Link: Interview with Tim Berners-Lee

Category: Professional.

I've to read this.

A semantic web interview with Tim Berners-Lee.
Link from technologyreview.com.

Links: What's New at 'My Yahoo'

Category: Professional.

What's New at My Yahoo.
Yahoo now supports the various flavours of RSS and Atom.

Read the Yahoo Search Blog.

If Yahoo is mentioned, can Google be far behind! :-)

Don't miss the Google Search Blog which has a post about their censoring Chinese News sites.

Link: Writingcave. Literature and Writing Blogs.

Category: Personal

Literature, fiction, and writing blogs.

Link: WritingCave.

Link: Picture blog.

Category: Misc.

A picture is worth a thousand words. Check Fragmentsfromfloyd.

More on Pune's roads.

Category: Personal. Pune, my city!

The road from Ramwadi to Shastrinagar is full of potholes. The entire stretch of Nagar road is being concretized. A part of the road from Yerwada to Ramwadi and Shastrinagar to Yerwada had already been concretized, however that doesn't mean the authorities can't patch up the pot-holes or relay the entire tar road from Ramwadi to Shastrinagar. They should do the road repairing work at night, and not during the morning peak hours.

There are so many pot-holes on the roads, it seems like riding in a moto-cross competition.

Pune always had bad roads, if it has to catch up with Hyderabad, roads have to be the top-most priority. Good roads: tar or concrete, without any potholes.

Action Steps:

1. Relay the entire tar road from Ramwadi and beyond to Shastrinagar.
2. Do the work at night, when there is less traffic.
3. Don't patch the potholes with small-sized aggregate. After a heavy downpour the aggregate (small stones) disperses and makes the road slippery.

Related Links on this blog:
Pune's potholed roads.
Pune needs better roads.

An example of a Google Whack

Category: Misc.

Got a google whack. Two words with a single search result.
Results 1-1 of 1.

Impossible is Nothing

Category: Personal.

Thoughts for today.

Adidas Advertisement.

Impossible is Nothing.

Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in a world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it.

Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion.

Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare.

Impossible is potential.

Impossible is temporary.

IMPOSSIBLE IS NOTHING.

Our company's discussion board.

Category: Personal.

A discussion board is a powerful medium to share information, discuss news, voice opinions, make improvements in an existing process, and encourage participation in areas of personal & professional interest. I'm surprised it is so sparingly used on our company's intranet, as if it is a pre-paid card of a cell phone required to last a month! :-)

I'd posted the Google Quiz on our company's intranet, and I'm surprised to note that even after a week, no one has taken the initiative to answer even one question.

Links: Logos—Dilbert & the Google Doodle.

Dilbert & the Google Doodle.
Google's Doodles.

Answers to the Google Quiz

Category: Professional.

1. What is the meaning of Google?
Ans. The word Google is based on Googol. Google is a play on the word googol. "Googol" is the mathematical term for a 1 followed by 100 zeros. The term was coined by Milton Sirotta, nephew of American mathematician Edward Kasner.

2. Google gets its name from a Mathematical term. This term was popularized in a book. Which book is it?
Ans. "Mathematics and the Imagination" by Kasner and James Newman.

3. What is Google's Mission? You may call it their Company Philosophy.
Ans. Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful.

4. What would you associate 'BRYBGR' with?
Ans. Google's Logo. GOOGLE.

5. Who are the founders of Google? (This is an easy one)
Ans. Larry Page and Segey Brin.

6. Google was founded in which University? (Another easy one)
Ans. Stanford University.

7. What was the original name of Google?
Ans. BackRub. Based on the number of links to a site.

8. When is Google's Birthday? (This is interesting!)
Ans. 7th September

9. Google is how many years old?
Ans. Six years.

10. Google has a name for a page that provides the search trends around the world, on a weekly basis. What is this page known as?
Ans. Zeitgeist.

11. The Google Web Directory takes its data from which web site?
Ans. ODP. The Open Directory Project. www.dmoz.org.

12. What is the technology on which Google is based. (Give the name of the algorithm).
Ans. The PageRank Technology. The PageRank Algorithm.
(Provide lots of links later on).

13. Which company did Google acquire in 2003 to become the home for Blogger?
Ans. Pyra Labs.

14. Which digital image processing company did Google acquire in 2004 to complement Blogger?
Ans. Picasa.

15. How many pages does Google search? (This is easy, but do you remember it)
Ans. 4,285,199,774
428 Crore 51 Lakh 99 Thousand and 774 web pages.
4.28 Billion web pages.
An analogy. Google searches web pages that are four times the population of India.

16. Where are the India offices of Google located? (This is a very easy one)
Ans. Bangalore and Hyderabad.

17. In which language dictionary was the term 'to google' added recently?
Ans. German

18. What is the meaning of 'Google Whacking'?
Ans. Finding a single search result for two or more search terms.
Here is an example of a google whack.

19. Which keyword would you use, in your search string, to find information about your competition?
Ans. Use the related keyword. For example: related:www.searchengineguide.com

20. How will you find the number of sites linking to your web site?
Ans. Use the link: search operator. For Example: To find the number of web pages linking to the web site of The Hindu newspaper use—link:www.hindu.com This search query gives the number of sites that link to the web site of The Hindu.

21. Google Groups is an archive taken from Deja.com What is the name of the archive?
Ans. Usenet

22. What is the name of Google's Technology Playground?
Ans. Google Labs.

23. What is the symbol of Google on NASDAQ?
Ans. GOOG

24. When did Google go public?
Ans. 19th August 2004

25. What was the method of allocating shares in Google's IPO?
Ans. Dutch Auction Method.

26. what is the name of Google's Paid Advertising, Sponsored listings?
Ans. Google AdWords.

27. What is the name of Google's Contextual Advertising listings?
Ans. Google AdSense displays advertisements based on the Content of the page. This is shown as Related Links in Gmail.

28. Who is the CEO of Google? (A simple one)
Ans. Dr. Eric E. Schmidt

29. Which line, a part of Google's Business Philosophy, was mentioned in their IPO filing?
Ans. Do No Evil.

30. What is the Google headquarters known as?
Ans. Googleplex.

31. What is the name of the Google Spider? (web-spider, crawler)
Ans. Googlebot. Link: Googlebot FAQs.

32. What are Google's Doodles?
Ans. Google Logos for special occasions. For example: Olympics. The latest being the one for Ray Charles' Birthday.

