This post is all about how some registrars (read as bugs & parasites) are taking undue advantage of expired domains. Their modus operandi is pretty simple.

Few of these unscrupulous registrars purposely do not inform the the registrant about an upcoming domain renewal and when the domain registrant forgets to make the due payment, they immediately snatch the domain and register it using a proxy which they indirectly operate.

Next thing that's seen on trying to reach the expired domain is a page listing the name for sale at inflated prices or some spammy site trying to capitalize on the domain's traffic. I personally have seen most of my expired domains pointing to these with a "For sale" link. Seems to be lucrative business for these registrars!

Moral of the story -- use a reliable and reputable registrar to register your domains and make sure that they either provide an auto-renew option or or initimate you when it's about to expire.

Browser...
...that little icon on my desktop menu, that master piece which beautifully renders (most of the times ;-)) the websites I visit, that "must-have" utility without which there is not a lot I can do on Internet (e-mail & IM apart)...yet, I hardly give it much of a daily thought.

I remember reading on some site that most M$ Windows users aren't even aware that there exists a browser other than Explorer. (Shockingly strange :))

So, in case you are one of those then you'd be "extremely" happy to know that there are plenty of options out there. Also, may be this is a good time for you to know the "How & Where" this thing called a browser started.

..and yeah, don't forget to "try" out the very first browsers. It is kind of cool.
Here is an alternate link, just in case the previous one is struck down by "Internet Browser" effect. ;-)

Finally, don't forget to take a moment and say "I love you" to your browser. I love mine.

Trent Brownrigg has a well written article titled "How to Increase Your Search Engine Rankings" and I believe this would be a perfect read for anyone looking to increase their site rank on SERPs (short for Search Engine Result Pages).

He advises people trying to optimize their pages for search engines by saying that rather than trying to figure out how to trick the engines by reverse engineering the search algorithms, it is much easier to obtain better results by observing your top competitors. In doing so, all you need to do is to understand what elements your competitors are using to make them rank in the top positions.

He also touches upon the importance of quality links, fresh content, key word density, meta tags and other HTML elements.

In summary, the few important things that matter when you work hard towards bumping up your site on SERPs are --
- Number, quality, and relevance of inbound links pointing to your site
- Fresh, relevant, quality content (needs to be added frequently)
- Keyword density of your home page or any page you want to rank highly

Complete article can be found here.

You probably would have heard of the term "brain drain" which is often used to explain the exodus of bright and talented people in search of brighter prospects from developing nations to developed nations.

Now the trend seems to have reversed looking at various reports being published in several business and financial publications. For years, highly skilled professionals have poured into the U.S (and various other "rich" nations) with help of their science and technological skills and helped create some of America's most successful companies. But now these "America's" best and brightest superstars are returning to their native countries in alarming numbers - up to 1000 a day.

As this trend of "reverse brain drain" continues, is America going to lose its position as the super power and a world leader one day? Time will only tell.