How to Sync My Mac With Google Docs

Use Syncplicity to automatically sync Google Docs with a specific folder on your computer. Google Docs allows you to upload documents to the Google Docs server, and view and edit these documents from any computer with an Internet connection. It can be a hassle, however, to have to manually upload all of the documents to Google Docs and save all of the documents you have uploaded to Google Docs onto your computer. However, the Syncplicity application allows to you automatically sync the documents on your computer with the documents in your Google Docs account.

Difficulty:Easy1

Open a Web browser and navigate to syncplicity.com. Click the “Downloads” link, followed by the “Personal Edition Download Free” link. Click the “Select This Plan” link beneath the “Free Personal Edition” heading.

2

Enter your first and last name, your email address and a password for your account in the spaces provided. Confirm the password and click the “Sign Up Now” button to sign up for a Syncplicity account.

3

Click the “Download Syncplicity” link to download the application.

4

Double-click the application’s installation file and drag the icon into the “Applications” folder. Double-click the “Syncplicity” application icon to launch the application. Syncplicity runs in the background, so once you launch it, it is always running.

5

Right-click on the folder that you wish to sync with Google Docs and move your mouse cursor over the “Syncplicity” option. Select the “Add Folder” button from the Syncplicity menu.

6

Navigate to my.syncplicity.com, type your Syncplicity account email address and password in the spaces provided, and click the “Log In” button.

7

Click the “Google Docs” tab, followed by the “Link to Google Docs” button. Type your Google Docs account email and password in the spaces provided, and click the “Continue” button to sign into your Google Docs account.

8

Click the “Grant Access” button. Select the folder you added to Syncplicity in Step 4 and select the file type you would like the Google Documents to be saved as.

9

Click the “Finish” button to synchronize Google Docs with the computer. Now, any documents in the folder you added to Syncplicity are added to Googled Docs, and any documents uploaded to Google Docs are added to the folder.

Photo Credit Justin Sullivan/Getty Images News/Getty Images

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Why Are Parts of Google Earth Blurry?

Dozens of satellite images of sites featured on Google Earth are intentionally blurred out because they are considered sensitive for security or privacy concerns. The satellite mapping service, launched by Google in 2005, features high-resolution images of thousands of cities around the world, including aerial imagess taken about 800 to 1,500 feet off the ground. Among the sites that are blurred out are key government sites, such as the White House; and U.S. military installations, such as Air Force bases.

According to Focus.com, a technology expert website, the Google Earth images of the White House roof have been modified so as not to display the air defense or security features in place. In addition, the residence of the Vice President of the United States at Number One Observatory Circle has been obscured. Ramstein Air Base, which is located in Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany, and the headquarters to the U.S. Air Force in Europe, is blurred out on Google Earth. Multiple sites belonging to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, including the NATO C3 Agency in Brussels, Belgium and the NATO Air Base in Geilenkirchen, Germany are also obscured.

In February 2007, after discussions with the government of India over security issues, Google agreed to show blurry, low-resolution images of certain military bases and government buildings in India. In December 2008, investigations by police in Mumbai, India found that the terrorists who launched attacks against sites in southern Mumbai had used maps from Google Earth to help plan their attacks. However, Computerworld reported that many printed tourist maps had information about the locations — including hotels, a restaurant, a residential complex and a railroad station — that the terrorists attacked.

In March 2009, The New York Times reported that California Assemblyman Joel Anderson of San Diego had filed legislation that would force Google and other providers of online satellite mapping services to blur images of “soft targets,” such as schools, hospitals and churches. However, the legislation had not been approved by the California Assembly as of 2011.

According to a February 2007 TechNewsWorld article, Google has generally complied with requests from governments to blur images. However, Dorota Huizinga, an associate dean at California State University at Fullerton, was quoted in the article saying that if Google Earth has images of certain sites, then it’s likely that many intelligence services around the world have the same or better images, and blurring them will do little good.

Some images featured on Google Earth are unintentionally blurry or unclear. According to Google Earth’s Help section, Google Earth sometimes shows images of areas that have clouds or discoloration, which may cause the images to appear blurry. In other cases, Google was not able to obtain a high resolution image of a particular area.

