Ashi Software

Aquilonis Technologies geared up for iPAD

2010-04-26T12:18:00.000+05:30

Aquilonis Technologies, a Bangalore-based startup, caters to popular mobile platforms such as Symbian, Windows Mobile, iPhone, Palm, Android, Blackberry etc.

These mostly platform agnostic solutions have proved their mettle in areas like advertising, enterprise mobility, health care, calling cards etc. Last year they had launched the ‘Cross-Platform Management Suite’, a software suite for Smartphone operating systems, allowing users to access their phone’s features remotely.

Started by two ex colleagues Rahuldev Rajguru and Devang Thakkar, Aquilonis delivers innovative solutions to the growing global market. With a humble beginning of a single room office with 3 people, Aquilonis now is a set of highly experienced IT professionals focused on Offshore Mobile Application Development.

With a strong leaning towards research and study, Aquilonis has always put in the required effort into its homework.

Their mobile app XBLOCKR has already hit the market and is a huge hit at the app stores. It is currently available for the Symbian, Win Mobile and Blackberry platforms. This attractive application allows the user to Duck, Drop and Divert calls along with some really neat add ons such as customized SMS and actionables on the fly. Thousands of downloads and reviews later, it is clear that Aquilonis knows its stuff. The seamless integration and smooth functioning of the app across platforms has proved their commitment and capability.

Aquilonis has believed in being at the cutting edge of technology and innovation. Keeping up their track record Aquilonis’ latest foray has been on the very in –the-news iPAD. They have been developing apps on the iPAD framework, and will release the first such iPAD specific app very soon.

Watching a home grown start up scaling new heights is always exciting and with Aquilonis technologies the ride has just started. This startup with its humble beginnings is definitely here to stay.

For more information, Visit Website: http://www.aquilonis.com/

Make Money Online - Keep Your Feet on the Ground

2010-04-21T11:29:00.000+05:30

In case you were wondering, the answer is "yes", it is very possible to make money online. However, you have to separate the good from the bad. This is easier said than done. Unfortunately, the Internet is inundated with "get rich quick" schemes falsely promising online riches within a matter of months, if not days. These schemes strive by taking advantage of the naivety of people who are generally new to the make money at home sector.

by BrianLett

The majority people getting started with a dream to make money online most likely do not understand what it takes. Most of the time they have a good grasp on the Internet, and they fact that the world lives in their computer. More likely than not, they deduce that since the Internet is so vast, they can simply receive a website from some get rich scheme, after paying a fee, and have others do the same after visiting the website they just received.

Sadly enough, thousands of people are taken by "get rich quick" schemes daily. They come across an advertisement which alleges that they can make twenty to thirty thousand dollars within their first month with the scheme, ask a few questions, get a few answers, and hand over their hard earned money. However, what they should be asking themselves is if it were this easy to make money at home, why are people trying so hard to show you how to do it, rather than just focusing on doing it themselves? It is because naive people on the Internet comprise their cash cow.

One of the best ways to understand why "get rich quick" schemes do not work is by comparing an online startup business to a traditional offline startup business. First and foremost, the goal of any business is to keep the startup costs to a minimum. The lower your startup costs, the more quickly the business becomes profitable. Hence, the offline business is likely to be started in a garage, a spare room, or a basement. This can be compared to an online business registering a domain name, and obtaining a website plus hosting plan.

Thereafter, you have to find something of value to sell with your offline business. Something of value can either be a product, or it can be a service. Similarly, online businesses need something of value which can be sold to the public in exchange for money. Thus, if the only way to make money online with a "get rich quick" scheme is to recruit other members to join and pay a fee, such payment is not in exchange for a product or service. Hence, such a scheme is not a business in any definition of the term "business".

Now that you have determined what is and is not a business, and have your product or service to offer, how do you get customers? In both businesses, online and offline, you will need to do some advertising so that people become aware of your business. With an online business, you will specifically need to promote your website so that others will know that your business is out there.

As an offline business begins to take off, there is a need to bring in other resources to assist with the additional business. One may also outgrow their garage or basement, or simply require space with better accessibility for more people. Similarly, an online business will also require more resources as it grows. More often than not, the needs of an online business are "digital" as opposed to the "physical" needs of an offline business. For example, as an online business grows, you may need to upgrade your website hosting plan to allow a greater bandwidth so that you can accommodate an increased volume of visitors to your website.

The main goal of this compare and contrast is to show you that a business, by virtue of simply being online, does not make it any more likely that you will be put in a position to make money at home in the $10,000 to $30,000 range per month within your first month, six months, or even year. Yes, there is the odd exception to the rule. However, these are very few and very far between. If anyone tells you something to the contrary, subject them to the aforementioned compare and contrast exercise. I am quite certain that they will fail to be recognized as a business.

While it is possible to make money online in the tens of thousands per month, it is highly improbable that this will happen without something of value being sold, and a business being built over time.

About the Author:

In order to make money online, you should never have to pay a fee. Prior to charging up your credit card for the next make money at home scheme, visit SOSComplete! where it costs you nothing to join.

Article Re-Posted By: Ashi Software - Web Development Company

Social Networking, Social Marketing Strategy, Marketing on Social Networking Sites | Ashi Software BLOG

2010-04-14T13:48:00.000+05:30

Social Networking, Social Marketing Strategy, Marketing on Social Networking Sites | Ashi Software BLOG

Website Migration to Open Source TYPO3 CMS

2010-02-23T11:04:00.006+05:30

http://www.ashi-software.com/blog/open-source/typo3/website-migration-to-open-source-typo3-cms/Migrating your existing website or web application to newer system could be one of the most arduous, challenging and confusing tasks for the most of us. Specifically, when you know that in today's market place there are numerous options available and each of these options would claim that they are the best. For all those users or system administrators wanting to Migrate to probably something like an Open Source CMS as an options, the first underlying question would be " What is the need and what are the factors for the same ". Some of the needs and factors in a nutshell could be:

Your current system offers less flexibility when it comes to making frequent changes to website contents or making some enhancements like adding modules, components.
Your existing custom built CMS system does not offer the flexibility and simple tasks are more complicated to handle within the current system.
Technical barriers.
Not compliant with the web standards and difficulty in marketing specifically while doing SEO.
Need to change the Templates frequently.

With the variety of options that are available today in the Open Source CMS world, TYPO3 offers an excellent flexible, structured and user friendly system. It has an excellent self administered back end system that offers you a complete independence from having a support team or a technical development team. It is well structured and all the sections are well defined for the users. You need not worry on the aspects of making frequent changes to your site or any kind of site maintenance. Back end system can easily be learnt and is simple to use after a small training or short know how. The Admin section, allows user to change the information as and when they want.

For simple and static sites or say even in the case of dynamic pages of your website, the migration time from your existing site to the new TYPO3 CMS is very quick. There are various reason for the quick migration as TYPO3 Open Source CMS comes with a huge repository of more than 3400 + extensions or in common terms like modules or components - plug & play type. Most of your requirements are met through these TYPO3 extensions. You just need to fit in these TYPO3 extensions, customize further based on your needs and your site or application becomes ready to launch over the web. It's that simple. So with TYPo3, migrating your old site to new CMS could be just a few clicks away and zoom....your site is ready to be placed on internet.

There is nothing to loose and more to gain not only for the site owners but also for the end users. Planning to migrate your site to TYPO3 CMS or if you need to have TYPO3 extension development or customization, then you can visit us.

The author of this article has been involved with various TYPO3 CMS developers for last 3 years with an special affinity for TYPO3 Open Source CMS in India.

Useful Advantages of SEO in Web Marketing

2010-02-22T14:44:00.000+05:30

The importance of web marketing cannot be ignored nowadays. It has, in fact, become the basic ingredient for the success of a business in the real world and in the online world. It provides excellent opportunities to improve the sales and increase the revenue generation. For this purpose, the search engine SEO is a must.

Utilizing the capabilities of the search engines for one's profit is very important nowadays. It is something that can increase your chances of improved internet visibility and better Google results. As the SEO Services help the customers achieve this target, they are highly useful. They take advantage of all the options available in optimizing the nitty gritty of websites and its contents in such a way as can be beneficial for the customers and visitors alike.

There are certain tools that are used for this purpose. They are all part of search engine optimization services. It is a service that helps the customers in making their websites more web search friendly which, in turn, attract more visitors. As more traffic is a virtual assurance of better sales, there is likelihood that the revenue would jump up. It is also goo for online business identity.

One of the most commonly used techniques in this regard is called the on page optimization. It allows the expert SEO's to make changes to the website pages in the live mode. Certain aspects of the web pages are corrected, some are optimized and some are removed in a way to make sure that they are perfectly according to the liking of the search engines. When a search engine crawls a page, it looks for certain important information. If they are found correct or optimized for the search engine, they will get higher ranking in the results. Continue Reading

Google Acquires Mobile E-mail Utility reMail

2010-02-18T11:53:00.000+05:30

Google’s massive acquiring spree marches forward today. The newest company to be enveloped by the search giant? reMail, an app that provides advanced e-mail search capabilities for the iPhone. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Founder and CEO Gabor Cselle announced the acquisition on his blog earlier today. He is the former VP of Engineering for Xobni (Xobni) and also a former engineer at none other than Google. Silicon Valley seed funding firm Y Combinator is an investor in reMail.

Don’t be fooled: This acquisition is entirely a talent acquisition. In the announcement, Gabor reveals that both companies have decided to discontinue the reMail iPhone app, and that Gabor will become a product manager for Gmail (Gmail). While we lament the loss of the app (it’s quite useful), we understand that Google would rather dedicate its new talent’s abilities toward Gmail rather than an iPhone app.

Source: mashable.com

Why is Google Afraid of Facebook? Part II: Facebook's Traffic Passes Yahoo

2010-02-18T10:59:00.003+05:30

Social network Facebook has passed Yahoo! and is now nearing Google in the #1 spot for most monthly unique visitors from the US, according to traffic analyst firm Compete. Compete just published its January numbers this morning and reported that nearly 134 million US web users visited Facebook last month. Google saw nearly 148 million.

Google's US traffic grew by just over 1 million visitors between December and January. Facebook's traffic grew by almost 1.5 million. Yahoo's traffic fell by almost 1.5 million users. As Compete's Aaron Prebluda writes, Google passed Yahoo 2 years ago this month "and never looked back." This isn't just jockeying between companies, though. We may be witnessing the eclipse of search by social networking.

Three weeks ago we wrote about other numbers that pointed to the rise of social networking vs search (Why is Google Afraid of Facebook? Because Social Networking Could Soon Pass Search) but those numbers were a little less clear.

As we wrote then:

What would it mean if social networking over-took search in terms of sheer visits online? It would mark a sea-change on the internet. No longer would our dominant use of the web be seeking out web-pages built by HTML web-masters! Now we would all be publishing tiny little updates that perhaps only our friends and family care about. We'd be subscribing, more than we ever did by RSS, to syndicated updates from organizations of interest, large and small. It would be (perhaps will be) a very different era and, to be frank, it's going to be harder to monetize. There will be privacy battles. There will be new platforms for innovation.
It's a pretty big deal. Things will really change if current trends continue and social networking rises to the top... And that's a big reason why Google and Facebook are rivals.

Source: readwriteweb.com

Google donates $2 million to support Wikipedia

2010-02-18T10:54:00.002+05:30

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE, AP Technology Writer Michael Liedtke, Ap Technology Writer – Wed Feb 17, 4:10 pm ET

SAN FRANCISCO – Google Inc., the Internet's most profitable company, is giving $2 million to support Wikipedia, a volunteer-driven reference tool that has emerged as one of the Web's most-read sites.

The donation announced Wednesday matches the largest grant made so far to Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit group that oversees the 7-year-old Wikipedia. Ebay founder Pierre Omidyar also donated $2 million to Wikimedia six months ago through one of his investment arms.

The latest largesse has catapulted Wikimedia beyond its $10.6 million revenue target for its fiscal year ending in June. That goal had looked ambitious, given that it represented an increase of more than 20 percent from $8.7 million a year earlier.

But the worst recession since World War II evidently didn't dampen support for the Internet's most popular encyclopedia, which has more than 14 million entries written and edited by some 100,000 unpaid contributors in about 270 languages.

Wikimedia, which gets most of its revenue from donations, has collected contributions from more than 240,000 individuals so far this fiscal year, mostly in small sums.

The outpouring has allowed Wikipedia to expand while keeping its Web site commercial free, spokesman Jay Walsh said. "We intend to keep it that way, too."

Wikimedia, based in San Francisco, plans to spend about $9.4 million of its revenue this year, mostly to pay salaries and benefits to a staff of more than 30 people. The second-biggest expense is for operating Wikipedia's Web site.

The donation is a pittance for Google, which ended December with $24 billion in cash. Google makes much of its money from ads that run alongside Internet search results, many of which send people to Wikipedia.

In a statement, Google co-founder Sergey Brin hailed Wikipedia as "one of the greatest triumphs of the Internet."

SEO friendly content management system

2010-02-17T12:24:00.005+05:30

Content Management System (CMS):

Content Management System permits web site administrators to update, add or to delete the content, documents and photos to their web sites in “real time”. Content Management Systems generate an active web site milieu, where the entire content is stocked up in a database or in a XML file. In the era of high paced world of web, a high-quality CMS is vital to the proficient operations of a web site and Netzwerkinstallationen. CMS (Content Management System) permits the web site owner to outsource their content development tenuously to contract copywriters and further agreeable contributors.

CMS in SEO souk:

One of the chief and significant things that people should consider while looking for content management systems (CMS) is their practicality in the SEO souk. People at the time are really very confused about picking up a CMS that is absolutely compatible to their needs. To eradicate such confusion out of the minds, here are some of the SEO friendly content management systems:

Typo3:

Typo3 is very friendly to search engines and comes with lots of alternative for metadata and also for urls that are counted as search engine friendly.

Elxis:

Elxis is amazingly search engine friendly and deserves a good place in the list of systems. It is built up with SEO Pro capabilities. Even Mambo and Joomla are not capable of surpassing this.

What is SEO Pro..?

Elxis CMS produces search-engine as well as human friendly URLs with its powerful mechanism of working. SEO PRO is an essential part of the Elxis core; it is not a constituent or some class of additional software. Moreover, SEO Pro not demands any kind of supplementary settings other than its commencement.

The URLs are robotically produced from Elxis and are entirely based on SEO titles. This also increases the validation of SEO friendly titles.

Drupal:

Enable the sparkling urls and with a choice of SEO friendly plugins, Drupal is a well- known and a trouble-free content management system which is absolutely search engine friendly. Drupal works with an amazing module known as SEO Checklist.

MODx:

MODx is the most preferred choice and comes with capability of adjusting the meta- content for your website. Meta-content adjustment is done on the basis of per-page. Urls are completely SEO friendly.

Content Management System (CMS) Made Simple:

If you really want to amend .htaccess files, this unique and adjustable system can generate great quality of SEO friendly URLs. Also, it can build up variety of Page titles and Meta tags in an automatic manner and that can also be updated manually for individual pages later.

Overview:

It is sure that SEO friendly content management systems definitely work for you. The most important key is to search out for a CMS that will perfectly suit to fulfill your core needs and can conclude about the beneficial add-ons as well. Hence, you will get the ultimate results for your websites.

Source: freehelpsoft.com

SEO friendly content management system Re-Posted By Software Solution Services

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Online Marketing Consultants Say Content is Key

2010-02-12T18:23:00.004+05:30

By Paul Marshall in Writing

Websites with more content rank better with the search engines. Any online marketing consultant will emphasize, however, that “more” isn’t enough. For successful SEO, your site needs a steady stream of fresh, relevant content.

Above all, know your audience. Understand what your readers want and give it to them. More content:

Feeds the search engines.
Encourages return readers.
Serves as a keyword platform.
Helps distribute PageRank (through relevant internal linking.)

Online marketing consulting emphasizes the need to build site authority. Information rich, relevant text is the most affordable SEO tool at your disposal to achieve that goal.

People Read Differently Online

Monitor resolution, color quality, available light, and the fixed distance and angle of the screen all cause eye fatigue. More importantly, links encourage distraction. Readers routinely jump ship in the middle of the paragraph with no guarantee they’ll ever come back.

Use Inverted Pyramid Structure

To compensate, put the most important information in the first paragraph. Journalists have been doing it for years, well aware that almost no one will read their entire story. Arrange the rest of the material in descending order of importance.

Write To Your Links

If you include a link in a paragraph, continue to control the narrative at the link’s destination. Regardless of where a reader goes in your site, make sure you are presenting a coherent message.

Repeat Without Copying

Don’t be afraid to repeat information, but don’t just copy the same chunk of text. Rewrite repetitive material to vary your keyword phrasing and anchor text. Every page on the site should appear fresh and dynamic.

Forget The Five-Sentence Paragraph

Online readers need more white space to make skimming the text easier. Forget the five-sentence paragraph structure you learned in English class. Keep online paragraphs to three sentences or less whenever possible.

When possible, use a mix of bold, italics and underlining to make skimming easier for the reader.

Keep An Active, Direct Voice

Action verbs create strong web copy. Don’t write that you “have been taught.” Tell the reader what you “learned.” Speak authoritatively, not passively.

Keep Your Text Concise

Work for a length of 500 to 1000 words per page. When an article runs long, pay special attention to paragraph length. Use subtitles to highlight main ideas and to create more white space.

Consider that the average reader reads at about 200 words per minute. Keeping them on a page for more than 5 minutes (1000 words) often isn’t possible.

Choose Common Vocabulary

Write your text on a 9th to 12th grade reading level. There are numerous tools online to measure the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level of your text. Most require nothing more complicated than copying and pasting the material to be measured.

Proofread Your Copy

Misspelled words and poor grammar scream “amateur.” Ask someone you trust to proofread your copy. Writers get too close to their words and easily miss mistakes.

Avoid Common Grammatical Errors

Don’t be guilty of the most common grammatical mistakes. Making glaring errors will harm the reputation of your site and tell readers you don’t know what you’re doing. In particular avoid:

Loose for lose. You lose your car keys. Your Hawaiian shirt has a loose fit.
Lay for lie. When you have a headache you lie down. You lay your papers on the desk.
You’re for your. “You’re in for trouble if you don’t mind your grammar.”
Of for have. “I would have set you straight about this error if I could have.”
They’re for their. “They’re suffering from the consequences of their bad manners.”
Effect for affect. “A computer problem affects your ability to work. The effects of the situation may delay the project.”

