After an installation of Google Apps, some people are concerned about the lack of the delivery report / read receipt feature.

In one installation I did across 2 companies with ~60 users I was told that this could be a “deal-breaker” but after discussing it with the management, they agreed to give it a go anyway, and in the 2 years they have been using it since I’ve only heard the enquiry once from 2 people.

Let me explain my position at this point, I was advised against using email receipts a few years ago by a computer expert I respected.  His reasoning was twofold 1) they unnecessarily increase email traffic (therefore reducing performance) 2) they give spammers an easy way to see that they’ve hit a “live” person at an email address.

Nevertheless I was not convinced.  For a long time I requested a read receipt on every email I sent out… until I started getting feedback that many people see this as an invasion of privacy, and some were getting (mildly to be fair) annoyed at this perceived ‘lack of respect’ on my part.

I spent some time thinking about it, and did some research, firstly into email etiquette.  Here is an except from www.emailreplies.com:

32 most important email etiquette tips … 20. Do not request delivery and read receipts

This will almost always annoy your recipient before he or she has even read your message. Besides, it usually does not work anyway since the recipient could have blocked that function, or his/her software might not support it, so what is the use of using it? If you want to know whether an email was received it is better to ask the recipient to let you know if it was received.”
I was intrigued by learning that “it usually does not work anyway since the recipient could have blocked that function, or his/her software might not support it.

Wikipedia has a good summary, here are some excerpts from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-mail_tracking (bold and italics added):

due to the nature of the technology, e-mail tracking cannot be considered an absolutely accurate indicator that a message was opened or read by the recipient.

requesting a receipt does not guarantee that you will get one, for several reasons. Very few e-mail applications or services support read receipts, and users can generally disable the functionality if they so wish. Those that do support it aren’t necessarily compatible with or capable of recognizing requests from a different e-mail service or application. Generally read receipts are only useful within an organization where all employees/members are using the same email service and application.

Depending on the recipient’s mail client and settings, they may be forced to click a notification button before they can move on with their work. Even though it is an opt-in process, a recipient may consider it inconvenient, discourteous, or invasive.”
This is not the image that I want to project, therefore I started thinking carefully about whether I should be requesting email receipts, particularly as I always declined them myself.

I have over the years been trying to manage my time more efficiently.  I realized that dealing with email receipts isn’t an efficient use of my time.  I would constantly be getting receipts of emails, which I would have to file, filter or delete, just for the occasional one that actually seemed useful or relevant.

It occurred to me at this point that when an email DOESN’T reach the final recipient, I usually get a failure notice about 4 hours later.  Therefore, when I don’t get a failure notice I can assume, with probably a higher degree of accuracy than a delivery receipt provides, that the email HAS got there.

I often use the traditional postal mail system to explain email systems to people.  In this instance, asking for a read receipt is like insisting that you must know the time at which someone opened the envelope of a letter that you sent them.  Most of us don’t even think about that.  When we send a letter we assume it got there.

If we must have some additional ‘re-assurance’ we send it by a tracked service (e.g. recorded delivery), which is still only analogous to a delivery (not ‘read’) receipt.  If the letter isn’t delivered it is returned to us – very similar to the email failure notification I described above.

Email receipts could be accidentally generated, or even spoofed, so even getting one doesn’t prove that the intended recipient got the message, much less that they understood it!

So to sum up, requesting email receipts can be considered rude, they are unreliable and probably an inefficient use of time, which is why (although I was once an “email receipt addict”) I choose not to use them any more.

Google don’t support them, but it is possible to “Suggest a feature for Gmail” on this page and “Read Receipts” is one of the features listed for suggestion.  Many people insist that this is an important feature, so Google may implement it one day.

The best 2 methods for checking if that “important” email reached its recipient are:

1. Call them and ask.  Particularly if you’re dealing with a client/customer this gives you an excuse to make human contact, which is important in building and maintaining your business relationship.  Speaking to them may seem time consuming, but the benefits mean it usually isn’t.  A conversation also means you’re far more likely to elicit a response to the original email.
2. Put the document into an application on the web where you can reliably track visitors (by authentication) to see who has logged in, downloaded/edited the documents, etc. This also offers better security.

