as random as Ek Do 3

Recently had one of my websites that was once listed in the top 25K sites in the world according to Alexa, dropped from the natural listings of Google altogether.  The site was receiving well over 1.5 M monthly page views, had a sitemap in Google search results and was well indexed in Google, until I noticed a dramatic decrease in new visitors a few days ago, and found the culprit being no more links indexed in the Google natural search results, and the site pretty much removed from existence.  Imagine the horror, after 7 months spent day and night, you pour your heart and soul on a project, just to find that Google has removed your site from their index!!!

This is exactly what I felt like……

What makes the matter worse, is that I am not even sure why it was removed?  I have contacted Google on a number of occasions, but Google being…..”Google” has not responded or even acknowledged receipt of email.  At least if they respond, I would know what was done wrong, so that I can fix the error and not do it again.  I have tried to contact them through their Webmaster Tools and same thing - no response.

The site is an niche online movie aggregator that gathers videos from different sources, embeds those files and displays them in a nice, neat and orderly fashion.  There are numerous online movie aggregators doing exactly what I am doing and even taking it to the next level, where they are hosting some movies directly.   These sites are nicely indexed with Google and have very deep natural links additionally have also been approved for Adsense and I also see them advertising on Adwords, so I have no idea why Google would take offense and remove my website from their natural listings, no warning….nothing.  POOF!

So I decide to take another route by using their Adwords solution and spend money to get Google visitors and here is the exact response I receive from Google after being denied for my first submission:

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At this time, Google policy does not permit the advertisement of websites (including services or products therein) that violate or encourage violation of any applicable laws. In this case, your advertisement directs users to a website that either contains (or claims to contain) copyrighted TV shows, movies, or music that cannot be distributed freely online, or your website promotes the availability of such material without the consent of the copyright holder.

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The part in their response that makes absolutely no sense and shows Google’s double standards is that according to them, the ‘advertisement directs users to a website that contains copyrighted TV shows, movies or music’  in other words….YouTube and Google Videos, BOTH of which are owned and operated by Google.  So if I am directing users to something inappropriate, according to them, then Google should remove those videos from their own properties.  They have basically admitted that there is something inherently wrong with sites that contain copyrighted TV shows, movies or music, which is at the heart, essence and core of their two largest portals - YouTube and Google Videos.  They, themselves are hosting these videos and are refusing my advertisement because I have links to their websites. This is the height of double standards, and needs to be addressed.

All is not lost however, as Yahoo still has the site nicely indexed in their natural listings and is sending a steady stream of new visitors and users.  Although a fraction of the traffic that Google sends, I definitely am glad that Yahoo has separate algorithms in place when it comes to natural search.   With Google taking such a dramatic step by removing my listings, I have learned a major lesson, that Google is not necessarily the solution when it comes to search.  I need more…. I need Yahoo, Live, Ask and more. Previous searches on Google that resulted in my site coming up on the first page no longer show my site in the first 50 (i stopped looking after 50 pages).  This leads me to believe that the selection process and algorithms Google has in place may not necessarily be giving us the full spectrum of results as we have always imagined.

Well, it finally happened. Saw it coming the moment I purchased the phone and declined the insurance option. My Iphone is Igone. Here’s the story.

Last Friday I dropped off my car at the dealership for service, and proceeded to transfer things from out of my car to the loaner vehicle I was to have for the weekend. I checked and double checked to make sure I moved all the important things over into the loaner, such as the car seat, garage door opener, charger, etc…. Got home on Friday evening and discovered that my company Iphone is missing.

I began retracing my steps to earlier in the day, and realized that it must have been in the glove compartment of my vehicle. Immediately contacted the dealership and they were closed for the evening. So first thing Saturday morning, I contact the dealership asking them to look in the vehicle for me. The lady says that she will get back to me shortly.

Since it was the weekend, we had to attend my nephews Birthday party in the valley and we began our 2 hour drive there. On our way there, I received a call from the dealership saying that they have located my phone. I was extremely thankful to the receptionist and told her that I would pick up my phone later in the day when I was getting back from our mini-journey. As 5 o’clock approached, I made it to the dealership and made my way to the reception area. Inquired about my phone, and was told that my phone is now missing. WTF - was my immediate reaction. I asked the receptionist to explain herself, and she said that the phone was put in the drawer and has vanished since (someone had taken my iphone). She said she was extremely sorry for something like this happening and that the manager would get back to me on Monday.

Monday morning rolls around, and I am waiting for the call….but nothing. So, I contact the dealership and speak with the manager in charge. He was unaware of the problem, so I explained exactly what had occurred at his dealership, and as a customer I am not likely to ever purchase anything from them again. He also was very apologetic for the unfortunate incident that occurred and assured me that they would pay all costs associated with the phone. - which they did.

So I go the ATT store to purchase a new Iphone. I mentioned to them that I have lost my phone and asked them what the best thing to do. They said that once I plug in my new iphone and sync it up with itunes, the old phone will no longer be active. So I get home and put my phone in the doc and sync it up. To my amazement, everything is transferred to my new iphone within a few clicks, a very easy setup. Props to apple for simplifying things in regards to such situations. Its as if I never lost my phone in the first place, as everything is the same as before, even my call history. My only concern is that my old phone is still out there with someone and no matter how much ATT convinces me that it is no longer active, I still have the uneasy feeling that my photos, contacts, emails, etc… are still accessible.

Khushboo

Haal e Dil

De Taali

Mere Baap Pehle Aap

Don Muthuswami

Aamir

Sarkar Raj

Pranali

Hastey Hastey

Dhoom Dhadaka

Jannat

Anamika

Sirf

Bhootnath

Tashan

Mr White Mr Black

U me aur hum

Krazzy 4

Bhram

Shaurya

more…..

