Today I logged in to my feedburner's account to check my stats and I was greeted at a different page. I was horror struck for a moment. They said that move feeds to Google Account. They said:
Moving to a Google Account is easy. Take the plunge now!
Your feeds should move to Google. Why?
Matt Mullenweg (A founding developer of WordPress) talks about how blogs can change reading habits of a blog reader and blogger himself at WorldCamp 2008.
I find it true by myself that a blogger/blog reader has to digest much information in short time and he/she just tries to scan the whole thing whatever he is reading and gets the material of his interest. So the attention span for reading decreases in this way. When some one has been blogging for a while or has been reading blogs for a while, he will find it difficult to read the whole thing also in case of reading books.
I just updated my blogs to WordPress version 2.7. Upgrading can be tricky if you are doing it manually taking care of many precautions. You will have to download latest WordPress Version, unzip it, have to take backups of files and database, .htaccess, themes, plugins, uploads directory and much more. Then have to update files and database. Manually if anything goes wrong you will find yourself helpless. There are pretty good instructions about upgrading though at WordPress website (Links are at bottom).
I would recommend Wordpress Automatic Upgrade Pluigin. You do not have to do anything. just activate the plugin, follow the instructions and with some clicks you will be safely running your upgraded fresh and better blog, fastest than before. Version 2.7 is really cool and faster than before including turbo tools in it.
It's very important that you keep your WordPress installation(s) up to date. If you don't, your blog or website could be susceptible to security vulnerabilities or performance issues. If you use this plugin, you must make sure you keep yourself informed of new WordPress releases and update your WordPress installation(s) as new versions are released.
Disable WordPress Core Update Plugin Completely disables the core update checking system in WordPress. The plugin prevents WordPress from checking for updates, and prevents any notifications from being displayed in the admin area.
It is important that you keep your WordPress plugins up to date. If you don't, your blog or website could be susceptible to security vulnerabilities or performance issues. For those people who prefer to keep old version of plugins and are confident enough about its performance and yet they do not want to be bothered by Plugin Panel notifying that plugins has been updated and update automatically, or they simply want to update these manually, there is a solution to remove all such plugin update notifications.
Disable WordPress Plugin Updates WP Plugin Completely disables the plugin update checking system in WordPress. The plugin prevents WordPress from checking for updates, and prevents any notifications from being displayed on the Plugins page.
I gave a review of Twitter, Tweettag and Twollow before here. Here are some more tools for Twitter.
Twitter Grader
Twitter Grader measures the power of a Twitter Profile.
Profile Strength Dependence
- Your Number of followers.
- Number of followers that your followers have (the power of your network).
- Quantity and pace of updates
- Additional proprietary analysis (this is the super secret algorithmic stuff generator part)
Twibble
Features:
You get connected with friends via Twitter. With twibble you can tell your friends what are you doing, and where you are! Even with GPS on a phone like the Nokia N95. Register with twitter, download twibble and start twibbling! twibble for the desktop is available. twibble mobile is one of the best twitter clients for Java enabled devices. It supports all important twitter functions, uploading of photos via twitpic, GPS, and much more! They provide an API which allows you to easily watch your twitter location in a map. Works great with an iPhone or other GPS phone!
Twitter Search
See what's happening at Twitter — right now. Search any user or keyword and real time results will pop out.
WordPress 2.6.5 is immediately available and fixes one security problem and three bugs. I recommend everyone upgrade to this release.
The security issue is an XSS exploit discovered by Jeremias Reith that fortunately only affects IP-based virtual servers running on Apache 2.x. If you are interested only in the security fix, copy wp-includes/feed.php and wp-includes/version.php from the 2.6.5 release package.
2.6.5 contains three other small fixes in addition to the XSS fix. The first prevents accidentally saving post meta information to a revision. The second prevents XML-RPC from fetching incorrect post types. The third adds some user ID sanitization during bulk delete requests. For a list of changed files, consult the full changeset between 2.6.3 and 2.6.5.
Note that this is skipping version 2.6.4 and jumping from 2.6.3 to 2.6.5 to avoid confusion with a fake 2.6.4 release that made the rounds. There is not and never will be a version 2.6.4.
Ever Witnessed 3 Hours Old Content At Front Page of Google? I Did Just Now.
You can reach at the front page of Google in hours time, may be in minutes. I will tell you how!!!
Have a look at the image below. It is said by SEO guys that it takes 3 months at least for SEO of any new content and to bring it at the front page of Google. Google is sharp and can distinguish between popular and simple content. Last evening (23 Nov 2008) was Lahore Bloggers Meetup in LUMS. We attended that and in the morning today (24 Nov 2008) I posted the event review.
By chance after 4 hours, I hit search button to find some new information about the event by any other blogger but Guess What?
I found my post at the first page of Google which was published before just 4 HOURS. You can find other posts too in following image which was published before 3 HOURS long period. Sounds like twitter, eh!
Right!!! What does that mean?
- Am I a Super SEO Guy?
- Did I do something special with the content?
NO...
I just published a recent event at my BLOG and some friends came along and shared their thoughts. Post got attention and Google picked it up. I am slow in posting. My blog gets updated, not much. I am not much popular either (To tell you the truth).
THE BIG SECRET
You will be noticed. I believe that every IT professional should have a blog.
Go get one... Unfortunately, there are just two choices I can recommend and fortunately both are great.
