Google Official Logo - Microsoft and Yahoo Know it Better than Google

Try searching for "Google Official Logo" or "Official Google Logo" on Google Image search engine and you're in for a pleasant surprise.


Google Image search will return some 240,000 images but none of the top 20 results bear any connection with the Google Logo.

Instead, you get to see the Microsoft XBox and official Super Bowl logo while searching for the official logo of Google.

An irony is that Yahoo! Image search and Live.com image search show much more relevant results for the same "official Google logo" query. 9 out 10 results in Yahoo Image search are related to Google Logo while that ratio is 6:10 for Live Image search.

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Outlook 2007 Warnings and Error Messages

Outlook 2007 Slow ? - Download the latest Outlook 2007 patch from Microsoft Download center (KB933493)and you may notice a modest improvement in Outlook performance.

Outlook 2007 is not just slow, it can sometimes be very unpredictable. Look at these error messages that popped up while using the software:

Outlook 2007 Blocks Websites that it "thinks" are dangerous

Someone sent me a link to a webpage hosted on blogspot.com. For some reason Outlook 2007 thought the destination URL contained in the email message may be unsafe and showed a warning box when I tried visiting the website.

Hyperlinks can be harmful to your computer and data. Click hyperlinks from trusted sources. Do you want to continue ?

Now even if you click "Yes", Outlook won't let you open that untrusted webpage and shows another message saying "Access Denied". You have to manually copy-paste the URL in the browser to access that webpage.



Outlook 2007 Recognizes an Official Addin as Dangerous

While reading emails inside Outlook 2007, suddenly a security notice pops-up saying "Microsoft Office Outlook has identified a potential security concern. The application addin outlvba.dll has been disabled. Addins might contain viruses and other security hazards."

Now this is extremely funny because the add-in which seems to pose a threat is actually an official Microsoft VBA for Outlook Addin. See the publisher details in the screenshot.

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How to Keep Your Checked-In Luggage Extra Safe

Are you worried that airlines may misplace your checked-in baggage ? Or the fear that someone else may walk-away with your luggage while you were using the rest room ?

It's a long list of items that travellers are now prohibited to keep in their carry-on bags so how to ensure that your expensive checked luggage is handled safely by the airline staff ?

Jon Udell has discovered a brilliant workaround that virtually ensures that the airline staff will handle your checked bags extra carefully and deliver them to you promptly at the destination - Carry an airgun that requires no license to buy but is still considered a weapon in the airlines rulebook.

[TSA is security agency for domestic air travel in US]

Weapons that travel MUST be in a hard case, must be declared upon check-in, and MUST BE LOCKED by a TSA official.

A "weapons" is defined as a rifle, shotgun, pistol, airgun, and STARTER PISTOL. Yes, starter pistols - those little guns that fire blanks at track and swim meets - are considered weapons…and do NOT have to be registered in any state in the United States.

I have a starter pistol for all my cases. All I have to do upon check-in is tell the airline ticket agent that I have a weapon to declare…I’m given a little card to sign, the card is put in the case, the case is given to a TSA official who takes my key and locks the case, and gives my key back to me.

That’s the procedure. The case is extra-tracked…TSA does not want to lose a weapons case. This reduces the chance of the case being lost to virtually zero.

The author of this hack says he does this each time he flies with his camera gear in the US. Use this trick at your own risk but certainly don't apply it on international flights.

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The Best GMail Shortcut To Speed Your Day - Keep Boring Emails Out of Sight

Say you have subscribed to some active mailing list hosted on YahooGroups or GoogleGroups. The settings are such that you receive an email as soon as a new message is posted on the mailing list.

Most of the conversations and discussions that happen on the mailing list are worth reading but there are situations when someone starts a thread / conversation that's boring or doesn't interest you.

For instance, an email thread on resolving iPod problems would make little sense to a person who doesn't have an iPod.

What do you do in situations when you find yourself a victim of these boring and irritating but never-ending email threads ? Unsubscribe from the mailing list temporarily ? Or create a new Gmail filter ? Or delete messages using # shortcut as soon as they land in your Inbox ?

Here's a more productive solution - Just mute the conversation with the Gmail keyboard shortcut "m" - The message is immediately removed from the Inbox view and all future messages (with similar subject line) will be archived automatically.

You can search for muted messages using the search operator - is:muted And unless your email address is in the To: or CC: field, that email thread will never touch your Gmail inbox again.

More about the Mute conversation shortcut on Gmail Help and Adam's blog.

