Hi all,

I was a bit late to catch up on this news, but Google is planning to release a Wikipedia-Squidoo style social content website. Christened "Knol", Google calls this a "tool" which will "encourage people who know a particular subject to write an authoritative article about it".

In short, Google is trying to chase an area, in which Wikipedia currently rules the roost. With a big difference - Google will be commercializing Knol. Which means that a user can opt for an advertisement, Google Adsense of course, on his/her article pages, and he/she gets a "substantial share" of the revenue.

(click to enlarge)

Now the debate raging throughout the web is whether Google will give unfair advantage to pages from Knol on their search results.

Extract from the Official Google Blog

"Our job in Search Quality will be to rank the knols appropriately when they appear in Google search results. We are quite experienced with ranking web pages, and we feel confident that we will be up to the challenge. We are very excited by the potential to substantially increase the dissemination of knowledge.

I hope that Udi Manber, the writer of this post in the Google blog means what he said in a positive sense.

Anyway, experts argue that the Google brand will give value to these Knols, which will encourage users to link to Knols, and thus organically increase the ranking of Knols. This is again a far cry, since this same image and reputation exists even for Wikipedia. Ok, so Google is set to earn profit for Knol, unlike Wikipedia, but does that really matter?

Meanwhile, I’ve contacted a couple of my friends, well placed at Wikipedia, to try and get invites to Google Knol. Hopefully, they might succeed, and give me an insider review.

Now, bloggers are opining that Google is going a step too far with Knol. To be exact, Duncan Riley of TechCrunch. He’s given quite a comprehensive insight into how Google could do foul play with Knol, but then, Riley is known for his hopelessly ridiculous What-If posts (not that his intuitions are not accurate, but sometimes, when he plays with the "hot" of the moment, he gets carried away; otherwise, his reviews are excellent).

"He’s right. Google is moving away from simply indexing the worlds content to being a content provider itself. Of course Google in response would argue that it is simply facilitating user generated content (like with Blogger), that ultimately they are the host as opposed to the creator, but it still competes with existing content providers, many of whom rely on Google search results for their living. Which takes us to question of search results.

(TechCrunch)

Well, pretty true that Google is moving towards being a content provider, so what? So whats the big deal? If Google doesn’t cash in unethically, then why the big hue and cry?

Well, I guess we’ll wait and see…. And then we’ll decide to knol, or not to knol…

Technorati Tags: google knol, knol, knowledge, social content, wikipedia, squidoo, advertisements, make money, write articles

Hi all,

I just noticed that I had got my Google PageRank back. Well, not exactly back, but I’m now better off than 0. I had a PR of 4 before, until Google started penalizing blogs for displaying paid links which did not have the "nofollow" tags. I was advised by a Google contact of mine on what to do, and now I’ve got a PR of 2 - which I attribute to my inactivity.

Steps to recover your PageRank if you’ve been penalized by Google -

1. Remove the paid links
2. OPTIONAL : Append rel="nofollow" to all hyperlinks in your site to "shifty" webpages
   eg : <a href="http://the page here . html" title="Page here" rel="nofollow"> Link </a>
3. Go to Google Webmaster Central and sign up, if you haven’t already
4. Log in and click on "Request Reconsideration"
5. Select your site, check the checkbox, and explain in the text box truthfully about what happened, why it happened, how you got to know the Google guidelines only now, what actions you’ve taken, what all you’ve removed, and that your site now complies with all Google guidelines. After all this, hit the button which says "Request Reconsideration". You’re done!

Now wait for a couple of weeks (2-4 weeks). If your case is genuine, and you’ve been honest, you’ll get your Google PageRank back. Thats what happened to me, and many others. I wish you luck!

Technorati Tags: five steps, get back pagerank, google pagerank, google pr, google, pagerank, blog pr

Hey,
    I just wanted to quickly share something with you. Something that might turn out to be pretty useful. SiteProNews has this excellent piece of advice in one of their articles. The advice is simple, but extremely practical and useful. Its about “Whom not to trust” when dealing with Search Engine Optimisation.

    There are some people who claim to know everything about SEO. They will infact tell you to read up their books, available from EBay. Or the famous newsletter authors, who know everything! Most of the people, sadly, fall for the tricks, and end up losing a lot of money. Thus, this piece of advice will help any beginner to identify a crook from a true helping hand.

