Parthipan, SEO Consultant

Yahoo Search Powered By Microsoft Bing

2010-08-20T02:57:00.000-07:00

Microsoft’s Bing search engine results replacing the Yahoo search result pages and showing the words “powered by Bing” on Yahoo searchs. Do a search on Yahoo (Prepensys Technologies), and you’ll need to see the footer to figure out that the results are actually coming from Microsoft. The transition is ongoing, but for some Yahoo searches the words “powered by Bing” are now showing up at the bottom of the results page.

Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz had said when the search partnership was announced more than a year ago that the Bing logo would not appear on Yahoo search results pages and that Yahoo’s ties to Bing would instead be called attention to via some text. Seeing the result in action, however, is still striking, especially when compared to how some other similar deals have played out. AOL, for instance, prominently includes the words “enhanced by Google” below the search box on its home page.

Yahoo, had started testing bringing Bing’s search results to its search pages. It would be “transitioning the back-end technology” for Yahoo Search in the U.S. and Canada to Microsoft this week. For now, only select searches are bringing up the text "powered by Bing".

Next up is the transition of Yahoo search ad accounts to Microsoft’s adCenter. Yahoo says it’s in the process of testing that with a “limited number of accounts.”

Source: Paidcontent.org

Facebook Removing Links, Boxes and Info Sections for Applications from Jan 2010

2009-12-24T03:40:00.000-08:00

Hope this is because of Facebook's recent privacy issues.

IMPORTANT: Facebook have announced that all links, boxes and 'info sections' for applications will be automatically REMOVED from your profile in January. To continue using this application you need to add a bookmark for it now.

Google Enables YouTube, Picasa, Flickr and Yelp Previews in Gmail

2009-03-18T22:30:00.000-07:00

Google introduces a new enhancement that allows photos and videos from Flickr, Picasa and Youtube to be seen in the e-mail itself. You don't need to leave gmail anymore to see them.

In order to enjoy this feature, You have to enable it from Setting --> Lab and enable the setup one by one.

I test these nice features youtube preview works great. But, unfortunately Flickr shows "Photostream not available" I have to check the feature more closely and will post you the updated news. Here is my test mail which I used to see youtube video preview. So enjoy sharing favorie Youtube videos, beautiful snaps from Flickr & Picasa to your friends.

Google Enables YouTube, Picasa, Flickr and Yelp Previews in Gmail

40+ Useful & Handy Web Designer’s Web Services & Tools

2009-02-15T23:36:00.000-08:00

Source: www.noupe.com

Nothing can be more useful than handy tools you can use “on the fly” in your design process. Whether you’d like diagramming application, create vector images, format or optimize CSS code, generate patterns- you can use dozens of tools to make your life easier. Today we wanted to share with you a comprehensive list of more than 40 online tools that will really make your life easier and on the fly.

1. Are My Sites Up

Are My Sites Up is a very simple service to help you keep an eye on your sites and warn you if they go down. With the free service, you may check up to 20 sites, unlimited notifications are sent via email or SMS text message to your cell phone, site checks are performed 25 times per day.

2. Wordle

Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. Check out the gallery for some interesting examples.

3. Scrnshots

ScrnShots is an easy way to take, find, and share screenshots of web and screen based design. You can upload unlimited screenshots to your account, tag your screenshots for easy retrieval, search screenshots by keywords for inspiration, use the provided links to embed screenshots in your website and many features you will find to be useful.

4. Drop

Use drop.io to create and privately share your files by web, email, phone, fax, and more. Drops are protected from search engines so you can conveniently share what you want with whom you want.

5. EmChart

Using a relative unit such as EM is a great way to maintain the vertical rhythm of a web page when a user resizes text in their browser. Constantly reaching for a calculator to compute the correct EM value to use every time you need to is also a great way to drive yourself mad. EmChart is very useful for calculating bottom margins, line-heights (which are unitless, but the formula still applies), top margins, and top/bottom padding among other things. It’s also really handy for keeping nested relative font-sizes straight. Built on this formula for computing the EM multiplier is: desired pixel size / current pixel size = multiplier.

6. HTML-Ipsum

A handy Lorem Ipsum App. that provide Mac-friendly outputs with: Coda clips, Textmate bundles & Menu bar app.

7. Pixastic

Pixastic is a JavaScript library which allows you to perform a variety of operations, filters and fancy effects on images using just a bit of JavaScript. I find this tool very useful when i try to quickly edit an image when my computer is not around.

8. Color Scheme Designer

Color Scheme Designer is an online application helps you create color schemes of different types and it may facilitate your looking for the optimal color palette by controlling the saturation and contrast level for the chosen color schemes.

9. Lovely Charts

Lovely Charts is an online diagramming application that helps you create professional looking diagrams such as flowcharts, sitemaps, wireframes and more. Try out the demo here.

10. HTM to PDF

An online service that convert webpages or raw html code into PDF documents. I remember my first freelance job was to save the user’s input in an online form into pdf document, did it in ASP and worked great but took a lot of time to figure out how to do it.

11. Preloaders

An online animated gif preloader that makes you choose the background color code desired, Pick the foreground color code you want, Set the sizes of the preloader, if needed, Choose your animation speed, choose the type of preloader.

12. Down For Everyone Or Just Me

A very useful tool to help you quickly check any site if it’s down for you only or for everyone.

13. Klock

Keep track of anything with Klok’s simple work timer and visual display of how your days “fill up”. Check out the full feature list.

14. Enkoder

The Enkoder helps protect email addresses by converting them into encrypted JavaScript code, hiding them from email-harvesting robots while revealing them to real people.

15. Websnapshot

Another great tool for taking snapshots for any web page. Simply enter the Url and Press Snap. Or Drag&Drop it from your browser. Click on the Thumnails to Save. With Auto Save Checked, the thumnails are immediatly saved to your ’save’ folder.

16. TypeChart

Typechart lets you preview and compare web typography while retrieving the CSS. You can easily browse typographic styles, download CSS, compare Windows (ClearType) rendering with Apple font rendering.

