comparelinux.com–Linux and open source Blog

Thinking of buying a PDF creator for your company or for professional purposes..you might not have to! Google Docs provides a free conversion to PDF where in you can upload a MS Word i.e a .doc document and you can download a .PDF document.

Here is how you can do it!!

1. Goto http://docs.google.com and then login using your Google Account.
2. Then you will see a screen like the screen shot shown.
3. Then you can select uploads and then upload the document that you want to convert in a PDF file.
4. Then select the checkbox right to the list of documents and then goto more options–>Save as PDF and then you will get a download prompt and viola…your PDF file is ready!!

Tags: Tutorials, Google by admin
No Comments »

Orkut introduces new Privacy Features

Finally orkut has introduced a new set of privacy features that were much needed by the community especially in the wake of the latest crimes that we hear coming out of orkut! So, finally orkut has taken the initiative and has introduced privacy for scrapbook access, album(i.e Images) access as well as Video access. You can do this by going to the settings link in the left corner of your screen and then going to the “Privacy Tab”.

Another good thing that orkut has introduced is the Ask questions feature where in your friends can answer to questions that you have asked. Another thing that is noteworthy is the updates feature, where in you know the latest updates about your friends! This is very effective especially when your friends list goes into hundreds;)

I personally feel that orkut is standing up to the stiff competition from MySpace and Facebook as well as linkedIn when it comes to professional networking and the only thing that orkut should actively work upon is the  OpenSocial API which is still in Beta and takes limited developers. I hope they open it for public as soon as possible.

Tags: softwares, Google, Software Reviews by admin
No Comments »

hi,

Just logged into my adsense account after a long time and saw that Google has added a new Referrals system, where in a lot of referral categories and referral products were available from which we could select and add products to our cart, just as we do while shopping, but the major difference here was that instead of paying for the products, we actually get paid for them!!

So, Google referrals are great for both for advertisers as well as publishers. Lets see why?

For Publishers, these referral ads bring more money than the usual Cost Per Click(CPC) ads because these advertisements are highly optimized, so there is generally a very high conversion rate for these ads, so more money as the money that is paid is usually in percentage of the product cost.

For advertisers, the referrals are a great way to reach to customers, because if the pages are optimized for a good conversion rate, then the google ads network has got publishers who will send you pageviews, because the ad network is perfectly screened and scrutinized by Google while selecting the publishers.

So, if you are a webmaster and finding out ways to generate revenue from your website, you can definately join adsense to monetize from your website.

Tags: Google by admin
No Comments »

Google’s Pagerank Changes:

Recent patent applications filed by Google shows that the online search leader is working to soup up its search algorithm to provide more detailed and targeted results. Those improvements could lead to improved media search and dynamic content, according to a search engine expert who discussed the findings at this week’s Enterprise Search Summit meeting in New York and in a Wall Street analyst report.

Stephen E. Arnold, managing director of Arnold IT and the author of a book on Google, said his analysis of recent patents filed by Google indicate the search engine company will be able to increase its dominance of the search market and dash predictions that competitors like Microsoft and Yahoo will whittle away at the firm’s lead.

Arnold, whose opinions were outlined this week in a Bear Stearns report, said Google is augmenting its PageRank algorithm by beefing up its search and indexing methodology. The key patent applications, published in February, would create a Programmable Search Engine (PSE) that would lead to more structured Web page data.

“The PSE will be the basic foundation behind Google’s Semantic Web and will be invisible to the searcher, but will augment the search experience to a level that will be hard for competitors to duplicate quickly or easily,” the Bear Stearns report states.

The PSE-based technology can deliver a series of improvements including more personal results for individual users, reduce spoofed results by spammers, and deliver additional granular detail, for instance, detailing car inventory and not just a dealer’s phone number. The technology also could index password-protected information while indexing dynamic sites — for instance, providing user-requested flight information.

The heart of the new technology is based on five patents created by Dr. Ramanathan Guha, which taken together would let Google’s next generation search engine gain access to more interactive programming and allow more involvement by outside Webmasters. The Bear Stearns report went on to state: “Based on the patent filings, we believe Dr. Guha’s work points to Google adding the PSE functionality as a component of Page Rank.”

Original article source at:http://news.iwebtool.com/article_16480.html?mp=1

Posted on this blog because thought it to be important!

Comments as always welcome!

Cheers!!

Tags: SEO, Google by admin
No Comments »

          For years, i had thought stat counter provided the best results when it came to providing website statistics and visitors information and traffic information, probably the most important things that matter to a webmaster other than the CTR(Click through rate). Then as usual Google entered the website statistics market and thats when i knew things are about to get better; and they went from better to the best with their analytics interface and i removed stats counter from all of my websites and installed the analytics script in all of my webpages and the result was great; actually more than i expected and i was happy and contented that i shifted from statcounter to Google Analytics!

But, probably google wasnt contented and today morning i woke up from my sleep to check my mails like i always do, and i had this service email from Google Analytics stating that they have changed their interface!

I was more than interested to know about the new google analytics interface and what i saw was out of the world; google has done it again….and this time it is fantastic and if you thought that the previous analytics was good this one is the BEST. See for yourself by logging into Google Analytics.

The most noticable change is the ability for automated reports to be emailed at an email address specified by you, but thats just the beginning! The graphs that are generated this time are very sleek and the graphics for the map overlays and the graphics have been carefully worked to perfection. The navigations to various aspects that it monitors has been simplified and has been made a lot more “User Friendly” than it previously was. The new dashboard is also great and provides the best overview of the system, perfected to the understanding of the novice user and customizable upto the level of a “Geek”!