However, you can configure an email client to request them, even with Gmail or Google Apps.  It’s (usually) the email interface (whether a program or web access) that requests and responds to receipts, not the email server/system.

There are other ways to track email, such as embedding images (which is why email clients often ask you for privacy reasons whether you want to display the image), but these are often considered to be methods of “spying” on the recipient and are therefore discouraged by some.

Other references:

• Email Read Receipts: good or bad? – http://matthom.com/archive/2007/10/29/email-read-receipts-good-or-bad
• Read Receipts: To Request or Not To Request – http://www.manager-tools.com/forums-4638
• The original RFC for email (which doesn’t include receipts) – http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc822.html

Before I installed Dropbox I briefly checked out what alternatives were available.  One of the most interesting is SugarSync, another backup/synchronization service.

First the pros: Continue reading this post…

You may, as I did, wonder just how secure your data on Dropbox is. Can the guys and gals at Dropbox read what’s inside your super-secret file? What happens if you, or someone you’re sharing a folder with, accidentally deletes something important? Where are your files actually kept?

These excerpts from the Dropbox website should help explain…

Dropbox uses Amazon’s Simple Storage Service (S3) for storage.  Amazon have a robust security policy, which you can read about in their Overview of Security Processes document.  Apart from physical security, there are also other technical security precautions in place to prevent unauthorized access to data.

Back to Dropbox… they say:

Nobody can see your private files in Dropbox unless you deliberately invite them or put them in your Public folder. Everything in your Public folder is, by definition, accessible to anyone. Otherwise, the only way to access the files in your Dropbox online is with your username and password.

Here are the key points in their “Advanced Users” section:

Dropbox uses modern encryption methods to both transfer and store your data.

• All transmission of file data and metadata occurs over an encrypted channel (SSL).
• All files stored on Dropbox servers are encrypted (AES-256) and are inaccessible without your account password
• Public files are only viewable by people who have a link to the file(s). Public folders are not browsable or searchable
• Dropbox employees aren’t able to access user files, and when troubleshooting an account they only have access to file metadata (filenames, file sizes, etc., not the file contents)

This was enough to satisfy me, although I don’t store my most important files on there. (Perhaps I should!)

To answer questions I posed at the start…

1. Can the guys and gals at Dropbox read what’s inside your super-secret file? No (see above)
2. What happens if you, or someone you’re sharing a folder with, accidentally deletes something important?
   Dropbox keeps snapshots of every saved change in your Dropbox folder over the last 30 days.  So you can restore deleted files with a few clicks.
   Dropbox also keeps a hidden collection, or cache, of your files (in your Dropbox application settings) as backup storage . Files in the cache folder are stored there often after they are moved or deleted after syncing. If you can’t find your file using all other practical methods, you can try to recover the file from Dropbox cache as a last resort. The Dropbox cache will keep files for up to 3 days after they have been moved or deleted.
3. Where are your files actually kept?
   If you’ve installed the Dropbox desktop application, your files are stored both on your computer (in your Dropbox folder) and on Dropbox’s secure online servers in data centers located along the east coast of the United States.

A while ago I wrote about, and rated, some Firefox add-ons that I use regularly, or have tried.

Recently, Firefox on one of my computers was taking so long to open it prompted me to delete the profile and start again. (Actually I just renamed the profile – deleting is a bit too drastic for me!)

The speed problem actually has more to do with the computer, but it turned out to be a worthwhile exercise, and I’ve managed to whittle my add-ons list down to just 20 😮 installed by choice, which I feel enhance my browsing experience.

Of course if you have a special use e.g. developing websites, or using a social media site, there are other add-ons that make life easier (like Web Developer, Firebug or Twitterbar), but listed here are some for general web browsing and webmail (esp. Gmail):

To install:
– click on the link below, which will take you to the Add-on’s homepage on addons.mozilla.org, then click the large green button to install.

