Mashabless Blogspot

18 WordPress Plugins for RSS Management and Tweaks

2009-08-16T09:19:00.000+07:00

Real Simple Syndication (RSS) enables site owners to automatically syndicate their content to readers in an easily digestible format. There are a number of WordPressWordPress plugins to help you manage your blog’s RSS feed, track subscribers, and much more.

Below are 18 of our favorite WordPress plugins for RSS. While we think all of the options we’ve provided are extremely useful, we advise you to only download a few as more will impact your blog’s response time.

Add your own thoughts about the plugins and recommend new ones in the comments.

Analytics & Tracking

BBU’s RSS Feed Campaign Tagger Plugin for WordPress – This plugin will tag the links in your RSS feeds so that you can track how those specific visitors interact with your site, what ads they click, and so on.

Feed Subscriber Stats – This plugin allows you to check how many subscribers you have via FeedBurner from the dashboard of your blog so that you don’t have to go to their site or check the front page of your site.

Feedage Tracker – By adding the Feedage plugin to your blog, you’ll get buttons so people can subscribe from your site, and Feedage will be notified of your RSS and track the total number of subscribers for you.

FeedBurner Widget – A quick and easy plugin for displaying your FeedBurner subscriber number in a widget on your sidebar.

FeedStats – Get valuable statistics about your readers that come from your RSS. You can set options such as seeing their time on a page, exclude specific IPs, limit which site users can see them, set the number of days to track information and more.

RSS Link Tagger for Google Analytics – This plugin will add a special code to your RSS feeds so Google AnalyticsGoogle Analytics can keep better track of how many of your readers come from RSS feed clicks.

Feed Insertion & Tweaks

Align RSS Images – When WordPress removed the “align” tag to be more compliant with Web standards, they ended up breaking the layout of images in your RSS feeds. While there is a way to correct this manually, this plugin will do it for you automatically so you don’t have to do it manually for every image.

Extra Feed Links – Extra Feed Links allows you to create feeds for category pages, tag pages, search pages, author pages, and comment feeds for single articles and pages.

Feed Comments Number – Feed Comments Number will add an image to your posts in the feed that displays the number of comments the post has. The reason an image is preferable is that it will be updated dynamically in the feed faster than if it is text. If no comments have been left yet, it will display “Add a comment.”

MediaRSS – With MediaRSS you can easily increase the types of media that you can embed in your posts for RSS consumption, such as videos.

RSS Atom Avatar – RSS standards allow you to add your site’s favicon and an avatar to your feed, but it isn’t always easy to figure out how to do this. RSS Atom Avatar will take care of this for you.

RSS Footer – RSS Footer gives you the ability to add text to posts in your feed that will not appear in your standard blog posts. This is an easy way to add a footer to your feeds to show your copyright or just add some extra content as a reward to your subscribers.

RSSupplement – RSSupplement lets you add more WordPress information to your feed such as Sociable buttons, post author credit, copyright notices and a few other little extras.

Special Feed Items – Have you ever wanted to draw special attention to a certain post in your feed? This plugin will allow you to insert a unicode heart before the title of that post so people will be more likely to notice it. It does not change anything on your actual site.

Management

Disable RSS – If you’re using WordPress as a CMS, Disable RSS can be helpful to you in killing off all of your feeds as you won’t be needing them.

Old Post Promoter – Old Post Promoter will choose posts at random from your published collection and change their publication dates so that they will appear on your front page and in your RSS feed. Note that this does not work if your permalink structure includes dates.

Private RSS – Private RSS allows you to create a separate RSS feed from your main one. While the main one could send out summaries, you could set the private one to do full posts. This would come in handy if you just want your friends to see full posts, or if you want to set up a subscription system for people to have the full feed.

SoJ Tag Feed – This handy little plugin will allow you to create a feed for any tag on your site, so say someone just wants to know when you write about “blogging,” this will generate a feed just for that tag. Also allows you to insert copyright notices to help fight off feed scrapers.

20 of the Best SEO Plugins for WordPress

2009-08-16T09:04:00.000+07:00

With more than 120 million blogs in existence, how do people find YOUR content on the Internet? The key starts with great search engine optimization (SEO), which is an art and a science that helps search engines discover your content and understand how relevant it is to specific search queries.

You can blog your heart out, but if you don’t have good SEO, then odds are you won’t have many readers. Luckily, the WordPress () plugin community values SEO and has developed a number of plugins to help. Here are 20 of the best SEO plugins to help you choose the right tags, tell search robots what to work on, optimize your post titles and more.

Have another SEO plugin to recommend? Tell us more about it in the comments.

All in One SEO Pack – One of the most popular plugins ever for WordPress, this plugin does a bit of everything for you from helping choose the best post title and keywords, to helping you avoid duplicate content and more.

Automatic SEO Links – Automatic SEO Links allows you to choose a word or phrase for automatic linking, both internal and external, set anchor text, choose if it should be “nofollow” or not, and more. One of the best features of this plugin is that it will only do this for the first occurrence of a word in a post so you don’t have to worry about spamming your post with numerous links to the same thing.

Google XML Sitemaps – An essential tool in any blogger’s armory of SEO tools. While the name only mentions “Google (),” this plugin creates an XML-sitemap that can be read by Ask, MSN and Yahoo also.

HeadSpace2 – This plugin allows you to install all sorts of meta-data, add specific JavaScript and CSS to pages, suggests tags for your posts and a whole lot more.

Meta Robots WordPress plugin – An easy solution for adding robot metadata to any page you choose on your blog. You can use it to make your front page links into “nofollows,” prevent indexing of search pages, disable author and date-based archives, prevent indexing of your login page and numerous other features.

Nofollow Case by Case – This plugin allows you to strip the “nofollow” command from your comments, and then you can apply it to only the comments you don’t wish to support.

Platinum SEO Plugin – The Platinum SEO Plugin offers you such features as automatic 301 redirects for permalink changes, auto-generation of META tags, post slug optimization, help in avoiding duplicate content and a host of other features.

Redirection – For any number of reasons you sometimes need to move a page from one spot on your blog to another, but then you risk losing that page’s status in search results. Redirection helps you with your 301 redirects, captures a log of 404s so you can work on correcting them, sets up an RSS feed for errors and more.

