Computers and Technology

The world wide web is a still evolving community, home to everything from exciting new recipes to hilarious videos to books that are no longer in print. In recent years, as the Web 2.0 revolution shifted the focus of the content online from websites to individual users, the amount and variety of data and entertainment available has exploded. Unfortunately, while the nature of the internet permits for the mass dissemination of pretty much anything, it also means that a considerable amount of what’s available might not be appropriate for children (or in some cases, anyone at all).

Protecting children from the hazards of dangerous and adult material online has been a great challenge for parents and schools since the internet became a part of daily life for the majority of Americans. Some may feel in their frustration that the easiest solution is to simply keep children off the internet entirely, but research has shown that keeping kids offline can stunt their development in the information age.

The internet is an indespensible resource for the near instant transfer of information, and being able to navigate it effectively is an indispensable skill in the modern world. Students can benefit greatly from the educational material online too, so it is understood that some type of compromise must be made to allow children some access to the internet. Web filters are the most common tools that parents and schools utilize to attempt to permit children online without giving them access to absolutely everything on the web.

The balance that any web filter must create between permitting some but not all content in is a complicated one, and some services are criticized for either blocking legitimate content or allowing objectionable content through. Some filters even suffer from both problems simultaneously. Even worse, a percentage of filters can easily be completely undermined by inquisitive teenagers with hardly any technical skill.

Google, being the single most popular search engine on the planet, is the first stop for many web users and especially most of the younger users. There’s plenty of safe content out there for children to access, and Google has always offered its own filter for search results, which has been very successful. Unfortunately these settings could easily be altered by any user, including the ones who should{n’t not} be accessing unfiltered results in the first place.

Now, Google has launched a new improvement that allows users to lock the SafeSearch option with a password to prevent minors from altering the settings. The results subsequently generated by Google’s search engine while these SafeSearch settings are in place will also be visibly different from the normal search results, with a large image of colored balls in the upper right corner letting parents and teachers know even from across the room that the filter is still working.

There’s more than one way to keep kids safe online, and the best decision is to combine several layers of protection. Google’s new SafeSearch is a effective tool to help keep offensive material away from children, but it’s no replacement for active involvement with children while they are using the internet and education about the dangers that lie in the unpleasant places on the web.

Geek Choice prides itself on educating you about the daily advances introduced to this world in which our company continues to grow.  If you ever have any questions, feel free to contact one of us. We are a Computer Repair business specializing in: Virus Removal, Spyware Removal, Data Backup, Data Recovery, Wireless Networking, Business Networking, and a lot more.  At Geek Choice we can fix a wide range of problems including:  Slow Computer, Slow Internet, Printer not printing, blue screen of death, and anything else computer related.

Computers and Technology children, Google, internet, kids, parental controls, Safe Search, SafeSearch, web browsing, web surfing

As you may already know, Google, in the coming year -2010, will introduce the much anticipated Google Chrome OS. But before that the race between different netbook companies to win the market has already commenced.  A couple of days back Dell came out with a compatible version for mini netbooks. Though Dell is not included in the official partner list by Google, it still managed to get all the attention by introducing this compatible version.

Second in the row is Acer, which says it will be the first one to manufacture a netbook to support Google Chrome OS.  In fact Acer has already begun the manufacturing work (started sometime in mid 2009).If Acer will live up to its claim or not cannot be said now. Last time we all saw that Acer failed in making netbooks those were to support Android (users could not install anything on these Android netbooks. Only the battery lasted longer with Android running on the netbook). This time it may actually be the first one to launch netbooks for Chrome OS. But like I said earlier, nothing can be said with surety.

For those who still do not know much about the Chrome OS news, Google Chrome Operating system will play both like a web-browser and an operating system. With that one will not have to install different tools, softwares etc. Everything will be present on cloud; and one can just take it from there, use it and give it back to the cloud. Simple. Once out, the Chrome OS will make internet a lot different from what it is now. So now you know why the race is getting tougher.

All we can hope for is that users get a good, convenient to use netbook for Google Chrome Operating System. Until then let’s wait and watch who else joins this race. There are already two…

Computers and Technology acer, acer netbook, Android, android netbook, Dell, Google, google chrome os, google chrome os netbook

Google’s Chrome OS, possibly, is the most awaited thing in 2010. The fact that everything is going to be on cloud and that users would not require to install anything (any tools, softwares etc.) makes Google Chrome a great thing. A software that will work both as your operating system and the web browser is a sure thing to have in your computer. Also, really] fast. Just about 7 sceonds.  Well, that’s definitely too fast!

I did know about all this (the news of Google Chrome OS is everywhere), but was quite surprised to know that Dell has already made available a compatible version for mini 10v netbook users. I came across the information on this tech blog – onlygizmos.com. I personally am excited to use the actual Google Chrome OS, but until then Dell version would be a good thing to try out.

Anybody can download this 10v compatible version from the link given on the post – Dell Honours Geeks, Gives Chrome OS to Play With. You will also find a link to the instruction set on how to download and use the version. It’s a simple work. You can load the file in a USB and then get on using it.

Dell users are sure having a great time getting to use the Google Chrome OS, a 10v version though. Until the actual Google Chrome OS comes out in the market for public usage (and that’s not until 2010), all internet fanatics may use this compatible version by Dell.

