08.24.05
Posted in General at 4:21 pm by Christine
I have been a bit of a late bloomer with adopting an RSS aggregator, but today I finally downloaded and installed one. Feed Demon – yes there is a free trial available.
After spending almost all day with this nifty new toy, boy am I sorry that I did not adopt the technology before! I am finding it an absolute life saver on time!
What it is in a nutshell for those that like me, just ignored it until now:
Instead of browsing with loads of open tabs of your favourite websites, those that have RSS feeds are able to be syndicated into this program.
It allows you to view all of them in a user-friendly interface that reminds me somewhat of Outlook. And it will alert you once any new articles or posts have been published to all your favourite sites.
Very nifty.
So I was on one of my subscribed sites and read his latest post about creating a CSS file in your FireFox that would enable you to view any “no-follow” links posted in websites. Which to any SEO is another great time saver as this refrains you from having to check the source code for the tags.
Now, I am not one that ordinarily promotes my company through my Blog, but this once I will as we have created this really nifty tool (which I was also late in adopting, lol) that allows you to do just that (highlighting any no-follow links) with one easy “click” of your mouse… It does loads of other cool things too, so go have a look at SearchStatus, I recommend any SEO to go download it. And “no” I am still not getting any commission for acquiring more peeps to the website! 
And while you’re there, sign-up to my newsletter 
PS: No commenting on the site design, we are busy revamping 
Speaking of which I feel like an absolute fool as in today’s newsletter I posted about the rumours of Google releasing Google Talk, their all new IM program that allows you to IM, email or talk online. Well just after I emailed the newsletter off to thousands, I discovered that it has in fact been released! Ouch.
Oh well, I downloaded GoogleTalk of course and have been playing with that all day as well. Very nifty, but then again I am pretty biased as Google is my forte, and now suffer the consequences with a total of three IM programs In my personal opinion it is not yet as well developed as MSN’s IM and is very, very basic, but like I said – I am a Google lover, lol.
I cant wait to see what they will do with their OS!!
On a personal note:
Joey and I went to a whisky tasting last night. It was great fun. The funny thing is that in the “blind-taste test” I disliked the whisky that I normally drink!
I walked away with a liking for a new brand and needless to say much more expensive than the one that I ordinarily enjoy.
Now leave me to go and play with FeedDemon some more!
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08.22.05
Posted in General at 5:29 pm by Christine
What happens when you start relying heavily on something and it’s ripped away from you without notice?
Well that is how I have been feeling about my Gmail account. For the past four days I have not been able to access my gmail account at all. Now like most “onliners” I have multiple email accounts – each for a different reason. One of my personal mail accounts at Gmail is still working fine, but the one that I mostly use for work correspondence is kaput.
What a nightmare it was! At least I was not the only one experiencing this issue.
I was frantically looking around online and finally ended up at the gmail help forum where I found numerous posts about this very topic. Somewhat relieved to hear that others are also experiencing my pain, but mostly annoyed to be disconnected from the “world at large”. Eventually this got sorted out during the day, but it just led me to think that we rely so heavily on our technology and it could go *poof* in a blink of an eye.
Google releases Desktop Search 2. It will offer features such as integration with Outlook, indexing of email at Gmail, a sidebar with nifty widgets to display photos, headlines, RSS feed and a virtual scratch pad. The changes will likely have folks at Microsoft and Yahoo nervous but Google users pleased. Some of the changes will also no doubt kick off another round of speculation that a Google OS may be coming.
Yahoo has finally extended its local search component beyond business listings and now also contains restaurant and event listings among others. The service is still only available in the US only though.
That’s all for today!
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08.18.05
Posted in General at 1:18 pm by Christine
Ever heard of the Google One Box? Well I know that I have not been nearly as busy scouring the web for information on SEM news lately, but I for one learnt something new today.
Google’s OneBox results are displayed above the search results and is mostly specialised information such as news, stock quotes, weather and local websites related to your search query….
If you ever thought size does not matter, well it does. According to Google anyway Google increased their indexing size display recently by 110 million more pages. There were rumours that it was in reaction to Yahoo’s index size announcement about a week ago…but apparently they were first….and so the saga continues. Just go to the Google home page to see for yourself.
Google also announced yesterday that they have now officially implemented the keyword status system. With these improvements, your keywords will now either be active or inactive, depending on their quality and maximum cost-per-click (CPC).
Why can’t people be more creative? Enter Oodle, a new kid on the search engine block. It scans the web to find listings of items for sale posted on places like Craiglist, newspaper classified pages and eBay etc. You are also able to find car listings, rentals, jobs and other locally oriented services. Only serving about 22 US states at the moment and growing, it has a fresh look. Each state has its own icon typically associated with that state. It leaves a little lacking on the side of usability IMO though. But its new, its not all that creative on name but lets give it the benefit of the doubt.
Ok, call me a geek, but this is the funniest thing I have seen in a while! SatireWire’s editor actually interviewed AskJeeves search engine – the first interview with a search engine that I know of. This is a must read.
On a personal note:
I have had the most amazing birthday this year. Spoilt to the bone. Joey and I went away on that amazing weekend to Knysna and this weekend past the surprises continued. Saturday was an absolute birthday pampering treat – any girls dream. Saturday night was the main celebration and Sunday – the big day - started off with a fantastic breakfast in bed. Hon, you really are the best
Cape Town weather has been wet, wet and more wet. Work is still incredibly busy, and then to top it somehow my dog escaped the backyard yesterday. At least there still are some good people in the world, as luckily someone found him running around the neighbourhood and gave me a call – thank you good samaritan!
My postings have been few and far between, and as you noticed I did not post my summary at the end of last week. So I guess if I miss out, it does not mean that you should miss out – sign up for my bi-weekly newsletter. Ok, ok – albeit for my work – there is some interesting stuff in there. And if I don’t post it here – it’s usually in there! ….Now if only I could get commission for those sign-ups
Till next time.
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