According to SiteProNews, do not trust -

• The SEO Guru. You know you’ve seen them. The SEO guru is involved in forums, has a website that promises everyone that they can get to the top of the listings – regardless of how much competition you have for your chosen keywords. For that matter, you can sometimes find SEO gurus offering their services on eBay. The guru will give you the sense that their way is the only way, and that without their services you’re not going to get anywhere.
• The writer who promises that his or her book will tell you everything that you need to know about search engine optimization for your site. Because the ways that search engines work and because the big players change their methods from time to time, looking to a book – particularly one that was written years ago – is unlikely to give you the answers that you need.
• Of course, the number one person who you shouldn’t trust with search engine optimization for your site is someone whose own site isn’t exactly performing at its peak; think about it, if their site is on the fifth or sixth page of search engine results, how good can their tactics really be? I don’t mean the site they use to sell seo services. I mean ask them if they own a site that sells products or services other than Internet marketing that do well in the search engines and makes a profit.

    So the question appears - whom should we trust?
    Well, thats a tough question to answer. Its more of a feeling… A person who offers true SEO advice, will always offer it free. That is because, no one is an expert, no body knows everything. So in every experiment, even the most knowledgeable learn a lot. And the best way to experiment, is to let others do it for you. And ofcourse, they never offer it in the form of “Get into Google Page 1!”. They offer advice to guide you. They show you the door, but leave you to walk through it. If you fall, you learn, they learn, and they spread the news, and many others learn.

    Cheers

Hi all,
    There’s this revolutionary new service named mGinger available for Indians, or anybody on the Indian subcontinent, with a mobile phone. It might be made global later on… Whats the service? To keep it short and simple, you get paid to mobile…

    Thats right! You get paid to use your mobile!

    How does it work? You sign up at mGinger with your usual personal details, and mobile phone number. mGinger sends you SMSes from sponsors, which you read. For every SMS you read, you get paid. You can select your interests so as to restrict the advert SMSes to only of topics of your interest!

    Handy eh? Its been causing a WAVE of media attention all around India! They say that you get paid 20 Paise per SMS. i.e. 0.2 Rupees. Which is… Well… 41 Rupees make a dollar, so, $0.005 USD.  Yeah, half a penny. Half a penny per SMS.

    And you make 10 Paise per SMS read by your referrals, and so on. So, the typical teen/youth thinks “I can read 100s of SMSes per day! I can sure earn thousands!”

    Small problem. Theres a maximum limit of 10 SMSes per day. Thats the maximum. So you may receive from 0 to 10 SMSes per day. Imagine that you receive 10 SMSes per day, still, you make only Rp 2 per day! Which is like only Rs 60 ($1.5) per month! That is, IF YOU GET 10 SMSes per day!

    Honestly, why waste your time? Thousands have already signed up! Are they nuts?

    No, this post was NOT to encourage users to use mGinger. It was an honest to goodness review of the service. I’ve signed up for a day now, and I havn’t got a single sponsored SMS yet! At this rate, I’ll be stuck at something like a dollar (Rs 40) at the end of the year!

    Think twice before you sign up! Why waste your personal details, for something so little and measly? I can’t believe that the media has been rooting for this absolutely stupid service! I believe that this is all a scam. It proves how much India has to learn from the web! I do hope that people open their eyes before jumping in the next time!

Technorati Tags: mginger, get paid, paid SMS, SMS, get paid to mobile, paid mobile, get paid to read SMS, india, earn money india, mginger scam

Ladies and gentlemen,
    Welcome to the Second article in the 3 part series, “The Alexa Code - understanding and influencing Alexa rankings“. It is strongly recommended that you read up(if you haven’t) the prequel to this issue, The Alexa Code Part I, which deals with the general information of how Alexa works, and what they are.

    In this issue, we’ll discuss the uses of Alexa, why its important, but why its baseless and doesn’t work.

    What’s wrong with Alexa? What is wrong is that Alexa takes into consideration a mere fraction of the total number of visitors, and the fraction which varies from site to site.

