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6 Ways to Boost Your Rankings Using Google Authorship
Apr 27th
Google authorship and Google+ already influence personalized search results – which can boost the rankings for your social connections. This opens huge opportunities for individuals and means Google may reward you for being an online authority.
View full post on Search Engine Watch – Latest
Top 10 Affiliate Tips for Using Content to Increase Revenue Streams
Apr 24th
The role of using content to boost an affiliate site’s profitability can’t be underestimated. This article takes an in-depth look at tailoring content which will help engage and guide your users toward making more transactions on your site.
View full post on Search Engine Watch – Latest
Using SPDY on Your Web Server
Apr 20th
Google’s SPDY protocol offers several advantages over serving traffic via HTTP/HTTPS. But, if you want to use SPDY, you’re going to have to take a few additional steps to set it up. The good thing is that if you happen to be using Apache on recent Debian or RPM-based systems, installing and using SPDY is a simple matter.
Installing SPDY Packages
Right now, Google is providing binary packages for Debian or RPM-based systems with Apache 2.2.4 or greater. If your system is Debian or Fedora/Red Hat-based, you should have little trouble getting SPDY running. If not, Google also provides the source code for the SPDY module, and you can compile the module if necessary.
Before installing SPDY, you will need to have an SSL certificate to use SPDY since it uses SSL. This can be a self-signed certificate, though Chrome will give some pretty evil-looking errors when accessing a site with a self-signed certificate. For testing SPDY, this is merely a small annoyance. If you’re actually looking to deploy SPDY to a production site, though, it’s probably much better to go ahead and buy a certificate signed by a recognized authority. (There is a way to turn off SSL, but it’s not recommended for anything but debugging.)
If this is the first time you’ve set up SSL on Debian-based systems, see the Debian Administration tutorial on configuring SSL. The Linode library has a Fedora 14 tutorial that should work with later versions of Fedora. See the CentOS guide if you’re using RHEL, CentOS or another RHEL-based distribution.
Next step is to get the right package for your system. My server is a Linode VPS and runs Ubuntu 10.04 LTS, and it’s a 32-bit system. The 32-bit Debian package worked just fine for that, but Google also provides a 64-bit Debian package and 32-bit and 64-bit RPMs as well. All of the packages are on the mod_spdy page under the Google Developers site.
You might run into a few snags if you’re using an RPM-based system, like openSUSE, that isn’t quite what the Google packagers were expecting. Nick Robinson has provided some instruction for getting the binaries installed on openSUSE 12.1 that may prove useful if the RPM doesn’t work for you.
For Debian systems, you should use dpkg to install the module, like so:
dpkg -i mod-spdy-beta_current_i386.deb
Note that that’s the current package name; it will likely change soon when Google decides to move the module from beta to stable. (One hopes this will happen faster than Gmail moving out of beta status…)
Google also says that you need to run apt-get -f install, but this had no effect on my system. Presumably, some systems require installing additional dependencies.
Next, you’ll need to restart Apache for the new module to be recognized. The packages automatically add the spdy.conf and spdy.load files for Apache, so that SPDY will start automatically when Apache starts.
Testing
Once you have the SPDY module installed and enabled, use Chrome to visit a page on your site with HTTPS. You can go to chrome://net-internals/#spdy in Chrome to see whether SPDY is enabled, and chrome://net-internals/#events&q=type:SPDY_SESSION%20is:active will show live and active sessions.
I do recommend doing extensive testing before pushing a SPDY deployment live. So far, I’ve been having no problem with my WordPress blog, but I have found a few glitches with my Piwik install. Apparently, other users have encountered this as well. I suggest watching the mod-spdy-discuss list if you’re working with SPDY.
If you decide you don’t want to use SPDY until it moves out of beta, you can turn it off without needing to remove the packages. Open the spdy.conf file (under /etc/apache2/mods-available on Debian systems) and turn SpdyEnabled to off. You’ll need to restart Apache for that to take effect.
There’s talk of SPDY becoming an official Apache module (though it’s written in C++ and official modules need to be in C), so it may be even easier to get SPDY in the not-too-distant future. Until then, it’s still pretty trivial to install SPDY, and you should be able to have it up and running in less than 30 minutes.
