Daily Twaddle

Google offers ways for website owners to get the most out of Google’s search results. I signed up for a Google account and I use a ton of their products, but Google just showed me the value of the Webmaster Tools.

I received an email from Google about my website having malicious code on certain pages. What? I logged into Webmaster Central and found out that Google will display a “warning” page instead of my suspicious page. Whoa! The reason is because that page contained 34 trojan viruses, 15 malware programs, 2 atomic bombs, and the killing curse. Well, the trojan horses are true, but I can’t remember the rest of the crazy stuff.

Basically, if you went to that page, my website would put viruses on your computer that install programs. Maybe the programs steal your information, maybe they watch your activity. Who knows! What do I do!

Somehow someone hacked into my server files online and put a script into my page to wreck havoc on would-be users. I found the script and deleted it and now Google is happy.

But… what if I didn’t use the Webmaster Tools? I’d be screwed! I have more than 100 pages on my website. I haven’t looked at some pages in years! Google totally surprised me with this fantastic service. Thank you!

∴ If you have your own website: Start using Webmaster Tools.
∴ If you use the internet: Make sure your browser warns you of suspicious websites. Check your preferences.

Note: Mom, I already monitor your website with Google’s Tools. Don’t worry.

Here are some interesting statistics about the people who visit this website.

This first graphic is a USA map showing where each of my visitors come from. A big thanks to Carol for keeping it strong in Wisconsin!

This second graphic is a pie chart that shows my user’s browser and operating system. Look! Only half the people use Internet Explorer! Yay! Maybe that number will continue to decrease over the years as other browsers like Firefox get popular.

Note: This generic, non-identifiable data is collected anonymously. Websites gather this information in order to better serve the needs of their users (for example: make sure the design works with Internet Explorer since half of the people who visit my site use it).

Google has done it again! They found another way for me to customize my search!

I’ve been experimenting with Jello recipes lately. I mixed a tub of whip cream with the last bowl of Jello I made. It was a huge hit. Tomorrow I’m going to try it with cream cheese. But that got me thinking… what fun ideas do other people do with Jello?

When I started my search for Jello recipes, I found out that Google has a custom recipe search! Awesome! Check out my screen shot - a thousand words right?

I just installed a couple of really neat Firefox extensions. Both of these add-ons can be described as “what will happen when I click” helpers.

1. Google Preview. Shows little preview-pictures of websites in the Google search results. You get to see what the site looks like before you click on it. I changed the per-page-display preference from 10 images to 20 images. Other than that… it works perfectly!

2. Link Alert. Now this one I really like. When you hover over a link with your mouse, the cursor will change to indicate what kind of link it is. For example, if the link is a Word document - the mouse pointer will show a little word document image. Cool huh?

Enjoy!

For those of you using feeds to read my blog, you’ll see three strange words (freebird l whilst l jester) after the first paragraph of each post. It’s annoying yes… but it helps me catch spamming thieves.

Thieves? Whoa, sounds scary.

It is scary! Splogs take content via RSS feeds and post them to a spammer’s blog. Basically, they steal someone else’s good quality content (and keywords) to use as their own… posted nice and neat right next to all their spammy ads and links. They’re too cheap, stupid and lazy to write their own content. Unfortunately, their websites look real to an unsuspecting reader.

How do you know if your content has been stolen?

I use MaxPower’s digital fingerprint. I choose a few random words that are automatically placed in each post. I can search for this exact phrase by putting the phrase in quotes and doing a Google search to find my content on someone else’s website. Then… I can let all hell break loose. Really, I will inform God.. er.. I mean Google about the stolen content and Google will remove the site from their index.

Why bother? The Twaddle doesn’t have any good quality content.

Ha ha. Very funny. While you’re probably right, I still want to protect my intellectual property. Intellectual… okay, now I’m really stretching it!

Okay, fine. But why those three words?

I don’t know. I just Google searched for “random words” and I found a website with a whole page of them.

Picasa is a free software download from Google that organizes pictures on your computer. It’s like iTunes for photographs.

* Locate and organize all the photos on your computer.
* Edit and add effects to your photos with a few simple clicks.
* Share your photos with others through email, prints, and on the web.

One of my clients installed Picasa and “starred” his favorite photos and added captions. Then I signed him up with a google account so he can get free online web albums. He selects the photos he wants, pushes one button - and bang! Those images are online in his web album. A little green arrow is displayed on the picture which means the picture was uploaded. Now he doesn’t wonder which photos are on his website - the green arrow tells him!

He used to email me the pictures. What a pain in the arse! Now, I just click my bookmark (to his album) and download the pictures for his website - including captions! Or, I can get a “feed” to my google reader which notifies me when new pictures are added.

Mommy - you should download this program also. This is probably the easiest way for me to get images on your website. You don’t even have to organize them in some special folder. Just select the image and click the web album button! It takes one to two minutes to upload each photo on dial up.

Find out more about Picasa »

Note: For Windows 2000/XP/Vista only.

Google offers a personalized home page. You can add stuff like clocks, a spell checker, maps, weather, games, news, bookmarks, jokes… the list goes on and on.

Now, Google offers themes so you can skin the home page. Awesome! I chose “sweet dreams” because the colors change with the time of day. Cool! All the themes dynamically change based on your time zone, but the sweet dreams looked the cleanest. The theme is easy on the eyes. And now I want to add more cool stuff!

Here is a list of the gadgets I added to my Google Home Page:

1. Google Reader (feeds for blogs that I read)
2. Spell Check
3. World Sunlight Map (shows the world partly shaded where it’s night)
4. Fuzzy Clock (expresses time in words like this: Ten until Twelve)
5. Day Calendar (pretty flip-style-looking calendar page with today’s date)
6. Random Color Scheme (little themed color squares for design ideas)
7. Simple Calc (calculator - I might remove because it doesn’t have a decimal point)
8. Lady Bugs (my favorite! little lady bugs crawl around the screen!)

Also, you don’t need to have a Google account to have a personalized home page. It just remembers your settings. But, if you use more than one computer, a google account is kind of cool. Especially if you use the bookmarks gadget (a list of bookmarks available no matter which computer you’re on).

And, as always… it’s free! Check it out: Personalized Home