Demystify SEO: 5 Search Engine Optimization Guides That Help You Begin

Most of us know how to use search engines generally. Most of us do not understand how search engines work — actually. In the age of Panda, Penguin, and Hummingbird, it could be a skill failure if one has anything to do with working on the Web. A basic understanding of how to position your work for high web traffic is a much needed skill if you are a freelancer trying to get a blog listed on Google, a social media writer, digital marketer, or an entrepreneur planning to start any sort of business. Search engine mastery takes knowledge, experience,...

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Google Tip Calculator

Google shows an interactive card when you search for [tip calculator]. It's a full-featured widget that lets you enter the bill, the tip percentage (the default value is 15%) and the number of people that will split the bill. Google shows the tip per person and the total amount per person.



You could obtain the same results using Google's regular calculator feature, but it's a little bit more complicated. Google's widget shows the same information as the top search result for [tip calculator].

"A tip (also called a gratuity) is a sum of money customarily tendered to certain service sector workers for a service performed or anticipated. Tipping and the amount are a matter of social custom and social practices vary between countries and settings. In some locations tipping is discouraged and considered insulting and in some locations tipping is expected from customers. The customary tip can be a specific range of monetary amounts or a given percentage of the bill," informs Wikipedia. For example, in the US the tip is 15-20%, in the UK it's usually 10%, in Germany it's 2-10%, while in Asia there is no tipping.



{ via +Google }

Google Adds Episode Lists Of Your Favorite TV Shows To Search

We all like to keep track of our favorite TV shows. Google just made it a bit easier by including episode listings to search results. Now, when you search for your favorite TV shows, you will see the entire list of episodes with season numbers and air dates. Clicking on a specific episode takes you to a different search result page with all the information a Google Search can give you on it. The TV episode listing adds to the Knowledge Graph data that gets displayed as usual like ratings from IMDb, Cast, and related information. Google illustrated the feature...

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Google+ Notification for the New Terms of Service

This is interesting: Google uses Google+ notifications to informs users about the new terms of use. "The update includes information about mobile safety, login security, and the use of your information in ads and other contexts."

I wonder if the Google+ notifications panel will be used for other Google services. What about Google Now notifications?

Customize Google's App Launcher

Google's navigation menu is still not customizable. The app launcher interface allows Google to add many cool features like reordering apps, removing them or adding new ones, but for now they're not available.



Carlos Jeurissen released a Chrome extension that lets you customize the app launcher. You can select from a very long list of Google services, including Google Scholar, Google Play Music, Google Keep, Chrome Web Store. You can also reorder the services or remove the Google products you don't use often. The upgraded launcher has up to 5 columns and as many rows as you want, but I suggest to pick less than 20 services.

My favorite feature is that settings are synced, so you can use other computers and see the same Google menu in Chrome. You may need to reload the new tab page after changing the menu, since Google caches it.



There's also an option to add custom shortcuts, so you can link to non-Google web apps like Dropbox, Vimeo, Twitter, or Imgur.



{ Thanks, Florian K. }

Google's Homepage and Safari

Chrome's updated new tab page reminded me of a Safari feature. If you try to change your homepage to google.com in Safari for Mac, you get this message:



"Are you sure you want to change your homepage to Google search? You can do a Google search directly from the Safari search field, without going to the Google webpage."

Apparently, it's hard to convince people to use the browser's search box instead of Google's search box, especially if the address bar and the search box are merged.

T-Mobile Goes Global With Free International Unlimited Data Plan

T-Mobile (in the USA) has decided to shake things up a bit and see if they can get any new customers, by announcing a new plan which gives users free unlimited Internet data plans, while overseas. Apparently, if you are on a “Simple Choice” plan, you can now browse the Internet on your mobile device while abroad, free of charge. And there is no need to sign up, wait in long phone queues, or do any time consuming form filling. The feature will just start automatically for all eligible users from October 31st, which will scrap the previous staggering fees...

