Why Firefox is Still Way Behind Google Chrome?

Which is better Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox? Statistics reveal that Chrome is a much more used browser as compared to Firefox. There are many points to justify why millions prefer Chrome over Firefox.

In order to catch up with Chrome, Firefox is incorporating many changes into its browser. But most of these changes are the copy of the features that are already present in Google Chrome for long. Rather than coming up with some astonishing innovation, Mozilla Firefox has just tried incorporating the features of Chrome browser. This in a way hints that Firefox efforts are just marginally enough to be at level with Chrome browser but not of the standard to surpass the Google browser.

Following are some of the convincing points that describe why Chrome is better than Firefox.

What Firefox doesn’t have but Chrome has?

Multi-Process Architecture

Nowadays, CPUs have become very capable of doing multiple works in parallel. Chrome makes the best out of it by using its multi-process architecture. In Chrome every website runs in its own process. Background processes like apps and extensions run in the background but these also run in their own environment. In short everything in Google browser including plug-ins run in its own process. However, with Firefox it’s not like that because Firefox uses single-process architecture.

Recently, it has started running its plug-ins in a separate process but it still doesn’t have multi-process architecture. Thus if you open five tabs in Firefox then the browser has to load and render all of them one-by-one as they are not running of their own. This makes Firefox less responsive or sluggish than Chrome at times.

Chrome-Task-Manager

To match up to the Chrome Task Manager Standard, Mozilla is working on something called Electrolysis, since 2009. It is a project to make Firefox a proper multi-process browser as Mozilla stated “Electrolysis is a huge undertaking.”

However, in 2011, Electrolysis was put on hold on grounds that Mozilla is pursuing a number of smaller initiatives that are targeted to improve the responsiveness of the browser. Again in May 2013, Mozilla restarted the Electrolysis project, which is still under process with no hint on when the end product will be delivered. You will be surprised to know that even Internet Explorer (IE) introduced multi-process features with Internet Explorer 8. So Firefox is way behind of Chrome and even IE in terms of multi-process features.

Use of Security Sandbox

To run browser processes, Chrome has adopted a modern Windows feature called ‘low integrity mode.’ This feature makes the Google browser more secured because even if the browser’s vulnerability gets discovered and exploited in Chrome, the exploiter would require using some sort of additional vulnerability to break the security offered by sandbox. Only after breaking the sandbox enabled security, he will be able to gain access to the system.

Chrome is offering this security coverage to Windows since the time of Windows Vista, which was released over six years ago. But Mozilla is still working on a similar kind of feature, which it has named as ‘low rights Firefox.’

Features that Firefox has got incorporated recently but were present in Chrome for Long

Listed below are some such features of Mozilla Firefox, which seem to be have copied from Google Chrome. These features were introduced by Chrome first and then Firefox came up with similar features in its browser much later.

• Multi-Window Private Browsing: Now, private browsing is available in Firefox and it is one of the much wished features. However, Chrome had it since its very beginning.

• Frequent Updates: Since its very beginning, Chrome has maintained the format of launching updates. But now even Firefox has started introducing frequent release updates.

• Extensions to Handle Browser Upgrades: Now on Firefox also, extension API has got updated that allows the extensions to get installed without restarting the browser. This feature enables the browser to function without breaking after browser-version upgrades. But Chrome has been offering this facility since long.

• PDF Viewer: This is another feature that Firefox has gained recently long after Google browser has launched it.

• User Interface (UI) Design: Chrome was first to switch to the minimal browser interface. Not just Firefox but all other browser have followed Google browser in this aspect.

• Out-of-Process Plug-ins: Till date, Mozilla browser doesn’t have proper multi-process features like Chrome. It has just managed to add feature like Flash. The Mozilla browser might get crashed if it supports multi-process features.

• JavaScript Performance: After Chrome immersed as a pioneer in JavaScript performance, all other browsers including Firefox tried improving its JavaScript performance.

Hence, if all the points are taken into consideration, then it is quite clear why Chrome is better than Firefox. Although, Mozilla is working on to enhance its browser’s features and security aspects, but right now Chrome is leading the pack in browser innovation since many years.

