Thoughts @ Amit Gupta » Google

Google +1 for your blog

Amit Gupta — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 05:45:35 +0000

Google launched +1 recommendation button for publishers yesterday. This could possibly be the turning point in the Google vs Facebook war to control the web. Facebook has taken a lead by share and like button but google +1 is a bigger counter to all this.

With Google controlling the major portion of publishers organic traffic they would be more than willing to install the recommendation button on their blogs and sites.

The implementation is really easy and even easier for wordpress blogs.

Step : 1 Select the desired size of the button. There are four option to pick from.

Step : 2 Copy and paste the code in your blog post or website.

The first part of the code goes just before the end of tag in your blog /site. and the second part need to be inserted where you want the button to appear.

Fast Tube by Casper

Voila! you are done.

Google will display the +1 next to search results.

How would Google +1 help your blog :

a. Provide authenticity to your blog content

b. Crowd recommendation will boost your search engine read Google rating

c. For users ; they will get more refined and recommended results (Less of spam / ad page blogs)

If you’re a webmaster, you can get the +1 button code and learn more about implementation on Google’s +1 webmaster site.

Incomplete map of India on google

Amit Gupta — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 15:23:16 +0000

Totally condemn the way Google repeatedly treat the map of India. J & K is and will remain integral part of India.

And , not showing it part of any other country also is not solution. Correct your maps Google.

Google sites not opening with BSNL broadband

Amit Gupta — Fri, 14 May 2010 15:36:12 +0000

Getting BSNL broadband connection is one thing and then make run is another big task. Its not that BSNL dataone connection was my first choice but as they say beggars are not choosers. With limited option to pick from (precisely two BSNL and Tata Indicom) I reluctantly picked the state owned giant.

I also have a hidden agenda behind the same (No its not to please my father in law who works with another former state owned telecom giant MTNL), the bill generated for BSNl act as a legitimate address proof. Many of you would be aware of my plight while trying to reissue my passport where i run from pillar to post to prove my identity.

Anyways, BSNL connection started throwing tantrum from the day of installation only (including by the linesman who would ask for regular chai-pani for activation). The connectivity was erratic and connection tag slow. I relied on the internet god to check the connectivity. But little did I realize that there more to internet beyond google. Everything will work but for Google and related sites.

Here enters the Internet ka Baap, BSNL dataone, which for reasons best known to him don’t gel with google. I resorted to other search engines and realize this is a very common problem for all BSNL broad band users who tries to access google, orkut, gmail and other google sites.

Doing some more research it suggests , i found following stuff on internet.

“DNS stands for Domain Name Server. When you type www.google.com, the DNS server converts the name into an IP address of Google. Then it follows the IP address to fetch you the webpage.

Now, due to a defective DNS server system, your typed address can not get resolved into IP. So you reach nowhere.”

This was really frustrating as life seems to be standstill for me on internet without google. But surprisingly this complicated and widespread problem has a quick solution.

SOLUTION (Simple) :

BSNL DNS is the root cause of the problem, so simply change it to DNS that works.

IMPLEMENTATION (Simpler) :

a) Double click the LAN icon on your system tray

b) Go to Properties > Click on Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)

c) Choose “Use the following DNS server addresses”

d) Update 208.67.222.222 as preffered DNS server and 208.67.220.220 as alternate DNS server

e) You’re DONE

These DNS are provided by OpenDNS . I have actually experience a better connectivity and page rendering using these settings. HAPPY SURFING….

gmail going social with google buzz

Amit Gupta — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 20:22:50 +0000

Its time now for gmail to go social. In these times when every application is geared for real time collabration, sharing and uploading how come mail be left behind. Google has launched buzz for gmail both on web and mobile.you can upload and share all interesting conversation , images ,link and status messages from the gmail itself.

But what about google wave wasn’t that also suppose to change the way we communicate and share. In-fact it looks promising at first go and there was huge mad rush to grab those few initial invites. Heard that the invites actually got auctioned on eBay.

