Computers

One item I find amusing is how the same product can be loved and hated by people. Perhaps, this is truer when the product is free such as Google’s Web History. Web history is a nice and useful product, but it may not be for everyone.

Try entering number of horns on a unicorn into Google, you’ll be surprised...

[Thanks Paul van V.! Unicorn in logo from The Last Unicorn.]

[By Philipp Lenssen | Original post | Comments]

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Tadeusz Szewczyk of onReact.com is a freelance search engine optimizer, blogger and journalist born in Poland. He’s been living in Germany for two decades now. Tadeusz writes about art, design, and SEO.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) as we know and detest it is obsolete in this day and age. When some while ago Philipp asked me to write an article “How do I optimize websites” I couldn’t do it: The way SEO works in Germany on Google.de can not really work for international websites in English. Moreover nowadays you do not need conventional SEO tactics to have success on the Net or in Google. In order to make a site succeed in these times you have to forget everything you know about on page optimization and link building first.

Now we can start our ten step guide to Google and traffic heaven.

1. Discover your niche
   Be different, choose a topic or product that not everybody else already covers or sells. Discovering it is not to be confused with “keyword research” as in conventional SEO. You try to introduce a new niche not just obeying the Google users demands. Try a different angle. Even a very crowded place like SEO itself does have new ones. I am indeed the first blogger to tackle mainly the SEO 2.0 topic.
2. Use Wordpress
   Instead of “on page optimization” you can install Wordpress that is search engine friendly out of the box. Wordpress is not only a blog software, you can use it as small scale CMS and it will suffice for most average websites. Also “search engine submission” even with XML sitemaps is not needed anymore with Wordpress. It pings Google Blog Search automatically so your blog posts end up in the Google index just a few hours later.
3. Create a killer CSS design and submit it to CSS galleries
   Traditional SEO is all about link building or getting links. Sites doing SEO often look crappy. These days people link web sites that look great just for the sake of the design. Unlike some years ago nowadays CSS and web standards are the best way to design a site. Now it is not difficult to create a great design, especially with Wordpress. Create a killer design for your blog and you will be linked everywhere. Just check out this list at CSS Juice.
4. Allow trackbacks, use dofollow
   Blogs thrive in connection with each other. The best way of connecting blogs is the trackback function. Install the dofollow plugin in order not to treat other bloggers like spammers.
5. Socialize, write comments and link other blogs
   Link and mention other blogs and bloggers in your posts. Also commenting in other blogs is much appreciated as blogging is not a monologue if it’s done right.
6. Include social media on your site, use social media yourself
   Include buttons to your favorite social bookmarking services like del.icio.us or Stumple Upon. Be careful with social news sites like Digg or Reddit. They may crash your server and/or cost you lots of money by driving tons of useless traffic in short periods of time to your site.
7. Write your own content, say something new, express yourself
   Write about stuff out of your niche that you know about. Write your own content, do not just post links to other sites. Say something new that wasn’t already said by everybody else. Express yourself, do not repeat yesterday’s news.
8. Compile what you know or what others said and publish it
   If everything was said and done already in a particular case, compile it and create a list. Top list are the best solutions as a “200 Wordpress plugins” list is just too big. “10 indispensable Wordpress plugins” is far better.
9. Contribute to your favorite online publications
   Do not just publish at your own blog or site. Contribute to other publications that cover your topic. Try your favorite ones first, as you probably know exactly what kind of topic they would like. Most publishers will link to your site
10. Add new content at least every second day
    Add new content often enough to create a stable readership. People that visit your site once a month might forget about it. It’s not always necessary to post every day but if you write a real blog do it at least 3 times a week.

As you see most of it is not very spectacular and you probably already do some of it. Moreover no SEO as you know it is really involved until now. If you are not satisfied by now, you probably need some advanced SEO or SEO 2.0 as I call it.

[By Tadeusz Szewczyk | Original post | Comments]

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The Google Lat Long blog published a list of changes to their satellite imagery. Does anyone know if this relates to Google Maps, Google Earth, or both? The following places have been updated with new high resolution, Google says (I’m quoting):

<<US: State of Vermont, State of Nevada, State of Colorado, Chenango County (NY), Oswego County (NY), Lancaster (PA), Montgomery County (MD), Prince George’s County (MD), Charleston (WV), Frankfort (KY), Leon County (FL), Volusia County (FL), Orlando (FL), Melbourne (FL), Ridgeland (MS), Tucson (AZ), Phoenix (AZ), Pierce County (WA), Walworth County (WI), Waukesha County (WI), Milwaukee (WI), Washington County (WI), Ozaukee County (WI), Puerto Rico & US virgin Islands.

South America: Maracabio, Venezuela

France: French Riviera, Arles, Biaritz, Strasbourg, Grenoble, Angers, Amiens, Bourges, Clermont Ferrand, Loire River

Italy: 2.5m imagery for the entire country.

Germany: Aachen, Bielefeld, Braunschweig, Stralsund, Duisburg, Halle, Hannover, Herten, Itzehoe, Karlsruhe, Cologne, Norderstedt, Pinneberg, Quickborn, Recklinghausen, Rellingen, Schenefeld, Tornesch, Wentorf>>

[By Philipp Lenssen | Original post | Comments]

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The Conscience of a Hacker, also called the Hacker Manifesto, was published in 1986. Loyd Blankenship aka The Mentor wrote it after his arrest and it got picked up by Phrack, and achieved fame since then. (Text republished here courtesy of Phrack.)

[By Philipp Lenssen | Original post | Comments]

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