Ever seen the Coca-cola ad on You Tube? An amusing Aamir Khan. Recently, Google enters into Entertainment & Recreation with You Tube takeover. Coke, Pepsi, Nike, so on - brands spend money where eyeballs are rolling. There is more money in branding than cost per click and Google adwords apt to find targets here. The best Internet Purchase of the year by google. However, I fear Google's Orkut known as Opium of the Internet masses, is getting into trouble in India with its Hate Groups & Anti social elements. The Aurangabad bench of the Bombay high court, comprising Justice AP Deshpande and Justice RM Borde, issued notice to Google last week following a public interest litigation initiated by 22-year-old advocate Yugant R Marlapalle-Also an Orkut Member, he objects of a community burning Indian flag. 

Remains to be seen how communities are controlled like this one - not only on Orkut but www itself! Well, I heard, Orkut is being re-designed again! 

- ilaxi

ITVidya.com in collaboration with Sinhgad Technical Education Society has hosted a 2 day Conference on "Technopreneurship : Empowering Budding Entrepreneurs" to be held on Friday 29th and Saturday 30th September 2006 in Pune.

Many want to start their own business but do not have the proper guidance,resources and the know-how to do that and this event is just tailer-made for them. The Target audience is Aspiring Entrepreneurs,New Startup Founders,Engineering Students,MBA students and Working Professionals. Though there is a nominal entrance fee, the two day sessions are planned to provide budding technocrats with a holistic understanding of business dynamics and acceleterate their transition to technopreneurs.

If you are a student and interested to know further about the itvidya projects, ring up Ajay Sanghani on his mobile 098200 20753 or just click to itvidya and join the group of tech - IT knowledge, Networking and Opportunities.

- ilaxi

As google celebrated its 8th Birthday on 27th September, it's been my fav search engine on the web. My affair with Google Search started way back as I explored the web. I almost fell in love with Google and I found it a 'wonder of wonders'. This has ever been my first Internet Crush and since years, my day began with google and ended up google as I updated my websites.

In September 1998, Google Inc. opened its door in Menlo Park, California. The door came with a remote control, as it was attached to the garage of a friend who sublet space to the new corporation's staff of three. The office offered several big advantages and also provided a parking space for the first employee hired by the new company. He was Craig Silverstein, now Google's director of technology. Google.com was in the Beta version then and answered over 10,000 search queries each day. Their ladder to success was sure as in December 1998, PC Mag named Google as one of its Top 100 Web sites and Search Engines for 1998. By 21st September 1999, the Beta Label of Google Search Engine came off from the site and became Time magazine's Top Ten Best Cybertech list for 1999.

Google got the Webby Award and a People's Voice Award for technical achievement in May 2000 when Founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin spoke few words of acceptance 'We Love you Google users. And this turned out today with people saying "We Love You Google". Quality of search results is all that matters with Google. Most comprehensive web search and here's Google come a long way with :
google search, Google mail, Google Earth, Google Moon, Google Maps, Google Tool Bar, Google Adwords, Google Adsense, Google Store, Google Desktop, Google Video, Google Blog Search,Google Talk and more n more!!! Yeah, Google Labs & Google Print and all more....

Today, in 2006, we have the Google Video Player and its the best featuring upcoming on the web. Also a brand new Google video Store. A free pack was also announced at its Birthday and here is the same for download by people residing anywhere.

Thank You Google and yeah, again 'May the good lord god bless Google and the team.

-ilaxi patel
Editor, kidsfreesouls.com

Indian Govt has a lousy idea of Blog censorship that their Instructions landed up the ISPs to block all blogspot blogs!

Post 7/11, the Government decided to block sites and gave a handful of list to ISPs. Out of a misunderstanding of both Technology and Security, ISPs blocked all the Blogger Blogs. CERT (Computer Emergency Response Team) of the Telecommunications demanded the block to some sites with no explanations to the drastic action of blocking all blogger sites. As a result, Indian Bloggers on the web with over 42,000 Bloggers on the Google owned blogspot.com suffered from this action. They have already formed "Bloggers Collective Group" and Wiki on Bloggers Against Censorship - a Campaign against Indian Government's apparent notice to various ISPs to Block the various websites and blogs hosted on blogspot.com. The bloggers demand their constitutional right to Freedom of Speech & Expression as Indian Citizens. Bloggers like Peter Griffin, Amit Verma, Dina Mehta, etc. have made all their efforts to help the blogging community to view the blogs and provided helpful hints and support.

