Bharati Ahuja

Google Home Page - Now With An Option Of Change Background Image

Google recently announced on its blog that you can choose a photo from your computer, your own Picasa Web Album or a public gallery hosted by Picasa which includes a selection of beautiful photos to change the background image.

Google's iGoogle feature which helped the users to personalize the Google home page according to their preferences had its debut in 2005. That feature was more focused on offering widgets to be added and personalized the page as per individual functionality needed a click away. Though the iGoogle feature also had the option of changing the image it was never highlighted.

This link on the home page of Google which says ' change background image ' is highlighted by Google by giving the link on the home page and making it very obvious that it is only for the background image.

We all know that bing.com always have picturesque images in the background and that has become its identity.

So, does this option suggest that Google is copying bing ?

Well, if the answer is yes then I don't think Google needs to go the bing way just to offer this feature to the users as Google's identity lies in the purity of the white color on the home page and that should be retained.

Though Google had this feature also available on iGoogle since a long time people have always opted the Google home page to remain white in color with the colorful Google logo on it with the search box - THE GOOGLE IDENTITY - SEARCH.

Hence, Google should stop offering these non-funtional options and give more qualitative options from the search perspective.

Inbound Links And SEO

If you talk to an SEO about optimizing your website then link building is one of the topics which will surely be discussed as a part of any SEO project.

I am of the opinion that the term 'link building' itself is an incorrect term. Links do not have to be built but they should get built naturally in the process as your website starts getting a wider web presence and preference.

As every link is like a vote to your site and goodwill of your company and that has to be earned as part of the web journey of the website.

If we focus on the quality content, have a good site internal linking architecture, have a site which is visitor friendly as well as robot friendly then getting high SERPs is not a difficult task.

Once you have high SERPs trust me there will loads of directories and portals adding your site in their listings even without you knowing about it, as they too are looking for quality listings.

Once upon a time the dmoz listing was something that you always wished for once you submitted your site in dmoz as that surely was a valuable link. I dont know if it still has that importance but I still manually add each site to dmoz.

Apart from a good qualitative site in all respects other genuine methods of gaining natural inbound links as your website goes from one milestone to another are as follows:

Focus all your efforts on making the site informative, qualitative and content rich to get links automatically.·
Do not neglect the On-Page Optimization Basics and just go after links. (Very important from the SEO perspective)·
Participate in social media networks for discussions and sharing of information and mention links to the relevant pages to your website. (It need not be the Home Page always)·
Have a social book marking button on your website.
Make RSS feeds available on your website.
Issue Press Releases periodically.

SEO Training At WebPro Technologies Ahmedabad - In-depth courses as well as Week-end courses for corporates

WebPro Technologies has been optimizing websites since 2003 and conducting training on SEO since 2007. At WebPro we believe that one never ceases to be a student. The charm of being truly educated is to accept that we all keep on learning something new at every stage of our lives and career. This applies very aptly to the field of SEO. SEO – Search Engine Optimization is all about optimizing the site as per the algorithm of the search engines and make it rank as high as possible in the organic search listings for the targeted keywords. Hence the SEO has to keep on upgrading his knowledge as the algorithms of the search engines keep on changing periodically.

If you are looking for a career which is challenging, exciting, gives you a chance to always learn something new and give you an opportunity earn well at the same time then becoming a SEO is the right option for you.

At WebPro we firmly believe that the main responsibility of a teacher is not to teach or preach but to help the student learn. Our methodology helps you to understand the art and science of SEO and shows you the way to how you have to continue self-learning on this topic with the endless resources available on the web for SEO.

We conduct in-depth training courses on SEO as well as 2 day week-end seminars for entrepreneurs and marketing executives and corporates who just want to know the basics and how to integrate SEO into their traditional methods of marketing.

The in-depth course also includes how to work out the pricing of an SEO project and develop an SEO contract for a client.

Click here to contact us to know more....

Google Celebrates PAC-MAN’s 30th birthday. Happy Birthday PAC-MAN !

I have played Pacman umpteen number of times long back but playing the game on the animated doodle of the Google logo was the best platform to play on.

Google Celebrates PAC-MAN’s 30th birthday.

Pacman was the most popular game played on PCs . Thanks to Google for making us rediscover some of our 8-bit memories. Google has truly paid homage to one of the most loved innovation of the gaming world by keeping intact the original look and feel of the game.

It is the 30th anniversary of Pac-man . Pacman was launched on May 22, 1980 in Japan, then came to the US in October 1980.

According to Google Pac-Man marked "a significant moment in popular culture". Web users have 48 hours to "re-live the nostalgia" of the 1980s by playing the game on the Google site. Users can still use the page to search or can click on insert coin to start playing the game. If you throw in another coin, then you can play together with someone else . Pac-man is controlled with arrow keys.

The pros And Cons Of Being A Solo Entrepreneur

I think every career oriented person secretly nurtures the dream to run a company and given a chance would prefer to be their own boss.

The dictionary definition of the term 'entrepreneur' is 'a person which runs a small business and assumes the risk and rewards that come from it'.

Yes, we all know that when a business is successful there are the rewards in terms of profit, recognition, appreciation, the sense of achievement, etc. but, the most important thing to keep in mind when one decides to undertake this journey alone is the risk factor which goes along with it and in fact it this risk factor is something the entrepreneur has to deal on a daily basis .

If you are the kind of person who wants to be ensured of a paycheck at the end of every month and prefer the security and perks that a 9 to 5 job offers with regular week-ends and holidays then trust me being an entrepreneur and running a one person company is not your cup of tea.

As people who have the responsibility of running a business on their shoulders have to go without having any monetary return many times especially when you just start your business or launch a new product by ploughing back the amount you just earned from the last deal in the business. On the other side once the business gets established successfully you can reap good rewards.

