Optimizing your site for TV is now easier

As the Google TV platform continues to launch across more devices, developers are probably searching for an easy way to bring great content to Google TV users. We’re happy to announce that we have an answer.

Google TV enables developers to build powerful websites using the same technologies they already work with. These include HTML5, JavaScript, CSS and Flash. While existing websites can be displayed in Google TV, the user experience isn’t always ideal within the context of a living room. We previously provided a guide for optimizing websites for TV, and today we’re releasing several templates and a UI library to make it easier for developers to build optimized sites.

We’ve created two template designs that are focused on delivering video content, but equally suitable for photos or other multimedia. We recognize that some developers prefer using open web technologies, while others prefer Flash. So we’ve created two separate versions of each template.





All templates are open sourced under the Apache 2 license, so developers can make modifications to these templates and customize them to fit their brand and desired functionality.

One important optimization for browsing websites on TV is ensuring that D-pad navigation works well. The JavaScript-based templates utilizes a new library we’ve developed for this purpose-- the Google TV Web UI Library. This library has been open sourced as well.

To get started, you can download the template you want and visit our Google TV Web Developer Forum to get help. We look forward to seeing all the great sites developers will build using these templates.

By Steve Hines and Daniels Lee, Google TV Developer Relations Team

10 killer tips for getting mobile subscribers for your blog

1. Make your feed easy to locate.

It should be at the top of the page, or very close. Pushing your feed to the bottom of the page means that fewer people will subscribe – and mobile users may not subscribe at all.

2. Shorten your feed URL.

Some blogs try to put keywords or even a description in their feed URL, which may be good for SEO, but it’s not nice to enter a long URL into your phone. For instance, ProBlogger’s blog feed is feeds.feedburner.com/ProbloggerHelpingBloggersEarnMoney – this is just too long for mobile users. If your feed URL is already long, you could use a URL shortener to make life easier for mobile subscribers.

3. Use heading styles.

I’ve banged on about this in several previous posts, but it really becomes obvious if you don’t use heading styles when browsing on a phone. Sometimes I do just bold the title of each tip at the start of the paragraph – other blogs may use bold text in a paragraph just before the body text – but this isn’t great on a phone. Use a heading style for everything that should be a header – it makes your posts so much easier to browse.

4. Use paragraphs – and keep them short.

I know some bloggers seem to avoid the use of paragraphs, instead preferring to write a huge block of text – and others may use very long paragraphs. On a phone, this is a nightmare. It’s tricky to determine how long a paragraph should be, as phones have smaller screens and each line of text will wrap much sooner than it would on a computer. Just try to avoid long paragraphs.

5. Write shorter posts.

If you don’t need to write an extra 100-200 words, just don’t. Better still, go back and edit out any unnecessary sections of your post if you’re basically saying the same thing 3 or 4 times over. For some reason my phone doesn’t always display the entire post in my feed, even though the feed itself contains the whole post. And there aren’t any page numbers.
If you have something really vital to say in a long post – say it at the start! This is a good rule anyway, as it grabs the attention of a potential reader and gets them to keep on reading.

6. Consider offering a mobile-only feed.

I’ve always believed in “full feeds” – i.e. showing the full post in the feed, instead of just an excerpt. But as I said in #5, on a phone this may not work as expected. As a mobile user I’d still like to see a full feed, but a summary would probably be OK. That way, I can click through if I want to read the entire post. Avoid title-only feeds though – they are pretty pointless. At least provide a short description on each post.

7. Don’t use feed ads.

When every post in a feed has the same annoying ad at the bottom, I see little reason to subscribe. These ads are bad enough in a feed reader. But on a phone, they are incredibly painful to deal with. Bottom line – mobile users won’t bother subscribing if you use feed ads.

8. Limit the use of images.

Don’t put images in your feed if they’ll take ages to download – anything above 100KB is too big. Don’t use images that are too tall, or too wide – this will cause horizontal scrolling on a phone. It may be easier just to omit the images from your feed – images can kill the mobile experience.

9. Don’t rely on third-party services.

If you must use images or buttons in your posts, at least host them yourself. Loading a website on a phone can take longer than on a computer, and the fewer external resources you link to, the better. Generally this shouldn’t be as much of an issue in your feed as on your site, but don’t make it a problem just because you want to throw loads of images into your feed.

10. Subscribe to your own blog.

I suggest this anyway, but I strongly recommend subscribing to your blog from your phone, as well as browsing your blog from your phone. If you find any weirdness, you can make changes accordingly. If you’ve never visited your blog from a phone, you’ll be in the dark, and you’ll never know if mobile users have a good time on your site – if it loads at all.