Tumblr for Creatives

Artists are not exactly famed for having money. Most spend their cash on supplies and multi-packs of noodles. Luxuries like new clothes, fancy mobiles and delicious ice cream have become distant, nostalgic memories. It’s not a great situation to be in but it’s been the case for years and years (unless you’re one of the lucky few with rich parents willing to finance every project you ever conceive no matter how awful). Unfortunately nowadays a website is essential for artists who want a good chance of getting their work noticed. This can be expensive and also very complicated if you have no training in web design. Luckily, in 2007, Tumblr emerged from the depths of the internet to save the day.

Tumblr is in essence a free blogging platform. There are of course plenty of these in existence already. The problem with these other platforms is that without some decent coding knowledge it is difficult to stop them looking like a blog. You need a page that actually looks like a proper website and with Tumblr you can do that with ease.

Tumblr has a collection of themes freely available that look fantastic. They’re also easily editable so you can put your own stamp on it. It’s a simple process to change fonts, pictures, menus, links and anything else. Obviously for more complicated adjustments you’ll need to have a bit more knowledge. Well, that isn’t strictly true. The Tumblr community are a generous bunch and there are plenty of tutorials and bits of codes about so you can change your site however you want.

So once you’ve got your sparkly new page all set-up you’re going to want people to see it. This is another excellent aspect of Tumblr and that is the how incredibly easy it is to share your work directly to those who will be interested. The first way is to tag everything you post properly and extensively. Say you’re uploading your latest photography series on your pet cat. Mention everything about it in the tags including cats, photography, photo, animal, pet, series etc etc. Then get more specific as in if the cat looks cute mention that in the tags.

On other blogs, this wouldn’t do much to help you. Tumblr has the option to search tags and people will do this all the time to find things they want. So if they searched “cute cat photo” your picture will pop up and then the searcher can like it or, preferably, reblog it to all their followers. Beware though, don’t tag things erroneously, people on Tumblr get very upset by this and they will let you know in a tirade of anonymous messages.

You can also search these tags yourself to search out communities of people interested in the same stuff as you. Start following people and soon enough you’ll have your own followers. Post lots of decent stuff and you’ll get more and more and the amount of exposure your work gets will massively increase.

There are plenty more features too. One of the best being that it is very simple for people to contact you directly about what you’ve created. It gives it all a very personal feel. The reblogging feature is also very powerful. If the right people share your stuff, you could find your post reaching tens of thousands of people and all at zero cost to yourself. Tumblr is only getting more popular so get started as soon as possible. Don’t miss your chance.

Is Tumblr a Good Blogging Platform?

Tumblr is a relatively new microblogging platform with fast increasing popularity. The main reason for that can be explained in a single word: simplicity. The most used software for creating and managing a blog in recent years is, undoubtedly, WordPress. But it quickly expanded its functionality beyond the needs of the regular blogger and currently is a full-featured CMS (content management system). While in the beginning those were exciting additions, it soon became an increasingly difficult and confusing software. Bloggers simply didn’t need all that power and flexibility. Ten and more template files, needed to render and display blog pages, are certainly more than needed.

And then Tumblr appears on the scene, offering an easy and straightforward way to create an attractive (due to the huge pool of ready Tumblr themes ) and easy to use blog. It also utilizes the terms "microblog" and "tumblelog" as modern methods to share text, quotes, photos, useful links, music, and video in an extremely fast and efficient way. The time of those classical long articles is over. Users can use their mobile phones to post new content to their tumblelogs with minimal efforts.

As an addition, Tumblr is an absolutely free web service with little restrictions. Users don’t need to buy domains (it’s optional actually) and hosting or install or manage any kind of software. They just need to register and pick a suitable theme. You could think that since Tumblr is a relatively new service, there won’t be much variety of cool-looking and functional Tumblr themes. You couldn’t be further from the truth! Tumblr was quickly embraced by the most modern and progressive web designers and developers, who discovered the simplicity and elegance of the platform and produced an impressive number of Tumblr themes — both free and premium.

The official Tumblr Theme Garden offers thousands of great user-submitted themes and there are additional places you can find your theme if those aren't enough. Every Tumblr theme is automatically optimized for displaying on mobile browsers. All theme assets — images, CSS and JavaScript files, are stored on the Tumblr servers — users don’t need to upload and link them externally.

Today Tumblr has more than 200 million users and around 125000 new users sign up every day. It’s even used by celebrities such as Katy Perry, John Mayer, and a number of other famous bloggers, artists and developers.

Pros :

• Publishing on Tumblr is as easy as choosing the post-type (image, video, text, or link) and hitting publish.
• Tumblr’s Control Panel makes it extremely easy to manage multiple blogs.
• Large variety of stunning themes.
• Mobile friendly interface; dedicated mobile apps.
• Ability to publish posts on the fly through SMS, email or audio message.

