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Jul
13
GMail SMS Text Alerts
Filed Under cell phones, email, Google | 4 Comments
UPDATE: GMail has reformated its messages to solve this problem!
I’ve been wanting to figure out how to set up a way to have GMail send a SMS text alert to a cell phone, but have not been able to figure out a way to do it easily.
GMail allows email forwarding to be set as a rule. That’s a good thing and would seem to be the solution. However, the confirmation message that is sent via SMS to a cell phone is too long to confirm the setting.
The other solution would be to forward the email to another email provider that can send an alert via SMS to the phone. Way back when, I used Yahoo and Hotmail to alert my old-fashioned cell phone regarding emails. That was before I started using GMail and was spoiled by their service. It wouldn’t be too difficult to set up a forwarding rule and send certain emails to Yahoo to be forwarded to my cell phone as an alert. But, it means additional steps, possible delays, and other hassles associated with having additional email accounts.
The other (expensive with some cellular carriers) is to subscribe to a data plan and check GMail from the phone. I have the program to do that with my current phone and have an offer to upgrade for free from my carrier to a better phone that can easily do that. However, I’m cost conscious and would rather not shell out a ton of money for the data plan.
It’d be nice to be able to do it without a lot of email forwarding or the need to shell out the additional expense to purchase a data plan for occasional alerts regarding specific emails.
Mar
3
Is it time to scrap Northwest Indiana?
Filed Under Google | 7 Comments
Is it time to scrap Northwest Indiana?
I’m not talking about wiping Lake, Porter and LaPorte counties off the map. Instead, I’m thinking about the search term “Northwest Indiana” as it is used on websites and blogs throughout our area.
Some thoughts why scraping “Northwest Indiana” might be appropriate.
Does anyone in our area — besides bloggers — use the term Northwest Indiana when they talk about the region?
Do people outside of Northwest Indiana ever use the term?
Do big players such as Google know where “Northwest Indiana” is located? The answer is No — Google doesn’t know where Northwest Indiana is, at least not by the map they have been displaying.
There’s some interesting talk about the subject of what search terms to use when targeting Northwest Indiana readers over at Green Point Homes.
Brad comments on the discussion:
The problem with NWI is we are so fragmented. Decide where your core geographic areas are to build and go for those town names might be a good strategy because “Northwest Indiana” is kind of amorphous. Usually owning the specific niche first: “Portage” is where you want to start then expand out from there.
What do you think?
Is it time to stop using Northwest Indiana and instead focus on branding content as being for Crown Point, Valparaiso, Gary or other places in the area?
Do you use Northwest Indiana when talking about the region?
Have you heard other people say “Northwest Indiana?”
