NewBie on tHe Go

Skype 3.0

2006-12-14T17:44:00.000+08:00

Skype just released its 3.0 version.

They will also start charging users within US and Canada in 2007. They would charge $29.95 for a year of unlimited calling but if you purchase the plan before January 31, 2007, it will only cost you $14.95

Those who are fond of using Skype, better get the plan quick.

I don't really care about it that much, we have VoIP in our office :D

Yahoo Food

2006-11-06T09:06:00.000+08:00

Ever wanted a place to search for all your food related needs like restaurant details, locations, recipes, videos on cooking and answers to cooking related questions? Yahoo has this covered. They recently launched Yahoo Food.

It seems that this URL has been around for a while since it is displaying a PageRank of 7.

There you go, the perfect place to find all your food related needs, I heard that Google is also coming up with something like this, no official confirmation yet though.

What Shade of SEO are you?

2006-11-02T09:17:00.000+08:00

What shade of SEO are you? Really? Do you fit in to the categories listed below or are you somewhere in between within those categories?

Here's the list :

Dark inky black: The SEO's (or in this case the spammer's) interests are totally divergent from both the engines and the users - the SEO wants to trick the search engine into handing over users who are ripe to be tricked themselves into a situation of malicious harm. For example, the SEO might name his domain just one typo-character away from a famous domain name, then install spyware on the computer of any user careless enough to visit, or attempt to impersonate a major portal's login page to collect logins and passwords.

Charcoal: The SEO tries to trick the engine into showing the user something totally unrelated to the query, and possibly offensive, but doesn't actually commit any illegal or fraudulent acts within five seconds of the first user click. Example: a (heinous) pornspammer who stuffs the page with irrelevant non-porn keywords targeting innocent queries, maybe via invisible text. 99.9% of searchers will be searching for something else and will be put off; 0.1% will be searching for something else, but will, um, flexibly and opportunistically reorient their interests.

Dark gray: The SEO collects (aka steals) random text from other sites, and uses it to create thousands (or millions) of pages targeting particular queries. The pages have nothing original of value, but do have ads.

Slate gray: The SEO creates thousands (or millions of pages), all of which point (by linkage, or framing, or redirection) to the same content, which might actually be interesting to the searcher.

Gray: The SEO reads the guidelines of search engines, and tries to juice up their sites just enough to fly under the radar on all dimensions - artificial linkfarms that remain small, automatic content duplication that is arguably not too abusive, etc. The goal is to get enough referral traffic as possible, without too much reference to whether it is interested traffic.

Light gray: The SEO creates "original" content in bulk the old-fashioned way, thinking first of all of search engine rules, secondly of duplicate detection algorithms, and lastly of whether the text makes sense to human beings and is something anyone would ever want to read. Then the SEO experiments with all the parameters (keyword density, internal linkage) trying to move up for the queries of interest.

Off-white: The SEO ensures crawlability of the site, restructures it if necessary for size of pages and internal linkage, and then injects terms to specifically target the important keywords and queries. He doesn't create linkfarms, but friends and allies are importuned to link with specific text and phrases.

White: The SEO starts (if lucky) with a site full of content you can't find anywhere else, and that answers a need that searchers actually have. Then the SEO makes sure the site is crawlable, and that titles and internal links make sense and are descriptive. Then the SEO thinks hard about the queries that really should pull up this content, and tries to discover if the right terms are present. Then (the hard, artful part), he or she rewrites content with a dual consciousness of the infovorous human reader and the termnivorous spider, making sure that the most important terms and phrases for the spider are present (in all their forms) and forefronted for the spider, without degrading the quality for the reader.

Luminescent pearly white: This would be a case where the SEO designs a site to show up for relevant queries and not to show up for irrelevant queries. Do luminescent SEOs exist? Well, Jon Udell is one anyway.

If I was to do SEO on my own site, I'd probably be in between gray hat and light gray hat. If I was working for an employer or client, it will depend on what they would like me to do :)

I wonder what ituloy angsulong participants would be be using for the contest? But as Marc said "All hats are in".

Goodluck to you guys!

Ituloy angsulong

PS:
To Flickr users out there, want more space for your photos? Try using Zooomr. They are providing twice the size of photo uploads per month as compared with Flickr.

Cintiq - Digital Paper

2006-10-31T09:09:00.000+08:00

I recently saw this gadget online and I am really glad I did. It is from a company named Wacom, and the product's name is Wacom Cintiq 21UX For art lovers and artists alike, this tool will surely make sketching and painting really quite enjoyable.

