Google Released Page Speed for Firefox

Google just released a Firefox/Firebug add-on called Pagespeed. It is basically a tool that will help you improve the loading performance of your website. After you run it, you will see a list with all the factors that would make your site load faster, with an image illustrating whether or not your website checks for each.

There are some similar plugins available for Firefox, but this one seems to be more robust. It checks for a wide range of optimization steps, including proxy caching, DNS lookups, CSS combination, Javascript loading and parallel downloads. Worth a try.

86% of teenagers involve in Internet hacking out of curiosity

A new survey published by Panda Security shows that hacking on occasion is something natural for teen Internet users like downloading music from a website. Panda Security composed a report based on the poll of over 4,000 15 to 18 year-olds. The report revealed that nearly one in five of them have the knowledge to use 'advanced' Internet-distributed hacking tools. Of that group, nearly a third claimed to have used them on at least one occasion.
The survey further says that 2/3 of the group admitted they had actually succeeded in hacking instant messaging or social network accounts of people known to them, with% saying that they published embarrassing photographs or videos of acquaintances on the Internet.
While among the reasons there were mischief-making and competition with their peer group, other substantial motivation for them was that trying out hacking appears to be curiosity, with 86 percent citing that as the point from which their involvement started.

The most downloaded program ever

DescriptionWhat would your guess be? Which is the most, officially, downloaded program on the web? The first name that probably comes to mind is ICQ, and rightly so since it was the most downloaded program for a long time. On Friday however, all that changed and a new popular champion stands at the top. Reaching 100 million downloads in August, 2002 and then jumping on to 200 million on March 11th, 2003 Kazaa Media Desktop has now reached the staggering 230 million plus, mark which makes it officially the most downloaded free program on the web. All these figures are as measured by Download.com, which is owned by CNET Networks Inc. Sharman Networks have done a good job of convincing users that Spyware, the controversial "funding" mechanism used by Kazaa's previous owners, is out and arranging a variety of licenses for offering legitimate downloads, they seem to have overcome the last hurdles in their way. The greatest hurdle, of course, is still to come and has to do with a little known organization called the RIAA. Kazaa is facing a variety of law suites regarding the use of its service. The news of the record set by Kazaa will certainly strengthen record label resolve to throw everything they've got at Sharman. There is hope for Kazaa however, since Record labels suffered a setback in April when a federal judge decided that similar networks, Grokster and Morpheus, could not be shut, claiming that they had no control over what is traded on them. In order to better place themselves for their time in front of the Judge, Sharman have entered into a partnership with a company called Altnet, in order to provide a variety of content including, music, movies, games and software

Why is Search Engine Optimization Potentially the Lifeblood of Your Online Business?

When you are working on building traffic to your website, search engine optimization is one of the strongest tools that you could use. This technique works around the way that search engines are built to operate and knowing how to do this can help you gain visitors. When someone is running a search on a search engine, they type in certain words called "keywords," into the engine. The search engine will then go out and look for all of the websites which have those keywords. The websites that feature those keywords more often are considered to be more relevant to the search and will appear higher up on the list of results.

The higher up on the list that a website is, the more likely it is to be looked at by a person on the Internet. Therefore, you want to put your website as close to the top of that list as is possible, a tactic that often relies on using keywords as much as possible on your website. This can come from writing specific articles using the search engine optimization techniques to simply including that text in your descriptions or headers.

How Else Does This Work?

Many search engines will also place a great deal of importance on the number of other websites which link to your website. Establishing yourself as a reliable authority on the topic can go a long way toward doing that. Link sharing can also be an important way to gain links as many people will place a link to your website on theirs if you agree to do the same. Taking a smart approach to search engine optimization can help you gain a good place on the results list.