Know When To Break The Rules

There are always situations that require that the rules be broken. This relates directly to the need to know your audience. Some topics call for a more in-depth treatment and more complex language.

Introduce deeper, more complicated material with a brief synopsis. Make it clear that following the link will take the reader to an extended treatment of the topic.

Formatting is even more important for in-depth material. Try to treat one idea per page with a clear indication of how many pages will follow. This lets readers find logical stopping points and encourages them to bookmark their place and return to finish reading later.

Always Remember The Basics

In composing text for your site, never forget the different mechanics of reading online. Focus on the wants and needs of your audience. Believe the online marketing consultant wisdom that content is king.

Keep the most important information in the first paragraph. Use sub-headings to improve visual scanning. Choose active verbs and clearly understood words.

Control the narrative throughout your site. Repeat without copying. Proofread and correct your work and update frequently to feed the search engines and encourage repeat visits from your readers.

Marketing online since 2004, Paul Marshall can help you market on a realistic budget. He’s an Online Marketing Consultant offering professional marketing services (and d-i-y Coaching). He also offers Paul Marshall

Source: sitepronews.com

Online Marketing Consultants Article Re-Posted By Ashi Software - Software Development Company

Google warns Chinese copycat website: report

2010-02-08T18:02:00.002+05:30

BEIJING (AFP) – Google has warned a copycat Chinese website to stop using a logo that resembles the US Internet giant's or face possible legal action, state media reported Monday.

The warning issued to the "Goojje" website comes as Google is contemplating its future in China after saying it would no longer obey government censorship rules and could pull out entirely over alleged cyberattacks.

Google accused Goojje of infringing on its trademark rights, saying the logo of the Chinese website could make users believe it was authorised by or linked to the US company, the Shenzhen Economic Daily reported.

In a letter sent to Goojje by Google's lawyers, the US Internet firm demanded the Chinese site stop using the logo by Monday, the report said.

Google China did not immediately respond to an AFP request for comment.

Reports have said Goojje was launched last month by a 20-strong team led by a college student identified only by the surname Wen, after Google issued its threat to pull out from China.

The operators of Goojje have posted vague statements on the website construed by some media as offering support for Google.

Goojje's homepage imitates Google's design and its Chinese name ends with a character that means "big sister". Google's Chinese name, meanwhile, ends with a character that is a homonym for "big brother".

Google said last month it would no longer abide by Chinese government censorship and was mulling leaving the country with the world's largest number of online users, citing cyberattacks on it and more than 20 other companies.

The Chinese government has denied any involvement in the cyberattacks.

The Google row has added to tensions between Beijing and Washington on a range of other issues including trade, US

Source: news.yahoo.com

Google Update NEWS Re-Posted By Affordable SEO Services Provider Company India

Facebook, Twitter turning into a criminal hub

2010-02-04T16:45:00.003+05:30

Washington, February 4: Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter are turning into a criminal hub where gang members make threats, boast about crimes, share intelligence on rivals and network with people across the country.

Investigators are increasingly monitoring these sites to track gang activity.

According to law enforcement officials, gangs are making greater use of Twitter and Facebook, where they sometimes post information that helps agents identify gang associates and learn more about their organisations.

"You find out about people you never would have known about before," Discovery News quoted Dean Johnston with the California Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement, which helps police investigate gangs, as saying.

"You build this little tree of people," Johnston added.

Tech-savvy gangsters have long been at home in chatrooms.

"They will even go out and brag about doing shootings," Johnston said.

Source: zopag.com

Is Article Marketing Still Effective In 2010?

2010-02-04T13:33:00.001+05:30

Don’t exactly know what it is about starting a new year of marketing online, but I always stop and take a hard look at all my marketing tactics and methods. Article marketing is always at the top of my list, mainly because it is and has always been the cornerstone of everything I do on the web.

By cornerstone I mean it is the key to basically all of my online earnings. Without article marketing I wouldn’t be a full-time online marketer – it’s as simple as that. No articles,

no income.

Articles bring in the targeted traffic. Articles build those all important one-way backlinks. Articles build those even more important top rankings in Google for your chosen keywords. Articles build your online reputation and credibility in the eyes of your visitors.

I was struggling on the web for around three years before I wrote my first article. “10 Reasons To Put RSS On Your Site” which is still on around 8,000 sites around the web.

Writing was always a passion of mine, but it was more on the creative side, although I did work briefly as a reporter for a very small community newspaper. Looking back on it, I believe (perhaps falsely) that I had to gain all those years of experience before I could start writing articles about it.

Which was the totally wrong attitude to take since anyone can research a favorite subject or topic and write a short informative article on it. Most of us have been doing that since grade school – it is the same as writing a report or an essay.

Only with article writing you actually see monetary returns almost immediately. Surfers search for an answer in the search engines, your article pops up, they read it and then click the link to your webpage where you have conveniently placed your affiliate links or your own products.

A Small Percentage of Those Article Readers Will Buy Your Products and You’re in Business.

Over time, all those backlinks in your resource box at the end of your article will make your keywords rise in the search engines, especially Google. Then as someone searches in Google – your site pops up, they click thru to your webpage and a small percentage of these visitors will buy your product or affiliate product displayed on your page.

Smart marketers will also start building a large list of prospective customers by offering a free guide, ecourse, ebook or software program to get those visitors to sign-up to your opt-in list. These marketers can then do follow-up with all these potential customers.

That in a nutshell is an article marketing model or funnel which thousands of online marketers and webmasters are using. And have been using for years.

But Will Article Marketing Remain Effective in 2010 and the Coming Years?

More than likely the answer would be yes but the web is constantly changing and there are other games worth playing. The same kind of marketing system could be done with Videos, Blogs, Social Networks and even with Twitter. Your options are more varied…

However, I find article marketing can be integrated into all these elements. For example, EzineArticles lets you Tweet your articles to all your followers. I turn my best articles into Videos and place them on YouTube which opens up a whole different flow of traffic to my webpages and affiliate links.

Likewise, you can place your articles or links to them on FaceBook, MySpace and the other social networks. I find getting your articles on Digg, Reddit, Stumbleupon… can bring in a lot of traffic and increase your rankings.

But the Question Remains – is Article Marketing as Effective as It Once Was?

My own answer and personal opinion is no since it’s effectiveness has been watered down somewhat because every “tom dick and harry plus sally” is doing it. Everyone has discovered how writing short informative articles on the topic of your site can be very lucrative.

When I wrote that first article five years ago, I was ‘writer #1561′ with Ezinearticles. Now they have over 242,000 writers!

Back then, I found your article was placed on a lot more sites mostly because there wasn’t that many articles out there and competition was much, much less than it is now. More people writing more articles simply means your article falls into a bigger pool of other articles.

I believe video marketing is at the stage article marketing was at around five years ago. So turning your articles into short “how to” videos would probably be a wiser move and you would have a lot less competition. You can also place your marketing into the whole Video/Youtube craze that is still bringing in tons of traffic and interested customers.

However, the popularity of free article directories have grown and some of these sites have very high traffic numbers. Here are some of the main ones I use:

EzineArticles
GoArticles
iSnare
IdeaMarketers

And I also like to place my articles on important but perhaps lesser known sites such as:

PromotionWorld
SelfGrowth
American Chronicle
Buzzle

However, article marketing is still a very good way to get your site and name on the web. It can still bring in traffic and help build those all important backlinks and search engine rankings. This is one marketer who will not be giving up article marketing any time soon.

Some of my most effective techniques for article marketing are:

Place your targeted keyword phrase in the title, usually at the beginning.
Make sure your article is informative and supplies the information a reader is searching for – but always try to motivate the reader to click your links in the resource box for further information since your main objective is to get the reader to click thru to your site.
Most experts say to keep your article short, around 400 – 700 words, but I have found longer articles of 800-1500 words do really well.
Place your targeted keywords in the anchor text of your resource box links, that’s the underlined clickable part. Vary these keywords to avoid keyword spamming.
For very important sites, try writing an exclusive unique article for that site alone.
Always spell-check and proof-read your articles. Grammar has never been my strong point so what I do for finding the correct usage of some tricky phrases or words – I do a search in Google with “quotation marks” to find out which one has the most links/usage… I go with one that has the most links, even if it’s wrong. Thousands of people are making the same mistake. Many marketers do the same thing with misspelled keywords.

While they can be expensive, I also like using paid article submission sites such as SubmitYourArticle, ThePhantomwriters and Isnare… mainly because article marketing has been so profitable for me, I don’t mind pouring some of those earnings back into those sites. It saves me time and extends the reach of my articles.

Article marketing will continue to be one of your best ways to build backlinks, raise your rankings and bring in potential customers to your site. It still works for me and hundreds of thousands of other webmasters – it should also work for you.

The author is a full time online affiliate marketer who operates numerous niche sites, as well as two sites on Internet Marketing, where you can get valuable marketing tips for free: internet marketing tools (http://www.marketingtoolguide.com) or try here: free marketing courses (http://www.bizwaremagic.com/ Free_Marketing_Courses.htm) Titus Hoskins Copyright 2010. This article may be freely distributed if this resource box stays attached.

This article courtesy of SiteProNews.com

Article Re-Posted By: Ashi Software: Software Development Company offer TYPO3 Development Services

Keyword Density Importance for Ranking on Search Engines

2010-02-03T16:50:00.000+05:30

SEO experts may well help customers choose the right set of keywords that are quite logical and expected performance results. Usually visitors to the lack of patience and are always short of time to go through other search results pages, which makes concentrating on the first page itself. Therefore, it is clear that if it falls on its website the results of the first page, then your site is definitely going to improve business.

The level of success of your site depends largely on the research of key markets. go for exact keywords with small rivalry, highly competitive keywords reduces their chances of being caught in the search engine results. For all your site's web pages apply dissimilar page titles with different keywords. The cause for using dissimilar keywords in dissimilar web pages ie, increases the possibility of getting the place in search engines for more than a set of specific keywords.

The SEO expert analyzes the website and see where the website owner has used the specified keywords on the site. They pass through the site content and the title of the link. The main object of this investigation is to resolve the near condition website in search engines and developing an effective SEO strategy. It also serves as the perfect guide to the areas of search engine optimization of your website needs more attention and concentration.

After making the selection of images to upload to your website, then go about optimizing them to reduce load time. all through the image optimization method, all needless information is unconcerned to reduce file size. If done in the suitable arrangement the exterior of the image would stay the same. For a site of an image should be wide between 200-400 pixels. The maintenance of this size would place the image in the proper format on the website and also leave enough space for menus and content.

The format in which to save the image affects the way it is perceived as a logo or an image. Take all essential events to optimize the picture on your website and make sure that loads in less time period. With the use of image editing software to remove extra information thats not wanted, you can reduce image file size without compromising with his gaze. Select the image is good quality and have used less bytes. These tools can reduce the size of the chart up to 70% still maintaining the quality of the image

Google Nexus One gets proper multitouch

2010-02-03T11:31:00.004+05:30

By Tim Conneally

A new software update for the Nexus One Android phone will finally offer the famous "pinch to zoom" functionality found in other "superphones" such as the Apple iPhone, Palm Pre, and HTC HD2. This news came from Google earlier today.

The famous multitouch gesture has been present on Android phones outside of the US (including the Nexus One) but due to unspecified reasons, the American version of Android has not fully supported it.

Google's Andy Rubin, head of the Android project, was asked about the subject in a panel discussion for The Wall Street Journal at CES 2010:

"It's not an America versus outside America kind of thing," Rubin said. "It's a decision that is a result of the OEM model. I personally don't like two-handed operations...there is no conspiracy."

With this over-the-air update, what is described as "a new pinch-to-zoom mechanism" has been added to the Browser, Gallery, and Maps applications. To access the update, users will receive a message that will appear in the phone's notification bar. Like a standard Android notification, when the user clicks on that message, he'll be prompted to start the download. Google says the most users won't receive the update until the end of the week.

If this hotly-demanded feature doesn't come to other Android phones, Google's going to have some explainin' to do.

Source: betanews.com

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Yahoo and AP Make a New Licensing Deal

2010-02-02T11:48:00.000+05:30

The Associated Press and Yahoo have come to a new content licensing deal.

The Associated Press has signed a licensing deal with Yahoo Inc. that gives the news cooperative a steady stream of revenue at a time less money is flowing in from newspapers and broadcasters. The announcement by both companies Monday didn’t disclose the financial terms of the agreement, which allows Yahoo to continue posting AP content on its site. The AP says it is still negotiating to renew its online licensing agreements with two other companies with far deeper pockets, Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp. Google stopped posting fresh AP content on its Web site in late December.

Stung by the AP’s first downturn in revenue in years, AP’s management has said the cooperative needs to make more money from the online rights to its stories, photographs and video as more people flock to the Web for information and entertainment. It’s unclear whether the AP achieved its financial objectives in the Yahoo deal.

Yahoo, based in Sunnyvale, Calif., described the AP as an important part of its efforts to keep its nearly 600 million worldwide users informed. “We look forward to continuing our long-standing partnership with AP for many years to come,” the company said in a statement.

The duration of the new contract wasn’t disclosed. Yahoo has been posting AP content on its site since 1998. Its Web site also relies on other services, including AP rival Reuters, as well as reporters that it employs. The formula has worked well for Yahoo, even as it has struggled in other key areas, such as Internet search and social networking. Yahoo pulls in the biggest U.S. Internet audiences in news, sports and finance, according to the research firm comScore Inc.

The not-for-profit AP finds itself at a critical juncture in its 164-year history because the Internet’s popularity is draining advertising revenue from U.S. print publication and broadcasters, which have been the AP’s traditional funding sources and still account for about 40 percent of the cooperative’s revenue combined.

The ad slump’s ripple effects have prompted the AP to reduce its fees from those outlets and cut its payroll costs by about 10 percent. The concessions to newspapers and broadcasters cost the AP $30 million in revenue last year and a projected $45 million this year. The AP’s 2009 financial statement, which hasn’t been released yet, is expected to show a revenue decline of about 6 percent to roughly $700 million.

Besides pumping Internet companies for more money, the AP also wants more cooperation in its effort to ensure its material isn’t appearing on unauthorized sites. As part of its crackdown, the AP is testing a system that tracks where its stories are being read. Yahoo pledged to enforce “the strictest standards” to protect the AP’s content. Leading up to Yahoo agreement, AP CEO Tom Curley said the cooperative was considering whether to separate its online content into different tiers so exclusive stories might cost more than breaking news reports widely available elsewhere on the Web.

The Yahoo deal doesn’t include such a tiering provision, according to a person familiar with the agreement, speaking on condition of anonymity because of a nondisclosure clause in the new contract. In a statement, New York-based AP said Yahoo “has always recognized the value and importance of original, authoritative news. We are pleased Yahoo and AP will continue that valued relationship.”

Yahoo also has formed a business bond with the U.S. newspapers that own the AP. More than 800 U.S. newspapers have joined forces with Yahoo to sell more advertising on their Web sites.

By contrast, many publishers believe Google has profited unfairly from their newspapers by drawing upon snippets of their stories to attract more traffic to its dominant search engine so it can sell more of the ads that generate most of its income. And the AP bickered with the Google over how its stories were summarized for several years before finally striking a licensing agreement in 2006.

Google says it helps drive more traffic to newspaper sites and honors any request from a publisher that doesn’t want to be included in its search engine. The company, based in Mountain View, Calif., has said it believes U.S. law allowed it to excerpt AP stories even before it obtained licensing rights.

Source: digitaltrends.com

Google to Launch App Store for Google Apps [REPORT]

2010-02-02T11:42:00.001+05:30

App stores are all the rage these days, it seems. Now The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Google’s about to launch a new one for businesses, focused around creating software for Google Apps.

According to the report, Google’s plan is to sell software built by third party developers to enhance Google’s suite of apps (e.g. Gmail, Docs, Calendar, Sites, GTalk). These outside apps could be for adding more security, enhancing word-processing features, or porting information into Google Apps.

A Google Apps store would work in the same fashion Android or the iPhone App Stores operate: developers set a price and Google and the 3rd party share in the revenue. It’s a model that has proven very successful. If it took off, it could create a whole new marketplace and a new revenue stream for the world’s largest search engine. It could even pave the way for app stores within Google’s consumer products.

The announcement is slated to come in March or so, although now that news has broken, it’s likely an official blog post from Google will come sooner. However, The Next Web points out that Google already has an “app store,” known as Google Solutions Marketplace. However, what the WSJ reported on seems to be far more robust and better integrated with Google Apps itself than Solutions Marketplace.

Do you think a Google Apps Store is a good idea? Would you pay for certain features? Which ones? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Source: mashable.com

Google Chrome Steals Users from Firefox, IE

2010-02-02T10:25:00.002+05:30

Google's Chrome gained browser market share in January at the expense of both Microsoft's Internet Explorer and IE's biggest rival, Mozilla's Firefox, according to data published today.

Chrome, which only recently grabbed the No. 3 spot from Apple's Safari, ended January with a share of 5.2%, up 0.6 of a percentage point, said Web metrics company NetApplications.com. The increase, although slightly less than Chrome's jump during December, was the browser's second-largest since Google debuted the program in September 2008. Chrome has doubled its share since July 2009.

IE, meanwhile, lost half a percentage point to end January with a share of 62.2%, another record low in a long decline that cost Microsoft 's browser 10% of its share in the past year alone. If IE maintains the pace of the last three months, the browser will slip below the 50% mark in April 2011.

Firefox's share also dropped in January, the second monthly decline in a row. This was only the second time in more than two years that Firefox had lost ground in two consecutive months. Firefox ended January down 0.2 of a percentage point, to 24.4%. According to NetApplications, Firefox has yet to hit the magic 25% mark, having come closest in November 2009 before growth stalled.

Although Firefox 3.6 , which Mozilla released Jan. 21, grew by 0.7 of a percentage point and ended the month with a 1.1% share, the new version's launch couldn't stem the losses for the open-source browser overall.

Safari's share was up slightly, to 4.5%, while Opera Software's desktop browser was down slightly to 2.4%.

Microsoft's IE6 -- which Google recently announced it would stop supporting in some of its services -- again lost share last month, dropping 0.9 of a point to 20.1%. The newer IE7 also again fell, losing 1 percentage point and finishing January with a 14.6% share. Both declines were somewhat under the torrid pace of the last three months, when each edition lost more than a point per month.

