Introducing Google+ (Plus) Communities !

On 6 December 2012 Google Senior Vice President Vic Gundotra  announced via Google Blog the introduction of a new exciting product into the Market :Google+ Communities .This "may" perhaps be one of the most significant products that may just elevate the search giant in the social media arena to rival and perhaps ultimately defeat Facebook.


At present pundits and techies alike are musing on whether Google + Communities may just be the death bed of Message Boards and many valid arguments are raised in support and against the statement.For now it may just be too early to tell the effect that Google Plus Communities may have in the World of Social Media but on the preliminary it is safe to say the impact will be "significant" enough for the dominant player Facebook Inc to be exponentially concerned.



So What is Google +  Communities? Many of us are acquainted with Facebook Pages...Well Google Plus Communities is much more.The above YouTube Video i believe illustrates what it is and what you can use it for.You can learn more however at this official page. Coupled with Google Hangout -Google communities is a serious contender for the attention of those disposed to socially interact online for business,pleasure, education, entertainment...etc.Google Plus Communities is the gathering place..the rallying call for the diverse interests.




Take for example are you a passionate Kenyan Blogger...there is already a community for you to share your thoughts, inspiration ,challenges, network... etc.This is significant due to the fact that Google + Communities is hardly 6 days old and you get such ventures already going on.

Go ahead give it a try...engage a community!

Adsense for Mobile Content !

Mobile computing is rapidly replacing the traditional desktop computer/laptops and note books. It therefore comes as a surprise that Google is sleeping on the potential of mobile advertisements.It is true that Google has partnered with AdMob to tap on this ready resource as more and more users use their mobile handsets to browse the web.However Google seems to be slow in allowing publishers ,application developers and coders to incorporate their Adsense revenue sharing  platform to generate ads in response to this development. I just found out that Google Adsense for  mobile content is only available to the following limited Countries :

• Australia
• Austria
• Belgium
• Canada
• China
• Denmark
• Finland
• France
• Germany
• Greece
• India
• Ireland
• Italy
• Japan
• Korea
• Netherlands
• Norway
• Poland
• Russia
• Singapore
• South Africa
• Spain
• Sweden
• Switzerland
• Taiwan
• United States
• United Kingdom

 As such Google Mobile Ads seems severely limited in Africa whereas more and developers are targeting the mobile handset platform.The Search Engine and Internet Advertisement giant seems to be more concerned fighting its upcoming Nemesis Facebook and Twitter rather than capitalizing on new opportunities

Google Hotpot Search Review

It is openly manifest that Google is faced with an uphill task with the rise of social media websites such as Facebook and Foursquare. Google Hotpot ,Google's recently launched new service is an indication of its struggle to remain relevant in a rapidly changing market where search is not the prime commodity.

Google Hotpot smartens up local search by allowing users to recommend and rate places and locations.It introduces a social sharing element whereby users within a community can be able to see ones ratings and reviews.

Hotpot Recommendation Engine monitors ones online behavioral habits with respects to location searches and offers customized suggestion of places one may find useful.One can use Google Hotpot to check in to a location.The algorithm in use also monitors friends like in order to come up with a like minded suggestion.Google "hotspot" sic {hotpot} allows users to create an entirely separate  account from their Google or Gmail account in order to enable users have control on how their recommendations appear online to the public.

Will Google Hotpot remain relevant and prove successful?A wait and see approach seems to be the best option at the moment  but since the service seems to imitate the likes of already established and rapidly expanding Foursquare, i would not bet on it but the reality is that  its us the users who will determine that !
 (see screenshot below)

Google Instant For Mobile Phones

Google Instant for mobile phones currently in beta( the beta version is available to most i Phone and Android devices in the U.S) is set to revolutionize the future of mobile search.The press release at the Google blog and the accompanying video left me ogling at the advanced technology employed. Google Instant will enable users to get relevant search results faster than they can type the query.The speed at which one will get relevant search results while in the Google Mobile Search Engine is absolutely amazing.

Google instant is optimized for 3G and WiFi networks.

Question is what does this portend for mobile marketing and smart phone development?Without doubt the market scenarios are rapidly changing and Google is trying to stay relevant as Facebook.com continues its gallant march .Digital marketing is the future, the rest of the World is indeed eager to experience the worldwide launch of Google Instant for mobile.

