What are Google Bombs?

When a group of people use a specific anchor text to link to a particular web page in order to shoot up its Google ranking, the phenomenon is known as ‘Google Bomb’ or ‘Googlebomb’.

The first known Google Bomb in the history of the web world was the one used to raise the Microsoft homepage through the keywords “more evil than Satan himself”!

Why is this done?

Googlebombing is done:

• as an underhand Search Engine Optimization technique done for fun.

• in order to promote some ulterior motives against a person or an organization.

• as a political manoeuvre.

The logic utilized behind Googlebombing:

Google search engine algorithm gives a higher rank to a page which has consistent anchor text in its backlinks.

Googlebomb Watch:

Googlebomb Watch is Google’s answer to Google bombs. It keeps an eye on old and new Googlebombs.

Google checks the anchor text of all the incoming links to a web site. In case the text is not on the web site, then that particular link is downgraded or ignored.

Modulus Systems’ Journey to the top of Google – Part I(iv)

Incoming Links and Miscellaneous Related Factors

This is the last article in Part-I which constitutes our portmanteau before getting on with our journey to the top of Google. In the previous articles, we have covered in detail the Keyword Analysis and Meta Tag Analysis of Modulus Systems' website.

In this article, we’ll have an overview of backlinks and anchor text analysis.

Backlinks or incoming links are links scattered around the web that are directed towards your website. The number and quality of backlinks plays a major role in determining the relevancy and hence popularity of your website on search engines. Moreover, the anchor text is also a critical entity wherein the more relevant keywords are used as anchor text, the better the chance of search engines crawlers indexing your website. In fact, Google takes account of anchor text in the incoming links to ascertain the Page Rank of a web page.

Backlink Anchor Text Report of Modulus Systems Website:

We checked the anchor text of incoming links to our website through an Anchor Text Analysis Tool. 55 percent links have the anchor text “web design India”, whereas 49.6 percent of the backlinks have “modulus systems” as anchor text. The remaining few incoming links have a number of permutations and combinations of keywords such as “web design”, “website design”, “website designing”, “website designers”, etc.

Incoming Link Related Data:

The Challenge:

• To improve the number of quality links to the website.

• To diversify the keywords used as anchor text.

• To improve the Page Rank of the website.

A Must Read:

• Introduction to the research

• Meta Tag Analysis of Modulus Systems website

• Keyword Analysis of Modulus Systems website

Conclusion to Part-I

We have specified our challenges with respect to every aspect of the web site. Now, we are all set to take them up one by one. In the coming months, be on the lookout for amazing facts on our blog that unveil the strategies of getting a better rank on Google.

Bon Voyage!

Modulus Systems’ Journey to the top of Google – Part I(iii)

Keyword Analysis

In continuation with our research on getting on top of Google, here is the keyword analysis of our website – http://www.modulussystems.com/. Also read our last report on the Meta Tag Analysis of our website.

Present Keyword Rankings on Google:



Google Trends:

Following is the comparative report of keywords search more often in comparison to each other:



In addition to the above facts and figures, we have a detailed report of keyword density on our website - a yardstick to measure our progress in the coming months.

The Challenge:

• To increase the keyword density on every page with respect to relevant keywords.
• To optimally use the most searched for keywords vis-à-vis Google Trends report.
• To bring a higher ranking for all the keywords.

Modulus Systems’ Journey to the top of Google – Part I(ii)

Meta Tag Analysis for GoogleBot

To begin with, we analyzed the meta tags of three main pages of our website. We chose one page each from three levels of the site – the homepage, the products page, and the article page (inside the services page). This has been undertaken through widexl meta tag analyzer tool with respect to GoogleBot – Google’s spider that crawls over web pages in order to index them.

Tier 1: The Home Page

Tier 2: The Products Page

Tier 3: The Article Page

The Challenge

• To optimize the use of keywords in the erroneous meta tags in order to make them more Google robot friendly.

• To decrease the load time of the article page.

Modulus Systems’ Journey to the top of Google – Part I(i)

The other fun-filled day at MS we decided to chart the progress of our website – www.modulussystems.com on Google – the undisputed king of the search engine world. At present, our Google rankings are as follows:

We are beginning today – September 21, 2007 on a long haul ahead, wherein we’ll experiment with strategies and techniques to get a better ranking on Google.

We thought we would begin with putting together every bit of information relevant to this. The starting point has the following flag-posts:

1. Meta Tag Analysis

2. Keyword Analysis

3. Incoming Link Analysis

4. Other Miscellaneous Factors

As we move ahead, we plan to keep a track of cause-and-effects, wherein the figures given in the various articles in Part 1 of the series will act as coordinates to compare our progress with.

So come along, let’s set off for the first leg of our exciting journey on Google…

Pondering over Podcasts?

