Gmail Facts: Part 1

June 18, 2009

1. Using Plus sign[+] for Email aliases OR filtering mails in Gmail

Yeah !, We can create infinite number of Email Aliases in Gmail by adding a plus sign in front of our Gmail address like [email protected] is same as [email protected]. Gmail doesn’t considers the characters after the PLUS sign[+] in an email address but the gmail search filter can distinguish between the different address and we can therefore apply different labels.

2. Gmail doesn’t considers Dot’s(.) in an Email address.

Gmail doesn’t recognizes dots or periods in an email addresses or user names. That is an address like [email protected] is same as [email protected] or [email protected]. Also an email sent to [email protected](Mistaken Address) will be received by [email protected](Real Address).

3. Two separate addresses

When we create a account in Gmail we actually get two Email addresses, One is regular @gmail.com one and another is @googlemail.com one. That means [email protected] is same as [email protected]. We can use these addresses separately with filter’s. Also a mail sent to [email protected] will be received by [email protected]

This post will have it’s sequel when I will find more about Gmail.

Gmail cannot recognize dots or periods in email addresses or the user names – that means an address like [email protected] is the same as [email protected] or paris…[email protected].

Microsoft Bing: Awesome !

June 1, 2009

Bing the latest offering from Microsoft is a great search engine, Its better than Google in various ways.

Bing has a better and more meaningful “Related Search”. It uses technology from Powerset (a search technology company Microsoft acquired) to display refined versions of your query down the left side of the page.
Bing also pop ups the text in the result page when you hover above the search result. Which will give the idea about to follow the result or not.
It has a Video Search in which one can refine the query by Length OR Screen size OR Resolution OR Source. I found this to be Good.
It’s Image search has all the features of Google as well as Introduced some more like layout, style, people.

And it knows that different kind of data is best represented in different format it will be hard to maintain this thing though as MS will depend on different sites to collect this data from.

Overall, The bing search is much more than expected and it may replace Google in Future as its just the beginning of Bing !.

Flickr vs Picasa Web Albums

May 20, 2009

What if your digital camera is full of Pictures and you want to share with friends and relatives, Of course you wont mail them. You will probably like upload it somewhere and share.
There are 2 major 800 pound gorillas for photos sharing in Web. Yahoo’s Flickr and Picasa Web Albums by Google.

Flickr

Flickr is a well known in the photo sharing market and is owned by Yahoo. It has a good interface, it’s polished, works well, and is indeed addictive. But Flickr has some limitations Flickr offers 100 MB of free storage each calendar month but the storage counter is reset every month so you get virtually unlimited space on Flickr without spending a penny. (100 MB is good for storing upto 120 picture of average size). New pictures can be uploaded to Flickr via mobile phones, desktop software, email attachments or through the web-based interface available on Flickr website. Pictures can then be grouped in sets (like “Conference in New York”) as well as tags (like “conference”). You can upgrade to Pro for making the number of photos unlimited for each month but even after you upgrade to Pro, you’ll bump up against more limitations if your JPG files are over 10MB each, which happens quite often when you shoot with a late-model DSLR and upload at full resolution with the intention of printing that photo in a large size. Use Flickr if you want to engage actively within the big and friendly Flickr user community, get comments on your photos, join groups and submit photos to them — in short, partake fully of the social community of photo sharing.

Picasa Web Albums

This is the photo sharing client owned by Web Giant Google, This was made to enable Google Image Organization Software Picasa user’s to share there photos online. One can create private and public albums there and order prints. This is the best option for Photo sharing for a regular person but the storage is limited(Disadvantage over Flickr) it has a 1 GB storage and then Paid storage of 7Gb for $25 a year, You can come over this just by resizing the images rather than uploading the full High Resolution Pics. The default option is to resize only, so that’ll get done automatically. Once you’ve done tell your friends and its done.

Extra Features
For describing the photo, both services let you edit tags and a caption for the image, with Flickr also letting you give each photo a title. Both have a mapping feature letting you set a location for the photo on an interactive map. For the technical data relating to the photo, both services will read and display the EXIF data from a digital camera such as shutter speed, date/time etc. And for viewing a bunch of images, both have a slideshow feature built in. Finally, both services let you specify a name to make a more user friendly URL to give to your friends or family.