The pc based Google Instant page can be accessed here :googleInstant 

FourSquare.Com- Twitter in Geographic Perspective !

Foursquare .Com is the next big thing to hit the technological world of social networks.Pundits including Mashable are on to the smart phone application .Whereas, Twitter without doubt has grown to be a powerful social media and marketing forum, however the thing about Twitter is that often the tweets and friends one receives are often not geocentric.

As was the case with Myspace and Facebook ,some two genius minds have come up with a concept/social media networking forum(the service was created by Dennis Crowley and Naveen Selvadurai) that enables one to post Tweets that are geocentric about places and events and a plus to the application is that the Tweets or review about the event or place will permanently remain attached to the location. Poor service providers best beware, your customers may just be onto you!

The site includes a Google maps integration widget to enable the user point out where they are at , what is going on, a review of the place... etc and this will remain embeddable about the specific location. Now that's a powerful marketing tool.

The Foursquare mobile phone application that allows you to “check-in” to a particular foursquare location is compatible with the following smart phone's Blackberries, iPhones, Androids and Palm Pres.The application using GPS or closet cell phone tower can determine about where you are. You then choose from a list of nearby locations or enter in a new location.Once checked in, a user can write a review of wherever they are.The review stays permanently connected to that particular location in the foursquare world.The application has led to the development of the term "Geo-social Networking" and boasts of over half a million users Worldwide.

Thus if you visit a hotel and you like the service you can notify your Foursquare friends, if you come across a major sale taking place and you want to notify your friends and leave directions,Foursquare will do that for you. As you visit more places you start to earn points or badges for the places you check-in. This adds an interesting gaming element to the network, which has proven very popular on social sites like Facebook. Even better than collecting badges is the chance to become the “mayor” of a location. You are named “mayor” of a location if you are the person who has checked-in the most and a lot of locations are starting to offer special deals to the “mayor” so they keep promoting them.

Will Foursquare prove popular in Africa ? Of course but unfortunately most people in the continent dont find Twitter to be so relevant. Foursquare is about to change that because of its potential and the reward effect.For example in Nairobi one can imagine the perks a famous restaurant such as the Carnivore Restaurant would love to give for its most frequent Foursquare visitor i.e "Mayor".In effect they will be receiving free social media advertising by genuine customers.For now as i learn the application i extent the invitation to my twitter buddies in Kenya please join me up at FOURSQUARE  and lets create our virtual cities !

Google Phone Nexus Official Release

Google has begun 2010 with a release of its Google Phone Nexus One- a phone(Goophone) completely powered by the free source Android Mobile Technology Platform 2.1 , I love its cool look!The 5 Megapixel camera phone has  a capacity of :

• 512MB Flash
• 512MB Random Access Memory(RAM)
• 4 GB Micro SD Card expandable to 32 GB(for the complete specs please visit the official site link)

The phone is generating a lot of online buzz for good reason,  users are eager to find out what the price is , well, without a service plan the phone is expected to cost US Dollars $ 529 , im at the Google Cashout store to check out the prices though  am not certain they are shipping the  Google Phone Nexus One to Kenya

Google Adsense Now Paying in Kenyan Shillings

Kenyan bloggers and website owners are now pleased to note that they can receive their Google Adsense earnings in Kenyan Shillings. This was not the case previously and many website owners had dificulty banking the foreign currency(Dollar or Euros) cheques with their local banks, Further ,payment would be delayed for upto 21 working days from the date of receipt with Banks charging commisions on the cheques.

So are you a web publisher, sign up to Google Adsense and customize your earnings to Kenyan Shillings or any other local currency that would be most appropriate to your situation.Yes it is very much possible to earn money online if you have good content and commitment(the two C's) .

Yahoo Email Slows Browser?

At first i thought its my Pentium 4 computer's memory that had a problem so i added a further 1GB RAM memory .But still my Mozilla firefox version 3.5.2 browser seems to hang considerably if i open yahoo mail in one tab. The rich text media seems to take a whole lot of time before the Yahoo E mail page in-box loads.Could it be that the new yahoo email page interface just takes more than necessary bandwidth? Perhaps its the presence of too much java script/dynamic ads? I.T gurus whats your take on it?

Well i have been on yahoo for the last 11 years ... i am definitely an old timer. But when it comes to a service that allows you to send or retrieve mail and or attachments faster i would recommend Google's gmail. Yahoo has the best mail organizations option , latest news update widget ..etc but when it comes to loading i am dismayed. Well it could be my internet service provider but still i have come to note other sites load faster! And this has been the case now for the last three month or so!