1. Adblock Plus 10/10
2. Adblock Plus: Element Hiding Helper 10/10
   – Both of these are essential if you dislike ads distracting you on your favourite websites.
3. Add Bookmark Here 2 8/10
   – Makes it easier/quicker to add a bookmark to the right folder, therefore keeping your bookmarks tidy.
4. Add to Search Bar 7/10
   – Say you have a favourite site that has a search facility (e.g. the search box at the top of this page ;-)) this add-on lets you add that search to your Search Bar allowing you to search the site directly from your Search Bar without having to visit the site first.
5. Better Gmail 2 6/10
   – IMO essential if you use Gmail, but not needed for everyone, hence only 6/10
6. British English Dictionary 6/10
   – Highlights spelling errors in form fields (e.g. using webmail, or typing in forum message boxes.
7. Copy Link Name 9/10
   – Copies the name of a link, rather than the link location (shortcut URL).
8. Fast Dial 8/10
   – Visual bookmarks. Create a page of thumbnails of your chosen websites for quick access. Can be configured to open with a new tab.
   
9. goolash 6/10
   – “GOOLASH keeps you logged out from the search engine of Google, regardless of any other “G” services you might be using, like Gmail for example. GOOLASH keeps your web searches disassociated from your Google username, meaning that the results are not being filtered according to the profile Google has on you, neither the context of your requests is being attached to your persona.”
   If you like using Google services, but are a little concerned about everything you do on your computer being tracked, then you might find this useful.
   This add-on has disappeared from AMO, but I have found the original author’s site and taken a copy of it.  You need MR Tech Toolkit (or similar, or hacking abilities) to make it work with the latest version of Firefox, but IME, it does).
10. HTML Validator 9/10 – Windows only from AMO, but versions available for other OSs on the author’s website
    – Adds HTML validation inside Firefox and Mozilla. The number of errors of a HTML page is seen on the form of an icon in the status bar when browsing.
    Even if you’re not a web developer, it’s a quick visual check to see how much the site’s authors care about writing good code.  Even if there is a white cross on a red background, right-click to check how many errors, if only 1 or 2 that’s good 🙂
11. Mr Tech Toolkit 7/10
    – Provides the tools needed to install and manage extensions and themes locally and tons of other features.
12. NoScript 6/10
    – Allow active content to run only from sites you trust, and protect yourself against XSS and Clickjacking attacks.
13. Remove Cookie(s) for Site 7/10
    – A very simple extension to remove all the cookies of currently opened site. Very useful if Gmail ‘hangs’ during an operation.
    I’m trying some alternative Cookie control/removal tools at the moment, so I don’t have this installed, but I may we go back to it.  What it does it does very well (and simply which is always a plus!)
14. Searchbar Autosizer 9/10
    – Searchbar Autosizer reduces the size of your Searchbar when not in use (increasing the available space for those long URLs) but grows to fit a search when you start typing in it 🙂
    I have toyed with moving the Address Bar (Awesome Bar) to different places, and fiddling with the location of the Search Bar, but moving them makes things confusing for anyone else who uses my computer, or for me if I’m on someone else’s.  So I’m trying not to change the layout of my screen too much!
    
15. Searchload Options 7/10
    – Tweak the searchbar’s functionality.
16. Tab Mix Plus 10/10
    – Tab Mix Plus enhances Firefox’s tab browsing capabilities. It includes such features as duplicating tabs, controlling tab focus, tab clicking options, undo closed tabs and windows, plus much more. It also includes a full-featured session manager.
17. Tidy Browser Button 7/10
    – A toolbar button to toggle the size of the FireFox browser between the two standard web page widths on the Internet.
    I’ve modified this add-on for my own use.  I need to contact the original author to see if he has any objections to me releasing my version.  I usually have my browser window on the right of the screen, so my modification “docks” the window on the right, and resizes from there.
    
18. Update Scanner 9/10
    – Monitors web pages for updates. Particularly useful for websites that don’t provide Atom or RSS feeds.
    
