PayPal will be launching a convenient way for its 164 million users to make payments at websites that do not accept Paypal directly. According to Reuters

The new software utility, called the PayPal Secure Card, recognizes when a user lands on an e-commerce checkout page and automatically helps the user fill out the payment form in a secure way that also offers stepped-up fraud protections.

In Google’s dominance era where virtually all companies are competing with Google, the introduction of PayPal Secure Card is said to be a move to provide answers to Google’s Checkout service.

So how it works? (taken from Reuters) (more…)

Popularity: 17% [?]

It is sad to know that Gokul Rajaram, also known as one of the Godfathers of Adsense left Google on Nov 2.

Although I do not know him personally, I appreciate his contribution to the Internet which benefits both Google (Adsense generates 1/3 of the Google’s revenue - US$ 1.43 billion) and us, the publishers.

So, this is a short post to say “Thanks!”

Read more

Popularity: 23% [?]

The popular blog platform, Wordpress has scheduled to release version 2.4 on January 24th, 2008. One of the new features I am looking forward to is Widget-based dashboard. I am not sure what it will do but it sounds interesting. Probably running some widgets from your admin panel that will enhance your blogging experience?

Other New User Features mentioned in Wordpress.org are :-

• Admin panel redesign
• You should be able to have any number of any widget
• Undo for comment editing
• Search for both posts and pages

(more…)

Popularity: 18% [?]

It has been almost a week since I started the “Alexa Experiment” and here is my update:-

Current Alexa Ranking : 1,339,038 (+ 445,770)

If you take a look at my Alexa Ranking on 1 wk Average, the jump is more than the green number above. Besides applying the 6 methods mentioned in my previous post, you will need to blog consistently. Join this experiment and let me know your result.

Popularity: 16% [?]

Google is about to make a move to reduce accidental clicks by the changing the way clicks are counted. The background of a text ad will no longer take users to the advertiser’s site. Only clicking on the Link or Title in an ad is considered as a valid click.

Some of the publishers may not welcome this move as it will reduce their income but I find it necessary to protect Advertisers interest. I am once an Adwords customer and at times I wondered if the clicks generated from my ads are genuine or accidental. Not being able to make a conclusion, I decided to stop using Adwords until Google takes a proactive step to reduce accidental clicks.

So fellow publishers, let’s look at the bright side..
With this change, it will attract more advertisers (like myself) who are willing to pay more for a genuine click. If advertisers pay more, you will earn more.

[Hat tip : HTNet]

Popularity: 25% [?]