it makes around $2.6 Million. Since the glitch happened during early morning hours, the loss is being predicted to be less than average earning that Google makes in peak hours.

This was just a 1 hour outage and just imagine a day without Google. This would mean over 500 million searches that day are jeopardized, leading to nothing. Total chaos that would be, a total entropy over the Internet for one complete day. That day will be remembered as the Global Piss Off Day. Maybe Professor Chaos (from the TV show SouthPark, played by our very own Butters) should try this out one day

Curry with certain entropy!

Related posts:

1. Internet is Alive; It is learning being YOU
2. Alexa’s Top 1 million websites globally
3. Google Helps in Tracking the Spread of Flu

Tips to avoid bad experiences with Internet services vendor (SEOs and Content Writers)

Today, I just thought I’d play along and try to chat with him in the same pathetic language of his. God I enjoyed and laughed; not at this person’s inability to communicate in proper English but the fact that this guy is trying to run a business that is purely language based and has been following up like crazy as if I’m a stupid who’ll fall for his garbage. It seemed to be more fun when I started with gibberish sentences of my own . I’ll tell why I chose to write about this funny incident after you read the conversation, which went on exactly like this – word by word:

————————————————–

freelancersrealm:  Hello Abhishek

You there

 me:  hi

 freelancersrealm:  How’s u

 me:  me is fine  // I got funnier right from the beginning

 freelancersrealm:  Actually we chatted before too but you was quite busy so cud not continue.

 me:  yes i was quiet busy so cannot able to talk at you

 freelancersrealm:  Hope you have some time Now!!

 me:  now i have the lot of time

 freelancersrealm:  Oh thanks 

 me:  you go tell me what is your propsing?

 freelancersrealm:  Well I was looking for some work of content writing..if U can provide me ..

 me:  current time i have not a single project for outsource to you

 freelancersrealm:  Oh

 me:  you can send the few samples of of you work

 freelancersrealm:  no problem.

     I send You before too but u did not notice i guess..

     Well m sending again few sample of  our latest work..

 me:  ok you can sending now

 freelancersrealm:  do give a look..at least 

 me:  i will try look this time

 freelancersrealm:  Ok sure..

 me:  ok fine then ok

we chatted later one more time

bye ok?

 freelancersrealm:  Ok

just check your mail..m sending u few sample articles

 me:  ok

 freelancersrealm:  done!! do give a look ..

 me:  can you say to me about your experience in field of the content writer?

 freelancersrealm:  Well “wisden Writer” is writing contents from different clients from last 1 and half year..but Some of My Writers are doing it from last 2-3 years too..And you are added in my Wisden Writers ID as well..

This ID is for Writers…

our website is also just started..

www.wisdenwriters.com

 me:  ok

how much do you have experience of writing?

 freelancersrealm:  if You are talking about Me Only the Sir I dont write ..I have writers from different part of India

me:  ok

you working with freelancer and get projects for them

 Sent at 22:07 on Monday

 freelancersrealm:  yes..but most of the writers are our regular..

 Sent at 22:08 on Monday

 me:  so you are work is to middle man in projects

 Sent at 22:12 on Monday

 freelancersrealm:  Well Not just as Middle Man.I hv to arrange Everything and soon planning a based firm in delhi.

 Sent at 22:13 on Monday

 me:  so what will your role is? in a content writing company

 freelancersrealm:  ”Founder”

 me:  ok those are fine

i will contacting you very sooner

bye ok?

 freelancersrealm:  Sure 

Give us a chance at least to prove us 

yes Bye

Tc

—————————————————-

Now that is not something surprising. I keep on getting such lame pitches and follow-ups. And I feel sad about what is becoming of the indian IT services and Internet industry. If such people go out and start pitching to international clients then God save us and those clients too.

Content writing is an essential part of any intelligently planned SEO campaign. If you screw your content you screw your chances of being on top of search engines, after all they’re not fools who say that, “Content is King“.

Tips to avoid sucker vendors – How to filter out the junk?

1. An SEO who cannot speak or write correct English – how would he/she understand the correct combination of the keywords or how would he/she go about optimising your website’s content? This is true for most of the SEO’s.

2. SEO’s generally give guidelines to writers. You as a buyer should review them too, just to make sure the content you will get will mean something to the readers. Don’t fall for gimmicks like keyword density and keyword repition. Approve of only what English grammer approves of.

3. There is no such thing as SEO content – there is either bad content or good content which is liked by readers. Knock off such SEO’s.

4. Content writing is about aligning the content to your business goal, i.e. your SEO and Keywords should align with your business goals not the other way round as suggested by most junk SEO’s.

5. Most of the good SEO companies will bundle Content Writing Services with SEO, because they understand that both of them are inter-related and crucial for the success of your organic growth plan. Must Read: SEO is not about Packages

If you are about to outsource content writing work to India then please do so but not to weirdos like this one. Be very careful with the vendors you choose to work with. Content writing and SEO are two sectors typically which have been plagued in India.