Once you decide to call yourself an entrepreneur, identify something that you have a passion for and contemplate if you would like to work on it day in and day out without getting bored and most important would you enjoy working on it. If yes then you have got an idea start funding the project and be prepared to work hard.

Initially at the time of start up the first and foremost objective is to gain as much as market reach as possible with the lowest possible cost of operation. All this is possible if you have a website of your company which has a presence on the search engines for the relevant keywords. As nowadays people find your company reference through the search engines more than the yellow pages or any other media.

Trust me initially people will doubt what you say till you prove it by achieving the results. The real challenge will be to get the first few projects as you will not have any testimonials, references or examples of work to show but after that if one keeps moving ahead with sincerity then there is no looking back .

If you are sincere, honest, hard-working, responsible and committed to your venture then surely it is not you who has to run after success but success runs after you. Again, success is a very relative term. Decide what success means to you and measure your growth in terms of success accordingly.

Yes, all this is easier said than done but for any kind of business having the patience and perseverance is very essential because there will be times when you cannot see the road ahead and cannot identify why things are not picking up but it takes time to establish the goodwill and prove yourself.

As Theodore Isaac Rubin has rightly said:
Happiness does not come from doing easy work but from the afterglow of satisfaction that comes after the achievement of a difficult task that demanded our best.

What is hCard Integration?

hCard is a simple, open, distributed format for representing people, companies, organizations, and places, using a 1:1 representation of vCard (RFC2426) properties and values in semantic HTML or XHTML. hCard is one of several open microformat standards suitable for embedding in HTML, XHTML, Atom, RSS, and arbitrary XML.

Microformats are a way of adding simple markup to human-readable data items such as events, contact details or locations, on web pages, so that the information in them can be extracted by software and indexed, searched for, saved, cross-referenced or combined.

Microformats are a way to use (X)HTML for data and a logical next step in the evolution of web design and information architecture and a way of thinking about data which combines html, content and presentation .

From the SEO perspective the most commonly used microformat is the integration of Hcard for the contact address on your website contact page.

If I write the contact address of my company without the using the hCard the HTML will be as follows:

If I integrate the hCard the HTML is as follows:

If you are using the hCard it is advisable to put only one address on the page but if you have to put more than one the change the div id="" class="vcard" tag accordingly for every address.

The code can be generated by using the hCard creator on the following link:

http://microformats.org/code/hcard/creator

Reference Reading:

http://www.microformats.org/wiki/hcard

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HCard

http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2009/05/introducing-rich-snippets.html

SEO – Search Engine Optimization 2010

I am sure all SEOs would agree that the year 2010 started with a lot of apprehension, anticipation, discussions , doubts and predictions regarding the changing scenario of search as a result of Google implementing caffeine the new indexing architecture from all their data centres.

Matt cutts announced in December 2009 that caffeine would start rolling after the holidays i.e from Jan. 2010 . We all waited with our fingers crossed hoping that it does not affect our sites adversely but till the end of the first quarter of 2010 the change was not at all noticeable apart from the Google SERP display being changed by adding more options like news,videos, blogs, updates for Real Time Search, maps on the LHS of the SERP along with more search tools added.

Search Engine Optimization 2010

Google caffeine is being implemented but at various levels and gradually. Caffeine is more about making the indexing architecture of Google more robust .

As SEO professionals and companies we have to see that the rankings of our websites improve or are maintained. But in 2010 as we all know that search is not only about rankings it is much more. If we want to ensure the visibility of our website on the complete search engine landscape then optimizing the site for local search and having a listing on the Google maps, having a presence on the image search, News, Blogosphere presence and having our tweets being listed in the most recent development the updates is all very important.

Having a presence on all these platforms of search shall surely aim at more targeted traffic reaching your website.

Apart from a wider presence the downloading speed is a major factor for the websites to be preferred by the search engines.

To know more about the speed factor for the websites view the following video.

The real scenario of search and how our websites have responded to the change will be unveiled only when all data centers of Google shall be updated . That should be sometime in mid 2010 latest by August 2010 ( My assumption) as the last Major Google update which was in 2005 was truly reflected by August 2005.

Why can't students and teachers be Facebook friends?

Why can't we be Facebook friends? Facebook has blurred the lines between teachers and students, forcing districts to grapple with what's appropriate online.

Just came across the article related to the above topic on http://bit.ly/dpogcx (Please read the article on the link to co-relate to the following write up)

In my opinion when such problems arise the best approach is to have a positive attitude with additional responsibility from parents and teachers and the acceptance of the new technological advancement via the web and internet.

These issues were bound to arise sooner or later. We have to accept that the society is changing and the web and the internet are here to stay to be woven into the fabric of our real lives like never before.

Instead of putting restrictions on children and or being confused about the real world and the virtual world the parents and teachers should educate themselves about these technologies and use it as a tool to help the children through a medium which they have become quite comfortable with.

Of course as a responsible parent or a teacher one has to think before speaking now just think before you share or tweet by using the right words to make an impact on the children positively.

Lets take this media and the net revolution positively and start considering it as a boon rather than a curse or a distraction.

I must say this generation who have started using the internet from the time they started writing will have a better control about such situations in future. As they will know about its pros and cons already.

This is a transition phase that we are going through. Let us make the most of it by educating ourselves and accept the change as change is the only constant things in our lives.

I think we as responsible elders should understand this new media for social interaction and use this as an effective tool to communicate with our children and students and influence them positively.

Let us empower ourselves with the knowledge of the web world and not doubts !

Using The Internet Effectively For Studies

Recently WebPro Technologies conducted a programme at Ahmedabad Management Association (AMA) on the topic "Using Internet Effectively For Studies". The age group was between 10 to 18 years.