Tag Archives: Technology

Search Engines See What

Say it fast.  “Search engines see what?”  I don’t know.

This isn’t a post about Google Webmaster Tools or Google Analytics.  Although, it’s because of those two services that I’m here at all to write.  Ya dig?  I mean it’s because of them that I know how many visitors arrive  because they’ve entered the search terms “stolen bike seat.”  Who knew that was such a popular topic?  When I wrote the post back in March, originally as an email entry to my mailing list, I had no idea it would be one of the more popular entries on the site.  I wrote it out of frustration for my then recently missing seat and posted it.  Whoa.

The point being, since I’m not going to get around to it unless I state it specifically, you’re not always going to know what site visitors are looking for, so write everything that interests you, or me.  Someone, somewhere may find it entertaining, interesting, or useful.  You may want to do a little better job than I do most entries, and try to relate your post to its headline.  For almost as long as I’ve been emailing, the subject line has always been of very little importance to my writing, and so I’d just shove in there whatever nonsense came to mind at the time.  Not so useful when writing searchable material.

Essentially, I’m ranking high for keywords I’m not targeting.  Taking into consideration I don’t have any specific targeting goals for this particular blog, I guess that’s to be expected.  Or at least it’s some kind of side effect of just writing whatever comes to mind.  That’s the point, though.  And I’m getting a better idea of how all this SEO stuff works.  The next step is conversion — making long time readers out of folks who show up accidentally.

Monitor Web Text With ChangeDetection.com

In a continually changing and growing web world, you’re undoubtedly going to encounter web sites with information useful to you, but that are not regularly updated.  In these instances, you don’t want to spend a load of time remembering to check in periodically, or risk missing something great because you forgot to check in.  Even if you do remember to make the site visit, not all web site’s provide handy aggregation the way sites like Facebook or Myspace do for allowing a follower to keep up on what changes are being made to which pages.  Still, there are times when you want to know about a change and being late could cost you a bunch of money.  That’s where ChangeDetection.com comes in.

Change Detection Logo

Not too dissimilar from Google Alerts, ChangeDetection.com (CD) monitors specific web pages (not to be confused with entire web sites), rather than specific terms.  Once a day it makes a visit to each site you provide in a list along with specific change-monitoring criteria, compares the latest view with the previously cached view, and sends you an email if anything new has appeared or disappeared.  A major time saver.  Especially if you have more than two handfuls of pages you’re monitoring.

A couple of potential drawbacks, but by no means deal breakers: 1) CD does not monitor changes to images or flash, only text; and 2) You have to enter each frame of a frameset to be monitored, even if it’s all one page.  So you can see where you might need to do a bit of tweaking to get things working in a way that will prove useful.

I’m typically monitoring government agency sites for updates to program regulations, application announcements, and changes to lists of events.  ChangeDetection is awesome for this type of activity, and has again proved that there are time-saving uses for the Interweb.

Read the CD FAQ for more information.

Journey To Electronic Mailing List

For quite some time I’ve been looking for another/better way to maintain the list of folks I write to regularly on a group mail basis.  Then a few weeks ago that guy Josh said something in an email that really got me moving on the idea, because I needed a better way for the recipients to control whether or not they were part of the emailing nonsense.  So I set out on my path to investigate Dada Mail , Mailman , and PHPList .  That  same week, Jason Calacanis says he’s no longer going to blog, but he’s going to maintain an email list.  So, I signed up for his emails and noticed he was using Mailman.  This was a great place to start, but I wasn’t ready to commit.  Figured I should give a few of them a trial-run before committing to one specific list-serving software.  So that’s what I did.

I spent a few nights going back and forth between the few that seemed to be the most popular on the scene, and were also free to use.  Those being Dada Mail, Mailman, and PHPList.  PHPList did not last very long.  While it was relatively easy to install through my web hosts cPanel, it was not the most intuitive to maintain.  (I used four of my own email accounts to test each software.)  PHPList did have the coolest-looking logo, but that wasn’t a big enough selling point.

From there it was almost a tossup between Dada Mail and Mailman.  These two essentially accomplish the same tasks, and do so pretty well, so it comes down to just a few quirks.  (Mine or the software’s, I don’t know.)  I must have switched my mind three or four times after I’d thought for sure I’d settled on one or the other.  Ultimately, what irked me about Mailman was the difficulty in removing messages from the archive.  There is no web interface, that I could find, for doing what seems like should be a relatively simple enough task for a high-level piece of software.  Dada Mail had no problems with this task from its web panel.  However, the way that I was intending to use Dada Mail required a separate Perl script to run as a cron job that accessed a POP3 mail account.  I eventually decided this was a bad idea, as it was cubersome and slowed things down just a bit too much.

It could have gone either way, but I eventually loaded and launched with Mailman.  My first list post scheduled for August 1st.  And let’s be honest, if it’s good enough for Calacanis, it’s got to be good enough for everyone else, right?

Socialbrowse – Twitter For Firefox?

