Google Launches Loksabha Election Website

Today Google announced a new website for 2009 Indian general elections. According to the press release today, anyone can check his/ her name in the voters list, can know about his/ her polling booth and search maps of the constituencies.

This website has been created with the help of Hindustan time and some other NGOs and can be found here -http://www.google.co.in/intl/en/landing/loksabha2009/

It is an excellent feature to search voters name in the voter list but it seems that the website is still under development. Right now covers only Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Pune and Nagpur. Hope to see Agra in this list soon ;-)

Also note Yahoo is already having it's website at http://in.elections.yahoo.com/. Yahoo India website looks more like a news website.

Rediff, Indiatimes, Yahoo Ad-Rates for Online Advertisement

Today I was searching for advertisement rates of online ads. I was primarily interested in some of the big portal names like yahoo, indiatimes, and rediff etc. It took quite a while to come up with the search results having all these figures. I found two articles having some information and thought sharing with you -

• Business World
• Exchange4media

Exchange4media article was written in 2004, so slightly outdated. Business World article is of year 2007 and gives sufficiently latest information.

Here is the summary from the Business World article -

Switch Back to Old Facebook Design

Facebook has once again become the center of criticism of its users. This time the bone of contention is its new design. Around 1.7 million users worldwide are not happy with it and they’ve formed this group to show their disapproval. Actually, the new design of Facebook is meant to give the Twitter feel and provide more space for advertisements. New and old design, both have their pros and cons. But as far as Facebook is concerned, it has ridiculed the demand of switching back to older one. But if you have become habitual of the older design and want to keep using that, here’s an easy trick for you. You can get your dear old Facebook back in just three easy steps:

1. Add the “Facebook Developers” application (from here)
2. Click on “Go to application” and close the page
3. Follow this link

It’s simple, isn’t it? Those who adore older Facebook should try it out. Although, I rather prefer the new design myself.

(Courtesy: www.hindi2.com)

Google Noticeboard for Indian Villages

Recently Google India Labs announced Google Noticeboard. Google Noticeboard is an application targeted towards not-so-technical public for sharing information. People can create text messages or record voice snippets and post them to one or more digital noticeboards. Google Noticeboard allows user to engage in public communication with communities without much technical know how.

According to Google's CEO, this could be the "poor man's email." I personally would rather call it "poor man's wiki & email." This seems an excellent idea to me and can do the same to the villages that wiki has done for general Internet collaboration. Communities with access to shared computers can use this application for exchanging messages related to community announcements, social interactions, local buying and selling, and information that is of wider interest to the community. This is probably first social media initiative of its kind which bring collaboration and communication to Indian villages.

It works as Firefox plug-in and I visualize having Kiosks in villages having Google Noticeboard pre-installed more like bank ATMs. Seeing the application design, I can guess that is definitely one of the objectives. Though the success seems a distinct future and the first priority for Google should be create technically better application. User interface and usability is going to be key for this application and more attention is required to make it user friendly. Presently the application seems confusing and difficult to use.

Though we must congratulate Google for such an initiative for Indian villages. I wish Google all the best and success for this application.

International SMS are Free on Google Voice

Today my GrandCentral account is upgraded to Google Voice account. If you don't know GrandCentral, the basic idea around GrandCentral was "one phone number for all your phones, for life." This one number works very well for me as I keep traveling to different places. Also GrandCentral can ring my laptop computer using Gizmo, so I can take calls from my laptop itself.

I was eagerly waiting for it, as I am an extensive GrandCentral user and some of the news features are very useful for me. Some of the new features are -

• Free Conferencing (Up to 6 users. Though it is not working for me right now)
• Free SMS (both inbound and outbound, so I can receive SMS on Google Voice phone number, which makes it true replacement of a mobile phone.)
• Free Voice Transcription, so that I can read the voice messages in your inbox. I hope it is better than me in understanding American accent :-)
  
• Free US calling. Not only I can initiate calls from the Google Voice website, but also I can use my regular US phone for making calls using Google Voice account. Also international calling is almost as cheap as skype, though not free.

Coming back to free International SMS, here are some of he key points -

• International SMS are for free
• Once you get a response of a SMS, Google generates a unique 406 number. This will connect to their international number but will cost Google Voice rate.
• This Google Voice 406 number can be saved in your in your contacts and one can initiate SMS, bypassing Google Voice online.

New registration to Google Voice is available on invite only, so if you don't have existing GrandCentral account, you will have to wait for your invite.

Update March 23rd, 2009: Recently my international SMS to Netherlands are failing and I am not sure whether Google has stopped International SMS.

