A common problem with video chatting using tablets is shaky video. Now Google has selected SRI International to embed its video stabilization software inside the Google Talk app in Android 3.0 devices, promising to smooth out those jittery video transmissions from front-facing cameras on Android smartphones and tablets.

The Menlo Park-based nonprofit SRI International, formerly associated with Stanford University and responsible for the invention of the computer mouse in 1964, has been working on this stabilization software since the early 1990s. Now, Android tablets are fast enough to allow the software to perform its magic in real time.

The software works by identifying the user’s face, stabilizing that video before it’s compressed for transmission. There’s an added benefit to that steady shot — the video is easier to compress because there’s less movement involved, making the picture look sharper with less video noise.

So far, this video stabilization is only available for Google Talk with Android 3.0 installed. There are stabilization apps for the iPhone and iPad (such as SteadyCam Pro, which we favorably reviewed), but they don’t yet work in real time, a necessity for live chatting.

I’m a blogger now but in a former life I did SEO professionally. As a part of the industry I’ve seen first hand the insane amount of misleading information available. Even so-called “professionals” have been known to give out absolutely terrible advice.

That’s why I’m writing this article. I want to finally teach you bloggers the truth behind SEO and how to rank well in Google. Some of the following information might be obvious and some of it might seem strange, but stick with me. If you follow my advice you’ll be ranking number one in no time.

The information I’m going to give is specific to Google, but the same tips will also help you rank in Bing and all other search engines.

Meta tags

Meta tags are a part of the HTML of your page that appear in the header. There are hundreds to choose from but only two matter when it comes to HTML: the Title tag and the Description tag.

Some people talk about the Keywords meta tag but Google has made it clear that they completely ignore it. It doesn’t hurt to have a keywords tag, but don’t assume it will help you rank in Google.

The Description tag

This is what Google (sometimes) uses to describe your site in the search results. It’s shown in the screenshot below.

This does not effect your rankings, but it can be used to help entice people to click on your link in the search results. Make sure it is relevant to your site, and describes what people will find when they click your link.

As you can see in the screenshot, the term that was searched for will show up in bold in the results. You can use this to help get more clicks—but don’t abuse it.

The Title tag

The Title tag is (sometimes) used by Google as the main text of your link within the search results, as seen in the screenshot below:

The words used here have been proven to help with rankings. Basically, the closer the keywords are to the left edge of the link, the better the result will rank for those keywords. For example, Geek Juice: Canadian Tech News won’t rank as well as Canadian Tech News by Geek Juice for the term “Canadian Tech News.”

“Sometimes”?

In both instances I said that Google sometimes uses these tags. This is because they sometimes use other sources. Google may display content from your site instead of your chosen description or title tag if Google’s algorithm believes it is more relevant. Google may also use content from DMOZ (the open directory project.)

Keywords

The tips I’ve seen online for on page SEO range from ill-conceived to downright frightening. People tout keyword densities and other strange points of data as the be-all and end-all of SEO. In reality Google hasn’t used keyword density in years. Stuffing a million keywords at the bottom of your page won’t help; some believe Google actually penalizes sites for this.

As long as you mention a chosen keyword once or twice within a blog post, you’ll be fine. The important thing is that the rest of the post is about that keyword. Google has figured out a lot of very complex ways to make sure your post is about the keyword you’ve chosen. For example if you’re talking about the keyword “Toronto Raptors” you’ll probably mention basketball and scores and various other basketball related information.

The best thing you can do when it comes to keywords is simply talk about the things you love.

Building links

Google first built its search engine on the idea of page rank: a page was probably relevant if a lot of people linked to that page. The more links to that page, the better. Early in Google’s life this approach was easily spammed, and to this day people continue to try and gain PageRank.

You’ve probably heard advice such as putting your link into blog comments and forums, and within your profile on social networking sites. The problem is that these days these links are all marked as “no follow” links. “No follow” tells Google not to use this link within its determination of the site’s ranking. So in the end, these links count for very little.

