Blog Economy
Sunday, September 27, 2009
posted by Shirazi @ 8:37 PM,
, links to this post
My Idea of Ideal Vacations
Saturday, September 26, 2009
posted by Shirazi @ 10:38 AM,
, links to this post
What Next
Friday, September 25, 2009
Let us assume that you also have a blog or two on a platform (software) of your choice. You have also defined your goals, your target audience, and the type of content you will be writing. Your next aim is to pick the right blogging tools that work for you and reach out.
In addition to integration of blogging tools into available free as well as premium blogging software, new blogging tools and services are being released every day to help blog masters add new features to their blogs. It can become quite overwhelming to choose between them all.
How to choose the best from among a number of blog promotion tools and add-ons? That depends on your goals, your expertise, time you have to play around and the platform you are using. Here are a few common solutions for different situations.
Any serious blogger needs to read a lot of others' blog to know what is going on in ever expanding blogsphere – Technorati alone in its Oct 2006 report claims to track 57 million blogs. One of the marvel of technology is that you can have every new post from every blog you want to read delivered direct to you RSS (Really Simple Syndication). Bloglines is a good online choice to start feed reading. There are so many others.
Similarly you can make it easier for your readers to subscribe to your blog's RSS feed. "RSS is a protocol, an application of XML (Extensible Markup Language) that provides an open method of syndicating and aggregating Web content. Using RSS files, you can create a data feed that supplies headlines, links, and article summaries from your Web site. Users can have constantly updated content from web sites delivered to them via a news aggregator, a piece of software specifically tailored to receive these types of feeds," reads a Web definition. One of the ways to do this is to go to FeedBurner and burn your own RSS feed their and use the tools they provide to set up automatic subscriber links so that even people who want to use Bloglines, Google Reader, MyYahoo or Pluck can subscribe to. It can be figured out without the buttons but why not have a prominently visible button? Also create an option for people to subscribe by giving email address so that they can receive your blog posts like an email message. FeedBurner offers this service for free.
FeedBurner also offers automatic pinging but in case you want to use separate service for pinging, try PingGoat and Ping O Matic. Most blog software these days ping each post automatically though.
As readers walk from blog to blog they may find interesting sites that they want to point out to own readers. Online bookmark managers allow readers to collect, bookmark and categorize blog pages and all other interesting stuff found on the web. I use del.icio.us but BlinkList does a fine job as well.
Statistics produced by analyzing the access logs for a blog are very useful for the success of blogs in addition to being a big ego booster for the webmaster. Number of hits also determines the click through rate for those who have subscribed to Google AdSense or other similar affiliate programs. Countless technologies make it possible to track statistics in real time to show what other web users may be visiting or better still might be linking to you or posting about your blog. Technorati does this job fine. Similarly mymloglog not only tells where traffic is coming from but also tracks what links on my blog visitors are clicking on.
With almost all blog software you must go online and post using a set of tools provided by the blog software. Many bloggers like to use a desktop application (like w.blogger, Performancing and Qumana) to create and publish their posts as it gives them some extra help and allows them to more easily integrate content and files on their computer. May be these look like they are for more tech savvy folks but no harm in trying and learning in the process.
Many bloggers display automatically changing daily quotes or cartoons on the sidebar of their blog for their own interest or for that of their readers. I am not counting different revenue generating blog affiliates (Google AdSense, Amazon) that turn in content related ads on any blog.
The choice is endless and users can have anything on their blogs from blogchat to blogmap to time, temperature and weather display of any area or a nifty new blogbar ( blogbar.com) that allows to search from twelve search engines from single search box that can be put on any site. On one blog, I clicked on the array of symmetrically stacked colorful buttons and found Email Icon Generator, Official Seal Generator. Good thing about blogger community is sharing when any thing new is announced. That way it gets moving in blogsphere fast.
Since 2003 when I started blogging, I have been using many blog tools. Fact is that any new announcement used to attract me to try. But over time I have settled for site meter (statcounter.com), analytical tools (Google Analytics), news aggregators and news sourcing tools (Technorati and Blogpulse), polls (blogpolls.com), email subscription and newsletter service (feedblitz.com) and some other like pingoat, audiobloger, blogrolling, picasa and flickr.
When my daily blogging time starts, I first go to my invisible site meter to find who has been reading me and surfing my blogs. Then I read my feeds and know what has been happening on blogs of my interest since I last went offline book marking items of my interests in the process. In the meantime, I plan, write and post my own entries and start pinging. At the end I read the feedback I get, firing of some replies. That is what keeps me going.
