Often when hosting a site, we find that the www is ripped off and just the domain name is displayed on the URL. Search engines would consider this to be a different domain. For example, though http://seo-mind.com and http://www.seo-mind.com is similar, search engines tend to recognize them as two separate domains. As a result, the page rank is split among the domains and loses out on link popularity.

Resolution:
The correct way to resolve this issue is to have a 301 redirect on the server pointing to either a www or a non-www domain alone. To do this, one has to instruct the server to redirect any faulty domains. This is quite easy in a Apache server with a .htaccess file. We will now discuss how this can be done on a Apache and on a IIS server.

WWW 301 Redirect on Microsoft IIS Server

1. In IIS, create a new virtual or  IP-based website with the name http://yourwebsite.com
2. Check the server header to find out if the server response is 200 OK.
3. Now, add the ASP code below to your default home page in http://yourwebsite.com

< %@ Language=VBScript %>
< % Response.Status="301 Moved Permanently"
Response.AddHeader "Location", http://www.yourwebsite.com
%>

4. Your redirect is now completed. Check using your browser with a non-www url to see if the domain gets redirected.

WWW 301 Redirect on Apache Server

1. Find out from your hosting provider if Apache Rewrite Module is turned on. If you have a dedicated server or you have access to the httpd.conf file, you can enable the Rewrite yourself by just uncommenting the line below:

LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so

2. Now, download the .htaccess file from the root location on your server and make a copy of it and store the copy separately on your local system. This is important because if the .htaccess file that you modified does not work, you would have to replace it with the original file or you might face serious website issues.
3. Now, open the .htaccess file using Notepad or EditPlus and just add the following codes on it.RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^yourwebsite.com
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.yourwebsite.com/$1 [R=301,L]
4. Upload the file back to the server and test using the browser if the redirect works.
5. If it does not work or if you face any other issues, please upload the .htaccess copy that you stored in your local system on the server immediately.

Microsoft Corp signed a deal with HP, the leading PC manufacturer, to install Live Search toolbar on all HP PCs that would be shipped to Canada and the United States from Januray 2009. The deal also includes MSN Live search set as the default search engine on all HP browsers.

Kevin Johnson, President of Platforms and Service Division in Microsoft stated, “This agreement with HP is a strategic indicator of our increased focus on securing broad-scale distribution for Live Search. This is the most significant distribution deal for Live Search that Microsoft has ever done, and we are very pleased to be partnering with HP to help bring Live Search to millions of consumers across North America.”
Microsoft is planning to provide a custom Live Search toolbar for HP customers to provide additional search experience to its users using Microsoft Silverlight.

Microsoft’s plan to increase Live Search users should be targeted on innovative search experience, pleasing features and creative packages similar to Google. Forced search strategies would not be beneficial for Microsoft in the long run.

Yesterday Microsoft had is farewell for one of its valued employees. Well, the farewell was not for an employee who was a staff but an employee who changed the face of science and technology! Changed the lives of millions around the world! An employee called Bill Gates. The last day would have been a speech about his legacy by fellow workers and would have ended with some cakes but it was a day marking the end of an era, an era which changed the world for ever.

Bill Gates had spent 33 years of his life building the world’s largest software company. What could he have spoken when asked about his accomplishments all these years? Which ones would he highlight? May be that’s the reason Gates did the impossible and never spoke about it.

Chip Ganassi Racing has selected Microsoft solution to help improve their car performances during racing. The high-performance computing (HPC) solution is based on Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003. Now simulations which took 24 hours can be run in less than a hour, thanks to Microsoft solution.

Chip Ganassi Racing is an racing organization with its team competing in NASCAR, IRL and Grand-Am. Owned by Chip Ganassi and Felix Sabates, the team is based in Concord, North Carolina. Chip Ganassi Racing worked with Microsoft and Stackpole Engineering Services Inc. who were their simulation software vendors to modify the software to run on the Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003.

Previously, the racing team spent 24 hours to run a simulation. Now, with the use of five-node HPC cluster, the team can run a simulation in less than an hour. This has helped the team run simulations faster and more frequently to equip the team better and more competitive in race tacks.

Paxton of Chip Ganassi team mentions, “We’re all about making cars go faster, not building fancy computer systems. At first, I thought HPC was only for big companies that can afford multimillion-dollar supercomputers. After we realized that HPC was accessible and affordable, we saw the potential competitive advantage it would bring. My only concerns were that the solution be easy to use and easy to manage, and that we could easily modify the application. Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 enabled us to meet all three requirements.”

Chip Ganassi Racing has selected Microsoft solution to help improve their car performances during racing. The high-performance computing (HPC) solution is based on Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003. Now simulations which took 24 hours can be run in less than a hour, thanks to Microsoft solution.

Chip Ganassi Racing is an racing organization with its team competing in NASCAR, IRL and Grand-Am. Owned by Chip Ganassi and Felix Sabates, the team is based in Concord, North Carolina. Chip Ganassi Racing worked with Microsoft and Stackpole Engineering Services Inc. who were their simulation software vendors to modify the software to run on the Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003.

Previously, the racing team spent 24 hours to run a simulation. Now, with the use of five-node HPC cluster, the team can run a simulation in less than an hour. This has helped the team run simulations faster and more frequently to equip the team better and more competitive in race tacks.

Paxton of Chip Ganassi team mentions, “We’re all about making cars go faster, not building fancy computer systems. At first, I thought HPC was only for big companies that can afford multimillion-dollar supercomputers. After we realized that HPC was accessible and affordable, we saw the potential competitive advantage it would bring. My only concerns were that the solution be easy to use and easy to manage, and that we could easily modify the application. Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 enabled us to meet all three requirements.”