17. WTFramework bookmarklet

Ever wondered which JavaScript framework was used on a specific website but was too lazy to check the source code for the answer. WTFramework is a pretty simple and straight–forward bookmarklet that can do this job easily for you.

18. Pencil

The Pencil Project’s unique mission is to build a free and opensource tool for making diagrams and GUI prototyping that everyone can use.

19. Web Development Project Estimator

The Web Development Project Estimator is a simple tool that allows web designers and site developers to quickly and thoroughly estimate the time and materials required for a proposed web project.

20. 280slides

Let’s you create beautiful presentations, access them from anywhere, and share them with the world.

21. BackType

Whenever you write a comment on a blog or other website, BackType attributes it to you. You can also identify and connect with the people who’s thoughts and opinions you value; follow their comments in your Dashboard

22. FeedCompare

An online web tool that you can use for comparing FeedBurner feeds and check out your competitors growth.

23. SmushIt

Smushit.com is a service that uses image format specific non-lossy image optimization tools to squeeze the last bytes out of your images - without changing their look or visual quality.

24. Dexrex

Dexrex is the free add-on for archiving IM & SMS text.

25. Jott

Jott makes sure you stay on top of everything. You can capture notes, set reminders and calendar appointments, stay in touch with friends and family, and interact with your favorite web sites and services…all with your voice!

26. Fresh Books

With Freshbooks you can easily track time and send Invoices and Estimates Online. They make it very easy to track everything related to invoicing. Create project invoices in advance and you don’t have to worry about forgetting one.

27. SifrVault

An online Repository of sIFR fonts.

28. SproutBuilder

Sprout is the quick and easy way for anyone to build, publish, and manage widgets, mini-sites, mashups, banners and more.

29. Snipt

Snipt is your collection of frequently used commands or code snippets.

30. ShiftSpace

ShiftSpace (pronounced: §) is an open source browser plugin for collaboratively annotating, editing and shifting the web. Check out all the nice features < a href="http://www.shiftspace.org/features/">here.

31. Wappalyzer

Wappalyzer is a Firefox add-on that automatically shows you what software is used on the websites you visit. It identifies most CMS, e-commerce and wiki and message board systems, JavaScript frameworks and more.

32. Favicon generator & editor

This tool provides an easy way to convert any GIF, PNG or JPEG to ICO which is supported by all modern web browsers. It also enables you to create favicons from scratch via a handy online editor. Additionally the editor lets you manually tweak generated favicons to ensure the best possible result.

33. BgPatterns

This tool provides an easy way to quickly generate tiled patterns. It will allow you to tweak, edit, and resize a wide range of patterns, change its color and more.

34. Kuler

kuler is an online web-based application by Adobe that helps you create and share color themes by several options such as “Analogous, Monochromatic, Triad, Complementary, Compound, Shades or Custom”. Users can also collaborate, comment and share color themes based on predefined color formulas or you can create custom themes by using Kuler’s interactive color wheel.

35. FontStruct

Is a free font-building tool that lets you quickly and easily create fonts constructed out of geometrical shapes, which are arranged in a grid pattern, like tiles or bricks.

36. Vector Magic

Convert bitmap images to vector images with a few simple clicks. Just upload your image and Vector Magic will vectorize it for you.

37. Tartan Designer

Generate tartan patterns. For scottish lovers and fancy designers!

38. GoldenRatioCalculator

If you want to dramatically improve composition of your website design, you might need to consider applying the divine proportion to your design. This tools calculates the golden ratio for your designs.

39. Picmarkr

PicMarkr lets you to add custom watermark (image or text) to your images online and free. It is useful when you need to protect your copyrights or if you want to add comments to your photos.

40. TweetDeck

Aims to evolve the existing functionality of Twitter by taking an abundance of information i.e twitter feeds, and breaking it down into more manageable bite sized pieces. TweetDeck enables users to split their main feed (All Tweets) into topic or group specific columns allowing a broader overview of tweets.

Cheers!
GetSearchEngineRank.com

Webmaster Conference at Google India

2009-02-13T06:37:00.000-08:00

Google India is organizing a conference for webmasters (and bloggers*) at their Bangalore Office on February 28 to help you with your webmaster related questions and how you can leverage Google tools to improve your site’s performance.

The full day event, known as Search Masters ‘09, will include presentations and interactive sessions with Google’s Search Specialists and Product Managers including Adam Lasnik (search evangelist at Google) and Rajat Mukherjee of Google Custom Search.

Here’s a complete list of topics that will be covered at Google Webmaster’s conference:

Webmaster Central and Best Practices: Understand the webmaster resources that Google offers and how to find help for your site through them.
Webmaster Help Forum: Learn about the community where you can find answers to your Search and Webmaster related questions.
Google Custom Search: How to harness the power of Google to create a search engine tailored to your needs and interests.
Building Mobile Friendly Websites: Find out why there is a need for mobile friendly websites and learn how to go about building them.
Google Analytics and Website Optimizer: Learn how you can gather, view and analyze data about your website traffic.

The webmaster conference is a free but invite-only event. Google India has sent invitation emails to some India webmasters (and bloggers*) who in turn can request an additional invite from Google and pass it on to their friends.

So if you know someone who has already received an invite for this conference, he may help you secure an invite by passing on your request to Google India.

*I think this conference is not just limited to webmasters as some bloggers may have received official invites as well.

Source: www.labnol.org

Cheers!
GetSearchEngineRank.com

SearchCamp is here! Keep an eye on 28th February & 1st March 2009

2009-02-13T04:05:00.000-08:00

The dream of all SEO, SMO, SEM & Internet Marketing prefessionals have finally taken shape in reality. Thanks to Mr. Ezhil Raja, Mr. Syed Nazir Razik & their friends, "Searchcamp" is ready to knock you out!