Flickr Vs Picasa

Transferring Photos: In Flickr the picture upload thing is very easy but downloading photos from there is difficult, for this you may need to have a 3rd part Flickr App where as in Google’s Picasa Web Albums it comes with an application Picasa. Through Picasa, you can do basic image editing (like crop, rotate, color adjustments, etc) and then upload the edited pictures online. The software can also download photos from the online Picasa albums to your hard-drive without any effort.

Organization: Picasa lets you create as many “albums” as you like to sort your photos into. Flickr lets you have just 3 “sets” to group your photos in, otherwise they all get added to a single “photostream”. For unlimited sets at Flickr you’ll have to go pro.

Storage: Picasa gives you 1GB of storage with the option to buy more (7GB for US$25 per year – shared storage with your Gmail account). Flickr doesn’t state a storage limit, instead they have an upload limit of 100MB per month and limit your “photostream” to the 200 most recent images. The “pro” option at Flickr which will give you unlimited uploads, storage, bandwidth and more.

Cost: Both Flickr and Picasa offer a free service initially, but with limitations on the service at Flickr And a word of warning here, Flickr’s FAQ states “if your free account is inactive for 90 consecutive days, it will be deleted”. Picasa is better here. You can upgrade to Flickr Pro for $25 and upgarde you 1GB to 7GB in Picasa for $25 a year.

Using Google services for a Website/blog

March 5, 2009

Google provides number of services/products to promote your blog or website on the Internet, the good thing about these services are that most of them are free for a very low price. These services are very helpful in various things. And all of its services works great for all types of blogs and websites.

Most of the services have a main focus for improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from Google Search engine via “natural” (“organic” or “algorithmic”) search results(viz. SEO).

Here is the list of Google Services for a Website/Blog :
In the order of their importance

Google Adsense:Offers a contextual advertising solution to web publishers Delivers text-based Google AdWords ads that are relevant to site content pages. Its great for earning huge bucks and trustworthy too(Because its Google).

Feedburner:Allows blog owners and podcasters the ability to manage their RSS feeds and track usage of their subscribers. The best advantage is it converts a RSS feed to a Email newsletter by “Subscribe via Email” thing.
Google Webmaster tools:Google Webmaster Tools provides you with detailed reports about your pages’ visibility on Google. One just need to verify the site and add Sitemaps.
Google Analytics:Google Analytics makes it easy to improve your results online. Write better ads, strengthen your marketing initiatives.

Google Apps:
Google Apps provide with Google Mail, Google Docs, Google Video and Google Sites complement traditional office software to make teamwork easier. The best thing is it provides with a Email ID of your Domain just by adding MX data into your domain (Eg: [email protected]).
Google Friend Connect:
Grow traffic by easily adding social features to your website. Google Friend Connect means more people engaging more deeply with your website.
Google Custom Search:
Have a website or collection of sites you’d like to search over? With Custom Search Engine, you can harness the power of Google to create a search engine for your very own site.

Starting a blog, keeping it run and having good traffic

January 25, 2009

Blog

A blog is a type a website in which it is maintained by an individual or group. Maintaining refers to having regular entries of anything[Which is meant for reading] . It is a medium through which every common person becomes a reporter by publishing their own articles. There are mainly 2 applications for creating and managing blogs. That is WordPress and Blogger.

Blogging
Its the term used to say when a person adds a entry or article of any matter in a particular blog.

Why
Most people do blogging to earn. And some do raise their voice or express their opinions on net, some people might to blogging as it is simply their hobby.
These day’s every one is starting their blog’s and blogging especially Teen’s. For a newbie there are many stuff’s to come over with before having a successful Blog. Therefore I am sharing some basic step’s for starting a blog and keep it running.

Starting a Blog

Choosing the Host

Choosing the host is one of the main, It decides Thing, there are mainly two types of Host’s available.

1. Weblog :
Its a free hosting thing great for beginners but doesn’t gives as much flexibility as blog publishing
application gives. But still Its brilliant in my concerns as it is totally free and gives enough Services[I am using that only] which are required like Blogger and WordPress.com.