But a word of caution: The application has certain issues, so users please be very careful while downloading and using it. WiFi connectivity can cause a lot of problems. Nevertheless, it is worth trying out Dell’s work.

Computers and Technology Dell, Google, google chrome, google chrome os, operating system

Anything that Google does or doesn’t do become news in the tech world. And why not? After all Google has become an inseparable part of all techie’s lives. Sometimes it seems with Google applications not around all our work will come to a stagnation. It sure will. Think of Gmail undergoing a crash. Or Google chat not working…or google docs getting stuck…I don’t know about yours, but my work surely will suffer a good amount of loss. 

There has been a lot of speculation about what the Google cell phone would be like or will Google actually come out a cell phone of its own? Recent reports say Google, if at all ever introduces a cell phone, will not come out with a regular cell phone. It may be a VOIP device with unlimited calling powered by Google Voice or some other application similar to that.

Although Google has been denying any such news, rumors still keep originating every now and then (may be because of the keen interest Google has been showing in the cell phone industry) . Also, a lot of people in the past have rubbished such rumors saying Google, being a brand of software applications, it is highly uncertain that Google may get into the hardware area. Rather it will try to strengthen its position in software section itself. Even if it gets, it will not be a thorough move into Hardware, instead it may collaborate with cell phone manufacturing networks.

I may be too naïve to comment on this subject. You would perhaps want to read from the experts who will give you a better insight into the rumored news of Google cell phone. You may read this post More Rumors On The Google Phone, Data Only.

But until the cell phoneis actually launched in the market every thing will remain rumour.

Computers and Technology cell phone, Google, google cell phone, google phone, google's cell phone rumour

Google products and services have always been in news for its popularity among users. It is the usability of Google’s product and services that has always found customers in the market, and yes, the free of cost advantage that comes with Google products is one strong reason why Google always wins and stays high on top. Well, once again, Google is working on launching  a product that will come with a few additional advantages.

In a Google search, I stumbled upon this technology blog-onlygizmos- that had the news of Google’s new service – FREE Navigation Application. Yes, you got it right. The application is free of cost, and perhaps it is the ”free of cost” facility; like every other Google service; that is going to be cheered by users. And why not? After all, we all love to use free of cost things.

Here goes excerpt from the blog post(onlygizmos) on Google’s new Free Navigation Application:

“The most amazing thing about the way Google does business is that all of their products are offered free to the end user. Starting from Google search to the latest android OS, Google finds new ways of operating while still keeping their product free. If there is one set of people who are greatly affected by this strategy is Google’s competitors, especially those that are already established in their respective fields. Google is all set to rearrange another section of the technology industry – navigation.

The speculations arise from the fact that Google has been taking keen interest in collecting map data. Also, the soon-to-be-released Droid (featuring Android OS) is rumored to include a turn-by-turn free navigation application.”

This was just little about the navigation application, may not be good at correctly describing the service, so better take a look at the complete post on Is Google Working On A Free Navigation Application.

Computers and Technology Free Navigation Application, Google, navigation application, onlygizmos

Phew, this is a big subject and I want to emphasise it’s not an exact science. But here is what I have learned in my research at the Backlinks clinic:

Authority – simplified

The more authority your site has the higher you will rank on Google. Authority means that people trust you and your content. The good news is that authorities trusted by humans are also trusted by Google. A good illustration is the .edu and .gov suffixes. These domains imply they are credible sources of content and it’s a proven fact that in the eyes of Google backlinks from these domains to your web pages will send authority to your site. Another good example is Wikipedia as the web pages here are mostly added by by tribes of humans as opposed to a single person.

So it follows that authority is significantly influenced by the source of your backlinks and if authoritative sites link to your site then you inherit their apparent trust and as far as Google is concerned you become more authoritative and so the trust in your web pages by Google increases.

How Google decides what is and isn’t authoritative is confidential for good reason and falls in line with Google’s philosophy of “Do no evil”. The last thing the net needs is someone exploiting the methods that Google employs in its efforts to try and regulate probably the most significant technological development of this period in history.

Backlinking methods you should avoid

In the same vein it’s valuable to state some underhand sources and methods of creating backlinks that Google not only dislikes but appears to be acting to ‘’categorize as illegitimate authorities. In no particular order of severity, the common offenders are:

• Paid backlinks – hubs where individuals purchase and sell backlinks
• Comment spam – entries that have links on web sites that are just not related to the main theme.
• Low quality and *duplicate content – ‘scraped’ or otherwise
• Fast growth – there are a myriad of ways that this is achievable, Google isn’t stupid. Any sudden increase in the amount of backlinks is going to register on Google’s monitoring systems, specifically if it’s a recently registered domain.
• Backlinks from ill reputed sites – these are particularly destructive as you are guilty by association – need I say more.

*There is another factor where I may be on shakey ground, but key news portals seem to get a lot of authority and I have definitely found significant numbers of the same content over and over again on different portals with no penalties, I am still looking at this, only as some of the results I am seeing go against the normal behaviors I usually expect to see. More on this is in a future post….

Computers and Technology backlinks, Google, Page Ranking, Search Engine Optimisation, seo, SEO marketing