The SearchCamp team has a huge plan. They are trying to arrange a video conference with Mr. Matt Cutts, the father figure of Google. They have also palnned to bring some experts from Google India. If they are unable to join the SearchCamp, there is a possibility to arrange a video conference with them as well.

We alll know about the huge success of Searchcamp 2007. We are sure this year it will be even more fun!

If you are an SEO, SEM & Internet Marketing professional or interested in SEO, SMO, SEM & Internet Marketing, make sure you won't miss it. It is an oppurtunity of a lifetime!

See you there! Here are more details...!

SearchCamp is a two day event aimed to bring together the best minds from the Search Engine Marketing space to talk about search engine advertising, including optimization and marketing issues. The event is scheduled for the 28th February & 1st March 2009.

This is the second edition of the event and the first edition happened during 6th & 7th of October 2007, at Tidel Park, Chennai. SearchCamp will feature workshops, debates and keynotes on the present state and evolution of Search Engine Marketing.

Why Search Camp..?

Because search marketing is one of the most if not THE most accountable forms of advertising your business today.

So what are you doing about capturing search traffic for your business?

* Do you rank for the keywords that are mission critical to your business?
* Have you optimised your local listings for maps and mobile search?
* Have you optimised your corporate videos for search?
* Do you optimise your corporate blog?
* Have you trained your technical staff in good SEO practice?

We could keep asking questions, the one you need to ask yourself is this - Are you happy with your return on investment from search marketing?

If not, then you need to attend SearchCamp 2009, India’s leading search marketing Conference.

Topics To be Discussed in The 2 day Camp.

Day 1 of SearchCamp will focus on Organic Search, and Day 2 on Paid Search. Following are the broad areas of content that will be covered during this edition of SearchCamp. Exact sessions can be found here - Sessions

Organic SEO

* Keyword Research
* Onpage Optimization
* Converting SEO Traffic
* Technical Issues for Developers
* Copywriting
* Brand Building
* Link Building
* Local Search Tactics

Paid Search

* PPC Keywords & Bids
* Landing Page Strategies
* Automated Bid Management
* APIs
* Tracking Conversions

Social Media Marketing

* Hot Trends
* Online Reputation Management

Web Analytics

SEM Careers

Add your name in the Participants list

Cheers!
GetSearchEngineRank.com

List of 186 Social Video Sharing Websites with Page Rank & Alexa Rank

2009-02-12T02:40:00.000-08:00

Just like SEO, Video Optimization is another great way to promote your brand, service or company to an even broader group of users. Here I give you an updated list of different online social Video sharing websites. This will help your brand identity and traffic to your website. If any of these sites is not currently functioning, please let me know through mail [ parthipan(at)cricgarage.com ]