2. Open source blog publishing application :
Most of the user’s use this as it has a major advantage that is flexibility and you can customize it as per one’s need’s and don’t need to be dependent upon the Hosting server, As you host yourself. It is not free you have to pay some Hosting Rates which caries upon $6-$50 depending upon packages to packages of hosting. Examples WordPress.org , MovableType

Most of the blogger’s start with Free clients like ‘Blogger‘ and then move to paid one like ‘WordPress.org‘ the major advantages of Self-Hosting is there flexibility.

What to blog about
You can blog about mainly two things

1. Techie or some professional things. In this type people blog about some Niche[Which can be anything] and most of the time being very professional. Like problogger.net

2. Thing happening around and physical infrastructure
This type of blogging is practiced mainly by Celebs and teens. In this type people share what is happening around them and where are they and what are they doing they gain more of stardom with this. Like http://www.aamirkhan.com/blog.htm

Whats Recommended
You should blog about the niche in which you are professional. Like a Auto expert will blog about cars not internet, The most demanded niche these days is ‘Making money’ and ‘Blogging Tips’ blog’s of these category receive huge traffic and make a successful strike.

How much blogs to maintain
You can maintain as much Blog’s you want to maintain But it’s always better to have one. Rather than Writing number of post’s in many blog’s its better to write a few and a good one in one blog.
But still if you are pro at many stuff You may blog in all the stuff you are good in. But having Quality is more important than quantity.

Don’t Know something never mind, Google It !
Even though you not be knowing something, But you can still blog about it. There is no need of writing only in the Niche you are professional in. You can try some other niche and always assist Google and try Blogging in new topics.

What after blog has started
Now after starting a blog the question everybody think is that they don’t get traffic at all.
This is very true no blog gets Traffic in beginning and it feels like Shouting alone in dark room but still the Traffic gets increasing if you keep running your blog. I don’t like those people who start a blog and then leave blogging after 1-2 article complaining that they didn’t receive enough traffic.

This is the first step after you have made a blog that is popularizing your blog.

1. Chose the right template
Your template selection is one of the main part of making a successful blog. Chose right template that is one which is related to your blog. Example- If you have a blog related to gaming you should have template that is related to gaming. It will look funny if you will use a flowers template in a gaming blog. Like Finalsense

2. Submit it to Web
Submit your site to internet by giving the URL to search engines, there are lot of sites these days which offer Blog submission to a particular category. You can submit it to Google webmaster tools or Google Base. Blog submission sites are like Blogged Technorati

3. Publishing
Have regular entries of posts which should offer unique content. This will attract the readers.

4. Labels
These labels are just like normal labels which you apply in your daily life. These are used to classify posts of your blog. Like in a Gaming download’s blog there could be posts varying to different gaming consoles like PC or Xbox 360. So there is a column having the different labels.
5. SEO(Search Engine Optimization)
This what most people do these days and receive good traffic.

3 top sites which I use the most

January 22, 2009

Google

Google is the best and the most popular Search Engine at net, Even though Google.com is ranked 2nd in traffic terms but its superior Indexing provides with a Search result which is worth. Google helps everyone to find a useful resource, When Google Inc(By the name Backrub search) started in 1998 it main aim was to give all information to everyone available on the net and it was soon succeeded in it. But sometimes it may give rubbish if the thing(Site) you are looking is not a popular one as It goes on for a site depending upon its Page Rank. Google helps everyone, Google Indexing also gives and many more illegal things like hacking(This is not an advantage). It generates its income from mainly Google Adsense and its e-mail services. At the date Google Adsense is the best and highest paying Ads program. But company main focus is on Search Engine. Google was founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin while they were students at Stanford University.

It helps to search me anything I need that is anything which I require to work upon with like using Google for my Holiday Homework, Things l need to learn for writing and many more stuff. Its a wholesome web directory.

Facebook

Facebook is the social networking which is currently receiving the most Traffic Rank as compared to any other social networking site. It has a Good User interface and GUI and a User Functionality. Earlier I was pro-Orkut types, But now I am a typical Facebook user. Facebook has started in 4 February 2004(Very Young), as for connecting people within Harvard University, But it grew like anything and I is now accepting people of Age over 13. Overall Facebook is the best Social Networking Site I found on the Web 2.0.