So has yahoo mail been configured in such a way that it slows down browsers? Im yet to find out , with your input i will be able to know whats the hitch!

Google New Chrome Operating System

Google has just announced their latest new major initiative: an open-source operating system dubbed Google Chrome OS. The press release on the official Google blog reads in part:

"Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks. Later this year we will open-source its code, and netbooks running Google Chrome OS will be available for consumers in the second half of 2010. Because we're already talking to partners about the project, and we'll soon be working with the open source community, we wanted to share our vision now so everyone understands what we are trying to achieve. Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS. We're designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the web in a few seconds. The user interface is minimal to stay out of your way, and most of the user experience takes place on the web. And as we did for the Google Chrome browser, we are going back to the basics and completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don't have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates. It should just work. Google Chrome OS will run on both x86 as well as ARM chips and we are working with multiple OEMs to bring a number of netbooks to market next year. The software architecture is simple — Google Chrome running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel. For application developers, the web is the platform. All web-based applications will automatically work and new applications can be written using your favorite web technologies. And of course, these apps will run not only on Google Chrome OS, but on any standards-based browser on Windows, Mac and Linux thereby giving developers the largest user base of any platform. Google Chrome OS is a new project, separate from Android. Android was designed from the beginning to work across a variety of devices from phones to set-top boxes to netbooks. Google Chrome OS is being created for people who spend most of their time on the web, and is being designed to power computers ranging from small netbooks to full-size desktop systems. While there are areas where Google Chrome OS and Android overlap, we believe choice will drive innovation for the benefit of everyone, including Google. We hear a lot from our users and their message is clear — computers need to get better. People want to get to their email instantly, without wasting time waiting for their computers to boot and browsers to start up. They want their computers to always run as fast as when they first bought them. They want their data to be accessible to them wherever they are and not have to worry about losing their computer or forgetting to back up files. Even more importantly, they don't want to spend hours configuring their computers to work with every new piece of hardware, or have to worry about constant software updates. And any time our users have a better computing experience, Google benefits as well by having happier users who are more likely to spend time on the Internet. We have a lot of work to do, and we're definitely going to need a lot of help from the open source community to accomplish this vision. We're excited for what's to come and we hope you are too. Stay tuned for more updates in the fall and have a great summer"

That is indeed exciting news and Microsoft better watch out Google has just proved its here to stay and for the long run.I believe the new Google Chrome OS is a marvelous addition to Google's range of innovative products.

Twoogle:Search Twitter and Google Simultaneously

The web is morphing at a tremendous speed, i have just come across a site that seems to be a crossbreed of the worlds two most prominent search giants Twitter & Google! the site is Twoogle @Twoogle.Browsys.com


The Twoogle website allows users to search twitter and google simultaneously. The site will be readily visited by the millions of online users who are eager to find the developing trends of concerns over social media.

Twoogle is a start up that will attract the attention of the big I.T. and Search engine firms for its ability to aggregate the Worlds two most used search portals into one interface. So take your time and visit Twoogle for the most relevant and recent searches including the latest on the Worlds trending topics,breaking news, etc.

Twoogle is engineered by Browsys.com a website which was created as a free service to make web navigation easier and faster, by providing services that links and/or directly query online content providers and/or search engines not owned or controlled by them,.Browsys also offer online virtual folders.

Sponsored Conversations

Gladiatus Hero Of Rome Game in Swahili

There's a wonderful google advert running on my site today entitled Gladiatus Hero of Rome Game inviting my site visitors to join up at the site: http://www.gladiatus.co.ke. What is interesting about it is that if you click up on the advert you will be directed to the role playing game site and all the instructions on how to play the game will be written in swahili. The fact im writting about is that this is a first for me to click on a google advert that will lead you to a local domain name for a game site whose language of instruction is swahili.The Gladiatus Hero of Rome role playing game seems to be interesting and is about going through the Judean wilderness.

So if the advert is showing please click through on the Google advert and enjoy the pleasure !

Google Ad Sense Tips: HomeTips.Com Website

I found the following information to be quite useful for publishers/bloggers, website owners desiring to maximize or improve on their Ad Sense earnings. The links are actually official information and can be found on the official ad sense help home page.