    To understand this, please read up The Alexa Code Part I. Alexa records hits from visitors using INTERNET EXPLORER who have installed the Alexa toolbar. The Alexa tool bar is not available for any other browsers (there is an addon for Firefox, but studies show that this addon does NOT send information to Alexa).

    75% of the total internet users use Internet Explorer. So that cuts down a lot of visits. Since most of the regular web users use Mozilla Firefox or Opera. Its only people lacking in proper education about security and web browsers OR hardcore Microsoft fans who use Internet Explorer(IE).

    Now consider the fact that only those people who have installed the Alexa tool bar can help in Alexa recordings. Like I said before, most IE users lack in proper web browser knowledge. Such users are very unlikely to install Alexa. All they want to do is browse the web, and wouldn’t be interested in added advantages.

    Thus, repeated studies indicate that only 1% to 1.5% of the total web users have the Alexa toolbar up and running. And according to the subject of the website, this percentage also varies, which makes this system quite unfair.

    For example, hardcore tech sites will receive close to 0% of Alexa hits, since most of the members will be using Firefox. Mediocre tech sites will receive the normal percentage, since a few members will be below average in tech knowledge, and would have installed Alexa tool bar. News websites will also receive the normal percentage due to the mixed population. Sports/philosophy sites will receive very little Alexa hits, due to inexperience of users, who will not have installed Alexa tool bar, though they use IE.

    Most Alexa users are of the impression that Alexa does not display traffic information, only percentages and comparisons. That is not true. Alexa displays a column called “Average Daily Page Views”, which is the average of all daily page views for a selected time (1 week, or 3 months). We can compare this average with our own statistics daily page view average to see the percentage of our visitors using Alexa tool bar.

(click to enlarge)

    I did the experiment for my websites for a few weeks. And here is what I found -

• BlogForPeace
  72% of total users use Internet Explorer
  .9% of the total hits were reported to Alexa
  Therefore, 1.25% of the Internet Explorer users have Alexa tool bar installed

  BlogForPeace fits into the Philosophy category. Mostly low experienced users. They use Internet Explorer, but aren’t experienced enough to use Alexa.

• BloggingIndia
  31% of the total users use Internet Explorer
  2.9% of total hits were reported to Alexa
  Therefore 9.3% of the Internet Explorer users have Alexa tool bar installed

  Blogging India fits into the Mediocre Tech category. Most visitors have Firefox installed(63%). But of the IE users, more than average are better tech educated. Thus, they have Alexa installed.

    I hope that the examples have proved my point. Alexa is unfair. Alexa is baseless. Alexa doesn’t work properly.

    But then why the heck does it exist and why is it so popular????? Alexa exists and survives because there is a serious lack of other established, trusty and fundamental ranking system for websites. Yes, there is Google Page Rank, but that is a very broad system, with no definite boundaries, which makes point ranking impossible.

    Is it useful? How? If it weren’t useful, would I be wasting my time writing all this up? It is useful for one, and only one, reason - monetizing. Yep.

    If you drift away from Cost Per Click (CPC), which is steadily decreasing in popularity in medium scale webmasters today, your options are limited. You can have sponsored links, or featured posts. For all this, advertisers utilize your Alexa ranks. The lower your Alexa rank, the better, the more money you get.

    Advertisers in sites like Text-Link-Ads (pays you to display links on your site) or the new PayPerPost (Consumer Generated Advertising - pays you to blog) select websites based on their Alexa rank. At PayPerPost, there are opportunities for $500 if you have an Alexa rank of something below 20,000!

    So, got the idea? Oh, and sometimes, in some time based popularity competitions, like blogging competitions or web design competitions, Alexa rank is considered to decide the winner.

    That about sums up the positives and negatives of Alexa. I hope that this has been informative.

    But wait for the REAL firecracker! Coming up tomorrow - Brilliant techniques to legally and crookedly increase (i.e. decrease) your Alexa rank Until then, adios amigos!

** upcoming **

PART III - How can I improve Alexa rankings? Alexa plays dirty, so can I play
dirty with Alexa? What are the “twisted” means to improve Alexa
rankings?

****

Technorati Tags: the alexa code, alexa code, cracking alexa, increase alexa rank, alexa rank, alexa rankings, alexa bad, negatives of alexa, alexa uses