Microsoft Confirms IE8 Can be Removed from Windows 7

Microsoft's Windows 7 development team yesterday confirmed that users will be able to remove Internet Explorer 8, as well as several other Microsoft applications, from Windows 7.
This appears to be a major step by the company in addressing the long standing anti-trust complaints of bundling their applications with Windows, and may account in part for the recent scaling back by the European Union in its monitoring of the software giant.
Following the recent findings by Chris Holmes and Bryant Zadegan that IE8 can be removed from Windows 7 build 7048, Jack Mayo, group program manager at Microsoft, confirmed that Windows 7 has expanded the number of Microsoft applications which can be turned off.
In a post on the Engineering Windows 7 blog Friday, Mayo explained: "In addition to the features that were already available to turn on or off in Windows Vista, we've added the following features to the list in Windows 7:"
Windows Media Player
Windows Media Center
Windows DVD Maker
Internet Explorer 8
Windows Search
Handwriting Recognition (through the Tablet PC Components option)
Windows Gadget Platform
Fax and Scan
XPS Viewer and Services (including the Virtual Print Driver)
Important to recognize is that while these applications can be turned off, meaning they are not loaded by the operating system or available for use, the files remain present on the hard disk in a staging area so that they can be easily turned back on again without the need to use installation media. This ability to turn applications on and off is available at both setup and post setup.
As we pointed out earlier this year, IE8 is definitely an important milestone, and this new policy of allowing their bundled applications to be turned off seems to be the right step by Microsoft in creating a more level playing field for third parties on the Windows platform

simple social networking strategies to increase traffic to your site

One essential aspect of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is social marketing. In simple terms, social marketing is an approach that makes use of ‘philosophy’ to pay attention to the specific needs of the target. This is done by gathering people with common interests, making it possible to create an interactive community. Through website technology including forums, blogs, outbound and inbound links, and social networking sites (Myspace, Facebook, Digg, etc.), social marketing becomes a convenient way to increase company gains.
In order to start right out in integrating social marketing strategies with SEO, a plan must be developed first. Moreover, there should be detailed research regarding the target’s needs, most especially since the approach is customer-oriented. It may also be helpful to consult with firms specializing in Internet Marketing. These firms will provide invaluable information and insights on how different approaches work together in maximizing company results. Once you have a better understanding of the various strategies, you can now employ the ones suitable for your needs.

Social marketing involves creating a community where people with shared interests come together to state opinions and ask questions. This can be done by setting up forums or discussion boards on your website. The key here is to generate interaction among the members of your target audience. A vast majority of consumers do online research before making any purchases; forums are helpful in providing information regarding customer inquiries.
Also consider setting up a blog that contains relevant posts that discuss the services and products that your company offers. The information that you will provide may be very well appreciated by your readers. Place links to other websites and blogs that relate to your blog content. Social networking sites including Facebook, Myspace, Digg, and many others might also have useful and interesting content that you can link to. Feature and subscribe to appropriate RSS feeds, so that your readers have a reason to frequently visit your site.
Moreover, it is necessary to keep the forum and blog posts updated and fascinating for people to read. Also remember to use optimized keywords or phrases naturally in your content and titles. Do not let your online community become sedentary; encourage readers to engage in discussions and exchange of fresh ideas and opinions. This way, search engines are more likely to index your site’s content, thus, increasing traffic.With an effective plan and strategies in place, integrating SEO and social marketing is not a difficult task.

How Exactly Does Ecommerce Work?

