Blogging India

Hi all,
    The first of April, April Fools Day, has caught up as a major celebration event during the past few years… Spearheaded by Google, the fad has picked up among many a company… Here, we glance at what we might witness tomorrow…

Google
They spearheaded the movement! They started off in 2002 with a funny page detailing about their patented “Pigeon Rank” technology to be actually run by pigeons! Then they went on about a Google Drink, and last year, it was Google Rooms, with Larry Page’s room being displayed in Google Earth…

What will it be this time? Lets wait and watch…

Microsoft
Well, they seem to be quite “with-the-trend” these days… Extremely trendy… So wont they be adopting the 1st April fad as well? With MSN Live and MySpace, it seems like a easy job for old Bill to pull of a really good joke… You with it?

Yahoo
They’re Googlising themselves… So wont they adapt with the Google fad? I believe Yahoo had something going last April… Interesting…

More to come…
[tags]april, fools, day, google, microsoft, yahoo[/tags]

    Google’s commitment to “green” means that the company sources carpet and sofas made without PVC, paints without volatile organic compounds, and cafeteria food from local growers. It’s not surprising, then, that they would roll out the largest commercial solar deployment in the US—a 1.6MW installation that covers most of the buildings at Google’s campus and extends even to shaded parking spaces. At the ETech conference in San Diego this week, Google’s Anthony Ravitz explained how Google did it, and why.

    The move to solar made sense for Google, and not just “hippie Gaia-loving” sense. Ravitz said that Google will earn its investment back in 7.5 years, after which it will continue to enjoy inexpensive power for decades. With the company sprawled across a large campus of many low buildings, roof space was easily available. Solar also has the unique property of pumping out more energy when power is the most expensive—peak afternoon hours. When air conditioners across California kick into action on sunny days, Google generates the most power.

    It’s still an expensive tech to install (though prices are dropping). Ravitz wouldn’t give an exact figure for the project, but did say that it was only doable thanks to subsidies from local utility PG&E and a generous federal tax credit.

    9,212 Sharp photovoltaic modules now cover the rooftops of the Googleplex, each one capable of pumping out 208W of DC power in full sun. To gain even more solar surface area, Google installed solar panels as “shades” over several of its parking lots, keeping cars cool and generating power at the same time. The installation can generate 30 percent of Google’s peak demand power, or enough to light about 1,000 California homes.

    The solar modules are wired in series, 14 to each circuit, and their output is sent to 10 SatCon inverters. The inverters transform the DC power to utility-grade AC, and are 96 percent efficient at installation (efficiency drops each year that they are in operation). The inverters are then tied into Google’s own power systems and the general electrical grid. The system is set up for “net metering,” which means that any excess power generated by the panels is pumped back into the state grid and Google receives a credit for that power.

    It’s a textbook example of the convergence of business and environmental concerns, and Ravitz hopes that Google’s example will inspire other firms to explore alternative energy sources. It seems to have helped: an even bigger 1.9MW installation is going in just down the road.

Source : Ars Technica news desk

[tags]google, green, solar[/tags]

Hi,
    Today is a day of wonders! And yet another pet saves yet another owner! Read up the full supplement(Original Source : BreitBart)!

CALVERT, Md. (AP) – Toby, a 2-year-old golden retriever, saw his owner choking on a piece of fruit and began jumping up and down on the woman’s chest. The dog’s owner believes the dog was trying to perform the Heimlich maneuver and saved her life.

Debbie Parkhurst, 45, of Calvert told the Cecil Whig she was eating an apple at her home Friday when a piece lodged in her throat. She attempted to perform the Heimlich maneuver on herself but it didn’t work. After she began beating on her chest, she said Toby noticed and got involved.

“The next think I know, Toby’s up on his hind feet and he’s got his front paws on my shoulders,” she recalled. “He pushed me to the ground, and once I was on my back, he began jumping up and down on my chest.”

That’s when the apple dislodged and Toby started licking her face to keep her from passing out, she said.

“I literally have pawprint-shaped bruises on my chest. I’m still a little hoarse, but otherwise, I’m OK,” Parkhurst said.

“The doctor said I probably wouldnt be here without Toby,” said Parkhurst, a jewelry artist. “I keep looking at him and saying ‘Youre amazing.’”

Wondorous isnt it?
[tags]dog, pet, pets, save, saves, owner, choking, heimlich, news[/tags]

Hey all,
    In a *HOT* event today, it has been reported than John McCain, the presidential hopeful, had a MySpace page, which used a template designed by Newsvine CEO, Mike Davidson. Davidson, mad that the presidential hopeful had hot linked the images from his site, played a prank, by changing an image to pronounce -

Today I announce that I have reversed my position and come out in full
support of gay marriage…particularly marriage between two passionate
females.

