Daily Internet Digest

Firefox, the browser that has taken the crown from Microsoft’s IE has recently released a full blown release of Firefox4.0 (which had been in beta since June last year) promising faster and safer browsing for everyone. It has been a long year of patches and update for most browsers mainly because holes to get discovered every time a version does come out.

The browser war may be dominated by Firefox but with Chrome, IE and some other players it continues to be anyone’s game. With more and more people using the internet for their everyday computing, browsers have become an integral part of computing in the internet age. Social media, an arena being focused on by Google is still blooming and may be the target of Mozilla for their release of the newer version. Truly, it has been streamlined, having more space for pages and allowing better control over what the user needs and wants.

I bought my 80gig Apple Classic iPod 3 years ago. I was told that I needed iTunes to view and play the multimedia list in my iPod. Opening iTunes to add music and videos to my iPod list gave me a first glimpse of Podcasting. So I did some research to find out what Podcasting is all about.

Podcasts, or non-streamed webcasts, are digital media files released in episodes. Unlike streamed data where the data are transmitted and received as it is being transmitted, Podcasts are treated as web feeds and a special client application software is needed to access, analyze, and download these feeds for new files. The downloading process can be done automatically and are stored on the computer’s local memory, ready for access even when offline, and ready to be saved to any media device like your iPod.

I now have hundreds of podcast music and videos that I can enjoy anytime of the day. With this technology, I am able to listen to my favorite inspirational messages from my laptop while riding the train on the way to work. I can even download media files from cool websites like the Australia business directory or European online travel tours. Having the ability to save files that have been automatically downloaded to my laptop has given me more control of my files and multimedia documents that I keep track of. And all these go straight to my ipod in one easy step, to be enjoyed in an even more convenient way. I’m loving my iPod, thanks to podcasting.

I belong to the wonderful world of Facebook. However, their sudden “facelift” has brought about much anxiety to a lot of users. Complaints have been posted left and right. I myself got a little confused about the whole new look. But as time went on i kind of got used to it, like pretty much everything else in my life.

I read a Facebook blog and it stated there a few reasons why they did it.

1) Making mobile more social. Although I have never used my mobile phone to check and update my status and those of others (and all because my mobile phone is a dinosaur), I guess people who do has greatly appreciated this improvement. New mobile apps are being built to accommodate mobile user’s growing needs.

2) Next evolution of Messages. The device or medium for receiving messages is no longer an issue. Their tool automatically shifts gear to whatever the receiver prefers based on hardware and applications availability.

3) Friendship pages launched. Now, searching for connections and network relationships are a breeze. True, this can be a drag for people who are keeping “secret” friendships. But otherwise, it is a fast and easy way to stay connected and informed about people related to you in the network. It even links to personal domain names of your friends.

Angsts about the new Facebook is coming to a slow halt, hopefully. Change is always faced with reactions, both good and bad. I say give it a chance. Privacy issues with the new Facebook interface are for those people who have a lot to hide. But that is just my opinion.

One of the biggest reasons why I dumped Internet Explorer back in 2005 is that the fact that IE was no longer up to the task of handling the increasing number of pop-ups that were besieging the web. Mozilla’s awesome browser had one of the best pop-up blockers existing, and it’s pretty unmatched until now. However, we all know how most people are defecting to Google’s Chrome browser, because it pretty much showed how slow Firefox is.

Honestly, I don’t have any patience in waiting for Firefox to start, freeze a little bit, and sluggishly respond to my keystrokes when all I want to do is to take a quick peek at an Australia business directory. Chrome can do the same things in less than half the time. Continue Reading »

Mexico is an unstable and moderate tropical zone with 19 million people. Scope for human adventure is tremendous here in this country. However, amid this exploratory expedition to Mexico, you may have an urge to check your important business mail. In such synchronizing your mobile device with Exchange hosting service would help that too come configured with BlackBerry hosting.

Synchronization with hosted Microsoft Exchange Server allows contact with mails on phone. But ahead of synchronization with email Exchange hosting, you should see to it that you are carrying a wireless gadget that can support the local provider of Mexico Continue Reading »

The rankings businesses are able to obtain with the search results are of great significance. The higher and better the ranking within the search results, the more exposure a business will receive and the greater the amount of relevant web traffic arriving on its pages. Achieving high rankings is no easy task, but some businesses which have been using SEO and have dedicated time and hard work to their online campaign, do enjoy the top spots.

Businesses which do have high rankings in the search results enjoy a lot of benefits. They will see a lot of traffic directed to their websites because of these rankings and this means the potential for a greater number of sales too. When you have top rankings, it is easy to become a bit complacent and become used to the advantages it can provide. Site owners which have achieved the top are often those which are content with the way their business is running.
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Finding a way into local search can be a very handy way of attracting highly relevant traffic. A lot of search engine marketing professionals will recommend that companies enhance their local search capabilities as a new avenue with the search engines. Getting a top-ranking listing in a local search helps your target users find you more easily and can enhance your overall relationship with the search engines.

