It’s no secret that we don’t like Internet Explorer 6 (IE6), the outdated 10+ year old browser still used by 15-25% of people on the web. Last year, we called for IE6 to die so that the web could move on with new innovations such as HTML 5.

Now Internet Explorer, specifically IE6, is under fire again after a critical IE vulnerability was implicated for the attack on Google’s infrastructure by Chinese hackers. While IE6 criticism is not a new phenomenon, last week’s events give those of us who advocate for the abolition of IE6 (myself included) new ammunition.

Whether you work for a company that won’t get rid of IE6 or have parents that just don’t see the need to ugprade, here are five new reasons to upgrade or switch browsers:

1. Your security and your company’s security are at risk: There’s no other way to lay it out: if the security of Google, Yahoo, and around 20 other companies were compromised due to people still running IE6, then your security is at risk too. Upgrading after a hacker uses this exploit to steal your information is simply too late, especially if you hold sensitive customer data.

2. World governments are suggesting you switch browsers: Both Germany and France have issued warnings about Internet Explorer, asking citizens to switch to prevent the same type of breach that affected Google.

3. Even Microsoft wants you to drop IE6: The Microsoft Security Research & Defense Blog specifically addressed the flaw and the risk of attack by platform. The most important part of the post was that they “recommend users of IE6 on Windows XP upgrade to a new version of Internet Explorer and/or enable DEP.”

This isn’t the first time Microsoft has asked people to voluntarily upgrade, but it is the first time that it’s been in response to an exploit or vulnerability. Think of it like a recall: would you keep driving a car that Toyota, Ford, or GM says could malfunction? Don’t make the same mistake with your computer’s security.

4. Not wanting to upgrade from Windows XP isn’t a legitimate excuse anymore: One way to delete IE6 is to upgrade your OS — both Windows Vista and Windows  7 run upgraded versions of the IE browser.

We understood why people didn’t want to upgrade when their choice was Windows Vista, but now that a very stable, solid, and secure upgrade is on the market (Windows 7), there’s no excuse not to upgrade. Yes, it’ll cost you up front, but it’s far cheaper than having your data stolen.

5. This will not be the last massive IE6 security breach: This flaw was unknown before Google’s groundbreaking China announcement. And it’s not the first flaw ever found with the browser — there are at least 142 vulnerabilities in IE6, 22 of which are nt yet patched. Would you use armor that had 142 weak spots?

Source:  http://mashable.com/2009/07/16/ie6-must-die

"Apple and Google know the other is their primary enemy," an anonymous source told BusinessWeek. "Microsoft is now a pawn in that battle." Apple is also working on ways to manage ad placement on its mobile devices, a move that would encroach on Google's ad-serving business, the person says.

The deal would not only mean more exposure for the fledgling Bing search engine but also a potential for greater ad revenue. According to mobile advertising company AdMob, the majority of mobile advertising today is viewed on Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch, and being able to have its ads show up by default when iPhone and iPod Touch users search the Internet could bring in millions of dollars.

However, the deal would not be without danger. ZDNet.com blogger Garrett Rogers notes that Apple runs the risk of alienating their users by switching to a less-popular search engine, a move that could backfire and drive customers to Google-enabled phones.

Source:  http://tutorialblog.itcrate.net/wp-admin/post-new.php

Fast Flip is designed to let Web surfers "flip" through multiple pages of content at once, theoretically making it easier to browse through a publisher's site and find interesting material. While Fast Flip is still only available in Google Labs, the service has evidentially been successful enough that publishers are interested in experimenting with it.

Newspapers are continuing to search for ways to generate revenue from online content, and Google is touting Fast Flip as a potential answer. Google has said that the "majority" of revenue generated by Fast Flip will go back to publishers but has not given specifics.

