Safari Notes

Anyone using Gmail can have the new brand inbox Gmail look which allows you to 'select the tabs you want from all five to none, drag-and-drop to move messages between tabs, set certain senders to always appear in a particular tab and star messages so that they also appear in the Primary tab.' To have the new look - sign in to your Gmail, (as shown above) and on the right hand corner, click 'Settings', click 'Configure inbox' and enable the new look by clicking 'OK' as shown below. You will have the new look as shown below. I believe, by now, everyone - by clicking on 'Settings', and clicking on the 'Configure inbox' option in the drop down - can now have the new look. If you still don't have the option to change to the new inbox look, keep on checking; you will have the option soon. The changes are available for Android and iOS users.  'If the new inbox isn't quite your style, you can simply switch off all opti

Kenya is now abuzz with election talk. I love and very much appreciate what Google Africa Blog is doing for the Continent. Recently they up came with this : Next it’s Kenya’s turn, and March 4th 2013 will be a pivotal moment as Kenyan voters go to the polls to decide the country’s future. This will be Kenya’s first general election under the new constitution and following the post-election violence of 2007/8. Expectations are high both for a peaceful transition and a deepening of democracy under the new constitution. Voters are already turning to the internet for information: according to Google Zeitgeist, the IEBC (Independent Boundaries and Electoral Commission) was the top trending search in Kenya in 2012, and all the major candidates have a strong presence across the various social media outlets. We want to help empower Kenyans with accessible and useful information during the upcoming elections so we’re launching a number of initiatives to make it easy for voters to find

Africa Internet Penetration - 2012 With about half of its people living below the poverty line; with wars, conflicts, poor infrastructure and poor institutions; and unreliable electricity supply in most urban areas or none at all for most of its people - most people in Africa have no time for thinking of the Internet let alone use it. Still, it is in Africa that the Internet is growing fastest.

Despite its many problems, Rwanda's visionary leaders have set forth an ambitious plan to establish Rwanda as a globally competitive, knowledge-based society and economy; this has resulted in the rapid expansion of phone and Internet subscribers and users. For a country that went through one of the worst horrors Africa and the world has ever known , this has not been easy. Rwanda, one of the first countries in Africa to gain full Internet connectivity, has ten licensed Internet Service Providers and 754,156 Internet subscribers as of June 2012 (according to the Rwanda Utlities Regulatory Agency ) - which is about 6.5% of its population of about twelve million people. The number of people using Internet, as in other East African countries - is growing rapidly in the country. And so is social-networking. Some of its leaders are regularly and comfortably using Google+, Facebook and Twitter.

Of its almost forty eight million citizens, about five million or about 11% of Tanzanians use the Internet and it ranks 7th in Internet usage in Africa - according to Internet World Atlas . Of these few who have Internet access, many use social media; of these, are those out of the country. A few, are blogging. With Tanzanian's superb and refined commandment of Kiswahili, most of these active blogs are in this country's national and official language. Tanzanian blogs are vibrant, too colorful and most are focused on the entertainment industry - music in particular; very few are serious and well styled.

According to Internet World Atlas , as of 2012 second-quarter, of the top ten African countries, as of population percentage, Uganda is ranked ninth in Internet usage. And as in Kenya , that number is rising fast. Considering its recent history, the many conflicts it has had and how unstable the country has been - this is an encouraging achievement. Ugandans too, as are Kenyans - are very much active in social networks. Of blogging, there are very few blogs that discuss Uganda. The problem with most Ugandan bloggers, they start one, and after a short while give up. Of the very few active ones, very few are serious or deserving of praise. Of these, most are managed by non-Ugandans living in Uganda or interested in the country; or managed by Ugandans living abroad.

In Africa, Kenya has one of the highest number of people having access to the Internet. It ranks third in the Continent on Internet usage. And the number is rising fast. Almost one-quarter of the population have access to the Internet now. According to the Communications Commission of Kenya : As at 30th June 2012, there were 7.7million Internet subscriptions up from 6.4 million subscriptions recorded in the previous quarter. This represents an increase of 19.2 percent during the quarter under review. Annual subscription rose by 81.7 percent in the FY 2011/12 recorded at 7.7million from 4.2 million subscriptions posted in the FY 2010/11. The mobile data/Internet subscriptions category contributed 98.9 percent of the total subscriptions .