A unique script has been provided by Dr. Awab Alvi, a Pakistani founder of 'Dont Block the Blog Campaign' and the Blogger Blogs can be viewed here. All you need to do is, just enter the name of the Blog. eg. kidsfstech, kidsfreesouls, sambhaav - all blogs that are hosted on Google's Blogger (blogspot.com) You will be able to read these Blogs here. A lot Thanks to Dr.Awab Alvi.

The Department of Telecom (DoT) has now instructed the ISPs to Block only the websites and blogs specified in the Instructions to them earlier. The order further says that the ISPs operating in India should strictly comply with the order dated 13th July 2006 and provide unhindered access to Internet. They are only supposed to block the limited number of web pages and websites not the entire network of domains hosting some of these blogs. They are also asking the ISPs to clarify why they should not take action against them for blocking harmless sites and causing a lot of troubles for the end user in the country.

Strangely, still Bloggers are unable to access blogs hosted on Google’s Blogger service even now. They need to sort to services like pkblogs.com .

Some Bloggers are moving for legal action ironically to be based on the Information Technology Act, 2000. In Section 66, this Act defines 'Hacking' - as gaining illegal access to any website, or preventing access to a website through illegal means.

My Blogs (mjakbar.org & swagatgroup.net) two of the blogs, out of many that I manage, can now be accessed with Blogger.com Tech tools as they now appear on this site powered by Blogger. Any person with a hosted website need to change the settings in blogger.com to publish its blog via ftp, thus ignoring the ban. However, this demands Blogger help, tech skills, hosting space and unnecessary changes!

- ilaxi

Interested in World Cup Soccer Game? Yeah, I am a great fan and love to watch the game. I even opted to start my blog with the new Google teamed up with Joga - Here you can build your own groups and clubs, share all kinds of football-related info, upload photos and video, and get updates on matches and events. Write your own Blog and make friends, send messages...Isn't this Interesting?


Well, Google celebrates World Cup 2006 by showing a soccer logo at the homepage from June 9.The logo links to a search for 2006 world football which has One-box soccer infos. Google Logo Blog has other Logos like Sherlock Holmes, cakes with google, first google logo, Google Signs, etc. Enjoy!

- ilaxi

Got a great Blog and wondering what to do to increase your reach, visibility and readership? Get a Big Exposure with 'Blog Burst'. BlogBurst is a syndication service that places your blog content on top-tier online destinations on the Publishers' websites. Submit your blog for an Invitation Call and once you're accepted into the BlogBurst Network, keep blogging as usual. The Publishers picks up your contents and you reach a target audience with that byline line, driving traffic to you Blog!

Sounds great. The current chosen topics cater to travel, sports, home décor, fashion and lifestyle. It's Pluck that's announced the start of BlogBurst's content syndication to several newspaper sites and other publishers.BlogBurst's powerful Publisher Workbench will help Publishers discover and source talented contributing bloggers and their posts - Now is the time to know who are the real 'Winners' of the Blog Awards that we see on the web! Get into the BlogBurst groove and let your Blog reach for a read.

- ilaxi

Google breaks the language barrier with this translation feature. Using machine translation technology, Google now gives English speakers access to a variety of non-English web pages. Currently, Google offers English translation from Chinese Simplified), French, German, Italian, Korean, Japanese, Spanish, and Portuguese.

Click Google Translate tool, you will be taken to a version of this Kidsfstech page that has been automatically translated into Spanish from English.The translation you are seeing was produced automatically by Google, state-of-the-art technology without the intervention of human translators.

You can translate the website http:kidsfreesouls.com here and read in any language you wish.For the Altavista translations, visit the site here for the link.

Well, Do you have an Adsense account? Recently, a German publication has apparently reported that AdSense is planning on releasing a feature that will enable advertisers to target ads not just by keywords but coordinates or location. If you are unable to read in German language, here is Google Translate tool to help you. Check this out:-)

- ilaxi

Google Sitemaps in its Beta version gives an opportunity to present site’s pages to Google in XML or text and than google will crawl and spider the pages getting you indexed faster. So, it seems!

Sitemaps made easier for a novice to be self SEO. Just Log in, follow the instructions and upload a file to verify. No hassles. The Site overview shows the stats of your site with top search queries n clicks, errors of your pages like the 404, cache pages, indexed pages, linked pages, related pages, info google has about your pages, etc. More, it shows Crawl Stats like the pages crawled, page rank.

