How to and why use wordpress
As you know wordpress itself is a blogging platform. Around the wordpress has got millions of users and ethusiastis for its self hosted as well as the .com version. In todays world even though wordpress is the most the used blogging platform, wordpress has got competitors in the field. But wordpress is a free to use and eaisly customizable blogging platform. In this blog post i am going talk about some of the important features of wordpress both as a blogging platform as well as a content management tool.
First of all i would like to say that wordpress is free and easy to use. This open source blogging platform was launched in the blogging arena with a bang in a short span of time. Initially most of the existing bloggers turned their attention and started using wordpress because it is free but it has succeded just because of its flexible and easy to use.
The five minute install of wordpress is famous one and what it is being claimed by wordpress is absolutely true. You can install the wordpress blogging platform in just minutes whether you are using a shared hosting or a dedicated hosting. The wordpress blogging platform is undergoing change
to suit the need of the users especially the admin panel. The admin panel has seen a lot of changes from the initial versions to the much loved one of WP 2.7. With each and every new version of wordpress the interface has been uncomplicated and easy to use. If you are about to start a new website especailly if it a wordpress i would definitely recommend wordpress
In the early days of my blogging i have started with free wordpress version (hosted with wordpress.com and blogger.com). But later i decided that in order to get more flexibility i have changed to self hosted version (in a separate domain). I have been reading articles and reviews on different cms like wordpress, joomla, drupal, phpnuke and more and was in a dilemma on which blogging platform to use for my new website. After a few days I came across a website that looked somewhat like a blog, but had a lot more. It had polls, it had pages, it had a videos section, there was a photo gallery and a lot more a blogger actually need. More over that it has been arranged in a neat manner. On looking more into the website i found that it was hosted with wordpress. That has enlightened me and decided that i will use wordpress for my websites.
Another reason for the flexibility of wordpress is the use of plugins. Today there are thousands of plugings created by various developers in the wordpress websites and other wordpress realted websites. To add a new functionality to a conventional website, it is truly a tedious job. Thre are various kinds of plugins for different purposes like Analytics, polls, a contact form , Feed subscription, Favicon, Bookmarking, Related Posts, Rotating Images, Adsense Manager, Ad Manager etc. To use these plugins all I had to do was upload to a file or folder in the plugins folder and activate it from my admin panel. This feature helps to add new functionalities with in minutes.
Wordpress has one of the most active community of users and evangelists online. The scores of wordpress themes both free and paid are not just an exhibition of design but often defines trends in web design and development. The wordpress community has created numerous tutotrials and powerful themes that have been made available both free and as paid ones. Do keep in mind that the wordpress blogging platform is free but premium themes and some plugins are not abolsutely free. But here are many who enhance someone else’s project and make the plugins better.
The number of articles covering Wordpress hacks is huge. The activity never seems to stop and that in turn finds newer people jumping on board. Essentially WP has become a web product. It is not just for bloggers or content publishers anymore, it has a larger set of web designers in the system, a huge developer system added to this. In turn this means that you can develop a website with any feature that you want and look whichever way you want it to and you are sure to find someone to do it for you, the talent pool is that huge.
So why you are waiting for download the latest copy of wordpress from the wordpress website and install the wordpress and copy your favorite wordpress theme.
Get your website live within minutes. Happy Blogging
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BJP’s Online General Election Campaign, 2009
In the recent US General elections, social networking websites and other internet based services has played an important role in the success of Barack Obama. Barack Obama has utilized internet to the maximum to generate more support for him in the general elections. Barack Obama has launched his own website and created profiles in all social networking websites for his presidential campaign and it has proved to a great success.
This success of Barack Obama has persuaded Indian general election candidates. BJP and Congress has gone the gone the online way in the previous general elections. But that time social networking and internet marketing was not much popular as of today. Major political parties has realized that they can get more supporters especially from young Indian if they are campaigning online.
The priministerial candidate of BJP, LK Advani has started his website and a blog to share his views online. I have visited the website several times. One can find information in hindi as well as English. The website is updated regularly and Leader LK Advani is actively sharing his thoughts on each and every issues and matters related to India through his website and blog.
LK Advani has not only created his website and blog but also marketing his webiste and blog heavily on the internet through search engine marketing. In the past several week i have seen different advertisements regarding this website online. BJP is actively promoting the website using Google Adwords. When ever you visit an india related website you will definitely find the advertisement of this website.