List of 186 Social Video Sharing Websites with Page Rank & Alexa Rank

Social Video Sharing Websites	Page Rank	Alexa Rank
http://video.google.com	9	3
http://video.yahoo.com	8	1
http://www.youtube.com	8	4
http://video.aol.com	8	54
http://www.webshots.com	8	271
http://www.collegehumor.com	8	1,072
http://www.brightcove.com	8	2,459
http://www.blip.tv	8	4,943
http://www.motionbox.com	8	46,880
http://video.msn.com	7	2
http://www.dailymotion.com	7	50
http://uncutvideo.aol.com	7	54
http://www.metacafe.com	7	140
http://stage6.divx.com	7	178
http://www.esnips.com	7	400
http://www.ifilm.com	7	1,332
http://www.ning.com	7	1,911
http://www.revver.com	7	3,533
http://www.addictingclips.com	7	3,663
http://www.atomfilms.com	7	4,064
http://www.vimeo.com	7	6,441
http://www.tubetorial.com	7	36,018
http://www.current.tv	7	38,090
http://www.ourmedia.org	7	52,155
http://www.thedailyreel.com	7	100,485
http://www.freevlog.org	7	149,402
http://www.fireant.tv	7	629,887
http://soapbox.msn.com	6	2
http://vids.myspace.com	6	6
http://www.veoh.com	6	97
http://www.4shared.com	6	110
http://www.multiply.com	6	111
http://www.flurl.com	6	254
http://www.break.com	6	283
http://www.tinypic.com	6	315
http://www.livevideo.com	6	713
http://www.liveleak.com	6	757
http://mix.lycos.com	6	1,144
http://www.ebaumsworld.com	6	1,197
http://www.heavy.com	6	1,384
http://www.putfile.com	6	1,612
http://www.fark.com/video/	6	2,046
http://www.sevenload.com	6	2,252
http://www.guba.com	6	2,532
http://www.grouper.com	6	4,431
http://www.blinkx.com	6	4,491
http://www.gorillamask.net	6	4,495
http://www.vidilife.com	6	6,650
http://www.dabble.com	6	6,949
http://www.zippyvideos.com	6	7,799
http://www.yikers.com	6	8,577
http://www.glumbert.com	6	8,881
http://www.jibjab.com	6	10,040
http://www.flixya.com	6	10,380
http://www.jumpcut.com	6	10,404
http://www.videojug.com	6	10,848
http://www.stupidvideos.com	6	12,414
http://www.vsocial.com	6	13,180
http://www.mefeedia.com	6	13,423
http://www.videovat.com	6	13,742
http://www.funnyhub.com	6	14,057
http://www.dropshots.com	6	14,117
http://www.yourdailymedia.com	6	14,436
http://www.5min.com	6	16,782
http://www.tagworld.com	6	18,785
http://www.viddler.com	6	24,524
http://www.spymac.com	6	25,081
http://www.dailyhaha.com	6	26,561
http://www.funmansion.com	6	33,069
http://www.expotv.com	6	38,387
http://www.truveo.com	6	41,165
http://www.vmix.com	6	41,271
http://www.eyespot.com	6	54,917
http://www.danerd.com	6	56,020
http://www.dorks.com	6	56,319
http://tv.oneworld.net	6	60,979
http://www.lulu.tv	6	66,446
http://www.videobomb.com	6	70,123
http://www.viddyou.com	6	78,871
http://www.videodumper.com	6	84,119
http://www.showmedo.com	6	89,209
http://www.clickcaster.com	6	135,415
http://www.teachertube.com	6	153,819
http://www.mixpo.com	6	303,888
http://www.scenemaker.net	6	352,443
http://www.engagemedia.org	6	680,339
http://www.vlogmap.org	6	684,603
http://www.yourfilehost.com	5	181
http://www.broadcaster.com	5	356
http://www.buzznet.com	5	564
http://www.mojoflix.com	5	743
http://www.vidmax.com	5	2,757
http://www.sumo.tv	5	4,258
http://www.i-am-bored.com	5	4,575
http://www.jokeroo.com	5	4,713
http://www.funnyjunk.com	5	5,223
http://www.vidiac.com	5	7,033
http://www.dumpalink.com	5	7,690
http://www.maniatv.com	5	8,531
http://www.expertvillage.com	5	12,800
http://www.thatvideosite.com	5	13,225
http://www.kaneva.com	5	13,863
http://www.godtube.com	5	18,198
http://www.onetruemedia.com	5	21,834
http://www.shoutfile.com	5	23,572
http://www.twango.com	5	23,708
http://www.sharkle.com	5	23,885
http://www.clipshack.com	5	27,443
http://www.guzer.com	5	27,906
http://www.needforfun.com	5	29,807
http://www.castpost.com	5	31,549
http://www.bofunk.com	5	34,034
http://www.holylemon.com	5	41,648
http://www.getmiro.com	5	46,609
http://www.funnydump.com	5	46,987
http://www.mediabum.com	5	51,716
http://www.babelgum.com	5	56,270
http://www.lifelogger.com	5	57,816
http://www.videowebtown.com	5	58,600
http://www.ziddio.com	5	62,529
http://www.myvideo.co.za	5	74,044
http://www.mogulus.com	5	75,781
http://www.dotcomedy.com	5	76,645
http://mojiti.com	5	98,211
http://www.pickle.com	5	98,862
http://www.dailycomedy.com	5	107,244
http://www.nelsok.com	5	109,629
http://www.flukiest.com	5	112,524
http://www.fliqz.com	5	128,926
http://www.viewdo.com	5	158,214
http://www.sutree.com	5	159,801
http://www.zooppa.com	5	164,487
http://www.eyeka.com	5	182,749
http://www.dave.tv	5	213,428
http://www.youare.tv	5	218,251
http://www.funnyreign.com	5	223,867
http://www.cuts.com	5	277,587
http://www.voomed.com	5	286,045
http://www.treemo.com	5	292,082
http://www.hictu.com	5	305,314
http://www.panjea.com	5	327,573
http://www.dovetail.tv	5	348,885
http://www.hungryflix.com	5	419,096
http://www.dumpthe.net	5	719,941
http://www.coull.tv	5	753,818
http://uvu.channel2.org	5	793,051
http://www.cozmo.tv	5	881,566
http://www.yourkindatv.com	5	1,440,335
http://www.filecow.com	5	1,625,194
http://www.clesh.com	5	2,146,609
http://www.ustream.tv	4	15,783
http://www.vidivodo.com	4	15,976
http://www.kwego.com	4	24,554
http://www.blogtv.com	4	27,083
http://www.funnyplace.org	4	48,682
http://www.caught-on-video.com	4	57,042
http://www.zanyvideos.com	4	82,792
http://www.evideoshare.com	4	84,391
http://www.clipblast.com	4	159,844
http://www.bigcontact.com	4	197,919
http://www.pixparty.com	4	244,372
http://www.izimi.com	4	301,545
http://www.zeec.net	4	342,704
http://www.blogcheese.com	4	1,125,446
http://www.skilltip.tv	4	2,112,774
http://www.yurth.com	4	4,225,459
http://www.wewin.com	3	14,545
http://www.vidipedia.org	3	269,750
http://www.qubetv.tv	3	573,409
http://www.video123.com	3	846,027
http://www.onfuego.com	3	1,970,323
http://www.myextreme.ca	3	4,598,369
http://video-upload.download.com	2	109
http://www.vuze.com	2	16,187
http://jaycut.com	2	353,906
http://www.u2upfly.com	2	443,601
http://www.freeiq.com	1	12,440
http://www.megavideo.com	0	3,413
http://www.funnyordie.com	0	7,785
http://strmz.jot.com	0	20,157
http://www.sclipo.com	0	20,740
http://www.purevideo.com	0	23,912
http://www.vume.com	0	38,752
http://www.operator11.com	0	56,842
http://www.tubearoo.com	0	58,055
http://www.helpfulvideo.com	0	659,150

Christmas Logos from Google, Yahoo, Live, DogPile, Ask and Others

2008-12-26T02:51:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas! Below are some of the Christmas special logos from Google and other major Search Engines like Yahoo, Live, DogPile, Ask. Enjoy their difference from the original version and enjoy your Christmas.

Google:

Yahoo:

Live.com

DogPile:

Ask.com:

AOL.com:

Baidu:

FriendFeed:

Quintura:

BruceClay:

Hitwise:

Marketing Pilgrim:

PPC Heros:

Cre8asite Forums:

Search Engine Roundtable:

PIXINT LLC, Web Design Company - Merry Christmas Home Page Design -

2008-12-23T04:09:00.000-08:00

Recently I came to know about a New Jersey based creative and usability service provider and visited their website. The company is called Pixint. Their website looks great. It has a typical corporate look and they had maintained that flavor throughout their site. What attracts me most about them is they never tried to say more than they actually do.

They maintained a moderate profile in their site; neither exaggerating nor trying to be too modest. They provide a wide variety of services starting from regular graphic design, web design and development to consulting services and usability services like GUI creation and functional prototypes. They have a talented workforce in Chennai, INDIA and I guess this helps the company to serve their clients with an affordable rate. It’s Christmas time and they have a beautifully designed homepage to celebrate the merry time. It’s worth viewing; so visit the site and enjoy! Merry Christmas!