Extra Gmail Tricks:
   Prevent Image Spam in Gmail
   Filter False Positives from Gmail Spam Folder

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Computers for Kids Who Are Too Young to Use the Mouse or Keyboard

For mommies - the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend that infants and children under age 2 should not watch Television or DVDs at all. For young kids, the time-limit is set to no more than 2 hours.

And it is probably time to remove that TV and DVD player from the bedroom. Researchers have found that 90% of children under age 2 and 40% of infants under three months watched TV regularly - majority of that inside the bedroom.


My two-year old son is now a frequent visitor to my "blogging office" and does spend few minutes with me on the computer. Now he's too young to handle the mouse or keyboard so here's how I try to keep him engaged:

Self Running Flickr Slideshows - Flickr has a good collection of photo pools containing pictures of animals and birds from around the world. Each photo pool has a "View as Slideshow" link that will play all the group photos a a slideshow without intervention.

If you want to continue working while the kid is engrossed in the wildlife, open the slideshow on your secondary monitor while you work on the primary monitor screen. [Trick works only when you have dual screen]

Nursery Rhymes and Cartoon Movies on YouTube - Most video sharing sites like Google Video and YouTube have an extensive collection of English nursery rhymes and animation movies including Tom n' Jerry and Mickey mouse - Put these video in one playlist, click the "Play all videos" button and let kids enjoy the stuff.

Microsoft Screenpen - Sometime when you kid insists on using the mouse, get the Microsoft ZoomIt or ArtRage software. They are like virtual painting software and turn the computer screen into a drawing canvas where the mouse become the brush.

You can also save his "creative artwork" as an image, take a print and hang the painting on his bedroom wall. Earlier studies have suggested that ten minutes of computer exposure, three or four times a week, is a good guide.

Related: Parents Can Track Children Via Mobile Phones

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Watch Videos, Picture Slideshows on a Wrist Watch

You can think of this Epoq wrist watch as a combination of Video iPod and the Digital Photo frame. It can play video podcasts, MP3 music and still images.

And it has enough memory (2 GB) to store your picture or audio-video collection. Oops, it also has an FM radio and an inbuilt voice recorder.


Everything within the reach of your hand. Weighing around 66g, this Epoq watch sells for $170. The OLED screen helps you watch the videos or pictures from various angles.

Epoq MP4 Wrist Watch [via Wired.com]

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How Fark.com Makes Money By Sending Visitors Away

Fark.com founder Drew Curtis is just 34 years old and runs one of the most popular news aggregator sites linking to odd and weird stories. Currently, his site averages around 1.5 million hits a day.

Most of the content on Fark.com is submitted by its loyal readers. And like the Drudge Report, Fark.com only links to external news stories, jokes, pictures or videos - they do not host anything on their servers except reader comments and images from the Photoshop contests.

Fark makes money through classifieds or text ads that run on the Fark homepage sidebar at $40 a week. Five random ads are displayed at a time and they change every five minutes.

If the linking site is related to Porn or NSFW content, the price becomes $200 per week since adult links normally invite much higher click-throughs. Fark.com makes around $40,000 per year just from these rotating text ads and then they also get direct sponsors.

Drew Curtis was recently on NPR (National Public Radio) where spoke at length about his baby Fark.com, expenses that go in maintaining the site and how he plans to spread awareness among big advertisers through his upcoming book - It's Not News, It's Fark: How Mass Media Tries to Pass Off Crap as News.

Inspiring stuff.

Related: World's most popular blog - Perez Hilton

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Turn the WebCam into a Digital Still Camera, Add Picture Effects

Cameroid is an interesting online service that lets you capture photographs online using any webcam and your web browser - no software to download or install.

Just plug-in your webcam to the computer and open www.cameroid.com in your web browser. Allow the Flash player to access the webcam and you are ready to take pictures.

Every picture that you capture using Cameroid has a permanent URL that you can link or embed in other sites like Bebo, MySpace or your blog. Cameroid can also create avatars in perfect sizes for your IM profiles. [related: Create a Perfect Avatar]

The most interesting feature of Cameroid are the hilarios webcam effects - you can see yourself live in funny situations that range from morphing your face with a Mona Lisa painting to applying numerous picture effects as shown in the screen capture above.

You should also watch Molly's screencast explaining the various features of Cameroid.

Cameroid is from the same company that created the popular online video editing service called VideoEgg.