SEO Blogroll – Do you worry that the people you link to in your blogroll are feeding off of your PageRank? With SEO Blogroll you can make separate sections for various groupings of links, with an unlimited number in each, and all of them will receive the “nofollow” attribute.

SEO for Paged Comments – With the introduction of paged comments in WordPress 2.7, there was a potential problem with search engines thinking you had duplicate content as the post would appear on each page. This plugin aims to take care of this issue for you until the folks at WordPress change things up.

SEO friendly and HTML valid subheadings – Some themes for WordPress will confuse your sub-header tags based on the page they are to be displayed on, but this plugin will automatically reset them to make them more SEO friendly by moving them down one spot in the hierarchical tree. In other words, h2 becomes h3, h3 becomes h4 and so on.

SEO Friendly Images – Images can be a great source of traffic as people search for images of various subjects, and this plugin helps you with making sure that you have “alt” and “title” tags on all of your images so that the search engines can properly index them.

SEO No Duplicate WordPress Plugin – If you must have duplicate content on your site for whatever reason, SEO No Duplicate will allow you to state which version of the post search engines should index while ignoring the others.

SEO Post Link – The post slug is the blog title you see in a browser’s URL bar, and if it’s too long, search engines won’t take a liking to it. SEO Post Link comes with an already populated list of words to cut from a title when it turns into a URL to make your post addresses that much friendlier. You can set it so that it’s limited to a certain number of characters, cut short words, cut unnecessary words and more.

SEO Smart Links – Interlinking your blog can be the key to getting more people to read more of your posts, but it is time consuming and tedious to do it by hand. SEO Smart Links does this for you automatically when you tell it what words to link to what URLs, and it also allows you to set “nofollow” and “open in window” comands for the links.

SEO Tag Cloud Widget – Love ‘em or hate ‘em, a lot of people use tag clouds on their blogs. Since their inception they have been fairly unreadable by search engines, but with this plugin they will be converted to an SEO-friendly HTML markup that can be indexed.

SEO Title Tag – Your tags are an important part of your site for making sure that search engines know where to place your posts, and SEO Title Tag focuses exclusively on this. Unlike some other plugins, and WordPress itself, this extension will allow you to add tags to your pages, your main page and even any URL anywhere on your site.

Simple Tags – An extremely popular plugin that focuses on helping you choose the best tags for your posts by offering suggestions, auto-completion of tags as you type, an AJAX admin interface, mass tag editing and a whole lot more.

Sitemap Generator – This is a more customizable sitemap generator than most with options to support multi-level categories and pages, category/page exclusion, permalink support, choices on what to display, options to show number of comments and more.

TGFI.net SEO Wordpress Plugin – This particular plugin will do most of the usual SEO work of optimizing titles and keywords, but it adds a unique twist as it is mainly directed at people who use WordPress as a CMS.

OPEN SOURCE GOD: 480+ Open Source Applications

2009-08-06T19:28:00.004+07:00

Open source software is booming: here we round up over 480 open source applications for you to use or build upon.

Feel free to add more apps in the comments. And don’t forget to subscribe to Mashable for the latest web news and resources. Also see the other entries in this series: ONLINE PRODUCTIVITY GOD, WORDPRESS GOD, ONLINE MEDIA GOD and FIREFOX GOD.

———————————–

Accounting

Adaptive Planning Express – An open source solution enabling medium sized companies to automate budgeting and forecasting by moving beyond traditional applications like Excel.

Buddi – A simple budgeting program for users with no financial background.

CheckItOut – A Ruby on Rails application to manage personal money accounts.

FrontAccounting – A professional web-based accounting system for ERP chain; written in PHP () with use of MySQL.

GFP – A free java based personal finance manager with the ability to run on any operating system.

GnuCash – Open source financial accounting software to manage personal and small business expenses and incomes.

Gnumeric – A free spreadsheet program for the GNOME desktop providing several customization features and import/export facility from other spreadsheet programs.

Grisbi – Grisbi is an open source personal finance manager developed to run on any platform and suit the needs of all users.

jGnash – jGnash is an open source personal finance manager that will help you monitor and keep track of your accounts, including investments.

KmyMoney – Easy to use, accurate open source personal finance manager built to suit the needs of non-technical users. It provides all the features available in a commercial application.

Librepos – A multi-user POS application designed for touch screens, customer displays and barcode scanners.

NOLA – An integrated, all-in-one package for an organization’s inventory, POS, accounting, contact management, billing etc.

TurboCASH – Flexible small business accounting software fulfilling the major needs of any business.

Content Management Systems

80 + Open Source Content Management Systems – A complete roundup of Open Source CMSs from Mashable ().

CRM (Customer Relationship Management)

Anteil – Cost effective open source solution for managing and improving customer relationships.

CitrusDB – CitrusDB is a PHP & MySQL based open source customer database solution.

CiviCRM - The world’s first downloadable constituent relationship management system; fund raising software that allows users to manage information about donors, volunteers etc.

Compiere – Offers integrated ERP and CRM suite that enables users to automate the financial, distribution and other needs of their businesses.

Daffodil CRM – Organized and effective way of managing cost-effective customer relationships.

Hipergate – Serving developers, consultants and enterprises to assist them in project management, sales force automation and customer relationship management.

IGSuite – A web-based integrated CRM suite that includes solutions like mailing lists, calendar, contact management and task lists.

Keen CRM/ERP – An advanced, feature packed, comprehensive customer relationship management solution for small companies.

Ohioedge CRM – Ohioedge CRM is an enterprise level open source CRM solution.

OpenCRM – OpenCRM is an open source CRM solution for tracking clients and project management.

OpenCRX – A cross platform professional CRM solution with bug tracking and activity management features.

SellWinCRM – An open source CRM project giving a high level of customization for customers.

SourceTap CRM – SourceTap CRM is a flexible sales force automation solution developed to meet the requirements of sales managers and representatives.

SugarCRM – An open source CRM solution allowing users to track opportunities and manage existing customers while keeping a check on other activities.

Turquoise CRM – Lightweight CRM software built over LAMP with Business Intelligence functionality.