What blog tools are you using?
posted by Shirazi @ 11:16 AM,
, links to this post
Bicycle Diaries
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Labels: Armchair Traveler, Books
posted by Shirazi @ 9:47 AM,
, links to this post
Ignorance Leads to Chaos
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Secondly, in this blog post we will update you on some discussion points and make some general announcements that will make you understand ImHalal.com better.
When we started developing ImHalal.com our vision was to create a safe and clean environment for Muslims to search the World Wide Web. Alternative search engines don’t offer the same product we do. Using ImHalal.com will prevent you from “accidentally” bumping into explicit content. If you deliberately go looking for explicit content you might find what you are looking for after a while and that’s why we advise those people to use alternative search engines since ImHalal.com isn’t designed for those purposes.
You’re In Charge Of Your Own Actions
If you go searching for “Pamela Anderson” for example, you know who “Pamela Anderson” is and you know exactly what kind of results will be fetched. Even though our filters will filter about 95% of all explicit content about “Pamela Anderson” we advise our users to use ImHalal.com with discretion. You’re in charge of your own actions.
Our Haram Rating System
We make use of a two layer filter system. The first filter analyzes the World Wide Web and only returns clean results. The second filter which triggers the Haram rating system is a more aggressive filter which still needs to be improved on some grounds but already is functioning pretty good.
After the brief explanation of how our filter system works, let us inform you more about our Haram rating system. This system is designed to facilitate several purposes such as functioning as a warning system, child protection system and to inform Muslims and or Non-Muslims what is supposed to be “Haram” or not according to the Islamic Law. We have ranked terms like “pork”, “alcohol” and “beer” for educational purposes only since even we dummies are aware of the fact that you can’t drink or eat anything trough the internet .
*When you get a Haram warning of 1 out of 3 this means that the results fetched by ImHalal.com could potentially contain explicit content but if you think the results will be clean you still can continue your search.
*When you get a Haram warning of 2 out of 3 this means that the results fetched by ImHalal.com probably will contain explicit content but if your really sure your search will return clean results you can continue your search.
*Last but most certainly not least when you get a Haram warning of 3 out of 3 this means that the search results will most certainly contain sexual explicit content and so you can’t continue your search and you are advised to try another search inquiry.
Censorship?
There is some buzz about ImHalal.com being “a dangerous tool since we are a heavily censored search engine”, while the only content we heavily censor is pornographic content. Besides explicit sexual content we don’t censor anything since we only filter content! After being warned by our system you are in charge to determine if you will continue your search or not. Only when you trigger of the Haram warning of level 3 out of 3 you are protected by our search engine from bumping into highly sexual explicit content.
This is what the CEO said in the first interview he gave to The Media Line News Agency on the day ImHalal.com went live: “ImHalal.com is not a dictatorial search engine which believes in censorship, we want people to be able to continue their online search, commented Sardeha”. And no political or religious censorship has been implemented or will be implemented in the future.
Announcements
*This month is dedicated to fine tuning our filters. If you encounter any flaws or you believe we have filtered a specific search term too aggressively please contact us at: feedback@imhalal.com.
*ImHalal.com has already received more than 500,000 unique visitors from all around the world!
*Help us promoting ImHalal.com by telling all your friends and family about us and set ImHalal.com as your homepage.
posted by Shirazi @ 10:19 PM,
, links to this post
KAUST
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology is coming up big. Read here!
posted by Shirazi @ 10:17 PM,
, links to this post
New Forrester Study
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
posted by Shirazi @ 8:43 AM,
, links to this post
Free SMS
Monday, September 14, 2009
posted by Shirazi @ 10:33 AM,
, links to this post
New Blogs in Pakistan Blogsphere
posted by Shirazi @ 9:31 AM,
, links to this post
Which URL Shortner Serice You Use?