33. Which keyword is used in the Google Search string to access an older version of the current web page?
Ans. Use the cache: search operator. For example: cache:www.financialexpress.com.

34. Does Google accept free web site submissions?
Ans. Yes, It does. Link: Add your url to Google.

35. Are pop-up advertisements allowed on Google?
Ans. No, they aren't allowed.

36. What is the name of Google's Free web-based email service?
Ans. Gmail.

36. How many MB of free space does Google's email service provide?
Ans. 1000 Mb.

37. Two more search engines, excluding Google, have originated from this University. What is it's name?
Ans. Stanford University. Three search engines: Yahoo, Excite and Google have come from the Computer Science dept. of Stanford University.

38. Does Yahoo use Google's search results?
Ans. No, it doesn't.

39. Is Google a Meta-search engine?
Ans. No, it isn't.

40. What does Google's Web API allow to do?
Ans. With Google's Web APIs service, software developers can query the Google database, the four billion pages, directly from their own computer programs.

41. What is the name of Google's Social Networking web site?
Ans. Orkut.

42. Google opened its IPO at what rate? Give the price in USD.
Ans. $85

43. How did the founders of Google meet?
Ans. Larry Page and Sergey Brin first met as Stanford University graduate students in computer science in 1995.

44. Where is the headquarters of Google located?
Ans. Mountain View, CA, USA.

45. What is the default setting of Google Search?
Ans. Moderate.

46. What is the maximum number of results that can be displayed per page on Google?
Ans. 100 and all the results can open in a new window.

47. Name Google's Advanced Search Operators for finding titles, urls and anchor texts.
Ans. allintitle, allinurl, allinanchor, intitle, inurl, inanchor (the a href links).
(Provide examples later on).

48. Is a Google Search query Case-sensitive?
Ans. No, it isn't.

49. Google News searches how many news sources?
Ans. 4,500 news sources.

50. Approx. how many documents are searched by Google, including web, images and groups?
Ans. 6 Billion. (4.28 billion web pages, 880 million images, and 845 million newsgroups).

Link: Article—The future of search.

Category: Professional.

Link: Read an interesting article. 'The Future of Search & Search Marketing' by Gord Hotchkiss on WebProNews.

The future of search is about being local, personal, unwired, integrated and expansive. Check Google's Canada Local search engine.

A request to Google. Please add India in the Google Zeitgeist listing.

A useful tip. Google toolbar has a blogger button that opens a create post window.

Cricket: Schedule of Australia's tour of India.

Category: Misc. Cricket.

Schedule of Australia's Cricket Tour of India.
Sept. to Nov. 2004.
Cricinfo Coverage. Australia in India 2004-05.

30 Sept. - 2 Oct. v. Board President's XI at Mumbai.
6-10 Oct. 1st Test Bangalore.
14-18 Oct. 2nd Test Chennai.
26-30 Oct. 3rd Test Nagpur.
3-7 Nov. 4th Test Mumbai.

Pune needs better roads.

Category: Misc.

The road from the KalyaniNagar signal to Shastrinagar, a distance of fifty metres, on Nagar Road in Pune is full of potholes. Pune needs better roads, more flyovers, traffic signals that work, and traffic sense—which is very difficult to inculcate.

If there has to be a single priority after the assembly elections next month, it has to be roads. Pune's roads need a major cosmetic surgery. However, before that they need a face-lift, so that there is a face to apply cosmetics to. :-)

What is the use and the value of an education, and of earning 'x' thousands if it doesn't instil in us the discipline to follow a simple traffic rule. Why do people always stop ahead of the zebra crossing and honk even when the lights are red?

Got my bike in Pune

Category: Personal.

I've got my bike in Pune.

Cricket: Bradshaw & Browne help West Indies win the ICC Champions Trophy 2004.

Category: Misc. Cricket.

ICC Champions Trophy Final. 25th of September 2004. The Oval, London.

England 217 all out. West Indies 147 for 8. Who would win? England, wrong!

Courtney Browne and Ian Bradshaw staged a remarkable fightback, a seventy-one runs record unbeaten ninth wicket partnership to snatch victory from defeat in the ICC Champions trophy final played at The Oval in London.

England were all out for 217 runs. Marcus Trescothick scored a hundred and four runs and Ashley Giles gave him good support scoring thirty-one.

The West Indies lost wickets at regular intervals and were seven down for a hundred and forty seven runs, with Shivnarine Chanderpaul making forty-seven runs. Brian Lara was caught behind for fourteen, Ramnaresh Sarwan was caught in the slips and with Ricardo Powell too out cheaply, the West Indies were staring at defeat.

Ian Bradshaw, who had earlier taken two wickets, joined Barbados team-mate Courtney Browne and the two played sensible cricket. With the score on 183 for 8, the light was offered to the players, however, they took a bold decision to continue playing. The lights in the pavilion and the street-lights were on at that time. It was around 6:15 in the evening.

In the next over, the first ball bowled by Paul Collingwood was brilliantly cover-driven by the left-handed Ian Bradshaw. The third ball was sent to the square-leg boundary and there was a game on.

The West Indies needed twenty-seven more runs to win with six overs remaining. Courtney Browne and Ian Bradshaw went past the two hundred run mark and from there it was taking a run a ball to win the match. Five runs came of Darren Gough's last over. Now, 12 runs were required of 12 balls. Courtney Brown hit an Alex Wharf no-ball over point for four and the target was five to win of nine balls, then a single brought Ian Bradshaw to the crease with four to win of eight balls, and he finished the match by stylishly square-driving the second-last ball of the penultimate over to the point boundary.

The West Indies had won the match by two wickets with seven balls to spare.

A remarkable comeback from 147 for 8 to go past England's 217.
A record unbeaten ninth wicket partnership between Ian Bradshaw, who scored 34 runs of 51 balls, and Courtney Browne, who scored 35 runs of 55 balls; helped the West Indies win.

Ian Bradshaw was named the man-of-the-match. He took two wickets when England batted and then played a match-winning unbeaten knock of 31 runs.

