Digital Grog — Australia’s Tech, Gadgets & Digital Life Unfiltered

Digital Grog is Australia’s go‑to tech blog for sharp reviews, digital trends, AI tools, gadgets, cybersecurity updates, and practical how‑tos covering the latest in Aussie technology

This Guy bought Million dollar Google.com for just $12 dollars

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domains for cheap what - and not even godaddy but Google domain registration service

Domain Names Sell for as low as 0.99 cents to $35.6 million just for internet domain name. Google.com which is probably worth millions of dollars got accidentally sold to a buyer last week for a very small fee this week, possibly leaving many google employees redfaced. In fact insurance .com did sell for $35.6million (yep just for the name www.insurance.com) in 2010.

How did google lose google.com domain name for just $12

In one of the weirdest stories I’ve ever read online a guy called Sanmay Ved has detailed how he was able to use Google’s own domain service to buy Google.com for just $12.

the google.com accidental sale for $12 and purchase

Apparently Sanmay was playing around in Google Domains just to see if there was any interesting domains he could buy. He searched google.com and was surprised that it was available. He could not believe his luck and instantly just purchased the domain without thinking about it. He then decided to add it to his cart and check out and realised all he needed to pay was just the small amount of $12 to own one of the most popular names on the internet.

While this story is as unbelievable as it is, like hitting a gold mine, the joy didn’t last for long. The domain was for a short time was actually registered to Sanmay Ved, as it showed in his Google Webmaster Tools with his existing domain and he also received a set of emails from Google accounts, the details of which he hasn’t disclosed.

Surprisingly he did say that that he had not received similar emails for previous domain purchases.THE domain at THE price! $.99 .COM Domains from GoDaddy!

What happened next was expected, Google managed to reverse the transaction and sanmay was refunded the $12 he spent for the domain and the domain name went back to google.

It is said that this obviously could be done easily because google domains owns the registration service, however had another big registrar like godaddy.com ( which sells domains names for currently as low as 0.99 cents ) or Bing.com or yahoo.com had laid their hands on such a nice prize it would have been another story altogether.

 

You can read the whole post that sanmay ved posted on his linked in account over here.

Here are some pics from his Linked in account

His linked in profile

sanmay ved in linked in domain hunter

His google.com purchase

the sanmay ved cheap google.com domain name purchase

This news story has rocked the internet going viral  and has been reported by many tops technology news giants like Cnet, Forbes and many more (including us)

New Domains now available from GoDaddy! Get your .GURU, .UNO, .LUXURY and more! Click here

[Read more…] about This Guy bought Million dollar Google.com for just $12 dollars

Future Assembly Technology Festival Lands in Melbourne

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Future Assembly – Melbourne’s newest emergent technology festival is coming to off course Melbourne and is planned for  13th & 14th November start this year .They have already officially launched to the public this week.

future assembly technology festivalwww.futureassembly.io

This is the first event and so  Digital grog welcomes all its readers to share this across your network to help this new Australian Startup community and showcase Australia on the world stage.

About Future Assembly

Technology moves fast and Australia’s leading and emerging startups will be showcasing products and services that are pushing boundaries in science, health and technology.

Future Assembly is your chance to discover start ups and meet the founders from around the country that are changing the future.

The 2 day event will provide access to keynote speakers, exhibitors and networking opportunities, as well as curated investor matchmaking events for those exhibiting.

The festival will showcase 9 core themes across the schedule of  exhibitors and speakers with a focus on

  • IoT (Internet of Things).
  • Robotics
  • Sustainability
  • Health & Science
  • Web & Mobile
  • Internet of Things
  • Big Data

Some of the StartUps, Disruptors and Enablers already attending include Tesla, Pozible, PwC, Oxygen Ventures, Buzz Products, CoinJar, Techstars, Alchemy One, Two Bulls and many more..

To celebrate the official launch,a very limited allocation of 500 tickets at an incredible 2 for 1 price. Only $100 for 2 tickets. Live on our site now www.futureassembly.io

Confirmed speakers

Rick Chen – Pozible – Co-Founder

Slade Sherman – Buzz Products – Head of Digital

Some other Tech festivals held in australia

img from www.tonedeaf.com.au

Pause Fest 2016 – Melbourne
www.pausefest.com.au/
Pause Fest is the premier creative tech conference and festival for Asia Pacific.

BuzzConf – Immersive technology festival
https://buzzconf.io/
BuzzConf is a technology festival that is a bit different to a usual conference.