Cons :

• Highly visual design does not encourage text-heavy blogging.
• Lack of comprehensive CDN, caching, or anti-virus plugins.
• Emphasis on sharing devalues original content, particular textual content.

Recommended For

• Casual bloggers who want something between Twitter and WordPress.
• Businesses trying to expand their brand through visual content.

There is no question that Tumblr has become the new way of blogging. Over 7 million Bands, musicians and individuals alike from around the globe are choosing Tumblr thanks to its super easy interface, fantastic customization options and social networking hookups. Tumblr is a great way of creating a new blog with a powerful CMS.

Which One is Better Self-Hosted WordPress or Blogger?

We are often asked by new users why they should use self-hosted WordPress.org instead of a free blogging service like WordPress.com or Blogger?

“Is self-hosted WordPress really better than Blogger?” the answer, of course “Yes.” But to really understand why, it’s important to look at both blogging platforms side-by-side and see which one you really find best.

Important: Please note that we are talking about self-hosted WordPress and Blogger, not Free WordPress and Blogger. Please see our guide on the difference between free WordPress.com vs self-hosted WordPress.org blog.

Here’s the comparison scale:

Ease of Set-up And Use

Yes, it’s much easier to set-up a blog with Blogspot.com and get your own Bloggger account. You can be done in 10 minutes flat. Once you’re set-up you can start posting immediately. If you want to add a designer’s touch to your blog, there are also tons of blogger templates available for free.

Installing WordPress however can be a major headache if you don’t know what you’re doing. Since you’re going to host it on your own account, you’ll need to download the installation files, upload them to your server, set-up a database, and run the configuration script.

However, if you know which hosting account to get, you can choose one with Cpanel included. With Cpanel, you can do a one-click installation, upgrade and removal of your WordPress platform.

Customization & Advanced Use

Blogger doesn’t allow categories. You can’t sort your articles into different focuses, unless you know how to hack the platform. With WordPress, not only can you add categories, you can also display each category differently on your main page. In fact with the correct plugins you can even turn your WordPress into a magazine-like portal.

Publishing with Blogger can be a pain in the ass. It can take forever to post articles, especially if you’re making changes to the entire website. With WordPress, publishing is much faster, although if you load your system with all kinds of bells and whistles it can be just as frustrating. With a Blogger account, you can get additional features like “Shout Boxes” that improve interaction on your site. You can also get pretty themes and nifty little tools that you can add to the core template files. However, that’s as far as you can go with Blogger.

With WordPress however, the sky is the limit. As cliche as that may sound, not only can you get themes, additional “plugins” and advanced tools, you can also extend WordPress to far beyond just a blogging platform.

The talk today is about using WordPress as a complete, user-friendly Content Management System or CMS.

Copyrights and Ownership of Content

I started with Blogger and I won’t say that it’s bad. But after a while I started to get frustrated with Blogger, and here’s why: “Google Owns Your Content.”

Google has the authority to shut down your account without warning if they don’t like what you’re blogging about. You don’t have absolute control over your own blog. With WordPress, you own the domain name and the blog is hosted on your own account. You have full control over your content.

With the self-hosted version of WordPress (not WordPress.com), you’re free to write about anything you want, and use the software in any way you want. Yes, Blogger allows you to publish to your own domain, but they still own the database that holds your content! Don’t forget that!

Search Engine Optimization and Traffic

There’s this propaganda that since Google owns Blogger, they tend to favor Blogger accounts. I won’t say that this is illogical, but from my experience, there’s no such favoritism.

I’ve heard as many stories of getting indexed fast and ranking high in search engines from both WordPress and Blogger users. As long as the content is good, the spiders will come.

When you post in Blogger, you can only “ping” a limited amount of sites, whereas with WordPress on your own domain you can ping as many blog directories as you want, and start getting more traffic.

As a conclusion, I would say that WordPress is only slightly ahead in terms of optimization for search engines, and building large amounts of traffic.

Money-Making Potential

There’s no doubt that it’s easier to get started with Google Adsense if you have a Blogger account. In fact you can now apply for Adsense from within a Blogger account. Not entirely surprising considering the fact that both are owned by the same company.