Virtual Kenya In particular - for students and educators, Virtual Kenya is a gift and a must. All you need is a good Internet connection and off you start. For those who need to know more on Kenya, few tools are as good and as easily accessible as this. The faster the Internet connection the more you will find the site useful and the more you will get from it. Virtual Kenya is an online interactive platform, with related materials (in DVD) for those with no access to the Internet. It is designed to provide improved access to high quality spatial data and cutting-edge mapping technology to allow more Kenyans to use and interact with spatial data in their educational and professional pursuits . With the help of the best and the most efficient mapping engine and resource on earth, Google Earth , Virtual Kenya has a vast amount of information and learning resources: virtual tours, maps, images; download or upload data and much more. Better still, join Virtual Kenya's online

World wide, Africa has the least people using this most powerful, very useful of tools: the Web and the Internet. That's according to Tim Berners-Lee's newly created and just launched Web Index , which is described as a  new country-by-country global study that measures the impact of the Web on the world’s people and nations .

Do you, unlike I, love social-networking? Do you like Facebook or Twitter? Millions of people are now using social-networking services; especially the young - and most of them waste much precious time while on such platforms and many fail exams due to these services. Still, the rage is on. And Google is not being left behind. For long, Google has tried repeatedly to enter in to social media; and repeatedly they have failed:  Orkut , Buzz , Wave and Friend Connect have all been tried by the search giant but without much success. And now, they have come up with:  Google Plus .  For those wanting to sign-up to the much talked about and the very fast expanding Google+, it is now very easy to get an 'invite'. Click here or here and easily get the 'invite' and sign-up to Google Plus.

Internet Explorer is still the most preferred and most used browser; but it now has very strong competition from Firefox and Safari . While the Norwegian Opera hasn't advanced much through the years, Mozilla Firefox and Apple's Safari , have greatly developed and improved. Firefox now provides the most powerful and most user friendly browser on the Web. And Apple's Safari seems to be the fastest and gives the most vivid and 'most elegant' interface. If you haven't tried Firefox: give it's latest release a try. And why not try Safari; if you haven't.

Since I started this blog, but especially for the last few weeks (or is it months?), I have been trying different, and a variety of, templates for this site. I tried different Blogger templates and some not from Blogger. I wanted what would best suit what I write on, on this site and what, too - would blend with the ideas I espouse here. A few days ago, I settled for this template - one of the very first I had used, which I believe - best suits this site. May be, some of my friends or visitors using Blogger, would like to try different kinds of free templates not offered on Blogger; they might find some of the templates suitable for them. Blogger-templates offers several and a variety of themes; and hacks, tips and links. There are very many unique templates to choose from, from Finalsense ; and Eris' Template Generator , offers a variety of templates, including three column ones. Or, try Free Blogger Skins . More templates can be found at: Blogflux , Blogcrowds , Blogger Templat

Google Analytics tells you everything you want to know about how your visitors found you and how they interact with your site. You'll be able to focus your marketing resources on campaigns and initiatives that deliver ROI, and improve your site to convert more visitors. Now almost two weeks on, with Analytics , I just love it! It is just awesome! I would love my friends to to try it! Analytics gives you all the information you need know about your site and much more; and best of all - you can track all your sites from there! Try it!

Google ! The name itself sounds like from outer space or from another universe! Within a very short time indeed, the search Giant has not only taken the Internet world by storm, but the trading world too! To most people who know Google, it has not only become synonymous with the Internet - it is a way of life too! First, it was a simple Google search; then Google started rolling one after another of very subtle, very useful and superbly thought of services: Gmail, Google Earth, Google Homepage, Google Books , Blogger, News, Talk, Google Sitemaps, Orkut and now Google Base - to name just a few. Each so user friendly, and at the same time totally free - for any one any where on this planet with an Internet connection, to use. No discrimination or prejudice what so ever. Here in Yemen, most Internet users know Google as a search engine only, as most use it for searching, and do not know or have never heard of the other services; they become very surprised when told or shown, the other