View full post on ReadWriteWeb
Who’s Actually Using Second Screen TV Apps?
Apr 19th
As the tablet and smartphone markets grow, so too does the tendency for people to use these devices while watching TV. The trend has given rise to a crop of second screen apps that enable users to supplement the TV-watching experience with content from the Web and social media chatter.
The vast majority of tablet and smartphone owners use them while watching TV, according to the latest research. But who are these people? And how are they using their devices to enhance television?
What People Use Their Second Screens For
The most popular second screen activity actually has nothing to do with the TV content itself. For all the things one can do on their devices, it turns out that checking email is the most popular activity for couch-bound tablet and smartphone owners.
There are a few different types of second screen apps. Some are designed to help people find related content from various Web sources. This is something that is normally accomplished most easily via a Google or IMDB search, but apps like i.TV for the iPad make it considerably easier.
Smartphone and tablet apps are also increasingly used to do things like view schedules of TV programming, control DVRs and “check in” to shows and movies much like people check into real-world venues using Foursquare or Facebook. One of the leaders in the entertainment mobile check-in space is GetGlue, whose API is often used to build check-in functionality into other apps. They are joined at the top of this space by Miso.
“I think the check in may be limited to earlier adopters or a small subset, just like on any network,” says GetGlue COO Fraser Kelton. The more valuable types of engagement, he says, come after the check-in, when users comment on it and otherwise interact directly with one another.
Apps like this also play a key role in content discovery, Kelton notes. Once users are connected with friends and family via an app like GetGlue, they’re able to get a quick idea of what like-minded people are watching and tune in accordingly.
Who’s Using Second Screen Apps
Of Americans who own smartphones, 86% say they use their devices while watching TV at least once per month, according to Nielsen. For tablet owners, that percentage is slightly higher. About half of them use their tablets while watching TV on a daily basis.
The breakdown of users engaged in social media while watching TV skews toward white males, according to Nielsen. Men make up 55% of social TV participants, while they account for slightly less than half of Web users over all. Similarly, women are more active online generally than they are in the social TV arena.
It’s not just a bunch of teenagers or even college students who are chattering about TV on social media. Nearly 60% of those who do are between the ages of 25 and 49. By comparison, that age group makes up only 42% of the online population generally.
Social TV check-in app Miso has more than 300,000 users, which the company has relied on to build out its massive database of content. That user base is mostly in North America, and more than 60% of them are on iOS devices, according to Shay Fan, Miso’s head of marketing and communications.
“Our community has become extremely involved,” says Fan. “For example, our community members have added over 75,000 TV shows and movies and another 100,000 unique episodes to our database.”
Far From Mainstream, But Well on Its Way
This type of activity is growing, but it’s far from mainstream. Sure, a majority of tablet owners use their devices while watching TV, but tablet owners are still a minority – and even those who do pull out their tablets on the couch are mostly checking their email first.
The concept of “checking in” to a TV show is foreign to most people, although chatting about American Idol via social networks is something that comes a little more naturally. Twitter knows this and has embraced its role in social TV through formal partnerships with broadcasters.
It’s not just chatter, either. Research has shown a correlation between social buzz for a TV show and high ratings. That gives the TV studios and other industry players a real incentive to get involved in this space and help cultivate its growth. In an interesting shift for content providers, the social TV trend may bolster the number of viewers who tune in for the original broadcast, rather than catch their favorite show online the next day.
However this still-young space shakes out in the short-term, we have a hard time seeing the social TV and second screen trends not continuing, becoming a major force in the future.
View full post on ReadWriteWeb
Best Online SEO Press Release Distribution for Your Business Using Submit My … – MarketWatch (press release)
Apr 10th
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MarketWatch (press release) Submit My Press Release is a top-notched Online Press Release Distribution company that offers cost effective, yet high quality Online SEO Press Release Distribution, that doesn't only increase your business exposure to search engines but also brings … |
View full post on SEO – Google News
PPC Reports: How to Highlight Meaningful Metrics Using Data Visualization
Apr 10th
Good reporting is a key to proving the value of PPC and the job you’re doing managing PPC. Reports with poorly-crafted charts and rows of numbers suck. Use the right charts to effectively visualize your data, and combine them with solid analysis.
