I was going through a blog from “Dumb little man” and found some very useful tips of searching in Google. Though I had read these before (not sure where), found them interesting and so am “pasting” them here. These should be available in Google’s site somewhere, but well, u got to search for it anyway. So, here it is….
• Define search
If you are unsure of a word's meaning, you can use the search term define: to narrow down on the list of definitions. Just be aware that sometimes this search isn't as accurate as it should be.
• Number range search
This is a cool search, especially if you are out to get an online bargain. Just say you shop for a blackberry phone but your budget is limited, use the following term (exchange your values and keyword to search your own) term = blackberry phone [$50]...[$400]
• Date search
If you are in the market for the latest blackberry phone but don't want old results showing in your Google search, use the search term daterange. To do so, enter "Blackberry" daterange:startdate-enddate. However, Google is a funny beast. The dates need to be entered as a Julian date and frankly, it's totally confusing. To speed things up, use Gmacker.
• Quoted search
Quoted searches are often used by niche marketers to find accurate results regarding their niche. Even though this is one of the most basic search terms, it seems many people don't use it at all. To do a quoted search, simply wrap your term into double quote marks; like this: "ipod nano 4GB".
This will allow you to see the most relevant results without having to spend hours sieving through Google's links.
• Allinurl search
This is a neat search to give you results with your target keyword contained in the actual domain link. To do this, insert allinurl:ipod nano 4GB into Google's search box and in return you will find URL's containing that keyword.
• Allintitle search
This is the same principle like the allinurl search, but instead you will see results featuring your target word in the title of the result sites listed.
• Cache search
You might know what a cached page looks like. If you don't, head over to Google right now and search for any term or word. Once the results are presented to you look closer at the right hand side of each result (next to the green text or below).
You will see a hyperlink called cache. Click on it and you will see what Google does to cache websites. It's like taking a snapshot, which allows us to go back in time and look at sites in the past.
To do a cache search, enter this term into the search box: cache:www.amazon.com(exchange for any website URL).
• Info search
If you want to get more information on a particular website, you can do an info search by typing info:www.amazon.com for example.
This will return all sorts of information such as cached pages, similar websites, websites that link to.. and sites that contain the term.
• Site search
The site search allows you to look for results from a specific domain only. If you do a site search for ipods on Amazon for example, you use the following search term: ipod site:www.amazon.com
• Advanced search
To perform an advanced search, you can specify from any results page whether you want to narrow your search to images, video, news, map or web or more. It will fast track your search and by opening the advanced options field, you can even further drill down for a particular difficult search.
Google has also released a personalized search option that is supposed to analyze the searches you perform to provide you with more accurate results over time. To do this go to www.Google.com/psearch and sign up for web history.
Power the search in Google
Google Chrome
Google’s everywhere. Anything it does makes news and when Google releases a browser, it’s quite obvious to make big news. Every tech site speaks about Chrome, its speed, the tests they have performed to confirm Chrome’s speed, its “only tab crashes, not browser” feature etc.
If you haven’t heard yet, the whole Chrome story is available in the form of comic.
One issue I found in Chrome was that the scroll doesn’t work fine. You can scroll down fine, but not the other way round. I tested in two different machines and both had the same issues while scrolling up. May be the next version would have this fixed.
Google starts local search (voice based search)
Google starts local search and without much noise. I was in Hyderabad last weekend and was surprised and happy to know that Google has entered into one more service – local search. Just call 1800 41 99 99 99 and you have the operator saying “Thank you for calling Google” I did not hear or read anywhere about this service (I havnt been keeping myself updated for the last few days), but this being Google, was supposed to create some noise. Well, the operator does help you find things and can also sms the search results to your mobile. But I found them sending each search result as a separate message. One or two consolidated smses would be better. Other than being free, the other different thing was that the call can be directly forwarded to one of the search result. But I did love “…Thanks for calling Google”
I did try that in Bangalore, still not working. Not sure when it would start.