How could this blog not provide a link to the movie One Two Three. Watch the Hindi movie One Two Three starring Suniel Shetty, Tusshar Kapoor, Paresh Rawal, Upen Patel, Esha Deol, Sameera Reddy:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Enjoy!

Watch the Bollywood Movie Black & White starring Anil Kapoor, Aditi Sharma, Habib Tanvir, Shefali Shah, Anurag Sinha:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Enjoy!

When speaking of Web 2.0, there are a few common phrases thrown that are discussed…collaboration, communities, Peer to Peer, Blogs, Social Networking, Wikis, XML, API’s….the list goes on. One of the key features of having your website 2.0 compliant would include being able to manipulate information from databases and display and present it in a multitude of fashions on your website. As an example if you can create individual tables for relative fields pertaining to your business, that information can be proven invaluable in creating a Web 2.0 atmosphere in your website. This especially applies to websites with large number of products. So for instance, if you are creating a Perfume Website, some of the filters that can be created are:

• Gender
• Box Size
• Price
• Brand

So for Gender the attributes would be ‘Male or Female’. Box Size could have attributes of S, M, L, XL. Price could display options such as 1-50, 51-100, 101-151, 151-200, 200+. Finally for Brand, you could list out all Perfume Brands.

When putting together your website, these fields that are in your mySQL files can be used as Filtering Options on your website, and can provide an amazing shopping experience for your users. They will be able to narrow down their choice by using these filtering options that are present in your tables if arranged and displayed in a neat and orderly fashion. A user could choose a Medium box of Ralph Lauren perfume for females in the 100 price range; run a query and presto - your results.

Your website can adapt and transform itself almost instantaneously and with hardly any cost, just by spending a little time managing your data base which will lay the foundation to gain entry into a whole new world - a web 2.0 world!

Recently I needed to locate the Buy.com Customer Service phone number for a client, and did the usual Google search. The first result takes you to someone’s answering machine. The second and third, etc… all direct you to a number that tells you to call another number. Now, Buy.com has a great website and I understand that they probably want consumers to continue browsing through their site to find solutions to their questions, however… I see a whole new marketing campaign for Buy.com with their phone number. Its an amazing phone number.

You ready for it. Here it is……

One of the recent iphone shortcuts I learned about is in regards to deleting an email from your mail folder.  While viewing your list of emails, you can just glide your finger very gently from left to right on the email you want to delete and a ‘DELETE’ button pops up.

Very useful to get rid of the junk in your trunk.

After much anticipation, Jodha Akbar will be releasing Feb 15 2008 and will probably top the charts in gross revenue for Bollywood movies in 2008. The movie is being directed and produced by Ashutosh Gowariker who started his acting career in the 1984 film Holi, and has since been in Naam (1986), Chamatkar (1992), and Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa (1993). Mr. Gowariker will probably be remembered most for his epic Lagaan which was nominated for the Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film (after Mother India and Salaam India).  Ashutosh is currently bedridden due to acute back pain and is looking to recover very soon.  Being the perfectionist he is, he will make sure to be there for the grand premier to ensure everything runs smoothly.

The movie Jodhaa Akbar has had numerous issues to date including accusations from animal rights activists claiming cruelty to horses in some sequences. Secondly, the Rajputs of Rajasthan have claimed that the story of Jodha Bhai being Akbars wife is incorrect; instead they assert that she is Akbars daughter in law. There are studies beind conducted that can back up this theory. Recently when Aishwarya Rai Bachchan was celebrating her husbands birthday bash in Jaipur, there were protesters outside the hotel chanting “Amitabh, Aish ko samjao, Aish ko Jodha mat banao” and ” Jodha Akbar nahin chalega, band karo Jodha Akbar”.

This isn’t the first time Ashutosh’s movies has created dissidence prior to its release and from the looks of things the more controversy the better the movie does.  Regardless of what happens here, Jodha Akbar will be the most awaited irrespective of all these allegations.

Have been messing with importing, exporting and sharing databases and came across a post that has really helped me understand DB structure a whole lot. Once you have a database created, you can back it up using the following directions:

• Open phpMyAdmin
• Click on Export
• Under Export - Select the database you want to backup
• Select SQL
  - (In red only if you are migrating from local to remote installation)
• In SQL export compatibility: select - MySQL40
  - NOTE Some earlier versions of phpMyAdmin do not have this SQL export compatibility feature.
• Select
  - Structure
  - Add DROP TABLE
  - Add IF NO EXISTS
  - Add AUTO_INCREMENT VALUE
  - Enclose table and field names with backquotes.
• Select
  - Data
  - Complete inserts
  - Extended inserts
  - Use hexadecimal for binary fields.
• Select Save as file
• In File name template: _DB_name your db here. (Here you can use any name you want)
• In Compression specify your choice.
• Click Go.

How to restore a Database using phpMyAdmin

• Open phpMyAdmin
• On the far right hand side, click on the little SQL box and a window should open.
• In this window click on Import Files.
• Use the browse button to find the database file.
• In Compression select the option you chose to export the database.
• Click Go.

With these basic instructions, you will have your data backed up and be able to do whatever you want with it. You can modify the data, import it into a new site, create interesting ajax applications, display the data in a host of different fashions, and much more.  Most importantly, your data and data structure will be backed up in case your site host goes Kabooom. Although most hosts run backups typically on a daily or weekly basis, I cannot stress enough how important it is to keep backups on your local computer or removable media.  You can run additional backups at any time through cPanel backup manager.

Life as easy as EKDO3