IE8, the browser Microsoft issued in March 2009, captured some but not all of its siblings' losses: IE8 ended January with a share of 22.3%, up 1.5 points.

When NetApplications accounted for IE8's "compatibility view" -- a feature that lets users display sites as rendered by the older, and often Web standard-incompatible IE6 and IE7 -- Microsoft's newest browser owned a 25.1% share, making it the most popular single edition of any browser by a five-point margin.

The persistent decline of IE has long been a bane to Microsoft and a boon to rivals. But in the last two months, Firefox -- normally the browser to reap the most from IE's fall -- has been shoved aside by the newcomer Chrome. Over the last three months, Chrome has outgained Firefox by 5:1, posting an increase of 1.62 points to Firefox's 0.32 point. Even over a longer run, Chrome has boosted its share more than Mozilla's: Over the last 12 months, Chrome has gained 3.68 points, Firefox 2.3 points.

Chrome has already met the first goal that Google set last year when the browser's engineering director said Chrome would own 5% of the market by September 2010, and 10% by September 2011. If Chrome can keep up the pace it's made during the last three months, it will break the 10% mark in November, 10 months ahead of schedule.

NetApplications.com measures browser usage share by collecting systems data from the computers that visit the 40,000 sites it monitors for clients.

January's browser data is available on NetApplications' site.

Gregg Keizer covers Microsoft, security issues, Apple, Web browsers and general technology breaking news for Computerworld . Follow Gregg on Twitter at @gkeizer , send e-mail to gkeizer@ix.netcom.com or subscribe to Gregg's RSS feed.

Source: pcworld.com

How to make the iPad a better music device

2010-02-01T14:17:00.001+05:30

I was at Apple's iPad launch on Wednesday, and maybe it was just Steve Jobs' reality distortion field, but I don't quite understand why the haters are piling on. A lot of PC-centric commentators are dismissing the iPad as an overpriced gadget, wondering why it's lacking features that are standard on even the cheapest notebook computers, like Flash support, multitasking, USB inputs to connect peripherals, and video outputs (HDMI would be nice). These are legitimate complaints--for a notebook replacement. But the iPad isn't a notebook replacement, and I don't think users will carry it with them on business trips. (Apple's iWork demo confused matters, admittedly.)

Instead, I agree with CNET's Ina Fried and Business Insider's Henry Blodget: this is a consumer electronics device for puttering around the house and leisure time--reading books and Web sites on the couch, showing pictures off to friends, catching up on the latest Web videos. And, yes, listening to music.

It's also a golden opportunity for Apple to fix some of the glaring shortcomings in its portable music experience. Here are five things I'd like to see the iPad incorporate, perhaps through the next update to the iPhone OS (which it uses).

Wireless sync. The iPad is not a Mac. That means it doesn't run the full iTunes client, so you can't share music from another computer over your home network. Instead, like an iPod or iPhone, you must physically connect it to the computer on which your music is stored, then wait for the music to travel over the wire. This is, frankly, absurd. If you want me to use the iPad to listen to music in my home, don't make me walk over to my computer and attach it every time I want to load some new tunes. Wireless sync would also be great for syncing other material like pictures, videos, and apps. How hard can it be? Microsoft's Zune player has had wireless sync for three iterations and more than two years.

Cloud-based music service. Even if the iPad had wireless sync, the most affordable model has only 16GB of storage. This isn't enough for most music lovers' digital collections, especially if they're going to use the iPad for other functions like electronic books and photos. So how about taking that Lala acquisition and using it? Instead of having to load music onto the iPad itself, I could sync it from my computer to Lala's online music locker service, then stream it over the Web directly to my device. Bye-bye, storage limits. Best of all, every time I update my music collection, it's updated everywhere simultaneously. This is such a no-brainer I'd be stunned if Apple doesn't make it available shortly after the iPad launches.

Music-sharing with third-party apps. There are some surprisingly sophisticated DJ apps for iPhone, like TouchDJ and DJ Mixer, that let you play two songs at the same time and mix them together like a mulitrack DJ set-up. These apps would be much easier to use on the iPad's 9.7-inch screen. But they all share one big shortcoming: they can't just play songs that you've already loaded onto your device. Instead, you have to re-load songs into the DJ apps, either from a sync application running on your computer or over a Web server. This isn't the fault of the app designers--it's a limitation that Apple places on the iPhone and iPod Touch. I hope Apple figures out a way around it soon.

Queuing. I like to play DJ. As one song plays, it sparks associations with other songs. It would be nice to be able to load these other songs into a "now playing" queue. The Zune's had this feature since its inception, but I can't do it on the iPod Touch or the iPhone--instead, I have to wait for the current song to end, then start up a new song. (And no, I don't want to do this with playlists on the computer and then sync those playlists to the device. That misses the entire point of spontaneity.)

Decent speakers (and amp). Naturally, the first thing I did with the iPad was check out its music playback. I could barely hear it, even with the volume maxed out. It's true that the room was crowded with gadget fans scrambling for their first look at the device, but even so, the speakers sounded no louder than the iPhone's. But this isn't a phone. It's also not a Mac, where music isn't the primary focus for most users. It's a consumer electronics device. It would be great if I could set it up in my living room or bedroom without having to attach it to another device. Peripheral makers might complain--iHome does great work creating audio accessories for the iPhone--but if this is truly going to be a new product category, Apple should treat it like one. Alas, I'm going to have to wait for v.2 for this feature.

Matt Rosoff is an analyst with Directions on Microsoft, where he covers Microsoft's consumer products and corporate news. He's written about the technology industry since 1995, and reviewed the first Rio MP3 player for CNET.com in 1998. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network. Disclosure. You can follow Matt on Twitter @mattrosoff.

Source: news.cnet.com

Colbert starts iPad campaign at the Grammys

2010-02-01T14:13:00.000+05:30

In case you were wondering how Apple intended to advertise the iPad, the answer might just be "very well."

At Sunday's Grammys, Stephen Colbert approached the deeply onerous task of reading out the nominees for Song of the Year with singular glee. Because just as he looked lost, trying to remember where the list of nominees was, he whipped out an iPad from inside his jacket pocket.

It was real. It was on. When he turned it, the screen went from vertical to landscape. And you see how portable it is, people? You can slip one inside your dinner jacket. Even a rented dinner jacket.

Jay-Z joined in the amusement as Colbert wondered whether the rapper and mogul hadn't received an iPad in his gift bag, too. Colbert then asked his daughter, who was also in the audience, whether he finally looked cool. She demurred, with a pleasantly understated performance.

In case any of you might have wondered whether this was a complete coincidence and not a blatant and winning piece of what was once called product placement, might I suggest you cut down a little on some of your evening habits.

The iPad campaign has only just begun

Chris Matyszczyk is an award-winning creative director who advises major corporations on content creation and marketing. He brings an irreverent, sarcastic, and sometimes ironic voice to the tech world. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET.

Source: news.cnet.com

7 reasons why Apple’s I-Pad may fail

2010-01-29T17:47:00.003+05:30

Amidst a lot of hype as always, today 27th January, 2010, Apple launches the I-Pad. While it is being viewed as the product that will rejuvenate Apple’s revenues for years to come, a question many staunch Apple fans (and those who are not fans of course) will ask, is it really worth the hype? Apple has always created a market even when there is none. Will it be successful yet again this time?

Image Source: http://tnmg4u.com/i-pad-launch/

While it looks sleek and captures the mind of all tech-enthusiasts, every one will admit that this product can not be the replacement of a smartphone or a palmtop due to its size.
It has the potential to be a great e-book reader and internet browser, but will users like a gadget only suited for that purpose, given that tablets of that size pack the same features (except the wireless carrier connectivity) and lots of processing power and data storage capacity. Also, colored screen may not increase the overall ebook reading experience on the i-Pad, given its shorter battery support, as compared to the other e-book readers
Is it worth the time for serious gamers, given its processing and memory configuration?
It does not sport a 16:9 aspect ratio, the standard for wide-screen entertainment, and by not doing so makes the iPad much less interesting for watching movies. This may affect sales.
I-phone’s huge list of applications will also run on the I-Pad. But will the usage of I-Pad revolutionize the development of applications as never before? Unless applications are developed custom made for I-Pad, the product will not see the meteoric success of the i-Phone.
The users would be keen to experience something radically different from the windows mobile, the Android sets and the ever stable Symbian phones. This the I-Pad may not be able to deliver, given its technical configuration.
Lastly, the price tag may appear too high even for the brand exclusivity, even for staunch Apple fans.

Apple has always been a great marketeer and has added value to the consumers even with products which were present before the “Apple way” became popular. What Apple provides its customers is the ooomph factor of being associated with the company, the exclusivity maybe. This positioning amongst its fans has always been the USP for the company.

Because of its size, processing capabilities and functionality, it may be rejected as yet another gadget which fall in between the mobile phones (iPhone) and the laptops (Macbook), and thus fails to meet both requirements.

But will that be enough to ensure a great reception of the i-Pad from the Apple’s fans? Will the early adopters be inclined to try out the hype? Only time will tell.

Source: tnmg4u.com

Business Intelligence Solutions With Efficient And Powerful Business Intelligence Software

2010-01-21T17:38:00.004+05:30

Global recession accompanied with growing competition among businesses has forced various firms and organizations to squeeze their budget. This has lead to reduction in investment for business enhancement technology. But it is necessary for these companies and firms to realize that recession is a great time to give priority to investment in technology that can help their business to overcome the impact of recession and lead to the organization’s growth in future.

Every business or an organization is dependent on information and data. Cloud9analytics provides business intelligence software that can help an organization to access data that is crucial for an organization easily. The main role of business intelligence software is to collect all the necessary information and data that is relevant for the organization’s functioning and growth and make it available to the company when it is required.

The products offered by cloud9analytics help in achieving business intelligence solutions by providing right set of data and information when required. This kind of quickness and easy access to information and data, is essential for every organization in their decision making process. This will ultimately help in organization’s growth.

Cloud9 Pipeline Accelerator Suite helps a sales leader in an organization to become a “dynamic pipeline management” expert. This suite of tools helps in developing the sales force of an organization by providing them with certain key performance metrics. These applications help them to evaluate “what’s changed” that gives information about minute to minute update on what is happening. It also delivers views on future projections and historical trends. All this information and calculation help sales teams to plan their activities in such a manner that they can perform their job more effectively.

Cloud9 Pipeline Accelerator Suite includes Cloud9 Pipeline Accelerator- This application helps sales leader to analyze the changes that are taking place in the pipeline.

Cloud9 Pipeline Accelerator Reports- This application provides all the management reports and dashboards as multi sheet, multi view excel workbooks.

Cloud9 Pipeline Accelerator Mobile- helps to keep track of all the key deals and changes that are being forced in them on any browser-enabled device.

Another ‘Business intelligence software’ as offered by cloud9analytics, is to give business intelligence solutions via the Cloud9 Analyst Suite. This suite is comprised of powerful dashboard and report building capabilities that compiles all the information, reports and data on the Cloud9 data warehouse.

Cloud9 Analyst Suite includes applications such as:
Cloud9 Report Builder- This application enables sales professionals to share and create reports and dashboards from your cloud9 data warehouse.

Cloud9 Dashboard Administrator- This application helps to build dashboards that are meaningful, vital for the operation of the organization and ones that are compelling across any field available in your Cloud9 data warehouse.

Cloud9 Pipeline Accelerator- This application helps managers to understand and analyze the changes that are taking place in the pipeline.

Cloud9 Pipeline Accelerator Reports- This application provides all the critical and essential information related to pipeline analysis and reports and dashboard to stakeholders automatically

Cloud9 Pipeline Accelerator Mobile - helps to keep track of all the key deals and changes that are being forced in them on any browser-enabled device

The products offered by Cloud9 Analytics are user friendly, efficient and powerful. They can be accessed anytime, anywhere through the Internet.

By: peter s.thomas
Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com
Peter s. Thomas www.cloud9analytics.com business intelligence solutions

China: We Are Biggest Victim of Cyberattacks

2010-01-20T16:57:00.001+05:30

China on Tuesday denied any role in alleged cyberattacks on Indian government offices, calling China itself the biggest victim of hackers.

When asked about Google's allegation that cyberattacks launched from China hit the U.S. search giant, foreign ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said Chinese companies were also often hit by cyberattacks.

"China is the biggest victim of hacking attacks," Ma said, citing the example of top Chinese search engine Baidu.com being hacked last week.

Google last week said it might exit China after being hit by recent hacking attempts largely aimed at accessing the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. It also said it planned to hold talks with Chinese authorities about whether it could offer an uncensored version of its local search engine.

Ma said he did not know if Chinese authorities had started talks with Google. A Google spokeswoman did not confirm a Bloomberg news report that Google and China had already started the talks. "That's not what we've been saying," she said in an e-mail.

An Indian official has reportedly said local government offices including that of India's National Security Advisor were also targeted last month by hackers believed to be from China.

Ma said the allegation was baseless.

Source: pcworld.com

TYPO3 version 4.3.1 released

2010-01-15T13:15:00.004+05:30

Just now the Typo3 - Core Team for the stable version of TYPO3 version 4.3.1 released. Originally, the developers had planned the latest version of the popular Enterprise Content Management Systems on Tuesday made public, but deviated from the planned date in favor of some other improvements. The latest version of TYPO3 is both a bug fix release and security release. An update to the latest version is strongly recommended, but not for all users of Typo3 immediately and hastily mandatory. Mainly affected by a serious vulnerability is a system extension that does not always apply.

With version 4.3.0 we have introduced the CMS Typo3 several system extensions. Among these is the system whereby authentication openid extension for the back end with a general OpenID should be possible. This system extension, it had to be activated separately to be used at all. Who has actually done it, and uses this extension, should definitely upgrade to the latest version of Typo3. The vulnerability allows namely, that users can use an OpenID, unauthorized manner, and gain any access rights to the backend.

Read More @ TYPO3 Customization Blog

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Benefits of Outsourcing SEO Services to India

2010-01-13T16:17:00.000+05:30

Search engine optimization is technique that helps in advertising your business online to get customers. With the Business going online the world is rapidly changing with some latest and new advance techniques that is making the businesses surge. A business can adopt many ways that helps it to get popularity. Outsourcing SEO services to India is one such way that helps in making online presence for your. Outsourcing SEO services has become a trend and many businessmen follow it to get more return from their investment. India is one of the most preferred destinations for outsourcing services. It has become the most popular destination for outsourcing services among the others globally. One reason behind this is availability of large technical expertise and innovative, low cost business solutions.

Indian outsourcing SEO services can help both the clients and the service provider. The client can focus on more important business activities while outsourcing the SEO activities to a company that specializes in that work. India has great reputation in providing outsourcing services in the field of information technology. Companies can get business solutions at a nominal rate from India as compared to the other destinations of outsourcing around the world. The professionals here are trained in handling the client’s task efficiently and have experience in handling such work as India has been providing such services for more than a decade now. Here quality of the work is taken highest care as clients hire them for providing the best services. A company desiring to get a high rank in the search engine needs a lot of continues sincere hard work to bring perfection in the business.

Outsourcing SEO services involves lot of activities like maintaining the website uniqueness by providing fresh content and thus keeping it more useful than other competitor’s website. For a business to be successful it is very important to make an effective online presence. A search engine optimization technique helps to bring traffic to your website and so your business gets visibility and popularity. If moving your work to an outsourcing company helps to reduce burden off the owner then why not go for outsourcing? It normally requires huge efforts and finances along with correct business approach to run a business profitably. A business owner should look for outsourcing SEO services from the business aspect considering all its pros and cons. If you want your business to surge ahead in this competitive world then you do need to look for companies that provide outsourcing services at your demand.

Outsourcing SEO services always help you to lessen your workload and you can make business plans and focus on expanding your business. The outsourcing task is handled by people who are skilled and qualified to undertake your task. You might wonder that if s service is cheap then it might not be of good quality .The reason why outsourcing companies from India and other such countries provide low cost solution is due to the fact that labor cost is quite low in the outsourcing countries. There are two types of outsourcing techniques .Either you can outsource your work to an outsourcing company or outsource your work to freelance professional.

Source: goeshare.com

Baidu hacked by 'Iranian cyber army'

2010-01-13T15:46:00.001+05:30

China's most popular search engine, Baidu, has been targeted by the same hackers that took Twitter offline in December, according to reports.

A group claiming to be the Iranian Cyber Army redirected Baidu users to a site displaying a political message.

The site was down for at least four hours on Tuesday, Chinese media said.

Last year's attack on micro-blogging service Twitter had the same hallmarks, sending users to a page with an Iranian flag and message in Farsi.

"This morning, Baidu's domain name registration in the United States was tampered with, leading to inaccessibility," Baidu said in a statement.

Visitors to the site were greeted with the message: "This site has been hacked by Iranian Cyber Army".

The message was accompanied by a picture of the national flag of Iran.

"In China, Baidu outranks Google as the search engine of choice, receiving millions of visits every day. That makes it an extremely attractive target for cybercriminals," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at security firm Sophos.

Political graffiti

It is not yet clear whether the site itself was compromised or its so-called DNS records.

DNS records are like a telephone book, converting website names like baidu.com into a sequence of numbers understandable by the internet.

"It's possible someone changed the lookup, meaning whenever surfers entered baidu.com into their browsers they were instead taken to a website that wasn't under the search engine's control," explained Mr Cluley.

It seems as if the hackers used the attack as an opportunity to create political graffiti rather than inflict real damage.

"If that third party website had contained malware then millions of computers could have been infected and identities stolen," said Mr Cluley.

"Attacks like this are a reminder to everyone that you always need to have security scanning every webpage you visit, even if it's a well-known legitimate website," he added.