On the other hand the google buzz seems to be available for larger audience and is not following the invite mode. I believe this shold make it a clear winner over wave. As Google Buzz give an advantage of a ready friend network to share and communicate.

I visited http://buzz.google.com to get started. The buzz appeared as a label on the left menu on gmail. It automatically made me follow people with whom I communicate more (not sure what to call this google intelligence or violation of my privacy / follow discretion). Being very true to the open social it allows me set my twitter and flickr account for updates (Not sure on exact integration, and its yet to integrate facebook).

As per google Official Blog

“We’ve relied on other services’ openness in order to build Buzz (you can connect Flickr and Twitter from Buzz in Gmail), and Buzz itself is not designed to be a closed system. Our goal is to make Buzz a fully open and distributed platform for conversations. We’re building on a suite of open protocols to create a complete read/write developer API, and we invite developers to join us on Google Code to see what is available today and to learn more about how to participate.”

Would I be using this ???? Not really…. (Except for the auto pdates which will reflect on my google profile.

Why ???? This may be a great tool but still not available for hosted domain. For me my network is not on gmail but my own domain. And you need to reach to your audience where they are and not ask them to come to you. So best of luck Google….

image credit : http://www.computerworld.com

Google official Blog

3 IDIOTS और वर्ष 2009

Amit Gupta — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 18:21:51 +0000

अब बताओ ये क्या कनेक्शन है और मैं हिंदी में क्यूँ लिख रहा हूँ. नहीं ये बिंगो चिप्स की नई एड भी नहीं है. वो हुआ ऐसे की मैं हिंदी में न्यू इयर ग्रीटिंग टाइप करने का ट्राई कर रहा था और गूगल लिप्यंतरण (Transliteration) टूल एकदम मस्त लगा. और भाई लोगो गूगल लिप्यंतरण(Transliteration) और गूगल अनुवादक (Translator) दो अलग चीज़े है मुझे आज ही पता चला. आप लोगो की जानकारी के लिए भी बता दूं - गूगल ट्रांसलेटर (Translator) का काम है अनुवाद करना मतलब की आप जो भी लिखेंगे उसे किसी और भाषा में उसी मतलब ले साथ लिखना. इसके द्वारा आप ५१ (51) विभिन्न भाषाओ में translation कर सकते है. जैसे की happy new year का हिंदी भाषा में ट्रांसलेशन होगा ‘नया साल मुबारक हो’ लेकिन गूगल ट्रांसलिटरेशन (TRANSLITERATION) happy new year को लिखेगा हैप्पी न्यू इयर.

समझ आया या नहीं . आया तो ठीक नहीं तो भाई मतलब की बात सुनो ३ बेवकूफों (3 Idiots) और इस बीते साल का कनेक्शन.

वैसे तो मैं सिनेमा बहुत कम देखता हूँ (वैसे ज्यादा दखने लायक फिल्मे बनती कहाँ है) लेकिन भाई मानना पड़ेगा आमिर खान को मस्त काम करता है , जान लगा देता है . वर्ना मजाल है कोई और हमसे इस मंदी के दौर में १००० रुपये खर्च करवा दे वो भी फिल्म देखने के लिए. 3 Idiots चेतन भगत के नोवेल five point someone पर आधारित है तो भैया हम पहुंचे अम्बिएंस माल , गुडगाँव जानते तो होंगे आप एक किलोमीटर लम्बा एक फ़लोर और ऐसे चार फ़लोर. अब बताओ इतनी जगह में तो लो फ़लोर बसें चलनी चाहिए (अबे नहीं रिक्शे ज्यादा सेफ है, बसों में तो आग लग रही है और कीमतों में भी ). दिन का पहला शो देखने का फायदा है की सीटे साफ़ मिलती है और मूवी से पहले के सारे एड देखने का मौका