Review written by: Mr. Sandy Gibbs.

Rarefly Logos - A Sleek Logo Design Company from New Jersey, USA

2008-12-23T03:42:00.000-08:00

I always prefer websites that are clean and sleek. These days we have too much on websites; in fact, a lot more than we actually require. So the competition is stiff and everybody tries to do something unique to stand out. But as they keep trying to formulate uniqueness, most sites start looking just the same, using same strategies to allure more visitors. The best thing to do under these circumstances is sticking to the basics; give the visitors exactly what they are looking for.

Rarefly is a site where I think people believe in my idea. It is a hardcore logo design company with a clean and attractive webpage layout. They have their online portfolio where they showcase their works; without a single word. After all, it’s all about their works! They clearly talk about four individual logo design packages they provide and their advantages. There is a shopping cart for your convenience. It’s a good logo design site to visit as they have a clean and clear approach to everything they offer… and I guess good to appoint them for any logo work too.

Review written by: Mr. Praba Karan

Steppy Frog, A New Web and Graphic Design Studio in Chennai, INDIA

2008-12-22T21:13:00.000-08:00

There are a number of web design studios in India and the figure is always growing. So another new studio should not create any extra buzz, but Steppy Frog (www.steppyfrog.com) stands as an exception to me. Looks like it’s a new design and development studio in Chennai and had launched their site only a few days back. The first thing that caught my eyes about these guys is that they are quite straight forward in their approach, something that we rarely find these days! They don’t waste your time by talking about their “sales links” with USA or any European country. They are an Indian company and not hesitant to say just that!

Most of the web design companies tend to show their design and animation skills in own websites to impress the visitors. But this method is so overused that these days it has become almost predictable what you may find in any web design company’s website. But here these guys played smart. They have a clean and simple site to promote their brand. There are no flash intros or sparkling colors to distract your attention. The navigation is simple; you won’t feel you’re lost. They only mean business and that reflects in their site itself.

The next thing that I found interesting about them is their web content. The site contains just the right volume of content which is apt and justified. It’s not overflowing with unnecessary information. Nobody visits a service provider’s website to be a “tech guru” anyway and it seems these people are aware of this fact. I like their style of presentation as well. It feels really good to read their content as it is written in a very free and casual manner.

Now, let’s talk about the variety of services they provide. Of course, they are providing all the other services that you can expect from a web design studio and there is nothing new about it. But they maintain quality and standard and it makes some sense to me. For example, one of their SEO friendly websites ranks No. 1 in Google ranking with some most sought after keywords. As they are a new company, there are not much to display but as beginners, they have some decent works. The guys call themselves the “Froggies” and I feel its worth to take a splash with them.

Review written by: Mr. Sateesh Kumar J.

Official Gmail Blog: Spice up your inbox with colors and themes

2008-11-19T19:06:00.000-08:00

Official Gmail Blog: Spice up your inbox with colors and themes

Domain Outbound Link Checker Tool for Free & Top 1000 Keyword Position Check

2008-11-18T00:30:00.000-08:00

The Best SEO Tools provided by Wintzell

Domain Outbound Links Check

Enter the url of the domain you want to check for outbound links. This tool is not suggested for domains with more than 200-300 pages (incl. dynamic pages), conversely it handles up to 1000 pages, but will be very time and memory overwhelming.

A tool that checks after outbound links from a specified domain and checks for rel="nofollow".

Top 1000 Keyword Position Check

Checks your position in the SERP at a specified keyword(s).

Yahoo’s, Inquisitor Now Available For Firefox & Internet Explorer

2008-10-23T05:57:00.000-07:00

Source: Search Engine Land

My favorite search browser plugin, Inquisitor, is now available for Firefox and Internet Explorer.

Inquisitor was Apple Safari’s only solid third-party search browser plugin back in the day. Yahoo acquired them back in May and then provided an upgrade in mid-August. Now, Yahoo has announced they have made this plugin available for Firefox and IE.

If you are running Firefox 2 or 3, you can download the addon over here. If you are running IE 7 or 8, you can download the plugin over here. I highly recommend you give it a try and check out some of the customizations I deployed on Inquisitor years ago.

Yahoo Launches Web Analytics Beta - web.analytics.yahoo.com

2008-10-10T00:00:00.000-07:00

Yahoo has announced that they’ll begin to roll out Yahoo Web Analytics (beta) on a limited basis beginning this week. According to Jitendra Kavathekar, Yahoo’s Web Analytics VP, the service has already been made available to select Yahoo advertisers and third-party application developers.

The next “big deployment,” Kavathekar says, will be for Yahoo’s 13,000 e-commerce customers hosting under the Yahoo Small Business service. Beyond that, Yahoo Web Analytics will continue to roll out for the rest of this year and into 2009.

Yahoo’s analytics service is a result of the company’s purchase of IndexTools earlier this year. Shortly after the purchase, Yahoo’s Dennis Mortensen announced the company’s plans to make Yahoo Web Analytics free.

In its FAQ about the new analytics service, Yahoo suggests three reasons why its product is better than the competition:

Real-time Data: “While some analytics products provide data 24-48 hours after collection, Yahoo! Web Analytics reflects data within minutes of collection.”
Raw Data: “While some products store aggregated data, which restricts the usefulness of the data to pre-created or canned reports, Yahoo! Web Analytics stores data in non-aggregated raw form.”
Ease-of-Use and Flexibility

Yahoo offers a sign-up form for future updates on the Yahoo Web Analytics (beta) home page.

Source: Search Engine Land

Microsoft’s Social Search Experimental Site - U Rank - Social Search

2008-10-09T23:45:00.000-07:00

Out now from Microsoft Research is U Rank, an experiment that allows people to move results around, as well as share them with friends and add comments to listings.

Want to play? Sigh. You have to register using a Windows Live ID. Why not just make it open for anyone to use on a cookie basis? The cookie could allow short term changes to be remembered, while logging in could be done for those who wanted to protect their edits in the long term.