Microsoft today released Hyper-V for Windows Server 2008, a hypervisor-based virtualization technology. Microsoft claims that it has distributed nearly 1.5 million copies of Hyper-V beta version which demonstrates customers interest in virtualization.

Virtualization helps companies decrease hardware costs, power consumption costs and the complexity of managing the IT system. Virtualization also increases flexibility for the overall environment and helps maximize value of IT investments.

Microsoft’s Hypervisor Technology, commonly called Hyper-V enables customers consolidate some of their most demanding workloads.

Bill Hilf, General Manager for Platform Strategy and Windows Server Marketing at Microsoft stated, “Customers who buy Windows Server 2008 are not only getting the scalability benefits, the high performance and reliability, and all the great things that Windows Server is known for; as of today they can benefit from integrated virtualization with Hyper-V.”

Customers can now download the final version of Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V. Hilf also added, “There have already been over 1 million evaluations of Hyper-V, and with this release IT organizations everywhere can move it from the lab to production to fully experience the benefits that Hyper-V in Windows Server 2008 can bring.” To download Hyper-V, please click on the following link:

http://www.microsoft.com/Hyper-V

Hyper-V would also be available as a Windows Update for customers who have already deployed Windows Server 2008.

Microsoft Corp. announced its intention to acquire Mobicomp a Portugal based mobile technology company. MobiComp built one of the first WAP-enabled ticketing systems for cinema-goers in early 2001 and is acclaimed for its innovative mobile data protection and sharing services.

Corporate Vice President, Mobile Communications Business at Microsoft, Todd Peters explained that “People expect their phones to deliver the best experiences from PCs and the Web right to their pockets. Investing in the right solutions from companies like MobiComp will extend the capabilities of Windows Mobile and Windows Live to help us provide the most innovative and seamless way to stay connected.”

Formed in 2000, MobiComp is a privately funded Braga, Portugal based company which has its offices in Spain, Lisbon, Dubai, UK and Finland. The company is !SO 9001:2000 certified and received the Award for Services to Innovation from the Portuguese Republic President in 2006.

Carlos Oliveria, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of MobiComp mentioned, “Like Microsoft, we’ve always believed in an open and innovative mobile platform and deep industry partnerships. We are thrilled that our work over the past eight years can now be extended by partnering with Microsoft’s world-class portfolio of mobile services.”

For all those GTalk lovers, here are some cool shortcuts you can use while chatting.

• Ctrl + E - Centralizes the selected text that you typed, or the current line where your cursor is present.
• Ctrl + R - Justifies the selected message to the right, or to the current line.
• Ctrl + L - Justifies the message to the left the selected text, or the current line.
• Tab – Helps specify the area required for each windows opened 
• Alt + F4 - Closes the current GTalk window.
• Alt + Esc - Minimizes all GTalk windows.
• Windows + ESC - Opens Google Talk (if it is minimized, or is in the tray)
• F9 – Automatically open Gmail to send an email to the current contact window that is opened.
• F11 - Automatically initiates a telephonic call with the contact.
• F12 – Can be used to cancels a telephonic call.
• Esc - Closes all current windows
• Ctrl + Shift + L – Helps switch between numbers, letters, points, roman numbers, capital letters and capitals with roman numbers
• Ctrl + 1 (KeyPad) - A simple space between the lines.
• Ctrl + 2 (KeyPad) - A double space between the lines.
• Ctrl + 5 (KeyPad) - A space with 1.5 distance between the lines.
• Ctrl + 1 (NumPad) – Moves the cursor to the end of the last line.
• Ctrl + 7 (NumPad) – Moves the cursor to the begin of the last line.
• Ctrl + F4 - Closes the current GTalk window.

GTalk is simple yet an excellent tool for connecting with your friends and collegues. Who would not like to add some tweaking to customize it to what you want? You can do this using a registry tweak.

Note: The below changes are done on the Registry file. If you are unaware of how to do this or you are technically not sound, please avoid editing the registry as it can even stop your computer from working.

1. Choose “Start” from the taskbar and select “Run”.
2. Type “Regedit” and click “ok”.
3. Now in the left side of the window, you would find folders.
4. Open HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Google\Google Talk
5. Here is were you can perform the GTalk tweaks.
6. You need to right click on the registry files and choose Modify to change the settings

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Google\Google Talk\Options\view_show_taskbutton
If this is set to 0, it would hides the taskbar button, and will leave the tray icon only, when the window is shown

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Google\Google Talk\Options\show_pin
If set to 1, will show a “pin” next to the minimize button that allows the GTalk window to be kept on top of all other open windows while clicked.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Google\Google Talk\Options\away_inactive
If set to 1, GTalk status will be set as Away after the number of minutes specified.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Google\Google Talk\Options\away_screensaver
If set to 1, GTalk status will be set as Away after the specified number of minutes.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Google\Google Talk\Options\inactive_minutes
Number of inactive minutes to will become away if auto-away is “on”.

Are you thinking “How to delete my Gmail account?”. Well, its an easy procedure to delete your Gmail account. You can delete your Google mail account at any time.

However, once you delete it, you would lose all your mails and contacts forever. You would not be able to retrieve it.

If you are sure you do not need your contacts or email that exists in your Gmail account in the future, then please follow the steps below to delete it:

1. Sign in to your Gmail account using your username and password which needs to be deleted.
2. Click Settings found on the top right corner of your Gmail account.
3. Choose the Accounts tab in the Settings menu bar [The second one next to “General”].
4. Choose Google Account settings.
5. This will open a new window with all your Google Products
6. Click the Edit link next to ‘My products’ found on the right side.
7. Click Delete Gmail Service option and fill in the requested information.

Note: As informed, once you complete these steps, you would never be able to retrieve your email or contacts.