Author: Ash Nallawalla

About Ash Nallawalla

Ash Nallawalla is a consultant enterprise SEO with a long background in large companies with complex websites. He is a published author of several books and thousands of magazine articles.

Threadwatch closing today?

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Aaron Wall of Seobook fame is closing TW. This post is getting pushed down the home page in an ironic display of how popular the site is/was among the CognoSEOnti (the .com is still available if someone wants to grab it).

Threadwatch was originally a site that alerted the busy SEO to the most pertinent news, forum or blog posts of note, followed by local discussion of the same. I never managed to get a single new story started there, so I wasn’t exactly a daily TWer. Its captchas required at least three tries before you managed to decipher the letters. Almost all interesting discussions seemed to be polluted by shock jocks who love stirring the pot and showing off the latest word they picked up in the pub.

Will it close, or will Aaron allow someone else to take over remains to be seen.

[Update: Yes, it closed.]

P3P Privacy – Who’s Bothering?

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I have no idea why, but yesterday I implemented P3P on my SEO training site. It validates, but I’m damned if I know why. The procedure was so convoluted and the instructions so tortuous that I had to read at least a dozen anguished posts in forums and trial-and-error to pass the validator. It is no wonder that the P3P page laments,

“Status: P3P Work suspended
After a successful Last Call, the P3P Working Group decided to publish the P3P 1.1 Specification as a Working Group Note to give P3P 1.1 a provisionally final state.
The P3P Specification Working Group took this step as there was insufficient support from current Browser implementers for the implementation of P3P 1.1.”

Is anyone in SEO circles bothering with P3P?

Snap Yourself with Quik Pod Pro+

Reading Time: 2 minutes

by Ash Nallawalla

In most photographs you, the photographer, are missing. More than once I have taken a photo of the sky when my camera fell from some precarious perch after the self-timer was set. That’s because it isn’t always convenient to take a full-size tripod on your holidays. Quik Pod

Sometimes, all you want is to take your own photo at some exotic location, but many modern cameras will not even fit your whole face when you click at arm’s length. You can ask someone to take your photo and hope that they framed it properly and didn’t shake the camera, but nothing beats a tripod.

Enter the Quik Pod, a handheld, extendable tripod that costs around US$24.95 plus shipping. It is made of sturdy polycarbonate and aluminium, weighs about 100 g and comes with a built in self-positioning mirror to help frame each shot. Fully extended to 480 mm, Quik Pod can be used to shoot overhead above crowds, around corners and underwater.

The Pro+ version adds a lightweight tripod leg adapter to turn the Quik Pod into a conventional tripod or to use as a mini-tripod on its own. Both feature a standard (1/4-20) screw. You would not want to use any camera heavier than 450 g on this tripod.

Availability

In the U.S., Quik Pod can be found at Adorama, Amazon.com, B&H, Calumet Photographic, J&R.com, Magellan’s and Ritz Camera. In Canada, it can be bought at Black’ Photography, Henry’s and The Shopping Channel. In the UK, Quik Pod can be purchased at Play.com, Magellan’s and through iwantoneofthose.com.

In Australia, dStore.com.au sells it for $39.95. Be sure to check whether you are getting the basic model, the Deluxe, or the Pro+ because the online stores are vague on this point and never show more than one. The company site shows the Deluxe and Pro+ extras as separate kits, yet one of the blister packs shows the mini-tripod as included.

I am very happy with the Quik Pod Pro+ and that is the model you should look for.

Google Pay-per-Action Beta Goes Global

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One of the hazards of a PPC advertiser is the possibility of Click Fraud. Google is one of a few companies to have tested a Pay-per-Action (PPA) model where the advertiser doesn’t pay for the click, but pays only when the clicker goes to the website and completes some pre-defined action, such as filling out a form or making a purchase.

PPA is a brilliant, albeit partial solution to click fraud that works for websites that have a measurable action. It does not work for information sites or affiliate sites where the purchase takes place on the merchant’s website.

