10 Great Videos To Supercharge Your Blog Or Website - Google Webmaster Videos

These videos are a part of the Google Webmaster series posted on YouTube. I have collected them and posted here in a single place so anyone who wants to learn a few basics and few advanced topics on SEO and Blogging can be benefited.

These are given in no specific order. However, the #1 rank is aptly given, at least IMHO.

10. 5 Common Mistakes in SEO (and 6 good ideas!)

9. What are some effective techniques for building links?

8. How can I make sure that Google knows my content is original?

7. What are the top 3-5 SEO areas where webmasters make the most mistakes?

6. What is the best way to check your own site for keyword rankings?

5. How important is it to have keywords in a domain name?

4. What are some examples of SEO misinformation?

3. How would a non-optimized site outrank a site which has done SEO?

2. SEO for startups in under 10 minutes

1. How Search Works






This is definitely not a complete list. These are just the 10 videos that I felt truly great. These helped me learn the basics of SEO and blogging. For more videos like these - subscribe to Google Webmasters Group.

Related: Get the summary of all Matt Cutts videos

--------------------------------------------

Posted by +Arun Sarathy

You Ought To Know This Little Secret Within Google Chrome Omnibox

Google Chrome – the World's widely used browser has a tiny little secret.

Searching using the Omnibox – 

which is searching using address bar is the same as searching directly on Google.com. However, if you are not a Google searcher by default, then you might be searching using AOL, Yahoo or Bing – within Google Chrome.




In Internet Explorer you attain this by changing your default search provided in the Settings. Google Chrome too allows to change your default Search Engine settings on their Settings page.

Better still, Google knows that already and has made it even simpler for you - that's exactly the little secret I was talking about. Here's how:

How to search Yahoo, Bing, AOL, YouTube or Ask in Google Chrome:

In Google Chrome if you want to search using Bing, Yahoo, but still don't want to change your default search provider, all you have to do is just this.

To search using AOL search engine within Google Chrome, just prefix the letter 'a' before you type your search text in the Google Chrome's Omnibox. This also applies for searching in Ask.

To search using Bing search engine within Google Chrome, just prefix the letter 'b' before you type your search text in the Google Chrome's Omnibox.

To search using Yahoo search engine within Google Chrome, just prefix the letter 'y' before you type your search text in the Google Chrome's Omnibox. This also applies for searching in YouTube.

Related: Search using the address bar.






Additionally, after you try the above tricks, if you'd watched closely, you would have noticed that when you prefix 'a' to search using AOL, Google not only provides AOL as one of the suggestions in their Google Autocomplete feature – but also provides options to search websites from your web browser history.

For example in my screenshot above you will notice Autocomplete suggestion to search my text within Automattic website too.

Did you like this Google Chrome Omnibox trick?

If you know of any other Google Chrome secret trick, please write them in your comments below:

--------------------------------------------

Written by +Arun Sarathy

How to make the best use of Microsoft Developer Network Library

If you are a software developer who uses Microsoft Developer Network often, then you might be well aware of this neat little feature.

A feature which allows you to add certain articles, tips and resources from their portal to a set of pages and then export it to PDF neatly.

As a newbie in to development, I find this feature really useful. It allows me to 'take-away' certain really good articles as PDF documents so I can read them in my leisure time, offline.

How to use the export to PDF feature

Let's see in detail as to how to make use of this feature:

First of all, you must have a Microsoft Windows Live ID to sign in and use this export option. Creating a Live ID is simple and you can use any email address as the user name for your new Microsoft account, including addresses from Outlook.com, Yahoo! or Gmail. If you already sign in to a Windows PC, tablet, or phone, Xbox Live, Outlook.com, or OneDrive, use that account to just directly sign in to the Developer Network.

Once you sign in to the developer network, head to the different dev resource portals available in the library. 

There if you want to include a page to your set of pages to be exported, just right click on the page link (given on left side of the screen) and select Add this page. This also alerts you before adding - if there are too many pages within that group.

You can also browse to the page you would like to read, select Export on top right side of the screen and within the options given under Export feature, you can click Add this page. You will also find Manage pages on the same options strip. 

Clicking on Manage Pages is where you will find the next steps - especially exporting your added contents to PDF. Here you'll find Advanced Options section which helps you select what kinds of 

• Example Code Languages you prefer, 
• to include community content or not, 
• if you find any localized content - if you would want that to be translated or not.

