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Many ISPs put their own branding in the Internet Explorer title bar. Here is how to get rid of it without reinstalling anything.
Microsoft makes it fairly easy for companies or individuals to put their own branding on the IE title bar, but getting rid of it isn’t too hard, either. As always, back up the registry before you make changes. Navigate in your registry editor to:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Internet Explorer \ Main
Now look in the right pane and you should see a value named Windows Title. In the Data column, you’ll see the branding text (such as the ISP’s name). You can delete this value to get rid of the branding entirely, or you can double click the value and change it to whatever you like (such as your own name). After you make the desired change, close the registry editor, close IE and then when you open it again, the change should take effect.
August 2009 search engine market share.
| Search Engine | % search share |
|---|---|
| 64.6 | |
| Yahoo | 16.0 |
| Bing | 10.7 |
| AOL | 3.1 |
| Ask | 1.7 |
I never thought removing an activex control could be so obfuscated.
Recently I ran Secunia PSI which checks the versions of programs to see if they are up-to-date and are a security risk. One program that showed up was Trend Micro’s Housecall activex control which was woefully out of date. Not using housecall anymore I though it simple to delete the activex control. Hah!
The control was firmly esconced in the Windows/Downloaded Program Files directory. Even starting Windows explorer as an admin did not help.
I opened Internet Explorer 8.0 > Tools > Manage add-ons.
The activex control was nowhere to be found until I selected All add-ons under the Show: label. I scrolled down to the Housecall activex control, right-clicked on it, and chose More Information. Then click Remove which will delete the control.
I have been waiting since Firefox 3.5 came out for Google to update Gears to be compatible. I had gears 0.5.21.0 installed and tried updating add-ons, which disabled gears, and going to the gear’s website, downloading and installing gears.
What I ended up doing was uninstalling gears, downloading the gears installer and running it. NOW the updated gears (0.5.29.0) installed and is compatible with Firefox 3.5. This was for Windows XP.
I tried this on Vista and gears installed fine through Firefox.
I am a power user of Firefox; it is not uncommon for me to have 30 tabs open. But with convenience comes problems. Memory problems. As the tabs are cycled through, closed, opened anew, the memory Firefox grabs grows (though it seems better in v3.5). One modification you can do is this:
1. In the url bar type in: about:config
2. Accept the warning.
3. Right-click on the resulting page and add New > Boolean
4. As the preference name enter: config.trim_on_minimize
5. Choose True as the value.
6. Restart Firefox.
Now when Firefox is minimized it frees up memory.
I have added a tutorial on how to add a search engine to AWStats using Bing as an example.
How to add a search engine to AWStats
Doug
The title tag is one of the more important items in not only search engine attraction but user attraction, too. Typically the title’s contents are displayed on a SERP (search engine result page). Also the title is shown in the browser title bar and when a bookmark is created.
Unfortunately, blog software treats the title tag in different ways. Some do not even create a title tag while some put in various entries.
In WordPress the default title is the blog name followed by page information. The problem with this is that the closer to the front the more important the information according to search engines. Plugins exist, such as optimal title, to make the blog title and individual post titles better suited for search engines.
Check your blog and individual posts (look at page source) to make sure the title tag has what you think it has. You may be surprised.
Just having a web site or blog is not enough. People need to know about it. Spreading the word about your blog or web site takes time and perseverance to monitor the effectiveness of your efforts.
Consider putting your web site and blog in email signatures, business cards, address labels, and letters. I have seen automobiles and trucks with web addresses on them…even t-shirts! A tattoo may be going too far.
Posting articles on news sites like Digg helps spread your URL around. It can be a lot of work (and luck) to get a big story on Digg. You never know.
Of course you can go crazy and post it on a billboard along a busy road.
Just mentioning your web site or blog URL in conversation may get some results especially if it is easy to remember. Often when I mention web sites people are taken aback: oh, you have a web site?
If you have a brick and mortar store, posting the web site near the entrance will bring some exposure. Printing your site on each receipt will get countless eyes looking at it. Offer a discount or some other incentive on the receipt along with a promotion code to track where it came from. Advertising your web site on grocery carts may be another idea. Local chambers of commerce generally have web site listings of area stores.
Leaving useful comments on a forum will instill credibility and hopefully people will seek you out. Putting a URL in a post may get tagged with a no-follow tag so search engines will not follow it…but people may.
If you have an email list, send out an announcement of your blog or an important posting on it. Many times people like to forward useful emails.
Link exchanges are popular but diminishing in value for search engines. Make sure the link you exchange is a quality link. You are known by the company you keep.
That is it for now. There are many other ways of letting the world know of your online presence. I’ll post another batch of ideas later…
One feature that is valuable in getting the word out is making it easy for people to subscribe to RSS feeds. When I speak of RSS I mean RSS or Atom feeds. Read about RSS – probably more than you want to know.
Blogs and many web sites use RSS feeds to communicate new information, such as press releases, new software, and upgrades available. It should be as easy as clicking on your favorite RSS reader logo (or if it is not listed click on the universal RSS icon and paste it into your reader) and go. I try and list the most common readers without getting out of hand.
A help page on feeds is a necessity since many people still do not know what feeds are or know enough about feeds to feel comfortable subscribing to them.
If you are a user of WordPress for your blogging, one of our favorite syndication plug-ins is subscribe me. Once activated there are many choices of syndication buttons to choose. They show up on the sidebar under a ‘Syndication’ heading.
For particular sites containing RSS readers such as Bloglines, Google Reader or Newsgator have buttons that can be added to your blog or website so users can subscribe to your feed. Note that most personalized home pages such as MSN, Google, or Yahoo have ways of adding RSS feeds to them.
Here are some examples of how an RSS feed button can be added to your blog/website. Click on ‘Add’ and it will take you to the appropriate site so you can create your own syndication code then cut-and-paste into your blog or website area.
Services such as FeedBurner, Squeet, or FeedBlitz can handle syndication for you. Some blog software, such as WordPress, have plug-ins to reroute your feed to FeedBurner where the subscriber then chooses which reader to use. A nice side effect is you can monitor your subscriber base.
If you choose to add feed subscription yourself you can add the universal RSS feed button 
or a text-only link which is directed to FeedBurner. When a subscriber clicks on it, FeedBurner takes over and offers various subscription buttons.
