SEO marketing and SERPs

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Last update : June 29, 2013
SEO (Search engine optimization) is the process of improving the visibility of a website or a web page in a search engine’s natural search results (natural = un-paid, organic, algorithmic). A SERP (search engine results page) is the listing of results returned by a search engine in response to a keyword query.

For WordPress, the leading content management system for blogs, there are number of performant plugins that make it easy to optimize your posts.

The deliberate manipulation of search engine indexes is called spamdexing. Common spamdexing techniques can be classified into two broad classes : content spam and link spam. See the related post for informations about pagerank, content farms, search quality and black hat SEO.

More informations about SEO and related topics are available at the following links :

Microdata vocabularies

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Microdata is an extension to HTML5, also known as HTML5 with Microdata, that allows adding some additional structure (semantic meaning) to HTML documents. These machine-readable properties can be processed by software searching for specific types of information. Some search engines, Google in particular, already support microdata in HTML5 and use it to improve search engine results.

I am specifically interested in the following Microdata schemas :

Art Galleries :

Creative Works :

Historical landmarks :

Historical people :

Rental :

HTML microdata

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One of the most adavanced technologies for the semantic web is HTML microdata. HTML Microdata is a W3C Working Draft (last version : 29 March 2012).

Most HTML tags tell the browser how to display the information included in a tag. For example <h1>Blackberry</h1> tells the browser to display the text string Blackberry in a heading 1 format. However, the HTML tag doesn’t give any information about what that text string means. Blackberry could refer to a mobile device or to a fruit and this makes it difficult for search engines to intelligently display relevant content to a user.

Microdata vocabularies provide the semantics, or meaning of an item. Web developers can design a custom vocabulary or use vocabularies available on the web. Microdata vocabularies are provided by schema.org.

Microdata introduces five simple global attributes (available for any element to use) which give context for machines about your data :

  • itemscope – creates the Item and indicates that descendants of this element contain information about it (boolean attribute)
  • itemtype – a valid URL of a vocabulary that describes the item and its properties context
  • itemid – indicates a unique identifier of the item
  • itemprop – indicates that its containing tag holds the value of the specified item property (strings, urls, images, …)
  • itemref – properties that are not descendants of the element with the itemscope attribute can be associated with the item using this attribute

Google uses semantic web technologies to create rich snippets (detailed information intended to help users with specific queries) in web search results. Googles suggest to use microdata as a markup format. Actually Google supports rich snippets for the following content types: Reviews, People, Products, Businesses and organizations, Recipes, Events and Music.

Google provides a Rich Snippet Testing Tool to check that their search engines can correctly parse the structured data markup and display it in search results. A Microdata schema creator is provided by Raven.

The next list provide links to more informations about microdata, followed by a list of links to specific vocabularies :

Regular expressions and regex test tools

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Last update : March 7, 2013

A regular expression (regex) is a specific pattern that provides concise and flexible means to match strings of text (particular or patterns of characters, words, …). A regular expression is written in a formal language that can be interpreted by a regular expression processor.

The following list provides links to some regex test tools :

Modal dialogs

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With modal dialogs (overlays), users don’t have to deal with multiple windows. When a modal window opens, it opens inside the current page and users don’t have to deal with extra windows popping up.

When a modal dialog is shown, the content beneath the overlay cannot be acted upon until the overlay is dismissed. Modal overlays don’t allow you to refer back and forth between two sources of information, or move fluidly between two actions.

Today it is good practice to darken the parent window to provide a visual indicator to the user that the main window is inactive. This technique is usually called Lightbox.

The following list provides some links to blogs about the con’s and pro’s of modal overlays:

Responsive javascript slideshows

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Last update : July 5, 2014

Early 2006, Lokesh Dhakar introduced Lightbox, a unobtrusive script used to display large images using modal dialogs over a black faded background. Six years later, there were hundred of scripts available to create slideshows, carousels, sliders and image galleries on the web. I evaluated the following responsive javascript slideshows for different projects:

Today, some of these scripts are outdated and I included them only for historical reasons. Some scripts are standalone, but most are based on jQuery, a fast, small and feature-rich JavaScript library. Most of them are also available as WordPress plugin.

My favorite script is the …

I use the following code :

...

See the demo

The following list provides links to websites with additional informations about slideshows and related topics :

Tools and utilities developed by Nir Sofer

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Last update : March 2, 2013

NirSoft USDDeview Tool

I recently discovered the unique collection of small and useful freeware utilities and tools, available on the website NirSoft, created in 2001. The name NirSoft is the combination of the developers first name Nir and the prefix of the word Software, respectively the last name of the developer, Sofer.

Nir Sofer is an experienced developer with extensive knowledge in C++, .NET Framework, Windows API, and Reverse Engineering of undocumented binary formats and encryption algorithms.

The domains covered by the more than 100 tools of NirSoft are various : Password Recovery, Network Monitoring, Web Browser, Video/Audio, Internet, Desktop, Outlook/Office, Programming, Disk, System, …

All of the utilities are fast, small, portable and effective. Most are developed in C++ and don’t require any installation.

My favorite Nirsoft tools are the following :

Nir Sofer provides also tips and tricks about computers and software as well as code samples.

MEDION Combirecorder DVD & Video

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Dernière mise à jour: 24 février 2020

Medion Combirecorder DVD – VHS

J’utilise l’enregistreur DVD (Digital Versatile Disc) & magnétoscope VHS (Video Home System) MD 83425 de MEDION pour copier des cassettes VHS sur un DVD et ensuite le convertir en format mpeg 4.

Le mode d’emploi est le suivant (avec télécommande) :

  1. Insertion de la cassette vidéo à copier
  2. Insertion d’un DVD-R vierge
  3. Position STOP en poussant 2 fois sur la touche Stop
  4. Ouverture du menu SETUP et sélection de l’option REGLAGES GENERAUX
  5. Sélection de l’option ENREGISTREMENT > MODE DUPLICATION > VCR -> DVD
  6. Fermeture du menu pricipal en poussant sur la touche Setup
  7. Sélection du mode VCR
  8. Position de la cassette avec Play, Forward ou Backward à l’endroit du début de la copie
  9. Position de la cassette en mode PAUSE
  10. Sélection du mode DVD
  11. Sélection de la qualité d’enregistrement avec REC SPEED (entre 1 heure et 8 heures, 2 heures est la durée standard DVD)
  12. Lancement de la copie en poussant sur la touche DUBBING
  13. Arrêt de l’enregistrement en poussant sur la touche Stop
  14. Répétition des actions 7 à 13 pour copier d’autres séquences
  15. Finalisation du DVD-R en sélectionnant l’option FINALISATION dans le menu SETUP > DVD (un DVD-RW n’a pas besoin d’être finalisé pour le lire sur un autre lecteur)

Pour parcourir une cassette VHS en vitesse, on peut activer F.FORWARD pendant le PLAY.

Media Centers (MC), Media Managers and online media databases

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Ember Media Manager

A Media center, also called Home Theater PC (HTPC) or Home Cinema, refers to a home entertainment system that seek to reproduce a movie theater experience and mood, with the help of video and audio equipment, in or outside a private home.

A list of some renowned media centers is shown hereafter :

A Media Manager is  an application that catalogs your media and writes images and metadata to the directory the media is stored in so that the media center can access that data in order to display the correct information for the media files. Most media centers do have some sort of scraper built in to look for media matches in Internet online media databases. Media Managers usually provide extended and more reliable tools to catalog your media.

A list of some renowned media managers is given below :

The most renowned online media databases usually scraped by media centers and by media managers are listed herafter :