So, if you have a website or a blog, here is Google Sitemaps for you : Google Bot sees you! Log in and follow the steps. Be your own SEO!

- ilaxi

Google, the Internet search giant could drive profound changes in the media, entertainment and technology landscape in 2006. It's gonna be a Google fueled paranoia with Google cornering the market on low cost PCS! The Google-branded computers would be manufactured in China and sold below $199 in Walmart stores throughout North America. Loaded with Free Gmail accounts and one gig of online storage space, a googlized version of Linux, the mini-computers would run what was essentially a Google made operating system, employing Google's vast array of free, membership based services, server-side software features along with the host of other real and anticipated Google features.

The do gooders google will unveil video purchase options and a new downloadable software pack from the company at Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week. A number of announcements are expected to emerge as Yahoo's Terry Semel and Microsoft's Bill Gates will be there too! Let's wait for more to come our way this year 2006 - Btw, Was there any Nostradamus Predictions on the Cyber wars??? I hear that there gonna be a great Cyber War in time to come!

- ilaxi

At least, Let there be No War on Web!!!

With the new year bells ringing in great happy hours of surfing on web, here comes the Trojans riding on the web horse! Indians are ever the inquisite 'Hackers' - Yeah, I mean it as I came across a lot of guys who played the tricks and boasted the savvy types. Talk of Ankit Fadia - And you find him as Featured story of Ankit Fadia's Hacking Books and his tricks of the Hacking game. Every journalist (who don't understand Internet roads) interviewed him and placed him on top of the hack charts - ugh oh!!!

Well, right now, I gonna talk of the Trojan Horse I mentioned. Techshout.com reports that a new, deceptive Trojan Horse program has surfaced. The program is engineered to produce fake Google ads that are formatted to look like legitimate ones. The ads are incorporated in Google AdSense, the program that lets website owners display ads from Google’s list of advertisers. The Trojan Horse apparently downloads itself onto an unsuspecting computer through a web page and then replaces the original ads with its own set of malicious ads.

It's been Raoul Bangera, an Indian web publisher who discovered a bogus program and contacted Adsense Team. Bangera emailed the team a number of cases, including various screenshots, log files of an infected computer and system files as proof. The AdSense team validated the news saying, “We can confirm from the screenshots that these are fake Google ads, formatted to look like legitimate ads. We agree that this phenomenon is likely the result of malicious software installed on your computer.”

This is not for the first time Google adsense has been hit. In January 2005, Google took immediate action and removed some ads that caused malicious code to be installed on visitor’s computers. Google is smart enough and can let no loopholes at their end.

I only wonder, Raoul Bangera could be a net savvy or know the tricks of the web? Smart google will find smart ways to rule the web, indeed!

- ilaxi

The Next Generation - Asimo. Yeah, I was just blogging here about the Next Generation Humanoid Robot, targeting a new level of mobility.

Honda added intelligence technology to ASIMO which is capable of interpreting the postures and gestures of humans and moving independently in response. ASIMO’s ability to interact with humans has advanced significantly—it can greet approaching people, follow them, move in the direction they indicate, and even recognize their faces and address them by name.

Further, utilizing networks such as the Internet, ASIMO can provide information while executing tasks such as reception duties of receiving and delivery coffee mug try and pushing the serving cart with drinks.




Following a recent appearance amidst the winter splendour of Helsinki, ASIMO even helped open the 8th International Middle East Motor Show in sun-drenched Dubai.

Integration with user's network system, Asimo can execute functions appropriately based on the user's customer data; greet visitors, informing personnel of the visitor's arrival by transmitting messages and pictures of the visitor's face; guide visitors to a predetermined location, etc. Aso Accessing information via the Internet, ASIMO can become a provider of news and weather updates, for example, ready to answer people's questions, etc.

Amazing!!! New waves of technology and robots will rule one day!

- ilaxi

Yahoo Mindset, the Intent-driven Search and it allows you to Find the results you like or sort the way you need!

A Yahoo! Research demo that applies a new twist on search that uses machine learning technology to give you a choice: View Yahoo! Search results sorted according to whether they are more commercial or more informational (i.e., from academic, non-commercial, or research-oriented sources).

