Jul
13

Google Experts WordPress Gurus SEO Professionals

WGHubris on July 13th, 2010

experts Lately, I’ve noticed that there are actually far fewer experts out there than we are led to believe.

There are numerous blogs, websites, and people who hold themselves out as experts on WordPress, or SEO gurus, or professional online designers, and so on. However, a collection of recent updates to the core platforms that these experts give advice about has exposed an unpleasant truth. Most of those SEO experts, WordPress gurus, and online traffic masters out there are really nothing more than parrots rewriting what they have read elsewhere.

Google MayDay Update Exposes Fakes

Google updated it search ranking algorithm recently, much to the dismay of several SEO experts and legions of qualified SEO consultants. It seems that Google’s rankings had been lacking in the area of search known as long-tail keywords.

The definition of long-tail keywords is keywords that are searched for less frequently than typical short-tail or main keywords, but that still provide a lot of traffic to websites savvy enough to use them. For example, something like best Denver hotels, might be a short-tail keyword (or key phrase), while something like nice denver motel or best downtown denver luxury hotels would be a long-tail keyword. The idea is that if you can optimize a webpage to target the long-tail keyword, there will be much less competition, and therefore ranking highly for that phrase will be easier. Doing this just once is not very profitable, however, dedicated website publishers can earn lots of money by creating and optimizing numerous webpages or websites for multiple long-tail keywords.

To take the example further, the owner of a Denver hotels website might create an SEO optimized page for numerous long-tail phrases like, best family friendly denver hotels, or best denver hotels downtown with mountain views, or even best value hotels for business travelers in denver, and so on. Because, each individual page is optimized around that long-tail key-phrase, they can all rank high in Google search results for their own searches. Meanwhile, a website for a major chain of hotels, like Hilton or Marriott, might not rank well for any of those specific searches because they have neither the time nor inclination to try and rank for every search phrase someone might use to find a hotel in Denver.

Instead, these websites rely upon the carefully crafted public image Google has created whereby the best content always rises to the top of search rankings. Before Google updated its searches with the so-called May Day update, this was largely untrue. The only way a webpage would rank highly for a long-tail keyword search was if no one else had actually targeted it yet.

Unofficial Google spokesman Matt Cutts emphasized that the MayDay update to Google searches was targeted primarily at these long-tail searches and the websites that profit from undeserved high rankings in search results by focusing big SEO efforts on underused key phrases.

There has been much speculation about what exactly was changed by Google. What is interesting is where this speculation is coming from. Legitimate Google watchers have been postulating theories and ideas since day one. Furthermore, they are reporting what they hear from other webmasters, Google insiders, and official Google announcements and forum postings. Meanwhile, the fake Google experts have gone quiet about the whole matter, resorting to rewriting about the same old things that they have written about in the past, and waiting for someone else to discover what is going on and what to do about it so that they can finally find out themselves. Of course, then, they’ll be pontificating as though they have worked it all out themselves as soon as they have read enough material from others to use as a crutch springboard.

WordPress 3.0 Reveals Experts Are Not

A similar update to the WordPress blogging platform has left numerous WordPress websites stalled out writing and rewriting about the same eight or ten new features updated in WordPress 3.0 and explained completely on wordpress.org. What is missing is all of that advice about the intricacies of WordPress 3.0. Of course, it should take a little bit of time. WordPress is big and advanced, so digging through everything new in WordPress 3 takes a while, but there are insights along the way.

Most telling is the dearth of WordPress 3.0 themes. Most pre-WordPress 3 themes have been updated, and their creators are quick to point out that their premium WordPress themes are fully compatible with WordPress 3.0. Unfortunately, compatible, and designed for WordPress 3.0 are two very different things.

We’ll keep an eye out for good new WordPress 3.0 themes which should be arriving from the top WordPress developers shortly. In the meantime, if you are a professional writer, you can read the continuing series about the best WordPress themes for writers and the upcoming reviews of writer WordPress themes.

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Working Thoughts No comments »
Jul
8

Internet Explorer Flaws to Fix for IE 9

WGHubris on July 8th, 2010

I was going to just leave Internet Explorer alone. Everyone knows that it is the bottom of the pile when it comes to browsers. The only people who use IE are those who are either not computer savvy enough to know that there are options and how to get them, and those who do know about the better web browsers out there, but figure that it just is not worth the effort. Even Microsoft knows IE 8 is already junk, that is why whenever it posts press releases about how fast Internet Explorer is compared to Chrome, Firefox, Opera and Safari, they compare them to the non-existent Internet Explorer 9 and not the currently released Internet Explorer 8.