Tustena CRM – Tustena is an enterprise level open source CRM solution written in C#.

vtiger CRM – Built over LAMP/WAMP, Vtiger provides excellent business enhancement utilities and is compatible with multiple platforms.

XRMS CRM – XRMS is an advanced level open source CRM solution that includes a Business Intelligence suite and advanced plugin architecture.

Desktop Environments/ Shell replacements

bbLean – A new version of Blackbox for Windows.

BlackBox For Windows – An alternative shell for Windows that is based stylistically on the Blackbox window manager for the X Window system.

Blueberry 3D-Desktop – Made using Delphi; its main objective is a 3D OPENGL engine in replacement of the Windows desktop.

CyGNOME – A nice tool which ports GNOME desktop to Windows.

DM2 – Provides useful enhancements for Windows in daily work like minimizing windows to floating icons, freeing the taskbar etc.

Geoshell – A shell replacement for Windows that replaces the standard desktop interface items like start menu, taskbar, system tray etc.

KDE-Cygwin – KDE’s port in Windows desktop environment.

LiteStep – A powerful Windows shell replacement under GPL and inspired by AfterStep.

SharpEnvironment – A tool that enables users to personalize every pixel of visible space and customize a single theme in multiple ways with real-time wallpaper effects, icon sets etc.

Virtual Dimension – A fast and fully featured virtual desktop manager that acts as an enhancement to the Windows manager.

xoblite / Blackbox for Windows – An advanced level Blackbox for Windows that is integrated with a system bar.

Email Clients

Columba – A java based email client featuring a user friendly graphical interface.

Daffodil Organizer – Highly flexible way to organize emails; includes import facility from Microsoft Outlook.

Evolution – More popularly billed as the Outlook of Linux (), its calendar, address book and other features make it a good option as an email client.

ICEMail – Open source java client with support for the latest email standards.

Mahogany – Cross platform email client supporting UNIX and Win32 platforms.

Mutt – A small and powerful text based email client for UNIX operating systems.

Penelope – The open source version of Eudora currently under beta and planned for full release by this year.

Phoenix Mail – One of the older open source email clients developed using Borland Delphi.

Sylpheed-Claws – An open source email client with an interface similar to Outlook Express; works as an RSS feed reader too.

Thunderbird () – A secure email client with several customization options to fit the user’s needs.

Zimbra () – Zimbra is currently one of the biggest names in open source, and is the future collaborating and messaging software. Now owned by Yahoo.

Encoding, Conversion & Ripping Tools

Alba Extractor – Alba Extractor is a useful utility for wrapping various mp3 files into one unit for ease of sharing on programs like NapShare etc.

Audacity – Audacity is an open source, cross platform audio editor and is a good solution for creating and editing podcasts.

Avidemux – A free video editor for tasks like cutting and filtering; has support for file types like AVI, DVD etc.

AviSynth – A powerful tool for editing and processing videos.

BonkEnc – A useful application for ripping CDs, encoding and converting audio files to various formats. Users can produce mp3, mp4, FLAC files to name a few.

CD-DA X-Tractor – An open-source CD ripper for 32-bit windows platforms that offers extremely high quality.

CDex – A popular open source digital audio CD extractor.

DivFix – DivFix is a utility for watching partially downloaded DivX movies.

DivXRepair – Based on the VirtualDub model, it cuts off the bad parts and re-assembles the AVI file.

Dr. DivX – The goal of Dr. DivX open source project is to create a portable application with the capability of transcoding many video formats.

DScaler – The DScaler project is an effort to receive top quality videos from Windows computers.

DVD2AVIdg/MPEG2DECdg Decoding Fix – An MPEG decoder suite used for decoding MPEG1 or MPEG2 streams from sources such as DVD VOBs.

DVDx – Popular DVD backup software that converts DVDx movies to high quality DVD movies.

FFmpeg – A complete recording, conversion and streaming solution for audio and video.

GiantDisc – GiantDisc is an open source software package designed to manage thousands of audio tracks.

GNUMP3d – Open source server for streaming mp3s and media.

Gordian Knot – Gordian Knot is an integrated Bit rate calculator package tool for Divx/XviD encoding.

GramoFile – A CD recording utility running on Linux and some other operating systems like UNIX. It enables users to put sounds from gramophone records on CD.

HGRip – A one click solution for converting DVD to XVID files.

JMAC – JMAC is an open source Java implementation library of Monkey’s Audio compression decoder.

LAME – LAME is an MP3 encoder.

Mixere – Mixere is a free, open-source application for mixing audio files. It runs on Windows NT/2000/XP, and supports WAV, AIFF, MP3, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC and Mod audio files.

MMConvert – A multimedia format converter useful for converting media files from one format like AVI/WMV to another format.

mpgtx – A command line MPEG audio/video toolbox useful for joining audio and video files which include MP3, MPEG1, MPEG2 etc.

Mp3splt – A terrific utility to split MP3 and Ogg files from anywhere without decoding.

Mp3Wrap – A useful alternative to wrap two or more mp3 files into a single large mp3 without the loss of file names and other information.

Musepack – A high quality audio compression format.

MusicBrainz Tagger – Provides a database to create a comprehensive music information site. It can be accessed via the client or the internet.

NanDub + BRC – NanDub+BRC includes a bitrate calculator and offers users several advantages as their need for opening separate pieces of software is eliminated.

Open Sound World – A scalable programming environment allowing musicians, researchers and sound engineers to process sound.

OptimFROG – OptimFROG is a zipping utility for audio compression programs; used to reduce the size of audio files.

ShrinkTo5 – A cross platform open source DVD copy engine; allows users to create copies.

SmartRipper – A useful utility for extracting DVD VOB files; loaded with nice features for splitting VOB files, angle processing etc.

Taksi – Taksi allows users to take screenshots and record videos of favorite games and 3D-graphics applications.

Virtual VCR – A compact video capture application designed to work with TV tuner and video capture cards.

WavPack – WavPack is a high quality audio compression format and provides lossless compression.

YAAI – One of the best tools to display information about AVI files; enables users to see data like framerate, used codes, author information etc.

ERP

ADempiere Bazaar – Adempiere is a community for open source developers contributing improvements of various applications like Compiere, Helpdesk and Supply Chain etc.