Windows Live Profile, Yahoo Profile and Thousand Other Profiles

Here is another proof of the fact that Internet giants Microsoft and Yahoo are now really scared of Facebook and Twitter. Today my Windows Live Messenger (MSN messenger) asked me to update my Windows Live Profile. On the Windows Live Profile, I’ll be able to share my status, notes and general profile information like my hobbies with my friends or with open public. One important feature that I found missing is that it does not allows you to get a friendly URL. For example, my Windows Live profile URL is http://cid-15e7fb5496616396.profile.live.com/ whereas I would prefer something like http://pandeypunit.profile.live.com/.

Anyways, this is another social networking platform to keep everybody posted about you and what you are doing. There are quite a few social networking tools already competing in this space. Recently, Yahoo also changed its good-old profile pages and changed them into a full flagged social networking platform. Now with Yahoo profiles, which is presently in beta, you can connect with your friends and keep them posted.

Now with so many profiles - Yahoo profile, Windows Live profile, Facebook profile, MySpace profile, Orkut profile, LinkedIn profile etc., maintaining them is becoming almost impossible. Hope there will some tool soon where we can manage all these profile at one single place.

Blogger 'Followers' Integrates With Friend Connect Now

Blogger had 'Followers' gadget for quite some time which allows you to get updates of other blogs on your blogger dashboard. This is a quicker way than RSS reader to get updates from your frequently read blogs. Now blogger has integrated this feature with Google Friend Connect, another Google service. With this integration, you will not only be able to follow blogger blogs, but also any blog which uses Google Friend Connect service. You can follow a blog using Google, Yahoo, AIM or OpenID account.

Google Friend Connect is an open platform which allows you to create community on your blogs and websites and engage visitors. Now with this feature, you can either publicly or privately follow any blog. If you follow any blog publicly, you profile photo will be visible on that blog. If you are aware of MyBlogLog.com, it looks another way to counter MyBlogLog.com which is a Yahoo product. This also have a new Google profile integrated which is also quite similar to MyBlogLog. MyBlogLog, ready for the challenge?

If you use blogger, you can simply add 'Followers' gadget to your blog to utilize this feature. If you use some other blogging platform (like wordpress and yahoo), you can go to the http://www.google.com/friendconnect/ and add code of 'Members' gadget to your blog. (you will get quite a few other Gigya type of widgets on Friend Connect website)

Also, before leaving don't forget to follow my blog (true, bloggers are selfish). The 'followers' gadget can be found on the right most column of this blog. Please please please follow me. I know you find this blog useless, still follow me for the sake of utilizing this sexy gadget :-)

Blog Content Copyright Issues

Today Google AdSense Team has published some helping material on what you can do in case somebody copying your articles on Internet. This is the question people frequently ask me and I thought it is good to share it with my friends. Here is the excerpt from the article -

"In a situation like this, where you believe that a site containing AdSense code is illegally copying your site's content, you can let us know by following the process described in our Help Center. It's our policy to respond to notices of alleged infringement that comply with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and other applicable intellectual property laws."

"Additionally, if you find a site that is scraping (misappropriating and republishing) your content, you can report it for a potential violation of the Google Webmaster Guidelines. To do this, fill out the form at https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/spamreport (you must be logged into your Google Account to access this form)."

The complete article can be found here -
Inside AdSense: My content, your content, other people's content

Google AdSense For Domains Available in India

On 18th February 2009 Google made 'AdSense for Domains' available globally. It seems that no formal announcement has been made, but this has been talked about in blogsphere. Moreover, I can also see 'AdSense for Domains' in my Google AdSense Account.

Availability of 'AdSense for Domains' means that now you will be able to utilize all your unused domains by showing google ads on them. It means you can earn money even on your unused domains. Hosting ads on unused domains is generally known as domain parking. There were few others services before like Sedo.com, but I am sure people will be more comfortable with Google. Also reach of Google makes is available to all.

Though I am not a domainer, I own many domains. Some of the domains were parked with Sedo and now I am moving them to Google AdSense for Domains. Sedo payout was not at all good, so hope it will be better with Google like Google's other AdSense products. I have already moved few domains today and earned around 10 cents as of now - not bad - money for a tea I guess :-).

One important feature that I have not fount yet is the reporting on individual domains. In my account, I see aggregated data for the whole day for all the domains, but I can not see which domain is performing better and which one not. It may take some time to generate that report, so I am just waiting and hoping to see that.

Indiatimes announced PeerPower, LinkedIn of India

Today I got the invitation for PeerPower.com, supposed to be LinkedIn or ITToolBox from India. If you are not aware of these websites, these are professional networking websites help you in building and managing your professional network. Let us see what will be the future of PeerPower.com. If you are interested in joining my network, my profile can be found at - http://www.peerpower.com/pub/punit

How many backlinks required to get certain PageRank?

