Ricepan.com » Google

Giving away Google Wave Invitation

Blogmin — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 21:09:42 +0000

Just the other day I received my Google Wave invite. While, I’m still trying to get the hang of it, I have some Wave invitations that I can spare. So, I will be giving way some free Google Wave invitations over the next few days from here.

Screenshot of Google Wave

I’ll send the wave invitations randomly. I would really like to send invitations to people that will use it extensively. So, if you’re interested just drop a comment on this post. If you want to return the favor, you can follow me on Twitter, FriendFeed, Yahoo MyBlogLog, engage in discussions on my blog, link to my site or whatever you can think of.

When requesting invite, please don’t forget to mention your blog if you have one.

Google Wave invitations are not sent instantly

Please do keep in mind that, according to Google “Invitations will not be sent immediately. We have a lot of stamps to lick.” So, after I send you the invite, it’s up to Google when you actually see it in your inbox.

Here is the Wave invitation counter:

Google Wave invitation currently available 14

Invitations given away so far 0
Please keep an eye on this post. I will update this post frequently and update the numbers as more invitations become available to me.

Manage Google Analytics data with TrakkBoard desktop application

Blogmin — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 04:40:59 +0000

If you manage multiple Google Analytics profiles then there is a FREE analytics API dashboard application now. TrakkBoard is a free desktop application created by German company Trakken. Once you install the application, it allows you to pull data from multiple Google analytics accounts and view them in the dashboard. TrakkBoard fetches data from all your Analytics accounts and profiles by using Analytics API. Best part is, it’s endorsed by Google.

TrakkBoard is very handy for following reasons:

It’s very easy to use and it’s FREE.
You can easily compare Analytics data from multiple websites on the same dashboard.
It eliminates the need to login to your Google Analytics account frequently for key data.
TrakkBoard is visually appealing.
It’s highly customizable.
It makes your life whole lot easier if you have quite a few websites to manage.

You can find the official TrakkBoard feature list here. Do keep in mind though, you are unable to change your Google Analytics account settings through this application. It only provides data that’s already in your Analytics account. If you want to change your Analytics account settings, you would have to do it the old fashioned way by logging in to your Google Analytics account.

Now I will try to show you how to install TrakkBoard application on your desktop with step by step instructions.

Start by entering your email address and click "request key"

Your email address is registered

Click on the link to verify your email address

You will see the confirmation of your registration along with your license key

On the same page click on the "install now" option on your right

Open or Save the file

your license key is also emailed to you

Click install

Change the installation location or leave as it is

When the application loads for the first time after installation, you will be prompted for the license key

Pick a password for the TrakkBoard application

Now enter your Google Analytics account credentials and click finish registration

These notes will be on the same screen when you enter Analytics info

Top panel will look like this when you're logged on

You will see this when you click on add a new widget

Pick your Google account from the drop-down list

Rest of the fields will auto generate

Select the widget type you want on your dashboard

You also have to select your desired timespan

Then click Save

You will see your added widgets on your dashboard at this point

Control center option allows you to add Google accounts

Top right corner has a help section as well

You can create, edit and delete new tabs on your dashboard as well. You can drag-drop and resize widgets. You can also change the view, labels and color of some elements. Don’t forget to click the HELP button on top right of the application if you need any help. So, try it and feel free to share your opinion or experience.

Protect your Google AdSense account with allowed sites option

Blogmin — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 03:38:55 +0000

If you’re an AdSense publisher who is worried that your AdSense code is being used on shady or objectionable websites then you can do something about it now. If you haven’t noticed already, there is an option called “allowed sites” under “AdSense setup” tab in your dashboard. This feature basically lets you create a list of sites that are allowed to display your AdSense ads. If you use this feature then any site that is not on the list can still display your ads but page impressions and clicks won’t be counted thus making the ad units useless on those sites. It’s a good feature to protect your account from unauthorized use, which (unauthorized use of your ad unit) could potentially get you in trouble with Google for any AdSense terms or policy violation.

To add sites to your allowed sites list, click on ADSENSE SETUP tab and then go to ALLOWED SITES option. Just add the domains/sub-domains in the box and click SAVE CHANGES. It could take anywhere between 4 hours to 48 hours for changes to be effective. You can get more details about this option on AdSense help section.

Click on AdSense Setup tab

Select Allowed Sites

Add your domains in the format shown above

There are some trade offs if you use this feature. Since, any site that is not on the list will not able to generate any revenue so you might potentially lose some income from websites that display external site content within their sites and cache sites, proxy sites, translation sites etc. It all depends on your situation and your traffic source. So, use this feature at your own discretion.

Google Sidewiki’s collateral damage?

Blogmin — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 05:41:39 +0000

Here we Goooo (gle) again! Google just launched a new toolbar feature called SideWiki. You can find out all about it in Danny Sullivan’s extensive review on Search Engine Land. Saikat Basu wrote a good article on this as well. It has become a hot topic since the official launch. Even though it is still very early to predict SideWiki’s future, yet people are already divided over this project. You will have an idea about what people are thinking if you go through the comments on Jeff Jarvis’ blog post on this topic. Matt Cutts from Google also participated in the conversation.

Snapshot of Google SideWiki

Let me loosely categorize user opinions into three groups based on what I have read so far on different blogs. Some love the idea, some are absolutely horrified and hate it and some are kind of in the middle, meaning they are not sure what to make of it or they are just not going to let this bother them much. It all depends on who you are or who you ask. Everyone has their own reason to love it or hate it. I know Google spent lot of time and energy on this before releasing it and I like to believe that every possible effort was made to ensure its success. Google also says that the process they put in place is sufficient to prevent any potential abuse of the feature. But no matter what you think of SideWiki or whatever Google says, it all boils down to two facts. They are:

1. ANYONE can leave ANY comment on ANY site as long as he/she uses decent or proper language.
2. Site owner has no control over what is being said on their site.

