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The one good thing about Windows Vista Themes is that customization is entirely possible. And when you can customize you can naturally personalize. That’s right. Vista allows you to select your own themes in a few easy steps. This allows you to tinker with your computer to make it more attractive and less monotonous – when you want it and how you want it.

A Windows Vista theme is simply a group of customized tweeks that span the entire gamut of menu appearance, icons, colors, fonts, screen savers, background, and yes – even paints!

Let’s start with your desktop because it’s the most logical place to start. To select a desktop theme, perform the following steps:

• go to your desktop. In any blank area, right click.
• scroll down to “personalize” and click.
• a dialogue box will come up that says: “Personalize appearance and sounds.” Right below it are seven headers. Choose “theme” which is the sixth item, or second to the last item.
• a dialog box appears with the title “theme settings.”
• under “theme”, you have a small box with a drop down menu. If you click on the arrow, Windows Vista gives you four choices: current theme, Windows Vista, Windows Classic and browse (the browse option allows you to get a theme that you saved in a specific folder. When you choose browse, Vista automatically takes you to your downloads folder where you saved the theme).
• when you click on any of the four choices, you get a preview of the theme. Choose one by clicking “apply” or “OK”. If you don’t like any of what you see and decide to stick to what you have, simply click “cancel” or close the dialog box.

Windows Vista Themes: Few Things Worth Noting

• Windows Vista does not come with a large pre-built bundle of themes. This shouldn’t stop you from creating your own. You can still change the background (or wallpaper), colors, screen saver and how your menu will look. Save what you’ve created by clicking the Save As button. This button is in the dialog box we mentioned earlier called “Theme Settings.”
• Don’t confuse Windows Vista themes with the pre-built themes in Word 2007, Power Point 2007 and Excel 2007. Each of these programs has its own themes bundle.
• If you happen to like a theme you saw on the Web, make sure that your virus program is up-to-date before you download a theme. Some viruses are disguised as themes so be careful.

Remember that even if Word, Excel, and PowerPoint already have predefined document themes, you can create your own by customizing an existing document theme and then saving it as a custom document theme.

If you’re really into themes and like to create your own for fun, then you must be a “skinning fan” (themes are sometimes called skins). According to Andy Rathbone, noted Windows expert, you can use a third party program like WindowBlinds and can download any theme they have at a very modest fee. What’s even better is some of these themes are free. By typing “Windows Vista Themes” in any search engine, you’ll get a whole array of company names that specialize in Vista themes. But like we said, be careful when downloading.

Copyright © MyVistaThemes.com

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Page Rank is based on links between your site and other sites, in fact specifically between web pages, since it is links between individual pages rather than complete websites that interests Google. That is because Google lists individual pages and not domains. There is a formula that Google uses to determine the value of each link to your site, which is based on the PageRank of the web page providing the link and also the number of other links leaving that page.

You can see the page Rank in the Google PageRank bar on the Google Toolbar - it is the green bar that shows a numerical value of 0 to 10 when you hover your cursor over it. This value is logarithmic, which means that if it takes 10 links to reach PR 1, then it takes a lot more to reach 2. If Google uses a logarithmic factor of 8, as it might do (nobody knows), then it will take 8 links to your site to get to PR 1, 64 to reach PR 2, 512 to PR 3 and so on. This is very basic, since, as I have stated, it also depends on the PR of the page providing the link and the number of other links leaving that page.

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About sound files

Microsoft PowerPoint supports media clips, which include sound and video files. The computer playing your presentation will need a sound card and speakers. That doesn’t mean just the system you use to create the presentation, but any system on which you might play the presentation. Today, most systems come with everything you need, but older systems might need an upgrade. (It’s highly unlikely that you’ll encounter such an old system, but don’t rely on that — check it out first!)

Table A lists the media files PowerPoint supports, although this article deals only with sound files.

Table A: Media support

File	Explanation	Attributes
MIDI	Musical Instrument Digital Interface	Sound
WAV	Microsoft Windows audio format	Sound
MPEG	Motion Picture Exerts Group	Standard video format with a constant frame per second rate
AVI	Microsoft Windows video format	Video format with a constant frame rate per second
GIF	Graphical Interface Format	256 color picture that supports animation.

Like most special effects, sound can catch the attention of your audience and convey a message or emotion in a way words or pictures can’t. On the other hand, used poorly, sound can be distracting or even annoying. As always, your purpose will determine how much, if any, sound your presentation needs.