There are good and exceptionally very good Internet services companies in India (like eRACHNIDA – www.erachnida.com) who care about standards and quality but most of them are full of jerks who’ll take up your SEO project for $50 (INR 2500) a month and write content for $0.50 (INR 20) per 100 words. What do you get in return? An all expenses paid trip to “This-ain’t-what-I-wanted Island“; beware, be cautious, be smart enought to ask the right questions while talking to your vendor.

Related posts:

1. Internet is Alive; It is learning being YOU
2. Google can create or destroy the Internet

If you are a small business aiming to reach out to new clients for a defined service or product then there’s no harm in going for such a package because it will serve you just right. But if you are to grow big and that too organically with search engine rankings then you are about to board the flight to “that’s-not-what-i-wanted island”.

Many SEO companies today are selling SEO packages without any commitments or assurance of organic growth . There is nothing wrong is giving a structure to your offering and packaging a service but SEO just has to be an exception. Don’t sell it as a package to everyone! Must Read: SEO in 5 Basic Steps – Search Engine Optimisation Fundamentals

I know that these companies (and most of optimisers) are not going to like me for this but I do have a point backed with logical reasoning here. Limiting a service which has to be an ongoing exploration  and research process is cheating a consumer because after the package span expires, which is usually 3-6months, the customer has nothing but a temporary ranking on Google or Yahoo for few keywords only. Genuinely done SEO takes time and gives guaranteed results and performance. Packaging it and bounding it in a package with a fixed set of deliverables is just not fair. Let me tell you why!

Why not to go for an SEO Package?

1. The number of targeted keywords are fixed -  with this you are confining your options because search trends keep on changing every now and then. What people are searching today won’t be the same 6 months hence. Your SEO strategy should be able to accomodate such trend swings in order to get the early mover advantage. Keyword research should be an on going process and should be repeated after every 3 months or so to keep your website’s content updated with fresh content.

2. The service time span in a package is fixed - when this time span expires you either have to upgrade to a better package, renew your package or remain unsatisfied with the results. Competitive keywords (the one’s which actually make you big) are the hardest to optimise for and it takes time for your rankings to get to the top and stabilise for those keywords. No point limiting yourself to a time-bound package when you’ve jotted a long-term organic growth strategy.

3. Fixed set of services - again by confining the scope of research and analysis you are narrowing the thought-span of your SEO vendor. Let them think broad and ask them to come up with newer innovative ways to optimise your site. Your SEO company might offer some nick nack services without charging you but would charge you for other services by giving you gimmick explanations like “SEO takes time for new website”, “go for paid links”, “start a blog for your website”. Don’t do anything with your website unless you think it might add true value to your visitors.

Getting rankings naturally is about building a website that is of some value to its visitors. If your visitors like it then the search engines will like it too.

Recommendation – go in for a customised SEO solution because every website needs to be marketed in a different way. Ask your SEO company to educate you with latest search trends and it also becomes your duty to update them with buildups in your trade. If done effectively, SEO can start giving you results within 1-2 months and things only get better as the time goes on.

A true search engine marketer will always try to create a differentiator for you, others will only work to get you rankings as per the package.

Talk to atleast 10 different SEO companies and atleast 10 search marketing professionals in order to decide who is more compatible with your growth plan. Sometimes having a 3rd party SEO professional review the ongoing work is also beneficial. Be careful and avoid getting yourself to the ‘that’s-not-what-i-wanted island’

Related posts:

1. Optimum Keyword Density is a Gimmick!
2. Better be Bing; Microsoft’s New Search Engine

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Running a startup requires more than just being frugal. As a bootstrapping entrepreneur you will often find yourself in a situation called “Should I or Should I Not” – and the dilemma is worst when you are stuck with the decision on whether or not to ‘buy’ something. Every ambitious entrepreneur behind a startup dreams of a plush office which is fully staffed with best talent and has the best infrastructure for the team to work in  to make the right impression in front of the clients or customers. And those dreams may even make him want to have the latest PDA, an Armani for the conference and a Ferrari – all just to make the perfect impression. Now that is something he would ‘want’ to have but not neccesarily something he would ‘need’ to run a successful startup.

To be honest, there is nothing wrong in having such desires, afterall, everyone has the right to desire. But when you are an entrepreneur you should know what and when to buy and how much to spend. To buy in a startup means a cost, an outward cash flow, a loss, an expense. This however is not always true because the whole idea of entrepreneurship houses on a hope of return on investment which in itself is an “expense on nothing” to begin with. But to ensure a 25^th anniversary for your newly started business you need to learn how to spend wisely. And living by the need-want rule will make it easier for you to make the right decisions for yourself and your team.

What is the need-want way of life? What is the need want rule?

Whenever you are confronted by dual thoughts on buying some thing, evaluate the urge as a need or a want. If that something is your need then buy it, but if it’s a want or merely a desire then don’t.

Turning a small startup into a big business is about fulfilling all the right needs; desires and wants can be fulfilled when you’re big.

How to know if the urge to buy is a Need or Want?

The demarkation between a need and a want is blurred and both of them overlap at certain instances of life. But there is a way in which you can differentiate between the two:

1. Want is short-lived
When you think you need something really bad then don’t be impulsive. Wait for sometime and try concentrating on business goals. A week spent focused on business goals will definitely give you an insight into what you real needs are.  If the urge dies out, then you will have found the right solution to your urge.

