Internet Marketing, Web Technologies & News – Best Web Ezy

Ever wonder how your keywords are doing?  Instead of plugging them into search engines one by one, you can now use this tool to quickly generate you a report.

Recently I have installed this Firefox Plugin named Rank Checker.  What it does is that it allows you to enter a list of keywords and the URL, and it would automatically query Google.com (& another extension of your choice after configuration), MSN Live & Yahoo and find the rankings of the keywords.

Results are shown on the browser as a table, and you can export the results into CSV for graphing etc.

If you want more accurate results, you may want to make sure the ‘do not use personalized result’ box is checked in the configuration.

On the other hand, you can also schedule Rank Checker to run periodically, if you need to report on the result from time to time.

Download Rank Checker

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Best Web Ezy‘s New Home
I have just moved this blog into the new hosting environment.  As I mentioned before, I am moving this blog to a US based hosting because I figured out that most of the audiences are from the US.  And I want to keep my AU based server for the Australasia clients.  Therefore recently, I have migrated to Cirtex Hosting.

So far, no complaints.  All goes well.  Uptime is good, technical support is fast in responding to my emails.  If you are looking for a web host, I would suggest you to use Cirtex Hosting.

Best Web Ezy‘s New Skin
As you probably have noticed, I have changed the theme of this blog again.  This time, it is an SEO friendly theme.  I am planning to keep using this theme for a long time.  There are a few bits and pieces to be fixed, but generally, I am happy with this.

I chose this skin because it is not the usual John Chow style theme, which you might have noticed a lot of similar themes around.  They look like copycats of John Chow.  And the color is fresh.  It is the 2-column style that I always like to work with.  I am still tweaking it a bit as I plan to put a few products of my own here.  Talking about that, please look out for my upcoming publication.  I am sure (I hope) it would be a good reference for webmasters.

Best Web Ezy‘s New Backbone
Last but not least, WordPress 2.5.1.  I was always lazy to upgrade the blog but I thought I should use this chance to upgrade as well.  I think this is the best version so far.  The admin interface is so different now, but it is so much easier to work with.

I had a bit of problem migrating the database across.  There was an encoding problem.  Apparently the previous version of WordPress was using Latin 1 Swedin as encoding method for the MySQL database.  When I got it imported into the new version, there are strange words all over the place.

After a bit of search on the internet (well, where else) I have found the solution:

1. Export the database into a .sql file
2. Change the encoding from Latin1 to utf8
3. Import into the new database with utf8 as default encoding
4. Edit the wp-config file by commenting out the encoding line
5. Upgrade the WordPress version to 2.5.1

And that’s done.  Nice and easy.

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How do you distinguish between blog comments and blog spams? Why does people hate spams so much?

For me, even people want to leave a spam on my blog, I probably won’t delete it straight away. All they want to do is to place a link on my pages. I don’t really mind. As long as the comment is *somehow* relevant, or even if it is just a simple “Thank You”. I would be more than happy to leave it there.

However, for the obvious spam and for those that didn’t even make any effort to write something but just crap, I would delete straight away. I don’t like them. But then, I won’t feel angry, too. Why do we have to be angry about such a small thing.

Everyone is trying to do business here. If you don’t like the comment, just delete it. Don’t make a big fuss about it. People would only feel that you are such a jerk and narrow-minded person. What good is it to make a big fuss about such things? Only downgrading your personality.

For link-builders, I understand that you may need to put some links on blog comments. You just need to really read the post and put something relevant. In this case, you won’t get into any trouble.

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Microsoft has recently launched this new service – or a range of services packaged in one. It is the Windows Live Suite.

Windows Live Suite allows you to: -

Connect
Hotmail: No need to explain – the well-known webmail that we use everyday
Mail: And you can access your other emails too
Messenger: Again, no need to explain – your IM service
Toolbar: Integrated into your browsers

Share
SkyDrive: 5GB storage, online and password protected
Spaces: Personal blog
Photo Gallery: Not just photo sharing – videos too
Writer: a desktop application that allows you to update your blog
Events: calendar service

Protect
OneCare Family Safety: Oh this is important. Making your computer child-safe

And of course, just like the other Microsoft services that you may be using, it is free. Download here.

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Windows XP SP3 has finally released! If you are into updating your Windows XP, then this is something you should download.

The latest service pack fixes a few bugs and adds some new features to Windows XP.  If you have installed any RC version of service pack, it is strongly recommended that you have them uninstalled before installing this version.

SP3 is suitable for Windows XP Home, Professional, Tablet PC and Media Centre (32-bit version).  No matter what other patches you might have installed, the new SP3 is going to update any unpatched / partially patched / completely updated system.  It has already included everything covered with previously released patches, SP1 and SP2.

If you have already installed it, any patches released after the release of SP3 has to be installed.

2 new features have been added, which are the Black Hole Router Detection Windows and Network Access Protection.

You can download the standalone version here.  However, if you are only going to update a single computer, then you are strongly advised to let the Windows update facility does its job.

If you prefer a disk image you can download it here.

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