The basics — inserting sound

Including sound is as simple as selecting a file:

Use existing clips by double-clicking one of the Title, Text and Media Clip layouts from the Slide Layout task pane. Double-click the media clip icon shown in Figure A to launch the Media Clip dialog box.

Figure A

Choose a media slide from the Slide Layout task pane

When you double-click a WAV or MIDI file, PowerPoint displays the prompt shown in Figure B. The options Automatically and When Clicked are self-explanatory.

Figure B

PowerPoint will play the sound file when the slide is current, or you can click the icon to play it

Work with unique sound files by choosing Movies and Sound from the Insert menu and then selecting Sound From File or Sound From Clip Organizer. You can also record sound or play a track from a CD. After selecting a file, PowerPoint prompts you to specify how to execute the file (see Figure B).

If PowerPoint doesn’t support a clip’s format, choose Object from the Insert menu and choose the appropriate object type. Alternately, you can convert the file to a supported type. Use a search engine to search for “video file conversion.” However, don’t be surprised if the converted file is less than satisfactory. It’s difficult to maintain quality when converting media files.

In PowerPoint 2007, you’ll find the Sound option in the Media Clips group on the Insert tab.

PowerPoint displays a sound clip as a small icon, which shows during Slide Show view. When the presentation plays the clip automatically, you might want to hide the icon. There’s really no good reason to display it.

To hide the icon, right-click the icon and choose Edit Sound Object from the resulting submenu. In the Sound Options dialog box, shown in Figure C, check the Hide Sound Icon During Slide Show option, and click OK. Double-click the icon in PowerPoint 2007 to find these options.

Figure C

Edit the file’s attributes

If you choose the click option, it’s worth mentioning that clicking the icon a second time doesn’t disable the sound — the file plays from beginning to end once you click it. In PowerPoint 2007, clicking the icon restarts the file.

To learn just how long a file lasts, right-click the icon and choose Edit Sound Object. The file’s playing time is in the Information section at the bottom (see Figure C). If you want the file to play continuously, while the slide is current, check the Loop Until Stopped option. Moving to the next or previous slide will cancel the loop.

Narrating a presentation

To record a unique sound or message, you’ll need a microphone. Unfortunately, some microphones that come with today’s systems aren’t very sophisticated. If you record someone talking, it may sound distorted when played. Suddenly, you may have a lisp or an accent! Specialized software can clear up some problems, but they’re expensive and that’s just one more piece of software you’ll have to learn. It might be more efficient to invest in a better microphone.

PowerPoint makes it easy to narrate a presentation, which is a plus in a Web-based, automated, or on-demand presentation. You might also use this feature to include a statement from an individual, such as a celebrity or your company’s CEO.

Don’t jump right into recording. First, write a script and rehearse it. Once you’re comfortable with your speaking part, you can record your narration:

1. Choose Record Narration from the Slide Show menu to open the Record Narration dialog box. In PowerPoint 2007, this option is in the Set Up group on the Slide Show tab.
2. Click Set Microphone Level to check your microphone. Read the sentence that appears in the Microphone Check dialog and let the Microphone Wizard adjust your microphone automatically. Click OK.
3. If you need to adjust the quality to CD, radio, or telephone, click Change Quality to open the Sound Selection dialog box. Just remember that quality increases the file’s size. If file size is a concern, you may have to compromise quality just a bit.
4. By default, PowerPoint stores the narration with the presentation. To store the sound file in a separate WAV file (in the same folder) check Link Narrations In. Click Browse to change the location of the separate WAV file, but use caution when doing so — only store the two separately when you have a good reason for doing so. If a sound file is over 50MB, you must link it.
5. Click OK and start recording. As PowerPoint displays your presentation, you narrate just as you want the message played. Continue to narrate each slide until you’re done.
6. At the end of the presentation, PowerPoint will prompt you to save the timings with each slide. This can be helpful if you didn’t get each slide just right and you need more practice.

Step five mentions linked files. If you’re using the same system to both create and show the presentation, linked files are fine, but not necessary. Linked files are a good choice if the sound files are large or if you plan to change the source file. By default, PowerPoint automatically links sound files that are larger than 100KB.

To change this setting, choose Options from the Tools menu, and then click the General tab and update the Link Sounds With File Size Great Than option. PowerPoint 2007 users will find this option by clicking the Office button, clicking the PowerPoint options button (at the bottom right) and then choosing Advanced. The option is in the Save section.

Use the Package for CD (PowerPoint 2003) or Pack And Go Wizard (PowerPoint 2002) to make sure you save linked files with the presentation. Names can be problematic: A linked file’s path name must be 128 characters or less.

