Nov 19 2008
Some interesting reading :
http://www.seobook.com/googles-relevancy-algorithms-change-keyword
I thought I’d chart the head vs. tail to get a better comparison than the pie charting he used … interesting nonetheless.
(Y axis is percentage)
Sep 12 2008
A new site I helped to get going and is now about to launch … http://www.gamer-gear.co.za, the new site that replaces http://www.rudra.co.za.
Gamer Gear creates and merchandises gaming gear & apparel specifically for gamers - a nice niche to focus on!
My personal favourite is the Zombie Repellant shirt design, while relatively understated, it does make it’s point!
Enjoy!
Sep 03 2008
The latest offering from Google, especially for you early adopters out there!
>> http://www.google.com/chrome
Sep 02 2008
Hi all,
Something I’ve been kinda expecting, what with Google’s constant expansion beyond search - is when will they build their own browser? A browser that intergrates rather seamlessly with the rest of their offering - a thin client to Google? If this goes the way of Mozilla Firefox, with the open source community being able to add the tremendous value that was proven with a record 21.1% market share (source) - then I think we can expect to see great things from this project …
Read below for the full article!
Google Chrome, Google’s Browser Project
- Google Chrome is Google’s open source browser project. As rumored before under the name of “Google Browser”, this will be based on the existing rendering engine Webkit. Furthermore, it will include Google’s Gears project.
- The browser will include a JavaScript Virtual Machine called V8, built from scratch by a team in Denmark, and open-sourced as well so other browsers could include it. One aim of V8 was to speed up JavaScript performance in the browser, as it’s such an important component on the web today. Google also say they’re using a “multi-process design” which they say means “a bit more memory up front” but over time also “less memory bloat.” When web pages or plug-ins do use a lot of memory, you can spot them in Chrome’s task manager, “placing blame where blame belongs.”
- Google Chrome will use special tabs. Instead of traditional tabs like those seen in Firefox, Chrome puts the tab buttons on the upper side of the window, not below the address bar.
- The browser has an address bar with auto-completion features. Called ’omnibox’, Google says it offers search suggestions, top pages you’ve visited, pages you didn’t visit but which are popular amd more. The omnibox (“omni” is a prefix meaning “all”, as in “omniscient” – “all-knowing”) also lets you enter e.g. “digital camera” if the title of the page you visited was “Canon Digital Camera”. Additionally, the omnibox lets you search a website of which it captured the search box; you need to type the site’s name into the address bar, like “amazon”, and then hit the tab key and enter your search keywords.
- As a default homepage Chrome presents you with a kind of “speed dial” feature, similar to the one of Opera. On that page you will see your most visited webpages as 9 screenshot thumbnails. To the side, you will also see a couple of your recent searches and your recently bookmarked pages, as well as recently closed tabs.
- Chrome has a privacy mode; Google says you can create an “incognito” window “and nothing that occurs in that window is ever logged on your computer.” The latest version of Internet Explorer calls this InPrivate. Google’s use-case for when you might want to use the “incognito” feature is e.g. to keep a surprise gift a secret. As far as Microsoft’s InPrivate mode is concerned, people also speculated it was a “porn mode.”
- Web apps can be launched in their own browser window without address bar and toolbar. Mozilla has a project called Prism that aims to do similar (though doing so may train users into accepting non-URL windows as safe or into ignoring the URL, which could increase the effectiveness of phishing attacks).
- To fight malware and phishing attempts, Chrome is constantly downloading lists of harmful sites. Google also promises that whatever runs in a tab is sandboxed so that it won’t affect your machine and can be safely closed. Plugins the user installed may escape this security model, Google admits.
This looks like a very interesting project, and I think it can’t hurt to have more competition in the browser area. Google is playing this as nicely as possible by open-sourcing things, with perhaps part of the reason to try to defend against monopoly accusations – after all, Google already owns a lot of what’s happening inside the browser, and some may feel owning a browser too could be a little too much power for a single company (Google could, for instance, release browser features that benefit their sites more than most other sites… as can Microsoft with Internet Explorer). For now, until Chrome is released in a testable version, how much of the speed, stability and user interface promises will be fullfilled – and how much of the interface you’ll be able to configure in case you don’t like it – remains to be seen.
