Well, it’s Diwali. The festival of lights. The festival of happiness. And definitely a festival for shopping.

First of all, i would like to wish all of my friends and visitors to this site a very happy and prosperous Diwali. No Gifts, No Sweets, No Decorated Card, just a simple Diwali wish, straight from the heart.

Alright, play with lights, have fun, avoid noisy and polluting crackers, play safe and God bless all of you!

Okay, it’s Diwali. So for me, it’s time for some heavy duty shopping. I have already bought a Sony Vaio notebook few days back. Just got home from another monstrous session of shopping. I am spending heavily on this Diwali. And i guess it ain’t over yet. Today is gonna be a very long and tiring day. Anyways, that’s not what matters. What matters is, that we all have fun, take care, be good, and enjoy the day.!!!

Again, a very happy and prosperous diwali to all of you!!!! God bless you and your family!

Well, web directory is probably a common word for all webmasters in today’s date. It really needs no introduction. So i will come to point straight away.

Recently, Google penalized (or whatever they call it) many of the leading web directories. Most of them were pretty big, but they witnessed huge pagerank drops and fall in SERPS as well. Basically, Google went against any kind of paid advertisement.

Now i was wondering, if paid links is the case, then why the hell did they penalize one of my free directory, which first of all is FREE and secondly has 15k listings already with current alexa of 79K. Besides these, we have a unique submission guideline of accepting only those links whose titles are actually the break of the domain. For example, we would not accept a listing with title “Make Money Online With Sharat Jaswal” or something like that. If the domain is sharatjaswal.com, Then the title accepted will be “Sharat Jaswal” only. Now this is one feature that is very uncommon in most of the directories present on web. Also, we understand the point here, these titles are not helping the listed sites a great deal. They won’t affect the SERPS in any way. I mean, let’s accept it, most of the domains rank number 1 in most of the Search Engines for their own domain name. Isn’t it? So why should be there any kind of problem to Google from my free directory? So, i kept on analyzing the things and now i am trying to make some changes. The changes are basically an experiment to see how Google reacts to my directory, in terms of Pagerank and in terms of SERPS.

Well, i am listing some of the changes that i have decided to go with, in regards to betterment of my directory.

In recent past, i had sold few outgoing links on the directory. Although the links were relevant and of same niche, but still… a paid link is a paid link. So i have decided to remove all the paid links as soon as i can.

Some advertisers are interested in the traffic rather than the PR and link juice. My directory has a good alexa of 79K which is going higher day in and day out. So yes, i will continue to sell banner space on my directory however that would be with the “nofollow” attribute. I mean that’s what Google actually wants…right? Sell traffic, but do not sell paid links. Soadding “nofollow” attribute to the banners and links is another thing that is to be done. Ofcourse with the consent of the advertisers.

Third point is a debateful topic. Earlier in this post i mentioned about the particular guideline regarding the Title of the listing. This guideline had been functional on the site since an year, so 85 percent of the listings do have the titles according to the specified guidelines. Now everyone knows that Titles of the site’s listing (which are actually the anchor text to your links) does make a difference in SERPS etc in all search engines. Whether free or paid, a link is a link, and it will definitely effect the SERPS in one way or the other. So what i was thinking was to put “nofollow” attribute in all the approved free listings that i have on my directory. Now the point is.. Is that worth to do? Does that make my directory even more google friendlier or is it just a useless thought? This third point is what i am still trying to analyze. I would like to hear your comments on this issue. What do you think about it.

Anyways, this experiment will have it result out let’s say after three months or so. (Ofcourse i cannot guess exactly when Google will update the pageranks again.). But this experiment will definitely clear one or two things. If the results are good, then we can say that the Google is living upto it’s words. And if the experiment is a failure then all we can say is “So Long Google….Trusted you for long. Can’t do that anymore”.

I would like to hear your comments on this post. This would really matter to lot many webmasters, specially the web directory owners. So have your say on this post!!!

Well, i haven’t been blogging since last two days. If anyone wondering where i had been, well it’s a festive season going around in my country. It’s a festival called “Diwali” and it’s pretty well known all around the globe. It’s also referred to as “Festival of Lights”. So, since it’s a festive season, it calls for a good amount of shopping. So i just got a new red shining beauty. It’s my Sony Vaio CR Notebook. It’s good looking, it’s blazing red and it’s fast. The only thing is that it has Microsoft Vista as Operating System. But i am liking it for a change. Yes, it’s a little resource hungry, but really goes okay with me. Well, the configuration is not on the higher side. Infact, it’s pretty decent. There is an Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T7250 (2 GHz). 120 GB HDD, 1 GB RAM, 14.1″ WXGA Display, Clear Bright LCD Lite, DVD, Windows Vista Home Premium Edition, etc etc….

All in all, it’s pretty cool. Frankly, i went for the looks. I loved the grace of red on this machine. It’s red outside and usual black inside. Vista adds to it’s beauty. Overall, i like this beauty. Will keep on posting my experiences. Hope to hear your comments on this machine!

By the way, this goes as my first post from this blazing red notebook.

Apple has done something that will surely give iPhone abusers a lot to think about. Apple is no longer selling iPhone for cash or anywhere in stores. They say they tried that and they are done with it. From today onwards, they will only accept credit or debit cards.

Okay, i guess this will be a sad news to people who used to quickly resell iPhones to make profits. Since few weeks, resellers have had a pretty good time. They were in brisk business, specially on eBay, where you can often see thousand or more iPhones for the grab. And yes, they never sold an iPhone less than $399, which is the usual Apple iPhone’s price. So yes, they will be hit hard by Apple’s new trick! Since, credit sales will make it damn easier for Apple to track down the bulk buyers and iPhone abusers.

Good work Apple!

Two Time Formula 1 Champion Fernando Alonso is leaving McLaren. Now why doesn’t that surprise me? After a whole lot of controversial year for McLaren and Alonso, this was bound to happen. Alonso cuts short the three year contract with McLaren after the very first year. Alonso finished third this season in overall standings behind Ferrari’s driver and current world champion Kimi Raikkonen and his teammate Lewis Hamilton.

Since i have just started blogging, i would like to mention that i am a big follower of Formula 1 racing. I had always favored McLaren as the constructors and loved the likes of Finnish driver Mika Hakinnen, Kimi Raikkonen, David Coulthard, Juan Pablo Montoya, and yeh to some extent Michael Schumacher as well. I guess, This year McLaren lost it’s place in my favorites book. But i am happy for Kimi Raikkonen. He is a real fighter. Anyways, i will end this post by wishing Alonso my best wishes in finding some good team and ofcourse the years ahead. It should be an exciting next season. Already waiting….