10 Smart Ways to Protect Your Computer against Viruses

Virus infection on your computer may cause a very serious damage and even loss on your business. You can just imagine it may wreck your system registry or your entire computer (with all your receivables data on it!) or all your HTML programs! It will come to total black out screen, it will not boot at all. But that is actually the worse scenario that may happen. Are you going to wait for this worse scenario in your life to happen? I guess NOT, right?
Here are the 10 smart ways that I personally do to protect my computers against viruses, malicious dialers and spywares.
(1)If you are using Windows XP, always turn on the firewall.
(2)Always run all necessary latest updates & service packs (all windows! including all your programs & software!---keep them updated)
(3)Run your anti-virus program everyday (some do it every week) There are many virus programs that you can get for free scanning.
(4)Run your anti-spyware/adaware once a week (I run Spybot Search & Destroy & Lavasoft Adware Personal --- they are shareware, meaning it's free!). What I do is that, I run the Lavasoft Adware first, then run the Spybot Search and Destroy (I also run it with "immunize" tool). These two tools are always on top of my desktop for easy access.
(5)Turn on the pop-up blocker - this feature is available on Windows XP (you can see this under tools>Internet Options >Privacy>click Block Pop Ups. In addition to this, I also download another pop up blocker, the Google Toolbar. I find their pop up blocker the most effective in blocking pop ups.
(6)Never open mails that are suspicious to you or not known to you. If they are in your bulk mail, send it back to your provider as "spam"! I never enable my bulk mail. I automatically delete emails from my bulk mail.
(7)When using messenger (IM) services, be very careful with files being sent through instant messenger. Rather choose to have it emailed it to you. Most of email services now has virus check and clears it if the file has virus or not.
(8)Be very careful when downloading files or any programs from the internet, pay attention on the instructions while downloading it. Downloading may sometimes cause error on the system registry or the entire computer system (one example, my nephew got his computer badly infected with viruses because of heavy downloading of games and music! - I guess!)
(9)Be careful with files that come from a floppy disk or any other external storage when you open it in your CD ROM of floppy drive. You should know its source, or better yet, when you insert it, have it scanned with your anti-virus program before you open the files.
(10)Run defragmentation, disk clean up, registry scanner at least once a week. You can find defragmentation by simply pointing your mouse on drive C: (which is usually the hard disk main logical drive)> right click the mouse>click on properties>click on tools>click on defragment now!
There are so many shareware on the internet that you can get for free! (that is the reason it is a shareware!). Keeping your computer healthy can make you more productive (if you have a business!) or it will make you enjoy more surfing and browsing the internet!

Top 10 Ways to Protect Your Computer from Hackers

 

Because computer use has become an integral part of modern-day living, IT security has naturally developed into one of the foremost worries we have in everyday life. Therefore, it's only natural for IT specialists to create practical methods that the average user can follow in order to protect his or her machine from the ravages of the information superhighway. At any rate, below are the top ten steps you can take to help safeguard your computer from digital destruction:

 

1.           Windows Updates: Let's face it; the many different iterations of the world's best-selling OS have all been targeted by hackers so often that it's become a given to provide continuous daily, weekly, or monthly updates to your Windows-based computer. It's important for you to keep your OS up to speed in order to minimize the possibility of having worms or viruses compromise your system.

 

2.           Software Updates: As with the above example, it's important for you to get the latest fixes or versions of your favorite applications in order to never let hackers find the opportunity to invade your virtual turf. Make sure that your web browsers and other web-based programs are given good upgrades or patches.

 

3.           Anti-Virus Software: Running your machine without an anti-virus software—especially if it's regularly connected to the Internet—is downright suicidal in these modern, computer-virus-ridden times. Get one as soon as you can, and always confirm if its virus definitions are regularly updated. There are many wonderful anti-virus suites available, and AVG is among the best of them because it's both effective and free.

 

4.           Anti-Spyware Software: Spyware remains to be a continuous threat to computer users everywhere, even though it's not as nightmarishly horrid as the days of Bonzi Buddy and CoolWebSearch. Thanks to anti-spyware luminaries like Ad-Aware, the formerly crippling spyware contagion had dwindled down throughout the years.

 

5.           Switch to Macintosh: Even though the Mac OS X has been listed in this very website as one of the least secure operating systems out there in terms of vulnerability volume, this fact only came about because fewer hackers bother to invade this platform in the first place. Otherwise, the Mac is as safe as can be. Therefore, even though no computer is foolproof against malware, the Macintosh gets a pass for the simple fact that it's not as commonly targeted as, say, Windows-based computers.