With WordPress, it can get tricky. The default installation is not enough. You’ll need a couple of plugins and even a better theme to really maximize the Adsense potential. However, this seems to be getting easier and there’s even “Adsense revenue sharing” plugins around that allow you to share ad revenue with other contributors and writers for your blog.

When you start using WordPress to build your Adsense websites, you’ll soon discover what I mean. It’s something you need to experience for yourself. I can tell you one thing though — when you go WordPress, you don’t go back.

This infographic captures the comparison between two blogging platforms: Self-Hosted Wordpress and Blogger.

Which Blogging Platform is the Best? Blogger or WordPress.com?

If you are new to blogging, or perhaps even thinking about starting a new blog you may have questioned yourself at one time or another on what to blog about, that alone is a huge question for one to ask. Starting a blog can either be a lot of work, can take a lot of planning and be a challenge, it really comes down to what you want out of the blog in the end.

To help you come up with a good decision in the end, you need to know the essential things that make these two platforms big rivals in the world of blogging. So this time, you will learn the different features and characteristics of each. After you have known these things, only then you can cast a decision that is well-educated and will not cause you any trouble or regrets the moment you have picked the one which you think as the right one for yourself.

Let’s start by comparing just a few features of each platform:

Blogger Platform Features

• Offers a very easy out of the box to use admin panel to update posts, add video, pictures and a wide array of content. Very good for those who are starting their first blog and want to start writing right away.

• This platform offers a space amounting to 1 GB for your free hosting schemes.

• Your blogs are usually maintained at the blogger site or Google web servers.

• It gives you the ability to personalize the different templates that you want to use on your blogs. This offer also provides you with a limited flexibility.

• It provides you an easy time to get yourself started with it.

• It also offers you with the opportunity to upload and save different types of image and video files.

Be sure to check out the Blogger ‘limits’ here.

Wordpress.com Platform Features

• Out of the box wordpress is semi-easy to use, there are definitely a lot of options over to the left to choose from, this can sometimes confuse those who are new to this blogging platform or haven’t had a lot of experience with making a website, however with just a few minutes is fairy easy to figure everything out.

• This platform provides you with the free hosting capability to store at a space as much as 3 GB.

• The content that you have made will be maintained at the WordPress web servers.

• It also provides you with the ability to customize your templates and this can be availed at a limited flexibility.

• This platform provides you with the best opportunity to get started and it is also considered as a platform that is user-friendly.

• Provides you with the ability to store image files, video files, and other types of file formats.

Be sure to know the differences between WordPress.com and WordPress.org here.

Cost

When it comes to the cost, which one do you choose: WordPress.com or Blogger? This time, you will know that both platforms can be available for free. However, WordPress can be upgraded and get more satisfactory results each time you make upgrades. Say for instance, WordPress can be upgraded at a rate of $19.97 per year for 5 GB space to $89.97 per year for 25 GB space.

Flexibility

Since WordPress is a kind of software that is open source, this simply means that bloggers will have the best time customizing their blogs. Compared to Blogger, WordPress is capable of uploading different files in PDF, Word, power Point, and many others.

Basing from the facts mentioned above, it is more likely that anyone who reads this will surely pick WordPress as a better choice. So if you’re on your way to go blogging on the internet, WordPress is the best way to go.

Widgets and Plugins

Blogger and WordPress both use widgets or plugins, these are considered add-ons in a way. Plugins can add a lot of functionality to your site anything from SEO, social buttons, latest posts and much, much more. Creating a discussion through blogging platforms will help you gain more readers, using the right plugins can improve your sites usability, navigation and increase visitors.

When comparing plugins, WordPress definitely has a lot to choose from, in this case if you are looking to configure a lot of options WordPress is the best blogging platform for you.

Customizing Themes

Blogger templates (themes) that can be customized without any hassle. You can edit the HTML and CSS directly. But there are limited number of blogger templates available.

There are extremely high numbers of free WordPress themes available over the internet. Using the WordPress.com version of WordPress you can not fully customize the template, you can only customize the options available to you or switch to a new template.

Domain Names

Blogger user can transfer your domain for free or you can buy one through the BlogSpot interface. And, once again free blogs are created as sub-domains with URLs like yourname.blogspot.com.

WordPress.com user has to to pay some amount in order to transfer an existing domain in case of the paid service, but of course you can create free blogs on WordPress.com in form of a sub-domain like yourname.wordpress.com.

Final Words

Really to conclude it all comes down to personal preference, if you are new to blogging I recommend starting with blogger, if you want to move it up a notch and see what else you can do and expand your options you should definitely check out WordPress.