Full Article: http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2008-09-01-n47.html
More screen shots http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2008-09-02-n72.html
Aug 20 2008
I find myself using this web tool more and more, mainly to get a validation of my gut feel when presented with a new site to critique / review. And I have to say - it’s a very, very handy tool. Websitegrader.com. It provides me with a clear, objective snapshot of the site in question, based on:
This all means that I can very rapidly make an assessment, revert my findings and thinking to a potential client and not get bogged down in analysis-paralysis - which in today’s information overload, is entirely possible!
So, next time you want to get an idea of how a site is doing, try this web tool, websitegrader, and get answers. fast!
One last thing, it’s great for Competitor Analysis too - but I’ll leave that to you to play with!
Aug 12 2008
I thought I’d write a few lines about a tool you might find very useful: the Duplicate Content Tool. Duplicate content is the name of a filter applied to search engines queries returning two or more relevant pages too similar to each other: as an effect, pages considered duplicates, or near-duplicates, of the first relevant results are excluded. This functionality is designed to serve the best assortment of results.
The tool visits the two pages you requested it to examine: it compares the two outputs and looks for differences, then it gives you a percentual index that shows how much difference there is between them.
So when having a Quality Score issue with Adwords - this might be a way to determine if your content is being filtered …
Have fun - it’s a really cool gadget!
Jul 29 2008
Hi again,
A straight punt for the survey, I know, but last year’s one brought some fascinating insight, much like SEOMoz ’s survey recently. The web is about participation, so get going 
Taken verbatim from Zeldman.com :
It’s back, it’s improved, and it’s hungry for your data. It’s A List Apart’s second annual survey for people who make websites.
Last year nearly 33,000 of you took the survey, enabling us to begin figuring out what kinds of job titles, salaries, and work situations are common in our field.
This year’s survey corrects many of last year’s mistakes, with more detailed and numerous questions for freelance contractors and owners of (or partners in) small web businesses. There are also better international categories, and many other improvements recommended by those who took the survey last year.
Please take the survey and encourage your friends and colleagues who make websites to do likewise.
Jul 18 2008
View the opening products at ChessCube Store now!
The products are videos that you can add to your ChessCube Cinema Library and watch over and over - well known IM Andrew Martin takes you through the Opening Suggestions for Black I & II.
This is a fun and easy Video to watch. You gain high-level training from a senior chess master.
No DVDs, no shipping fees!
Simply download your video into ChessCube Cinema via the web and you can be watching Opening Suggestions for Black I (and II) in a few minutes!
Jul 16 2008
A tool I have been using for a while - SEOMoz Page Strength tool (old URL: http://www.seomoz.org/page-strength) has been retired in favour of:
Measure the strength of pages, blogs and entire domains based on factors inherent to popularity, influence and ranking ability. See your impact and compare against others in your industry. NOTE: Trifecta replaces SEOmoz’s popular Page Strength tool with powerful upgrades and enhanced accuracy.
My thoughts:
This is a nice and clear evolution of the tool and now allows you to test a unique page, a whole site, or for variation a blog as they are all different and should be measured more appropriately.
Page test for a site I’m working on:
As you can see, identifying areas for improvement becomes easy, and by reviewing the data collection and score comparisons you can see a more granular indication of what to start with. All in all, a very handy addition to the SEOmoz Tools Suite!
Jul 07 2008
After watching the video about Solving Indexing Issues by Rand Fishkin of SEOMoz, I wanted to summarise the great tips he gives so that it can be reused in documentation as part of the strategy for a website.
Enjoy!
SEOmoz Whiteboard Friday-Solving Indexation Problems from Scott Willoughby on Vimeo.
