Democracy Suppression in China

What is the meaning of democracy?

"Democracy (literally "rule by the people", from the Greek demos, "people," and kratos, "rule") is a form of government for a nation state, or for an organization in which all the citizens have a vote or voice in shaping policy. Today democracy is often assumed to be liberal democracy, but there are many other varieties and the methods used to govern differ. While the term democracy is often used in the context of a political state, the principles are also applicable to other bodies, such as universities, labor unions, public companies, or civic organizations."

This is just an example of what democracy means to some. But to some people, it may mean something else. Specially to those who want to taste democracy but is faced with a very difficult challenge, that is, being born, raised and living in China.

Being born in a "democratic" country, I could say that we are somewhat blessed. We can do what we want as long as it does not violate any law, rules or regulations. We can say what's on our mind(theoretically) and not be bothered by any attempts on our lives(sad to say, my approach on this matter is very theoretical and idealistic, this may not apply to our brothers and sisters in the media industry here in the Philippines. They have constant worries of threats on their lives just by wanting to expose some unethical politicians and people in power.).

In China, even the internet has some restrictions to it. Like the article I saw a year ago wherein certain words and terms are banned from being searched on Chinese Internet Portals. How fucked up is that? Just searching for words like freedom and democracy and seeing that the results are being block, that would surely piss me off.

I am not chinese by birth or by blood but I feel for those who cannot enjoy the things that I can do freely.

Online Services you should try out for yourself

I saw a couple of interesting products on the net a while ago. As usual, there are lots of things happening in different online communities. What caught my attention was these three things, Competitious, Slideshare and My own search engine, you read it right(*ahem*)!



That is not really my own Search Engine(duh!), just thought it would be cool to fool your less internet savvy friends saying "look my own Search Engine".

Competitious is a site dedicated to tracking your competitions activities. Clippings on sites you regard as competition will be shown to you once you are logged in. Theoretically, it would be a great way to keep tabs on the competition, I just signed up minutes ago, I'll just make a review on it when I have played with it for a while.

Slideshare is a youtube like interface wherein you can share your powerpoint presentations and Open Office presentations. However it is still not available for the public but there is a form to get "early" invites. Basically that is how you get access to it, unless someone you know who is already in invites you. Any available invites there? :D

PageRank Info from Matt Cutts

I know a lot of people who would do anything just to get their PR (PageRank) up a couple of notches. Back when I first got hold of some information of what PageRank is, I was one of those people who obsessed for a higher PageRank. But I can say I might have changed a bit.

Right now, I still care about PageRank, but not to the extent that I would do some things just to get my PR up a bit (Try PR redirecting for example, not really my stuff).

I stumbled upon the blog of Matt Cutts and read his latest post about PageRank. Matt Cutts clarifies that PR is more of a floating-point number rather than the integer that is displayed on the toolbar. So a tiny value of around .02 PR may mean a lot in cases sush as a PR 6.49 because it may be rounded down to PR6 while a PR 6.51 may go up to a PR7.

PR updates usually effect every 3-4 months.

A question pops up on the heads of those who had PR change, "Will it affect the SERP's?", Matt also clarified this when he said that as of the time you saw some PR change, the effects of this change has already been incorporated in the SERPS.

On to other things, Google just made another improvement, the Google Gadgets that you can put into your Personalized Google Homepage can now be incorporated to your own site or any site that you can paste the code snippet in.

What will they think of next? :D

Google Buys out Start-Up Garage

All big things come from small beginnings. That include Google. During their Start-Up days, they larry Page and Sergey Brin just rented a garage in Silicon Valley.

They stayed in the Garage that they rented from Susan Wojcicki, who was back then not an employee but just knows Brin because her friend dated him. Today, Susan Wojcicki is the Vice President of Produc Management of Google.

There are some trivias that are provided about their start up and it is posted on SiliconValley. It was even mentioned that back then, Brin and Page usually raided Wojcicki's refrigerator.

Google did not verify how much they bought the property and what will be its purpose. Some people say it would be used as Guest House or that it would be preserved as a part of Google's legacy, some even think it will be used as a storage house for a Datacenter :D

Reading this article somewhat inspires me. They started up when they were 25. I'm still young, I just wish I could make a name for myself someday.

PS: Happy 1st year Anniversary for Shoemoney's blogging career. More power and blogging years to come!

Isulong SEOPH Awards Night

Last Friday, the awards night of the first ever SEO contest in the Philippines, the Isulong SEOPH keyword ranking contest, was held at Pier 1 in Ortigas. I was quite hesitant on going at first because I didn't know most of the members of our Yahoo group personally. When I arrived, Marc Macalua, was just setting up the equipments that will be used for the awards night.

Since the place was jam-packed, I went to a table where there were vacant seats. Luckily I joined some very interesting and accomodating people. At the table were prominent online personalities in the Philippines and the CEO of Lakeside Technologies,Boris Kerbikov. Abe Olandres was at the table, known as YUGA to those who spend most of their time online, Noel Bautista was also there, he was quite friendly and he the one who talked to me when I joined their table. But the most interesting person on the table was Mike Abundo. He was good with words and was quite lively throughout the whole evening. Other personalities that kept the event lively was Mike Lopez and the winners of the event. I do not know most of them before coming there but I'm glad I came. Congrats to Gio and Whin and all the others that won.

PS: Congrats to Arnold for winning that IPOD, now aren't you glad you came :D