Eneh Akpan Writes: yahoo

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Why You Should Google Yourself

English: The three biggest web search engines

WritersDigest.com at a time featured/tweeted an article with the title What Agents Want to See When They Google You. I'm not sure those are the exact words but it's close enough for a working title. This post is similar to that one. Difference is what literary agents seek don't count for much in light of what you anticipate.

Search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo, Ask, and let's not forget the giant Russian search machine, Yandex.ru, (this is one of my blog's top traffic sources) could be a lot more fun for writers and creators of web content if you know how to wield them to boost your writerly ego. You can learn a lot more about your online presence and image by reading what other users—especially, if these users constitute people you've never really associated with on any of the social networking platforms—are saying about you.

The coolest way to find out what sort of image you have created online is by googling yourself. You may have to use a different browser than the one you're used to (search engines like Google often than not gives you cached copies of web pages you've visited on the first page of search results). You might want to use a different system all together. You might be amazed what folks say about you/your blog/website. I have.

You ought to find out whether the image you've been angling to portray—the one which drove you to create a site—aligns with what readers see when they view your platform. In other words, ascertain that the idea you put on the line is what is delivered into their bosom. This is one guaranteed method to help you determine you're hitting your target audience and find out your blog/site tows the same line as who/what you wish to be identified with.

Here, a personal example, I once Googled myself and one of the search results happened to be a website that collects URLS and groups them into different categories based on each site’s primary focus. There were categories of all varieties. It had blogs/sites listed under sports, education, apps and so on. In the midst of these assortments was a section devoted to blogs/sites centering on writing—creative writing. You can guess the one that featured my blog.

Yandex Homepage

I was thrilled to know that somebody recognized my blog for what it stands for. Rather, for the impression I set out to achieve from the onset when I created it. I think it did add some to my writerly ego. You deserve to know what people around the web think and say about you or your site. And that's why you need to open your browser right this minute and get right down to work.

The results might amaze you. Then again, who knows? You might get a really good shake-up which may turn out to be the wake-up call you've needed all along.

Keep your pen bleeding!

Akpan

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Press Ctrl-D Now! (Bookmarking)

I can still remember the times when, logging on to my http://www.writing.com account, one of the very first images to load was a prod in the form of a message-in-a-square-box sort of. It was a genuinely helpful tip for members and visitors as well that said simply,

To Bookmark This Page, Press CTRL-D Now!

Bookmarks are web links saved on an internet browser as shortcuts to visited websites. Stored bookmarks display icons of linked pages, these are the buttons you will click to launch a parent URL.

Bookmarking isn't exactly a new phenomenon. But, with most browsers (I'm yet to come across any browser that operates differently) it is by far the simplest and fastest tool for linking up to a webpage/site from your World Wide Web browser. And if you would like to view the latest, most up-to-the-minute version of a webpage, you can put your bucks on bookmarks. You want to keep this at the tip of your fingers, especially if your favorite sites offer news and round-the-clock updates (like CNN, BBC, MSNBC, Reuters and so on), or it might be a social networking site (Google+, facebook, myspace, twitter, LinkedIn and so on). On the other hand, linking to a website that requires you to sign in to access your account/information does not earn you automatic access when you click your bookmark icon. Instead, you will be re-directed to a page probably with an instruction like this one:

Access Restricted. Log in To View This Page.

Other sites may offer,

To view this page, you must be a Registered member of this site.

And then, Already a member? Sign in. Not yet? Sign up.

If by clicking a bookmark tab your browser bypasses the log in page and directly opens secured content, then just maybe you haven't been off the site for long and probably did not sign out before shutting down your browser. It's also possible (this is common with some browsers) for your browser to re-open a cached copy of your most recent browsing session, password or not, especially if you have set it to save your log in information (password and username).

Different people use bookmarks for different reasons. What follows are my personal reasons for harnessing the resourcefulness of this indispensable internet tool, a layman's guide to bookmarking, you might say. What website links should be saved?

Favourite websites: Google has made bookmarking an easy treat with its chrome browser's bookmark tab. It sits just under the address tab, right in your face sort of. You can opt to save only the icons, leaves extra room for more bookmarks. I have right there on my bookmarks bar, links to my favorite online writing communities, my favorite social networking sites and my blogs. I am always one click away from my favorite sites.

Informative websites/sites you frequent: Wikipedia is one website I have found myself increasingly addicted to. So here's what I did, I linked to it on my chrome now I got tons after tons of information at my fingertips. You can save yourself the bother of typing and retyping web addresses every time you visit your mecca sites by saving the URL link. I have separated favorite websites from sites you frequent because my favs is where I belong, where I find expression as a person, I reserve that part specifically for sites related to my career. My sources of information are listed under frequented sites category.

Sites worth remembering: I have lost count of how many times my chrome crashed and had to restart. My crime? Opening too many windows and tabs at the same time. Sometimes, the windows ran into four or five and each of these contained between ten/twelve tabs, so we're talking close to forty tabs at the same time. It's like that when I stumble on a page busting with fresh resources and hundreds of links all so inviting and tempting. To save myself from the heartache of losing information to browser crashes, I bookmark all the tabs in a window once it starts running into six or seven tabs and then I would quickly close the window leaving only the primary window open. I know, I can always return to the bookmarks at a later time and harness the wealth stored in my browser!

As a boost, a bookmark can be renamed to suit the website it points to. And then, you could create folders and name them after the subjects they contain. This could be a lot more fun than having to search endlessly for a saved link. A folder containing online dictionaries like Wikipedia and Dictionary.com could be tagged, Encyclopedias or Information. If you are an avid online news reader, then you can create a folder for your news sites like google news, cnn, msnbc, bbc, yahoo! news and name it, News. You can tag a folder housing way too many unconnected links so that it defies a definite categorization, Miscellany, Miscellaneous, or simply Other Bookmarks/Others.

Another method of bookmarking which is becoming more and more popular today is Social Bookmarking. If you have ever shared a link on facebook, twitter, myspace, stumble upon, delicious, google connect, google buzz blog this, yahoo and other social networking sites, you are a culprit. According to http://wikipedia.com

Social bookmarking (is) a method for internet users to store, organize, and share links to web pages.

The obvious difference between the two modes of bookmarking is this, one is on your browser in your computer, and even though you will need an internet connection to open it, you can always view the tab whenever you launch your browser. On the other hand, the other (social bookmarks) is on the web and you must be connected to reach it. On the upside, you can access your social bookmarks on any computer! All you need is your password and username/email. So, where does that leave you?

You can start by downloading one of the fastest browsers in use today and by far, the easiest to configure. Google Chrome makes it convenient and swift to bookmark web pages and with its add this and blog this extensions, Chrome makes it super fast to social bookmark and share your links with friends and family. To download Google Chrome get the link, http://www.google.com/chrome/eula.html?hl=en

Your favorite websites are always a bookmark away!

Eneh