19. WiseStamp 7/10
    – Enhance and customize your email signatures. Use multiple Business and Private email signatures, inserts HTML to signatures & much more. Works with Gmail, Google Apps, Yahoo, Hotmail, and AOL.
20. Xmarks Bookmark Synchronizer 9/10
    – If you use Firefox on more than one computer, you’ll want Foxmarks. Install Foxmarks on each computer, and it works silently in the background to keep your bookmarks and (optionally) passwords synchronized.
    

Gmail Manager might make a re-appearance on this list at some point in the future, but for now, while the 0.6 version doesn’t work with Gmail’s latest changes, I’ve haven’t added it to my brand new profile 🙁 Read the latest developments in the mozillazine topic.

I’ve posted before about how using a referral link when signing up, and inviting others, gives you extra space (a bonus 250 MB on sign-up, & for each referral).

I logged into my Dropbox account and moments later a balloon pop-up in my System Tray informed me that I had another 250 MB space.  I hadn’t yet referred another friend, although I was thinking about doing it.  So assuming that Dropbox weren’t giving me extra space just for *thinking* about referring someone, I had a look around my account to find out why I had been given the extra space.

Once you have logged into your account there’s a Recent Events tab.  I clicked on that and the latest message informed me

You became a Dropbox Guru and earned 250MB of bonus space!

I had no idea how I had become a ‘Dropbox Guru’ so I did some digging and found out that if you click on the Getting Started tab, there’s a message at the top:

Welcome to Dropbox. Complete these steps to become a Dropbox guru!

It gives a list of things to do; after you’ve completed each one, you get an extra 250 MB!

I had managed to cross everything off the list without even realizing it!

Edit: If you’re interested in how secure files stored in a Dropbox are see Dropbox Security.

I’ve just created a new page with instructions for how to get remote support from me using CrossLoop.

I’ve been looking for a remote desktop support solution that’s inexpensive, and doesn’t need software permanently running on the client’s computer to provide access.

I investigated some of the options and narrowed the choice down to:

• Mikogo
• Yuuguu
• TeamViewer
• CrossLoop

Each of these is free, they all have pros and cons for me.

I didn’t install each one, but read others’ reviews and the product websites.  Finally I thought I’d reduce the choice to TeamViewer and CrossLoop, simply because I didn’t want to have to keep spelling out the website address over the phone!

Finally CrossLoop won out (although the first person I used it with did ask me to spell it!), as it appears to be more suited to remote support than having a primary focus of “online meeting” which is the case with some of the others.

You do have to register, giving your name and email address, but other than that it appears pretty simple.  The downside in contrast with Logmein Free is that you can’t access a remote computer without someone being there.  But for remote support, and screen sharing, it looks pretty good.

In my next post about CrossLoop I’ll explain exactly how download, registration and connection is done, and then point clients to it, to help them get connected.

A standard (free) Dropbox is 2GB.  That can quickly be filled up, particularly if you want to use your Dropbox for photos or videos.

You can pay to increase this space to 50 GB ($9.99 per month) or 100 GB ($19.99 per month).

Another way to get an additional 3 GB (5 GB total space) is by accepting a referral, or by referring up to 12 people.

If someone refers you, and you use the link they sent when signing up, then you instantly get 2.25 GB on signup.  The person who referred you also gets an additional 250MB of space.

You can then refer other people, and for each person who signs up, you get an extra 250MB, up to a maximum of 3GB extra space (5GB in total) with a free account.

Here’s how to refer someone:

1. Sign into your dropbox account at www.getdropbox.com
2. On that page you should see:
   
3. Click on the ‘referring your friends’ link and you should then get a page with 3 options (A, B and C).
4. Options B and C involve you entering someone else’s email address into a website – not something I’m ever comfortable doing – so I would use option A:
   
5. If you copy the whole link then paste it into an email, you can then send it to whoever you like.
   If you have a Facebook or Twitter account you can click on the links provided to share your referral link that way, or you can just paste the link into a blog or MySpace page etc.  That’s what I did on my earlier blog post.

The link is unique to you, so when your friend uses it to sign up, Dropbox know you’ve referred them and will give both of you some extra space.  I haven’t got the maximum space yet so here’s a handy referral link for you to use: https://www.getdropbox.com/referrals/NTE3MTg4ODM5 😉

To find out how to share a folder with someone, see Sharing a Dropbox folder.