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How to Block Chilling Effect on Google

November 8th, 2011 | Add a Comment

Using Google to get the search results you want also means that you need to eliminate the results that you don’t want, which can include websites that you know you don’t want to view. You can block the Chilling Effects website — or any other website — from your Google search results if you are logged in to your Google account.

Difficulty:Moderately Easy1

Log in to your Google account or create a new one at the Google Accounts Web page (see Resources).

2

Go to the Google homepage, type “Chilling Effect” in the search box and click the “Search” button.

3

Scroll down the page and click on the “Chilling Effects Clearinghouse” result.

4

Click “Back” to return to the search results page. Click your browser’s refresh button.

5

Scroll down the page until you come to the “Chilling Effects Clearinghouse” result and click the “Block” link that now appears next to it.

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How to Delete a Google Analytics JS

October 13th, 2011 | Add a Comment

Google Analytics is responsible for monitoring traffic to your website and displaying a breakdown of demographic information regarding your site’s visitors. While these charts are often helpful, adding the analytics file requires your users to load additional resources. You may prefer to track this information locally and will no longer have need for the Google Analytics JavaScript.

Difficulty:Moderately Easy1

Open the file on your site containing the Google Analytics embed code, such as the “header.php” or “index.html” file in Windows Notepad.

2

Press “Ctrl” and “F” and type “ga.js” to search for the Google Analytics embed script.

3

Select the lines of text containing the “ga.js” reference, beginning with “ ” below.

4

Press the backspace key to delete the JavaScript.

5

Press “File,” then “Save” to save your document.

Filed under: Google Information · Tags: Analytics, Delete, Google

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How to Call a US Number in Google Talk

October 13th, 2011 | Add a Comment

Google Talk offers two options: a plug-in that lets you talk via voice with contacts on the Web and a software program that lets you talk from your desktop. The desktop program lets you chat with your online contacts. The plug-in, on the other hand, gives you the ability to actually call phones from your computer — and these phone numbers do not need to belong to your Google contacts. Instead, you can manually enter a U.S. number and call it from your Google account.

Difficulty:Moderately Easy1

Install the Google Talk voice and video chat plug-in from Google.com/talk if you have not already done so.

2

Visit either Gmail, Orkut or iGoogle and sign in to your account.

3

Click “Call phone” within the “Chat” section of the page. This brings up a small number pad.

4

Click the flag just above the number pad and then select the United States as the country you are calling.

5

Dial the number, including the area code, using the number pad. Press “Call” to place your call.

To make an international call, you use the current Google Voice calling rates. Just add credit and dial the number. You can select the applicable country code by clicking the the flag drop-down or by typing it directly into the window.

Filed under: Google Information · Tags: Google, Number

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How to Change the Years in Google Earth

October 15th, 2011 | Add a Comment

Google Earth shows the best map imagery available for the area viewed. Historic imagery, available for many areas, is viewable instead of the most recent or best aerial photography. Availability and time lines vary by place, but you can easily view changes based on the years. Although there are several methods to access the imagery, Google Earth has a feature to alert you when historic imagery is available for the area you’re viewing.

Difficulty:Easy1

Zoom in to the desired area. As you zoom in, check the “Imagery date” information located at the bottom left corner of the map window.

2

Click on the button showing the year located to the right of the “Imagery date” notice. If historic imagery is available for any of the viewable area, the date button shows the year of the oldest available photography.

3

Slide the time line tool, which opens once you click the year button, to view all available photography by date.

You can also click “Historic imagery” in the “View” menu or click the clock icon on the map menu bar to open the time line.

Filed under: Google Information · Tags: Change, Earth, Google, Years

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How to Retrieve a Deleted Google History

October 20th, 2011 | Add a Comment

Google Chrome can access the settings from the System Restore tool to recover deleted history. If you accidentally delete your history from Google Chrome’s Web browser or if you want to check up on Internet surfing habits for your kids, only to discover they have deleted the history, you can retrieve the history using the System Restore tool available on Windows machines. Google Chrome saves your browsing history in a registry file that System Restore can access and use to bring your machine back to its state on the day that the history was deleted. The System Restore tool does not affect new documents, pictures or other data.