The only real way to build links is to create great content that sites want to naturally link to. The issue is that if you are a new blogger, your chances of getting a link are slim to none. There are ways to build them though…

Guest posts

Guest posts (such as this one) will almost always produce a really high-quality link to your site. Don’t guest post just anywhere, though. Google likes it when sites that are similar to yours links to you. So guest post on blogs that have similar themes.

Contests

Running a contest where you give something away is a great way to naturally product lots of links.

Viral content

If a single post or image of yours somehow gets to the first page of Reddit or Digg, you are guaranteed to get tons of links pointing to your site.

Social signals

Both Google and Bing have admitted to using social signals within search results. This is getting more and more prevalent.

However, it’s still a brand new part of SEO, and it hasn’t been thoroughly studied yet. What I can suggest, though, is that you make sure you have a Twitter and Facebook account and that you interact with your followers regularly.

Ultimately, all this advice amounts to one tip for achieving good search rank: create great, high-quality posts and interact with your readers regularly.

Are you doing this already? How’s your search rank looking?

The concept of making money online through websites and blogs is no longer new, but only to those that have been exposed to this industry for some time now.

The last time I checked, there are somewhere around five websites and blogs created every two minutes, which equates to millions more with each passing year. Google has been around since the nineties and the web is ultra saturated today, so it must be true that the train has left the platform, and it is too late for you to seize the lost opportunity to make money online – right?

Absolutely not. The facts remain the facts, and there is no denying that, but the good news is that for the vast majority of humans that live on this planet, the internet, and thus making money online is still an “industry” in its infancy. I am a practical example of this statement. I have several niche websites in all kinds of niche markets, which are all making very good money for me on a passive and residual basis.

That said, for those of us who are exposed to the internet in a way not many others are (from an income generation perspective that is), many of us may initially feel that the web is super saturated with blogs and websites that teach us internet marketing and how to make money online. Because of this saturation, it is natural for many aspiring webpreneurs to have doubts and second thoughts of making money online, often thinking that there must be tons of others who are doing the same thing.

As a reminder, we (the ones who think of the internet from an income generation perspective) have a slightly skewed view of the broader macrocosm. Truth is, the majority of people, who are web surfers, do not view the web as an income generating platform. These hundreds of millions of web surfers still have a need to be fulfilled, and the internet is the best channel available today in terms of reach, ease of entry and low cost experimentation for an aspiring entrepreneur to fulfill that need.

The Key To Success With Online Business

Given the (what seems like) apparent saturation in the online space, the simplest key to success in my experience has been to stray away from the “make money online” and “internet marketing” niche. You will find one guru after another preaching the next best hidden secret, which does not exist. Rather, spend your time pursuing a niche where you can successfully fill in a void in the marketplace.

“But Sunil, you have a blog on entrepreneurship and personal finance that teaches how to make money online as well.” That statement is true, but my blog is not my bread and butter. In fact, I am brand new to blogging and thus my blog is merely an experiment that makes me less than a couple hundred bucks a month. It totally sucks from a profitability perspective.

“What a failure,” you might think? Not necessarily, because income is not the motive behind my blog, at least not right now. My blog is a journal recollecting my accomplishments, failures, experiences in entrepreneurship and lessons learned throughout the processes and my overall journey. It is also a place where I can rant and rave openly and freely, while entertaining and helping others at the same time.

Most modern high end photo editing and manipulation programs have a tool, or set of them, along with some techniques that allow users to create what looks like multiple instances of the same person in a single defined space, hence the name cloning. GIMP, the free, open source program allows users to do the same, without having to lay down a penny, and it’s not that difficult.

To begin, you first need two photographs of the same person, in this case, for example purposes, we’re using two photographs of a stuffed toy rabbit; this one:

And this one:

Note how the background and lighting must be exactly the same for both pictures, the only thing different in the two images is the location of the subject.

Open both pictures using the File and then Open command from the main menu, so you have them both, like this:

Chose one or the other of them to serve as the base, or background picture, in this case, we’ll use the one on the left, so make the one on the right active, then choose the Edit, and then the Copy command to copy the entire photograph to the clipboard:

Then, make the other picture the active one by clicking on it, then click choose the Edit and then Paste commands to copy the other photograph into this session:

Next, look over at your layers pane and note that something has been added:

Right click where it says Floating Selection (Pasted Layer) to get this dropdown:

Click on New Layer to convert the picture you pasted in to an actual layer:

Now you have one picture you’re working on with two layers.