Or am I missing your favorite?
posted by Shirazi @ 8:25 AM,
, links to this post
posted by Shirazi @ 6:20 AM,
, links to this post
Tweet Directory
Sunday, September 13, 2009
TwieeFind is ceated to help people find new Twitters to follow and a place where people can add their own Twitter accounts to a Twitter Directory. Join in now!
posted by Shirazi @ 6:35 PM,
, links to this post
Twitter New Terms of Service
Friday, September 11, 2009
Overview: http://blog.twitter.com
Terms: http://www.twitter.com/tos
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com
Labels: Twitter
posted by Shirazi @ 3:45 PM,
, links to this post
Twitter to Generate Revenue it Grows Like ‘Gangbusters’
Thursday, September 10, 2009
posted by Shirazi @ 11:34 AM,
, links to this post
Web Hosting Choices
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
posted by Shirazi @ 8:43 AM,
, links to this post
Have You Changed Your HomePage
Monday, September 7, 2009
Homepage, also called as a default page, "is the main page or the first page of a Website that a browser opens with, or where the browser will return if the Home button on the Navigation toolbar is pressed." Good homepage should attract, hold the attention of the visitors and direct them to content within the rest of the site. Webmasters and designers obviously go a long way in their endeavors that users make their sites' Homepages as their own, apart from tweaking them for the search engines. Most Websites have options like this: 'Make us your home page, click here to make us your home page, click to make this as a default page. But that is not enough particularly with savvy and choosy users.
Typically, a homepages provides background of the Website they belong to and links to other information sources. Homepages are more general in focus and introduce the main concepts, rather than focusing specifically on one subject. Users have the option to set the homepage {click on tools on the browser toolbar, Internet options, and Use Current or Use Default (that in case of Windows is MSN homepage) or Use Blank} of their choice; some do it and some others do not bother.
One wonders what users look for when they select homepages on their own machines. Having seen a lot of homepages, I have been asking a few of the Internet users what theirs is. Why they like it? Why did they prefer it and what they use it for? Empirical observations show that over 65 percent users just leave it as whatever it was when they got their computer. Mostly, it is MSN homepage in case of local users because it comes with the Windows operating System. "They simply may be casual or may be lacking know how to manipulate and set their homepage afresh, says Webmaster Fauji Foundation Hospital Site Zahid Shazad.
Out of those who change their home page, some 15 percent have a blank page and the rest (20 percent) have selected their most favorite site's home page as their. Aamir Waqas, a working journalist says, "I have set my browser to open as blank page when I launch it. I like it uncluttered and simple. I have to work on different sites they are all bookmarked in Favorite cache. I just point my mouse to any one I want to explore and it opens. It is simple."
Besides contents, the convenience matters. Users prefer to do their job with least possible clicks. Dr. Farid Abbas, a research fellow who writes research based case studies for post graduate students in one university says, "I have set Yahoo Mail as my home page because I find it easy to go to my inbox that is at Yahoo. But I keep changing it. When I am doing some project, I have the home page of related site."
Search the net is one major activity online. Every user searches the net for one thing or the other. One study says that "75 percent of Internet users gather web contents, while 25 percent search for specific items." Hence many users are found with search engine set as home page on their machines; Google at the top.
Design of the home page is one of the major attractions for the young users – the fraternity that have diverse interests and activities online. Some love to search things they like online, others like the news about games that a few of the portals display in their ever rotating tiles. Those who are found of sending greeting cards have sites, which offer the greeting cards facility, as their home page. I found a couple of young users having sites as their home pages that dish out similies, new one every day.
Those who have their own Websites, personal or business, like to see own page first and set them as default. "It is an ego boaster to see ones own name, product or company, says Dr. Muhammad Anwar, a sociologist.
The phenomenon of selecting home page has taken a new dimension with new surge of self published Websites called Web logs (blogs). According to Technorati, a company considered authority on what is going on in the Blogosphere, "The current number of blogs is now over 8 times bigger than the 500,000 blogs it measured in June, 2003. The company tracked 3 million blogs as of the first week of July 2004, and has added over 1 million blogs to its stable since then. Another report says that new weblog is created every 5.8 seconds. That roughly translates into 15,000 new blogs every day. Many Internet users are maintaining their own blogs and of course they like to set them as their home pages, for increasing their hit counts if nothing else.
Blogs are ultimate in customisation. Users can link all what they need on one page. (Yes, I too have linked every thing I need on the Internet including search facility on my blog and have set that as a home page.) Home pages of the Websites are being used to construct identity of people or products. Every one of the Webmasters and marketers is vying for users' attention. On the other hand, much choice is available to the users and when they come to a site, "almost 8 out of 10 of the Internet users are saying this: I have been lead here, now what next.
Tell me why I should visit here again; let alone making this my home page." More choice the users have, choosier they will become and this will go on and on. So what is your? You are welcome to make my home page as yours.
posted by Shirazi @ 9:40 AM,
, links to this post
When You Smile, World Smiles With You...