A dire need will keep pinching your heart even when you have tried avoiding it by trying focusing on business goals. If that is the case then go ahead and buy that for yourself or your team when you have enough money.

2. A need is replaceable, wants and desires are not
When you’re really in need of something then you tend to innovate, i.e. try to find a cheaper alternative that best solves that need. Desires don’t let you go the alternate way. When you want an iPod for music because it has cool features and extensive storage, then you don’t want to use your Sony Ericsson Walkman Phone with extended memory.

We tend to stick to desires because they mean accomplishments to us. When we fulfill a want or a  desire we think that we have achieved something – a happy moment in life. Wisely spending on needs will help us reach those happy moments. So if you think the latest Cannon “Printer Scanner Copier Fax” is what your business needs then do give an alternative a chance; a cheap fax machine and an inexpensive Epson printer could be a solution.

3. Needs are everyone’s
Do a quick dip stick within the team and have everyone’s opinion on whether they feel the same way you feel for buying something for office. If everyone (e v e r y o n e) thinks as you do, then go ahead and bring that accessory into your office.

That is the beauty of working in a startup – you can have everyone to put forward their opinion. It would also make your team feel great about working with your organisation.

4. Wants hurt later
Budgets are generally tight in startups and anything your regret buying later on could just have been a want. When you’ve spent on a need then that usually does not hurt because you did what everyone else needed.

Do let me know if the above rules help you in taking the right decisions for your startup. Sip this curry ,  spend wisely on gifts and office accessories in the holiday season.

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We often fail to describe what social media is because there are no boundaries limiting it’s presence and extent to which it can expand. This presentation on social media  is an attempt to put it in a summarized way (although not complete).

You can download this presentation in form of a PDF Document from here:
http://rapidshare.com/files/172142757/whatthefissocialmedia070208-1215026815612657-8.rar

This presentation contains some worth knowing facts and stats about the social web. The author states Social Media as a fundamental shift in the way we communicate and opposes it’s status as a fad. Other than theories the document also shares some insights on behavior of an Internet user of today. The presentation portrays social media as a promising marketing channel.

I think that Social Media is yet to be fully explored and in it vest millions of marketing and brand building opportunities. I say so because the social web is the web of today and that is where consumers have the power to be your marketer and brand ambassador.

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How is Time on Page and Time on Site Calculated?

Time spent on site is calculated by generating time stamps on visit to every page and then calculating the difference between the last and first time-stamp of a visitor session. For time spent on page time stamp on entry to that page and time stamp on entry to next page are taken into account.

Let us consider the diagram below:

The above diagram should make it clear how time stamps are used to calculate Average Time on Site and Average Time on Page. It should be noted that since the visitor exited from Page 3, therefore, there is no succeeding time stamp and hence time spent on Page 3 cannot be calculated and is shown to be 00:00 by Google Analytics.

So this means that if a page view of a particular page leads to an exit, then the time spent on that page is shown to be 00:00. In case of a bounce, time on site and time on page are both reported as 00:00 minutes. What is Exit Rate and Bounce Rate?

How reliable is this method of recording Time on Page & Time on Site?

Since time on page cannot be fetched for bounces and exits, the reported values are not 100% accurate because the data for exited and bounced traffic on a page is missing.

Reliability of Time on Page = 100% – Exit Rate

The above is true because Exit Rate indicates the percentage (number) of visits that led to an exit from that page so for that many percent of visits the data is missing and hence not reported. However, the Average Time on Page is calculated by taking 100% of page views (visits). So if my a web page has an exit rate of 20% then the reported Avg. time on page is only 80% accurate.

Lower the Exit Rate more reliable the Avg. Time on Page.

Actual Time on Site = Reported Time on Site x 100 / (100 – Bounce rate)

The above equation discounts the contribution of bounces. A bounce contributes 00:00 and hence causes an error because a bounce is taken as a page view (visit) whatsoever while averaging the Time on Site. Bounces should be left out because what we are are more concerned about is the visitors who browsed through the site. So, if my site has a Bounce Rate of 30% and the Reported Time on Site is 120 seconds (00:2:00 minutes) then the actual time on site is

120 sec x 100 / 70 = 171 sec = 2 min 51 sec

Note: This method assumes that reported Avg. Time on Page for all pages is correct.

Lower the Bounce Rate more reliable is the Time on Site.

And if you are to approximate the Avg. Time Spent on a Group of pages (a section of your site) then you can replace the bounce rate with Avg. Exit rate for those many pages in the second equation.

This method of calculating Time on Site is also not 100% accurate because even the reported time on site is faulty to begin with. Time on Site is nothing but the sum of Avg. Time on Page for all web pages. And we know that the reported Time on Page is not 100% accurate because Google Analytics does not record time spent on page for exits and bounces.

While you’ll be reading this I’ll be preparing a tutorial post on How To Calculate Time on Site with Maximum Accuracy. Until then enjoy this curry!

