Google Earth Flex API

What is the Google Earth API?

The Google Earth Plug-in and its JavaScript API let you embed Google Earth, a true 3D digital globe, into your web pages. Using the API you can draw markers and lines, drape images over the terrain, add 3D models, or load KML files, allowing you to build sophisticated 3D map applications. If you have an existing Maps API site, you can 3D-enable your page with as little as one line of code.
 

How do I start?

1. Check out some Google Earth Plug-inexamples.
2. Sign up for a Google Maps API key.
3. Read the Google Earth API Developer’s Guide.
4. Review the Google Earth API.

SEO Cheat Sheet

C O U T I N G

● KeyWord Research Use WordTracker for an estimate on daily searches and Overture for an approximate report on KW usage in the last month.Use Wikipedia,dictionaries and other resources for KW inspiration to try and stretch your long tail.Remember,this is the cornerstone of your future actions and it may determine what domain name, titles,URLs,and content you chose.

● Competition Spy Every gosu player knows that scouting early in the game is crucial.Find out who your top 3 competitors are and determine their marketing strategy,before you even buy your domain name or write a single line of code! Check for backlinks using the “link:mycompetitor.com ” query on Google.Don’t stop at he directories hey submit to.See if they have a Wikipedia page or reference;see if they have any links on social bookmarking websites,like del.icio.us,and what do people commonly associate them with;check for blog posts on Technorati;check for buzz on digg and other prosumer websites. See what they did best and think of ways you can do better and differentiate.

H E A D T A G S

● Title Tag Probably he most important of them all.Use relevant KeyWords,yet do Link Baiting;remember that his tag will show up in SERPs.Use a different title on each page to avoid duplicate content penalty.But keep them standardized by branding them with your website name.Trust a separator character. (eg:ACME |Buy Red Bicycles on Discount)

● Meta KeyWords Tag Try to stick to a maximum of 20 KW combinations;stuffing is no good.Use different KW tags on each page to avoid duplicate content penalty.

● Meta Description Tag Describe the page content as accurate as possible,while using relevant KW.Remember that this should be no longer than 250 chars and that he first 150 chars may show up on SERPs.Use a different tag on each page to avoid duplicate content penalty.

● Meta Foo Tags Don’t forget about the http-equiv,resource-ype,classification,rating,distribution & other meta tags out there.Try teaching the spider as much data about the page as you can.

A R C H I T E C T U R E

● URLs Describe your content and keep it short.Separate words with hyphens,as hey work best.Watch out for too many subfolders,as the further away from the home page you are,the lower the Page Rank will be.Careful with subdomains,they will be treated almost as separate websites.KeyWords won’t hur ,you know!

● Dynamic Pages Use a URL rewriting engine,like mod_rewrite on Apache,and turn your string of parameters into meaningful folders.Take the ime to understand this technology and you will harvest the goods.End your URLs in a .html .A good starting point would be reading Professional SEO with PHP.

● Session IDs If you serve a crawler the same page,with different URLs,for a thousand times,it will eventually get angry and do nasty things to your ranking.Turn those ugly numbers off and implement cookies if you really have to.Or,if you feel like living dangerously,use cloaking for spiders.

● Canonicalization www.website.com,website.com,www.website.com/index.html,website.com/index.html,will be treated as separate pages.Permanently redirect (301)all of the above combinations to a single address,preferably www.site.com.

● Frames It ain’t ‘97 anymore.So just forget about frames,as weird thing will happen to your indexing if you use them. Yes,the same with iframes!

● Forms Crawlers are smart,but not smart enough to input text in search boxes and then index the resulting pages. Content available only by forms won’t be indexed.If your website is designed in such a manner,engineer a workaround with HTML sitemaps.

● Navigation If your website is structured on different levels and you need a drop-down menu,don’t use JavaScript or Flash (with cheesy background music).Use a SEO friendly,list menu.If crossbrowsing issues drive you crazy and you must go with DHTML,find a script that hides the list div instead of generating it on-the-fly.

MA R K U P

● Semantic Code Emphasis your keywords and essential info with font weight,size and color attributes.Always use heading and subheading tags (hx)and apply whatever style you like to them.Use li tags when displaying a set of items;use tables when displaying a grid;use blockquote when quoting.Remember what the semantic web is all about:data about the data,and give meaning o your markup.

