Google Command Line Tool
Google announced today, and that announcement was re-broadcast via unofficial Google spokesman Matt Cutts to make sure people actually noticed, that the company had released a long-awaited command line tool for accessing Google.
Well, sort of. If by accessing Google, you mean accessing everything except for the core Google service of search.
Ready made for the “much ado about nothing” files, come the Google Command Line Tool and Google API. Unoriginally titled, GoogleCL, Google Command Line (I guess) is a Python application build using Python gdata libraries in order to make Google Data API calls from a command line. This would be so very important and a great tool for web developers and search engine researchers everywhere, if it only had any functionality at all related to search. Instead, GoogleCL allows you to play with a bunch of the toy Google products and services.
Want to upload a bunch of pictures to Picasa from the command line? Sure, no problem.
Want to create Calendar events from your command line? You can do that too!
Want to read about Southwest airlines rewards credit card? Oh, wait, that’s my thing. Oops.
What about managing contacts from the command line? You bet!
How about posting YouTube videos? Of course.
If it is a tangential side Google service developed in order to show up Microsoft or Apple, then it can be accessed using the Google command line tool.
How About Command Line Search Tool and API?
No! What are you crazy? People would use that to poke holes in the already fragile Google search index and search results rankings by being able to automate tedious processes like checking search ranking positions, whether or not a particular webpage has been indexed or not, and how many incoming links point to a webpage, and where they come from.
Google wants you to like them, and wants you to think that they are the best source of cool, free, open-source tools in the galaxy, but they aren’t dumb. Search makes money. Sure, AdWords brings in the actual dollars, but the only reason anyone bothers is because advertisers know that “everyone” uses Google search regardless of operating system, browser, and in many cases, even location.
The reason everyone uses Google’s search is because it is the best search engine on the Internet. Of course, the entire underpinnings of the company’s search rankings is coming apart at the seems as more and more content publishers seek to manipulate Google’s search rankings for their own benefit. Now that SEO is something that everyone, everywhere, does and pretty much everyone does the same way, the only thing that really matters any more is link count and how close the title tag matches the search. A command line interface might expose that reality to more people (or at least allow it to be proven beyond doubt).
So, enjoy the latest plaything from Google. Just don’t expect it to change your life.
Have a great day.
Tips For Choosing A Quality Vendor
The Denver Public Library recently redesigned its main website. The new site is colorful, updated in looks and design, and appears to be an improvement over its old website. Unfortunately, this is another case of beauty only being skin deep.
The vendor that the library chose to deliver its new library website, which includes searching the card catalog, managing your library account, reserving items, and renewing check out materials, is called Aquabrowser.
The biggest problem with selecting a good, quality, vendor to work with is figuring out before you buy their software offerings and sign a multi-year service contract whether or not their system is a good one. Typically, vendors provide what the industry calls, "dog and pony shows," in which the vendor demos their software. These demonstrations are obviously crafted to show off the strength of the vendor’s offering and to downplay any short comings. Unfortunately, a great many software services purchases are made on the basis of these carefully scripted and artificial demos and big design flaws only become known after installation.
In the case of Aquabrowser and the Denver Public Library the flaws stem from what must be a one-size-fits-all library management system that the company markets as widely as possible to maximize sales and support revenues. In order to limit the resources necessary to install and maintain its library computer system, they resort to any number of cheap programming tricks that degrade the usability of the system in order to maximize its standardization.
The main issue with the new Denver Library website system is that anything beyond superficial interaction with the website requires a pop-up window to open. This requires accessing a new domain name (aquabrowser). Advanced users have blocking software that prevent new websites from randomly opening for no reason, and in this case, aquabrowser will be rightly blocked. This is, of course, a cheap web development hack that keeps the vendor from actually having to support the library’s own website infrastructure. Instead, users are redirected off to the generic systems run by the vendor.
