Now play with Lego in chrome

Google has partnered with Lego Australia to allow users to build objects using the popular plastic blocks right from within their browser. You can choose from a multitude of different building blocks, and build anything that you can think up. Not only that, but your creation isn’t randomly floating around the internet, instead assigned a virtual plot of land in Australia using Google Maps.

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Google PR (PageRank) Update 2011

We talked enough about PR and factors that contribute to PR. We even discussed about the nofollow and dofollow tags in our previous articles. So this time, I wanted to show you some proven results to attain PR rather than just discussions. We are glad to inform that we got a PR3 today for homepage while several inner pages have got a PR2 or PR1! Did Google Update its PR this month?

From Googling, I found that the last major update was made on "19th January 2011". I guess Google is making another update this month "June 2011", as well. Few claim that they had a change in their PR this month just like I do. Well, who knows - it may just be a minor update! So, keep your fingers crossed and hope for the best!!! It's been confirmed that the PR Update happened on June 27th 2011. So, what's your PR?

I recently published an article about the comparison between Google PR and Alexa Rank - Alexa Rank Vs. Google PageRank(PR). I did mention that the Google PR algorithm seems to be pretty complex. I guess I should correct myself now!!! They do appear to be complex when you consider all factors like Page Speed, Do Follow Links, No Follow Links, etc.. But, if you narrow them down to one factor, well, it's pretty simple. That's the result I'm talking about - backlinks (the one big factor).

I would prove this is the main factor that contributes to PR from the analysis I carried out with my very own domain. Initially, I ran my blog on blogspot domain "www.newbloggingtipz.blogspot.com" which had a PR4. I assumed that blogs run on blogger, by default, were dofollow but later found that, they are not! So, it was a nofollow blog with more than 50 quality back-links from domains that had PR ranging from 1 to 5.

Later, I made the shift to the custom domain "www.newbloggingtipz.com"- way back in the month of June 2010. My PR dropper to Zero due to the shift. I made my blog "dofollow" which brought nothing but a lot of spam comments. I waited for the PR update - that was made on Jan 2011, but to my disappointment I found that even after the update my domain still had a PR0.

Well, I decided to revert my blog back to nofollow. I made this shift probably in the month of April 2011, I guess. Suprisingly, it has worked now. So, as far as I know, to have a better PR, make sure your blog has enough dofollow backlinks while your blog is on a nofollow status. Though it seems to be pretty selfish (getting all the link juice you want from high PR domains but not spreading them to your followers), I recommend you do it for a better PR.

Though I personally don't recommend building a PR, I do recommend you to build a quality website/blog with great content and good design. You don't have to follow sites that list dofollow blogs and  comment on them, PR will follow your blog! So, just concentrate on your content and work a little more on improving your design! Do let us know via comments if you had a change in your PR this month!

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Alexa Rank Vs. Google PageRank (PR)

There's always a confusion when it comes to Alexa Rank and Google PageRank. Many of you would have gone through so many articles about the same on the web. Yet, you would not know on what basis they ranked us or how they generated the ranking for us? This time let's be clear about what to worry and what not to?

From the very beginning of my blogging experience, there is always a big question mark about Google PR. Their algorithm seems to be Greek and Latin to me. Well, even those could be understood I think. Moreover, I would like to bring to your notice that my site few months before, on the blogspot URL had a PR4 which dropped to PR0 once I made the shift to a custom domain. Interestingly, I found that one of my article namely, Increase Traffic To Your Blog With Meta Tag and SEO, still has PR2. So, this definitely confuses me. I'm sure many of you would face similar kind of problems when it comes to the PageRank.

On the other hand, Alexa Rank, as far as I know is based only on one factor - traffic. This simply means that more the amount of visitors to your site, better will be your ranking. However, few people complain that the rankings are biased between the ones who have their toolbar installed on the sites and the ones without it. I'm not sure how far this is true, but personally I did see an improvement on installing their site widget. 

I would rather see the widget as a tracking device. Just as Google Analytics asks you to install a script for working out your site statistics, Alexa asks you to install their widget for better results. Moreover, I personally noticed that when you update your site on a regular basis, your Alexa Rank would improve. Let's just list out our conclusions.

• Alexa do not penalize websites whereas Google might.
• Alexa Rank is purely based on traffic whereas Google PR depends on its algorithm.
• Alexa Rank may vary from millions to as low as 1 whereas Google PR uses a floating number algorithm to rank a website on a scale of 10.
• Other factors that contribute to Alexa Rank apart from traffic - their toolbar.
• Other factors that contribute to Google PR apart from back-links - Page Speed and other unknown craps understood by SEO geeks.

