Submit your Feed to multiple sites

My weekend project - a Feed Submission Service for RSS feeds.

What does it do?
Submit your RSS, XML, RDF, etc. feed to 15 feed aggregates including Daypop, Technorati, Google and Yahoo Search.

What do I have to do?
Just enter your feed URL and email address and hit submit.

This application lets you add your Feed to currently 15 RSS aggregators as well as Google and Yahoo Search.

Just enter your Feed URL and email address. The script will do the rest and give you success/error messages for every site.

Disclaimer:
I wrote this in a few hours, so please do not look at it as a full blown RSS submission machine.
From what I can tell, it gets the job done.
Please use at your own risk - no garantees :-)

And … spread the word ;-)
If you have comments email them to thomask[at]gmail.com


1. Enter your URL and Email:
 
Feed URL:
(rss,xml,rdf,..)
Email:
(for confirmation)


2. Override Default Search Engines: (optional)
 


The default engines are marked with a *

Windows users hold down CTRL while clicking to select multiple.
Mac users hold down Apple key while clicking to select multiple.


3. Receive Confirmation via Email: (optional)
 
Send me a confirmation email message.


 

Add your site here:
If you accept feeds, please let me know and I can add you to the list. Please email me at thomask[at]gmail.com

January 1, 2005 | Filed Under Thoughts |  

Where Google does not go …

Google is the undisputed queen of searchengies. Froogle, Google’s product searchengine, is going where Google has not in the past - multi-field search.
There is also a new bread of websites and searchengine search emerging that go into specialized searches such as Sidestep for flights and London Property Watch for real estate in London.
These sites take advantage of fast changing and complicated site structures.

October 1, 2004 | Filed Under Thoughts |  

Search engine Plug-in for Movable Type

I noticed that most MT users use the default page names for their archives.

Examples:
Travelocity is a Joke -
http://www.thoughtsonthings.com/mt/archives/000250.html
Enterpise software sucks - http://www.davidgalbraith.org/archives/000561.html#000561
Panasonic’s WiFi phone - http://www.gizmodo.com/archives/011477.php

There is a useful function in MT that makes the filename the name of your entry:
“Domain Hell” - Thoughts on Expired Domains - http://www.thomaskorte.com/archives/domain_hell_thoughts_on_expired_domains.html#000042

Why do you want to do this?
Searchengines, and Google in particular, like keywords in the URL.
Adding this to your configuration will likely increase the traffic you get from searchengines.

How do you do it?
Very simple, just add this line in Blog Config >> Configuration >> Individual Archives:
<$MTEntryTitle dirify="1"$>.html
It will replace the default number URL with the name of your entry and ‘_’ for spaces like this one http://www.thomaskorte.com/archives/domain_hell_thoughts_on_expired_domains.html#000042

Another small change that will improve your search engine traffic is to add
to Templates >> Individual Entry Archive
This will add your entry title to the titel tag, the (<$MTBlogName$>) is your blog’s name - that is optional.

August 1, 2004 | Filed Under Thoughts |  

Metrosexual …. what?

It’s been a while that I have heard a good ’stereotype-expression’. Today a friend of mine told someone (with a very British accent) “You look so metrosexual” ………….. pause - metrosexual, what is that, I know heterosexual, bi-sexual, homosexual, but not mertosexual ……….. .
“Metro-what?” I heard another friend say.
Turns out that most people have heard this expression - at least the Brits.
It also turns out that it was “Word of the Year ‘03”

So, meterosexual - what is it?
Well, find out if you are a Metrosexual; take the ‘Am I a Metrosexual Test‘.

According to Salon, David Beckham is the ultimate metrosexual.
Urbandirectory has some 60 definitions of meterosexual, the highest scored is:

Metrosexual: (noun) Of or pertaining to a straight, urban male who is eager to embrace and even show off his feminine side, especially when it comes to expensive haircuts, designer suits, and $40 face cream.
-From Netscape Celebrity

The kind of guy who paints his nails, wears flip-flops, owns a lot of shoes, takes an hour to do their hair etc. but is not really gay.

