ProBlog Magazine

HTC 7 Mozart Launched In India By HTC India

2011-01-05T05:14:00.000-08:00

HTC India along with Cellular service provider TATA DOCOMO has announced the new Mozart handset with Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 mobile operating system. Mozart is the first HTC handset to sport an 8 megapixel camera with Xenon Flash, and comes with Dolby Mobile certification.

Features of HTC Mozart:

* HTC Mozart comes with Windows Phone 7 mobile operating system.
* 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8250 CPU with 576MB RAM and 512MB ROM
* 8GB internal storage
* The Windows Phone 7 will let you enjoy the new Hub and Tile interfaces to interact with different menus like Photos, People, Music & Video, Games and Office.
* 3.7-inch WVGA touchscreen display
* High fidelity audio with the Dolby Mobile and SRS Surround Sound certifications.
* 8 Megapixel camera that comes with Xenon Flash and is capable of recording 720p HD video.

HTC Mozart will be available with an exclusive Special Data Offer for TATA DOCOMO subscribers and is priced for India at Market Price of Rs. 27,000/-.

Download AVG Anti Virus Free Edition 2011

2011-01-02T02:04:00.000-08:00

AVG anti-virus can protect your computer during surfing,searching, and social networking.

Thousands of people around the globe use AVG anti virus free edition for their basic online activities. Whether it's surfing the internet, conducting web searches, or simply keeping up with friends on social networking sites.

AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition 2011 allows you to:

1. Stay protected on social networks with AVG Social networking protection.
2. Surf and Search with confidence AVG Link scanner's real time protection.
3. Enjoy a faster running PC AVG Smart Scanning works while you're away and runs in low priority mode when you run.
4. Stay up to date with the latest threat information from the AVG Community protection network and AVG protective cloud technology.

Download AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition 2011.

Top Five Android Phones To Buy In India

2010-12-24T23:08:00.000-08:00

1. Andro A60 - Micromax

Micromax Andro A60 is here in this list simply because of its price. It is the cheapest Android phone available in India. If you are a Geek on a budget and really want to buy an android phone to play around with it, by installing apps and tweaking the settings, this one is for you. Biggest drawback is its’ 2.8 inch resistive touch screen, which is mediocre when it comes to touch and type.

Price Range: Rs. 6000 - 6,500

2. Samsung Galaxy 3 i5801

Samsung Galaxy 3 is a higher version of Galaxy 5. It comes with 3.2″ capacitive touchscreen and multi touch. It has Android 2.1 with TouchWiz 3.0 UI. Processor is 667MHz and there is 256MB RAM
. Biggest drawback of this phone is the low display resolution and poor sunlight legibility. Overall Galaxy 3 is a decent smart phone at a decent price.

Price Range: Rs. 11,000 - 11,750

3.Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 Mini Pro

Sony Ericsson has also adopted Android but not as openheartedly as other manufacturers. This is why when everyone has moved on to Android 2.1 and above, Sony is still stuck with dated and customized Android OS v1.6 with Timescape UI. This is premium compact phone with 2.55" capacitive touchscreen and a slider qwerty keypad. If you are a geek and want an Android phone, don’t even think about this. This seems to be targeted for ladies who would like a sleek and small phone with a decent looks and glossy UI.

Price Range: Rs. 15,000 - 15,300

4.Samsung Galaxy S I9000

Samsung Galaxy S is easily one of the best Android phones you can lay your hands on. It comes with a brilliant 4″ 16M-color Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen which is just amazing and Android OS v2.1 with TouchWiz 3.0 UI customization. It runs super fast because of 1GHz Hummingbird Processor and 512 MB of RAM. It is capable of 720p HD recording. It also comes bundled with Swype predictive text input which makes typing on touch screen really fast and accurate.

Price Range: Rs. 27,000 - 28,000

5.HTC Desire

HTC Desire, the top in line product from HTC is the ultimate Android Smartphone. If you cannot buy Google’s Nexus One, because it not available in you country, you can buy this. It’s the twin of Nexus One (which is also manufactured by HTC). It has a 3.7″ 16M-color capacitive AMOLED touchscreen and Android OS v2.1 with kinetic scrolling and pinch zooming. It runs on Qualcomm Snapdragon 1 GHz processor making it one of the fastest phones available. Only drawback is the poor video quality on recording.

Price Range: Rs. 26,000 - 27,000

Samsung Galaxy Tab sales Hit One Million Mark

2010-12-06T02:23:00.000-08:00

Samsung has sold 1 million Galaxy Tab tablet devices worldwide just two months after putting it on sale outside the U.S., and all four major wireless U.S. carriers starting sales in mid-November.