"Readers of the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Baltimore Sun and the rest of our newspaper brands operate in a multimedia universe, and our goal is to ensure our content is available on the platforms they choose," Marc Chase, president of Tribune Co.'s interactive division, told the Los Angeles Times. "We're always looking for new technologies to help us reach an even wider audience."

Source:  http://www.submitexpress.com/news/shownews.php?article=1389

Among other features is the ability to display language and set the toolkit tabs to open or close by default. Google has also expanded the dictionary tab to include parts of speech and alternate definitions.

"For example, if you're translating the word cancer into Chinese you will find alternate translations for cancer as a disease and cancer as a quickly-spreading danger so you can find just the right word for your translation," said Kartik Singh, software engineer at Google.

Source:  http://www.submitexpress.com/news/shownews.php?article=1400

The approach to a successful website redesign is more than requesting new creative and finding a price you are comfortable with. It’s imperative that you can first provide a web design company with the critical information that defines your business in order to put them in a better position to suggest solutions that can improve your company’s image, exposure, and ensure a strong return on investment.  For optimal results that save time and money, and might even earn you praise from the boss for your incisive approach, we recommend that you gather the following information.

1. List the goals and objectives for your business and for your website.  Do they align with each other? They should.  Does your current website fulfill all the goals and objectives? If not, why? Have any of the goals and objectives changed since your last web design?
2. Who is your target market?  Has this changed?
3. List your competitive advantages. Does your current website highlight these advantages? If not, why? Has there been a change in your competitive advantage?
4. Has your brand changed? Would you like to change your brand?
5. What kind of feedback are you getting on your current website?  What is currently working, what needs reworking?  Reference your current website statistics or analytics tools to shed some light on this.
6. Examine your top competitors. What are they doing?  Would you like to try any of it on your own website?
7. What would make your website stand out from your competitors?  Are there any inefficiencies within your organization that an online system could improve?

Leading with your website goals and objectives, and organizing your information will ensure a much more strategic decision making process. You may discover that a complete website redesign will not be necessary, perhaps just touch-ups to your existing site.

A website is more then just an online business card, it can be a driving business tool.  A proper site can improve your company’s efficiency, profitability, and give you a competitive advantage.  Your company’s prospects depend on it. So take your time, and take it seriously.

Source: http://www.visibilitymagazine.com/9th-sphere/ezra-silverton/a-step-towards-website-redesign-success

Twitter, which began as a platform for friends and family to keep in touch, has evolved into a different product that the creators couldn’t have predicted.  Iranian protestors used it to communicate with one another by announcing protest locations and warning one another about police crackdowns. It may have saved hundreds of lives. In addition, businesses are turning to Twitter for marketing and branding.

If you are not on Twitter yet, now is the time to get on it and build your followers. The following is a list of Twitter tools which will help you use Twitter more effectively and allow you to quickly build your followers. If you need assistance with Twitter and would rather have a professional do the work for you, please visit our website and take a look at our premium Twitter services www.iclimber.com .

1.    Social Oopmh (http://www.socialoomph.com/) (Previously called TweetLater)

Social Oopmh, which was previously called TweetLater, is my top pick in Twitter Tools. There are many tools that do just one or two of the features this tool provides, but Social Oopmh has many features in one app.

The top features of Social Oopmh are:

-          Create and schedule tweets

-          Track keywords on Twitter

-          Send automatic welcome DM’s to new followers

-          Uses bit.ly for shortening URL’s which in turn tracks your clicks

-          Follow those who follow you automatically

-          Unfollow those who unfollow you

All of the above features plus a few more are offered in the free version of Social Oopmh. However, there is a fee-based version that has even more features.

2.    Tweet Spinner (http://tweetspinner.com/)

The top features of Tweet Spinner are:

-          Create and schedule tweets

-          Schedule rotation of profiles and designs

-          Follower management

-          Location filtering

The free version of this tool allows you to perform some of the basic functions, while the fee-based version will give you much more functionality. The most useful part of this tool is the follower management. It allows you to follow users based on keywords they tweet about. You can also drop users that do not follow you and it will drop the oldest ones first.

