Google is phasing out the internal use of Microsoft’s ubiquitous Windows operating system because of security concerns, according to several Google employees…New hires are now given the option of using Apple’s Mac computers or PCs running the Linux operating system.

For perspective: this is from a company whose CEO has no love lost for Steve Jobs, and vice versa. Yet they still encourage employees to use OS X. That’s how little faith they have in Windows security.

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[Via Minimal Mac]

“…too many people spend too much time trying to get Number #1 rank on Google instead of focusing on improving themselves, their sites and their products.”

Anyone can learn to optimize a page or site for search engines like Google, but doing so doesn’t make that page’s or site’s content worthwhile. When your goal is to generate pageviews via Google, your thinking shifts from “What do I want to make or say?” to “What will generate a lot of links?” and that’s a slippery slope that ends in a cesspool. Believe me, I’ve been down there.

When your work is noteworthy, people find you. Do what you do as well as possible. That’s the ultimate SEO.

I’m certainly looking forward to installing this on my Macs and my Ubuntu box. Good luck, Google.

You may use Twitter for any or none of these purposes. Today, I’ll talk about using Twitter as a search engine, and its advantages over Google.

Easy, Dave. You’re insane. Google is a search engine. Twitter is, well … Twitter. It’s ridiculous to make such a comparison.

While Google is the 300lb gorilla in the world of internet search, it isn’t the definitive answer to finding things on the web. Here’s an example.

Recently, I was working on a WordPress project and got stuck. So, I opened a new browser window, navigated to Google, entered the best keywords I could think of and executed the search.

Instantly, I was presented with tens of thousands of results. The first four or five were helpful, but didn’t offer the answer I was looking for. Those results suggested others, and soon fifteen minutes passed and I wasn’t much closer to finishing my project. In fact, no progress had been made that whole time.

So, I posed the question to my Twitter followers; “How do I [do this] in WordPress?” Then it happened — I was offered exactly the answer I was looking for in less than sixty seconds. In that instance, Twitter beat Google hands down. Here’s what I’ve discovered to be the advantages of Twitter over Google.

1. It doesn’t interrupt my workflow

When I execute a search on Google — and scan the results — I do so at the cost of productivity on my project. I must stop what I’m doing, open a new window and start digging. Often I find what I want in a minute or two. Sometimes I don’t. Either way, I’ve halted progress on my project. Even time spent on brief searches adds up.

When I “execute a search” via Twitter, there’s almost no interruption in my workflow. The time it takes me to bring Twitterrific to the foreground, type my question (more on that later) and hit the return key is about ten seconds. After that, I can return to my project and continue working.

2. High quality results

Meanwhile, the “Twitter Elves” (my followers) read my query and those who have the answer reply. The “weeding through” that is such a time-consuming part of using Google takes care of itself. Not EVERYONE replies, including those who don’t have answer. Only those who are absolutely confident in their answer click the reply button. I get the right answer (or darn close to it) only. Consider the myriad of irrelevant results of a Google search.

3. I can pose a question in real English

The old joke about using the Yellow Pages was, “First I’ve got to guess what they’ve decided to call this.” Will I find the number for a house painter under “Painter,” “Contractors,” “General Contractors” or what?

Setting up a Google search is the same sort of guessing game. The first step is to imagine which magical words will produce the intended results. Often it takes several attempts.

Twitter eliminates this bit of sorcery. Instead of typing, “WordPress, pages, hidden, menu bar, side bar” and crossing my fingers, I simply ask, “Does anyone know an easy way to hide certain pages from a WordPress sidebar?” That’s plain old English and it elicited exactly the result I was after.

4. Results based on knowledge, not SEO skills

One’s ability to optimize a web page for search engines has nothing to do with his or her ability to put useful content on that page. Anyone can tag, keyword and otherwise tweak a page so that a search engine will notice it readily. The content on that page may be crap, but Google sees it!

Twitter-generated results come from the knowledge and experience of the 1,000+  people who follow me. I can tap into their minds in real time, which is a benefit over the static pages that Google serves.

The folks at Mahalo get it, kind of. Human beings generate their search results, but even then I’m viewing what the author of that results page decided to include. I can’t speak to him/her directly and get an answer as quickly as he can type.

Just try it. You’ll be surprised with what happens.

1. Google XML Sitemaps creates a Google sitemaps compliant XML-Sitemap. You needn’t lift a finger, and your custom pages are included. Plus, it pings all major search engines with each update.
2. Sideblog WordPress is what powers the “Interesting Finds” section of my sidebar. The way it works is simple: Identify the category you want to appear in your sidebar and paste the code in the right location (or add the widget). I love it because it allows me to post all the interesting things I find, while not cluttering up the longer articles.
3. Google Analytics for WordPress makes it super easy to install Google Analytics code. The best part is that if you change your template, you needn’t paste the Analytics code in again. The plug-in takes care of that for you.
4. flickrRSS pulls your latest Flickr images. I dare say this should have been included in my base installation, as so many templates make use of it.
5. PodPress powers my podcast, The Sci-Fi Cast. I do love this plug-in. PodPress takes care of all the data that iTunes wants, including categories, image and more. Plus, it puts a flash player with each post. It’s great.

Other goodies

WordPress for iPhone/iPod touch [App Store link] is pretty nice. Writing short posts is pleasant enough, and adding photos is easy. The truth is I prefer SixApart’s Typepad iPhone app as a mobile blogging tool [App Store link], but the demo of WordPress version 1.2 looks promising.

Woopra isn’t unique to WordPress, but there is a WordPress plug-in. It provides real-time stats, lets you chat with visitors, tag them, and much more. It’s in beta right now that they’re qutie pokey about approving new sites, but it’s worth it.

Last time, Nina suggested I check out WP-SpamFree, an anti-spam plug-in. I’ve only used it briefly, but it’s doing a nice job of catcing spam so far. Thanks, Nina!

Sorry, Charlie.

I installed Firefox 3 today, only to find that my favorite thing about it — Google browser sync — is incompatible.