Manufacturer Description This point and shoot has it all–and then some. The DSC-W300 includes a wide range of convenient features, including Smile Shutter Mode which captures smiles the moment they happen. The compact and scratch-resistan (more…)
I recently discovered the Australian SEO forum and registered. They approve manually and today I received the following email:
Unfortunately your registration at Australian SEO Forum did not meet our membership requirements. Therefore your registration was deleted.
Sorry,
Australian SEO Forum
I don’t recall ever being rejected by any forum. Have you? Anyway, it seems that the forum is up for sale. If you buy it, please let me know and the new membership requirements, so that I may try to register once again.
Google Search has announced two new features that may interest some people. The first is Related Searches, which appears below the SERP and the other is a longer snippet if the search term is four words or longer. Not exciting enough for me.
However, Google Blogoscoped reported some testing of new features that were more interesting to me at first glance.
You won’t see the test unless your PC collects a special cookie. Blogoscoped has kindly provided it in the article, so you can insert it into your PC and see the new playthings for yourself. I first read about this in Webmasterworld where posts by FTFlash and Robert Charlton describe these new features (click the above image to enlarge it). Note; You must use google.com, not a national one such as google.com.au.
If you get the cookie, you will see “Show Options” next to “Web” below the Google logo. In the above image I selected Wonder Wheel, which is depicted in the image above. You will see related searches in the spokes but the wheel itself does not play any visual games. It is simply a backdrop to the related searches. Being in beta, I can’t be too critical, but I don’t find the feature useful. For many searches, the spokes do not appear and you can’t click the hub (your search term), so you are left wondering.
For my test I chose San Francisco, being home to most Googlers. I clicked “San Francisco Attractions”, which opened up a second spoked wheel linked to the original wheel. I next chose “San Jose Attractions”, whereupon the original wheel becomes an outlined circle. For each selection you make, you get organic search results in the right half of the page and at the bottom you get a columnar list of the related searches seen in the Wonder Wheel. Strangely, I got “San Jose, Costa Rica Attractions” and “San Jose Costa Rica Attractions” (no comma the second time).
The Wonder Wheel will probably be a gimmick for me as I don’t run my applications in full screen mode and need to see most of the screen in a smaller window. What did you think of it?
The second new choice on the left is a Timeline for the current search term. This operates in a true AdWords broad match sense and made no sense for my “San Jose Attractions” search term (minus quotes). The timeline started in 1602 with a reference to the namesake San Jose in Panama. The next one in 1610 is in Mexico. And on it goes, giving unnecessary information for a query that started in San Francisco. The sixth result is the one in Silicon Valley.
The third new feature is Search Suggestions, 16 of which appear above the Onebox map and 10 local results. These did relate to San Jose, CA and were quite relevant.
Choosing “Images from the page” show two thumbnails next to each result, which would be popular for some searches.
In all these new features I did not see any AdWords, so I don’t know how messy the page will look with ads. Some people have reported slightly different test options. Let’s wait and see how these features morph into their final version.
Google Search has announced two new features that may interest some people. The first is Related Searches, which appears below the SERP and the other is a longer snippet if the search term is four words or longer. Not exciting enough for me.
However, Google Blogoscoped reported some testing of new features that were more interesting to me at first glance.
You won’t see the test unless your PC collects a special cookie. Blogoscoped has kindly provided it in the article, so you can insert it into your PC and see the new playthings for yourself. I first read about this in Webmasterworld where posts by FTFlash and Robert Charlton describe these new features (click the above image to enlarge it). Note; You must use google.com, not a national one such as google.com.au.
If you get the cookie, you will see “Show Options” next to “Web” below the Google logo. In the above image I selected Wonder Wheel, which is depicted in the image above. You will see related searches in the spokes but the wheel itself does not play any visual games. It is simply a backdrop to the related searches. Being in beta, I can’t be too critical, but I don’t find the feature useful. For many searches, the spokes do not appear and you can’t click the hub (your search term), so you are left wondering.
For my test I chose San Francisco, being home to most Googlers. I clicked “San Francisco Attractions”, which opened up a second spoked wheel linked to the original wheel. I next chose “San Jose Attractions”, whereupon the original wheel becomes an outlined circle. For each selection you make, you get organic search results in the right half of the page and at the bottom you get a columnar list of the related searches seen in the Wonder Wheel. Strangely, I got “San Jose, Costa Rica Attractions” and “San Jose Costa Rica Attractions” (no comma the second time).
The Wonder Wheel will probably be a gimmick for me as I don’t run my applications in full screen mode and need to see most of the screen in a smaller window. What did you think of it?
The second new choice on the left is a Timeline for the current search term. This operates in a true AdWords broad match sense and made no sense for my “San Jose Attractions” search term (minus quotes). The timeline started in 1602 with a reference to the namesake San Jose in Panama. The next one in 1610 is in Mexico. And on it goes, giving unnecessary information for a query that started in San Francisco. The sixth result is the one in Silicon Valley.
The third new feature is Search Suggestions, 16 of which appear above the Onebox map and 10 local results. These did relate to San Jose, CA and were quite relevant.