Location filtering available on the fee-based edition allows you to limit following to only those users whose locations match any of the criteria you specify.

3.    Twitter Feed (http://twitterfeed.com/)

Twitter Feed allows you to use RSS feeds or ATOM feeds to post on your Twitter automatically. For example, you can automatically post Google news on a certain keyword to your Twitter account using Google RSS feeds. You can also specify how many posts you would like per 30 minutes or hourly basis.

4.    FlashTweet (http://www.flashtweet.com/)

Flashtweet lets you mass follow the followers of other users that you specify. You can simply pick someone that tweets about similar subjects to you and follow their followers.  However one limitation we have seen with this tool is that if you have over 2000 followers then the tool will not work. The creators of the tool told us this is because when you have too many followers, the tool will crash. Therefore, this tool is best for those just starting out that would like to quickly increase their followers.

This tool also allows you to mass unfollow your followers.

5.    TwittGeek (http://twittgeek.com/)

TwittGeek is a Twitter application that allows you to automatically follow up to 200 people based on keywords you specify! It is a simple app that you should not use more than once a day or Twitter may think you are spamming.  Too bad the app does not allow you to schedule the auto follows, so it would do it for you daily.

6.    TwitterMass (http://twittermass.com/)

This is mainly a fee-based application starting at $24/month that lets you do the following:

-          Follow by Keyword
Use this tool to follow people based on keyword or hashtag.

-          Local Follow by Keyword
Use this tool to follow people locally by keyword or hashtag.

-          Remove Unwanted Guests
Use this tool to unfollow anyone who is not following you back.

-          Clone Any Account
Use this tool to clone anyone’s followers.

-          Manual Follow
Use this tool to find the perfect candidates to add to your network.

-          Follow Friday
Use this tool to automatically tweet your top Follow Friday friends every week.

The free version of the tool shows you a nice statistic graph of your followers. Even if you don’t buy this tool, it is worth logging in to view your followers graph.

7.    Bit.ly (http://bit.ly/)

Bit.ly is a URL shortening service that offers tracking and stats. By using this service to shorten your URL’s you can see how many clicks your link is getting and even see some other stats such as location and referrers.

8.    TwittLocal (http://www.twitterlocal.net/)

TwittLocal allows you to find posts by location. For example, specify a city name and a radius distance and you get a list of all recent tweets based on your criteria. You could then follow those twitters if you like and hopefully they will follow you back, so you can build a local following, if that is something you are looking for.

9.    Twitbbacks (http://www.twitbacks.com/)

Twitbacks allows you to create a customized background for your Twitter account for free. If you are not savvy in graphic design or photoshop, then this is the app for you.

10.  Tweet Pro by Soxialize (http://www.soxialize.com/tweet-pro/)

Tweet Pro is an auto follow tool that is desktop based. It allows you to find followers based on keywords and follow up to 50 people at once. You can use the app for several twitter accounts. It is a fee-based app that costs $10 for first 30 days and $47 for each month after. The only benefit this provides over TwittGeek which we recommended earlier is that you can pick and choose which of the 50 people you actually want to follow, while TwittGeek will automatically follow everyone.

Source: http://www.visibilitymagazine.com/submit-express/pierre-zarokian/top-10-twitter-tools

One of our main tasks in 2009 was staying ahead of the changes in the industry. The emergence of Microsoft's Bing search engine and the changes Google made to its Personalized Search function will significantly affect how search engine results are generated and used. As we look ahead to 2010, it's also important to reflect on some of the top search engine-related news stories of the past year and the impact they will have moving forward.