Related posts:

1. Using Google Analytics to track Unique Visits from a referring site

Download the complete ranking list from here:
http://rapidshare.com/files/169738144/top-1m.csv.zip.html

Check if your website has made it to the Top 1 Million Popular websites on the Internet.

What is Alexa Rank and how is it calculated?

Alexa rank is a cumulative measure of a website’s reach and the number of pageviews it gets. It is calculated by aggregating browsing trends of millions of Alexa Toolbar users and traffic data from other sources.

Reach of a website is the percentage of internet users (globally) that visit that site. e.g if ConceptCurry.com has a 20% reach then that would mean that 20 percent of global internet users visit this site.Page Views for a website is the average number of pages visited by a visitor of that site. more information on Alexa Traffic Rank

Top 20 Websites as per the list

1. yahoo.com
2. google.com
3. youtube.com
4. live.com
5. facebook.com
6. msn.com
7. myspace.com
8. wikipedia.org
9. blogger.com
10. yahoo.co.jp
11. baidu.com
12. google.de
13. rapidshare.com
14. google.co.in
15. qq.com
16. microsoft.com
17. hi5.com
18. sina.com.cn
19. google.fr
20. ebay.com

I personally feel that the Alexa rank should only be used to get an approximation of the real traffic or reach that website might have. Since Alexa itself calculates based on it’s toolbar users and some other data sources to approximate website stats.

Enjoy this curry!

Related posts:

1. Google can create or destroy the Internet
2. Internet is Alive; It is learning being YOU

Currently, Google Analytics does not show unique visits for a referring source but it does show unique views of every content page. Yes, this showed me a light bulb near my forehead.

Google Analytics: Referring Source Details

Google Analytics: Content Details

See? I was not lying about the light bulb…

How to track Unique Views from Referring Sites?

1. You can create a custom tracking URL for partner site like the one shown below:

http://www.mysite.com/landingpage.htm?utm_source=PARTNER1&utm_medium=CPC&utm_campaign=PPC

You can also create this URL by using the Tracking URL Generator tool by Google Analytics.

Note: utm_source parameter in the above URL is the referring source.

2. On your landing page replace the following code with the code below in your GA Script:

REPLACE pageTracker._trackPageview();

WITH    pageTracker._trackPageview(utm_source);

The idea is to pass the value of the parameter utm_source (which is the name you gave to referring source) from the URL to the ga.js which is your google analytics script.

3. Another thing you can do to measure the legitimacy of the referring source is that you use the Dimension filter to see the visitor type for a particular referring source. This would give you an idea about New v/s Returning visitors that partner is sending to your site. If you see a high number of Returning Visitors for one particular referring site then there is a probability of manual click fraud. Of course this is only true when these returning visitors are showing no conversions or high bounce rate.

I suggested the above to my friend, hope it works

Related posts:

1. Time on Site & Time on Page – Google Analytics metric mystery

With YooWalk you can enable your virtual self to walk in the Internet. YooWalk is a 3D view of the web where you as a user can walk your avatar through various websites. Yes actually!

A lot of popular websites have been depicted as 3D blocks on a road side with an entry door to each one of them. It appears as if those blocks are buildings and you can move around your avatar or a virtual character and walk into any site that you like. The sites have been grouped and are shown on a 3D map as if you were strolling througha city. An experience worth having, just to see how else you can view the Internet.

It reminds me of Second Life and Google Lively though. Yoo Walk also has 3D chat rooms similar to those of Lively. On the screen you can see other virtual characters and you can walk to them have a chat and network with them. You can call it the browser version of second life if you want but it has a unique offering for different kind of visitors. Like the sites have been grouped together based on their geography and category. So can walk around a block of sites according to your interest, whether sports, news or arts etc. There are a lot of empty blocks (real estate) on the website. I think they intend to sell that off for advertisements.

The business/revenue model of YooWalk appears simple and delicious. There is so much that can be done on this website but that is only if it’s a hit.  It appears to be exciting but it still needs to go a long way ahead. When you enter a building (site) then browsing through that site isn’t very easy and you can only view select content. By the way Google is calling Lively off and they’ll be putting it down on 31st December 2008.

May be there is something for YooWalk people to learn that this whole 3D Internet just aint working out good for business.

This curry is hot!

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Google has spent about an year to dig into it’s database to analyse search trends over flu and have come up with a way of tracking spread of flu 10-14 days faster than the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

Following the research Google has launched Flu Trends to help people in United States to know about the break out of Flu in their state. Now this is what I consider a perfect example of Technology for Society. Such innovative ideas could help in surveillance and warning for so many other diseases and epidemics.

Just imagine that we could subscribe to health alerts from Google – the world will be such a safe place. The health alerts would also mean a new revenue stream for Google where it could provide a perfect platform for Pharmacies and may be doctors to advertise.

Related posts:

1. Google can create or destroy the Internet

YSM is no longer out of the consideration set of search marketers because it now features better reporting, tracking, targeted ad delivery and a lot more control over your campaigns. Although it is not thought to be as good as Google Adwords but it is a good alternative to reach out to an extra bit of audience. The days when YSM used Overture’s serving technology advertisers used it as a cheaper alternative. That is not the case anymore because YSM will now cost you almost the same or more than Adwords.