Customer Experience Tech Fest
www.cetechfest.com/
Join 100’s of business and technology people from Australia

HR Tech Fe
www.hrtechfest.com/
HR Tech Fest is the biggest and best HR Technology event in Australia.

SOMETHING DIFFERENT – GABS 2015 – Beer and Food Festival | Melbourne & Sydney
www.gabsfestival.com.au/
Great Australasian Beer SpecTAPular (GABS)  GABS is Australia’s greatest beer and food festival.

Special  tickets for competitions or promotional activity. Get in touch

Web – https://www.futureassembly.io/

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/futureassembly

Twitter – https://twitter.com/futureassembly

3 Benefits of Using a VoIP System in Your Business

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voip in australia

Retaining a competitive edge in the ever-evolving business landscape can be tricky. This is especially true if your company is relying on older communication systems when there are more intuitive solutions available. If you’d like to give your company a modern and professional edge, a VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) system could be right for you. Read on to learn how VoIP works and how it could benefit your business.

1. Save Money

The biggest benefit of a VoIP system is its cost savings. With traditional public switched telephone networks, the cost of everyday calls and overseas calls can be quite high. However, as VoIP uses an internet connection instead of traditional phone line configurations, the cost to make calls is dramatically decreased; you only need to worry about the monthly internet bill. Another fantastic money-saving feature of a VoIP system is its portability. With traditional phone systems, if you relocate your business, you need to divert your numbers and reprint business cards. These seemingly small costs can add up. You can, however, keep using your current numbers by transferring them into a VoIP solution. Research specialty providers like Com2 to see how you can cut costs with customised solutions.

2. Intuitive Features

Possibly the most exciting part about VoIP systems is the range of features you can choose to implement. A major feature that has a positive impact on phone agents’ workloads is automatic routing. Automatic routing can redirect a caller to a phone agent with the correct skillset and experience. If the caller has spoken to a particular agent before, they can be automatically directed to this agent so they don’t need to reiterate any information. Automatic routing also means you don’t need to pay workers to manually direct calls within the business.

VoIP protocols are also able to integrate with other applications, like email accounts. For example, if a client or co-worker leaves a voice message, you can set up your system to transcribe it into an email attachment. This means you don’t need to quickly write down any names or call-back numbers, and you can transfer this information to other employees as well. You can also integrate your VoIP system with other devices so you’ll rarely miss important phone calls. Find-Me-Follow-Me (FMFM) is a popular feature that rings through your work phone, mobile and any other device if you’re not in the office.

[image from voip-europe]

3. Recording and Monitoring

Recording phone calls between your phone agents and clients is an invaluable tool in enhancing employee training, and effectively resolving any disputes. The ability to monitor calls is another fantastic tool if you need to help out a new or struggling phone agent, or if you need to see if there is any call load imbalance between your employees. This ensures your clients are receiving great service and your agents are highly efficient in their role.

How do you think your business could benefit from a VoIP system? Share your thoughts and any experiences you’ve had with this technology in the comments section below.

The Near-Future Role of A SEO

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seo in perth sydney melbourne victoria australia

A SEO’s role is always changing and adapting ever since webmasters were optimizing sites in the mid-1990’s. With every technological change and every Google algorithm update, a SEO’s job changes little by little. In the near future, a SEO’s role will not become more specialized, but broader. SEO’s will need to widen their scope of skills in order to stay competitive. A SEO’s job will revolve around these three main roles:

1. Search Engine Compliance Officer

The Search Engine Compliance Officer’s primarily responsible will be overseeing and managing Search Engine compliance issues within an organization. This is the role that will be most important for corporations and enterprises to have. The job will be much similar to what it is now, knowing all of Google and Bing’s Webmaster guidelines, and making sure that all things on a site are compliant to those guidelines.

The Search Engine Compliance Officer would be the “first line of defense” against Search Engine penalties. Any new additions to the site must pass the SEO before being pushed live (new pages, new content, tools, categories, sections, tagging, etc), moreover, a SEO should also be present during any meetings of new additions to a site to make sure that that integration is being completed well within a Search Engine’s guidelines and best preferred practices.