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Watch the Google Gadget Ads Live

MediaPost has learnt that Google is beta testing "Gadget Ads" which will appear inside Google Gadgets or widgets that we normally see on blog pages and iGoogle (Google Personalized hompeage)

Though Google is expected to roll the Gadget Ads in summer, they have been randomly testing these Gadget Ads since March. The first batch of Google Gadget Ads had YouTube clips of GMail promos inside Google Gadgets - a live preview of which is embedded here:


Advertisers can buy advertising space on Google Gadget ads using the existing Adwords system. And like Adsense ads, Gadget ads will follow both the pricing models - CPC and CPM.

While Google is yet to release more details about the upcoming Gadget Ads, they could deliver these Gadget Ads even using the existing Adsense code without even asking publishers to add extra Gadget-specific code in their websites.

Since Google Gadget Ads give publishers a chance to monetize content, we are likely to see more and more websites embedding Google widgets with the purpose of making money. And that also helps Google penetrate better in the already crowded market of HTML widgets.

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How to Change Ipod Battery On Your Own - Video Guide

Is your iPod low on battery power ? If yes, send the iPod (with the battery) to Apple and they'll will send you a replacement iPod fitted with a brand new battery for around $65 as service charges. All your existing songs and video collection will obviously get erased.

If that sounds too expensive an option, get an an iPod battery kit at half the Apple price from the market and replace the iPod battery yourself by disassembling the unit as explained in the following Youtube video.

Though it is not so difficult a task to replace the iPod battery at your home - if you not too adventurous, it's better to pay those extra bucks and get a new one from Apple.

If you iPod batter runs out of juice in the first year of operation, you can ask for a free replacement since the iPod 1-year warranty also covers the iPod battery unit. [via]


Related: Unfreeze and Reset any Apple iPod ?

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Google News Meets Google Finance, Adds Stock Symbols

GOOG is taking some intelligent steps to ensure that search users stay inside the Google ecosystem.

Google News now scans every story content for names of listed U.S. companies and adds related stock symbols near the story descriptions (see screenshot). As expected, these stock symbols are links to the company's page on Google Finance.

This clever integration will help expose the Google Finance service to new users plus visitors are less likely to visit a rival site like Yahoo Finance due to the convenience factor - read a breaking news on Google and click the stock ticker symbol to see the impact of the story on the share price.

And it comes just a week after Google started adding image thumbnails in organic search results.


Update: Steve Rubel has discovered that Google Finance has added RSS news feeds for each ticker symbol. That completes the cycle now.

Related: Yahoo Finance vs Google Finance ?, Google News Inverted Pyramid Model

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Stretch a Web Page Address into Extra Long URLs

You may have come across atleast a dozen services that turn long web addresses into short and easy-to-remember URLs that you can share in emails and IMs.

But here's a service that does exactly the reverse. HugeURL, as the name suggests, takes your sweet n' simple URL and converts them into an ultra long, cryptic web address made of ~1800 characters.

For instance, the following hyperlink points to the DI homepage. Not sure if Google or Yahoo will treat this lengthy URLs like any other link but they can scare people.

http://www.hugeurl.com/?N2ZlYTQ4OGQ5ZDdlODVkM2RjZjVjNjlkNTNl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Why they invented HugeURL - Because bigger is better, right? Thanks Bitelia.com

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Where to Download Movies, Music or TV Shows ?

Are you still hunting for websites where you can download episodes of television shows and full length movies ? Your search should end here.

Just grab the latest issue of Forbes magazine - it carries a comprehensive list of websites which offer copyrighted movies and music online (in the pretext of user generated content) for free.


Forbes writer Andy Greenberg has done some good analysis on why Youtube like sites that offer illegal content (or link to such content) continue to thrive and why it's getting increasingly tough for lawmakers to track them down.

But this Forbes story, especially the slideshow, may be worth a bookmark for wannabe movie and music pirates. The article mentions several video websites that, unlike YouTube, aren't a household name yet.

For instance, sites like Alluc.org, VideoHybrid.com, Peekvid.com, TVlinks.co.uk and YouTVPC.com make the discovery process simple. They link to television shows, music videoos and movies most of which are hosted on YouTube, DailyMotion and Veoh.

Another popular site 1Dawg allows visitors to download videos and even send them directly to cellphones. Bitme.org and BitmeTV.org offer files the size of a feature-length DVD-quality movies.

The problem, Andy says, is that when lawyers manage to shut down one copyright-breaking link site, viewers can quickly flock to the next best.

And in some cases the owners say they're not breaking any copyright laws, since they merely link to content instead of hosting it on their own site.

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The Best PowerPoint Presentations in the World

SlideShare, the PowerPoint hosting company, has announced the results of the "World’s Best Presentation Contest" on their blog.