Many advertisers except those text-link advertisers have started to look for Alexa Rank rather than Google PR which according to me, is a good strategy. So, should you be bothered about these ranks? Well, certainly not. Bottom line, just worry about the amount of traffic to your site. The rest will follow you!!! Share your knowledge about PR and Alexa Rank or an opinion about this post via comments. We would love to hear from you!

To know more about PR & back-links, check out these:
Article One - How to increase the page rank of my blog?
Article Two - How to increase back-links to my blog???

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How to increase backlinks to my blog???

Recently, I received a mail from one of my friends. It stated that "Hi friend, tell me few methods that will increase the backlinks to my blog". It is quite obvious that many bloggers want a solution for this question. Though I'm not an expert, I will share few tips regarding this issue. There are few questions which always run in the minds of a newbie when they hear to terms like backlinks, SEO, RSS, bla bla bla... Even, I used to wonder what the heck, these probloggers are trying to explain in their post. Initially, I felt like am heading nowhere when I read their posts. But later, I understood each phrase has got its own value and meaning. Anyway, I don't want to make things very complex as they do. I will try to keep it as simple as possible.

Let us first understand, what are backlinks??? To be very simple, you may refer the Wikipedia definition which states "Backlinks are incoming links to a website or web page". I prefer saying backlinks are quality links from various sites which link to your site. I stress on quality links because there is no use if you receive a backlink from a PR0(Page Rank) blog. To check the backlinks for your site, visit Google and type the following text in the search bar.

link:http://www.yourblogname.blogspot.com/

(Note: Replace the green text in the above link with your blog/website URL)

The above step will only give you a quantitative analysis of the backlinks, that is, gives you the number of backlinks for your site. I always feel that there should be equal proportions when it comes to quantity and quality. I mean to say, you need to have a reasonable number of backlinks from quality websites. Now, you will be wondering what do I mean my quality websites? It is very simple. The quality of a blog can be determined by its Google PR. People have different views about the above mentioned statement. I accept partially to it, though I feel there are lots of other factors which determine the quality of a blog. It is acceptable to receive links from site with PR3 and above.

Now, you know what are backlinks, how to find the number of backlinks to your blog and to determine the quality of each backlink. In this post, I will provide you with two simple tips that will increase the backlinks to your blog quantitatively.

1. Spread the word through templates/widgets:
This is the most effective way of increasing the backlinks to your blog. It is basically meant for webmaster and works out well, especially for blogger blogs. Just by including a small piece of HTML code in the credit section of each template, one can build his backlinks enormously. Have a look at the screen shot below for a better idea.
Every time, when the template is downloaded from your site and used, it will increase the backlinks without the knowledge of the user(75%effective). Make sure, it appears at the credits section of your template. Do not irritate the user with multiple links since there is no effect in doing so. For widgets, apply the same concept of including a link, but make sure it appears as small as possible. You may add the following piece of code at the end of each widgets you spread through your blog.

<center><a style="text-decoration:none;font-size:70%;" href="http://www.yourblogname.com/">Add to your blog</a></center>

(Note:Replace the text in green with the URL of your blog)

2. Comment On Sites With Top Commentators Widgets:
This method seems to be the most simplest method that one may adopt to increase his/her backlinks. The important feature to observe while commenting is that, you need to know if your link is categorized under the "dofollow" or "nofollow" tag. Make sure you comment on blogs with "dofollow" blogs. Most of the blogs and websites have adopted the concept of dofollow. Even if the blog is a "nofollow" blog, the widget will preferably provide dofollow links only.

If it is a nofollow blog, then the link will be not be counted for backlinks. It will just serve as a link to increase the visitors to your site. Nevertheless, it serves for some purpose. So, I recommend every one to comment on other blogs. (Note: Please make sure that you comment relevant to the topic and do not spam the other site. I prefer to comment on blogs which are related to my domain.)

I have restricted myself to just two simple techniques of increasing the backlinks in this post. I will post few more methods of improving the same in my next series on the same topic. If you truly feel that my blog is worth reading and is helpful, then please link to my blog too. Just copy and paste the following piece of code anywhere in your blog!!!

<a href='http://www.newbloggingtipz.com/'>Everything About Blogging</a>

You may leave your views about this post along with a link to your blog in the comments section below. Another method to increase your backlinks:)

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