Anyway, once in, you can do a search and wait, and wait, and wait to get back results. Perhaps the response time will improve. When they appear, you can then hover to the right to get options like this:

These allow you to:

Move an item up or down (click on “move me,” then you drag to where you want)
Copy an item to another search (this is weird, and I couldn’t get it to work. I assume it will move a listing to appear in the results of another search that you indicate)
Add a note to any item (this also wouldn’t work for me, perhaps because I’m using Firefox).
Delete a result

Edits that you do then are recorded and appear the next time you do a search. IE, move a result higher, and you’ll see it higher next time you search, along with a little flag indicating you did an edit.
By default, sharing of searches is on, as you’re told next to the search box:

This means any search you do is automatically shared with those you friend through the service. That’s a terrible idea, having it on by default. I think people will fail to remember to block sharing for some fairly personal searches they do. Far better to make sharing something you do explicitly, to be on the safe side. Of course, the downside to this is that people might not remember to do so, which takes away from the social experience Microsoft is aiming for with this test.

Is search really social? My Search 4.0: Putting Humans Back In Search from earlier this year argued that in many cases, I feel it is not. It also touches on the privacy issues raised with sharing:

Finally, privacy is an overlooked issue when it comes to social search. People often search for intensely private, personal things using search engines. Search engines are almost like confessionals, where people seek solutions to problems they might not tell real people that are close to them. With social search, do they have to remember to turn off a sharing feature that might be activated by default? And if it’s not on by default, will it get any take-up at all?

Of course, you start the service with no friends at all, so sharing isn’t that much a worry at the start. At the moment, once you join, others that seem to match you are somehow suggested (I had suggestions from people within Microsoft Research). You have to actually accept them, however. You can also invite two other friends, at the moment.

Friends are able to move results that influence what you see. In other words, if they do an edit, you’ll see that edit in your own results. Plus, you can make use of a tag cloud of searches to see what others are searching on.

Concerns on sharing aside, the project looks interesting. It also looks a lot like the Google Like/Don’t Like experiment that has been off and on since last year, as well as editing tools that Wikia Search rolled out and ones that I think Google Like/Don’t Like experiment that has been off and on since last year, as well as editing tools that Wikia Search rolled out and ones that I think Mahalo also has. Hakia also just recently rolled out a way for group edits in the form of “trusted results” using librarians and informational professionals to contribute.

In short, the wave of letting users edit their own results is back? Back? Yes, because if I had time, I’d add more about how we used to have many of these same tools with the major search engines years ago. But no matter — the ability to edit and move results is welcome, and I hope we’ll see more of it.
And will we see this on Microsoft Live Search? Says Microsoft in their email about it:

Live Search has absolutely no intention of implementing this…

Of course, I’m sure Live Search almost certainly WILL implement anything that they find useful on this experimental site. After all, the email goes on:

The goal of the research project is to learn more about “how” people use search technologies, like whether they take advantage of the ability to edit search results and how they share the results over time with friends and family.

So check it out. Just remember to turn that sharing off or be sure you really, really like the folks you friend on the system, if you use it much.

Source: Search Engine Land

Google sent apologize mail to AdSense account holders

2008-09-26T19:10:00.000-07:00

Sep 25, 2008 - Whole adsense customers shocked by seen their Payment History. By mistaken payment issued page show's the exchange rate for 1$ = 1 INR. Me too had same experiance but, later on Google sent apologize mail to AdSense account holders. Here is the copy of that mail.

Hello,

We're writing to let you know that your AdSense account is displaying an
incorrect exchange rate for your most recent AdSense payment issued on
September 23, 2008. While the exchange rate is incorrectly listed as 1:1,
please rest assured that your payment has been issued with the correct
exchange rate. You can expect your check to arrive according to the normal
delivery time, within two to four weeks.

If you normally receive communication from us in a language other than
English, we will provide additional information in your preferred language
next week.

We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your patience.

Sincerely,

The Google AdSense Team

Google Inc.
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043
USA

We love Google - Continue using AdSense account to earn more

Exchange Rate Problem in Adsense Payment

2008-09-26T04:46:00.000-07:00

Today most of them getting issued their payment from Google Adsense. Unfortunately, there was some problem in Exchange Rate.

Check below screen shot of mine.

Hello,

Today I got the payment issued details as follows:-
--------------------------------------------
Payment Type: Check
Payment Date: Sep 25, 2008
Payment Number: -

Amount of Payment in Local Currency : INR 202.37
Exchange Rate 1.000 : 1
Payment Amount: USD $202.37
-------------------------------------------
The exchange rate for USD to INR is around 46.00

So, what the heck has google paid me??
Please, I need the correct amount. Or this is cheating only....

Today. I seen most of them having the same problem. Why this is
happening?

My Account reached 100$ and I asked for the payment and this is what I
see in the payment history. Is this how it has been for others ?
Payment Type: Check
Payment Date: Sep 25, 2008
Payment Number:
-
Amount of Payment in Local Currency INR 147.54
Exchange Rate 1.000 : 1
Payment Amount: USD $147.54
Can someone help me on this ?

-Eesh

Hi,

I have the same problem. I received my payment issued link today in
the Payment History page.
My payment number is missing and the conversion shown is 1.000 : 1.
My earlier payment conversion were alright.
This seems to an error on the conversion side of Google, since the the
payment number is also missing.
I sure google will get back to us in this regard. Looks like somemore
people are affected.
Keep us updating.