Saturday, September 5, 2009
The tiny winy sequences of type characters referred to as smileys or emoticons are universal among those who live on the web across cultures through out the cyber world. Sometimes amusing and at times meaningful, smileys are used in electronic communication to enrich the meaning of text based messages.
The idea of graphically depicting human emotions is not new. BBC claims that, “the original smiley was created in 1964 by commercial artist Harvey Ball.” Russian writer Vladimir Nobaokov who authored Lolita, answering a question in 1969 was quoted by Scott E. Fahlman as saying , “I often think there should exist a special typographichal sign for a smile- some sort of concave mark, a supine round bracket.”
“The emoticon or “smiley” being discussed is the first ASCII smiley,” reads Plato Emoticons, “like so many things, PLATO was doing emoticons and smileys, online and on screen years earlier. In fact, emoticons on PLATO were already an art form by 1976. PLATO users began doing smiley characters probably as early as 1972 (when PLATO IV came out), but possible even earlier of PLATO III.”
Consensus is that the original ASCII smiley {:- )} with which every one on the World Wide Web is so familiar came into existence with a note written by neural networks researcher Scott E. Fahlman of September 19, 1982 as a means of indicating a joke marker during a contentious online bulletin board discussion. The origin of this smiley has been meticulously searched by Mike Jones and Jeff Baird. It has led to the creation of many other facial expressions built with keyboard characters as well as invention of the term emoticon- a combination of words emotions and icons- to describe them all during the past over two decades. Web mail and instant messaging service providers like AOL, MSN and Yahoo! And some dedicated websites not only list the digital displays of these human emotions but also turn them into thematic imagery. Inclusion of emoticons in Web mail and chat windows by the three providers has done best of popularize them among millions of their subscribers all over the world.
Communication experts are of the opinion that when using text-based online messages, smileys provide for lack of the body language or tone of voice cues that convey meaning when talking face to face or on the telephone. They are innovative and add a splash of colour in the otherwise eerie uniformity of a sloppy prose.
Some critics, who are more conscious about preserving languages, shrink at the very idea of smileys, arguing that writers should have no need to explicitly put a label on their state of mind or heart. As was being done since the invention of the written word, writers should have no need to explicitly put a label on their state of mind or heart. As was being done since the invention of the written word, writers should be able to express themselves with words alone instead. But proliferating the use of smileys indicated that they have already been accepted as a mainstream phenomenon.
Smileys are being used in e-mails, chat rooms, bulltin boards, newsgroups, blogs or where ever human beings get together in digital form; it is no more possible to use the internet without encountering these curious creatures. They have started appearing on mobile phone screens as well. What is more, smileys come into view in students’ work, on class room blackboards and on different market items from bedspreads to mugs to mouse pads. Large size smileys are seen in cybercafés. They are also being used in letters written in long hand and sent by snail mail.
In the process, the undertone of smileys is evolving from just humouous to more expressive. Which is why besides enthusiastic youngsters, academicians, editors and professionals are using smileys fro greater creativity and expression?
The internet is visibly changing the traditional frontiers of human communication. Zaheer Hassan, a recently laid off knowledge worker, still hangs around in America, armed with excellent interpersonal skills. He is heavily dependent on e-mail in work and he pithily makes use of smileys. “Emotions have become an important part of the online culture,” he says, “They make it easy and quick to communicate emotions- something that many people find difficult to express using words- particularly when dealing with people from diverse social and educational backgrounds.”
Mary, a busy IT analyst and writer from Canada e-mailed in response to a query, “It is true that e-mails do not accurately capture our feelings. How could they? Most are written quickly, with little regard for nouns or are just official communication. I recall an incident at work when a young lady caused a lot of aggravation to a co-worker due to her (perceived) abrasive style. Confronted by the manager, she was at a loss and started crying, she simply was not good with written communication. Emoticons may help somewhat. I personally do not use them; I rely on my words to do the whole job. I think a lot also depends on who the recipient is, style or the rapport of the sender with other person. If the two correspondents do not know each other’s style, mishap can occur. Emoticons introduce a note of informality… I can hardly imagine an e-mail from our corporate heads bearing emoticons. It is suitable for peer to peer communication.”