The website of L K Advani is using Joomla(Joomla is an open source content management system). It is great to know that Indian political parties are using open source technologies, internet marketing tools for promoting their election campaign.
Besides actively promoting the campaign in the internet BJP has published it IT vision document recently. In this vision document the party has made big promises for IT community of India. As per the document if BJP is coming back to power, BJP will actively promote open source software and internet telephony in all the government departments. Moreover, the party has promised one crore laptops to students, for this it would spend Rs 10,000 cr on buying top-of-the-line laptops with open source software. The party’s prime ministerial candidate L K Advani, while unveiling the party’s IT vision document ahead of the 2009 Lok Sabha polls, said if the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) is voted to power then it would use Information Technology as an important tool to bring about drastic change in major fields like education and public health care.
Here are some of the important aspects of BJP’s IT vision document –
Broadband Internet (2 Mbps) in every town and village, at cable TV prices (at prices less than Rs 200/month). 10 million students to get laptop computers at Rs 10,000. Interest-free loan for anyone who is unable to afford it. All schools and colleges to have Internet-enabled education and labs. Every BPL family to be given a free smart mobile phone, which can be used by even illiterate users for accessing their bank accounts. Video conferencing to be made affordable and universally accessible. Primary Health Centre in every village to be linked to the National Telemedicine Service Network. Basic health insurance scheme for every citizen, using the IT platform. Cashless hospitalization. All post offices to be converted into IT-enabled Multi-Service Outlets. All telephone booths to be upgraded to Internet kiosks. Citizens will have a simple 1-800 BSNL Toll Free Number, which will be accessible 24×7x 365 days of the year, to contact their Member of Parliament. e-Bhasha: National Mission for Promotion of IT in Indian Languages. An independent body, Digital Security Agency (DSA), to be set up for cyber warfare, cyber counter-terrorism, and cyber security of national digital assets.
As BJP showing the path for online election campaign. In no time more and more political parties will start their online campaign for this years India general elections.
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What to Google
In one of my previous post i have talked about how to Google or how to search with Google and find required information. Hope that the tips which are discussed has been useful for you. Today i am going to discuss the topic what to Google? You can find any infomation on any topic from Google. You type in the keyword and Google will provide you with the best information available in the internet.Rather than just searching with some keywords like “simple way of life”, with addition of some keywords with the search term you can find absolute results.
The Google is filled with lots of features especially search feature and makes it most functional information finder. The added features in Google has made it as the leader of search engines. The features i am going to discuss today are least used by the internet users. It is largely persumed that Google is a tool to search keywords in webpages but it is not true, Google’s scope is much beyond that. Rather than providing the feature to seaching millions of pages in a single click, check out the features which are least used.
Search for Weather, inorder to search for weather condition in any country type weather along with the city name, zipcode, state. for example if you are searching for weather condition in mumbai type in weather mumbai and if you want to know the weather condition in the state of maharashtra then type in weather maharashtra. An interesting fact is that Google not only shows the present whether condition of a particular state of region but also the displays weather forecasts in the results.
Stock Quotes search — How can you find the lates stock trends of a particula company listed in the stock exchange. Whther the stock is listed in us stock exhange or indian stock exchange you can get the current stock quote. Inorder to see the current stock quote you just need to type in the company name. If the company is listed with stock exchange then Google will show details of the company as the first option and to find the stock quote click on the link “show stock quote”. If you want to know more about stocks then visit the domain finance.Google.com. Google how details like Open Price,
High Price, Low, Volume, Avg Vol, Mkt Cap etc.
Time search — You might have visited serveral site to find the current time in different countries and might have download some progarams to find the current time in different cities in the world. Google search is added with feature to find the current time of any city in the world. Just type in time along with the city name, you will get the current time. Just now i have searched for time in chicago using time chicago and time in mumbai using the search keyword time mumbai. I have got mumbai time in IST and Chicgo time in (EST).
Sports Scores — If you love sports and want to know the latest scores and schedules, Google will provide you with all the data you needs. Inorder to see scores and schedules for sports teams key in the team name or league name into Google and press enter. This sports search feature is enabled for the major sporting meets like English Premier League, National Football League, National Hockey League, and Major League Baseball. On searching for a particular sporting event in Google, we will get updates on current stats, results of previous game and details of next game.
