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What Is RSS? Some Useful Guides

Liz Jamieson — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 09:00:48 +0000

RSS (there seem to be alot of different definitions for this acronym) means Really Simple Syndication or, Rich Site Summary and is an XML-based file format for sharing and distributing web page content.

Here is a video that explains why RSS is a useful technology and how you as a user can benefit.

And while we are on the subject. Here is another feed that compliments the first. It explains why Google Reader is great tool.

How To Find Google Position for Key Phrases and KeyWords

Liz Jamieson — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 11:13:13 +0000

It is useful to know where your site pages are appearing in Google’s search results. Normally to do this you might enter a phrase that you hope to rank for, and then go looking through search results pages to locate your site. Hopefully you won’t have to look too far!

A company called CleverStat have a number of products to help you understand your site’s search engine penetration. But they also produce a free tool called Free Monitor for Google which will tell you where your site ranks.

You can download it and use it to check your ranking for the various keywords and phrases that interest you. I have written a hubpage that explains this more thoroughly if you need more information.

Otherwise, head over to Cleverstat and download Free Google Monitor.

The image shows a screen from Google Monitor – you can see that the site features on page 2 for the first term (position 20), page 1 for the second term (position 7) and so on.

10 Tips for Google Chrome

Liz Jamieson — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 18:39:37 +0000

It didn’t take long for someone to come up with the first set of tips for use with Google’s new browser, Chrome.

I have started using it and the experience is good so far. I still miss the PR functionality available via plugins in Firefox, but other than that – it’s cool.

Chrome is very fast and doesn’t hang up as much as FF does. Especially for power users. The omnibar is very must have. And for those of you that like to cover your tracks, there is the incognito window.

Here is a web site that starts the trend of Chrome Tips that no doubt will become less and less exotic as time goes by.

Lockergnome has done an early adopter video too.

And Matt Cutts has pre-empted some objections too.

Google Chrome is in Beta

Liz Jamieson — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 10:21:14 +0000

Software development has this term “beta” which loosely means the software (what there is of it) generally works, more or less, but it still has some bugs (probably), and still has more functionality to come.

It is normal now to release beta grade software to the public especially when that software is deployed on the internet as a service.

Typically this includes software like Gmail or anything that runs on a web server somewhere. It also applies to software like browsers that run on your local station, but that are capable of auto download update, like for example, browsers.

Pre-internet, the release of beta software was just not done in the same way. This was because deploying, installing and keeping track of new versions was a major nightmare. The internet has changed all that.

So Chrome is in beta. There is a lot of buzz on the internet in the last few days about what is missing from Chrome. No-one really know if these items are just temporarily missing, or if their lack of presence has meaning – like why would Google release a browser without the PR of the loaded site appearing somewhere on the page. After all – PR is Google data and their invention.

Is it because PR is no longer what it was, or is it because Chrome is in beta? We are all used to seeing PR in out toolbars and status bars so like me, quite a few people are missing it.

An in-depth Chrome Review