This is very common question and this chart will give you the answer -



Google PageRank Formula
The thing is that nobody actually knows how the PageRank is calculated (except Google of course) but webmasters have discovered over the time the possible algorhitm that seems to fit into equations:
PR(A) = (1-d) + d(PR(t1)/C(t1) + … + PR(tn)/C(tn))

Variable Explanation
t1 - tn: pages linking to A
C: the number of outbound links that a page has
d: damping factor - usually set to 0.85

More simple way of thinking about it:

a page’s PageRank = 0.15 + 0.85 * (a “share” of the PageRank of every page that links to it)

“Share” is the linking pages’ PageRank divided by the number of outbound links.
(Source: netcovered.com)

Desi-Indian Blogs & Bloggers Community

In India, there are blogger and blog communities by language. For example, you can find Hindi Bloggers community and Marathi bloggers community. But there is no single place where you can find a place where all Indian bloggers can come together and exchange ideas. Not having such a community seems pretty strange to me.

After seeing this void, I have created a platform for Indian bloggers where they can share views, exchange ideas and discuss issues. If you are a blogger from India, you are welcome to join this community.

You can join the community by filling your email address below -

Subscribe to indiblogs

You can also visit the home page of the Indian blogger community here.

Knol: About.com and NOT the Wikipedia Killer

Recently Google announced the public availability of Knol, after a test run of around 7-8 months. Most of the people see it as Wikipedia killer. Though there are similarity between Knol and Wikipedia, there are noticeable difference as follows -

• The first difference is that Knol is all about articles and not creating encyclopedia. Wikipedia is more subject/topic centered whereas Knol is more article/ author centered.
• Author can still own the copyright of the article and decide whether s/he wants contribution from others or not. He has also few license options available to choose from. Option for selecting license is not possible with Wikipedia.
• One major difference that I see it the option for monetization. I had written one post previously that Twitter and FriendFeed should allow monetization, so why not Wikipedia? Google approach definitely encourages sharing and collaboration by adding monetization aspect to the contribution.
• All articles in Knol is having nofollow attribute, so there will not be an impact on the page rank of the hyperlinked page. Though the link to your blog/ website will not affect PageRank, still you may expect increase in traffic.
• Knol puts strong emphasis on trust and they have a verification mechanisms. They recommend name verification by telephone or by credit card.

I personally feel that there are more difference than similarity in Knol and Wikipedia. They cater to two different markets and I believe there is sufficient scope for co-exist rather than killing each other.

Instead of Wikipedia, I believe that Knol has more similarities with About.com. If you don't know, About.com is a portal where you can get articles on various topics written by prominent authors. Generally all those articles are paid articles and About.com pays to the authors. Seeing Knol's article centric approach, I believe that conceptually Knol is very much similar to the About.com. I would prefer calling Knol a "Web 2.0 About.com".

About.com doesn't give reader of the article any method to contribute to the article similar to Wikipedia. Neither it does allow everybody to publish new articles in different categories. So the contribution is very much restricted in About.com. Knol.com takes the idea of About.com, fixes contribution issue and also incorporates monetization which again promotes contribution. The emphesis on contribution is what makes it "Web 2.0".

I am not saying that Knol.com is going to kill About.com. In fact, in my opinion, there is good possibility for co-existence of all three websites - Knol, Wikipedia and About.com. Though I am saying that Google has made About.com available to everybody and we will definitely see excellent knowledge base in future.

Thanks Google.

Yahoo Groups Power User Program

Yahoo recently announced Yahoo! Groups Power User Program. According to Yahoo -

"This program rewards the owners and moderators of some of our top Groups. You have dedicated a lot of time to making your group great, and now we want to give you something in return.
As a first benefit, you now have free access to 24-hour online customer care chat support. To access this service, visit our Contact Us page and look for the Chat with us live now link. "

I think it is an important and very useful step for promoting Yahoo Groups. I maintain quite a few popular yahoogroups and sometimes lack of direct support becomes a little irritating. I appreciate Yahoo for this initiative.

More details on the Yahoo Groups Power User Program can be found at - http://advision.webevents.yahoo.com/groupspoweruser/index.html. In case you want to know whether you are power user or not, check this out -

"You’ll get an email welcoming you to the program! If you didn’t get this email and you’d like to check to see if you’re in the program, click the Contact Us tab at the top of any Yahoo! Groups Help page, and look for Chat with us live now. If you see the link, Congratulations! — you’re a Power User. If you don’t see it, you’re not currently in the program"

There is also a yahoo group on this topic at http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/groupspoweruser/

WordTracker Keyword Suggestion Tool is Dead

Yesterday I noticed that Google External Keyword Suggestion Tool has started showing the actual search number in present month as well as the average that Google has with it. I wonder is there any reason for me to use free keyword suggestion tool by Wordtracker now? The quality of data with Google is certainly better and more up to the date than WordTracker. Because Google is the most used search engine, it's data make more sense to me than WordTracker or Overture.Here is the screenshots that made me happy and I hope it will make you happy too -

Check out Google External Keyword Suggestion Tool. I hope new features will not disappear like some of the stats features from Google Trends disappeared.