Today, however, two of IE 8′s many shortcomings popped up in my face again and I figured that I would write this post in hopes that a growing chorus of user voices might just get Microsoft to pay attention to what is really wrong with Internet Explorer instead of what they think is wrong with Internet Explorer.

First and foremost is the Apple Computer-like arrogance that keeps IE from offering a way to choose your own setting for how IE 8 handles browser sessions. In every modern web browser out there, except for IE 8, you can choose to restore your last browsing session by default. That is, you can tell the browser to open all of the same tabs and webpages that were open during your last browsing session automatically the next time you start your browser.

Internet Explorer offers the ability to restore your last browsing session, but requires that you do it manually. The stated reason for this enormous deficiency in browser functionality is  privacy. Microsoft thinks that the possibility that someone might inadvertently see the website you were looking at last time is more important than you (the user) wanting to be able to pick right back up where you left off. Or, in the case of yours truly, not only pick right back up where I was online last time, but also to BE REMINDED of where I was last time without having to jot down notes or send myself a reminder or whatever.

While privacy is important and a worthy goal, allowing the user to use the software in the way that works best for them is WAY more important. It makes perfect sense that for privacy reasons Microsoft does not set Internet Explorer 8 to reopen the last browsing session by default. It makes NO SENSE whatsoever that Microsoft will not provide that option as one of the settings that can be customized in IE 8. I guess this feature wasn’t widespread enough during the development of IE 8 for Microsoft to bother copying it into their “revolutionary” new browser.

Spell Check Missing From IE 8

There is also no spell check in IE8 by default. In a world where more and more is done online on the Internet, being able to spell check your entries into fields and forms is paramount. Of course, at the time, although everyone else had a spellchecker, and Microsoft has access to arguably one of the most complete spellcheck programs anywhere (the one in Microsoft Word and Microsoft Office), they didn’t bother to include it. You have to download an addon called ieSpell in order to get spell check in IE 8. I guess that they wanted to make sure that at least someone downloaded an IE addon since as we discussed above, anyone willing to go download add-ons would have long ago downloaded a better browser instead.

Password Saving Wrong Time

Finally, IE 8 has a very annoying flaw in the way it saves and remembers passwords for websites. Apparently when Microsoft sent down the command to copy the password save and remember function from better browsers like Firefox, they didn’t actually pay enough attention to how it was done to copy it right.

When you enter a username and password in Chrome, Opera, or Firefox, the next page continues to load behind the dialog box that asks you whether or not you want to save the password. This is critical because all webpages hide the password you enter behind astericks which means that you can never be sure that you got the password right until the login page loads and sends you on your way with a successful login. On good web browsers, you enter your username and password, and then, if there is any doubt in your mind about whether or not your login will be successful, you just wait and see. If the login works, THEN you click Save or Yes to Save your password. If not, you click No and enter the password again and the browser correctly offers you a chance to save THAT password.

The jack#ss that designed Internet Explorer 8′s password save and remember functionality makes you answer the question BEFORE the next page will load. That means that you have to say Yes in order to see if the login was successful or not. If it was not sucessful, then you have already saved the WRONG password thanks to this bassackwards feature.

The worst part is that when you re-enter your login information and actually get it right, IE may not even offer to change the wrong information it already saved, especially if you fat-fingered the username. Now that website has TWO username and password combinations saved and one of them will be wrong forever unless you go manually dig into the guts of the IE settings menus to find and delete that wrong information.

Microsoft, while you are building functions and support and speed into IE 9, if you could please fix these things that you got wrong in IE 8, we would really appreciate it. Of course, it isn’t really that big of deal. Those of us that know better only use IE for two reasons: to get stuff off your own website, and to make sure that our websites look right for the chuckleheads who use your browser.

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Software No comments »
Jul
7

Customize Windows 7 Sound Themes Personalize It

WGHubris on July 7th, 2010

Custom Windows 7 Sounds

When installing a new theme, you probably look at the pretty background images, the colors, and maybe how it does or does not support Aero. But, don’t forget that different themes can also come with different sounds.

After weeks of being annoyed by a banjo sound as my windows default beep, I finally went into the Personalize control panel for Windows 7 to change it. I was surprised to find so many sound themes inside. I thought everyone just basically left the default Windows sounds alone with the exception of one or two tweaks here and there.

To save you some time, let me tell you that the best way to search through the Windows sound themes is by selecting the Default Beep sound and then clicking on the little speaker to play a sample of what it will sound like.