What is a Podcast?

A single digital (audio/ video) file or series of digital files that can be distributed over the web, which in turn can be played by users on their computers or media players, is known as a podcast. The process of undertaking this is called podcasting and the host of a podcast is known as a podcaster. The first podcasts were developed for Apple iPod – a world renowned portable media player.

What a Podcast does?

Simply speaking, what a podcast does is to broadcast content over portable media players. The good thing about podcasts is that they can be syndicated (and thus distributed) via Atom and RSS feeds, subscribed to by users and when the content is upgraded, it can actually be downloaded automatically! Moreover, you have the freedom to listen/ watch a podcast whenever and wherever you want!

Podcasting covers programs on a whole range of subjects, be it a commercial or a non-commercial venture – videos and audios on any topic under the sun, advertisements, cartoons, music, business presentations, etc. In a way, podcasting is the Internet version of broadcasting or telecasting programs on radio and TV respectively.

Anyone for Etymology?

There are two schools of thought on this. One opines that the term ‘podcast’ is a blend of “iPod” and “broadcast”, as one can actually broadcast stuff on a portable media player.

Others believe that a PODCAST stands for Portable On-Demand (broad-/ tele-)CASTing of files over the Internet.

What all do I need to be a Podcaster?

All you need to be a podcaster is a recording device – a microphone for audio/ a digital camera for video; audio/ video editing software in your computer; and lastly, a website to embed your podcast feeds to. It’s as simple as that!

How does a Podcast benefit me?

• You can subscribe to podcasts of your choice, which will be downloaded automatically.

• You can enjoy your favourite podcasts anytime according to your convenience.

• You can be popular via the podcasts you create!

For the business minded…

• A podcast can increase the online visibility of your business.

• You can communicate about your products and services to a wide network of people.

• You can become a trusted advisor to your clients and potential customers.

• You can be a subject matter expert in your line of business, and this in turn will fetch you more customers.

• You can establish a communication network with your target customers.

• You can be a resource base for online users who desire to know more about your products and services.

• Podcasts can be a very effective brand marketing strategy.

• And last but not the least, you can put an innovative and contemporary touch to your existing business.

Some websites that host podcasts

There are a lot of websites that offer free or paid hosting of your podcasts, such as Blip.tv, Libsyn, Podbean, Podcastfm, Switchpod, Jellycast, etc., to name a few.

NOTE: Podcasting is a Web 2.0 technology.

How safe is Orkut, or for that matter, any other socializing website?

The latest “in” thing at MS in the present date is Web 2.0, Web 2.0 and… well, Web 2.0!! This morning I was pondering over the ways in which this technology has become such an inevitable part of our lives that we don’t even realize we are a part of it. Take Orkut for example. It is the rage these days, especially among the young crowd. No doubt it has shrunk thousands of miles between loved ones, be it across the seven seas, but somehow today, the only thing that is flashing across my mind’s eye is the stories revolving around murders and conspiracies ignited by Orkut that were on TV some time back.

As an Orkut user, I want to know the do’s and don’ts of it. And I’m sure numerous others like me are concerned all over the world. So, here’s an attempt at answering my own question in the comment posted to the article below.

The Crime Scene

Orkut is a highly popular socializing portal today. Naturally, it has gradually become a target for anti-social entities in the like of hackers, spammers and freaks. The current scenario is such that the number of cases of information theft, cloned and fake profiles is on the rise.

To save ourselves from being ignorant victims, there are certain things we should know.

Orkut is offering an array of functionalities:

• Personal Profile wherein a part of information can be made public or kept private.
• Profile Photo which is viewable by public.
• Photo Album which is viewable by public.
• Scrapbook with messages written by others for you. This is viewable to public.
• Testimonials which your friends write for you. This is also readable to public.
• Friends’ network which are available to public.
• Communities which are also available to public.

Orkut doesn’t offer:

• Protection of your profile from anonymous visitors.
• Protection of your scrapbook from anonymous visitors and scraps.
• Protection of your photographs from anonymous viewing/ downloading.
• Protection of your friends’ network and communities from anonymous visitors.

In a nutshell, your openly available personal information provides ample scope of misuse by others.

What attackers can do?

• Phone numbers can be misused for a number of purposes.
• Email ids can be hacked or spammed.
• Photographs can be misused.
• Personal data can be used to clone profiles.