Source: BBC NEWS

10 Search Engine Optimization Tips

2010-01-12T16:34:00.000+05:30

Anchor Text: This is basically the words used that link to another URL. For maximum benefit of any backlink you need to have the correct anchor text. The text needs to include keywords of whatever your linking to. An ideal example would be my website, if I was linking my homepage in a forum I would use “how to make money online” as the Anchor text. If you don’t do this the SEO benefit will be minimal

Blog Directories: Blog Directories can be useful but it depends on how much time you have whether it’s worthwhile doing or not. For the average person I would never recommend submitting to more than 30 sites simply because there are other actives that will have a far greater effect for your time. Firstly the PR is shared around each outbound link so if you have a directory with 200,000 sites indexed; your section of the PR pie is going to be minimal. Secondly even a PR8 directory will only give you a tiny amount of PR because the page you have your website linked is probably PR0. So it’s worthwhile as part of SEO is about variation but avoid doing more than 30.
Outgoing Links: The more outgoing links on your page the less Google will like you. If you stick to links that are good quality and relevant to your content, the better it will be. I see too many blogs with 100’s of outgoing links just for the sake of it that are not often content relevant and it’s a complete waste of time. Only create an outbound link when it’s necessary and not just for the sake of it.

Internal Links: This is an absolute must yet very few people do it. Having a good internal link system will be very effective search engine optimization. Every link you create is internally is like having a good backlink. Just make sure you use the right anchor text as mentioned in point 1, otherwise this exercise is pointless. (Think Wikipedia...internal links = 2 trillion gazillion)

Keywords: This is not an absolute definite but generally believed that you should include your keywords no more than 7 times per 100 words. The reason for this is because Google’s spider will thing you are spamming for the sake of SEO. I am unsure of how accurate those numbers are but be wary of it.

Subject Relevant Link Exchange: Link Exchanges are a great way to get your blog/site off the ground and also for the more established ones as well. For best effect be sure to exchange with subject relevant sites otherwise it’s pointless and Google wont respect you for it. Take your time when finding the right exchange and it will benefit you greatly.

Quality Link Exchange: As I mentioned in point 2 about blog directories. PR “juice” will be shared between every outbound link on a site. With that in mind, when acquiring a link exchange be sure to trade with someone with a blogroll bigger than the empire state building. Otherwise your backlink will count for much less than your much more respectable size 10 of the most blogroll.

Good Traffic: When going on a quest to gain more site traffic, it is important to try and get “good” traffic. This may sound obvious but so many people will spam sites with their URL and get a few clicks, but it will bare rare that any bookmark the site because they just don’t care about what you have to say. Try to focus your precious time on gaining good quality traffic by submitting your link to places where they will find your site of interest.

DoFollow: DoFollow basically means it will most likely have a positive effect on your Search Engine Rank. NoFollow means the chances are it won’t have a positive effect on your Search Engine Rank. With that in mind if you want to post your link on forums/blogs ensure they have the status “DoFollow” otherwise it’s most likely your efforts will be futile.

Your Reputation: Although this is not directly Search Engine Optimization, it is still very relevant. Your site reputation is everything, be sure you keep it as high as possible. Avoid link dropping just for the sake of gaining a cheap backlink; take your time to give a positive input with quality info. This will gain you much better results and have a much higher chance in people wanting to view that link in your signature or give you higher forum reputation.

Source From Digital Point Forum

Hobbled Word Goes on Sale as Microsoft Challenges Court Ruling Again

2010-01-12T11:53:00.001+05:30

Tony Bradley Tony Bradley – Mon Jan 11, 12:56 pm ET

D-day has arrived. Per court order, Microsoft has removed technology from Microsoft Word which has been judged to infringe on concepts patented by Canadian software firm i4i from the software effective today. Compliance does not equal surrender, though, as Microsoft also continues legal efforts to overturn the ruling.

The dispute relates to an i4i patent entitled Method and System for Manipulating the Architecture and the Content of a Document Separately from Each Other. The crux of the challenge lies with the way Microsoft separates the XML properties from the actual document content in Word.

Like many patents for technical concepts, the wording of the i4i patent seems too broad and general. The way Microsoft has implemented XML in Word does appear to fit the description of the i4i technology in the patent, but so do a lot of XML implementations. The issue goes deeper than Word, to whether or not the U.S. Patent Office should have issued the patent to begin with.

However, my opinion holds little weight with the United States court system, which apparently doesn't agree with me. i4i has prevailed repeatedly in its legal battle against Microsoft, winning a $290 million judgment and a court order that Microsoft either remove the offending technology or make arrangements with i4i to legally license it.

Microsoft won a temporary injunction of the ban on selling copies of Word with infringing technology, but ultimately lost its appeal of the original judgment. On December 22, 2009 Microsoft was ordered to pay the $290 million judgment, and a new deadline of January 11, 2010 was set to cease sales of the offending software.

In compliance with that order, Microsoft has modified the Word 2007 and Office 2007 software being sold as of today. Microsoft has also issued patches which remove the infringing technology from existing copies of Word for both Windows and Mac, but users who purchased the software prior to January 11, 2010 are not obligated to download or apply the update.

However, late last week it also filed a new legal challenge asking the court to review...again...the appeal ruling.

Kevin Kutz, director of public affairs for Microsoft, said in a statement "The petition details significant conflicts we believe the December 22 decision creates with established precedents governing trial procedure and the determination of damages, and we are concerned that the decision weakens judges' authority to apply appropriate safeguards in future patent trials."

The statement implies some level of altruism and concern for the future of the United States legal system, but it's hard to believe the challenge has any meaning to Microsoft beyond continued persistence in defending its position in this case, or simply an attempt to further delay paying the judgment and dragging i4i through court as long as possible.

The new Microsoft appeal challenges the methods used by the court for calculating damages and expresses concern that the calculation could be used as a precedent for future lawsuits, leading to excessive damage awards. Microsoft is a frequent target of legal challenges and certainly has a vested interest in maintaining damage calculations at the most reasonable level possible.

If Microsoft loses this latest challenge, it can pursue the appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States.

Tony Bradley tweets as @PCSecurityNews, and can be contacted at his Facebook page .

Source: news.yahoo.com

Progress Scoops up BPM Vendor Savvion

2010-01-12T11:46:00.001+05:30

Chris Kanaracus, IDG News Service Chris Kanaracus, Idg News Service – Mon Jan 11, 12:14 pm ET

Middleware vendor Progress Software announced Monday it has purchased BPM (business process management) vendor Savvion for approximately US$49 million.

Savvion, based in Santa Clara, California, has been in business for 15 years. Its software is used to map out business processes, such as how orders are fulfilled or employees are hired. The company also has developed BPM offerings for health care, energy, financial services and other verticals.

The Savvion technology will work alongside Progress's BEP (business event processing) middleware, which monitors system activity in real time, looking for certain patterns or correlations and triggering corrective actions.

Also known as CEP (complex event processing), such software is also sold by IBM, Tibco and other vendors. A financial institution might use it to detect fraud, whereas a utility could monitor its delivery systems.

Progress chose Savvion for a number of reasons, including the fact it is "event-enabled," according to Progress CTO John Bates. In addition, "Savvion can orchestrate processes but can also involve human users in workflow," he wrote in a blog post.

Savvion has also developed a rules engine for its BPM software, which Bates dubbed "a powerful capability"; real-time analytics; and document management functionality.

The acquisition comes only weeks after IBM announced plans to purchase a Savvion rival, Lombardi.

Buying Savvion was a smart move for Progress, according to analyst Sandy Kemsley.

"The existing suite of Progress products allows for determining what happened within an organization -- a rear-view mirror approach -- but not much that allows the organization to quickly change how they're doing things," she wrote in a blog post. "Bringing BPM into the fold allows them to change that."

But a fair amount of integration work will need to be done in order "to really sell this as an integrated suite of tools rather than a 'solution' patched together with professional services," Kemsley added.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/pcworld/20100111/tc_pcworld/progressscoopsupbpmvendorsavvion

5 Mozilla Unique Tips: Internet Browser Tips

2010-01-11T15:36:00.005+05:30

Mozila Firefox is my favorite browser and with the amount of plugins available for it, you can do all that you need to do. I will come up with another post on my list of favorite Firefox add-ons. For time being read the below article on “5 Mozilla Unique Tips Revealed Today : Internet Browser Tips”

On Page Search – Simple but Very Useful. Go to the edit menu on the top and click on find. A small search bar will come out at the bottom of your browser. Just type a few things that you want to find out and Firefox will high light that text on the current page. Now you won’t have to search through tons of lines on a big wiki page, just type in and get what you need to read.
Trace Download Location – go to tools menu on the top and click on downloads. Right click on any download that you have already done, it will give you a few options like, open containing folder. Just click on it and the folder with your downloaded stuff in it will open up.
Easy Find Search bookmarks – if you are someone like me who bookmarks every second web page that one visits then you will certainly need to search bookmarks to retrieve the ones you need. To do that, just click on organize bookmarks and a window will open with a search bookmarks option on it.
Frequently visited sites – for example, google.com, your blog, your email etc. are a few websites that you want to open with a click of a button. For that, just open the website on aFirefox tab and click on the tab. Then keep the click pressed and drag it to the toolbar on the Firefox window. You will see a bottom has been made with the name of the site.
Watch full screen – I love this feature, specially when a site’s design attracts me, I press f11 or view menu – full screen. That way you can see the full site with out the browser details.

Source: sagarrai.com

Ashi Software on DIGG - Follow Me

2010-01-11T14:09:00.004+05:30

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Austin-based Phurnace Software acquired by Houston company

2010-01-09T12:47:00.000+05:30

Phurnace says BMC's global reach will speed its growth

By Lori Hawkins
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

Austin-based Phurnace Software, which began as a class assignment by a University of Texas MBA student, has been acquired by BMC Software of Houston.

Financial terms of the deal, announced Thursday, were not disclosed.

Phurnace sells software that simplifies the installation of applications based on the Java programming language.

The company was started in 2006 by Daniel Nelson as a class project. He and Robert Reeves, a UT economics major, teamed up to pursue the idea, and their business plan won the 2006 Moot Corp competition at the University of Texas McCombs School of Business.

"This is truly a Texas-grown company, from winning Moot Corp to being a member of the Austin Technology Incubator to raising money from Texas investors," Phurnace chief executive Larry Warnock said . "Now we're excited to be acquired by another Texas company, which is going to rapidly accelerate our growth."

Phurnace is the latest in a string of acquisitions of Austin tech companies by bigger players.

Last month, Lombardi Software Inc., an Austin developer of business process management software, was acquired by IBM Corp. for an undisclosed sum. In November, LifeSize Communications Inc., which sells videoconferencing equipment, agreed to be bought in an all-cash deal by Swiss company Logitech International for $405 million, one of the highest prices paid for a local company in recent years.

Phurnace has raised $5 million from backers including Austin investor John Hime, S3 Ventures of Austin and DFJ Mercury , a Texas-based venture fund affiliated with Draper Fisher Jurvetson of Menlo Park, Calif.

BMC said Phurnace's 21 employees will remain on board. In addition, BMC plans to expand both the product and staff, said Scott Fulton , BMC vice president of service automation products.

"This is a small company with a brand-new, powerful technology, and to the best of our assessment, this is the only one out there that's really proven with large enterprise customers," Fulton said.

Phurnace significantly reduces the time that large companies spend rolling out and upgrading Java applications, he said. "What used to take weeks or months to accomplish, Phurnace can achieve in minutes or hours," Fulton said. "Considering that some companies, like banks, upgrade custom applications every few weeks, that's a dramatic difference."

BMC plans to invest in the Austin team, including adding development positions, Fulton said.

"In addition to the technology, the thing we liked about the company is the DNA of their technical team, and we want to build on that," he said.

Phurnace, which doesn't disclose revenue, has two dozen customers, including Discover Financial Services, American Airlines, Union Bank of California and the State of Texas.

BMC, which sells information management software and services to corporate customers, has 5,800 employees worldwide — including 264 in Austin — and posted revenue of $1.9 billion in fiscal 2009.

Warnock said BMC provides access to a global sales force and customer base as well as product development resources.

"People might wonder if this will take the wind out of our sails and eliminate jobs. In fact, it's just the opposite. BMC is keeping everyone, and we're going to keep our location downtown (on Rio Grande Street) — and we're going to be growing a lot faster than we would have been able to as a private venture-backed company," said Warnock, who will join BMC as senior director of corporate development.

Although the sales price was not disclosed, Warnock called it "a very strong above-market return for all of our investors. They are happy, our employees are happy and our acquirers are happy. The team is staying in place to fulfill this vision that we've always had."

Source: statesman.com

Magento Development, Magento Integration, eCommerce Magento Customization

2010-01-08T16:54:00.000+05:30

Magento Development, Magento Integration, eCommerce Magento Customization

Google revamps its mobile strategy with new phone

2010-01-08T11:34:00.000+05:30

Google Inc took the wraps off a new smartphone that it will sell directly to consumers, aiming to boost its position in the emerging mobile Internet market by exerting greater control over the new generation of Web-surfing devices.

The sleek touchscreen phone, dubbed the Nexus One, is Google's boldest foray outside its traditional Internet home turf and represents the first time the 11-year-old company will sell a consumer electronics device bearing its well-known brand.

But analysts say the phone is not as revolutionary in design as Apple Inc's iPhone was. Tech websites and forums gave Google favorable reviews but also noted the new phone was not that different from others in the market that run Google's Android software, such as Motorola's Droid.

The Nexus One ships immediately and exclusively from Google's online store for $179 with a two-year contract from Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile USA, or $529 without a service plan.

The more expensive unlocked phone, analysts say, is priced too high to dramatically alter the relationship between carriers and hardware vendors in which wireless service providers have traditionally controlled handset distribution in the U.S.

It "wasn't the game-changer people thought it could be," Canaccord Adams analyst Jeff Rath said. Google could have shaken up the industry by offering the device for free, but instead chose more traditional pricing, he said.

(For Reuters Insider coverage, click http://link.reuters.com/wek89g)

Executives said the phone could be profitable for Google, though analysts are not forecasting a revenue windfall in the short term.

But the move, which Google announced at a press event at its Mountain View, California headquarters on Tuesday, raises the stakes in the fast-growing smartphone business which it entered two years ago by developing the free Android software for smartphones made by other companies.

The highly anticipated Nexus One, which Google designed in close collaboration with hardware maker HTC, could provide Google with a viable challenge to the iPhone and Research in Motion's BlackBerry.

Google's decision to sell its own Google-branded phones is "a sea change in terms of Google now owning the customer, making the carrier a little bit less relevant to the conversation and maintaining more control over the hardware and software experience because they realize they're competing with players like Apple and the iPhone," said Michael Gartenberg, vice president of strategy and analysis at market research firm Interpret.

The Nexus One is the first of a variety of smartphones that Google said were in the pipeline as the company seeks to expand its reach from the PC to the mobile world and ensure its online products and ads get prominent placement on a new breed of wireless Internet devices.

Executives said that in the spring Google will sell phones that use Verizon Wireless's network in the United States and Vodafone's in Europe. Verizon Wireless is a joint venture between Verizon Communications and Vodafone.

WAIT AND SEE

According to Forrester research, 17 percent of U.S. mobile phone users had smartphones at the end of 2009, up from 11 percent a year earlier.

Investors are taking a wait-and-see view on Google's first effort to sell a hardware product directly to consumers.

Google's stock has risen about 7 percent since the start of December, setting a 52-week high of $629.51 on Monday. But analysts say that was driven by improvements in its core business of Internet search advertising, rather than the prospect of tapping a new pool of revenue selling smartphones.

Its shares closed 0.44 percent down at $623.99.

Google executives declined to provide financial targets for the new phone, though Vice President of Engineering Andy Rubin said the company would not lose money by selling the phone.

By selling the phone directly to consumers, Rubin said that Google would be able to cut out extra retailing costs and ultimately deliver phones with lower price tags.

"There's a lot of people in the value chain who don't need to be there," said Rubin. "And then prices can go down, iteration can happen quicker, distribution can be wider."

Some analysts were positive on Google's effort to continue to establish the Android as a popular operating system for smartphones and wireless devices.

"It will help them keep consistency for Android platform," said Jim McGregor, Chief Technology Strategist for In-Stat.

The new phone helps Google "get their partners all on developing a single platform that applications can be developed on."

The Nexus One is 11.5 millimeters (0.5 inch) thick and weighs 130 grams (4.6 ounces) -- which executives said was lighter than a Swiss Army knife and no thicker than a No. 2 pencil.

The phone will feature a 3.7-inch (9.4 centimeter) touchscreen display. It will run the 2.1 version of the Android operating system and feature OLED display technology, a trackball for user interface control, an accelerometer chip, and a 5 megapixel camera.

Forrester analyst Charles Golvin said the Nexus One was an impressive looking device, even if it doesn't represent the kind of "quantum leap" forward in terms of technology as the iPhone did when it was first released in 2007.

Google worked closely with HTC to develop its phone, which uses a 1 gigahertz Snapdragon processor from Qualcomm Inc.

Motorola, which is banking on the Android system to power a new generation of smartphones to revitalize a flagging business, said it welcomed the competition. Co-Chief Executive Sanjay Jha told Google's audience he did not see the Nexus One as a threat, but as an expansion of the market.

(Additional reporting by Gabriel Madway and Ian Sherr; Editing by Edwin Chan, Phil Berlowitz and Tiffany Wu)

Alexei Oreskovic

Source: Yahoo NEWS

Software Development | .NET Software Development & Programming Services

2010-01-07T11:33:00.004+05:30

.NET software development / programming / coding India

Microsoft .NET is a technology that connects information, people, systems and devices. .NET connects a broad range of personal and business technologies, enabling the access and use of important information, whenever and wherever it is needed. Built on XML Web service standards, .NET enables both new and existing applications to connect with software and web application to the services across platforms, applications and programming languages.

.NET Development India helps our clients' to design, develop and integrate business solutions based on the .NET platform. .NET Development India’s Microsoft .NET team develops and delivers comprehensive solutions utilizing the full capability of .NET functionality. Our experienced Microsoft certified software architects develop and consult work with you to understand your requirements and demonstrate the capabilities of .NET framework and develop the system to the requirements.

Microsoft .NET was built for integration through XML Web services using protocols and file formats such as SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol), WSDL (Web Services Description Language), and UDDI (Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration). Our developers have done extensive work in ASP.NET, VB.NET, and C # by creating truly entire application integrating with in-depth implementation of MVC (Model View Controller).
Source: software-webdevelopment-dotnet.blogspot.com

Google schedules Android event for Jan. 5

2010-01-06T12:36:00.001+05:30

Apparently, Google CEO Eric Schmidt took some pages from the Apple playbook when he departed the company's board earlier this year. On Tuesday, the search giant sent out invitations to members of the press for an event at Google's Mountain View, CA campus on January 5th; All Things D has posted a copy of the invitation.