Choosing “Images from the page” show two thumbnails next to each result, which would be popular for some searches.
In all these new features I did not see any AdWords, so I don’t know how messy the page will look with ads. Some people have reported slightly different test options. Let’s wait and see how these features morph into their final version.
Two news stories a world apart remind me that doing something quickly and cheaply is not always appreciated, at least by some vested interests.
The first story is about the first CIO of the United States. Indian-born, but raised in Tanzania and the US, Vivek Kundra. Apparently this wunderkind has impressed Barack Obama enough to create this position, where he will be tasked with lowering the cost of government operations through the use of technology.
To quote the linked article:
In just 19 months with the District, Mr. Kundra has moved to post city contracts on YouTube and to make Twitter use common in his office and others. He hopes to allow drivers to pay parking tickets or renew their driver’s licenses on Facebook.
An earlier article in the Washington Post mentions his time as CTO of the District of Columbia where he questioned a $39,000 price tag to reassign the IP addresses of a network.
“Why would that take $40,000?” he snapped. “This project seems like a sham right now. We need to take the happiness level down for this one.”
The “happiness level,” a measure of a project’s success, is just one of the tools Kundra, 34, has developed in his quest to improve the way the District’s 86 agencies use technology. In the 18 months since joining Mayor Adrian M. Fenty’s administration, Kundra has gotten attention for taking an unconventional approach to government, which is not typically first to adopt the latest computing trends.
Kundra has introduced popular consumer tools to bureaucratic processes, runs his office like a tech start-up and works by the mantra that citizens are “co-creators rather than subjects.”
And this:
The bidding process for city contracts is posted on YouTube, for example, and his employees use versions of Wikipedia and Twitter in the office. He wants to let drivers pay parking tickets and renew driver’s licenses on Facebook.
In October, he launched a contest called “Apps for Democracy” to encourage developers to create applications for the Web and cellphones to give District residents access to city data such as crime reports and pothole repair schedules.
Comments left by readers are polarised. Some love his approach; one wrote bitterly:
1. It costs money to bid the project- This means Bid and Proposal work needs to be performed. Contracts people, legal, and all of these things contribute to contract costs.
2. Contractors cost money. I don’t work for wages as a citizen of Pakistan or India. I reside in Northern virginia and the cost of living is just a bit more than that hut in a major city in India or Pakistan.
There’s nothing in the articles to suggest he outsourced anything to offshore workers, but I like his approach. I don’t believe he is replacing stodgy computer systems entirely with Facebook applications written by contest winners – he is simply adding a way for people to use familiar technology.
That story takes me to the second incident closer to home. Asher Moses reported that a Sydney programmer is being threatened with legal action by NSW authority RailCorp for selling Transit Sydney, an iPhone app that he sells for AU$2.49. It enables users to get the publlished suburban train timetables on their iPhones.
The programmer, Alvin Singh, is quoted as suggesting that RailCorp is in the “planning stages” of getting their own iPhone application on the market, but he doesn’t think a government body could do this “any time soon”.
There is also the matter of copyright of the timetable compilations, as this application merely repurposes that static information, not up-to-date situational facts such as cancellations and delayed schedules. Fair enough — a commuter would rather have the latest data.
Both incidents remind me of an ever-present struggle between entrepreneurs who want to “knock up” something and use it and the traditionalists who want things done the “right way”. My guess is that RailCorp would take at least three people and about $50,000 to create that application — a business analyst, a developer and a tester, whereas Mr Singh probably knocked it up in a weekend.
Should three jobs be at risk because a citizen took the initiative and launched a rather basic app? I hope not, but I wish RailCorp simply released their application rather than pursue Mr Singh. Commuters can decide which one they’d rather use.
Similarly, US citizens are justified in wondering if government projects will be offshored to save money at the cost of local jobs. OTOH, US taxpayers would rather see their contributions spent frugally and wisely. There are no clear-cut answers here.
There is a shorter version on YouTube, but it is worth hearing all 54 minutes of this interview by Charlie Rose with Marissa Mayer, VP of Search Product and User Experience, Google.
[googlevideo]http://video.google.com/videoplay?docId=2130473232539454111[/googlevideo]
He next interviewed Eric Schmidt, CEO, Google:
[googlevideo]http://video.google.com/videoplay?docId=8240499345320964787[/googlevideo]
Laloo Yadav’s speech in Parliament is a fine example of an ailing Indian English. It kicks off this website’s first post. Enjoy!
Search Engine Roundtable has an interesting post by Barry Schwartz about how Google Maps makes it easy for anyone to edit a business listing to say that it has closed permanently. I knew that Circuit City will shut its doors forever tomorrow and I looked for one that had already been marked “Place Closed” in Google Maps. No, that wasn’t me, as it seems that someone at Google has to approve these submissions. Read Barry’s article for a full account of how this happens. The problem shouldn’t worry anyone who has claimed their entry, but unclaimed entries without a point of contact may make it impossible for Google to check with the business owner. As this news spreads, I expect the feature’s process to be tightened up.
That story takes me to the second incident closer to home.