YSM takes the Revenue Route

Yahoo! has now resorted to a new pricing structure wherein they have a fixed minimum bid price for high traffic keywords. The minimum bid price on Adwords is determined by the amount of competition. High traffic keywords are ought to attract more competition and higher bids due to the ever ongoing bid war.

So if you want to get traffic from Yahoo then you better be including those highly searched keywords as well and since most of the clicks would come from those expensive keywords your average CPC will shoot up. This has somehow caused the CPC’s of my YSM campaigns to exceed that on Adwords. FYI, I use the exact replica of my Adwords campaigns on YSM!

How to get lower CPC’s on YSM?

1. Add more keywords and try keyword combinations. You can use both the keyword tools from Adwords and YSM.

2. Go for better performing ad copies. This will result in higher CTR’s and better Quality Index (analogous to Adwords’ quality sScore. On YSM quality index is calculated at ad copy level but on Adwords its calculated at keyword level). Better the quality index the lesser you’ll pay for higher positions and the clicks will be cheaper.

3. Use only related keywords in an ad group. Try and demarkate keyword sets by creating different ad groups and different ad copies for every ad group. So focus on quality of ads and the relevance of those ads for their ad group.

Yahoo! Inc. might have found a way to generate some more revenue by resorting to a fixed minimum pricing model but what they should be working on is increasing their search volumes. By the way they are doing an aggressive campaign in India to promote their new SERP format – Glue Page which contains all information on a topic glued to one single page.

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What we communicate through body language at times happens without an enforced effort on out part. It just happens on it’s own. For instance you won’t believe someone who just said, “I am happy” with a long face and slagging shoulders – you would know its not the case. The other person wanted you to believe he was happy by saying so but you came to know the truth by what he communicated through his body language.

In a similar way you are adjudged based on your body language. So, how to present yourself for an interview?

1. Be humble and confident

Before anything else greet the interviewer with a smile and a firm handshake with proper eye contact. This shows respect and interest and also your confidence and self esteem. You greeting the interviewer should not look like flattery. There is a noticeable difference between flattery and that you appreciate the opportunity.

Try and maintain a polite smile through out your conversation – that’ll help the interviewer in easing out with you and as a common practice, interviewers also maintain a smile to make you comfortable.

2. Do not explode with energy

Being energetic is good but while dealing with interview questions in an energetic manner send out a wrong signal. The more energy you’ll have the more strong your hand gestures become and your voice tone becomes fidgety.

Try and stay calm and take every question as an opportunity to sell yourself better. There is no point to be made to the interviewer by being aggressive; he’s only looking for a cool person to have in his team who would be calm and enjoyable to work with for other team members too.

3. Hand and arm gestures

Avoid touching your neck, ears, cheeks or eyes during the interview. The other person might think you are concealing something or lying about something. This assumption is based on a theory used by Lie Detecting Specialists and Interrogators that a lying person tries to avoid eye contact and tries to get shelter by covering his face with hands or touching organs near the face time to time.

Crossed arms or joined hands signal that you are shut and not willing to be receptive. To rise forward as an open minded person, keep your arms uncrossed and hands open with palms facing the table. And when hands on table avoid tapping your fingers while speaking – this often signals dilemma or dubious thoughts. Being dubious within yourself is not going to show you as a trustworthy person.

4. Do not cross your legs

This according to some body language experts creates a barrier in front of the other person. Show that you are friendly and unguarded.

5. Sitting Posture

Sitting in a posture with erect back shows your interest and attentiveness in the ongoing activity. Do not slouch or slag your shoulders. Broaden your shoulders and sit straight but don’t overdo it! Overdoing it would show that you’re over confident or nervous or conscious about something.

Do’s and Dont’s in 4 C’s

Be cool, calm, confident and cheerful during an interview.
Never be cheesy, crossed, closed or cunning.

That’s all, enjoy the curry!

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Book your most desired username on popular websites today. Even if you don’t use some of them you might want to use them in future. And trust me, then you won’t want to see “this username is already taken“.

UserNameCheck supports an availability check for around 70 popular websites. Some of them are really worth having your username on:

I wish they could have more features like a Username Popularity Meter and a Username Storage. Also, if they could release widgets or an API for other third party websites/blogs to use their service.

The website is a great utility but I don’t quite get their business model. How will they turn this into a minting machine? I don’t think they’ve even thought about it till now!

I’ll get in touch with these guys for a vivid insight into their game plan.

Until then enjoy this curry as you surf aroud checking your username availability.

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The discussion went something like this:

Me: Yahoo’s search advertising business is no where close to that of Google and that scenario looks less likely to change for next 5 years or so.

My Friend: Yes, because Google has more than 70% share of the searches that happen on the Internet. And then Google’s ad serving technology is also more intelligent. Google Adsense publishers also out number those of the YPN.

Me: But isn’t Yahoo is the biggest portal on the Internet with most number of daily visitors.

So why doesn’t Yahoo open it’s own inventory for it’s Search Marketing platform?

After having said this I realised that the thought isn’t a bad idea at all.

