Link building is an off-site optimization process SEOs can’t live without. Honestly, this is a tedious process. Because, what we all need to work on are one-way links. There are lot of reciprocal link building softwares available today, but many of them are equal to spam. What these reciprocal link builders do is - find out sites from a category(which you select) that are open to link exchanges, and spam their inboxes with link exchange requests. Many a times, this strategy will not work as the emails end up as spam.

Now, there are genuine softwares that will do this in a better way. Find you one-way links that will help you increase your ranks on the SERPs.

Link Assistant is one such software. It has the following features..

Now there is a thin line here. If you automate this software completely, it will become as equal as spam.
Here’s how it works.

- Select a category of websites with which you’ll like to exchange link with. It’d be good to search for websites that are in the same niche as your’s. 

- Find your link partners by searching for  sites that are offering link exchanges in this category.

- Select from a list of potential linking sites and finalize their list taking off the weeds from the list. You can hand pick them or the software will filter them out.

- Now, the site will make a list of all the selected websites and create a page with all of them listed. So basically you are creating a link directory of all your link exchange sites. We are doing this because in the next step, when we ask them to link back to us, we need to have placed their link in the first place.

- Link Assistant has a set of email templates, from which you can select one and add a bit of your personal touch and automate the software to send emails to all your potential link partners.

- The next step is to wait. Since we have send our email requests to all our potential link partners, we will wait for them to link to us.

- Next, Link Assistant will check if your link partners have linked to you according to your request. If they haven;t you can pull them off your link directory otherwise keep them.

As I mentioned earlier, there is a thin line between spam and genuine email here. Link Assistant can be easily mistaken for spam if you don’t use it properly. BE careful when selecting partners whom you are emailing and also when selecting email template. I think customizing the email to give your personal touch will help much.

I don’t recommend using this software completely automated but yes with a bit of hardwork it can be useful to you.

- Find link partners by using the software. Select a category of websites you are interested in and ask the software to find the qualifying websites to you.

- In the next step, visit the sites manually and see if they are really genuine and if they fit to be linked with. First ask for one-way links bye sending them personalized emails. It won’t work, then you can go for link-exchange.

Link exchanges are not recommended by Google therefore I don’t recommend you to do this at all. Instead use this software just to find potential link builders. Beyond it, the software is as good as spam.

Well, I personally is of the opinion that all SEO softwares are basically bull-shit, at one point or the other, you’ll find that the one you are using it is negatively affecting you. But Link Assistant is the best spam, I’d say! So it’s a matter of using these softwares wisely. This one has a fully functional version available for trial for 15 days. So give it a try anyway and get rid of it!

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I was thrilled to download and install the new Safari Browser for windows today.

As proclaimed it is the fastest and the safest browser around. It is said to be 1.6 faster than firefox and 2 times faster than IE.
True that may be, it handles javascript and image loading pretty quicker than FF or IE.
Safari handles page elements pretty quicker making the user feel a faster browsing experience.
Honestly, being a firefox user, i could not find the functionalities and “power browsing” experience with Safari though the user friendliness is great - just like a Mac.

I admit that any FF user will not find the sudden change seamless, but let me list out what i found awkward.

• It misses the status bar.
  Instead, the page load status is shown in the url bar itself. But i could not find any link previews there, not anywhere else either. Disappointing! So i have to click a link blindly to see where it will take me. That is not a good security feature. Is it?
• Font smoothing.
  With the default font smoothing option turned on, i could not stand all those bold items they were simply blaring out! Tried to turn the smoothing down to “lite” but still it would blare out. Probably that’s the Mac standard bold lok, but i don’t think any FF/IE user can stand it. It seems like Four times the normal strong attribute to the font.
• When you maximize the browser, it over rides the previous run application on windows. In FF or IE hitting F11 enables you a full screen preview, here maximizing the application itself puts you on a full screen view(the footer is still there, unless it’s on auto-hide).

I think this is deliberately done, so that all windows users get a taste of Mac OS, and hopefully it may get popular among them.

Now the killer thing - Safari crashed twice in 14 minutes during my browsing experience - both times when i was using the Google Reader. Booohoooo!!

But i really liked the minimalistic view and the popout message animation. For every message, a slip juts out from the title bar - it’s the classic Mac thing anyway!

On the whole, the safari browser did not meet my expectation. So thumbs down. but hey, it came out with a prima bail remember? It’s the beta version. Okay, Steve, I’ll wait for the full version.

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Free Outsourcing? Wicked Google! - That’s what came to my mind first when i read about this product.(It’s an old one from Google though)

Google Image Labeller is a product launched by Google where in it gives you an “oppurtunity” to label the images indexed on google.

