Track your Location with your Mobile Phone

The next time you get lost in a new city, Google will come to your rescue. Mobile phone users with the Google Positioning Software in their phones can now easily track their locations at inopportune moments.

When this facility was first introduced, it came with its own set of problems. Not more than 15% mobile handsets support the GPS, and the ones that use face a major crisis with regard to battery-life. Thankfully, Google has recently come up with a solution to this problem. Its brand new 'My Location' feature allows users to set their location despite not having a GPS-powered phone.

Available free of cost, it tracks locations on the basis of nearby mobile-phone masts. This simply means you do not have to type in an address to specify your location – just enter the number zero and wait for Google to get back to you.

Industry experts insist that the feature will take some time to display locations with total accuracy. Anyways, users do not seem to be complaining as long as they get exciting features on their phones, and that too free of cost!

Wife to Sue Husband after Google Search Revelations

Now this is something we should expect more frequently in the future. A woman in Miami has decided to sue her husband for hiding his lottery winnings - $600,000 – from her. And, guess who helped her discover the truth? Our good, old Google of course!

The man, Arnim Ramdass, has been into lotteries and gambling for quite some time, and always used up his marital money for the same. However, when he actually won something, he conveniently kept it from his wife, Donna Campbell.

Campbell suspected he was hiding something when he blocked all means of communication, like disconnecting the phone line and keeping the television switched off. The arrival of a congratulatory postcard led her to confront her husband regarding the same. And, when he refused to divulge, she used Google to find out the truth.

Her Google search results clearly revealed that her husband had won a lottery and was hiding the news from her. She has, therefore, decided to sue him and claim for half of the lottery amount as compensation.

The importance of search engines in our daily lives can be easily evidenced through cases like these. Come to think of it, in this case, Google knew more about the husband's doings than his wife!

We can Claim our Blogs at Technorati

A piece of good news for bloggers, especially the ones doing it for business purposes. Technorati, one of the most popular search engines for blogs, gives you the option of claiming your blog on its network. Now you can feature your name, description and even photograph next to your blog on search results on the site.

This move also gives you the opportunity of getting your blog featured on Technorati's homepage. Enhance your visibility on the search engine by enlisting yourself in up to 20 different categories available here.

The process of claiming a blog is simple. Just create an account in Technorati free of cost; log in and click on the 'Blogs' link on the top of the page. Next, enter the URL of your blog into the box titled 'Claim your Blog'. You will then have to follow the HTML coding instructions mentioned on the page. These codes are easily comprehensible, even for the lay user.

You need to copy-paste the mentioned code in your blog and publish it. As soon as this is done, you can come back to this window and click on the 'Claim Your Blog' link. Voila! You have claimed your blog on Technorati. This claim gives you an identity on the search engine, thus helping you popularise your blog and rake in targeted traffic.

Circa 2010: The Internet – Dangerously Low on Resources

If nothing goes well, this is likely to be the headline staring at us one of these days... in the year 2010. That is, if Internet operators do not wake up to reality and deal with this almost 'life-threatening' situation for the global urbane populace.

Latest studies on the Internet and its functionality reveal that the propulsion of videos and web content will, by the turn of this decade, overwhelm this exhaustive resource of its capacity. Experts predict that service providers in this domain will have to shelve out a good $137 billion in order to avert this 'disaster'. And unfortunately, this amount happens to be more than double of what these companies were actually planning to invest!

With an increasing number of sites offering features like music downloads, interactive video, file transfers, et al, the demand for Internet capacity is heading only in one direction - upwards. And, as things stand, peer-to-peer data transfer happens to be the greatest culprit in the whole scenario. The 'exaflood' of video and web content might actually clog broadband pipes, resulting in an acute shortage of capacity.

These studies further indicate that the North American region will be badly affected, with Internet access infrastructure looking to fall way below the demand mark within the next five years. The storm that has taken off in the American region can actually go on to engulf other major Internet players around the globe.

The answer lies in broadband providers' ability to add more capacity to their networks. Consumers, on their end, have to be generous enough to pay high taxes, as telecommunication services look set to take the expensive route.

Just hope we never come across such a headline!

Petrol Pumps to use Google Maps

One of the most renowned Internet companies, Google, will make its foray into petrol pumps now. Don't worry; it'll not be selling petrol! Instead, it'll be guiding drivers who use the services of petrol pumps.

Gasoline pump maker Gilbarco Veeder-Root is all set to start a new service wherein drivers at his petrol pumps will be able to get directions to certain important destinations with the help of Google Maps. These destinations will be the ones chosen by the gas station owner, after taking factors like proximity and popularity under consideration.

These petrol pumps have been provided with colour screens and Internet connections that'll foster better connectivity for travelers. These systems will also allow retailers to display promotional messages to lure prospective buyers. Touch pads installed here will allow drivers to scan various categories like restaurants, hotels, hospitals, attractions, etc.

All this will be made possible with the help of Google's mapping services. This service is expected to take off at more than 3,500 petrol pumps across the US by the end of 2007.

Kickstart your Career with Yahoo!

Yahoo refuses to get bogged down by Google's splurge in the online marketplace. The Internet giant is all set to launch a new social networking site in the first week of November. To be known as Kickstart, the site will be primarily used as a career networking tool, wherein students and recruiters can participate to better their prospects.

It is touted to be a network that'll help college students or fresh graduates build a professional network of 'friends, philosophers and guides'. This will eventually help them in taking important career decisions as well. Kickstart, Google insists, will be a networking site sans the fun element that dominates sites like Facebook. It'll be meant for pure professional camaraderie.

Apart from students, alumni and career consultants can be a part of Yahoo's Kickstart. Users will also be able to post their CV along with other personal details. And, like other social networking sites, they can scan other people's profiles and make 'friends' with them.

A number of universities have shown interest in having their communities on this network. If you are a student, Kickstart will definitely be one of your favourite web pages in the times to come.

Oops! Google Does It Again

Google is never happy being out of news... is it? Webmasters are having a tough time tackling the latest 'evolution' Google has come up with. Websites world over recently 'woke up' with a changed PageRank, simply out of the blue. Even their backlinks have suffered this setback, and hence, all optimisation techniques have gone topsy-turvy!

Of course, we ought to give (dis)credit to the latest PR algorithm doing the rounds. Whatever it is, most of us will find a different PageRank, at least on our Google Toolbars. And to add to our woes, the Google PR directory is reportedly showing a different PR for the same sites. All this is simply adding up to the already prevailing confusion in the online circles.

Forums and blogs are spreading the news like wildfire, but most of us have no clue as to why this has happened. Amidst all this, there is a piece of good news though. Certain sites have actually benefited from this development, and have been awarded with an increased PR. Many of them have just not been affected.

I would like to set a few things straight first – Google PR does not affect traffic inflow of a web page. It is simply one of the many features the search engine is adorned with. We do not need to lose our sleep over this. Simply keep a track of what is going on, monitor the PageRank of your site and alter your optimisation tactics accordingly, if need be.