Top 8 Google April Fool's Jokes on the Web

April Fool's Day has to be one of my favorite holidays. I can plan and prepare jokes for years at a time and then hit my friends, family and co-workers when they least expect. I really look forward to what Google, eBay, and other popular websites will do to celebrate the day. Here are my Top Eight April Fool's Jokes by Google.

1. Google Future - Search the future with Google!

2. Google TiSp - Internet Through Your Pipes?

3. GMail Paper - Why send electronic mail when you can use paper?

4. Google Romance - Why use match.com when you can use Google?

5. Google Adsense for Conversations - Really?

6. Google Wake - Trouble getting out of bed in the morning?

7. Google MentalPlex - Too bizarre!

8. Google Gulp - By invitation only!

Top 5 Tips to Making a Tech Support Call

I.T. Happens. You fired up the PC and there is no power, or you see a Blue Screen of Death. Maybe your internet connection is not working correctly. You need to call your "Tech Guy" and get things going again. Here are some tips to help you as you make this call.

1) Get your 'stuff' together before dialing. Have a written description to the problem and recite it to the technician. Be specific, if you can. "My computer is broken" isn't descriptive enough. It might be helpful to have your computer's model number handy. We might look it up on the fly while we're on the phone with you. Make sure that you are giving all of the relevant information. Did you experience a power surge/outage? Are there lights blinking on your modem? Do you have cable internet, DSL, FIOS or other? Have as much information as you can before you call and the call might go by quickly.

2) Exercise patience. Scheduling a service call will only take a few minutes, but tech companies will need to check your account information and record some details. We'll need to start a service call ticket at the very beginning of your call. We will work as quickly as we can.

3) Not All Problems Have a Quick Fix. We may need to be on the phone with you for a long time, or we might want to schedule an 'in person' visit. If you are running to a meeting, starting a tech support call might not be the nest thing to do at that time. If we have a remote service and you are a current client, we can likely work with your PC while you are out.

4) Be Polite. This should go without saying. We know that you are calling because you are having technical issues. None of our clients call us just to let us know that all of their PCs are working just fine. We want to help you, that's why we're in the business. We enjoy the challenge you just presented us. We don't enjoy being called names or being yelled at.

5) Don't Help. When we're controlling the mouse and keyboard, we are focusing on your issues and trying to get you back to work without losing any data. We care about our job and want you to have a good experience using our services.

The Top 5 Search Engines

1. Google
2. Yahoo
3. MSN/Live
4. Ask
5. Everyone else (1.35%!)

How do you search for information on the internet? 72% of us are using Google. Yahoo has dropped to 17.5%. MSN/Live is only 5.5% and Ask rounds out the list with 3.5% of the search share. The rest of the crumbs are too small to even count totalling 1.35% combined.

Who are the 'up and coming' search sites? Cuil, pronounced 'cool,' launched to much fanfare last year. A team of Google executives left and launched Cuil, but it has yet to reach any significant search share. Our definition of significant is greater than 1%. Outside of the first week of the launch, Cuil captures less than 0.05% of the eyeballs searching on the internet.

Mahalo is a human powered search engine and had some high-powered internet gurus behind it. It is a great product, but again, trails behind even Ask.com.

Does any of this really matter? Each search engine will sort it's data differently, but you should get similar answers for any particular search in any particular engine.

Tech Tip Summary

To see my Tech Tips everyday, subscribe to them on twitter.com/wgarth

3/15/09 - Sunday - No Daily Tech Tip. Check out a great a School for Autism in our city: http://www.thefaisonschool.org/

3/14/09 - FREE! Open Office is a great alternative to Microsoft Office and is Free! Learn more: http://tr.im/hefj

3/13/09 - Backup Friday - Can you think of a better day than Friday the 13th to start thinking about your backup solution?

3/12/09 - Google is now changing how we use phones! Stay tuned for a major disruption called Google Voice: http://tr.im/hhAk

3/11/09 - Do you want a program to automatically run when you start your PC? Just drag its icon to your All Programs>Startup folder.

3/10/09 - Top 5 Tuesday! Top 5 Ways to Save Money Using Your PC 127tech Blogpost http://127tech.blogspot.com/2009/03/top-5-ways-to-save-money-using-your-pc.html

3/9/09 - Monday Fun! Check out Write On It to create fun pictures http://www.writeonit.org/ See some that I made http://127tech.blogspot.com/2009/03/writeonit-slideshow.html

3/8/09 - Sunday - No Daily Tech Tip. Check out the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation http://www.gatesfoundation.org/Pages/home.aspx

3/7/09 - Set Your Clocks ahead tonight. I know this isn't much of a tech tip, but it needs to be done for Daylight Saving Time.