The SEO will also need to make sure that all incoming backlinks are compliant with a Search Engine’s policies. SEOs will need to monitor and investigate:

· How the backlink was obtained to make sure that it was not purchased

· The anchor text of the link and comparing it to the anchor text breakdown of the entire link profile

· The “spamminess” of a link

· Whether a banner ad or sponsored link has been nofollowed

· The top level IP’s of links to make sure that they are not apart of a link farm or link scheme

How To Prepare Yourself:

· Read Google and Bing’s Webmaster Guidelines

· Read Google Webmaster Blog

· Become Proficient in Google Webmaster Tools

· Learn To Use Google Analytics

· Learn To Use Screaming Frog

· Stay Up To Date With On SEO Blogs, such as:

o Moz.com

o SearchEngineLand.com

o SERoundTable.com

· Learn To Use Link Monitoring Tools, like:

o Open Site Explorer

o MonitorBacklinks.com

o Majestic SEO

o Ahrefs

· Learn to Decipher The Site Speed Recommendations From Pingdom

2. Creative Director

Since Wil Reynold’s gave his amazing RCS presentation at Mozcon 2012, content marketing has been on every marketing/SEO department checklist. Developing great content has been and is the key to sustainable online growth. That will not soon change with the ongoing rise of social media, which are essentially content sharing networks.

SEOs will have to become more like Creative Directors – birthing an interesting and captivating idea, leading the communication for design and copy, and developing the ways for it to gain visibility. The SEO must guide teams with skills and experience related to graphic design, fine arts, motion graphics, content, social media, and development. It would be beneficial for any SEO to study up on and receive certification in any tools that designers, developers, and project manager’s use. The key is to not only be able to speak their language for optimal communication, but also be able to get hands-on in every project.

From the beginning of an idea to the point where it is generating a company traffic, mentions, and backlinks, a SEO has to be the point person, directing his or her creative vision to lead to content that will be a success online or off.

How To Prepare Yourself:

· Take Courses in the Adobe Creative Suite

· Study and Get Certified in Project Management

· Start Reading Any of These Books

· Brush Up on Advertising

· Learn to Use Social Media Tools, like:

o Sprout Social

o HootSuite

o Facebook Ads

· Ingratiate Yourself into Social Communities Like Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, Vine, etc To Learn What Is On the Cusp of Social Popularity

3. New Technology Optimizer

Technology is ever changing and there is always going to be a new channel to advertise through. At the moment, it is social and mobile. In the near future, it will probably be voice search especially with the growth of businesses like Wolfram Alpha, Viv, and of course, Siri. The goal of these three technologies is to serve you the best information, with the least amount of barriers. Even though search will be done through voice, there will still need to be a database, a place to pull information from, and that will still be web properties like websites or social pages that they can crawl and serve data.

A SEO is the near future will need to be able to optimize for all these channels. They will need to on the cusp of technology and know how to gain visibility through every new platform that arises – whether it is search engines, app stores, voice search, or even information or ads brought to you during your Google self-driving taxi ride.

How To Prepare Yourself:

· Research and Read the Latest News in Technology

· Learn About Viv AI Through this article and this article

· Stay Up To Date On What Google is Working on

In conclusion, things are not getting more specialized for SEOs, they are getting a bit broader. A SEO in the near future will need to be a jack-of-all-trades, in a sense. Moreover, a SEO in the near future will need to know how any why a search engines ranks a site and make sure that companies are compliant with those guidelines, be creative that can not only come up with an idea, but work with teams to execute and find success, and lastly will stay up to date with all technologies and be able to optimize for every platform.

Capturing Videos from a Website with Movavi Screen Capture Studio

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Since Movavi was discovered in 2004 the capture feature has been noted for being its pilot program. It has allowed many users within or without the professional field to use different forms of audios and videos in their desired formats. When you want to capture video from website such as YouTube or DailyMotion you can do the same with the Movavi Screen Capture Studio. Millions of people have since benefited from the videos which range from entertainment, documentaries, short clips or educational videos. There are millions of videos online and you can get some with the software so you can watch later.

The benefits of Movavi Screen Capture Studio

Ø It can record numerous types of online streaming videos. You don’t have to worry about the format of the video whether it is recorded from your Skype calls, webinars or other forms of video clips.

Ø The recordings are also done depending on the settings that you choose. Different users have different streaming preferences and so it all depends on one’s own choices.

Ø This software can record on its own. This is one of the reasons why many people like the software so much. When you want to capture video from website you can simply set up a time and let the software do the recording. Once it is done it will stop by itself.

Ø It is able to record video and audio from different sources. You can also be recording audios with the use of a microphone, headphones or MIDI devices.

Ø With the software you can perform video editing with the available built in features. This means that you can remove all the unwanted scenes from the video files. Such video cleanups enhance its clarity and quality.

