Google PageRank

PageRank is one of the most important algorithms ever developed for the Web used by Google that is based on link assessment "the position of your page in the Google search results". The link assessment checks the key word density and the cohesiveness of the data carried by a web page. Each web page is reached using a link, and the link assessment algorithm assesses the presence of keywords that a particular hyperlink points at. It isn't the only factor that Google uses to rank pages, but it is an important one.

PR(A) = (1-d) + d ( PR(t1)/C(t1) + … + PR(tn)/C(tn) ).

That’s the equation that calculates a page’s PageRank and the original one that was published when PageRank was being developed, where

‘t1 – tn’ are pages linking to page A
‘C’ is the number of outbound links that a page has
‘d’ is a damping factor in the range 0 < d < 1, usually set to 0.85

The maximum PageRank is increased by inbound links and decreased by outbound links. For instance, A Web page with ten outbound links sends one tenth of the total available flow to the receiving page. A page linking to only one page sends all of the available PageRank transfer to the next Web page.
The core Google PageRank algorithm “distributes” it’s established PR across all of the outbound links. It's not a series of equal steps. It is logarithmic in its
calculation (log base 10). It takes one step to move from a level to another. For instance, it takes one step to move from PR0 to PR1, it takes a few more steps to PR3, it takes even more steps to PR4, and many more steps again to PR5, and so on up. Each level requires increasingly more high value incoming links than did the previous level.
The pagerank prediction tool is another smart program that can provide a rough estimate of the page rank that a web page can actually reach. It works as really smart way to ameliorate the page ranking of any web page. It's mostly used by the search engine optimizers to get an idea of the future ranking of their web page. By getting the future rankings they can rearrange and manipulate the present backlinks and data, so that improve the further ranking.

Search vs. Social

Last week comScore showed Facebook had passed Google in terms of time spent online. There is no doubt that Facebook is the web’s biggest time sink, also if you take a look at the numbers released by Hitwise you can find web surfers spending more time socializing on Facebook than searching with Google. Of course, comScore and Hitwise only counts users from the U.S. but that thing prompted a wide variety of people to think that “google is dead” and “facebook will become the internet” or something similar!! But the reality is that Facebook and Google are moving in two different way, Google is manage the world's information not a social site!
The concept of “usefulness” is at the core of the famous PageRank algorithm, it uses the importance of links and connections “most likely” by measuring its relative importance within the other pages, and mixes in the background information to create potential links that maximize the probability that someone searching will go through and find something that is. By this way, the user will come back to Google to search something. While the value of Facebook is in its inclusiveness because the updates of wall are mostly interesting for only users in the same social circle!
When two companies are competing head to head with similar products and similar strategies, whoever executes better will likely win. Not two companies are betting on entirely different distribution channels!! Well, they’re comparing Facebook – where you can do lots of stuff, like chat, see pics, watch videos, leave status updates, do Facebook private message, etc – to only Google’s search engine!! I think if you add up all the Google properties in this top 20 list – Gmail, YouTube, and Google Maps – Google still clearly comes out on top. It’s hard to imagine anyone will ever choose Facebook over Google!!