Google has just extended its PPA beta globally, reports MediaPost, but in a staged roll-out, beginning with publisher sites that have turned on Conversion Tracking and have had over 500 conversions this month. Yes, only Content sites will show the PPA ads initially; I imagine this is because advertisers are shying away from the Made-for-Adsense (MFA) sites.

The price for a PPA conversion is defined based on the type of action. The official Google AdWords Blog says, “For example, you may wish to pay $1 every time a user fills out a lead form on your site and $5 when a purchase is made.

If PPA pricing is similar to the pricing for Google’s Pay-per-Call beta, then I bet you will be paying a lot more to have your ad showing high, in the first ad unit on the publisher page. I will be among the last to be invited to this beta, so you will know the real cost before I do.

PowerDVD Copy – Review

Reading Time: 2 minutes

by Ash Nallawalla

PowerDVD CopyCyberLink PowerDVD Copy is a simple program with one purpose – it enables you to copy a DVD. More precisely, the DVD must not have any copy protection on it. The majority of Western movies these days are protected, but home-made or non-commercial videos are not. The program will not copy a data DVD – it must be a video DVD.

You can back up the DVD to your PC’s hard drive – which is commonly done by overseas travellers who take a laptop on the plane. Spinning a hard drive seems to consume less battery power than spinning a DVD drive, but I have not explored that theory in depth.

You can copy a DVD9 (8.5 GB) dual-layer DVD to a DVD5 (4.7 GB) using compression or you can customise the compression. Compression reduces picture quality, so, for example, if your video was 6 GB in size, there is no need to go for 50 percent compression when copying to a DVD5 disc. The Auto Fit option takes away any guesswork, so you don’t need to work out the optimum compression ratio.

Certain movies have additional language tracks and you can choose not to copy them, saving some space. Similarly, you can filter out unwanted subtitles, as is seen in Asian versions of videos.

The interface gives a preview window so you can see what file you have selected. If this is the first time you have copied a DVD you may get confused by the various file names, so this preview feature is useful.

PowerDVD Copy “works with Windows Vista” and does not carry the “Certified for Windows Vista” label. I tested it on Windows XP. It works on versions from Windows 98SE onwards. You can order it online for US$39.95 or download a trial version.

Iolo System Mechanic 7 Professional – Review

Reading Time: 3 minutes

by Ash Nallawalla

System Mechanic 7 Professional (SM7Pro) is a suite of security, maintenance and diagnostic programs by Iolo. It works with Microsoft Windows 98, ME, 2000, XP and Vista. I tested it on Windows XP.

Results of a deep scanSM7Pro includes the following programs:

  • System Mechanic 7 – (Described later)
  • iolo AntiVirus – It provides email and disk protection from computer viruses.
  • iolo Personal Firewall – It is a bi-directional firewall that stops unwanted people or programs from accessing your PC.
  • Search and Recover 4 – It recovers deleted files, apparently even “years after the data was lost”.
  • DriveScrubber 3 – It wipes clean your hard drive to the standards of the US Department of Defense.

I did not install the AntiVirus and Firewall, because removing and restoring my existing software takes a long time and I am not in a position to test these features in a controlled environment.

Search and Recover 4

I let it loose on a 30 GB partition and it estimated initially it would take about 90 minutes to find deleted files. This estimate kept increasing and it looked like it might run all night. Unlike other file recovery programs, it appears to undelete seemingly impossible things, such as individuals email, calendar tasks, notes and so on.

At the 30 percent mark, it had found 25,000 deleted files plus 92,000 others that were filtered out. The latter includes temporary file fragments that you won’t want to worry about. The process ended sometime while I was in bed and it found almost 29,000 files, with a prognosis of “Fair”, “Unknown” or “Good”. Only about 30 files were marked “Good”. I think I had deleted them about three months ago. I restored a file that was 238 MB in size and it opened as expected. I defragment my drives regularly, which may explain why so few recoverable files were found.

Drive Scrubber 3

This wipes an entire drive or just the free space on a drive. I let the latter loose on my 23 GB download drive that is never backed up. It took about seven hours. I have no way of knowing how well the drive was scrubbed. If you have truly incriminating evidence on your drives, I suggest doing what the Feds do – pulverise the disk platters into tiny fragments.

