In today’s business environment, having a web-site is needed in order to stay competitive. There are some companies out there that want a web-site for free and can have one with Google Sites.
Simple and easy to use, Google Sites makes the process of creating web-pages an effective business tool. By simple logging onto http://sites.google.com, business owners can create a web-site using a pre-made template. Web-site content such as text, video, and pictures can be added with a simple click of a button and can be updated on a daily basis. Business owners can use this online tool to make multiple pages and the entire web-site will be stored securely in one place. Site owners can make the web-site public or private and can control who can and cannot edit the content.
Those without web-site design experience can simply use different templates to create their web-pages. These templates can be used to give the web-site a certain look, structure and can have gadgets added to them. Utilizing these templates also reduces the amount of time needed to create the web-site and can help get the business owner get an online presence.
There are certain instances in which documents, web-pages and other forms of text need to be translated into another language. With the help of Google Translate, Internet users can have multiple documents translated into over 50 different languages.
By going to http://translate.google.com., users can simply type a phrase into the box located near the top of the page and then have it translated by choosing the drop down options below it. Even if the user doesn’t know the language of the specific phrase, choosing “detect language” in the drop down box will help find the correct language. Dictionary results appear for short query results and appear near the bottom of the page.
When translating to a language that contains symbols or is considered non-roman script, a drop down box options does include a show Romanization link. For example, if you are translating a phrase from English to Chinese (which is a non-roman script language), click on the “show Romanization” option in the middle of the page to see the roman script version of that phrase.
For those looking to translate from Arabic, Hindi or Persian, a specific keyword is no longer needed. By simply typing in how the words sound phonetically, Google Translate will automatically transcribe them to their native language.
To translate an entire web-site, simply type in the domain name in the translate box and click enter. For example, if you wanted to translate the Cleveland Cavaliers web-site from English to Hungarian, typing in www.clevelandcavaliers.com and selecting an English to Hungarian translation will translate the web-site content.
Utilizing a search engine can be very powerful but even the most experienced Internet users could learn something new about using Google. By utilizing different search engine techniques, an Internet user utilizing Google could have a better success rate.
By putting a search term into double quotes, a search engine user can get what is called a phrase match. When using a phrase match, the search engine user is looking for matches that contain a specific phrase in it. For example, if someone wanted to search for electronic picture frames, typing in “electronic picture frames” with double quotes will help the search engine find matches for that specific phrase. In other words, the double quotes around “electronic picture frames” will match that specific phrase with content on a web-page.
To exclude unwanted words, a user can simply employ a minus sign or “-“when typing the query into a search engine. The minus sign simply tells the search engine not to look for that word during the search. For example, if a search engine user typed in tennis –shoes, it will not look for keywords or web-site content related to shoes. The minus sign before the word “shoes” in this instance tells the search engine not too look for any keywords with shoes in it and will simply focus in on “tennis” instead.
When typing keywords or a phrase into a search engine, there are times in which Google will add in synonyms to help enhance someone’s search experience. For example, if someone was typing the word “airplane” into the search engine, Google could suggest looking up “jet” as a synonym. For those who do not want that broad of a search, typing in a plus sign before the term tells the search engine to search only for that specific term. Utilizing the previous example, typing in +airplane into a search engine will tell the spider (which searches the web-site content) to look only for that keyword and no other synonyms.
Another way to get an exact match is to type in site:domain into the search engine. This search engine technique can be very handy when trying to match a specific keyword to a web-site. For example, typing in site:www.clevelandcavaliers.com merchandise will direct the user to the specific pages on the Cleveland Cavaliers web site that sells merchandise and Cavs team apparel.
This search engine technique can also be used to find sites with a top level domain. For example, typing in site:gov recycling will list recycling only web-sites that are sponsored by the US government. Specific directories can be searched utilizing this search engine technique by adding in a slash towards the end of the search query. For example, someone can simply type in site:google.com/paintings Monet to search within the paintings directory for a Money piece.
Over time, blogging has developed into one of the most popular Internet activities for users all around the world. Blogging has served as a way for a variety of Internet users to express their thoughts freely about different subjects and topics. Starting a blog is fairly simple and with online blogging tools such as Blogger and WordPress.org available, it just got easier.
Since being launched in 1999, Blogger (which is one of the most popular blogging sites) has grown in popularity due to its easy-to-use features. The original Blogger design is considered to be the trend setter for many of the blogging tools out there and the format quickly grew into popularity. In 2003, Blogger was purchased by Google and new features have been added to make the service more reliable and dependable. Many who spend time developing their blog with Blogger believe the sites index quicker in search engines and make it easier for Internet users to find.
