Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is the method of getting your ads displayed at the top Search Engine results. One good advantage of PPC advertising is that you pay for an ad when a user clicks on it. With it, you…

Continue.

One thing that Google has plenty of is - MONEY. Unfortunately, money can't buy loyalty. At present, the Search Engine giant is in brain drain as precious talent leaves its sanctuary. Others are saying they would stay because of…

Continue.

One thing that Google has plenty of is - MONEY. Unfortunately, money can't buy loyalty. At present, the Search Engine giant is in brain drain as precious talent leaves its sanctuary. Others are saying they would stay because of…

Continue.

TechSmith Corp., the world's leading provider of screen capture and recording solutions, today announced the release of its SnagIt Notes and Skype Output accessories. SnagIt enables computer users to take screenshots of exactly what they see on their screens to…

Continue.

Filed under: Design, Developer, Internet, Utilities, News, Productivity, Freeware, Social Software

So you use basecamp for project management or Google’s apps, or something else, but how do you track your time on a project? basecamp offers time-tracking, but you have to pay a bit for that feature. Any cheapskates out there who like to get something for nothing, even if it means remembering yet another logon to yet another website? Many of us would jump at the chance, it isn’t like any of us have a problem with web accounts, how many do you have again?

Toggl is an excellent solution, offered in a completely savvy web 2.0 interface that gets you where you want to go. The site tracks time and lets you hit a toggl (whoa, go figure) button to start and stop your “billable hours” timer. I was a bit wary at first that toggl wouldn’t offer a way to change the time it had recorded, leave you stranded with pushing the button every 108 minutes until you got the right amount of time, but my worries were completely unfounded. I was ready for something much harder than clicking on the box and reentering my own length of time.

If you think pie is easy, toggl is easier. Complete with a reporting feature and multiple projects, toggl’s goodness clocks in (pun somewhat intended) at the right price of free. As you know, our motto here is one more happy cheapskate, or wait, I don’t think we actually have a motto. I’ll have to get back to you on that. meanwhile check out toggl, and you will never wonder if you charged your client enough for the hours you spent on that killer project.

Add “toggl” to your spell-checker, jack, and you won’t be disappointed.
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Search Engine Optimization companies are making a fortune by doing the menial work that is overlooked by many designers. It is ridiculously easy to do most of the work done by most SEO companies, all you have to do…

Continue.

Search Engine Optimization firms are making a fortune by doing the menial work that is ignored by many designers. To boot, it is easy to do most of the work done by most SEO firms, all you have to…

Continue.

The fact is web traffic is the lifeblood of every website. You can have the most appealing website, with fresh and relevant content as well as a perfect opt-in page. But if you don't have traffic, especially qualified traffic…

Continue.

According to the Wall Street Journal report Google Inc., the second-largest Internet Search Engine in China, aims to become the market leader there, as it gives local management more authority. The statement was given by Chief Executive Eric Schmidt…

Continue.

Greg Jarboe of Search Engine Watch pointed out that Yahoo has added images and videos to the top of some of the Yahoo News search results. The changes were tackled by Jarboe in his blog entry titled Images and…

Continue.

Techcrunch unfolds the latest controversy that has started since the announcement of Wikipedia that all outbound links from the online encyclopedia would include the nofollow tag. The report said: The nofollow tag on a link is said to prevent…

Continue.

We all know that in Search Engine Optimization, content is the king. Moreover, managing content is not only essential in creating your website but it is also important in making your site rank high in search engine results. But…

Continue.

So many newbies in the Search Engine Optimization realm are trying to learn the basics of being indexed by major search engines especially Google. Aside from this, they also intend to uncover the secret of staying on the index….

Continue.

YouTube fanatics out there don't be shocked when you see summer ads coming in. This is because the video-sharing website acquired by Google is entertaining pre-roll and post-roll spots this summer. This is also in line with Google experiment…

Continue.

According to John Battelle's article titled Google - NBC: Very Dumb Idea, the Search Engine giant is one of the entties being mentioned as candidate interested in purchasing the NBC. Battelle's wrote: Some buzz from Wall St: Analysts are…

Continue.

As verio.com defines it, password is a series of characters that enables someone to access a file, computer or program. Your Control Panel is password protected to prevent unauthorized users from changing your information. The password should be a…

Continue.

Filed under: Browser Tips, Social Software

See that little number in the bottom right-hand corner of this screenshot? Yep, that number tells you how many votes a recent DownloadSquad story got on Digg.

Smart Digg Button is a new Firefox extension using the recently released Digg API.

Once you install the extension, a little box shows up at the bottom of your browser window. If you’re viewing a page that has not already been submitted to Digg, you’ll have the option of submitting it yourself. If you visit a site that’s already been dugg, you can see at a glance how many votes the page has received.

Other social bookmarking sites including Furl, Reddit, and StumbleUpon have their own Firefox add-ons that serve a similar role. But now you can have the complete set.