Ramnaresh Sarwan was named the man-of-the-series.

The West Indies captain, Brian Lara took the ICC Champions Trophy.

A fantastic comeback win for the West Indies.

Well done and Congratulations. The West Indies have won a major cricket tournament after a long time.

A match to remember. The match wasn't exciting with the dull, gray, overcast, windy, and rainy conditions. However, the fightback by the West Indies made the match worth watching in the end. It was a good end to the second most important cricket tournament, after the World Cup.

ICC Champions Trophy 2004 played in England.
Semi-finalists: Pakistan and Australia.
Runners up: England.
Winners: West Indies.

Saturday evening.

Category: Personal.

It is raining with thunder and lightning.
There was no electricity from 6 to 8 in the evening.
Missed a part of the England vs. West Indies match.
England reached a fighting score of 217. The West Indies are struggling at 116 for six.

On the spur of the moment

Category: Personal.

Wow, it's raining heavily.
I like the cool breeze on my face

The long leaves beyond the window are glistening in the rain
Raindrops falling, one by one, from the sharp tip of the leaves
A few stray drops on my hands
Street lights casting a lone glow a furlong away

Lovely, a cool breeze on my face while I'm typing this.
It always rains during the Ganesh festival in Pune.

A Thought for the evening.

A Thought for the evening.

There are zillions of hits on God's server and there's never a 404.
One guy less, makes no difference.
Let God take care of so many souls in search of something or the other.
I'm happy, without asking!

Weekend Plans.

Read a lot. Visit Crossword and Inox. Write poetry. Come on, one doesn't have to write poetry, it comes on its own.

Links: Google., Inc. News. Google Links, Info., News, Articles, Blogs.

Category: Professional.

Google Links, Blogs, News, Information, Articles.

I'll keep on updating this post with more links.

GoogleFan
Watching Google Like a Hawk
The Unofficial Google Web blog
Inside Google Blog
Google blog on Blogspace
Google Information Directory
Google Blogoscoped
The Official Google Blog
Google Articles from Seo-guy and Seo-lab.
John Battelle's Search Blog.

Thanks for a lot of these links, Avlokana.

Links:

Googling for Courage on Wall Street. An article from fastcompany on the Google IPO. Is there a lesson in this for Indian IT companies too? A simple suggestion is to make the IPO readable and worth reading.

Google to come up with a Browser. A Google Browser! GBrowser. To read the article.

Search Engine Position.

Google., Inc. News. News about Google.

Topix.net Blog, Topix.net

Websense

Category: Misc.

I'm not allowed to surf 'News & Media' web sites and 'web-based email' sites in office. The sites are filtered through Websense.

Thoughts for Today

Category: Personal.

Nice quotes from Oneliners & Proverbs.
Thanks for the link, Praveen.

The things I long for are simple and few:
A cup of coffee, a sandwich and you. :-) Cool, isn't it!

Beautiful
If raindrops were kisses, I would send you a storm.
~ Natasha Isabelle

Confidence, like art, never comes from having all the answers; it comes from being open to all the questions.
~ Earl Gray Stevens

Link: Inspirational Quotes.

A lovely quote.

I am not the same,
having seen the moon shine
on the other side of the world.
~ Mary Anne M.B.L. Radmacher

Gmail advts.

Category: Misc.

Gmail advertisements — sponsored listings and related pages links, are now being shown at the bottom of the page with a skyblue background. They were earlier being shown on the right hand side of the page.

Cricket: West Indies vs. England Final on 25th Sept.

Category: Misc. Cricket.

ICC Champions Trophy. September 2004. England.

It is going to be an England v. West Indies Final.

West Indies easily defeated Pakistan by seven wickets in the second semi-final played yesterday at the Rosebowl in Southampton.

Pakistan is an unpredictable team. A polished performance vs. India, and then a batting collapse vs. the West Indies.

Pakistan captain Inzaman-ul-Haq won the toss and elected to bat, which was a decision based on playing to their strength of bowling, however in this tournament, most of the teams batting first have lost and Pakistan's decision of opting to bat first back-fired as they lost early wickets and were allout for 131 runs. The only significant partnership was the second wicket stand of fifty odd runs betweens Yaseer Hameed and Shoaib Malik. Inzamam and Yousuf Youhana scored a few runs and Shahid Afridi scored a few, late in the order, however they did not last long enough to score half-centuries.

A target of a hundred and thirty two to win of fifty overs was an easy chase for West Indies, provided they didn't lose early wickets. Shoaib Akhtar struck early on and got Chris Gayle out LBW, however Ramnaresh Sarwan took the fight to the Pakistani camp with attacking shots and with good support from Brian Lara, the target was easily achieved. Brian Lara was injured by a Shoaib Akhtar delivery (I didn't see that. There was a power cut). Brian Lara will be fit for the final.

England will start as the favourites to win the the final, based on their current form and performances of their bowlers Harmison, Gough, and Flintoff; and the batting of Vaughan, Flintoff, Trescothick, and others. Brian Lara has always excelled against England and the West Indies would be hoping that he gets a big one in the finals.

The final match is going to be played on Saturday, the 25th of September at The Oval in London. The match will be telecast live on SetMax from 01:30 p.m. IST.

News. Australian captain, Ricky Ponting is injured and will miss the first test match vs. India. Australia's tour of India is starting next month and it promises to be as exciting as the last tour of 2001.

Humour: Tell me something about yourself.

Category: Misc. Humour.

The most common HR question.

Tell me something about yourself.

Hypothetical answers ranging from the simple, straight-forward, cryptic, amazing, 'googling', and amusing to humorous, naughty, and self-deprecating to terse, boastful, arrogant, practical, interrogative, counter-questioning, and philosophical.

Tell me something about yourself.

Hypothetical Answers.

Simple: I am a graduate in 'xyzee' with these many years of work experience in these areas.

Straight-forward: I'm a simple guy with big dreams.
I really am. For practical purposes, I go with the 'Practical' answer.

Cryptic: I'm searching something for myself and so are you.

Amazing: You want to know about me? My life is online, check it out now!

Googling: Google my name and you will find everything you want to know about me.

Amusing: Oh, so you want to know about me? That's cool. I'm impressed.

