Blog Flak

Yeah, I know, I’ve been writing about Google a lot but those guys are always doing something cool aren’t they? I got an invite in my inbox this morning to try out a new service called Google Pages. What is it? It’s a free website hosted by Google. No, it’s not a blog, it’s a website. It has a fairly easy to use “what you see is what you get” page editor, a bunch of different page styles to choose from, each with several layout choices like 2 columns or 3 columns.

They claim that no HTML skills are needed to create a page but you can edit the HTML directly if you wish. I found that having some HTML skills was very handy for setting up links though. You can have only one site attached to your Google Gmail address but it can have multiple pages. The address to your site works out as “yourgmailname.googlepages.com”.

In about 20 minutes time I was able to create a copy of part of this page with very little trouble. You can see it here. Yes, you can upload your own images to your page with 100mb of storage available and no apparent monthly download bandwidth limit. You can very easily preview your work and then publish with one click.

I read the terms of use pretty thoroughly and there’s very little or no limitations on what type of content you can place on the site either. If you want your own Google Page go here and apply for one!

Talk about this in the forum.

tags: google pages, website

Don’t believe me? Next time you do an image search on Google, check to see if “Safe Search” is on or not. See the link in the image below. Click on it in the Google search pages to set your Preferences.

With the safe search set to “Do not Filter” virtually any image search will bring up quite a few pornographic images. And clicking on those will bring up tons of links to websites featuring pornographic content.

I personally don’t care one way or another that they provide this service but you folks with kids that are allowed to use your personal PC might want to check to see what your search preferences are set at!

Talk about it in the forum

tags: Google, safe search, sex, pornography, porn

Get double credits at Blog Mad for the next few hours. Thats 5pm CST. That means 2 credits added to your account for every site you view while surfing. Get yours at Blog Mad !

Has Google gone off it’s rocker?

From Google Insider
“A BlogSpot blogger claims that he received an email from Google saying that the MSN Search box he had placed on his blog violated Blogger’s Terms Of Service. The reasoning was that the box was “obstructing Googles services from operating efficiently and effectively”. The blogger, Roberto Dohnert, was told to remove the search box, and plans asking Google the question on everyone’s mind, “What the hell are you talking about?” Read Story…

You be the judge on this one, it sounds a bit far-fetched to me. Can they really be that ultra-sensitive about the content on a personal blog?

Talk about it in the forum…

tags: Google, Blogger, search, nazi

I’ve just put up a new review on some very sweet software you can download and use for free. It’s an image editing program from Free Serif. Very nice stuff, here’s an excerpt from the review:

“Photo Plus 6 from Free Serif Software is one of those little jewels that you find that just seem too good to be true. You can download this program for free (about 20mb) from their website with no strings attached, no bugs about registration and it’s fully functional. You can open and save many different types of image formats and edit photos almost like a pro! You can even create animated .gif files using the Wizard interface. perfect for creating cool web banners and small animations for signatures and the like. It has very similar features to Photoshop Elements from Adobe which costs about $100! Did I mention that this program is absolutely free?” Read More…

Talk about this program and the review in the Forums!

Don’t forget that Blog Flak is still looking for reviews submitted for use on the site, with Blog Explosion credits given for articles used as well as full credit and link back for the author! More info…

tags: software, reviews, free

Happy St. Paddy’s day everyone. Got the new forums up and running, feel free to join and post away like crazy people. It has a quite a few options you can set for your personal profile, custom signatures, avatars, etc. Don’t be bashful! Throw your 2 cents in the ring on several different topics, including a free for all general discussion area. Be nice though! Check it out right here: Forums

Check back later today for a review on some really cool image editing software that you can download for free! Yes, I said FREE! Great stuff!

Want a super cool banner for your blog? Added the XARA 3D banner maker to the site today, and yes you can save the images you create for free! Just right click and “save as” from the pop-up window! Images are in .png format but that’s no problem for use on the web, you can load your saved image to any image host and link it to your site or add the images to something else you’ve created.

Check it out on the site here!

It seems there’s a new kinda sheriff in town. A fully automated spam sheriff or “spam bot” that snoops around Blogger looking for possible spam blogs or “splogs” for short. A splog is nothing more than a blog that has tons of links dumped into it by unscrupulous website owners to raise their web sites standings in the search engines.

When the spam bot finds one that it “thinks” is a link farm splog it then “locks” the blog down and prevents any new posts from being made and in some cases, deletes the entire blog! In spite of tons of protests in the official Blogger forums it seems to be continuing. A lucky few were able to get their blogs reinstated after a review but others were deleted entirely with no notification!

Check out the official Blogger forums here.

Talk about this in the forum…

tags: blogger witch hunt splog spambot

From the Wall Street Journal:
Some well-known bloggers in China used an unlikely tool last week to make a point that Western news media and politicians misunderstand Chinese censorship. They shut themselves down.

Notices posted on the Chinese-language blogs Massage Milk and Milk Pig announced that “Due to unavoidable reasons with which everyone is familiar, this blog is temporarily closed.” read full article

That’s the way to get everybody’s attention! Let everyone think the government shut you down because: Nobody understands us! waaaaa!

tags: chinese media censorship newsmedia

Win Blog Explosion credits! Blog Flak is now seeking reviews from people that have experience with various blogging software platforms and blog sites. Full credit with link back to their blog will be given and Blog Explosion credits will now be awarded for reviews that are used on this site! Click here for more info!! Be sure to check out the Wordpress review below!

The reciprocal links page is up! Get your site linked on Blog Flak! Steal the button, get linked! Blog Flak needs your help to spread the word about our news and services. Steal the button and get more info here!

Pardon our dust, Blog Flak is under major construction at the moment but will be fully functional soon! In the meantime feel free to poke around and check out the stuff that’s coming in the near future.