JERPA – JERPA is a Java based advanced level architecture model for ERP software.

JFire – An exchange platform including ERP, CRM and accounting written in Java.

Openbravo ERP – A web based ERP for small and medium enterprises; built on proven MVC architecture facilitating code maintenance and customization.

opentaps – An open source ERP and CRM suite including eCommerce, inventory, warehouse, ledger etc.

Postbooks – A fully integrated ERP solution for small and medium businesses; features a graphical client which runs on Linux, Mac and Windows.

Plazma – Plazma is a Java based ERP and CRM solution.

Sequoia Open Source ERP – The flexible ERP software from Sequoia brings advanced features and scalability for enterprise software along with low TCO.

Tiny ERP – Packed with features like GTK2 client, distributed server, dynamic GUI.

Value – Value is an open source ERP/CRM system and features modular capabilities along with seamless integration.

webERP – webERP is flexible integrated business management software that covers accounts receivable, accounts payable, inventory management and other accounting requirements.

Wyatt – Wyatt is a cross platform ERP package written in Java with J2EE compliance.

Filesharing & FTP

ABC – An enhanced client for the BitTorrent file sharing protocol.

Ares – A file sharing utility enabling users to share digital files like images, audio, video, software and documents.

Azureus – Java enabled BitTorrent protocol packed with special features for beginners and advanced users.

BT++ – An advanced version of the BitTorrent peer-to-peer file sharing protocol with cross-platform support; written in Python.

Cabos – Cabos has an intuitive user interface and is a Gnutella file sharing program based on Limewire.

CoreFTP – A FTP program that enables uploading/downloading/deletion of files and directories, integration with browser, file permission handling etc.

cURL – A command line utility allowing file transfer via FTP, LDAP etc. Users can also use the GET and PUT methods for file downloading and uploading.

Cyberduck () – An open source FTP client with support for drag and drop, uploading and downloading, remote file transfer etc.

DC++ – Windows based open source client for unrestricted file sharing over the internet.

eMule-Project.net – A reliable and trusted peer-to-peer file sharing application allowing users to connect from different clients.

FileZilla () – FileZilla is a free, fast and reliable open source FTP solution for Windows.

Freenet Project – A free and secure decentralized network of information publishers and consumers.

FrostWire – A completely open source peer to peer client; features community chat room and iTunes integration.

Fugu – An open source graphical front end for secure file transfer; provides support for Mac operating system.

G3 Torrent – A BitTorent client written in Python.

Gnucleus – One of the oldest Windows based open source peer to peer file sharing clients related to Gnutella.

HeavyMole – An advanced level peer to peer file sharing application with features like distributed chat, filtering of answers and advanced query language.

iFTP – i.FTP is a Windows FTP client that comes with source code. There is also an earlier version for BeOS that works with portable media like USB keys.

JFtp – JFtp is a graphical Java network and file transfer client.

KazaaSearch – Search for music, software, images & video with this powerful peer to peer file sharing client.

KCeasy – The windows version of giFT filesharing system that also offers support for other filesharing networks.

Krimpy – An IRC based (internet relay chat) open source file sharing client enabling users to share music, pictures, videos and other files.

Lime Wire – A multi-platform Gnutella file sharing client enabling users to share their files, download MP3s and other audio files.

MLdonkey – 100% open source cross-platform P2P client running on Linux, UNIX, Windows and Mac.

MUTE – A secure, peer to peer file sharing network with easy search and download functionality.

MyNapster – Comes with connection capability to Gnutella for file sharing, IRC for chatting and supports resumption & multithreading of downloads.

NetMess – Has the ability to detect clones and work through HTTP proxy and firewalls.

Prozilla- An open source Linux download accelerator that provides download support via HTTP and FTP protocols.

Shareaza – A flexible file sharing system consolidating features from four different networks: EDonkey2000, Gnutella, BitTorrent, Gnutella2.

TAC2 – Expanded as Tango & Catch 2 (TAC2), works as a search engine independent client for searching on Linux and Windows.

TorrentSpy – Gives BitTorrent power-users all the information in one place along with real time ability to monitor the number of live users.

Waste – Secure collaboration tool allowing idea & data sharing between users through a chat interface.

WinSCP – Another open source SFTP & FTP client for Windows; provides safe file copying between local and remote computers.

XNap – Written in Java, XNap provides a plug-in enabled framework and client for P2P applications.

Graphics-Design & Modeling Tools

Ajax Image Editor – Open source image editor using PHP.

ArgoUML – ArgoUML is a popular open source UML modeling tool compatible with any Java platform.

Avidemux – A simple video editor with support for DVD/DivX conversion and editing.

Blender – 3D animation and modeling suite with various tools for modeling.

Bluefish – A powerful editor for programmers and web designers enabling them to write websites, scripts and programming code.

BRL-CAD – An open source CAD system centered on constructive solid geometry (CSG) modelling.

Cinelerra – A professional open source video editing tool with features for capturing, editing and compositing.

CinePaint – Professional graphical editing application targeted towards the movie industry.

Cornice – Cross platform image viewer initially developed for Linux; similar in functionality to ACDSee.

Dia – Open source drawing tool for UML diagrams, similar in functionality to ‘Visio’.

Flowchart Studio – Allows the user to draw a flowchart through graphical editor.

F-Spot – A feature rich personal photo management application for GNOME desktops.

Gaphor – Simple modeling environment that enables users to create intuitive UML diagrams for documentation purposes.

Gimp () – The oldest, and most famous, open source graphic application with over 100 plug-ins and powerful paint tools.

Gimpshop – Gimpshop changes menus and dialogs in a manner similar to its competitor, Photoshop.

GQview – A lightweight image viewer with easy navigation, zoom and thumbnail preview features.

i.Mage – i.Mage is a handy graphics editor featuring easy pixel & image editing.

ImageMagick – Allows for the creation, editing and composition of bitmap images.

imgSeek – imgSeek is a photo management and viewing application with search support.

Imgv – An open source, feature rich image viewer providing support for a variety of image formats.

Inkscape () – An open source vector graphics editor similar in functionality to Illustrator. It provides support for all drawing features like any commercial product.

Inquisitor – A fast visual web picture ripper, downloader and offline browser.