First and fore most to maimize on revenue its recommendable that one learns from the masters who are actually raking thousands of dollars just from ad sense alone. I have in mind the website hometips.com .The site has only two horizontal ad units.One after the posts and one on the sides, unlike my blog(shame on me) there is no feeling of clutter! The ad units are simple and relevant to the content of the page!Anothe site worth looking at is Univison.com....the ad sense success story review page has some interesting info on the site.The site has atraffic of around 85,000 visits a day.The traffic is key to its success amd the site has optimized on its Google Ads search campaign!If you hve time ge to read the ad sense succes stories and get useful tips, visit the sites and learn something from their ad display. I believe all of us can benefit from this if we employ effort, maximize on contextual based ads and ad units and keep our online readers satisfied!I have played around with my ad sense ads and my earnings have improved tremendously over the last four months as compared to the two years i have been publishing this blog.And i did not pay anyone for that!You too can blogtimize (if you are a blogger or webmaster)your ads with a little effort on your part.

Other Google tips include:

1. Placement: Display your ad units where repeat users will notice them
2. Formats: Adapt your page design for multiple ad units and limited space.

Twitter Search for Conversation

Twitter is dabbling with the idea of real-time search, which is a concept that should get Google worried atleast for the time being. The Twitter web conversation monitoring website has grown exponentially ( according to twitter blog they have acheived above 900% active user growth in just one year)and has now reached a critical mass level that can see it emerge as a new search engine giant but providing a new unique service that may see Google drooling!

Twitter search is now being hosted on its own sub domain at search.twitter.It seems more and more people are eager to know the latest conversation in the internet be it facebook, twitter etc and the fact that this social media platforms are accesible via mobile phones and other portable gadgets makes it the all more attractive! Interestingly twitter has only 29 employees but i am certain this is bound to change soon.Internet use is morphing at a tremendous rate , it seems man & woman is more pre-occupied with telling whats new or learning about it, blogs, social networks, celebrity gossip,chat and online conversations are the in thing and busineses are adapting to this new trend.In future candidates may just win an election based on their prominence in some of this social forums such as facebook-indeed exciting times lie ahead


Need business leads?

Official Google Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide Link

Many newbie bloggers desire to find genuine and easy to understand Search Engine optimization guides or information but often are faced with myriads of conflicting advice from experts or would be experts out to make a quickbuck from them! Its often frustrating for online newbies to get needed help that they deserve!But help is on the way- reliable help from the official Google Webmaster Blog.Therein one will find free webmaster resources and SEO guides that are bound to help ones blog/website to rank favourably in Googles search engine and page ranking system.From now on Google will continue to avail free SEO tips and will update the guide inorder to adequately inform webmasters on best practice tips.To downlaod the new official Google Search Engine Guide please vist the following Link. Google (Pdf)

Now thats information you can trust and the good thing :its absolutely free!Thanks Googs!For now downloading it is the problem if you have slow internet connection!

Google Labs-SMS Channel(India)

Google has launched another incredible service in India that is sure to become useful and catch up like wildfire to the rest of the World :the Google labs India SMS channel that enables one to get updates via 'sms' .It seems the information age is rapidly developing and expanding.The digital divide is being narrowed-having information s the in thing and barriers are being removed!

Data on the Go!

For quite sometime actually since the advent of the internet the computer has been seen as the primary tool for transfer and conveyance of information or data. But the nature of a computer makes it hardly economical to move around with in order to access information.While for a certainty laptops and PDA's have made it easier to access information/data on the go...nothing beats the mobile phone which must be embraced as the gadget and platform for technological advancement for the future!

The Google SMS channel is such a leap in the right direction.While the service has been conceptualized and currently is only available in India .It is only a matter of time before a roll out is adopted to the rest of the world!

SMS Channels

Users of the service in India are allowed (by default)to receive upto 10 update SMS per given day and can actually customize the service as to when they should receive the message!The service has a potential of also hosting paid advertisements which in future may be delivered with the SMS.I'm sure not so many consumers will be pleased by such a venture but again costs for the service must be borne by someone and advertisement on the go may just be it!

Customized Channels

A feature of the Google SMS channel that perhaps impresses me is that users can create their own customized channels and update their subscribers on specific topics such as jokes, financial information, breaking news, job opportunities, search engine optimization,blog updates... etc. And that this information will be readily available to subscribers without necessarily having access to the internet or a deesktop/laptop computers!The potential for Google sms is mind boggling.Im sure Lary Page and Sergey Brin will capitalize on this new bandwagon as at presen worldwide we have more cellphone users and woners than we have persons with access to the traditional desktop/laptop computers.