Free WordPress.com V/S Self-Hosted WordPress.org

WordPress is such a huge platform that myths and questions always surrounded this community. One question that haunts every WordPress lover is whether to start a free WordPress blog or hosting your own WordPress blog? You must be confused that what are the difference between these two, further is the explanation.

Obtaining a Free WordPress blog is a cake walk as you just need to sign up in WordPress.com and you are ready to start your own blog, whereas a self hosted WordPress blog would be installed on domain of your website and you can manage your blogs using this WordPress software.

Lets look at the pros and cons of both of these platforms:

A Free Wordpress.com Blog

Pros :

• No setup cost as this platform is free.

• No maintenance cost as WordPress regularly upgrades the security, backups and fixes bug in the software.

• If the blog is hosted on WordPress.com, it becomes a part of Wordpress community which can lead to increase in traffic.

• It’s free for upto 3GB of space. After that you will have to pay for space ($19.95 per year for 5GB) or ($289.97 per year for 100GB).

Cons :

• They place ads on all free websites. Did you really think it was free without a catch? If you don’t want your users to see ads, then you can pay them $29.97 per year to keep your site ad-free.

• You are NOT allowed to sell ads on your site unless you receive 25,000 pageviews per month. In which case, you have to apply to try their feature called Ad control. The approval process doesn’t cost you any money, but you have to split your revenues 50/50 with them *Ouch*

• You can’t use any other plugins other than WordPress own plugins. Yup WordPress is well known for it’s flexibility due to the plugins. WordPress.com does not allow you to use plugins! If you want to use plugins, then you have to move to their VIP program which starts at $3750 per month. No joke.

• You cannot use custom themes. Yup, you have to be stuck with their choice of themes which is being used on hundreds of millions of sites. They do offer a “design upgrade” which should really be called CSS upgrade for $30 per year. Meaning, you can change the color of your site. But if you want to add something really custom, you cannot.

• You are restricted to their analytics. You cannot use custom analytics software because you cannot add custom codes.

• They can delete your site at anytime if they think it violates their Terms of Service.

• They will change your theme without your permission if the founder doesn’t like the theme developer (yup it happened).

• Even if you pay for their upgrades, you still have to tell others that your site is powered on WordPress.com

A Self Hosted Wordpress.org Blog

Pros :

• It’s free and super easy to use.

• You own your data. You are in full control. Your site will NOT be turned off because someone decides that it is against their terms of service (as long as you are not doing something illegal). You are in control.

• Large numbers of plugins from developers around the globe.

• You can upload your custom themes and third party themes for your blogs. Customized themes give your blog a different look and feel altogether.

• You can make money from it by using your own ads, and doing things your way.

• Custom Analytics and Tracking

• You have full control on your website. Wordpress.org gives you full control to manage your website and even when you violate any terms and conditions your website won’t shut down.

• You can monetize your blog and website by placing ads and adsense.

Cons :

• To start your website one has to purchase domain name and hosting that costs a nominal fee.

• Like any other website, you need a good web hosting. This bits cost you money somewhere from around $3 – $7 per month (as your site grows, your hosting costs will too). But then you would be making enough money to cover the costs.

• You have to update the blog and software yourself but that is not a tedious task.

• You have to maintain your blog unlike in WordPress.com which includes spam control, security and backup on regular basis.

In our opinion, if you want to monetize your blog and want to earn money from it then self hosted WordPress blog is the right platform for you but if you want to increase your traffic and recognition in the WordPress community free WordPress blog will better suits your needs.

These are some of the advantages and disadvantages of both the platforms to create your own WordPress blog, Now it is up to you which platforms will better suits your requirements and needs.

Still not convinced?

Image: WPMU DEV

Top 5 Reasons Why People Use Blogger

I’m sure that those who have been using the Internet for a while are familiar with or have come across the free blog platform – Blogger. To put it simply, Blogger is a blog-publishing platform, hosted by Google that allows you to create a blog and maintain it without any charges. All blogs registered under Blogger will be hosted by Google’s servers at the blogspot.com subdomain.

Besides Blogger, there are many free blog providers available such as WordPress.com, Xanga, Tumblr and etc, which all have their boons and banes. But one thing that they have in common is that they allow you to start a blog for free, and play around with the layout and customize it to make it personal, informational, or commercial as well as let you keep track of your followers.