 

6.           Hacker-Controlled Websites: Common sense dictates that you should avoid going to bad neighborhoods, especially if you carry a lot of valuables. The same could be said in the wild, wild world of the worldwide web. Avoid getting snared by dubious sites dedicated to porn, free downloads, online games, and so on; this way, there are less chances for you to be hacked.

 

7.           Firewall: If you don't have a third-party firewall like ZoneAlarm Pro installed, then it's highly recommended for you to activate your Windows firewall (available on all Windows versions from XP and up). Firewalls help filter your traffic, and there are some products that even filter both incoming and outgoing data streams.

 

8.           Spam Email: Unsolicited messages should never be opened, and that goes double for unsolicited messages with file attachments. Fortunately, web-based email sites like Gmail have an extra layer of protection integrated in them (though it's still not recommended for you to overly rely on them like Sarah Palin did with her hijacked webmail). When in doubt, just delete the message.

 

9.           Data Backup: If you have critical data, work-related documents, or personal files, then you must back them up as often as possible, because you never know what will happen to your computer. From viruses to system crashes, these sensitive bits of information can be wiped clean from your hard drive in the blink of an eye, so it's best to always have a backup at hand.

 

10.      Password Policies: The passwords you pick could mean the difference between a breached computer and a safe computer. At any rate, the most common recommendations when it comes to picking a password includes not using the same password on every one of your accounts, using combinations of letters and numbers, and making sure that your password is as arcane as possible without necessarily making it too difficult for you to remember it.

10 ways blogging can help you get a job

I’ve seen plenty of news stories where bloggers have been shown as people who say too much and ultimately lose their jobs because of it. This post is much more positive – I’d like to look at how blogging can help you to get a job.

1. A link for your portfolio.

As with several of the points in this post, this is only going to be relevant to certain roles, such as web design or development. Many of these roles will ask for examples of previous work. It’s always better to include links that go further than “this is the last full-time job I did”.
If you’re not looking for jobs in web design or development, keep in mind that your employer may be able to find your blog anyway. It’s better to avoid posting anything that could harm your reputation than try and hide your blog from certain people.

2. Community involvement.

Are you someone who looks for ways to improve things? Do you help other bloggers with technical queries or general tips for how to build a better blog? Have you set up a group of like-minded bloggers or arranged any kind of events?
Depending on the role you’re going for, networking with other bloggers shows you care about others, and you work well in a team. It’s not a substitute for hands-on experience within the industry you’re looking for jobs in, but it is a good backup if you don’t have as much experience as you’d like.

3. Writing skills.

Posting on your blog will give potential employers a good idea of how you write. Therefore, accurate spelling and grammar is very important. Take the time to proof-read your posts, and edit them if you find any errors after a post is published. Most jobs look for strong writing skills, and blogging is actually a really good way to practise.

4. Some jobs want web-savvy, not just tech-savvy.

Employers have asked for basic PC skills for quite some time now. In fact, some jobs don’t even mention this anymore, and instead assume you will already have the skills you need to get started.
Now, some jobs are starting to put the focus on web skills, not just PC skills. Companies are becoming much more interested in blogging, web advertising, and Twitter. If you possess some knowledge in these areas, it can really help your application.

5. Managing multiple priorities.

We all have things that need doing. Cooking, cleaning, washing, ironing, looking after the family, car maintenance, house repairs… all the usual stuff that goes on when you’re not at work.
For many people, having time to blog is a good reflection on your ability to manage multiple priorities. It gets you into a routine. If you run multiple blogs, even better.

6. Emerging as an authority.

If you build a blog that helps you to emerge as an authority on an area you’d like to work in, people will start to see that you’re out there, and possibly approach you.
I’ve been approached many times for advice, freelance projects and general feedback. Sometimes it’s as simple as a supportive comment, in other cases I’ve been presented with suggestions or contributions that will ultimately benefit my projects and the people who use them.
If I wanted to be a full-time freelancer, then I’d work harder to pursue leads. Even without actively asking people to give me coding projects, I do get small coding jobs simply by continuing to blog. Putting yourself out there is a good thing.

7. References.

If you’ve ever helped another blogger or worked with them on something, even if it’s just a small volunteer project (rather than a big commercial job), they might be willing to give you a reference. Don’t expect it – but if it’s someone who could potentially help you with a job application, do ask.
References don’t just come from the people you’ve sat next to at work. Currently, I have three very strong references who can each provide good feedback, but most importantly, they each have a very different perspective. In my view, references are best when each person can comment on a different aspect of your career, your personality, and how you work.