Local search is one of those areas that many businesses haven’t really thought about, and it’s a good idea to talk to your search engine optimisation company about what is required. You can discuss your local search ideas with our consultants at www.seoconsult.co.uk. Although search engine optimisation for local search isn’t really much easier than optimising for mainstream search terms, there are certainly some simple steps you can take to enhance your site’s local feel.

The list below isn’t necessarily in order. Continue Reading »

Running different significant operations that too at a low budget is a must for small and medium enterprises, isn’t it? But how? This is where Microsoft Small Business Server plays a significant role providing SMEs all the necessary benefits and technologies that only large companies could afford to have otherwise. Windows Small Business Server is mainly designed for running network infrastructure of SMEs, this include both intranet and internet access. The focus of Small Business Server is that it can combine many of Microsoft’s premier technologies in an installation that can run on a single server—combining messaging, directory services, and security tools into a single, affordable solution for small businesses.

With the upgradation of Small Business Server to new versions, lot have been added and changed every time. It all started with BackOffice Small Business Server 4.0, which was then got upgraded to BackOffice Small Business Server 4.5 then to Microsoft Small Business Server 2000 then to Microsoft Small Business Server 2003 which then got upgraded to Microsoft Small Business Server 2003 R2 and finally to Microsoft Small Business Server 2008. These are some of the differences which could be thought of now, but there are lot more to it! Don’t forget to browse through and enjoy the benefits of Small Business Server hosting.

Small Business Server 2003 R2 is the updated version of SBS 2003, with its main focus on security. SBS 2003 R2 includes Update Services, which centralizes management of updates and patches. Elsewhere, the mailbox store limit for Exchange Server 2003 has increased to 75GB and the Premium version includes SQL Server 2005 Workgroup Edition. The upper limit of 75 users or devices still holds, but CALs have been improved to provide better access to additional Windows Server, Microsoft Exchange and SQL Server systems without the need to buy more licences. On the other hand, SBS 2008 includes the latest versions of component technologies including Windows Server 2008 SP2, Exchange Server 2007, Microsoft SQL Server 2008 (in the Premium edition), and Windows SharePoint. Services 3.0. SBS 2003 R2 includes x86 (32-bit) technology and SBS 2008 include x64 (64-bit) technology. In SBS 2003 R2, set up asks technical questions and allows you to place data stores in the UI but in Small Business Server 2008, setup doesn’t ask technical questions, if you want some, look at the answer file to enter the migration path, or make modifications to setup, making it more predictable, easier and faster. In Small Business Server 2003 R2, Windows Firewall is disabled, which is otherwise in SBS 2008. In SBS 2003 R2, DHCP can be deployed on Router or SBS server, in SBS 2008, DHCP strongly recommended on SBS server which can be disabled using advanced console only.

Also in SBS 2003 R2, there is a feature called “To Do” list, in SBS 2008, you will find “Getting Started” List. The User Templates in SBS 2003 R2 is renamed to User Roles in SBS 2008. In the earlier version, backup was NTBackup based, support for USB disk drive and Tape, in the new version, backup is based on new VSS technology, and is much quicker, but no longer supports tape. Earlier version only provided Email Reports Daily and Instant alerts from a defined list but SBS 2008 provides an extensible list of alerts and daily reports. No anti-virus is included in SBS 2003 but the new version includes 120 day trial versions of OneCare for the Server, and Forefront Security for Exchange.

Everyone loves a good argument. It clears the air, it makes things exciting – and it gets the blood pumping. Even when reading, people love to have a well constructed argument presented to them – whether they agree with the opinion or not.

This may be why controversial content often works so well on the internet. Many influential bloggers swear by the technique of featuring an occasional argumentative post. It usually stirs up the conversation, if not a huge amount of controversy, and at its best can get whole sections of the web buzzing. When that buzz is about you, it can do wonders for your site’s traffic and a great SEO blog post can really make a difference. Continue Reading »

Another SharePoint Server 2010 feature which cannot go unnoticed is the Access Services. Access Services is a service in SharePoint Server 2010 that allows administrators to view, edit, and configure a Microsoft access application within a Web Browser. Access Services settings support backup and recovery, regardless of whether there is a UI setting in Central Administration. However, backup and recovery only apply to service-level and administrative-level settings; end-user content from the Access application is not backed up as part of this process. Access Services has Windows PowerShell functionality that can be used to provide the service that uses settings from a previous backup; configure and manage macro and query setting; manage and configure session management; and configure all the global settings of the service.
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