Multiple Language Sites Done Right

Over the past year the Foremost Media team has completed over a half dozen multi language website development projects. At the start of each of these projects one of the most common questions we receive is "Should we build the site with all the languages on the same domain or you use local domains for each language (example.de, example.it,example.nl, etc.)?"

Google's Matt Cutts answers how webmasters should handle local content of a website.

One message that we got loud and clear form this video is that if your thinking about going the easy route and using an auto-translation tool to generate your translation websites Google might consider that spam.

According to Matt (Google) when ever possible, it's best to put your translated content on separate domains localized domains. Doing this sends a clear message to the search engines about what language/country your website is targeted at.

QR Codes Have Come Of Age

So how is your company using QR Codes?  Do you know what a QR Code is?  I recently read an article about how over half of the connections made to the internet on any given day in 2012 will be on a mobile device.  We have been using QR Codes in our written proposals for the last few months.  Below is an example of one of the little graphics we use in our presentations:

The time has come to take another look at these unique codes.  Your going to be seeing a lot of these guys!

SEO Basics Episode 1 Keword Research | Foremost Media

SEO Basics Episode 1 Key Word Research | Foremost Media


Tune in and watch the Foremost Media team as we break down the steps involved in getting your site to rank well on the search engines. In this episode we discuss keyword research. Key word research is one of the first steps in the search engine optimization process and is often overlooked by webmasters. Jon Ballard breaks down some of the keyword basics and provides links to several tools used by our professional Search Engine Marketers to do Keyword Research.

How to take a screenshot

This only works on Windows XP /Vista and 7.

Step 1:

Look on your keyboard for the Prt Scrn key. It will usually be in the top row

Step 2.

Go to the screen which you'd like to capture. Click the Prt Scrn.. Now, you have captured the image.

Open Paint. You can find MS Paint in the Accessories folder, usually under Programs. Its icon will look like an artist's palate.

Once in Microsoft Paint, Just press control+v or paste..Now you'll see that the image appears.

Crop The image if you want, by using the crop button. Now, save picture. Done!

Enjoy!

How to make money online!

1. Selling stuff on Ebay:

You can sell whatever you want on Ebay.. if you have a bunch of stuff that you don't necessarily need but others want and are willing to pay extremely inflated prices for, you can auction off the items on eBay or other online auction sites

Don't worry it's safe, and someone will definitely buy your crap. :P

2.Designing and selling t-shirts:

Think you can come up with funky, fancy designs on clothes? well, then this is for you.

You can create your own store of t-shirts, etc and sell them online.

just go to:

http://www.spreadshirt.com/

40 years of hacking and being hacked!

Computer viruses are now 40 years old! The first computer virus, called The Creeper, was unleashed upon humanity 40 years ago. The Creeper was relatively simple, and all it did was show a message, "I'm the creeper, catch me if you can!". It would then move itself to another computer, continuing to irritate and annoy others. Of course, viruses have become much more advanced now, with some even able to cause damage to computer hardware. Earlier viruses were simply annoyances, but newer ones are made with actual crimes in mind. In 1990, there were 1,300 viruses. Now, there are over 200 million viruses. I can't even imagine how many there will be by 2050.

Stick Your iPad to your Fridge! Woah!

It's true! Now with this magnetic smart iPad cover, you can stick your iPad to your Fridge~!!
Facetime while cooking ;)

It seems like everything is help up by magnets on the flap of the smart cover. It'l Cling On to your refrigerator like a spider monkey on a tree branch.

Disclaimer: Do NOT try this at home, as maybe your refrigerator is not that magnetic friendly. Be careful as you may break your iPAD.

Have a Google Adwords campaign? Beware of "Invalid Clicks" or "Click Fraud"

Recently we had a client who we run a large Adwords campaign for that asked us, "Why are all of these credits to my account appearing on my statement for Google Adwords as "Invalid Clicks"? An "Invalid Click" is defined by Google as:

"Invalid click activity consists of any clicks or impressions that may artificially inflate an advertiser's costs or a publisher's earnings, and for which we decide not to charge the advertiser. This includes, but is not limited to, clicks or impressions generated by a publisher clicking on his own ads, a publisher encouraging clicks on his ads, automated clicking tools or traffic sources, robots, or other deceptive software"

So since we clearly aren't going through and clicking on our own ads to run our cost up, what does this mean? Clearly there are certainly going to be instances that people click the ads and accidentally double click them or maybe they click the ad and then bookmark your page, meaning the cookie that Google puts into their browser on that page turns into a "click" each time they go back to your page.