More options

Narration is only one type of recoding you might consider. If you can record it, you can include it in your presentation. To record a single message or unique sound, choose Movies and Sound from the Insert menu and choose Record Sound. In PowerPoint 2007, this option is in the Sound option’s dropdown list, in the Media Clips group on the Insert tab.

In the resulting Record Sound dialog box shown in Figure D, enter a description and name. Click Record when you’re ready to begin. Click Stop when you’re done. Use Play to listen to the new recording. Click OK to save the sound with the presentation. Or, click Cancel to exit and try again. If you save a sound, it appears as an icon, which you can use anywhere in the presentation you like. Mix this capability with action settings for a unique effect. Just don’t over do it!

Figure D

You can record sounds inside PowerPoint

Playing a CD

Playing music is a great way to begin or end a presentation. However, the music doesn’t have to be a top 10 tune. It only needs to be appropriate. For example, you might play Mendelssohn’s Wedding March if your presentation is about catering receptions. Or, pleasing dinner music might be the way to go. It’s really up to you; just keep your audience in mind. To include a song from a CD, do the following:

1. Insert the CD.
2. From the Insert menu, choose Movies and Sound. Then, select Play CD Auto Track to open the Insert CD Audio dialog box. In PowerPoint 2007, choose Play CD Audio Track from the Sound option’s dropdown list. You’ll find this option in the Media Clips group on the Insert tab.
   • The Start At Time and End At Time fields let you capture just part of a track instead of using the entire track.
   • Use the Sound Volume button to control the audio’s volume.
   • Check the Hide While Not playing option in the Display Options section if you don’t want the audio’s icon to show when the music isn’t playing.
3. Click OK when you’re done. PowerPoint lets you play the track by clicking or displaying the slide.

Like other sound files, Power Point displays a CD icon on the current slide. Just be careful that you don’t violate any copyright laws when including someone else’s music in your presentation.

A word on animation

You can use custom animation to control sound files to add a unique and creative dimension to your presentation. To get started, select a sound icon and display the Custom Animation task pane. PowerPoint offers a ton of options, and does a good job of disabling inappropriate choices for the selected clip.

Creating custom animation can be complicated and the truth is most presentations won’t need that much energy. However, the feature’s there and you might as well learn a bit about it. There’s an entire tab dedicated to animation in PowerPoint 2007. Click the Custom Animations option in the Animations group to create custom effects.

Design for effect

Multimedia files can liven up any presentation and sound is definitely part of that mix. You can play an appropriate tune or your company’s jingle. With one click, you can play your company’s latest radio ad for the head honchos. Whether you’re pitching a new product or sharing photos of your new baby, use sound to set the mood.

Susan Sales Harkins is an independent consultant and the author of several articles and books on database technologies. Her most recent book is “Mastering Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express,” with Mike Gunderloy, published by Sybex. Other collaborations with Mike Gunderloy are “Automating Microsoft Access 2003 with VBA,” “Upgrader’s Guide to Microsoft Office System 2003,” “ICDL Exam Cram 2,” and “Absolute Beginner’s Guide to Microsoft Access 2003″ all by Que. Currently, Susan volunteers as the Publications Director for Database Advisors at http://www.databaseadvisors.com . You can reach her at ssharkins@gmail.com.

SOURCE: Author: Susan Harkins.   http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/msoffice/?p=462&tag=nl.e132

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Microsoft Corp. has made the final version of Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) available to customers who want it now via its Download Center and Windows Update.

The vendor is still recommending that most consumers wait until mid-April when SP1 will start being pushed out through Automatic Updates, since that will make the whole download process easier for them, said Elliot Katz, product manager for Windows Client with Microsoft Canada Co. in Mississauga, Ont. However, "tech enthusiasts" can get the update now by running Windows Update, which will automatically determine if SP1 is appropriate for their PC. Business customers wanting to install SP1 on more than one PC can go to the Download Center, he said.

In his Windows Vista blog, Nick White, Vista product manager for Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft, said that if customers do not see SP1 listed when they run Windows Update, this could be due to one of eight reasons. One of them is that the customer has not yet installed all the prerequisite packages necessary for SP1. To install them, the user must visit the Windows Update control panel and click on "check for updates," White said. Katz added that for customers that choose to wait for SP1 to download via Auto Update, all of those prerequisite installations will be automatically pushed down to them before they can install SP1.

