Hi Folks,

Working on my blog to make it look more fresh, more user friendly, more appealing and last but not the least more professional. Playing with wordpress to enhance the features of my blog. Also working on it to make it more Search Engine friendly. Some of the changes I have incorporated to my blog are:

• Integrated chat box to my blog through which all of you can interact with me through chat on Meebo.
• Interlinked my facebook & twitter account with my wordpress blog.
• Integrated my twitter tweets on to my wordpress blog.
• Increased the number of tabs on my blog so that you can know more about me.
• My blog is now sponsored by Sprint and gets dedicated to a noble cause as well.
• Integrated Poll first time on to my blog (Good time wasted to get hold on this).
• The blog header looks more refreshing & lively now.

Working on some more advance features for my blog. Everyone likes change. So keep watching. Cheers!

The total number of websites that have been submitting Sitemap files have increased tremendously over the last year. Sitemap enable search engines to locate new and changed content on the website quickly. Sitemaps do help search engine crawlers understand your site in a better way.

Google is constantly working on the Google Sitemap feature. Read the latest updates related to Sitemaps on Google Webmaster Central Blog.

Hi Folks,

An off-technical post again from my side! Even I don’t know if my blog is going on to technical side or non-technical posts are over powering the technical ones. Anyways, as long as the posts are interesting & worth sharing, let them go on my blog! All of you guys must be watching TV shows. Some of you might be interested in watching daily soap operas while some might

be more inclined towards watching adventurous kind of shows, one of them being “Man vs Wild” aired on Discovery Channel every week.

I personally like this show very much and never miss any episode of this show. Thanks to Discovery Networks for producing marvellous shows like this.

Man vs Wild featuring Bear Grylls is a new series on the The Discovery Channel. In this series mountaineer and adventurist Bear Grylls demonstrates survival skills through conditions unimaginable to the average man. Each episode depicts man’s venture into the most extreme situations ever aired.

Want to see a snippet of the show? Catch Bear Grylls live in action here [ High bandwidth required ]!

Warning: The video footage might contain scenes which can disturb the viewer.  Viewer Discretion is advised.

In the show, Grylls demonstrates and narrates techniques for survival in regions around the globe. The general format of each episode is that Grylls is left stranded in a region. The episode documents his efforts to survive and find a way back to civilization, usually requiring an overnight shelter of some kind. Bear also tells about successful and failed survivals in the particular area he is in.

Each episode takes about one week to shoot. Before each shooting the crew does about a week of on field survey, followed by Bear Grylls doing a flyover of the terrain. Grylls then undergoes two days of intensive survival briefings.

Grylls spend two days on location prior to dropping in and goes through all the safety and other important briefings as well as being briefed on local conditions such as flora and fauna by local rangers and a local bushcraft expert. He is followed on the program by a cameraman and a sound engineer.

Content inputs taken from :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_vs._Wild

http://www.manvswild.com/

Video footage sourced from:

YouTube

Discovery Networks

Hi Folks,
 
As cell phones are going more sophisticated day by day with added features such as Wi-Fi connectivity, GPRS and latest on offer- 3G, people have started surfing internet on their wireless devices as well. So it becomes crucial that a website works well in case it is viewed on a wireless device. In case the display media is a cell phone, the screen is only 2 or 3 inches, downloads can be slow, and visitors tend to be more result oriented. Here are some tips to optimize a site for mobile display:
 
1) Key performance marketing goals should be no more than 1-3 clicks away from the homepage. Mobile web users are often impatient and tend to get to results as fast as they can.
 
2) Place core content at the top of the first page and follow with navigation. In contrast to desktop web design where we often place the same navigation bar on every web page, a site optimized for mobile should have navigation bar only on the first page. Since the viewing area on a cell phone is small, mobile users should see the content changing when they surf ahead of the home page.
 
3) Keep the navigation very simple using large text links. Provide fewer navigation options to pages that have less information. Use images only when needed in order to decrease the site loading time as mobile networks dont work at speeds comparable to wired networks.
 
4) Use sitemaps and robots.txt so that spiders can quickly index your mobile site.
 
5) Use keyword rich URL’s for the web pages.
 
6) Do not use Flash, pop ups, i-frames, java-script or frames. Some of these technologies block mobile spiders and none can be expected to render well on mobile platforms at this time.
 
7) Optimize your site for 1-2 word keyphrases. Mobile users tend to search for smaller phrases with fewer words.
 
8) Be sure phone numbers are clickable. Keep in mind while mobile handsets usually render phone numbers clickable, the following syntax helps to ensure this: < href=tel:2503851190?>250-385-1190</a>. The conversion goal for mobile applications is often a visitor calling a phone number. Your clickable phone number and main website address should be in the footer of each mobile page.
 
Content ideas for the above post borrowed from below mentioned url with related inputs added.
 
http://www.searchengineguide.com/ross-dunn/mobile-search-s-1.php
 
Get a glimpse of Google mobile website here:
 
http://www.google.com/xhtml 

 Happy Surfing!

Captchas are in widespread use today, usually in the form of obscured or distorted text that people can still read.
 
Preventing bots from filling out forms automatically is a hard task. Researchers at Google have been thinking about

more effective ways of achieving this goal. In a captcha we often see jumbled up words that we have to decipher before we can submit a form but yes even bots can figure out those words using some intelligent automated softwares.
 
Google has come out with research results about a new test to foil computers pretending to be humans by requiring them to orient an image so it’s upright.
 
