Matt Dickman, host of a self produced series called MarketingProfs has created a video which explains what the term AjAX means. Not only does he give you the definition of the term, but he explains how it works using an easy to understand real-world example. I thought it this may be helpful to anyone out their who still doesn’t understand the concept of AjAX.
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AskApache 404 Google Fix
For those of you who are using the ajax powered Google search plugin for your WordPress 404 page that I featured here Add Google Ajax To Your WP 404 Page, you may have noticed after upgrading to WordPress 2.3 that the search results have stopped displaying. A number of others including myself have experienced this problem and the fix is relatively simple.
In your WordPress admin panel, click on the OPTIONS link. Now click on the AA Google 404 link which will load the options for this specific plugin. Where it says Google API Key, click on the GET ONE link. Type in your URL to Google and they will provide you with a new API key. Replace the plugins current API key with the newly acquired one and click the save button. Your 404 search results should reappear.
Google Powered 404 Page Update
I was curious as to who was making the money via the sponsored ads that are displayed on the first tab and the web tab of this plugin.
As it turns out, the sponsored ads are for Google because the Ajax powered API is so new. Here is the 411 on the issue.
That is a really great question that I had to search awhile to find. The answer is because this Search API is still so cutting-edge new, Google is the only one making any money from these Ads. It is still pretty beta now, but in the future it will very likely have the features we want. It is against the TOS to remove the ads, and currently you cannot hook your own AdSense account into the Search API. You can however use css to re-position the sponsored links.. like:
.gsc-control .gsc-ad-box {padding-top:100px;}
Does the AJAX Search API contain advertising?
Yes. The Web Search results may include up to 2-4 clearly marked sponsored links. There are currently no ads displayed among the News, Video, Maps, or Blog Search results. If you’re interested in earning money for displaying relevant Google ads on your site, you can do so with Google AdSense.
Thanks to AskApache for clearing this up.
Add Google Ajax To Your WP 404 Page
I think I have finally found an easy solution for my WordPress 404 page. The plugin is called AskApache Google 404.
This plugin after being installed, will display an Ajax powered Google search box. This search box will automatically perform a search for Jeffro2pt0 or the text contained within the link that generated the error. The Google search bar contains tabs for finding blog posts, videos, images, and results from across the web.
Now, instead of generating a simple error message with no way of finding what it is the browser was looking for, this plugin gives me a chance to offer the search bar to visitors who can at least ATTEMPT to find what it was they were looking for. I’ve also heard that by using this Google search bar, Google would be more appreciative to my site in terms of SEO, but I have no definitive proof.
If your a WordPress user and you don’t have a helpful 404 page, give the Apache Google 404 Plugin a try. It’s very easy to install and in the end, your visitors will be appreciative that you provided a way for them to try and find what it was they were looking for.
And by the way, Hello to all of you who have STUMBLED across this page. By all means, take your shoes off and make yourself at home.
WordPress Real Time Browsing Stats
Ever wanted to see who is browsing your site in detail and in real time? Now you can, using WordPress Live, a live blog statistics plugin.
WordPress Live gives WordPress site owners the ability to track IP addresses currently browsing the site while also being able to view which posts/pages that IP address is browsing. The plugin divides stats into three categories: Page hits, Feed hits, and Comments. There is actually a speed bar which allows you to control the speed in which the plugin refreshes. Move the slider to the left, the refresh is quicker, move the slider to the right, the refresh rate is slower.
This plugin is really cool and from what I could tell, is only accessible through the backend of your WordPress install. If you’d like a plugin which displays a similar set of data on the frontend, check out the WP-UserOnline 2.11 plugin written by Lester Chan.
The only downfall WordPress Live has is the lack of documentation. The plugin lacked a read me file and there are no concrete installation instructions published on the authors site. If your familiar with how to install WordPress plugins, you shouldn’t have a problem with this one.
Be sure to check out Headzoo.com to download the WordPress Live Plugin. So far, I’m digging it.
Some Ideas I Had – Feedback Needed
I just wanted to pass along some ideas I had concerning this site. Your feedback to these ideas or perhaps some of your own would be highly appreciated. The first idea is, creating a live chat area where visitors of this site can get together to chat about the various topics this site covers.
The chat room could be available 24/7 or I could schedule chats which would occur at a specific date and time. I was going to give this a try tonight using Meebo, but I experienced an enormous amount of problems.
The second idea is attaching a forum to the site. The forum would contain sections that would cover the various topics covered on this site. It would open up yet another, community avenue for this site where like minded individuals can get together and talk about what’s going on. I’m not sure if this site has enough traffic, or if the readers of this site would have any interest in becoming a participating member of the forum, so do me a favor and let me know if you like the idea.