In a previous blog entry announcing the release to manufacturing (RTM) of SP1, White mentioned some conflicts SP1 was experiencing with a small number of device drivers. "These drivers do not follow our guidelines for driver installation and as a result, some beta participants who were using Windows Vista and updated to Service Pack 1 reported issues with these devices," he said. According to Katz, in most situations customers encountered slower performance on their PCs.

Microsoft has spent the last couple of months examining reports of driver problems and held off public availability of SP1 until this month, said White. "We've completed our analysis and are happy to report that many of these issues were fixed between the release candidate (RC) and the final version." The vendor has identified a small number of device drivers that may still be problematic after an update to SP1.

There's a "really easy fix" to the driver problem, said Katz. "You just uninstall the driver and reinstall it, and you're off to the races." While this solution may not pose a challenge to IT departments or tech-savvy individuals, Microsoft wants to smooth out the process for typical consumers so that they don't have to worry about the uninstall/reinstall process. "When Windows Update is run against their PC, and when we're distributing SP1 via Auto Update...if they have any of those drivers, we will not offer the (SP1) update at that time," Katz explained. "As the drivers get fixed by peripheral or hardware manufacturers, we will push notifications out to users that the drivers been fixed." When they install those fixed drivers, they will be able to install SP1 the next time Auto Update runs, he said.

SP1 addresses concerns customers raised about Vista around compatibility, performance and reliability, said Katz. For instance, the operating system (OS) will now exit sleep mode faster, and file copying, whether from one spot on the hard drive to another, or between the PC and the network, will also be quicker. Microsoft has provided a number of automatic updates around those concerns since the OS's release, but SP1 wraps all of them up into one package.

The release of SP1 gives channel partners a great reason to revisit the topic of switching to Vista with customers that have not done so already, Katz noted. "They didn't need to wait...but now that (SP1) is there, this is an excellent time to go back to customers and talk about evaluating or deploying Vista."

SOURCE: 19 March, 2008.  By Patricia Pickett.  www.echannelline.com

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Businesses already running Microsoft Exchange Server already have all the security they'll need for mobile devices running Windows Mobile, stated a Microsoft spokesperson.

While there's some perception that securing a mobile infrastructure is very costly, Alec Taylor, director of mobile communications business at Microsoft Canada, said that the security features of Microsoft Exchange Server or Small Business Server can be extended to Windows Mobile devices. Those devices in the field can be remotely managed, password access can be enforced and, in case of lost or theft, they can be remotely wiped by IT administrators.

"That's the out-of-the-box value in Exchange and Windows Mobile," Taylor said.

For more mobile security options, Taylor suggested companies deploy Microsoft System Center Mobile Device Manager, which offers administrators even more flexibility in how they manage corporate mobile devices. However, he said it's mostly larger companies that deploy many devices at a time that get the most out of System Center Mobile Device Manager. SMBs don't necessarily need it.

According to Taylor, the point is that mobile device security doesn't have to be expensive. Businesses can make use of the infrastructure they already have in place (that is, if they have Exchange Server or Small Business Server in place). Exchange or Small Business Server combined with Windows Mobile is "absolutely enough" security for peace of mind, he said.

Through Microsoft and its partners, there are also a variety of hosted mobile security options in case they decide they don't want to manage the technology in-house. Just as there are hosted Exchange options through Microsoft and its partners, some of those partners also offer services that extend Exchange's security functions out to Windows Mobile devices, Taylor explained.

The technology doesn't eliminate the human element of security breaches, though. While IT administrators can remotely wipe a Windows Mobile device that's connected through Exchange Server or Small Business Server, end-users can still compromise devices through unsecure online behaviour.

"Like anything, though, in terms of Web browsing, people need to be smart about what they're doing," Taylor said.

SOURCE: 23 March, 2008. By Chris Talbot. www.echannellive.com

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Advanced Micro Devices Inc. says it is on the cusp of shipping its triple-core Phenom 8000 series processors.

Whether AMD is about to ship the chips or has already begun to ship them is a little unclear. Industry reports suggested major OEMs Dell and Hewlett-Packard would use the Phenom 8600 for respective lines of business desktops.

Regardless, AMD is shipping triple-core Phenoms and the other channel players should expect to see the chipsets within a couple of weeks.

"We launched Phenom with our 3800 series graphics cards back in November . . . we had OEMs with systems on shelves globally in January. We got good reviews on the processor but there was certainly a desire for additional frequencies and we're going to meet that need in March," explained Leslie Sobon, director of product and brand management for AMD desktops. "We've gotten a lot of feedback from the channel and our OEM customers wanting to design sleeker, smaller systems especially in the desktop space."