Found a site which gives more info. Click here to visit that.
Credit card safety/usage in India
How safe is it to use credit cards here in India?
The answer is in your hands .. I mean it .. if your card is in your hand, its safe. Else its not. Simple as that.
I have seen very very few shops here that checks for authorized signature on a credit card. According to the procedure, once a transaction is completed and the customer signs on the charge slip, the staff is supposed to verify the signature on the charge slip with the signature on the card. But nowhere does it happen. You can just take in a card, swipe it, just sign and come out happily.
The process needs to really change. In Australia (and most probably in most other places), after the transaction, the customer himself keeps the card with the signature side up for the staff to verify the signature. It has become a procedure there.
We need to be as careful as possible with credit cards. If you lose the card, block it immediately. To do this, always carry the contact details of the credit card company.
Local Info and movies
Yahoo! India has launched local info site.. This is presently available for Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi/NCR and Chennai. It provides information such as restaurants, pubs, malls, schools, banks etc etc.
Best part is that the users can also write reviews, leave footprints and mark businesses on the map. Check out more details here.
Movies
For movies, we have http://in.movies.yahoo.com/ which lists all movies with news, photos, trailers etc.
Also, Google has its own service - http://www.google.co.in/movies. This site lists all movies in a particular city. You can check all the movies in a city in different theatres, check movies in a theatre or check for a particular movie in all theatres.
Number plate
Managed to grab a shot of this nice number plate trying to spread what is truth according to him.
PS: The no. is blurred on purpose.
Menus for ads
Not sure how new is this or how old is this. But menu tabs of websites are also now used for advertising.
I saw this in http://www.ibnlive.com/ website. You mouse over on “News”, you see a “Swift ad and when you open the section, a “Swift” banner plays too. The other sections that were used for this kind of advertising are “Business – Sponsored by Progressive”, “Health – by Pfizer”, “Blogs – by Optra Magnum”and “Auto – by Honda Accord”. Slowly, all the sections would be sponsored, I reckon. Interesting…
Below image shows a few of them.
Time
Recently, I havnt found time to blog. I did not find anything too interesting too. That’s when I decided to write about time itself. Time is really precious and one cannot find enough of it. Strange it is that many people have achieved so many things in the same time. When I say “same time”, I mean everybody has 24 hours a day. It’s just how you make use of it that makes the difference. Attitude plays a very important role. Yes, this is getting a bit philosophical. If you have the right attitude, you tend to make the best use of time available and so achieve more. With a laidback attitude, you lose time. But can a person not have a laidback attitude at all? It’s possible, but very, very rare. I have seen only countable few of those people who did not have laidback attitude at all. Else, everyone does have a tendency to be lazy some or the other time.
Recently, I had been to a seminar where Mr. RK Misra (Lead India winner) spoke about his journey of life. He’s so meticulous, organized and simple; a real leader. I was really inspired. He also had only 24 hours per day. Isn’t it? But he planned it. He planned to retire at 40 and start social entrepreneurship. He did work his plan.
I used to tell one of my close fren whenever she said that she did not have time –
“You will never have time, you have to make time”. Isnt it sooo true? But how practical is it to MAKE time…….
Adobe Photoshop Express – A review
The first look is quite impressive. But as soon as I wanted to sign in or try it out, I faced an issue – I did not have the latest flash player. Looks like it does not work with just flash player 9, but needs the latest one (Adobe Flash Player version 9,0,115,0). Ok, update does not take much time.
If anyone has any issues even after updating to the latest flash player (like I did), try uninstalling the flash player and then reinstalling it again. That’s how it worked for me :o).
A test drive (trial) can be taken before you sign in. (this allows you to get a feel of it).
I was impressed by the simple, neat design and the way it functions. Once you sign in, first thing to do is upload photos. I did that too. Worked fine with uploading multiple photos ( I tried only 3 tho). And while uploading, you do have option for uploading to new album. The library has “Most Recent” photo option which is good. It shows only the photos that were uploaded recently and not all in the library.
