dashes vs underscores in url for SEO

Which parameter is a better separator for words in a URL for SEO purposes?
a) hyphens/dashes (-)
b) underscores (_)

There is none other to answer this question other than Matt Cutts. Infact one of matt cutts responses clarifies it in a nutshell "if you already have a system set up to do underscores and have links/rankings, it’s probably not worth changing things over. But if you’re starting on a new domain, I’d go with dashes." In this post Matt describes in detail of how google treats dashes and underscores and atleast as of now dashes is a better choice for Google!

Some more results about google based on SERP counts

1. Google searches are NOT case sensitive. All letters, regardless of how you type them, will be understood as lower case. For example, searches for george washington, George Washington, and gEoRgE wAsHiNgToN will all return the same results.
2. _ < & are treated like letters/numbers, not word separators
3. Google thinks ? [ ] ` { } are treated like spaces separating words
4. ‘ . / = \ are treated like spaces separating words if they are within quotes. If they are not inside quotes, they are treated as if they are spaces and are inside quotes.

Alexa Rank: boost alexa ranking

What is Alexa? According to alexa.com
Alexa is useful resource for people to discover information about websites. You can use Alexa to discover how popular a site is (based on its alexa rank), to find new sites, to learn who owns a site and a lot more. Whether you are a web professional trying to size up your online competition or you're just trying to find the best website to buy a new TV, Alexa is for you.

How does it work?
Alexa ranks sites based on tracking information of users of its Alexa Toolbar for Internet Explorer and from integrated sidebars in Mozilla and Netscape.

Is it accurate?
There is some controversy over how representative Alexa's user base is of typical Internet behavior. If Alexa's user base is a fair statistical sample of the Internet user population e.g., a random sample of sufficient size, Alexa's ranking should be quite accurate. In reality, not much is known about the sample and possible sampling biases. A known source of bias is the self-selecting, opt-in nature of Alexa traffic tracking software installation, but the significance of this bias on rankings is not known

Other issues:
* Alexa does not get you much direct traffic (unless you get into the top 100). It gets mostly Ego searches from webmasters looking at their own domain.
* With a small sample audience minor changes in site traffic can represent huge changes in Alexa rating
* In simplest terms, Alexa is truly biased toward a webmaster audience
* On April 16, 2008 many users reported dramatic shifts in their Alexa rankings. Alexa confirmed this later in the day with an announcement that they had released the new Alexa ranking system, claiming that they now take into account more data sources "beyond Alexa Toolbar users".

Also, The Alexa toolbar is regarded by many vendors, such as Symantec and McAfee, as spyware!

Why do you hear so much about Alexa and why is it being promoted so heavily by some e-marketer’s?

* Sometimes (not in call cases) webmasters, advertisers and ad networks use your blog’s Alexa rank as a gauge to determine the worth of a link on your website. If you depend on link or site selling as a form of monetization you’ll definitely want to increase your Alexa rank, because it’ll increase your bargaining power when it comes to ad pricing.
* Sorry to say, though, it’s mainly ignorance–most people don’t read the fine print about how the stats are being generated. The rankings aren’t worth much-except for ego.
* Most people see graphs and rankings and think automatically it’s legit. Numbers can’t lie can they? (Note sarcasm) We get that it’s hard to believe. I mean who wouldn’t be concerned when you go to Alexa.com and see certain sites, maybe competitors websites, higher than yours. You are competitive and want your to be higher. But really, who cares about rank, if you don’t actually get more business?
* Another trick is the quick con of shady e-marketers by getting website owners to install the toolbar to inflate the stats by having them visit their own site, and sell the results back to them as being some kind of expert. People love numbers and graphs. Few ask questions on how the info is determined.
* Think of this, if we were pushing you to install the Alexa Toolbar, and we know you are a regular reader of this blog, then my Alexa rating would also rise (along with your site). In short, a pyramid scheme of Alexa ranking.

So if you still think you want to increase your rank, read the rest!