Humorous: What is there to tell you! The whole world knows about me. I am online, my life is online, and if I join here—you all will be online, for good. :-)

Naughty: Are you looking for an intelligent, good-looking, tall, and handsome guy to marry your daughter?

Self-deprecating: I am looking for a job and Sir, through your kindness, I hope to get one here.

Terse: What's the CV there for?

Boastful: Don't you know who 'I' am?

Arrogant: So you'd like to know about me, oh I see.

Practical: My name is xyzee. I have these many years of experience in these areas and I have these skills which will benefit the company in these many ways.

Interrogative: You want to know about me, do you?

Counter-Questioning: Would you like to know about my academics or my work experience?

Philosophical: Life is what happens to you when you're making other plans, and that's how I am here.

Hope this brought a smile to your face.

You guys have some more to add, let me know.

Cheers
Chirayu

A lovely four-liner.

Category: Personal.

A lovely four-liner. Read it on Rileen's blog.
Got the link from Jahnvi's blog.

Note: It is always good to acknowledge the sources of your find.

Why can't I think of you
without breaking into a smile

followed by the pain of knowing
how long it's been a while.

Reminds me of another lovely poem.

There are times in life when you miss someone so much
that you want to pull them out from the depth of your dreams
and hug them from the bottom of your heart.

Google Quiz

Category: Professional.

Google Quiz.

There is God and then there is Google. If you are a believer in this saying, then this quiz is for you.

From the simple to the arcane, from guesswork to technology details, this Google Quiz has it all.

I invite you to answer this quiz, and in the process, learn more about Google - the world's best search engine, does anyone have a different opinion? :-)

Cheers!
Chirayu

1. What is the meaning of Google?

2. Google gets its name from a Mathematical term. This term was popularized in a book. Which book is it?

3. What is Google's Mission? You may call it their Company Philosophy.

4. What would you associate 'BRYBGR' with?

5. Who are the founders of Google? (This is an easy one)

6. Google was founded in which University? (Another easy one)

7. What was the original name of Google?

8. When is Google's Birthday? (This is interesting!)

9. Google is how many years old?

10. Google has a name for a page that provides the search trends around the world, on a weekly basis. What is this page known as?

11. The Google Web Directory takes its data from which web site?

12. What is the technology on which Google is based. (Give the name of the algorithm).

13. Which company did Google acquire in 2003 to become the home for Blogger?

14. Which digital image processing company did Google acquire in 2004 to complement Blogger?

15. How many pages does Google search? (This is easy, but do you remember it)

16. Where are the India offices of Google located? (This is a very easy one)

17. In which language dictionary was the term 'to google' added recently?

18. What is the meaning of Google Whacking?

19. Which keyword would you use, in your search string, to find information about your competition?

20. How will you find the number of sites linking to your web site?

21. Google Groups is an archive taken from Deja.com What is the name of the archive?

22. What is the name of Google's Technology Playground?

23. What is the symbol of Google on NASDAQ?

24. When did Google go public?

25. What was the method of allocating shares in Google's IPO?

26. what is the name of Google's Paid Advertising, Sponsored listings?

27. What is the name of Google's Contextual Advertising listings?

28. Who is the CEO of Google? (A simple one)

29. Which line, a part of Google's Business Philosophy, was mentioned in their IPO filing?

30. What is the Google headquarters known as?

31. What is the name of the Google Spider? (web-spider, crawler)

32. What are Google's Doodles?

33. Which keyword is used in the Google Search string to access an older version of the current web page?

34. Does Google accept free web site submissions?

35. Are pop-up advertisements allowed on Google?

36. What is the name of Google's Free web-based email service?

36. How many MB of free space does Google's email service provide?

37. Two more search engines, excluding Google, have originated from this University. What is it's name?

38. Does Yahoo use Google's search results?

39. Is Google a Meta-search engine?

40. what does Google's Web API allow to do?

41. What is the name of Google's Social Networking web site?

42. Google opened its IPO at what rate? Give the price in USD.

43. How did the founders of Google meet?

44. Where is the headquarters of Google located?

45. What is the default setting of Google Search?

46. What is the maximum number of results that can be displayed per page on Google?

47. Name Google's Advanced Search Operators for finding titles, urls and anchor texts.

48. Is a Google Search query Case-sensitive?

49. Google News searches how many news sources?

50. Approx. how many documents are searched by Google, including web, images and groups?

Mail me your answers, or provide the answers in the comments section.

Answers next week, or should I post it earlier?
The quiz is easy and interesting.
I invite you to try it, encourage you to attempt all the questions, and challenge you to get all answers right, which is an easy task. Enjoy.

I will post the answers with links in a couple of days.

Cheers!
Chirayu

Cricket: ICC Trophy: England in the Finals.

Category: Misc.

Cricket: ICC Champions Trophy: England in the Finals.

England comprehensively defeated Australia by six wickets to reach the finals of the ICC Champions Trophy.

A captain's innings of 86 runs by Michael Vaughan with good support from Andrew Strauss who remained unbeaten on 52 and an almost run-a-ball knock of 81 by opening batsman Marcus Trescothick paved the way for England's victory.

Australia scored 259 runs in their 50 overs. England won with more than three overs to spare. Australia were the favourites to win the match, however, their batsmen couldn't convert the good starts and except for Damien Martyn who scored 65 runns, no other batsman could reach a half-century. They didn't have any century partnerships and Darren Gough took a couple of wickets in the final overs to restrict them to 259 for nine of their alloted 50 overs.

England got off to a shaky start with opener Vikram Solanki getting out cheaply. A lot depended on captain Michael Vaughan, who had not played any significant match-winning knock this summer. It was his day today and he was off to a rollicking start, smashing Brett Lee for three fours in an over.

England had scored 80 runs in their first fifteen overs and the tone was set for the match. Trescothick scored 81 runs of 88 balls with some blazing shots, including a six to complete his half-century.

Andrew Strauss joined Michael Vaughan after Trescothick was bowled by Symonds. Strauss quickly joined the run scoring spree and took England past the 200 run mark.

Flintoff came in after Vaughan's dismissal and scored a quickfire 16 runs and then Paul Collingwood got the chance to hit the winning runs. Brett Lee was smashed around the park, going for 65 runs of eight overs.

