I like many other webmasters regularly check logs and statistics of my websites to see what type of traffic I am receiving, and where it is coming from.  It is a necessary part of search engine optimization and interactive marketing.  I personally use awstats (an open source project) for this task as it analyzes the key areas of my logs that I am interested in and outputs it in a very easy to read and use HTML layout.  However, awstats while very useful, doesn’t by itself allow you to deeply analyze the logs and see exactly who is visiting you which in turn determines to some extent whether your marketing campaigns have been successful.

Enter GeoLite City by Maxmind.  Another open source project (with licensed paid versions as well) that is easily added to awstats as a plugin.  GeoLite City is a database of ip address ranges showing the location they are registered to.  This allows awstats to check this database against every ip address that visits you, and prints this information into your awstat logs (screenshot)!   Pretty cool huh!  This information is extremely useful to determine how successful your marketing initiatives have been.

As an example, say you post an ad for investment properties in various local Dallas, Houston and Austin Texas newspapers.  In this ad you included your web site information.  With this plug-in you will be able to analyze exactly how effective your ads are pulling.  Not seeing the results you want and the hits from Houston?  Maybe pulling the ad, modifying it or changing the placement will yield better results and a positive return on your investment!  That is just a small example of you can utilize this software and the GeoIP database to your advantage.  The possibilities are endless!

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So I recently had a client request to pay me with Google checkout instead of Paypal.  I said ok and signed up for a Google checkout sellers account.  Seems like a standard procedure ala Paypal.  They do the bank deposit verification, add credit/debit card, ssn/ein etc very much like paypal.  This took 3 business days to complete.  Of which, 99% of that time encompassed waiting for the verification deposits to arrive in my account so I could be authenticated and ACTUALLY receive payments.  This finally happened and I thought I was ready to collect my payment until I learned they go slightly further than PayPal and also physically mailed me a document with a verification code to enter online.  On Google’s site it said this would take approximately 5 business days *sigh*.  Ok, looks like I wasn’t going to receive my money this week.  So I wait, and wait, and wait, finally after 9 business days my verification code arrives.  I quickly enter it online and it authenticates me!  Woohoo!  Money in the bank… or so I thought.

Five more business days go by and no deposit into my account.  Finally, today, I receive the following from Google via email:

———————
Google Checkout was unable to verify the account information you provided during the sign-up process. Although you may still accept and charge new orders at this time, you are required to complete the form below to receive any future payouts.

Note: The account verification process is not related to the bank verification you completed during sign up.

1. Collect all of the following documents, and write your Google Checkout Merchant ID number at the top   of each document:
* The front of the credit/debit card you used to sign up. Conceal the first 12 digits, leaving only the last 4  visible. For American Express cards, you’re also required to conceal the 4-digit Card Verification Code on the card’s front.
* The front of your driver’s license.
* Proof of address for each address entered in your Google Checkout merchant account. Acceptable forms include:
o Driver’s license with matching address
o Bank statement
o Credit card bill (please black out the first 12 digits of your card number)
o Water, phone or other utility bill
o Business license
* The original supplier invoices/receipts for your previous order(s). Invoices must contain order details and your supplier’s phone number.
* To help us better understand your business, information on the services or items you’re providing, the nature of your business, and how you acquire your customers.
2. Scan or copy each document, making sure the copies are clear and legible.
3. Submit the documents to Google within five business days using the form below. Alternatively, you may fax the information to 650 887 1640, Attn: ‘Google Account Verification’.

We’ll contact you by email once we’ve received and verified your information.
———————

Are you kidding me????  Am I applying for a business loan or a Google checkout account?  I don’t even think lenders ask for this much information!  Talk about an intrusion into my life and spending habits.  I am beginning to wonder about Google’s “do no evil” slogan/policy.  The amount of data and information that this company is amassing is astonishing and also somewhat scary.  With vast amounts of information, comes power and money.

…and as Stan Lee taught us very well, “with great power, comes great responsibility.”

It just depends what Google plans on doing with this great power…  I guess time will tell.

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It was announced yesterday by MarketWatch that “the approval ratings for President George W. Bush have hit a new low, as only 25% of Americans like the way the nation’s 43rd chief executive has performed, according to the most recent survey from Gallup Poll.”

As readers of this site know, we often like to explore current SEO tactics as they apply to current events and after reading this article I was curious.  I decided to check out the President’s web site and noticed that its Google PageRank also dropped from a 10/10 to a 9/10.  It appears Google has also lost hope for the current administration as well!

What can be made of this new evaluation by the Google gods bots?  Has Google moved over to support the Dem’s and condemn the GOP?  Unlikely, as Barack Obama and John McCain both now support a PageRank of 8/10 (an increase from 7/10 last reporting period) so no favortism appears present there.  Perhaps it is much like the general sentiment of the American public…  that we would just like a change or shift in power to a new leader with a different set of policies.  A set of policies that can hopefully propel us out of this cesspool that the Bush administration drowned us in the past 8 years.

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As far back as I can remember I have always liked to take things apart and put them back together.  This inner desire to understand how things worked was very intriguing to me.  It all started at a very young age, unscrewing any electronic component (calculators, radios, etc) I could find around the house and then putting it back together.  This was taken to another level once my parents bought me my very own computer in 9th grade; a Pentium 200MMX with 64MB EDO RAM.  I was thrilled, and I began to play with my new toy day and night learning the intricacies of the system.

All of this excitement was brought to a sudden halt once I decided to explore how this software actually worked on this new system I had just received.  I was amazed that I could not see the source code of any of the programs I had installed.  Everything was hidden behind a pretty exterior shell that read “Microsoft Windows”.  I was eager to learn, but I was being held back; not only by this pretty exterior shell, but also by the exorbitant cost of software associated with this operating system.  A cost which was way out of any 9th grader’s budget!

I was very upset.  Eager to learn about systems, networking and programming I started to research alternatives, and came across free open source software.  The first project I came across was a popular project entitled “Linux”; a Unix-like operating system which is not only free, but also contains open source code and development allowing all underlying source code to be freely modified, used, and redistributed by anyone.  I was ecstatic!  Not only did I find software that was within my budget (free), I also found software that had it’s source fully available for me to study and learn.

After installing Linux for the first time, I was amazed at the plethora of other free software packages that were packaged along side of it, all with source available.  I could edit the software, make it better, add my own functionality, the possibilities were endless!  It was these free software packages that allowed me to explore and actually learn networking, programming and system administration.  Without these free open source software packages, I would have never been as interested in the computer industry as I am today.

It is very apparent that open source software promotes education and innovation, while closed source software stifles it.  As the great Albert Einstein once said:

“Example is