[via lifehacker]
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Business, Developer, Internet, Utilities, Productivity, Web services, Social Software

Okay, confession time. Despite being an early adopter for most things, I hadn’t caught the basecamp train and got on board. Why you ask? I had no good use for it, though it is an excellently crafted application. I love software, and thus I checked it out, but for some reason I didn’t see how its use would fit into my busy life, until now.

Becoming a self-employed web developer threw my daily routine out the window in a big way, and my preciously corporate sanctioned work-flow as well, giving me a new set of problems. One new problem I’ve had is process tracking, central information storage and updating, and project management. If this sounds like three problems, you’re right, but they are tightly connected.

Having many projects and lots of information to track, share, and modify, basecamp handles with ease and makes me work less and takes care of these problems without taking too much of my time. I am finally “with it” when it comes to project management.

Developing software is no picnic (as you know), but now at least I know where the utensils are. Try eating potato salad without a fork, and you’ll get the idea. If you haven’t checked out basecamp (by 37 signals) it is worth it, there is a free account, awesome simple tutorial videos, and a great application to help you track life and work.

If you are with it, and use basecamp religiously (or casually), do you have tips for a basecamp beginner like me, or ideas to get more out of basecamp? We’re all ears.
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Here’s an excerpt from an article I did for Tehelka’s special on youth and the internet, on much urging from Shivam, who put an apt title to it - The Mirror of Change - This is Who We are Becoming.

“For those completely
immersed in virtual worlds such as Second Life, the seduction of intimacy
combined with anonymity does not mean they do not share the joys and
sorrows of their real worlds. My bet is that they do. “Pet”,
a very close friend and a colleague who worked with a team of online
volunteers when the tsunami struck in December 2004, got me looking
at Second Life with new eyes. He had been feeling trapped in his body
for a long time, and when he got onto Second Life, it helped him become
more comfortable with his feelings that he was a woman trapped in a
man’s body. The beauty is that Second Life was a tool for “Pet”
to figure out who she really is and how to work it out for real. Today,
she has friends not only in Second Life, but also in her physical world
with whom she can be herself. “Pet” has shared so much of
her period of transition and angst with me, that I feel I know her intimately.
Being a geek, she also helps me with my websites. I trust her as she
trusts me. I know she is very real — there is nothing ‘virtual’
about her, even though I have never met her.

While I may never
have seen or met “Pet”, there is depth in our friendship,
and solidity. I know, for some people, that is hard to accept. I’m
often asked questions like, how can you feel connected to someone you’ve
never met? How can you trust someone you’ve never seen? These
concerns are understandable given the newness of this medium and the
flow that determines these sorts of relationships. Oh there are dangers
too — the pretence borne out of anonymity, the addictions, the
spam and scams, the paedophiles, the pornography. And still, when I
meet up with blog buddies all over the world, how can I explain the
amazing level of comfort I feel!

I single out blogs
here as throwing up a whole different social system than do virtual
worlds and social networking sites. Detractors say, online you can be
whoever you want to be and nobody cares. That may be correct, yet, if
you try and fake things too hard, you most always are found out, and
can be verbally beaten. My belief is that people tend to act more like
themselves online than they like to admit. It is much more difficult
to hide away who you are when you are blogging. I’ve found myself
revealing things on my blog about myself that I would find difficult
to talk about face-to-face. Ugly things too.

And yet, I found
myself trusting myself as I began trusting people I met through this
medium. There is a fine line between the public, private and secret
self, and the boundaries blur sometimes. At others there is a conscious
effort to keep them apart. In a physical world, our lives are compartmentalized,
you have different sets of friends for different needs, and meet in
different physical spaces as a result. My blog is one space where
I connect with friends, potential clients, strangers, acquaintances,
even spammers and trolls. It is entirely up to me what I want to share
of me and when, at my blog. And, I have found, the more I share,
the more others do. It’s just an extension of basic human needs
for connection and community.”

This issue is carrying a special on youth and the internet.  I see some bloggers I know like Dilip, Rashmi, Neha, Patrix and Shivam of course, who have made some neat contributions there - and as I glanced through the articles, I felt Shivam’s done a good job of getting a mix that does not perpetuate stereotypes the media usually portrays netizens to be.

Filed under: Internet, Social Software

Reality TV guru Mark Burnett, (think Apprentice and Survivor) is teaming up with MySpace to launch a hybrid internet/TV reality series called “Independent”, to find a US independent presidential candidate in early 2008. The winner will receive $1 million, however, it is not theirs to keep. They may use it to start their own campaign or donate it to a political cause.

Contestants will be able to declare their candidacy through MySpace Videos and get public feedback via their MySpace profiles. Once winnowed down, the chosen contestants will participate in a reality series TV show where they will interact with supporters (or not) and the public. An interactive “town hall” will give MySpace users and TV viewers a chance to rate their performance. (No word yet if Simon Cowell is participating).

The project hopes to tap the young online community and get them involved in the political process. Clearly, this new endeavor as well as MySpace’s other political forays, shows it is intent on making a big mark on the American political landscape.

So, what’s the show’s tagline going to be? “America has spoken” or “You’re Hired”?

[via Adweek]
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments