A new application, Google Sites, was just launched from Google, making online file sharing a breeze!

In desperation to find an application for a new client, Hank’s Photos, I stumbled upon this new product. (Hank’s Photos doesn’t have access to a database) Although it’s not a solve-all free website hosting application, it could be just what you need for your company’s collaboration and productivity services. I found it a lot more user-friendly than ZOHO which was my choice prior to finding Google Sites.

From the article at webware.com:

[Google Sites] has two main features: First, you can set it up so anyone you want can edit a Google Sites page (or you can keep it private). And second, it records all changes and lets you change things so you can un-do these edits.

Users who want to keep track of changes to a Google Sites project, or just a page on it, can easily sign up to get alerted when other users make changes.

So, I did a little messing with it to see what could be done, and just how easy it would be for the non-techy to use. You can view my resulting design works here.

Other links of interest:

• Choose which edition you need
• Mashable’s blog post about Google Sites
• Google Relaunches Jotspot - TechCrunch
• My delicious bookmarks on googlesites

All-in-all, I give this new application from Google Apps a thumbs-up!

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Do you need top search engine results?
Do you want first page Google?

Getting traffic to your website involves several marketing methods, of which
search engine traffic is foremost. It is not really difficult to get top SERP (search engine results pages) or even to achieve first page Google. You can avoid the high cost of SEO (search engine optimization) companies, and the risky bidding for prominent Adwords. All you need is written up here in this article.

My Quick SEO for SERP formula:

1. Use a 3-4 keyword phrase.
2. Use keyword phrases that search users would probably use. This is where an SEO expert may come in handy, but with a little imagination and research you should be able to master this.
3. Place your “keyphrases” in your title <title>, header <h1> to <h6>, and link <a href> tags.
4. Place in meta name description <meta name=”Description” content=”place in here - easy on all caps” />.
5. Use this keyphrase 2-3 times minimum in body content.
6. If your website is geographic specific, (even if it’s not) be sure to include your city and state in your title and meta name description tags.

And there you have it! Use this formula, and you’ll see your website on Google first page within a week or two.

See my 1st page Google pages:

• optimized website design: number 9
• optimized website design tacoma: number 1 & 2
• discount website design: number 9
• discount website design tacoma: number 1 & 2

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ALL YOUR WEBSITES ARE BELONG TO US

What a surprise it is to plug in your website’s URL, click on go, and find something you never uploaded! Then you go to other websites you have on your server and view the same upload. Then you know you got trouble!!

This was my own observation last weekend. I’ve heard it happen to others, and now I was chosen to experience this reality. I have never discussed with anyone just what happens when you get hacked, but here’s my story.

I had just performed an autoinstall of Joomla! CMS on Friday evening. Got it all up and set with a click on a hyperlink. Smooth, fast, and secure. Secure? Yah, sure was. Not changing my username from admin? NOT SECURE!

Saturday, I go to play around with my new website and view this black background page with a gruesome face of destruction staring me down. “Oh crap!” My first thought was to check my web design website. Sure enough, that horrid face was there, too.

Next step: questions

1. What can I do to fix everything?
2. What allowed this to happen?
3. What can I do to prevent this from happening again?
4. Who did this and where does he live?

My hosting service through Servage.net makes this easy to fix and repair. I didn’t bother to use FTP, went direct to my files online - no C panel to mess with. With Servage I access every thing from one page. Web server, FTP accounts, E-mail accounts, Domain settings, Your account, FAQ, MySQL databases, and more. No phony icons, all text links with drop-down menus.

Turns out, the only pages that got hacked were the index.html and index.php pages, and my admin login page here at WordPress. So it didn’t take very long to set everything back to my content. There was only one exception: the new Joomla! files. This CMS has numerous files, most with its own index.html or index.php files. With no content of my own on any pages there, the best choice was to delete all these files.

After viewing the source code, I found out that the hacker was likely from Saudi Arabia, and he goes by the name, “BuLlEt HaCkEr.” Lots of coders over there, a great country to grow hackers.

Next task, find out what allowed this to happen. After a couple hours of Google searching, I realized that it was the Joomla! program and the fact that I didn’t IMMEDIATELY change the default username.

To sum it up:

• Strange experience
• Great support from Servage (submitted 3 tickets with excellent speedy reply)
• Totally wasted a good Saturday
• Minimal losses (none!)

… the Google search term, “r00t-x” will bring up over 4,000 hacked sites. Likely done by just one of many hackers.

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Databases - dynamic website pages - PHP and mySql - ASP/Microsoft SQL - content management (CMS) systems. It’s all about automating information via the internet.

I must admit, most clients-to-be fail to realize the immense savings, both of time and cash, when choosing a content management system over static HTML content for their website. And most people who fill in my contact form, fail to realize the need for as well as the price of dynamic pages.

This is their (your?) lucky day! Through my subscription to SEOmoz News & Updates, I got news of this article. Along with his SEO perspective, CEO Rand provides an answer about Choosing the Right CMS Platform for your Website. This article, along with all the comments, should give you a good idea for your decision on whither or not to employ content management - even if you only skim through it. As everyone who rated this article, I also give this article a thumbs-up.

Click on the image above (from Answers.com) to get an excellent visual of what a content management system does.Answers.com goes further in depth about the database here.In this issue of Industry Insider, Seth Gottlieb gives key incite into selecting an open-source CMS. And oh - by the way; you’re reading material posted here through a content management system.
- This one is known as WordPress, a blog CMS.

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Interesting comparison chart of overlapping product offerings…

read more | digg story

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Hopefully by now everybody has heard the news, and I’m not about to republish it here, this post is to help Microsoft-Yahoo! to come up with a new logo. So far, I haven’t seen much activity on this yet. Here are a few I found. The text links go to the publishing page, click on thumbnails for full size images.

Microsoft eyeing deal to buy Yahoo

What will happen if Microsoft buys Yahoo!

Microsoft Gets the Munchies

Microsoft offers to buy Yahoo!: Oh crap.

Microsoft makes bid for Yahoo; May change the search game; Bid could rise

Microsoft + Yahoo: Recapping Reactions

Microsoft/Yahoo! logo designs from my Photoshop files. Click on the images to view logos with white backgrounds.

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