Keyword Tool Supercharger
The Google AdWords Keyword Tool is a great tool to help you identify popular keywords that can help with search engine optimization. However, it really only supplies insight into one component of the equation when it comes to driving traffic to your site: keyword demand. It lacks any information about what sort of supply there is fulfilling that demand. To help fill that void, I’ve developed the Keyword Tool Supercharger.
goo.gl URL Shortener Bookmarklet via YQL
Last month we saw a new Google URL shortening service that will be used for Feedburner and the Google Toolbar. It wasn’t long before the URL shortening code in the toolbar was dissected, and subsequent APIs developed. I managed to put together my own by using YQL.
Google Fusion Tables Could be a Game Changer
Google has been very busy lately with many new products recently. Many of them, such as Google Public DNS, Google Chrome OS, and real-time search have received the lion’s share of publicity. I’d like to talk about a little jewel sitting in Google Labs you may not heard of. It’s a shiny little jewel that could become a real game changer and not many people are talking about it yet: Google Fusion Tables.
Download the Google Chrome OS Virtual Machine
Last week, Techcrunch reported rumors of the release of the Google Chrome OS. They stated that the info came from a reliable source, and indeed that source was reliable. Google had an event at their headquarters, and indeed provided new details and a demo of the Chrome OS. The Chromium Blog has some great videos that provide some additional information about Chrome OS as well.
Make Free Phone Calls with Google Voice, Gizmo, and Orgasmatron V: Google Voice Edition
Earlier this year, I had posted a hack for making free phone calls with Google Voice, Gizmo, and Asterisk. Since then, Google closed the door on inbound SIP calls and thus the hack no longer works. Fortunately a new possibility has emerged that makes it possible once again.
5 Reasons Google Wave Is Not Ready
I was fortunate enough to receive an invitation into Google Wave shortly after the initial 100,000 invititations went out last month. Initially, I was a bit overwhelmed and did not really know where to begin or what to do. Bwana was kind enough to engage in a real-time wave with me, and show me around a bit. Afterwards, I began to see the potential. However, I think there are many reasons why Google Wave still is not ready for prime-time.
There Is No Undo in Google Wave
My good friend Bwana was kind enough to nominate me for Google Wave, and I finally received the invitation yesterday. With all the hype surrounding Google Wave, you may be surprised to learn that it still lacks one very simple piece of functionality that one might take for granted until it’s gone: Undo. There is no undo in Google Wave! Can you believe it?!?
I’m not sure how Google could forget to include undo. I suppose it happened the same way that Apple forgot to include copy/paste on the iPhone. So what does the lack of undo functionality say about the product? It must really suck if there’s not even an undo button or keyboard shortcut, right?
10 Amusing Tweets about Google Wave Invitations
The web is abuzz about the 100,000 Google Wave invitations going out today. Be sure that the social networks are no exception. There are thousands of people on Twitter begging for Google Wave invitations, some of which are quite amusing. I’ve put together a list of my top 10 favorites Tweets. Some are requests to perform amusing acts to obtain an invite. Others are just witty commentary. Enjoy!
DoFollow Blog Search
Dofollow vs. Nofollow
The majority of blogs implore the nofollow tag in their comments. That means that when you specify your website URL when leaving a comment, the link created does not help to elevate your website’s status in the algorithms search engines use. Although not really an “official” term, people often use dofollow to describe blogs that do not use the nofollow tag. In other words, comments left on these blogs do help to elevate your website’s status in search engines.
New Google Operating System Confirmed
There have long been rumors of a Google Operating system. Last night those rumors were finally laid to rest with the announcement that a new Google operating system is in the works.
Make Free Phone Calls Anywhere in the USA with Google Voice, Gizmo, and Asterisk
Update: The instructions here are no longer valid, because Google has since closed off inbound SIP calls into Google Voice. However, I have posted a new solution for making free phone calls with Google Voice, Gizmo, and Asterisk.
I recently switched my GrandCentral account over to Google Voice. I fooled around with Google Voice quite a bit and was quite impressed by the many features. It took quite a bit of work, but I finally figured out how to set up Asterisk along with Gizmo to use Google Voice to make free telephone calls to anywhere in the USA.
More Simple and Easy SEO to Increase Your Pagerank
Some time ago, I signed up for a nifty little service called Pagerankster. It’s a free service that provides you with email alerts when your PageRank changes. I had almost forgotten I had signed up, until I received an alert this morning that GeekLad reached PageRank 5!