● Anchor Text & Title Use KW combinations that clearly describe the page you are linking to. Click here is not an option. Remember this is very powerful as it has been used for link bombing.Stay away from JavaScript links as chances are they will not be crawled.

● Valid Code Don’t hurt he web and do your best to stick to standards.Write valid XHTML/CSS2. There are hundreds of communities that use valid code and design superb websites,like csszengarden.Find your support group and Reboot your website.

C O N T E N T

● Copy writing Write your own,original content.Surf for editorial tips,like CopyBlogger and pay much attention to scannable text.Study Jacob Nielsen’s articles on readability. Remember to use an inverted pyramid structure,with the essential info at the top.Organize your copy into sections,short paragraphs and lists.

● Freshness Spiders love fresh and juicy content.And so do your visitors.If you sell stuff,get a Latest Products section;if you write stuff,get a Latest Articles section;if you’re a boring company,at least get a Latest News section.To make things even more attractive,generate an RSS feed and advertise it on your home page.

● Crawlable Content Although bots have achieved great technical progress,Ajax,Flash,JavaScript generated content,text in images are all blind spots on your page.Put your important info in plain HTML.If you must really show your fancy font,use sIFR as text will still be indexed.Most bots behave as a ext browser,so use a tool like Lynx to analyze your website.

● Image Name &Alt Text Think of crawlers as visually impaired beings,learning to comprehend images.The text will come naturally to you.If you have multiple sets of images,like in a shopping cart,group your images into folders named appropriately.

S E R V E R I N T E R A C T I O N

● robots.txt Make use of the robots.txt file on your web server.This file tells crawlers which directories can or cannot be crawled.Make sure it’s current for your site so that you don’t accidentally block Googlebot .Visit www.robotstxt.org to learn how to instruct robots when hey visit your site.

● sitemap.xml This file is now a standard practice.Visit www.sitemaps.org to get the protocol specifications.There are plenty of free tools for automatic generation of the XML.Submit it to all major search engines: Google, Yahoo!, MSN.

● Server Config Make sure your web server supports the If-Modified-Since HTTP header.This feature allows your web server to tell the bot whether your content has changed since it last crawled your site.Check that your server outputs a 404 header even if you use custom error pages.Get a reliable hosting provider;if your server goes down during a crawl,you could flush away months of hard work.

P R O MO T I O N

● Blog Start blogging even before you launch your service or product.There are thousands of great resources, tutorials and cheat sheets for you to learn how to do it properly.Some of the most important aspects for you to remember:be transparent,be informal,be remarkable.

● Online Reputation The Web is such a depersonalized environment that people crave for a human presence behind the screen. Become the spokesperson for your business.Put your paranoia aside,drop your nicknames and create a professional virtual identity.Sign every article or comment with your real name.Attach a smiling photo of yourself to your accounts.People will be googling for your name.You should manage what they find.

● Networking Comment on the blogs you read and leave your URL all over the place.Put your blog & website address on your email signatures;on your letters,business cards and everything else you print. Join a Social Networking Community,like LinkedIn,ask for connections and give recommendations.

● Buzz Generation If you’re not worthy of getting digged,write your own Press Releases and spread them with free PR websites. Try your luck by asking for a review with well known bloggers in your field.

D O N ‘T S

● Black Hat Cloaking, KeyWord stuffing and invisible text are probably the easiest way to get delisted,sandboxed or be put in Supplemental Results hell.Most amateurs start with the pick-up lines instead of the basic body language control.Study the fundamentals,don’t let yourself fooled by some secret techniques your neighbour’s kid told you.

● Duplicate Content Useless to say you must not steal other people’s content,for it will hurt your karma and ranking. But make sure you don’t show the same content with different URLs and itles;like a product configurator,where a URL parameter only changes the shoe color;or Session IDs.

● Page Rank Mania Focusing on increasing your PageRank is a narrow-minded approach to SEO and web marketing. It’s not only inaccurate,as Google keeps is outdated for some months after it has really changed,but it is irrelevant. Bringing visitors to a poorly crafted page or dull content is suicidal.You want conversions, not traffic.

