Reading time: 4 – 6 minutes

GOOGLE Website Submit

Properly Submitting your website to the search engines is a critical part of any successful Internet footprint. Each has their own particular procedure. Each is demystified below.

The first step is to establish a FREE Google account. Once the account is ready, point your web browser to Google webmaster central and click [Sign in to Webmaster Tools]. Follow the instructions to verify your website (file upload or meta tag). Verification gives you access to a wide range of helpful information about your website like; Pages with external links, Top search queries, What Googlebot sees, and Web crawl. Set your preferences under [Settings] and choose; target users in the US or worldwide, display your domain with the www, and include your website images in Google Image Labeler (remember to search engine optimize your image titles).

Once your preferences are set it’s time to upload your sitemap. Your sitemap.xml should contain a weighted and formatted list of every page. If you don’t already have one, creating your sitemap is easy with this FREE online sitemap tool. After the sitemap is compiled and uploaded, return to Google and enter the path to it. If the sitemap was uploaded to the root of your website, this will be http://www.yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml (if otherwise located, enter that). Be sure the check the status of your sitemap and correct any errors. Updating is done via the [Resubmit Selected] feature on the Webmaster Toools sitemap page.

There is one additional file to create and upload so that we are prepared for when the search bots visit your website.  Point your web browser to Generating a robots.txt file or Manually creating a robots.txt file and follow the instructions.  The purpose of the robots.txt file is to tell the search bots what portions of your website should “Allow” or “Disallow” indexing of content. Google is now aware of your content. Now let’s move to Yahoo.

YAHOO Website Submit

Yahoo also requires you to establish a FREE account. Once ready, point your web browser to Submit Your Site and click on [Submit Your Site for Free] then [Submit a Website or Webpage]. Enter your website address (URL) and login to your Yahoo account if prompted. You should see the following:

Thank you! Your URL has been added to our list of URLs to crawl. Please expect a delay of several weeks before your URL is crawled. Note that in the effort to maximize the quality of search results that appear on Yahoo! and our other distribution partners, we do not add every submitted URL to our search index. Therefore we cannot make predictions or guarantees about whether your URL will appear as a search result.

Now we need to authenticate your website to Yahoo. While in Yahoo Site Explorer, choose [My Sites].  Click on your website address (URL). Here you can check the Authentication Status and Number of Pages Indexed. Choose [Authentication] from the left menu. Follow the instructions to verify your website (file upload or meta tag).

Once your website is authenticated, return to the Yahoo Site Explorer and again choose your website under [My Sites]. Now choose [Explore Site] toward the bottom.  Voila, a full list of indexed pages as they appear in the Yahoo’s organic listings.  Click [InLinks] at the top to display a full list of incoming links to your website.  If the data is blank, simply give the Yahoo bots more time to do their work. The big two are done, MSN Live Search and Ask.com are next after the fold.

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Reading time: 1 – 2 minutes

WPtouch from Brave New Code turns your WordPress blog into a tailored web application for the iPhone 3G. Simply install the WPtouch plugin for WordPress, set your options and your blog is transformed. See before and after below.

“With a single click, WPtouch transforms your WordPress blog into an iPhone application-style theme, complete with ajax loading articles and effects, when viewed from an iPhone or iPod touch.

The admin panel allows you to customize many aspects of its appearance, and deliver a fast, user-friendly and stylish version of your site to your iPhone and iPod touch visitors without modifying a single bit of code (or affecting) your regular desktop theme.

The theme also includes the ability for your visitors to easily switch between the WPtouch view and your site’s regular theme.” WPtouch, wordpress.org

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Reading time: 3 – 4 minutes

New York, USA (May 19, 2009) FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

In 2006 the Merce Cunningham Dance Company (MCDC) conceived eyeSpace, a performance piece with music by Mikel Rouse.  eyeSpace is unique in that “Mikel Rouse’s score incorporates the use of iPod Shuffle personal music listening devices and an environmental soundscape that is performed live by 1-2 musicians and projected throughout the theater. The score is crafted so that audience members can have a meaningful, unique listening experience, whether they are tuned into the iPod portion (with headphones on, shuffling through tracks at their own pace) or the ambient sound component (sans headphones).” eyeSpace (2006) merce.org

Audience members who own an iPod, iPhone or other MP3 player are encouraged to load Mikel Rouse’s music tracks onto their device and bring it to the theater.  During the performance, the audience is instructed on when to press [play] and listen.

Scherr Technology is proud to have contributed to this performance by providing a uniquely branded and trackable download page for all eighteen eyeSpace performances.  Each audience member follows the website address (URL) included with their ticket.  This page provides event information plus an online form to download the music (MP3 and AAC formats).  Email address, seat number, performance date and time are all required fields.  Download links and instructions are then dynamically loaded for the user.   All music download is recorded for tracking purposes.

On July 22-25 at the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, the Merce Cunningham Dance Company (MCDC) will once again perform eyeSpace. “Join in the festivities celebrating the legendary iconoclast’s milestone birthday and his longstanding relationship with the Pillow. Merce Cunningham’s groundbreaking re-envisioning of art, space, time and technology is honored with a retrospective of masterworks: Sounddance (1975), described by Cunningham as “space observed under a microscope,” CRWDSPCR (1993), a work of constant motion and eyeSpace (2006), which invites audiences to create their own original scores using provided iPod Shuffles.” Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival jacobspillow.org

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