This has to be the most-frequently asked question I receive from 'newbie' clients. They know people are buying online and they know they have to accept credit cards if they want to stand a chance in all the net-based competition, but beyond that realization, most are clueless as to how it all works.
I can't blame them, really. It's a confusing online world out there and a lot of people who are trying to tell them how it works are really just trying to sell them their own solution. It's kinda hard to trust the validity of what they say when profit is a huge motivating force behind their persuasive suggestions.
And to be sure, there is profit in this Ecommerce game!
Money is to be made at many steps along the Ecommerce path.
With that in mind, let's take a walk along the path to Ecommerce, and take a look at the signs--or components--that are necessary to take part in the Ecommerce excitement and potential profits.
1. The Merchant Account:
This really is your first step towards Ecommerce, unless you have chosen to go through a payment facility and are willing to give up a rather large portion of your sales in fees. The up-front costs of a merchant account can be hefty for a small business, but the long-term savings can be substantial.
This is especially true if you are selling big ticket items. For instance, on the sale of a $300 product/service through a payment facility you could pay between $20-$45 dollars or more in fees. With your own merchant account it will probably cost you about $9. With the typical fees and equipment for a merchant account startup costing about$1,500, you can recoup that cost rather quickly.
A merchant account comes with a merchant identification number. That is about all it gets you. In order to process transactions you need either a terminal (the little box that you swipe your credit card through at retail outlets) or software that runs on your PC and will dial up the merchant via your modem, and then process the transaction and deposit the money into your bank account.
2. The Shopping Cart:
If you are selling just one or two items on your site you won't have much need for a shopping cart. A site with a variety of products should use the shopping cart system because it's the easiest way for your customers to shop. The easier it is to shop, the more they will spend, which is exactly the psychology supermarkets use, and exactly how shoppers are similar whether in a supermarket or scanning through your website. And the nice thing about electronic shopping carts is that the wheels never go square, and you don't have to send a clerk out after the store closes to round up all the carts that have been left scattered around the neighborhood. So shopping carts are good. But how will they work with your merchant account and the all-important ordering process?
If the orders placed on your site are to be processed with the customer's credit card as a sale through your PC or swipe/terminal, then there doesn't have to be any compatibility between your cart and your merchant account. The two will work completely independently, each doing their part of the job.
If, on the other hand, you would like all of your incoming orders to be automatically processed for you as the customer hits the submit button, you will need what is called "real time processing."
3. Real-Time Processing - Almost every website company I talk to would like to have their orders processed for them (the vision of the owner of a website company turning on the PC and then stretching out in a hammock, watching the orders get processed on the screen, comes to mind). However, most web company people, upon learning the cost involved, take my advice to wait until they have a steady flow of orders coming in before they use real-time processing. If you're on a tight budget the extra fees involved in real-time processing might be better used to aggressively advertise and drive customer traffic to your site. Processing a few orders per day doesn't take very long and until you find it to be more time-consuming to process the orders yourself than you like, you are probably better off processing suchorders manually.
If you are starting with a healthy budget and an aggressive promotion plan you will probably be better off implementing real-time processing right from the start. Changing order-processing methods can sometimes result in system hiccups and you don't want anything to slow down your momentum once you've started. You'll also save money, not having to set up your ordering system twice.
4. Web Hosting - The web host who is hosting your site can sometimes make a difference in how compatible your entire site and ordering system are with each other. I say "sometimes" because for those of us not using real-time processing, it doesn't matter who your host is or where your merchant account is located. They are independent of each other. Orders arrive and you process them. No interaction between the two is needed.
Problems can arise when you bring a shopping cart AND real-time processing into the picture. A shopping cart alone won't cause problems but the cart you choose to use must be compatible with your web host. Some carts are designed to run on certain types of servers, so when choosing one be cautious to make absolutely sure you can use it with your current host. Otherwise you had better be prepared to find a new one.
If you want a shopping cart AND real-time processing the three (cart, processing, and host) must work together well. Your shopping cart must be compatible with your host and the cart must be compatible with your payment processor. With all the different shopping carts, hosts and payment facilities out there, putting together the right team can be a real challenge. This is especially true for the newbie whodoesn't understand how it all works and how it all has to work together, or understands imperfectly but thinks he or she has it all under control when the decisions are finally made.
One Stop Shops -
The easiest way to find a compatible solution is to choose a provider who offers all you need under one roof. This is what I have done by partnering with Virtualis Systems. I am able to offer a great hosting solution along with a compatible shopping cart that works with almost any real time processor. I have even taken this a step further by partnering with a rock-solid merchant account provider, E-Commerce Exchange. Now I don't want to force MY "solution of choice" on you in this article so I have set up an autoresponder with details on the Ecommerce solution I recommend to all my clients. Please email our autoresponder at ecommerce@lrsmarketing.com for details.
Your Website Designer:
Asking your website designer to recommend a compatible solution is also a good idea. Most likely, he or she has successfully set up shopping carts and payment systems that have worked together for other clients and with that experience can confidently recommend one that will be right for your specific needs. There is also the added benefit that your designer is comfortable and familiar with the cartand payment processing configuration. This will result in less time spent setting up your site, thus saving you money in design costs.
Who to Choose
Choosing the right person for this task is perhaps the most important decision you can make (in Ecommerce, that is. Choosing a dentist, a pet, and which TV show to watch also rank high in importance). Nobody is an expert in all areas of Ecommerce because there are so many variables, depending on which configurations of hosts, carts, and merchants you choose. Find someone with whom you can talk to and who will listen to YOUR needs with understanding. A web designer who has created sites selling one product through mail order is NOT the best person to go to for Ecommerce advice. Just like a web designer trying to create a site that will sell and not just look good, with no marketing experience, a designer who doesn't know Ecommerce is going to be hard-pressed to juggle all the components that must fit together seamlessly and attractively to construct a truly effective Ecommerce site.
The Most Common Mistakes
I've had clients come to me who have been provided a shopping cart by their web host but who then have purchased another cart, not realizing they already have one. They've set themselves up with real time processing and then purchased a terminal even though they will never swipe one card. They've had SSL enabled on their web host server even though it's provided at their payment gateway. I have been on the sympathetic end of many, many more sad tales from earnest folks who have told me their own personal accounts of throwing hard-earned money away on these kinds of mistakes.
Why? Cutting through all the technical jargon, it's all because they simply didn't understand how each component can, should, and must work in conjunction with one another.
Ecommerce can appear simple (well, almost) once you understand how all the components work together. A merchant account allows you to accept credit cards, your web host shows your website to the world, your shopping cart helps your customers order easily and real-time processing processes the orders in real-time and approved transactions are credited to your merchant account. All are independent components but they all function together to make Ecommerce work. Find a designer or webmaster who can bring all these elements together on your site & watch Ecommerce work for you.
About the Author...Lisa Schmeckpeper