I bet Jozzua could really enjoy making one of his comics using this gadget. I bet this could help him win the Ituloy angsulong contest. :)

For a frustrated artist like me, I would really like to have something like this. But the $2500 price tag surely hurts :(

I was really hoping to join the contest but I guess I wont be able to commit myself to it due to lack of time and available resources out of the moment. Hopefully I could decide on joining the contest by the end of this week, for now, Ill just settle with cheering for my new found buddies :D

Ituloy angsulong!

ITULOY ANGSULONG! - 2nd Philippine SEO Contest

2006-10-30T09:13:00.000+08:00

The event last Saturday night at Jill's was quite awesome, the food was nice, beer and other drinks were flowing nonstop. I was lucky to be seated at the front with some notable personalities like Miguel Paraz, Elymar "Jozzua" Apao,J. Angelo Racoma and of course, Marc Macalua

I really enjoyed staying on that table, with Jozzua cracking up jokes once in a while, sure was an interesting night.

I just waited for the keyword since I was quite curious to know what it was. The keyword, as revealed by Marc around 10 PM I think, it was

ituloy angsulong

Here is the contest details page.

I went home at about 11:30 PM since I was kinda tired, I had quite a busy morning after all. Im sorry I wasn't able to say goodbye to Jozzua and Migz, looking forward to hear from you guys soon.

So, for now, ill just watch out for the contestants new entries. Ituloy angsulong!

GahooYoogle?

2006-10-27T09:12:00.000+08:00

Stumbled upon this site yesterday. Kinda funny how they interchange the Y and G. Other than that. It is really a simple page. It just shows results of your search query in Google and Yahoo in an equally divided page.

However, this page has become quite popular with some "amazed" users that they simply keep on linking to it :D Nice idea, but I would prefer something like combined results for both search engines, maybe better if MSN Search (LIVE) would be also included. But that's just me :)

Firefox 2 is not included in the Google Adsense referal program. That means you cant earn money from referring Firefox 2 as of the moment.

Ever Wondered how to use Google in a sentence properly? The Official Google Blog answers that question.

Here are examples on how to use Google in a sentence:

Usage: 'Google' as noun referring to, well, us.
Example: "I just love Google, they're soooo cute and cuddly and adorable and awesome!"
Our lawyers say: Good. Very, very good. There's no question here that you're referring to Google Inc. as a company. Use it widely, and hey, tell a friend.

Usage: 'Google' as verb referring to searching for information on, um, Google.
Example: "I googled him on the well-known website Google.com and he seems pretty interesting."
Our lawyers say: Well, we're happy at least that it's clear you mean searching on Google.com. As our friends at Merriam-Webster note, to "Google" means "to use the Google search engine to find information about (as a person) on the World Wide Web."

Usage: 'Google' as verb referring to searching for information via any conduit other than Google.
Example: "I googled him on Yahoo and he seems pretty interesting."
Our lawyers say: Bad. Very, very bad. You can only "Google" on the Google search engine. If you absolutely must use one of our competitors, please feel free to "search" on Yahoo or any other search engine.

So that means we cant Google on Yahoo or Live, I wonder if we can Yahoo on Google?

Blogger is Down!

2006-10-26T10:18:00.000+08:00

At around 9:00AM this morning I opened up Blogger to add another post to my blog. As I am currently writing this, Blogger is still down.

Apparently, I wasn’t the only one who took notice of this, there is a thread at the Digitalpoint’s forum regarding this matter.

Thankfully, Blogger Beta is up. Now, Im really glad I switched.

I also stumbled upon some data regarding Google employees. It seems that Googlers are rapidly increasing in number, from 2000 in 2004 to 9000 today. Wow, wish there was a Google branch here in the Philippines J. I only know of one person associated with Google in the Philippines and she is part of our Yahoo Group.

Ms. Aileen Apollo, Google Philippines Country Consultant, will be present on the upcoming SEO Philippines BeerCon 2006 which will be held at Jill’s Fort Bonifacio Global City, Taguig on October 28, 2006 at 7 PM

It will also be the launching of the second SEO contest handled by Marc Macalua.

Thanks to Mr. Macalua for making the event possible.

Firefox 2 is officially out

2006-10-25T09:37:00.000+08:00

Finally, after waiting for some time, I will be able to use Firefox 2. I heard that there have been some improvements to it as compared to the Firefox 2.0 Release Candidate 3 like the inline spell checker which makes misspelled keywords in text areas appear underlined with red dots.

Other improvements include improvements in the theme and user interface, Extended search plugin format, improved tabbed browsing and so much more.

