Matt’s Journal

Help Mozilla Set A World Record

Posted by Matt under Internet, Tech

Mozilla is aiming to mobilize it’s userbase to break a World Record. They are coinciding the release of their newest browser upgrade; Firefox 3 with a push to break the record for the most downloads on the internet in one day. The day of release and the record push is actually tomorrow and when I have actually known about it, I haven’t tried to push it until today.

Mozilla has the following on their site:

I am hoping that Mozilla get enough people to download their software to break the record. I have put up a little Firefox image on my sidebar so that you can pledge and do your bit

Traffic

Posted by Matt under Internet

A small post to let you know that this blog has just surpassed 200,000 hits in five months! After having a few lapses with my statistics recording, the traffic for this site has only been recording since 11th January 2008.

It’s a big achievement and a big thank you goes out to the people who subscribe to the RSS and visit this blog, your dedication is appreciated!

Granted they are only hits, we have had more than 20,795 unique visitors in that time.

Here’s to the million!

SEO: Enough Already!

Posted by Matt under Blogging, Internet

I’ll be honest, I have written a few posts that may have fallen into the wide category of Search Engine Optimization, but the current trend is just baffling to say the least; a hundred articles on how to check your backlinks? C’mon give me a break.

I am all for the tips and so called “secrets” that these white hat search engine hackers employ, as a webmaster myself I am interested in making my website as visible as it can be with the minimum of fuss. It’s just that SEO posts are fastly becoming the equivalent to Spam, all the sites using the same products and ideas to market something that has no tried or tested method.

What is the main reason Askimet has blocked 20,000 spam comments? SEO. By bombarding peoples servers with linked comments advertising Phentermine and Viagra, they are attempting to build backlinks whilst obviously trying to drive sales from that particular website. The more backinks a website has, the more “credible” it appears to search engines as a useful place for information. I may fall into this trap because I employ the “You Comment, I Follow” rule, which basically strips the nofollow tag from the comment authors website link and allows them to receive a backlink from my website. This maybe why I get a lot comment Spam, or maybe because this blog rocks (hehe).

Head over to a prominent Social Media website such as Mixx or Digg, you will find hundreds of submissions from “self made” internet entrepreneurs who make their living employing SEO tactics or teaching others to do the same. Their posts are linkbait, re-hashing the same content from their own blogs, let alone the thousands of other SEO websites that reside on the web.

Perhaps I don’t understand it, my attempts at making money on the web have resulted in a £100 cheque from Google Adsense, and a few pounds here and there. I don’t write many posts that are baited for visitors because I like to write about things personal to me or showcase something that I found useful.

The sites that make money from SEO, fair play to you. There is no rulebook on how to rank highly on Google (notice I say Google and no other search engine) and you plug and plug away to get that extra figure in your pagerank. In my eyes, a well coded website and relevant content are all you need to do well in your rankings, but then again I don’t rely on Google for my income.

Agree with this post? Leave a trackback or a comment (I follow!), alternatively vote in the poll!

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Webware 100 Awards 2008

Posted by Matt under Blogging, Internet, Tech

After reading Sam’s post over at WhatDoIKnow, I also decided to vote for my favourite web tools and sites for this years Webware 100 Awards.

If you get the chance, let them know your picks from the different categories.

Google Analytics Comes To Your Desktop

Posted by Matt under Blogging, Internet, Tech

It’s not an official Google release but something like this should definitely be on their todo list. This tool, named Google Analytics Reporting Suite, is an Adobe Air application that brings your website’s statistics to your desktop. Coded by Nicholas over at AboutNico, Google Analytics Reporting Suite:

The Google Analytics Reporting Suite brings Google Analytics to the desktop, with a host of features that help you understand how your website is performing and where you can improve. From tracking your visitors, referrals and campaigns to viewing your AdWords ROI metrics, the Google Analytics Reporting suite is a must-have for every web business.

It is still a little bit buggy but for the most part it works. One of it’s main drawbacks is that Adobe Air isn’t as widespread as Adobe’s flagship product; Flash, which is installed on something like 94% of internet user’s computers. Unless Adobe can find a way to make Air as omnipresent as Flash, these sort of applications may not make it to the wider market.

You install Adobe Air and then download the application. It will default to install like a normal executable file in your Program Files. Click to add the shortcut to the desktop and you are all set. You can add as many accounts as you wish.

Download

Adobe Air

Google Analytics Reporting Suite

Gmail Spam

Posted by Matt under Internet, Tech

Usually Gmail’s spam filter is exemplary and I never even receive a whiff of Spam in my Inbox. Over the last two days however, one type of Spam has been circumventing the filter and very annoyingly making it’s way into the sacred zone of my Inbox.

The screenshot below shows what the message contains:

It is quite unremarkable and doesn’t really offer much (which is probably why it slipped through). I haven’t bothered to open the .zip file for fear of infection (haha, infection).

Anyone else been getting this? It seems to be one every hour or so. Being a diligent user, I have used the Report Spam button repeatedly but they still keep slipping through.

I have now added this button to put a spanner in the spammers works (love the aliteration?)