How good are you at Google? Are you acquainted with popular tools other than the basic search? Here are ten simple tests to evaluate how much of the internet have you seen.

These questions were given to me in competition as part of Qbit, a technical fest at my college. You can use anything online to find the answers.

How much of the internet have you seen?

Test #1

Q: On the desktop, create the following:
a. Three folders with the same name xyz
b. A folder with no name.

S: First, answer for the second question

b. Google Helped here:

Create a new folder
Select the folder and right click and select Rename
give ALT+0160 ( type 0160 with ALT tab pressed)

The Reason : ALT+0160 will create hexa decimal value. Hexadecimal value for 0160 will be null.

Source

Use the Keypad on the right, it did not work when I tried with the other set of numbers. Or Use the On-Screen Keyboard (Run > osk).

a. Create a folder with the name ‘xyz’. For the second folder use xyz and add the ALT + 0160. Now an invisible character will be added but the name will still appear as xyz.

The third time, name xyz and add the invisible character twice. Now you have three folders with the same name!

Test #2

Q: Suppose you want to find out the number of hits to a site say ‘www.qbit09.com’ and from where these hits are coming from. Also the web browser they used for viewing the site. Generate the necessary code that is to be included in the source code for that purpose.

S: That’s easy. We are talking about Google Analytics. Sign up for Google Analytics, submit any site and they will give you the script, nice and clean.

Test #3

Q: Generate the following image on your web browser

S: This is a Firefox Easter egg. Type in ‘about:robots’ without quotes to the address bar and see what happens. There will be a ‘Try Again’ button towards the left corner of the message. Press it and it will read ‘Please do not press this button again’. Press it again and the button will disappear.

Gort!-Klaatu-barada-nikto!

The phrase “Klaatu barada nikto” originates from the 1951 Cold-War-era science fiction film The Day the Earth Stood Still. The phrase “Gort! Klaatu barada nikto!” was used to stop Gort, the robot in the film, from destroying the Earth.

Source

Try ‘about:mozilla’ now. That’s another one.

Test #4

Q: Obtain the number of times the name of the sports person ‘Tigerwoods’ has been searched in the net over the last month (last 30 days) with graphical details.

S: There are many tools that gives detailed reports, but not many shows graphical details. Google Trends shows a graph, but then ‘Tigerwoods’ is not a very popular term, Trends didn’t have enough data.

Bing’s xRank is the solution.

Test #5

Q: Find the results for what Barrack Obama said about the issue ‘Recession in USA’ and what did John McCain say counter to that.

S: Google In Quotes, a Google Labs product finds quotes from stories in Google News. It can be used to compare what two people said over the same issue.

Test #6

Q: Obtain statistical information about the sale of ‘umbrella’ in Hong-Kong during the year 2008.

S: Google Trends is of use here:

Test #7

Q: Elimine la carpeta llamada “eliminar” en el escritorio

S: First use Google Translator (Detect Language > English) to decipher it out. It means “Delete the folder named ‘delete’ on desktop”

The folder was on the laptop they gave me. It contained two folders con and lpt1. These folders can only be created and deleted using the command prompt. First delete the two folders inside delete using command prompt.

The same applies to:

CON, PRN, AUX, CLOCK$, NUL, COM1, COM2, COM3, COM4, COM5, COM6, COM7, COM8, COM9, LPT1, LPT2, LPT3, LPT4, LPT5, LPT6, LPT7, LPT8, and LPT9.

Here is the how to create and delete folders with these names.

Test #8

Q: Find the share price value of BHARATHI AIRTEL on 14th March 2008 and 2nd November 2007. Display accurate results.

S: I have seen my dad using moneycontrol.com to keep track of stock prices of the Indian market. But soon I found that Money Control did not have the history of prices.

Thankfully, Yahoo Finance had.

Test #9

Q: Display the search queries for which Google has displayed the blog ‘edugurijis.blogspot.com’. Download the table containing the percentage of impressions for those search queries.