System Mechanic 7

This is the core functionality that you are buying and it is very reassuring because it spouts these large numbers of things it fixes – broken shortcuts, invalid uninstallers, registry problems, recovered memory, dangerous and unnecessary startup problems, Internet clutter fixed, and so on. Honestly, I could not tell if my PC was working faster or if I was better protected, but it certainly felt reassuring to be free of all these negative bits and bytes.

A feature called SafetyNet enables you to undo SM actions, in case you deleted something in error.

The only feature I was able to compare one day after the initial cleanup (I used the PC quite a bit) was detection of spyware. SM7 found only two (I couldn’t tell which ones they were) while Spybot Search & Destroy (a free program) found nearly 100 instances in 13 categories. After Spybot had removed them all, a re-scan with SM7 still saw two spyware parasites. I let it remove these unidentifiable nasties and had sound sleep.

I was a little sceptical about its complaint that I had “never” backed up the Registry. After letting SM7Pro do this backup, I also backed it up with Spybot 1.4 a few days later. Today, SM7Pro sent me a ActiveCare E-Mail Report saying that I had never backed up the Registry:

Critical problems (2)

  • Your computer has 3.23 GB of system clutter.
    With regular usage, temporary files and other unneeded debris accumulate. It is recommended that excessive amounts of system clutter be deleted to reclaim disk space and speed overall processing.
  • Your computer has 7 registry problems.
    Over time, the Windows registry can become corrupt, leading to degraded performance and system crashes. Removing obsolete and invalid entries improves overall PC efficiency and stability.

Warnings (4)

  • Your computer has 1 unnecessary startup item
    Various programs and services load when Windows starts. Eliminating startup items that are unneeded or potentially dangerous boosts overall PC speed and reclaims valuable memory.
  • 2 of your hard drives are more than 19% fragmented
    When a drive becomes highly fragmented, files take longer to open and PC performance declines. Defragmenting reorganizes scattered data, which boosts file access speed and increases drive efficiency.
  • Your computer has 41 broken shortcuts
    Broken shortcuts occur when the target files have been moved or deleted. Repairing these shortcuts speeds processing and eliminates unexpected errors.
  • The registry has never been backed up
    The Windows registry is vital to your computer’s ability to run correctly. Backups allow you to restore the registry if it ever becomes damaged. It is recommended that you back up the registry every 14 days.

Conclusion

Overall, SM7Pro is a very useful suite of programs. You can buy SM7Pro online from www.iolo.com for US$69.95. Just SM7 costs US$49.95.

IBP and ARELIS 9 Business – Review

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Axandra IBP 9Axandra has combined two programs into one interface. Internet Business Promoter (IBP) and Axandra Reciprocal Link Solution (ARELIS) are two programs of value to website owners who want to improve their ranking in the major search engines. They are available in Standard (one domain name) and Business (multiple domain names) editions. If you want to run a search engine optimisation or online marketing advisory business, you would use the Business edition to sell professional-looking reports to website owners. You would recoup your investment within 1-2 sales. If you were interested in affiliate marketing, it would be invaluable to improve the return on investment from your own Web site.

ARELIS

ARELIS is the smaller program and is used for managing a site’s reciprocal links, link management and link popularity. A reciprocal link exists where Site A links to Site B and vice versa. In recent months, it has become essential to know a good reciprocal link from a bad one, so you can either leave this to a competent search engine optimiser (SEO) or learn how to do it yourself. Google engineer Matt Cutts has said that only excessive linking is a problem, (without defining what number is excessive). Continue reading

Buggy Apple Safari (beta) for Windows

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Click to enlargeFor some reason (some believe it is to help iPhone developers) Apple Computer has released a beta version of its popular Safari browser for Microsoft Windows. This has created quite a commotion, because it is so buggy. Bugs are expected in beta versions (and released versions) but this one has four Denial of Service (DoS) and two remote execution vulnerabilities, according to Slashdot, quoting David Maynor.

