As regular readers know, I have frequently attacked the U.S. wireless phone carriers for exerting near-total control by what phones, software and services American consumers can use on their networks. In fact, since 2005, I have dubbed the carriers “the Soviet ministries,” for inserting themselves within the producers of mobile hardware and software and the public who might want to use these products. My most recent essay on that topic, called “Free My Phone,” ran in The Wall Street Journal and here on Mossblog only last month. You can read it here.

So it’s only fair that I commend Verizon Wireless for its announcement that week that, starting in the second half of 2008, it will allow “any device” and “any application” to run on its cellphone network, without any restriction, or interference. The only requirement, Verizon says, will be that the devices–phones, computers, anything else–must meet a “very minimal set of technical requirements” to show that they can run on the Verizon network without damaging the network or other devices or services that run on it.

This new, open approach won’t replace Verizon’s current walled-garden system, with its heavy controls. It will exist alongside the current system, as a sort of parallel universe.

Still, that is potentially a huge step, a sign that perestroika has arrived among the Soviet ministries that rule the American cellphone industry. whether Verizon Wireless does what it is promising, it could be even more significant than Google’s plan for an open cellphone operating system and its creation of a coalition of companies to support it. The reason is that anyone, not just the companies belonging to a specific alliance or group, should be able to build a phone, a documents device, a software program or service, and run it on Verizon’s strong, fast, extensive network.

But, as the saying goes, “the satan is in the details.” And there are a couple of details of the company’s plan that could diminish the sweep and importance of its new commitment to openness.

First is the question of what Verizon means when it says a product must pass a sort of certification to run on the network. In a conference shout explaining the plan, Verizon officials insisted that the evaluating and certification process would be much simpler and less onerous than the hoops companies must now jump through to get onto its network. They plus promised the certification process would be “relatively short” and that the fees for certification would be “surprisingly fair.”

But until we learn the details next year, we won’t know whether the certification process will be a mere technical formality, or a barrier to entry.

Even more worrisome is another issue: user pricing. Verizon officials made clear that, considering they won’t be able any longer to limit the types of devices and applications that will run on their network, they will be applying “usage-based” input pricing. While they said that pricing would be “competitive,” any system that charges by the kilobyte or megabyte could be a real deterrent to the blossoming of the wireless World Wide Web that Verizon’s open plan promises.

To be certain, Verizon has real concerns here. The bandwidth available on the cellphone networks is much more limited than that on landline networks. whether somebody starts running Web TV networks, or Web servers, or massive online games by the Verizon network, it could put a serious strain on the system.

But there’s a difference within setting higher fees for truly unusually high usage and erecting a payment system where everyone pays by the byte for even simple, common tasks like mail, Web browsing, casual gaming, instant messaging, or simple video or audio streaming.

Taken to its extreme, that kind of metering could–intentionally or unintentionally–kill off the kind of innovation Verizon Wireless says it wants to energize. That’s considering the kind of innovative devices, software and services citizens are hungering for aren’t about making better voice calls. They’re about using the World Wide Web, consuming those bytes that Verizon wants to meter.

So, let’s give credit where credit is due, but let’s watch how those details play out in the coming months. Verizon Wireless should be praised for giving up some of the control that was stifling wireless innovation in America, in my opinion at least. But, just how praiseworthy the move will be depends on some things we don’t know yet.

Orginal post by Walt Mossberg

“What was your biggest ‘blogging’ mistake ?” – put that question to anyone who has a blog hosted on Blogger and you’ll nearly get a unanimous reply – they wish they had started on a personal web domain (like myblog.com) instead of sub-domains like blogspot.com or wordpress.com.

I too made that mistake when I launched Digital Inspiration on labnol.blogspot.com some three years ago. When that blog started getting some attention, I considered moving to self-hosted WordPress several times but the fear of losing search traffic, Google PageRank and RSS subscribers would hold me back.

But that year, I tried a little different approach and it worked – now Digital Inspiration is located at www.labnol.org and there’s no dip in search rankings, organic site traffic and the RSS subscriber count. Here’s that very secret recipe explained in 10 easy steps:

Step 1: Registered a web domain www.labnol.org through Google Apps – the advantages were private domain registration, free e mail powered by Gmail and some very decent hosting space through Google Pages.

Step 2: Created an About Me page, uploaded it to Google Pages (root directory) and modified my Blogger template to link to that page instead of the the default blogger.com profile page.

Step 3: Created a new site search page powered by Google Custom Search Engine and uploaded it to Google Page Creator again. You’ll know the advantage in the next step.

Step 4: next I added MyBlogLog tracking cipher to all pages of my blogspot blog. that really helped in giving some more Google Juice to the “still young” labnol.org domain. Here’s why:

When folks come to your blog, they are very interested in reading your profile page and they plus search your blog archives. Since my profile page and site search was both located on labnol.org, they started appearing under “Hot Clicks in My Communities” section of MyBlogLog members who had joined the the DI community.

Google bot indexes MyBlogLog pages and therefore, just those two hyperlinks helped bring lot of Google Juice for the my new site which was still very much a “baby”.

Step 5: In just a couple of months, the Google page rank of that new site was 6. I next signed up with DreamHost for web hosting since Google Pages would only offer limited bandwidth.

Step 6: I launched a couple of new project like AdSense Sandbox, ASCII Art and India Blogs that were very well received in the blogging community – that helped in improving the trust level of the new domain among search engines and avoiding the Google SandBox Effect.

