by WebKeyDesign | Nov 18, 2005 | Google Bits
Other than Google Analytics, which came out this week, Google also made some changes to Google Sitemaps. The new features amount to essentially some feedback as to what are the most popular search terms for you site, and what if any errors some of the sitemap urls are generating.
In order to enable the new options, you must verify your site by creating a specifically named html file on your site. The new features are helpful, but may be considered very insignificant when compared to Google Analytics.
by WebKeyDesign | Nov 14, 2005 | Google Bits
Google just announced that they are going to providing another service, called Google Analytics. The new service allows webmasters to have free web stats based on Google’s prior Urchin Stats service. All you have to do is signup with Google on their Google Analytics site, and signin using your Gmail, Adsense, or Adwords account.
Once you go through the signup process, you get a simple javascript to add to your html pages.
For WordPress users dt’s Blog.thedt.net site has a Google analytics plugin that gives you a simple text box for you to paste the script code into. I had to correct the plugin code, because for some reason it stripped out the php lines, so if you cannot correct the code from dt’s site, feel free to copy the Google Analytics plugin code from our WordPress forum.
Another WordPress plugin that is easier to use is Cavemonkey50’s Google Analyticator plugin. Unlike dt’s plugin, Analyticator just asks you for the user account code, and not the entire script.
However how does Google Analytics compete against the other web stats packages out there, well Eric Peterson gives us some of his thoughts on Google giving away web stats.
by WebKeyDesign | Nov 10, 2005 | Networking
Every now and then I run into a situation where I need to clear my DNS cache. This is sometimes needed when there are negative DNS values, meaning incorrect IP addresses on my computer for certain internet sites that I want to connect to. You can use the following commands to flush DNS and see if this allows you to reach the site.
Mac OS X:
For OS X, Lookupd takes care of cached DNS entries. You will need to open a Terminal session and type the following command:
lookupd -flushcache
On Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, you no longer have the lookupd command. Use the dscacheutil command instead:
dscacheutil -flushcache
Windows:
For Windows, the IPConfig utility serves as an easy way to view TCP/IP settings and as a utility to flush DNS. You will need to open up a prompt and type the following command:
ipconfig /flushdns
Windows2000 & XP save negative DNS entries by default, so you might want to try disabling negative DNS caching to get a more responsive internet connection.
Microsoft has some notes on DNS settings in Windows too that you can reference.