3/6/09 - Basic Backup descriptions. Great starting point for small business or home office users http://127tech.blogspot.com/2009/03/backup-friday.html 127tech Blog Post

3/5/09 - 5 Steps To Take Before Your PC Crashes - Blog Post http://127tech.blogspot.com

3/4/09 - Do you have hundreds or thousands of files? Can you find them? Try Google Desktop to find things quickly http://desktop.google.com/

3/3/09 - Top 10 Tuesday! Check out my Top 10 Outlook Tips http://127tech.blogspot.com/2009/03/top-10-outlook-tips.html

3/2/09 - A Skype Subscription account to make conference calls with up to 24 people. It's only $3/month & could replace your landline

10 Annoying Habits of a Geeky Spouse

10 Annoying Habits of a Geeky Spouse

Here's #8:

8. Looking up information while a discussion/argument is still in progress - So what are laptops and mobile phones for, if not to resolve disputes or questions wherever you happen to be? Why would anyone get annoyed when you pull out your iPhone in the middle of a discussion about, say, a news story, and a minute later break back into the conversation with the details of the story that everyone else had forgotten? Yeah, it beats me, too, but my wife insists this belongs on the list.10 Annoying Habits of a Geeky Spouse, Mar 2009

I think that this applies to me, as do most of the others in the list :) 

Happy Friday!

My Current Book List

ALERT: Off topic post - no technical or computer information ahead!

I wanted to take a moment and dive into something personal and talk about my current reading list. I have five books on my nightstand. Two have bookmarks in them, and two were just placed there today. One has been there for a few days and I really don't want to read it, but I feel like I have to. I'll start reading one of the newest two tonight.

All of the books are from the library. My personal reading policy is that I will read everything I can for free. I will purchase the books that I need to read more than once.

Book #1 - The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life - I love the back cover quote, "The important thing is to find wet snow and a really long hill." The book is a tad dry and is fairly long, which is why I am still reading it slowly after receiving it for Christmas. I love the concept of "Inner Scorecard/Outer Scorecard" which he discusses in depth and can best be described as measuring yourself by your own standards and not the world's.

Book #2 - No More Mondays by Dan Miller. I don't work in a "Monday" world, and am reading this solely on a recommendation from Dave Ramsey. It's a very inspirational book and worth a read. I did start reading this when I was employed as a regular, full-time employee with Sharp Electronics in preparation for self-employment.

Book #3 - Building Findable Websites: Web Standards SEO and Beyond by Aarron Miller. I feel like I need to read this book as my company starts to pay closer attention to web searches and getting found on the internet. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is like voodoo to me. I don't understand it. If we're going to be paying a significant amount of money to support SEO, I want to know how that money is being used.

Book #4 - 48 Days to the Work You Love by Dan Miller and Dave Ramsey. Again, I actually requested this book before my push into self-employment, but it just arrived today. I am hoping to use this book to help keep me motivated each day!

Book #5 - Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters by Meg Meeker. I am a dad. I have only a daughter. Do I need to say more? She's my world. I want her to grow up to be a strong, confident woman with a great Inner Scorecard view (see Book #1, above). I consider this my "continuing education" section on parenting.

Just Returned to the Library - Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable by Seth Godin

It's difficult keeping five books going all at once. I hope to keep up this pace, which is a far cry from the books that I read last year. That's another story for another post.

Top 5 Ways to Save Money Using Your PC

Our Tuesday Top 10 List has had to undergo cutbacks this week, and you will only have a “Top 5” list. This is a good list to refresh your memory about using your PC to save money!

Everyone is trying to save money these days. Money is tight and getting tighter. We all have incentive to cut our costs or increase our income to meet the unique financial stress that we’re experiencing.

1) Skype – You can use Skype to make incredibly cheap phone calls. Call landlines and cell phones at great rates. Simply pay as you go or pay monthly for unlimited calls to landlines with a subscription. Skype Calling Unlimted US & Canada starts at $2.95 per month. All you need is Skype, a good broadband connection, and a headset. You can even use a Skype phone that connects into your router directly.

2) eBay & Craigslist – Sell your stuff, especially the things that you aren’t using anymore. Your trash is someone else’s treasure. eBay is great for selling unique items & collectibles that don’t appeal to eveyone. eBay is ranked 20th of all website visits. You might need that many people to sell of your Aunt Ruthie’s Fish Dish which has been sitting in your garage for 12 years. Craigslist is great for selling large items, expensive items, and items that you might actually throw away. I have sold everything from old cell phones to my wife’s 1999 Minivan using Craigslist.

3) Comparison Shopping – The one revolution that was evident in in the 1990’s was how the power of shopping shifted to the consumer. If an item is being sold in multiple places, and and a shopper can easily price compare at the click of a mouse, why would anyone choose to pay significantly different prices? Don’t forget online coupons and shopper rewards, either. Use PriceGrabber, Bizrate, Google Products or FatWallet to start!

4) Online Billpay – If you have a good number of bills each month, you can save time and money by using Online Billpay with your bank of choice. This may only save you $5 a month, but it’s worth it to cut your time and save some cash.

5) Cut Cable Bills to ZERO – Are you ‘leaning in’ instead of ‘leaning back’ to watch TV? That was the difference between watching TV on a computer and watching TV on a TV. Now, you can use internet technology to watch your favorite shows. Check out Hulu, Boxee, and AppleTV to watch programs without actually paying the cable company! Cutting your cable bill to zero requires some moderate skills, but you could save over $600 per year if you have basic cable and are able to turn it off.