Once the content creation is done, the PDF can be downloaded by hitting the download button. This contains neatly organized information with links working within the PDF document.

PDF ready to download

The PDF document looks like this after downloading:

Conclusion

The opportunities and resources in the Microsoft Developer Network are really good and organized, in my opinion. They offer subscription options, code samples, software developer tools and frameworks, app development guidance, cloud and server details, developer access to downloads and builds, innovative options and access to libraries and various other options. Sometimes, you can get access to latest build sets and information, fundamentals, game design aesthetics and promo offers, discounts too.  

Am not that great a fan of Microsoft. I love Apple and their developer programs. However, for Microsoft, this portal definitely is organized and useful - especially for the Microsoft related development purposes. Hence thought of posting this for the benefit of everyone who might be new to the MSDN and aren't aware of the export to PDF feature.

--------------------------------------------

Written by +Arun Sarathy

Every Employee Must Make Use Of - Employee Discount Programs

One of the benefits as part of your employment with an organization is the discount coupons received through the tie-ups that your employer has with major brands - not necessarily within your industry.

Most of the companies and organizations with a good amount of employees worldwide would often have tie-ups with major brands to offer discounts to its employees under the 'Employee Discount Program', 'Corporate Perks', 'Discount Purchase Programs' or whatever it is called by your employer. There would also be Employee Discount Policies which explains the details of such programs. If you work for any automobile industry, chances are that you might as well get discounts on certain classes of vehicles and its related discount on auto insurance too. It's not so common, however, there are some companies that provide these.

An employee is usually not aware of these benefits and these come in various forms: deals, coupons, discounts, promo codes and offers. Some companies even offer a booklet of printable coupons that has to be used by a certain date after which it would expire.

If you are an employee working for a company with a reasonably large employee-base then it's wise to check with your respective Human Resources officer in the company that you work for.




Chances are that these tie-ups are not often flashed publicly. However, they will be announced in one of the Leadership emails or HR communications. Watch out for those, if not just reach out to your HR representative in your organization. Nothing wrong in just checking it out. There might also be an exclusive access to discount options from local and national merchants from any part of the country you live in. Employees can enjoy exclusive promotions, daily deals, online discounts that can provide savings opportunities and thus result in higher levels of employee satisfaction and loyalty.

Some commonly available discount programs include coupons, discounts and deals on Jewellery, Medicines, Hotel deals, Spa, Healthcare, Softwares, Cars, TVs, Computers, Mobile phones, Apparels and sometimes even Tire and Insurance quotes too. Some organizations also provide coupons for movies, ski tickets and theme parks.

Hope you get benefited from these programs. It often goes unnoticed and waste. Better make use of it.

Do you know of any more commonly forgotten work place benefits? Write in your comments below.

--------------------------------------------

Written by +Arun Sarathy

What exactly is the 802.11 Standard?

The following article tries to throw some light on what is the 802.11 standard for wireless networks.

What exactly is the 802.11 standard?

IEEE 802.11 technology is a set of specifications related to the physical layer & media access control (MAC) for implementing wireless LAN in certain frequency bandwidths. They are created by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers LAN/MAN Standards Committee. The base version was released in 1997 and has amendments made to it thereafter. With every amendment, an alphabet is suffixed to show the improvements made which would be defined in the standards.

What is Wi-Fi?

As the general misconception goes Wi-Fi does not stand for Wireless Fidelity. The term was coined by a brand-consulting firm called Interbrand Corporation. The name, then became, Wi-Fi standard which was a little more easier to remember for a common man when compared with IEEE 802.11b Direct Sequence.

Wi-Fi can be generally less secure than the regular Ethernet (wired) connections as there is no physical connectivity required. These days Smart phones, laptops, game consoles, TVs can connect wirelessly to the WiFi modems.

The following websites provide more rich information related to the WiFi concepts:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_802.11
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_LAN
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institute_of_Electrical_and_Electronics_Engineers
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wi-Fi
http://www.ieee802.org/11/
http://standards.ieee.org/about/get/802/802.11.html

Samsung launches Galaxy S5 In India - New Delhi - Price Range and First Impression

Samsung Electronics launched its yet another gear and Galaxy Smart phone series, Samsung Galaxy S5 Smart phone in New Delhi on Thursday, March 27th for the domestic market.