The event, which is focused around Google's Android mobile platform, is invitation-only and will be comprised of a press conference and presentation, Q&A session, and demonstrations. (Plus, the lucky attendees get to snag themselves a delicious Google lunch.)

Of course, had Apple not pulled out of this year's Macworld Expo, January 5th likely would have been the day of the company's traditional keynote. However, in part spurred by Apple's departure, Macworld Expo takes place this year in February.

As it is, Google's event also falls just prior to this year's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, which beings on January 7th. As All Things D's John Paczkowski points out, CES was famously upstaged by Jobs's Macworld keynote in 2007, which saw the unveiling of the iPhone. (Believe me, as someone who was at CES 2007, it was the only thing anybody was talking about.) Google has a chance to preempt the entire consumer electronics industry in one fell swoop.

What exactly Google will announce at its event is already the subject of much discussion. The leading contender is an Android phone under the Google brand, dubbed the Nexus One. The question remains, however, exactly how the Nexus One will be differentiated from its predecessors, like the G1 and Motorola Droid--especially since reports and FCC filings seem to say that phone manufacturer HTC will be actually building the device.

Speculation mainly revolves, then, around the Nexus One's business model, with rumors claiming it will be an unlocked phone sold directly to consumers, with the tacit support of T-Mobile. Such a move could conceivably open up the Nexus One to users not looking for a two-year contract, potentially even providing an Android-flavored answer to the iPod touch.

At least the Nexus One will provide a worthy distraction to divert pundits and professional speculators from their current incessant noise-making about the Apple tablet.

Source: http://www.itnews.com/personal-electronics/12387/google-schedules-android-event-jan-5

Submit your blog to Bing search engine

2010-01-05T11:11:00.001+05:30

It is not enough to submit your blog to Google search engine alone. You should look for other renewed search engine as well, like Bing. Today I am going to discuss how to add your blog in Bing search engine to attract more traffic to your blog.

Carefully follow these steps to submit your blog to Bing search engine

step-1

Click here to go to URL submission page of Bing(you must need live or hotmail id to log in. So, if you don't have one then create now).

step-2

If you successfully log in then you will see the following page. Provide 'Web address' and 'Sitemap address'. You can also provide Webmaster e-mail,but this is optional. And then click on Submit button.

step-3

At this step you have to make sure you are the owner of the blog. For authentication purpose they provide two option, XML file(which you have to upload) or Meta tag. As we are talking about blogger blog, means you have to opt second option.

Upload meta tag -

Copy the meta tag
Next go to Blogger.com dashboard -> Layout -> Edit HTML then check Expand Widget Templates
Now, paste the code in between <> and < /head >

You are done
Bing Information Credit Goes to: takeme2yourheart.com

Benefits of ERP Software

2010-01-04T14:15:00.001+05:30

Impact ERP is among one of the best ERP selling companies established in the market for past seven years and hence catering to the versatile market requirements of the industry.

Impact ERP helps manufacturers or traders from small businesses to mid-size enterprises see more clearly. Integration of data across the enterprise ensures that you have greater visibility in all areas of your business, from daily operations to a strategic decision level. Insight into production, inventory and financial data makes it easy to identify opportunities for cost savings and efficiency improvements. A high-level view of key business indicators facilitates faster and more accurate management decisions and an “Impact” interface puts all of this at your fingertips when and where you want it.

Benefits of ERP Software

Eliminate costs and inefficiencies
Improve operational efficiency
Enhance productivity, customer satisfaction, flexibility and control
Enable new business and growth strategies
Low cost ownership
Extend your business using the internet
Gain better control of processes
Expand your knowledge of key business data
Improve communication and collaboration
Embrace superior technology
Leverage IT infrastructure and information assets

Inventory Module of Impact ERP Software helps you handle various sections of the organization. The module helps you manage detailed inventory records, maintain optimal inventory levels, simplify inventory transactions, track material location/lot information and many more… The inventory also provides dedicated modules ensuring relevant security and utility benefits. Impact ERP is very easy to use and implement.

Manufacturing Resource Planning is a professionally designed tool in Impact ERP. The module is one-stop-tool to swiftly plan and schedule production, enter and track work orders, control the shop floor, monitor production status, manage material and equipment capacity, promise deliveries, and track time and attendance, manage product data, inspect incoming (purchased) and outgoing (manufactured) materials.

Impact helps in comparing the quotations and thereby placing orders with the most appropriate business associate. Impact helps in tracking the status of the orders and assimilates procurement detail. Impact organizes and maintains detailed vendor information, maintains bid matrix, request quote and compare the same, create purchase orders or generate POs from planned orders, manage requisitions and RFQS, and receive and inspect vendor shipments. Impact also cherishes a module called Sub-Contract enabling to track even the minutest details of any order. Impact successfully unleashes details to import the orders too.

Impact provides quotes and estimates to customers and automatically convert them into sales orders. It easily create new items (and associated bills of material and routings), copy and modify existing items, or quickly configure them on-the-fly. Impact also manages opportunities by managing complete sales cycle from prospect to customer. Track sales opportunities and provide complete history of activities, tasks, documents, e-mails, etc. Report on sales funnel and opportunity progress. Impact enters and maintains complex sales orders or create sales order directly from quote and create new items, bills of material and routings on-the-fly, maintain price matrices, and ship finished product. Manage Export document and transactions.

Under manufacturing suite, Impact offers modules that plan and schedule production, enter and track work orders, control shop floor, monitor production status, manage material and equipment capacity, promise deliveries, and track time and attendance. Impact’s efficiency can also be seen in areas viz., generate MRP, CTP and ATP plans on demand, analyze material requirements, control production costs and scheduling, and manage resource efficiency.

Impact pioneers in providing comprehensive solution to the HR departments of the businesses. It manages every aspect of employee information, including salary and job histories and employee benefits. Process payroll quickly and efficiently and print payroll checks. Ensure full tax compliance and completely manage government reporting. Maintain real-time workflow communication by automating customized messages to vendors and customers as well as employees for specific system events, via e-mail, on-screen messaging, or SMS. With Impact, tracking, assessing and arriving at decisions over matters related to work force is a ballgame.

Impact's CRM manages every aspect of relation with the customers. Understanding the business needs, Impact CRM introduces an innovative Contact Book, which not only stores the complete data of the Customer Base but also helps one to assess the ongoing projects with the client. Impact tracks, stores and presents status report of the marketing campaigns. It also comes handy in maintaining and providing services. Impact manages the mail mode of communication with the customers thereby assuring no data loss. It also provides customer support reflecting a better CRM solution.

Impacts' SCM establishes projects and master projects. It provides associate project IDs with all facets of the system. Impact enhances bill works completed for a project using progress billing, and report on revenues, expenses and profit/loss for any project. Impacts’ SCM also reflects around the management of staff and resources to different projects at a time. It tracks, stores and delivers also the execution status of every project.

Source From: bukisa.com

What is the idea behind getting the keywords searched?

2010-01-02T15:14:00.002+05:30

"What is the idea behind getting the keywords searched? The importance of Keyword and Keyword Phrases in Search Engine Optimization can be described as follows:

Keyword and Keyword phrases is most important feature of any Search Engine Optimization scheme. You may have put much of your hard work on tuning fine your web pages for a greater ranking in the major search engines like Google, MSN, and Yahoo. Mere keywords are not just enough if the right keyword phrases are not targeted. It is just like not getting able to reach to correct destination after all our best efforts just because of selecting a wrong path. Even if you attain high search engine rankings, you may not get appropriate traffic if you select the wrong keywords. It is required to focus on exact location, exact region or exact country; the specification could be business, trade, service or product, since we are talking specific audience.

The keyword search tools help you to get hold on target audience. We have to start doing Keyword Research going by the facts and the keyword Research process involves the following four important steps as follows:

1. Discovering Keywords.
2. Analyzing Keywords.
3. Selecting Keywords.
4. Deploying Keywords

Google executive running for Vermont governor post

2010-01-02T15:01:00.000+05:30

WHITE RIVER JUNCTION, Vt. – Internet search giant Google is based in Silicon Valley, yet it runs its community affairs operation out of a former bread factory in an old New England railroad town, hard by the confluence of the White and Connecticut rivers.

Matt Dunne, 40, the man in charge of Google's efforts to burnish its image in the places where it has offices, keeps up with corporate headquarters through a broadband link from two video screens in the bakery's former walk-in cooler.

Dunne's use of that technology — and the broadband Internet connection supporting it — is an example of what he touts as the key to Vermont's economic future as he campaigns for the 2010 Democratic nomination for governor.

"We need to, and I believe have an opportunity to, go from one of the lowest broadband penetration states in the country to the first state that brings fiber-optic high-speed Internet to every home in the state," Dunne said in an interview. "And that's an incredible opportunity for us to move from a state that's not thought of as being a technological center to being a technological center."

Dunne, who is married and the father of two young children, faces a crowded field of four other Democrats and the incumbent Republican lieutenant governor, Brian Dubie, all vying to replace the retiring Gov. Jim Douglas. Dunne said he hopes his combination of experiences in the public and private sectors will distinguish him. Dunne won the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor in 2006, but lost to Dubie.

Eric Davis, a retired Middlebury College political science professor, said he did not see Dunne's Google pedigree being a big factor in the campaign unless the candidate can use his Google contacts to help him build a Web site with new and innovative tools that make it stand out against other campaign Web sites.

A rival was less than impressed.

"I don't seem terribly fazed one way or another by it," said Democratic gubernatorial candidate Sen. Susan Bartlett, chairwoman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. She noted another candidate, Sen. Peter Shumlin, runs a student travel company.

"I guess you could say Shumlin's a travel executive. What's that got to do with it?" Bartlett asked.

Dunne grew up in nearby Hartland, attended Brown University and won election to the Vermont House at 22. He served four two-year terms there and two in the Senate, where he gained a reputation as a champion of economic development legislation. When Dunne was 29, President Bill Clinton appointed him to head up the AmeriCorps-VISTA program, in which he oversaw the work of 6,000 full-time volunteers. He was reappointed by President George W. Bush and held the job until 2002.

In the private sector, Dunne is the former marketing director for Vermont-based software startup and has worked for Google since 2007.

Deploying broadband and improving cell phone service statewide are keys to other issues on which Dunne is focusing his campaign. He wants to streamline and improve education through greater use of distance learning. Vermont's shrinking school-age population is making it less economical for schools to offer a full range of languages, for example. Dunne envisions a teacher traveling between schools, supplementing face-to-face student interaction with video-based classes.

On energy, Dunne thinks "smart metering," which can tell electric customers moment-to-moment how much power they're using, combined with Vermonters' famed frugality, will enable the state to shave megawatts off its power demand.

But if Dunne's campaign has an overriding issue it is to reverse the demographic trend in which Vermont has the second-fastest aging population in the country and make the state more attractive to young people. And a key to doing that is technology, he said.

"I've heard from business people in the state of Vermont that they have difficulty recruiting engineers, because when they recruit engineers even from the University of Vermont, that engineer finds out that the home they could afford as a first home as a young engineer doesn't have broadband, they go someplace else. When they find out they don't have cell (phone) reception, even at their place of work, they choose to go someplace else."

Davis did say Dunne might be able to make a pitch about using technology to make government operate more efficiently — a goal much talked about recently given that Vermont, like many other states, faces serious budget troubles.

"Many other states allow people to do more things online and present things (on state Web sites) in a more citizen-friendly way than does Vermont," Davis said.

Dunne said he wants to move Vermont's state government to a leadership position in its use of technology. And he said he would try to import some of Google's culture as he does so.

"Google intentionally runs a flat, fast, innovative organization, where people with new ideas to solve problems are celebrated, not shut down," Dunne said. "And that's the kind of approach that we need to take in Vermont if we are going to transform the way that we do government."

Source: Yahoo NEWS

Japan PM starts tweeting, launches blog

2010-01-02T14:03:00.000+05:30

TOKYO (AFP) – Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has launched a blog and started using Twitter in a New Year bid to reach out to the public at a time when his ratings have tumbled.

Hatoyama began using the microblogging service Twitter and launched a fully fledged blog, both in Japanese, starting Friday.

"Happy New Year everyone," he said in his first tweet, stressing that he had written it himself. "My target is to send one tweet a day for now until I get used to it."

San Francisco-based Twitter, which has won tens of millions of users with the service that allows people to pepper one another with 140-character or less messages, launched its Japanese service last April.

In his blog, titled Hato cafe, Hatoyama said: "I started this blog as a first step to burying the gap between people and politics as well as changing this country together."

He also uploaded to the blog a picture of his office roof against a backdrop of blue winter sky, explaining that he took the picture with the camera on his mobile phone.

The Twitter account is http://twitter.com/hatoyamayukio, while his official blog is at http://hatocafe.kantei.go.jp/

Support for Hatoyama's cabinet has dipped below 50 percent for the first time according to major opinion polls released last month. Voters criticised his lack of leadership and a funding scandal.

In his blog he apologised for the political funding scandal that has embroiled a former aide, saying: "I gave a lot of trouble to many people last year. Listening to the people's voice, I want to do my best to fulfil my duty."

Prosecutors indicted Hatoyama's former aide, Keiji Katsuba, in late December for allegedly misreporting millions of dollars of donations, but did not indict the prime minister due to a lack of evidence.

The indictments came after a difficult first 100 days in office for the political blue-blood, whose August election victory ended more than half a century of almost unbroken conservative rule in the world's number two economy.

Source: Yahoo NEWS

Mathworks buys up more of Apple Hill complex

2010-01-02T14:02:00.000+05:30

By Mass High Tech staff

Software maker The Mathworks has extended its ownership position in Natick’s Apple Hill office complex, acquiring its third building in the campus and gaining approvals to construct yet a fourth building.

The Mathworks paid $30.8 million for One Apple Hill, a three-story office building with 170,000 square feet of space. The company also said it received approvals to build an additional 150,000 square feet of office space in the Route 9 complex. The Mathworks, which develops technical computing and model-based design software for engineers and scientists, already owns and occupies Two Apple Hill and Three Apple Hill, buildings that it acquired in 2004. The Mathworks has 1,500 employees worldwide.

Garry Holmes of R.W. Holmes Realty represented MathWorks and David Capobianco and Zoe Zink of Atlantic Management negotiated on behalf of the seller, Atlantic Philadelphia Realty.

The MathWorks, which develops technical computing and model-based design software for engineers and scientists, also occupies Two & Three Apple Hill, which they acquired in 2004.

Source: masshightech.com

Why to choose Magento Commerce for ecommerce website?

2010-01-01T15:37:00.002+05:30

Since new technologies arrives to the internet market, Online ecommerce store owner moving towards to change their ecommerce store with new look and functionalities. There are many open source are available to start ecommerce website. Among them Magento is one the top rated open source for ecommerce store setup. The reasons are its vast set of functionality and reach administrator control over the store. Magento is a feature-rich eCommerce platform offering complete flexibility and control over the look, content and functionality of an online store

Here is the list of functionality that magento have

Analytics and Reporting

Integrated with Google Analytics
Admin Dashboard for Report Overview
Sales Report
Tax Report
Best Viewed Products Report
Best Purchased Products Report
Low Stock Report
Coupon Usage Report
Total Sales Invoiced
Total Sales Refunded
Best Customers Report by Total and Number Orders

Catalog Browsing Reporting

Layered / Faceted Navigation for filtering of products
Static Block tool to create category landing pages
Configurable search with auto-suggested terms
Recently viewed products
Product comparisons
Cross-sells, Up-sells and Related Items
Popular Search Terms Cloud
Filter by Product Tags
Product Reviews
Product listing in grid or list format
Breadcrumbs

Product Browsing

Multiple Images with Zoom
Product Reviews
Related Products
Stock Availability
Multi-Tier Pricing Up-sell
Product Option Selection
Grouped Products View
Add to Wish list
Send to a Friend with Email

Customer Accounts

Order status and history
Re-orders from account
Recently ordered items
Address Book with unlimited addresses
Wishlist with ability to add comments
Newsletter Subscription management
Account Dashboard

Customer Service

Contact Us form
Feature-rich Customer Accounts
Order History with Status Updates
Order Tracking from Account
Forgot Password Email from front-end and administration panel
Order and Account Update Emails
Customizable Order Emails
Create and Edit Orders from the Admin Panel

Catalog Management

Inventory Management with Backordered items
Batch Import and Export of catalog
Batch Updates to products in admin panel
Simple, Configurable (e.g. size, color, etc.) and Grouped Products
Tax Rates per location, customer group and Product type
Attribute Sets for quick product creation of different item types
Create Store-specific attributes on the fly
Search Results rewrites and redirects
Approve, Edit and Delete Product Tags
Approve, Edit and Delete Product Reviews
RSS feed for Low Inventory Alerts

Order Management

View, edit, create and fulfill orders from admin panel.
Create one or multiple invoices, shipments and credi memos per order
Print invoices and packing slips
Call Center (phone) order creation
Create re-orders for customers from administration panel.
Email Notifications of Orders
RSS feed of New Orders

Shipping

Integrated for real-time shipping rates from: – UPS, FedEx, USPS and DHL
Shipping to multiple addresses in one order
On-site order tracking from customer accounts
Multiple shipments per order
Ability to specify allowed destination countries per method
Flat rate shipping per order
Flat rate shipping per item
Free Shipping
Table rates for weight and destination
Table rates for product sub-totals and destination
Table rates for number of items and destination

Checkout

One-Page Checkout
SSL security support for orders on both front-end and back-end
Shipping to multiple addresses in one order
Checkout without account/Guest Checkout
Shopping Cart with tax and shipping estimates
Checkout with account to use address book
Option to create account at beginning of checkout
Accept gift messages per order and per item
Saved Shopping Carts with configurable expiration time

Payment

Configurable to authorize and charge, or authorize only and charge on creation of invoices
Integrated with multiple PayPal gateways
Integrated with Authorize.net
Integrated with Google Checkout (Level 2)
Saved Credit Card method for offline payments
Accept Checks/Money Orders
Accept Purchase Orders
Additional Payment Extensions Available through Magento Connect

Search Engine Optimization

100% Search Engine Friendly
Google Site Map
URL Rewrites give full control of URL’s
Meta-information for products and categories
Auto-generated Site Map for display on site
Auto-Generated Popular Search Terms Page

International Support

Multi-Lingual
Support for Multiple Currencies
Tax rate support
Localization

Source: creativeglance.com

Magento Module Development

2010-01-01T15:28:00.002+05:30

Magento Module Development http://ping.fm/J2Dxm

3 Qualities of a Good WordPress Theme - WordPress Design

2010-01-01T12:02:00.003+05:30

I recommend a WordPress design for all my clients with established businesses. Once you've used HTML landing pages and one-page websites to find out if there's a market, the next step is to build out more optimized and targeted web pages to attract more attention and get more traffic. This is where WordPress comes in.

