December 23, 2009

How to Speed Up Your Site Opening Speed


It is widely known that the loading time of websites has a major influence on the overall user experience. If on the age of 56K Modems people would be willing to wait even half a minute for a website to load this time span has been drastically reduced lately. The are market researches, in fact, confirming that users will just skip a site altogether if it fails to load within 4 seconds.



The first part of the “Speed Up Your Site” series will cover how to optimize images. Images can create an extra load on the size of your pages, specially if you forget to optimize them. Photoshop and similar image editing software include a feature called “Save for the web”. Always use this feature since it will reduce the image size and load time substantially.

If you do not use an image editing software or if you want something more practical you can use this online image optimizer from Dynamic Drive. It will automatically optimize gif, png and jpeg images, and it will also convert file formats if needed. 

New Peculiar Interface of Google Adsence


Google adsense is one of the best advertisement network for Bloggers. Google adsense is one such ad network which has been their for long and maintained the quality. Though as things has changed in recent past,  adsense do understand its interface is very old compare to all other ad networks in present.
 


 This is a good news for adsense publishers like us, that Google adsense is now working on a new interface which will have a web2.0 like feel. The new interface looks more like Google analytic interface , but the analysis in Google adsense will become very easy in new Google adsense Interface.



According to adsense team The new AdSense interface includes more detailed performance reports and enables you to view daily stats in graphical formats. It also will provide you with additional metrics such as the amount you’ve earned from various ad, targeting and bid types. Here’s a glimpse at what the new reports currently look like in our beta.
Though this new adsense dashboard is released for only few selected publishers for beta testing and soon we can expect launch of this new interface for every adsense publishers.



Meanwhile are you using adsense? And what do you think about this new interface?

How to Backup Firefox Plugin -FEBE




Everyone hate re-installing windows in case of any problem, because all the settings stored is lost and we need to start working from very scratch. The same is the case with Mozilla Firefox. When I open Firefox after a fresh windows installation I am not able to see my plugins there. This is kind of irritating for me because the one of the many plugin I cannot work without is last-pass which stores all my passwords and internet forms and secure notes.
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FEBE is the last plugin you need to install to do just what you need the most – A Plugin Backup. With the FEBE add-on for Firefox, you can back up all the add-ons, plugins, themes and user settings. And it is pretty easy to use. The three awesome features of the add-on are:-
  1. Scheduled backups
  2. Selective backups
  3. Verification of the backup file
So all you need to do is to install FEBE after a fresh windows re-installation and you will have your previous Firefox back with you.
 Let us know which are your favorite Firefox plugins?

10 +Things to Consider Before Becoming a Professional Blogger


Professional blogging is a situation when a person takes blogging as a full-time  profession. He  indulges into the blogging activity in such a way that he has no time to do any other work. It means that only blogging become a source of bread and butter. So discussion is, Is it really worth to resign from a current job and to go for professional blogging ?



Some persons always remains in dilemma that what is the correct time to start with professional blogging. Quitting your current job which is paying you some decent recurring money is  a tough decision. Here I am describing some points which you should consider before getting into professional blogging.

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How to Secure Your GMail Account-Ultimate Guide

The most widely used free email service is from Google which has occupied proficient and prominent position in the cloud.

 
GMAIL – The free email service from Google with enough storage space to keep your communications intact through years and years. Since Gmail is widely used mail service, security concerns are primarily of respect and main focus. Hence here in this post, we’ll share  a few important and useful Gmail security tips so that our accounts shall never be compromised.

1. Always Use HTTPS – This is a great feature from security point of view in Gmail. HTTPS is secure protocol for transmission of vital information on web in encrypted form. Although, when we sign into our Gmail account, https is used but to make sure https is used throughout our session for our Gmail account, we need to enable this option from Gmail settings. To enable this option, go to settings of your Gmail account and check “Always use HTTPS” under general tab and save changes. HTTPS makes mail little slower than normal but security should be of our prime concern.

2. Remember to signout – Log out whenever you have completed checking mails even if you’re on your own computer. If you’re on public computer like in cyber cafe, make sure you had unchecked “Remember me” or “keep me signed in” option while logging into account. Clear cookies, passwords before leaving public PC.

3. Audit – You know your own ip address. Now find out the ip address from where your Gmail account was opened last time. In the footer, at the very bottom of your inbox, you will see information about last sessions – Last activity : ip address : Details . Just hit on details button and you can see when was your account accessed and from which ip address.




 You can also use this feature there to log out all sessions if you find any session open or if you forgot to log out on your friend’s pc or public computers. One should make habit of checking/ auditing Gmail account session details regularly.




3. Don’t disclose Password– Don’t disclose your password to anybody. You might get fake email asking for your Gmail id and password, but remember,  Google never asks you to disclose your password. Stay safe. Also, some websites have features to invite your Gmail contacts to network with you on their website, for this they ask you to enter your Gmail id and password – Don’t give your Gmail details to untrusted or small or new , unestablished websites .

4. Periodically Change your password – Once in two months or so, you should change your password but remember the new one!! Don’t use easy to guess password i.e. don’t use your mobile number, date of birth, your girlfriend’s number as your password! Use password of at least 8 characters. Don’t use repetitive letters in passwords as aaaa1111. Don’t use your Gmail account password as passwords on other websites. I find many people use the same password for variety of websites so if one of your passwords is hacked, all are hacked.

5. Check Outgoing linksDon’t fall prey to phishing attempt. Your so called friend might give you a link stating that it the link to new and feature packed advanced Gmail, you then try to log onto the link given by your friend and your friend gets your id and password. So always check links before hitting on any such links.

6. Keep your account up to date – Your Gmail password is your orkut password and the same password is used for other Google products and services, hence ensure security updates and measures in all your accounts so that neither way, your account could be compromised. Keep your account recovery option updated and remember your security question and answer so that you can recover your password in case if something wrong happens. Although, after reading this post and following accordingly, such unfortunate case is nowhere to stand. You can also add phone number to account for recovery purposes. To review your gmail recovery options, follow this link: GMail account recovery options


7. Use updated Security Programs (Antivirus, Firewall, Antispyware) on your pc - This point is also very important because your computer might have been compromised by a trojan, keylogger or virus which may distribute your account details to remote hacker. Update your browser, operating system, security softwares, mail applications so that you should not be vulnerable to latest exploits and hacks.

8. Check Attachments Before Downloading – Gmail scans every attachment you receive or send for virus or other such kind of threats but even then, it is not advised to download attachments from untrusted source. This will keep your computer safe and so your account. 


9.Beware of  Spam – Don’t waste your time reading spam messages. Spam messages are not only waste of time but also may prove to be a security concern as spams may contain links to malicious websites.

10. Periodic Account  Backup – Well, backup would be useful in case of recovery of your account if your account had been compromised. Although this point is not a necessary step, yet you can backup all your gmail mails to make your life easy! One such tool to backup gmail is – Download GMAIL Backup tool