S: The solution lies with Google Webmasters Tools. The username and password for the specified blog was given upon request. Webmasters Tools shows the Top Search Queries and a table can be downloaded easily.

Test #10

Q: Download a software to load the new Orkut scraps on your desktop.

S: I googled and found a post on Mashable that reads “20+ Orkut Apps“. Wow! I had 20 to choose from, I selected Orkut Cute, a desktop client for Orkut.

The judges had some other application in mind and I had trouble downloading there. Finally I had to convince them by telling them how big a brand Mashable is.

During the course of the event, I used Twitter Search, Digg Search and Su.pr. I missed my browser bookmarks, I have some really cool search tools bookmarked. If you have any alternate tools for any of the above tasks, please advice, thanks.

I had teamed up with Sreejith and we rolled out as winners. YAY

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Leave a Comment: 10 Questions to Test Your Internet Skills

Today I stumbled over a cool collection of Firefox Themes @kainth56‘s blog. Though I knew Firefox supports themes, I had never given it a real try. I always thought that Themes doesn’t add any productivity, then why bother, but I am about to be proven WRONG.

The collection had the Chromifox Firefox Theme which was too good to resist. It’s a Firefox mod that looks like Google Chrome. I was on Opera then, (I use opera for normal browsing and Firefox for Blogging and Designs), and so I downloaded the theme onto my desktop. But hey, how to install the theme? I tried opening the theme file, in Firefox (File > Open File) but that didn’t work. To install plugins that you downloaded, you just have to open it using the File menu, but with the theme it didn’t work, don’t know why.

Whom do you ask all your doubts? A good share of people would say the same answer, Google. Google replied with a link to hardwaregeeks forum on How to install Firefox Themes!

To install a Firefox Theme:

• Download the theme File (probably a .jar file)
• In Firefox, go to Tools > Add-ons > Themes
• Drag and drop the theme file there!

The Chromifox Theme looks awesome; finally the workplace has something new into it. I was wrong when I thought, Themes add nothing to productivity. It does make Firefox look new and interesting. I can’t take my eyes off from Firefox now

Checkout the collection of some cool themes and give your Firefox a new look!

Related: Creating and Managing Firefox Profiles

Image: Foomandoonian

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Leave a Comment: Theme Up Firefox: Cool Themes and Installation Tips

Living an online life as a Social Netizen is impossible without some ‘life’ supporting tools and services. Some of them, like WordPress, give me the very life online, while some others, like Twitter, is Life saving. Thanks to these services, they save my day, every single day…

Here are the top ten Web Services, without which I would never have an online life. Some of them are used every hour, some every day, or even every week, not more than that.

Top 10 Online Gadgets that keeps me alive

WordPress
It is the very soul of my net-life. WordPress 2.7 powers this blog, and with all those cool plugins and themes, makes blogging sheer fun. I was introduced to WordPress only in August last year, but soon it took over me. Can’t live without it now.

Gmail
I am an email fan and gmail had been delivering emails for me ever since its launch in 2004. The best thing I love about gmail is the speed with which one can send a reply. Just press ‘r’ while reading a mail and you are ready to type your reply, without any more pageloads unlike other email clients.

Twitter
The tweet bird bits all my time away. Something like a public chat room for netizens. That’s were I hangout to make new friends, or connect with old ones. Also, it’s working like a secondary google for me, because I get answers to lots of questions there. If you are on it, then follow me and let’s meet up there.

Google Talk
In the past, I had used Gtalk just to say hi to my buddies, but now it’s more like a knowledge bank. I use Gtalk to find answers from some cool friends out there, also to answer some of my reader’s queries. If I can be of any help, do add me up (arunbasillal [at] gmail [dot] com)

Google Search
All my research starts from Google Search. Google had been my browser homepage for more than 4 years. What I like most is the define parameter in Google. Type in ‘define: keyword’ and you get all the web definitions for the keyword.