Take a little break and read Citibank rewards catalog information.

The Default Beep is what you will hear more than anything else while using your computer. It is the beep that you hear when you get an non-critical error message (like when you click the wrong thing), or the beep you hear when you get a basic status message like print job completed, or software updated or whatever. In other words, you had better like the sound of the default beep.

Go through the available Windows 7 sound themes and find the ones that have a default beep that you like, or that you can at least live with. THEN, you can check out the other sounds and pick your favorite customized Windows 7 sound theme. Otherwise, you are just wasting time because you’ll be back trying to fix that annoying banjo sound beep in no time at all.

Enjoy your customized Windows 7 installation. You deserve it.

Happy day.

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Windows 7 No comments »
Jul
5

Best Firefox Addon For More Productivity

WGHubris on July 5th, 2010

The basic speed dial window all browsers have.

I usually don’t like to post stubs or preliminary articles like this, but I went all reviewer on Mozilla.org this morning and, of course, ended up writing a review of my favorite Firefox add-on of all time, Speed Dial. As that review got longer I felt myself wanting to show people how to really maximize productivity with this Firefox plug-in by configuring Speed Dial the way I have ended up tweaking it and setting it up. Don’t get me wrong, my why isn’t the only way, but when you see the power and customization of the Firefox Speed Dial plug-in in use in my setup, you can see why I think that Speed Dial is the most important Firefox add-on anyone can have. In fact, it’s the one real drawback to Google Chrome for me right now.

There is a Speed Dial extension for Google Chrome on the Google extensions website, but it is a pale imitation of this powerful Firefox add-on. It doesn’t have dial groups which is the main powerful feature of the Speed Dial plugin.

Anyway, it would be irresponsible of me to get into posting my Speed Dial Firefox extension review right now when I have deadlines barreling down on my like runaway trucks with no brakes on the side of a steep mountain. However, I don’t want anyone following the link I threw onto my review at mozilla.org to arrive and wonder where in the heck the review I promised is. Therefore, I’m going to post a couple of screen shots that I think will help any user with even a little bit of power browsing experience to understand the kind of productivity gains that are possible with this plugin.

If that is you, either install the plugin and start messing around with it. Just got to Tools -> Add-ons -> Options and start customizing away. (I recommend setting up either a Speed Dial icon on your toolbars, or doing like I did and setting the right click on a page to include the context menu option to Add to Speed Dial. You can make that work by right-clicking on the tab if you prefer, but I’m used to right-clicking on the page itself when I want to do something. One of the best things about this add-on is how much it can be customized to work exactly the way you need it to in order to help out with your own time management by making browsing faster and easier.)

The quick, quick, version of how to use Speed Dial to speed up your Internet browsing and boost your online power goes like this:

  1. Use Dial Groups – Every web browser offers some sort of dial based start up screen. Opera was first, but Google Chrome has one now too. IE has a similar concept although it is done via text links instead of actual configurable dials. What makes Speed Dial great is the ability to have MORE THAN ONE page of dials.
  2. Set Speed Dial to show up in new tabs instead of waiting to click something. Every time you press CTL-T you’ll get a list of your speed dials to use. Just make your current homepage the first dial on the first dial group to keep instant access to it.
  3. Customize the dial group tabs – You can change the colors to make tabs easier to find. Just don’t go crazy or you’ll hate it.
  4. Customize the dial groups – Need more than 9 websites for one dial group? No problem. One of the configurations is how many sites to show on a speed dial group. You can change both the default, and even better change on a per group basis. You can have 12 dials under Work and 6 dials under Facebook Games or vice versa, depending on your lifestyle :) – If you have a widescreen monitor take advantage of that width by setting your default dial group configuration to 3 rows and 4 columns.

Lastly, if you are a power user looking for maximum time savings, you’ll end up with a lot of dials that link to a lot of webpages. By default, the speed dial thumbnails refresh frequently which means you could end up with a slow running Firefox when running Speed Dial and switching through several dials because thumbnails are being generated for each site no matter how fast you click. (See the link for details.)

There is lots more power. Read the docs or poke around the settings to see what else you can do to improve online productivity with Speed Dial. Or, come back here in the next day or two when I get time to go on full tilt. Even easier, grab the Best Hubris RSS Feed to make sure you get the updated Firefox plugin reviews as soon as they come online.

Then you can check out my post about Firefox personas if you need to read more about the Mozilla web browser.