Yeah, now put the keywords in Yahoo Mindset 'Net newspaper for kids' and there I (Kidsfreesouls site of mine) stand with results # 1, #2 and # 5 of about 467812 for net newspaper for kids:-) This is fine. But the best part is that the demo provides a slider widget for users to explicitly specify their intent. Leaving the slider in the middle means they want to use the original Yahoo! search result order. Moving the slider to the extreme right means they want the top results to be those which the classifier is most confident are "non-commercial". Putting the slider in between those two positions means a blend -- somewhat faithful to the original ordering but also tending to bring the more obvious non-commercial pages to the top. Similarly, sliding into the left half indicates blending of commercialness confidence vs original ordering.

Complicating? Machine learning...well, thats the way of the web! Read here to explore what exactly Intent driven Search - Mindset is related to with great mind set to Yahoo!

I am still wondering with this Beta - should I tilt the widget towards the right? Or just leave in center as it is? Yahoooo.........please help!

- ilaxi

Google recently announced an exciting change to the Google Print product.The Google Print has been renamed as Google Book Search.

I feel this is user-friendly name and Book search is more a discovery of world books available on the web. More books would be promoted through this program and surfers can judge from the book cover and even get an opportunity to read the contents page, copyright details and a chapter of the book.

I already have the MJ Akbar Books account with google and a click from the website to Google Book search will land you up reading a chapter of the book 'Shade of Swords'. The Author account with google means parterning for the google revenue and of coz, the author's books need to be either transported by courier to google or the book pdfs of details to be uploaded on their server.

Way to go Google......More Publisher may tie up with google and more authors will reflect on searches with Google also planning to add Book Search on its main search.

Ego surfing by authors are sure to bring them great results!

-ilaxi

Google is Restless!! Every day, you hear Google is upto something new - That's the reason its the apple of my eye;) In my September post, I mentioned about all the galore projects Google is gonna implement but here is a jolt of surprize - Urchin is gonna be Free! Google Analytics offers a host of compelling features and benefits for everyone from senior executives and advertising and marketing professionals to site owners and content developers.

Need I say more? I just love their move as this allows to make profit-generating improvements to advertising and website.Google offers Urchin : Urchin 5 analyzes traffic for one or more websites and provides accurate and easy-to-understand reports on your visitors - where they come from, how they use your site, what converts them into customers, and much more. I've used Live Stats but this one is quite competitive and if you have an Ad Words account, it really allows 5 million user traffic track with no cost and it's absolutely 'Free'! Oh, maybe Google might revise its fee procedure at a later stage as it mentions in its Terms and Conditions but till than, Enjoy!

- ilaxi

Google launched a blog to help publishers understand the inner workings of AdSense. Yeah, the move comes as the Google vs Yahoo battle is on. The search giant is confronted by direct competition from Yahoo's Publisher Network and pressure from publishers to make AdSense less more transparent. In the battle between Google and Yahoo, the advantage will go to whichever company can produce the highest effective CPMs for publishers.

The "Inside Adsense" Blog and Google Adsense support offer optimization tips and feature descriptions to prospective and existing publishers in the AdSense network, with up to three posts a week by AdSense Engineers, Product managers, Product marketing managers, and Operations staff.

Yahoo's Publisher's Guide to RSS is all on how to Distribute content to Yahoo. Given in five steps: RSS on Yahoo, Submit RSS Feed, Promote Your Feed, Track your Success and the last is ad network launch this month with the Beta [Monetize Your Site]Earn Income from your site! This is likely to be an ongoing battle between the two search giants to improve both their offerings and their customer service and the benefits are the End users who gonna eat the cake or let it go. The Big Search Engine war is on and we expect more new features from Yahoo, Google and Msn - a changing Scenario on the web.

-ilaxi

Blog and RSS Landscape has been really shaping up the market recently. As I got exploring the tech world, its new announcements every day! AOL is buying weblogs for approximately $25 million with the first deal paid of $2.5 million as revealed by verisign! The company's network includes approximately 80 advertising supported sites published by a group of more than 100 bloggers. Its blog properties include Autoblog, Blogging Baby and Engadget, which is Weblog's busiest site, according to traffic measurement provided by Technorati.

Now, recently I visited AOL and the most interesting was the 25 People We Envy Most which features Gwen, J K Rowling, Sergei Brin and Larry Page of Google,etc. Indeed, Fortune pays tribute to the people that makes us Jealous - Really? Nope, I think fortune pays tribute to the people who are Lucky becoz they are the Chosen One!

