The last couple of days, I was reading about how to get your site to rank higher in Google. There are many tweaks you can do to insure that your site is Google friendly. One of the controversial topics was whether having your pagesXHTML/HTML valid helps in SEO ranking or not. It’s clear that if your site has made a mess out of the HTML code, a search engine spider might have a tough time reading and parsing your page, which might lead to errors and in turn lower ranking. So, I decided that it’s better to be safe than sorry, and started converting the entire blog to XHTML 1.0 Transitional valid.
Thoughtpick Valid XHTML
Let’s start…
The main issues targeted by this post
On the Thoughtpick blog, we have a few plugins that were causing XHTML validation issues. Mainly:
DISQUS Commenting System: At least 4 or 5 XHTML validation errors were generated by this plugin. The solutions are listed below.
Wordpress 2.8+ “role” problem, and how to fix it.
Youtube and Vimeo embed object issues: the <embed> tag is invalid for XHTML 1.0, to fix the issue, I wrote a small function.
Last week, Google announced its experimenting with a new social search feature. The feature simply combines your Twitter, Facebook, Google (…etc) contacts and friends and includes their photos, updates and entries in your search results.
Besides the immediate “this is interesting and should be useful” thought, it got me wondering, do we really want that? Think of it from this: without the option of having each and every update of your friends searchable, people were complaining about others “stalking” them on Facebook and MySpace. Imagine now, when instead of just inferring information from the bits and pieces everyone posted, you can actually search for whatever you want to learn about.
Imagine a thieve looking for an easy target to steal with 1000 “friends” on Facebook and 10,000 Twitter followers. A simple “vacation+from” search on Google, limiting it by time, would get him all “friends” out of town. Now, we can agree that the user who posted the “I’m on vacation from-to” online is an idiot, while Google is just making it easier to track all of that.
Below is the video introduction of Google’s social search experiment. Let us know your thoughts.
Two weeks ago, at the Digital Contents Expo in Tokyo, Sony unveiled for the first time a prototype of a 360° 3D display that can be viewed from any direction. It displays pictures of objects that appear with a depth that can be viewed through 360° around the device.
Ryoji Chubachi, Sony’s vice chairman, expects many proposals of applications to pop up and take advantage of the new futuristic technology. Unfortunately, for now, there are no immediate plans for commercialization as they are waiting to test the ideas of the proposed applications and measure how feasible it is for them to put more investment into it.
We can think instantly of two applications that can fit perfectly with this new device:
1. Google Earth: While Google Earth can currently give us a great 3D view of any location around the planet. Imagine how much better it could be if combined with this 360° 3D display?
2. Sony’s new motion control system or Microsoft’s Natal Project: If Nintendo’s Wii motion control had revolutionized the way we interact with our video games, and Microsoft’s Natal promises to push it even further, imagine what it would be like playing a video game around a full 360° 3D environment that detects your motion! It would be the most realistic gaming experience, wouldn’t it? Sony can easily swipe the floor under Nintendo and Microsoft’s feet if they pursue this in the next generation of video games hardware.
Impressed? What do you think of this device? Do you see it being utilized in a useful applications and becoming commercialized?
Twitter is an excellent platform to connect people on a deeper, subtle level. Its concept of countless short connections and messages opened the door for a new type of strategy games to emerge.
We have compiled a list of 5 of the most popular strategy games that use Twitter as their communication layer. All of the games below share the same concept; they have their own portal that has all the games’ features, and they have their Twitter side where you have to recruit people on Twitter in order to grow stronger and advance in the game.
The games can be really fun and addictive, but you have to be careful not to annoy your followers with many game-related tweets.
Spy Master
Be a master of a spy ring!
Spymaster (@playspymaster) is a social game that is based on Twitter. You become a master of a spy ring based upon followers in your network. The more followers you have who are playing, the more powerful you will become. As a spymaster, you perform tasks or attack other spymasters to gain virtual currency and points, and grow stronger as you move ahead within the game. [read full article >>]
Compete shows that Facebook gets 104 billion page views a month, 2.29 billion visits from 125 million unique users. Those users spend a total of 10,230,335 hours per month (September 2009) surfing the site.
Users spent 10+ million hours on Facebook in Sept 2009
Doing the math: 10,230,335 hours per month divided by 30 gives the total number of hours spent per day on Facebook = 341,011.2 hours = 39 years/day!
Doing the math...
Does this mean that, roughly, Facebook users all together spend 39 years per day on Facebook.com? What a waste!
“Laughter is the sun that drives winter from the human face“. ~Victor Hugo
It’s time for some fun brought to you by Thoughtpick! Therefore, I have prepared for you a list of 50 of my favorite recent, funniest and weirdest Twitter tweets! Enjoy!
P.S: Apologies for any use of foul language but we made it a point to bring you the tweet uncut and uncensored!
@comedyclipsblog I’ve just seen a group on facebook called I Hate Feet. Obviously these people are fans of the metric system #joke
@ILuvPatrickStar I remember once I said sumthing I thought was a joke it wasn’t I got in trouble haha
@ericlemke Starring your own tweet is like the internet version of laughing at your own joke.
@beiruta#joke: Q. What is the difference between light and hard? A. You can sleep with a light on. LOL
@MrsMartan There are times when that I wish I could turn back time.., and stay as quiet as a mouse then opening my big mouth…
Funny Cat Laughing!