So, I’ve been using dropbox for a couple of weeks, and so far I’m impressed.

Yes, it reduces the irritation of having to email things to myself, or remembering to save onto USB key when I want to take a file somewhere, great 🙂

Possibly the best thing about it though, is being able to use it to send/share large files with others (https://www.getdropbox.com/tour#3).

My sister wanted a video she saw on my computer of one of the children the other day, and when I looked it was around 97 MB – too big to email.  Now, we could have found a USB key and copied it to that, but we decided to test out sharing on dropbox.  Here’s how we did it, and how you could too:

1. I created a new folder called “Aunty” inside my dropbox:



2. I right-clicked on the newly created folder and selected Dropbox > Share this folder…



3. This took me to the dropbox login page in my browser, where I entered my email address and password to log in.
4. After logging in I was presented with a page headed “Share Aunty” (the name of the folder) where I could enter the email address of the person I wanted to share the folder with.  So I entered my sister’s email address.

   

   Ideally the email address you type would be the one they used to sign up to dropbox.  However, I think you can use any email address that you know they’ll receive (I haven’t tested this yet).  In fact, I don’t think they even need to have signed up to dropbox yet, they will just receive an invitation to do so if they haven’t.  I’ll post a comment when I know for sure.

5. I then copied the file she wanted into the folder and after a few minutes uploading, we could see that it was synchronized on the dropbox server (the green checkmark shows that it’s synchronized).



6. As my sister had her dropbox set up already the “Aunty” folder just appeared in her dropbox.  Her computer downloaded (synchronized) the files in the folder automatically, so now we can just drag any file we want to share into that folder, and dropbox does the rest.

   As you can see this works with any type of file, large or small, so it’s great for sharing documents and photos too.If she’s using a different computer, without the dropbox client installed, she can just sign in to the website and download any files through the browser.

Try it out with your friends and family, and let me know how you get on!  If you register on this blog, you can post your comments below.

If you find that you need more space, see: Get more Dropbox space.

What is SEO?

SEO stands for “Search Engine Optimisation”.  It means optimizing a website so that search engines will visit, index it and display that website when people search for particular ‘keywords’, the words they type to find things.  The most popular search engine is Google which is why many people concentrate specifically on trying to get higher rankings on Google.

At the time of writing (Aug ’09) Google Search has almost 80% market share, Yahoo! is the next most popular with approx 7%.

When you type a search phrase into Google, you get a list of results.  Everyone wants their site to be as high up that list as possible, preferably at number 1.

Getting there is the problem because there’s no rule that says ‘do this and you will get to number 1’; no-one outside Google can tell you exactly how it views, indexes and rates your site.  I read recently that at a search engine conference in London, 2 Google employees got up on stage to discuss it and even they couldn’t agree on how it worked!

Is it hard to get the number 1 position?

No, within a few weeks any decent website developer could get a specifically designed page high up in search engine rankings and probably to number 1.

However it will probably be for a keyword or phrase that is no use to anyone, for example “green turtlewax shoes”.  Try it now by clicking here and see which page is a No. 1 😉

Good SEO strikes a balance between search words and phrases that people will actually type into their search engine, and those that aren’t already being heavily used by other websites.

Choosing Keywords

Keywords can be single words or phrases.  For example ‘gemstone ornaments’ may be referred to by a web developer as a keyword, as would ‘car dealers in Aberdeen’.  A “keyword” then is any combination of words that people may search for.

Choosing keywords can be one of the most difficult aspects of SEO, and unfortunately for you, your website developer can’t do it for you.  You must try to understand what your audience would type into a search engine in order to find your site. Very often, if you ask a company to help you with your SEO, they’ll ask you to list all the keywords you want to be found for (I do).

Unfortunately, you’re possibly the worst person to ask.  You may find it difficult to imagine what an “uneducated” audience will search for, because you know the finer points of your business, however you probably also want to be found for the “obvious” searches.

