Gmail Branding

Gmail seem to have a new icon when you aren't signed in as yet. It's a purple 'g'. The technical term actually isn't icon (I think it is favicon) but it is what appears in the address bar before the web address and on the page tab before the letter.

I can't really understand why they would have 2 symbols. They already have the red envelope with the 'M' on it.

I think in terms of branding, this is a bad move because a brand should have 1 symbol/icon. And this isn't in terms of advertising symbols or icons I am mentioning. I mean something that represents a brand like a trademark.

Anyway it would be interesting if this is just an experiment and they drop it soon. The icon might seem stylish to some (symbol of infinity standing up), I find it very un-google like and also discomforting - reminds me of a serpent.

Apparently they are using this favicon even for certain parts of search and orkut. My issue isn't about there being a new symbol, it is about seeing 2 different symbols.

Anyway hopefully we will know why this moved happened soon

Privacy on the Internet

I am on facebook, changing my privacy settings. It's not complicated because I understand what privacy settings are for, how to change them, and what impact they would have.

Most people might know that their information is 'out there' but might not know how to edit settings to create a more private profile.

Privacy on the internet can be a joke these days. Just go type in your name in Google search and see what comes up - your social networking profiles, your blog, any place where you might have been mentioned.

Privacy though is more important an issue than just my prospective employer finding out that I was bad mouthing my previous work place. There could also be issues with identity theft, online stalking, online attacks, etc but I think the bigger issue will be with more and more young people getting on to the internet. More stringent rules and policies need to be created to keep kids protected. It is ridiculous to believe that an 8 year old will not log onto the internet if you ask him/her not too. Also it is difficult to believe that internet usage can be restricted for this child.

The simplest way to get started would obviously be that sites see that they are giving maximum privacy to begin with and individual can figure how to open up their social network pages, blogs, etc to others. Small steps can go a long way.

Google Webmaster Tools

The Webmaster Tools are a pretty good resource for people to keep track of how their site is doing in Google (search).

I think if many site owners are not using the Webmaster Tools, they should especially if they don't have any specialized site/software/tracking that can give them this sort of data.

There is enough information there to make people at least aware of how their site is doing and also can help site owners get started on SEO.



The screenshot I have attached shows top search queries (20 - the number is very small but better than nothing). I can sort search queries by location and search type. What is interesting though is that I can see the position of my site for that search query. On the right, there is no data but the column would look like the one on the left except it would be top clicked queries.

It displays data for the last 6 months.

Also I get crawl stats and index stats which basically help figure when the blog got crawled, with what frequency, etc.

I get data on site linkage - external and internal.

The tools section has content and tools help to - generate robot.txt files, set geographic targets, set crawl rates, remove URLs from Google index etc.


For new webmasters, using the Google Tools itself would be a very good place to start.

Future dated posts in Blogger

Blogger now allows for 'scheduled' posts (announced on the 1st actually). Meaning I can choose a future date and my post will automatically be published on the chosen future date. This post will appear on the 5th of May because I will publish it on the 5th but lets say I wanted it to appear only on the 15th of May, I now have the ability to write the post on the 5th but have it live on my blog on the 15th.

Pretty neat eh. This opens is now available for all bloggers.

To actually post date a post, you have to click post options (at the bottom of your compose/edit html box) and select a future date.

While this might seem silly to some, it actually isn't. I quote from Blogger Buzz -

Have you ever wanted to announce something on a certain date but knew you wouldn’t be at a computer to make a post? Or you wanted to keep posting regularly but knew you’d be on vacation for a few weeks? Scheduled post publishing is here to help you out.

For more details, visit - Blogger Buzz (the 1st May post).

My Changed History

Oh my godddddd I am elateddddddddddd.

Again today Google Adwords gives us (or at least me) something we (or at least I) have wanted for a very long time.

We've added a chart to the My Change History tool that graphs the impressions, clicks, clickthrough rate (CTR), or cost accrued in your account. It also flags days in which a significant shift in performance occurred and in which one or more account changes were made. Using this chart, you can easily spot account events that were followed by performance changes.

For more details you can visit - https://adwords.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=91244&hl=en_US

The other news is that changed history can be tracked for the last 2 years ie from 1 Jan 2006 :)

This is definitely good news in trying to map to at least a small extent what changes made what sort of an impact if any. Also it helps to show spikes and dips which happen without any changes which shows how much external influence a campaign might face.