8. It’s an interest.

I’m not keen on listing my interests on a job application, but people do ask. Think of what happens if you list your interests as drinking, pubbing, clubbing… would you want that person to work for you? Would they roll in late every Monday morning?
Being able to list interests that are actually interesting can be a great talking point – and it may be a good icebreaker for interviews. Saying you watch TV and not much else isn’t going to set the pulses racing. But saying you actively update a blog about (insert your choice of topic here) shows you care enough to blog in the first place, and could generate some interest from an interviewer. Making a solid connection is important – you want to be memorable, not forgettable.

9. It might be a blogging job!

Well yes – if you’re going for a blogging job, previous experience as a blogger should help. But before you say “I don’t want to make money from my blog”, think of how many companies have blogs now. Honestly, I couldn’t give you a figure, but business blogging seems to be a lot more common than it used to be. Someone has to update that blog. What if you could do it, either as your main responsibility or as part of a larger job?

10. It shows that you have knowledge in what you do.

We’ve already looked at emerging as an authority on a topic. If you blog about the kind of work you do, as I do, then it doesn’t just help you to get noticed – it confirms that you know your stuff. You’re not just someone who says they have however many years experience in something. You’re showing that you have a deep understanding and appreciation of your career. This is what pushes you from being a good candidate to a great candidate – and who knows, it might land you a great job with a great salary.

10 Important Tips For Designing Your Blog

1. Use a decent theme.

Don’t use the theme that came preinstalled with the blog. Search for a better theme. Or at least change the header! If your blog looks like thousands of other blogs, nobody will remember it. Readers have a short attention span. I’ve already forgotten what I was talking about…

2. Don’t use a dark or “busy” background.

This is likely to be determined by the theme you use, but I strongly recommend that you only use black text on a white background, or a light background. A black background with white text can be very hard on the eyes.
If you want to use a background image, make sure your content is readable. You could put a simple background image around the edge of your site and display the content on a light background. Whatever you do, don’t use a photograph and put the text directly on top of it. This does not look good, even if it’s a great photo. You don’t write on a photo.

3. Keep ads and widgets to a minimum.

I have seen so many blogs with ads, widgets, games, awards and other assorted junk cluttering up their sidebars. It looks messy, and it slows everything down.
Don’t add “just one more widget” because someone wrote about it, or because other bloggers have loads of widgets. Many widgets serve no purpose whatsoever and just get in the way. If you want to try a few things out, try to limit yourself to a couple of new items at a time – don’t just add everything you can find.

4. Content should be the main focus.

Aside from keeping ads and widgets to a minimum, any bits and pieces you do put on your blog should not draw attention away from your content. Surrounding your posts is not a good idea. Make it easy for readers to find the content of your posts – don’t make them hunt around.

5. Don’t make the text too small.

Some “designers” think it’s “cool” to use ridiculously small text, with the excuse that you can always increase the size in your browser. This is crazy. Use a respectable font size as your default – don’t make your readers push their noses right up the screen to read your posts. It just leaves noseprints on the screen.

6. Use colours to distinguish between navigation and content.

Many blogs have one or two sidebars alongside the content, sometimes with a horizontal navigation bar across the top as well. It helps to use a subtle background colour for your navigation areas so it’s clear where the content starts and ends.
I have actually seen sites that blend the whole lot together, which causes a big problem when reading – some of the lines within each post actually run into the navigation links!

7. Beware of scrolling.

Except for a few special cases (Plurk is a good example) most sites should not have a horizontal scrollbar. The content runs from top to bottom, you expect to scroll down to read a long post, but you don’t want to scroll across the read the end of each line.
Even vertical scrolling can get annoying if it’s excessive. Don’t put too many posts on your front page, especially if you want to display the full text of each post. I prefer to use the “more” tag in WordPress so the first part of the post is shown on the front page, but the rest isn’t visible until you click to view the full post.

8. Avoid animated images, marquees, and blinking text.

At best, these are a minor distraction that just gets ignored. At worst, your readers won’t be able to concentrate on reading your content. Avoid them, or you might have readers who spend more time watching the animations than reading your posts.

9. Keep everything neat.

Some sites don’t make very good use of the available space. It seems like even a tiny box has huge spaces above and below it. The FeedBurner “subscribe by email” box is a good example of this.
Floating images so they appear side by side, instead of stacking them in a disorganised mess makes it look like you don’t care about your blog. Which is not what you want people to think…

10. Give your site an identity.

A logo, an icon, a photo of you, there are a few ways to give your site its own identity. Even if you use an existing theme, you can modify it to make it your own. This will help with establishing your site.