Yahoo has spent good money in building it’s do-it-yourself ad serving technology very similar to that of Google Adwords. No doubt Yahoo gets way lesser number of searches everyday and their search ads revenue would never be as high as Google’s. But, if they could put some more effort in optimising their ad technology to serve contextual targeted ads on Yahoo.com, Yahoo regional portals and online services in their sub-network then they could actually earn a lot more revenue than what they earn from the existing system.

Currently Yahoo’s portal inventory is monetised by ad sales and to do that they require a huge sales force and support staff to draw advertisers, placing ads, furnishing ad slots etc. I don’t understand why can’t they include their own inventory in their own marketing platform!

Does it not make sense? A self serve technology that will enable advertisers to select keywords or topics and then bid for millions of ad slots on Yahoo’s portal inventory. What’s stopping them?

I think the pressure generated by competition in search business has made this big fish close its eyes who can’t see this worm. And then search was never their business; information portal was!

Spicy Curry!  Digg it

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A search engine crawler doesn’t read your content, it only collects it and by some embedded intelligence tries to relate your content to other benchmarks to identify the theme of your content. The collected information is sent to the search engine’s index which is a categorized collection of data collected from millions of websites and web pages. Search engines are programmed to show good quality content in their results.

Optimal keyword density gimmick explained

Keyword density generally pertains to the number of times a keyword has appeared in your content. The content should be written naturally with the topic or subject in mind and not the targeted keyword in mind. If the content is written naturally then the keyword density will no longer be the pinch and you could write what you want to, for your visitors.

If your visitors like the content, so will Google, Yahoo, Live or any other search engine.

The math is simple. If you write an article naturally you will anyway end up using the keyword a few number of times. You can’t write a 300 words article about apples without using the word apple or apples or it’s synonym a few number of times. That’s it! There is no hard and fast rule for a keyword to appear a fixed number of times in your content. It is only the quality and relevance of the content that matters.

How will this content writing strategy help?

Good content will always be appreciated by people and then it will also receive votes (back links). Every vote counts and every vote helps in building your website’s image in the eyes of Google or any other search engine.

A real human visitor will actually read your content, understand it and based on that decide the quality of your website. And based on this decision the user will either want to stay on your website, subscribe to your content or simply exit and never come back.

Now, what makes more sense? Real people liking your content and wanting to read it more and more and return to your website or a programmed crawler or a search engine? Of course real people.

To keep in mind while writing content

The content written about a topic, say apples, should never read like -

An apple is red from the outside. From the inside, an apple is watery and juicy. An apple a day keeps the doctor away. Apple helps build immunity. Apple also cleans teeth and strengthens the gums.

Two words for such piece of information – bull shit. This is unwanted information and the last thing I or you would want to read if presented in such a way. Mathematically it will lead to high keyword density and that is why search engines hate content with high keyword density, because we humans hate that too.

So, there’s nothing like an optimal keyword density. Just keep your content plain and simple for your visitors because if you can make people love your content then Google & Yahoo will also show their affection for it.

The curry is served!

Related posts:

1. SEO is Not About Packages
2. Better be Bing; Microsoft’s New Search Engine

SEO is the process of fine tuning a website to increase it’s visibility on search engines.

Ever wondered if your site could appear on top of search results on a search engine like Google or Yahoo? If not then you better start wondering because that is one of the best ways to drive tarffic to your website as you dont have to pay for this traffic. It is free advertising for your site on world’s most popular websites – Google and Yahoo search. SEO can help you get that free organic traffic!

5 simple steps to optimise your website for search engines

I’m trying to create a series of such tutorials that’ll help you learn and implement SEO techniques on your site. I’ll try to give an in-depth knowledge on SEO but it will take time and a lot of post in a series. For now enjoy a small tutorial to make yourself aware on what SEO is and it’s fundamentals. If the fundamentals are clear you’ll never have any problem with SEO no matter what.

The following is what you need to do as the first thing once you launch your site or go through once you have launched a new section on your website. This will also help you optimise your site right from the scratch.

1. Make your site visible

First of all you need to make sure that your site’s content is readable by search engine crawlers. Data collected by these crawlers is sent back to the search engine and used in evaluating your site’s content. Flash, Javascript, AJAX and likes are not readable by crawlers till date. For this you can use HTML in conjunction with CSS to produce text and image effects.

To check how a search engine would see your website you can view your site in all-text mode (done by disabling styles in your browser View) or use a text-only browser. Other than that you can use a search engine simulator like the one here.

Make sure that links on your website are HTML hyperlinks and not Flash or Javascript. The way you link your web pages on your site is one of the most essential factors a search engine considers while rating your web pages and the domain (entire website).

Write original content for the website copy or else you’ll never be able to sustain top rankings on Google, Yahoo or LIVE search.

2. Choose the right Keywords

Keywords are words or phrases that users search for on a search engine. Make a list of such keywords that you would want your site or web pages to appear on top for on Google or Yahoo search.Generally, your keywords list should contain the words that make sense for your website’s visitors. If your website is about apples then include keywords about apples not mangoes.

Once you’re done with the list you can see how many times those keywords are searched for; you can do this using this tool. Keyword tools only give an approximate idea about the search volumes for a set of keywords. You can also use such tools for seeing other variations of your keywords that you could include in your list.

