TubeMaster is a free Windows application that downloads video from various sites on the Web. TubeMaster supports the usual suspects such as YouTube, as well as a few surprises like ESPN and Hulu. Videos downloaded by TubeMaster can be converted into many common formats such as MPEG and AVI.
Link via “Web Video Downloader and Converter” by gHacks.net.
In a posting on the vistax54.com message boards, Microsoft MVP Kristan Kenny drops a quick time for keeping the programs in the Start Menu in order:
Right click on the Start button, click on Properties, click on “Customize…”, and uncheck “Sort All Programs menu by name”, and then click on OK.
A lot of people who attempt to rearrange the program shortcuts in their start menu are often confused when things do not automatically arrange themselves alphabetically. This quick tip solves that problem.
Pazera Audio Extractor is a Windows utility that can extract audio from many different types of video files. Pazera supports a wide variety of formats including FLV and MP3. Tech blogger Ryan Wagner writes:
What are some things you can do with this? One great example is taking an FLV video (such as one from YouTube), and turning it into a standard MP3 music track.
Pazera Audio Extractor is freeware, and requires no installation — simply unzip and run the .exe file.
Link via Cybernet News.
“Webmasters. Listen. Please!” by tech tips blog gHacks.net requests that bloggers using the site as a resource construct search engine-friendly hyperlinks in their citations.
Search engines such as Google currently use inbound links as a factor in measuring a site’s relevance and authority. The exact formula is of course a trade secret, but it is widely believed that a link’s anchor text has a significant amount of weight — linking to a site using specific keywords such as “how to construct links in a blog post” is much more beneficial than using generic phrases such as “via” or “click here”.
I usually put my own spin on the structure of a blog post (of which this post is an example). I find it easy to construct my posts in the same way that I learned to write essays in school — I will lead with ‘“[Title of Source Web Page]” by [author]…’ and then dive into rest of the post. This approach has the dual benefit of being a properly structured piece of writing that is search engine-friendly.
I suppose what this all comes down to is writing blog posts in a manner that is easily understood by your readers. Linking meaningless phrases such as “click here’ is a waste of space, but using relevant keywords in your anchor text is always sure to let the visitor know exactly what is waiting on the other end of that link. And as the search engines tell us, they strive to reward sites that put their visitors first.
WordOff is a web-based utility that removes all the clutter from HTML, leaving just the links and basic structure. WordOff is especially useful for cleaning up the “Save for Web” output from Microsoft Office.
Link via Digtial Inspiration
“Search Engines and Your Website” by John Harrington of Photo Business News & Forum talks about the importance of natural search engine results traffic for a web site. John puts a lot of effort into growing his site, because it regularly refers new jobs to his photography business. He goes over how search engines work, how they evolve, and the importance of inbound links. The article is a great read for anyone looking to learn about driving traffic to a new web site.
Canadian financial blog Wellington Financial Blog claims that Bell is about to tell many Blackberry users to pay or get lost. Wellington says the plan is to intentionally slow down all free GPS mapping applications from 15-20 seconds to 2-10 minutes for acquiring a lock on your location, and then offer a “premium” GPS service that is able to nail your location quickly for an extra monthly fee.
“Two Ways to Get Comcast to Increase the Data Cap” from tech blog GigaOm figures the best way to raise/eliminate ISP bandwidth caps is to consume, consume, consume. Data, that is. As more bandwidth-hungry applications hit the market, more people will consume more data — and that demand for bandwidth will force ISPs to ease up their download limitations. If the service providers do not respond, the demand will surely create a gaping hole begging to be filled by competitors.
Bandwidth caps are limitations placed on your Internet usage by your Internet Service Provider. Comcast currently limits customers to 250 GB of usage per month, and Time Warner Cable is experimenting with a similar pilot program in Beaumont, TX.
Fake dialog boxes are a tactic used to increase click-through rates on web advertisements. The ad is crafted to look like an alert from your operating system, complete with a “Yes” or “OK” button — but clicking anywhere on the fake dialog box takes you to the advertiser’s site. According to a study cited by an article on fake pop-ups by Ars Technica, an alarming number of people are fooled by these advertisements.
The next time you see an unexpected pop-up window with a strange warning message, stop and think before you click on it. Instead of hitting “Yes”, “No”, or “OK”, just close the window. Here’s a tip: pressing CMD-W on a Mac or CTRL-W on Windows will usually close whatever window is in focus (which in this case would most likely be the advertisement).
“Leopard: Get More Out of the Trackpad” by tech how-to blog tech-recipes is a quick rundown of Mac OS X Leopard’s time-saving trackpad features.