GMail has recently increased their maximum attachment size from 10 MB to 20 MB. However according to GMail Help Center “the precise amount allowable will depend on the attachment.”

I am not sure what that means exactly but I suspect the file type will determine the allowable size for the attachment.

Gmail competitors, Yahoo! Mail and Hotmail both have allowable attachment sizes of up to 10MB.

If you’re looking for a free email service that offers larger attachment size, you might want to check LYCOS Mail. It offers 3GB storage with no limit on the attachment size you can send.

The catch? Your account will be deleted if there no activity for 30 days.

One of the tools is a Backlink & Anchor Text checker which checks your backlinks and shows the link text used to link to you.

If you know who is linking to you and what text they are using in the anchor text, you can focus more on the keywords that are crucial to your ranking.

This is what JohnChow.com has done when he wanted to secure a good position for the phrase “Make Money Online” in Google. He changed his review rules where reviewers are required to use the phrase “make money online” instead of JohnChow.com when linking to his blog.

A few days after he changed the requirement, JohnChow.com was ranked in the top five of Google search result for that exact phrase.

Keep in mind though, while Google put a lot of emphasis on the anchor text, it’s just one of the hundreds of factors they used in their ranking algorithm.

Another tool that I find quite interesting is the Strongest Subpages Tool. This tool will find 30 of the strongest subpages of the domain entered, and will show how many other sites are linking to those pages.

Currently the tool returns 10 results instead of 30. I am not sure whether the tool uses other factors to rank pages besides the the link count. Besides the homepage, these are the strongest pages at Sabahan.com according to the tool.

1. 50 Most Influencial Blogs in Malaysia
2. Use Your Own Domain Name With Your Free Blogger.com Account
3. 5 Tips and Tools To Help You Create A Killer Keyword List For Your AdWords/PPC Campaigns
4. Google’s Quality Score Helps Determine AdWords Ad Delivery
5. Google Starts Selling Domain Name Via Google Apps
6. MSN AdCenter Has Outperformed AdWords and Yahoo! Search Marketing
7. Google Do Not Allow Images Next to AdSense Ads
8. Say No to Paid Blog Posts from ReviewMe and PayPerPost?
9. Google, Yahoo Gain Share In U.S. Web Search Market

While personally I think there are other stronger pages at Sabahan.com which should’ve made it into the list, I find it interesting these pages are listed anyway.

On a different note, if you want to win a free domain name and free hosting, please check out our contest. I need one more entry in order to start selecting the winner for Group 3.

Sabahan.com is holding a contest targeted towards bloggers. The winners will get free domain names and free WordPress blog hosting for life.

How it works

To participate in the contest, write a review of Sabahan.com and post it to your blog. For every five entries I received, one winner will be selected at random to win a free domain name.

Once we have five domain name winners, those winners will go into drawing for a free WordPress blog hosting for life. The draw will be repeated for every 5 new domain name winners.

Free Domain Name & Free WordPress Blog Hosting Contest Rules

By entering the contest, you agree with these rules and agree to be bound by their terms. If you do not agree with these rules, please do not enter the Contest.

The review

1. The review must be least 200 words long and link to www.Sabahan.com, this contest page, and at least one other post.
2. When linking to a post, you should use the title of the post as your anchor text. Here’s an example
   

   You can find tips to help you increase your blog’s PageRank here: How to Increase Your Blog/Site Google PageRank

3. To enter your review, please contact me using the Contact form and tell me about it.
4. Reviews can be positive, negative or neutral but they have to be genuine and informative and not thrown in with another post.
5. All qualify entries will be linked from future posts at Sabahan.com depending on how things go. The entries will be grouped into batches, and each batch consists of 5 entries.
6. Entries from splogs a.k.a or spam blogs will not be accepted. This includes scraper blogs where content are grabbed from other sites in an automated way. If you are unsure of what splogs are, read here.
7. Your blog must be at least one month old and contain at least three earlier posts to qualify
8. The contest will run for as long as my server can handle the extra resource demands and as long as I can afford to give away free domain names. The contest can be stopped at anytime once winners are selected. But, I’d really want to give free domains and the free hosting for life:)
9. Rules are all subject to changes as necessary. Please refer to this post for updates. I would recommend you to subscribe to Sabahan.com feed to keep track with the latest development regarding this contest and other news.

The free domain name

1. Keep in mind that I won’t be paying the free domain for life. I will give you USD10 for a domain name.
2. You have to accept PayPal for the $10 as I shouldn’t actually buy the domain for you. It’s up to you to do what you want with the domain.
3. You have 1 in 5 chances of winning a free domain. Regardless of whether you win or not, you’ll be linked from Sabahan.com. This is good for your PageRank and Technorati ranking.