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Internet Explorer Under Attack! How To Protect Yourself From Getting Hacked

If you have been using any version of Internet Explorer, you are potentially vulnerable to being hacked. The recent zero day exploit has now been patched with a critical security update released this past Tuesday. The next attack, however, is just around the corner. Incidents such as this not only are a sound reminder to enable Windows Update and make sure all critical updates are installed immediately, it also raises the question whether there are safer options. Let us recap the events and explore what you can do to protect yourself from getting hacked in future. What Happened To Internet...

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From Cute To Ferocious: 12 Animal Videos That Are Absolutely Amazing

Have you ever seen a video of an animal that just left you in awe? I have. Animals have always been a fascination of mine, and I know it’s not just me – there are a lot of you who feel the same. Now, animals aren’t difficult to like, especially the cute ones. But It’s not just about how cute they are – we are fascinated by not only their physical capabilities, but also by their emotional ones. I think much of what we enjoy about animals lies in how they interact with each other and our planet, and perhaps...

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Windows Update: Everything You Need To Know

Is Windows Update enabled on your PC? If you don’t know the answer to that, you should — Windows Update keeps Windows, Internet Explorer, and Microsoft Office up-to-date with the latest security patches and bug fixes, ensuring your computer is as secure as possible. However, Windows Update can also cause problems — particularly by nagging you to reboot when you’re trying to use your computer and automatically restarting your computer overnight. While Windows Update can be obnoxious, it keeps your computer secure and is well worth using. It can also be made less obnoxious with a few quick settings changes....

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Duolingo Gives A Fillip To Free Language Learning With Crowdsourced Lessons

Duolingo has gained a lot of traction as an online language learning service. It could easily gain some more with a new initiative that aims to crowdsource new lessons and new languages with the help of the website’s growing community of ten million and counting. The Language Incubator could be your chance to contribute to a course and expand the scope of learning from the six languages which Duolingo covers on its own. According to the site, the most requested languages are Chinese, Japanese Russian and Arabic. Bilingual participants can apply to contribute a course. Duolingo looks over their applications...

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Think Big, Start Small: 6 Tips To Start A Creative Project On The Web

So you have plans for a creative project and you aren’t sure where to begin? Why not start off on the Web? The Internet has a low barrier of entry yet grants you access to the largest audience known to man — the worldwide audience. There has never been a better time to jumpstart a creative project on the web than now and you won’t even need to spend much money to do so. Unfortunately, though the Internet has increased the viability of creative projects, the creative process remains as difficult as ever. You’ll face a lot of challenges and...

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Concerned About Privacy? How To Keep Google At Arm’s Length

With all of the scares surrounding the NSA’s PRISM program and the potential backdoors in many of the top American websites, most people today are as privacy-aware as ever. One of the biggest Internet companies, Google, has become a part of everyone’s lives, but if you’re concerned about Google’s data collection policies in light of these privacy issues, it might not be a bad idea to keep Google away from your Internet activities. But just how can you do that when Google is practically everywhere on the web? Here are 5 tips you can follow so that Google has far...

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Google's Storage Problem

A lot of people wonder what happens when you stop paying for additional Google storage. Google doesn't delete your files, but you're forced to delete some of them because you can't upload new files until you use less than 15GB of storage (your quota may be different).



A downside of Google's shared storage system is that it affects both Gmail and Google+ Photos, not just Google Drive. Gmail used to offer 10GB of free storage, Picasa Web/Google+ Photos only 1GB and Google Drive - 5GB. Small photos (< 2048x2048) and short videos (less than 15 minutes) uploaded using Google+ Photos, as well as the documents, spreadsheets and presentations created using Google's Drive apps don't count towards your storage limit.

"If you exceed your quota limit, you'll receive warnings in each product and you'll need to correct the issue as soon as you can. Otherwise, you'll be unable to upload additional items to your Drive or photos to Google+, and, after a period of time, incoming messages to your Gmail account will be returned to the sender and you won't be able to send new messages," explains Google.



Now that Yahoo Mail offers 1TB of free storage and Outlook.com "includes email storage that expands to provide you with as much storage space as you need", Gmail's 15GB limit doesn't look that impressive. Maybe Google wants to encourage people to use Google Drive for uploading files, instead of using Gmail attachments.



Yahoo's Flickr service offers 1TB of free photo storage. "No limited pixels, no cramped formats, no memories that fall flat." Suddenly, Google's photo offering is less impressive: you get unlimited photo storage, but only if you resize the photos.