England won comfortably with 21 balls to spare and six wickets in hand. Michael Vaughan won the man-of-the-match award for his eight-six runs and two wickets.

England now await the winners of tomorrow's Pakistan v. West Indies semi-final.

It is always good to see the underdogs win.

I think it will be an England v. Pakistan final.

SEO Links from Highrankings & Isedb.com

Category: Professional.

SEO Links

Highrankings.com SEO web site.
ISEDB.com. The Internet Search Engines Database. SEO news, articles, links, and information.

related:www.highrankings.com, link:www.highrankings.com.

Links: Search Engine News

Category: Professional.

Google enhances Local Search.

Search Engine News links.

Researchbuzz, SearchEngineJournal, Webproworld, Searchenginewatch Blog, Webworkshop.

The changing face of ToI's Paper edition.

Category: Misc.

The 'Crass Commercialisation' (Whorism, would be the right word) of Times of India.

If you've read the front page of today's The Times of India, you will know that it is no longer a newspaper, it wasn't one anyways, it was a tabloid, now it has become an advertiser for almost soft-porn.

Under the masthead of The Times of India (the paper edition), is a suggestive picture of a model with a curvaceous ass and two big 'Os' for her breasts. This is, ostensibly, an advertisement for the new Lifestyle and Entertainment channel 'ZOOM' to be launched by the Times Group.

Surprising, they haven't advertised on the web site and they're running fullpage advts. in the newspaper.
I guess, that's the right way of advertising. Because the target audience for 'Zoom Channel' would be newspaper readers. Those who surf the net don't need that kind of pull, there's a lot on the net itself! :-)

One way to look at it would be, as art, and an innovative way to advertise. Alright, that is a valid point.
However, the reason people are looking at ('read', looking at, and not reading) the advertisement is because of the sultry models with suggestive references to their breasts, which is wrong (this is my blog, and I'm voicing my opinion, which, I'm entitled to) for a family newspaper (if I may call it one) to do so.

Times of India is changing with the times, and that's a good sign. However, it's no longer a newspaper.

The Hindu, on the other hand too, is changing with the times, however, it has maintained it's position as a newspaper (both, in the offline and online medium).

The line (atleast in the offline, paper medium) has to be kept.
A newspaper is for news. An eveninger, a tabloid, a week-end newspaper is for news and entertainment. There is no difference between that in the paper edition of The Times of India.

Read the online edition of the Times of India.

A Mail and an analogy

Category: Personal

I received a mail (Someone telling me, not to tell something about someone).
I replied, someone's life is none of my business.

And that reminds me of a dialog in Agneepath, Amitabh (Vijay) tells Danny (Kancha Cheena)

Aye Kancha, Bandook bhi dikhaata hai, aur peeche bhi hathta hai
(Aye, Kancha, you're pointing a gun and also taking a step backward)

An analogy here would be,
Aye, Pyaar bhi karti hai, aur darti bhi hai.
(You love someone and you're afraid too).

The advice I would give her is instead of worrying about what the world is saying, she should believe in her relationship.

I never think on someone elses' behalf because it is none of my business.

I don't like to receive such mails in the office and that too, first thing on a Monday morning.

I'm posting this late in the evening.

Cricket: India v. Pakistan match.

Catgegory: Misc.

ICC Champions Trophy India v. Pakistan 19th Sept. 2004
Edgbaston, Birmingham, England.

Pakistan beat India by three wickets to enter the semi-finals. They will play against West Indies in the semis.

How the match unfolded.

An India v. Pakistan encounter is always exciting, and so it was with yesterday's match.

Inzamam won the toss and put India in to bat.
Saurav was out in the first over. Laxman played a horrible shot to a short-pitched ball on the leg stump and gave a catch straight to square-leg. Sehwag, going to a rough patch, couldn't last long and India were three down with less than thirty on
the scoreboard.

Rahul Dravid and Mohammed Kaif steadied the innings. Kaif was out, caught in the deep. Rohan Gavaskar gave Rahul Dravid support for some time, but didn't last long. It was left to Rahul Dravid and Ajit Agarkar to take India to a score of 200,
which was a fighting total.

Pakistan were rocked by Irfan's swing. India v. Pakistan matches follow a predictable pattern. If one team flounders, the other too follows. Irfan Pathan took three quick wickets , that of the two openers, Imran Farhat and Yaseer Hammed and Shoaib Malik, the dangerman versus India was taken by Irfan, caught at deep fineleg, after a lot of juggling, by Ashish Nehra.

Inzamam and Yousuf Youhana steadied the innings. Pakistan was going strong at 100 for three when Inzy was caught behind off the bowling of Agarkar. Razzaq didn't last long and was bowled, playing on to an offspinner from Sehwag.

Moin came and started on with a flurry of singles, as is his style. Yousuf Youhana, at the other end was playing a sensible innings, taking the singles, rotating the strike and running hard to convert the singles to twos with Moin. Yousuf looked in
some pain and was down with cramps. Moin was pushing him hard. A wicket was what India wanted at that time and that's what they got, when Yuvraj pulled off a blinder, a football goalkeeper style catch at short-point of the bowling of Nehra and Moin was back in the pavilion.

In came Shahid Afridi. Afridi is one player who can change a match anytime, batting at any position. For Shahid Afridi, each ball is to be sent over the ropes for a six. The only word in Afridi's dictionary for batting is smAshing the ball out of the ground. Afridi started off with a couple of singles. The match changed when Irfan Pathan came back for his second spell with Afridi on strike. Irfan had great bowling figures of seven over for twenty odd runs and three top wickets.

Shahid Afridi facing Irfan Pathan. The first ball, Irfan bowled a slighty short of a length ball on the middle and leg stump, Afridi rocked back and with a high, flourishing back-lift smashed the ball over the deep square-leg fence, into the stands, off she (the ball) goes for a huge six. The first ball from Irfan's new spell, smashed over square-leg for six. The next ball by Irfan was pitched of good length, pitched on the middle stump, Shahid Afridi, took a step forward, picked the line of the ball, and with a flourishing swing, sent the ball soaring over the deep long-on fence for another six. What a fantastic shot! Too good! In two balls, Afridi had changed the game. Pakistan were 170 odd with four wickets remaining and only 30 more to get, to win the match.