160by2
160by2 is a pc-to-mobile SMS service. The email to SMS capability in 160by2 saves all the time that I usually take to type in the messages on a mobile. Moreover, it’s a free service that saves me some serious bucks.

Feedblitz and Feedburner
Feedblitz manages my email subscription service. Recently Feedblitz has ceased its free service, so I am one of the lucky early birds with the privilege to use it for free. On the other hand, Feedburner handles my RSS Feeds. The Tracking and Analysis is also one another cool add-on in Feedburner.

RSS Owl
The owl has been my faithful desktop RSS client. It’s pretty simple and clean and much faster than Feed Demon. It has got extension support, and I am yet to discover its full potential.

Firefox and Firebug Firefox Plugin
The first thing I install after every computer format is Firefox. I haven’t used IE ever since I discovered the potential of FF. With add-on support, FF is the best browser I have ever had. The Firebug Firefox Plugin has been a time saver for me, given the fact that I am not a web-designer but just a normal webmaster with the html basics.

Digg
This is one of the social book-marking networks I am planning to be active this year. What makes Digg my favorite is the ease to digg-up stuffs. If you are on Digg, please digg me up too.

I hope that I find more life sustaining services this year. Do you know any cool service that might help a netizen? Tell the world about it and help netizens live healthier. Thanks in advance.

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Leave a Comment: Top 10 Web Technologies I can’t live without

Firebug is a state-of-the-art Firefox plugin which can be described as the loyal friend of any Web Developer. Firebug is designed to make life easy for a Developer, if not make them lazy.

Basically, Firebug is a debugging plugin and can be made into good use, no matter you know Web programming (like css or php) or not. In fact, this is more useful for those who do not know web programming (like me) and those who get things done by trial and error. In short, the scope of the Firebug plugin applies to Bloggers, Web Designers, Theme Development and Theme Editing guys, JavaScript coders, php coders and to anyone who writes any kind of code for the internet.

What can Firebug do?

Firebug can show you the actual code behind any webpage that is currently loaded into the window. The good thing is that you can edit the code and see the changes in real-time. For those who edit themes via trial and error, this plugin is made just for you. You don’t have to save your trials to see how it looks, Firebug can show you the changes as you edit it.

Finding the code for a particular element was never this easy.  When you have Firebug installed, you will see the Firebug icon on the Status bar (see image). Clicking on that (or pressing F12) launches Firebug. Now your Firefox window is split into two frames. The top frame has the real website and the Firebug frame has the code. Firebug shows html and css separately, helping Theme developers edit themes in real-time. To find the code for a particular element on a website, just right click the element and select inspect.

Once the code is in Firebug you can edit it and see how the new changes will look like. If you are satisfied with the new code, you can copy the code to your original files and save the changes permanently.

Firebug Screenshot, See the Menu Bar

On the menu bar of Firebug, you have some tabs, which can separate all kinds of code from the page (see screenshot). A tab with the name Net monitors the load times of each element on the site, so now you know which elements load faster and which are the snails. Another plugin named YSlow from Yahoo! works hand in hand with Firebug and gives you a detailed report of the page load times. When YSlow detects that something takes a long time, it report that and gives links to its solution on the Yahoo! Developer network.

Load Time Monitor in Firebug

Firebug has some troubles too. I haven’t experienced them myself but Binny, the guy who taught me about Firebug said, Firebug being a complicated plug-in, it would make Firefox unstable. He gave me the solution too. Install Firebug in a new profile for Firefox and test all your themes and plugins using that profile.

So if you are a Blogger or a Web Developer or a Theme Builder or a normal web surfer who would like to know the background scenes, grab the Firebug Plugin and the YSlow plugin now. And if you already have it installed, tell me if you had any issues with it. Also share your Firebug love story for the benefit of everyone.

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Leave a Comment: Firebug Firefox Plugin – The Love bug of Web Developers