Warren Shiau, associate partner, lead IT analyst, The Strategic Counsel, said there's a solid consensus that Phenom isn't going to be taking back the performance crown for AMD. Moreover, the whole avenue for marketing and sales through price/performance reputation doesn't, and hasn't worked for AMD and its partners for quite a while.

Not that anyone says AMD's design path is bad -- conceptually many experts believe AMD has the purer design philosophy.

"The major problem it seems is the effectiveness of the design for mass volume manufacture," Shiau said. "The word is that AMD simply can't get a high enough yield for its Barcelona-based products at the clock speeds it needs to be competitive with Intel.

"Meanwhile Intel is pressing ahead moving over to a 45-nm process and a quad-core line-up; Intel is already ahead of AMD pretty much throughout its entire line with 65-nm dual-core; so when AMD gets things sorted out it's still going to be playing catch-up, maybe even more so than currently."

Sobon said AMD won't have the highest frequency quad-core chip on the market.

"Will it outperform the top product from Intel? No. What we have is a very good line up that beats on price-performance for quad-core. So where we're focusing the effort isn't in technology . . . it is a focus on the mid- to high-end mainstream part of the market with good profitability and high volume," she said. "We'd rather focus in that area and frankly focus our direction on low-power 65-watt quad-core versus going to get a 3.5 or a 3.8 Gig quad-core.

"In terms of the nanometer process . . . our competitor has historically started first. But when you look at when we've converted 100 percent over, we're roughly around the same time. Yes, they started 45-nm before us, we'll start shipping product in the back half of this year in 45-nm. If history proves [correct], we'll be 100 percent converted around the same time they will be."

Shiau added everyone's pretty much given up on AMD staging a miraculous comeback. The great hope now is AMD targets its opportunities and maintains its' position.

"The big OEMs are never going to want to be beholden to Intel like they were before getting AMD in there, so they're going to keep AMD-based product lines around," he said. "The server shops that have gone the AMD-based route are going to stick with AMD. And there's always a portion of the channel that'll stick with AMD too."

Regarding the channel and Phenom, Shiau said there would be great Phenom-based machines available. "It's far less of a pickle than what the channel would have been facing if Phenom had been delayed out to say Q2 or Q3. And it looks like AMD is going down the route of developing lines that are specifically consumer (and channel) targeted."

However, he added Phenom is more channel relief than channel opportunity at the moment. As the new products come out from AMD, the opportunity isn't necessarily going to be enterprise (which had always been a big push before).

"It's back to AMD's consumer roots for the channel," Shiau said.

"From a channel perspective, initially that's true," Sobon remarked. "You will see commercial grade CPUs coming from us both in triple and in quad for the commercial market in the channel next quarter.

"For the products that are launching in a couple of weeks, those are consumer-focused."

"A lot of them are driven by applications," said Gary Bixler, director, worldwide channel development, AMD. "The reality is for quad-core products, the applications that are leading the way have been multi-threaded, more to the entertainment applications such as gaming.

"As quad-core products become mainstream, which they are very quickly, we're positioned very well to do well in the mainstream space with those products and they'll then begin to penetrate into the commercial space."

SOURCE: 13 March, 2008.  By Liam Lahey.   www.echannelline.com

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Japan's Toshiba Corp waved the white flag in the high-definition home movie war on Tuesday, giving up on its HD DVD format after losing the support of key studios and retailers to the Blu-ray technology backed by Sony Corp.

The decision by the electronics maker ends its battle with a consortium led by Sony over who should set the standard for the next generation of discs, a fight that confused shoppers and stalled a move to the new technology in the $24 billion (12.3 billion pounds) home DVD market.

The Blu-ray win means consumers no longer have to choose between rival incompatible formats and run the risk of being stuck with a 21st century equivalent of Betamax -- Sony's videotape technology that lost out to VHS in the 1980s.

Toshiba, which had hoped HD DVD would drive growth in its consumer electronics business, said it would aim to end its HD DVD business by the end of next month.

"This was a very difficult decision to make ... but when we thought about the trouble we would cause to consumers and our partners, we decided it was not right for us to keep going with such a small presence," Toshiba Chief Executive Atsutoshi Nishida told a news conference.

The company said it would continue to service existing HD DVD products, and added it expected bigger profits over the next year as it will cut spending earmarked to promote HD DVD.