In this issue read about:

• Top Search Stories of 2009
• Our CEO, Pierre Zarokian, writes about Top 10 Twitter Tools for Visibility Magazine
• Google Threatening to Stop Operations in China

Top Search Stories of 2009

June 2009: Microsoft Launches New Bing Search Engine

Microsoft launched its new Bing search engine in June 2009 on the heels of a PR and advertising campaign featuring high-profile TV spots. Microsoft attempted to differentiate Bing from industry giant Google by calling it a "decision engine" rather than a search engine, returning results that were more detailed and precise than Google and therefore providing information to help people make real-world decisions.

According to the official press release, Microsoft focused on three design goals when creating Bing: "deliver great results; deliver a more organized experience; and simplify tasks and provide insight, leading to faster, more confident decisions." Bing offers several features that are unique from Google or Yahoo! search engines, including Related Searches and Quick Tabs, a table of contents for different categories of search results.

While Google remained the dominant search engine, Bing was able to grow its market share throughout 2009, ending the year with more than 1.3 million searches a month.

October 2009: Search Engines Add Real-Time Search Functionality

The increasing popularity of social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook forced search engines to have to address the challenge of real-time searches in 2009. In fact, in the span of one day in October, two of the major search engines announced plans to integrate real-time content from social media sites into their search results.

Bing was the first search engine to announce the integration of Twitter content into its search engine. Google followed up with a similar announcement later that day, adding the rollout of a new Google Labs experiment called Social Search. Through this feature, people conducting Web searches on Google can see results for queries specifically from people in their social network.

December 2009: Google Updates Personalized Search Function

In December 2009, Google released a new version of Personalized Search designed to deliver individual, customized results based on a person's search history. Personalized Search uses information from past searches to deliver results targeted to be the best fit for each individual user. According to a post on the Official Google Blog, one example would be that if a person visits a particular food site frequently, it would be ranked higher in the future when that person does a Google search for recipes.

Previously, Personalized Search had only been available to people who were signed in and had Web History enabled on their Google Accounts. The newest version of Personalized Search extended that feature to all users (even if they were not logged into Google) through their anonymous cookies from the past 180 days.

The announcement caused speculation within the industry about what impact this will have on search engine rankings and the process of optimization. While it is possible that there may be some volatility in search engine rankings in 2010 as the effects of Personalized Search are seen, Chris Boggs of Search Engine Watch feels that basic SEO best practices will still be necessary to ensure a proper search engine ranking.

December 2009: Microsoft and Yahoo! Finalize Partnership

In December 2009 Microsoft and Yahoo! finalized a partnership deal that had been rumored for several months, with Yahoo! using Microsoft's Bing technology to power its search engine in exchange for providing Microsoft with its online ad sales expertise. The two sides reached an agreement in principle in July and later reached out to European Union regulators for permission to combine forces.

Media reports put the deal at ten years, with an expected rollout date for the combined effort in early 2010. According to a joint statement released by the company:

"Microsoft and Yahoo! believe that this deal will create a sustainable and more compelling alternative in search that can provide consumers, advertisers and publishers real choice, better value, and more innovation. Yahoo! and Microsoft welcome the broad support the deal has received from key players in the advertising industry and remain hopeful that the closing of the transaction can occur in early 2010."

Google Threatening to Stop Operations in China

Google is threatening to leave China after a dispute revolving around a cyber attack the search giant says "resulted in the theft of intellectual property from Google." According to DailyFinance.com, Google is vowing to end its censorship of its Chinese language search site, a move that would be seen as thumbing its nose at the communist Chinese government.

In a post on the official Google Blog, Google SVP of Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer David Drummond said that Google had been the victim of a cyber attack that originated from inside of China. However, Drummond also said that Google's intellectual property wasn't the main target of the attack; rather, the hackers appeared to be interested in accessing the Gmail accounts of human rights activists in China. While the attack only compromised two accounts on a limited basis, the subsequent investigation showed that "the accounts of dozens of U.S.-, China- and Europe-based Gmail users who are advocates of human rights in China appear to have been routinely accessed by third parties."