@callmeteliz so… I find the word “attractive” really attractive. No joke
@marcymac Iphone seems to amplify train noises. My friends ask me if I live in Hooterville. (I always say yes) LOL
@Carlie_pie lets try this again lol “his eye is on the sparrow and i know he watches me”
@nmcollins i don’t like bathroom humor, but the word ‘poop’ is just funny.
@tammychuaFunny how playing ’scissors-paper-stone’ can make me laugh like mad.
@louhaffner@tinarosegriffin TINA. PACK IT IN! Just because he didnt find your comments about his chest hair funny, lol. & I know you do! ha.
@Boomquiesha_J Almost said a highly inappropriate “your mom” joke involving chronological inconsistencies. I really should just go to bed. [read full article >>]
“Good advertising does not just circulate information. It penetrates the public mind with desires and belief.” Leo Burnett
A few months back, I wrote a post discussing the effective advertising techniques that Apple was using to promote its Macs as opposed to Microsoft’s approach. The humor Apple uses highly overpowers Microsoft and makes the ad viewer relate more to Mac products, feeling that he/she needs to be a part of this “family” and “movement” towards a universal switch to Macs!
Recently, this video was released to the public: a new Mac ad targeting the PC’s lack of fulfilling its promises! Great idea and very realistic, especially if you take the time to see the complaints and problems with almost all the versions of Windows that have been released so far.
Yet, my question here is this: Is it ethical for Mac to use this type of advertising against PCs? I mean we do know it’s true, but aren’t Mac pushing it a bit too far?
The Wi-Fi alliance, which includes Apple, Microsoft, Cisco and Intel amongst its members, announced that they will release a new technology that will make it easier for electronic gadgets to exchange data. The technology will be called Wi-Fi Direct, which will allow each device to act as its own “hotspot“. Wi-Fi Direct is expected to be certified in mid-2010 and will be built into new devices, while older Wi-Fi enabled devices will be able to download a firmware update that would provide older devices with Wi-Fi- Direct capabilities.
Wi-Fi direct will offer the same data transfer speeds currently offered by Wi-Fi and will allow devices to communicate over the range of 300ft . This places the Wi-Fi Alliance into direct competition with the Bluetooth protocol, finally, which has been the leading protocol for short-range peer-to-peer connections. The much loved to be hated protocol is more energy efficient than Wi-Fi but Wi-Fi Direct already comes enterprise ready by supporting the WPA2 protocol and providing the required security for the connection to be trusted and adopted.
While this might be great news for smartphone users, it might also put a dent into the 1$ Billion dollar market of Wi-Fi access points. The prospect of being able to extend your network indefinitely using gadgets and devices that are already available to you is certainly exciting.
This technology is certainly enticing. Beside the fact that it finally resolves issues that Bluetooth had problems with, mainly security and range, its high bandwidth opens up the window for another exciting prospect. Using the WiFi Direct technology anyone can provide wireless access to the entire neighborhood with little to no start-up cost. Maybe, just maybe, it will usher in the age where we are drowned with free wireless Hotspots wherever we go. Now let’s just hope that smartphones batteries become a bit more efficient and provide us with a bit more juice!
Do you currently use Bluetooth? Do you think you will still need to use it after the introduction of Wi-Fi Direct? Will you ever buy another wireless signal repeater?
Twitter has been used in many ways as an excellent platform for marketing and promotion. Twitter contests emerged to be one of the simplest and most efficient means for companies and brands to promote their products. They are usually entered with a simple tweet, one that gives the participants a chance to win a prize, from iPhones to $10 cash. Tweets serve as a viral element for the contest holder to promote his/her services, the better the prize offered the better chance for the promoter’s message to reach more people.
There are many Twitter contests out there, we did some search and brought you a list of 15 contests that offers some really cool prizes! You don’t want to miss that!
1. Win an awesome Alienware laptop and a year’s worth of free Antivirus Pro 2010 security protection!
“Information is a source of learning. But unless it is organized, processed, and available to the right people in a format for decision making, it is a burden, not a benefit.” William Pollard. I agree and I’m sure that most of you do as well!
Take a look at the following video; my analysis will follow right after.
After viewing the video and reading the quote above , I am only inclined to think about the following issues with rather serious concerns and heavy hesitations: Is it wise to push for information to be handled solely by machines speaking to each other with minimum human interference? What is the degree to which privacy is compromised when utilizing semantic technologies? And do we have enough backup capacities to secure information in case of electricity cuts or natural disasters?
HOW TO: Build a XHTML Valid Wordpress Blog with DISQUS Plugin
The last couple of days, I was reading about how to get your site to rank higher in Google. There are many tweaks you can do to insure that your site is Google friendly. One of the controversial topics was whether having your pages XHTML/HTML valid helps in SEO ranking or not. It’s clear that if your site has made a mess out of the HTML code, a search engine spider might have a tough time reading and parsing your page, which might lead to errors and in turn lower ranking. So, I decided that it’s better to be safe than sorry, and started converting the entire blog to XHTML 1.0 Transitional valid.
Thoughtpick Valid XHTML
Let’s start…
The main issues targeted by this post
On the Thoughtpick blog, we have a few plugins that were causing XHTML validation issues. Mainly:
[read full article >>]