Google Chrome 2.0
I was shocked last month when Google dropped the beta designation from Chrome. Chrome was in beta a mere three months, whereas some products such as Gmail are STILL in beta after more than four years! Sometimes I just don’t understand why they do weird things like this, but it’s really all just semantics.
Google Reader for Dummies
Ok, so the title is actually Google Reader for Beginners. I’m constantly telling my friends how great Google Reader is, but I have a hard time convincing them they need to use it. From now on, I’ll just show them the video the Google Reader Team put together.
Where Did Google Maps Saved Locations Link Go?
I had a very frustrating experience recently. I could not for the life of me find My Saved Locations on Google Maps. I knew they were still there, because when I started typing in the search box, Google started suggesting them. But I couldn’t find the link to edit/view all of them.
Picasa Finally Makes it to the Mac
Google acquired Picasa nearly 4 and a half years ago, and they finally managed to release Picasa for the Mac. I for one am glad to finally see it, although I’m still puzzled as to why it took so incredibly long. 4.5 years is a very long time in computer years, the equivalent of about half a lifetime in human years. I hope it does not take them nearly that long to release Chrome for Mac.
Track the Mention of Your Blog or Website with Google Alerts
I have a couple of Google Alerts set up to track the mention of GeekLad and ForeverSMS on other websites. You can do the same with the names of your blogs or websites. Tracking your names and brands is particularly useful when they are mentioned on blogs. Blog articles provide you with perfect opportunities to respond by replying with comments.
Google SearchWiki
The Official Google Blog has made the announcement of a new Google product called SearchWiki. SearchWiki will allow users logged into their Google account to change the order of search results, remove search results, add search results, and add comments to search results. The modifications made will only appear in your own searches by default, but you can also view notes made by other SearchWiki users.
Google Mobile App on iPhone Adds Voice Recognition
Google announced yesterday that they’ve added voice recognition for the Google Mobile App on the iPhone. It’s certainly another logical step in Google’s strategy for bringing analog and digital information together. Google is helping to pave the two way street where we speak to computers and they speak back to us. I look forward to seeing more Google products that provide voice recognition, text-to-speech, and image recognition.
Fast and Simple SEO to Increase from PageRank 0
I was very surprised when I learned that I had quickly increased to a PageRank of 3 within less than 30 days of having created this blog. A few weeks later, I reflected upon some of the things that may have contributed to improving my PageRank. More recently, I came across some additional information that may actually provide the real reason I rose so quickly.
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Update to Google Webmaster Tools Greasemonkey Script
I recently made a minor update to my Google Webmaster Tools Greasemonkey script for displaying nofollow information. The script allows you to learn which incoming links to your website are nofollow links when viewing the detail for a site within Google Webmaster Tools. I have added functionality that will also display the PageRank for the incoming links.
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View External Nofollow Links in Google Webmaster Tools
A few days ago I posted a feature request for Google Webmaster Tools to provide some nofollow information on external links. More or less right after I posted the request, I started putting together my own Greasemonkey script to provide the functionality I was seeking. When I was nearly complete with my Greasemonkey script, I revisited my post in Google Groups and saw that someone mentioned a Firefox addon that provides PageRank and nofollow status for external links in Google Webmaster Tools. The Firefox addon does exactly what I was looking for plus it also provides PageRank information.
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Increasing Your PageRank
A few weeks ago I was pleasantly surprised to learn that my blog had reached a PageRank of 0 in less than 30 days since having created it. I blogged about some of the things I believed that helped contribute to my rapid rise of a PageRank of 3. I’d like to share a few more strategies that I believe also helped to increase my PageRank.
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Google Continues Bringing Together Analog and Digital
Google recently made audio playback available for some Knol articles. For example, if you check out the article on how to treat and prevent skin allergies, you’ll notice a link that says Listen. If you click the link, a small embedded media player appears and you begin to hear the article read out loud.
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Google Blog Search Takes on Techmeme
Google Blog Search has changed its look. The new layout features stories grouped together, much like Google News does. Some other blogs have dubbed it a Techmeme killer. I don’t think I’d go as far as to call it a Techmeme killer, but the new layout definitely makes sense. The Official Google Blog says:
Adapting some of the technology pioneered by Google News, we’re now showing categories on the left side of the website and organizing the blog posts within those categories into clusters, which are groupings of posts about the same story or event. Grouping them in clusters lets you see the best posts on a story or get a variety of perspectives.