Jahshaka – Powerful open source movie editor with real time media playback and visual effects.

Karbon – Part of the open source KOffice suite, makes a great choice as a vector drawing application.

Kino – An open source non-linear video editor that comes with easy importing of DV video and provides video and audio transition effects.

khtml2png – A command line utility for creating PNG and JPEG images out of web pages.

Krita – An open source image editing and painting program with advanced features.

KToon – 2D animation toolkit with focus towards animation industry.

NVU – A complete cross platform web authoring system which makes it very simple to create web pages and manage a website without any technical expertise.

OpenLaszlo – An excellent development environment for web applications as it can generate Macromedia and AJAX files for webpage use.

Paint.NET () – .NET based open source bitmap application with an intuitive user interface for drawing and editing.

Page Scavenger – A simple Windows application useful for downloading images from free hosting services via webpage links.

Pixie – Open source RenderMan renderer.

Potrace – An open source project useful for converting bitmap images to raster or vector drawings.

QCad Community Edition – A simple, easy to use open source 2D CAD application.

Quanta Plus – A feature rich web development environment.

Seashore – A basic open source image editor with simple functionality and features.

Scribus () – Open source cross-platform desktop publishing application.

Skencil – A flexible open source, interactive vector drawing application for illustrations, diagrams and other purposes.

Synfig – An open source 2d vector animation program for artists to assist them with making cartoons.

UFRaw – Unidentified Flying Raw is an open source photo converter that can be used as a standalone application or as a plug-in.

VirtualDub – An open source video capture and processing utility with basic features.

Violet – Violet is an easy to learn and use open source UML editor.

Xara Xtreme – Powerful, general purpose graphics application for Linux and other UNIX platforms.

Media Players

AlsaPlayer – AlsaPlayer is a new type of PCM player for Linux/Unix featuring fully pluggable framework for various media types.

Amarok () – Audio player for Linux.

Cog – Quite often referred to as a potential iTunes alternative; an interesting open source audio player with support for various formats.

Coolplayer – A fast audio player for the Win32 environment.

Delphamp – Delphi based open source media player. Like a Winamp clone, also features support for Winamp skins.

DigitalDJ – DigitalDJ is a front-end MP3 player based on SQL. It can create playlists and manage CD databases in MP3 format.

Foobar2000 () – Advanced level Windows based audio player with support for Unicode and popular audio formats.

Gamp – Gamp is a Gnome audio player written in C and includes support for MP3, Ogg, vorbis etc.

Grip – Grip is a CD-player and ripper for the Gnome desktop, and features an automated front end for MP3 encoders.

Guliverkli – Its interface is similar to Windows media player, however it also offers advanced features like switching of audio streams in mp4 files.

HelixPlayer – An open source media player for various operating systems like Linux, Solaris and Symbian.

Juice – Juice is a premier podcast receiver and allows users to capture and receive podcasts anytime.

Media Player Classic – An advanced version of Windows Media Player 6.4; offers features like real time zoom, support for AVI subtitles and support for QuickTime and Real video.

Mixxx – An open source DJ mixing tool, very useful for professional and amateur DJs.

Miro () – The only video player which provides you with the option to download YouTube () videos, play video files and play live Internet TV.

MPlayer – Written in Python; one of the best media players under the GNU-GPL license.

MP3Gain – MP3Gain assists users by normalizing the volume of mp3 files; it also does statistical analysis to determine the loudness of a file to the human ear.

musikCube () – MP3 player based on embedded SQL database engine and packed with innovative features.

NotifyCD – NotifyCD is a small system tray based CDDB supporting CD player for Windows 9x/NT/2000.

OggPlay – OggPlay is an open source audio player for smart phones.

Plainamp – Plainamp is an open source media player for Microsoft Windows.

SnackAmp – A music player running on multiple platforms; features a web server and powerful playlist.

Songbird () – Songbird is a multi-utility open source application; acts as a desktop web player, a jukebox, and a web browser.

SysTrayPlay – Also known as STP, ths is a small MP3 player program with a grey button in the taskbar that occupies very little memory.

VLC media player () – Highly portable cross platform multimedia player & streaming server with support for variety of audio and video formats.

Vorbis.com – Open source professional audio encoding and streaming technology.

XboxMediaPlayer – XboxMediaPlayer is an open source multimedia player from Microsoft useful for viewing various video/audio/picture files like VOB, AVI, MP3 etc.

xine – Xine is an open source multimedia player for playing CDs, DVDs and streaming multimedia over the internet.

Zinf – Powerful and effective audio player for Linux and Windows. Supports various file formats such as MP3, Ogg and WAV and also features a download manager and a music browser.

Messengers & Communication Clients

Adium () – Mac OS X open source instant messaging client that aggregates the popular IM networks.

aMSN – MSN Messenger’s open source clone for Linux users.

Ayttm – Ayttm is an instant messaging client with all-in-one chat functionality for major instant messaging services.

Coccinella – A Jabber client with integrated whiteboard features; includes features like file transfer, multi-user chat etc.

Kopete – Part of KDE desktop; a wonderful instant messaging application with voice and video capabilities.

Gaim – A very flexible instant messaging application compatible with Linux and Windows offering support for AIM, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo and others.

Ineen – Ineen is a feature loaded open source audio and video conferencing desktop tool.

IRSIM – Uses PHP and mySQL and provides interaction with multiple messaging clients.

Java Jabber Server – A nice open source Java implementation of Jabber instant messenger.

Kopete – Kopete is a flexible instant messenger and multi protocol system with support for AIM, Yahoo, IRC and MSN.

Licq – A C++ based multi-threaded ICQ clone; uses an extensive plug-in system.

MIMP – Mobile version of IMP; functionality includes mailbox viewing, message viewing, deletion or composition of new messages.

Miranda IM – Fast and handy multi-protocol messenger for Windows.

Openfire & Spark – Real time cross-platform IM client and server based on Jabber protocol.

Pidgin () – Covers multiple protocols including AIM, ICQ, MSN, IRC, Jabber etc.

PlanetaMessenger.org – Java based open source instant messenger offering plug-in support for various IM networks.

Psi-im – An open source instant messaging client developed for Jabber. Has communication capabilities with AIM, MSN and ICQ etc.