Plus, a new thing that i have noticed is a possible export to .pdf and a .xml file, of all the reports which i am not sure was possible before!

I know, i cant stop going “ga ga” over the new analytics interface, but i advice its the best for you people to login and see and if you are not an analytics user then maybe this is the best time to get a Google Analytics account and get Started!

Tags: Google, Software Reviews by admin
No Comments »

As promised this is all you needed to know about google pack and the softwares that come with Google Pack.

The essential software that come with google pack by default are:

• Google Earth– Shows excellent satellite images of almost each and every part of the earth with different angles and with the ability to bookmark places on the “Earth”. This is the first software of its kind which is available to the common public for free.Softwares such as these were available only to the high ranked military officials, the homeland security department and those who are highly ranked in the government. This software is highly recommended for use! The only flipside to this software is its high bandwidth requirement which is quite inevitable when you are getting satellite images of “The Earth”.
• Picasa–Picasa is another great software from Google which is the best that I have used for organizing my personal photos. The most outstanding aspect of picasa is its ability to password protect photo collections and that too effectively!
• Google Desktop–Google Desktop is the best desktop management software around! One of its USPs is its Desktop Sidebar with a range of widgets from Stock quotes to Adsense account details, to weather forecast details to many many more. And obviously it indexes files on your computer in realtime which is very good and I need not tell you about the efficiency of Google’s Indexing technology.:)
• Mozilla Firefox with Google Toolbar– Firefox is an excellent browser produced by Mozilla and is the best we can get when it comes to competing with internet explorer.In mozilla Firefox, the webpages load quicker than internet explorer, the popups are blocked better than internet explorer and the most important thing, its program logic to handle passwords and form data is far more advanced and better then Internet Explorer and it really saves a lot of your typing; and to top it all the google toolbar which gives us a range of services from quick google search, to gmail access to giving pagerank of the pages we visit.
• Spyware Doctor–Spyware doctor scans the spywares and adwares right, but the problems i faced with this software was the performance issues. The scanning process almost slows down your computer to a 386 level( i have tested this on 512 DDR and Intel 3.00GHZ processor). Along with this spyware doctor monitors spywares in real time by running in the background and can be quite annoying sometimes; but i guess this is the tradeoff that you have to suffer when you want to protect your computer from spywares and adwares.
• Skype–Skype from the developers of the Kazaa is the pioneer in bring voice chat and video communication to our desktops and with services like calling to any number from skype and receiving calls on your desktop from any phone is the best that we can get in its category.

So, here’s a review for Google Pack and all the software that comes with it and it is surely a must download software bundle of essential softwares. Moreover, Google Pack comes with a very efficient installer and updater which downloads and updates your softwares as soon as they become outdated or newer versions are released!

So, my verdict, download google pack right away if you havent so far!!

Tags: Google by admin
1 Comment »

Taking Steps to further imporve privacy practises:


As Posted By Peter Fleischer, Privacy Counsel-Europe, and Nicole Wong, Deputy General

When you search on Google, we collect information about your search, such as the query itself, IP addresses and cookie details. Previously, we kept this data for as long as it was useful. Today we’re pleased to report a change in our privacy policy: Unless we’re legally required to retain log data for longer, we will anonymize our server logs after a limited period of time. When we implement this policy change in the coming months, we will continue to keep server log data (so that we can improve Google’s services and protect them from security and other abuses)—but will make this data much more anonymous, so that it can no longer be identified with individual users, after 18-24 months.
Just as we continuously work to improve our products, we also work toward having the best privacy practices for our users. This includes designing privacy protections into our products (like Google Talk’s “off the record” feature or Google Desktop’s “pause” and “lock search” controls). This also means providing clear, easy to understand privacy policies that help you make informed decisions about using our services.

After talking with leading privacy stakeholders in Europe and the U.S., we’re pleased to be taking this important step toward protecting your privacy. By anonymizing our server logs after 18-24 months, we think we’re striking the right balance between two goals: continuing to improve Google’s services for you, while providing more transparency and certainty about our retention practices. In the future, it’s possible that data retention laws will obligate us to retain logs for longer periods. Of course, you can always choose to have us retain this data for more personalized services like Search History. But that’s up to you.

Our engineers are already busy working out the technical details, and we hope to implement this new data policy over the coming months (and within a year’s time). We’ll communicate more as we work out these details, but for now, we wanted you to know that we’re working on this additional step to strengthen your privacy.

Tags: Google by admin
No Comments »

Why does Google Retain information about Searches?


As posted by Peter Fleischer, Global Privacy Counsel on Google At the same time, regulators in other parts of governments have argued for shorter retention periods, reflecting the conflicts in every country between privacy and data protection objectives on the one hand, and law enforcement objectives on the other. Companies like Google are trying to be responsible corporate citizens, and sometimes we are told to do different things by different government entities, or to follow conflicting legal obligations. It’s hard enough to get different government entities to talk to each other inside one country. When you multiply this by all the countries where Google must comply with the laws, the potential conflicts are enormous. Nonetheless, Google is committed to providing its users around the world with one consistent high level of data protection.

It’s also worth reiterating that we do not ask our users for their names, address, or phone numbers to use most of our services. For those who want to see what their logs history looks like, we offer transparent access via a Google Account to their own personal Web History.

Finally, we maintain rigorous internal controls of our logs database. We look forward to an ongoing discussion with privacy stakeholders around the world as we pursue a common goal of improving privacy protections for everyone on the Internet.

Tags: Google by admin
No Comments »