The Secret To Building A Profitable Website

Whether you plan to start your Website to add a bit of extra income or to become a multimillionaire, when you put a lot of effort into a project you want the best returns.
The Web is the newest gold rush and like the prospectors of old, there are plenty of people who are making a fortune in online business. Everyone wants to get in on the windfall profits, but most wind up a bit poorer for their venture into the online commerce world. What's the secret to the sites that actually can claim an amazing success?
The reality is that an successful online business is a combination of luck and work. You've probably heard the old saying, "Success is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration." That's the formula for making a good income from your web site. Millions of sites go live every day and only a few realize that it's a business. Online or off, running a profitable business is hard work.
Do Your ResearchThe Internet is a great big library. You don't have to actually sell anything to make a good income online. Many of the most successful sites are places where the only thing offered is good advice and it's given away for free. The sites make a good income from showing visitors ads that feature goods and service that others are selling.
Don't think that success is as easy as buying a domain name, putting up a site and running ads. Before you start, give some thought to the things you like to do.
Are you great in the kitchen? Think about starting a site that shares your cooking tips and recipes. Add a new tip or recipe every day whether anyone is coming to read them or not. Add a couple of links to sites that you like in every article.
Do you have kids? What about a spot online where parents can come for tips on kid's activities? Planning birthday parties and play dates takes an endless source of ideas - and you can help with that. Tips for getting kids to go to bed, eat their veggies or stop fighting with each other are great - even if they don't work so well for you. Look at how successful the TV show about Super Nanny is. Parent's are looking for good advice. Put up one small idea every day with links to sites that offer more information and watch as your advice starts to grow a following.
Is your lawn the picture of well groomed care? Do you think about it at least once a day? Planning the winter care, the best grass seeds, weed killers, fertilizer, water, pests... all of these are simple tips that anyone who has a lawn will be glad to read. Link to a few articles on each topic to add "expert" standing to your ideas and you'll earn the gratitude of countless homeowners.
This works for gardeners too. If you are into vegetable gardening and you preserve your own foods, you can combine the gardening and cooking recipes into a fantastic resource.
Is music your salvation? Make that the theme of your site. You can add a song a day - review it, add some info about the artist, tell people why it's good and where they can buy, dowload or listen to it. Link to a few other places that add more information and you'll see music lovers coming in to find out what you said today.
Are you into partying? How about a site based on what to wear, where to go and what to watch out for when you go clubbing. A daily dose of hot dances, music, fashions and insider advice is easy to put together. These are your strong points -- share them with the world. Add links to other sites that you find helpful and you've created a monster resource.
Get the idea? Start with what you know and love to talk about. Add one small piece of information every day. Add links to make your resource the best place to find out everything on your topic. Keep your site simple. Make it easy for your visitors to find things. Don't add tons of flashing lights and dancing graphics. Just fill it with one page a day, every day, and when you have hundreds of pages of great advice, you'll be the 'go to' site for your topic. The more good content you have, the more the search engines will feature your site and the more other sites will add your link to their vistors an extra resource.
When it gets to be easy to add a page a day... think about the next topic. You can do your simple one page a day on as many sites as you can handle. But always remember, it's like brushing your teeth. If you don't do it every day, your site will not stay healthy!
Start On A Free Site
If you've never run a site before. Start off easy. Just do a search for free web site hosting and find a place to set up your site that won't involve spending any money. It will take a few weeks of playing with your site before you have enough content and a good enough design to draw paying customers. While you get started, keep your expenses down. If you use a free site, all it costs is the time it takes you to add your daily article and find a few good links. Search engines don't usually list sites that are hosted on free servers, so once you have a good idea of what you are doing, go look for your own domain.
What's the Domain