If for example, you sell computers, you’re likely to ask that you get ranked highly for ‘computers’, or ‘home PC’.  But that would mean you competing with PC World, Apple, HP etc., as well as thousands of other Computer journalists and resellers (not to mention eBay!), so it would be a pretty impossible job.

The best way to get good results is to look for a niche, although that can be as much to do with your Business Development Plan as website design!  Think about what makes your business different from the competition.

A good place to start is to think local.
your business + your location = a good keyword

Search engine optimisation is a gradual process.  If someone promises you instant results it’s likely that will charge you a lot of money and demonstrate some temporary success (or charge you an extortionate amount to keep you there).

Where do the keywords go?

Keywords generally go in three main places:

1. In the code of a website, put there by the website developer.  You can see a website’s code by clicking on the View menu at the top of a browser window and then Source or Page Source.  It looks very different to the displayed page.
2. In the website description – a short paragraph of text, possibly even just one sentence that describes your business
3. In the content of your website (see below)

Website Description examples

Breaking news, sport, TV, radio and a whole lot more. The BBC informs, educates and entertains – wherever you are, whatever your age.
– www.bbc.co.uk

Official site. Shop online at Marks & Spencer for clothing, furniture and homeware, flowers, gifts, wine and much more.
– www.marksandspencer.com

Search engines take notice of this, because it should accurately describe what visitors will find in the website.

However, if you try to take advantage by “stuffing” the description with keywords so that it isn’t very easy to read, or it’s too long, search engines will penalise you!

Site Content

If you try to set up a website only with Search Engines in mind, then you will have limited success.  You may be able to drive visitors to your site, but you might drive them away just as quickly.

It’s important also to think about:

• capturing someone’s attention quickly
• how easy the site is to use
• what will keep people on the site once they’re interested, and
• what will make them want to come back, and keep coming back

The text that is put in the site is also indexed by Search Engines, so your list of keywords should also feature in the content of the pages that you write.

Links

If you can get other sites to link to yours this will really help, particularly if those sites are already popular and feature in Search Engine results.

Obtaining links is one method SEO companies will use to push your site up results pages.  However, often these links will be posted on unrelated websites, and so may only have a temporary effect.  If it appears that you are “spamming” – just trying to post your link anywhere you can – search engines can, and will, penalize you for it.

Try to get links from related businesses, if not direct competitors, and reputable directories, yell.com for instance.  You need to pay for an entry in yell.com, but there are free directories available too.  Some will ask that you put a link to their website on yours, this is known as a “link exchange”.

If your site has lots of inbound links it indicates to search engines that it is popular (people want to link to it, or are talking about you).  Lots of outbound links can indicate that your site is relevant as you are referencing other resources on the Internet.

Submitting to Search Engines

Your website can also be submitted to search engines (such as Google and Yahoo!) and Internet directories.  It’s worth spending some time doing this.  You won’t see instant results, but in a few days or weeks the search engines will begin to visit and index your site.

I can help you with this, but this isn’t part of my initial website development quote (unless you specifically ask for it).

Should I pay for sponsored links?

You can pay Google, and other sites, to display a link to your site for specific search terms, or phrases.  It is debatable how useful this is, particularly for small companies.  These “ad campaigns” may work on the basis of pay-per-click.  You say how much you’re prepared to pay when someone clicks on your link (NB. not when someone buys something, just when they click on your link) and that amount is charged to your account.

You have to constantly manage your campaign to ensure the best results, and it’s easy to be tempted into paying higher and higher amounts for clicks.  I’ve heard of some companies paying £££s per click!

On Google you can set a daily budget, when the budget runs out your ads won’t be displayed until the next day.  You can also set times of the day, days of the week etc.  It’s a job in itself which is one reason why I would recommend you try this yourself if you’re interested in this type of campaign, asking me to do it may not be cost effective for you.

Updates

Keeping your site up to date is also important.  Yes a website that is never updated may remain in Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs) for some time, but it won’t be as interesting to search engine “robots” (also called “bots” or “spiders”) as a site that is regularly updated.

A page update will trigger a robot to take fresh interest in the page, re-index the site and follow links.