Difficulty:Moderately Easy1

Open Google Chrome and click the “Tool” icon in the upper right corner of the browser window. Click the “All History” button to find the earliest date for which there is history recorded. This tells you the date when the history was deleted.

2

Click the “Start” menu and enter “system restore” in the search field.

3

Click the “System Restore” tool in the results field.

4

Click the circle next to “Restore my computer to an earlier time” and click the “Next” button. Click the most recent bolded date in the calender that comes up before the date the history was deleted in the first step. Click the restore point on the list for that date. Click the “Next” button.

5

Save any of your work and close any open programs. Click the “Next” button and allow Windows to shut down and restart with the same settings before the date that the history was deleted.

6

Launch Google Chrome from the Start menu and click the “Tool” icon in the upper right corner of the Web browser. Click the “History” option and scroll through the information.

Photo Credit Patrik Stollarz/Getty Images News/Getty Images

Filed under: Google Information · Tags: Deleted, Google, History, Retrieve

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How to Troubleshoot the Browser Compatibility of Google Docs

October 19th, 2011 | Add a Comment

Google Docs is a free Web-based service that allows you to manage and share documents, surveys, spreadsheets and presentations from one convenient place. All you need is a Web browser and an Internet connection to access to your documents. Some browsers and operating systems are not supported by Google and you won’t be able to access your documents properly from these incompatible platforms. Verify that your browser meets Google’s system requirements to enjoy full use of Google Docs.

Difficulty:Easy1

Open any Web browser and log in to your Google Docs account. Click a document from the center pane of the Google Docs window. If you can view the document, your browser is compatible with Google Docs. If you cannot view the document, proceed to Step 2.

2

Navigate to the Google Docs System Requirements page.

3

Locate your browser and operating system in the chart on the Systems Requirements page. If an “X” appears next to the browser and operating system, it means Google Docs should work with your configuration. If you do not see an “X” next to your operating system and browser, Google Docs is not supported and may not work.

Filed under: Google Information · Tags: Browser, Compatibility, Google, Troubleshoot

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How to Sync SMS on an Android

October 19th, 2011 | Add a Comment

The Samsung Infuse is an Android phone launched in March 2011. Keeping tabs on your short message service text messages is important. Syncing the SMS message on your Android phone allows to you access the messages elsewhere if your phone is out of power or not receiving a signal. You still have access to the information stored in your SMS messages. Your Android can sync your SMS messages to your Gmail account by installing an app on your phone, or you can switch to using Google Voice for your SMS messaging so that all your messages will be automatically synced to your Google account online.

Difficulty:Moderately Easy1

Unlock your Android phone and open the application launcher. Find the “Market” icon and touch it to launch the Android Market. Press the magnifying glass button to launch the search bar. Type in the name of the app you want to use to sync your SMS messages. Some options are SMS Backup, SMS Backup + and Google Voice. Press “Enter” to search and then tap the listing for your choice. Touch the button under the heading “Install” and then touch “OK” to accept the permissions for the app and install it on your Android.

2

Set up SMS Backup by first browsing to Gmail on your computer. Click the gear icon in the upper right and select Gmail Settings. Click “Forwarding and POP/IMAP” and then click “Enable IMAP,” which turns on the Internet message access protocol. Click “Save Settings.” Open the SMS Backup app on your Android phone and enter your Google Account user name and password. Touch “Backup” to perform a manual backup of all your SMS messages to your Gmail account. The default setting is for new messages to be automatically synced to your Gmail.

3

Configure SMS Backup + by browsing to Gmail on your computer. Click the gear icon in the upper right and select Gmail Settings. Click “Forwarding and POP/IMAP” and then click “Enable IMAP,” which turns on the Internet message access protocol. Click “Save Settings.” Open the SMS Backup + application on your Android and tap the “Connect” button. Log in with your Google Account when prompted and then tap “Grant Access.” Press the “Backup” button to manually back up your SMS messages for the first time. When that’s done, touch the check box next to “Auto Backup” to enable automatic syncing of your messages.