1. Write content that is related to webmasters. This can fall in the category of domaining and SEO, two fields in which most webmasters will have the Alexa toolbar installed. Promote your content on social networking websites and webmaster forums.
2. Write or Blog about Alexa. Webmaster and bloggers love to hear about ways to increase their Alexa rank. They’ll link to you and send you targeted traffic (i.e. visitors with the toolbar already installed). This gradually has effects on your Alexa ranking.
3. Flaunt your URL in webmaster forums. Webmasters usually have the toolbar installed. You’ll get webmasters to visit your website and offer useful feedback. It’s also a good way to give back to the community if you have useful articles to share with others.
4. Install the Alexa toolbar or Firefox’s SearchStatus extension and set your blog as your homepage. This is the most basic step.
5. Encourage others to use the Alexa toolbar. This includes friends, fellow webmasters as well as site visitors/blog readers. Be sure to link to Alexa’s full explanation of their toolbar and tracking system so your readers know what installing the toolbar or extension entails.
6. Work in an Office or own a company? Get the Alexa toolbar or SS Firefox extension installed on all computers and set your website as the homepage for all browsers. Perhaps it will be useful to note that this may work only when dynamic or different IPs are used.
7. Get Dugg or Stumbled. This usually brings massive numbers of visitors to your website and the sheer amount will have a positive impact on your Alexa Rank. Naturally, you’ll need to develop link worthy material.
8. Pay Cybercafe owners to install the Alexa toolbar and set your website as the homepage for all their computers. This might be difficult to arrange and isn’t really a viable solution for most. I’m keeping this one in because some have suggested that it does work.

Horror Books too good to put down

Books by Stephen King Of course. It's hard to choose the best one, since the best of his works do different things.

1. The Dead Zone is also about pure evil, and our responsibility to fight it. The hero, Johnny, has an accident that should have killed him. Instead, it puts him into a prolonged coma. When he wakes up from it, he has psi abilities--he can see the future, and he can read a people's past by touching them or their belongings. Confronted with a politician whose future capability for evil he can see clearly, Johnny has no choice but to prevent this future.

2. The Stand is especially interesting in that, after having a military virus escape and wipe out most of the population, he shows society rebuilding itself. One community rebuilds along democratic lines (though King makes it clear that without determined and somewhat autocratic leadership, democratic institutions would not survive); the other society is driven by Randall Flagg--either the devil or his close kin. Inevitably, the society of evil feels compelled wipe out the democracy, and the democracy has to protect itself. The Stand contains some of King's most interesting characters, including the Trashcan Man, Randall Flagg, and Glenn, the sociologist/philosopher (who clearly is spouting Stephen King's own ideas). Critics scoff at the idea that King has anything serious to say, but this book presents a convincing argument that there are a few genuinely good people, a few genuinely evil people (or hideously damaged people), but the great majority of the human race is morally neutral, ready to go either direction depending on their surroundings.

3. It: Children are the chosen victims of a timeless monster, but they are also the only people capable of seeing and understanding the threat. King is one of those rare people who has never forgotten what it feels like to be a child. He understands more than most that children experience present reality in a way that adults, protected by their ideas of how the world is supposed to be, cannot; confronted by the same evil the children see, the adults deny the evidence of their senses. This means that the children must deal with an evil far too great for them, alone. And even then, they only thwart the evil--it's still there, lurking, so that many years later, they must go back and kill the monster forever. The children are well-drawn characters, each of them outcast and bullied (another of King's standard themes is how adults choose to ignore the bullying that makes children's lives miserable).

2 states by chetan bhagat

'2 States' is a story about Krish and Ananya. They are from two different states of India, deeply in love and want to get married. Of course, their parents don’t agree. To convert their love story into a love marriage, the couple have a tough battle in front of them. For it is easy to fight and rebel, but it is much harder to convince. Will they make it? From the author of blockbusters Five Point Someone, One Night @ the Call Center and The 3 Mistakes of My Life, comes another witty tale about inter-community marriages in modern India. 2 states brings out the complexity involved in an Indian wedding especially when people across castes enter into a marriage. Its not about convincing the immediate families but the bigger families as well. Love marriages around the world are simple:

Boy loves girl. Girl loves boy.
They get married.

In India, there are a few more steps:

Boy loves Girl. Girl loves Boy.
Girl’s family has to love boy. Boy’s family has to love girl.
Girl’s Family has to love Boy’s Family. Boy’s family has to love girl’s family.
Girl and Boy still love each other. They get married.

So as one can see Chetan bhagat has tried to capture this intricate system in his latest book. The book is a good read, though thoroughly predictable it was probably meant to be that way so as to identify with the reader. Some dialogues are really funny, like the "kick ass and need ice" simile brings a smile to your face... all in all the best part of the book is the Dedication. Have fun all you readers!!!!

The idea of Justice by Amartya Sen

Amartya Sen, winner of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Economics, is Lamont University Professor, Harvard University. He is known for his contributions to welfare economics, for his work on human development theory, welfare economics, famine, the underlying mechanisms of poverty, gender inequality, and political liberalism. He is a distinguished economist-philosopher who won the 1998 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his work on welfare economics.