    The full news was reported by Arrington TechCrunch which, I must say, produced quite a few giggles as it spread across the Digg net The post posted at TechCrunch(http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/03/27/john-mccains-myspace-page-hacked/) went on like this -

Someone on Presidential hopeful John McCain’s staff is going to be
in trouble today. They used a well known template to create his Myspace page. The template was designed by Newsvine Founder and CEO Mike Davidson (original template is here).
Davidson gave the template code away to anyone who wanted to use it,
but asked that he be given credit when it was used, and told users to
host their own image files.

McCain’s staff used his template, but didn’t give Davidson credit.
Worse, he says, they use images that are on his server, meaning he has
to pay for the bandwidth used from page views on McCain’s site.

Davidson decided to play a small prank on the campaign this morning
as retribution. Since he’s in control of some of the images on the
site, he replaced one that shows contact information with a statement:

Today I announce that I have reversed my position and
come out in full support of gay marriage…particularly marriage between
two passionate females.

The story is also up at Newsvine here. This reminds me of a similar situation when Microsoft used an image hosted on Flickr on one of its blogs without the permission
of the owner, Niall Kennedy. Niall replaced the picture with a
pornographic image, which was then published on the blog. His idea was
to send a message to Microsoft on the importance of respecting
licensing of IP, although some people thought it was childish.

McCain’s MySpace page is significantly higher profile than the
Microsoft blog, and Davidson isn’t posting pornography to the site.
He’s making a political statement while also sending a message about
respecting the property rights of others. I expect the changes to be
reversed quickly, unless the wrong person is sick or out to lunch
today. Either way, we’ve captured it above.

    Interesting isnt it? I would like to see McCain’s reaction to this
[tags]John, McCain, MySpace, hacked, newsvine, davidson, prank, hotlinking, template, enhanced[/tags]

Hi all,
    Loads of messages and email forwards have been passed on about the various tricks and treats available with Google Search. Well, this one just surpases all others (except for the time when a click on “I’m feeling lucky” with the keyword “failure” directed you to the website of the White House ).

    This little script here, yet again handed down by generations of email forwards, claims(the claims have been tested and made too good use by me ) to get you free MP3 or music downloads via Google of the music of your choice.

    Copy paste this query into the Google Search bar, and click Search.

-inurl:(htm|html|php) intitle:”index of” +”last modified” +”parent directory” +description +size +(wma|mp3) “LINKIN PARK“

    Replace “LINKIN PARK” with whatever you want – Name of the song, artist, year, anything! And Lo Behold, you get a series of “bookmark” sites from where you can easily download these songs

    Cheers Yet another hats off to Pigeon Rank technology
[tags]google, music, search, napster, illegal, mp3, downloads[/tags]

Hey all,
    Yesterday, the Web 2.0 video hosting community announced its 2006 video awards. Aaaand the winners are….

• Most Creative: Here It Goes Again, OKGo
• Best Comedy: Smosh Short 2: Stranded, Smosh
• Best Commentary: Hotness Prevails, thewinekone
• Best Series: Ask A Ninja, digitalfilmmaker
• Best Music Video: Say It’s Possible, TerraNaomi
• Most Inspirational: Free Hugs Campaign, PeaceOnEarth123
• Most Adorable: Kiwi!, Madyeti47

Cool videos eh? If you want to check out the complete list of nominees and winners, check out the YouTube website – www.youtube.com/ytawards

Got this news originally from BloggersBlog.

[tags]youtube, video, awards, 2006[/tags]

Hi all,
    I just went through a few articles on trusty blogs which claimed to reveal how the Google Blog Search results worked. I read them up, and formulated a small theory on how to improve your Google Blog Search listings. Before my theories, I have put up a few paragraphs to educate newbies WHY Google Blog Search is important for bloggers.

    Oh, firstly, let me thank my sources -
    1) Google System
    2) Bloggers Blog

    Back to the topic at hand. Please note that all facts stated here ARE facts and were obtained by the Google System blog by painful (;)) reading of a patent sumbitted by Google. For those keyboard potatoes out there, scroll down to the bottom for the Dos and Donts.