Downloading Streaming Video from a Site

It is very simple to capture video from website with this software. Install the program and once it has finished installing run it. When the program is running you will see a yellow marking of the area that is supposed to be captured. The window size of the web video can be adjusted so that you can be able to view high definition videos. Basically the size of the web video also matters in determining how you mark your frame. HD videos will require that you play the video in a full screen mode. You will also see a green icon of the system audit so you can click it. You can also choose the “Stop capture after” option and define after how long you want your video to be captured. If you want to start recording you should click the REC button and then view the video streaming. Once you have captured your video from the internet you should click stop button and you will see the captured video on the screen for previewing. You can also click on edit tab to make the necessary changes.

It is always no fun when watching a high definition video as it takes so much time to load especially when your bandwidth is low. Movavi Screen Capture Studio helps solve this problem as it helps you in reviewing videos that are online but are otherwise not for downloading. The software does not only record the video but also any other activity that takes place on the screen. If you want to capture video from website now you have your answer.

X Change my windows 8 start menu

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Like to stay abreast with new technology updates &  windows , but don’t like the windows 8 start menu. You are not alone, windows 8 was a good update,modernised an all – but millions of people have shown their displeasure in how the start menu was totally obliterated and not user friendly with the windows 8 release.

They are two solutions for this,  either wait for windows 10 to release ( which should not be too far away) and hope they make some good changes to this  or then  force your windows 8 to go back to the much friendly Windows 7 start menu.

I have windows 8 on my laptop and  the nutty metro start menu started to drive me crazy, enough for me to look for a solution to make life easier. Here are the two solutions that will get you faster to where you want, when you start up a windows 8 laptop.

windows 7 start menu for windows 8 get it back

Luckily  there re programs out there that can  easily make your windows 8 start menu just like windows7 and also allow you to switch back and forth between them both, if you want to change your mind.

how to get the old windows start menu back

Below i will give you a paid product (stardock) short review  that does this and also  a  FREE version called  (classic shell) that  does a good job with changing the start menu.

Classic shell ( free version) – So what does classic shell do

[from thier website]

Classic Shell™ is free software that improves your productivity, enhances the usability of Windows and empowers you to use the computer the way you like it ( Like windows 7 start menu).

Classic start menu

[imgfrom http://www.classicshell.net/]

The main features are:

  • Highly customizable start menu with multiple styles and skins
  • Quick access to recent, frequently-used, or pinned programs
  • Start button for Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10
  • Toolbar and status bar for Windows Explorer

Classic Shell has been in active development for 5 years and has over 25 million downloads.[DOWNLOAD NOW] .Visit their homepage if you like the program and interested in making a donation

Note: Classic Shell works on Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows 10 and their server counterparts (Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012, and Windows Server 2012 R2). Both 32 and 64-bit versions are supported. The same installer works for all versions.

Start8 By Stardock (paid software $4.99)

This software is good, in that it does allow you to either go straight to the windows desktop,avoiding the windows 8 start screen. It also allows you to access the windows 8 start screen from the windows 7 style start menu you customised or created.

I  use another software by star dock called fences , which i truly recommend and has been of great use to me until today in organising my windows 7 desktop icons and shortcuts ( you can check it out in their website). However this windows 8 start menu software also has many good features

Start8 Features

  • Adds a Windows 7-styled Start menu with Windows 8 enhancements
  • Boot directly to the Windows 8 desktop (no more searching for your desktop)
  • Windows 8 Start screen accessible from Start menu
  • Adds option for WinKey to show fullscreen metro desktop
  • Skinnable start button

stardock start 8 and windows shell 7 start menu

Start Menu 8 is specially designed for Windows 8/8.1, as a freeware that can restore (simulate) the classic start menu of earlier version of Windows. It can be set to boot from startup, in order to skip the system default Metro start screen, thereby directly start into the traditional Windows desktop which is familiar for us.

There is the basic version that costs $4.99 and the Deluxe version that includes many other software enhancements and features for a windows desktop  that is $9.99 with a recurring monthly fee. Get details and download here

System Requirements

Windows 8.1/8 or Windows Server 2012/R2

If you have been searching google with any of these queries below,

  • How to bring back the Start Menu in Windows 8.1 / Windows 8
    Remove windows 8 start menu to windows 7
    Change the Start menu to Classic view – Windows – Microsoft
    Ways To Customize the Windows 8 Start Screen
    Change windows 8 start menu style
    How to change windows 8.1 start menu

then..these two software’s listed above will surely be able to help you in some way , let me know  how this works out for you and do leave me a comment 🙂