Really COOL Stuff For Your Online Life - Simple Spark

Have you ever found one of the sites that is just awesome? Well I just stumbled upon this one and have found myself spending hours on it - Simple Spark.

This is how they explain their site:

Cool Stuff for Your Life Online.
Simple Spark is the place to find and share a new world of web applications.

Introducing a Catalog of Cool Stuff
simple spark logo

The web is the next great platform and not just for publishing, but for everything. You'll use the web to do all the things you did with traditional applications — write papers, keep your calendar, play games, keep in touch — and you'll do it from your personal computer, your cell phone and your iPhone. The Simple Spark Catalog is the place to find all of the really cool web applications, or "apps" that will become an integral part of your life online.

Not only does the Simple Spark Catalog have a comprehensive listing of really cool apps that gets larger every day, but we also give you the tools to organize and share all these apps with your friends. Our catalog is a marketplace where both established companies and independent developers come to strut their stuff.
A Place for Developers to Dream, Create and Find an Audience

Here at Simple Spark, we like cool stuff. We know a lot of developers who have fantastic ideas, but just can't find an audience for their creation. If you're a developer with a idea, Simple Spark can help you find both the tools and audience for your work — we can help you dream, create and succeed. Add your app to the Simple Spark Catalog today!
Changing the World, One Click at a Time

It's the small ideas, those simple sparks of inspiration, that change the world. The web makes it possible. Simple Spark makes it a whole lot easier. Whether you're a blogger looking to add functionality to your site, a business looking for tools, or a developer looking to create the next big thing, Simple Spark is the place to find cool stuff for your life online.

List of 919 Search Engines on Simple Spark

High Paying Affiliate Program

While I am not one to really preach about affiliate programs, I do want to point out one that close friend of mine has introduced and is really paying off for its members. The company is called Stratos Jet Charters and they have a new affiliate program that pays pretty well. It does not run through any networks so there is no middleman to pay (which means you get paid more) and the basic set-up is this:

- $50 for signing-up
- $15 per qualified lead
- $200 for each flight booked

Payouts at $100 and online tracking of your account with daily updates and payments via PayPal once a month.

Please check it out at - Jet Charter Affiliate Program and tell me what you think.

Alexa Announces New Ranking System

Alexa recently announced that they are implementing a new ranking system which will include more sources for better accuracy and normalizing traffic from their global panel to provide consistently accurate rankings for all countries.

I am happy to see this as I had stopped paying as much attention to Alexa and started using Compete.com (which I think is a great resource also). In addition, I have started to notice my Alexa rank getting better and better for one of my premium web directories which was at around 60K in the Alexa rankings, but dropped to around 350K all the while traffic was actually increasing. Now it has started to get back to normal and is sitting around 235K and getting better each week.

To read more on Alexa's new ranking system click here - The New Alexa Rankings

Another Hit from Aaron Wall and SEO Book - Rank Checker!

Aaron Wall over at SEO Book has done it again and released a great new free SEO resource. It is called Rank Checker and provides a quick keyword ranking tool across Google, Yahoo and MSN/Live that is actually a plug-in for Firefox.

I downloaded and installed it and have to say it is a very good "basic" program for keyword rank checking. I hope Aaron keeps updating over time as it has a great foundation.

Click here to visit - Rank Checker

Google Me Baby!

It had to happen sooner or later. See it here - Google Me Baby

WebVitals - A Helpful Little Site

I found this site on the forums and thought I might share. The name of it is - WebVitals (great name and URL). It seems to produce good and updated site information (many of these types of sites get outdated and forgotten by their owners quickly as they lose interest) for those interested including:

- Google PageRank
- Google Backlinks
- MSN Backlinks
- Yahoo! Backlinks
- Google Pages Indexed
- Yahoo! Pages Indexed
- MSN Pages Indexed
- Alexa Traffic Rank
- Alexa Reach Rank
- Alexa Links In
- Yahoo! Directory Listings
- DMOZ Directory Listings

Check it out here - WebVitals

Free Search Engine Submission Links

I had rounded up a list of some of the second tier search engines that allow you to submit your site for free as many of them have limited crawlers and may or may not ever find your site. Below is that list with the engine name and a direct link to the submission page:

Burf - Submission Page
Exalead - Submission Page
guruji - Submission Page
Gigablast - Submission Page
Accoona - Submission Page
Entireweb - Submission Page
FyberSearch - Submission Page
MixCat - Submission Page
OneSeek - Submission Page
WhatUseek - Submission Page
Scrub The Web - Submission Page
Search Site - Submission Page
Infotiger - Submission Page
SonicRun - Submission Page
Abacho - Submission Page
Acoon.com - Submission Page
Amfibi - Submission Page
homerweb - Submission Page
JGDO - Submission Page
Myahint - Submission Page
Walhello - Submission Page

Just Added 3/20/08!