●Link Exchange Reciprocal linkage is a thing of the past.Google already ignores reciprocal link accumulation on real estate websites.And never liked spammy/link farms anyway.

R E ME MB E R

●“You will never really know exactly how Google works (unless you work there)” -“Search Engine Optimization:An Hour a Day ” By J..Grappone,Gradiva Couzin

●“Most of the right choices in SEO come from asking,What ’ s the best thing for the user?” -Matt Cutts

●“Good HTML titles,good body copy,great content,ensuring that your site doesn ’t have roadblocks to crawling — these have worked for nearly a decade..” -Danny Sullivan Many thanks to LifeClever for the design tips and SEOMoz for their great material.

By: Mihai Gheza’s SEO Cheat Sheet

Twenty Google Tools for Boosting Your Productivity

Learning to make the most of what these services have to offer can make a difference to anyone wanting to get a new online business off the ground or improve the reach and success level of an existing small-to medium-size company. Here is a list of 20 of the tools you ’re likely to find most useful.

Google ’s search service. Google indexes and organizes the contents of the Web
in a huge database;it ’s this database that you use to search the Web

AdWords. This is a paid search placement program;you create ads and bid
on how much you ’ll pay for each click the ad attracts.Each time someone
clicks on your ad,you gain a potential customer or client

AdSense. This program enables blog and Web site owners to run targeted ads
alongside their content;the content of the ads is intended to complement
what you ’ve published yourself

Google Apps. This service provides you with a domain name (for a one-time
$10 fee)and enables you to use a suite of business applications,which multi-
ple users can access

Google Docs & Spreadsheets. This exciting and easy-to-use service gives you a
word processor and a spreadsheet application that you can use and access
for free

Google Calendar. A default calendar is created for you when you sign up for
Google Apps;you can also create custom calendars and even embed calen-
dars in Web pages

Gmail. Google ’s e-mail application comes with lots of storage space and an
integrated chat client to boot

Google Talk. Google ’s chat application lets you send instant messages and
even conduct real-time voice conversations through your computer

Google Page Creator .This Web page editing tool lets you create your own
Web site to go along with your Google Apps domain name

Blogger. Google ’s popular,and free,blogging services lets you create your
own Web-based diary,complete with an index,an archive,and a comments
feature

Checkout, Google Product Search, Catalogs. I ’m fudging a bit and lumping
these three separate Google services into a single unit.Each one can help
commercial businesses sell products online

Google Base. A growing number of entrepreneurs are posting merchandise,
property,services,jobs,and lots of other things for sale in this Web publish-
ing area

Google Gadgets. These easy-to-implement bits of Web content can make your
Web site more valuable and attract more repeat visits

Analytics,Trends. These two analytical tools provide you with information
about visits to your own Web site and trends in Web searches,respectively

Desktop, Toolbar. These two tools help you search more effectively,both
through files on your own computer and your local network (Desktop) as
well as the wider Internet (Toolbar)

Picasa. This powerful photo viewing and editing tool automatically organizes
all the files on your desktop and lets you edit them as well

News, Book Search. These tools provide businesspeople with important up-to-
the-minute data they need to keep on top of trends and events

Google Apps Premium. This corporate version of Google Apps guarantees
nearly 24/7 reliability and gives businesses the ability to write custom programs that interface with Google ’s services

Gmail Mobile and SMS. These tools let busy professionals search Google and
exchange messages when they ’re on the road

Google Pack. This suite of applications will boost the functionality of virtually
any workstation

Learning from Google: A 21st-Century Model for Success

You know what Google is. At least,you think you know Google. Chances are you associate Google with being among the most successful high-tech businesses in the world,as well as being the most popular search service on the World Wide Web. And you have probably heard ‘‘google ’’used as a verb,meaning ‘‘to search for or find something online,’’as in: ‘‘I Googled my professor and found his home page …I Gmailed him my report.’ ’(Gmail is Google ’s email service;you ’ll hear quite a bit about it in the pages that follow.) If that ’s all you think of when you hear the word ‘‘Google,’’you ’re missing the latest Internet revolution.What you can learn from this book will improve your life immeasurably, especially if your goals are to work more efficiently and to do a better job of marketing yourself or your company.

What ’s So Great About Google?

