:: TechBlog :: » Google http://techblog.touchbasic.com/html Techblog is collection of articles covering a wide variety of tech related topics including: Linux, Microsoft, Google, web development, web design, open source, wordpress, security, and more. Fri, 06 May 2011 00:58:22 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 So you think you can RSS? Why. http://techblog.touchbasic.com/html/so-you-think-you-can-rss-why/ http://techblog.touchbasic.com/html/so-you-think-you-can-rss-why/#comments Mon, 08 Aug 2005 21:22:59 +0000 elran http://techblog.touchbasic.com/html/?p=123 great network, and they would call it the "information super highway". At first, there were lots of cool things to do, and places to see on the Net. People were always telling you about new websites to visit, and you had to have a pen handy to write down all the URLs. But with thousands of new Dotcom's being born each day, it became more and more difficult to find what you were looking for. Eventually, paper lists of URLs were replaced with web browser bookmarks or favorites, and the first search engines and directories began to appear. Then suddenly, and without warning, the bubble just burst. A shadow of FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt) swept across the web like an angry storm. There were weeks, even months of confusion and darkness. Many people fell, others were just lost. When all the dust settled, there was only Google.]]> Once upon a time, in a bubble not so far away, there lived a band of government nerds. One day, the gods asked that they build a great network, and they would call it the “information super highway”. At first, there were lots of cool things to do, and places to see on the Net. People were always telling you about new websites to visit, and you had to have a pen handy to write down all the URLs. But with thousands of new Dotcom’s being born each day, it became more and more difficult to find what you were looking for. Eventually, paper lists of URLs were replaced with web browser bookmarks or favorites, and the first search engines and directories began to appear.

Then suddenly, and without warning, the bubble just burst. A shadow of FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt) swept across the web like an angry storm. There were weeks, even months of confusion and darkness. Many people fell, others were just lost. When all the dust settled, there was only Google.

In the years that followed, we came to rely on Google to help us find the sites we were looking for, the information we needed. Google restored order to the web and led many people back on the path to reason, helping them to see the light. Google just worked, maybe too well, and in that time the web grew exponentially.

But before long, people had found more sites than they knew what to do with. Even favorites and bookmarks were becoming completely unmanageable. Although Google was a great search engine, it could not solve this new problem that was beginning to take form. Soon people started complaining that they were missing out on stuff they really liked, since it was impossible to visit all your favorite sites all the time.

Then something strange happened. The web went into syndication. Somehow, somewhere, someone said, “This is crazy. Let the web come to us”.

This represented a major shift as the emphasis was now on the user, their tastes, interests, and more. Sites that wanted to keep their visitors happy began to syndicate their content as simple web feeds. Users could subscribe to these feeds, and receive instant headlines from all their favorite places on the web without having to actually visit a single website.

As the idea grew to be more and more popular, several standards began to emerge. Today, it is not uncommon to see images, links, and icons for XML, RSS 1.0, RSS 2.0, ATOM, and RDF. Each of these feed formats provides the same function: they bring headlines to you, instead of the other way around.

Many new softwares were created to help manage all these feeds, and in the end, much time was saved by all. Some people are even going so far as to aggregate their feeds, which is the process of combining feeds from different sites to make a new and sometimes gigantic master feed. You could then group these by topic, instead of having many different feeds from different sites.

Lots of interesting things can be done with feeds like RSS, more and more websites are offering them, and new ways of reworking all this information are being developed every day. Hopefully this article has helped you begin to understand why.

[ If you enjoyed this article, be sure to check back for the follow up entitled: "So you think you can RSS? How." ]

]]> http://techblog.touchbasic.com/html/so-you-think-you-can-rss-why/feed/ 0 The little list of SEO sites http://techblog.touchbasic.com/html/the-little-list-of-seo-sites/ http://techblog.touchbasic.com/html/the-little-list-of-seo-sites/#comments Sun, 17 Jul 2005 18:10:38 +0000 elran http://techblog.touchbasic.com/html/?p=108 [ page last updated: Mar. 13, 2011. ]

In an attempt to wade through all the junk sites that pretend to talk about search engine optimization, i’ve started a small list of sites that actually discuss the topic in an intelligent way, contributing something valuable to the debate, and don’t just try to sell you something. I will try to keep this list short, and up to date, so check back occationally.

Most of these sites monitor (and speculate on) current SEO trends, track changes in search engine policies/algorithms, and explore various marketing theories/techniques. They tend to look at the bigger search engines like google, bing, and yahoo. Many experienced (resisted the urge to say ‘seasoned’) SEO experts cluster around these sites, which makes their forum sections especially valuable for learning about the topic in general.