“Emoticons may seem silly, but they fulfill an important function. Though emoticons cannot replace the full range of non-verbal communication,” e-mailed Maria Iqbal, “they can go a long way towards changing the mood of written statement, and the : -) or the (acronym that I think looks like smileys) can make it clear that you mean something in a light hearted manner, just as a reassuring smile or laugh might if you were speaking. So while I personally do not use a wide range of emoticons, or use them very often, I believe they are important tools for online communication.” Nan McCarthy, an expert in online relationship and author of three famous books (“chat”, “connect”, and “crash”) writes, “The primary purpose of emoticons in e-mail and live chats is to minimize misunderstandings, especially when a joke could be misconstrued as a serious statement and therefore hurt the recipient’s feelings. Hence, the frequent use of smiley faces, however, emoticons should not be overused or take the place of good writing and clear communication, even in live chats.”
Shahid Salahud Din, a programmer who spends most of his working time on computer, says “The last thing I want to do is writing more than what is absolutely necessary. So I use these typographical smileys that are computer equivalent of handmade drawings advantageously whenever I can. The problem is that smileys are yet not standard. There are so many different dictionaries each defining them differently dictionaries each defining them differently. Many have to be explained every time they are used even while communicating within IT professionals’ community.”
“I have gone past the age of sitting by a computer connected to the internet and waiting for an e mail or my chat buddies to appear online. I use computer as a useful working device. It has made my life easier as I ma more informed, accessible, and connected. I do not remember using smileys myself but I am familiar with them. I come across them every now and then mostly in mails from my contacts abroad. This is how I find out new emoticons if I cannot make sense out of them,” says Shamim Asghar, an advocate who is running his consultancy service for education abroad.
No one needs to sell to the young ones on the benefits of the internet these days. Traditionally, youth is the fraternity that has dominated the use of smileys here and elsewhere. For them smileys sometimes go beyond conveying feelings, cultural fusion or fun. Young e-mail and instant messaging enthusiasts normally remember the keystrokes for so many smileys by heart or keep a rich collection on their computers. But what is more, “rather than reading these sequences sideways they read in between and usually give deeper meaning to emoticons,” says Khalid Ahmed, a member faculty University of the Punjab.
Shahbaz Afzal is an IT undergraduate and a proud owner of a powerful machine. He keenly uses smileys in chat sessions and so many mails he exchanged with his friends and father in Dubai. “I have collected smileys from different sites, most of which sit in my favorite cache. I have also given print outs to my father and friends fro reference. They are all familiar with them” he says.
Like most people in this part of the world, I adopted this internet-ism and started using the pictographs of different facial expressions some time ago. I fine myself surfing different directories in an effort to know them all so that I am not caught “not knowing”. More and more icons are coming up every day. And, what some of my friends send me in their electronic messages sonly set me wondering where I stand with them?
It is safe to assume that new techniques of online communications will continue to evolve; smileys are one attempt at finding new ways for a new medium. Aptly and moderately used, these cute little sideway faces many are using on the internet can hit the mark perfectly or help clarify when one is being quirky or ironic or whimsical or miffed or emotional. Try them.
posted by Shirazi @ 9:06 AM,
, links to this post
To put in the clouds or not, that is the question!
Friday, September 4, 2009
Read herte
posted by Shirazi @ 11:24 AM,
, links to this post
SEO Solutions
Thursday, September 3, 2009
SEO Company is neatly laid and users friendly site. They deliver the best results and users can see the results. Have a look at the SEO proof page. Better still, engage them and let them take your presence on the web to the next level.
posted by Shirazi @ 3:39 PM,
, links to this post
Outsourcing Bookkeeping and Accounting Sevices
Those who are interested in outsourcing bookkeeping and accounting must start at Bay Business - your local outsourced accounting department. The group of experiences professionals at Bay Business offers outsourced accounting / CPA, tax preparation and outsourced bookkeeping services.
David Bradsher, CPA, organized a group of specialists for specialized accounting services that would empower small and medium businesses to focus on the core of their business instead of spending valuable time on complex financial issues. Meet David and his team and know them before you engage them.
Some of the benefits of Bay Business outsourced services include web based accounting services that allow you 24-hour access to financial reports and records. A CPA and bookkeeping services are for economical than having just a bookkeeper on staff. You can have accurate, timely and appropriate financial records useful for decision-making and much more. See the dcaa bookkeeper and quickbooks dcaa compliant.