They also fixed the bug in the find in text area which was quite troublesome for some time (does 2 years qualify for "some time"?" :D)

I have already downloaded it and will install it as soon as finish this post, I'll keep you updated for other info that I'll find out after using it for a day. I might just have to say goodbye to my Firefox 2.0 Release Candidate 3 :)

Yahoo Search Marketing Enhancements

2006-10-24T09:22:00.000+08:00

Apparently Yahoo has been having some improvements on their Search Marketing service. If you are a publisher not currently using this service, it will only affect you in small ways like:

The removal of ellipses (…)
Fewer truncated words
The inclusion of 40-character titles on certain ad units
A change in the number of ads displayed on certain ad layouts

People at Yahoo say that other than this changes, nothing else will change like its usability in the short run. However, in the long term, these changes will make your ads more relevant.

Yahoo Search Marketing users will be able to take advantage of some useful enhancements like:

An intuitive new control panel
Using this completely redesigned, easy-to-navigate control panel will help you see what’s working and what’s not.
Fast ad activation
Most ads should now go live within minutes.
Easy ad testing
You’ll be able to test multiple versions of an ad to find the message that works best.
Geo-targeting
Target your customers as broadly or narrowly as you want on a geographic basis, and customize your ads to help control costs.
Campaign budgeting, forecasting and scheduling
You’ll be able to create, budget and schedule your individual advertising campaigns for greater control over your advertising strategy and spending.
See-through visibility
The new interface can will help you understand how well your ads are performing relative to your competitors.

So if you are tired of using Google Adwords or just curious to try alternatives, I suggest you check this out.

Paint.net - an alternative to Photoshop

2006-10-23T09:23:00.000+08:00

I've recently come across this software that is an alternative to Photoshop named Paint.net. It was originally created to replace MS Paint that comes with Windows, however, it has developed into something more useful and powerful.

It was developed using C# and C++.

So I suggest you give it a try, it is just a 3.6 Mb download. Who knows, you might just find it more useful than Photoshop. It is also open source so it means the code is available to be toggled with.

If you ever decide to try it out, download the 3.0 version. It loads pretty fast and has the most features

IE7 vs Firefox and Google Webmaster Tools

2006-10-20T09:23:00.000+08:00

Just a quick update, IE 7 is out and Firefox 2.0 Release Candidate 3 is also out. May be a good time to compare and contrast. Matt Cutts tried it out and he prefers Firefox over IE7.

But I think you better try it out for yourself and then decide on which works best for you.

Google Webmaster Tools also had an update. It includes a Googlebot activity report, crawl rate control and enhanced image search.

Basically the Googlebot activity report generates a visualization of when Googlebot has crawled your site, the crawl rate control allows you to set how regularly Googlebot is to search your site so as to conserve bandwidth and lastly, the enhanced image search which will help to get your images get indexed and improve its search quality

Firefox 2.0 about to be released

2006-10-18T09:00:00.000+08:00

I just had an update for the Firefox 2.0 Release Candidate 3 yesterday and was really thankful for the release of this one. It's much more stable than the previous release. I just converted to the 2.0 version last week since I was more fond of using the 1.5.0.7 version. When I first converted to the 2.0 Release, my first thought was, why the hell did I change? Minutes after running the 2.0 version, after a couple of tabs have been opened, Firefox just crashed. I though it was just a one time thing but I was proven wrong. Every 5 minutes, Firefox just crashes. So I was stuck with a seemingly incompetent version of Firefox for a day. Luckily the next day, an update came in and made my Firefox much more stable. But the program still crashes at least 3x a day so I was hoping of a better one. The first thing I noticed was the buttons for the home page, refresh and stop, together with all the buttons on top looked quite sleeker than before, and I liked it.

I was very thankful for yesterdays update to Release Candidate 3. Except for the fact that it is not compatible with several extensions(which can be solved by using Nightly Tester Tools to make Firefox 2.0 believe it is compatible with the extension) I am beginning to grow fond of this version.

With The release of Firefox 2.0 Release Candidate 3, Firefox 2.0's official release is really on its way.

Scrap IE7 and stick with Firefox :P

Protectmyphotos...from what?

2006-10-17T09:52:00.000+08:00

I just stumbled upon this backup for pictures site called ProtectMyPhotos. Basically they say they offer unlimited backup space for your photos( they also allow files and videos backup but you need to specify it on your preference page).

What's tricky is that when they say unlimited, they only mean about 40,000 pictures. They say that only 1% of typical users need more than that amount. They don't even say if that's for the initial $39.95 service or for the free account. So what's the point of saying unlimited? When if you exceed 40gb you will need to pay another $39.95 a month.