WordPress:
Blogger:
* UPDATE *
A friend told me that try http://www.Google.com and not http://www.Google.com.pk
I did and here is the result and answer to the comment. Blogs has got real potential.
Tumblelogs are the easiest way to express yourself.
Post ANYTHING: Tumblr makes it effortless to share text, photos, quotes, links, music, and videos, from your browser, phone, desktop, email, or wherever you happen to be.
Customize everything: Tweak everything from colors to your theme's HTML markup. Even use your own domain name.
I specially like this service because when you will get one blog from them and come inside, you will feel a fresh and clean look always and find anything so easy to do at Tumblr. When I got account from them they welcomed me with the following quote:
"It does not matter how slow you go, so long as you do not stop.
--Wisdom of Confucius--"
Update Services are tools you can use to let other people know you've updated your blog. WordPress automatically notifies popular Update Services that you've updated your blog by sending a XML-RPC ping each time you create or update a post. In turn, Update Services process the ping and updates their proprietary indices with your update. Now people browsing sites like Technorati or Sphere can find your most recent posts!
Most people use Ping-o-Matic which, with just one "ping" from you, will let many other services know that you've updated. WordPress makes this easy for you by listing Ping-O-Matic's server (rpc.pingomatic.com) by default. You can also add additional pinging services in your blog under admin > settings > writing tab where it asks for Update Services.
I have used a lot many pinging services myself for experimental purposes but its not a good practice because it can slow down blog posting and causes load at your hosting server. Here I am writing my all pinging services URLs. Some are working and some may not be working:
http://rpc.pingomatic.com/ http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping http://rpc.icerocket.com:10080/ http://www.a2b.cc/setloc/bp.a2b http://api.moreover.com/RPC2 http://api.moreover.com/ping http://api.my.yahoo.com/RPC2 http://api.my.yahoo.com/rss/ping http://www.bitacoles.net/ping.php http://www.blogoole.com/ping/ http://blog.goo.ne.jp/XMLRPC http://www.lasermemory.com/lsrpc/ http://ping.bitacoras.com http://ping.bloggers.jp/rpc/ http://ping.cocolog-nifty.com/xmlrpc http://ping.exblog.jp/xmlrpc http://ping.feedburner.com http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php http://ping.weblogalot.com/rpc.php http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2 http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2 http://bblog.com/ping.php https://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZFinance.woa/wa/pingPodcast http://pinger.blogflux.com/rpc/ http://www.holycowdude.com/rpc/ping/ http://www.zhuaxia.com/rpc/server.php http://www.blogsdominicanos.com/ping/ http://www.xianguo.com/xmlrpc/ping.php http://www.feedsky.com/api/RPC2 http://1470.net/api/ping http://ping.myblog.jp http://pingoat.com/goat/RPC2 http://www.weblogues.com/RPC/ http://www.popdex.com/addsite.php http://services.newsgator.com/ngws/xmlrpcping.aspx http://ping.amagle.com/ http://ping.blogmura.jp/rpc/ http://api.feedster.com/ping http://ping.blo.gs/ http://ping.rootblog.com/rpc.php http://rcs.datashed.net/RPC2/ http://rpc.blogbuzzmachine.com/RPC2 http://rpc.blogrolling.com/pinger/ http://rpc.newsgator.com/ http://topicexchange.com/RPC2 http://www.blogdigger.com/RPC2 http://www.blogoon.net/ping/ http://www.blogsnow.com/ping http://www.blogstreet.com/xrbin/xmlrpc.cgi http://www.newsisfree.com/RPCCloud http://www.snipsnap.org/RPC2 http://www.wasalive.com/ping/ http://bitacoras.net/ping http://blogdb.jp/xmlrpc http://blogmatcher.com/u.php http://bulkfeeds.net/rpc http://coreblog.org/ping/ http://mod-pubsub.org/kn_apps/blogchatt http://ping.weblogs.se/ http://trackback.bakeinu.jp/bakeping.php http://www.blogpeople.net/servlet/weblogUpdates http://www.blogroots.com/tb_populi.blog?id=1 http://www.blogshares.com/rpc.php http://www.mod-pubsub.org/kn_apps/blogchatter/ping.php http://www.newsisfree.com/xmlrpctest.php http://xmlrpc.blogg.de http://xping.pubsub.com/ping/
Some which WordPress confirms are as followings:
RECOMMENDED LIST
http://rpc.pingomatic.com/ http://api.moreover.com/ping http://api.my.yahoo.com/rss/ping http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2 http://ping.bitacoras.com http://ping.feedburner.com http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php http://rpc.blogrolling.com/pinger/ http://rpc.icerocket.com:10080/ http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2 http://topicexchange.com/RPC2 http://www.blogdigger.com/RPC2 http://www.blogoole.com/ping/ http://www.popdex.com/addsite.php http://www.wasalive.com/ping/ http://www.weblogues.com/RPC/ http://blogping.unidatum.com/RPC2/
WordPress Article On Update Services containing List
WordPress Compressed All-Inclusive Ping List
I do not recommend to use too many Update pinging services. Just Ping-O-Matic and some other URLs recommended by WordPress or confirmed ones will do. Or you can check those extra URLs for response they provide to guess whether that URL pining service exists or not.
Did you ever experimented with pinging services? How many services do you use?