If I decided to attach forum software to this site, I would us Vbulletin. Vbulletin is still the best forum software in my opinion and I have a few years of experience using it. I know of an Ajax powered shoutbox which could be used by the forum members as a chatroom, which would solve idea #1. The only problem with using Vbulletin is the price. It currently costs $85.00 for a lease of one year. I’d be willing to chip in $20.00 towards the price, would anyone else be willing to donate towards the forum? If so, let me know.
Those are the ideas I had floating around in my head and I figured I’d toss them out here to see if there were any takers.
Ajax Edit Comments 1.1.1.0 Released
Ronald Huereca has released a new version of his plugin, Ajax Edit Comments, which gives users and guests the ability to edit their comments similar to the way that comments can be edited on Digg.com The latest version includes a couple of bug fixes, most notably dealing with UTF-8 encoding.
The following issues were addressed in this release:
- Admin were able to edit, but non-admin couldn’t. This was caused by the timer offset in the WordPress admin panel.
- MySQL errors resulted in the comment unable to save. This was caused my blogs and MySQL database not in UTF-8.
- Some characters were being screwed up when saving to the WordPress database. This issue was caused by non-UTF-8 back-ends.
- The blog would be inoperable in Internet Explorer due to multiple session headings being called.
- Random loading comment failure on WP 2.2.2 installs.
The issues (with the exception of issue number 4) can occur on a case-by-case basis depending on blog configuration and character set.
Be sure to visit The Readers Appreciation Website to pick up the updated version or to grab it for the first time.
Ajax Powered Password Strength Meter
Code and Coffee has put together a password strength meter using Ajax to check the strength of a given password in real-time. Google and other web services are picking up on the trend of using these meters to inform new users, just how strong their chosen password is.
Using Code And Coffee’s demo page, I typed in the password, ( password ) and the meter read, VERY SECURE. Obviously, the algorithm needs some work, but the good news is, you can actually change the way the algorithm works. Code and Coffee decided to base their password algorithm off of Intelligent Web. Their algorithm calculates how many different combinations there are for a password, as it’s being entered, then determines how many days it would take to crack the password. The algorithm returns a percentage that is turned into a GUI for end users to see.
Code and Coffee has released the javascript file along with the demo.html page that you would need, in order to add one of these password meters to your site or service. There is also a detailed explanation as to how the code works which can be read, by clicking here.
Kontactr Update:
I was kontacted by the folks from Kontactr yesterday in regards to my review and they really appreciated it. They also gave me a small update as to the features they are working on.
We are working on allowing the users the ability to customize the AJAX form too. Also the ability to change the “Sender” of all the mails sent through Kontactr as “message@kontactr.com“. This will let you filter your messages more easily.
The ability to customize your Ajax powered contact form would be a big plus. If they wanted to, they could probably develop a social network where users could share their contact form designs with one another. This may be a stretch of the imagination but I think it’s certainly possible.
Digg Like Comment Editor For WordPress
How many times have you published a comment, realizing just a few seconds later that you misspelled something, or your URL was incorrect. Usually, you would have to create another comment which would dismiss the previous comment.
Ronald Huereca of the Reader Appreciation Project has released a WordPress plugin which gives administrators and regular users the ability to edit their own comments within a given time frame. The plugin pretty much works in the same way that the Digg commenting system works.
The plugin uses Ajax so the entire page never needs to reload. Once a comment is published, a timer starts to count down the remaining time available to edit the comment. Once the timer reaches zero, only the administrator can edit the comment. Users can also edit their email address, or their URL by clicking on the text that needs to be edited. This will open the comment editor window allowing you to make the necessary changes.
Plugin Features
- Utilizes the jQuery library.
- Comment editing times out after 15 seconds.
- Better error handling.
- Graceful deletion for compatible themes.
- A hook for other plugin authors to tap into.
- Compatible with many plugins, including Akismet, WP Cache, Better Comments Manager, WP Grins, TinyMCEComments, and many more.
I have installed this plugin on this blog so now you’ll be able to edit your own comments. We need every WordPress blogger to install this plugin, or something similar so that users can edit their comments. Why this functionality is missing from WordPress by default is beyond me, but the solution provided above works out very nicely. Please visit The Reader Appreciation Project and grab your copy today and install it as soon as possible so people can edit their own comments.
Special thanks to the guys who host the WordPress Podcast for tipping me off on this plugin.
Thoughts and Insanity From Jeff 