iTamer Posts

February 10, 2006 / PHP & Web Development

Using PhpBase to update GoogleBase

I’m not sure I quite “get” GoogleBase just yet – in as much as Google is already indexing my sites so why do I need to submit my content all over again into this system… and who would actually use it to find stuff – surely the standard Google Search Engine is doing a good enough job?

I received my newsletter from the phpClasses today and noticed that there was a tool to make it easier to upload articles and information to GoogleBase so I thought I’d give it a try.

PhpBase

The code is still quite new and there are only a few options but it’s easy enough to extend and use. Documentation is needed and I’m sure it will follow. Given that the author appears to be Spanish I think it’s already pretty good.

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February 5, 2006 / Sport

Bikewise

Bikewise is an initiative to encourage NZ’ers onto their bikes and it’s held in the…

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February 5, 2006 / Technical Discussions

Heartstopping Analytics Stats

January 24, 2006 / WordPress

WordPress Archive Lists

One thing I haven’t become involved with is writing plugins for WordPress but I have been looking at ways to make my blog more efficient.

I tried out a tag system back in October but found that it generated too many tags and often irrelevant tags so finally scrapped it in favour of the plugins from Ultimate Tag Warrior produced by fellow kiwi Christine Davis (who I don’t actually know ;)). Her system allowed me to produce a “Tag Cloud” which is pretty cool.

I haven’t totally got my head around the custom tags page with url rewriting but for now I’m happy with urls like /index.php?tag=kiwi and I’ve learnt a little about templates.

So when I posted some info about the UTW plugin at DigitalPoint one of the members asked about Category Archives and gave a new plugin to use. I took a look and couldn’t quite work out how to use it, so took the lessons from UTW and applied them!

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January 17, 2006 / Fun and SEO Games

SEO contests are so “Middle Class”

January 16, 2006 / Search Engine Optimisation

Google Sitemaps and Verification

January 9, 2006 / Search Engine Optimisation

Top 100 vBulletin Forums

On a whim I decided to purchase the domain Top 100 vBulletin and put a wsnlinks directory on the site to rank vBulletin forums.

The only requirement is that External Data is turned on giving me access to external.php.

I’m then ranking the forums based on

  • Number of threads
  • Ratings by visitors to the directory
  • Google’s PR

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December 21, 2005 / Other Stuff

Google gets upclose and personal

One of the key problems with the internet is the fact that you never get to really interact with the people whose services you are using. This might mean a company or person is misrepresented, either to their benefit or detriment. Chat rooms amplify the problem on a personal level but all “clicks only” present an image that may, or may not, represent reality.

Google is trying to overcome that problem within it’s own company with their Google Space initiative – a retail type stand at major UK airports. They’ve rightly noticed that at airports you have “dead time” with little to do. Shopping isn’t always a great idea but surfing, checking email and forums just might be.

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