New Google Blog Search Layout
Microsoft Following Google into the Clouds
As part of Google’s 10th anniversary, last month there was a post on the Official Google Blog about the future of cloud computing. Just a couple of weeks later, Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer made remarks about a new operating system Microsoft is developing that he called Windows Cloud. Ballmer states that the official announcement of the product will be coming within a month.
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PageRank 0 to 3 in Under 30 Days
Less than a month ago, I set out to create this blog. GeekLad was “born” on September 3, 2008. Although I had learned quite a bit about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) when I created my personal finance blog back in January, I’ve learned quite a bit more with my launch of GeekLad. I’ve been keeping a close eye on my PageRank and tonight I was pleasantly shocked to learn it has already hit three! I think it was many months before WealthBoy ever hit PR3. I’d like to share with you some of the things I’ve learned over the course of the past month, and perhaps touch on some of the things that I believe that have helped me to reach a PageRank of 3 in less than 30 days.
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Homepage Maximizer
Current User Count:
My Homepage Maximizer gadget only has a few options to turn on and off some of the standard items on your iGoogle page. The Google search bar on the page takes up a rather large amount of space. This gadget really helps to increase the amount of space for other gadgets by allowing you to remove the Google search bar.
Originally I had written the gadget to just turn off the Google search bar at the top. One day Google changed the name of the page element containing the search bar, and a few users of my gadget let me know it was broken. Per request by one of them, I added the options for the tabs and footer options as well.
Projects
As the true geek that I am, occasionally I enjoy passing the time with a little coding, a little hacking, and other activities. I wouldn’t call myself a programmer, as it is not my primary occupation and I’m well aware that most people that program do it much better than I do. I would consider myself to be more of a programming hobbyist. Most of the programming I do is with JavaScript, although in my day-job I am quite profficient with VBA. Recently, I’ve done quite a bit of programming in PHP and MySQL also.
RerunCheck
RerunCheck is a website I put together that lets you know whether or not your favorite show is airing new episodes.
The Ultimate DoFollow Search Engine
After many failed attempts, I finally managed to put together a decent algorithm for identifying dofollow blogs. The dofollow search engine searches articles posted solely on dofollow blogs.
WordPress Plugins
Shortly after creating GeekLad, I started developing some plugins. I found myself in need of plugins/widgets that didn’t exist, so I developed some of my own.
ForeverSMS
ForerverSMS is my most recent project (other than GeekLad). It is a service that allows you to send text messages for free.
iGoogle Gadgets
I’ve developed a number of iGoogle gadgets you might want to check out.
WealthBoy
My personal finance blog.
jsierra.net
My very first domain.
Happy Birthday Google!
Wow, can you believe Google is 10 years old today? Google has grown into much more than just a search engine over the past ten years. Through acquisitions and their own development, they’ve also brought us photos, a blogging platform, free email, discussion groups, a social network, an online rss feed reader, a geographical mapping website and application, a web browser, an online calendar, online documents (spreadsheets, and presentations), and so much more! It’s hard to imagine a web without Google. Granted Yahoo! and Microsoft Search have improved over the years as well, but if it hadn’t been for Google they wouldn’t have been forced to do so.
Busy Day for Google
Yesterday was a very busy day for Google, with the announcement of two new products and a new version of an existing product:
Perhaps the biggest announcement yesterday was that the famed “gbrowser” does in fact exist. There had been much speculation for a long time that Google was developing its own browser, and yesterday they presented Google Chrome. I downloaded it and used it a bit and I am very impressed. It is lightning fast and you can really tell how fast it is when you visit JavaScript intensive sites such as Gmail, Google Reader, and Google Docs. Unfortunately, it does seem to be lacking full support for proxies. I couldn’t install it at work due to the firewall/proxy and had to install it at home. When I tried running it from work today, it didn’t like the proxy settings. I’m certain it shouldn’t take too long before such issues are resolved.
Google Video for Businesses is a new addition to Google Apps Premier Edition that allows organizations to share videos for training and informational purposes. I believe that this sort of service would probably work better for large organizations than it would small ones.
A new version of Picasa is out with some nice new features. Picasa Web has also gotten a face lift with a few new features as well. I wish that Google would come out with Picasa for Mac. iPhoto is nice and all, but does lack some things that are handled better by Picasa.