SIM-IM (SIM Instant Messenger) – Free software package providing plug-in based messaging with support for various protocols.

Spark – Open source instant messenger with integrated support for group chat, telephony and security.

TjK – A portal based open source version of AOL Instant Messenger, originally developed for UNIX users.

Tkabber – Open source client for Jabber instant messaging and works on many platforms e.g. Linux, Windows and Mac etc.

WengoPhone – WengoPhone is a popular VOIP soft-phone client for making free PC-to-PC calls over the internet.

XChat – An IRC chat client for both Windows and Linux.

Yafumato Web Messenger – A web-based open source client allowing users to connect to AIM, Gtalk (), MSN and Yahoo.

PDF drivers & Tools

CC PDF Converter – Enables users to convert Word, Excel, IE and any other file formats to PDF.

Evince – Evince is a document viewer with support for multiple document formats including PDF.

Jarnal – Jarnal is an open-source application enabling annotation of a document.

okular – A universal document viewer based on KPDF for KDE.

PDFCreator – Create PDF files from just about any Windows utility.

PDF Download – A Firefox () extension for improving your surfing experience. A click on a PDF file link enables you to view it inside or outside Firefox.

Pdftk – Pdftk is a command line utility allowing users to merge PDF documents, split PDF documents and do many other things.

qvPDF – Windows based PDF creator implemented as a printer driver.

Sumatra PDF – A simple and fast application to view PDF files.

Xpdf – An open source PDF viewer for the UNIX operating system. Also works under Windows as a command line tool.

Personal Information & Task Managers

Aethera – Aethera is a PIM application with communication features like send/receive email, send/receive tasks and appointment requests etc.

Chandler – Turns your inbox into a task list.

KAddressBook – An address book application for the K Desktop environment.

Kontact – Supports news, email, calendars, to-do list; a personal information manager for KDE.

KOrganizer – A personal organizer of the KDE desktop environment; has the ability to manage calendars and to do list.

Nag – Nag is a task list manager for multiple users and allows them to create many task lists which can be shared between users and groups.

OneOrZero – Easy to customize cross platform, enterprise level task management and help desk solution.

OpenSync – Open source synchronization framework for managing PIM data such as contacts, calendar, tasks and notes.

PTM – An open source time tracking tool.

Task Blocks – A simple task scheduling application to ensure that user tasks do not overlap.

Task Coach – Task Coach is an open source personal task manager providing features to deal with complex tasks.

TaskFreak – Simple web-based task manager written in PHP.

Total Text Container – An open source information manager; stores notes, passwords, images, calendar events etc.

Project Management

Achievo – Easy to use and customize open source web-based project management application for business environments.

AgileTrack – Java based application for monitoring and tracking activities in a software development environment.

ASTS – A set of web based management tools for recording project activities and tasks.

Austin – A command line utility for manipulating project timelines in XML.

dotproject – Open source Project Management application developed and supported by a group of volunteers.

Double Choco Latte – A basic project management application used to track the history of work orders, projects, accounts etc.

eHour – User friendly web-based tool for keeping track of time based activities; ideal for consulting companies.

FreeMind – A mind mapping application useful for brainstorming sessions.

FUTURe – A time management application for individuals and groups.

Ganttproject – Written in Java, and using XML file format; enables project planning through a Gantt chart.

JIRA – JIRA is a project management & task achievement application for making team processes easy.

jxProject.com – Cross platform project management tool with sharing options.

IPM – A simple project management application built in PHP4 and requiring Apache 1.3x and MySQL.

Memoranda – For users handling multiple projects on a daily basis Memoranda is an ideal tool.

NetOffice – An online project management application for managing tasks, projects, team tracking and collaboration between teams.

Open Workbench – Excellent Windows-based application providing project scheduling functionality for enterprise users.

Planner – Project management tool for the Gnome desktop that is useful for project scheduling, planning and tracking.

phpCollab – An open-source internet-collaboration tool for project teams allowing them to share information amongst each other.

project-open – A web-based project management system for small consulting and service companies. Covers sales, project planning, collaboration and CRM.

Projectory – Projectory is an open source web based project management tool for tracking software projects through development phases.

Projman – A project management tool for reading project descriptions and their scheduled tasks.

Rapla – Highly configurable event and resource management application primarily targeted towards universities.

Taskjuggler – A powerful tool with redefined approach towards project planning activities, taking it far beyond the commonly available tools for Gantt charts.

Trac – Wiki and issue management system for software development projects.

TrackIt – An open source web based project tracking tool to maximize flexibility and customization.

TUTOS – Organization management tool for satisfying the requirements of small groups, teams and departments.

User Story .NET – A tool for extreme programming projects in user story tracking.

WebCollab – An easy to use collaborative project management system enabling users to work together.

WebPBC – Web-based project management tool for small businesses to do budget allocation of projects.

XPlanner – Another web-based project management tool for eXtreme programming (XP) software development practices.

Reporting Tools

BIRT Project – An Eclipse-based reporting system.

DataVision – A reporting tool that works with any database and generates customized reports.

Jasper Reports – A leading open source reporting engine delivering rich screen content and printer into various file formats: PDF, HTML and XLS etc.

JERT – JavaEye Reporting Tool is a web-based database reporting tool with sharing features. It enables users to create flexible reports without any programming knowledge.

iReport – iReport is an easy to use visual report builder designed and written purely in Java.

openi.org – Pronounced as “open eye”, this is a web-based open source OLAP reporting tool enabling organizations of different sizes to manage and organize their data.

OpenSMART – Similar to Tivoli, a monitoring and data reporting tool for servers.

Pentaho – Open source business intelligence tool enabling organizations to operate more effectively by providing reporting, analysis, workflow capabilities.

Rapid – I – Offers all types of data mining services (from analysis to customization) helping customers to improve their profitability and efficiency.

SpagoBI – Focused business intelligence solution for the enterprise providing complete set of analytics (e.g. reporting, data mining, dashboards etc.)

xTuple – Open source SQL report writer compatible with Windows, Linux and Mac.

RSS

Aggie – Aggie is a desktop based open-source news aggregator that downloads the latest news in a webpage.