The tide turned against HD DVD after the defection to Blu-ray by Time Warner Inc's Warner Bros studio last month.

Big U.S. retailers soon followed, including Wal-Mart Stores Inc, Best Buy Co Inc and online video rental company Netflix Inc, and pundits began writing obituaries for HD DVD.

CUTTING LOSSES

While Toshiba has lost the chance to be the leader in the next generation of movie discs, investors welcomed its decision to cut its losses on HD DVD early and invest in more promising businesses.

Toshiba's shares leapt nearly 6 percent on Monday, although they pulled back 0.6 percent on Tuesday compared with a 0.9 percent rise in the benchmark Nikkei average.

Toshiba twinned the HD DVD exit with an announcement that it and partner SanDisk Corp would spend about 1.7 trillion yen ($15.7 billion) on two new flash memory plants in a bid to catch up with industry leader Samsung Electronics in the fast-growing market.

Investors are now waiting to see if and how Toshiba will get access to Blu-ray technology for its home electronics business.

"It's going to have to buy the technology from elsewhere or pay Sony or Matsushita for the licences," said Tetsuro Miyachi, senior portfolio manager at Franklin Templeton Investments Japan. "But the company saw that this is still better than just continuing on with losses of tens of billions of yen each year."

CEO Nishida said Toshiba has "absolutely no plans" to make or sell Blu-ray players.

Toshiba has HD DVD agreements with studios including NBC Universal's Universal Pictures, Viacom Inc's Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc, which will now likely have to switch to Blu-ray.

Existing Blu-ray supporters included News Corp's 20th Century Fox, Walt Disney Co and Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. Sony's PlayStation 3 game console also plays Blu-ray films.

Toshiba, which began sales of HD DVD players in March 2006, has sold 1 million players and recorders, including sales of drives for another supporter, Microsoft Corp, for its XBox 360 game console.

If Toshiba can clear hurdles to design software for Blu-ray, it could use a joint venture with Samsung Electronics Co Ltd on optical discs to make Blu-ray players, analysts said.

Toshiba could also procure Blu-ray products from Sony or Matsushita Electric Industrial Co and sell them under its own brand, they said.

($1=108.13 Yen)

SOURCE: www.yahoo.co.uk
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/rtrs/20080219/tts-uk-dvd-a8bf950_1.html

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Most of the Businesses complain that they have an excellent website but dont have lots of hits or people visiting it. Thus do not have lots of business generated by their websites. In fact they are actually right because having an excellent website is 50% of the job. The other 50% is getting people to visit the sites. These things can be achieved by using various methods. Talking to people about the site eg. word of mouth promotion, chat sites etc. Television Advertisements, Radio Advertisements, News paper & Magazine advertisements, registering with Local Web Portals etc. There is one more mode of promotion which is probably the best mode of promotion and that is Search Engine Promotion.

Why Search Engine Promotion ?
Probably 90% - 95% of the web users use some kind of Search Engine or Directory service to find service providers. We all do it at some point of time.

How do these Search Engines and Directory Services get these sites listed in them ?
Its quite simple to understand. You need to tell these search engines or directories that you have a website and you would like to list it in their database. Once you successfully do that it starts showing up in the results when users search on the relevant keywords.

What are Keywords ?
Keywords are nothing but actual words, terms, products or services what you or your website deals with. These are some examples of keywords: indian,citylocal,remotesupport,hardware,software,consultant,intenet,wireless,entrepreneur,marketing,network,sales,website,design,hosting,sitebuilder,online it suport,online computer support,seo,search engine optimization,gloucester

This is a live example of what we have done for our own site:

for eg. if you go towww.google.com and search for keyword "gloucester computer maintenance", you should find www.dviewsolutions.com which is our website on the first page of google probably somewhere in the top 5 listing.

JUST CLICK ON THE KEYWORD IT WILL TAKE YOU STRAIGHT TO THE SEARCH RESULTS.

Search Engine Promotion and Search Engine Optimisation: Search engine promotion is done in many ways. The first and formost step in undertaking this activity is Search engine optimisation. The website is checked and adjusted in such a way that the keywords are given prominence and weightage so that the search engines detect these keywords and list the sites when the query is passed to the search engine. There are various other steps and tools used to get the best results in this venture. One thing is fact that search engine optimisation is an ongoing process and never ends.