Double click on any photo to start editing that.
You can start with the basic crop and rotate. Works neat. Then you can use the autocorrect to come up with some good results.
At any time, you can see the original photo again by clicking and holding the “View original” button. Neat too.
You can even view the history of the changes done.
There are many other options which gives an amateur photo editor a very good way of editing of photos.
Below you can see some “quick play around” results of Adobe Photoshop express.
Finally, you can flaunt ur skills through the gallery link Adobe provides (2 GB storage is not bad). Don’t forget to share your gallery, failing which it won’t be publicly available.
Oh, almost forgot that you can also get a link for your photo, get an embed tag, email photo directly.
SEO Rap - Neat
The lyrics follows:
Your site design is the first thing people see
it should be reflective of you and the industry
easy to look at with a nice navigation
when you can’t find what you want it causes frustration
a clear Call to action to increase the temptation
use appealing graphics they create motivation
if you have animation
use with moderation
cause search engines can’t index the information
display the logos of all your associations
highlight your contact info that’s an obligation
create a clean design you can use some decoration
but to try to prevent any client hesitation
every page that they click should provide and explanation
should be easy to understand like having a conversation
when you design the style go ahead and use your imagination
but make sure you use correct color combinations
do some investigation, look at other organizations
but don’t duplicate or you might face a litigation
design done, congratulations but it’s time to start construction
follow these instructions when you move into production
your photoshop functions then slice that design
do your layout with divs make sure that it’s aligned
please don’t use tables even though they work fine
when it come to indexing they give searches a hard time
make it easy for the spiders to crawl what you provide
remove font type, font color and font size
no background colors, keep your coding real neat
tag your look and feel on a separate style sheet
better results with xml and css
now you making progress, a lil closer to success
describe your doctype so the browser can relate
make sure you do it great or it won’t validate
check in all browsers, I do it directly
gotta make sure that it renders correctly
some use IE, some others use Flock
some use AOL, I use Firefox
title everything including links and images
don’t use italics, use emphasis
don’t use bold, please use strong
if you use bold that’s old and wrong
when you use CSS, you page will load quicker
client satisfied like they eating on a snicker
they stuck on your page like you made it with a sticker
and then they convert now that’s the real kicker
make you a lil richer, your site a lil slicker
design and code right man I hope you get the picture
what I’m telling you is true man it should be a scripture
if it’s built right you’ll be the pick of the litter
everyone will want to follow you like twitter
competition will get bitter and you’ll shine like glitter
if you trying to grow your company will get bigger
design and code right man can you get with it
SMS2.0 – A review
SMS2.0 is an upgrade on the default/normal SMS available on cellphones. It’s available in India, only on Airtel (as of now).
You need to download this application and install it. The download is free. Even GPRS charges are waived.
Coming to features, it does give you some nice emoticons, background colour and font colour options. But yes, the emoticons and colour options work only on phones with SMS2.0. So, if you send it to a friend without SMS2.0, it does not work.
Also, you would have to compromise on your screen space. The bottom of your screen is used for ads. I use Nokia N70 and usually once I hit the “Send” button, after few secs, it goes back to the “wallpaper” screen. But with SMS2.0, it displays an ad and stops there.
To top it up, all the sms you send goes with “Sent by SMS2.0” added on to the end of the message. This sometimes gives a feel that we have sent the sms from some free website.
Overall, though the features were good, I was not very happy with the cons and had to uninstall within a couple of days on installing.
PS: Everything expressed here is my personal opinion.
Dell customized for India
This is the first time that Dell products will be made available in India through a retail outlet in the country.
Now, you can have a look and feel of the Dell machines before ordering them, that too unlike other vendors. Here you can customise the machine choosing a configuration you want. Dell has joined hands with Croma, a consumer electronics retailer in India, to make available its laptops and desktops in Croma stores. Beginning in April, you will be able to experience and place a customised order for a wide range of Dell Products at select Croma stores in Mumbai.