Why do people use Google Blog Search?
    Google Blog Search made a revolution in the era of searching the net. People who wanted content rather than useless spam use Google Blog Search. Google Blog Search is useful for a company to review users opinions and posts about their product (especially if they use Consumer Generated Advertising techniques like PayPerPost)

So whats in it for bloggers like me?
    Put short and sweet, readers. Every site developer out there has an aim. Getting visitors to their site. Similarly every blogger has his/her own aim – to get real readers. Visitors are not the priority for bloggers. Bloggers look for READERS. Some people to read, comment, appreciate, criticize or debate what they write about. And “they” inculde bloggers like you and me.
   

    Google Blog Search, like all other blog searches, display results ONLY from blogs, thus eliminating all spam stuff and reference sites. Searchers READ through the blog content, not look through it. And if they like what they read, they might even bookmark your site, or subscribe its feed! And since its from Google, the name’s trusty, a lot many people use it, AND they have a superb algorithm.

    Searchers from Google Blog Search seem to linger on your site for longer than other searchers. For example, on my other blog BlogForPeace I get about 250 visitors per day. About 50 of them come from Google Search. Of that 50, about 40 linger only for about 10-30 seconds. Another 30-40  come from Google Blog Search. Of this, 10-15 stay for 5-8 minutes, and the rest(about 25-30) stay for atleast 20-30 minutes. See the difference? Blog searchers READ through your stuff, unlike conventional searchers.

Right. So Google Blog Search uses PR like Google, right?
    Wrong! Google Blog Search (GBS from now on) uses a unique algorithm which also considers Page Rank, but is not the final deciding factor. As clearly listed in Google System blog, GBS considers as positives -

• links from blogrolls (especially from high-quality blogrolls or blogrolls of “trusted bloggers”)
• links from other sources (mail, chats, blog directories, blogging communities like Technorati, Digg, Del.icio.us, MyBlogLog etc.)
• using tags to categorize a post
• PageRank
• the number of feed subscriptions (from feed readers)
• clicks in search results

And GBS considers as negatives -

• posts added at a predictable time
• different content between the site and the feed
• the amount of duplicate content
• using words/n-grams that appear frequently in spam blogs
• posts that have identical size
• linking to a single web page
• a large number of ads
• the location of ads (“the presence of ads in the recent posts part of a blog”)

To rank the search results, Google combines a quality score obtained by
mixing those signals with a relevance score (IR score) that depends on
the query. “The IR score may be determined based on the number of
occurrences of the search terms in the document. The IR score may be
determined based on where the search terms occur within the document
(e.g., title, content, etc.) or characteristics of the search terms
(e.g., font, size, color, etc.). A search term may be weighted
differently from another search term when multiple search terms are
present. The proximity of the search terms when multiple search terms
are present may influence the IR score.” (the quote was slightly
altered for clarity)

Uh, what does all that mean?
    It means that if you have a decent blog, with no sorts of wrong doings, and with good content updated regularly, and ofcourse, a well marketed feed, you’ll get more readers from GBS. Here’s a small image I formulated for better understanding -

Skip the chatter! Gimme the Dos and Donts!

• DO update your blog regularly with good quality content which you have written yourself.
• DONT update your blog if you havnt got quality content. i.e. Do not spam your blog.

• DO market your blog. Try to get links from high profile bloggers.
• DONT submit your blog to link farms etc. A good example of a link farm is Free For All pages.
• DO talk about your blog with your friends via emails and chat. Include your blog in your email signature, and other community signatures
• DONT use spam keywords for higher paid ads.
• DO use tags(see our previous post on Tags) to categorize your posts. Also display a prominant link to your feed. It might be a good idea to use Feedburner as well. Publicize your feeds by all possible methods and get readers to subscribe to your feed.
• DONT have duplicate feeds or posts. Also avoid editing your posts after publishing it, or configure feeds such that they quickly reflect edited posts. Conventionally feeds arent updated till the next post is submitted.
• DO try to get a good Google Page Rank. We will talk about methods to improve Page Rank in future issues.
• DONT link to poor quality spam websites which promise you return links.
• DO include relevant keywords in your META tags to improve conventional search engine results. Use optimal SEO techniques, but dont go over the edge. Please realize that your blog is for HUMANS and NOT for GOOGLE BOT. But do use these relevant keywords as tags as well in relevant posts. (for example, if your site is about Dogs, and a META keyword is “Dog Food”, use the tag “dog food” whenever you write about dog food. Some people may list “dog food” in META keywords and use post tags like “food for dogs” or “high quality canine food”, which wont harm you, but neither will it benefit you)
• DONT use spam keywords or use keywords which you think will elevate the ad value of your site (I’ve seen web hosting sites use the keyword “mesothelioma”(asbestos lung cancer) because it is a much higher paying keyword).
• DO put in a few relevant ads in places like your sidebar. Use tools like Text Link Ads which are very well paying, and gives you money for DISPLAYING the ad, not clicks.
• DONT put in too many ads or spam ads. DONT put in ads in your header area or in between post content. Put decent sized ads on your sidebar, or in the interval between posts, or below posts, or before posts.
• A final DONT : It seems (no conlusional proof yet available, but personal experiences quoted by many users and felt by me) that Google PR and Google Blog Search results are directly influenced by Google Adsense. i.e. If you’re a started blog with good content, and if you apply for Adsense and get accepted, you’ll see a boost in your PR and search engine listings and GBS listings. On the other hand, if you get declined, you’ll have to work extra hard, and will take more time and effort than usual, to get a better PR and to get decent search engine results. This same effect takes place if you’re banned from Adsense.