At present, Google allows publishers to create individual channels and publish content that other users can subscribe to after registering with valid mobile numbers.The service also supports RSS feeds . Google expects non-governmental organizations (NGOs), corporates , schools among others take advantage of this service by creating user groups that can be updated via SMS for communication and regular updates.

The catch

While the service is something to be embraced users will need to be wary of getting unwanted spam messages.Yap there is always a downturn in every technology!


On a light touch, the ingenious local project Ushahidi graced a local newspaper(Tuesday's 24 October 2008 Daily Nation) 10 months after the fact way much later after the website has become prominent and featured on leading international news sites ! how ironical


Accor Hotels 3-Day Super Sale Asia Pacific

Google Chrome Browser 2008

The web is much abuzz with Google's Latest Launch the new suprise open source smart browser from Google(still in Beta stage) that makes surfing the web faster, much safer and easierdubbed Google Chrome. You can download the new browser at http://www.google.com/chrome

The new browser is set to give Mozilla Firefox version 3.1 a run for its money! Google chrome is a javascript(i hope ,will now be no longer irrelevant to googles algorithm) V8 such engine with interesting capacities to support various web applications that were not in existence when browsers were first built , including but not limited to:

• Just like the Google Mobile Android application, Google Chrome is based on, built from the ground up with, open source application framework webkit ; it is intended to be next-generation built for handling Web applications rather than Web pages. It includes Google Gears built-in.
• Each browser tab gets its own process rather than tabs sharing processes .This will resolve the multiple browser freeze or crash issue and make browsing faster.The rationale behind it is the same as that found in modern operating systems process isolation systems.
  
• Each tab has its own URL box, effectively making each tab a browser window
• Clickingon the Star icon on browser tab bookmarks the site automatically
  
• No about:blank pages. The Chrome's defaults to a page featuring the four most used search engines and the user’s nine most visited Web pages.
• Similar to IE 8, Chrome has an “Incognito” mode to erase browser history when the browser is closed—something Firefox 3 didn’t include.
• Chrome can be customized so that the toolbar and URL box are hidden and only the webpage is shown on the screen.
• Chrome features browser extensions allowing it to make hybrid apps similar to Adobe AIR
• An Opera-like dashboard start page and auto-completion.
• On the security front, Google Chrome detects that the website you're trying to access will securely transmit data using SSL the background color of the address bar changes to gold & also the 'https' in the URL appears in green for websites with SSL-secured connections established.
• Chrome sandboxes Webpages, preventing drive-by downloads and installations. It continuously makes contact with Google to update a list of known malware sites in order to warn the user.

For a certainty Google is dead serious as indicated in their latest launch about the distribution systems as they are about operating systems and software applications.For now they are fixing bugs to ensure that when the browser is used the experience will be worthwhile for many years to come!

NB:I JUST TRIED IT OUT AND LOVED IT! The websites look much cooler ,load much faster..theres more to see and for someone like me who uses Entrecard, there is no freezing because of opening many tabs.Google we appreciate your new latest browser!

CAUTION THOUGH:Germans are being discouraged by their security agencies not to use Google Chrome because it indexes and collects vital information about the user,now thats a downturn

Emerging Mobile Technology Opportunities

I was pleasantly surprised this morning to come across an email from an event organizer for Microsoft inviting me to attend a conference that was to be held at the Stanley Hotel Yesterday unfortunately i read it a day late!next is an invitation by Ecomm (Emerging Communications Conference)to consider attending their second Emerging Communications conference (eComm), which will be held on March 3-5, 2009 at the Computer History Museum, Mountain View USA.

The invitation follows a number of articles that i have written nine about the ICT industry in Kenya and Africa generally and have been featured in various websites.It is insightful to note that the mobile ICT industry is the sector to watch in this communication and technology era. Consider the following facts why all investors should gear their thoughts towards this area:

• There is an estimated 3.5 billion mobile phones worldwide as compared to 1.5 billion Television sets,1.2 billion Personal Computers....talk about market reach.With Apple I-phone and Google Android open software platforms ,the mobile industry is about to be rilled in a way not seen before.The barriers to innovation are slowly being lifted and this has manifested itself in various mashups.With goophone soon to be launched,this is a space to watch!
  