In order to prevent supporting multiple browsers or window sized, the vendor makes the pop-up window static preventing the user from re-sizing the window. This is amateur design at best. With a fixed window, users with bigger monitors cannot take advantage of their larger size by viewing more rows at a time. The number of rows supported for something like viewing your checked out materials is only a dozen or so, far less than the number of items library patrons have checked out on average. Furthermore, the list cannot be sorted by the user’s choosing. Only a due date sort is possible leaving users to scroll individually through a small, unsortable, list to find a specific item.
Making windows that cannot be resized is the hallmark of design decisions made with the software in mind above the user’s needs. By making the windows unresizable, the vendor need not do any coding to dynamically resize columns nor to add additional rows (or vice versa) to larger or smaller windows. The fact that the library card account holder might need something different is of no importance.
The icing on the cake in this instance is that the vendor cynically places their own company information ahead of the library’s information. The windows opened whenever the user hits the vendor’s systems have titles that say, "AquaBrowser Library – Discover Denver Library". That way, the vendor can point to its "successful" installation at the Denver Public Library with easy, proof that it is their system "behind the scenes." As an added bonus, title tags are the key to search engine optimization, so the company has ensured that it will be present in as many web searches as possible.
Time will tell if the Denver Library bought into a bill of goods based on a dog and pony show that leaves the beloved Denver attraction with an uncustomizable user experience that people will just have to "get used to" or if this was only the default installation and that the library will be able to once again deliver a high-quality experience to library patrons.
Factors For Choosing Vendors
Whenever viewing a vendor presentation, look for things that never change, or that are not indicative of a typical experience. Software that looks great with 5 records displayed at a time may be worthless with 20 records shown. Ask to see more.
Also, ask to see less. What happens if there are only 50 records as opposed to the 5,000 in the demo? Is the system too bloated and cumbersome then?
Contact the vendor’s references BEFORE the presentation. In addition to asking what they think, ask what the main complaints were when the system was first installed and how they were dealt with. Then, ask about those same things in the demo. If the vendor starts hemming and hawing, you have a system in front of you that may not be all that it is cracked up to be.
If, on the other hand, the vendor has ready, acceptable answers, then you have a fully workable system.
There is more to vendor selection than just money. Choosing the low cost vendor may prove to be a high cost decision if too many workarounds are required or too many customers disenfranchised.
Wi-Fi HotSpot Security Wireless Guardian Secure
As a professional freelance writer, I end up using wireless hotspots to work from coffee shops. While, I use a secured network whenever possible, many WiFi hotspots do not have any security enabled because it makes them easier to use. Although it seems like no one would bother, the reality is that wireless access points are easily compromised – even those that do have some form of WEP or WPA security enabled on the wireless access point. Using websites that have secure SSL connections can help keep usernames and passwords secure.
Unfortunately, that does nothing to secure all of those applications on laptops that log-in automatically by remembering usernames and passwords. It is also all too common to be in the middle of something, get in the flow, and end up entering a username and password before even thinking about whether or not there was a HTTPS in the URL.
The only reasonable solution is to setup an encrypted connection that captures all incoming and outgoing network traffic from the laptop so that there can be no mistakes or slips in security. Unfortunately, there are not a lot of options available in this arena. This is especially true for WiFi hotspot security protection that can be setup on the fly without pre-configuring a server somewhere to be waiting for your call.
Hotspot Shield by Anchor Free offers a free VPN connection that provides the fully encrypted security solution needed to safely use WiFi hotspots. However, it is “ad supported” which means that not only will part of your precious laptop screen real estate be eaten up by ads, thereby making your viewable monitor area even smaller, but it also means that your connection ends up being slower because those advertisements are given first priority by the VPN application.
WiFi Guardian Wireless HotSpot Security
I was excited to find WiFi Guardian, a free wireless hotspot VPN encryption program that connects to its own third-party servers to provide network security. Like HotSpot Shield, WiFi Guardian provides complete network interception making by web surfing and email secure as well as closing off the ability to hack in via installed software programs that automatically update.