This announcement marks the first time that Dell Products will be made available in India through a retail outlet in the country. The Dell XPS and Inspiron systems will be available at the Croma stores with distinctive Dell branding and support. This will allow customers to touch, feel and browse Dell products, request for customisations of the said Dell products to suit their specific needs as well as have them home delivered.
Read more…
Blu-rays (BD)
It’s again been some time since I updated my blog. One reason was that I did not browse much nor did I find anything really interesting.
Ok, talking about the discs, it’s now official that HD has backed out and Blue-ray discs are the next in “happening” things. From now, we again got to be careful before buying any electronic commodity as we need to check if it can play a BD (yes, that’s the abbreviation) as well.
This article in tech2.com has done a neat job in explaining about BD.
Njoi madi…
Cyber crime check in Indian Railways:
Recently I was traveling from Pune to Bangalore and this happened in Pune Station. I boarded the train and was near the steps waving good bye to my friend. A hefty person came to me and asked me for my phone. I asked why and he said that he is a cop and has to check it. He was in civil dress.
While seeing his ID, I gave the phone to him. He immediately went to the gallery section (I have Nokia N70) and starting seeing the videos. He was searching for some illegal or "bad" movies. Good that I did not have any of those and was spared.
So, people, keep an eye for this. Also be aware of thieves posing as policemen who may easily steal the phones.
Draggable ads from Yahoo!
Draggable ads are something new from Yahoo!. When you start composing email in the "New Style" Yahoo!, you would find these draggable ads to the right. There would be some characters or images there which you can drag into your email.
Then you can just send that to your friends or so. When they open it, they can click on that image and visit the respective link.
A very intuitive viral infact!
Chilkur Venkateshwara Temple
Also called Chilkur Balaji Temple or Visa Venkateshwara temple, the temple is located in Hyderbad. It is 33 kms from Mehedipatnam in Hyderabad.
I had visited it recently as my dad had wanted to visit (mannant maange the). It’s quite a small temple. But the crowd is huge. There are thousands of people visiting everyday especially on weekends.
It’s believed that whatever you wish for here comes true. The process is to go to the temple, do 3 rounds (pradakshina), pray and then come back. When your wish comes true, you need to go back and do 108 rounds or whatever you had thought of doing. So, the crowd doing rounds (pradakshinas) will be huge. Another belief is that it works quite well for people seeking visas.
The temple is open from 5 AM to 8 PM. On Dhanurmasa (sacred month according to Hindu calendar, starts from mid Dec to Mid Jan) the temple opens at 4 AM.
After around 6.30 or 7, the crowd will be huge on weekends and you would not be allowed to do 108 rounds. So, if you by any chance pray to do 108 rounds, it's very much advisable to reach there by 4 or 5 AM.
Another specialty there is that there are no "Hundis". So, no place to put your money there.
There are not many "decent" hotels around and so better carry own food or as it’s not too far from city, will have to wait until you get back to the city.
Finally, this website may be of help for visitors - http://www.chilkurbalaji.org/
God bless all!
Bangalore and shopping there.
Its 2008 now. Read somewhere that among 1-9, 8 is the only digit that would end in upward stroke. So, Wish you all a Very Happy New year and hope it would result in vertical growth for all.
Have now moved down to Bangalore for good. This is my hometown and am happy to get back a job here. It’s been almost 2 months now and seriously with all the other things happening, did not get any time to spend online.
A couple of weeks back, I had been to Avenue Road here for shopping and wow, its amazing. You get almost every single house hold commodity there, for a very reasonable price. And for almost every single category, you have speciality stores. Ofcourse this is not the first time I went shopping in Bangalore. But this was really cool. There was a speciality shop for Nuts (just nuts and all types of spices), (just blankets – all types of woolen blankets), just party materials, etc etc.
Bangalore is a wonderful place. I can't even complain about the traffic here. It’s really much better than many other cities. Ofcourse, you have to dedicate some time to spend in traffic tho ;-)
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