Should Google Earth be censored?
Should Google earth be censored? This question has been going around for quite a few years and now after the terrorist attacks in Mumbai last month, a petition has been submitted in the country’s high court by legal advocates to blur sensitive areas such as Bhabha Atomic Research Centre in Google Earth.
According to the TIMES report, the petition says that Google Earth “aids terrorists in plotting attacks” and offers “absolutely no control to prevent misuse or limit access” of the services. Investigation to Mumbai terror attacks and interrogation of the only live terrorist reveal that the terrorists used GPS and other high tech tools to plot, execute and then monitor the attacks with ease.
This is not the first time when Google Earth has been asked to blur the satellite images of the sensitive areas. In 2005, Australian officials asked to remove the pictures of their only nuclear reactor Lucas Heights from Google Earth. In 2006, Bahrain officials barred Google Earth, and China too banned websites that sold unapproved images. Some countries like Holland have gone into an agreement to block or censor the sensitive areas especially their military bases. Some countries have even concealed their sensitive military bases by putting them underground. According to a USA Today report, some countries like India can detect when a satellite passes overhead and conduct sensitive military activities accordingly so that the satellites do not capture the images of these activities. Even in USA, google mappers and google street view photographers were banned from accessing Pentagon and other military bases.
GOOGLE MAP API
Let’s get lost!
Thanks to the Google Maps. Satellite based imagery and point to point detailing of terrains as well as route planning, that is what Google Maps is all about.
Imagine you go on a hiking trip, you are not sure of the terrain and you wish to explore. Google Maps shows you the terrain and plans the route. It is a free Web mapping service application from Google that powers numerous map-based services.
Google created Google Maps API to help the developers in integrating Google Maps into their own web sites with their data points. Developers just need to apply for an API key from Google, which is bound to the web site and directory given whilst creating the key. If you want to create your own web page you need to include Google Javascript into your web page. The Javascript functions add points into your Mapping application.
SEO: GOOGLE PERSPECTIVE [Part II]
My previous article involved the discussion of certain basic aspects that need to be kept in mind while you are optimizing your website to be ranked higher in the Google search pages. I discussed about title tags, description meta tags and proper framing of the URLs. So, in this post, I will continue from where ...
The Complete Guide To Google’s Website Optimizer
Why is it that some web sites are golden, compelling visitors to buy while similar web sites, perhaps even offering the same products at similar prices, fail to make the grade? It may be dumb luck on the owner’s part, but a more likely explanation is that the golden site is the result of careful design, testing, tweaking and testing yet again. Testing has grown into a core search marketing activity, but strangely, it’s also an activity that many search marketers either choose to avoid or don’t even consider at all.
And that’s a mistake. Good testing can not only help you get rid of stinker ads and landing pages, it can also help you optimize winning campaigns, improving their conversion rates and making them even more profitable. And testing needn’t be difficult or time-consuming, especially if you have the right tools. One of the best tools for helping you test and refine your search marketing campaigns is Google’s Website Optimizer. Even better, Website Optimizer is a free service.
SEO: GOOGLE PERSPECTIVE – Part I
A few days back, I came across a blog post in a particular site, which had a poll comparison between the top three search engines. And guess what! Google was rated as the “most frequently used” search engine and the most popular one among the others. That was an easy guess as it is true that there is a bit of Google within all of us. The way in which Google has dominated the “search engine” scenario of the web, it is quite evident that, most of the website owners would want to have their site ranked the highest, on the Google search pages.
All search engines have their own parameters and ways to rate a site higher in the order of rank, in their respective search results. Google has it too. Most of you might know about the factors which would ultimately help a site to achieve that apex position, but you may fail to make the most out of these.
SEO: TRICKS OF THE TRADE
To start with, SEO or Search Engine Optimization is nothing but the betterment of rank and placement of a site in the search engine pages. This concept has become a very important part of E-marketing. When we enter a keyword or keywords in sentential form and submit to a search engine, it ends up in showing a list of sites, which are relevant to the keywords entered. This process might seem to be a simple one, but it is definitely a bit tricky! SEO experts say that one needs to follow some tactics in order to succeed in a better page ranking in search engines. However, remarkably, you do not need to be sound enough, technically, in order to learn these tactics.
The traffic in search engines like Google, Yahoo or MSN is massive. You will have to go that extra mile in order to break through this traffic, and make your passage smooth. I will now discuss some of the points in brief that you should keep in mind when you plan to optimize your website for search engines.
Unique Search – Targeting Semantic Root Phrases and Keywords
There is a saying we throw around the office, target the root and devour the low hanging fruit. Simply put, low hanging fruit (keywords with high conversion and low competition) are one of the best kept secrets of SEO.
There are more keywords under the surface than their are keywords revealed. Leave it to most businesses to always want to go bigger, better and over the top in an attempt to conquer the most powerful or most searched keywords in a niche or take on the major players for vanity plate keywords.
Not to say that the competitive nature in most of us doesn’t get the best of us, who doesn’t want to rank higher in Google, Yahoo, MSN or Ask? The key is asking yourself about time to market, topical continuity, relevance and conversion and if you would rather keep your eggs in one basket or spread around the risk to offset the odds.
