SEO gurus should have read already, but just in case you want to be one of them SEO gurus someday and you haven’t read of it yet, selling links can harm your PageRank in Google.

What is PageRank anyway? It is a patented trademark of Google and is also one of the tools that made Google what it is today. It basically finds out how relevant your site’s content are, and based on the need for that content, assigns a rank to your site or page. Or at least, that’s how I perceive it. Can I bait anyone into providing a more accurate and precise description of what PageRank does and what it means for SEO? I’ll just keep my fingers crossed.
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I remember using my first computer. It had DOS running on a 486DX 66MHz processor. All I ever did with that computer, however, is make a set of blocks resembling a human, but was supposed to be a gorilla, throw an exploding banana to another, both of them standing over a bigger set of blocks resembling buildings. It’s not just about angles and power of the throw, but you also have to factor in winds. That’s how I got started with computers.

From the time I had my first computer to my senior year in high school, the only software I knew was Microsoft, Windows in particular. I thought Microsoft was the only software used by everyone. I never thought about how big the universe was. Of course, I have heard of Apple Computers before, but never actually seeing one made me think it was just a myth. But I thought a computer with a fruit for a name would be cool to own someday.
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I’ve been using the Random Quotes plugin by Dustin Barnes since before WordPress 2.0 and it has worked quite well for me. Adding, editing, and managing those quotes in the Wits Bits section of my front page has been quite easy.

However, when WordPress 2.1 came out, that’s when I noticed something that shouldn’t happen. You see, exporting posts, comments, etc. from WordPress has been integrated in version 2.1, but I never noticed it until I turned off the Random Quotes plugin. And this was in WordPress 2.2 already.

I re-downloaded the latest version of Random Quotes and re-installed it but it still gave me the same problem. Well, actually, there was no problem with managing quotes, whatsoever. It’s just that when the plugin is turned on, the Export feature of WordPress is hidden, or as I would say, stomped out into oblivion, and that the Random Quotes management page took over its place. Not that I mind because I rarely export my blog anyway. Its just that my OCD kicked in and I knew I have to do something about it.
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…so I applied the fix for a bug that I didn’t think is one. I first noticed this bug when I wrote instructions for my plugins. The instructions included the symbols < and >. At first, I thought it was just Exec-PHP clashing with whatever I wrote on my page. So I used HTML character codes. This style worked. However, when editing the page with the HTML character codes, I found the symbols to be just that, symbols, when it’s supposed to be HTML character codes. It parses the code when it’s not supposed to. But I didn’t know that. I thought it was always that way. And that this is the first time I had to do it so it was just recently that I found out about it. A moment of Zen, if I may.
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With the recent acquisition of Gravatar by Automattic, will we be seeing gravatars in WordPress (a la stats using a WordPress.com API)?

8 dead and a lot of people injured in the Glorietta Bombing incident in Makati. Prayers go out to those affected, both directly and indirectly.

I guess it was just a matter of time before someone creates something like this. Might as well do it myself. Technorati Tag Cloud Widget for WordPress 2.3 is now available for download.

This plugin, when activated, adds a widget in your Widgets page that when used, displays a tag cloud linking to Technorati in your sidebar. The widget is fully configurable but entirely optional.

Happy Hunting!

After releasing plugins for WordPress 2.3, that is. I have reached a point in my blog life that I am clueless as to what I can actually share in my posts other than WordPress stuff that might be Greek to most of the visitors. Then again, visitors might be looking for WordPress stuff. But, little has been going on with the development of my plugins, and themes, for that matter. I feel that the plugins are doing what it’s supposed to be doing, and my themes are showing what it’s meant to be showing.

Why did I release those things in the first place, anyway? Well, I was hoping to inspire future bloggers to learn a thing or two about PHP, Cascading Style Sheets, and how WordPress works. And to also show them that if a noob like me can do it, so can they. However, the documentation of my plugins and themes are somewhat insufficient, if not non-existent. When I say documentation, I mean a detailed explanation of how the plugin or theme was developed from scratch.
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Here’s something I’ve been pondering about over the weekend. How do I make my family and friends blog using WordPress? Then it follows, Why would they want to use it?

So ultimately, What if WordPress released a version that has everything you wanted in it, what would those features be?

Ease of use
The Dashboard is ok. I can see how many comments need moderating, shortcuts to write a post, change the theme, etc. Would it be possible to integrate Stats into the core? All you need is a WordPress.com account anyway. And a well-developed theme.

Aesthetics
The Admin is a bit…generic. People want to personalize their stuff. So why not include some themes for the Admin? It surely wouldn’t hurt to look good. Unless it gets too slow to load.

Management
The post/page management is excellent. Tag management, however, is non-existent. Will someone please put something that resemebles one on the next release of WP? Ability to choose tags from a list that would display existing tags or tag suggestions from a reputable search engine would really be great. And if there are sub-categories, should there be sub-tags?

This post may seem like a rant, but it’s actually not. Because if it is, I would have switched to another blogging platform. I like WordPress. I learned a lot from it, from creating themes to developing plugins, WP helped me develop my own skills, however noob they may be. This is not a rant. This is a rambling.

My PLUGINS are now also available in the WordPress Plugin Repository. Yay!