• Mobile phones and other gadgets of such nature are relatively cheap,accessible, easy to handle,ship and transport in bulk,relatively easy to operate.They are highly interactive(interoperability) without need for cabling and other things of the sort!
• Emerging new technologies to wit: VoIP3G, WiMAX, LTE, WiFi mesh, 4G, UWB, SDR and wireless grid technologies represent massive opportunities for the multi - trillion dollar telecommunications industry.

While most certainly im unable to enumerate in details all the benefits and opportunities that emerging technologies portend for the mobile telecommunication industry in this short post most certainly i believe the mobile phone sector is Africa's next flagship to neo-development !The Governments need to enhance the infrastructure to tap this new developments,provide investor incentives and at the same time encourage more of their Citizenry to become and or remain relevant and technological savvy if indeed Africa is to benefit.

The Ecomm Conference 2009 ofers the attendees an opportunity to continue re-thinking and re startegizing on how to enhance and tap into the opportunities that emerging global communications industry continues to offer.

Last years sponsors featured tech giants including but not limited to the following:



The list actually features who is who in the industry and all the major tech companies: i.e Gogle, Yahoo,vodafone,Motorolla,Netflix etc were adequately represented! I just wish the local guys could make a habit of convening together to startegize, re- think, share ideas, encourage start ups and showcase their innovation with the general public !...Kenya Data Networks, Ushahidi, Safaricom,Zain Kenya Gogle Kenya, Econet Wireless,Telkom Kenya,Yahoo, Microsoft East Africa,Africa Online, Wananchi online etc....hope you guys get the drift. The silence among local players is almost deafening!




Off the cuff i take this opportunity to congratulate Pamoja Media for launching an African Online Ad Network that will serve as the link between advertisers and webmaster/publishers in Africa and ensuring that more local(African) content adverts are displayed on African Websites whle providing Advertisers an easy interface platform to the publishers. But Joshua lets be real on the qualifying factor for African website affiliates for your site,just thinking how many African websites out there get more than 100,000 website visits a month from locals?I hardly think so. Many boast about such number of unique new visits but the truth isnt really so! At the same time most African websites tend to have more visits from foreign Countries (mine is evidence of this fact see the geocounter)away from the conteninent! Hence visits may not just be the basis but local popularity,site quality and geographic content should be a key indicator!You just will have to manually review the sites or come up with an ingenous algorithm for that task.
Kudos for local startups!

Googles Latest Invention;KNOL

From blogger google has come up with a new online platform to share information called Knols, will these attract massive new users as blogs have always been?Thats left to be seen however i came to know of this new program through an interesting and exciting article on the official Google's blog entitled "Encouraging People To Contibute Knowledge "The article in part provides:

The web contains an enormous amount of information, and Google has helped to make that information more easily accessible by providing pretty good search facilities. But not everything is written nor is everything well organized to make it easily discoverable. There are millions of people who possess useful knowledge that they would love to share, and there are billions of people who can benefit from it. We believe that many do not share that knowledge today simply because it is not easy enough to do that. The challenge posed to us by Larry, Sergey and Eric was to find a way to help people share their knowledge. This is our main goal.

Earlier this week, we started inviting a selected group of people to try a new, free tool that we are calling "knol", which stands for a unit of knowledge. Our goal is to encourage people who know a particular subject to write an authoritative article about it. The tool is still in development and this is just the first phase of testing. For now, using it is by invitation only. But we wanted to share with everyone the basic premises and goals behind this project.

The key idea behind the knol project is to highlight authors. Books have authors' names right on the cover, news articles have bylines, scientific articles always have authors -- but somehow the web evolved without a strong standard to keep authors names highlighted. We believe that knowing who wrote what will significantly help users make better use of web content. At the heart, a knol is just a web page; we use the word "knol" as the name of the project and as an instance of an article interchangeably. It is well-organized, nicely presented, and has a distinct look and feel, but it is still just a web page. Google will provide easy-to-use tools for writing, editing, and so on, and it will provide free hosting of the content. Writers only need to write; we'll do the rest.

Now that is some interesting news.But what will make knol different and more useful than blogger? The article above highlights that Google's intent is to highlight authors at the same time that Google seeks to encourage the development of strong ethical standards on online writing especially using the knol project(could this be some form of censorship of content!)