The larger 9.7-inch screen Apple iPad tablet hit the 1 million sold mark just one month after going on sale in April. Nonetheless, the Samsung sales results show that the Android-based, 7-inch touchscreen of the Galaxy Tab is indeed popular as well.

The Thanksgiving holiday likely helped spur sales in the U.S., although Samsung has not revealed sales figures for specific regions. A Samsung spokesperson confirmed that global sales had reached the 1 million sales.

Individual carriers recently said they were encouraged by Galaxy Tab sales, but did not reveal any specific figures.

Marie Claire Arrives on the iPad

2010-12-02T22:54:00.000-08:00

Marie Claire launched its own iPad app Thursday, making its last six issues available to owners of the device.

The July to November issues are mere PDF scans of the print version of the magazine. The December issue is likewise primarily a PDF edition of the magazine, but but it adds a few additional features that make it far more interesting (and thus, worth writing about), such as a “living” (i.e. video) cover of actor Emma Watson, embedded behind-the-scenes video, a short film, an interactive quiz, 360-degree rotations of certain items and streaming music clips.

In terms of design and engagement, it’s not even close to the likes of Wired, Esquire or Martha Stewart Living, but the additions are nevertheless well done.

I especially enjoyed Editor-in-Chief Joanna Coales’s video address to the reader, which was so much more personable and engaging than the typical’s editor letter, and a short film entitled “The Suitcase,” which beautifully combines advertisers’ clothing with a light narrative to create new kind of fashion spread.

The December issue is available for $3.50 through the Marie Claire app [iTunes link]. Subscriptions are available for $10 per year through the app.

Facebook Unveils Email Feature, What's Your @facebook ID?

2010-11-15T20:25:00.000-08:00

The world's favourite social networking website, Facebook has launched a new messaging service, which allows the users to communicate with people outside the social network.

The new messaging system will provide a '@facebook.com' e-mail address to users. The new system will integrates all web and text-based communications and works directly in the Facebook page.

Texts, email or instant messages will all come into one 'feed' or 'social inbox' and users can respond in any way they want. Users can respond to messages via an instant message or email.

The entire conversation histories will be stored in Inbox, which users can check at any time. Now Facebook users can connect with other people with e-mail or messaging other than the current system of posting messages on profile page and internal messaging service.

"This is not an email killer. This is a messaging systemthat includes email as one part of it," said Zuckerberg, Facebook CEO.

"Maybe we can help push the way people do messaging more towards this simple, real time, immediate personal experience. Email is still really important to a lot of people. We think this simple messaging is how people will shift their communication," he added.

"We really want to enable people to have conversations with the people they care about," Facebook's director of engineering Andrew Bosworth said.

The new service will be rolled out in coming months for Facebook's 500 million plus users with a @facebook.com address.

The new e-mail service will be a threat to internet giant Google's mail service Gmail and Yahoomail.

NASA Aims To Reach Newyork From London In 45 Minutes

2010-11-05T22:18:00.000-07:00

The US space agency NASA has plans to build a Hypersonic jet that would enable passengers to fly from London to New York in just 45 minutes!

The craft would travel at an incredible five times the speed of sound, reaching Mach 5, which when you compare it to the iconic jet Concorde that completed its first supersonic flight in 1969 flying at twice the speed of sound, Mach 2, these are phenomenal speeds!

Scientists at NASA are planning to spend $15 million (9.25 million) over the coming three years to finalise the project and although the aircraft is designed with the purpose of flying in space, if it were to be considered for commercial passenger flights it could see travelling times drastically cut for example; passengers flying from New York to Sidney, Australia, could see their journey reduced from the current time of 21 hours to a mere two and a half hours.

The NASA Aeronautics 2010 proposal states: “Space access launch vehicles must be lightweight, fully reusable and easily maintained if low-cost access to space is to be achieved.”