The domain is the name of your site. In www.google.com, google.com is the domain name. In www.chiff.com, chiff.com is the domain name. In www.you-best-kept secret-to-success-on-the-net.com...well you see the pattern.
Keep the domain name you choose simple. In the last example, it will take forever for someone to type in your name to visit your site...if they even remember what it was. Use hyphens as little as possible. Try to keep your domain name to one word or two separated by a hyphen.
Make sure that your domain name reflects the subject. A name like mary-lou is cute, but it doesn't tell anyone looking for advice on lawns that they can find it. Something like perfect-lawn or beautiful-lawn is much more descriptive. This is important to the success of your site.
Stick to .com endings...that's what everyone looks for and if there is a .com with your name already live, you don't want to make your site an advertisement for them! If the name you really want is already taken, don't use the .net, .info or any other extentions. Just think of another name that is available. Look around for domain registrars. You can buy a domain name for under $10 for the year.
Make sure that you own the domain. Some of the inexpensive domain registration sites make up their money by charging you to host your site and if you don't like the service, you can get stuck paying hefty fees to get your own domain released to your so you can find another host. Read the fine print. Since you're in this for the long run, it's a good idea to buy the domain for at least three years - you may even want to pay for a ten year lock on the name. You'd hate to start doing well and find that you've skipped reregistering the domain --- and someone else has bought your name!
Hosting Is Important
Once you get your own domain, you'll need to find someone reliable to serve it to the world. The folks who maintain your site on their server are called your hosts. Most web site owners will start out with one host and if they have problems with the service shop around for another one. You can check forums for web masters to see what others have to say. Watch out for salespeople posing as webmasters to drive traffic to hosting services that pay for the referrals. They don't always provide the most objective information.
Search Engines Bring Visitors
That's true and you may see plenty of advice on lots of ways to get to the top of the heap fast. take most of the advice with a grain of salt... You are building a good resource that will have all of the elements that the search engines are looking for. You will provide lots of content, good solid links to reputable sites and a site that is updated frequently. You will need to learn about keywords and meta tags, but there are plenty of places online to give you quick tutorials on those. If you've locked your domain for 3 years or more, it will help with search engine rankings. A good, descriptive domain name also helps. When you write your articles, save the files with the same idea. An article about winter lawn care could be named winter-lawn-care.htm. A recipe for canned tomatoes might be called canned-tomato-recipe.htm. DOn't go crazy with the hyphens.Keep the file names to two or three words at the most.
If you're talking about kid's bedtimes make sure you use the keyword phrases "kid's bedtimes," "children's bedtimes, "putting the kid's to bed" and other key phrases often enough to let the search engines know that your article is about bedtime -- but not often enough to make your article sound wierd. Use the phrase in the title and at most twice in each paragraph once if it's a short paragraph. Make sure your first and last sentence has some variation of your keyword phrase in it.
Put Ads On Your Site
Go to the Google Adsense program once you get your own domain name and have a bit of content. It's easy to sign up and easy to add to your site. Don't make the ads the focus of your site - it's your content that people are coming to see. Welcoming visitors with ads instead of a good article will turn off your visitors and cost you the long term health of your site. Make you visitors feel happy to have found you and they'll come back often and tell their friends about your pages.
Don't expect to make a million immediately. It will take a while, maybe even a year or two, before the money gets serious.
If you stay with it, you'll be one of those overnight success stories...
Then you can write an e-book to let everyone know how easy it was to make your fortune overnight!
About the Author...The Chiff.com Editorial Team