A keyword having a high search count will often have high competition because a lot of other websites will be wanting to rank top for those keywords, for an obvious reason. You can check the competition by looking at the number of results found by Google for that search. To get a better estimate search for allintitle:yourkeyword, this will show you the websites that are competing on your keyword.

3. Use the keywords

If a user sees what he search for on your site, does it not make sense? So for this reason we need to place keywords on different places in a web page:

• Page Title: The <title> of your web page should explain the purpose and identity of that page. Write a title no longer than 10 words which also contains your keywords. If the web page is about apples then a title like “Information all about Apples” is good because that’s what inside. Don’t try to fool people by writing “Information – not only on Apples but also Mangoes and Pamela Anderson” because this ain’t going to work mateys.

• Page Heading: The heading or <h1> of your page should be what follows it, just like a newspaper headline. If the page is solely about a Mobile Phone then a heading like “Information on Mobile Phones” is good enough but do not write “Mobile Phones, Computers and Roller Skates” because it won’t make sense.

The idea is to optimise your web pages only for the keywords that make sense for your website’s visitors. The content on your page is for your visitors not for search engines.

• Body Text: The content you write for a page should be written naturally about the topic the page is about. Don’t try to stuff keywords here and there just to optimise the page. If your visitors don’t like what they see then its nothing more than a waste.

4. Links

The way our site is linked plays a very important role in SEO. There are two types of links – internal and external links.

Internal Links are the links that are on your own site and are links to your site’s pages from  and to each other. Basically, your site’s navigation collectively comprises of interal links. The anchor texts for these links should contain the main keyword of the page it is linking to. Try and keep anchor texts for internal links small, concise and do not unnecessarily stuff keywords into them. Your site’s navigation is for real humans; let them find it easy to use your site.

External Links are links from other sites to your site or your web pages. Every incoming link from other site to your site is counted as a vote for your site as long as it makes sense for that site’s visitors to come to your site. If your site is about apples then its ok to have a link from a site about mangoes but definitely not from a site about dating and relationships. Worst case, its even ok to have a link to your apple site from a web page about a “Woman’s relationship with an Apple” – it is only about the relevance of that link. The anchor text of external links too should contain your keywords.

5. Popularise

This part in SEO is the respiratory system of your Search Marketing plan. Keywords, Content and Links together are the oxygen and popularising your site the mechanism which uses this oxygen to produce a happily functioning breathing website. nerdy huh?

In “non-discovery channel” language submit your website url to other sites that may want to add a link to your site. This does not mean you start paying those people to link to your site. Getting links should be natural – if your site is really good then other websites will link to you out of nature because everyone wants to give good references and resources to their visitors.

Did Wikipedia pay anyone to link to them? It happened on it’s own because Wikipedia’s content is a good reference to give.

Submit your web page urls to:

• bookmark and information sharing websites like Digg, Del.icio.us, StumbleUpon and Yahoo Buzz!
• regional and niche web directories – some people often use these directories to find local businesses and interesting sites.
• Dmoz – it is one of the biggest a library of websites added by human editors. Google uses it as it’s directory.
• Yahoo Directory – same as Dmoz but used by Yahoo, it is good too.
• other search engines like MSN/Live, AOL, Ask, Search etc. – this can be done by finding the “Submit a Site” or “Add URL” option on these search engines. Try searching for it on the respective search engine.

Do all of the above with your new website and you would definitely start getting some traffic from Google or Yahoo in 3-4 weeks. Getting to the top will take time and in some cases it takes a lot more effort.

SEO is not a complex procedure, it only requires patience and smart planning.

The above tips are only for beginners. There is a lot more to SEO and Search Marketing; I will try to bring that up soon on this blog.

Until then just sip on this curry!

Related posts:

1. Better be Bing; Microsoft’s New Search Engine
2. Yahoo Search Marketing is Expensive than Google Adwords
3. Optimum Keyword Density is a Gimmick!

NewsCred.com

Basically, NewsCred’s algorithm takes into account the quality (credibility voted by readers) of articles, authors and news source and ranks them in order to qualify them to appear on home page. An analytics keeper module on NewsCred maintains a track record of writers, bloggers, jounraliststs and news sources. The module also records industry trends in order to further empower the algo.

As a signed user you can also customize your view of your default page. In NewsCred terminology they call it ‘your newspaper’ because you can personalize your page by selecting the news sources from which you want to read and create your own newspaper page.

NewsCred vs Digg

Although NewsCred is an excellent tool to get quality news, I really haven’t understood the need of such an algorithm. Shouldn’t we get news based on the popularity of the content inside instead of how good or bad the news source is?

With the current NewsCred algorithm a reader can only view news based on credibility (quality) of the news source. The algo takes a myth for granted that only popular sources will provide good news stories which is not totally correct.

In such a scenario, the news a reader is more likely to see on NewsCred would be from popular blogs and newspapers’ sites. This means as a reader you are less likely to spot a news story that may be good and worth reading but from a less popular source.