Explore their neatly laid out site and see what they are offering and how they can become your local outsourced accounting department and make an informed business decision.
posted by Shirazi @ 9:54 AM,
, links to this post
Search My Soul
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Search engine is a coordinated set of programs that allows searching specific information on the vast expanse of the Web. The first search engine known as Archie was created in 1990 by Alan Emtage, a student at McGill University in Montreal. Now as per available information there are some 370 search engines available for Internet users out of which ten are considered major ones. Then there are directories and indexes. Here in this article both directories and indices, for the sake of clarity, are considered as search engines though there are some fundamental differences in their anatomies such as directories are human powered and search engines have crawlers or robots to do the job. A number of Web portal sites also offer both the search engine and directory approaches to finding information.
The purpose of search engines is to locate selected range of Web pages that contain words matching search keyword(s) or phrase(s). Search engines automatically try to sort the results so that only handful of the most relevant matches is presented. Every search engine searches own pre indexed data base and works using own set of rules called algorithm – a closely guarded trade secret. Some sites search not only using one search engine but also give the results from simultaneous searches of other engines. One common thing is that all search engines follow while ranking the result listing is location (where in the document are keywords located – in the beginning, in the body or at the end) and frequency (number of time keywords are repeated on a page) method for returning results. But their data bases, relevancy criteria and other strategies differ from each other. Which is one reason why the same search on different search engines produces different results? Also, some search engines index more web pages than others. Search engines may exclude some pages from their data as well. Any major search engines may be a good choice to start with when searching for information: Google is all time favourite of users all over the world. It reigns “with its empire stretching into millions of computers” as IT analyst Bill Thompson puts it. According to OneStat Google's global usage share has increased to 56.1 percent whereas Ask Jeeves stands at 1.6 percent. Another search engine, AllTheWeb also provides both good coverage of the Web and close relevancy. If Google could not deliver, chances are that AllTheWeb probably will. (All those users who have been trying Google since it was launched five years ago may recall that presently the result page of AllTheWeb is as ad free as Google’s result page used to be). In addition to Web page results, AllTheWeb provides the ability to search for news stories, pictures, video clips, MP3s and FTP files. Alta Vista, Ask Jeeves, Excite, Hot Bot, Infoseek, Inktomi, Lycos, Overture (former Go To) and Teoma are some other popular search engines. Some others are specific for countries or regions. Many search engines get their results by turning to third party search providers to power their listings. Several major search engines provide search toolbars for the browsers as a shortcut to searching the Web from within the browser without going to a search engine first. Alexa, Google, Groowe, Ultra, and Teoma search bars are most common toolbars that put search results, some from multiple search engines, right in the browser. They are useful utilities though Walton Computer Lady Patty Furgosen thinks, “some toolbars contain spyware and adware which are harmful to users’ machines and invades their privacy. I have had several such cases (in her computer repair facility) in the past that really messed up the users’ computers.” Searching for what? The amount of information on the Web has exploded for the past few years, and is growing exponentially. Number of information seekers rummaging around the Web “for enlightenment and answers” is also growing. The problem of locating information is also growing with the Web. Users want to find exactly what they want on the Internet promptly, correctly, and with little effort. Tools which support the finding of relevant material within a few mouse clicks and key strokes are becoming increasingly critical. Search engines and how they index web pages have changed drastically in the recent past, getting more scientific and meticulous by the day. But the situation is far from adequate. A survey conducted by Bright Planet estimated that the web is some 500 times larger than indicated by the results provided by popular search engines. Greater part of the body of knowledge created in the world is still not on the Web; some of the knowledge is never ever likely to be included in the cyberspace. Dr. Norbert Pintsch, a computer dependent and computer literate German architect says, “The problem is that we consider a smaller part of knowledge available on the Web as a whole forgetting the larger part.” Some of the knowledge is off limits to search engines being behind the subscriptions or security firewalls. In today’s increasingly commercial information society, one more thing that any innocent user mining the Internet for information should understand is what goes on before search results appear on the result page of any search engine. The fact that, more than ever, companies, businesses, website owners and Webmasters alike continue to optimize their sites as much as they can. The ones that do continue to harvest the yields of their efforts and are rewarded in the search results. Marketers think that search results listings are much more effective than any other form of online advertisements, and businesses are more than willing to pay for better placement. Hence the paid inclusions -- marketing in which companies pay price to the search engines to get their Web site crawled more often and more thoroughly so that they figure out prominently in search results. Google and Overture have hundreds of thousands of advertisers paying them huge amounts for getting prominent places in result listings. Trend watchers estimate that about 30 percent of search on the Internet is already purely commercial. These attempts to attract people's attention by taking measures mislead automated search engines and they