Is Google Experimental going to change our Google search rankings forever and further more?

Apparently Google is experimenting with enhancing search results. The first experiment deals with ‘Alternate views for search results‘. This includes the list view (current option), info view, time line view and map view.

Now the interesting thing to note here is that each view gives different results. So although you might have worked hard to get your web pages to the top 10 in the current Google scenario (list view), you might find your listing missing in the three new proposed views.

Just imagine if Google were to introduce these as actual search options. The face of Google SEO will not be the same. It will be better for some, worse for others. May be nothing new about this but it is going to cause some upheaval and shifts in results depending on what view gets to be more popular.

Timeline View

Many a times I have wanted to filter results so I only get the latest and most updated pages. The timeline view offers just such an option. You can choose the year down to the month you want results from. Your range can be as wide or as narrow as you want. This is definitely a great search enhancement.

I see the timeline view favouring blogs that are constantly updated but I also see people cheating and changing dates on their blog posts to get better placement. So this may or may not work.

Map View - A NO NO for me

The map view is my least favorite. It hardly ever works right for me. And that is all I have to say about this one.

Info View

The info view so far has not made any sense as most of the variables don’t show any information. It offers to show this info for your results:

• Search Term
• Dates
• Measurements
• Locations
• Images

Only the first and last terms normally give any information. The rest mostly result in date not available, location not available, measurement not available for most of the results.

Conclusion

Out of all four I prefer the timeline search the best as I am assured the most current info. If I am just looking for information without a time period criterion then the normal list view serves its purpose. I don’t see myself using either the map or the info view at all.

Which search view do you find to be the most appealing?

I’m still figuring this one out, folks. Personally, I am the laziest person when it comes to writing. Designing I can do all day long but writing … that is a completely different story.

So how do I motivate myself to keep at it?

1. Get Motivated By Others
   When I am really out of it and I don’t feel like writing at all, I go and read blogs at random. Not only does that give me ideas and get my creative juices flowing, it gives me the extra push I need. After all if so many people can keep blogging day after day then so can I.
2. Look at my RSS Subscriptions
   Alright so the current number isn’t exactly anything to write home about. But I like to see numbers go up (who doesn’t ). So every time I make a post, there are chances of that number going up. (Psst you can help … go subscribe up there). Anyway that gives me a little push sometimes.
3. Comments are my Fuel
   If anything really, really and I mean really motivates me, it is when people comment. It is great to know that someone is reading my blog (*hint*). So if you got a great discussion going on at your website, let that motivate you.

   On the flip side of the coin, I am going to take the time from now on to leave comments at blogs. It can actually be lots of fun once you start.

4. Relax
   Nothing good ever comes out of being overworked. So if you find yourself not even wanting to look at your blog, just chill. Take a small break. Go read a book, watch TV, cook, wash dishes, do the laundry … ok wait that’s getting on to the wrong list
5. Change the Topic
   I just realized that I have been posting techie stuff for a while. It’s been all about Wordpress plugins and bbPress issues and what not. Writing about the same thing can get to be a bit too much after a while. So take a break and simply change the topic. See my post about the Twilight Saga book. Now that’s changing the topic!
6. Give Yourself Permission to Not Blog
   This one will work if you are not a full time blogger.

   Don’t burden yourself with a post quota per day. Tell yourself that it is ok to skip days. While there will be days with zero posts, there will be days when you might end up writing four to five posts a day.

   Remember it is the quality of the posts that will keep your readers coming back. So being relaxed and writing because you want to and not because you have to will have a huge impact on your posts.

If I come up with more ways I’ll be sure to add them.

What do you do to motivate yourself?

It is time for an updated list of useful Wordpress Plugins that work with the 2.5.1 version.

I’m not going over 2.6 as it is still in its early stages and not all plugin authors have successfully updated to this version. But I will get to this soon.

Some of these are going to overlap with my previous list as they have been upgraded to work with this version and some I have already discussed in detail in several other posts.

1. Accordion Tabs
   This lets you add Wordpress functions in a tabbed interface. Not only does this look pretty neat but it also saves space. A must have for any blog!
2. Add This Social Bookmarking Widget OR Add To Any
   Both plugins offer your visitors the chance to bookmark your posts and pages. Instead of adding several icons under your post and making them look cluttered, the whole menu pops up AJAX style on mouseover.
3. Adsense Deluxe
   This is a classic and should not need any introduction. It lets you add adsense or YPN ads to your posts at the click of a button. Manage the codes on the plugin settings page.

   An alternate which lets you add either adsense or YPN is the All in One Adsense and YPN. However, I haven’t tested this one yet.

