The day began with an excitement and I was out of my house before 7:30 AM in the morning. I was going to attend the search marketing conference at Tidel Park, Chennai- organized by The Knowledge Foundation, SearchCamp; A two day Search Engine Marketing event which was organized to gather people from different fields with similar interest.

While going through the registration process I met few people who helped me making myself comfortable with the altogether new place. It was really good to have met different people from the same line yet creating difference every day. Right from an amateur to entrepreneur, fresher to experienced I found people from each and every level; junior level, middle management and CEOs.

The conference was a bit delayed due to unexpected fog around airport of Chennai however I could see the level of enthusiasm which was building up on every single person stepping in. participants were taking their respective seats and soon the auditorium was filled with more than 80% of capacity.

The conference started with the welcome speech of Mr. Kiruba Shankar, CEO of Business Blogging Pvt Ltd, a social media consultancy and an excellent speaker too who knows how to stimulate “apparently ordinary” people to unusual effort. Mr. Vishal Sampat delivered a thoughtful and interesting presentation on Usability, Conversions & SEO. This was followed with various aligned presentations dealing into varied topics. Almost every critical topic including SEO for E-Commerce , Web analytics, use of social media for SEO was covered and many hidden dimension of Googling were unfolded.

The whole session was unexpectedly interactive and people jumped into discussion wherever their subject matter expertise was demanded. It was indeed an enriching experience to have met other SEO experts and exchange ideas with them.

Finally the day ended with diversified ideas flown into the air and few argued yet open ended topics.

Overall this conference gave a very good insight into the untouched/ less explored areas of E-marketing and helped people who came with the objective of meeting different people for the very purpose popularly known as social networking. Had we concentrated more on Technical side of optimization, it would have been much better; however, overall the purpose of conference was met and will surely look forward to attend these kind of conferences in future too.

Social bookmarking is very popular & widely used by people around the web. First time I heard about these social bookmarking sites like Furl, reddit, del.icio.us etc. around 2 years back, that time social bookmarking was not that much popular as it is these days. Now, it has become a handy tool to keep the record of web pages & links you like the most. It has become very popular because of some great features like tagging, easy search, sharing & networking.

Now, around 2 weeks back I found a new bookmarking way i.e. image bookmarking- a technique of organizing all the wonderful images around the web.

Now, your question might be why?

Bookmarking sites like reddit, furl, del.icio.us etc are not visual in nature and therefore it’s nice to have a fanatical tool to entertain the eye as well as the mind.

These image bookmarking sites work in a similar manner like text-based social bookmarking. When members discover an image worth saving, they bookmark it. People are appreciating these sites (though I myself haven’t tried much)

Here are some image bookmarking sites:

: Photagr is a social bookmarking site, inspired by the wonderful site del.icio.us, but geared towards photos. It is a way of creating your own gallery of images found all over the web. This could be a collection of fine art photographs, family photos, icons, or any combination there of. Once on photagr you can then discover images other web surfer’s have found and tagged.

: vi.sualize.us is a social bookmarking website for visual contents — vi.sualize.us (read visualize us) allows you to remember your favorite images around the web, and share them with everyone.

: imgfave is an image bookmarking service that allows you to save all your favorite images from around the web in one convenient place. You can also subscribe to users you like to keep up to date on what they’re adding.

: We Heart It is a social bookmarking tool for images and videos but IE doesn’t support   bookmarklets.

: FFFFOUND! is a web service that not only allows the users to post and share their favorite images found on the web, but also dynamically recommends each user’s tastes and interests for an inspirational image-bookmarking experience!!

: Typeish is an image bookmarking database showcasing a careful selection of inspirational, provocative, intoxicating, exquisite, captivating, photography, designs, type, art, fashion & more.

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Once you register as user, Photoree creates for you a personal filter stored in the database. This filter is responsible for the selection of the images that will be shown to you. Photoree shows you a stream of images which you will rate. Rating is important as the algorithm uses it to train and adapt your filter. More the photos you rate, better the filter will learn your taste.

Now, with the help of these image bookmarking sites, you can enjoy the interesting photos you found, in your own personal collection of favorites.

You can discover images with your personal filter what kind of photos you like. And yes, you can Share the photos you discovered, to your contact list or to the whole world, the choice is yours.

Today Google has announced the release of its new tool “AdWords display ad builder”.

With the help of this tool you can create professional-looking display ads in AdWords without needing to hire a designer.

You can select your Ad format from over 40 professionally designed templates. This new tool lets you create customized display ads with your own text, images, and logo. There are many good features available like you can change colors and backgrounds, it can create ads to fit all possible placements across the Google content network, including video, game, and feed placements.

These ads are optimized for direct user response and use a clear call to action you define. When you’re done creating your new ad, it will run on Google partner sites based on the target settings you choose.

How to use ‘Display Ad Builder’?

Login to your AdWords Account & then select the campaign for which you want to build your Ad. From the ‘Ad Variations’ tab Click on ‘Display ad builder’ to get started. After selecting the display ad builder from any ad group page within your account, you’ll be able to fully customize an ad template’s background colors, fonts, images, and text. If you have an existing ad, click on the appropriate link to upload it.

you can create product showcases, galleries, and industry-specific ads.

You can add or remove ad sizes when you first create your customizable display ad. After you select your ad size, you can preview your ad content within the selected size. You can then go back one step in the process and change your selection before you finally submit your new ad.

Animation is restricted to a maximum of 15 seconds (at a 15-20 fps frame rate). Endless loops are not allowed. Ads can loop any number of times until the 15-second limit is reached.

Audio effects must be user-initiated. Browser video effects, such as cursor animations, are allowed, but must be user-initiated. For audio and browser video effects, the default must be set to off.

The display ad builder is now available to all advertisers in the U.S. and Canada.

For a more detailed look you can watch a longer tutorial.

Father of Internet- “Vint Cerf” has warned that the world is on the verge of running out of the web addresses that allow computers to identify & communicate with each other.

Cerf has stated that there is an immediate need of businesses and consumers to switch to the next generation of net addresses.

IP addresses are very crucial to websites but some network engineers predict that we will run out of them in coming 2 years (in yr. 2010).

Cerf has said that it’s a high time that preparations are made now, otherwise some computers might not be able to go online and the connectivity of the Internet might be damaged.

Now, Internet service providers are needed to get ready for the situation and that time was running out for a smooth transaction.

According to current figure, the existing IPv4 address will run out in 2010 and possibly as early as next year. But, scientist have already kept aside a new system called IPv6, which has been ready for implementation for more than a decade.

Under IPv6, each address has 128 bits and so provides 340 trillion different addresses.

Both the protocol systems will run simultaneously and IPv4 addresses will still work as normal. But if the IPv6 is not widely adopted, then those using it may find themselves unable to connect across the whole internet.

Cerf said consumers needed to be aware of IPv6 and to start checking that the products they buy are IPv6 compatible. Most software & hardware are already marking their products IPv6 ready. It is thought that, properly handled, the effect of the introduction of IPv6 on consumers will be minimal, although eventually home routers may have to be upgraded or swapped so thay can use the longer addresses.