The winning PowerPoint slides, which are embedded below, were chosen by some of the best known speakers and presenters in the industry including Guy Kawasaki and Garr Reynolds of Presentation Zen.

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Technorati Removes Alexa Rankings, Explains Blog Authority

     
As you can see in the before-n-after screenshots above, Technorati has made some minor changes to their Blog Profile pages [example].

This Technorati design changes are not to prevent Technorati Gaming but there two significant developments:

1. Technorati has removed the Alexa Traffic charts and daily post count from blog profile pages.

2. Technorati no longer displays the links cosmos number [how many blog posts and unique blogs are linking]

View blog authority

Instead, they are ranking blogs based on Authority which is simply the number of blogs [not number of blog posts] linking to a website in the last six months.

So multiple incoming links from the same blog will increment the Technorati Authority by just one.

Dorion Carroll says that Technorati Rank is calculated based on how far you are from the top. The blog with the hightest Technorati Authority is the #1 ranked blog. The smaller your Technorati Rank, the closer you are to the top.

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Alexa Traffic Charts Now Include Advertising

Last month, we saw Alexa adding huge watermarks to their history traffic graphs.

Now they have included roll-over Adbrite ads [BritePic] on all Alexa graphs that are generated using the Alexa site widgets. And it's against Amazon policies to display Alexa charts without the ads.


Since these new Alexa graphs are done in Adobe Flash, the standard copy-paste techniques won't work but you may still download the Alexa charts of any website(s) in image format from the Alexa Traffic Rankings page.

In related news, Loren Baker discovered that Alexa.com is also selling sponsor boxes in the 125×125 graphic format similar to ones that we commonly see on blogs like TechCrunch and Mashable.

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After Flickr Pictures, MyBlogLog Adds Twitter

Yahoo owned MyBlogLog service now allows members to integrate Twitter feeds into their MyBlogLog profile page. Another Yahoo service, Flickr, is already integrated with Twitter.


Type in the Twitter username and your latest "twit" will show up in your MyBlogLog homepage.

Since MyBlogLog doesn't verify your Twitter account, it is quite easy to associate someone else's twitter name with your MyBlogLog account. Not sure if anyone would like to do that but there's always a possibility.

The most interesting bit is this message from MyBlogLog - "We love Twitter and we think you should to." - Is that some kind of hint from Yahooplex!


Twitter on MyBlogLog | MyBlogLog Visitors

Related: Track MySpace Profile Visitors with MyBlogLog

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Confessions of a Tech Support Staff

Do you hate calling the technical support guys ?

This Postsecret confession by someone at the Apple Tech support team will help you see things from a slightly different perspective:

You do not hate calling tech support more than I hate working tech support.

Related: How to Download PostSecret Picture Postcards

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Adobe CS3 Wallpapers and Desktop Backgrounds

[Right click and choose "Save Target as" to download any of these Adobe Wallpaper images]

    



    
Terry White, who produces one of the most popular video podcast shows on Adobe Creative Suite software, has released a small set of some beautiful Creative Suite 3 desktop backgrounds for PC as well as Mac computers.

Design Premium, Web Premium, Production Premium, Master Collection, CS3 Creative License

Each of these colorful Adobe desktop wallpapers are available for download in standard formats include 800x600, 1024x748, 1280x960, 1600x1200 and 1920x1440.

You can also download high-res vista backgrounds [perfect for Widescreen Monitors]

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Windows Live Writer 2.0 Solves "Temporary Post Used For Style Detection"

Windows Live Writer, the uber-useful WYSIWYG blog editing software, has one small problem - it adds noise to the blogosphere with junk posts that read something like this:

Temporary Post Used For Style Detection.

This is a temporary post that was not deleted. Please delete this manually.

When you configure your blog with Windows Live Writer 1.0, the software will automatically add a new post to your blog without any warning or notification and the whole world will know that another blogger has switched to WLW.


Blog posts that contain Temporary Post Used For Style Detection per day for the last 6 months. [Source: Technorati]

This temporary post is created by Windows Live Writer to detect the CSS styles defined in the blog template. Though Live Writer attempts to delete the temporary blog post, Google's cache has more than 23k stories while Technorati has indexed ~7k "temporary posts" that failed deletion.

The good news is that Windows Live Writer 2.0 is round the corner and will completely eliminate the "temporary post" problem. If you want a sneak preview, check out InsideMicrosoft where they have an exclusive screenshot collection of Windows Live Writer 2.0.

The new Windows Writer 2.0 interface sports an aqua look like the Windows Mail Desktop software. Other promising features include roundtrip post editing and easier linking to web images.

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