The free WordPress blog hosting

1. The free hosting will remain as long as I am able to retain my dedicated server – meaning as long as I am in business
2. The free hosting is strictly for WordPress blog hosting only. It must be a brand new blog setup.
3. You have 1 in 25 chance of winning the free hosting. If you win, you must take advantage of this offer no later than one month after the result is announced.
4. You may use the free domain name you’ve won earlier or any other domain name you wish with the free hosting.
5. Your blog will be hosted on the same server where Sabahan.com is currently hosted. However, I reserve the right to transfer your blog into other share hosting package if necessary. Regardless where your blog is hosted, I will pay the hosting fee for you.
6. I’ll help you setup the domain name and hosting on the new server. While you can ask me any questions regarding the server setup, I do not usually offer hosting support. From my experience hosting other people websites, you’ll probably rarely need support once your blog is up and running.
7. You may not host a blog with the following content: Adult, racial intolerance, violent, gambling, get rich quick schemes, or any other content that is illegal or promotes illegal activity.
8. Your free hosting package will come with the following features:

   CPanel
   Linux Operating System
   500 MB disk space
   10 Gig monthly data transfer
   5 MYSQL Databases
   5 FTP
   5 Sub domains
   20 POP3 Accounts

   Other features included in the package are CGI, PHP4, SSH, Perl, GD, Spam Assassin, SMTP, Sendmail, Awstats and all the necessary tools to help you get started right away. These specifications may change from time to time.

You have to be quick, because I’m not sure how the response will be like. The rules may change or this contest could end at anytime after winners are selected.

Update: In case you are wondering, yes this contest is still running.

I got this idea after the successful transfer of my accounts to a new dedicated server at Hostgator.com

I’ve been thinking how this can be done properly without burning a hole in my pocket and still ensure the prizes remain attractive.

Offering free domains is easy but offering free web hosting (for life?) is a little tricky.

In terms of performance and redundancy, my new server should be able to cope with the addition of several new accounts without any problem but I can’t say that for sure in the future.

So looking forward, I am going to set some ground rules to ensure that things won’t go haywire in the future.

More details in my next post. Stay tune

This gives another reason for us to be more wary especially if you are using public computers such as those in cybercafes.

Zombie machines are PCs that have been compromised by hackers and used to send spam emails, or launched phishing attacked that lure unwitting computer users to reveal personal information such as credit card details and bank account passwords.

Malaysia ranks No 7 as a propagator of zombie machines in the Asia-Pacific region. China occupies the top spot, followed by South Korea , Taiwan , Japan , Thailand and Vietnam .

According to the survey, you are more likely to encounter zombie machines in Kuala Lumpur where many PC users have broadband Internet access. Once you become a victim of a phishing attack, your stolen personal information such as bank account could be sold and fetch up to RM1,100 in the black market. A verified PayPal account could be sold between RM175 and RM1750.

The reason for the problem can be attributed to the lack of awareness of the security precautions the users need to take to safeguard their computer. Those who install pirated software are also at risk because some of this software contained Trojans which is planted into the users’ computers when the software is installed.

One way to remedy this problem is to install security software that combines antivirus, firewall and instruction detection capabilities. Installing antivirus software alone is not enough to protect your computer.

You can purchase these software from Symantec.com, Mcafee.com or any other security companies. If you like you can also use the ones that are freely available. Having the later option gives you no excuse not to install security software to safeguard your computer.

I’ve listed several free antivirus, firewall and instruction detection software below

Free Anti Virus Software

AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition
AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition scans files on access on demand and on schedule. The separate user interface between Control Center and Test Center can be a little confusion nevertheless it gets the job done.

Avast! 4 Home Edition
Those who like software with pretty interface will find this app appealing as it comes with skinnable interface. It scans files on demand, on access including email attachments but on schedule scanning is only available on the paid version. It also scan your computer at boot time.

Free Firewall Software

Comodo Firewall
Comodo Firewall helps to secure your computer by preventing hacker from accessing your computer and prevent unauthorized programs from accessing the Internet.

ZoneAlarm
One of the popular firewall software, ZoneAlarm doesn’t have all the features of ZoneAlarm Pro’s firewall. It monitors which programs are allowed to access the Internet by asking you instead of consulting the SmartDefense Advisor database.

Antispyware and anti-phishing software

SpyCatcher Express
This tool cleans out spyware from your system and prevent further invasion. My only gripe is that it doesn’t have antiphishing solution and a few high-end tools. You have to check for updates manually. If you can get over those limitations, it does its job well.

Other security software worth mentioning

Windows Defender
Not the best free spyware scanner around but its on-demand scanner is useful if you want a second opinion.

StartupMonitor
StartupMonitor alerts the user when a program tries to install itself whenever you boot up Windows.

SuperStorm Freeware
It protects sensitive file up to 200KB by encrypting it and hiding it inside a JPEG image. The original will be securely deleted.

Besides installing the above, my other advice is to keep your Firefox and Internet Explorer browser up-to-date. If you have a favorite free security software or tips to secure your computer, please share with us in the comment section.

The two products are Symantec’s Norton Security Scan which detects and removes viruses and an anti-spyware – Spyware Doctor Starter Edition – from PC Tools.

Both software includes free updates.

I didn’t install those software since I already have the full version of Norton Internet Security 2007.