When I Was a Twin

Just last night, while watching a TV show, I saw twin sisters hugging and laughing. It brought tears to my eyes that I never being able to do that again. When I lay down for bed at night I couldn't fall asleep, I couldn't stop myself thinking of my twin sister, I lost her in a car accident, she was the only one to die in this accident. She used to sit beside the window and I sat next to her, but all what can I remember that my sister hit the ground real hard and rolled over. I found out that she was not going to survive and she was the only one who died in this accident. It was hard to play that video in my mind over and over but by the days I was able to deal with those images and thoughts. Like many twins, I had assumed that as we had been born together we would die together. I never knew that I could miss someone so much. Losing her was awful because she was the first person I ever lost. She meant everything to me, she was my world and I never felt alone with her.
You don't know how hard birthdays, occasions, anniversaries and holidays can be. Sometimes I just feel alone in my pain and that no one else knows how I feel even the closest friends, they don't understand my pain and loss because none of them have lost anyone close... I can't talk about this with my parents because it makes them so sad. So far I have tried to stay busy and replace my feelings of grief with happy memories... sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't... some days are easy.. some are really hard. I lost my sister but the pain that I go through everyday is different and sometimes I wonder why I lived and why she had to die, Why can't she still be here? sometimes I wish so much that I could see her one more time I always ask myself why.. why did I have to loose the only person that was my best friend I need her the most now and then remember that Allah will not give us more than we can handle and that it was Allah's plan and not to question it. I always had faith in my life, but never like in the last years. These circumstances have brought me closer to Allah. I realised that I could only do what I was capable of doing to the best of my ability and leave the rest in Allah's hands. Now I can see that I am here for a purpose. Perhaps, Allah wants me to reach out to what is required of me and to see me how short life can be and how little I really control, but it took me a long time to understand this.
Like now, sometimes I feel guilty about a lot of things like that I am still alive while she's not and I am the one who will be with her at the college campus for her first day, that I am the one who will see her fulfill her dreams of becoming a programmer, that I am the one who is going to see her graduate, that I am the one that will help her pick out her wedding dress and plan her wedding, that I am the one who will be at the hospital when she delivers her first baby... I just feel guilty!

Losing privacy sooner than you think (thanks Facebook!)

Now as we are a young people share the most of details of our personal life on social-networking web sites, such as Facebook and blogs that is preserved on the Internet, maybe forever. At most college campuses, more than 90% of students maintain their age, their occupation, their level of education, their place of residence? I think most of us would have no problems providing this level of general information. While the religious views, political inclinations, relationship status, etc. Perhaps this is a little more private and maybe you feel less comfortable with this level of information but also most of us would be fairly relaxed about providing this information.
On the other side our parents, for whom recollection of the past in thier fading memories, photographs or at best, in videos. This change raises redefining what is public and what is private? That openness is both good and bad. People can now spread their ideas everywhere without reliance on publishers. But also creates threats to privacy and reputations. So can we prevent a day which we can't control our information and the privacy are beyond our control? Some technologists say NO!! Privacy is not compatible with a world in which information flows so freely. As Sun Microsystems' CEO Scott McNealy said “You already have zero privacy anyway.. Get over it”!! And there are many articles and books have heralded the "destruction", "end" and "death" of privacy. But I think it's still possible to protect privacy, by rethink classical understandings of the concept of privacy "that requires total secrecy" becaouse this concept is unsuitable to an online world. Maybe the more suitable understanding of privacy is that everyone should keep some control over his personal information that becomes available for public.
As it's known that privacy is the user's responsibility, in the middle of December, Facebook began prompting users to re-evaluate their privacy settings on the site. Founder and CEO of Facebook, in defense of Facebook's privacy changes last January “People have really gotten comfortable not only sharing more information and different kinds, but more openly and with more people. That social norm is just something that has evolved over time.” And more recently, in introducing the Open Graph API “... the default is now social.” this means Facebook not only wants to know everything about you, but to make you available to everyone. Even if you adjust all your privacy settings as a private "friends only". It's shared with applications that you use. Which means now you're not only trusting only Facebook, but the application developers too. So that's why I think, the future of Facebook is the end of privacy.
I know that privacy doesn't mean secrecy... but I think it's still important!!

The Capital of Egypt & Paris of the Middle East

“City Victorious”


Cairo, Egypt is a great city for its lifestyle full of life and movement almost 24 hours every day, if you want to live in Cairo, the only way to do it is by loving it. The fascinations of this city are many it was built originally on the faith of Islam, but it grew into so much more, it's a city that mixes the many cultures of the world with ancient traditions and modern architecture, so you can liken it to an open museum of the different historical periods "it was unlike anywhere else".

Cairo include beautiful old mosques, and fortresses such as the Citadel, ancient gates and there are a number of museums with some relationship to Egypt's archaic Islamic heritage as Islamic Museum and that its university, Al-Azhar is the oldest in the world. One of the best views of Cairo is from the Cairo Tower.
Cairo comes alive at night, which is the best time to shop, eat in a floating restaurant on the Nile, or simply watch the people movement from a cafe, Also you can go shopping from the famous Khan El-Khalili that unchanged from 10th centuries ago. If you plan to visit this unique city or just interest in the history of Cairo I recommend Paris Along the Nile to read.