4. Akismet
   This plugin is included with Wordpress. Spammy comments are more or less a thing of the past with this plugin.
5. All In One SEO Pack
   One of the simplest SEO plugins. Just a few tweaks and it is ready to work out of the box.
6. Amazon Reloaded
   Lets you add Amazon products to your blog with your affilate ID embedded in the links. Also lets you search for Amazon products when you are writing a post or a page.
7. Better Comments Manager
   Respond to comments from the WP admin instead of going to the respective posts to add a reply.
8. Cforms II
   A really good contact form script which lets you add any number of forms with pre-configured designs. It lets you add your own styles, too. CForms can also be used to replace the regular comment form at your blog.
9. Code Autoescape
   Although this is not main stream plugin and not everyone will use it. it does serve its purpose. Instead of the code being executed, it lets you show it as code in your post.
10. Configurable Tag Cloud
    The tag widget that comes with Wordpress does not offer any configuration options. This plugin is the solution to that.
11. Do Follow
    This plugin disables the rel=nofollow attribute in comments and gives SEO benefit to your comment posters.
12. FAQ-Tastic
    A very useful plugin which lets you add an FAQ section to your blog.
13. Feedburner Feedsmith
    This plugin detects all ways to access your original WordPress feeds and simply redirects them to your FeedBurner feed
14. Google XML Sitemaps
    Creates a compatible XML sitemap. This is supported by Google, Ask.com, MSN Search and Yahoo.
15. Identify External Links
    Identifies all exteral links and adds class=”extlink” and optionally, target=”_blank” to open the links in a new window.
16. Most Commented Posts
    This a sidebar widget listing some of the most commented posts.
17. Multi Column Category List
    Lets you organize your categories into multiple columns if you have way too many. Lumps all of them together and does not follow the heirarchy. See WhackedOutMarketing Blog as an example (categories are right at the bottom).
18. My Twitter
    Lets you add your last few twitters to your sidebar. Additionally, it also lets you add twitters from within Wordpress.
19. NextGen Gallery
    Easily add image galleries and albums to your blog. Automatic thumbnail creation makes this a breeze. The included widget also lets you display random photos and slideshows in your sidebar.
20. Pagebar 2
    Provide an advanced paginated navigation instead of the basic Next Previous links.
21. Plugin Central
    A plugin which makes it easier to install other plugins.
22. Quotes Collection
    Add random quotes to your blog. I’ve found this to be a really good way to add customer testimonials. This is how I have used it at DotsnDashes Website Designs.
23. Recent Comments
    Adds the much needed customization options to the Wordpress recent comments widget.
24. RSS Footer
    Lets you add a footer to your RSS feed. Add copyright info, a call to action or just a link back to the post for comments.
25. Search Everything
    Gives you the option of adding pages, excerpts, attachments, drafts, comments, tags and custom fields to the Wordpress search option. You can also exclude posts, categories and password protected content.
26. Search Meter
    Keeps a track of what your visitors are searching for. Easy way of brainstorming what content to add to your blog.
27. Subscribe To Comments
    Give your visitors an additional option to subscribe to comments via email. This plugin will not work if you are using Cforms’ comment form.
28. UBD Block Ad Plugin (Wordpress 2.6 Fix)
    Automates the addition of those 125×125 px ads you see on everyone’s blogs nowadays.
29. Wordpress Database Backup
    Thi plugin can send you a daily or a weekly back up of your entire Wordpress database. You can also make a back-up right there and then, download it or get it emailed to yourself. No more lost content!
30. Wordpress Video Plugin
    Lets you display videos from the major video websites.
31. WP Post Views
    Displays a list of the most viewed posts in your sidebar. It also shows the number of times the post was viewed.
32. WP AJAX Edit Comments
    Ever added a comment and gone whoops I need to correct that? Why not offer your visitors a chance to correct their whoops? This plugin lets them edit their comments for as long as your allow them - generally 5 minutes is a good idea. You can try commenting on this post to see how this works.
33. WP Paged Comments
    Add pagination to your comments using this plugin and get organized.
34. Yet Another Related Posts Plugin
    Keep your visitors busy at your website by providing them the option to read similiar posts.

Sticky Posts

There is no option to make a post sticky when you add it. However, once you have added a topic, click to view it. Then browse right down. You will see a link ‘Stick Topic (to front)’

If your click STICK TOPIC, this topic will become a sticky in its respective forum. However, if you click TO FRONT, it will stick to the front page Latest Discussions list. One downside of this being, the topic is no longer shown in its respective forum. It is still counted there but no longer viewable from within the forum.

