Technical Terms and Abbreviations Explained – IP Address
The “IP” in IP address stands for Internet Protocol. An Internet Protocol Address is a unique address assigned to computers and other electronic devices connected to a network. The network can vary in size, from a simple home set-up of a computer connected to a printer, a corporate set-up with an internal network connecting various devices or a massive network such as the internet which connects billions of devices to the global network which is known as the World Wide Web.
An IP Address acts a unique identifier or “address” for a device and this allows the various devices connected to a network to communicate by helping them to tell one device different from another. Devices that can be connected to a network and all having their own unique IP Address include, telephones, printers, routers, scanners, computers and various other electronic devices.
Google Chopping Pageranks in Latest PageRank Update
PageRank is a link analysis and measuring algorithm created by the cofounders of Google Inc Larry Page and Sergey Brin. It measures the relative importance of a webpage on the internet by analyzing the links pointing to the specified page and then assigns a number from 0 to 10 to the page with 10 being a very important page and 0 being a not so important page. Google updates these rankings every couple months and many websites, advertising agencies and search engines put great value of the pagerank of websites. Over time however many websites have begun to abuse the algorithm by selling links on their high ranked pages to boost the rank of the buyers page or linking to webpages in a network with the main purpose being to influence a higher pagerank for linked pages.
October 2007 Updates
Before this month’s update, Google’s last update to pagerank scores came in April 2007 and many were speculating that Google would have lived up to it’s word of devaluing the links of offenders in the next update. This speculation became reality when Google began decreasing the ranks of many known link sellers or link farms, especially blogs and mainstream sites like Forbes.com, Engadget.com and the website of the Washington Post.
Coverage in the Blogosphere
Read more at popular technology blog Techcrunch.com and also visit Dailyblogtips.com who are compiling a list of major sites and blogs affected negatively by the pagerank update.
Microsoft’s Live Search Engine Updated
Microsoft Corp has updated their Live Search engine and has focused mainly on improving searches related to entertainment, shopping, local and health.
“With this update to Live Search, our engineering focus is on the areas that matter most to our 185 million consumers who use our service every month. We have made dramatic progress in delivering a better search experience to our customers,” said Satya Nadella, corporate vice president of the Search and Advertising Platform Group at Microsoft. “We know what kinds of things consumers are searching for, and we have invested in those key high-interest verticals, including entertainment, shopping, health and local search. With the core platform in place we intend to win customers and earn their loyalty one query at a time.”
[ Read full Press Release from Microsoft ]
Live Search Homepage
What does this mean for Caribbean Web Developers?
Google is the undisputed king of search right now with Yahoo a distant second and Microsoft third. Microsoft is focusing on improving it’s search engine to prevent further slippage in it’s already small market share as well as to keep up with improvements being made by Yahoo and Google to their search products. This is good news for Caribbean Web Developers, especially those who follow proper web standards and understand the importance of proper Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Google is on top and more than like many of us receive the highest percentage of our search engine traffic from Google, but improvements in other search engines allows us to receive good traffic from all major search engines, not only Google.
W3 Schools – vital resource for Web Professionals
W3school.com is a free online resource for tutorials related to web development, web programming, scripting and other web building topics. The information on w3schools.com is vital to any web developer looking for a free, easily accessible and professionally created resource.
Newcomers or Professionals
No matter what level of web development you are at or how many years you have been professional you will always find this website as a useful tool to acquire new information and skills or to practice or brush up on existing skills. If you are new to web designing or a student your learning experience will be helped by the streamline and step by step format of each lesson, complete with examples, tests and quizzes.
Technical Terms and Abbreviations Explained – RSS
RSS stands for really simple syndication. It allows users who frequently access the internet to get updates from sites they frequent without having to visit the site. The content of RSS Feeds can be can be displayed in software called RSS Readers, these software may be online based or desktop based. Feed readers check feeds that you have subscribed to at regular intervals to see if there is any new information added to the website.
Most popular websites have RSS feeds and if you are a web developer you should ensure that your website supports and displays RSS feeds.