- ilaxi

Google celebrates 7th Birthday on 27th September and here's wishing my fav Search Whizz Google "A Happy Birthday":-)

My affair with Google Search started way back as I explored the web searching for my website urls to appear with my own keywords 'net newspaper for kids', 'ilaxi', MJ Akbar and 'gujarati newspaper' and 'kidsfreesouls'. I almost fell in love with Google and I found it a 'wonder of wonders'. This has ever been my first Internet Crush and since years, my day began with google and ended up google as I updated my websites. To celebrate its Birthday, google is giving a newly expanded web search index that is 1,000 times the size of their original index. This means, ending the Search Engine Index war in terms of raw counting! Quality of search results is all that matters with Google. Most comprehensive web search and here's Google come a long way with company Founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin's BackRub to a Big Big Google World on Web:

google search, Google mail, Google Earth, Google Moon, Google Maps, Google Tool Bar, Google Adwords, Google Adsense, Google Store, Google Desktop, Google Video, Google Blog Search,Google Talk and more n more!!!

Yet, more exploring awaits with Google Labs & Google Print

It's the surprise that Google has the whole Library project that shows Authors & their Books, Publishers, Book shops on the web. This Google Print Project bumped into trouble with Authors Guild who sue Google over a program that will make millions of books more discoverable to the world. Authors Guild alleged that Google's scanning and digitizing of library books constitutes a "massive" copyright infringement - Now, that's a real pity coz Google respects copyright and I do have a Print Account that I explore there and I find it 'Excellent'. It do need some changes but overall, Google has made it clear that copyright holder can ask to have their books excluded from the Library Project by following these instructions here.

Anyways, here's **Cheers** to Google - Goodness always Win!


-ilaxi

Google introduces Blog Search and this is indeed great news for Bloggers:-) Blog is a great tool for freedom of expression and the recent Hand Book of Dan Gilmor, US Journalist and Jay Rosen, US Blogger is full of handy tips and technical advise on why Blog, Blogging Language, Choosing tool, setting up and running a blog, ethics, getting picked up by search engines, etc.
This Handbook may prove to be a boon to bloggers who are often the only real journalists in countries where mainstream media is under pressure or censored. Reporters without Borders provide tips to remain anonymous and to get round censorship, by choosing the most suitable method for each situation.

Now this is a download or a print : Handbook for bloggers and cyber-dissidents.

However, the latest buzz is Internet censor world championship - Most of the world’s authoritarian regimes are trying to control what their citizens read and do online. They’re getter better and better at blocking “objectionable” material, usually with technology bought from US firms. China is far and away the world champion. But it’s felt the heat of competition in recent years. Each country in this far from complete list has its own style and tactics but they all have one purpose, to keep ahead of the game.

So far, there's no way to censor Internet in this country and I wonder, who's framing the cyber laws?
(As posted here too)

-ilaxi

Srchnkd : That's right. A new search engine was launched recently called iSearchNaked.com, a name, no doubt, designed to shamelessly get your attention.First Come, First Served: The first twelve advertisers for each keyword or keyword phrase will be rotated in the sponsored listings on all pages of the search results. Top sponsored keyword search results can be purchased for a fixed introductory rate of just 25 cents.Fix rate for no more click fraud.

Interested? Then, Sign up Now!

-ilaxi

Before three days or so, Google launched its most enhanced Blogging Search. This Blog Search indexes blogs by their site feeds, which will be checked frequently for new content. This means that Blog Search results for a given blog will update with new content much faster than standard web searches. Also, because of the structured data within site feeds, it is possible to find precise posts and date ranges with much greater accuracy. As such, Blogging has become the recent craze with individuals, corporates, newspapers, students and all who wish to write their own blogs - journals on any topic. Newspapers in print media are currently facing the threat of Online Journalism with the Blogging world. More and more blog posts reveal potential journalists leaving behind print media journalists who stand back with newer technology.

Even Net Newspapers for Kids have flourished with the use of Technology and more Editors, Journalists, Syndicated News columnists and Kids related websites are coming up with Kids newspapers Online. News sources are available in ample with sites like :

Moreover,
Pluck (RSS),
Newsgator,
Newspaper archive, etc.

The most common example is google search with the keywords 'net newspaper for kids' and viola, the results roll down with information.

I guess in time to come, these new search of Blogs and online journalism may step down many website owners who may lag behind with their daily updates and no need to web consult for web design! Coz, anybody can go for their own Blogs and even promote it. Any ideas?

-ilaxi