Always Remember:
ALL SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMISATION WORK TAKES ATLEAST 6 TO 12 WEEKS MINIMUM TO LIST THE SITE IN ANY SEARCH ENGINE. THERE IS NO SHORT CUT TO THIS. BEWARE OF PEOPLE WHO CLAIM TO GET YOU RESULTS AND IN THE FIRST PAGE IN 1 MONTH. THEY USE A SYSTEM CALLED UNETHICAL OR WRONG OPTIMISATION TECHNIQUE AND CAN GET YOUR SITE BANNED FOR ATLEAST 2 YEARS.

Call me on 0800 970 6870 for more information and my SEO offers.

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Source - pcadvisor.co.uk

This article appears as part of our comprehensive guide to Windows Vista in the March 07 issue of PC Advisor, available now in all good newsagents. Click here to visit our dedicated Windows Vista forum.


Simply opening and closing windows and tweaking your system gets dull after a while. The following are the high (and low) points of the most notable new apps.

Sidebar and gadgets
We've found ourselves constantly using Vista's Sidebar and onscreen eye candy. Gadgets are miniature applications that can grab and display information from the internet, from a network or from your PC. They can display stock quotes, the time, weather reports, your current RAM use and so on. They are unashamed rip-offs of Mac OS X's Widgets, but are no less useful for that.

Gadgets live in the Windows Sidebar, to the far right of the screen, but can be dragged to anywhere on the desktop. Windows Vista comes with about a dozen straightforward examples, of which the CPU Meter and the scrolling RSS feed headline gadgets are the most notable.

You can acquire more gadgets online and they've been designed so that anyone and everyone can easily create and share more of them. Expect oodles to be available within the next year.


The clock is one of the widgets that come as standard

Windows Calendar
This may be the best new application included with Windows Vista. It's remarkably easy to use, yet offers surprisingly advanced features. These include the ability to send out invitations to meetings directly from within the program, set reminders and create to-do lists. You can create group calendars to share with other users of the same PC or publish your calendar on the web. Usefully, it's compatible with iCalendar, the main group calendar standard. So when you send or receive invitations, you can automatically sync yours with others. You can also subscribe to calendars posted on the web.

Windows Mail
Outlook Express has been renamed Windows Mail. The interface is cleaner and far more pleasing to the eye, while a new toolbar makes it easier to accomplish common tasks such as creating, sending and replying to mail. Otherwise, it varies little from Outlook Express. Bizarrely, however, you can't use Windows Mail to send and receive mail from a Hotmail account, which Outlook Express lets you do.

Backup and Restore Center
The backup program in XP was universally reviled, for good reason. You couldn't do something as simple as backing up to a network folder or a CD drive. Backups in Vista manage to be even worse, so you'll need a third-party program for this important task.

You can't back up individual files, individual folders or even individual file types with Backup and Restore Center. If you want to back up, say, 40 or 50MB .doc files, .jpg files and .zip files, you can't do that. Instead, you have to back up every single data file, every single graphics file and every single compressed file on your entire hard disk. This idiocy even extends to the files that make up Windows. So you'll have to back up several hundred megabytes of files you will never use and never want to back up.

Windows Movie Maker and Windows DVD Maker
The anaemic Windows Movie Maker built into Windows XP has been given a huge makeover for Vista. This useful multimedia tool makes it easy for anyone to create videos, and burn them to DVD. You can import directly from digital video cameras, digital cameras or other devices, or from a hard disk. Creating a video is as simple as dragging and dropping clips on to a timeline, adding effects transitions, soundtracks and so on.

You can use Windows DVD Maker to burn them to DVDs that can be played on any DVD player. It may not turn you into Martin Scorsese, but if you've ever wanted to upload a clip to YouTube, it'll be your free tool of choice.

Windows Photo Gallery
This program provides a simple way to organise and view photos and other media, as well as do some basic and effective photo edits. You can tag and rate pictures so they're much easier to organise and find; quickly scroll through thumbnails and play a slideshow of them. Quick photo-editing tools include adjusting exposure and colour, cropping and fixing red-eye.

An auto-adjust button cleans up a photo with a single click.


Vista Photo Gallery organises and displays photos

Windows Meeting Space
Meeting Space is supposed to be a good way to hold virtual meetings over a network, so that you can share documents with others, view everyone's markups, chat and talk while you're all in different locations.

Unfortunately, it doesn't live up to its billing. It lets people create ad-hoc virtual meetings over a network, including those at Wi-Fi hotspots, but it lacks so many features that it's hard to imagine anyone using it. There's no common whiteboard, no built-in VoIP feature and its chat module is pretty much worthless. Best left well alone.