Additional articles and information:

These sites were once in the “little list” but have fallen from grace..
They remain here mostly because they still have something useful to add, but may not be updated as frequently or as completely dedicated to the subject.

]]> http://techblog.touchbasic.com/html/the-little-list-of-seo-sites/feed/ 42 Sandbox, Ever-Flux, or the Google Yo-Yo Effect http://techblog.touchbasic.com/html/sandbox-ever-flux-or-the-google-yo-yo-effect/ http://techblog.touchbasic.com/html/sandbox-ever-flux-or-the-google-yo-yo-effect/#comments Fri, 15 Jul 2005 17:25:48 +0000 elran http://techblog.touchbasic.com/html/?p=105 [ page last updated: Oct. 21, 2005. ]

I think TechBlog has just been sandboxed. For those who are not already familiar with this term (and i wasn’t until recently), it refers to a theory that new sites will get indexed by google, ranking quite well at first and then disappear (for months) from the search engine entirely. Also referred to as the yo yo effect [SearchGuild.com], or ever-flux, these sites usually reappear after a while.. as long as they continue to produce fresh content and relevent links.

Since TechBlog has been online for less than a month, it would definitely be classified as a new site. The site validates as XHTML 1.1 and CSS 2.0, there is plenty of relevant content, and lots of anchored text. It ranked #116 in Google for the term: “techblog”. That’s not bad for just a few weeks online. Yesterday it dropped to #118, and today it is completely gone; only sites with inbound links remained. Very weird, and so i did some research.. and hence this post. I’d like to think that i followed all the (unwritten) rules – maybe too well – and so obviously google got suspicious. But now that i’ve got googlebot’s attention, i need to keep on posting, and try not to do anything that might get the site flagged (blacklisted).

Some changes made recently that may have contributed or caused this to happen are:

  1. Changed the description metatag
  2. Changed the keywords metatag
  3. Added WordPress Plugin: Rewrite-titles
  4. Added WordPress Plugin: Google SiteMaps
  5. Posted for 2 weeks then nothing for 3 days

Most advice seems to point at the need for continuing to develop the site despite being delisted, and keep updating it. Do not panic, that sort of thing. We’ll see how it goes.

Follow up: As of yesterday (July 26, 2005), this site started showing up on google results pages again. After 12 days in a box, it’s good to be indexed again. All i did was post regularly, and do my thing. i guess i passed the google test, because the site ranked #102 (yesterday) for the term “techblog”. although today it seems to have fallen to #105. still an improvement though..

Follow up #2: Great News! As of yesterday (July 30, 2005), this site ranked #44 for the term “techblog”. Then something remarkable happened. Today (July 31, 2005), the site turned up on page 1, ranking at #5. that’s quite a jump. no rank to #5 in 15 days.

Follow up #3: Not So Great News.. As of yesterday (Aug 09, 2005), this site ranked #8 for the term “techblog”. Then for some strange reason, today (Aug. 10, 2005), the site dropped to page 4, ranking at #33. bummer.

Follow up #4: Soon Afterwards – A few days later (Aug 12, 2005), this site fell a little further, ranking #43 for the term “techblog”. the only thing that i noticed since the drop, was that google was indexing the lite version (?style=lite) instead of the main homepage. Then, today (Aug. 16, 2005), the site climbed out of the fifth page and up to #40.

Follow up #5: A New Low – Only 4 days later (Aug 20, 2005), the site fell even lower, ranking #56 for the term “techblog”. Google is no longer indexing the lite version (?style=lite) of this site and is once again listing the main homepage. Not much else to report except that the google cache for TechBlog has finally been updated (after almost a week).

Follow up #6: How Low can you Go – 10 days later (Aug 30, 2005), the site fell much lower, ranking #96 for the term “techblog”. Google is indexing the site properly, and the drop is probably the result of my current obsession with redesigning this site. Hopefully, more posting will prop the site back up.

Follow up #7: The Yo-Yo Effect at it’s best – 8 days have passed (Sep 07, 2005), and the site hit an all time low, ranking at #112 for the term “techblog”. But then cut straight back to the top, landing on page 2 with a rank of #19. Not exactly sure why.

Follow up #8: Up and up – another 8 days since the last follow up (Sep 15, 2005), and the site is back on page 1, ranking at #9 for the term “techblog”. It fell slightly from the #6 spot two days earlier (thanks to a generous link from techcrunch.com)

Follow up #9: Smooth and steady – over a month has passed since the last follow up (Oct 21, 2005), and the site remain on page 1, ranking at #4 for the term “techblog”. Also, to my surprise, the site has been given a Google Page Rank of 3. Some pages, like the “Extended Live Archives” post even got a PR4. Finally, all that work has paid off.

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