Though Blogger is one of the most popular blog publishing tools around, it has its limitations. Firstly, it is a rarity for professional blogs to be hosted on Blogspot domains. Hence, to some people, some Blogspot blogs may be deemed unprofessional. Many spamblogs also originate from Blogger, as it is the most common and esay to use blogging platform. Compared to other hosting providers, there are less original themes and widgets provided by Blogger. You also can’t sell your domain in the future, as your site is hosted on a subdomain (blogspot.com).

Why many still use it? The top 5 reasons

Apart from all the limitations Blogger has, it is still loved and being used by many bloggers. Blogger is still able to anchor its status as a popular blog hosting platform as many still use it. Why is it so?

It is owned by Google

Google is the leading search engine on the Internet. Since Blogger is owned by Google, when people search for the keyword ‘blog’ or ‘free blog’, the first site to pop out in the search results is Blogger, hence many start their first blog through Blogger!

Easy to use

It is generally regarded that Blogger is the most user-friendly blogging platform. There are many who have returned to the embrace of this blogging tool after trying out other ones. Great for beginners and good enough for the average blogger, it is no wonder that Blogger blogs are still very popular. Its user-friendly interface, widgets and theme designer are also great for easy publishing and customization of your blog, hence, well welcomed by novice and experienced bloggers.

Use AdSense and other Advertising options

If you intend to monetize your blog, the easiest way is through Blogger. As Blogger’s owner – Google, also owns AdSense, Blogger is integrated so that you can monetize your blog by putting ads into your Blogger blog easily. For registrations with Google AdSense, higher priority is also given to blogs hosted on the subdomain blogspot.com, so, it is easy for you to earn some revenue while blogging.

Personalised Domain on Blogger

Some bloggers who are more ambitious usually will think of registering their custom domain, i.e. use a .com domain name. When it comes to blogging under your own domain, Blogger offers you a better deal compared to other blog hosting platforms. When you hook your domain to your Blogger blog, you will not be subjected to any charges, while WordPress.com charges you $12 for each domain you incorporate. If you happen to have many domains, this may cost you a lot of money. Hence, comparatively, Blogger seems to offer a better option!

More Traffic on Blogger

Last but not least, Blogger blog can be established and gain popularity faster compared to blogs hosted on other platforms. Why is this so? When you visit any Blogger blog, you will see a navigation bar at the top of the page, so, you will be able to visit random Blogger blogs easily. In the same way, random visitors will also come across your blog at any time! Hence, apart from your own friends and online acquaintances, you may also receive visits from people from the other parts of the world. If your content is unique, interesting or informative, they may even bookmark it, increasing your potential traffic.

A few final words

Though I myself have tried blogging on other platforms such as WordPress.com and Tumblr, I found that Blogger is still the most appealing, with its easy to use and user-friendly features. Despite the limitations, you can do a lot by playing around with the widgets and themes, to get your own personalized blog with your own unique twist. For individuals or companies with custom domains, you would not have to worry about extra charges when you hook them up with your blog. Hence, let’s all start blogging on Blogger.com!

What is Gravatar and Its Benefits

Gravatar is a grey icon that stands as Globally Recognized Avatar. It is already infectious and millions of people all around the world started using it for their websites. Especially, WordPress has come up with a special built-in support for your Gravatar and it serves well to pull the individual’s globally recognized avatar from the Gravatar servers. This will result into showing gravatar every time next to the comment. This commenter can obtain exclusive identity all over the World Wide Web successfully.

Here, it is quite imperative to mention little in detail about avatar before going further on Gravatar. Avatar used to serve as a graphical representation for the user earlier. People used personal picture or an icon as their avatar to associate well with their presence. Icons are definitely popular for the avatar usage on this virtual world. It can be witnessed to a greater extent with the gamer community too. Here, avatars used and served as identification help particular at places like forums and discussion boards. People use different nicks as their login IDs and some of those are very often hard to read and remember. Avatars will serve as a great help in recognizing and remembering people with their avatar rather through their tough nicks. This wide usage of avatar and its help resulted into its extensive transformation into Gravatar now.

Why should we use Gravatar may be your question now after learning more about avatar history and Gravatar’s entry into our virtual world. Branding is nowadays essential for a business or NGO or a professional or someone that is wanted to make a mark over the World Wide Web. Gravatar is definitely a great helping hand to build your brand on this virtual world. Every time, there is a presence of you in the form of comment or some activity at forums or discussion boards will get more attention and recognition through this Gravatar. There are instances people used to visit your site or blog through being attracted by your Gravatar too. Definitely, it is a rewarding act from you through creating a special Gravatar for you.