Note how if you move the opacity slider, you can move slowly between the two layers:

Move the slider all the way back to the right again, the click once again on Pasted Layer to get this dropdown again:

This time, choose Add Layer Mask, you should get this popup:

Stick with the default of White (full opacity), by simply clicking the Add button. This should cause yet another change to the Layer pane:

Note how a white tile was added between the image and the word Pasted Layer, this is your Layer Mask. Click on that white tile, indicating you wish to work on your Layer Mask instead of the pasted in picture; then move over to your Toolbox pane and select your Paintbrush Tool, by clicking on it:

Then, use your paint brush to paint the area where the bunny was in the background picture:

Note: You might want to move your opacity slider as mentioned above slightly to allow you to see the image you are painting as you paint so you can see all of your borders.

Keep this up till you have the whole clone part painted:

And that’s all there is to it; in addition to the appearance of cloning, this technique can also be used to add other objects or people to a photograph. Also, by adding more layers and masks, more than one object can be added.

The search engines are hungry for vertical search content. The representation of content types beyond the traditional webpage in the SERPs seems to grow on a daily basis. In many cases it is actually easier to rank for a vertical channel like video for a given keyphrase than it is to rank a traditional webpage for the same keyphrase. Are you still trying to compete in the SERPs with traditional webpages alone? Have you given other mediums the attention they deserve?

I came across this handy Google page of 36 tools for submitting different content types. I merged a few and eliminated others to come up with a list of 21 interesting content types for your consideration. Take a look and try to think outside the box. Hopefully by the end of this read you'll have a hit list of a few new channels to explore.

 

 

 

1. Webmaster Tools (link)

In Google's Words: "Google Webmaster Tools provides you with detailed reports about your pages' visibility on Google. To get started, simply add and verify your site and you'll start to see information right away."

My Take: If you aren't already registered with Google Webmaster Tools get on over there and get it done. Use it to do things like diagnose crawling issues, upload sitemaps, and obtain another perspective of linking metrics.

2. Gadgets (link)

In Google's Words: "Building a gadget that people will want to see everyday requires thoughtful planning. Our 3-step process – Create, Promote, and Track & Optimize – will guide you through all the steps needed to make your gadget a success."

My Take: What we're talking about here are gadgets for iGoogle homepages. Promotion of a gadget is up to you. If done right your fans will install your gadget and you could get some nice direct referral traffic out of the deal.

3. RSS & FeedBurner (link)

In Google's Words: "If you have a website, blog, audio/video content, or even photos, you can offer a feed of your content as an option. If you are using a popular blogging platform or publishing tool like TypePad, Wordpress, or Blogger, you likely publish a feed automatically... FeedBurner's services allow publishers who already have a feed to improve their understanding of and relationship with their audience. Once you have a working feed, run it through FeedBurner and realize a whole new set of benefits."

My Take: If you take a look up at the top right hand corner of this webpage you can see that SEOmoz has 90K+ FeedBurner subscribers.

4. Blog Search (link)

In Google's Words: "The Google Blog Search Pinging Service is a way to inform Google Blog Search of weblog updates. These updates are then published and shared with other search engines to allow them to discover the changes to your weblogs. In addition, Google Blog Search will add submitted weblogs to the list of blogs it needs to crawl and index."

My Take: If you aren't on one of the major blogging platforms this is probably worth a look.

5. Subscribed Links (link)

In Google's Words: "Subscribed Links let you create custom search results that users can add to their Google search pages. You can display links to your services for your customers, provide news and status information updated in near-real-time, answer questions, calculate useful quantities, and more."

My Take: Hmm. This one looks like it has died a slow death. In order to make it work, you'd have to create something interesting and useful, inspire 'subscriptions' and hope that your users browse the web while logged in once and a while. I wasn't able to find a quality implementation example worth sharing here and it seems that most of the original adopters have abandoned their submissions and allowed them to break including Search Engine Watch and Search Engine Roundtable.