What purpose can this serve? Well for one you can use this to add General Forum Rules that you might not want appearing in any of the forums but visible on the front page. Any announcements can also be added here.

Favorites

How this works is you can add a post to your favorites. There is the option of subscribing to your favorites RSS feed so you can receive the latest posting in your favorite topics.

You can also add the option to subscribe via email by adding a plugin called Post Notification.

More on this and other plugins.

Forgot Password

There is no forgot password link - at least none that I could find.

This is how it works:

If you try to login with a username that does not exist, you get a message saying that this username is not registered, would you like to register it?

If you try to login with a username that exists but with the wrong password, then you will see a button on the login page. Clicking this button will send you an email via which you can reset your password.

Works nicely but you cannot directly go around finding your lost password. Your member might get lost trying to find the option unless they try logging in first.

Definitely makes for a good sticky note on the front page - How to Retrieve Your Lost Password.

After going thru many bbPress plugins here are some that work with bbPress 0.9.2 and provide added functionality to your forum.

1. bbPress Latest Discussion
   This is actually a Wordpress plugin which displays up to the last 10 discussions going on at the forum. Let your blog visitors know what is going on at your forum.
2. bbPress Signatures
   Let registered users add a signature to their posts. You can also add the option to individially toggle this option on or off per post.
3. bbRatings
   Add the option of post ratings. Let registered users voice vote on the posdt on a star rating of 1 to 5.
4. Censor
   Want to filter posts for bad words? This is the plugin. There is just one issue at the moment … its settings page doesn’t show up in the bbPress admin. A slight tweak will do the trick.

   Open censor.php and find the function: function censor_add_admin_page

   Replace the entire function with this:

   function censor_add_admin_page() { bb_admin_add_submenu(__('Censor Posts'), 'use_keys', 'censor_admin_page'); }

   You will also want the titles to be filtered so this code needs to be added, too:

   add_filter( 'topic_title', 'censor_post_text' );

   You can add the above after the 3rd line of code:

   add_filter('post_text', 'censor_post_text');

   You can see a listing of all these fixes at the plugin page as well.

5. Post Notification
   Currently you can add a post to your favorites list and subscribe to its RSS feed. However, some members may want their ntifications via email. This plugin adds an option to their Edit Profile page which if turned on, emails them everytime there is a new post in the favorite threads.
6. Private Forums OR Hidden Forums
   These are the two main plugins available if you want to have private forums. The first option offers four access levels: Open to all * Registered Users * Moderator * Administrator . The problem with this being that you cannot divide your registered users into groups and allow them to view different forums.

   Hidden Forums is a better alternative in that regard. However, since its read me file claims that it is still not ready for a live website, I’m staying away from it until it is.

7. Quote
   This should actually be a basic functionality. Let your posters quote previous messages. It places blockquote tags around the quotd paras. You can add a style in your css file for this to ensure that the quoted text appears nicely.
8. Report Post
   Let your members report bad posts to you for removal. Don’t be alarmed if you don’t see the Report Post link even after you have added it to your theme. If you are logged in as the poster, you will not see the link. It is assumed that you wouldn’t want to report your own post.
9. Show Top Posters
   Shows a list of your top posters. Again it does not have an admin and if you want to tweak any settings, they need to be done in top-posters.php file.
10. Terms of Service
    Lets you add a terms of service option to the registration form. Get your subscribers to agree to your terms when signing up. The only thing I don’t like about the plugin is it adds the terms right on that page. This can make a page way too long. A link to the terms would have been a much better option. Another hack called for.

    Edit: The Terms of Service does not make the page longer. It takes up around 8 lines worth of space with a scrolling option. All in all it looks good. So no need to have a link to another page.

11. Private Messages
    Add a private messaging system for your members. Just one little warning - The Send New PM option takes you to a page where you get the entire drop down list of members. If you don’t want to expose all your member IDs and allow spamming, then it is a good idea to remove this option.

    Replacing the dropdown with an input box is not without its problems. The script does not check if the member exists as it was relying on a drop down before. So it will show a dummy sent message to any xyz id you add.

    Another option is to just remove the Send New PM option altogether. Add a PM This User option next to each post. This way only members that are active and posting can be PM’d which is how it should be anyway.

The one thing I just couldn’t get to work were the Unread Posts, Unread Topics, Since Last Visited and other similar plugins which display updates since your last login. The reason being they all rely on a plugin called Simple Onlinelist. And this does not work with the latest bbPress version for now.