The next over from Irfan to Afridi was interesting. Afridi hit a ball high up in the air. The trajectory of the shot made it fall just inside the ropes, or else it would have been one more six, Afridi didn't even run, thinking it would be a six, then stauntered for two runs. Another ball in the same over was dispatched to the mid-wicket fence for a boundary. Afridi had scored 25 runs in only twelve balls and had turned the match in Pakistan's favour.

As is Afridi's style, a ball has to be hit, it cannot be played on the ground, he tried to hit a ball from Yuvraj out of the ground. Irfan being a fast bowler, the ball came on faster and was easier to hit, in Yuvraj's case, the ball slowed down and went to the long-on boundary for a simple catch. Afridi went for a quick 25 off 12 balls. By that time, Pakistan was within reach of the target and they won with three wickets to spare.

Yousuf Youhana was declared the man of the match for his unbeaten eight-one runs.

Pakistan plays West Indies on the 22nd and Australia takes on England on the 21st, in the semi-finals.

Plans for Sept. & Oct.

Category: Personal.

1. Buy a computer with a 2.8 GHz processor.
2. Take a cable (broadband) internet connection at home.
3. Go for running, walking, and jogging.
4. Bring my bike to Pune.

Hindi Poem: Madhushala

Category: Personal.

Madhushala, a famous & popular poem by (Late) Dr. Harivanshrai Bachchan. (Hindi fonts required here).

Read Madhushala in Hindi.

A stanza from Madhushala.

Hindi.
Madiraalay jaane ko ghar se, chalta hai peenewaala
Kis path se jau asmanjas mai hai woh bholabhala
Alag alag path batlaate sab par mai yeh batlaata hu
Raah pakad tu ek chala chal paa jaayega Madhushala.

An English translation of the above stanza.

The drink seeker starts from home seeking the tavern (pub)
Which path to take is the dilemma of the simpleton
People show different paths but I tell you this
Take a path and stick to it and you will reach your tavern.

This stanza is a metaphor for life. To succeed, take a path and stick to it and you will reach your destination, and that's what I'm going to do in my Professional life.

What does Poetry mean to me.

Category: Personal.

What does Poetry mean to me.

Poetry is an expression of my experiences.
It comes to me. I don't have to wait for it.

Poetry brings out the beauty of words.
I like the simplicity of the Haiku.

Nature poetry takes me to far off lands.
Poetry helps me to visualize things.
I read and I visualize.
An ephemeral glimpse, a mellifluous tone, an ethereal presence, a lovely sight, a beautiful picture; all come to me through poetry.

Poetry is a spontaneous expression of an incident,
a recollection of experiences.

Met Krishna & her father.

Category: Personal.

Met Krishna and her father last evening.
I liked the girl, although I didn't ask her anything, except whether she'd be interested in working full-time? She's tall, 5 ft 8 inches and to be true, that's what I liked about her.

My blog is down to the sixth position on Google.

Catgeory: Misc.

This blog is down to the sixth position on Google for a search on Chirayu. It was ranked number one till last evening.

Poem: Walking far to meet someone

Category: Personal.

I'd written this in June last year.

Walking far to meet someone
Coming back without knocking on her door
Is it love, fear, or the hope of waiting for her
To recognize that I'm so near!

Oneword.com

Category: Misc.

Oneword.com.

Click on Go.
Read the word.
In sixty seconds write about the feelings you'd associate with that word.
Stop.

Link to Sites Using ODP Data

Category: Misc.

Sites Using ODP Data.
324 sites use data from the DMOZ Open Directory.

Amazon's A9.com Search Engine.

Category: Professional.

Amazon's Search Engine, A9 - provides results from multiple sources.

It uses Google's Web & Image index, Amazon's book index, IMDB for movies and GuruNet for references. It also has a History of the User's search. Search the web, books, images, movies, reference and view your search history (registration required).

Amazon's A9.com search engine site has a soothing look & feel with skyblue, white, and silver colors.

The web search results are taken from Google. The feature of showing images alongwith the web search results for a search query is innovative and looks good.

Usability

Category: Professional.

To check and read all the links from Usability.gov
I'll do that tomorrow.

Usability Tutorials.

Usability Links.

To check Usableweb.com.

Ask Tog.

Links from the Yahoo Directory listings on English Usage and Grammar.

I'm in office.

Category: Personal.

I'm in office. I'm waiting for my machine to be set up. It is a bit congested here, although I guess, it would be for a week or so. There are six people in a cubicle. I have no space to stretch my legs. :-)

Promoting your Blog.

Category: Misc.

A useful, informative and interesting article on Promoting your Blog by Biz Stone. Handy tips on using Blogger settings and useful information on search engine friendly blogging.

Thoughts for Today

The empires of the future are the empires of the mind.
~ Winston Churchill
(A grand and visionary quote, so true today).

To understand your parents' love, you must raise children yourself.
~ Chinese Proverb

New in Gmail

Category: Misc.

What's new in Gmail.

Spam & Trashed messages more than 30 days old will be automatically deleted.

Google Alerts

Category: Professional.

Google Alerts.

Get Google News, Web, News & Web search results in your mailbox.

Google is advertising Google Alerts on the Search results page.

Get web and news search results in your mailbox, as the story unflods or once a day. For Breaking news from Google in your mailbox, check Google Alerts.

News Blog as a Haiku

Category: Misc.

An interesting link to check. A news blog on International affairs, US Elections and Politics, all written as a Haiku. A 'Haiku' News Blog.
Three links for every four words and three lines for each post.

Cricket: ICC Champions Trophy 2004

Schedule of the ICC Champions Trophy to be held in England from the 10th to the 25th of this month. India plays Kenya on the 11th and Pakistan on the 19th. All matches to be telecast Live on SetMax from 01:30 p.m. IST.

Rahul Dravid is ICC's Player of the Year, Test Player of the Year and Irfan Pathan is the best upcoming player of the year. Congratulations Rahul & Irfan. The match with Pakistan will decide whether we reach the semi-finals. We lost to Pakistan in the tournament in Netherlands last month. Our batting has to click and we can defeat any team.