Metrosecual is probably a term that has been invented by the magazine publishing industry - the new style men’s mags like FHM, Stuff, The Face and Esquire after calling someone GQ started to have the Versace-gay connotation with it - stylish, beautiful, body-shaved very Miami-like. [source]

In other words, it is all the things women like about a certain type of gay men - well dressed, beautiful, comfortable with their feminine side, interested in culture, … - BUT they can have the metrosexual, but not the homosexual.

I wonder if the term will catch on - Google currently counts metrosexual in 70,200 search results.

More resources:
AskMen
MSN - WebMD
Banana Republic
Another quiz

January 25, 2004 | Filed Under Thoughts |  

The perfect spam filter

Spam is a problem we are all too familiar with. I have stopped using my primary email account (thomas @ korte . de) some time ago - it was simply to much to take. My Yahoo Mail was still very spam-free - and that after using it for some 4 years already. Recently - probably since about 6 month - I noticed a dramatic increase in spam. And I am not talking about the sneaky spam e.g. Subject: RE: your credit card was declined - I am talking about penis enlargement, viagra, and (surprise) porn - in any way and shape …. Spam that seems to be rather easily detected. I wonder if Yahoo or for that matter any web-based email provider has a real incentive to block spam. After all, the CPM based banner impression is served on any email.

This week things got worse. I enabled the Yahoo spam “”protection”". WHAT A MISTAKE. Yes, it does filter a lot of junk - BUT, it also filters about every personal email I get. My relationship was about to take a serious hit (not really, but the story reads much better like that) when I kept telling my girlfriend that she did not send me any emails: “Sorry, I did not get any emails from you in weeks - which email did you send it to? Can you cc my work email in the future …”. Well, to make a long story short - Yahoo filtered almost ALL my personal emails in the junk folder.

I really wonder about the engineers who developed this! How difficult is it to filter spam in a collaborative network like Yahoo, where thousands of people mark messages as spam. Here is what you do:
1. filter emails with offensive text - easy.
2. filter emails with identical text that is delivered to hundreds of people - easy, but it might include newsletters.
3. filer emails that are reported as spam by the human spam reporters - once 100 people marked it as spam, it probably is spam.
4. don’t filer emails from senders that I have opened and not marked as spam

Maybe I am missing something about the complexity of the problem??

Oh, one more
5. when in doubt, DO NOT filter emails - the price to pay is not justified. I’d rather delete some spam emails that made it through the filter than missing another email from my girlfriend; really from any friend.

Finally, if a Yahoo developer reads this:
STOP FILTERING ORKUT.COM EMAILS - I LIKE THEM (sorry, I had to yell that)

January 22, 2004 | Filed Under Thoughts |  

SmugMug - Promotional Coupon

I just signed up to Smugmug, a site started by the founder of fatbrain.com. It is dedicated to store photos and add services without the clutter that ofoto adds.
Look at it as the Google of digital photo storage. So far I am very impressed with their service.
You can setup a 7-day trial account and use this coupon code pgm0I44kkq0Ag to get a $5 discount of the $25 annual fee.

January 12, 2004 | Filed Under Thoughts |  

Online and Cyber Stalking - an Industry?

We have all heard about ‘googl-ing someone’. You look-up an old friend, teacher, or colleague. If you googled me you would get this result. You could get more fancy and add the city or the name of an employer ….

However, if you want to go beyond the usual, it seems to get a bit more tricky. What can you find out if the person you are about to go on a date with? Has he/she been married or better IS married? Is she/he really a doctor?
You get the idea.
There seems to be a whole industry that helps you to go a quick Online Stalking!
Within minutes of this thought, I found a dozen or more sites that promise “all the world’s information” just a click away. They seem to be all priced around $30 and are all very vague about what your really get:
Web-Detective, Net Vestigator, Cyber Detective, Complete Detective, Proinvstigator.