Back in 1996,two graduate students started their own Web-based search service, which they called BackRub. By 1998,the project had gained a lot of attention, secured some investors, and turned into a corporation called Google a Web site that made specific Web pages, discussion groups, or even individual words and phrases easy to locate. In recent years, Google has expanded its services for businesses in a dramatic way. Its Gmail and AdWords services are now in widespread use. For example, Google offers scheduling, word processing, spreadsheet, email, and other applications both separately and as part of an umbrella package called Google Apps. These days, Google is also an increasingly popular solution for small businesses that need to increase their visibility and build their brand. Google is fast becoming the most affordable and effective marketing venue for businesses.

Through its expansion into the business services space, Google itself provides you with a role model that you can follow as you develop your own business online. It all starts when you create a service that gives you a solid foundation. After a steady stream of customers are knocking at your virtual door, you can expand into new areas. Google can help you make that exciting move.

These days, Google is much more than a directory of the Web ’s contents. It ’s on the verge of becoming an integral part of many small business operations. Google is itself a model for a 21st-century business. You can learn a great deal about how a successful company operates by reading the sections that follow.

Information Sells

What ’s the first lesson you learn from Google ’s story? Having identified a need that is shared by each one of the millions of individuals who go online every day, Brin and Page stuck to their core business and kept improving it. They spent many years building their company, slowly focusing on the basic activity of searching for content on the Web. Only when that process became widely accepted did they begin to sell ads that would appear alongside search results pages. Only after several years did the company go public. Only recently have they begun to provide the business applications.

Keep It Simple

When you look at the Google home page shown in www.google.com, what do you see? Along with the search box and heading and links,your eyes will rest on lots of white space. While other Web sites (such as that of Google ’s competitor Yahoo!) are cluttered with links, words, images, and corporate logos,Google ’s remains remarkably uncluttered.No doubt Google could make millions by placing a single ad or two on its well-traveled home page. But the site ’s managers know the value of simplicity, and you should appreciate it too.

Focus on Your Core Business

Even as it expands to the desktops of individual business users, Google hasn ’t lost sight of its core business:providing accurate search results. Google doesn ’t make money off the search results by themselves. However,its paid advertising programs such as AdWords, which place ads alongside search results,have proven to be highly lucrative. Google has found a way to preserve its original mission and maintain the quality of its product for the millions who search the Internet each day.

The lesson for you is to focus on your own core business and establish a base of operations on the Web first.Then you can begin to think about branching out into trying to boost productivity as well as revenue. Suppose you are starting from square one: you have a Big Idea for an online business and you have identified the target audience you want to reach. But that ’s as far as you ’ve gone so far. You have Internet access through your office,your school,or your home.But you need to set up your own business online. If you only wanted one service to get you started, the logical first choice would be to sign up for email with Google ’s Gmail service email, after all, is central to all online communications. But if you want a complete solution, sign up for Google Apps and look around at other Google services.

Twenty Google Tools for Boosting Your Productivity

Google has extended far beyond its core search business to provide a variety of new services,including free email,Web hosting,and business applications. It only makes sense to pay attention to what Google has to offer and take advantage of the services that can help you. Go Google does not attempt to be a comprehensive examination of all of Google ’s online services. For one problem,a book like that would be far too large to fit on your bookshelf. But more importantly, the book would become obsolete between the time it is written and when it is delivered from the printer. That ’s because Google is constantly expanding its services and acquiring new technologies.

Google User Experience (UX)

O grupo do Google User Experience (UX) divulgou uma lista de princípios que são aplicados nas suas ferramentas:

1. Foco em pessoas que vivem, trabalham e sonham;
2. Todo milissegundo conta;
3. Simplicidade é poderosa;
4. Convidar os iniciantes e atrair os experientes;
5. Ousar em inovar;
6. Design para o mundo;
7. Plano para os negócios do presente e para o futuro;
8. Encantar os olhos sem distrair a mente;
9. Ser importante na confiança das pessoas;
10. Adicionar um toque humano;

Most Popular Today

Esta foi a semana dos vídeos, muitos post sobre o tema para Flex e Flash vamos começar pelo AIR App of the Week: RichFL editor de video FLV em .AIR exemplos de Flash Video AS3 Class Example passaram por muitos blogs e grupos sobre o assunto.