It looks like Google no longer has the edge when it comes to free storage. Gmail offered 1GB of free storage when its main competitors only included a few megabytes of storage. Now roles are reversed.

Top 8 Sources For Downloading And Printing Masks

Did I catch you shopping for Halloween masks? You should be out and about as Halloween is not very far away. There’s time left to ratchet up the creepiness with the right mask and the right costume to go with it, but why not start “mask hunting” now with a few ready online sources for printable masks. The Web coughs up a lot of Halloween ideas and there’s so much to choose from. We do our bit too – from websites for the best Halloween costumes to geeky house decoration tips, we cover a large territory. We don’t waste nifty...

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Multi-Point Directions, Available in the New Google Maps

Google added one of the missing features from the new Google Maps for the desktop and now you can enter multiple destinations when searching for directions. Just click the "+" button to add more destinations".



"Whether you're running weekend errands or planning a cross-country tour, you can plot multiple destinations for your trip with ease – now available for driving, walking and biking directions. Once you've chosen a starting point, click '+' and add stops to your route by typing in the search box or clicking on the map," informs Google.

You can also reorder the destinations using drag and drop: just drag the icon next to the location you want to move.



Google Maps now shows data from your Gmail account. "Find your flight, hotel, and restaurant reservations faster right in Maps. Just search for your departing airport or dining destination, and we'll instantly show your upcoming plans." This only works in the US, just like the similar Google Search feature.

There's also an events card that's displayed if you search for places like Radio City, O2 Arena or Arena Berlin and click "upcoming events". The same data is used in the Knowledge Graph card from Google Search.

Multi-point directions was one of the most important missing features from the new Google Maps. What other features from the classic Google Maps would you like to see in the new Google Maps?



{ via Google Lat Long }

Real-Time Site Search Visualization

If you like the full-screen Google Trends visualization that shows the latest hot searches, there's a cool project that uses the same animations to show Google Analytics searches in real time. It's made possible by the recently launched Google Analytics Real Time Reporting API and it shows your site's internal searches, as well as some of the Google searches that lead to your site.

"You can setup your own site visualization in only two steps: first authorize access to your Analytics data, select your site, and set the query parameter for your site searches, usually the letter q. Click save, and see your visitor's searches appear live as a beautiful visualization," explains Yvo Schaap, who developed the service.



Here's a video that shows how to use this addictive mashup:

According to the site, Live Site Search Visualisation is "a dashboard visualizing live search activity on your site using your existing Google Analytics tracking." It also shows Google search referrals. Just like in Google Trends, you can click the top-left corner to select the number of keywords that are displayed at a time.

Just in case you're worrying about this, the site does not "save any data coming from your Google Analytics account on its servers. All data requests are made client-side only over https."



{ Thanks, Yvo. }

Make Interactive Image Labels with qTip (jQuery Plugin)

Images can be pretty lifeless and boring – unless they’re interactive and awesome, that is. And qTip makes this easy, with the power of jQuery. Read on to find out how you can add interactive labels that appear when the user hovers over parts of an image. Why would you want to do this? Personally, I’m using the technique in a new eCommerce site – so the user can hover-over elements of a scene (like an Ikea catalogue), with the product title and add to cart button appearing dynamically. It could also be used to good effect on something like...

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What You Need To Know About Windows System Restore

Windows System Restore could save your butt when your computer goes wonky. There are plenty of horror stories of people who forgot to make backups. Well, imagine the trouble you could find yourself in, if you didn’t make backups of your system? That’s where System Restore steps in. What is a restore point? Should you be using the System Restore feature or would you be better off disabling it? And if you decide to use it, how do you go about setting it up? By the end of this article, you’ll know the answers to each of those questions, so...

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Google Chromebook Lands in India; Should You Buy One?

Google Chromebooks, the low-cost laptops running on Google Chome OS, are available in India but do they offer value for money? Should you buy a Chromebook?

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This story, Google Chromebook Lands in India; Should You Buy One?, was originally published at Digital Inspiration on 10/10/2013 under Google Chromebook, India