churn out skewed and biased results. Mergers, acquisitions, partnerships and “estimated growth of 10 to 30 percent” in the search industry also point out to the dynamism of the search phenomenon and points to major changes in near future. Search companies are spending huge sums to improve their service and to look different than other. They are also earning big revenues. That said; just because some particular information was not fond does not necessarily mean that it does not exist on the Web. Sometimes it takes a few searches in different search engines using inclusive key words to find required information. The best way to learn searching successfully is by reading the help files on the search engine sites and practice. Most Internet savvy users I talked to had never opened help files of the search engine and majority was found using Google only. “Why bother with the help files? Searching the Web is self explanatory and one can easily learn by trial” is the general attitude. Go for specialized search engine if there is one covering a particular topic of interest. Consider using a tool (like dogpile) that will use a number of search engines simultaneously. Use of Boolean operators (such as AND, OR and NOT) between wisely chosen search keywords and phrases can locate required results more efficiently. I wanted to remove remains of some spyware program from my computer and I typed "websavings" AND "removal". The name of the little spyware was Websavings and I wanted the removal instructions. The answer came up in the first item. Dr. Norbert says, “If search engines cannot make out the difference between academic and intellectual searches and searches for finding required product or service, searchers should.”Scouting of local users’ fraternity reveals that Web searching has not matured in Pakistan as some other Internet functions like emailing or Web surfing. Exception apart, a usual Web search starts with Google and ends up there. Besides all time Web wise top search themes, users here try to look for local contents and end up with such unfamiliar information that frustrate them. They forget that the scope of the Internet is international. “Internet naïve (but PC literate) users some time do not know the search basics and are intimidated by quantum of results their searches generate. Who really can read through dozens of pages of results produced? And if the huge quantum of documents is to be read then what is the search for,” says a University of the Punjab student Naeem Alvi? On the other hand, there are some inspiring examples of local users taking advantage of searching information on the Web: People have gone for higher studies after searching information about the desired institutions and managing admission online, have contacted specialist doctors for treatment of uncommon diseases. Many writers are conducting searches for their work on the subjects which have not made to the books and encyclopaedias – traditional sources of knowledge. Students are found searching relevant material for deeper understanding of the subjects and assignments. Users are turning to Web search for information that they can apply to problem solving on ground. Some search information to enrich their lives; soul searching. Brilliant as Web search engines are, the search technology is still evolving. It has not reached the point where humans and machines understand each other well enough to communicate clearly. People are already more perceptive and are demanding better results, and they are demanding a more powerful search experience. Given the developments taking place, importance being attached to the Web searches, one thing is certain: search technology has to go much beyond what it is today. We are likely to see some seismic changes in the field. My recommendation: try different search engines to locate the information on the Web and have enriching experience.
Labels: Search, Search Engines, World Wide Web
posted by Shirazi @ 9:45 AM,
, links to this post
Spam Art
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Lately, quite a few reports have drawn the professionals’ attention to this issue. For instance, there was a news item about a man in the US, who was sentenced to nine years in jail for sending millions of junk emails promoting pornography and sham products. Based on the analysis of all spam messages received at its global network of spam traps from January to March 2005, Sophos, a network security concern, has announced its annual list of top spam-producing countries.
Then, there is the fact that individual users are spending an increasing amount of time to dump this unwanted garbage and to look into intriguing offers that are too tempting too ignore. Even when one tries to put in simple filters to block spam, chances are that the sender simply changes one character on their address and can, therefore, easily bypass the filters. In a recent report, Ferris Research estimates that spam will cost the world about $50 billion in 2005. According to Gartner, a company with 10,000 employees, loses about $13 million worth of productivity annually, because of spam alone. This does not account for technical costs and spam from unknown senders. Another report by the European Union, estimates the global bandwidth cost of spam to be at least $8 billion annually.
The word “spam” was coined to describe the indiscriminate, internet experience that refers to “unsolicited email on the internet”. From the sender’s point of view, it is a form of bulk mail, often to a list culled from different sources. To the receiver, it usually seems like junk email.
In general, it is not considered good netiquette to send spam. Some apparently unsolicited email is, in fact, the email which people agree to receive when they register with a site and check a box agreeing to receive postings about particular products or interests,” (Whatis.com).
Zania Hussain, a techie, has much to say on the subject: “It is almost impossible to tell which unwanted mail is actually spam, especially for those who happen to be on the internet a lot and sign up for things online. Often, unwanted email might not be spam. True spam is email sent via bulk mailing lists that may not have anything to do with what one ever signed up on the internet. Purchasing email information from those where one signs up, or many other sources, generate these bulk mailing lists. It is not spam if it is not a bulk mailing list. A dead giveaway of spam is that there is no way to unsubscribe.”