According to Drummond, the attacks -- combined with China's efforts to curtail free speech online in the past year -- has led Google to "conclude that we should review the feasibility of our business operations in China."

"We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn," he said, "and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all. We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China."

October 2009: Search Engines Add Real-Time Search Functionality

If using your site requires a special software install, you need to first inform visitors why they need to install additional software. Here are two bad examples and one good example of how to handle the situation of a new visitor to such a site:

Bad: Install the required software without giving the visitor a chance to choose whether or not they want to install the software.

Bad: Pop up a confirmation dialog box that prompts the visitor to agree to install the software, without providing enough detail for the visitor to make an informed choice. (This includes the standard ActiveX control installation dialog box, since it doesn't contain enough meaningful information for a visitor to make an informed decision about that particular piece of software.)

Good: Redirect the new visitor to an information page which provides thorough details on why a special software installation is required to use the site. From this page the visitor can initiate the installation of the required software if they decide to proceed with installation.

Has your site been labeled with a malware warning in our search results due to a poorly implemented software installation requirement? Updating the installation process to ensure that visitors are fully informed on why the installation is necessary, and giving them a chance to opt out, should resolve this issue. Once you've got this in place, you can go to Webmaster Tools and request a malware review to expedite the process of removing any malware warnings associated with your site in Google's search results.

Source:  http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com

To use this library you have to use the following import statement,

import com.thoughtworks.xstream.XStream;

Once you have this import statement you can create the XStream object using the statement like,

XStream xs = new XStream();

Let us suppose you have a class called 'person' with member variables like 'name' and 'location', which is defined as below,

class person {
string name;
string location;
}

The above class can be serialized using the XStream object as given below,

String xml = xs.toXML(person);

Now you can print the string xml using the print statement. Assuming that you have set the values of the member variables within the program, you would get an XML output with the string values set as the text values of the elements 'name' and 'location'. The output would also include the <xml version="1.0"?> line as the first line in the XML document.

Thus by using XStream you can serialize or deserialize Java objects to XML and from XML. Lot of examples using the XStream library is available in the internet.

Your Own MP3 Duration Calculator (Dr. Dobb's Journal)
Calculator - Math - IPhone - Mathematics - Windows

A Quick Introduction to the Spring Python Framework (Developer.com)
The original Spring, written for Java, is a framework which at its heart uses an "Inversion of Control" container (IoC).

Source: http://www.xml-training-guide.com/e-xml18.html

Step 1: Absorb the basics

• If you like to learn by reading, download our SEO Starter Guide for reading while you're on an exercise bike, training for Ironman.
• Or, if you're more a video watcher, try listening to my "Search Friendly Development" session while you're cleaning your house. Keep in mind that some parts of the presentation are a little more technical.
• For good measure, and because at some point you'll hear references to them, check out our webmaster guidelines for yourself.

Step 2: Explore details that pique your interest

Are you done with the basics but now you have some questions? Good for you! Try researching a particular topic in our Webmaster Help Center. For example, do you want more information about crawling and indexing or understanding what links are all about?

Step 3: Verify ownership of your site in Webmaster Tools

It takes a little bit of skill, but we have tons of help for verification. Once you verify ownership of your site (i.e., signal to Google that you're the owner), you can:

• See more confidential information about your site, like crawl errors or messages from Google about your site
• Run through the Webmaster Tools checklist and learn new ways to monitor and manage your site
• Forward your Google messages to your personal email address

A sample message regarding the crawlability of your site

Step 4: Research before you do anything drastic

Usually the basics (e.g., good content/service and a crawlable site with indexable information) are the necessities for SEO. You may hear or read differently, but before you do anything drastic on your site such as robots.txt disallow'ing all of your directories or revamping your entire site architecture, please try:

• Researching material in our Help Center
• Checking for related posts in our Webmaster Forum
• Asking for feedback from the webmaster community -- we've got a super skilled group of Google employees, members, and Bionic Posters.

Source: http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com