Kevin Harrison

Google webmaster tools always complained about duplicate page titles for my s9y blog. These pages were generated by serendipity when next page is clicked at the bottom of the home page for blogs that are pagenated. It always bothered me that google didn't like that I had duplicate titles but I never really bothered to think about fixing it.

I finally got around to a fix...

{if $footer_currentPage != 1 && $entry_id != true && $staticpage_content == ''} - Page {$footer_currentPage}{/if}

Just place that code into the <title></title>

This change will number page titles whenever a next page is clicked. It will not number pages on single entries, the home page of the blog or on static pages.

The default title tag in serendipity is

<title>{$head_title|@default:$blogTitle}{if $head_subtitle} - {$head_subtitle}{/if}</title>

just change it to...

<title>{$head_title|@default:$blogTitle}{if $head_subtitle} - {$head_subtitle}{/if}{if $footer_currentPage != 1 && $entry_id != true && $staticpage_content == ''} - Page {$footer_currentPage}{/if}</title>

You can test the results by clicking on next page on the bottom of the home page of this blog.

I just noticed google is not notifying users when a url is being redirected to another url.

I noticed this with my como te llama search.

The first url is a wikipedia.org page. According to google's result, the url points to en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Hammond,_Jr.'s_second_album.

When the link is clicked, Google stops the redirect and asks the user if they would like to be forwarded to the new url.

I hope this change doesn't stick. A lot of seo is built around redirects.

If for some reason you don't like the functionality of the address bar, dubbed the "Awesome Bar," you can disable it.

In the address bar, "Awesome Bar", go to about:config and set browser.urlbar.matchOnlyTyped to true and browser.urlbar.richResults to false.

Once set, close and restart Firefox and the awesome bar functionality will be finished.

Magneto E-Commerce seems to be a new kid on the block. It looks like they are trying to compete with some big ecommerce guys like osCommerce or perhaps Zen Cart.

To be perfectly honest, I have never played with either e-commerce solution for more than a few minutes since I never needed to. I work with closed source software known as Actinic. I know Actinic inside and out. I know most of its flaws, I know most of its bugs and I know most of its workarounds.

So unfortunately, I'm kind of comparing apples to oranges with Actinic and Magneto, but at least they are both fruits.

A few weeks ago I tired the administrative back end to Magneto. I liked how everything was web based. Magneto basically had similar features to Actinic regarding the content tree with product sections and brochure pages. It was refreshing to see something new to be honest.

The one thing that stood out for me with Magneto was their one page checkout. Actinic lumbers along with its 4 separate page checkout.

Unfortunately though, unless you have very simple demands for your online store, I don't think Magneto will do the trick for you.

Actinic has the edge on time developed. Actinic has been around since the mid 90's and it has been constantly been developed. Actinic has many more payment service providers and they handle shipping and handling much better especially since UPS is integrated in Actinic.

If I had the choice between free and the cost route, I would have to lay out the few hundred dollars to pay for the Actinic license. Although, I am not counting Magneto out just yet. After all, the Magneto e-commerce software is practically brand new, it is still in its beta cycle. I expect if they get the developers that they need, they can make something worth wild.