All in all these plugins require more configuration than most of the Wordpress plugins. Reason being, there is no widgets option so code has to be added to your theme to enable most of these. Plus some of them still do not have a settings option in the admin and whatever setting needs to be done has to be within the php file. Also some like the private messaging are adding entire sections to the forum and hence are going to require some work.

But the great thing is you can choose the functionality you want to add. This makes the script much faster as oppposed to all the functionality being built in by default whether you need it or not.

When I first started installing bbPress for a client, here are some issues that I faced. I’m giving you the solutions so you don’t have to go thru the entire process of searching for an answer.

1. What is the link to the theme directory?
   In Wordpress if you need to link to the theme directory you just use the tag:
   bloginfo(template_directory)

   For the moment there is no such option in bbPress. The basic documentation does not provide this very essential piece of information. After much research this is what I found:

   <?php bb_option('uri'); ?>my-templates/your-template-directory-name

2. If you want to add a menu for registered users which includes a link to their profile, edit profile, favorites, etc, you will find it a bit tricky. This is the code which displays the menu on the profile page.

   <?php if ( is_bb_profile() ) profile_menu(); ?></p>

   If you try placing profile_menu(); outside of this page, it gives an error.

   I assumed there had to be direct links that can be placed anywhere for Profile, Edit Profile and Favorites. I was right. Here is the code you can add to your logged-in.php file so these links appear only when a user is logged in:

   For Profile Link:

   <?php printf(bb_get_profile_link(Profile, bb_get_current_user_info( 'name' )));?>

   For Edit Profile

   <?php echo '<a href="'.get_profile_tab_link( bb_get_current_user_info( 'id' ), "edit" ).'">Edit Profile</a>' ?>

   For Favorites

   <?php echo '<a href="'.get_profile_tab_link(bb_get_current_user_info( 'id' ), "favorites" ).'">Favorites</a>' ?>

   This function can then be called using:

   <?php login_form(); ?>

   This displays the file login-form.php if your user is not logged in. And logged-in.php with the links you just added if they are.

3. Wordpres integration is very simple. You just follow the steps in the installation and fill in the right information. There are two important fields you need to enter in order for integration to go smoothly.

   One is a secret key found in your wp-config.php file. This is defined as:

   define('SECRET_KEY', 'YOUR-KEY-HERE'); // Change this to a unique phrase.

   YOUR-KEY-HERE needs to added as is.

   The second part is a Secret field which can be found in your Wordpress admin. You will get the direct link on the instalation page.

   Now guess what I did? I mixed up the two.

   It was easy to change the first one via bb-config.php as it was defined the same way it was in wp-config.

   Now how to change the Secret field to the correct one? There is a section under Settings in the bbPress admin called Wordpress Integration. You can make changes here. However, lady luck was not favoring me. It just wouldn’t update the field and kept logging me out. And the integration could not work until I updated the field. I was caught in a vicious cycle.

   Anyway turns out you can also update your Secret field by adding a line to bb-config.php. The value is then picked up from here. Of course you need to remove it once the value has updated as it is not very secure having both parts of the key in your config file.

   So just in case you have a problem updating your Secret field, here is the code to add to bb-config.php

   $bb->secret="VALUE-HERE";

The script itself is pretty good! It is the lack of documentation which can be problematic. I hope they come up with something as good as the Wordpress codex pretty soon.

bbPress is what you can call a sister script of Wordpress. It is a lightweight forum script which is just as flexible and adaptable as Wordpress. There are lots of plugins available that add to its functionality with new ones being added every day.

The downside to this script is that there is no official documentation available. And that can have you going around in circles for quite a while especially if you are new to bbPress.

Here are a few resources:

1. Basic Documentation: This is all the official documentation you will find. There is no listing of functions and tags you can use. For all you know they may or may not exist.
2. Forum: There is a wealth of information in the forum but searching for what you need can take time. However, if you don’t find what you are looking for, the response time on the forum is really great. I got my answer within 2 hours which is especially briliant as this is an open source software. Hats off to these guys!
3. Unofficial Documentation: Last but not the least, there is an unnofficial documentation. A lot of it is still incomplete and hence inaccessible at the moment. But it is a start.