10 SEO mistakes that may harm your blog

SEO stands for search engine optimisation. Briefly, it’s an acronym that is used to group a number of techniques to improve a site’s position within search engine results.
As a developer of an open source content management system (now closed) and author of various blogs, I’ve made the effort to learn a lot about SEO while never claiming to be a specialist, let alone an expert.
So while I’m not the best person to tell you about SEO, I do know a thing or two – such as when SEO is being overused, or when poor techniques are implemented. This post lists 10 of the most common SEO mistakes that I’ve seen – these may harm your blog if you do them.

1. Allowing user experience to suffer.

I’ve seen far too many sites that think you can “do” some SEO and it’ll automatically give you great results. Well, guess what – if the user experience stinks, SEO won’t bring it up to scratch. Focus on making your site a joy to use first, with clear goals and a well-defined user journey (whether it’s a blog or a store – people need to know how to get around the site). SEO can be done at the same time, but it shouldn’t take precedence over user experience.

2. Bloated content due to SEO techniques.

Right, so you’ve got some content on your site, but it’s a bit too brief, and doesn’t mention any of your keywords. Instead of writing the content to include keywords in a subtle way, an alarming number of sites throw masses of keywords into the content – or they put a long list of keywords at the end of the page. This looks incredibly spammy and is a major turn-off. Not to mention, you may incur a search engine penalty.

3. Using every possible technique.

Just finished reading “The 101 SEO Techniques You MUST Use! No, Really! Honest Joe Knows All!” ? Feeling a bit embarrassed that you can’t really remember any of the tips, let alone why they might benefit your site? The answer is not to work through the list, ticking off the ones you’ve done, and noting the ones you haven’t. It’s not a contest to see who can implement every technique first.
Incidentally, if you do SEO for a living, and you come across a site that’s actually doing pretty well – don’t screw it up by polluting it with dodgy tactics that will turn the site into a link farm. If you’re worried about not being paid because there’s nothing left to do on the site, either find a site that actually needs your input, or add some other skills to your portfolio so you can cover yourself if your work runs dry.

4. Mixing up accessibility and SEO.

The alt attribute on an image allows you to include alternative text in case the image doesn’t show up. It’s not an SEO playground where you stuff a zillion keywords.

5. Link overload.

Navigational links, tag clouds, related posts and the like can enhance the user experience for visitors, when used appropriately. However, if these links just take you on a merry-go-round with a wide range of different link text taking you to the same six pages, it’s going to seriously piss people off.

6. Social media madness.

Want people to share a post or link to the site? Yeah, we’ll have a Twitter link, and a StumbleUpon link, Digg, Reddit, Facebook… hmm what else is there? Oh stuff it, let’s add them all – and why not add a “recent tweets” widget too…
With so much third party crap on a site, you may as well just write “Welcome to my homepage” at the top, and put various smilies, blinkies and marquees on there too. In other words – if this is a business site, lose the junk and keep it clean.

7. Putting everything on the homepage.

So, your site has a few pages of content, linked from a navigation bar at the top. Hey, what if someone only visits the homepage? We should tell them everything in case they don’t think to click anywhere else, then we’re sure to sell them something – right?
Wrong. Aside from the fact it’ll look like poo, some people may not even start at the homepage. Yes, your other pages can show up in search engines too. You’re far more likely to get people clicking around your site if you keep the navigation simple and the content organised nicely, instead of dumping the whole lot on the homepage and hoping it’ll make your homepage rank for lots of keywords. Which brings me nicely to the next point…

8. Failing to set sensible boundaries.

If you don’t know the niche you want to target, you may as well give up now. You have to start by targeting certain keywords – preferably a few – and work on others later. But if you have a 6 page business website, you’re not going to rank for every possible keyword. So don’t try to. Target a few – and consider adding a blog to your site if you want to target a few more. That said, you shouldn’t post about anything and everything – much like using every possible SEO technique, having too broad a focus for a blog means you’ll be a jack of all trades – and a master of none.

9. Abusing related links.

Right, you’ve got someone to your site, what can you do now? Push them in a totally different direction? A tourist who comes to your site for tourist information probably won’t benefit from a local service that only residents can apply for! It’s all about knowing your audience – why not show them some souvenirs instead? Simply showing the same links to everyone might seem like a clever way to get sales for the products you’re hoping to sell, but failing to tailor the results to a visitor’s preferences (which could be built up over time) means you’ll never quite reach your full potential.

10. Spending more time on SEO than anything else.

There comes a time when the time spent on optimisation far outweights the benefits. An SEO expert can make great inroads for your site if there are major issues to sort out, or missed opportunities that could yield great results without sacrificing the quality of the site. But endlessly tinkering with a site for negligible gain isn’t a worthwhile use of anyone’s time. Don’t be afraid to call time on search engine optimisation once you aren’t really seeing any difference.