The Google page has a person finder, maps, and information on subjects such as shelters, transportation, rolling blackouts, and donations.

To see video on events as they happen, check out NHK World (English) on the digitial over-the-air channel 30-2 from the MHz network which is [...]]]> Google set up a crisis response page here:
http://www.google.com/crisisresponse/japanquake2011.html

The Google page has a person finder, maps, and information on subjects such as shelters, transportation, rolling blackouts, and donations.

To see video on events as they happen, check out NHK World (English) on the digitial over-the-air channel 30-2 from the MHz network which is broadcast from Falls Church, Virginia for the DC area. Or see NHK World streaming online at their Ustream page.

Hi,

I am Maria, Business Development Manager.

I went to your website: “www.techdc.com” and saw that you are an online service provider.

Would you be interested in outsourcing Link Building Services to us? We will be happy to deliver one way thematic links for [...]]]> As an owner of websites, I regularly get email like this:

Hi,

I am Maria, Business Development Manager.

I went to your website: “www.techdc.com” and saw that you are an online service provider.

Would you be interested in outsourcing Link Building Services to us? We will be happy to deliver one way thematic links for any theme and numbers. We have delivered over 40,000 links to various retail and agency clients spread over different verticals.

OUR USP:-

* Links from Unique IP’s

* Regular Caching sites

* Less Outbound Links

* Start pricing USD 1.5 only

We have our quality department checking each and every link as per the quality parameters.

We would pick the exact anchor text and will be happy to provide a choice of using as many anchors as you want. Besides all our links pass thorough the quality parameters set for link building ensuring only high quality link building for a website.

Do let me know if you are interested and we would be happy to discuss this further.

For more info you can visit our website URL: – [removed]

I look forward to your Positive response.

Kind Regards,

Name: – Maria

Post: – Business Development Manager

E-mail:- maria@[removed]

NONE of these services are legitimate. There are two possible things these companies do:

1) They could just take your money and do nothing.

2) Or they could do something worse than nothing. Some companies actually try to do what they say, creating “Link Building Services.” One of the elements of the Google PageRank algorithm is how many links there are to your site. By putting your link on a bunch of sites, they attempt to game the Google PageRank algorithm and improve your search ranking. The problem with this is that Google isn’t stupid. Google can easily and automatically identify bogus links from link farms. Google can then penalize you by lowering your search rank or removing you completely from their search results, the mark of death on the Internet.

Even if these little companies could outsmart Google, it’s a sleazy business. To improve your site’s search results, write good content and get legitimate links. For more information on Search Engine Optimization and PageRank, see our post Google SEO and Other Search Engine Results Performance Suggestions.

There are a couple of ways to do this:

The simplest is to choose “I want to buy a domain” which allows [...]]]> Google email works with name@gmail.com, but you could also use name@yourcompany.com. To do this, you sign up for Google Apps, which is offered in Standard (Free) and Premier Editions. Go to: http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/group/

There are a couple of ways to do this:

The simplest is to choose “I want to buy a domain” which allows you to buy a domain through Google (which actually uses GoDaddy as the registrar and costs $10/month), which provides you a domain pre-configured to use Google services.

The other method is to use your existing domain or purchase from domain registrar service and assign the MX records to Google. Your DNS Manager or Domain Manager page from your registrar would then look like this:

The second method requires that you also verify that you own the domain by updating the cname record or uploading a file to the domain.

After pointing your MX records to Google, you can get your email by going to:

https://mail.google.com/a/yourdomainname.com

..where yourdomainname.com is actually your domain name.

Because that’s a long address, I typically set up a URL pointer so that mail.yourdomainname.com will point to the above address. This is also handled in the DNS management page at your domain registrar. The URL pointing would look like this:If your registrar’s DNS management system does not allow such a redirect, then you can set up a redirect from your website, for example from yourdomainname.com/mail/.

Although Google is not the largest search engine in [...]]]> Following up on Google’s promise from January 12th, Google China just moved its web servers for China to Hong Kong so that they can be run without censorship. Now it is up to Chinese authorities to decide to shut off all or partial access to Google.

Although Google is not the largest search engine in China*, Google’s many services (web search, mail, documents from Google Docs, photos, etc) are heavily used. If Chinese authorities shut off access to the servers completely, there would be a lot of pissed off Chinese geeks.

* Traffic market share of search engines in China, August 2009, China Internet Network Information Center:

Baidu: 51.5%
Google: 32.9%
Sohu: 4.6%
Sina: 4.0%
Yahoo: 3.7%
Others: 3.3%

Google blog post announcement of decision.

From the Washington Post:

Google stops censoring search results in China by Ellen Nakashima and Cecilia Kang

Google announced Monday that it had stopped censoring search results on its site in China and redirected users to an unfiltered search based in Hong Kong.

The company said in January that it was holding talks with authorities in China to determine whether “it could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all.” On Monday, Google said the government in Beijing “has been crystal clear throughout our discussions that self-censorship is a non-negotiable legal requirement.”