But then there's the darker side of it all. Our client sat down with us and went over his Adwords invoice and there were typical "invalid click" credits to his account for $.10-.60 at a time.  These are obviously from the innocent double clicks or something of that nature. Then we spotted a few credits that seemed extremely suspicious to us. Two credits between $100-150; a considerable amount of money especially considering daily budgets are rarely set any higher than $50-100/day.

This meant that someone, more than likely a competitor, was purposely going and clicking our clients ads hundreds even thousands of times in order to reach their daily budget, thus shutting down the ads for the day.  They could have been doing so in many ways: paying someone to sit there and click the ads (Yes, there are companies out there that pay people to do this), sitting there themselves and doing it, or paying for a bot to go through and automatically click the ads until they don't appear anymore.

The client was very upset by this (and rightfully so) and wanted to know what action he could take to figure out who it was and take further action if necessary. Google offers little help on this end due to privacy laws in finding out who or what (bots) was causing the invalid clicks. Basically we were left with the following answer from Google (This is only a synopsis of what Google sent us):

"WHO IS CLICKING ON YOUR ADS : We are not able to release any information on the users that are clicking on your ads. However, if you have access to your site's web logs, they will often contain information on the IP addresses of the users that are clicking on your ads. You can obtain this information from your webmaster. 

HOW GOOGLE DEALS WITH INVALID CLICKS : The security of AdWords advertisers is a top priority for Google. Please be assured that we will continue to monitor all clicks on your ads to prevent abuse. For more information about the steps we take to combat invalid click activity, please visithttp://www.google.com/adwords/adtrafficquality/overview..html"

HTC Wildfire Review

It's a perfect starter phone. What do people want in a good phone?

Good Looks, Basic Features, Touch Screen, Net Facility, etc.

Okay, Basic Features:

The Phone is amazing, with a capacitive screen of 3.2 inches. it looks smoking-hot, just like a

mini neXus One

It has Bluetooth 2.1, supports, 3G, GPRS/Edge, has an amazing music player and the screen has pinch-to-zoom facility.

Advanced Features.

it has an amazing 5mp camera, with video recording at 240p.

screen resolution is about 240x 320 pixels, which is kinda low, but still supports all the cool apps of android.

CPU: it has a 528 MHz ARM 11 processor, Adreno 200 GPU, Qualcomm MSM7225 chipset

Batter life is up to 480 hours..

so, its a very good phone, a lot of people own it, and the love it...i recommend that you get one ..

Price: in India, it's about Rs. 16,000.

Top Android Apps.

Android Apps - The BEST.

Hey Guys! I'm here to tell you about the best android apps i own.

k..here goes.

5.SPB TV:

spb tv, is an awesome tv app for android. it's free on the market. you can watch live television over wifi/3g/gprs/edge!

it's got a lot of channels, programs to offer. Hope you like it.

you can download it from:

https://market.android.com/details?id=com.spb.tv.am

4. ShopSavvy Barcode Scanner:

Shop savvy is a barcode scanner. you can scan barcodes

over products such as groceries, items, games, books, etc..it gives an exact detail about the price, review and where the product's available!

3.Google Maps:

It's a MUST-HAVE app. Scared of getting lost? well don't be anymore with Google Maps.

it supports GPS to save you from getting lost. in the new update, it also got street view, so you can see perfectly where you are going.

2.Go! Chat Facebook:

GO! Chat is the ultimate chat application for android..

you can send images, files and even videos to your friends over chat!..you can create different chat lists for you

r friends,etc

There is a free version to this app, but i suggest that you buy it from the market.

TRUST ME..it's worth it.

1.ADW Launcher EX:

What makes ADW different?
It's highly customizable, almost in every aspect you can think of
-Hundreds of themes to enjoy!
-Screens editor to add,remove and swap your desktop screens.
-Icons editor to create your own customized shortcuts or edit existing ones
-Customizable main dock with support for fixed shortcuts from 0 to 5.
-Customizable hidden dockbar easy to trigger with support for unlimited icons with scroll. Just swipe up your finger over the main dock to reveal the hidden one, swipe down to return to the main one!

for more info: go to:

http://www.androidpolice.com/2010/12/24/adw-launcher-ex-finally-released-transitions-to-a-whole-new-dimension/

Sony PSP 2: The Next Generation Portable.

As the title says, i'm here to tell you about the NGP..

At the Sony Computer event at Tokyo, company CEO Kaz Hirai announced the PlayStation Portable 2 game console codenamed NGP. Looks like NGP stands for Next-Generation PlayStation. Packing a 5-inch OLED screen, this new generation PSP game console is curvaceous at its corners. This handheld game console has touchscreen on the front panel and two touchpads on its back panel. Hirai noted that this NGP game console would be released in Japan by year-end.