फिर भटक गया … वापस चलो ३ idiots पर

मूवी शुरू से आखिर तक उतार चड़ाव से भरी हुई , अचानक से नए नए मोड़ और भावनाए. शुरू होते ही सस्पेंस , कौन है यह ranchoddas shyamaldas chanchad उर्फ़ rancho जिसकी तलाश में दोस्त लोग निकल पड़े है. फिर शुरू होती है दोस्तों की कॉलेज की जिन्दगी की कहानी , जिसमे है एक दूसरे से आगे निकलने की होड़, बिना सोचे समझे रटने और पास होने की दौड़. साथ में में है उम्मीदों पर खरे न उतरने और हार जाने का डर. इन सब के बीच तीन दोस्त इन सब डरो से लड़ते हुए अपने ही अंदाज़ में जीते जा रहे है. Rancho अपने दोस्तों को जीने का एक अलग ही ढंग सीखा कर एक दिन गायब हो जाता है. उसके दोस्त आपनी आपनी जिंदगियों में सफल हो जाते है मगर अपने दोस्त को नहीं भूल पाते है.

साल २००९ भी कुछ इस तरह ही शुरू हुआ लेहमन बैंक की मेहेरबानी से जो मंदी का दौर शुरू हुआ था उसका असर पूरे जोर पर था. नौकरियों का कुछ पता नहीं था, बड़ी छोटी सभी कंपनियों में धड़ले से छटनी हो रही थी. तन्खाओं में कटौती आम सी बात हो गई थी. साल के पहले छे महीने तनाव व अनिश्चितता से भरे हुए थे.

मगर शाहरुख़ भैया ने कहाँ था अगर सब कुछ ठीक न हो तोह समझो की पिक्चर अभी बाकी है मेरे दोस्त.

तो इंटरवल के बाद मतलब के बाद के ६ महीनो में इकोनोमी में सुधार आने लग गया और २०१० आते आते लगता है वो सब एक बुरा सपना था. अच्छा है की वो वक़्त बीत गया. मगर जाते जाते बहुत कुछ सीखा गया.

२००९ को मेरी ओर से धन्यवाद :

तुमने दिखा दिया की जो बलात्कार करने की क्षमता तुममे थी वो संसार में किस्सी में नहीं है. जो बलात्कार पर बलात्कार तुमने किये , वैसा दुनिया कोई नहीं कर सकता. उम्मीद है आप आगे ऐसा कुछ नहीं करेंगे.

मेरे लिए तो 2009 मेरा दोस्त Rancho या funsukh Wangroo ही रहेगा. जिसने हर वक़्त में fun और sukh से रहना सिखा दिया.

जहाँपनाह तुस्सी ग्रेट हो , तोहफू कबूल करो.

Mumbai Marathon 2009

Google Wave – a new wave of communication

Amit Gupta — Fri, 29 May 2009 17:38:52 +0000

Google announced to launch Google wave later this year. This is bound to create a wave across the Internet world. So what is exactly is a wave. In a simple words Google wave is a real-time communication platform. It’s a hybrid of email, instant messaging, web chat, social networking, micro bloging, file share all build into one interface.

Features of wave :

You can communicate and work together with richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.

Any participant can reply anywhere in the message, edit the content and add participants at any point in the process (contextual suggestions and spelling correction).

It supports the drop and drag attachments from desktop and thus enable the real-time file sharing to anyone in the conversation.

It’s also embeddable, so you can embed Google Wave conversations on any blog.

This could very well turn into a project management tool with all concerns sharing the progress realtime.

It’s also an open-source project with a lot of API integrations. So the possibilities of growth and integration with various web products are unimaginable.

There is more information which will flow in but as a user we have to wait for some more time to swim in the wave. But this will surely bring a mega shift in the internet communication and more. So beware Twitter and FB of the world there is a strong wave coming soon….

Image Credits and official page : Google Wave you can also sign up for Google wave update here.