WordPress designs make website optimization easy. Google loves WordPress and most blogs do well in the search engines, but certain themes have components that can improve not only SEO. Now, SEO isn't the only reason to utilize WordPress. Other design components are important as well, and certain themes are better than others when you're thinking of customizing the look and feel of your site.

Is it widget ready? Widgets are a critical part of customizing your theme. I religiously use the GLock Double Optin, ACE Recent Posts and Comments, Calendar, and Blogroll widgets with almost all of my clients.
Is it easy to customize? Some themes make it very simple to choose what categories you want to display, the number of posts to show, and what size you want your thumbnail images. Others will even allow you to choose between using a custom image or dynamic text for your header logo area. These features make basic customization simple and quick, exactly the way it should be.
How easy is it to integrate images into posts, home page content, and pages? If the theme integrates the TimThumb PHP script, you won't have problems. TimThumb dynamically resizes your images and makes them easy to manage. Many themes will require you to change code or deal with another image management website which can be a real pain at times.

There are so many themes out there now that it's hard to keep up. Most of the premium themes look great, but you can't judge a book by its cover. Make sure a theme is widget ready, easy to customize, and integrates images in the simplest way possible.

Source: ezinearticles.com

Flickr co-founder Presses Beta Button

2009-12-31T14:24:00.001+05:30

Once you're lucky, twice you're good? So went the title of a recent book about Web 2.0 entrepreneurs. Pretty soon, we may have an idea whether it applies to Caterina Fake.

Fake, the co-founder of Flickr, announced on her blog Friday afternoon that her new start-up, Hunch, is sending out invitations to try the service, now in beta test.

What is it? I'll hand the reins over to Fake and let her explain:

Look. Decision-making is difficult, and decisions have to be made constantly. What should I be for Halloween? Do I need a Porsche? Does my hipster facial hair make me look stupid? Is Phoenix a good place to retire? Whom should I vote for? What toe ring should I buy?

It's dark and lonely work. Coin-flipping, I Ching consultation, closing your eyes and jumping, postponing the inevitable, Rock-Paper-Scissors, and asking your sister are all time-honored means of coming to a decision--and yet we think there's room for one more: Hunch.

Hunch is a decision-making site, customized for you. Which means Hunch gets to know you, then asks you 10 questions about a topic (usually fewer!), and provides a result--a hunch, if you will. It gives you results it wouldn't give other people.

Will it fly? Who knows, but in the midst of this miserable economic depression, there probably are lots of people out there who feel as if they don't have a clue anymore.

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10206217-2.html

2009-12-30T15:18:00.001+05:30

Best Do Follow Article Directory - http://ping.fm/hiKJ5

Successful Internet Marketing

2009-12-30T12:12:00.000+05:30

Successful Internet Marketing Little Mistake You Are Making That Is Costing You A Lot Of Potential Money

More Attacks Expected on Facebook, Twitter in 2010

2009-12-30T12:05:00.000+05:30

Social-networking sites like Facebook and Twitter can expect more attention from cybercriminals in 2010, according to a new report (PDF) released Tuesday by McAfee Labs. Also at risk are users of Adobe Systems products including Acrobat Reader and Flash. And move over Microsoft; the security firm predicts that Google’s Chrome OS will “create another opportunity for malware writers to prey on users.”

The company also anticipates smarter and more dangerous Trojans that “follow the money,” as well as a “significant trend toward a more distributed and resilient botnet infrastructure that relies much more on peer-to-peer technologies.”

In a recorded interview (scroll down for audio) David Marcus, McAfee Labs‘ director of security research and communications, said that he expects “an explosion of Facebook and other services targeted by cybercriminals.” In addition to malware like Koobface that spreads among Facebook users’ friends list, Marcus expects an increase in rogue Facebook applications.

“When you click yes to ‘do you want to allow this application to access your Facebook account,’ you’re giving that application access to all the data in your Facebook account,” he said. Facebook vets the third-party applications that it distributes, but rouge developers are finding other ways to get people to install unauthorized apps.

“A lot of the spammers and scammers will send fake Facebook application requests to users’ inboxes,” he said. Marcus recommends that you only install apps from within Facebook by clicking “browse more applications” in the Facebook application installer.“

Twitter vulnerabilities
According to McAfee, Twitter is vulnerable mostly because of URL-shortening services like bit.ly and tinyurl.com. There’s nothing wrong with Twitter or these services, but when you click on a shortened URL you have no idea where you’re going until after you get there. I would like to see a URL-shortening service that vets each URL for security and rejects those that are potentially dangerous. Twitter, according to the McAfee report is “also serving as a control vehicle for botnets.”

Criminals are now being more surgical in their attacks, singling out individuals and corporations as targets. The report points to the 10-month investigation of “GhostNet,” which McAfee Labs describes as a “network of at least 1,295 compromised computers in 103 countries” that “primarily belonged to government, aid groups, and activists.” The malicious code was delivered by e-mail with subject headings related to the Dali Lama and Tibet, according to the report.

The report also sites “a very targeted wave of attacks against the management of major companies,” as well as attacks carried out against “journalists from various media organizations, including Agence France Press, Dow Jose and Reuters based in China.”

Adobe products and Google Chrome vulnerable
Adobe products, especially its Acrobat Reader and Flash, are likely to replace Microsoft Office as the No. 1 software target, according to McAfee. It’s nothing they’ve (Adobe) done wrong,” Marcus said. “The bad guys go where the masses go” and because of the increasingly widespread use of Adobe products, “that tends to be what the bad buys will start looking to exploit. It really is nothing more sophisticated than that.”

Criminals are infecting PDF files and leveraging exploits in the opening of PDF documents, according to Marcus.

“Instead of viewing a PDF you’re actually taken to a website that downloads some type of malware to your machine.” Adobe plans to patch a critical hole in Reader and Acrobat on January 12.

There is also concern about Google’s Chrome operating system, which is expected to be officially released in 2010. Chrome, which will run Web-based applications, is likely to be vulnerable to attacks in HTML 5–the newest version of the hyper-text markup language that, says the report, “holds all the promises that today’s Web community seeks–primarily blurring and removing the lines between a Web application and a desktop application.”

McAfee also warned of banking Trojans with “new tactics that went well beyond the rather simple keylogging-with-screenshots” that were used earlier. Trojans now use rootkit techniques to hide on a victim’s system to disable antivirus software.

“Often the victim’s computer becomes part of a botnet and receives malware configuration updates,” the report said.

Cause for optimism
The report did end with some optimism, calling 2009 a good year for law enforcement. In November 2009, the U.S. Department of Justice indicted nine individuals “from Russia, Moldova, and Estonia who were allegedly responsible for $9 million in customer payroll data compromises at RBS WorldPay.”

The year also “saw the conviction of the infamous “Godfather of Spam,” Alan Ralsky of Michigan, and his criminal syndicate, which was responsible for generating a significant portion of the world’s unsolicited e-mail,” McAfee said.

“You started to see that not a lot of resiliency was built into some of those botnets, they were taken down, and poof they disappeared for very long periods of time,” Marcus said. He said he thinks “the bad guys will learn from that and build in some redundancy,” but he remains optimistic. “The good guys and regular users are getting tired of getting exploited and we’re finally starting to see more offensive and aggressive take downs of botnets…we’re starting to see people wanting to take back the Internet.”

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-19518_3-10422760-238.html

With Search War Stalemate, Google Branches Out

2009-12-30T11:57:00.001+05:30

Google continued to lap the competition in 2009, but found itself jousting with a formidable foe: the U.S. government.

Scrutiny from federal regulators played a role in almost every major story that involved Google this year, from its continued domination of the search and search advertising markets, to its battle with authors and publishers over the effects of the Google Book Search settlement, to CEO Eric Schmidt's role overseeing both Google and Apple as a director. At year's end, no major federal action had been taken against the company, and Google showed no signs of slowing down its innovative engineers with plans to move into operating systems and possibly consumer electronics.

Google's settlement with groups representing authors and publishers technically took place in 2008, but the battle over its propriety raged throughout 2009. And the year will end without a clear decision regarding how Google will be allowed to display portions of out-of-print yet copyright-protected books that it has scanned. However, a second final settlement drafted in consultation with the Department of Justice was approved in November.

Opponents accused Google of trying to corner the market on digital books, while the company insisted it was doing the world a favor by improving access to books. A final hearing on whether to approve the revised settlement is scheduled for February 2010, meaning this story isn't done just yet.

Google will end the year about where it began when it comes to search market share: around 65 percent of the U.S. market, according to ComScore. Microsoft's launch of Bing, a revamped version of Live Search, was definitely noticed in Mountain View, but Bing seemed to take more share from Yahoo than it did from Google as the year progressed.

Not all was rosy for the Google economic engine: the company was forced to lay off employees for the first time due to the prolonged economic slump in the advertising market. Still, Google appeared to weather the storm far better than its competitors, and once the dust had cleared opened up its checkbook for strategic purchases such as On2 Technologies and AdMob.

It was a banner year for one of Google's most important side projects. Android, its mobile operating system, started to gain traction among the phone makers of the world, and led to a landmark deal between Google and Verizon to develop "a family of devices" based on Android.

However, late in the year, Google was reported to be planning to sell consumers a phone of its own: the $199 Nexus One, given out to Google employees at a holiday party. The company has not yet commented on whether the Nexus One will be its first consumer electronics product, or just another developer phone sold to a limited audience.

Android began setting itself up as a main contender to Apple's iPhone, which is probably why the government raised an eyebrow at Schmidt's role as a director at both Apple and Google. For a while, Schmidt shrugged off the controversy, but eventually stepped down from Apple's board after acknowledging that the overlap between the two companies had become too great.

That decision came after Google decided to shake up the computer market with plans for its own operating system--Chrome OS--based on its Chrome browser. Chrome OS is not expected to arrive on Netbooks until late next year, but the company showed off its novel approach to operating system development late in the year during an event for the media. Chrome OS is designed as a lightweight, fast operating system that runs nothing but Web applications; that might appeal to some, but it's still not clear if the masses are ready for such a product.

And while cloud computing through products like Chrome OS may be the future, the current cloud situation can be stormy from time to time. Google suffered a prolonged outage in May that knocked out traffic to just about all of its services, and sporadic Gmail outages frustrated users on several occasions.

Source: http://news.cnet.com/2702-1023_3-426.html

Consumer Groups Urge Block of Google-AdMob Deal

2009-12-30T11:56:00.000+05:30

Two consumer groups have added their objections to Google's proposed acquisition of mobile advertising network AdMob, saying the deal would be anticompetitive and cause privacy concerns.

The Federal Trade Commission has already signaled that it wants to take a closer look at the $750 million deal, which was announced in November. AdMob runs an ad network across mobile sites and applications, and critics such as Consumer Watchdog and the Center for Digital Democracy are concerned that the company will give Google a big advantage in extending its dominant share of the search advertising market into the fast-growing mobile space.

"The mobile sector is the next frontier of the digital revolution. Without vigorous competition and strong privacy guarantees this vital and growing segment of the online economy will be stifled," said John Simpson of Consumer Watchdog and Jeffery Chester of the Center for Digital Democracy, in a letter sent to the FTC Monday (click for PDF).

It's not clear exactly what the FTC is examining during its current review of the deal, but Google said last week that the receipt of a "second notice" would push back the expected completion of the deal by a few months. This is getting to be the new normal for Google, which is coming off a year during which it faced more government scrutiny of its growing online power than ever before.

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-30684_3-10422400-265.html?

Free Article Directory» Why You Need for SEO? | SEO, Search Engine Optimization

2009-12-29T13:08:00.000+05:30

Free Article Directory» Why You Need for SEO? | SEO, Search Engine Optimization

Social Media Marketing With Twitter – An Introduction

2009-12-29T12:36:00.001+05:30

As a business owner, you have likely heard of social media marketing. You may even have been curious enough to investigate it. And you may have been overwhelmed by the many options available to you. Between Digg, Delicious, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and all of the many others, it is difficult to know where to start.

Twitter is one of the newer entries in the social media marketing field. Launched in 2006, it has become an enormously popular way for people to connect and keep in touch. Like any form of social media, it has also attracted businesses keen to get on the bandwagon of social media marketing.

Using Twitter as a Marketing

Twitter is often referred to as a micro-blog. Instead of posts, you write “tweets” of 140 characters or less. You can follow other users with similar interests, and they can follow you. Each time you add an update, all of your followers receive a message. They can choose to respond or not.

As with any social media marketing site, using Twitter requires you to be involved. You need to follow and be followed. You also need to provide information of value to the people who follow you. One example is links to your blog or other relevant information on your site.

Using Twitter for marketing does take time (as does any attempt at social media marketing). You need to build a community of followers and engage with other users to create credibility. To make links, you have to have something interesting to share with people, which means you need to spend time creating enough current, relevant, interesting and (occasionally) thought-provoking content for your followers to read.

Tips for Using Twitter as Part of Your Online Marketing

There are some basic rules to follow when using Twitter for marketing. In fact, many of these rules apply to other social media sites too, like Facebook.

Do not spam or engage in hard selling. Remember to be sociable and offer information of value. Blog posts on the benefits of your product or services, interesting conferences or professional development opportunities that are coming up – these are good examples.

Always link back to your site or blog. That is why you are doing this in the first place.
To get followers, put a link on your site or blog inviting people to follow you on Twitter. Twitter provides the code for a “badge” that you can drop into your Website or blog.
Search Twitter for likeminded users/businesses and see who they are following. You may be interested in following the same users.
Follow the lead of those who came before you. There are users with hundreds of followers. Check out what they are tweeting about so you can get ideas.

Use Twitter as Part of a Detailed Social Media Marketing Strategy

Of course, if you are using social media for marketing, you need to have a comprehensive plan. To create a plan like that, you may need help from a search engine marketing consultant. In addition to tweeting on Twitter (which can eat up a lot of your time) you need to have a schedule for blogging and writing articles to link to.

As part of this strategy, develop a plan for your content. Don’t throw any old thing up there just to have something to link to. A consultant can show you how to create compelling copy that makes your blog, articles and Website work with your social media marketing, so that you are drawing traffic through as many channels as possible.

Source From: homebasedblogging.com

Open Source CMS market share report 2009

2009-12-28T16:30:00.002+05:30

The 2009 Open Source CMS market share report was released a couple of weeks ago. The report concludes that WordPress, Joomla! and Drupal maintain a large lead on the rest of the pack, and that they are the dominant players in the market.

Despite the rather lengthy nature of the survey, more than 600 persons completed the question set. The demographic data gathered shows the survey group to be primarily composed of senior IT professionals working in smaller organizations of 1 to 5 people. More than 80% of the participants had heard about Joomla!, Wordpress and Drupal, though most of them were more familiar with Wordpress and Joomla!. Continue Reading

7 Creative and Interesting Infographics about Twitter

2009-12-25T12:44:00.002+05:30

By Xavier Lur

With over 54 million users worldwide and close to 7 billion tweets being posted, Twitter is the world’s most popular micro-blogging platform, fueled by smartphones and online bursts of 140 characters. 2009 is the year of Twitter. It soared to lofty heights over the past year, all thanks to the active presence of celebrities such as Ashton Kutcher and Oprah Winfrey. The San Francisco-based Internet company isn’t a social networking website like Facebook or MySpace. Instead, the main focus of Twitter is about real-time information of the things you care about â€” work, industry, company, news.

2010 will be the revenue year of Twitter. The micro-blogging juggernaut will focus on generating revenue in the year ahead, and may explore options including an initial public offering. “2010 is really going to be the revenue year. I don’t know if we’re going to be profitable, but we have plenty of time,” said co-founder and creative director Biz Stone during an Oxford University event in November.

Today, I’d like to share with you guys ‘7 Creative and Interesting Infographics about Twitter‘. Enjoy and don’t forget to tweet about this post!

1. The Journey of a Tweet

Timon Singh from NGONews has created an infographic which shows the journey of a Tweet and how it evolves from a simple 140-character long message to a Google news story.

2. The Many Users of Twitter

Ordinary people use Twitter to share with their friends and co-workers what they are doing; bloggers, Internet marketers, and businesses use Twitter to promote their articles/products; politicians use Twitter to garner support; celebrities use Twitter to stay in touch with their beloved fans, and spammers use Twitter to send unsolicited messages.

Inspired by Guy Kawasaki, “The Many Users of Twitter” is an infographic designed by the folks at NGONews. According to Guy Kawasaki, there are six types of Twitter users – Newbie, Brand, Smore, Bitch, Maven, and Mensch. So which one are you?

3. Information creation and circulation before and after Twitter

Designed by Burson Marsteller, the “before Twitter” infographic shows that time is necessary for the information to spread before its arrival on Twitter. On the other hand, the “after Twitter” infographic reveals the changes of the information circulation with the development of the use of Twitter.

Before Twitter

After Twitter

4. Facebook VS Twitter

Although one is a social networking websites whereas the other is a micro-blogging platform, but both have been ruled as “arch-rivals”. The “Facebook VS Twitter” infographic depicts the exponential growth of the two websites.

*The statistics are outdated, but at least it’s worth taking a look.

5. More Truth About Twitter – Twitter Stats

Based on surveys and statistics, InformationIsBeautiful has designed an infographic that shows the percentage of active and non-active Twitter users; the number of people out of 100 whose tweets are pointless babble, and when are the peak days and hours.

6. The History of Twitter, So Far

In July, we gathered information from various sources and compiled the list of “The History of Twitter in pictures“.

However, Manolith has done a better job in telling the story of Twitter by squeezing a long-form blog post into an attractive infographic that puts some key moments of the serviceâ€™s history in visual form.

7. Le Twitter Hack

Apparently, Twitter needs better security. The “Le Twitter Hack” infographic shows a timeline of events regarding the July’s Twitter attack.