The announcement Monday effectively represented an attempt by Google to sidestep China’s demands for self-censorship on its Chinese-language site, google.cn.

Hong Kong is a special administrative region of China and operates its own economic and political systems. By redirecting Chinese search traffic through servers in Hong Kong, to google.com.hk — the firm said it had effectively transferred the jurisdiction of its search business off the mainland.

“This move is entirely legal by Chinese law and Hong Kong law and that is important to know: that we are abiding by the law,” a source at Google said on condition of anonymity.

In its announcement on its Web site, the firm said that it belived its new approach was a “sensible solution.”

“We very much hope that the Chinese government respects our decision, though we are well aware that it could at any time block access to our services,” Google said.

The company said it will also monitor access issues and publicly disclose any time the services Google offers are made unavailable in China.

It remains unclear whether the world’s largest Internet search firm will leave China entirely, as it has said it might be forced to do. The company said it has no plans to pull staff from the country.

Beta Warning

The yellow note at the bottom to use caution isn’t just for legal reasons. Many have reported mistakes, such as directions to bike through Arlington Cemetery.

But, like everything Google, it seems to get [...]]]> Google recently added biking directions with Google Maps. See Bicycling as a drop-down option when looking for directions.

Beta Warning

The yellow note at the bottom to use caution isn’t just for legal reasons. Many have reported mistakes, such as directions to bike through Arlington Cemetery.

But, like everything Google, it seems to get better over time. People report these mistakes to Google by either clicking the here link at the bottom of the Beta warning or clicking Report a Problem at the bottom right of any Google Map.

With the snow melting away in DC, it should be fun to bike again soon. Give Google Maps biking directions a try.

After recent cyber attacks on Google, Google is changing its stance. [...]]]> Until now, Google has operated in China by not listing government-blacklisted sites in its search results (See google.cn search results for “Tiananmen”). This was controversial, but Google maintained that it was better to work within these restrictions than to have no presence in China.

After recent cyber attacks on Google, Google is changing its stance. This will be interesting.

Read the full Google Blog post:

A new approach to China

by David Drummond, Google’s SVP, Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer
12 January 2010

Like many other well-known organizations, we face cyber attacks of varying degrees on a regular basis. In mid-December, we detected a highly sophisticated and targeted attack on our corporate infrastructure originating from China that resulted in the theft of intellectual property from Google. However, it soon became clear that what at first appeared to be solely a security incident–albeit a significant one–was something quite different.

First, this attack was not just on Google. As part of our investigation we have discovered that at least twenty other large companies from a wide range of businesses–including the Internet, finance, technology, media and chemical sectors–have been similarly targeted. We are currently in the process of notifying those companies, and we are also working with the relevant U.S. authorities.

Second, we have evidence to suggest that a primary goal of the attackers was accessing the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. Based on our investigation to date we believe their attack did not achieve that objective. Only two Gmail accounts appear to have been accessed, and that activity was limited to account information (such as the date the account was created) and subject line, rather than the content of emails themselves.

Third, as part of this investigation but independent of the attack on Google, we have discovered that the accounts of dozens of U.S.-, China- and Europe-based Gmail users who are advocates of human rights in China appear to have been routinely accessed by third parties. These accounts have not been accessed through any security breach at Google, but most likely via phishing scams or malware placed on the users’ computers.

We have already used information gained from this attack to make infrastructure and architectural improvements that enhance security for Google and for our users. In terms of individual users, we would advise people to deploy reputable anti-virus and anti-spyware programs on their computers, to install patches for their operating systems and to update their web browsers. Always be cautious when clicking on links appearing in instant messages and emails, or when asked to share personal information like passwords online. You can read more here about our cyber-security recommendations. People wanting to learn more about these kinds of attacks can read this U.S. government report (PDF), Nart Villeneuve’s blog and this presentation on the GhostNet spying incident.

We have taken the unusual step of sharing information about these attacks with a broad audience not just because of the security and human rights implications of what we have unearthed, but also because this information goes to the heart of a much bigger global debate about freedom of speech. In the last two decades, China’s economic reform programs and its citizens’ entrepreneurial flair have lifted hundreds of millions of Chinese people out of poverty. Indeed, this great nation is at the heart of much economic progress and development in the world today.

We launched Google.cn in January 2006 in the belief that the benefits of increased access to information for people in China and a more open Internet outweighed our discomfort in agreeing to censor some results. At the time we made clear that “we will carefully monitor conditions in China, including new laws and other restrictions on our services. If we determine that we are unable to achieve the objectives outlined we will not hesitate to reconsider our approach to China.”

These attacks and the surveillance they have uncovered–combined with the attempts over the past year to further limit free speech on the web–have led us to conclude that we should review the feasibility of our business operations in China. We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all. We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China.

The decision to review our business operations in China has been incredibly hard, and we know that it will have potentially far-reaching consequences. We want to make clear that this move was driven by our executives in the United States, without the knowledge or involvement of our employees in China who have worked incredibly hard to make Google.cn the success it is today. We are committed to working responsibly to resolve the very difficult issues raised.