Search Engine Optimization
Based in the Ottawa area, we help our clients with their computer and Internet needs. Our specialty is modifying our client's website content to ensure that search engines such as Google, Yahoo! and Bing give it a high ranking. In addition, we offer assistance in the design of web stores to simplify the shopping experience and enhance revenue.
While search engine optimization (SEO) is our specialty our clients often have other computer related needs. Our expertise allows us to help our clients in a variety of ways. We also offer webmaster services, computer network services, data recovery and other computer services.
Friday, April 30, 2010
No More FTP with Blogger
I just received another warning from Google that they will no longer be supporting FTP to upload blog entries. My thoughts on this can be summarized as whatever... What features are they trying to support that they can no longer support good old file transfer protocol.
I'm at the limit of wondering why I use blogger.
How is it that Wordpress (made by a bunch of unpaid people) has a great open source blogging platform and Blogger is well, second rate. How is it that small organizations make better software products than multi-billion dollar companies?
What is up with that?
I'm at the limit of wondering why I use blogger.
How is it that Wordpress (made by a bunch of unpaid people) has a great open source blogging platform and Blogger is well, second rate. How is it that small organizations make better software products than multi-billion dollar companies?
What is up with that?
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
IE 9 is coming...
Internet Explorer 8 was released last year and while it does represent a step forward in compatibility it is still fairly slow in terms of running javascript.
Microsoft is looking to change that with IE 9. Surprisingly, they intend to do it by compiling it. Preliminary results indicate a significant improvement which will bring them to the level of Chrome.
Many other features have been announced too:
The three main ones being: HTML 5, CSS 3 and SVG (scalable vector graphics) support. They have also moved to improve compatibility with browser standards. Personally, I'm glad to hear this because getting webpages to look right in different browsers can be annoying.
The only downside to Internet Explorer 9 is that there are no plans to make a version for Windows XP which is currently still Microsoft's most popular operating system.
Microsoft is looking to change that with IE 9. Surprisingly, they intend to do it by compiling it. Preliminary results indicate a significant improvement which will bring them to the level of Chrome.
Many other features have been announced too:
The three main ones being: HTML 5, CSS 3 and SVG (scalable vector graphics) support. They have also moved to improve compatibility with browser standards. Personally, I'm glad to hear this because getting webpages to look right in different browsers can be annoying.
The only downside to Internet Explorer 9 is that there are no plans to make a version for Windows XP which is currently still Microsoft's most popular operating system.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Flash Development for Free
Until recently I thought that you needed to have Flash CS4 or an earlier version to make flash files. There are exceptions of course. For example, you can upload a video file to youtube to create a flash movie.
If you want to make flash files without Adobe Flash you could use Adobe Flex but neither of these are free. Fortunately Adobe provides a free Flex SDK (software development kit) that you can use to generate flash from Actionscript. If you have nightmares about dos prompts then this method probably is not for you. For more information of Free Flash click here.
Adobe is also nice enough to let you use Flash CS4 free for a month and it is easy to see why CS4 is so popular. It is fast, fairly simple and, of course, because the output is Flash the resulting code works on all browsers provided they have a suitable flash player. (The flash player which uses a web browser is available free.)
Flash is almost univesrally supported with one major exception. Flash requires a fair bit of computing power and as a result cellphones don't typically support it. That will be changing soon though according to Wired Another surprising omission is the new iPad from Apple. The iPad would make an ideal system for video etc. however flash is so ubiquitous that right now it won't play a vast majority of videos available on the Internet. As far as I can tell, the iPad is basically an overgrown iPod touch (iPhone minus the phone ). I have a netbook with an Atom processor that is the size of an iPad costs less then half and it plays flash but I digress.
In any case I hope to have some examples of flash available soon. If you have a request for some flash please let me know and I will see what I can do...
If you want to make flash files without Adobe Flash you could use Adobe Flex but neither of these are free. Fortunately Adobe provides a free Flex SDK (software development kit) that you can use to generate flash from Actionscript. If you have nightmares about dos prompts then this method probably is not for you. For more information of Free Flash click here.
Adobe is also nice enough to let you use Flash CS4 free for a month and it is easy to see why CS4 is so popular. It is fast, fairly simple and, of course, because the output is Flash the resulting code works on all browsers provided they have a suitable flash player. (The flash player which uses a web browser is available free.)
Flash is almost univesrally supported with one major exception. Flash requires a fair bit of computing power and as a result cellphones don't typically support it. That will be changing soon though according to Wired Another surprising omission is the new iPad from Apple. The iPad would make an ideal system for video etc. however flash is so ubiquitous that right now it won't play a vast majority of videos available on the Internet. As far as I can tell, the iPad is basically an overgrown iPod touch (iPhone minus the phone ). I have a netbook with an Atom processor that is the size of an iPad costs less then half and it plays flash but I digress.
In any case I hope to have some examples of flash available soon. If you have a request for some flash please let me know and I will see what I can do...
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Google Web History
While most people just think of a Google as a search bar for the Internet there really is a lot more going on than that. Google modifies the algorithm it uses to order websites a fair bit. Since being on the first page for a given search result can affect the value of an online business that order is very important to a lot of people. Google does not share its algorithm.
So here is a question for you: If you do two searches for the same criteria at the same time will you get the same result. The short answer is "probably not".