Really I am very proud to be Egyptian and truly love Cairo because this is were I was born and set eyes upon her, were I was raised, were I have friends, were I can never feel lost, Cairo is part of me.. that is long age. Finally I wish to make a difference in my country one day :)

Chirp!

In January 2010, nearly 75 million people visited Twitter according to comScore. When people started talking about twitter, the first thing they would always mention was the 140-character limit on tweets, "Who can say anything in only 140-character!". It could be a challenge when a person starts writing tweets and keeping it just 140-characters. You actually have to think a bit about how to force your thoughts to fit the format, but by the time you can adapt and 140-characters starts to seem long. Your tweets becomes shorter and uses the full 140-characters it becomes kind of annoying "I am going to cancel this tweet it's so long".
Unlike other social media Facebook for example, Twitter very simple to connect with people who are interesting, I would actually stop going to facebook, I might check it once or twice a week, sometimes feel it is offers me nothing more than twitter. Maybe my twitter following list seem to be few but really I don't like crowd friends! I wish more of my friends use twitter as well, I had explained to them How twitter was on the cutting edge but I guess they didn’t see it :(
Yes, may be twitter is not so much about the information and useful links but if you ask anyone who uses twitter on a regular will tell you that the power of twitter is that its ability to connect you to other people.
Some people think that twitter is silly and not interesting, they consider it a waste of time!! but really I don't think so,

"Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: What! you too? I thought I was the only one" Lewis

Here it is: The Browser Ballot Screen!

Microsoft made a basic error in the technique, when they have agreed to provide a “ballot screen” to most European customers that will give Windows users a chance to choice with the 12 most widely-used web browsers. This is yet another example of Microsoft’s control of the media, well after they had broken the law to obtain market share they didn't deserve those ballot screens and will probably not have the desired effect because the most of users turn to other browsers after Google-China hacking and the users who hasn't already turn fall in two kinds:
1) who are really happy with their IE brwoser.
2) who are just they want their computers to work or they are don't care about their browser choice, and they are still using IE because they think it work better with Windows because it comes from the same stable.

Choices are going to be random, it will be a good opportunity to Google's Chrome but one thing is for sure that IE will be more closely chased by Firefox in the browser market share race. Now, millions of people who didn't realise that there were alternatives will be shown the way by this announcement.
May be this move was forced by the EU, where surveys show Firefox is already used by a majority of users around the world and IE is much less popular than it. "Well done Microsoft. It looks like a good solution to the issue"
Finally, Is there any major Microsoft product that does not suffer from “criticalflaws”??

Windows 7.. Microsoft's worst nightmare

Microsoft's newest version of Windows 7 has only 7.5% of all operating system market share at the end of January according to NetMarketShare.
Microsoft has lost touch with how to compete on quality and user satisfaction, no asked users what they wanted and always come out with a new version with different ways you can do the same things as the previous versions, just they change how a new OS looked, even if it worked no differently than the previous version.

A few years ago, when you asked what is a computer? some people answered "windows" but now obviously time's changed, so do you think that is the beginnings of the end of Windows dominance in the operating system market place?

FireFox.. My choice in browsers

Get Firefox

I remember when I first started using Firefox since 2006, my brother was using it so I decided to try it out, I really liked it because of its tabbed browsing feature and lots of cool plugins, it has thousands of developers worldwide, that make it better and better every day also increased speed with every version. I was tired of using IE which open all links in a new window, security updates take too long to be published, useless options that take up RAM, it is very slow especially when compared to Firefox, little additional programs so I have never used it since then.
Of course, there are also several other cool browsers, like Google Chrome, Opera, Safari.

Google Chrome: One of the fastest internet browsers, very slight interface, multifunction address bar to search locally or on the web, but when you closing multiple tabs, it is immediately closed without notification.

Opera: Actually it is quite browser, fast and use less memory when compared to the other browsers, is probably a good choice if you download a lot, but it is not open source software and this actually has a deep impact on its popularity.

Safari: I haven't used it, but from what I have seen it is fast, stylish, and has been the ability to use plugins.