AmphetaDesk – A cross platform, open source news aggregator that downloads news items on the user’s desktop.

BlogBridge – A powerful and flexible desktop based open source feed reader for Windows, Linux and Mac.

BottomFeeder – RSS news aggregator client written in Smalltalk and compatible with Linux, Windows, Mac and Solaris.

Gregarious – A web-based RSS/RDF/Atom feed reader designed for users to run on their own web server.

JRssReader – A fast, Java based RSS & RDF reader; offers compatibility with multiple platforms.

NewsFeed – Flexible RSS/RDF/Atom aggregator for different operating systems like Linux, MacOS and FreeBSD ().

NRss – an “open source Microsoft .NET Framework / Mono class library for reading a RSS feed into a tree of objects mapped to elements in the RSS feed.”

RSSOwl () – Java-based open source news reader.

Syndirella – Syndirella is an open source desktop information aggregator providing a user friendly environment for reading information from multiple sources or feeds.

ThinFeeder – Very powerful and tiny open source aggregator for RSS/Atom developed in Java language.

System Utilities

7-Zip – High-compression open source archive utility for Windows with support for 7z, ZIP, GZIP, TAR files etc.

Amanda – Network backup solution.

Bacula – Set of open source computer programs for managing network backup system for Linux/Unix, Mac and Windows clients.

BiGZip – Free compression utility based in Java.

Burn – An open-source CD and DVD burning application allowing users to create audio, data and video disks in different file formats.

CamStudio – Open screen casting application allowing users to capture audio and video and store it later for playback.

CDRDAO – Open-source tool with advanced features for recording audio or data CDs.

coLinux – Cooperative Linux allows users to run Linux parallel to Windows on any machine.

Cream – An open source text editor with interactive user interface, pull-down menus etc.

G4U – Open source cross-platform hard disk image cloning application.

GrenEye – A file slicing and compression utility.

GNU zip – A compression utility.

GParted – Fantastic open source partition manager with direct boot facility option from CD or USB.

Handbrake – A multiplatform DVD to MPEG-4 converter/ripper with ability to process unencrypted and whole DVD files.

InfraRecorder – A freeware CD/DVD burning application for Windows.

Info-ZIP – Provides high quality, portable versions of zip files compatible with DOS.

Inno Setup – Another open source installer for Windows applications with integrated Pascal scripting engine.

InstallJammer – Useful for creating self-contained cross platform installation packages.

jEdit – A cross platform open source text editor written in Java with consolidated features from major editors.

Emacs – An extensible, customizable, self-documenting open source text editor.

K3b – An open source application for creating/burning CDs and DVDs; packed with features like DVD encoding, copying and audio CD creation.

Launch4j – An open source wrapper for jar files that supports Mac, Linux and Solaris.

Nagios – An open source network monitoring service for hosts, networks and services which use plug-ins.

NeDi – Open source network discovery, inventory & management framework utilizing scheduled discovery for network examination.

Notepad++ () – An open source alternative to Microsoft Notepad with features well suited

HOW TO: Plan a Vacation Using Social Media

2009-08-06T17:33:00.001+07:00

Vacation is a time to relax, or a time to seek out adventure. It’s a way to let go of your stress and live out your fantasies. That is, if the stress and pain of planning the vacation doesn’t kill you first.

Whether you want to relax on the beaches of Hawaii, roam the English countryside, or visit the temples of Thailand, you’ve got to be informed, organized, and ready for what lies ahead. To that end, social and web tools can help. From utilizing wikis for collaborative planning to using social networks to share the YouTube videos you record, social media is a useful partner in experiencing the best vacation possible. This short guide highlights some tips, tools, and advice on how to use the social graph to plan and execute the perfect excursion.

Part 1: Research

The first step whenever you are planning to travel is to do your research! Research is key to choosing a location, picking a hotel, and figuring out where you should visit. One of the best ways to get good information is to read the insight provided by others. This is where social media can play a vital role to getting the best information possible.

While there are hundreds of social media websites you can visit for information, here are recommendations to get you started:

Nextstop: Nextstop, which we recently reviewed, provides a ton of simple-to-understand, user-generated guides for getting the most out of any locale.

Where I’ve Been: Not only is Where I’ve Been a popular Facebook () application, but it’s also a stand-alone social network as well. Use it to get in-depth information on different.

Wikitravel: Perhaps the largest collection of user-generated travel information on the web, Wikitravel provides good information on where to go, what to expect, and even information on the culture.

TripAdvisor: One of the best-known sites in travel, TripAdvisor has millions of reviews that will help you pick out the gems and avoid the disasters.

The key is to look at a wide range user-generated content and reviews to get an overall picture. For more detailed information and social tools for research, check out our article HOW TO: Use Social Media for Travel Research.

Part 2: Planning and organizing

Picking a vacation spot might just be the easiest part of the battle. Tackling the daunting task of planning, organizing, and building a vacation plan can be the stumbling block that makes the excursion fall apart. Yet social and web tools are ideal for saving this information, creating itineraries, and sharing them with others. There are a couple of things you can do to help make the collaboration easier.

First, if you’re going on a vacation larger than just your family, then you’ll want to collect everyone’s research and thoughts onto one page. Setting up a wiki for the vacation is a great solution for this issue. It will help make sure nobody’s ideas are lost. Set up one at Wikidot, PBWorks, Wikia, or Wetpaint. Want a simpler option? Then Google Docs () may be a fit as well.

Planning a vacation should not be a solo effort. Working with a spouse, the kids, and friends not only lightens the work load, but makes the vacation a greater shared experience. Make collaboration a painless process by using time-based tools like Google Calendar and CalendarHub, both of which can remind you when tasks are due. TripIt () is also ideal.

Finally, remember that Facebook, MySpace (), and comprehensive social networks are an easy way to keep a group of friends in the loop about a vacation. Create a new event or a group for the vacation and post updates via the wall or send messages to everyone in the group. This can be a lifesaver when you need to collect things like signatures, opinions, or vacation funds.