DClick Team Weblog de Marcos Arruda fala sobre os frameworks para a plataforma Flex em desenvolvimento atualmente, PureMVC é um deles. Rec6 - Tecnologia - Mais populares de Nicolas publicou a ótima ferramenta do Google Ad Manager, um novo serviço de gestão de publicidade on-line que, ao contrário de outras ferramentas similares, não é cobrado dos usuários.

Veja Showcase Of Creative Flash Preloaders do Smashing Magazine de Vitaly Friedman & Sven Lennartz que relacionaram ótimos exemplos de pre-loaders flash. The Guardian também apareceu com uma lista de 50 blogs poderosos da internet. Procurando por ferramentas web2.0 encontrei esse site que vai agradar a muitos. 101 recursos essenciais para o freelancer
eu mesmo passei a usar esse Clocking IT

Google Gears para Mobile

Hoje a Google anuncia o lançamento do Google Gears para celular, uma extensão de navegador móvel para criar RIA para dispositivos móveis. A primeira versão já está disponível para o Internet Explorer no Windows Mobile Mobile 5 e 6. Google Gears v0.2 pode ser usado para desenvolver resursos off-line em suas aplicações móvel. Você também pode enviar e receber pedidos para banco de dados na web onde o caching de dados e armazenamento de informações entre as sessões é controlada pelo Google Gers. A Google também trabalha para trazer o Google Gears para outras plataformas móveis.

Já existe muitas aplicações para Windows Mobile Web apps que usam o Google Gears para celular, como o pagamento do serviço social Buxfer e provedores de aplicações online como Zoho. Leia mais sobre o Google Gears no blog Google Mobile.

Receita do Google para sua empresa ser inovadora

Segundo Jim Lecinski, Diretor do Google, a receita para o sucesso da empresa se baseia em 9 pontos que podem ser adotados em qualquer empresa, site ou blog:

1 - Inovação, não perfeição instantânea: Lançar idéias rápida e frequentemente é mais importante do que ficar tentando atingir o produto/serviço perfeito para depois lançá-lo. O feedback dos consumidores irá aprimorar melhor a idéia e a resposta deles irá indicar os projetos mais promissores.

2 - Compartilhe tudo que você puder: Pequenos times que se comunicam abertamente tem trazido grandes resultados para o Google. Eles acreditam em transparência no ambiente de trabalho e de forma que todos saibam em que todos estão trabalhando. Eles tem um programa de computador onde podem procurar um nome e ver em que projeto esta pessoa está trabalhando e acompanhar o andamento do trabalho. Se eles tiverem alguma idéia podem contribuir.

3 - Se você é brilhante nós estamos contratando: Há sempre vagas para os mais brilhantes no Google. eles preferem os generalistas, que podem contribuir de diferentes formas em diferentes projetos do que os especialistas.

4 - Deixe seus funcionários perseguirem seus sonhos: O Google trabalho no modelo 70/20/10. O desenvolvimento dos programas atuais e de novas funcionalidades ocupa 70% do tempo. Novos projetos da empresa ocupam 20% do tempo e os outros 10% são usados pelos colaboradores em seus projetos pessoais. Assim surgiu o Orkut e o Google Earth.

5 - Idéias vem de toda parte: Algumas vezes o Google vai buscar suas idéias fora de casa. O Google Mastheads surgiu da contribuição de não-empregados, um deles uma garota de 13 anos.

6 - Dados e não opiniões: Tome suas decisões com base em fatos e não em opiniões. Com tantas idéias no ar, procure basear suas decisões em informações e não em suposições.

7 - Criatividade adora restrições: “Deixe as pessoas explorarem, mas estabeleça limites claros para estas explorações”. Caldeirões de idéias tendem a explodir se ninguém controla a temperatura.

8 - Procure usuários e ofereça usabilidade - o dinheiro vai atrás: Em outras palavras, faça o que os clientes querem e precisam, e não o que eventualmente venda mais e melhor. Assim você manterá a liderança inovadora.

9 - Não mate idéias, modifique-as: O Google não joga idéias fora. As modifica e transforma em algo útil para a empresa.

Fonte: http://arenageek.wordpress.com/