How to make a pizza (sinful eating)

Amit Gupta — Mon, 18 May 2009 18:44:15 +0000

So folks let me take you thru the process of making a sinfully unhealthy but amazingly delicious Pizza.

Ingredients:

a) Pizza base
b) Cheese (Britannia)
c) Pizza Sauce (By Cremica)
d) Oregano and Chilly Flakes (Leftover from Domino’s blend perfectly)

Toppings:
a) Mushrooms
b) Fresh Paneer
c) Onions
d) Capsicum
e) Red Jalapeno (In Vinegar)

Other key requirement
a) Microwave
b) Electricity (Scarce in Gurgaon)

Step 1: Apply a thin coating of pizza sauce on the base.

Step 2: Put Sliced toppings of about 1/2 inch size and put them evenly on base.

Step 3: Now put the shredded Pizza Cheese and cover the pizza base evenly.

Step 4: Put the pizza in Microwave for 7-8 minutes @ 180 C on convection mode. (Hopefully you would have switched on the microwave by now)

Step 5: Wait…Wait…Wait or sing a song or dance or ya get some coke for you.

Final step: Indulge into the sinful act.

PS : recovered this post from google cached file. Love you google ummmaaah . And thanks @mayank for moving my blog successfully to new host.

Abuse of Cost Per Click (CPC) Marketing?

Amit Gupta — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 08:28:04 +0000

Cost Per Click better known as CPC advertising is one of the most popular ROI (return on Investment) driven model in online world. Google has build in a complete empire revolving around this model.

This model provides a win-win situation to publishers (websites), ad-networks (like Google, Komli etc) and advertisers (sellers). Advertisers pays to the ad-networks only when a visitor (prospective buyer) clicks on the advertisement (thereby presumed he expresses interest in the advertiser’s services) on the publisher’s website. Thereby justifying the advertising cost as paid by the advertisers. On the same hand ad-networks are in position to calculate and display the ROI and compensation for publishers.

Now in a fair game, a visitor will click on the advertisement to know more about the services and contact the buyer subsequently (If he is interested). On every such click publisher get paid certain amount by ad-networks and advertisers are charged for that click.

Wonderful concept, so where is the abuse?

Now few advertisers are abusing the ecosystem by removing/reducing the requirement to click the advertisement in order to know the contact info etc. Thus avoiding the charges payable to ad-network and subsequently the publisher.

This short-term strategy will surely have long lasting impact on the ecosystem of publishers, advertisers and ad-networks. I am sure ad-networks would have all the systems and checks in place to avoid such content going live in the advertisement. Ad networks would spend more energy on building more checks to stop abuse, which would have otherwise gone in more constructive activities. All said and done, I believe there is an equal responsibility to be shared by the advertisers also for not abusing the product.

PS : I just found one more and this one is interesting. Skype installed on my system prompt me to call on the number displayed on ad for FREE and again without even clicking on the ad.

10 Years of Google

Amit Gupta — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 08:32:06 +0000

Many many happy returns of the day. Google always stands for innovation and usability. I wish you many more successful and innovative products.

Google Chrome – First look

Amit Gupta — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 17:28:08 +0000

I have downloaded Google chrome today. I am impressed in the first glance. Though it will take some more time to understand how will the brower perform. BUt few features which make it stands out are ; a) Neat and clean look : A new browsing experience and the window seems to gain that extra screen space. The tabs and search bar are intelligently integrated in the browser. Every pixel is optimally utilized. b) One stop shop : Search , Address bar, suggestive search all integrated in one box. Google makes me LAZZZZY c) Most visited site : Hmmm… nice tool. I would not say amazing but useful (advertisers will love google for this) d) Browsing history : Smart way to display history along with time of visit. More to come …. Related posts: Google and Tom Sawyer Google +1 for your blog gmail going social with google buzz Life in Google Age 10 Years of Google Google Street Map Incomplete map of India on google Related posts:

Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1

Amit Gupta — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 16:13:32 +0000

I have just checked out Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 version and Firefox3. I would not be comparing them but there are certain new feature I liked about both of them.