Windows Firewall
Windows Vista includes a two-way firewall. The firewall in Windows XP blocked only dangerous inbound connections, but did not provide any protection for unwanted outbound connections. So if your PC was invaded by a Trojan or spyware, those programs would be allowed to make outbound connections unimpeded.

Windows Vista's Firewall includes outbound protection as well.

As with Windows XP, you can customise how inbound protection works by opening and closing ports, blocking and unblocking programs and so on, through Windows Firewall Settings. You can do the same for outbound connections, but you'll have to do a bit of digging to find out how. You need to run Windows Firewall with Advanced Security. To do it, at a command prompt, type 'wf.msc' and press Enter.

Windows Defender
The Windows Defender antispyware tool built into Windows Vista is no different than the one available as a free download for Windows XP, or the one built into Windows Live OneCare. It's a solid, serviceable antispyware application that includes live protection as well as automated spyware scanning.

Windows Defender doesn't give a whole lot of advice in helping you decide which programs you should let run - but on the other hand, if Windows Defender allows a program to run, it considers the program safe. You can always do a Google search to track down any application about which you're suspicious, and Windows Defender gives you plenty of information about each app, so it should be easy to do such a search.

One of Defender's more useful features is its Software Explorer, which provides help beyond spyware. Software Explorer lets you see programs running on your PC in a variety of categories, including Startup Programs and Currently Running Programs. It provides in-depth information about each tool, including its name, executable file, publisher, path and file size.

The best thing about Windows Defender is that it was designed not to pop up frequently, requiring user decisions. The worst thing about Windows Defender is that compared to products such as Webroot's Spy Sweeper or Safer Networking's Spybot Search & Destroy, it offers limited protection. Spy Sweeper and Spybot Search & Destroy are both included on the cover DVD.

Parental controls
If you're a parent, you're probably worried about how your children use the family PC and the internet and believe that a software tool for blocking access is part of the answer to your worries. You'll therefore be pleased with the Parental Controls feature built into Windows Vista.

Microsoft has managed to give you exceedingly fine-trained control over all aspects of how the computer is used. This ranges from internet access and games to the exact times and days the computer is being used. And it's all controlled from an easy-to-use interface.

There are four sets of controls. These filter web use, control when a child can use the PC, restrict games based on a rating system, and allow and block specific programs. Each control is simple and intuitive to use. Parents need not worry that they'll need their children to teach them how to use Parental Controls, which would defeat the purpose of such a feature in the first place.

For people who want to keep a virtual eye on their children, activity reports can be automatically generated and viewed. The reports include the top 10 websites visited, the top 10 websites blocked, applications used, games used, when each child logged on to the PC and much more in-depth information.


Vista parental controls


Verdict
Windows Vista includes far more built-in applications than Windows XP while stalwarts such as Notepad, WordPad and Paint are pretty much unchanged.

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This weblog is sponsored by D-View Solutions.

My Question is, Is Web 2.0 helping businessess to earn more money by using the technology in their websites and portals? I am just trying to find the answer. Below mentioned is some information about Web 2.0 which I have borrowed from the Wikipedia website.

Web 2.0, when used in the context of analysis and promotion of web-technology, refers to a perceived second generation of web-based communities and hosted services — such as social-networking sites, wikis and folksonomies — which aim to facilitate collaboration and sharing between users. The term became popular following the first O'Reilly Media Web 2.0 conference in 2004 and has since become widely used.

Although the term suggests a new version of the World Wide Web, it does not refer to an update to Web technical specifications, but to changes in the ways software developers and end-users use the web as a platform. According to Tim O'Reilly, "Web 2.0 is the business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the internet as platform, and an attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform."

Some technology experts, notably Tim Berners-Lee, have questioned whether one can use the term in a meaningful way, since many of the technology components of "Web 2.0" have existed since the early days of the Web.

Defining Web 2.0

In alluding to the version-numbers that commonly designate software upgrades, the phrase "Web 2.0" hints at an improved form of the World Wide Web. Advocates of the concept suggest that technologies such as weblogs, social bookmarking, wikis, podcasts, RSS feeds (and other forms of many-to-many publishing), social software, Web APIs, Web standards and online Web services imply a significant change in web usage. Stephen Fry (actor, author and broadcaster) describes Web 2.0 as "an idea in people's heads rather than a reality. It's actually an idea that the reciprocity between the user and the provider is what's emphasized. In other words, genuine interactivity if you like, simply because people can upload as well as download".


Sandeep Amin

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This weblog is sponsored by D-View Solutions.