Diwali Offers From Deals4U

2010-11-05T22:13:00.000-07:00

Game4u is offering some exciting discounts on games, gaming consoles and accessories this Diwali. Here are some of the offers that you can avail of right now:

1. Purchase a Gaming Console and get 10% OFF on next purchase of Games/Peripheral for that console
2. Buy a PS3/Xbox360 Get an HDMI cable free worth INR 999 (cannot be clubbed with above offer)
3. Buy X360 4 GB Arcade or 250 GB Elite and get 5% OFF on Kinect Pre-order/10% OFF on Kinect Games Pre-order (cannot be clubbed with above offer)
4. Buy Coloured PSP and get a FREE Crystal Case / 10% off on 4gb & 8 gb Memory Card (cannot be clubbed with above offer)
5. Buy any Razer product and get 5% OFF on next purchase of PC Games / Razer Product
6. Get 10% OFF on purchase of PSP Games worth INR 2499 or more using this discount code: DC89D5PHP9QF5398J during checkout
7. Get 10% OFF on purchase of PS3 Games worth INR 3999 or more using this discount code: DC7AC5ED5C2FPA9J3 during checkout
8. Get 10% OFF on purchase of PC Games worth INR 1499 or more using this discount code: DCTGHPEVECQDEA95U during checkout
9. Get 5% OFF on purchase of Nintendo DS Games worth 2999 or more using this discount code: DC1ZDEPZENGFPUC9Z during checkout
10. Get 10% OFF on purchase of PS2 Games worth 1499 or more using this discount code: DCTGHPEVECQDEA95U during checkout
11. Get 10% OFF on purchase of Wii Games worth 3999 or more using this discount code: DC7AC5ED5C2FPA9J3 during checkout
12. Get 10% OFF on purchase of Xbox 360 Games worth 3499 or more using this discount code: DCE8E5PSP9I2EA93H during checkout

And if that’s not enough you can always head to our Deals4u section to get some awesome deals.

How to Get Better Visibility on Google: By Matt Cutts

2010-11-05T22:04:00.000-07:00

USA TODAY's Jefferson Graham interviews Google engineer Matt Cutts on how to get your site to the top of Google with 5 basic, common sense SEO tips. Matt Cutts guests on the USA TODAY Talking Tech web video show.

Steve Ballmer Sells $1.3 Billion Worth of Microsoft Shares

2010-11-05T22:01:00.000-07:00

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has sold 12% of his stake in the tech giant in a transaction worth over $1.3 billion.

According to a filing with the SEC, Ballmer has sold 49.3 million Microsoft shares over the last three days, bringing his total ownership to 358.9 million shares, or approximately 4.2% of the company. Essentially, he sold 12% of his shares at a price between $26 and $28.

Knowing that the media would notice such a large transaction, Ballmer posted a statement on Microsoft’s website, saying that he sold $1.3 billion in Microsoft shares for financial diversification and tax planning.

Here is Ballmer’s statement:

“Even though this is a personal financial matter, I want to be clear about this to avoid any confusion. I am excited about our new products and the potential for our technology to change people’s lives, and I remain fully committed to Microsoft and its success.”

He additionally stated that he intends to sell more shares — up to 75 million — before the end of the year. That means he could potentially sell 25 million more shares of the company.

Perhaps by coincidence, Microsoft co-founder and chairman Bill Gates also sold 1 million of shares, worth approximately $27.2 million.

Privacy Policy

2010-11-04T18:28:00.000-07:00

Privacy Policy for Problogmag.blogspot.com

At problogmag.blogspot.com, the privacy of our visitors is of extreme importance to us. This privacy policy document outlines the types of personal information is received and collected problogmag.blogspot.com and how it is used.

Log Files

Like most of the online websites, problogmag.blogspot.com makes use of log files. The information inside the log files includes internet protocol ( IP ) addresses, Internet Service Provider ( ISP ), date/time stamp, type of browser, referring/exit pages, and number of clicks to analyze trends, administer the site, track user’s movement around the site, and gather demographic information. IP addresses, and other such information which are not linked to any information that is personally identifiable.

Cookies and Web Beacons

Problogmag.blogspot.com does use cookies to store information about visitors preferences, record user-specific information on which pages the user access or visit, customize Web page content based on visitors browser type or other information that the visitor sends via their browser.

DoubleClick DART Cookie

* Google, as a third party vendor, uses cookies to serve ads on your site.

* Google's use of the DART cookie enables it to serve ads to your users based on their visit to your sites and other sites on the Internet.

* Users may opt out of the use of the DART cookie by visiting the Google ad and content network privacy policy at the following URL - http://www.google.com/privacy_ads.html

Some of our advertising partners may use cookies and web beacons on our site. Our advertising partners include Google AdSense and Amazon.

These third-party ad servers or ad networks use technology to the advertisements and links that appear on problogmag.blogspot.com send directly to your browsers. They automatically receive your IP address when this occurs. Other technologies ( such as cookies, JavaScript, or Web Beacons ) may also be used by the third-party ad networks to measure the effectiveness of their advertisements and / or to personalize the advertising content that you see.

problogmag.blogspot.com has no access to or control over these cookies that are used by third-party advertisers.