Calculator — It is quite interesting to know that Google search box can function as a calculator. Throw away your conventional calculator and use online Google’s calculator online. To use Google’s built-in calculator function, simply enter the calculation you’d like done into the search box. If you type in 24 * 7 on the search box then Google will display the result as 24 * 7 = 168 with a link to more about calculator. Google can also be used as a tool for unit conversion. For unit conversion you can use Google to convert between many different units of measurement of height, weight, and mass among others. Just enter your desired conversion into the search box and Google search engine will do the rest.
Book search — Do you read books? Want to find more details about a particular, just type in the book name Google will find it for you. Inorder to find details of a particular book first of all visit the page books.Google.com and key in the book name into the search box and Google will return any book content it has just like search engine web results. You can click through on the record to view more detailed info about the book like, a short introduction, a Google map which shows the locations mentioned in the book, more books from the same author, buying options and reviews on this book.
Synonym search — A synonym is two words that can be interchanged in a context relative to that context. Google can help you find synonyms by placing a tilde sign (~) immediately in front of your search term.
Definition — To find the meaning of a word or phrase from Google you have to simply type the word “define” then a space, then the word you want get defined by Google. Google will display a list of different definitions from various online sources, you can type “define:” followed by a word or phrase. eg define: simple
Spell Checker — I found this spell checker to be useful many times. What ever you type in Google and if the spelling of the world is incorrect, Google acutomaticaly suggests the correct spelling. This feature is especially useful if you type in the worng web address. Google’s spell checking software automatically checks whether your query uses the most common spelling of a given word. If it thinks you’re likely to generate better results with an alternative spelling, it will ask “Did you mean: ””. Click on the suggested spelling to launch a Google search for that term.
Local search — Now a days all most all the search engines have options to display the local business. Google is no different. Type in which ever place along with a business in that area Google will display the address of local firms in that area. For example if you are looking for a store, restaurant, or other local business you can search for the category of business and the location and Google will return results right on the page, along with a map, reviews, and contact information. If you search with the keyword “restaurants mumbai” Google will list the names, contact numbers, web address of 10 restaurants in mumbai.
Movie Showtimes — Google can help you find reviews and show-times for movies playing near you, type “movies” in the Google search boxc. In the result page you will get another search box where you can type in the city name for which you want the show times. On typing in the city names you will get details of the movie along with thetres in which it is being shown. If you’ve already saved your location on a previous search, the top search result will display show-times for nearby theaters for the movie you’ve chosen.
Package tracking — You can track packages by typing the tracking number for your UPS, Fedex or USPS package directly into the search box. Google will return results that include quick links to easily track the status of your shipment.
Patent Number — To search for U.S. patents, enter the word “patent” followed by the patent number into the Google search box and hit the Enter key or click the Google Search button.
Area Code — To see the geographical location for any U.S. telephone area code, just type the three-digit area code into the Google search box and hit the Enter key or click the Google Search button.
Info on Airline Travel — Use Google to find flight status. This feature can be used to find the arriving and departing U.S. flights. If you know the name of airline and flight number then type in the search box.
Currency Conversion — How to know the current rate of a currency? If you are dealing with forex or running a business which deal with overseas clients then you should know the current foreign exchange rate. Inorder to find the currecy rate type in the conversion you would like to find into the Google search box and Google will provide your answer directly on the results page. For example if you type inr into the seach box, Google will display the current rate based on us dollars. Like one rupee is equal to how many us dollars. You can also the current coversion rate of usd and inr by searching with the keyword “inr usd”.
Maps — On visiting maps.Google.com, you can find the map of any location in the world. After visiting the website type in the location name in Google search box, Google will provide you with a detailed map. If you want find a location in united states then key in the zip code of the location.
Fill in the blank — Some times we are unsure about what to type in to find information in Google search engine. In that case the best way to ask a question is to ask Google to ‘fill the blank’ by using an asterisk sign (*) at the part of the sentence or question that you want to fill in into the Google search box.
I have searched over the net to find information on what to Google and found the above mentioned ways to search. Most of the above mentioned searches was new to me also. Hope that the information which i have provided above regarding what to search in Google will be use ful for you.
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