But the most exciting feature to me is Actiities in IE8. I lets to do certain activities on the webpage you are working on. Its like talking to many other application from one page (uff.. internet making me lazzy and more demanding every day). Though the application integrated are few but all are worth mentioning.

See how useful a Live Map application can be for a real estate site. No clicks , No tabs and you get what you want. I have tried looking for Noida and a map was there (That too fairly close).

There are many more activities which can be done on a click like Google search , Blogging with Live Space and define with Encarta. Microsoft keep exploring…..

Google and Tom Sawyer

Amit Gupta — Tue, 06 May 2008 15:08:32 +0000

You have not heard the famous story of Tom Sawyer getting his fence painted by Mark Twain. The smart chap get the fence painted by the friends and even get rewarded for it. He makes the painting job felt like the most interesting thing on the planet earth.

Now Google has set a perfect example of how to get things done the right way. What better way to get the matching results than getting the indexing done by the end users themselves.

Google Image labeler is a online module where users can tag the images with the words they feel most appropriate. The module works like a time bound game where users are paired as a team and they earn points on matching tags. (Amazing isn’t it , you get agreement from two different unknown users and time bound activity ensures top of the mind tagging).

Google will use these tags to throw the image search results. This will certainly help in generating most relevant search results. Good Going Google…

Google Street Map

Amit Gupta — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 13:00:56 +0000

Jinke ghar sheeshe ke hote hain, unhe kapde parde daal kar badalne chahiye (One who have glass windows, should put curtains before changing the cloths.). Now you have all the more reason to fear. Google has ventured into street map and to what precision.

I was just exploring trulia (A real estate portal) who have implemented the Google street Maps. I clicked on the sample map provided on the homepage for San Fransisco. I was amazed to see the details of the streets. I can actually read the number plate of the car standing outside the apartment.

Now that’s taking property to your desktop literally. Though I am a staunch follower and devotee of Google but this feature has put me in thinking mode. You can put image of your house on site for sale but how can we allow anyone to peep into neighbors house. Say in the ad below the house no. 510 on sale is and we can zoom to the balcony of House No 511.

To me that is a bit too much. There need to be limit to this invasion of privacy.

Let’s go shopping. Yahoo!

Amit Gupta — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 06:21:09 +0000

Three more days of agonizing wait when I’ll get to see my bank account buzz with my monthly funding (My Salary But of course). On my shopping list would be grocery, vegetables, household stuff and woof… my account will be looking like a desert by 10th of the month.

This left me wondering what people with fat balances have on their shopping list. Many like to sprulz on themselves, some like to go on world tour, few will buy private planes and liners and for fewer it will mean real serious business.

So when I heard that Microsoft is planning to go shopping . I knew that they gonna spend some cool money. The company in question is none other than the internet giant Yahoo. And $45 Billion for the bargain is no small money by any chance. If this deal goes through it would be the largest transaction in the online world after the Times Warner-AOL deal.

But think of the synergies of the merged entity. And all of this to combat GOOGLE. Google has been the biggest headace of both Microsoft and Yahoo since early days. Google has changes the rules of the games and in style. Whatever they have planned , made sure they executed it to perfection. All their creations and acquisitions are ruling the internet.

Future will tell what would be the outcome of the deal or the merged entity but one thing for sure that internet is not meant for the weak hearted shoppers.

Life in Google Age

Amit Gupta — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 15:48:35 +0000

The above image may look a bit funny or a bit too exaggerated but I believe that we live in Google Age. To me Google is synonym to Internet. Google as homepage tells me that I am connected to rest of the world and my system is breathing.

It’s the nerve cell of information for millions like me. From finding a store next door to information on stars millions of light year away everything can be goggled. I like to Google myself and would feel on top of the cyber world the day googling Amit Gupta will show me on top of Google search. To me that is the symbol of being arrived on Internet.

Can’t think of a life without Google. Happy Googling!!!