Digg is immune to such apartheid because if your content is good then you can have your “1000 Diggs of fame” no matter how popular or credible a source you are. Ranking on Digg is purely based on the likability of the news story’s or blog’s content and the likability here also is expressed by votes (diggs) casted by readers.

And then once you are famous on Digg then you might even make it to NewsCred’s list of credible sources which would in turn get you more visibility and more Diggs.

Being credibly famous, my friend, is a virtue

Both the sites rely on cumulative social behaviour towards any content and this makes both of them a neutral & unbiased tool to explore interesting information available on the web.

Hot Curry!

Related posts:

1. UserNameCheck.com – is your favourite username available?
2. Google can create or destroy the Internet
3. Indian Internet Services Industry – Truth the Funnier Way

Now, the new home page looks more like a roster where you’ll see the list of all your analytics acounts. Along with the list they now provide more details for an account like the number of visits, average time on site, bounce rate, goals completed and a dynamic field to see the percentage change in a metric over a day, week, month or an year.

This “%age change” field has proven to be so helpful if you are monitoring multiple account at one time. This field now enables you to see a change in your sites’ visits, avg. time, goals and bounce rate compared to their values last month or last week. So now you won’t have to drill into each and every account individually to get different metrics. Now you can simply know whether there is an increase or fall in any metric.

All in all, great effort by googlers to make their analytics tool more usable and likable.

Related posts:

1. Time on Site & Time on Page – Google Analytics metric mystery
2. Using Google Analytics to track Unique Visits from a referring site

But then I wondered why can’t I get a browser that could do it all for me. I got an answer for that, Flock – a social web browser.

Yes, that is what it’s creators call it, social web browser and to some extent it is an appropriate nomenclature. Why? Because the web browser has over 23 social web services integrated. You can follow your friends through built in friend feeds from Twitter and Facebook, share & search videos on YouTube, images on Flickr, news feeds from Digg all available in the sidebar of the browser. What more could you ask for? A built in blogging tool perhaps? How about an all-in-one photo uploader? and there’s more; a built in RSS Feed reader as well.

Flock's sidebar shows your friends' activity from Facebook, Digg, Twitter etc.

The web browser has been built on Mozilla’s engine and therefore has a similar UI and keyboard shortcuts as Firefox. You can also export all your settings, options and information from Firefox to Flock and start using it readily just like Firefox but with an added flavour of social web.

Flock has it all and it promises a rich wholesome user experience as far as using social web applications is concerned. As long as you use social web applications you need the power of Flock; it simply facilitates sharing and social networking up to a level where you start seeing your browser as a place where you live in the world wide web.

Download Flock

This curry is super hot!

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But, you know what, people like me could use some help from RouteGuru.com, a website that offers driving directions in text format with instructions based on landmarks on the route. Yet better, they also show an approximate auto rickshaw (taxi) fare for the route.

What I like about the website

1. The concept itself because being able to get route hints in text format alongwith landmark indications is unique.
2. Getting routes and directions is easy. Just enter the starting and end point of your journey in the Delhi/NCR region and poof! You get directions with instructions to take right/left turns from landmarks such as roads, lanes, fly-overs, famous buildings etc.
3. Even when there are no labels or names available for streets or lanes, the service will give landmark based route hints in order to guide you through your journey.

The website has an easy to use interface and easy to understand usability instructions.

But what excites more is that as a Delhiite you won’t have to argue with autowalaa’s for the fare or when they take spurious routes to get a higher fare. Before entering the auto you would know the landmarks on the route and you would know if the driver takes you from a dubious route.

Plus you also get the route on the map. These guys have done a splendid job by mashing up their text info with Google Maps via the map API provided by Google.

The map view of the route gives a further clarity on the route. You can also take a print out of the directions.

Even better, this service is available on WAP as well as SMS. For the WAP version of RouteGuru you need to access http://www.routeguru.com/m

To avail this service on SMS you have to send “rg starting point to destination“ to 56767 and you’ll get the directions in text alongwith the auto fare for that route.

But the service is available in India only and that too for the National Capital Region of Delhi. Hope they’ll expand to more cities and eventually on a global scale.

What I miss in the product

1. I wish this could be a national and an international service soon.
2. The text directions are based on the  GIS data provided by an external source (Eicher Good Earth) and hence the directions contain the formal names of roads, structures and buildings. It could be better if the native or local names of roads and buildings could be provided.
3. There are certain routes I or anyone else would take for some destinations that an algorithm might not be able to analyse. There should have been an option for user generated content (UGC) so that people could add their favourite routes and help other people know the alternate short-cut routes. With UGC enabled people would also add the native names of roads and places. For instance Ring Road in New Delhi is formally known as Mahatma Gandhi Marg, did you know that?
4. Just one small thing that the WAP site address should have been m.routeguru.com since a dot (.) is easier to type than slashes (/) on a mobile phone.

I would still recommend this site to all Delhiites and people in other cities when this service launches in their city. FYI, RouteGuru is a Delhi-based startup and they intend to launch in different cities very soon. Their innovation in the GIS space, no doubt, is competent with map based navigation systems and all in all its an easy to access service for anyone who is not-so-good with finding routes.

This curry is hot but still being cooked.

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