The best part is that WiFi Guardian comes with a free 3-day trial. After three days, you have to pay $49.95 per year, but even a one-day free trial is good enough to secure your laptop for an impromptu coffee shop office setup. Most other VPN software comes with a specific data limit trial instead. That means that you have to make sure your computer isn’t doing anything behind the scenes that could be eating up your free trial period like downloading CD covers or synchronizing your bookmarks or files.
There is one bizarre thing that concerns me. The VPN application requires you to register a username and password to create an account. No problem there. However, the password field can only contain letters, no numbers or symbols.
What kind of security is that?
The most basic of all security is using strong passwords. Anyone setting up special software for security purposes would already be very familiar with using strong passwords. It begs the question about how seriously the WiFi Guardian developers take security when they not only allow, but require users to setup weak passwords on their accounts.
Needless to say, I will be uninstalling the software after my free trial period is up.
Has anyone else used WiFi Guardian? What have your experiences been like? Would you trust a security company that uses weak passwords?
Leave your answers in the comments, or shoot me an email.
Facebook Ad Revenue Growth Real?
Facebook is not a publicly traded company. Although there are many people speculating that Facebook will go public in the near future. As a privately held company, Facebook is not required to release any financial information to the public. Furthermore, the company does not have to have its finances audited either. That doesn’t keep financial writers from trying to guess how much money Facebook is making.
Recent stories, like this one from Reuters, continue to suggest that Facebook is growing fast and that it is raking in tons of advertising revenues. The source of all this incoming cash, of course, is paid advertising. Some investors expect Facebook to earn more money than Google from advertising in the near future. The idea is that, unlike Google, Facebook users can be shown ads that are relevant to users even when they are not searching.
“We can provide really good, relevant advertising to people because they tell us exactly what they are interested in, and who they know, and those people tell us what they’re interested in,” Facebook Chief Executive Zuckerberg said at the All Things Digital conference this month.
Relevant Ads Worth More Money On Facebook
The business strategy behind Facebook’s rising advertising revenue is sound enough.
A user fills out a profile in which they state that they have “Interests” in various things. For example, a user might say that they are interested in chess. Then, theoretically, that user would be more likely to have advertisements related to chess appear than a user who had indicated interest in other topics. But, does the reality of Facebook ads bear this out?
If you are a Facebook user you may have noticed the various ads that appear on the right side of the screen. These ads are the ones that are supposed to be relevant and “targeted” to users based upon their profiles and other preferences. However, to most users, these ads appear to be thinly targeted, if at all, to their interests.
Recently, some advertisements tried to make use of the personal information in Facebook profiles by using the person’s age in the advertisement. Ads like “If you are 24 years old, you can get car insurance for $20 a month” appeared. Is this what Facebook means when they say, relevant advertising?
Other ads seem to be vaguely geographically targeted. For example, users in Phoenix get advertisements that make use of the word Phoenix (even for national brands and ads) or, in some cases, ads for actual Phoenix businesses. This is indeed useful, but hardly revolutionary. Unless you take advanced measures to frequently wipe out your Google cookies and other information you’ll get plenty of local ads there too.
Ironically, ads that are actually irrelevant and uninteresting to users will frequently appear on the user’s Facebook screen. For example, users that block Facebook games like Farmville or Cafe World still often see ads for those games despite having indicated that they are not interested. Users who are members of a Ford fan club, have tons of posts by themselves and friends about Fords, and have hundreds of “likes” for Ford related sites and information still see ads for Chevrolet. In fact, members of groups like Chevy Sucks or I Hate GM will still see advertisements for those products on Facebook.
Facebook Ads Not Relevant To Users – Worthless?
It is often said that reality is perception. Facebook frequently states how they can target users based upon their personal preferences and information and that concept is often repeated by journalists and analysts. But, is anyone actually checking to see such targeting is being done?
Going beneath the surface and doing some actual business analysis takes more time than many pundits can commit. Savvy technology writers, however, may uncover some interesting nuggets about Facebook’s so-called relevant advertising. The question is, can Facebook establish its “reality” or get a Facebook IPO stock for investors strategy executed before the world starts asking the hard questions?
Time will tell.