Tips on protecting yourself from being a victim:

• Do not write your personal phone numbers anywhere on Orkut.
• If you have to send your personal details like phone numbers and email ids, use messages (these are personal) instead of scraps.
• Do not upload personal photographs in the album.
• If you have to upload your photos, use photos that have a long shot instead of close-ups.
• Never ever put your passport size photo as it can be easily forged.
• Be careful while adding a stranger to your friends’ network.
• Accept testimonials from people you know in real life.
• Go through a testimonial carefully before approving it.
• You can even delete a testimonial after having accepted it.
• Keep deleting scraps from your scrapbook that have personal information about you or your friends.
• Join a community only if you need it.
• Do not run after increasing the number of friends in your list or the number of scraps in your scrapbook. More the number, more insecure you are.
• Do not provide your pin code to public. It is very easy to locate you from this information.
• Never discuss intimate details about your family and friends anywhere on Orkut.

Always Remember: Technology per se is not good or bad, it is users themselves who make it so.

Web 2.0: The Modern Success Mantra

During one of our brainstorming sessions at Modulus Systems today, we sat down to discuss what exactly makes a website Web 2.0; is it the concept of user interaction, or is it just use of a different generation of technologies, or is it a society thing, where interactivity of users is necessary?

After a long session and many to and fros, we all agreed to one factor that definitely separates a Web2.0 site from the crowd of look alikes. Earlier, webmasters used to add content to the website for others to read and respond. Probably ModulusSystems.com is an example.

A web site can be called Web 2.0 when it has all, or "almost all" content added by its users.

Examples are youtube.com, myspace.com, facebook.com, digg.com, orkut.com and others.

We visited Alexa.com - A website that ranks websites based on how many people use them. What Alexa does is, it encourages you to install the Alexa toolbar on your browser. At present it supports Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox. This toolbar sends small snippets of data to the Alexa server, telling it which websites the user is surfing and by gradually increasing their rankings. Today millions of users use the Alexa toolbar to view international ranks of websites and in return give away their surfing details, thus contributing to making Alexa ranks of websites even more genuine. However, I do not believe that a web site ranked 344,000 is necessarily visited by more people than the one ranked 350,000. It purely depends on people who have the toolbar installed, and not everyone in general. Thats one reason why US websites have higher ranks than websites from the rest of the world.

Having said that, I do believe that for the top few websites, Alexa rankings do tell a near-accurate story.

Here's the list of top 10 websites according to Alexa:



Out of the top 10 websites today, a massive 5 are Web 2.0 sites and rest are search engines. If you take the top 15, you'll see another 4 out of 5 joining the list.

Web 2.0 is the new success mantra and with new user-user interaction websites launching everyday, I'm sure some cool Web 2.0 projects are under development somewhere, waiting to come out and add to our present world of optimised surfing - The Web 2.0 way.

Anyone for Social Bookmarking?

Social bookmarking is an exciting and quite powerful tool of Web 2.0. The system through which internet users can save, share, organize and search web pages is known as social bookmarking. Users can save links to (or ‘bookmark’) their favourite web pages. They can do so for their own use or for sharing with an e-community – an online community of people or groups. The individual concerned or the persons who are allowed to view the bookmarks can view them as lists or tags arranged either by chronology or by category or both.

Social Bookmarking Websites

In order to create social bookmarks, one needs to sign up with a social bookmarking website. Social bookmarking websites are sites which allow users to save their favourite web pages as bookmarks by adding tags of their own making. Individual bookmarks can be designated the status of public or private entities. Moreover, there are some bookmarking sites that keep checking the saved URLs from time to time and let the user know when a particular link has stopped functioning.

Visitors to a social bookmarking site can search for content through a number of registers such as keywords, tags, recency and popularity. Social bookmarking is a secular service, open to one and all.

Major Players in the Social Bookmarking Field

In the web world, social bookmarking is quite a recent phenomenon. It dates back a couple of years from now when sites like del.icio.us and furl came up. At present, numerous social bookmarking sites have mushroomed the internet, each with their own unique features. Some major names in this field today are digg, reddit, linkroll, de.lirio.us (an open source version of del.icio.us), technorati, blogcatalog, bloghub, citeulike and simpy.

Advantages of Social Bookmarking

• Users can access their bookmarks more easily as the tags are all generated by themselves.

• Users can access their bookmarks from any computer in the world.

• Users can collaborate with each other by sharing important information.

• Users can promote their business amidst millions of people across the globe.

• Users can direct more traffic towards their websites.

• The link popularity of a particular website rises as search engines do index these incoming links to it.

Are you game?

Folksonomy Unveiled

What is Folksonomy?

Folksonomy is the process of collaborative creation and management of tags in order to categorize content on the web. Also known as social tagging, social indexing, collaborative tagging or social classification, folksonomy is a taxonomy that is managed by users themselves. Folksonomies became popular with the advent of social software applications in the like of social bookmarking sites. Websites that utilize folksonomy are based on Web 2.0 principles that facilitate easy participation by users.

