Category Archives: Computing & Internet

Will You Start Afresh With Yahoo! Profiles?

I was very concerned when I learned that Yahoo! quietly wiped out all our Yahoo! Profiles and force us to start a new Profile. I think that they did that in a bid to enter the social networking arena and compete with Facebook.

The thing that angered many of us long time Yahoo! user is that there was no prior notice at all and we were all very surprised to see that every on our profile that many of us painstakingly built years ago, have gone down the drain just like that. if they could wipe out our profiles with just a click on the button, are our email accounts even safe with them?

I have had my Yahoo! account since 1990 or so and I have various IDs in my profile for different purposes. I am very concerned that now Yahoo! has forced us to only use ONE name in our profile as it no longer supports multiple IDs. So what happens to the profiles of all my other IDs? Would I have to set up different Profiles with different Yahoo! Mail accounts?

What about my email account? What about my Yahoo! Messenger? Of course, to solve this problem, I could just delete my whole Yahoo! account but I still have people writing to me in my old Yahoo! email and I have many emails still in my inbox which I do not know how to move out. I am subscribed to some pretty interesting newsletters and that is easy to change to a new email but I also use my Yahoo! Mail to log in to some websites too and that would be pretty difficult to have that changed.

In short, I hate it that Yahoo! has made a mess out of my network of IDs and the uses of Yahoo! that have suited me all these while.

Hosting By Geekz

If you think that just because I buy web hosting from a couple of hosts to run my blogs, websites and ecommerce sits, and therefore must be very familiar with all aspects of web hosting, then you couldn’t be more wrong.

I tell you, for most of the services that I took out, I just buy them and keep my fingers crossed that I have got the right package and that it will meet all my requirements and then some.

Therefore, I was delighted when I got to know that Hosting by Geekz, unlike their competitors, only offer ONE hosting package. At a low price of just $4.99 per month, you will be receiving all the necessary features to successfully run your website(s).

Hosting by Geekz is not just a hosting company, but also offers design, coding and website development services among others.

Hosting by Geekz know that many people get confused with all the various hosting packages that are being offered by each company that they decided to come up with the ultimate hosting solution whether you are a small or medium size webmaster.

If you are on the market for web hosting, do hop over to Hosting by Geekz to read in detail the kind of features that you will receive for $4.99 per month.

*** This post was brought to you by Hosting by Geekz ***

Gmail Tip: End Of Message [EOM]

If you are one of those people who love to write one-liner emails and would rather write your one-line messages on the Subject line, then I am sure you have been annoyed like hell on the Windows prompt asking you if you would like to proceed to send a blank email.

Well, Gmail came up with a trick to send the message directly without the prompt if you prefer to write your message on the subject line.

All you need to do is to type in EOM at the end of your message at the Subject line. EOM stands for End Of Message. I tried it just now and sure enough, it worked. It is not case sensitive so you could type EOM in capital letters or in small letters.

The only problem was that at the receiving end, EOM also appeared in the Subject line. For people who are not familiar with this Gmail trick, if they received an email with a subject title that has EOM at the end, I bet they would be scratching their head wondering what that means.

So if you would like to use EOM, I think you should explain it to your recipients first. LOL

Web Searching Healthy For Brain

I read today that scientists have conducted a research on the effects of the internet on our brain and guess what? They concluded that web searching is actually beneficial to our brain, particularly middle-age and old-age people who already know how to search the web.

You know, I use the search engine many times a day and I sometimes feel that I am facing information overload. There is so much information that sometimes you have to choose which link to click, which article to read and which piece of information to retain in my brain. But all these are actually healthy for our brain function, like crossword puzzles, except that web searching is less complex.

Scientists also discovered that the activity of web searching will only have a positive effect on people who already know what to do when facing a search engine. However, for those who have never searched the web before, they would easily pick up the “skill” after a week of learning. This means that web searching is basically beneficial to everyone.

Now, when I am Googling for information, I would have the excuse of doing some brain exercise. Use it or lose it.

Search Engine Optimization and Marketing

As the owner of an ecommerce site, I know firsthand how important traffic from search engine is. Did you know that landing on the first page of prime search engines would increase sales by about 70%? Now you know why webmasters try so hard to rank as high as possible for their specific keywords or key phrases.

Although I have come across many, and even dealt first hand with a few search engine marketing websites, today, when I was told of Headland, I decided to check out their website to see what services they offer besides Search Engine Marketing.

Besides designing and building websites, Headland also provides internet and search engine optimization and marketing, email marketing and ebook application, Pay Per Click (PPC), eSurveys and online press releases, all the while keeping track of results and growing contact database of their clients.

Generally speaking Headland, a UK based company, provides their clients with ecommerce, emarketing and brand design & development. I browsed through their list of clientele and have to say that I am very impressed that even large companies trust Headland to deliver the results that every client desires.

If you have a website, particularly a commercial site, you should optimize your site to increase traffic, and in turn, increase sales and profit.

*** This post was brought to you by Headland ***

Is There Less Spam In Your Inbox?

Authorities in the United States announced yesterday that they have successfully traced and shut down one of the largest spam email syndicate in the world, that span a few countries from New Zealand to China and the United States, sending out billions of spam email a day, peddling prescriptive drugs from male enhancement drugs to weight loss pills.

Reading the report, I was pretty surprised that these websites were hosted in China while drugs were shipped from India and payments were processed in Cyprus and Georgia. Isn’t that extensive? They must be making lots of money.

Anyway, after using email for more than ten years now and being swamped by millions of spam email and spam blog comments now, I know not to click on links in spam email or even take the trouble to open them. Also, we should never trust websites that we got to know of via spam email. How trustworthy are they, particularly if we are required to submit our personal or financial information, like when we are making a purchase online?

Understanding Webhosting Better

It has been almost two years now since I shopped for webhosting. Little did I know that so many things have changed since then. Now, when I am shopping for cheap web hosting for a new charity website that I plan to set up, I have so many more issues to decide upon.

When I was reading a webhosting blog this morning, I found out that as a webmaster, we could also do our part in energy conservation. Many webhosts have gone green and operate on renewable energy sources. By hosting our websites with these webhosts, we get to contribute to the environment, even though it may just be a small part.

If you have been looking for webhosts, I feel that you must read the blog of Web Hosting Geeks so that you could understand the different webhosting packages better and see which one suits your needs the most.

To me, the most important issue hosting my websites and blogs is the reliability of my webhosts and their ability to provide me with maximum uptime. Cost of hosting my sites is just a secondary concern.

I believe that after going through the informative posts on the Web Hosting Geek’s blog, you would be able to make a better webhosting choice, like me.