All in all, I think the service is quite appealing to some, but they need to be clearer on how they actually bill the clients and on what the free accounts really get. I wouldn't subscribe to it myself but feel free to try it out, maybe it will work for you, maybe not. :D

PS: having backups of your images is one way of protecting it, but how protected are those pictures from being copied and duplicated?

If Friendster was bought by Google...

2006-10-16T09:30:00.000+08:00

IF Friendster founder Jonathan Abrams accepted Google's offer of $30 Million back in 2003 for the site which is only a year old, what could have happened?

$30 million for a year old website which originally was meant to be a tool for Mr. Abrams to look for pretty girls on his friends networks may seem to be a good idea. However, due to certain reasons, which I think Mr. Abrams seriously considered back then was the offer of $13 million from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers for a stake at the company and the promise that they will make Friendster into a money-making cow.

However, if the initial offer from Google was $30 million worth of stock, then according to some speculations from Google insiders, He may be easily worth $1 billion today.

Some say that Friendster could have been bigger than it is now and not lurking on the shadows of Myspace. I think Friendster is not on the way down just yet. It could still be as promising as it was before. With proper funding and management, it may just be able to do so.

PS: Just read Marc's post regarding the confirmation of Google setting up a shop in the Philippines and they are looking for Adsense Coordinators and persons in Engineering.

Adsense Coordinator sounds like a cool job. :D

Internet rates in Davao, Flying Google Images and Shoemoney getting hacked?

2006-10-13T09:13:00.000+08:00

Internet Shops are all over the Philippines, It had a boom when people really got into YM! and online games. Believe me, back when it started, I was one of those people who really spent a lot on online games and the internet. Back then the rates was quite expensive, considering that it was only dial-up internet back then, we were paying P35-45/hour and suffered terrible connection speeds.

That was years ago, now, Broadband and Wi-Fi are what people normally use. Of course there are still dial-ups out there but it wouldn't quite reach the number of people on broadband.

I read that In Davao City, you could surf the net for a bout P4/hour! Wow! I could just imagine myself being online all day and pay just P96. Back in High School and College, I use to spend way more than that just to play for about 6-7 hours. Do they even break-even at that price? I think, somehow, they still make a profit or else they wouldn't continue with such endeavor.

I also saw something cool while surfing the net. Want to see all the images from Google Images fly? I saw a code that makes all the pictures on a page of Google Images fly when you type in this code on the URL box.

You just cut and paste the code in the URl box and watch the images fly in circles.

Shoemoney's site was defaced a couple of hours ago but is now back up. The image on top was how the site looked like a couple of hours ago. Just hope this doesn't affect Shoemoney that much and i also hope this is not just one of his creative link baits.

PS: Paypal Philippines got approved. But it only lets you send money, $100 mac. Well, it's a start.

Yahoo Search Update: What Update?

2006-10-12T09:46:00.000+08:00

Yahoo announced that an update just took place. The whole update report is :

Weather Report: Yahoo! Search Index Update

Welcome to our first weather report of the fall season. We are rolling out an index update tonight. As usual, you'll see some changes in ranking along with shuffling of the pages that are included in the index.

To share your thoughts with other Yahoo! Search users, please visit the Site Explorer forum. For other feedback or support issues, please refer to our webmaster resources page. We read all your feedback.

Thanks!

Priyank Garg
Product Manager
Yahoo! Search

Funny thing is, It didn't create quite a buzz, unlike when Google or MSN makes an update. As of now, the only forum it is discussed in is the digitalpoint forum.

Most users who noticed the changes had positive remarks. Just hope the Yahoo people's efforts won't go unnoticed :D

The new IE7

2006-10-11T09:14:00.000+08:00

Internet Explorer 7 is coming out before this week ends and there are some improvements from the previous version.

Aside from the tabbed browsing, It also boasts of having RSS feed directly from the browser, a search box in the corner which of course has Windows Live as main search provider and the improvement in security focusing more on fraudulent websites and online phishing scams.

But I read a review on Techcrunch. They have 10 things that they wish were different in how IE7 functions:

Useful RSS viewing

The option to click through one feed at a time falls far short of the potential that RSS offers and as things stand the feed view in IE 7 is just a way to look at one page at a time, perhaps with truncated entries and without page design. The option to automatically download enclosures is the only part of RSS that this implementation succeeds at.
One click RSS subscription
Believe it or not, when the browser detects a feed on a page you still have to view that feed and then chose to subscribe with another click. I fantasize about a day when I’ll be able to view all the feeds from the domain I’m at, but for now at least make it easy to quickly subscribe to.
Tagging and Online Access to Favorites

Tagging is useful. It’s how one item can be classified and thus discovered in multiple ways. Folders may be the preferred way to organize favorites or feeds for most people, but the option to view by tags would be very helpful. Likewise, online access to my favorites and feeds while away from my computer is something that everyone would appreciate. Watch some one’s eyes light up when you tell them that what we call social bookmarking lets them access their bookmarks from any computer.