Origin

Folksonomy = Folk + Taxonomy

The term “folksonomy” was coined by Thomas Vander Wal in 2004 during a discussion on information architecture mailing list.

What are Tag Clouds?

A system by which the classifying tags are presented to the user in a visual format. This is done in such a way that the most used tags in a particular folksonomy are shown in a bold size.

Folksonomy versus Taxonomy

Folksonomy essentially subverts the status quo of taxonomic classification in the earlier w3 setup. It breaks free from the hitherto monopoly of search engines to provide the user with resources of information. Sites based on folksonomy provide facilities to the user for creating and utilizing tags. In fact, folksonomy creation and search parameters are quite different from those of taxonomies in the World Wide Web protocols.

Merits of Folksonomy

• It becomes easier to search for and navigate over content.

• Categories of information are more accessible to end-users.

Web 2.0 – An Effective Business Tool

The entrepreneur world has always hailed the web as an important marketing tool. But the fact remains that it is quite hard though not impossible, for companies that are little-known to attract potential customers to their websites. Certainly, Search Engine Optimization techniques and things like pay-per-click campaigns lend a helping hand to entrepreneurs, still a vast pool of customers remains to be tapped.

That’s where a whole new world of technologies fits in the prevailing gap-tooth of marketing and business promotion. A static website of yore has evolved into a dynamic experience, keeping customers involved with the products and services on offer in a number of interesting ways – audio, video, images and a whole body of community-generated content. You name it; we have it – thanks to Web 2.0.

The new low-cost promotion tools powered by Web 2.0 help businesses reach out to customers on an ever-widening scale. Statistics reveal that more than 400,000 small and medium business companies all over the world are already using two of the best known new-age tools – blogs and webcasts. Another 260,000 businesses are taking advantage of podcasts. In other words, about 660,000 entrepreneurs across the globe are enhancing their business reach through the latest web developments.

The next in the line could very well be YOU!

Web 2.0 – The Latest Buzz in Internet Technology

Following is an attempt at laying bare facts about Web 2.0 that are of help not only to professionals in this field but to laymen internet users as well. Being first in this series, this article will soon be followed by informational pieces that reveal the truth about some of the other mysteries of the internet fast emerging as a result of constant innovation in the web world. Happy reading!

Web 2.0 Defined

Web 2.0 is the second generation of web-based communities and services that promotes collaboration among users. Apparently, Web 2.0 looks like a new version of the W3 but in reality, Web 2.0 is an evolved way in which software developers and end-users partake of the web as a platform. Web based services such as social book-marking sites (for example, Digg, Del.icio.us and Reddit), blogs (quite becoming a rage these days!), community sites (such as Orkut, Hi5), RSS Feeds, etc. being an offshoot of Web 2.0, have transformed the way the Internet is being used today.

Some more pointers towards Web 2.0

o Content is the focal point.

o Users can have complete control over their data and content.

o The web interface is interactive in nature and quite user-friendly.

o The facility of social-networking is available.

Technological Features

o Rich internet application techniques, mostly Ajax based

o Micro-formats and semantically valid HTML mark-up

o Cascading style sheets that demarcate presentation from content

o ‘Folksonomies’ (in the like of Tags and Tag Clouds)

o Syndication and aggregation of data through Atom feeds or RSS

o URLs that are readable by human users

o Wiki software that provides forums for displaying user-generated content

o Content publishing through weblogs

Latest in the world of Web 2.0

Web 2.0 now has gone global! It has expanded its wings from the cosy environs of the San Francisco Bay area to newer horizons worldwide. In the first half of 2007, the number of global deals on Web 2.0 has witnessed a rise of 14 percent. Moreover, Web 2.0 technology has increased the economic value of the web manifold.

Google Over the Moon!

What?!!

Google has recently sponsored the Lunar X-Prize – awards worth $30 million for landing a privately funded robotic rover on the Moon.

The deal is that the rover will land on the moon and flash data and video back to earth. The first team to do so will bag a 20 million US dollar prize. On the other hand, the first runner up will get 5 million USD, and there will be one more bonus prize of the same value. A number of teams around the globe will be participating in the competition.

Why over the moon?

According to Google, this move will encourage breakthroughs in technology, at the same time inspiring the young internet-generation crowd towards undertaking more of technical challenges. This is also aimed at renewing public interest in the fields of computer science, engineering and maths.

Moon 2.0

The competition will have a great emphasis on the Internet, so the nickname Moon 2.0!

Implications for the Internet

The Internet will –

a) Bring the competition on a worldwide scale.

b) Provide cash to spur innovation and experimentation.

c) Drive dot-com tycoons into sponsoring the contenders.

d) Instigate the next technological revolution.

10- 9- 8- 7…

Well, the countdown has begun…

Modulus Systems Internet and Technology Blog

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