Regards ms.pradeep

for more issues in Google Adsense Payment Issues keep check Adsense help forum

IndiBlogger.in creates a platform to unite Kolkata Bloggers

2008-09-19T02:51:00.000-07:00

First of its kind Blogger's meet planned at Kolkata on September 21, 2008

Kolkata, September, 2008: For the first time, IndiBlogger.in, a leading blogging community comprising over 6000 bloggers is holding a blogger's conference in Kolkata on September 21, 2008. The meet is targeted at providing a common platform for fellow bloggers to come together to share their blogging experiences and also a chance to meet fellow bloggers based in Kolkata. This is the first of its kind attempt by any blogging community to bring likeminded bloggers together. This is the seventh such blogger's event IndiBlogger.in is conducting in India. IndiBlogger has already conducted similar meets in Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore and New Delhi. The meet will take place at 51 Elliot Road, (Adjacent Park Street), Kolkata- 700016, West Bengal, India.

The blogger's meet will focus on providing insights to new bloggers, who wish to start their own blogs to monetisation of blogs to ethics of blogging and even discuss global trends on blogging and their relevance in society today. With a variety of bloggers from the professional to the very personal, attending the Kolkata bloggers meet, bloggers from Kolkata will get a chance to innovate and improve their own blogs.

As part of bringing some element of excitement to the meet, IndiBlogger.in will also give Kolkata bloggers an opportunity to showcase their blogs and get an immediate feedback from fellow bloggers.

Commenting on the blogger's meet, Mr. Anoop Johnson, Marketing Director of IndiBlogger.in stated, "The global blogging industry today relies on a lot of Indian blogs covering every subject including photography, travel, entertainment, sports, technology and cuisine. For example, a tourist to India reads up on Indian travel blogs to understand the ground realities and also have an unbiased opinion on holiday destinations. With about 500 bloggers across India having attended the six meets so far, it is good news for Kolkata bloggers to join in the blogger revolution."

IndiBlogger.in has been at the forefront of creating opportunities to connect fellow bloggers in the traditional space, establish personal connections and drive more traffic to their blogs. The association's objectives are to provide a common platform to bloggers in India and enable them to communicate and improve their community by providing a unique blend of online as well as offline activities. IndiBlogger.in has over 6000 Indian bloggers registered with the association making it the biggest network of bloggers in India today. With 7 blogger meets in just six months they are also one of the most active blogging communities in the world today.

For further information, please contact:
Contact:
Renie Ravin
Email: indi@indiblogger.in
Mobile: +91 9790916345
Tel: +91 44 45018949
Blog: http://blog.indiblogger.in

Kolkata Blogger Meet - Blogger Meet in Kolkata - Indiblogger.in

2008-09-19T02:25:00.000-07:00

Scheduled for 21/09/2008 at 16:00
City: Kolkata

Description
Kolkata's first ever Blogger Meet is going to happen!

Bloggers all over India (and of course..Kolkata) are cordially invited to the Kolkata Blogger Meet, on September 21, 2008.

Help us Spread the word about the meet too! You can use this short URL just in case: http://tinyurl.com/BloggerMeet

Sponsored by

Item	By
Welcome	Archit
Quick intro on IndiBlogger	IndiBlogger Team
1 minute of fame	Bloggers
How well do you know your readers?	IndiBlogger Team
Mingling session / Pizza
Discussion on blogging ethics	Bloggers
Presentation by MS (To be confirmed)	Microsoft
Wrapping up	IndiBlogger Team

Venue
Heera Hotel Inn
51 Elliot Road, (Adjacent Park Street)
Kolkata- 700016
West Bengal, India
PH: +91.033.40111642, +91.033.22291642

Landmark
Near Assembly of God Church School

SEO Optimization and Web Implementation Tools

2008-09-17T22:08:00.000-07:00

As a blogger, SEO Strategist and partial web developer, I find myself using numerous tools to help optimize blogs/websites. Below are few great tools/services which help make my optimization and implementation tasks a lot more efficient:

Bust-a-Name: A very quick and intuitive way to determine the availability of a given domain name. Bust-a-Name also provides suggestions for new domain names based on inputted keywords.

If you're not a web designer and need a simple and professional way to implement a website then checkout Weebly. Weebly, is a free service which offers dozens of website templates which you can customize and upload to your own domain.

Microsoft AdCenter's Keyword Service Platform provides numerous keyword analysis data and tools such as Keyword extraction, suggestion, search buzz, monthly traffic, keyword categorization, geographic info, demographic info, monetization info (clicks, impressions, avg positions, CTR, CPC).

SEO Digger is a decent keyword gathering and research tool but what it really helps me with is determining a given site's overall theme and keyword focus. Apart from a list of search queries, wordtracker and overture results are also determined (keyword popularity calculated by Wordtracker.com). Data is also CSV-exportable.

Yahoo pipes can act as a very robust feed reader. It allows me to organize different blogs' data into a single source and apply numerous types of filters. Additionally I can combine all of the feed content from the blogs I write for and offer it to my readers as a single source rather than multiple feeds.

Source: Web Analytics World

Official Google Blog: The future of online video

2008-09-16T22:20:00.000-07:00

Official Google Blog: The future of online video

Official Google Blog: Google Audio Indexing now on Google Labs

2008-09-16T22:19:00.000-07:00

Official Google Blog: Google Audio Indexing now on Google Labs

Official Google Blog: Let's hear it for Google scholarship winners

2008-09-16T22:18:00.000-07:00

Official Google Blog: Let's hear it for Google scholarship winners

List of Professional Web Design Forums

2008-09-15T23:11:00.000-07:00

Web Design related forums are a place where you interact with other designers, exchange ideas or discuss your first drafts. When you have a problem, you can post the issue, and then receive feedback on possible design or coding solutions from community members. This interaction is a great way to establish contacts and build relationships. Forums are used for networking and marketing purposes. They are practical places to solve problems and can serve as a form of social diversion.

What is a good forum?

As designers and developers, we choose a forum depending on its ability to approach our needs. In best case the forum should be large enough, moderators should be cooperative and the posts should be responded quickly. There is nothing worse than posting a thread on a forum and no one replies to it.

In forums, users develop a reputation over time. The forum software can be used to track this. Some forums allow users to rate each other as well. Also, the more you participate and the more professional input you bring to the community, the more other members will recognize you and respect your opinion.