Click to enlargeI installed it on my Win XP box twice and you can see the results on the right. The first installation is at the top and it did not show button labels at the top. The second installation shows the buttons. The side button labels don’t show in both attempts. Both times I did not install the two optional packages that come with the installer. To be exact, I downloaded the browser-only 3.0.1 version and initially installed only the browser and not the optional “Bonjour” service, or Apple Software Update. I later tried installing them as well. No change. Total of four reinstallations on XP and one on Vista.

The installer does not allow access to the Repair or Change options, which are greyed out; you can just Remove it.

When I click the bug icon, the whole application freezes but it creates a lot of disk thrashing and I had to use Task Manager to stop it. No easy way to report the bug.

Yes, I do know that on a virgin XP box, it might be wonderful but this is a real-world, stable PC. I am not writing a review, just playing with it.

On Vista, it works – I finally saw what all the blank spaces contained. 🙂

You can try your luck by downloading the beta browser at http://www.apple.com/safari/download/.

AdWords Business Pages and a curious domain

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Last December, Google launched AdWords Business Pages. Today, Google Australia announced it in Australia. What are AdWords Business Pages (ABPs)? They are a single-page website meant to be a landing page for a business that does not have any website. When you open a new AdWords Starter Edition account (and not Standard Edition), you get the option to create one. If you are an existing advertiser, you are SOL — at this time you can’t get one, but then existing advertisers would have a website.

ABPs seem to be hosted on the subdomain biz.googlepages.com. A typical site is here. As you can see, you can upload an image and link to a Google Map.

An Aside

Curiously, a sub-subdomain http://nura.biz.googlepages.com/ seems to be a private site in Russian. In fact, there are numerous, dubious residents of sub-subdomains of biz.googlepages.com as evidenced by a “site:” command. Now, googlepages.com is owned by Google Inc and is used for creating a Google Page. The IP address is 72.14.207.118, which has some interesting tenants such as http://gr8tools.com/ or http://baidupages.com/. You will need a paid account at Domaintools to see all 48 of them. They seem to be domains used some years ago possibly for testing Google Page Creator templates – example. Nothing too exciting there, but those sub-subdomains are either uninvited guests or they are Google’s own spam test pages – translated example. Weird. Continue reading

Waning interest in search engine optimization?

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I saw a comment somewhere that SEO is no longer a hot topic – I cannot remember exactly where I saw it but it was a red rag to a bull.

Google Trends

I did a check on Google Trends to see whether the number of searches for SEO were increasing or decreasing (for both spellings – is/iz). For fun I also checked “affiliate marketing”. The red line is “search engine optimization” with an “iz” spelling, yellow is “search engine optimisation” with an “is” spelling – both are decreasing. The blue line is AM and it shows a small increase.

Well, I’ll be damned. You have to discount the fact that many of these searches would be SEO firms checking their own rankings, but some would be the searches of others. What could be the reason for this diminished interest? Comments?

115° F in the shade

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I have been in Noida (outskirts of New Delhi) for the past two days in 43-47°C temperatures. The PC I am using is in a non-AC room, but when an AC room feels hot, you know it is hot! I heard that Melbourne is cold – not sure which I prefer. 😐

Abuelo’s Mexican Food Embassy, Tulsa

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Abuelo's TulsaFive of us went out to Abuelo’s at 10909 E 71st St South in Tulsa. We turned right off the freeway instead of left and managed to view all the other restaurants on the other side of the street, including one of my favourite chains – On the Border.

Didn’t have long to wait, being a table of 5, but there were lots of couples who seemed to have been there fore ages. They kept refilling our free corn chips and salsa (four different varieties). I picked the Monterey burrito specialty ($13.99), which includes four different burritos on a huge plate. Of course I couldn’t finish it, but I took home a doggie bag which was breakfast the next morning before our meeting.

Everyone agreed that it is one of the best American Mexican restaurants they had been to. Sadly, the chain is mainly East Coast and does not extend to NV or CA where I tend to go a lot.
Abuelo's Mexican Food Embassy on Restaurantica

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