You should consult the respective privacy policies of these third-party ad servers for more detailed information on their practices as well as for instructions about how to opt-out of certain practices. problogmag.blogspot.com's privacy policy does not apply to, and we cannot control the activities of, such other advertisers or web sites.

If you wish to disable cookies, you may do so through your individual browser options. More detailed information about cookie management with specific web browsers can be found at the browsers' respective websites.

If you have any questions about our privacy policy or require any more information, please feel free to contact us by email at sarvamsol@gmail.com.

Terms Of Service

2010-11-04T18:16:00.000-07:00

Terms of Service:

problogmag.blogspot.com is a web site run by Sarvam Solutions, Madurai, India. By using the Site, you expressly acknowledge and agree that any use of the site will be in accordance with these Terms of Service. If you do not agree to be bound by these Terms of Service, you may not use the Site. Problogmag.blogspot.com may change, add or remove portions of this Agreement at any time. Each time you use the Site, the current version of this Agreement will apply.

1.Content & Liability

a. The contents of the site are offered for your private, non-commercial and information and discussion purposes only. All materials published by the site (including, but not limited to news articles, photographs, images and video clips, also known as the “Content”) are protected by copyright, and owned or controlled by the site or the party credited as the provider of the content.

b. The Site accepts no responsibility or liability for the authenticity, availability, suitability, reliability, accuracy of the information for any damage, loss or harm, direct or consequential or any violation of local or international laws that may be incurred by your visit and/or transaction(s) on these site(s).

2. Policy Updates

We reserve the right to change or update this policy at any time by placing a prominent notice on our site. Such changes shall be effective immediately upon posting to this site. If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes to this privacy statement, the homepage, and other places we deem appropriate so that you are aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it. We reserve the right to modify this privacy statement at any time, so please review it frequently. If we make material changes to this policy, we will notify you here, or by means of a notice on our homepage.

3. Disclosures

The Site reserves the right to disclose any information as necessary to satisfy any applicable law, regulation, legal process, or governmental request. The Site may also refuse to post, or remove any posting at the Site’s sole discretion. The Site reserves the right to restrict access by any users whom the Site believes, in its sole discretion, are engaged in inappropriate, unprofessional, or unlawful conduct.

If you have questions or suggestions email us at sarvamsol@gmail.com

5 Tips for Marketing Online to an International Audience

2010-11-03T05:47:00.000-07:00

Expanding your marketing efforts to an international audience can be a great opportunity to grow your company and reach potential customers that may not otherwise discover your brand, products or services. Reaching an international audience, though, entails understanding regional cultures, laws and online behaviors.

Before kicking off your international digital marketing strategy, consider the following five tips on how to successfully market to an international audience.

If your business has already begun to optimize your online presence for a global community, add your own tips for online international marketing in the comments below.

1. Start with Cross-Cultural Competency

Having your site translated into other languages is a huge advantage to marketing to an international audience, but having a deep understanding of your own and other’s cultures is also important.

The first step to improving cross-cultural competency is understanding the cultural barriers within which you and others in your business operate. Having a grasp of the cultural assumptions and biases that you hold will help you identify cultural differences that may jeopardize business abroad.

Only after you understand your own culture can you begin to learn about other cultures and make note of differences. Reading books and essays on a particular culture can only take you so far. These readings often generalize or stereotype a given culture. Once you “learn” these generalizations, take them with a grain of salt and adapt accordingly.

While studying abroad in China, for example, a schoolmate taught me some Chinese Internet lingo for chatting on QQ and MSN Messenger (MSN Messenger), the instant messaging platforms of choice among young Chinese at the time. Instead of saying “再见” for goodbye, I tested out “88,” which sounds like the English “bye bye” when spoken in Chinese. Among my Chinese classmates, it wasn’t universally used, which makes perfect sense — even in America, only certain age groups and types of people use cutesy emoticons and shorthands to communicate online. My shortsightedness and excitement to fit in abroad had led me to overlook the fact that not everyone in China communicates online in the same way.

Think about how your country or region’s cultural norms differ among age groups, genders, geographical areas and so on, and then consider these differences among consumers in other cultures. Learning about and respecting other cultures will help you localize your brand’s message.

When possible, talk with, learn from and spend time with people who represent the audience you’re hoping to reach.

