2006 Dec 05 - Tue

Google Webmaster Tools

I cover a number of different topics in my blog. I'm interested in finding out how people arrive on those pages. From a Google perspective, they have a convenient tool for analyzing some of this information.

Google has a site called Google Webmaster Central. On that page is a link for Webmaster Tools (including Sitemaps). I've added my web site to the tool. As part of that process, they generate a verification key. I've installed the verification key in the footer file that gets included on all generated webpages on my site. This verification key is part of a script that talks to Google each time a web page is rendered by a web browser.

As part of each rendering, information is sent to Google that logs the queries used to get to the specific page. Google summarizes this information and reports this to me each time I visit the Google Webmaster Tools.

I've also uploaded a simple site-map so Google knows which pages to visit.

Now that I've provided some basic information to Google, I can now get an idea of how pages are crawled, when they are crawled, and how the pages are ranked within Google's system.

I also have the ability to download a spreadsheet of queries Google has recorded for reaching each page set. This will help me to optimize the keywords in each document. It also gives me an idea of people's interests, and thereby provide additional content focussed to those topics of interest.

I have a Google search tool at the top of my pages. The searches entered in that box are also recorded so I can tell for what people are searching once they reach my site.

There is also a set of index statistics provided which include: the pages indexed by Google, sites that Google knows that link to my site, and presents a list of sites related to my site so I can have an idea of who my competition might be.

I've found the Google 'link:' not quite as detailed as I think it should be. Google has maybe twelve sites showing information for link:www.oneunified.net. On the other hand, Alexa shows around 74 sites linking.

Anyway, for a high level view of what GoogleBot thinks about my site, Google Webmaster Central provides a good summary.

[/Personal/SoftwareDevelopment/HTML/Findability] permanent link

NTP for Callmanager

Since Cisco generally recommends that the Callmanager server not be a member of an Active Directory domain, is is unable to make use of the time distribution protocols normally available to member servers and computers. As background, I think Cisco's stance is understandable, and reflects the quantity of testing Cisco performs with each upgrade and service pack install. If a server is a member of a domain, it is entirely possible that registry entries, dlls, or applications coulds be modified through Group Policies that may affect the reliable functioning of the phone server.

As an alternative to Microsoft's time distribution protocol, the industry standard NTP (Network Time Protocol) can be used. The Callmanager installation automatically installs an NTP client, but does not turn it on.

To turn it on is quite simple. Obtain an address of an NTP server, either on your network or an external one. Using the one that drives the Active Directory domain controllors would be best. As a last resort, an address from pool.ntp.org could be used.

Edit the file C:\WINNT\system32\drivers\etc\ntp.conf and apply the ip address to the server line. Save the file. Bring up Microsoft's Services management application. Set the Network Time Protocol service to Automatic and start it up.

The Event Log will record startup and synchronization messages for your reference.

Be aware that with each Callmanager upgrade you perform, the service may be turned back to Manual and the ntp.conf file may be overwritten. You may want to make a backup of the configuration file so you can easily re-apply after your next upgrade.

[/Cisco/Callmanager] permanent link

Ping Weblog

I used the ping_weblogs_com found and described at Get Noticed by Pinging site. The referenced page also lists a number of services to ping.

Adding a ping to weblogs.com was reasonably simple, except that I forgot that I can't do a $ping_weblogs_com in the text article, but had to do it as part of a flavour file.

And as I didn't want to do it as part of a regular article presentation, as it may extend the page load times, I had to create some separate flavour files. I then activated the plugin in the story flavour.

Now I'm all set with to ping Weblogs.com.

BrutalHogs has a ping flavour to help a little with the manual ping process. But I think that Ping-O-Matic probably takes care of most things, even if it is only manually for now.

[/OpenSource/blosxom] permanent link

Adding an RSS Template to Blosxom

The RSS template/flavour supplied with the original installation of Blosxom doesn't really conform to modern useage. At The Unofficial Blosxom User Group, mention is made of Hal Halvorsen's A better RSS 2.0 template for Blosxom.

He mentions it might take ten to fifteen minutes to configure. In actual fact it was easier than that. I copied his flavours into the root of my blog directory and made the following changes:

• story.rss20: added .article to fn in two places, since that is how I suffix each individual blog article from a url perspective
• head.rss20: changed the copyright notice
• foot.blog: changed my index.rss link to index.rss20 for my xml tag

I was able to validate the feed with Weblogs.com Feed Validator.

So, in actual fact, adding the feed ability and documenting it in this blog took maybe fifteen or twenty minutes. Easy.

[/OpenSource/blosxom] permanent link