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Software 3 Comments »
Jul
1

Better More Recent Google Results

WGHubris on July 1st, 2010

frustrated-by-computer Need better search results on Google?

Need more recent results for Google searches?

Want to reduce irrelevant Google search results?

Consider using the More Search tools menu located in the left toolbar on the Google search website.

I’ve noticed a lot of Google search users arriving here on Best Hubris and other websites are trying to add dates to their searches in order to get better Google search results and reduce irrelevant Google search data. For example, several searchers appear to be inputting 2010 into Google searches hoping to get results from the current year.

Unfortunately, the Google search ranking algorithm doesn’t work that way very well. Any webpage that has the number 2010 in its text will qualify, while webpages and articles posted during 2010, but without the actual number used in the text will not qualify. This webpage for example has the keyword 2010 on it three times so far. That means it will match searches for 2010 better than many other pages that are just as current.

So, if you are looking for current HP LaserJet 1012 drivers for Windows 7 by putting 2010 in your search, you might find this page instead of the one on this website that actually has a way to use HP LaserJet 1012 printer drivers on Windows 7 with a workaround.

Most searches will show a choice of dates limiting functions that include Past Month, and Past Year. Using these search date parameters will do a lot to make your Google search results more relevant.

For more specific date range based searches, use the custom date search function.

A good tip for better Google searches made easy is to just enter a start date into the custom date search interface. Google will automatically use the current date as the end date giving users a way to search the Internet from a specific date up until now fast and easy.

For example, if you are searching for information about how to use Windows 7 or want to search on new Windows 7 features, limit your Google search dates to March 1, 2010 or April 1, 2010 start dates to capture information published about the actual full Windows 7 release software and avoid all of those webpages and articles that were written about the Windows 7 beta.

That way if you want more information about advanced search in Windows 7 you won’t be reading all the speculation about what might be in the final product, or trying to match up screen shots of Windows 7 search features that were taking on Windows 7 Release Candidate instead of the full retail version of Windows 7.

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Computers - Internet No comments »
Jun
30

Microsoft Versus Apple Market Cap Is Not Everything

WGHubris on June 30th, 2010

Mark Twain once said that there were lies, damn lies, and statistics. The more you know about math, the more you understand that what he meant was that one can lie with statistics, NOT that all statistics are lies.

The trouble with statistics is two-fold. Number one, far too many Americans are math illiterate. High Schools and Colleges let students graduate with progressively less math. Not that it would matter, considering the staggering number of Americans who can’t remember much of anything that they learned in school anyway. (This suggests a problem of motivation and lack of respect for one’s own mind, but I’m not going there with this post.)

Number two, the critical component of valid statistical analysis is analyzing the RIGHT data. The only way to know whether or not it is the right data being analyzed is to look at the raw data behind the statistics. Unfortunately, that requires a basic understanding of math at a level above addition and subtraction. (See #1)

That being said, numbers don’t lie, as the other saying goes, and neither do statistics. As long as one understands what numbers are being analyzed and what is being said about them, there is no need to understand any complex advanced statistical formulas or concepts.

Apple Versus Microsoft Dollars Sales Value

Recently, the media made a big deal out of the fact that Apple passed Microsoft in market capitalization, theoretically making Apple a more valuable company than Microsoft. Of course, market cap is just one of many ways to measure a company’s value. To actually buy Microsoft or Apple you would have to pay more than the current share price.

Microsoft put up a post on the official Microsoft blog recently regarding some of the other numbers out there. In some ways it is a defense against the accelerating notion that Microsoft is a dying dinosaur while Apple is the future. In another way, it is nothing more than a different way of looking at the numbers.

For example, no one is disputing that Microsoft continues to dominate the enterprise and the personal computer markets. Those markets are far from small and despite plenty of pronouncements that the future does not include the computer as we know it, there is still the pesky problem of input. While the iPad may be a fun new way to view and interact with data, it is a terrible way to do data entry. Not even Apple claims that you should be able to type 80 words per minute on an iPad once you get used to it. That means the iPad for writers and other data creating professionals is a non-starter as a primary device.

The real dig in the numbers actually is in the past projections of Microsoft’s demise, such as the explosive growth of Linux displacing Microsoft in the server world. While Linux has enjoyed remarkable growth and Microsoft should not take too much pride in the fact that it has managed to “hold off” what it should have been able to crush, the so-called experts did miss by a large margin. The implication is that they are doing it again with their projections of huge growth for devices like the iPad.