2. Understand Regional Laws

When marketing to a global audience, your business should be aware of regional regulations on products, advertising and sales tactics.

Advertising Regulations: In some regions of the world, advertising related to certain types of products are subject to approval by various governing bodies. For example, in many countries, advertisements for pharmaceuticals must be approved by local health ministries.

Furthermore, comparative advertising is treated with varying degrees of hostility across the world. While America may be relatively relaxed about using phrases like “best” and “better” to describe products in relation to other brands, Germany, France and Belgium are all known for having very strict principles when it comes to competitive messaging.

Verizon’s commercials that compared 3G coverage across America between Verizon’s and AT&T’s networks, for example, made it to fruition in the States, but this type of comparative, and possibly misleading, sales tactic may not be permissible in other countries.

Regulation of Sales Tactics: Various sales promotion tactics — such as contests, sweepstakes, deals and premium offers (i.e., buy one, get one free) — are usually regulated differently across borders. Make sure your desired promotion tactics don’t conflict with local laws before running them.

Product Laws: If you sell your product online to an international audience, it is subject to product development laws regarding chemical makeup, safety, performance and packaging designs, including languages, sizes and materials used.

3. Customize Search Engine Marketing Based on Local Usage

International search engine marketing is a mixture of choosing the right search engines, localizing content and understanding keywords.

Choose the Right Search Engines: Figure out which search engines are used by the particular markets you are targeting. While you can reach many English-speaking customers via search by advertising on the top three search engines in the U.S. — Google (Google), Yahoo (Yahoo!) and Bing (Bing) — international use of search engines varies. Often, local markets are best served via local search engines, because the English-language search engines don’t always suffice for niche, local content.

Localize Your Content: It isn’t enough to simply translate your website into target languages if quality is your goal — don’t serve second-rate content to your international clients. When possible, localize your product, services and messaging for each market you serve. This can be costly, so weigh the options carefully.

Choose Native Keywords: With international SEM, you shouldn’t focus on translating keywords into foreign languages. Instead, work with native speakers trained in search marketing to figure out native keywords that would be best associated with your website and its content. Remember that keywords aren’t words, but instead shortened thoughts used by Internet (Internet) browsers to find particular types of content. Therefore, keywords are often influenced by culture, which is best navigated by locals.

4. Optimize Site Design

In many cases, the first portal for your online communication with potential customers will be your website. Optimize your site design to allow for ultimate flexibility for global visitors.

There are a lot of considerations when developing a global-friendly website, a few of which are:

Colors and Symbols: Colors and symbols are deeply ingrained in cultures; research perceptions of colors and symbols among your target audience and adapt accordingly. In most of Europe and the Americas, for example, white is associated with purity and marriage. In Japan, China and parts of Africa, though, white is traditionally the color of mourning. But don’t be fooled — in Westernized Asian cities, white weddings are becoming more common. Beyond colors, make sure any icons, logos or graphics you are using are acceptable and looked upon in good light in areas you wish to reach. Check out some resources for working with color on the web.

Currency Conversion: If you are in the e-commerce business and offer international shipping, make sure you also enable users to convert their purchase amount into their own currency. Conversion can be confusing to the average consumer. Giving users the option can only make it easier. There are quite a few currency conversion API tools to choose from, but they can be difficult to sort through — check out Exchange Rate API for starters.

Use of Text: There’s more to worry about than whether your site is easily translated. First off, minimize the use of text in graphics, as these cannot be translated. While it may be impossible to eliminate all graphics with text, read up on other design options made possible by the rise of web fonts. Furthermore, make sure your web design flows to accommodate machine translation. Some elements may be fine, but others may not display properly. Test (test) your site using a machine translation service and make adjustments as needed.

Loading Speed: Check out the Yahoo Developer Network for some best practices on speeding up your website. It’s particularly important, when it comes to reaching a global audience, to use a Content Delivery Network (CDN), which is a collection of web servers around the world. Instead of serving your site from one location, you can improve load times by offering it from the server nearest to your site visitor.

5. Adapt Social Media for Various Languages

If your company already serves multiple markets and your site sees a lot of international visitors, you should consider looking into ways to reach your global audience via social media. Here are a few ideas for some popular social platforms:

Facebook (Facebook): On the world’s largest social network, there are two key strategies for reaching global audiences — creating one Page or many.

By creating one brand Page, you can target updates by location, demographics and language. This is a good option if you are looking to have one hub for content creation. On the positive side, users will be receiving targeted updates in their news feeds, and they will still be gathered in one place. The downside is the possibility of confusing users who visit your Page and find updates in multiple languages. This could limit interaction on your Page.

