I just wrote a test post about the new Worpress 2.5 that is coming out, because I wanted to test the reaction time of Google. According to this post it can be indexed in less than 5 minutes.
The verdict? 2 minutes! Well, maybe less. I posted the article, then my 4 year old son came in to show me his new ball and then I checked - so it was 2 minutes on my end, it may have been faster at Google’s end.
Matt Cutts (who controls your world, you just don’t know it) has a video telling you how it is not nice to fool Google, that he will find you, use Wordpress (like me!) . He says “make good content”, “think about what a user will type”
Ahh, just watch it yourself.
The Google mail team has announced another neat trick of the Gmail system:
Append a plus (”+”) sign and any combination of words or numbers after your email address. For example, if your name was hikingfan@gmail.com, you could send mail to hikingfan+friends@gmail.com or hikingfan+mailinglists@gmail.com.
For me, the real value in being able to manipulate your email address is that it makes it really easy to filter on those variants. For example you could use hikingfan+bank@gmail.com when you sign up for online banking and then set up a filter to automatically star, archive or label emails addressed to hikingfan+bank. You can also use this when you register for a service and think they might share your information. For example, I added “+donation” when I gave money to a political organization once, and now when I see emails from other groups to that address, I know how they got it. Solution: filtered to auto-delete.
I really like this trick. I get too many emails per day, much of it is friendly spam sent with good intention but really a waste of my time. So with this “+” feature, I can tell my Mom to send me email to myemail+mom@gmail.com and she can send all the fake virus warnings and urban legends to there. Auto filter and done. I also hate how some companies are a little aggressive with their email reports, and have a complicated time waster of a mess to unsubscribe from them. I mean, do I really need two emails a week from Southwest Airlines reminding me that I don’t have time to go on vacation, and that Hawaii can be mine for only $99? No! Why depress me? But I kinda want to get those emails because I keep dreaming that one day I will jet off to parts unknown. Now I just make it myemail+vacation@gmail.com and auto filter it away. Save the dream for later.
PS - These tricks work with Google Apps mail users as well.
For all of you who own a website, and struggle to keep spam away from your door, have you heard about Google Apps? We switched to it a number of months ago, have since upgraded to the $50 per user version, and now the blessed event has occurred. Now the clever little algorithms at Google keep the Spaminator at bay. Today’s treat was a wonderful addition….
JotSpot became reborn as Google Sites
This is a wonder to me, a gift from heaven. Perhaps an exageration, but trying to drive a ship with 18 souls on board that work from five different addresses has been a struggle. We use web based Customer Relationship Management software, and we have tried on several occassions to make a wiki that worked. But alas, Poor Yorick, my people were not “techie” enough to deal with logging into TWO sites in one day and the wiki died a slow death. Now light shines through yonder window because Google Sites works with the existing login they have to do for email - and the angels sing, and the Red Sea parts and voila! My people are now techie enough to edit the company blog. Ahhhhh. Enough with the bad Shakespearian quotes…..
The nut meat of the deal is this - my non-tech work force did not mesh well with a Web 2.0 concept of a wiki. Now they think this is an extension of their email. Who am I to tell them anything different. I give this 5 stars - not because it is the best wiki out there (it is NOT!) but because it make it accessible to the masses… or at least my people. Now we don’t have to email every little tidbit of trivia, now everyone has the latest price list, now everyone has access to that expense account form that they keep losing - I could go on forever. Now everyone can access the information that they need regardless of location, and I can keep the public eye out of it. Happy Happy Joy Joy!