4

Browse to voice.google.com to request a Google Voice account. With the account you will be able to start a new phone number or migrate your current phone number to the Google Voice service. All new SMS messages will come to your Android through the Google Voice app. Open the app and sign in using your Google Account. You can also log into your Voice account online to see your synced SMS messages and even send messages from the Web. This will not sync any old SMS messages you have on your phone, but it will save all the new messages you receive after starting to use Google Voice.

Google Voice cannot receive MMS—or multimedia message service—messages.

Photo Credit Ethan Miller/Getty Images News/Getty Images

Filed under: Google Information · Tags: Android

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How to Combine Google Waves

October 14th, 2011 | Add a Comment

Click and drag to combine waves on Google. Wave is an application that was developed by Google for the purposes of online collaboration. Each new shared message, or wave, can be shared with and edited by anyone the wave’s creator chooses to share it with. Waves can also be combined with a simple click-and-drag process. While Google has ceased development on the Wave application, it can still be accessed by users as of July, 2011.

Difficulty:Moderately Easy1

Navigate to wave.google.com, and sign in to your account.

2

Locate one of the waves you want to combine, and select it with your mouse to open it from the list of Waves on your screen.

3

Locate the second wave you want to combine in the list, and click on it. Without releasing the mouse button, drag that wave to the wave you opened in step two and drop it by releasing the mouse button.

Photo Credit Jupiterimages/Polka Dot/Getty Images

Filed under: Google Information · Tags: Combine, Google, Waves

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How to Block Google Subjects

October 15th, 2011 | Add a Comment

Remove irrelevant Google search results by blocking specific subjects with the exclude command. With hundreds of millions of Web pages to choose from, searching for a specific subject on Google can sometimes seem like searching for a needle in a haystack. If Google returns irrelevant subjects when you search with specific keywords, you might want to block these subjects from your Google search. To block specific subjects from appearing in search results, use the “exclude” command in your Google search.

Difficulty:Moderately Easy1

Launch your Web browser and go to Google.com.

2

Type the relevant keywords for your search into the Google search input box.

3

Enter a “-”minus sign after the last relevant key word. After this sign, add the keyword for the subject that you want to block. You can exclude as many subjects as you like, but you must place a minus sign before the keyword for each subject that you want to exclude. For example, to search for information about the snow leopard create, you might want to exclude all references to the Macintosh computer system of the same name. Your complete search string might look like this: “snow leopard -macintosh -computer -os”.

4

Press the “Enter” key on your computer keyboard or click the magnifying glass button beside the Google search input box to launch the search. Google displays the search results in the main window. Experiment with your keywords and exclusion keywords until you filter results to return relevant Web pages.

Do not insert a space between the “-”minus sign and the exclusion keyword or Google will mistake this as a hyphen.

Photo Credit Chris Jackson/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images

Filed under: Google Information · Tags: Block, Google, Subjects

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How to Pick Up Google Map Categories

Google Maps allow businesses to list their locations, descriptions, hours, phone number and more. To be found by people, though, you need to be sure you are listed in the correct categories. You can choose more than one category, but you want to make sure the categories you choose are official. For instance, “Pizza Restaurant” is a Google Maps category, but “Pizzeria” if not. Using the latter will make it much harder for potential customers to find you.

How to Transfer Contacts From Google Apps to a Google Account

Your account in Google Apps is distinctly different from your regular Google account. If you are moving from a Google Apps account to a regular Google account, you can export your Google contacts in Google CSV format and import them into your Google account. Google recommends using the Google CSV format for transferring contacts between Google accounts. Gmail’s contact manager can import Google CSV-format files directly, preserving all your contacts and their associated information.

How to Do the Cat on Google Emoticons

 The emoticon resembles a cartoon cat face. Programmers at Google specifically designed the iGoogle program so that users can create cartoon figures and emoticons by simply typing in a short collection of symbols, such as parentheses, numbers and brackets. One of the emoticons supported is that of a cat’s face. The face uses common symbols that rotate automatically into the position where they resemble a cartoon cat when you complete the emoticon.

What Is a Journalist’s Role Today?

The age of instant communication and connectivity has transformed journalism. Bloggers now perform many of the roles once reserved exclusively to professional journalists working for major daily newspapers: commentary and opinion writing, investigative reporting, and analysis of public documents. Many professional journalists have adapted to this new media environment by becoming “curators” of links, emphasizing transparency in news-gathering, using social media, and mixing reporting with impassioned commentary.