The test that have been applied is a latest variation on a screening technique called a Captcha (completely automated public Turing test to tell computers and humans apart). The idea is that people can often tell which way is up in a photo, but computers have a harder time to decipher that.
 
To get a visual idea of the process involved just explore the below mentioned hyperlink:
 
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10222514-2.html

Disclaimer: The name(s) used or referred to in the above post are respective properties of the organization concerned. Relevant inputs and ideas have been added from various online sources to make the post more informative.

Watch the rocking mind blowing ad of Hero Honda to mark their 25 years of operation in India. The ad is really superb featuring prominent personalities from the country (including a bollywood damsel as well ! Ofcourse that was not the sole reason to watch this ad!!). I really liked the music of the ad and the way in which it has been presented. Watch out for yourself…

Disclaimer: The name(s) used or referred to in the above post are respective properties of the organization(s) concerned. The post above only expresses my personal opinion about the subject concerned. Video Source: YouTube.

A religious function is being organized by Iskcon (International Society for Krishna Consciousness) at my home in a few days.

Getting ready for the function that will keep me busy for a couple of days. Lots of arrangements to make!

It feels so lucky that we have got this golden opportunity to arrange this religious function celebrating the life of Lord Krishna at our house.

The function is being organized by the Iskcon devotees that will take one through different aspects of Lord Krishna’s life and knowing more about Lord Krishna.

The function will culminate with a sumptuous feast for everyone. Anybody interested in being a part of it can definitely get in touch with me.

Hare Krishna to All!

Disclaimer: The name(s) used or referred to in the above post are respective properties of the organization concerned.

The US media world is suddenly buzzing with reports of Kosmix, a new search engine that could change the way people search the web and find information. The main goal of Kosmix is to make finding information on the web more user friendly.

So far, the biggest online search engine “Google” operates on the following principle to search anything online.

“Finding the best set of documents for an input keyword or phrase”

As a result, Google brings hundreds of results in front of the user and the user can only visit some of them.

In contrast to this, Kosmix gathers content from across the web and shows a page after creating a multimedia encyclopaedia entry in real time. For example search for rediff.com and you will get a lot of different content, photos, videos and links.

It also has top results from Google, and suggests a list of related topics. Kosmix gives more information about any subject. For many queries, the results are satisfactory and look as if they have been compiled by a human editor, not a computer.

Behind the Scenes – Working Principle:

Kosmix has a specialized technology for its service. It has created a set of nearly five million categories on various topics. When someone searches on Kosmix, it automatically knows on which category the information may have. It takes content from web sites as well as from specialized Web services, and databases connected to the Internet.

Try Kosmix now!

Interested to explore more?

Read more about Kosmix at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/15/business/15ping.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Content ideas for this post sourced from: http://business.rediff.com/report/2009/mar/20/will-kosmix-be-google-nemesis.htm

1. Initiate a Paid Search Campaign : Pay Per Click campaigns are really beneficial for those companies which don’t get sufficient rankings in natural search engine results. One of the biggest advantage of PPC is that one can track Return on Investment easily through various tools and techniques available. Through PPC one can easily attract search engine traffic by putting bids on the keywords that the concerned business sells or promotes.
2. Set your Goals : Before setting up a PPC Campaign one should be very clear about the goals to be achieved. All the metrics that will be governing the success of the campaign throughout its lifetime should be established beforehand.
3. Accumulate Data : Another important step that comes into play while initiating a paid search marketing campaign is effective data gathering. Competitors should be monitored closely and appropriate market research should be carried out. Customer’s needs and requirements should be studied effectively and the campaign should be managed accordingly.
4. Bid on appropriate Keywords : Choose your keywords carefully. It is not a wise decision if you just keep on building a huge keyword inventory without bothering at all about the keyword relevance. A large heap of keywords can bring lots of traffic to your site but that will also include non relevant traffic that won’t be beneficial for your paid search campaign. Ideally, start with a list of core keywords for your campaign and then keep on expanding this base list based on individual keyword performance.
5. Target proper Landing Pages : Pay special attention to your landing pages. Don’t go for your site’s home page as your campaign landing page, instead create customized versions of landing pages targeted at specific ad groups defined in the campaign. This way the conversion rates for the campaign can really go higher.
6. Target major Search Engines : Though there are many search engines available around that can let you run paid search campaigns but it is always better to choose a search engine having major market share and a user friendly interface with advance tools integrated into it for efficient management of the campaign.
7. Take advantage of Offers/Discounts/Schemes : Customize your campaign regularly depending upon the schemes/offers you have introduced. Mould your ad copies to contain these offer creative’s which can further go a long way in attracting customers to shop from your site and boosting your conversion rates.
8. Know your Geographies : Be very clear about the campaign’s geo-targeting. Get to know from which region or area your prospective customers come from. By efficient use of geo-targeting feature one can save a lot on campaign’s budget and boost the campaign’s conversion ratio.
9. Structure your Campaign well : Structure your campaign based on your business theme and the types of products or services you promote. This way one can attract all types of potential customers with different shopping habits since they will be able to find exactly what they are looking for on your website.
10. Identify your Negative Keywords : Come out with a negative list of keywords for the campaign as the campaign progresses and put these keywords as negative keywords in the campaign. These keywords when used as negative keywords will be bringing more relevant traffic to your site (by reducing non relevant traffic) that would lead to a decrease in campaign’s CPC and increase in number of conversions.