You see Google keeps track of how you use www.Google.com when you are logged into it. So if you sign into gmail and then do a google search before signing out your searches are stored. If you want to check it out just log into gmail and click here for to see the search history on your computer. Google has been doing this for a while according to Anil Dash.
So is this Orwellian? The answer to that question is that it would depend on how that data is being used. So how is it being used? The answer is that there is only one answer and it comes from Google... Evidently most people do not care.
So here is a question for you: If you do two searches for the same criteria at the same time will you get the same result. The short answer is "probably not".
You see Google keeps track of how you use www.Google.com when you are logged into it. So if you sign into gmail and then do a google search before signing out your searches are stored. If you want to check it out just log into gmail and click here for to see the search history on your computer. Google has been doing this for a while according to Anil Dash.
So is this Orwellian? The answer to that question is that it would depend on how that data is being used. So how is it being used? The answer is that there is only one answer and it comes from Google... Evidently most people do not care.
Friday, January 22, 2010
Search Engine Algorithm
I recently came across this post which claims that randfish over at SEOmoz has developed an approximation of Google's algorithm. I say "claimed" because I did not find the post by randfish however I did find a variety of very good articles. Anyway, the algorithm is given in the linked post. Since the algorithm is a secret there is no telling how accurate it is though it seems to support conventional thinking.
The algorithm itself is really not important though. Since the various criteria are not exclusive the obvious approach is to cover all of them. All of the terms of the equation are well known to be important and while I doubt that this is how Google ranks sites it is probably as a good an estimation as I have seen.
Here is the formula:
GoogScore = (KW Usage Score * 0.3) + (Domain Strength * 0.25) + (Inbound Link Score * 0.25) + (User Data * 0.1) + (Content Quality Score * 0.1) + (Manual Boosts) - (Automated & Manual Penalties)
While I do not have any specific data to back this up I feel that the inbound links are more important than domain strength and keyword usage combined. (That just my 2cents though.)
The algorithm itself is really not important though. Since the various criteria are not exclusive the obvious approach is to cover all of them. All of the terms of the equation are well known to be important and while I doubt that this is how Google ranks sites it is probably as a good an estimation as I have seen.
Here is the formula:
GoogScore = (KW Usage Score * 0.3) + (Domain Strength * 0.25) + (Inbound Link Score * 0.25) + (User Data * 0.1) + (Content Quality Score * 0.1) + (Manual Boosts) - (Automated & Manual Penalties)
While I do not have any specific data to back this up I feel that the inbound links are more important than domain strength and keyword usage combined. (That just my 2cents though.)
Labels: SEO
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Nexus 1
As far as I knew Google was strictly a software company whose focus has always been to make things faster and easier. (And yes... they sell advertising too...) Today, Google has launched the Nexus 1 which looks curiously similar to Apple's
(I'd like to thank AppleInsider.com for this photo I snagged from their site.)
The question on my mind is: Why? Google introduced an operating system for phones called android. I would not say that it flopped but right now the
Does this represent a change in Google's direction and, if so, what would be the logical next step? There are rumours of a netbook or perhaps tablet device coming soon. Apple is likely to launch such a device this year which will give them a first to market advantage. I am inclined to believe that Google will not target markets that are saturated with adequate products that are very inexpensive. (The Nexus 1 costs $530 unlocked. That could buy you decent entry-level laptop these days and my guess is that the next device will be more expensive than their phone.)
Looking beyond the tablet what is there??? There are a lot of niches (both in hardware and software) that Google could get into. How about Google Navigator? Is it software that integrates with Google Maps and Google Earth or is it a GPS device? The answer is yes!
Google Games? (They could provide an API to developers and allow free use of games while splitting advertising revenue with game developers.)
Google Virtual Office? (A more intuitive approach to an operating system where devices and floor plans are clear. When your printer has a GPS in it the virtual office will ensure that documents a provided to the right location instantly. If your office is in Toronto and your colleague works in New York you print documents to the printer in their office automatically, provided you are authorized to do so.)
Google Archive? (Store a copy of everything you have for free in exchange for watching some advertising when you store it.)
I see Google facing a serious problem in the future. That problem is not brand identity. It is that Google is simply getting too big. Microsoft had difficulties when it gave away Internet Explorer with Windows. As a company some of there practices were determined to be anti-competitive. While that may be it is apparent that they were also ahead of their time. When Google released the Chrome browser, which is free as well, they did not have that kind of difficulty. That said, Google does not have a lock on the operating system market the way Microsoft did with PCs. The problem is that their presence on the Net is ubiquitous almost to the point of being overwhelming.
As much as I like Google there comes a point where they are big enough to take over markets for the sole purpose of pushing their own advertising. (For example: if you Google "best smart phone" how do you know if Google salted the results to help out the Nexus 1?) When that point gets closer things will get very interesting.
Ancient Chinese Curse: "May you live in interesting times."
Labels: Google Services
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Happy New Year!
2010 is not far off! I just want to wish everyone a Happy New Year.
On the SEO side of things your domains are likely all one year older which gives them a little more credibility with Google...
(Seriously...)
On the SEO side of things your domains are likely all one year older which gives them a little more credibility with Google...
(Seriously...)
Labels: SEO