Creating multiple regional Pages (pages) increases the localization of each Page, but this method requires more time to customize, as various logos and text should be created for each one. You’ll have to figure out the right option for your brand, but considering your strategy before launching is a good start.

[Via]

5 Tips To Get Traffic From Online Forums

2010-11-03T05:42:00.000-07:00

Forums have been around since the earliest days of the Internet, and people have been using them ever since to drive traffic to their websites. While they’re not hip and sexy Web 2.0 darlings like Twitter or Facebook, forums are still a great way to drive targeted traffic to your blog. Below are 8 things you need to keep in mind when using forums as a traffic driving strategy.

1. Pick the right forum

Choosing the right forum(s) to participate in makes a big difference. Hopefully you’re already an active member of a forum or two. If not, hopefully you’re at least aware of some of the popular forums that cater to your niche. If that’s still not the case, Google “YOURNICHE forum” or check out Big-Boards.com.

If there are multiple forums in your niche, you should focus on being active in just one forum at first. You don’t want to spread yourself too thin, and you want to be sure you become a prominent member of the community. That’s hard to do when you’re trying to post in half a dozen different forums. Once you’ve become established in one, then you can determine whether joining another would be best for you.

If you’re not already active in a forum and you have multiple forums to choose from, there are a couple points to consider. How large and active is the forum? You won’t get much traffic from a forum that has 30 members and the last post was six months ago. Do you like the look of the forum? I’ve chosen to participate in certain forums because I just like the way they’re designed. Does the forum allow signatures? Some forums don’t allow signatures, which will make it harder for you to get traffic (see the “Put a link in your signature” section below). And finally (and perhaps most importantly), do you like the community that has built up around the forum? You’re going to be spending a lot of time there, so make sure you like the kind of discussion that’s going on.

2. Choose your username carefully

Your username is your brand out there on the forum for everyone to see, so it needs to be chosen carefully. Ask yourself what message you want your username to send. Using your name as a username gives your interactions with others a more personal feel than if you just used the name of your blog or business. It’s important that you username fits in with your niche and the forum. For example, if you’re posting to a realty forum and the forum community you’re posting to has a very professional feel to it, you’ll obviously want to steer clear of usernames like “xfallenangel1987x.”

3. Put a link in your signature

Your signature is the couple lines of text that appear below each one of your forum posts. Putting a link to your blog or to a particularly good post is the backbone of any solid forum-based traffic strategy. This is how you’ll get the majority of traffic out of the forum.

A standard signature will include the name of your blog and maybe your blog’s tagline or what your blog is about. Linking to an especially informative or interesting post can also be a good strategy if you want to drive traffic to certain parts of your blog. Remember that you can also link to a newsletter signup page to help grow your list.

You can read more about putting a link in your signature in this previous Daily Blog Tips post.

4. Craft your profile carefully

Your profile is what people see when they click on your username, and it usually consists at least of your avatar, a short bio, and a link to your website. Most often, your avatar should be a picture of you. We like to know that we’re interacting with a real person, and a photo gives a face to the name and helps create a more personal interactive experience. If you prefer anonymity, then use anything you want as long as it fits in with 1) the feel of the forum, and 2) the image of your blog or business. Using the realty forum example again, you wouldn’t want your profile pic to be a funny animated .gif of a guy getting hit in his private parts with a baseball. Likewise, you wouldn’t want to use a serious, black and white photo of yourself if you’ve got a fun and colorful blog about funny YouTube videos.

Your bio should include relevant information about you. Again, make it professional, but don’t be boring and one-dimensional. Sure, talk about how much experiences you’ve got in your particular field, but also talk about any other interesting information about yourself. If you’re on a rock climbing forum, you could state that you’ve been rock climbing for 12 years, that you are an avid backcountry skier in the offseason., and that you love watching Lost. Give people more reasons for them to interact with you.

And while we’re on the subject of getting people to interact with you, be sure to include a line in your bio (preferably at the end) that you welcome people to contact you with any questions or comments. This can help people feel comfortable about coming to you for any additional help or information beyond what you provide in your forum posts.

Many forum profiles have a space for your website’s URL or the URL of your favorite website. Be sure to put your blog in there!

Finally, take advantage of any other profile features your forum might have. Some forums let you enter your Twitter handle, for example. Others let you enter your other interests. Use these elements to further differentiate yourself from others, to establish yourself as an expert in your field, and to set yourself up as a person people want to interact with.

5. Don’t be spammy

When you’re networking with people in person, you don’t shake their hands and immediately stuff a business card down their throats. You want to get to know the person a little bit before interacting with them on a professional level. To put it another way, you wouldn’t go all the way on a first date, right?

Sure, you’re using the forum to promote your site, but that shouldn’t look like the main reason you’re there. Stick around the forum for a while before you start promoting your blog openly. No one likes it when the forum user’s first and only post is, “Hey guys! Check out my sick awesome new blog!”

Russians to spend $20 billion online in 2010: study

2010-11-02T05:17:00.000-07:00

Russian consumers will spend 600 billion rubles ($19.49 billion) shopping online this year, a study showed on Tuesday, almost 60 percent more than in 2009 as disposable incomes and internet penetration grow.

Russia's online retail industry is forecast to exceed 800 billion rubles by 2012, according to a study by Citibank and Google.

"The dynamics of growth of Internet spend volumes and number of online transactions are far ahead of those of traditional offline retail purchases," the authors of the study said.

The study showed internet sales kept growing despite a severe economic crisis which prompted Russians to tighten their belts and waive costly purchases.

The study is based upon statistics of internet purchases made by Citibank clients between January 2008 and September 2010, as well as upon Google's search statistics.

($1=30.78 Ruble)

Source: Reuters

The WordPress Infographic

2010-11-01T04:51:00.000-07:00

If you are a blogger or a webmaster, you certainly may have heard the word “WordPress” an infinite number of times. WordPress as a blogging platform has really developed a lot in a short time. This bit of code called “WordPress” is used in some form or other by more than 25 million people and powers almost 8.5% of the websites based in the Internet.

What Could Mark Zuckerburg Buy With His $6.9 Billion?

2010-11-01T04:47:00.000-07:00

Mark Zuckerberg is the Co-founder, CEO and President of Facebook and owns about 24% stake of Facebook. He is currently worth around 6.9 billion dollars (imagine!!!) and is the 35th richest person in America. All that money could buy him all the luxuries in the world. What if one day he decides to spend the 6.9 Billion he has. I came across this astonishing infographic that will help him spend his money in the grandest ever way imaginable.

Blekko Search Engine Launched

2010-11-01T04:36:00.000-07:00

Blekko’s alternative search engine — a $24 million venture-backed project that’s been three years in the making — is today launching its public beta. With the official rollout, Blekko is also releasing several new features designed for both mainstream and the site’s super users.

As you may recall, Blekko is designed to eliminate spam search results, allowing users to search just a subset of the web through its proprietary slashtag technology.

The most significant upgrade to Blekko’s search engine is the addition of slashtags that auto-fire for queries that fall into one seven categories: health, colleges, autos, personal finance, lyrics, recipes and hotels. Every time a Blekko user’s query is determined to be in one of these categories, Blekko will automatically append the associated slashtag to the query and limit results to just the subset of URLs that fall under that slashtag.

The auto-fire functionality is designed with passive searchers in mind, and aims to eliminate friction for first time users. The technology that powers these auto-slashtags was developed through an extensive research and development phase that involved analyzing the relationship between queries and the type of spam results they typically generate.

Blekko plans to introduce auto-slashing for additional categories moving forward, but selected to launch with ones that represent a high volume of search traffic and are typically laden with spammy results. Health, lyric and financial queries on Google (Google) or Bing (Bing), for instance, will return results dominated by poor quality content farms or malware-hosting sites. Those same searches on Blekko yield results only from high quality sites.

Blekko’s slashtag formula works because of passionate users who take the time to add and edit URLs for category slashtags. As such, the company has released new features to enable users to apply to be editors for slashtags as well as share their comments and feedback on individual slashtags. Think of this as the Wikipedia (Wikipedia) formula but applied to search, so a small percentage of users will work together to build out slashtags for the majority of Blekko searchers.

Blekko has been testing its solution to search with roughly 8,000 beta testers who have created more than 3,000 different slashtags. Blekko tells us that 11% of its existing user base come back to the site on a weekly basis. CEO Rich Skrenta and Founder Mike Markson have modest projections for the immediate future, but believe that once the site hits one to two million queries per day, it can be profitable.

Blekko is currently available on the web or as a mobile-optimized site, but mobile applications are also said to be in the works.

Yahoo Mail: Beta Version Launched

2010-10-28T04:37:00.000-07:00

Yahoo has launched new Yahoo Mail beta version to compete with Google’s Gmail and Microsoft’s Hotmail. This new beta version of Yahoo Mail is looking amazing.