Many of my friends are there In facebook so it helps a great extent in interaction(Chatting,Pics Sharing and stuff) and the great good feature is that it has a ‘Status Message’ thing and inbuilt Chatting and a various number of applications(But some are really useful [Like Twitter]). I have added a Twitter Applications in My facebook account whic automaticly changes the Status message of Facbook to that which is in Twitter.

Twitter

Twitter is a micro blogging service started in 2006. Through Twitter people communicate to outer world and express their concerns. Twitter is a free social networking site, Thus generating no Revenue. People regularly update their twitter accounts by giving new status message which is also know as Tweets. The Updates are shown in the User Profile and displayed to those who are following that User. Twitter had by one measure over 3 million accounts and by another, well over 5 million visitors in September 2008 which was a fivefold increase in a month.

I use twitter for sharing my Status updates , Some times giving the links of my new post’s and The good thing is in facebook by adding a Twitter application we are automatically able to convert a Tweet into a Facebook status message.Like- During Exams I use it to tell my people which is the next Exam going to have and how was my last exam. Twitter Rocks ! There are also some 3rd Party Apps available for twitting.

Blogging for Earning

January 19, 2009

Most people are attracted to blogging as they see it as a income stream by showing Ads and stuff. Ya, Its true many people succeed in it and make huge bucks. Some didn’t got to such height and have a very wannabe income stream some don’t actually earn a single penny. These days many Bollywood Stars are attracted towards blogging in order to have a better Fan base and share their life with the Fans and advertise for their upcoming films.

So most of the people earn by blogging it can be anything depending what the Blogger wants from the user.

Why there is a need to Earn
Earning can be done for anything many students now days blog in order to have better Pocket Money or People do it to have a Better Income Stream. There are many full time blogger’s these days and it is taken as a career now.

How to Earn

Earning from blogging requires very basic steps.
These steps can as simple as using Text Link ads or writing Paid reviews or blogging for some organization or finding sponsors and there are many more rays of hope.

Ads Programs available
There are many Ads Program available so I decided to include some good one’s.

1. Google Ad sense

It is the one used by majority and majority can’t be wrong Its actually the best one giving the Highest Prices.

2. Chitika

3. Amazon Associates

4. YPN(Yahoo Publisher Network) U.S. Only

5. Microsoft® adCenter Publisher Program

6. Bidvertisers

7. Clicksor

8. Ad brite

List of blog submission directories

January 16, 2009

Web Promoting Services are the things which have helped blogger’s to make their Blog a hit. It doesn’t only boosts up the Alexa Rank but also a sort of Free Advertisement that can be made for one’s Blogs Which results up in popularizing your blog. Many Pro-Blogger’s as well as newbie’s have starting using these things and It is proved that it helps to grow a Blog much faster.

These day’s using web services is a great thing now in order to increase one’s Blogs/Websites Traffic there are many tools available OR Web Services accessible for doing the same.

We may use Bookmarking Sites like StumbleUpon, Digg, Delicious, Technorati etc.Which come in category of Social Bookmarking to popularize our Pages .

Some people also use Twitter for promoting there posts Like they write “New in [blog name] [post name] [Brief Description] [Link(Most of the time in the form of tinyurl)] ” as their status message in Twitter or Facebook . Thing works great for Newbie’s as well for Blogging Pro’s. I mainly use Google webmaster tools and some Blogging Directories [Full List in the end] like Blogged. Google Webmaster Tools adds your pages in their indexing.

Search Engine displays a site according to its Traffic Rank so you can’t help it. Rather than giving good Meta Tags. We may also just Add the URL to Search Engine. RSS Feed Submission also helps a lot there a lot of them available for them [Full List in the end]. SEO(Sear c h Engine Optimization) is also a foremost step for these thing’s there are some Steps which help’s in increasing the traffic. There are many more services available in the net. Dmoz is a Good example of SEO

List of Directories

Blog Directories:

5starblogs

A1Weblinks reciprocal or $$$

Addyourblog

Allafrica

All-Blogs.net fee or reciprocal

Aviva fee