Credit: techxav.com

Web 2.0’s Social Suicide Machine

2009-12-24T11:30:00.001+05:30

I haven’t logged into Facebook in a few months now. However, I’m still being bombarded with emails from the service, and apparently, my Facebook friends are being commanded to write something on my wall in an attempt to get me sucked into the service. Sorry, friends, it’s not going to work. For people burned out on social networking, like me, there’s always the option of suicide: Web 2.0 Suicide Machine to the rescue!

What the Web 2.0 Suicide Machine does is it logs into your social media home, like your Facebook, LinkedIn, or MySpace, and it removes you. It changes the password, unfriends all your contacts, and removes every trace of your content on the service as best it can. Best of all, you can watch your former web life disappear right before your eyes as the service works its magic!

I had a friend recently pull the plug on her Facebook, and she’s not regretted it for an instant. I’m sure I could do the same to my Facebook and MySpace and whatnot, but first I’d have to remember what the passwords to those things were before I could set the Suicide Machine to work on them. It’s easier just to not use them in my case. Don’t think I didn’t think about trying the service out for myself, though; there’s still a chance I might!

source: http://www.popfi.com/2009/12/21/web-20s-social-suicide-machine/

Facebook affecting Indian firms' productivity: Study

2009-12-23T19:36:00.000+05:30

London, December 22 (ANI): Facebook is becoming a problem for employers at offices in India, as employees have started spending so much time on the social networking site that it is beginning to affect productivity, a new survey has revealed.

The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Assocham) have found in their survey that office staff on average spend an hour a day on sites like Facebook, resulting in a loss of productivity measuring 12.5percent.

The study noted: "Close to 12.5 percent of productivity of human resource in corporate sector is misappropriated each day since a vast majority of them while away their time accessing social networking sites during the office hours."

Seemingly, the workers use Orkut, Facebook, Myspace and Linkedin for "romancing".

"As a matter of fact, [the] growing use of browsing sites can be dangerous for overall productivity and IT companies have already installed software to restrict its use," the BBC News quoted Assocham secretary general DS Rawat as saying.

As part of the study, a total of 4,000 employees between the ages of 21 and 60 from different cities in India including Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Surat, Mumbai (Bombay), Pune, Chandigarh, Lucknow and Kanpur, were questioned.

It was observed that nearly half of office employees accessed Facebook during work time.

Moreover, four in every 10 workers built their entire Orkut or Facebook profile at office.

Also, 83 percent of the employees think there is no harm surfing at work during office hours. (ANI)
ANI

Source: Yahoo NEWS

Facebook's Favorite Gadgets

2009-12-23T19:33:00.000+05:30

Oliver J. Chiang, Forbes.com

Know a friend or a loved one who is obsessed with her Facebook page? Of course you do. So why not get her a gift this holiday season that works with the social network?

At a recent Silicon Valley event focused on gadgets, Facebook's chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg and vice president of engineering Mike Schroepfer rattled off a list of gadgets that can enhance the Facebook experience. From cameras to cuff links, a surprisingly wide range of trinkets have become integrated with the social network, making them must-have gifts for those who spend far too many hours updating their status or playing FarmVille.

In Pictures: Facebook's Favorite Gadgets

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One of Sandberg and Schroepfer's top picks was the Canon PowerShot S90 ($400). Hailed by reviewers as the photography enthusiast's compact camera, the PowerShot S90 can also be set up to automatically upload photos to an online album on your Facebook account.

In Pictures: Facebook's Favorite Gadgets

In mobile, a recent trend is phones that provide easy Web access to social networks. So it's no surprise that Sandberg and Schroepfer highlighted the Palm Pixi, which like the Palm Pre, runs the webOS operating system that makes it easy for users to import contacts from online accounts like Facebook, Google and LinkedIn right onto the phone. In addition, the Pixi comes preloaded with a Facebook application that lets you view your friends' status updates and post your own.

Schroepfer also gave high marks to the Logitech Squeezebox Radio ($200), a wi-fi-enabled music box that can play tracks from Internet radio stations or from streaming music services like Pandora or Last.fm. The Squeezebox also lets you send a message to your friends on Facebook recommending songs you heard and liked on the device.

Schroepfer also touted a companion piece to go along with the radio, the iPeng app for the iPhone ($10), which turns your Apple smart phone into a remote control for the Squeezebox.

But who says that the social networking addiction has to end at gadgets? Facebook meets fashion with the F Me Cufflinks ($50) from CuffLinks.com, designed with the same white-on-blue aesthetic of the Web site.

Facebook-related gadgets weren't the only holiday gift picks from the Facebook executives. Sandberg also is a fan of the Clarisonic Skin Care Brush ($195), a device that cleanses and moisturizes facial skin.

Meanwhile, the strangest gift of the event was the Woozee, an animatronic doll resembling a blue bear with horns, from Social Gaming Network spinoff ToyBot. Woozee is also souped up with 3G, wi-fi and GPS connectivity. This allows for cool features: Woozee can recite text messages sent to it remotely through mobile or Internet-connected devices. Though the doll won't be on the market till mid-2010, the techie tykes in your family may want to get a head a start by putting this on their future wish lists.

Follow Oliver J. Chiang on Twitter or e-mail him at ochiang@forbes.com.

Opera 10.5 pre-alpha goes Chrome hunting

2009-12-23T15:10:00.000+05:30

The latest Opera browser preview version may not be entirely stable, but it's definitely got its jetpack strapped on. Opera 10.5 pre-alpha, for Windows and Mac, is the first browser that's not powered by Webkit to approach JavaScript rendering speeds previously reached only by Chrome and Safari.

In empirical testing done on an HP desktop running an Intel Core 2 Q6600 at 2.66GHz with 4GB of RAM and Windows 7 32-bit, the pre-alpha scored 435.6 milliseconds in the SunSpider JavaScript benchmark. By contrast, Google Chrome 4.0.266.0, the most recent development build, notched 510.4 ms. The current stable build of Opera was more than 7.5 times slower, at 3284.4 ms.

Opera attributes this dramatic improvement to the new Carakan JavaScript engine, which they have designed from scratch to replace the Futhark engine in the stable build. Opera 10.5 also includes improvements to the Presto layout engine, and a new graphics library called Vega.

Other improvements noticeable in the pre-alpha include changing the URL address bar to include the same style of predictive smart search that Firefox and Chrome have, and the search and address bars now both remember searches, support deleting specific items, and have redesigned layouts.

The main browser interface has been redone, too. The tabs are now on top, the menu bar has been minimized behind a drop-down on the left nav, and the browser has better integration with Windows 7 and Snow Leopard. On Windows 7 there's Aero Peek and Jump List support to access Speed Dial and tabs from the Taskbar. For Macs, there's a unified toolbar, native buttons and scrollbars, multitouch gestures, and Growl support. Dialog boxes are now non-modal, which you means you can now switch tabs without a pop-up commanding your browser's focus, for example. This will affect verification and authentication pop-ups, and JavaScript alerts.

There are some known problems, including a lack of printer support in the Mac version and noticeably high memory usage. Users can expect these to get addressed before the stable build of Opera 10.50 is released. The Opera 10.50 official announcement and changes can be read here, while the current stable version of Opera 10.10 is for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

source: http://download.cnet.com/8301-2007_4-10420544-12.html

Apple Thrives Despite Jobs Being away

2009-12-23T15:09:00.000+05:30

2009 was a year for the record books for Apple.

Besides recording three of the most profitable quarters in company history and ending the year with $36 billion in the bank, Apple had its biggest iPhone opening weekend ever this summer.

And most of this happened without Chief Executive Steve Jobs. Last year's questions over his physical appearance were answered when he announced in late January he'd be taking a leave of absence to deal with a medical problem that he found out was "more complex" than a hormone imbalance. Jobs declined to be more specific about his condition, which led to discussion of how much of executives' private lives we should be privy to. By late spring it was revealed he underwent liver transplant surgery. Chief Operations Officer Tim Cook handled the reins for six months. By July, Jobs was seen back on the Cupertino campus. His first public appearance came a short time later at Apple's September iPod event.

Like most years, 2009 was punctuated by a series of signature Apple product launch events, though this time the majority were simple refreshes of hardware. In software, Apple saw the release of the latest iteration of its operating system, Mac OS X 10.6, a refreshed iTunes 9, and an updated iPhone OS--now with copy/paste and multimedia messaging. And as has been true for each of the past two years, the release of the iPhone 3GS was a spectacle in itself.

Meanwhile, developers have flocked to Apple's mobile platform, with more than 100,000 apps currently available in the App Store. But Apple's gatekeeping policies have tempered excitement for some developers. Early in the year those creating applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch began complaining about a lack of transparency in the App Store review policy. Grievances regarding Apple's inconsistent practices, lack of communication, and playing favorites grew more vociferous as the year wore on. The last straw seemed to be when Apple rejected Google Voice, the popular service from its one-time close partner, prompting the FCC to get involved. As a result, Apple was forced to open up a bit and we got a glimpse of how the App Store review process works.

That wasn't the only word the federal government wanted to have with Apple. Along with several other Silicon Valley giants, Apple was accused of agreeing not to hire each other's employees and a Department of Justice investigation is still ongoing.

In other legal news, Apple wrapped up its suit against Psystar. The Florida-based company was found to have violated Apple's copyright in selling Mac OS X preinstalled on non-Mac hardware, and the two came to a preliminary settlement. But a new drama unfolded with smartphone competitor Nokia, which sued Apple for not paying royalties on a copyrighted smartphone technology.

Unfortunately for the most passionate of Apple fans, two of the year's most anticipated products from Apple never came to fruition. Looks like we'll have to wait until 2010 to see if the mythical Apple tablet or the Verizon iPhone finally appear.

source: http://news.cnet.com/2702-13579_3-419.html

Yahoo Shutting Down for The Holidays

2009-12-23T15:08:00.001+05:30

Most Yahoo employees will be off next week due to mandatory office closings--though they've had since April to figure out what to do.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday that Yahoo is shutting down everything except for certain "essential functions" during the week between Friday, December 25, and Friday, January 1.

A Yahoo representative confirmed the Journal report Tuesday--however, according to the representative, Yahoo employees were informed of this plan in April, a detail lacking from several reports about the shutdown, although Reuters had pointed it out at the time.

Yahoo has certainly looked to cut costs this year, its first with CEO Carol Bartz and CFO Tim Morse. Layoffs, a search-outsourcing deal with Microsoft, and a reassessment of business priorities were high on the company's to-do list in 2009.

The shutdown, which requires employees to take unpaid leave or vacation days, would be the first ever in Yahoo's history, though other tech companies, notably Hewlett-Packard and Adobe Systems, also shut down for the holidays.

Yahoo will have customer support people working over the break, and it obviously plans to keep its Web site up and running, the representative said. Outside the United States, employees will either have paid time off or unpaid time, depending on local laws.

source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-30684_3-10420320-265.html

Google open-sources XML-alternative Protocol Buffers

2009-12-22T15:44:00.000+05:30

XML, it seems, has run out of steam for Google.

Google said Monday that it has created an open-source project for a data interchange format called Protocol Buffers.

The software is meant to solve the problem of sharing information in a wide range of formats between servers at high speed. It’s also designed to let companies like Google upgrade software on a network of connected servers without causing hiccups.

Google thought of using XML as a lingua franca to send messages between its different servers. But XML can be complicated to work with and, more significantly, creates large files that can slow application performance.

Protocol Buffers is an alternative way of describing the format of data that is being sent over the network or stored to a hard drive. Unlike XML, it’s a compact format and is designed to be simple to use, according to Kenton Varda of Google’s Software Engineering Team.

Varda wrote in the company’s open-source blog:

Protocol Buffers allow you to define simple data structures in a special definition language, then compile them to produce classes to represent those structures in the language of your choice. These classes come complete with heavily-optimized code to parse and serialize your message in an extremely compact format. Best of all, the classes are easy to use: each field has simple “get” and “set” methods, and once you’re ready, serializing the whole thing to–or parsing it from–a byte array or an I/O stream just takes a single method call.

Matt Cutts, a software engineer who heads Google’s Webspam team, said in a blog late Monday that Protocol Buffers automatically generates Java, Python, or C++ code:

Think of Protocol Buffers as a very compact way of encoding data in a binary format. A programmer can write a simple description of a protocol or structured data and Google’s code will autogenerate a class in C++, Java, or Python to read, write, and parse the protocol. Given a protocol buffer, you can write it to disk, send it over the network wire, and do any number of interesting tricks. Any medium-sized company (and quite a few startups!) should find Protocol Buffers very handy.

The software is available the Apache Software License 2.0.

Like a lot of what Google’s engineering team does, this seems to make sense. XML has long been criticized as being too slow, which has led to controversial efforts to standardize XML compression.

But given the huge investment in XML, it doesn’t look like Protocol Buffers will replace it. Instead, it will be used–certainly by Google and likely others–for Web applications that need a very efficient way to move around data in multiple formats.

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9985254-7.html?

Microsoft preps pay-as-you-go Web apps for Business

2009-12-22T15:28:00.000+05:30

Microsoft detailed on Tuesday its road map and pricing for Web-based software suites built for big companies and growing businesses.

Enabling telecommuting, which many employers and workers increasingly favor, is likely to be a selling point for the productivity and “deskless worker” tools within the Microsoft Online Services lineup.

The move is part of Redmond’s push to integrate online and desktop software, shifting much of the heavy lifting to the “cloud.”

“Microsoft Online Services is a key component of the software plus services initiative, and we’re seeing customers, partners and even competitors embrace this flexible approach to the cloud,” Stephen Elop, president of the Microsoft Business Division, said in a statement.

Details were unveiled Tuesday in Houston at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference.

For $15 per month per person, the business productivity suite offers an Outlook-integrated Exchange Online for e-mail and calendars, Office SharePoint Online collaboration, messaging via Office Communications Online, and Office Live Meeting video-enabled Web conferencing.

The software giant will charge another $3 per month per user for the Deskless Worker Suite, which combines flavors of SharePoint Online and Exchange Online. The SharePoint portal offers access to internal company sites and search. E-mail, calendars, security filters, and Outlook Web Access Light are included with Exchange Online Deskless Worker.

Microsoft aims to simplify otherwise complex corporate tasks managed by engineers or IT technicians. For instance, a WYSIWYG interface would enable an IT worker to give a new employee access to the company tools in a series of steps that could be shorter than setting up, say, a free Hotmail or Yahoo e-mail account.

One can sign up online to try the beta services.

Exchange Online and Office SharePoint Online remain in beta, with final availability set for sometime in the second half of 2008, when Office Communications Online beta is also due. Microsoft plans for international availability in 2009.

The company offers to pay resellers of its Online Services 12 percent of the price of each contract secured during the first year, and 6 percent per subscription year thereafter. Interested companies can learn more at Microsoft’s QuickStart Web site.

Microsoft partners and resellers of Online Services include Accenture, CDW, and Unisys. Nokia is among the companies using the online tools for messaging and collaboration.

Source:http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-9985201-2.html

Yelp, Google Breakup Bad News for Small Business

2009-12-22T15:23:00.001+05:30

It is unhappy news that Google won’t be purchasing Yelp. It was a natural in terms of things Google should be doing, especially in helping small local businesses promote themselves.

The $550 million deal, which lived and died over the weekend, would have also made Google more of a one-stop for local businesses, who often don’t know where to invest their small promotion budgets. It also might have moved the reviews social network away from advertising sales that have challenged its credibility.

If Yelp has gotten a better offer and bailed on Google because of it, it’s bad news. Only Google brings the breadth of offerings necessary to be a good single purchase for small business. Nothing else is even close.

I hope Microsoft realizes this before trying to make Yelp part of Bing, although the names do sound like they belong together, if not the services.

As much as we don’t like near monopolies, they have their good sides. Local businesses realize they need the Internet, but don’t have the time or dollars to invest. Google offers many free and low-cost ways for local businesses to promote themselves online. Yelp does the same thing, though not as well.

Teaming the two would have allowed local businesses to do excellent local marketing, presumably at low cost, by dealing with only one trusted vendor, Google

Having said that, it is not clear Google would have known what to do with Yelp.

Ideally, there would be technical and back office integration, which fits with Google’s engineering-driven culture. More concerning, however, is whether Google could just sit and watch Yelp’s content and community management.

So far, in two attempts, Orkut and Knol, Google has failed to develop communities. YouTube has a community, of sorts, but is hardly a comparison to the level of community (or average IQ) necessary to make Yelp function.

Maybe it’s just as well for Yelp and Google go their separate ways, but as someone who cares about local businesses, I feel like an opportunity has been lost.

David Coursey has been writing about technology products and companies for more than 25 years. He tweets as @techinciter and may be contacted via his Web site.

Source: http://www.itnews.com/internet-based-applications-and-services/12259/yelp-google-breakup-bad-news-small-business

The New Look of StumbleUpon

2009-12-21T16:32:00.002+05:30

I don’t know about you but I love to “stumble” upon new things all the time. I noticed when I went to log in to my account the other day that the interface has changed. I have to say that I love the new look and feel of the new site design. Comparing it to the last version I notice a big difference in how much cleaner it is to look at and also how user friendly the new version is.

Apparently right now you have the ability to go back and forth between the new “beta” version and the old version but soon that will all change and the new interface will be here to stay.

In the old version after you stumbled on a certain website you liked or disliked it would be added to your profile as a thumbnail image - with so many thumbnail images this created a very cluttered view. The new Stumbleupon limits the amount of thumbnails to about 10 and then instead of thumbnail views you have a little larger image of the website along with what your comment was. Compared to the old version where you had to click on reviews to see the review you gave it.

I wanted to give props to the new Stumble interface - if you have not seen it yet - check it out.

Source: http://www.semplistic.com/articles/the-new-look-of-stumbleupon/

The "App Phone" Predicted

2009-12-21T11:00:00.001+05:30

There’s no question that we’re seeing an explosion in the role that smartphones are taking in mobility. BlackBerry devices have grown far beyond the corporate e-mail tethers they once were, to the point that the company says more than half of all BlackBerries are being used by consumers. The Apple iPhone has redefined what many people see as the new paradigm for smartphones. And Google’s Android phones are taking up where the iPhone left off to prove that a company besides Apple can produce a sleek, usable phone that does a lot more than make phone calls.