Amartya Sen has one idea in his "the idea of Justice". He claims that John Rawls' theory of justice relies on just institutions working with a social contract towards a transcendental (i.e. unachievable?) vision of a perfectly just society. Sen critiques this for ignoring real actual achievable outcomes, excluding wider interests and failing to address behavior. He proposes instead that justice should operate by comparing actual outcomes through a process of `unrestricted'(page 44) public reasoning. He offers one example, of whether a flute should belong to a child who can play it, a child who has no other toys, or the child who made it (although he frequently but vaguely refers to meta-examples of slavery and women's rights).

The author argues that economists have tended to content themselves with an overly simple picture of human motivation, rationality and well-being. The author argues that people are not purely self-interested. They care for others and observe social norms. They do not always reason mechanistically, seeking least-cost to given ends. They question the point of their aims and the worth of their wants. Well-being has no single measure but is comprehensible. Its elements are many and do not amount to just utility or some cash value equivalent.

Tying the whole together is the author's confidence that, though values are complex, economics provides tools for thinking clearly about complexity.

The author concludes with democracy which can take many institutional forms. But non succeds without open debate about values and principles. To that vital element in public reason, 'The Idea of Justice' is an important contribution.

Cinema and Censorship: The Politics of Control in India

Cinema and Censorship: The Politics of Control in India covers every area of Indian cinema such as feature films in all languages, documentary films, docu-features made by independent documentary filmmakers, and even foreign films that came under the scissors of the CBFC. It is a critical, incisive, research-based analysis of the political factors that continue to dog the concept of film censorship in India by turning the CBFC into a stringed puppet influenced, dominated, pressured and controlled by ruling political parties. The arguments are often placed against the lack of censorship on television, throwing up questions of irony and contradiction.

Thus far, only a few authors have studied the subject because there are few books that exclusively address the problem of censorship in Indian cinema. The last noted book on censorship was Liberty and Licence in the Indian Cinema by Aruna Vasudev (1978). Gender and Censorship, edited by Brinda Bose, appeared in 2006; this book gives detailed accounts of the Board's war with filmmakers over gender issues. This book offers a model frame of reference on censorship of cinema in India for administrative heads, bureaucrats, filmmakers, scholars and students of Indian cinema.

The book, after a long preface by the author, is divided into nine chapters beginning with Mapping the Field and concluding with A Medium in Chains. The preface observes that film censorship was not the only inheritance of the system imposed by colonial period on post-colonial India; the police, military, intelligence, paramilitary institutions and the criminal procedure and penal codes are other such inherited machines.

Bhowmik, who obtained his Ph.D. on film censorship in India's colonial period, is currently Research Scientist with the Educational Multimedia Research Centre, St. Xavier's College, Kolkata. He has researched and written extensively on the sociological aspects of cinema and television in both English and Bengali.

Evolution of God by Robert Wright

Evolution of GOD from acclaimed author Robert Wright is a well-researched one covering a great deal of territory. It should be read in its entirety to be properly understood. In it he discusses the history of religion with a focus on western Abrahamic faiths, although not entirely neglecting eastern religions. Straddling popular science, ancient history, and theology, this ambitious work sets out to resolve not only the clash of civilizations between the Judeo-Christian West and the Muslim world but also the clash between science and religion.

Wright begins with the five types of primitive hunter-gatherer supernatural beings: elemental spirits, puppeteers, organic spirits, ancestral spirits, and the high gods. In these societies the Shaman was the "first step toward an archbishop or ayatollah" who had contact with these otherwise hidden forces and could help focus their powers to heal, protect, and provide.

With the arrival of the city-states, kings needed divine legitimization and used the gods to solidify their rule over the people. The king was now the conduit of divine power. The character of the gods could differ between city-states, but many of them demanded human sacrifices or else there was chaos. Along with this development came moral obligations, which if they were not met caused sickness and death.

Wright concludes that in our day "we've reached a stage in history where the movement toward moral truth has to become globally momentous." In short, God has some "some growing to do," and Wright seems confident this will happen, given what he wrote in his previous book, Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny. Whether he can be this optimistic depends on the case he made there.

Purnanuru

As its name suggests, ''Purananuru'' poems deal with the ''puram'' (external or objective) concepts of life such as war, politics, wealth, as well as aspects of every-day living. Some of the poems are in the form of elegies in tribute to a fallen hero. These poems exhibit outpourings of affection and emotions.

''Purananuru'' is an excellent source of information on the political and social history of pre-historic Tamil Nadu. There is a wealth of information on the various rulers who ruled the Tamil country before and during the Sangam era (200 BCE – 100 CE). It is part of the ''Ettuthokai'' anthology which is the oldest available collection of poems of Sangam literature in Tamil. ''Purananuru'' contains 400 poems of varying lengths in the ''Akaval'' meter.