I’m a huge fan of using humans over computers and algorithms to filter search results.  Sure, information retrieval (IR) has come a long way, but it’s still missing something and the search folk know it.  Precisely why Google is attempting to incorporate a digg-like rating system in its search results .  (Rumor has it that Google is offering up to $200MM to acquire digg .)  And Google’s latest rival Mahalo, human powered search, is hear to help. Humans are still better interpreters than computers.  No Surprise.

Anyhow, the point being Socialbrowse, a Firefox addon , does just what you’d expect it to do if you can read the name — browse socially.  (Think StumbleUpon and del.icio.us, but more intrusive.)  Socialbrowse is similar to Twitter in that you select whose browses you want to follow.  It’s public information when someone tags a page into one of a variety of categories.  A notice pops up in the lower right of your browser every time a new page is tagged by someone you’re following.  (This is where it can get annoyingly distracting, so don’t install the addon to a work machine.)  You can click through to the page, or ignore it.  I typically ignore all the popups and use the sidebar option when I’m ready to see what folks have recently enjoyed.

The idea here is to let other people surf the web and filter through the trash.  You don’t have time for that.  And if you don’t like the pages someone is suggesting, unfollow him.  It’s as easy as that.  I’ll admit that I’m not the greatest at tagging pages  (last one was July 15th).  For some reason, knowing that people are going to know I approved the page makes me far more selective of the pages I’m willing to suggest.

Socialbrowse is beta and requires an invite code.  (I have a few left if any of you Firefox users are interested in giving it a try.)  They are still in the process of creating a logo for their product, which is why I’m missing a graphic for this post.  But you can win $125 by entering the create new Socialbrowse logo contest. If you’re a regular web surfer then this is an addon you’ll enjoy.  Get it early, get it often.  Socialbrowse!

Most Useful Google Tool, Google Alerts

(I know.  I know.  Google Search is the _most_ useful.)

This isn’t anything new, as it’s been out for a long while, but here we have probably the only tool from Google that actually saves more time than it helps to waste when it comes to scouring the net for the interesting information you seek.

From the Google Alerts FAQ :  "1. Google Alerts are emails automatically sent to  you when there are new Google results for your search terms."

Because Google is always crawling the web, it usually knows about new information before you do, so it compares what it finds with what you want to know and emails you accordingly. (The one downside being that it will email you the same information more than once if it finds it on more than one web page.  So it’s best, for busier topics, to receive updates no more than once per day, to eliminate the spam effect.)

This seems like the Google tool that goes most unnoticed, and I’m baffled as to why.  I can only think that maybe people don’t know about it.  But it’s easy to use (as you can see from the picture,) you fill in your regularly searched terms, select the type (I usually go with Comprehensive, but you can get more specific,) tell it how often you want to hear about new results, and where you want those results emailed.  It’s too good to be true, but it is true.

I have a handful of terms I want to know about as soon as Google finds them.  Here are my top two:  1) Most important to me is my name.  I want to know where and why my name is on the Internet, in case it’s somewhere it shouldn’t be;  2) I want any and all news having to do with the ship my brother is currently calling home.  (He doesn’t really call it home, but he’s living on it for quite a while.)  He’s in the Navy and I want to know as much as I can about anything having to do with his ship’s status.

If you’re not already using it, check it out.  Google Alerts — Enjoy it with your breakfast!

New 140-Character Platform, identi.ca

The latest and maybe-not-so greatest (yet) micro-blogging tool identi.ca is up and running, and wants you to answer the question, “What’s Up?”.  It feels very new, which it is, and I’ll have to experiment with it a bit more before I can fully conclude as to whether or not I’ll make the leap away from Twitter.  Twitter, by the way, is slowly driving me crazy with all its whale fail screens and seemingly random removal of features.  (A whale fail screen is what you see when Twitter is not functioning correctly.  Not quite as bad as the infamous BSOD, but definitely up there.)

Really quick:

What I do like:

  • Laconica, OpenMicroBlogging  (HUGE)
  • OpenID support, which I use
  • Layout similar to Twitter’s (unlike Plurk, which is difficult to read)

What I don’t like:

  • Early stage software, missing features
  • No Search, how to find Twitter followers
  • Getting auto-logged out

What identi.ca needs right away:

  • SMS support
  • Desktop Client (maybe Twhirl will add it)

Check identi.ca out for yourself, if you’re into that sort of thing.  If not, keep on keepin’ on with your current 140-character service.

What’s A Pogo From AT&T

Project Pogo ?  More like "why the heck?"  This is the new browser from AT&T, and I can’t figure out what’s going on here.  Perhaps just maybe I’m that dense.  (I’ll take it, if you can throw it.)  Why, I say, do we need another web browser?  Especially one that is so closely tied to that of FireFox ?  I’ve been using the product for over a week now (at home and in the office,) and I haven’t been able to see a reason to switch from my already favorite browser to this new beast.