Yahoo Mail beta version comes with enhanced features like Unlimited Storage capacity, two times faster emailing, improved design and spam protection, Check Social Network updates from facebook, twitter on yahoo mail dashboard.

An app to spy on your lover!

2010-10-28T04:23:00.000-07:00

Suspicious that your better half is cheating on you? You can find out for sure, provided they have an Android phone.

Thanks to Secret SMS Replicator, a new app released for the Android, suspicious daters can now spy on every text message their loved ones receive.

Post installation, the app forwards all incoming text messages to whatever numbers you choose. "Grab your boyfriend's phone while he is in the shower. Download our app onto his Android phone and the app runs secretly, unable to be detected, BCC'ing you with all his incoming texts," The New York Daily News quoted the App's creator DLP Mobile as advertising in a blog post on its site.

"Perfect. Perfectly cruel," it read. DLP cautioned that the application is "a double edged-sword" that is both "tremendously useful and potentially insidious."

The site also features an instructional video, advising sneaky boyfriends and girlfriends on how best to implement the App to spy on their lovers.

"The Commuter": New Nokia Film In Mobile HD

2010-10-28T04:18:00.000-07:00

Nokia's highly anticipated short film, 'The Commuter' staring Dev Patel, Pamela Anderson, Charles Dance, Ed Westwick and shot entirely in mobile HD on the Nokia N8 smartphone.

The groundbreaking film, directed by the McHenry Brothers, was shot in just four days with the Nokia N8 using no back up cameras, with the streets of London and St Albans providing the backdrop to Nokia's story about one commuter's eventful journey to work.

World's Fastest Super Computer From China

2010-10-28T04:11:00.000-07:00

Unveiled today at the Annual Meeting of National High Performance Computing (HPC China 2010) in Beijing, Tianhe-1A is the world’s fastest supercomputer with a performance record of 2.507 petaflops, as measured by the LINPACK benchmark.

Tianhe-1A was designed by the National University of Defense Technology (NUDT) in China, and it is already fully operational. To achieve the new performance record, Tianhe-1A uses 7,168 Nvidia Tesla M2050 GPUs and 14,336 Intel Xeon CPUs. It cost $88 million; its 103 cabinets weigh 155 tons, and the entire system consumes 4.04 megawatts of electricity.

Tianhe-1A ousted the previous record holder, Cray XT5 Jaguar, which is used by the U.S. National Center for Computational Sciences at Oak Ridge National Laboratories. It is powered by 224,162 Opteron CPUs and achieves a performance record of 1.75 petaflops.

According to Nvidia, Tianhe-1A will be operated as an open access system to use for large scale scientific computations.

Watch Video: How Google Search Works?

2010-10-05T05:57:00.000-07:00

The life span of a Google query is less then 1/2 second, and involves quite a few steps before you see the most relevant results. Here's how it all works.

Google TV rounds out content line-up

2010-10-04T10:45:00.000-07:00

According to Google, its TV platform has series of content partners lined up to better compete with Apple TV. For the uninitiated, Google TV is a platform that plans to integrate your content and the Web into one experience. Google CEO Eric Schmidt has said the search giant’s experience will change your viewing habits courtesy of Android, Flash, videos and chat.

We’ve heard that before and old couch potato habits die hard.

Nevertheless, Google TV is off to a good start with content partners. Google said Turner Broadcasting, which owns CNN, TBS and TNT, will optimize is Web site for Google TV. NBC Universal will bring a CNBC app to the party. And HBO will have its HBO.Go service available. In addition, the NBA has an app.

As for movie rentals, Amazon and Netflix are on the Google TV bandwagon and there are other optimized content offerings.

China launches 'super online banking'

2010-10-04T10:34:00.001-07:00

China's central bank has started a "super online banking system" that would allow customers to access any number of accounts through a single website.

The People's Bank of China has started an "online payment inter-bank clearing system", which supports real-time inter-bank transfers and inter-bank balance inquiries, China Daily reported.

The banking system links online different commercial banks and enables customers to access multiple accounts on a single website.

Before the launch of the new system, customers had to log on to different banks' websites to manage their accounts, and inter-bank transfers usually took one or two days.

The charges for the new system have not been finalized.

At present, commercial banks in China charge different fees for inter-bank transfers.

The "super online banking system" will surely increase banks' efficiency in the long run, said Guo Tianyong, head of the China Banking Research Center at the Central University of Finance and Economics.