If you are wary about installing third party screensavers you found on the Internet, Google Pack screensaver application should ease this concern.

The latest Google Pack includes a screensaver application that displays photos from your own computer or from online photo sharing websites such as Flickr.com.

I am currently streaming photo feeds from

Buck Forester’s Photos
His photos are stunning to say the least.

Stuck in Custom’ Photos

imapix’s Photos

While Google’s GMail is busy adding 0.000001 MB each second to their 2.8GB mail storage capacity, Yahoo! Mail is beating them to the punch by offering a whopping unlimited email storage this May 2007.

Yahoo! Mail is breaking new ground with this move and I expect many competitors will follow suit to stay competitive.

It was interesting to see how fast things are changing. Yahoo! Mail total storage capacity was a mere 200GB for all their users when the service was first introduced in 1997. My own computer today has over half a terabyte of storage capacity – (250GB + 300GB).

If this trend continues, will my hard disk capacity for my PC double that of what Yahoo! Mail has today in ten years time? I am doubtful it will because mathematically infinity multiply by 2 equals infinity

2∞ = ∞

Anyway, I’ve been using Yahoo since it was first introduced in 1997 and I am still using it for my primary personal email to get in touch with old friends from school/university days and new friends too. With the introduction of unlimited storage, Yahoo! Mail just gives another reason for me to stick with them.

So what will prevent people from using Yahoo! Mail as their unlimited personal online backup service?

Simple – the allowable attachment size. Currently Yahoo! Mail allows email attachments of up to 10 MB only. While this file size limit is enough for most email users’ needs, it’s still limiting if you want to share or keep huge files. I don’t think this limitation will change anytime soon.

You can use Lycos Mail if you like as it allows unlimited email attachment size but you are limited to the 3GB storage capacity – still a little larger than GMail.

In reality, offering an unlimited storage capacity is not practical if not impossible. What if everyone starts filling up their accounts with tons and tons of emails, will Yahoo! be able to keep up with the ever increasing storage demand?

The good news for Yahoo! is that, this is quite unlikely to happen. Majority of the users will only use a small fraction of the storage capacity allocated to them. This leaves a lot of unused storage space.

Granted there will be several users who will use gigabytes of space but this demand is offset by the unused space left by the majority of users.

There’s a term used in the web hosting industry called overselling. Overselling assumes that the majority of your clients are only going to use a fraction of the resources allocated to them so there’s going to be a lot of wasted bandwidth and space.

Overselling involves taking a chance and selling more than you can actually handle assuming that the unused resources will cover it.

I think offering an unlimited storage is just a marketing gimmick for Yahoo! albeit a good one at that.

One way to deal with this scenario is to have a data backup strategy. Talking about backup strategy, I recently came across a new online back up service called Mozy Remote Backup.

What sets Mozy apart from the rest is its price. It offers 2GB of secure off site storage for free. At the moment, I doubt you can find similar or better offer anywhere else. You’ll pay extra to store 5GB, 10GB or more but it’s still no way near the cost of other online backup services.

I’ve been testing Mozy for the past two days and found it a snap to use. Installation was effortless. And once that’s done, I specified which files to protect, and then I ran the initial backup which is still running now and leave it to run automatically.

Mozy saves all new and changed files and retains previous version for 30 days.

Mozy also backup data that’s not already been backed up, and only backup parts of a file that have changed. Other features include encrypted backup which is important if you are concern about your data privacy.

I would recommend to have at least 1Mbps broadband connection if you are planning to back up 1GB of data or more, otherwise it’ll take you forever to complete your initial backup.

However, even at this connection speed, the initial back up will likely take several days to complete but that’s expected. The good thing is everything runs automatically in the background.

So what are you waiting for? Get your own free Mozy Online Back up service here.

Make Your Site Sell is an excellent ebook written by Ken Evoy, said to be one of the most successful Internet Marketers online.

It cost me USD29.95 to get my hands on this superb ebook but now you can get for free!

This ebook has sold more than 100,000 since its launched in 1999 and was described as “The Bible of selling on the Net”.

The most important idea I’ve learned from the ebook is the “Big 3” variables (product, site-selling, traffic building) which evolved into a more powerful process that become known as

Content > Traffic > PreSell > Monetize

This concept has helped me make tons of money online because all the uncertainties are unraveled into these four clear and concise definitions. It has helped me realizes the important “variables” that can make or break my business.

However simply reading the ebook won’t make you successful, unless you do the single most importing thing to ensure your success online – take action now!

So why Ken is giving away this ebook for free? Obviously he has had so much success with Site Build It – that he can afford to give away a big selling ebook.

Click here to download the ebook.

Philipp Lenssen of Google Blogoscoped has released the full PDF version of his book entitled 55 Ways to Have Fun with Google.

The paperback version of the book cost $19.66 at Amazon.com.

However, according to Philipp, the PDF version is Creative Commons licensed, so you are encouraged to copy, read, share, remix, convert, quote, browse, and print the PDF to your liking, meaning you do not have to pay $19.66 to add it into your book collection.

Download 55 Ways to Have Fun With Google here.