With all of these changes happening at once, there’s also no question that all of this is probably driving the IT staff at many companies nuts. After seeing what’s already happened over the past year, even in the teeth of a recession, just imagine what’s going to happen next year with the economy recovering, smartphones taking on a bigger role, and with new types of smart phones hitting the market on a daily basis.

Well, I talked with one person who does imagine such things, mainly because it’s his job. Dan Dearing is vice president of marketing and product management for Trust Digital, a company that makes software for managing enterprise data systems, including the wireless devices that employees use with those data systems. It’s Trust Digital’s job to find out what the trends are so that the company and its customers can be ready.

Dearing said that he’s been talking with his customers to learn about their concerns, and from that he’s developed both a set of criteria to determine what trends are important to enterprise customers and he’s learned what’s taking shape in the world of smartphones. Dearing did note, however, that the transformative forces of the iPhone, the Android phones, and the spreading availability of applications for the smartphones that can support them are changing the way enterprises need to think of them.

Dearing’s findings shouldn’t surprise anyone that works with smartphones in the enterprise. But that doesn’t mean they’re not important. Here are his five predictions:

New platforms and devices will change what’s required from the IT industry – Dearing said that this centers on the fact that these devices will become less "smartphones" and more what he calls “app phones,” meaning that you can download and run applications on them as you can on computers. He said that you’ll see more IT vendors extend the services that they’ve developed for laptops to smartphones or app phones.
The Android mobile operating system will take off – Dearing said that Google’s hot new operating system will start with consumers, and that will bring it into the enterprise. He said that the IT organization will have its doubts about Android because of the lack of security, but he added that’s a “point in time” issue. He said that he thinks the open source community will produce the encryption required by enterprise users, and that handset vendors may provide hardware encryption as Apple does now.
Mobile application stores will continue to balloon – The availability of applications seems to be the real driver for the adoption of these devices within the enterprise, according to Dearing. He said that enterprises are looking for similar capabilities for their users with a mix of enterprise and consumer applications.
Mobile devices are on a path to eclipse the PC – Dearing quoted an IDC report that said the number of smart mobile devices accessing the Internet is very close to being more than more than the number of laptops and PCs. He notes that the mobile devices accessing the Internet are almost always smartphones.
Increased smartphone use within the enterprise – Dearing said that more and more mobile users want to use their own smartphones where they work, instead of using one that’s provided by the company. “More and more companies are starting to cater to a younger more mobile workforce” Dearing said. “Now they’re moving to a mixed environment so they can use their personal device for e-mail.” He said that IT departments are starting to let users choose their own smart phones and carriers which improves morale and saves the company money.

Dearing noted that the greater use of smartphones instead of laptop computers also means that some of the woes of laptop computers will move to smartphones. Those woes include dealing with lost or stolen devices containing critical company information. In addition, he said that the rapid growth of some devices such as the iPhone is certain to attract the attention of malware distributors.

So the answer to next year’s smart phone challenge is to be ready to significantly expand your company’s support capabilities. This is a trend you’re not going to be able to stop.

Source From: ctoedge.com | Re-Posted By: Software Company India

New breadcrumb feature in search results part of Google Caffeine rollout?

2009-12-19T11:53:00.003+05:30

Google is coming with some changes in Search Engine Listing Page. This chabges are qith URL shorten with Breadcrumb Navigation. Lilengine.com has present this very nicely with some images. Read rest of story with images in their own word.

Google's new SERP URL update

Over the next few days we should see some changes in the way Google displays the URLs in organic SERP. Currently the URL listed in the search result is a citation based version of a page’s URL. It looks like this update is could be part of the Caffeine rollout, where Matt Cutt’s mentioned will only be rolled out on 1 server currently until 2010 – I am seeing the new breadcrumb result about 10% of the time when search for the phrase ’spidersapien reviews’.

The new version will take on a more breadcrumb feel based on the hierarchy of the webpage on the website. Which is determined by Googlebot if;

The information in these new hierarchies come from analyzing destination web pages. For example, if you visit the ProductWiki Spidersapien page, you’ll see a series of similar links at the top, “Home> Toys & Games> Robots.” These are standard navigational tools used throughout the web called “breadcrumbs,” which webmasters frequently show on their sites to help users navigate. By analyzing site breadcrumbs, we’ve been able to improve the search snippet for a small percentage of search results, and we hope to expand in the future.

This is a pretty significant update to how the SERP is displayed, for a long time SEOs have depended on including keywords in their URL or battled with web developers to dynamically generate SEO friendly URLs. Now with this new breadcrumb update, URLs will no longer be shown in the SERP. Which means less significance to SEO friendly URLs or the ability to create even more SEO friendly URLS by eliminating hierarchy information, judging from the quote – all one would need is a HTML navigational breadcrumb for this to work, much easier than doing URL rewrites. Surely there are other factors that Google look for as well ( sitemap / RDF info ? ).

How will this effect CTR? The new format certainly looks nicer, but as a power searcher I like to see the URL before clicking on a link, also one major loss from this update will be the keyword you searched for will no longer be in bold ( see before example ) which does have a positive impact on CTR, since the URLS that have the keyword hi-lighted tend to get more clicks.

Lets also compare the HTML code generated by Google;

New Google breadcrumb HTML

www.productwiki.com › Toys & Games › Robots

www.productwiki.com › Toys & Games
›
Robots

Old Google URL HTML

www.productwiki.com/spidersapien/ –

www.productwiki.com/spidersapien/ –

There is definitely a lot more code been generated here in the new format, which would justify Matt Cutt’s explanation for the caffeine update as the ability to return more search results faster with more content.

Source From: lilengine.com

How to exclude specific country or region from Google Analytics

2009-12-18T11:35:00.001+05:30

Here are the quick and easy steps to implement, if you want a report of website traffic, excluding a specific country or territory.

However,it should be noted that, it is among the best practices to create new test profiles when you are testing our filters or otheradvanced analytics setups. The reason is that it is not unusual that some of your experiments might turn out to be wrong or do not meet your specific requirements, if you have multiple profiles, then you can safely delete the newly created one without loss of critical data. You should have one untouched raw analytics profile, always.

Having said that, lets move towards our setup, I have already created a new profile for the same website and name it “Filtered Traffic”

As soon as you create the new profile, click the edit button and scroll down to see the “Add New Filter” option.

Kindly note that Google Analytics have 2 types of Filter Setups,i.e. Predefined and Custom, we will select the Custom Filter.

Now select the Visitor Country option to mention the excluded region.

Now in the “Filter Pattern” box, enter your desired value or values.e.g. Filter Pattern: brazil|Argentina

Note:The pipe symbol | allows for multiples within the same pattern. Thus, you can mention one or many countries in the same pattern.

Another way is to put country names you want to exclude separated with | sign, and enclose it with ( ) in Filter Pattern field. For example if you want to exclude traffic stats from China, Australia and India the filter pattern will be(China|Australia|India) . And that’s all, now save this filter by clicking “Save Changes” button.

Kindly note that | and () are regular expressions, they have many uses, read about them at: Google’s Help Page

Original Source: blog.khmohsin.com

Android-Based iPod Competitor Wanted

2009-12-17T12:20:00.006+05:30

I have noticed a trend in the market consisting of people telling me they are waiting for an Android-based iPod competitor which works with WiFi and has a microphone. While many contemplate the Google business model for their new Nexus One phone I can tell you that sales of this device without GSM connectivity are likely to be strong.

The obvious question I have asked people looking for such a device is - well, why not buy an iPod. In some cases the lack of multitasking is the issue. In others it's the lack of microphone or the dislike of a closed app store which is controlled by Apple.

To me this shows that the iPod Touch will likely have to have a camera and microphone going forward or Cupertino risks losing marketshare. And perhaps the company will even begin to allow multitasking if we continue to ask politely.

When I told some people that they can take a Barnes and Noble Nook and convert it into an open Android Tablet they seem very excited about the idea.

Ironically these same people don't seem to want an Android-powered laptop - preferring a Microsoft OS.

Google does not need help taking over the world but if they are smart, they will consider getting an iPod competitor on the market and do so quickly. Apple for its part is no slouch and they realize the challenge ahead.

Apple's superiority comes in part from their App Store which is powered by the largest mobile developer community in the world. Ironically, the company continues to really piss off these same developers who continue to complain to me about the arcane rules and regulations which keep programs from being approved.

The logical thing for Apple to do is to continue to loosen up App Store restrictions. I sense more and more people are seeing Google as a serious enough alternative to Apple's products for them to consider evolving.

One final note worth sharing is the PDA market was effectively slain by the smartphone. This is coming from the Chairman of a show called Planet PDA. Moreover the iPod Touch is the PDA of today and the Android-powered tablet effectively becomes the PDA of the new decade.

Palm execs once told me the PDA is not where the action is -- it is the smartphone market that they need to be in. Sortly thereafter they purchased Treo. It is so interesting to see that both markets seem to be doing very well but Palm is not a major player in either. While Palm was laser focused on competing with RIM, Apple introduced a pocket-sized media player which eventually allowed them to take away Palm's existing and future smartphone business.

The opinions and views expressed in comments, blogs, etc. are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of TMC, TMCnet, or its editors. TMCnet reserves the right to edit, delete, or otherwise make changes to the content that appears on these pages at its own discretion and as it deems necessary.

Source:Android-Based iPod Competitor Wanted

How To Set Up Your Voice Mail on the iPhone

2009-12-17T12:08:00.005+05:30

Have you just bought a new iPhone and are having a hard time getting the voice mail set up? You may have spent hours on the phone with customer service and gotten nowhere. Here, you will find the help you need to get your voice mail set up easily.

The first thing is not to put the SIM card from your old phone into your iPhone. Everything else will work but you voice mail and visual mail will likely not work. If you go to an AT&T store, you can get a new SIM put in your phone and help with getting everything from your old SIM card transferred to it.

Now you are ready for the next step. Call customer service at AT&T (the exclusive iPhone service provider in the US) and tell the representative that you need to setup voice mail. Be sure to tell him or her to check to make sure the forwarding feature to forward calls to your voice mail is turned on. This is something that is often overlooked by customer service representatives. Once this is done, you are ready to actually setup voice mail.

Before you begin, it is a good idea to know what password you want to use. Might write down what you want to record as your outgoing message, too. Doing this will save time and make the process to setup voice mail go smoother.

Your password should be between 6 and 15 characters. Make sure it is something you can remember but others will find impossible to guess. Now you tap the voice mail icon on your iPhone. You will be asked to create a password at this point. Enter the password you have created and then you will be asked to record a greeting. You will have the option of using a default iPhone voice mail greeting that will include your phone number or you can record your own. You can change your greeting at any time by tapping voice mail, greeting, custom and then record. Do not forget to save your greeting once you are satisfied with it.

Students at Penn state who subscribe to Penn iPhone can log in to My iPhone and setup voice mail for their iPhones. PennKey authentication will be required. Once on the home page, look for Features and Voice Mail and go to that page. Here, you will put in the password you have created. You can change this password at any time by logging in on My iPhone or through the voice mail icon on your phone. After you have entered your password, re-enter it is the field, Confirm Password. After up press the submit button, your account will be updated to include it.

To record your greeting, press the 'messages' button, it will be to the right of the keypad. Press '0' to bring up the mailbox options. From there, you will be prompted to choose the type of greeting you want, such as busy, unavailable and name. Then you will get a prompt from the system to record your greeting. When you are finished, choose accept, listen and, if you desire, re-record. When you are satisfied with your greeting, press * or # to go back to the menu or exit.

Learn about other iPhone features by checking out our website. You can also download your free iPod report while you are there.

Source: How To Set Up Your Voice Mail on the iPhone

Importance Of Logo Designs For Business by Lonard Math

2009-12-16T12:10:00.001+05:30

Logo is an essential branding element that promotes the business of an organization. It represents the identity of the company in the marketplace. It is one of the important marketing materials that promote the organization. It is a graphical illustration of the company that represents the vision and values of an enterprise. This graphical symbol reflects the philosophy and mission of the company. They are used on different types of corporate literature. They are also used for advertisements and other such purposes. The purpose of creating a logo for the company is that the viewer gets attracted towards this graphical symbol. It should be able to leave an everlasting impact on the mind of the viewer.

A designer should consider various factors in mind while designing an attractive logo. An attractive company logo uses all those design elements that best reflects the company. A designer can make use of colors in the logo that makes it appear vibrant and brilliant in appearance. Colors play an essential role in communicating the intended message subtly to the viewer. Before selecting the colors you should conduct a research on the customers. Different colors have different implications for different types of viewers. These implications of the shades depend largely on the culture of the prospective customers. For instance, in some religions black color is associated with sorrow and red denotes happiness. Depending on the product as well as the culture of the potential customers, a marketer should select those colors that are acceptable. One should choose those shades that are liked and readily accepted by the prospective customers. A logo can be given a shape of various designs and patterns. However, a designer should not overuse the patterns or design elements. The overuse of the designs makes the trademark appear unattractive and difficult to comprehend. Create a simple and elegant design for the trademark. Simplicity makes the logo appear lucid and striking in appearance.

Importance of a good logo is that it makes your company appear professional. It conveys a sense of credibility, authenticity and reliability about the organization. The customer can associate the product with the company. One is also able to associate a brand image with the particular company. For designing perfect logos for your business there are many logo software available.

About the Author

Lonard Math is a business analyst as well as web designer who has more than 7 years experience in Logo designs for designing brochures, business stationary, websites, content writing etc. In this article he discusses about business logo. For more information about logo maker, logo creator, logo designer, logo software, please visit http://www.logosmartz.com

Converting PDF to Document Rapidly and Economically by sanerrijet

2009-12-16T12:07:00.001+05:30

Portable Document Format is a non-editable computer application. This file format is highly portable and accessible across multiple platforms. The PDF document is the most secure file format as compared to other computer applications. The PDF documents have fewer chances from being getting infected from virus. It also supports multimedia content making the presentation of the document more professional.

There are times when the users require editing the PDF documents. This is feasible when the PDF file is converted into Word file format. The Word file format makes the user to exercise more flexibility. The Word has got advanced editable features with which you can customize the entire document as per the requirement. It equips the user to deploy the fonts, colors, hyperlinks, bookmarks, tables, columns and much more. For converting the PDF file format to Word document there are many converter tools available. These tools aim at making the task of the user easy and smooth during conversion.

There are two types of PDF converter tools available and those are online and offline converter tools. The Online converters can convert the files when the user has access to the Internet. For this purpose, you may need to upload the PDF files online and provide an email address. These tools send the converted file to your mail address. However, people use these tools less when they have to convert the files containing confidential or personal information. Second type of tool is an offline converter tool that does not require an Internet for the conversion. A user has to install the tool on his system and then convert the files. This is more reliable for converting files with confidential information. Using Offline Converter Tools for Conversion:

These tools can convert the PDF to Word and back to PDF instantly and easily. Some advanced tools do not require any specific configurations for the purpose of installation. There are other tools that can convert number of files at the same time. You can also select the pages of the document that you want to convert. Other tools can also encrypt your PDF files with password while converting the edited Word file to PDF file. These tools can also remove the password restrictions of any PDF that you want to convert to Word. You should find out the trail version of the tool before purchasing any such tool.

About the Author

Saner Rijet is an IT professional with over 7 years experience working in academic and industry. For an easy solution to convert your Word to PDF documents; visit his site at PDF Converter.

Affordable Nokia 5235 Arrives

2009-12-16T12:05:00.001+05:30

Soon after the announcement of the Nokia 5230, it's time now to welcome another Music oriented phone from Nokia. Say hello to the just introduced Nokia 5235. Note that the 5230 was not an XpressMusic branded phone, neither is this one. However, it does come with the "Comes With Music" service loaded.

The 5235 is being marketed as a "Comes With Music" phone - which means the device will come preloaded with quite a few free audio tracks and will come with a 12 or 18 month subscription for Nokia's Comes with Music service - all for free. This service allows users to access Nokia's Music library and download tracks for free. The phone is similar to the 5230 and boasts of a decent spec sheet that should keep most users happy.

The phone features a 3.2-inch resistive touchscreen that displays the Symbian S6- V5 standard resolution of 360*640, 3G connectivity and full GPS support with Ovi Maps. Being a music oriented device, there is a very much needed 3.5mm jack provided as well. The camera is not a very impressive 2-megapixel unit. The phone supports memory expansion with microSD cards and can take upto 16GB of external memory. A 1320mAH battery should provide enough power to last 33 hours of continuous music playback.

The 5235 is expected to be out by the first quarter of 2010 and will retail at around 145 Euros (Rs. 10,000).

India has Almost 500 mln Mobile Users

2009-12-16T11:47:00.002+05:30

The ever swelling number of wireless connections in India will cross the 500 million mark sometime this later this (or by early next year) month, as The Times of India reports. With the country inching towards crossing the 500 million mark once an unthinkable number, India has reaffirmed its place as the country with the second largest number of mobile phone users in the world, right behind China.

Note that the figure of 500 million is for the number of mobile subscribers only. The overall number of connections (including that of fixed line) has already crossed a staggering 550 million in the country. The teledensity in the country has reached a very respectable 45 percent. In urban centres, it is almost 97 percent. The rural teledensity is still low at just 18 percent. India was at 488.40 million (wireless) subscribers at the end of October 2009 and the current projections are calculated guesses taking into account the rate of growth observed for the past few months.

While it's a rosy picture on the wireless front, the wireline sector is facing a continuous drop in the number of users. It is down to 37.25 million now. India's broadband penetration too stands embarrassingly low with just 7.5 million people having access to broadband Internet! Bandwidth IS a major issue in India, it seems! It is remarkable that India continuous to grow at amazing rates even though the telephony sector has been in a mess for the past few years owing to licensing, spectrum allotment and all other controversies.
Source: Techtree.com

PHP Programming Services

2009-12-14T17:48:00.001+05:30

PHP Application development company India provides PHP development, PHP programming, PHP Application development services. Hire PHP Programmers, PHP developers, Cost Effective PHP programming team for CAKE PHP Programming at Ashi Softwares.

Offshore Software Development Company

2009-12-14T17:47:00.002+05:30

Ashi Softwares is Custom Software Development Company in India.

Custom Software Development Company in India Ashi Software offers software development solutions like, software development Services, custom software development and application software development services. Ashi Software is a software development firm, offering customized software development services.