Australia announces it's team to tour India in October.
Squad: Australia's tour of India. October 2004 onwards. It will be an interesting series, with the Austalian bowling of Brett Lee, Jason Gillespie, Glenn McGrath, Michael Kasprowicz, Shane Warne, Michael Clarke, Lehmann and White versus VVS Laxman (against Australia, Laxman comes first, even before Sachin), Rahul Dravid, Sachin, Ganguly, Sehwag and others. I'm looking forward to the series.

India v. Australia in 2001 was a series of a lifetime, Laxman's 281, Rahul Dravid's 180 in that unforgettable Calcutta test match of March 2001. Steve Waugh's attempt to defeat India in India (the Final Frontier). India v. Australia encounters are always exciting.

Early morning jog.

Category: Personal.

I've put on weight in this one month that I've been at home in Pune.
My weight was 68 kgs. in Hyderabad. I'm almost 70 (69.2) kgs. here in Pune.
I'm still average, I wouldn't call myself athletic - although I am fit, earlier I was lean, now I've a slight or a more than slight :-) paunch (and that's not a beer belly).

I need to take care of my health.

If Anil Ambani, managing a multi-billion dollar business, has the time to spend for an early morning jog, I don't have any excuses for not doing so, except one and that's I'm comfortable being lazy and there's no motivation to go for an early morning jog.
I need some company, how about a beauty like Perizaad Zorabian (from Joggers Park).

Thoughts for Today

Category: Personal.

May faith make your life serene
and hope keep it bright.
~ Kahlil Gibran

A nice saying worth remembering, quoting and practising in one's life.
Try not to become a person of success,
but rather a person of value.
~ Albert Einstein

A humorous and thought-provoking saying, on similar lines as the one written above.
A critic is a person who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.

An apt thought for today, for me.
Life is a series of collisions with the future;
it is not the sum of what we have been, but what we yearn to be.

Man's mind, stretched by a new idea,
never goes back to its original dimensions.
~ Oliver Wendell Holmes.

A Thought by me for me. :-)
There is value in understanding the virtue of stability & patience and I'm going to practice it, in my professional life.

I have plans for September and the months ahead, on the personal and professional front. I'll post them online after sometime.

I've taken a job.

Catgeory: Professional.

I will be joining a Pune based software company as a Content Writer from next week onwards.

Titles for posts from now onwards.

Category: Professional.

From now onwards, I will be giving a title for each post. From a usability perspective, a title makes it easier for the reader to refer to a post, link and/or an article, at a later date; instead of searching on Google's sitesearch or trying to recollect the date or the keyword. Plus, a title would be a ready reference pointer to even a small, but interesting and informative post and help in search engine optimization through the heading (H2, H3, bold tag).
Avlokana, thanks for the feedback through a comment on my blog, I appreciate it).

A Beautiful thought for today on Teaching.

The best teacher is one who suggests rather than dogmatises and inspires his listener with the wish to teach himself.
~ Lord Lytton.

Allotment of PAN Form 49A. .pdf file link.

7th September. Happy Birthday, Google.
7th September 2004 Tuesday. Today is Google's sixth Birthday.
Happy Birthday Google.
It is 02:30 a.m. IST (and 02:00 p.m. PDT 7th September 2004).
The right time to wish Google.
Google Timeline, History.
Google Prototype (Nov. 1998).

Category: Misc.

I received a mail from Pratima. She'd written, you write all intellectual stuff (omg, I'm flattered! :-)) on your blog and nothing about what's going on in your life. There's a lot that's going on and nothing that's waiting. It just goes on :-)) Lol.

(Pratima, many congratulations on getting a doctorate in the field of Nutrition).

There are people who'd be interested in reading posts related to writing, search engines and allied links. People who may find this blog interesting because of the links worth checking from here. They are interested in the professional side of my blog, my life.

There are people who'd be interested in what's happening in my life. Which job have I taken, where did I go for dinner over the weekend and which movie did I like and what books am I reading. They are interested in what's happening in my life, as it relates to them in some way or the other, or even if it doesn't relate, they like to read.

I write for myself and hence, there's no line dividing personal and professional posts. I need to separate the personal and professional posts, for the reader's of my blog. (I appreciate all you guys who visit my blog).

I've decided to categorize my posts - Professional, Personal and Miscellaneous (Misc). All the categories would be Public. A category name would be given to each post, from now onwards.

The Professional category would include posts related to search engines, google, gmail, links, news, information, articles, research, seo, content writing, collection of links, new web sites, interesting finds, news and views worth reading and other things related to writing, blogging, research and search engine optimization. Links to check, things to do, sites to surf, articles to read, posts on search engine optimization, content writing, web authoring; among other things.

The Personal category would include posts on poetry, my city, book reviews, my opinion on music, media and movies, musings, thoughts, collection of quotes, Thoughts for Today, Haiku, regional language poems, cricket, sports, outdoors, life n' times, thoughts on media, politics, news, actresses, girls, personal posts on what's happening in my life, my friends, family, relatives and relationships.

The Miscellaneous category would include posts that are part professional and part personal. A chat with a colleague, my online friends, my ideas, opinions, thoughts, dreams, plans and life n' times.

Poodle Predictor. Simulate search engine results. How will Googlebot spider your site.

A futuristic article written in 2002 about Google in 2009. Got this link from John Battelle's Searchblog.

Ten Tips on Writing the Living Web (live writing, writing blogs) by
Mark Bernstein.

1. Write for a reason
2. Write often
3. Write tight
4. Make good friends
5. Find good enemies
6. Let the story unfold
7. Stand up, speak out
8. Be sexy (the point here is to be truthful, if it's your online diary, don't shy from posting an embarrassing incident, share your feelings and views on topics that matter to you).
9. Use your archives. (Provide a Permalink).
10. Relax!

I'd give myself an 'A+' for 1,2, 3 & 10.
An 'A' for 6,7, 8 & 9.
A 'B+' for 4
A 'B' for 5.

Read the article here.

Note: My ID Links post is dt. 2nd June.

A Haiku on the spur of the moment.

A teardrop trickles down the cheek
Raindrops glisten on leaves
People and nature
Show emotions.

In my list of daily reads. Google Blogoscoped.

Useit Web Usability.

To check this link, TouchGraph Google Browser.