Drag and Drop Organization

If you’re going to give me folders, at least make it easy for me to move items around in them. Most other online feed readers support this now.

Multimedia in the Feed Reader

Bloglines and some other feed readers now support viewing of video files inside their UI. IE 7 strips files like embedded videos from the feed reader view.

Social Annotation

IE has such market dominance that it only makes sense to let all those users communicate with each other about the pages they visit if they so chose. Take a page from StubleUpon or some of the many attempts to offer a wiki sidebar tied to each URL. It would be good if IE’s market share was able to be leveraged by users and not just as a means for Microsoft to profit.

P2P

Likewise, P2P can be powerful in the browser. See the newest version of Opera, it has BitTorrent baked in. I know - that couldn’t be more unrealistic from IE, but wouldn’t it make sense? Even a DRM locked down P2P system would be smart for much faster downloads.

See the FireFox plugin from AttentionTrust.org. The ability to capture, leverage and selectively expose our online activities will some day be considered a basic civil right. I know it’s fanciful but it would be great if Microsoft made more moves in that direction sooner rather than later.

Full Cross Platform IM Compatibility

Windows Live Messenger announced IM compatibility with Yahoo! Messenger with Voice in July. There are a limited number of other cross platform compatibilities that various IM providers have announced. The IM in IE7 doesn’t appear to even work with Yahoo! Why couldn’t they have just ended this charade and built or bought a cross platform IM program? Is that too much to ask?

Standards Compliance

IE 7 is reported to be the most standards compliant version of the browser yet, but it would be great if the bully attitude was dropped and full WC3 compliance was at least aimed for. Instead the web gets a warning that IE7 is coming and that everyone had better test their applications to see if they will work in the new browser. Standards create a common space in which to innovate, it’s that simple.

To read the full article, just visit Techcrunch - Ten Things I wish IE 7 was about to Deliver

Not Feeling Fine

2006-10-10T09:35:00.000+08:00

Been sick since last friday night, Last night I went to the doctor for a check-up and she told me it was Tonsillitis. So that was the cause of the recurring headaches and fever since last friday.

If you think that's bad, It is accompanied by my wisdom tooth saying hello to the world.

As I said in the Update, Google did buy Youtube. A whopping $1.65B worth of stocks. There, you do the math.

I also read an article saying that a Yahoo employee was fired for not watching porn and instead doing some PERL programming. This guy works for Yahoo's Erotica Department as the editor. This whole thing was just a prank post :P

Google Buying Youtube?

2006-10-09T09:45:00.000+08:00

There are some discussions going about regarding this issue. Youtube has been really the subject of many online discussions for the past weeks, mainly because of the legal issues it has been involved in.

Shoemoney gives out 10 reasons why he thinks Google buying Youtube will be a success. Some of these are: Why rent when you can own, to block of competitors like Microsoft and land-grabbing for publishing space.

Some of his arguments make sense. I will just stay tuned to what will happen next, if Google will confirm or deny this matter.

I'll hust keep you guys posted

Update - Google Buys YouTube for $1.65B

So it's finally confirmed.

"When the acquisition is complete, YouTube will retain its distinct brand identity, strengthening and complementing Google’s own fast-growing video business. YouTube will continue to be based in San Bruno, CA, and all YouTube employees will remain with the company. With Google’s technology, advertiser relationships and global reach, YouTube will continue to build on its success as one of the world's most popular services for video entertainment."

Let's just see where this will lead to.

Democracy Suppression in China

2006-10-06T09:17:00.000+08:00

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

2006-10-05T09:02:00.000+08:00

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

2006-10-04T09:34:00.000+08:00

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

2006-10-03T09:22:00.000+08:00

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

2006-10-02T09:41:00.000+08:00

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

Google Reader Upgrades while Yahoo buys Jumpcut

2006-09-29T10:34:00.000+08:00

Google Reader has some new upgrades. Not only does it look different, they also have lots of new features to boot.

It features folder-based navigation, has a "mark all as read" and shows how many are unread. The folder-based navigation also has an expanded view that lets you see more items at once. They also made sharing a lot easier. By just clicking the "shared" icon, you can let your friends see what files you have shared on your public page.

Yep, another one of my Google posts, seems to amaze me to find something new or upgraded by Google everytime I go online.