The quality of the community is reflected by the level and depth of responses from community members. How well the forum is run has a direct impact on our ability to use it. The forum needs good moderation and clear guidelines. Even the design of the forum plays a role in our decision to use it. After all, every forum has its own personality.

The diversity of content on forums is immense. Often, advice takes the form of Q&A-discussions, but it can also take the form of articles, and tutorials as well. Threaded discussions are a huge part of forums, but some forums have areas that operate differently — marketplaces are an example, or design showcases.

Content Management Systems often have great forums for web designers. E.g. if you’re a Wordpress user, you may frequent the Wordpress Forums. There you can pose installation questions, share your recent themes, extensions, modifications and plugins and ask for a help in building a WordPress-template.

The type of career path you’ve chosen may lead you to forums as well. If you’re a freelancer then you may frequent forums such as the Freelance Switch Forum.

While such types of forums are of use to a web designer, there are forums specifically designed for working web design professionals. We’ve compiled a list below. We’d like to hear your experiences with these or other web design forums.

Web Design Forums

Sitepoint Forum
Sitepoint has a huge community of members, with over 250,000 members. It’s an excellent place to network, get programming tips, or practical business advice. There is a thriving marketplace where you can buy or sell websites and designs, among other things. Sitepoint’s forum is well managed and well maintained. It has a clean flexible layout and sets a high quality standard for web design forums.

Designers Talk Forum
This is an active forum with a clean design. It has a handful of sections dedicated to web design, coding, and others. This forum also has areas dedicated to graphic design and other disciplines related to web design. There are over 25,000 members in this community.

Stylegala Forum
Stylegala is a well-known site that promotes great site design, standards based practices, and news on client side solutions. The forum isn’t very active and the number of users isn’t disclosed. It does have a good clean design though. There are some popular discussions that you may want to participate in.

Dynamic Drive Forum
Dynamic Drive has a growing library of freely available code snippets and packaged solutions. Their forums are a popular place to discuss web design coding issues and solutions. Most of the sections in the forum are dedicated to coding topics related to web design. There is a Javascript section, and a CSS section, for example.

Digital Point Forum
This is a popular forum with a large user base, about half the size of Sitepoint. Its members are very active. Networking, conversations, advice, and more is thriving. It has sections on Design & Development, Search Engines, Business, Marketing, and others. It’s professionally managed and maintained. And has an active marketplace. The design is functional, though not remarkable.

Webmaster-Talk.com
This forum is focused on those that run sites. Web design is a big part of running a site. So, there are plenty of sections on that topic. Also, you may find sections like Internet Marketing and Making Money Online interesting as well. This forum has over 50,000 members. It’s also active as well. The design is clean, and sections like the marketplace have unique designs as well.

Kirupa.com
“Kirupa.com is a site that aims to make designers better developers, and maybe even help developers become better designers.” The forum has over 100,000 members. It’s a web design forum that has a strong trend toward Flash and Gaming. It’s a fun forum with enthusiastic and active users.

Dev Shed Forum
This is a large community with over 200,000 members. It focuses on programming mostly, though it does cover general web design topics, and graphic design as well. It is an active community, with multiple posts, and replies every day. Site design is simple and bland.

Chawlk
Basically, Chawlk unites the members and contributors of the 9rules community and offers them a compact platform for professional and not-so-professional discussions. Among other communities, you’ll also a find communities related to design, coding, blogging, technology, software etc. Interesting topics are selected by moderators and added into Editor’s picks.

CodingForums.com
This is an active forum focused on coding. Many of the languages covered are for web design. Under the Client Side section, there are topics on graphics and general web design issues as well. There are over 50,000 members and more than 5,000 active. The forum design is simple and usable.

Ozzu Forum
This forum covers web design and development topics. They also cover Graphics, Internet Marketing and more. It has over 30,000 members. The forums are active. They are well moderated and have been successfully running the forum for over 5 years.

HTMLforum.com
Website Design and Development are topics covered. It also covers Server Administration, Marketing, and Business topics. The design is a little bit distracting. This forum has over 30,000 members. The forums have regular active posts.

Webdevforums
This forum is moderately active with over 25,000 members. There were quite a few posts without replies in important sections like Client & Server Side Scripting. There is more activity in Web Designs, HTML Reference, and CSS Section though. This forum covers many important areas of web design, though only some of the forum sections are active.

Talk Freelance
This forum is focused on web freelancers. It has over 15,000 members. The threads are active, and replies appear responsive. They cover web design and development topics. There is a popular marketplace. The forum has a bright inviting design.

Cre8asiteForums
This forum presents a friendly and inviting environment. There are over 15,000 members. The forums are active, with numerous lengthy threads where many members showed themselves to be helpful. Numerous website topics are covered. The site has some sections not seen on every web design forum, like Law, Ethics, and Green issues.

Web Design Forum
This forum organizes its topics into visualizing website design and coding websites. There are over 10,000 members. The posts are active, and there are plenty of lengthy tutorials and discussions. They have a well developed reputation system, and the forums are well moderated. The design is basic and stylistically dated, but the team running the site seams dedicated to standards based design.

Killersites Forum
Killersites are a network of websites branded cohesively that assist with educating on web design topics. Their forum is not the largest, or most active community, but it appears to be professionally managed. The sections on General Web Design, which includes topics such as CSS and HTML, are reasonably active for the size of its membership base. They have around 7,000 members.

Webdesignerforum.co.uk
If you’re looking to network with web designers from your area you may want to search for a forum that caters to your region. Webdesignerforum.co.uk is a forum from the United Kingdom. It has a little over 3,000 members. However, it’s extremely active for it’s size.

Further forums

Since web design is a profession that touches on numerous skills, forums that are dedicated to areas such as graphic design may be helpful as well. Graphic-Forums.com, Talkgraphic and Renderosity are dedicated to graphics design and have a large community willing to help you out; there are a number of subsections dedicated to specific software you are using to create your works.

Source: Smashing Magazine