6. Google Places (link)

In Google's Words: "97% of consumers search for local businesses online. Be there when they're looking for you with Google Places for business - a free local platform from Google. Help your business stand out. Add photos, videos, and offers to show customers why they'll want to choose you. Highlight special promotions, post live updates, and respond to reviews from your Places for business account."

My Take: If you have one or more brick and mortar locations, you really need to get on this... yesterday. If you haven't actively added you own listing, Google may have done so on your behalf - and incorrectly! The example below seems to display the home addresses of dentists in the 33556 zip code. If I were a dentist I sure wouldn't want crisis dental issues showing up on my doorstep in the middle of the night. How about you?

Really though, Google Places is an extremely important marketing channel for brick and mortars. Don't even finish this article. Head on over to Google Places and get started right now.

7. Rich Snippets for Local Search (link)

In Google's Words: "Beyond improving the presentation of your pages in search results, rich snippets also help users find your website when it references a local place. By using structured markup to describe a business or organization mentioned on your page, you not only improve the Web by making it easier to recognize references to specific places but also help Google surface your site in local search results."

My Take: Basically, Google wants to take your content and republish it on their pages. You'll want to decide where you stand on this issue before jumping on this bandwagon.

8. Base Map Partner Program (link)

In Google's Words: "We recognize that in order to provide our users with the best, most up-to-date map possible, we must partner with the most comprehensive and authoritative data sources. If your organization has authoritative vector data that would substantially improve the base map in Google Maps and Google Earth, we would like to hear from you."

My Take: Does Google have your cities critical infrastructure like hospitals misrepresented? This is how you'd go about getting this type of thing fixed up.

9. Imagery Partner Program (link)

In Google's Words: "Does your organization have higher resolution or more current aerial imagery than we currently offer on Google Earth? Would you like citizens of your jurisdiction to benefit from your imagery when navigating on Google Maps or their mobile phone? Do you have historical imagery to share?"

"Through our Imagery Partner Program, you can make your imagery useful to residents of your community, professionals in the private sector and local governments."

My Take: No sense reinventing the wheel right? If you recently painted a giant logo on the roof of your office building, perhaps you can lobby to have local resources redo areal imagery and submit the updates to Google. Just kidding! Kinda...

10. Transit Partner Program (link)

In Google's Words: "Currently over 500 cities world wide make their information available in Google Maps. If you provide a transportation service that is open to the public, and operates with fixed schedules and routes, we welcome your participation."

My Take: If you are in command of this kind of data, you're looking at a no-brainer here.

11. Street View (link)

In Google's Words: "If you manage a unique property, such as a park, pedestrian mall, or university campus, you can request for the Street View team to visit your location. With the Street View Partner Program, we can visit your property and collect imagery using a car, trike, or even snowmobile. Once the images are added to Street View, people all over the world will be able to explore your property virtually."

My Take: If you can convince the Google Street View team to visit your location, which is going to be the difficult part, I can't see why you wouldn't go for it!

12. SketchUp (link), 3D Warehouse (link) & Cities in 3D (link)

In Google's Words: "With Google's Cities in 3D Program, your local government, community group, or educational institution can share this 3D data with the public by adding a model of your city or community to Google Earth."

My Take: Looking to promote your city or physical landmarks? Learn how some are using this (paid) tool to build and then showcase their landmarks and cities with 3D models shared with Google Earth.

13. KML (link) &  KML Gallery (link)

In Google's Words: "KML is a file format used to display geographic data in an Earth browser, such as Google Earth, Google Maps, and Google Maps for mobile. You can create KML files to pinpoint locations, add image overlays, and expose rich data in new ways."

My Take: You know how all us Search Marketers keep talking about how you should publish quality and link-worthy content? Check out what geodesicdev.com has done with KML and Google Earth. If only they had a Search Marketer supporting the effort.

14. YouTube (link)

In Google's Words: "YouTube allows billions of people to discover, watch and share originally-created videos. YouTube provides a forum for people to connect, inform, and inspire others across the globe and acts as a distribution platform for original content creators and advertisers large and small."

My Take: YouTube can be an excellent marketing avenue if you have the right kind of content. There are also some nice links to be had if you're able to secure yourself a YouTube Channel. You can apply for one here.