Reasons to choose bbPress over other forum scripts

1. Lightweight and Fast
   The script is coded to be very simple and lightweight as opposed to many other forum scripts which are way too heavy. Most forums have all the functionality built in - everything you can think of as part of the package. bbPress on the other hand offers additional functionality as plugins you can add. This lets you choose what functions you want and which ones you don’t.
2. Wordpress Integration:
   It is easily integrated with Wordpress. Just follow the simple steps via installation and you are done. This means that you can register and login at one of the scripts and be automatically registered or logged in at the other. That is a relief! Plus if you really want you can share Wordpress functions with bbPress although I wouldn’t recommend it. There are just too many variable involved … there are two scripts in action with probably a few dozen plugins … it is bound to give you an error at some point. Believe me, I know! Already tried going down that route.
3. Customizable Design
   Just like Wordpress, bbPress forum also has its own theme capability allowing you to completely customize the look of your forum. This is a capability I find seriously lacking in most scripts. So it is a relief to have a forum one can design and customize according to need.
4. It can only get better
   With new versions being released and new plugins being added, this script can only get better. There are no limits to the functionality that can be added. Just look at how far Wordpress has come.If that is an example, then I am going bbPress all the way.

Some Quirks

There are a few differences between Wordpress and bPress. For example while Wordpress has only one plugins and one theme directory, bbPress has separate ones for its core plugins and themes. You put your additional plugins and themes in my-themes and my-plugins. Personally that doesn’t make much sense to me.

Also there are way too many files in the theme directory. But they are planning on merging some of these so that scenario should get better.

Of course these are not deal breakers, just minor annoyances.

Plugins

Most of the plugins are also at an early stage of development and are either not ready for a live website or may require a lot of manual configuration. Some only work with older versions. But not to worry, I am going to compile a list of some of the basic plugins that do work with the latest version 0.9.2 so you don’t have to go thru the trial and error stage of it.

What’s the Verdict?

The script is still at an early stage but it looks promising and if it is going to follow Wordpress’ lead, then it should end up being a great forum script.

Once you have visitors to your blog, the point is to keep them reading and keep them coming back. For that you need to keep your content in front of them. Give them easy access to posts they might be interested in.

This means you need to show listings of your most recent posts, popular posts, posts with comments on them and so on and so forth.

And as always Wordpress plugins help.

1. WP-PostViews

   This plugin displays the last X number of posts with the most views. In other words these are the most popular posts at your blog.

   This provides your visitor with social proof. After all if others are reading these posts, then they must contain good info.

   If you are the only registered user, you can set it to count views from guests only. However, if your blog has the option to register, then you may want to count views by both guests and registered users.

   Check out WP-PostViews

2. Most Commented Posts

   This plugin outputs a list of the Last X posts with the most comments. You can choose to display posts from the current month, current year or all posts.

   Again it serves as social proof not to mention that most people love a good discussion. People are more likely to check out posts which have a lively discussion going on.

   Check out this plugin

3. Yet Another Related Posts Plugin

   I had to go thru two other plugins to find one that worked the way I wanted.

   This plugin lets you add related posts at the end of each post automatically. You can set the criterion for matching and set the threshold from 1 to 5, 5 being the strictest. Posts are then chosen based on the criterion and threshold. Start off with a lower threshold if you have few posts. You can increase it as you get more posts on your blog and can afford to get picky.

   This makes for a very useful plugin. Once you have finished reading a post on a topic of interest, you are more likely to click links that lead to similar posts. A brilliant way of getting visitors to stick around and may be even subscribe to your RSS Feed.

   Get this plugin.

4. Recent Posts

   Wordpress 2.5.1 already comes with a recent posts widget. Activate this widget via your Design > Widgets section to get a listing of the most recent posts in your sidebar.

You can see an example of how these plugins work at the front end on this blog.

Recent Posts, Most Commented Posts and Most Viewed Posts can be found on the sidebar. Related Posts are at the bottom of every post on the single posts page.

I joined Twitter a while but never bothered much with it. That is until I found this very simple to use Wordpress plugin.

This pulgin not only displays my last X twitters but also lets me add Twitters from inside the WP admin. Now that is a God send for people like me — what a time saver!

This can be called as a function or added as a widget. And that is the way all plugins should work. Give both options! You never know what might be needed.

Now I can tweet to my heart’s content and it is quite a lot of fun to do so, too.

For those of you who are still as yet unaware of Twitter, it is reminiscent of its name. Think of it as constant status updates of your life. It is the answer to one simple question: What Are You Doing? You can twitter away, let your friends and family follow your escapades or make new friends and see what they are up to.

Check out the My Twitter Plugin.

FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER

The problem with being a web designer is that when you get tired of your blog design and want to change it, you can. And I seriously need to stop doing that considering I just re-designed less than a month back.

I just wasn’t too happy with that design, though. It was just too different from my business site DotsnDashes. This one isn’t exactly a replica either but it has similarities and uses some of the basic design features from that website.

I’m thinking I’ll stick to this design for a bit.

So what do you think?