Now Yahoo isnot just sitting around all day and does nothing. Recently, they have acquired Jumpcut. Jumpcut lets users post pictures and videos, share them with others and grab other pics and videos. yeah, you can do that almost anywhere else but what I find cool about their site is the "Remix" button. Using this you can do your own versions of other members uploads.

I think Jumpcut will be better in the days to come, partnering with Yahoo definitly has its perks.

Google Notebook Upgrades and Reporting Adsense Violations

2006-09-27T10:04:00.002+08:00

Recently I have been a bit a bit biased on reporting Google Products. It seems like this is one of those days. I recently started using Google Notebooks. I know, I know, I am four months late on featuring this Google Product, but I just started blogging recently and I am just in time for featuring the new improvements for this product :D

Now you can collaborate on a notebook with your friends and contacts but you can still publish it for the whole world to see if you think it is worth publishing. The guys at Google are really trying to make things easier for their users, aside from the new collaborating option other new features such as, a new User Interface which is much better than before has been introduced. Files that you have trashed can now be recovered and you can also create a direct link from your Google homepage to your Google Notebook. Isn't that quite handy? :D

By the way, Google values user feedback, just give them a buzz so they can know what you want.

To those of you who have encountered some Adsense Violations, Do you know what to do?

Here are the steps to follow in reporting an Adsense Violation:
To bring a site to our attention, follow these steps:

Draft a new email. If possible, please use the email address currently associated with your AdSense account
Write 'AdSense Policy Violation' as the subject of your message
Please include all of the following in the body of your message:
- The URL of the violating website
- A description of the violation
- The specific location of the violation, if applicable
Send this email to adsense-abuse@google.com

Also, you can try the site exclusion feature whenever you feel a certain site is not doing justice to your ad or deliberately tells users to click on the ads.

PS: A late Birthday greeting for Mr. Danny Sullivan! He just turned 41 last Sunday

Dreaming of becoming a Google Tester?

2006-09-26T10:07:00.000+08:00

Ever dreamed of testing out new Google products before majority of your friends and acquaintances even knew it existed? I know some people who would really love to do these things. Maybe now they can fulfill that dream.

Google User Research Experience actually pays you for doing these things. It can range from trying out existing Google products to testing unreleased ones. Google requires your feedback on the product and may even interview you to help plan for a new product.

The testing out process and interview usually last for an hour to about an hour and a half. Most tests are run in the Googleplex but still Google encourages those who want to try it out to sign up even if they are not from the San Francisco bay Area because they have offices all over the world.

This would be really cool to try out, after blogging on this, I might just sign up. Did I forget to tell that they pay $75 an hour for doing this? :) Just remember that you need to be at least 18 years old to participate.

If you want to know more, just look at the FAQ page of Google User Research Experience.

Got to go, have some signing up to do :)

UPDATE - Invitation to participate in a Google Focus Group

Someone I know who tried was interested in participating in Google usability studies received this email. For those of you who are wondering what questions they may ask you before asking you to come to the Googleplex, hope this helps:

Hello,

You previously expressed interest in participating in usability studies at Google.
We are currently scheduling participants for a focus group study.

If you're still interested, please reply to this e-mail after filling out the questionnaire below .
We will then schedule appointments on a first come, first served basis.


The details of the study:

- the duration of the study is 60 minutes (plus your travel time)
- the study will be conducted at Google Headquarters in Mountain View, CA
- compensation is $75 in American Express Gift Checks


To participate you will need to:

- be at least 18 years old
- have a car and be able to drive to our offices in Mountain View, CA
- be willing to sign our Usability Non-Disclosure Agreement

QUESTIONNAIRE:


1. Availability:

Please mark ALL time slots for which we could schedule an appointment with you.
If you have a preference with regard to specific times/dates, please mark the corresponding line with a "P"


Wednesday, May 17
[  ] 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
[  ]   3:00 pm - 4:00 pm


2. Are you currently the webmaster or publisher for your site?
[  ] Yes
[  ] No


3. Do you currently use AdSense?

[  ] Yes
[  ] No


4. Do you find site targeting useful?
[  ] Yes
[  ] No
[  ] Somewhat


5. How many websites do you currently have? _______________


6. Please list each site: ___________________________________



7. Are any of these sites related to each other (i.e., a network of sites)?
[  ] Yes
[  ] No


8. Do you sell ad space directly your site?
[  ] Yes, I currently sell ad space directly on my site

[  ] No, but I used to sell ad space directly on my site
[  ] No, I have never sold ad space directly on my site


9. Have you ever participated in any focus groups or user studies
[  ] No
[  ] Yes


if yes: when and with which companies? _______________________________


10. Phone number at which you can be reached: __________________________________


11. Your full name: __________________________________


Thank you!
--
Patrick Bowen
User Experience Research Coordinator/Recruiter
Google User Research
direct: 650-253-6583
email: jpbowen@google.com

Adbrite Upgrades

2006-09-25T09:21:00.000+08:00

Adbrite sells online advertising competing with other Ad serving companies like Google and Yahoo.