Does anyone have experience with any of them? I would be interested to know what you get for $30 in today’s connected world.
Something tells me that this is a big scam … maybe they just sell you information on how to search for someone on Google :-)

December 3, 2003 | Filed Under Thoughts |  

“Domain Hell” - Thoughts on Expired Domains

This weekend an incident got me to think about expired domains.
My girlfriend’s domain name all a sudden disappeared …. After some research and yelling at the hosting company, we realized that the domain had expired!!
Well, this triggered my interest in the matter.

How many companies loose their domain every day?

According to statistics at DeletedDomains.com over 700.000 domains were deleted in the past 60 days - 700.000!! I can imagine some are domains that have never been connected, but I am also sure that some of these are businesses that are not even aware of what’s happening to them…

The Problem:
1. “One year registration”: Most novice domain registrants register a domain for one year only. At the time that seems like long time. Also, considering the cost of ~$30/domain/year most people feel that they should start out “small”.
2. “ISP email address”: You have to have a valid email address to register a domain. Most people use an ISP email address such as AOL or Earthlink which they do not have access to one year later.
3. “Hosting companies and domain registrars”: Hosting companies like to offer “free domain registration” as a value added service. One should know that webhosting and domain registration are two separate things. If you switch webhosting companies, it might be difficult to re-gain control over your domain.
4. “Domain Sharks”: Your domain is worth money! There are ‘domain sharks’ registering any domain that expires, primarily for the ‘link value’ or the pages that are listed in searchengines.

The Solution or “How to smartly register a domain name”

1. Web Hosting: When choosing a webhosting company, ask for their nameserver and IP entry , they should give you two names and two IPs. Nameserver entries usually looks something like: ns1.hostingcompany.com.

2. Domain Hosting: Register a domain with a domain registration service. To do this you have to know the nameserver entry of your webhosting company. A list of these companies are listed below.

3. Domain Hosting Period: Register your domain name for a longer period. If you register your company’s name, why not register for 5 or 10 years? There are several companies who offer domain registration for less than $10 per year - take advantage of this.

4. Email Address: Register your domain name with an email account you will still have in 5 years. If you don’t have one register a free web-based email address like Hotmail or Yahoo Mail. You will get any notification and communication about your domain through this email account - check it frequently.

If everything else fails:
5. Domain Grabber: Setup a “domain grabber”: This is a service that monitors domains as they expire and “grabs” them before anyone else does.

More resources:
Sitepoint article: Help! I’ve Lost My Domain Name!

Domain registration services:
GoDaddy - ~$9/year
My choice: RegNic - ~$7.50/year
Google Search for cheap domain names

Domain Grabber services:
Snap Domains - ~$70/year
My choice: Pool.com - free to monitor, ~$60 if domain is successfully registered
GoDaddy Backorder - ~$20/year

Free email address services:
Hotmail
My choice: Yahoo Mail
Google search for free email account

Feel free to syndicate this article, as long as you include a link back to http://www.thomaskorte.com
Good luck with your domain names.

November 30, 2003 | Filed Under Thoughts |  

Blackjack Rules

I was looking for an easy explanation of the RULES OF BLACKJACK.
Here is an easy to print version in pdf - Blackjack Rules

October 19, 2003 | Filed Under Thoughts |  

Google Definitions

The launch of Google Definitions made me think about Glossaries and definitions on the web. There is an unbelievable amount of glossaries on the web! One that seems to come up frequently is Hyper Dictionary. One of my favorites is Urban Dirctionary - a project that lets you add terms in an effort to capture “urban language”. Another project worth mentioning is Uber Glossary the beta of a mini-searchengine which currently includes Business Definitions | Commerce Definitions | Employment Definitions | Finance Definitions | Internet Definitions | Medical Definitions | Tax Definitions.

What I find interesting is that none of these seem to we included in the Google Definitions “index”. Looking at the results of Google Definitions, it appears that it only includes sites that have long lists of definitions rather than one-page definitions. Something to keep in mind when creating glossaries with the hope of being included in the Google definitions.

October 3, 2003 | Filed Under Thoughts |  

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