Big Finder - Submission Page
Search Hippo (requires free registration) - Submission Page
Web Squash - Submission Page
W8 Search - Submission Page
Tower Search (requires registration) - Submission Page

Just Added 3/21/08 - Decided to add in some of the major players after many requests.

Baidu (in Chinese, but pretty easy to figure out) - Submission Page
Google - Submission Page
Yahoo - (reguires free registration) - Submission Page
MSN/LIVE - Submission Page
Search-O-Rama - Submission Page
Igwanna - Submission Page
Cipinet - Submission Page

Just Added 3/25/08

Navisso - Submission Page
AxxaSearch - Submission Page
Dino Search (for kids sites only) - Submission Page
Boitho - Submission Page
Gheto Search - Submission Page
Intel Seek - Submission Page
My Prowler - Site Submission
Search Ramp - Site Submission
Seek It Out - Site Submission
Ultimate Web Search - Site Submission

Just added 3/29/08

Find Once - Submission Page
Net Search - Submission Page
Susy Search - Submission Page

Just added additional Chinese search engines 4/2/08

iASK - Submission Page
ZhongSou.com - Submission Page

Just added 4/7/08

Famhoo (family friendly search) - Submission Page
ExactSeek (requires registration) - Submission Page
AcrossCan (Canadian sites only) - Submission Page
Megaglobe - Submission Page

Just added 4/14/08

AnooX - Submission Page

Just added 4/20/08

Alexa - Submission Page
Aesop - Submission Page
Shoula! Search - Submission Page
NetSearch - Submission Page

Just added 4/22/08

SearchIt - Submission Page

Just added 4/24/08

Biveroo - (in German) Submission Page
Official Search - Submission Page
Iconnic - Submission Page
Coolfishy - Submission Page
CorrectSearch (requires registration) - Submission Page

Just added 4/27/08

Enter UK (UK sites only) - Submission Page
seeknet - Submission Page

Just added 4/30/08

hakia (requires registration) - Submission Page
gogo - (Russian site) - Submission Page

Just added 5/4/08

43N39E - Submission Page

Just added 5/6/08

Antya (click on Submit URL) - Submission Page
VROOSH! (requires reciprocal link) - Submission Page

Landing Page Load Time Will Impact Your AdWords Quality Score

On of my favorite SEO news and information site, Search Engine Roundtable has been hard at work on this. They first reported on seeing this factor within their account after opening a landing page best practices pop-up - see it here - Search Engine Rountable initial post.

Then, the next day they reported that Google has confirmed that page load time will affect AdWords quality scores - see it here - Search Engine Roundtable follow-up post.

Below are some useful tool to help check and compare your site load time:

- Alexa
- Web Page Analyzer (by WebsiteOptimization.com)

Free Article Spinning and Content Rewriting - Jetspinner

If you have been looking for a free online article spinner as Google starts to increase its efforts to crack down on duplicate content, then you may want to give Jetspinner a spin (pun intended). You can check it out here - Jetspinner, but you will have to register to use this service and they will try to get you to upgrade to their Jetsubmitter (I assume article submission) program. It may or may not be worth it, just an FYI.

guruji - First Crawler Based Search Engine for India

Guruji claims to be the first crawler based search engine for India and Indian related sites. Here is what their site proclaims about their new search engine:

India, known for being the spiritual Guru of the world, is now seeking to become the technology Guru with Indians spearheading the IT revolution. With Guruji.com, a totally indigenous product, we aspire to become a world-class search engine and showcase the "Indian" content to the world.

Guruji, a respectful way to call one's teacher, is the person one seeks help from in times of need. Likewise, Guruji.com is built to help provide easy access to information in every walk of life.

Guruji.com is the first crawler based search engine for India and India related content. Our proprietary algorithm automatically identifies India related content on the web and organizes it in such a way that you get the most relevant results fast. Our team of young, dynamic and passionate engineers from India's premier institutes like the IITs,IISc and other top engineering colleges, is working arduously to make this product better each day.

Quick links:

- Search Engine Homepage
- Search Engine Blog
- Site Submission

I tried to submit a site that was not an Indian or based in India site to see what would happen and I got this email back from them, but nothing else and I am still (a week later) not in the index - so much for trying...:-)

Thank you for submitting your website.

It typically takes us 3-4 days to crawl the submitted websites and
include the content in our index. Our algorithm may not accept the submitted website under one or more of the following conditions .

. The website is non Indian
. The website is a spam
. During the crawl the website could not be accessed by our crawler

We will send you an automated mail once your website is included in our
index.In the meanwhile, you can also check for the inclusion of your
website by searching for your domain name on www.guruji.com.

We once again thank you for submitting your website.

You can use Guruji.com . the Indian Search Engine - to search for
anything related to India including your favorite restaurants, theaters,
hotels, dentists and more, in more than 20 cities across India.

Keep exploring India on Guruji.com

Have a great day.

Team Guruji