I have just viewed a couple of the knols and they range on interesting topics such as:

• How to Backpack by Ryan Moulton
  
• Solutions to toilet clogging
• Cosmetic Surgery
• Entrepreneurship 101 etc

There are endless topics that one can write on like how to make the most efficient and classic makaa(swahili for charcoal etc) and claim that they are an expert on that field!The official Knol page has a tutorial to guide users on how to maintain objectivity and write a good Knol.The good Blogger: A Nairobian's Perspective ! - Create Postpart is that one can generate revenue with adsense on ones own knol!So here i am off to write Africa's first knol,question is on what am i an authority??? any suggestions dear readers???

Is Google Algorithm Relevant to African Content

This post is in the way of a question for good reason and i hope Google Africa will have an answer to it!I write around four blogs, but siku-moja is my main blog, the number of backlinks to this blog the last time i checked was around 170, im sure it has grown!This blog is featured and has been featured in various forum's relevant to the African Diaspora i.e:

• Blog Africa
• Global Voices online
• Afrora
• Kenyaunlimited
• A post in Mashada
• Kenyaimagine
• World bank Blog etc...
  

the list is exhaustive yet its page ranking indicating its relevancy dropped from 4 to 3 and now two.I was left wondering, well i have enrolled to Google Webmaster and closely follow the webmaster guidelines including assigning the "rel="no follow"" attribute to outgoing links.I continue to avoid black listed Directories.I further disclose any posts that are sponsored by advertisers.I have 77 subscribers to my feed.The site is listed in various reputable human edited directories, one would think that with this background this site would we well ranked.The truth is that my dormant blogs have better page ranking than this blog!

Perhaps that just my case, so i decided to visit some of the authoritative A-list blog sites in Kenya to see how my fellow bloggers are ranked and this is what i found( i am of the opinion that the Google algorithm is not authoritative in Africa and rates sites in a manner that does not capture "the African Spirit" or experience online:

1. Bankelele Page Rank 2
   
2. Al Kags 5
3. Afro Musing 5
4. hapa Kenya 3
5. Jikomboe 6
6. Gathara's World 4
7. Wanjiku Unlimited 0
8. Kenyan Pundit 6
9. Mentalacrobatics 5
   
10. Kikuyu Moja's Realm 4

Some of this bloggers are the best in Kenya , have been around for quite some time, write quality posts and are leaders in their niche.I believe its absurd to rank them using the same algorithm that Google will use for blogs in America or the rest of the world.For one i admire Bankelele and his financial blog and believe he more than anything deserves a better page rank.What is relevant and authoritative in Africa may not be perceived the same way in the west.I understand that sometimes google uses human editors /website assesors or raters to be able to rank websites(sometime back i actually received an invitation by a company named Lionbridge UK to manually assess somewebsites and was required to pass a test before being enrolled,though Google denies outsourcing this task).

Its time we advocated for google to rank African websites according to their relevancy in Africa and how the same is perceived locally.I know that is quite a task but getting their current algorithm was indeed a task but they were succesful,i therefore believe such a move is within their means.As they continue to open more offices in Africa , i hope they will also continue to customize the African experience online!

To Have or Not To Have A Disclosure Policy

I have just gone across a number of websites with a Disclosure Policy!Being the ardent blogger i am i decided to incorporate one in my About section of the blog only to immediately notice vide my Firefox Custom Google Toolbar -page rank check up badge that my pagerank had declined to zero,I immediately decided to remove the Disclosure Policy badge and after sometime my page rank resumed to 2!

My page rank had recently declined from four to three to zero and now two again due to my being misinformed adding links from banned directories etc.But i have become wise now.I really dont want to lose my page ranking because i am a quality blogger and i want more and more people to avail themselves this rich source of information.At the same time i,ve taken it upon myself to advice ,tip and share information with other notable African Bloggers.As it stands i,ve googled Disclosure Policy and the websites with a Disclosure policy especially from the website www.disclosurepolicy.org are not ranking well!Could it be because of Google's adsense program or just that the google bots tend to dislike that kind of content ,on the other hand what could be the reason?I stand to be corrected and invite you to do a search on Disclosure Policy then check the ranking of the pages, if you have a Google Tool bar just add the page rank badge and each site you open the page rank will be automatically displayed!For now the argument remains should you or should you not have a disclosure policy if you are a blogger?