15. Video Search (link)

In Google's Words: "Are you a content publisher? Video Sitemaps are the best way to tell Google about your online videos so that they can be included in search results."

My Take: Take this bull by the horns. It is often easier to rank in the search results with a video than it is to rank with a traditional webpage. You have a Flip, right? See what you can whip up. You might be the next weblebrity! Be sure to submit a video sitemap, host or at least embed your videos on your own site, and see what you can do about transcribing the content to provide more contextual relevance.

Oh, and try to avoid risking your life.

16. News (link)

In Google's Words: "If you'd like your news site or blog to be included in Google News, please send us the URL and we'll be happy to review it. Please note, however, that we can't guarantee we'll be able to include your site in Google News."

"Hey, I know you!"

My Take: Once you get passed the approval barrier for inclusion in Google News, be sure that you're submitting a sitemap in the correct format for news. News sitemaps will help you bypass some bizarro nuances with this vertical, as outlined in the third paragraph here.

17. News Archive Search (link)

In Google's Words: "News archive search provides an easy way to search and explore historical archives. Users can search for events, people or ideas and see how they have been described over time. In addition to searching for the most relevant articles for their query, users can also see a historical overview of the results by browsing an automatically generated timeline."

"If you're a content provider with historical content that would be a good fit in News archive search, we'd be interested to hear about it. We're looking for all the world's primary sources, and the older, the better."

My Take: With all this focus on the fresh web and what is happening this instant, lets not loose sight of historical value. If you are a primary source of some dusty old content... goodie!

18. Book Search Partner Program (link) & Magazines (link)

In Google's Words: "You'd sell a lot more books if a lot more people knew about them. We can help make that happen."

My Take: First, you'll need to have qualifying content. Next, you'll need to decide what side of the fence you're on with this one.

19. Scholar (link)

In Google's Words: "Google Scholar provides a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature. From one place, you can search across many disciplines and sources: articles, theses, books, abstracts and court opinions, from academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities and other web sites."

My Take: If I was scholarly, I'd totally been up in there.

20. Panoramio (link)

In Google's Words: Google really doesn't say much about Panoramio but I will.

My Take: In the example above each of the images displayed in the SERPs for a location name are pulled from Panoramio. Commercial buildings, such as one owned by Cola-Cola are included. Consider photographing your physical buildings and optimizing the tags in Panoramio with location names. I'd love to see what the smart readers of this blog can make happen. Go, go, go! :D

21. Google Product Search - Base (link) & Product Reviews (link)

In Google's Words: "Google Product Search helps shoppers find and buy products across the web. As a seller, you can submit your products to Google Product Search, allowing shoppers to quickly and easily find your site."

The easiest way create a product page. Files, Links, tangible goods anything.

See Example

Create

Sell digital content like a link, a file, a special blog post, a PDF report or tangible goods like an old book, a CD.

Share

Share a link just like you would share any other link.

Make Money

It's easy to make money and we will transfer the money you have made right to you.

Find Out when Facebook Friends Delete You

Posted on April 22, 2011 at 6:17 am

Many people pride themselves on the number of Facebook friends they collect, so when that number decreases without any warning, they obviously want to know why. Facebook does not notify its members when friends delete them, shielding the frienemy in infuriating anonymity.

Who.deleted.me seeks to change the anonymous nature of the Facebook friend delete.

Who.deleted.me tracks your friends list, and sends an email notifying you when any friend is added or removed. To start using the service, click the Login with Facebook button on the left side of the homepage.

You will be prompted to allow the app access to your Facebook account. Click Allow and Use.

You will now receive an email when friends delete or add you. Besides email notification, Who.deleted.me keeps a running list of new and deleted friends on their Web site. Use the labels in the top-right of the tab to view this list by day, week or month.

Click the Graph tab to view your friend activity in a more visual manner.

Who.deleted.me is a good idea—most of us want to know when we are deleted. The service is still relatively new at just 150 days old with just 33,000 members, but we expect this number will grow as word of the service spreads. So, deleters beware: your days of unfriending in silence are over!

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