Rediff has a new look.
Search box towards the top left - a good move, longer text boxes for username and password, icons for blogs, matchmaker, mobile and shopping on the top right hand side. Tables of major categories and news, the formatting is good, there's a lot of white space, the look and feel of the homepage is better than the old one.

What is the difference between online and offline writing?
What is the difference between writing for the web and writing for a newspaper?
Or put simply, How is web authoring different from newspaper reporting?
Plus, points on search engine optimization.

Content writing, web usability & design, online marketing and search engine optimization are inter-related and one cannot have a topic without writing about the other.

Timespan is a very essential factor that differentiates Online and offline writing. The magic of the internet is such that each word, each dot can be a link that can take you somewhere else.

Writing for the web has to be simple, fluent, easy to understand, precise and flowing.

Short sentences, simple words, small paragraphs with links from words, where necessary.

Let me show this with an example.
---
Explain the concept of a Public and Private Key in Cryptography.

A Public key is your information available to your contacts.
A Private key, as the name suggests, is personal and, is used to decode (decrypt) the messages sent by your contacts.
Your contacts use your Public key to encode and send you messages.
You use your Private key to decode them.
---

Writing online is aided by images, links and graphics.
A black font on a white background is the easiest and most acceptable way of writing.
A sentence, or a group of sentences should have links where necessary pointing to internal/external links or the page should have an interactive image, a graphic or a .jpeg file that explains what is written (this would be from an e-learning point).

Online writing should catch the attention of the user.
The difference between reading your web site and going to another one is only a mouseclick.

Usability concepts play a major role in web authoring.
When a user reaches the end of the page, always give the user something to, don't let the user search for information, provide it!
For example, you've reached the end of the page, after reading the product manual, now, offer links, 'Homepage', 'Search', 'What's New', 'Product Reviews', 'Feedback' and so on. So that the user is not at a loss about what to do after reading that page.

These are basic concepts which are important. Giving links back to the homepage from each page of your web site also helps in Search Engine Optimization as each link back to your index page is a link (vote in PageRank Google Terminology) for your homepage. Link popularity is a major factor in search engine rankings and the more the number of 'contextual' links to your homepage, the higher up will it be in the search rankings, for a particular keyword.

What is meant by Contextual links?
An example would explain this.
There is an industrial manufacturers site that has 25 links back to the homepage.
There is another industrial manufacturers site that has 40 links back to the homepage.
(The number of links can be found by the search string link:www.sitename.com).

The site with 25 backlinks (links back to the homepage) is first and the site with 40 links is below that. hy is it so, if links is a criteria?

Here, context of the links has to be seen.
The site with 40 links has links from sites that are not connected with the content of the homepage. For example, an industrial manufacturer has links from greeting cars, music, entertainment and other sites, which is context relevant.
Now the site with 25 links has links from sites related to industries, business, manufacturing, industrial goods, automobile parts etc. So these are links from context matching sites, hence that is given more prominence and the site with 25 backlinks comes above the site with 40 backlinks.

This is what I have understood and observed.
Google is amazing, interesting, good, great and worth a lot many more magnificent adjectives.

Each word can be a link in an online medium.
The challenge is in providing links which don't divert the attention of the user, enhance the reading process and provide more information that encourages the user to explore and understand.

A repeat value is generated in providing information that a layperson can use.

How to convert a first time web site visitor to a potential business client?
The best way is to provide content that the user is looking for.
If a person reaches your site searching for Business Intelligence solutions and he does find them on your homepage but doesn't know where to proceed from there because flash demos are taking a lot of time, then it would be prudent to give a link to the enquiry form and contact us details rather than an attractive flash demo. This information, about web site usage, can be found from web site tracking softwares, which provide page-wise statistics.

You may have different newspapers, you can read only one at a time.
You can surf multiple web sites at a time, doing multiple activities - reading, chatting, surfing, listening to music, downloading files and watching movies. Hence, timespan is the most important difference between web authoring and newspaper writing.

If you don't like a thing on the net, don't read, close the window or click on a link to another web site.

Content is the bridge that allows for a smooth passage between technology and the end-user.

So write well to sell your site, your products, solutions, services - your business. Use any technology, make your site readable (a light background, preferably and a dark font), use white space to your advantage, give an open feel to your website, provide directions and write for others to read, understand, explore, navigate and take action.

More later...

Dear Punit,

Many Congratulations on drawing your first salary at PSPL.
Wish you all the best for the future.

Goodluck and Godspeed.

Regards,
Chirayu

Kaavyalaya - The House of Hindi Poetry. Hindi fonts required to read the poems. Download Hindi fonts from here.

News from the ITES industry. Mellon Financial Corporation in the process of establishing BPO operations in Pune.

Beetroot Cutlate Recipe.

(Vegetarian).

Mummy's favourite breakfast for Sunday is Beetroot Cutlate.
Here is Mummy's recipe to make Beetroot Cutlate.

Name: Beetroot Cutlate.
Serves: 4 people
Ingredients:
2 Boiled potatoes, 1 Carrot, 1 Beetroot (medium size), 1 packet of Sandwich Bread,
Rava (what do you call Rava in English, a literal translation would be, thick powder of wheat),
(you may use bread crumbs, instead of Rava).
Green chillies and/or red chillies, salt, coriander (dhaniya).
Ideal for: Morning Breakfast on a Sunday (holiday) or an Evening snack.

Steps to make Beetroot Cutlate.

1. Boil the potatoes, peel the skin, and crush them to make a fine paste.
2. Peel the carrot and beetroot and skim them.
3. Remove water from the skimmed carrot and beetroot.
4. Mix the carrot and beetroot with potatoes.
5. Add green/red chillies, salt, and coriander leaves (kothmir, dhaniya).
6. Take four slices of bread and crush them and mix with the above ingredients.
7. You can give any shape as you like to the above paste.
{Give an oval (cutlate) shape or a circular shape}.
8. Take some Rava and smear it on the raw cutlates.
9. Put two table spoonfuls of oil on the frying pan.
10. Heat the frying pan (Tava).
11. Keep the cutlates on the frying pan and roast them.
12. Serve with tomato ketchup and green coriander (dhaniya) chutney.

Enjoy your breakfast!
Try it out :-)