The best part is that almost all of the numbers cited include a “source” so that an interested reader can verify the data for themselves, saving us all for wondering whether or not this is a bunch of lies, damn lies, or statistics.

But, even with the source links there is still plenty of wiggle room in these numbers. Consider the two statistics showing that less than ten percent of US netbooks were running Windows in 2008 and that 96 percent of US netbooks were running Windows in 2009. Sounds pretty good for Microsoft, right?

What the numbers are hoping you forgot is that in order to get that number in 2009, Microsoft had to re-authorize manufacturers to sell Windows XP because its bloated Windows Vista operating system couldn’t even be used. Furthermore, those sales also included cut-rate, bargain basement pricing of XP which made using Microsoft Windows cost effective. Without those two capitulations, that percentage might be single digits.

And those iPhone sales numbers are for Q1 2010, before the new iPhone 4.0 version came out, but after pretty much everyone guessed it was coming. In other words, those sales numbers represent the calm before the storm. Considering Apple says it sold 1.7 million iPhones in just three days. We will have to wait until Q3 to see real numbers because the new iPhone was only available for a few weeks of Q2.

Projected Sales for Apple Devices and Microsoft Software

  • Projected iPad Sales in 2010: 7.1 million
  • Projected PC sales in 2010: 355 million
  • iPhone Sales in first 3 days: 1.7 million

No matter how you slice, it Microsoft has a bigger market. More importantly, Microsoft continues to have no serious competitive threat. On the other hand, Android devices may soon equal or surpass the iPhone and will be offered on more than one wireless carrier. Likewise, touch screen computers are reportedly on the boards from many manufacturers who can use the iPad as a starting point.

In the end, projections and numbers are worthless. What matters is execution. Microsoft has a long history of sloppy, unloved products that barely pass muster, yet its execution in the sales arena is unparalleled. Apple has a long history of beloved, widely praised products that never manage to reach an audience bigger than its fan base. If the outcome of this decades old battle is to change, then one of these two technology companies has to get better at the part of the equation it is no good at.

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New Paradigms No comments »
Jun
29

Blocking Advertising Hurting Good Sites

WGHubris on June 29th, 2010

The website Smashing Magazine published a take on whether or not ad blocking software hurts good websites and by extension those who make their living working with good websites. This time the article comes from the point of view of web designers.

My conclusions remain the same. I will turn off my AdBlock Plus, actually I will disable AdBlock Plus, on good websites with ads that do not interfere with my ability to interact with the site. However, I will NOT turn off NoScript for any site until advertisers stop using super-cookies to track me, and Flash ads stop sucking up so much CPU and memory that having just 10 tabs open means crushing my machine just because Flash insists on continuously animating all those ads I am not looking at.

Steve Jobs may not have pure motives, but he is not wrong. Adobe Flash is a bloated, crash-prone, piece of junk. Its widespread use is in no way an endorsement of its quality, much like the box office receipts of the three newer Star Wars movies are in no way representative of how good they were. Other factors pushed both way beyond what they actually deserved.

Google integrated Flash into the Chrome Browser, partly to take Adobe’s side against Apple (the company had a very different tune prior to the whole Apple v Adobe blowup), and partly to have some control over how badly Flash behaves. The Mozilla Firefox browser was forced to separate out plug-in processes to reduce browser crashes. While they identified all the players, make no mistake, it was Adobe’s Flash plug-in that forced the issue after developers grew tired of being blamed for problems caused by Flash. Of course, this says nothing of the gaping security holes the plug-in propagates across browsers.

If you ever want to see just how resource intensive and craptacular Flash is, open your Google Chrome web browser. (You’ll need Chrome because it separates each tab into its own process.) Now, open two tabs, one with a "standard" flash advertisement on it and one without. See how much more memory and CPU that tiny insignificant flash animation soaks up. For further proof, install the Ad Block Plus extension for Chrome and view the resources used by the same website with and without those ads blocked.

As a professional freelance writer, I do a lot of online research and reading. Staying on top of current events in the tech industry is the most important skill a freelance technology writer can have. Doing all of that in a time efficient manner means opening tabs, and lots of them.

If I let Flash ads run on all of those tabs, my browser will be sucking up a gig of memory in no time, and that just isn’t going to fly.

So, website designers, and purveyors of quality information online, your message has been received. I will disable my ad blocker on your site if you agree not to put user hampering advertisements (I’m looking at you Chikita) on your sites so that you may fairly earn advertising revenue for your hard work. However, that will be no help to you so long as your advertisers are predominantly flash-based.

Good day.

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Marketing, News 1 Comment »