Now, are you geared up to ask me, where and how to get this Gravatar, then read further. There is Gravatar Website to sign up and to get a good gravatar for you. Here, always register with an email that is currently being used by you for commenting and forum or discussion board activity. People those are with WordPress based websites and blogs are more benefited for this purpose because gravatar integration is available from WordPress. Old websites and blogs can add this integration very easily too. WordPress built in support is arranged in a better for these needs and you will get very quick integration of Gravatar for you. It is never late now to have your special grey icon in the form of Gravatar and make more out of it successfully.

5 More Reasons to Love WordPress

Yep you read the post title right, “5 More Reasons to love WordPress” the keyword being more because who out there doesn’t love this wonderful platform. WordPress was originally released in 2003 as a blogging platform, at the time blogging wasn’t entirely popular but was starting to become a hobby as the internet was on the verge of its grown spurt. Today we are going to take a look at how far WordPress has come and why it is the best platform to not only run a blog on, but an entire website as well.

5. WordPress is Easy to Use!

Out of several CMS (Content Management Systems) I have dealt with I must say by far WordPress is the easiest to install, configure and get up and running, not to mention pick a theme for, it took me less than 30 minutes to get it up and running and have my first post online! WordPress is perfect for bloggers, but it can be themed to run the perfect website that can be literally setup in just a few minutes of your time!

4. Plenty of Plugins!

Plugins.. They are great, in fact without plugins there would be a lot of functionality not available for WordPress... Extra functionality I must mention! Plugins can transform the typical WordPress blog into a fully functional website loaded with features, with over 60 million downloads to date there are plenty of authors publishing plug-ins from contact forms to sharing buttons and much much more!

3. Themes

Not only are there a plethora of plug-ins to choose from but WordPress has a large directory of themes to choose from, you can find premium themes which are paid or you can find a lot of free themes which still look great, even from there you can customize colors, images and other settings. WordPress has the perfect themes for every webmaster/blogger.

2. Easy admin/backend panel

Are you a novice webmaster or new to creating a website? You don’t need to know a whole lot with WordPress, the goal with WordPress is to get the typical user up and blogging/writing in less than an hour, you don’t have to be an expert to have your own website and start sharing the valuable information you know! Simply login, create a new post and publish it when you’re done... It’s really just that easy!

1. Search Engine Friendly!

WordPress is by far the most SEO optimized platform/CMS available. Out of the box WordPress uses the ?p="post number" urls, this can be changed in the admin menu under settings in just a matter of seconds. There are also plugins you can download for SEO as well as a Google Sitemap plugin which will definitely improve your SEO... WordPress generally ranks higher than websites that aren’t running this wonderful platform.. and after all isn’t more traffic a good thing?

Overview:

You don’t just have to be starting a blog to use WordPress, many websites are using this great CMS even as far as completing recoding the backend  to completely customize there site. WordPress has always been free (opensource) software since its original release. I have tried other CMS such as Joomla, Drupal and Concrete5, they unfortunately just don’t compare to how smooth WordPress operates, not to mention the support behind WordPress is incredible you can find answers for just about any question you have in the forums, and if you have a question that hasn’t already been asked you can simply ask yourself and you will receive answers! Many popular tech sites like Mashable, Techcrunch use WordPress to mange their stuff.

A Glimpse of Luxury Watches

The reason is obvious in saying that a watch is an important piece in people’s everyday life. However, this thing had evolved to give us more than pointing the time. Today, famous names in the watch industry are giving people the chance to own a piece that exudes style more than just telling what the time of the day is.

Since the market of watches is rapidly increasing, big tech-giants companies embracing the concept of smartwatches. We have handpicked some of the luxury brands of watches which are depicted in below infographic with their most expensive watches till now.

Image: Give & Take UK

Why is WordPress Free and Its Facts and Secrets

It is always a well-known fact that WordPress is an open source that comes at zero cost for your website and blog needs. Here, open source is all about the kind of freedom you will get through it like you are free to modify, free to build upon, and free to redistribute too. Many people definitely get a doubt here as, why they are offering it free and why there is no price tag attached to this software. Here, few things one should know is being open source is not all about its free usage and it involves valuable contribution from the talent pool of the community too. It will allow and accept contribution from everyone in this world and uses their contribution for improvising the product successfully. Here, major inside activity will take place in the form of support to the core development team of this project in many ways through reporting bugs, through contributing patches and through suggesting additions. This is resulting into improved versions for the WordPress one after one.