Call me paranoid, but when I think of SideWiki, I think I belong to the “terrified” group. From a site owner’s perspective and what I understood so far, I personally think, in its current form, this feature is extremely vulnerable to abuse and spam. Speaking of spam, let’s not forget that spam has many forms and it has evolved over the years and it is not always so obvious at a first glance. Now, I will try to break it down for you and then maybe you can understand my serious concerns. To prove my point ill try to describe it in a fictional conversation. I will pretend to be the Anti-SideWiki, a website and a small business owner.

It goes something like this:

Pro-SW: What’s up Anti-SW? Did you hear about the new SideWiki feature? Its great isn’t it?
Anti-SW: Are you kidding me? I hate the idea!

Pro-SW: What you mean? It lets you view helpful information, get insights from experts and also you can see what others think of the website.
Anti-SW: Well, I already let my users and customers comment and leave feedback on my website. Why do I need additional comment system right next to my page?

Pro-SW: When you have a third party comment system that you cannot moderate, it seems more credible to users because everyone knows that you will only keep the positive comments on your own site and remove any negative comments. Not only that, now if there is scam website then people will know right away.
Anti-SW: yeah, but it also means if someone is spreading lies on SideWiki then I can hardly do anything about it. If it is on my site then I can remove the biased or untrue comments. As for scam website goes, isn’t it possible that a second scammer will come and say that this a scam site so please go to my site which will be another scam?

Pro-SW: Oh, don’t tell me people can’t spread lies about you or your company on different forums, review sites and everywhere else on the net. They probably already are saying all sorts on MySpace, Facebook and Twitter etc. You can’t do anything about it. So, why are you making it such a big deal?
Anti-SW: True, but it is one thing people complaining or lying about me on different sites and it’s another thing to have all the negative stuff all bunched right up there next to my page. That’s the first thing a new visitor will notice. It’s one thing, local news paper or radio stations spreading lies about me and it’s a different thing when 20 people standing in front of my store or office with big signs all the time day and night. How does it look then?

Pro-SW: Don’t worry, it’s not like that. Just because someone doesn’t like you that doesn’t mean they can just jump on to sidewiki and leave a comment like “you suck”! That type of spammy comments will not be shown. Also you have to have a Google profile for you to comment, so it’s not anonymous. Complex algorithm is used to determine if and what comments will be shown next to your website. It will depend on user’s profile reputation, profile age, number of comments the user left elsewhere and lot of other factors. Besides, this feature will not be available for each and every page anyways. You have to meet certain criteria for the SideWiki comment option to be available for your pages.
Anti-SW: You’re scaring me more now!! It’s good that this system will stop a spontaneous irritated user or a casual spammer but it can’t save me against someone who really wants to do harm to me or my business. When people figure out how to play the system then crooked online marketers will take this golden opportunity to create hundreds of fake Google profiles and will start to build them up or manipulate and may be will even start selling some of them on EBay. Remember when Gmail first started, people were selling invites and email addresses?

Just like shady SEO companies boost your ranking by linking to hundreds of their own websites under different IP/domains and other questionable methods. It will become one of their hot selling products. Then unethical site owners will be able to BUY fake positive comments from those crooked marketing companies or hire one to tarnish competitor’s image. Where is the insight in that?

And don’t you dare tell me that Google’s algorithm will stop all these! I can see how their algorithm stopped thousands of low quality websites that constantly rank way higher (through sneaky methods) than legitimate useful websites [sarcasm]. Possibilities are endless if someone really wants to harm your image. Few negative or false comments may hardly have any impact on an already established large corporation but handful of negative comments or lies could ruin a small start up or a small local business or site. Especially if all those questionable comments are displayed right next to the website.

Pro-SW: Calm down! Why are you getting so worked up about it? Google is not the first company to think of this idea; it has been tried and done before. Also not all Google projects are successful anyways.
Anti-SW: That’s exactly what I am scared of. Earlier attempts failed for lot of the reasons I mentioned. But this time around, what if the idea catches on? And what if Google starts to include the comments value in their existing search result algorithm somehow? That will add a whole new dimension to SERP (Search Engine Results Page). Not to mention, there are so many worse possibilities! So, what is the real cost of so called “insight”?

Pro-SW: Forget you Anti-SW!! Google does no evil!

Only time will tell what will happen to SideWiki. In the meantime, let me know where you stand.

Fast Flip lets you read news faster

Blogmin — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 21:19:00 +0000

Tired of slow news sites? Want to flip through news sites quick to find something interesting? Then Google’s Fast Flip may be the answer for you. Krishna Bharat, Distinguished Researcher of Google News announced the launch recently on the official Google blog.

Google Fast Flip Snapshot

This new experiment of Google Labs is designed to allow users to flip through headlines, recent news and popular topics from top publishers very fast without experiencing delays caused by media rich news websites. It is supposed to give you an experience like as if you are holding a print magazine in front of you! You can customize news type and news source according to your needs. Once you find something interesting and want to explore the news in details then you click on the image and it will take you to the original news website.

At the moment news will be provided by three dozen top publishers. These partners will share contextual ad revenue. Fast Flip has mobile friendly version for iPhone and Android devices.

Mobile version of Fast Flip

This may not revolutionize the online news reading experience but I think this hybrid image search for news certainly does add some positive experience and opportunities for online news readers. I tend to agree with Jennifer Van Grove from Mashable. She made some interesting points. We just have to wait and see how mass users take it.