Tom Keating : VoIP & Gadgets Blog
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Google Video - We're sorry, but this video is not available in your country

January 12, 2006

It looks like Google Video is using geolocation to determine what county you live in and then displaying this message: "We're sorry, but this video is not available in your country." if you are in a "disallowed" country. The reason? Well, many non-U.S. countries are 6 months behind on U.S.-based TV episodes, if not longer.

Google Adsense for Feeds gets picked up by splogs

January 11, 2006

Before Google launched their Google Adsense for Feeds advertising program (ads within RSS feeds), an "enterprising lad" couldn't wait for the Google Adsense for Feeds to be launched, so he decided to hack his own Adsense ads and add them to his RSS feed. This was a big No No in the eyes of Google, violating Google's TOS, which resulted in his site being banned from Adsense. The site Pentago, writes:

Ok I knew it wouldn't last, my Google AdSense account has been revoked. I was experimenting with ads in rss feeds.

SEO contest

January 10, 2006

Just thought I'd share this interesting SEO (Search Engine Optimization) contest created by v7n.com that is creating some buzz on the blogosphere. Essentially, this contest is similar to the famous “Nigritude Ultramarine” SEO contest of 2003 to get it to a #1 Google ranking. And of course there's the famous "miserable failure" Google-gaming which points to President Bush's biography on whitehouse.gov as the #1 Google search result followed right behind by Michael Moore in the #2 spot.

This time there's even an anti-SEO contest to break the rules of the original contest with its own grand prize offering which resulted in supporters of the original contest to up the ante and add more money and an iPod to the prizes. May the luck of the Irish be with you if you participate in the Google SEO gaming contest!

A Google search engine optimization contest organized by respected SEO industry commentator John Scott has created a storm within Internet marketing circles that has competing search engine optimization professionals in a rush to jump aboard the bandwagon.



Extreme Blog Makeover

January 6, 2006

So I'm just minding my own business, surfing my own blog yesterday when I noticed I received some Google click-throughs (referrals) directly to a blog post I just wrote yesterday, ironically about Google that apparently was picked up by Google just hours after I posted it. I was curious how the heck Google was picking up my blog post titled "New Google Adsense Graphical Ads" so quickly, so naturally I Googled "new google adsense graphical ads" the blog title - nothing. Hmmm, that's odd. Why is Google giving me referral links directly to such a new blog post?

New Google Adsense graphical ads?

January 5, 2006

Maybe my eyes have been tuning out Google Adsense advertisements lately, but a new skyscraper graphical Google ad is displaying on my blog today that does NOT look like your typical "graphical" (not text) Google Adsense ad.

In fact, I had no idea it was a Google ad other than that I knew that position in my blog was for Google ads. I took a snapshot of the image ad in question from my home page. I left a portion of my blog text there as a reference point along with a portion of my Vonage ad located just below Google ads. The ad in question is for a company called Essential Telecommunications Corp.

2006 VoIP Predictions

December 30, 2005


I promised predictions for 2006 and so here they are. Nothing like waiting till the last minute, eh? Let me first start my analyzing my 2005 VoIP predictions. Some I have abbreviated for brevity sake, so if you wish to read my full thoughts on a particular 2005 prediction, go check out the original article. Within my analysis of my 2005 predictions I couldn't help myself but to intertwine some predictions for 2006 -- as opposed to just separating them all out.

Audio FX Force Feedback Headphones

December 28, 2005

I don't know about you, but when I'm watching a DVD or playing a video game I want full surround sound with the bass cranked way up so I can "feel" the explosions of a frag grenade or feel the footsteps of the T-Rex as he stomps closer. There's only one problem with enjoying lots of bass and high volume - the people around you; husband, wife, neighbors, etc. might not want to hear it or feel the bass reverberating through the floors, especially late at night which is "prime-time" video gaming time! Sound was meant to be felt, especially when immersed in a video game. So what's an bass addict to do?

Well, no worries, just put on the Audio FX Force Feedback Headphones ($49.95) which will let you "feel" every explosion and every impact due to its unique force feedback characteristics - all without disturbing the neighbors or waking up the kids or "significant other".

Splog away! Splog away! Splog away all!

December 26, 2005


Gee, I can't even take some blogging time off for the Christmas holiday without some major controversy hitting the blogosphere. Apparently, some splogger has been lifting several bloggers full content surrounded by Google Adsense. Andy Abramson, a fellow VoIP blogger included me in an email thread with several other "heavy-hitting" technology-related bloggers, all of which I assume were getting "splogged". Hard to tell if I was splogged since the culprit's website was taken offline after some complaints and strings pulled by someone whose content was stolen.

Andy points out that back in March that Andy, Om, and I were "splogged".


AOL & Google deal a nightmare for Microsoft?

December 21, 2005

The ink isn't even dry from Google's 5% $1 billion stake in AOL and yet some are claiming Bill Gates is still wiping his tears from losing the battle for AOL to Microsoft's arch nemesis, namely Google. America Online parent Time Warner and Eric Schmidt's Google announced some intriguing integrations between these two Internet giants late yesterday leaving Microsoft in the lurch.

Rich Tehrani and I were commenting yesterday how AOL's portal generates generates about 10% ($420 million) of Google's overall Adsense/Adwords pay-per-click dollars. This is amazing to me since I never visit AOL.com since I dumped the AOL client browser and its dial-up Internet access so long ago.

GMail + Google Talk (GTalk) for BlackBerry RIM

December 19, 2005

A friend of mine who runs Computer Collector Newsletter forwarded me a link to a software application that runs on the Blackberry RIM to access GMail. I looked around the rest of the site and came across an even better application that lets you access both Gmail and 'Google Talk' from your Blackberry.

Their brand new software application, called "GMail + GTalk" is a full-featured email and chat application for BlackBerry devices, designed for the popular Google Mail and Google Talk services.

With GMail+ GTalk you can easily review the correspondence in your Google mail box, compose new mail messages and operate with address books currently having an amusing communication with your buddies via Google Talk service. GMai l+ GTalk works on all phones, which are Blackberry RIM allowing you to use the same Google mail accounts which you operate on your desktop PC. Only one caveat though - as far as I can tell it only works with Google Talk's instant messaging capabilities and not Google Talk's VoIP feature. Nevertheless, some will find this application useful. Not sure if the Blackberry really has the processing horsepower to do VoIP anyway.



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