This techgirl is champioining social bookmarking as a great way of building links and being a more efficient way of finding related information on a particular subject. I have to agree, social bookmarking has really made it easier to do research or just read up on topics that are of particular interest to a person. It lessens the dependence on search engine results and is more intuitive and accurate.

Social bookmarking marks another step in the evolution of the internet.

They have a great toolbar that I have installed and am using on a daily basis called the Smart Toolbar.

Tools like this will give you a heads up on your site’s inbound link health.

Check it out today: SmartPagerank

First of all, pMetrics’ spy function rocks my world.  It gives you an up to the second pictures of your blog traffic.  You can literally “spy” on your visitors in real time.  Now this isn’t for pure voyeurism, but it is a rush.  The Spy App alone makes pMetrics worth the ride.  Each visit AND click on your site gets tracked, and displayed in a constantly updated ticker.  Doing a promotional campaign?  Watch the results in real time.

So why not just stick with Google Analytics?  It’s plenty powerful right?  Well, it may be powerful, but its also cumbersome.  You’ve got to drill down deep to find the stats that you want to see (referrals, keyword searches, incoming links, etc.)  Plus,  Google Analytics is tedious and tiresome for anyone who owns multiple blogs.

pMetrics shines in simplicity and ease of use.  It summarizes your data on just a few pages, so there’s no need to drill down deep into the navigation to find that stats you’re looking for.  That alone is why I prefer it over Google Analytics.

The coolest thing of all about pMetrics is the promise it has for expandability and widgety-goodness.  Want to share your stats with the world?  That’s an option.  Want to pull in an RSS feed of your stats from 10 different blogs?  Again, that’s an option.  View all your stats in one place in an RSS reader.  Save time and effort.  Great feature btw.  The RSS feed also gives you the resources you need to present your stats in a customizable fashion (read: hack your own widgets!).

But that’s really not all.  The people over at  Performancing are promising a future upgrade that will allow for Google AdSense tracking (woohoo!).  Since Performancing is about open source, open community, we can expect for boatloads of cool plugins and widgets to get developed to help promote your blog and also have fun with it.

I can’t say enough good things about pMetrics.  While it isn’t perfect, there’s no doubt that it’s currently my favorite analytics program for blogs.

So go get it.  What are you waiting for?

pMetrics Blog Stats & Analytics

Google’s measure of a site’s importance tells us that the relatively new, and only mildly influential Huffington Post has a PageRank of 8 while the original phenom of online journalism and current driver of the news cycle, The Drudge Report , only has a PageRank of 7.

So according to Google, Huffington Post is more important than Drudge.

Now that’s ridiculous.

Google Maps has become even more customizable. Now when using the service, users have the choice of personalizing and sharing their maps. A new tab located next to your search results give users an array of tools that lets you mark a place, section off areas with the shape tool, create custom directions, as well as add text, images and even video. Logging in with your Google account will allow for everything to be saved and shared with the people of your choice. seroundtable.com has a great review of My Maps with images showing how to use all the new features.

• Symantec Norton Security Scan
• PC Tools Spyware Doctor Starter Edition
• Google Photos Screensaver.

Symantec Norton Security Scan offers basic virus protection, automatic updates and scheduled scanning without a subscription fee.

PC Tools Spyware Doctor Starter Edition, as its name suggests, is spyware security tool. Evidently, PCs have occasional problems with security.

Google Photos Screensaver turns your PC screen into a digital picture display frame for Google’s Picasa Web Albums or feeds from other photo-sharing sites.

Google Pack comes with the Google Updater, to save users the trouble of keeping their software current. Other Google Pack applications include Mozilla Firefox, Google Earth, Picasa, Google Toolbar, Google Desktop and Adobe Reader.

Users also have the option to add Google Talk, RealPlayer, Skype, Google Video Player and GalleryPlayer HD Images when downloading Google Pack.

Google Pack Beta comes in 12 languages. It runs on Window XP and Vista and supports Internet Explorer 6.0 and Firefox 1.0 and above.

St. Patrick’s Day wouldn’t exist if not for the man himself! But how much do we know about him?

Did you know that he spent six years of slavery in Ireland until he escaped and undertook religious training abroad?

Saint Patrick is believed to have been born in the late fourth century and is often confused with Palladius, a bishop who was sent by Pope Celestine in 431 to be the first bishop to the Irish believers in Christ.

Saint Patrick was the patron saint and national apostle of Ireland who is credited with bringing Christianity to Ireland.

For me it’s the one day a year that everyone likes to pretend they’re Irish, so they can get drunk and be extra obnoxious on a weekday.

You’ll see the occasional “Kiss Me, I’m Irish” pin on the lapels of co-workers and sales clerks. The better looking they are, the less they actually want you to try and kiss them. Believe me.

People like to wear green on this day, too. I don’t. I have nothing against it, I am Irish, but don’t feel I have to be involved.

I figure having a name like “Sean” excludes me from trying to be Irish (or “fake Irish” for the day). The only name more Irish than mine is “Irish O’Irishson” and he’s a jerk.

Anyway, have a nice day, drink lots of Guinness and for those of you on a mission to get lots of kisses, I send you a little Irish good luck.

This job posting titled “Analog Designer/Engineer” would lead me to believe Google is at least considering it.

According to the job posting (copied here for archive purposes):

Google organizes information and makes it accessible and useful. To improve accessibility, Google is experimenting with a few wireless communications systems including some completely novel concepts.

We are building a small team of top-notch Logic Designers and Analog Designers aimed at nothing less than making the entire world’s information accessible from anywhere for free. Are you in?

Here is the list of skills and requirements that Google is looking for in a Analog Designer:

• Electrical Engineering or related technical degree.
• First-rate Analog Designer with more than 5 years experience.
• Extensive circuit modeling and analysis experience.
• Excellent programming skills.
• Experience with switching power supply design a plus.
• Ham radio license a plus.

Although rumors of a Google phone have been circulating for quite some time, this is the best evidence so far that Google is really considering such a device.

You can bet we’ll hear more rumors about this mobile or wireless Google device in the next few weeks. Stay tuned, this rumor has a lot of potential.

The amount of the lawsuit: $1 billion in damages. Yikes!!

The lawsuit accuses Google and YouTube of “massive intentional copyright infringement” of Viacom’s entertainment assets and seeks an injunction against further violations.

According to the complaint filed by Viacom, almost 160,000 unauthorized clips of Viacom’s programming have been available on YouTube and that these clips had been viewed more than 1.5 billion times.

Check out the Viacom press release for more details.

Google has beefed up its sales operations in the Washington, DC, area in the last year in hopes of capturing more business from military, intelligence and civil agencies.

Several government agencies already use an enhanced version of Google Earth. That’s right: Google is going deep into the verticals.

While official numbers aren’t available, the Post reports that Google nearly tripled its business with government agencies from $73,000 USD in 2005 to $312,000 USD in 2006.

So what’s next for Google?

First, you can look for Google to target its products at verticals other than government in the next few months. Many people claim that Google is ready to tackle the health care market. I would agree 100%.

It also looks like Microsoft is ready to battle Google for this space.

Second, you can bet that the online fight for vertical markets between Google and its rivals including Microsoft, Yahoo and lots of smaller vertical publishers and content providers across a number of industries is going to get a lot more intense very soon.

Let’s get ready to RUMBLE! *

* Trademarked catchphrase by Michael Buffer.