  So my advice is : DO NOT apply for Adsense if you’re a started blog. Once you are established with a PR of like 2, then you can apply IF AND ONLY IF your blog complies with ALL terms listed by Google. If you get accepted to Adsense, DO NOT employ cheating or other methods to produce false clicks (Google’s algorithm is damn good!) or do any other illegal activities which might get you banned from Adsense.

    Come to think of it, Adsense isnt very well paying unless you have a sound reader base of atleast 500 per day! But I’ll talk about Monetizing in future issues.

    I hope that you have got a general overview of what it takes for a good GBS ranking. Good luck! And if you have any doubts, or require any help, I can try to help you out with what little I know(time permitting). Just drop in a mail to

[tags]google blog search, google, search, blogs, improving, results, SEO, PR, ranking, page rank, dos, donts, adsense, advice, google system, algorithm[/tags]

Hi all,
    A funny picture has been circulated around the net about the pitiful dismissal of India and Pakistan (World No.4 & 3 resp. according to ICC Cricket Rankings) from the Cricket World Cup 2007, featuring Indian skipper Rahul Dravid and his Pakistani counterpart Inzamam….

[tags]funny, humor, india, pakistan, cricket, out, email, forward, world cup[/tags]

Ladies and Gentlemen,
    This news is 1 day old… In an extremely embarassing defeat, ICC World No. 4 team, India, got kicked out of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2007. Defeated earlier by minnows Bangladesh, the day before yesterday, India was kicked in the a$$ by Sri Lanka. India is now virtually out of the tournament, unless a BIG event occurs by means of Bermuda defeating Bangladesh in the big match today…

    Lack of form of top batsmen is the core reason why India lacked the usual shine. Sehwag looked promising in the beginning with a few good runs, but was out before he got his half century. Robin Uthappa has been fried during this entire tourny into an uthappam. He was hopeless. Gangully, the dada of the team, the hope and inspiration and only one of the couple of consistent players, was also given an early dismissal.

    The great Tendulkar never got an oppurtunity to live up to his name and got yet another duck. Dravid, the skipper, laid stand for a strong 80, but lack of support from other players made it in vain. Yuvraj also got out quick. Dhoni…. Well, put it this way, his wild swinging shots never made an impact this time…

    And the result? India was defeated by Sri Lanka. And yes, they have made their way out….

    My condolences to you, dear Indian players, and Team India. Mine, and a billion citizens, hopes, expectations, inspiration, and dreams were shattered. God bless all of you, and I do hope that you make it safely back to India, and manage to live under the heavy attack of fans and officials.

[tags]team india, cricket, icc cricket world cup, world cup, india, out[/tags]

Hi all,
    As you *might* know, today is the much awaited (awaited by atleast a billion people ) India vs Sri Lanka ICC World Cup Qualifier match. Why is it so awaited? It’ll decide if India will get into the World Cup, or not…

    If India wins against Sri Lanka with a comparable run rate margin, the World No.4 may still stand a chance. This World Cup was a volley of surprises – with Bangladesh in full shine; World No.3 Pakistan getting kicked out by minnows Ireland, and so on…

    And *will* India win? If you ask me, thats still a question for that big guy sitting up there………… The 3rd Umpire… Oh, and a person sitting MUCH higher than that… God

    Right now, they’re not doing bad. Sri Lanka has lost 3 wickets, for 124 runs in 30 overs, which makes a run rate of around 4.13. If India can restrict Sri Lanka to less than 250 in 50 overs, with a few more wickets, then I would say that India has a very good chance of an “easy” win….

    Anyway, more to come.. Keep reading Blogging India!
[tags]india, sri lanka, cricket, world cup, ICC, west indies[/tags]