Recently, they made certain changes to Adbrite's CPC Targetting. Back then, the system they are using worked in such a way that the highest bidder for a certain ad gets the exposure. The improvement to their system includes the clickthrough ratio as a factor in computing whether the ad will get the spot or not.

The reason behind this, as Philip Kaplan, The CEO of Adbrite Inc., was to show more relevant ads. Higher clickthrough ratios may mean that the ads are serving their purpose well and are therefore, more relevant.

Also, their site finally has an about page. :)

Yahoo Webcam Down!

2006-09-22T15:21:00.000+08:00

"The Server is busy. Please close the window and try again in a few minutes."

This error message appeared when I tried using the webcam function for Yahoo! Messenger. I noticed it about an hour ago or maybe a lot longer than that, I assumed it was an hour ago because that was when 4 people, friends from different countries, messaged me that Yahoo's webcam function is down. I have friends from The United States, Australia, France and China that has noticed this which has caused me to try it myself.

It is around 3:28 in the afternoon here in the Philippines as I am writing this down. A friend of mine in an Internet Cafe, told me that business has been pretty slow today since most Internet Cafe patrons here usually use Yahoo's webcam, either for business purposes, for recreation or just to keep in touch with family and friends who are not physically present. These people rely heavily on this service by Yahoo, because sometimes email and Instant Messengers just wouldn't cut it.

On an entrepreneur's point of view, this may cause them to lose precious income coming from the service, specially for the Internet shop owners who provide webcams to the users.

Has the same thing happened to you? Is it just us or is Yahoo's webcam function really down as of the moment?

I posted this concern on SearchEngineWatch and Yahoo! Answers. Let's just count the hours until Yahoo! takes a look at this problem, maybe they are looking it up right now, who knows?

Google Spreadsheets and Live.com Updates

2006-09-22T09:50:00.001+08:00

Ever get tired of carrying your files around? Ever had trouble having access to a file shared by a group? Worry no more, Google Spreadsheets is here to save the day(*ahem*).

Google Spreadsheets can be accessed through any web browser and an internet connection of course, and all your spreadsheet files can be stored securely online. You decide on who can view or change the content of the file. You can import previously created spreadsheets or start entirely from scratch.

All you need to access it is your google account.

Google.com posted the new features of Google Spreadsheets.

Microsoft also fixed the referral bug on Live.com. Finally, lots of webmasters are becoming pissed about that bug. Not being able to see what type of traffic you are getting from Live.com. Not being able to see how much traffic and what keywords you get from Live.com is something webmasters won't be too happy with.

Yahoo! Improves YPN Ads

2006-09-21T10:02:00.000+08:00

Yahoo recently made changes to the format of the advertisements appearing on its Yahoo! Publisher Network.

"We’ve been doing some tinkering under the bonnet recently, so some of you may notice a few changes in your ads. The changes you’re likely to see include the removal of ellipses (…) and truncated words, the inclusion of 40-character titles on certain ad units, and a change in the number of ads displayed on certain ad layouts.

These enhancements have to do with our efforts to upgrade our contextual advertising product, and in the coming weeks will take effect across the entire network. They come in response to your feedback and should, in the long run, help enhance your account performance. We’ll share more details with you as they become available."

—Tom Furukawa, Director, Product Management

With these changes, we can expect the YPN ads to perform better, hopefully. They really need to improve the performance of their ads, their ads are not performing well lately

Screenshot above is taken from SERoundtable.

What's up with China?

2006-09-19T10:18:00.000+08:00

China has been blocking the access of Wikipedia within their territory.

Seems like China is still closing its doors. For the interview with the Founder, Jimmy Wales by the Red Herring.

Matt Cutts also explains in what he calls a quick explanation, how changes in URL queries can help "Non-Power Users"

Gmail Phishing?!?

2006-09-18T10:15:00.000+08:00

A service that was available before on Google Plus, looks like the real thing, it asks for the username and password to be keyed in. It is hosted on Google but as said by Philip:

"The page looks like it’s official, and it’s indeed hosted on Google.com, but it’s not by Google. You’ll notice by the message you get after logging in:

You (could have) gotten served!

username = username you entered
password = password you entered No data was actually taken, just displayed to you :) This is just a proof of concept of what a malicious user could do with this exploit."