First Look and Impression

This seems to be available to general public from April 11, 2014. Its features have some really advanced technical capabilities and the price range which is not yet confirmed varies between Rs. 51,000 and Rs. 53,000.

This latest shot from Samsung in its smart phone series is expected to have good demand in the Indian market as there are too many players in the market these days with Samsung leading it. High prices don't seem to affect the mobile manufacturers who are willing to risk placing these high-end mobiles in the range of half a lakh Rupees, who are confident that people buy for quality and pay regardless, even if the prices are close to the cost of a decent laptop.

Key Features

The features of the new Samsung Galaxy S5 include being a sand (dust) and water proof phone (with IP67 certification), which was a major drawback with its predecessors S3, for example. A couple of my friends' S3 were damaged after it contacted with rain. Hope the S5 addresses this water proof thing well. The glossy plastic cover is also a thing of past with this new release. Instead, it comes with a plastic soft touch back cover with a small dotted pattern. It has round edges with a relatively low weight when compared to its predecessors, S3 & S4.

Other key features include a whopping 16MP rear camera, a better battery life, 16GB memory expandable upto 128 GB, 2.1 MP front camera, WiFi port, GPS, Bluetooth, Infrared, 2GB RAM, Android 4.4.2, fingerprint scanner, a perforated pattern on its back cover, and is offered in four different colors - copper gold, electric blue, shimmery white and charcoal black. It has a bio-metric screen locking feature. This phone comes with a USB 3.0 port covered with a flap. As per sources, the Indian version is powered by Exynos processor, four A15 cores - running at 1.9GHz that helps in high performance and gaming. It also has four low-power A7 cores that run at 1.3GHz. The phone is of impressive design overall and is good to use. This phone weighs close to just 145gms, with the screen size of 5.10 in inches. This phone has one Nano Sim slot.

Some of the Pre-loaded Google features and apps include, Google Drive, Google Chrome, Gmail, Hangouts, Maps, Play Books, Music, Store, Newsstand, YouTube

What is bio-metric screen locking?

 Bio-metric screen locking is a security feature enabled in Smart Phones to cater to mobile security, screen locking based on an individual's birth marks like fingerprints. This enables one to use it to lock a phone securely, conduct e-commerce safely like purchasing and paying through PayPal online payments with the credit card reader, etc. This reader also helps with other health related apps. This phone also comes with a health rate monitor.

Power boosting capabilities

With the research and development heading to a glory of matching up with a common man's expectations, this phone comes with some decent power boosting capabilities. This Samsung Galaxy S5 has an ultra power boosting functionality where the user can enable it to save some last left batter to use his phone, when it was forgotten to charge it with the mobile charger. What this does is that it makes the phone go in to black and white mode, shuts down the phones key functions, and dims the phone allowing the user to make use of the last left battery power, until its charged again. Quite nice human-tech intervention here.

Gear-Fit

The gear fit with its plastic cum rubber make is really elegant, cool and light-weight like its phone partner S5 - with a 1.8 inch screen. This helps in tracking the physical activity of its wearer, like foot steps taken during a morning walk or jogging sessions. It can also show notifications like calls, messages.

Posted by +Arun Sarathy

How to create a Google Account without a Gmail address

Google Products can be used without having to create a Google account. For E.g. You can search on Google, watch videos on YouTube without signing in to a Google account.  However, if you want to get in to the sharing arena and interact with people you will need a Google account.

One key point to note here is that Google account can be created without having to create a Gmail address. 

The Google account helps you do lot many things – search, share, chat, hangout, collaborate, create, connect, converse, schedule meetings, backup files, blog, etc. – all these without having to create a Gmail account.

Click here to create a Google account without Gmail

If you notice, the URL itself says "Sign Up Without Gmail".

Click here if you are looking to create a Gmail along with a new Google account.

Below is the screen shot from both the screens to give you an idea of how it looks like:

If, after creating a Gmail address, you still prefer to use your existing email address for your Google account, you can do so by cancelling your Gmail address. However, deleting your address will not free up the username you created. Even after deleting the Gmail address, you won't be able to use the same username again. (myusername@gmail.com)

Here's how:

Sign in to your Google account at accounts.google.com > Click on Data Tools > Click on Delete Products > Click Remove Gmail Permanently.

Be very cautious before you delete your Gmail account. Within a few weeks' time the Gmail account will not be recoverable - how much ever Google helps you in recovery process - a maximum of only the username can be recovered.

Posted by +Arun Sarathy