I will say that it leaves a much smaller footprint on my machines, but I’m going to have to attribute that to Pogo’s lack of support for the many addons I have installed with FireFox.  I need these plugins.  (Wait till I tell you about SocialBrowse.  It’s good stuff.)  I really do need them.  And perhaps, just maybe, they do work in Pogo.  But what, or why, is my excuse for figuring out how to make them work?

Pogo’s big selling point is that its tabs are 3D.  3-what?  Exactly.  I don’t need larger tabs eating up my screenspace.  I can work them just fine in FireFox, and if I was really having trouble I would install the ColorfulTabs addon .  (It changes the colors of your browser tabs.)  It’s safe to say that I’m not having trouble.

Final words, the broswer isn’t bad, but it’s not great.  There’s no reason to switch to it from your current browser.  It’s nice, new, and clean.  But so is your current setup.  I’m sure.

FireFox 3 Reachers Farther Faster

Maybe that’s true.  I don’t know.  What I do know, is Mozilla had a record day with the release of its latest version of Firefox.  I don’t know what the official count is for the opening day, but I’ve read that it’s upwards of eight million.  That’s a whole lot of simultaneous downloading going on in the first 24 hours.

I took it three times, and still have two computers to upgrade.  How does that affect the counting they’re conducting?  I’m only one user, but I have many machines.  Not to mention those I maintain for others.  (I’ll get the upgrades done soon enough.)

If you’re looking for an actual review of the product, you’ll have to do a google search for one.  Otherwise, just make good and get your shiny new copy of Firefox 3 today!

I will note that a few of my addons have been disabled due to compliance issues, but I’m sure they’ll be updated soon enough.

Please comply.  Thank you.

SMS Tax? Not 3jam!

How strange, that on the same day I come across an article in the local Sacramento newspaper indicating local government is considering a tax on text messaging, I also find myself knee deep in the latest SMS tech?  It’s called 3jam.  (Thanks Techcrunch.)  The whole thing is oddly curious.  But curiously odd?  It’s not.

I’ll be the first to admit I’m not a huge fan of the text message, be it SMS or MMS.  My biggest qualm being a general degradation of the English language form.  Which, if you’re keeping up, should seem kind of ridiculous —  I Twitter and Plurk.  Both services limiting input to 140 characters.  (What is it with that number?)

To be fair, the tax doesn’t really bother me.  The article claims there would be a reduction to my tax on the land line I keep.  Yea!  Some balance.  But the real reason is, I don’t do a ton of texting (verb?).  I typically distribute my GrandCentral phone number and it doesn’t allow for SMS or MMS.  (I’m saved.)

So far as I can tell, this tax is limited to the Sacramento area, so if you’re local, you might want to get involved in the November fourth election.

But even if you’re going to get taxed, the great feature of 3jam is that it only registers one text message regardless of how many folks you send the same message to.   (I can send a message to all two of my friends and only be charged for the price of one message.  Then, if either recipient replies to said message, it will go to every person on the original message list and only result in the cost of one message being sent for the sender.  It probably makes more sense if you have more than two friends.)

Good luck.

WordPress or MovableType

These days, if you’re going to blog, or if you are already blogging, then you’ve probably come across at least one, if not both, these names.  Based on my own searches, I’m guessing these are the top two cms products available right now, but which is really the top?  And does it matter?

I have this blog running WordPress 2.5, and I have a second blog running MovableType 4.1 (but I don’t maintain that blog, I just use it for testing different software.)  I can say that the install was much quicker and probably, from the average user’s view, simpler to install and setup with WP than with MT.  WP just about set itself up completely once the process started, whereas MT required a bit more user input including creating the database myself.  (Not horribly complicated, but could be an intimidating step for some users.)

Both systems provide a dashboard for creating and managing content, which are fairly easy to use and navigate through.  Although, I personally prefer that of WP, I can’t say that one or the other is superior.  I think it’s a preference for look and feel, which varies day to day.  You’ll have to load each and decide if it matters to you.  They are both done well enough that this probably won’t be your limiting factor.

WP and MT allow addons, or plugins.  So this is probably a toss-up as well.  Although, some may argue that MT comes loaded with certain features that would require a plugin in WP.  To which I would aruge, again, that this is only an issue of preference and isn’t a final determining factor since features in one system are available in the other system.

Spam filtering, is probably one of the biggest issues after ease of use and installation.  I haven’t had much experience with the MT spam filter since I don’t actively blog with it, but I have had quite a bit of use with WP, and I can say that it has caught quite a bit of spam.  WP clearly sorts out the spam and labels it for my review and removal.  It’s a breeze.

Overall, I like them both, but probably will not switch this particular blog from WP to MT.  MT is a worthy blogging software, but I couldn’t find an easy migration tool.  If I decide to maintain a new blog in the future, I’ll revisit the issue and possibly switch to MT.  MT does appeal to my geek and tweak style, so it has that going for it.

Update: After snooping around each platform a bit more, I found that it is pretty easy to migrate entries from one system to the other using the import/export feature.  I did lose my formatting when going from WP to MT, but I guess if you don’t have a ton of entries, you could easily go in and fix that.  Although, there may be a way to keep the formatting.