Currently, the page displays a 403 (Forbidden) message.

On other news, Google's mini-Matt, Adam Lasnik gave out some tips on paid links.

Basically, if it is for advertising, then it is Ok, but if it is for PR then you are just wasting your time and money.

Google is back at 60%

2006-09-15T09:40:00.000+08:00

Google's volume of search has climbed up to 60% again. Who cares? The people who owns and works for google do!

This means that more and more people are using google compared to other search engines.

But does this mean that google is dominating the market in all areas? I think not. Let me think of a word to explain this, CHINA. I think google is not that appealing to chinese users, maybe if they do it a bit like this, then maybe they may stand a chance, or not .

What's new with me and Google Earth?

2006-09-14T09:15:00.001+08:00

I moved to a place nearer to my new workplace, now I'm just a bus ride away from the office.

What I find really cool about the place's location is that it is very near a popular mall in the area, now I can chill out there after work or whenever I have free time, Now I can wake up at 7 am and not worry about the traffic.

I just finished cleaning the place yesterday, kinda cool because it will be the first time that I will be on my own. Now to more interesting things.

Google recently launched Featured Content for Google Earth. Users can now access key informations to certain areas just by clicking the Featured Content button in the sidebar.

Initially, there are only about a couple of organizations that partnered up with Google, namely, United Nations Environment Programme, Discovery Networks World Tour, the National Service Park, Jane Goodall Institute and Turn Here.

I know this is only a handful, but was just recently launched, I hope I'll be able to see someday, any place in the Philippines included in the Featured content of Google Earth.

Keep dreaming, keep dreaming...

Windows Live is...ALIVE!

2006-09-13T10:01:00.000+08:00

Finally, after less than a year on Beta testing, Windows Live is...live.

"Microsoft said its new online search portal will feature an improved user interface designed to fetch more accurate Web search results than the beta version had provided.

In addition, Live Search will now power search on MSN, although some people may not notice the difference at first. Live Local Search was also released from beta, but only in the U.S. and U.K. so far. The changes are all part of Microsoft's new set of internet services and software ." - CNET

What's good about it is that it lets you search for images, videos, blogs and RSS feeds using one search portal which makes search more simplified. It also allows the user to search a term in context of a previous search term used.

It also allows the user to search within the destination site without using the site's search function .

This is a great start, who knows what improvements they might come up with next.

Sitelinks and Rush Hour

2006-09-12T08:59:00.000+08:00

I can still remember what happened yesterday, being caught in traffic during the rush hour is not a pleasant experience. So I did my best to avoid traffic today. I woke up earlier than usual and prepared for work. I had my mind set on getting to the office on or before 7 am so that I can escape the menacing clutches of rush hour. Luckily, when I got to the bus terminal, the bus that was about to leave was not full yet so, lucky me, I would not wait for the next bus.

Ever notice that when you search some words on Google you get sub topics under some results like this very popular example HP, The question is, why doesn't all results get sub topics like these? The answer to that can be found on Google Webmaster Helpcenter. By the way, these sub topics already have a name and they are called Sitelinks.

As of now these sitelinks are completely automated, but i hope the big G will do something about it soon so as to have more webmaster interaction. If this pushes through, webmasters can display not only the main pages but also key sectors of their respective sites.

New Job, New Life

2006-09-11T11:30:00.000+08:00

    When I woke up at about 6:30 am this morning the first thing that came to my mind was the fact that I was late, or so I thought, just until it hit me that it would be my first day on my new job.

  So I took my time, prepared breakfast, watched some tv, took a bath and prepared for work. Little  did I know that I would experience my first rush hour traffic jam in months. At first, everything was fine, the bus was running smoothly, until we came to an intersection in Makati wherein the driver stopped the bus to  let more passengers come in, saying there's still lots of space but what the heck, people are already cramped inside the bus, I can't even fell the air conditioner, would have been better if i took the ordinary bus, at least the ydrive faster and is usually not that cramped in the morning.

  So when I reached the MRT station, I thought all was gonna be okay, until I saw what seemed like an infinite number of people waiting for the bus that serviced Bonifacio Global City. I tried to find the end of the line but i had a change of heart when I walked for a couple of minutes but still couldn't see the end of the line. So I decided to get a cab so as not to be late, after a couple of tries, I got a cab and went straight to work, thankfully, I still have minutes to spare.

  Seems like a crappy day but I was just happy to be back on Windows, not that I can't handle Linux, but I'm just more comfortable with Windows.

  Everything seems okay, I just hope that it will stay that way.