The profitability factor for this open source software comes through offering additional products and service packages for the users. The free open source WordPress software comes with restricted features and people wanted to avail the useful features for enhancing their website performance will buy it through making payments. This will result into an upgrade for your free web site or blog with additional useful features. Mainly, the CSS modifications availed through upgrade with payment will create powerful working environment for your website or blog.

There is little more inside activity should be mentioned here. This WordPress is definitely a open source software that is available for all openly on the net. You might have heard of plugins for WordPress. These plugins are customized additions for your website to perform some special activities for your site or blog. Every year, many developers are coming up with many useful and helpful plugins for WordPress and selling them to the WordPress users. This business is currently grown to multi-million dollars every year throughout the world. People regularly buy many types of commercial plugins, themes, and many more. Take for example StudioPress, which is making every year multi-million dollars through selling WordPress themes.

There is one more thing requires special mentioning here. WordPress is definitely comes at free, but remember that it is not copyright free. It is allowed to use, but not allowed to contribute. This is a kind of open source software that allows free usage, free modification, and free redistribution of code. Here, the catch is that modification can be done to the software but not to entire code. As long as the software being used for your site or blog can be availed totally at free. People looking for simple website or blog can go with this open source, but remember that spending will be needed while you want to make your site further more dynamic and efficient with special themes and plugins.

3 Arguments for Disabling Blog Comments

Are blog comments something you look forward to moderating or do you feel they are holding you back from more important tasks? Blog commenting has long been considered a way to allow your readers to take a more active ‘role’ in the growth and development of your site! For the site administrator however this means they must also take the time to review and respond to each comment left! Is the time invested in reviewing your readers remarks and responses to what you’ve posted better put to use in some other area?

Here are 3 valid arguments as to why you may want to consider disallowing people from leaving comments on your blog!

Harmful Spam

Damn spam! We get that crap in our mail, email, telemarketing calls and yes, even blog commenting has been known to display evidence of spam, gasp! Now that Google has ‘proclaimed’ spammy commenting or delinquent links find therein, will cost bloggers, spam has become even more repulsive! Now suppose for a moment you didn’t even allow your readers to comment, good bad or otherwise, or a way to do so anyway, than of course the litter called spam wouldn’t be a concern to you would it? Additionally now that you don’t have to invest the effort to sniff out spam in each and every comment, there is nothing holding you back from getting an early start on your next blog post!

Time Consuming

One thing most bloggers have in common is they are always pressed for time! Developing content takes time just to find a topic you can focus on and than don’t get me started on the research! The point here is this, if your readers were asked to decide between being able to leave a comment or having fresh content to view, they likely will choose the latter! Unfortunately blog commenting has an ‘evil’ side and that is it’s high maintenance and time consuming, at least for the blogger!

Writing Defensively

Let’s face it, once you have people commenting on your blog, you tend to post updates that ‘please’ these very same visitors! While this may appear to be a good thing, it does keep you from being a bit more daring, creative or edgy when creating something new for your readers and sadly, this is what they want! Let’s face facts, standing out or taking a stance can definitely give you a edge as a blogger, but allowing your readers to influence what you think or create limits you as well as your success!

Although blog comments left by your readers can be helpful and encouraging to your writing efforts, the time they take to ‘monitor’ may be holding you back! As discussed above there are some very compelling reasons for you to consider not allowing blog commenting on your site! When you consider your readers are in search of fresh content relevant to their interests, perhaps your time is better spent developing more of what they want! For this reason and the others reviewed above it would seem allowing people to leave remarks holds the potential to introduce more bad than good to your platform! Just a thought!

Exam Lifehacks: 18 Unexpected Tips for a Higher Score

A great score. It’ll take more than traditional studying to achieve. You’ll need guts, perseverance, and … bacon?

Yes, bacon. Or sugar. Or clairvoyance or a kitchen timer or a cute panda video.

These 18 unexpected tips can boost your test prep whether you have a month, a day, or 15 minutes left until your test. They’ll make it easier remain calm, focused, confident, and organized. Plus, they’ll help ensure that your mind and body are in top shape for the challenge that lies ahead.

Image: Magoosh