It is not know exactly how many authors wrote the poems in ''Purananuru''. There are 147 different names found from the colophons. However some of these could denote the same author. For example, Mangudi Kizhaar and Mangudi Maruthanaar could denote the same person. Fifteen of the authors were women, one of whom was Auvaiyar who is credited with 33 poems. Some of the authors of the poems such as Kapilar and Nakkirar have also written poems that are part of other anthologies.

Jinnah - India, Partition, Independence by Jaswant Singh

Jaswant Singh is a well-known Indian politician and an X-member of the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party). Jaswant Singh was born on 3rd January, 1938 in the village of Jasol in the Barmer district of Rajasthan, India. He is the son of Late Thakur Sardar Singhji and Shrimati Kunwar Baisa. After completing his education and training from institutions like Mayo College in Ajmer and the Indian Military Academy, Dehradun, he went on to serve as an officer in the Indian Army during the 1960’s. Jaswant Singh entered active politics in 1980, after he was elected to the Rajya Sabha, and since then has held important positions during his political tenure. He was the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, from July 2004 onwards.

Jaswant Singh has been having an uneasy relationship with the party leadership ever since the Lok Sabha elections on which he had circulated a note demanding thorough discussion on the debacle. Jaswant Singh's book Jinnah - India, Partition, Independence eulogising Mohd Ali Jinnah has come under attack from BJP and the Sangh parivar, was on Wednesday expelled from the BJP.

The partition of India, 1947, some call it vivisection as Gandhi had, has without doubt been the most wounding trauma of the twentieth century. It has seared the psyche of four plus generations of this subcontinent. Why did this partition take place at all? Who was/is responsible -- Jinnah? The Congress party? Or the British? Jaswant Singh attempts to find an answer, his answer, for there can perhaps not be a definitive answer, yet the author searches. Jinnah’s political journey began as ‘an ambassador of Hindu-Muslim Unity’ (Gopal Krishna Gokhale), yet ended with his becoming the ‘sole spokesman’ of Muslims in India; the creator of Pakistan, the Quaid-e-Azam: How and why did this transformation take place?

Intermediate Accounting by Donald E Kieso

The bestselling book on intermediate accounting, Kieso is an excellent reference for practicing accountants and an invaluable resource for anyone entering the field. It integrates FARS/Codification exercises, cases, and simulations into the chapters. This introduces readers to the codification project. They’ll learn how to leverage everyday accounting programs like Excel, GLS, and other computerized accounting software giving them a strong background in the tools needed in the accounting profession. The new concepts in this edition are:

* New IFRS content
* Updated Fair Value Discussions
* FASB Codification
* Revised End-of-Chapter Material
* Expanded CPA-Prep Professional Simulations
* Updated real-world focus

In this book New and existing content is arranged in a way to offer accountants a chance to review key concepts.

Mastering the Art of French-Cooking

Rarely are we able to say with certainty that a book is at the top of its subject in regard and quality. This book, `Mastering the Art of French Cooking' by Julia Child, Louisette Bertholle, and Simone Beck is certainly in that most unique position among cookbooks written in English and published in the United States.

The recipes are well thought out, with step by step insrtructions and illustrations. The illustrations are priceless, cooking is a lot of technique, and the illustrations walk you through it. Oh, and ingredients. She assumes that the grocery store is the only place you have to shop. So she notes how to adjust for canned or frozen vs fresh, and what you can substitute. Not some cute ethnic market in New york city where everything is always in season from the 4 corners of the world. You can literally take the book to the grocery store to buy your ingredients. and come out with everything you need.

The book is revolutionary in its approach because:
• It leads the cook infallibly from the buying and handling of raw ingredients, through each essential step of a recipe, to the final creation of a delicate confection.
• It breaks down the classic cuisine into a logical sequence of themes and variations rather than presenting an endless and diffuse catalogue of recipes; and many more... read to find out...

Unmasked The final years of michael jackson by Ian Halperin

Ian Halperin is author/coauthor of five books, including the bestsellers Fire and Rain: The James Taylor Story, and Celine Dion: Behind the Fairytale, as well as a number of exposes on the modeling industry. He coauthored Who Killed Kurt Cobain? with Max Wallace. He is also a former winner of the Rolling Stone magazine Award for Investigative Journalism. Ian is a regular correspondent for Court TV and has contributed to 60 Minutes 2.