View full post on Search Engine Watch – Latest
Using Data To Better Understand Tablet Consumer Behavior
Apr 6th
The emergence of the tablet PC as a legitimate device for online activities beyond media consumption has turned the eyes of marketers and analysts towards understanding how tablet user behavior differs from that of traditional desktop and mobile. There are certain things which simply cannot be done…
Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.
View full post on Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing
Using The Brown M&M Technique To Build Links
Apr 3rd
Some rock backs such as Van Halen, are these days, almost as famous for their outrageous demands as they are for their music. The most famous is their requirement for a bowl of M&Ms to be in their dressing room; with all the brown ones removed. Failure to comply with this seemingly outrageous…
Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.
View full post on Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing
How to Build a Keyword Discovery Machine Using AdWords
Mar 29th
Want to leverage Google’s query association mapping to your advantage in your AdWords campaign so that Google discovers profitable keywords for you? Here’s a step-by-step guide to let broad, phrase, and exact match find you valuable keywords.
View full post on Search Engine Watch – Latest
New Ways to Do Disaster Recovery Using Virtualization
Mar 26th
Remember your father’s disaster recovery (DR) process? Chances are it involved using a bunch of data tapes and rotating them between home and work, or different offices. Tapes were cheap, but notoriously unreliable. And getting them restored on a server took a lot of work. There are better solutions for today’s DR, including using one of a number of newer virtualization technologies that makes it easier and a lot faster to bring up a server from a backup. Let’s look at some of the alternatives.
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Virtualization can help with speeding up recovery time, because it is easier to start up a virtual machine on a hypervisor such as VMware’s ESX than rebuild a physical server from scratch. With one IT shop, before virtualization, it took 48 hours and 12 staff people to recover systems. After virtualization, the process can be completed in 24 hours with four staffers, and most of the time those workers are just monitoring their systems to make sure that everything is operating properly.
But it still isn’t a complete cakewalk. For example, VMware has a collection of tools that can convert physical to virtual machines and orchestrate these VMs to step in for downed servers. The company has published a 200-plus-page paper that describes this process on its website. Given the length of the paper, there has got to be a better way. And several smaller, special-purpose vendors have stepped up to provide some interesting solutions.
First is Quorum’s onQ Appliance. This is very useful tool for DR planning. You use two appliances: One sits on your network and the other sits at your offsite location. onQ makes virtual machine copies of all of your Windows server collection, both existing physical servers as well as those VMs that you are running. When disaster strikes, a single click can activate the VM and have it substitute for the downed physical server in a matter of seconds. The nice thing about the onQ solution is that you can avoid creating a duplicate data center where you have a copy of all your gear. These appliances aren’t cheap: Prices start at $10,000 per appliance, and cover three servers. Additional servers and a quickstart installation are extra.
Here is onQ’s architecture:
But onQ can handle a mix of both physical and virtual servers, as long as they are all Windows machines. It can combine both onsite and offsite recovery, and you can do daily DR testing too. This kind of flexibility is helpful to handle a wide variety of DR situations.
A second product is from Zerto called Virtual Replication. It is used to protect just your virtual infrastructure running on VMware. There are plug-ins for vSphere and it is managed using the VMware vCenter tools. Agents need to be installed on each hypervisor and there is also a virtual appliance that has to run on each hypervisor too. Like onQ, you can do quick and frequent tests of the DR plan to ensure that things are protected. It costs $745 per protected VM, with a minimum order of 15 VMs. Zerto recently came out with v2 of the product which supports multi-tenants and multiple site replication.
Here is Zerto’s architecture:
A third product is one that you have heard of, with some new features. Symantec has been selling its Backup Exec software for many years, and the current version has some new twists, what the company calls “B2V” for backup to virtual. The idea is that you create backup images of your servers, and the Backup Exec software can quickly convert these images into VMs that can run on either VMware or HyperV hypervisors. This way you can bring your downed server back online without having to track down an identical server to restore the image to. Here is a short video screencast that shows you the process:
Backup Exec has a SMB edition that starts at $1,163 for a single server.
There are other DR products that combine virtualization elements, such as Axcient and Datto. As you can see, this is an active field and you can expect more players soon.
N.B. I have done some consulting for both Symantec and Quorum Labs in the past year.
View full post on ReadWriteWeb
