Here is a list of our most read blog posts of 2008 according to Google Analytics. Just thought we would include them in case there was anything good you missed.
Is searching usually the first thing you do when you go online? If it is then Sputter may just be the homepage for you. Sputter is a site that allows you to search all the different sites that you want to search from just one page.
On the Sputter site there is a single search box and then a number of large buttons for different site searches. There are buttons for all the different Google searches, yahoo search, live search, Wikipedia search, youtube search, and much more. All you need to do is enter what you are looking for into the box and click the button of the search you want to use.
Sputter even gives you the option to customise the page by moving, deleting or, adding search buttons (but this requires registration).
If you would like to change your homepage to Sputter you can do this in Internet Explorer by going to Tools, Internet Options and changing the address in the Home page box. In Firefox go to Tools, Options, and then change the address.
Back in May we posted about how Vista was more secure than XP (Click here to see this post). Well according to Microsoft’s most recent Security Intelligence Report Vista is still out performing XP.
The report looked at exploits for both operating systems in the first half of 2008 and found Visa was more resilient to exploits than XP. The report also found that the malicious software infection rate for Vista SP1 was 48.8% less than that of XP SP3.
Microsoft E-learning is a self paced, online learning system for Microsoft products like Office. What’s great about the E-learning system is it allows you to learn just what you want to learn, how you want to learn it.
Within the E-learning portal you can move through the content in the order you want to, or alternatively just view the topics that interest you. Each topic includes different types of content such as text and graphics, animations you can watch, interactive activities, labs, and games relating to the content. So it suits many different learning styles.
We tried out the E-learning portal and here’s what we liked about it.
There’s a nice navigation overview at the beginning of the course, so using the E-learning portal really easy.
The different types of content mean you can choose to learn in the way that best suits you.
The Self Test feature allows you to access what you have learnt after each topic.
Each course has full text search capabilities to help you if you’re looking for something in particular.
You can add bookmarks at selected topics so you can easily return to them.
The Notes feature in the bottom right allows you to annotate topics as you go and then save the notes for later use.
All in all Microsoft E-learning seems like a really good way to learn how to use Office software. The only negative we could really find was that the animations can sometimes take a couple of minutes to load.
Subscribing to an E-learning course will allow you around 12 -18 months access to the course online (depending on the course), but you can also download modules of the course to study offline.
A collection of core training for an Office application e.g. Word 2007 will cost you around $118, but to purchase just one of the 6 courses within the collection will cost just $24.70.
To see the E-learning course catalogue click here, to view an online demo of how E-learning works click here.
Google has recently released a Search Engine Optimisation Starter Guide that covers a number of simple things you can do to help improve you ranking in Google search results.
This 22 page report covers improving title and description meta tags, URL structure, site navigation, content creation, anchor text, and more. It includes tips on best practices as well as pitfall to avoid.
To learn more about this guide, or to download it for yourself click here.
We are currently in the process of putting together our latest free information report ‘Things to think about before you move’.
We’ve helped move many of our customers over the years and so we have decided to put together this report to provide you with a general guide of what you need to consider, from at IT point of view, before you move.
This report will include what you need to consider while evaluating potential locations as well as a move checklist.
If you would like to pre-order a copy you can email us at info@lancom.co.nz.
Back in May we blogged about SkyDrive, Microsoft’s free online file storage (click here to see this post). Well now SkyDrive is even better because the storage limit has increased from 5GB to 25GB.
With SkyDrive you can: access your files from any computer with the internet, share folders of your choice with others, choose whether your shared files can just be read or edited too, and even create public folders so that anyone on the net can see them.
Today we sent out Christmas greetings to all our customers in the form of fruit mince pies. We hope you enjoy them. Merry Christmas from the team at LANcom.
Today Google Maps released the much anticipated Street View feature for New Zealand roads. Street View lets you explore Google Maps through photos taken at street level. You can now take virtual walks down New Zealand streets and see 360 degree imagery from any point.
Trade Me has already incorporated Street View into Trade Me Property so renters and buyers can easily check out houses and the streets they are on.
According to the site other uses for Street View could include: using street view images to enhance driving directions, previewing accommodation, familiarising yourself with a new city, and studying geography.
Here’s the Youtube video on how this feature works.
Google has a lot of great services. Besides Google search and Gmail here are 5 other great Google services that I use all the time.
Google Maps – The Google Maps service has a lot features which make it the best site to go to find a location and get directions. The search capabilities and directions are excellent, and you even have the ability to set a default location and plan multiple destination journeys. Click here to learn more (Update: Google Maps now has Street View imagery for New Zealand roads)
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Google Notebook – Google Notebook is a great way to quickly save and organise clips of information including text, images and links that you find while browsing the web without having to leave the page you’re on.
With the Google Notebook browser extension you can simply highlight content on the web, right click and select Note this (Google Notebook). Then you can organise your clips of information from the mini Google Notebook that appears at the bottom right of your screen or your Notebook page. Click here to learn more
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iGoogle - iGoogle allows you to personalise the Google homepage so you can see at a glance all the things your interested in on the net. The regular Google search box will always appear at the top of the page, but underneath you can add gadgets to display things like: the weather, a preview of your Gmail inbox, RSS feeds, a Wikipedia search box, or a currency converter. There are literally hundreds of gadgets to choose from. To learn more click here
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Google Analytics - Google Analytics is a great free way to track and analyse your website traffic. Google analytics can tell you what pages people are visiting, how long they spend on each page, how many of your visitors are new to the site or are returning, where they come from geographically, how they got to your site and much more. To learn more click here
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Google insights for search - Google insights for search allows you to analyse what people are searching on Google in a number of ways. You can: find out what people in your area are searching for most, choose a search term and see on a graph how many people are searching for that term over a period of time (see the trend), see on a map how search volume for a particular term differs geographically, and compare the search volume of different terms on a graph. To learn more click here
We are currently in the process of putting together our latest free information report ‘Things to think about before you move’.