Recently I have been struggling with an issue where links to my website do not generate previews in Google+. Instead, the user gets the error “Could not load website. - Retry”. When they try and retry, the error does not go away. Needless to say, although my readership is pretty low, that isn’t helping much.

When I started poking around, I found that Google+ uses Google’s “Rich Snippet” system. Google has released a Rich Snippet Testing Tool. The tool is great, and it helps you tweak your HTML so you get the correct snippet content.

…Except in my case, where the tool just reported “Could not fetch web page.”. Not helpful. Why a better error descriptor isn’t given, I don’t know.

This article will explain how I got to the bottom of the problem (despite Google’s useless error messages) and how you can look for similar issues.

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I just wanted to write about my impression of the Kata Bumblebee UL-222 backpack, which I just bought and have had the chance to use a few times.

This is a fantastic, well built, sturdy and light bag. It is also extremely comfortable to wear, most of the time. If your gear all fits within the backpack, you’ll love it and be thrilled with it.

Unfortunately for me, I have a thing about camera bags, and I’m extremely picky. When I bought the UL-222, I was hoping it would be a larger, more professional replacement for my National Geographic NG 5162 (Earth Explorer Medium) bag: Something flexible and efficient I could back professional camera gear in, as well as enough personal stuff for a multi-day trip.

Unfortunately, for my purposes the bag is pretty compromised…
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MacFUSE for OS X Lion

in Tech

I have previously posted about using MacFuse with Snow Leopard, but if you have already upgraded to OS X Lion, you may be having trouble finding a version of FUSE to use. Many people have commented th
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Last September when I was in China, I needed a harddrive to store all the photos I was taking, plus I wanted to see what the electronics markets in Zhongguancun looked like. Zhongguancun can be pretty
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We went to the Kro’s Nest restaurant yesterday and I noticed they had these custom arcade enclosures running what I am guessing is MAME under the covers. The games seem to rotate on a daily basis, and
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Online China Resources

in China

I’m mostly posting this for my own future reference, but if you’d like to get a feeling for the Chinese expat experience, or how to do business in China in general, chinageeks.org has an awesome colle
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There’s nothing special about this photo, the smog level wasn’t particularly high Saturday (it was ‘320’ according to the US Embassy smog meter and their twitter feed, but it gives you an idea what th
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Joshua Chaitin-Pollak

Software Engineer, Architect, and Team Lead. Amateur Photographer.


Software Engineer & Technical Lead