In late December 2008, Ian Halperin told the world that Michael Jackson had only six months to live. His investigations into Jackson's failing health made headlines around the globe. Six months later, the King of Pop was dead. Friends and associates paint a tragic picture of the last years and days of his life as Jackson made desperate attempts to prepare for the planned concert series at London's 02 Arena in July 2009. These shows would have earned millions for the singer and his entourage, but he could never have completed them, not mentally, and not physically. Michael knew it and his advisors knew it. Anyone who caught even a fleeting glimpse of the frail old man hiding beneath the costumes and cosmetics would have understood that the London tour was madness. Why did it happen this way? After an intense five year investigation, New York Times bestselling author Ian Halperin uncovers the real story of Michael Jackson's final years, in UnMasked a suspenseful and surprising thriller. Whatever the final autopsy results reveal, it was greed that killed Michael Jackson. For other books on Michael Jackson click here...

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

Thirteen linked tales from Strout (Abide with Me, etc.) present a heart-wrenching, penetrating portrait of ordinary coastal Mainers living lives of quiet grief intermingled with flashes of human connection. The opening Pharmacy focuses on terse, dry junior high-school teacher Olive Kitteridge and her gregarious pharmacist husband, Henry, both of whom have survived the loss of a psychologically damaged parent, and both of whom suffer painful attractions to co-workers.

Their son, Christopher, takes center stage in A Little Burst, which describes his wedding in humorous, somewhat disturbing detail, and in Security, where Olive, in her 70s, visits Christopher and his family in New York. Strout's fiction showcases her ability to reveal through familiar details—the mother-of-the-groom's wedding dress, a grandmother's disapproving observations of how her grandchildren are raised—the seeds of tragedy. Themes of suicide, depression, bad communication, aging and love, run through these stories, none more vivid or touching than Incoming Tide, where Olive chats with former student Kevin Coulson as they watch waitress Patty Howe by the seashore, all three struggling with their own misgivings about life. Like this story, the collection is easy to read and impossible to forget. Its literary craft and emotional power will surprise readers unfamiliar with Strout.

Rules of Vengeance by Reich Christopher

Christopher Reich gives us Rules of Vengeance (sequel to Rules of Deception). Sequels are rarely as good as the original, but, Rules of Vengeance turns out to be that rare exception—where the novel not only stands up to its predecessor, but actually takes the story and characters in new—and completely surprising—directions. Again we meet Dr. Jonathan Ransom, a surgeon for Doctors Without Borders. The story begins with his arrival in London to deliver an address at a prestigious international medical conference, and it takes off from there at mach speed, offering more twists than the Monaco Grand Prix. Ransom quickly finds himself in trouble not of his own making. And, once again, he is forced to maneuver between the good guys and the bad guys in order to figure out just what he’s been pulled into, and then make sure that no one else suffers because of it. The stakes are sky high. The locales are exotic. The plot is ripped from tomorrow’s headlines and Reich controls the story with a deft hand from beginning to end.

What’s particularly appealing about Jonathan Ransom is he is not a spy or a trained assassin. He is, in fact, the opposite: a doctor who has devoted his life to helping others—a loner working outside political boundaries who exemplifies the best in us all. But like each of us, he has a dark side that is both frightening and compelling. You do not want to make this man angry.

As for Christopher Reich, he—like Ransom—also may not be a trained spy or assassin (at least not to the best of my knowledge). But he certainly does manipulate the twists, summon the adrenaline, and create a landscape of thrills that can only leave readers with one lasting impression: Chris Reich is the real deal. For other books click here

Best Friends Forever by Jennifer Weiner

Warmly and realistically drawn... Weiner, creator of widely popular female characters, injects an element of suspense into her latest, Best Friends Forever. This book begins on an unexpected note of violence, but the friendship of the title is at its heart. Two estranged onetime high-school chums -- one now a television weathergirl and the other one of Ms. Weiner's lovable, snack-obsessed frumps -- are thrown together to find out what happened in that opening scene and to hash out old grievances.

Best Friends Forever is a story of suspense, friendship, adventure and secrets and is told via 1st person and 3rd person from two different characters and also weaves tales of the past into the present via flashbacks. Where these elements could be awkward if not done well, it actually not only flows perfectly, but adds great interest for the reader. When Addie and Valerie became neighbors as children, Addie was certain they would remain BFFs forever. However a negative high school incident left Addie (the overweight and loyal friend) hurt--and tore the two into two directions where they remained until, 15 years later, Valerie (high school cheerleader, now weather girl) entered Addie's life again...and with blood on her sleeve and in need of help.

There is a message here - which basically is that you never know what will happen in your life and looks and appearance can be deceiving and that, in your life, friendship and support are extremely important and worth fighting for.