Kaz Hirai, told that the NGP will offer five new features:
- Revolutionary User Interface.
- Social Connectivity.
- Location-based Entertainment.
- Converging Real and Virtual (augmented reality).
- PlayStation Suite Compatibility.

PlayStation Portable 2 game console offers a 5-inch OLED touchscreen supporting 960x544 pixel resolution which is four times that of the current generation PSP. On the body, NGP carries dual-analog sticks - one on each side of the screen. The action buttons and D-pad have been pushed higher to accommodate the analog sticks. Guess what? These dual-analog sticks promise you DualShock experience just like the ones in DualShock controllers for PS3.

Just above the Action buttons, lies a front facing camera. Another camera lies on the top center at the back of the console. At the back, there are twin-touch pads that will let you interact with the console more effectively and enjoy the gameplay of the upcoming games for the same. Sony seems to have brought back Flash Cards for the game as the NGP will accommodate one. Physically, NGP is larger than the PSP3000.

Internally, Sony's new NGP game console is claimed to come with a faster processor but details of the same aren't divulged as yet. Also, the game console will have motion sensors and gyro sensor to add more fun while gaming as you can tilt and move the NGP game console as you play different interactive games. The shoulder buttons continue to exist but have been sliced to appear more lean.

Specifications:
- CPU: ARM Cortex -A9 core (4 core)
- GPU: SGX543MP4 (4 core)
- Dimensions: 182mm x 18.6mm x 83.5mm (Widthxheightxdepth)
- Screen: 5-inch OLED capacitive, 16:9 aspect ratio, 960x544 pixel resolution
- Touchpads: Capacitive
- Cameras: Front and rear
- Sound: Built in stereo speaker with grills on front and built-in mic
- Sensor: three-axis accelerometer, three-axis gyroscopic sensor and three-axis compass
- Location: Built-in GPS
- Wireless: 3G Network, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n (infra and Ad Hoc) and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR

As you can see, the NGP sports a quad-core ARM Cortex-A9 based powerful CPU and quad-core SGX543MP4 powerful GPU to support high quality graphics.

New NGP will also sport a totally different and fresh user interface that will carry circular icons arranged in a honeycomb-like grid style. In NGP, you have to swipe the display to browse between different home pages for app shortcuts, just like you do in Android smartphones. Once a game gets installed, it appears as an app icon (just like in smartphones) and users need to swipe through the different homescreens for accessing the game or app they wish to use.

The NGP game console also supports 3G Networks and I wonder how it is going to work for countries like India. We hope the Wi-Fi version will work like a charm as always.

Sony NGP brings a new LiveArea UI which is dubbed as game-oriented communication platform. Basically, it's a User Interface that will let you multi-task while you are gaming. You will be able to comment on or track your friends' activities in real-time. The Near App offers you the list of most popular games near your area. Not only that, users can also browse the nearby users based on map of avatars. Once you tap on a particular avatar, you can see the games that that particular user plays. And of course, you can rate the games.

Sony indeed has introduced a true successor to PlayStation Portable and has also raised the bar of portable gaming for rival Nintendo as well as fiercely popular Apple iOS platfrom. As of now, the official price of the gaming console hasn't been announced but we may expect it to be announced at the Game Developers Conference starting February 28.

How secure are your passwords?

Hackers are getting more sophisticated all the time.   Let's look at a few common passwords and the maximum time it would take a hacker to figure out each password using a simple key search attack:

Passwords using just numbers (0123456789):

• 2-4 number passwords etc: Less then 1 Second
• 5-6 number passwords:  About 10 seconds
• 7 number passwords: 17 Minutes 

Passwords using the standard alphabet all lower case or all upper case (abcdefghijklmnopqurstuvwxyz):

• 3 letter passwords: Less then 2 Seconds
• 4 letter passwords:  Less then 46 Seconds
• 5 letter passwords: 20 Minutes
• 6 letter passwords: 8.5 Hours
• 7 letter passwords: 9 days

Passwords using a combination of numbers and letters all upper case and all lower case or all upper case ( 0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqurstuvwxyz):

• 3 character passwords or less: 4 Seconds or less
• 5 character passwords: 1.5 Hours

 Passwords using letters and numbers with mixed upper and lower case combinations:

• 4 characters: 24.5 Minutes
• 5 characters: 1 Day
• 7 characters: 11 Years

Below is a list of some of the most common passwords used on the internet:

• 123456
• 12345
• pass
• iloveyou
• password
• abc123 

By avoiding common passwords and using a combination of letters and numbers in both upper and lower case you can greatly reduce your risk of getting hacked.  Throw in a unusual character like a $ or ! and your odds are even less of being hacked.  Most experts recommend a minimum of 7 characters as well.

Learn more about password strength here