How to Redirect URLs With Google Analytics

 Google Analytics users can implement redirect URLs to track hyperlink clicks. With the Google Analytics service, website designers and managers can keep track of how many people visit their pages and how long they stay on them. In addition, Google Analytics stores other information about visitors, such as the browser they are using and what search terms led them to the page. If you also want to know how many users click a certain link on your webpage, you can set up a redirect URL with your Google Analytics account.

How to Use Firebug on Google

Firebug, a Web development tool originally released for the Firefox Web browser, lets you view a website’s source code for troubleshooting or optimization purposes. Firebug also gives you the ability to see what the website would look like if certain elements of the source code were changed, without the change impacting users of the live website. Although the full version of Firebug is only available for Firefox as of the date of publication, there is a reduced-functionality version for Google Chrome called Firebug Lite. If you prefer to browse the Web on Chrome or need to develop a website that works well with both browsers, install the Firebug Lite extension for Google Chrome.

How to Embed Google My Maps & Allow Users to Update

 Embed custom, collaborative maps on your website with Google Maps. You can embed a customized Google Map into your website and allow your site visitors to edit the content pinned to the map. Google My Maps allows a collaboration feature that makes it possible for other users to edit and leave comments on your custom maps. You need access to your Google Account via Google Maps and to be able to directly edit your website HTML files and upload a saved copy to your site’s servers.

How to Delete Google History From Yahoo Answers

Yahoo! Answers is a question-and-answer communication tool sponsored by Yahoo! that allows users from around the world to post questions and have other users answer those questions. By using Yahoo! Answers, you can share your expertise on a subject and have your answer voted as the best answer for a particular question. When using Yahoo! Answers, you can save specific search criteria, based on your expertise, so that Yahoo! Answers will suggest relevant questions for you to answer. If you want to delete your saved search history, you can do so by removing the saved searches from your Yahoo! Answers account.

What Are the Dangers of Using Google?

 If information is out there and accessible on the Internet, it will be indexed and searchable by search engines like Google. The world’s largest search engine, Google, indexes extremely large amounts of data to accurately produce search engine results. Much of this data can be personal in nature and even accessible to third parties unbeknown to the user. It can be an extremely useful tool for finding information on just about anything, including personal data that can be exploited by hackers and those with malicious intent.

How to Put a Google Gadget in Facebook

The Google Facebook Gadget is a program that shows Facebook notifications on your desktop. The gadget communicates with your Facebook profile to show you your latest messages, pokes and friend requests. Google Gadgets are additions to Google Desktop, which is a free software from Google that makes searching your computer as easy as searching the Web. In addition, Google Desktop helps you organize information from the Web and show you new mail and personalized news.

FAQs for Google Bots

Google bots, spiders or crawlers are specially developed algorithms that scan millions of Web pages and index them on the Google search engine results page. Google uses many bots of different types to crawl different types of Web pages to index them on the results page. Since Google has the highest percentage of users compared to other search engines, most websites design their pages for Google bots to find and index according to the changing algorithms.

Can You Export in Google Reader?

 Google Reader launched in October 2005. Many websites, particularly blogs and news feeds, provide a version of their content as an RSS feed. You can use an RSS subscription reader such as Google Reader to read the latest content from all the feeds to which you subscribe in one place, as opposed to manually checking each source multiple times per day to see if they have posted new content. If you want to move your subscriptions from Google Reader to another service, you can export your subscriptions.

How to Change the Google Group Discussion Order

 Use Google Groups to discuss topics with people from around the world. If you’re interested in using Google Groups to discuss topics with people, you can change the discussion order when you start reading a group. Google Groups is a free online system that enables people to create new discussion groups on any topic from anywhere in the world using a Web browser. You open a Google Groups group and read what people have written, and then participate by typing comments in response. You can easily change the Google Group discussion order with just a click of the mouse.