When the internet changed from an academic and research network to a commercial tool, the wonderful utility of electronic communication became an easy and economical method for spamming. Commercial spammers, as well as some non-commercial users, started taking advantage of the email as their personal medium to publicize anything they want to promote — hoaxes, ideas, products or services regardless of “netiquettes,” traditional societal courtesies and or established marketing methods.
Techies and internet-savvy individuals use email services for setting up virus-free multiple email accounts, though it takes more time, navigation, and procedure, as compared to client-based services. The email service providers have ultimate control, over incoming and outgoing mails, which implies that users of these services will keep receiving spam, no matter what. The spam filters of email providers may be effective, but will let their own spam through, as well as spam from their business associates who pay the providers will also find way to the inboxes of their subscribers.
The “free-rider” spammers (people who send spam via PCs and portals using spam for promotion, or contractual third parties engaged in sending out spam) are very innovative, as far as finding the right email addresses is concerned. It is often difficult, if not impossible, to tell how spammers acquire even well-guarded email addresses in the first place. For the better part, websites offering promotional newsletters and commercial mail sometimes violate the choices subscribers exercise, while registering.
In some cases, the sites also have hidden options about use and mutual sharing of email addresses with other partners that most users fail to notice. Then, there are newsgroups and directories. Surprisingly, the chances of receiving spam are there, even if the email address has not been shared in any way. But the systems used by spammers are not very “smart,” as far as the target audience is concerned. One may find “Dear Mr. johartown” in place of name (read as personal name of the account holder from the email address) in such an email.
Some spam may also carry embedded virus contents that cause damage to the networks or users’ computers. Since the start of email abuse, network administrators and internet users have been devising various technical methods to overcome this problem. Whereas individual users may use filters, software, delete spam without opening, bear with unsolicited traffic spending internet time, while deleting them and may have a very cautious approach while using their email addresses, network administrators are deploying and increasingly sophisticated range of technologies to detect and block spammers. So far, spammers appear to be winning the race.
The effects of the spam may be network breakdowns and congestion, in the face of increasing demand for faster and bigger bandwidth by customers, whereas to senders, it costs almost nothing. Spam is unique, because the receiver pays more for it than the sender. Pakistani businesses, so far, have not added much to the bulk of spam flying around. But internet users, individual, as well as the corporate sector here, are equally exposed to the nuisance.
Some Pakistani businesses have already deployed system-wide spam filters to protect themselves. But individual users mostly are unprotected and local ISPs are not very receptive to complaints on the subject, which is why an internet user in Multan keeps getting offers to buy a house in Miami.
So what can users do to have email accounts just for own use and not for spammers? The business can, and should, deploy system filters and fight this menace at the organizational level. More importantly, they should not resort to spamming. “Individuals can, in addition to some disposable accounts for a ‘hit-and-run’ strategy with spammers, have one account with no online subscriptions, set filters on highest level provided, and add the addresses you want to communicate with,” says Zania. Chances are that spam will not pour into that account, or at least it will be manageable and will not flood your inbox, if it is not emptied for a couple of days. If spam cannot be managed, email may eventually lose its utility.
Sophos says that the “most effective way that businesses can reduce spam and other threats, is to adopt a multi-layered defence in conjunction with implementing a best practice policy regarding email account usage.”
This is a collective problem and all users should join hands and fight together. A combination of technology, legislation and internet stakeholders, along with good individual practices will certainly have an impact.
posted by Shirazi @ 12:54 PM,
, links to this post
What is a blog to you?
Internet is a lonely place without Blogging; a fine art, science, also economics. Blogs are different to different people. Fine Art of Blogging asks you to share your views on what is a blog to you?
Please contribute your thoughts on blogging in general. In particular, write how you blog? Why? How blogging matters in life and work? Success stories and inspirations. Answer these questions and more (add what you feel is important dimension for you) and email me.
Fine Art Claimer
My blogs are a resource for my writings. More often, I blog informally, sharing impressions, generating ideas to see how they invoke reactions, keeping track of others’ work in the fields of my interest, or simply ranting or pointing out things that come to my attention.
Also, I use blogging as a platform to prune ideas. This is where I meet others and share experiences. “I am neither geek, nor nerd, I am not a hacker, a phreaker, a programmer or any variety of technoid dweeb.”