In addition to being simple to use, Blogger can be used in two different ways. Blogger does allow users to host the web-site themselves meaning a domain name and space on a web-site hosting provider has to be purchased. This method does cost a little more money and time, however, it allows for the user to be a bit more creative in designing how the blog will look. Those with HTML or web-site design experience have the capability of designing their own templates, colors and other features. Those without HTML or web-site design experience can simply create an account for Blogger to host the site at no charge. In other words, Blogger will host your blog for free and the users can simply log in with the account names they made up or with their Google e-mail address. This method also allows for users to create their own URL address, use templates to give the blog a particular look, and can be updated without having to hire an independent designer. Once the design, URL and user name are all put in, users can simply log in to update the blog with posts, pictures or other features.
Blogger is a favorite among online bloggers but WordPress.org is also one of the most popular blog tools available. WordPress.org is an open source blog tool that is free, has downloadable software and requires HTML or web-site designing experience. Users do have to purchase space on a web-site hosting site in order to use WordPress.org and have to understand HTML and web-design to constantly make updates. Purchasing web-site hosting space along with a domain name does take time and money but the WordPress.org allows users to custom make the templates and features on their blogs. Web-site design does take a little more time, however, users can design their sites so that it optimizes well with search engines and is easily found by those looking for certain information.
Different and easy-to-use tools are available to blog but people who are unsure about starting up one often wonder what the benefits to starting a blog are. The first place to look when trying to understand the benefits is to know what types of blogs are out there.
To start off, people can have a personal blog in which the user can write about personal events and make it an online diary for people to read. People who work within the media industries for newspapers, television and radio stations will use a personal blog to engage readers, viewers and listeners. This is a unique strategy for these media outlets because it allows readers, viewers and listeners to understand the personal lives of their favorite writers, TV and radio hosts and creates a more personal. People going on mission trips or taking unique experience will sometimes create a personal blog so that friends and family can read about their daily experiences. This method can also be used to help the user write a book or document about the experience later on.
With a personal blog, the user also has the ability to create a theme, topic or subject. Bloggers can write about sports, education, fashion, or anything that suits their interests and their passions. Having a particular theme to a blog creates consistency to it and can help the blogger market and reach out to people with similar interests. With time, hard work and promotion, these blogs can create a following and sometimes an income for the blogger. Not all blogs turn into money making machines for people and trying to do that takes lots of time and effort but there are instances in which a big enough following creates an opportunity for the blogger.
A popular example of this is the story of Julie Powell, the inspiration behind the film Julie & Julia. Powell started a personal blog in her spare time in which she decided to write about trying to cook 524 recipes out of a book written by the late television host and cooking legend Julia Child. The theme around Powell’s personal blog was the trials and tribulations of an ordinary person trying to cook recipes out of Child’s cookbook. With consistency and clever writing, Powell gained a following with people who liked to cook, enjoyed eating food, and were fans of Julia Child’s television show. As a result, Powell ended up with a book deal out of it in which she talked about writing her blog and cooking the recipes.
In addition to personal blogs, a business blog has been proven to be an excellent way to communicate with customers, prospects and even employees. Businesses will create blogs as a way to brand certain products, create brand awareness and market the product to current customers or potential clients. Having a business blog often creates hype for a certain product and anticipation for it to be released. Business blogs can also be used to communicate with employees internally and spread communication in that method.
Since being introduced years ago, closed captioning, subtitles and video captions have been useful television consumers who are hearing impaired or deaf. Closed captioning allows users who have hearing difficulties to enjoy a television program or video by displaying subtitles and words at the bottom of the screen. Closed captioning has already made its way to online video and YouTube has added two new features that are useful for both the hearing impaired and everyone else.
YouTube, which is owned by Google, recently added in “automatic captions” to its online videos. Available on most education channels, “automatic captions” transcribes and adds captions to the bottom of the screen. “Automatic captions” also allows for the captions to be translated into other languages. Even though the captions are not 100% accurate at times, it still allows the user to understand the video content.
In addition to “automatic captions”, YouTube also added an “automatic timing” feature. To make adding closed captioning easier, “automatic timing” shows videos owners when words are mentioned in the online video. With the help of a simple text transcript, Google will help the video owner save a file of the words said in the online video to add later on. Once this transcript is saved, a simple upload is needed to add closed captioning to the video.
Though it is designed to help the hearing impaired, these new features could help search engines find online videos in the near future. Search engines employ a spider (also referred to as a-crawler) look for certain keywords within the text, title tags and content of a web-site or description of an online video. With closed captioning and text being added to online videos, this could be an opportunity to optimize online video content for a search engine. Spiders are designed to look for specific keywords and if keywords can be found within an online video closed caption, it could help optimize the video for a search engine.