How to Troubleshoot the Intel GMA 950 for Google Earth

 The Intel GMA 950 is a graphics chipset used in netbooks and laptops. The Intel GMA (Graphics Media Accelerator) 950 is a flexible, low-cost integrated graphics core used in laptops and netbooks, where low power consumption is important. It provides fast graphics performance and video rendering without the need for a separate graphics card. Google Earth is a graphics-intensive program that provides users with a detailed 3D globe, representing the Earth as seen from space or the air. Due to the high system requirements of Google Earth, you may need to troubleshoot the software when using the Intel GMA 950.

How to Connect Tumblr With Buzz

Google Buzz is a social networking site that puts an emphasis on short status updates — much like the Twitter microblogging service. In addition to composing text-based updates to share with your Buzz followers, you can also import updates from several other websites into your Buzz account. One such site is Tumblr. You can learn how to connect Tumblr to Google Buzz by following a few steps.

How to Increase Clicks on Google Ads

Google’s AdSense program allows amateur and professional website owners with high-quality content to display advertisements that allow a website to generate income. For your website to earn money through AdSense, however, readers must click the advertisements you display. If you are new to AdSense, you may find that the click-through rate of your advertisements is low and that your website earns little money. A good AdSense CTR depends on ad relevancy, design and positioning. Change these elements to improve your AdSense performance.

How to Get a Reciprocal Link

As the old adage goes, if you want to make a friend, be a friend. The same holds true for getting reciprocal links on your website. Always provide a link on your website before asking for a reciprocal link from someone, and search websites that already rank in the first page of a search engine’s results for keywords related to your website. Keep in mind that popular websites get a lot of spam, including automated requests for reciprocal links, so always be polite when requesting a reciprocal link, and don’t be upset if you don’t get a reply.

How to Use Google Translate for API & PHP

Google’s translation API is a useful tool for developers who wish to provide their users with the ability to translate foreign-language Web content into their native languages. PHP is the primary programming language that is used to interact with the Google Translate API, which can be called to using different parameters and then output results into specified languages and formats.

How to Track Repeat Business in Google Analytics

 You can keep track of repeat visitors with Google Analytics. Google offers a free Web statistical service called Google Analytics that lets you access a range of information about people who visit your website or blog. For a company that is looking to attract and retain customers, it is important to know how many repeat visitors you have to your site and how often they return. Google Analytics generates a specific report detailing your site’s statistics for first-time and repeat business.

Disadvantages of Google Apps

Google Apps allows you to create and access your documents from any computer with Internet access. It is cheaper than many other online apps alternatives, but with the pros come several major disadvantages. These problems affect businesses and enterprises more than individuals, but everyone should take these cons into consideration before using Google Apps.

How to Contact Google to Cancel an Account That Has Been Compromised

If possible, secure your Google account before sending in an account cancellation request. Since your Google account may be associated with services such as Gmail, Google Docs and Google Checkout, taking action now may prevent harmful consequences. If you are unable to access the account, notify Google immediately so they can help you recover the account. You will not be able to cancel the account until you are able to log in again. Expect a response from Google within 24 hours.

How to Make Your WordPress Blog More Google Friendly

Make your WordPress blog more Google friendly to increase your standing in search ranking and, ultimately, drive more traffic to your blog. Install plug-ins that allow you to add search engine optimized titles and descriptions to your posts. Create a Google XML sitemap to submit to Google so it can index the blog. Use title and description tags for images embedded in your blog posts to increase your standing in Google search rankings.

How to Cut & Paste Data From Google Docs to Other Documents

 Google Docs makes it easy for you to share your documents. Google Docs is a comparatively new approach productivity software. Not only does Google Docs let you create and edit various document types for free, but it also stores those documents securely online and gives you easy options for sharing those documents with others. Google Docs includes many innovative features among productivity software, but it also has all the basics covered, like cutting and pasting data, which you can do with just a few mouse clicks.

How to Use Google Analytics for Examiner

 Examiners can keep track of page views with Google Analytics. Examiner is an online news portal that hires freelance writers to write for revenue share. While Examiner uses a proprietary system to keep track of page impressions and ad revenue, the company allows its writers to keep a count of their page views by inserting Google Analytics code into their profile pages. This means a writer can receive updates directly from Google about how much traffic each article is receiving on a daily basis or over a specified period of time.