While you start it here- Google plays it more like a game. You get a partner who would have already tagged or labelled a few images, which is now thrown at you. Now you get the chance to label the image, within a particular amount of time. And if yours and your partners labels match - you win points to your credit.

No you can’t get a gift hamper from Google or ebay with those points, but hey your name flashes on the homepage if you made it huge.

Well, guess what - Isn’t google trying to get their enormous images database tagged/keyworded for free with this silly game? Huh..huh?
When stock photo agencies worldwide are outsourcing such kind of keywording/labelling work , Google plays it smart by taking advantage of the folksonomy effect.

Let’s also think about it another way - what if the flickr fans(or any anti-google guy) want to corrupt the algorithm? All they have to do is - Go to google images, sign in as a guest and start labelling images wrongly with the most in appropriate tags. That’s a cool way to play it back on Google! I’m only talking about a possiblity here. Google Images - I don’t want to corrupt your algorithm but could you make some arrangement so that when i search for a cat on your engine, i get a cat’s image and not a flower’s image - in the future that is?

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There are a lot of tools out there that helps you to download and save videos and sound tracks from youyube. Here’s a compilation of the best of them.

1. Save by submitting url
   This service let’s you download the video to your pc, if you give the youtube url into it.
   Simple one, but it may get you incomplete videos some time.
2. Online download
   This service requires you to install a plugin to your firefox browser, so that you can download the video right from the window where you are playing it.Clean and simple tool. But can get a bit slow and sluggish at times.
3. Online download - submit url
   This service too lets you download the video if you submit the youtube url directly to it. Requires you to collect the youtube url correctly.
4. Convert yuotube video to any other format
   This service will help you convert the youtube video to any other format like 3gp, avi,mov or Mp4. Requires no softare download, just give the youtube url, and select the final file format you need. It will convert the file online as well as enable you to download the file.
5. Download and share the youtube videos
   This service allows you to download a youtube video, by submitting the youtube url and also help you to share the file(downloadable file) with your friend.

In order to play the downloaded youtube files, you need a FLV player.
Here is the list of best players around.

• FLV Player
• Free FLV player
• FLV file streamer

Related post - Download youtube videos using Firefox browser

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Ever since it’s prototype launch, there has been speculations on the Windows Vistas design - mostly alleged that it’s nothing less than just a copy of the Macintosh OS X.

NYT’s tech editor David Pogue tells you how the Windows Vista is “not” a rip off from the original Mac OS X - in his own style!

He starts saying that - even though windows vista features
- the small traingle menu icons, just like the Mac,
- the calendar program that has resemblance with the Mac
- the photo organizer program resembling iPhoto
the Vista is NOT a rip off from the Macintosh.

1. The Macintosh’s spotlight feature v/s The Vista searchbar.
   While Mac’s spotlight search is located at he top right corner, Vistas searchbar pops up from the Start button! Clear difference.
   
2. Vista has come up with the side bar that contains “Gadgets” which help you track weather/stock/notes etc - but the MAC’s similar program is called “Widgets!”
3. Mac has a built in 3d chess game for which you can change the boards texture to marble,wood,metal or grass - while in the Vista you have a similar looking chess game but the options for texture are marble,wood or porcelain.

These are clear differences that prove that Microsoft Vista is not a rip off from the Macintosh OS at all. All allegations in dust!

He ends by saying that - Windows is not just a copying machine having no ideas of it’s own. But it has an identity of it’s own!

Watch the full video here.

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At nearly half the size of the original, the new iPod shuffle is just half a cubic inch in volume, weighs just half an ounce and features a minimal aluminum design with a built-in clip, making it the most wearable iPod yet.

The player contains one gigabyte of flash memory which holds up to 240 songs and is priced affordably at just $79.

“With its ultra-compact design and built-in clip, the new iPod shuffle is the most wearable iPod ever,” said Greg Joswiak, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide iPod Product Marketing. “The new iPod shuffle completes our all-new lineup of iPods for this holiday season and beyond, and we hope it’s going to be a huge hit.”

The new iPod shuffle features up to 12 hours of battery life according to Apple’s tests and is based on the company’s pioneering shuffle feature which lets music fans serve up a continuous mix of their favorite songs anywhere they go. Users can enjoy their songs in a random order or simply flip a switch to listen to their songs in order, such as when listening to a new album.

The new iPod shuffle can be connected to a Mac or PC with the included dock and iTunes’ AutoFill feature will automatically sync the correct number of songs from a users music library.
The second-generation shuffle is the only iPod from Apple to ship with a docking station at no addition cost. It comes packaged in the same style translucent packaging used for the company’s aluminum iPod nano players and also includes earphones and a Quick Start guide.
News source

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