Step 7: While most of my RSS subscribes were using the new FeedBurner feed, the default Blogger XML feed too had some subscriptions. Luckily, Google introduced Feed Redirect service that year and that brought all my RSS subscribers on the same FeedBurner platform [faq].

Step 8: It was now duration to install the WordPress package on www.labnol.org. thereupon I created a new WordPress Theme from scratch that was an exact replica of my existing Blogger Template – the site width, AdSense placement, CSS formatting, header images, and everything else looked just like a mirror copy.

Step 9: Finally, I started writing new blog posts on the labnol.org domain and modified the FeedBurner feed to point to the new WordPress feed. So that shift from Blogger to WordPress was completely transparent for existing RSS subscribers.

Step 10: I manually update the front page of my blogspot website each date there’s a new post on labnol.org so that regular visitors who come via bookmarks don’t miss anything.

Other less interesting details and experiences:

1. I was worried that considering of the new website, my entire Google explanation could fall a victim of AdSense Smart Pricing. Fortunately, that never happened.

2. The traffic on old blogspot site is around 45k page views per day while the new labnol.org site get around 10k hits per day – I think that is fairly decent considering the amount of subject matter and age of the new website.

3. After moving to WordPress, my blog posts get lot of traffic from StumbleUpon and Digg which is surprising.

4. The growth in the number of RSS subscribers has accelerated after moving from Blogger to WordPress. Probably that “blogspot” term in the URL was a stumbling factor and manufacture a site look less professional.

5. The site definitely gets more attention from advertisers on BlogAds and Adify – TechDispenser & Washington Post BlogRoll program.

6. I had to print a new set of business cards that do not say blogspot anymore.

7. The new site plus helps in bringing traffic to the older blogspot blog considering both share a common search engine.

8: All the old stories still reside on blogspot and I have no plans of moving them to WordPress through Blogger Importer – reason being Google Juice.

Should you have any questions or suggestion, please add them in the comments. Thanks.

Original post by Amit

Original post by GooglePR

I still construct out from citizens who get confused by solicitations in the mail. Here’s an example one:

At first glance, that semi-official looking letter seems to require bill payment for some sort of “annual website search engine listing.” But whether you read the fine print at the bottom, you’ll see:

that is not a bill. that is a solicitation. You are under no obligation to pay the amount stated above unless you accept that offer.

In other words, feel free to throw that letter in the trash. whether you want to submit a url to Google, there are at least a couple ways to do it, for free:

- Google offers a free “add url” form where you can submit your domain name.
- You can prepare a Sitemap (a list of urls for your site) and submit it for free as well. Start here. There’s a lot of other free, useful tools from Google there too.

When you get a letter like that in the mail, whether it’s about your web site or your domain name, read the fine print carefully.

Original post by Matt Cutts

BANGALORE, India — November 29, 2007 –AMD (NYSE: AMD), a leading global provider of innovative processing solutions in the computing, graphics and consumer electronics markets, today announced the opening of a new silicon design and platform research and development (R&D) facility in Bangalore.

Orginal post by Steve

I’ve taken the decision to get a new Mac!

With the amount of video editing I do (but more importantly, the amount of video encoding I do), I’ve reached the point where I need to seriously beef up my processor ability. So the obvious choice for me is the Mac Pro.

The only problem is that the current Mac Pro line is overdue for a revamp and I just know that whether I order one today, the new machines will be released tomorrow!

It’s no secret that Apple are working on a processor change for the Mac Pro using the new Intel “Penryn” chips – (via Appleinsider and Engadget).

The latest news from Yahoo indicates that Xcode (Apples software developement tools) have been upgraded to support the Penryn processor. A certain sign of the imminent release of new Mac Pros.

So some questions…

Will the new Mac Pros be launched at Macworld 2008? – I’ve an inkling that Apple won’t wait for Macworld. As can be seen from last years Macworld, the January event is all about consumer products not pro level Macs. I think the new Mac pro will be launched before Xmas quietly and without fanfare, just like the last few revs of the MacBook and MacBook Pros.

Will they change the case design? – Probably not, but soon after again, I really don’t care! It’s going under the desk anyway and to be honest, the current aluminum industrial design is just fine.

So fingers crossed the new Mac Pros will be out any day now and the supply won’t be constrained by the availability of the new processors.

So what will be announced at Macworld….

Let the rumours start!

Technorati Tags:
Apple, Mac, Macworld 2008

Original post by Don

Plaxo has always been about keeping you connected with the public you know – across an ever-expanding range of tools and services. The goal is to let you have complete access to your address book and calendar everywhere you might need them.

Today, we get a little bit closer to that goal with the release of Plaxo for Windows Mobile. that is a lightweight client that automatically syncs your Windows Mobile Smartphone or PocketPC with your Plaxo address book and calendar — by the air. (You can sync in cradled mode too.)

This means that whether someone schedules a meeting for you in Outlook and your Outlook is synced with Plaxo, that meeting can automatically travel by the air to your phone. No cable needed. Added a new contact in Gmail or Yahoo? That contact will now effortlessly seem on your Windows Mobile phone. Without typing on those little keys.

( Download it now)

Plaxo for Windows Mobile is a Premium sync endpoint, meaning that you’ll need to be a subscriber to Plaxo Premium to sync your Windows Mobile phone with the service. (Not a member? Try it free for 30 days.)

Orginal post by hong