Part 3: Using social media on the ground

Social media’s usefulness in vacation planning doesn’t end when you step off the plane. Even the best-planned (or impromptu) vacation will require adjustments. Here are a few tips and tools for when you need to find a great restaurant on-the-ground or are looking for advice from locals:

Go mobile: iPhone and Android () apps are your friends. Having GPS-enabled and informative applications while on-the-go can mean the difference between finding the great treasures of Italy or getting lost in the alleys of Brazil. Be sure to check about data plans in the area you’re visiting – you don’t want to pay enormous roaming and data fees after all.

Some apps need online access, while others will work regardless. So even if the phone is off, there are a great deal of applications that can make life easy. We suggest having ZAGAT TO GO, MapsBuddy, and Yelp () [iTunes links] handy to start.

Check tweets in the area: Did you know that Twitter () search has location-based search? Say you want to find out about parties near Paris. Just search “party near:Paris” and you’ll have a set of local results. Refine as you’d like. Reach out if you’re adventurous.

Another idea: use Tweetie’s local tweets function to find residents who may be willing to help. Just be sure not to tweet to unsavory characters.

Use location-based social networks: Location-based social networks, while still fresh and new, are a great way to find friends and friendly strangers around you. Check out Loopt and BrightKite () and see if either will work for you.

Part 4: Documenting and sharing

Tools like Flickr (), YouTube (), and a personal blog should be key partners in your vacation plan. Specifically, use these tools to store the memories of your trip for posterity. Creating albums of your adventures helps encompass the memory and can be referenced for years to come. A personal blog chronicling the trip can also be fun to write.

Don’t forget to share your multimedia with your friends and family, as well. You know they will ask, so make it easy for them to find it by posting the photos and links via your top social networks.

Hopefully with all of the tools and information highlighted in this short guide, you will have a no-stress vacation that you can remember for the rest of your days.

Ten Tactics That Could Save Your Online Reputation

2009-08-05T23:17:00.002+07:00

This is a guest posting by Andy Beal, co-author of Radically Transparent: Monitoring and Managing Reputations Online and CEO of online reputation monitoring tool Trackur. He outlines ten tactics that could prevent your company suffering its own online reputation meltdown.

1. Know your achilles heel

Do you know your weaknesses? No, seriously! I don’t mean the “we try too hard to please our customers” bunk. Do you know the flaws in your products, the areas of your service that suck, or the member of your management team most likely to stick his foot firmly in his mouth?

If Kryptonite had known their locks could be picked with Bic pen, they might have been able to react faster to the meme that spread like a virus. You might not be able to correct your company’s flaws but, by being honest about them now, you can better prepare should they become the topic of a reputation attack.

2. Assume everything will make it’s way to the web

You should assume that every phone conversation will be taped, every internal memo leaked, and every hallway conversation shared with a blogger. No matter what policies you put in place, not matter how many times you tell a journalist something is “off the record” you should utter only the words you’d want to see on the front page of the Wall Street Journal.

This is at the essence of being radically transparent–the message you share behind closed doors should match the one you share with employees, customers, and investors.

3. Create a great online impression; dress to impress!

You already know that a great suit can help you impress a VC or win that new client account, but what about the way you dress-up your web site? I see so many companies suffer from a poor reputation, only to discover they’re abusing their biggest reputation asset–their own web site content.

Prospective customers, future employees, investors, and journalists are just a small sample of those that will turn to your own web site when determining the reputation of your company. Make sure they find all the information they could possible need and then throw-in the stuff they might normally look for elsewhere. Link to reviews of your products, highlight praise received by bloggers, upload your videos and podcasts, and make sure all content is RSS enabled and social media sharable.

4. Choose your blog voice carefully

If you want to do wonders for your company’s online reputation, you should definitely consider joining the blogosphere–that’s almost a no-brainer reputation management decision. A blog will allow you to hold conversations with your customers and gain valuable feedback. What’s not quite so easy to get right is the style of blog that will best help your business.

Unless your CEO has the charisma and thought-leadership of Jason Calacanis or Jonathan Schwartz, letting him lose on WordPress () might do more harm than good. Instead consider establishing a team blog (such as Southwest Airlines’ “Nuts About Southwest”) where there’s less focus placed on a single individual and more attention on who your customers really want to hear from; your employees.

5. Hangout at the right social network

Look, just because MySpace () and Facebook () are the most popular social networks, doesn’t mean that’s where your customers and employees are hanging-out. While social networks are great for building brand loyalty, there’s a need to be selective in where you setup shop. If you customers skew towards those over 50-years old, you likely won’t find them “sheep throwing” or “zombie biting” on Facebook.

Find the “centers of influence” for your reputation–the social networks where you’ll most likely find conversations about your company–and create your social network profile there. If you really want to tap into the most appropriate social network, consider building your own. Companies such as Ning.com are empowering companies to create their own social network–sheep throwing optional.

6. Send blogger’s love letters, not PR pitches

Do you know why Jeff Jarvis’ infamous “Dell hell” blog post started a reputation blogstorm for Dell? One factor was Dell’s lack of previous conversations with Jarvis–and other computer bloggers. Lesson learned. If you look at Dell know, they’re keeping in touch with influential bloggers, commenting on their posts, and treating them with respect. Now when Dell’s products don’t live up to expectations, the fallout is less severe and bloggers are more apt to speak to the company first, before hitting “publish” on that reputation-crushing post. How does that compare to your normal mass-email PR pitch?

7. Build your Google () reputation now, not later

Google’s not just a search engine, it’s a reputation engine. When a prospective client wants more information about your products, a journalist needs background on your business, or an investor seeks details about your history, it’s Google they ultimately turn to for information. I speak to so many companies that screw-up their reputation, then try to cleanup the mess by trying to push down the evidence on Google.

It can take many weeks–sometimes months–to create new content that will rank on the first page of Google for your brand. Don’t wait until your already knee-deep in a crisis to decide you need to build positive content for Google. Do it now–while you’re not fighting reputation fires–and it will likely keep out future negative listings.

8. Monitor your online reputation as often as your email

The web has empowered individuals to share even the smallest of complaints online. In fact, with sites such as ePinions, RipOff Report, and the Consumerist, your customers complaints are practically encouraged.

When a laptop’s battery caught fire at a gate at LAX, Lenovo knew within an hour that reports where circulating the web that the laptop was a Thinkpad. Thanks to their reputation monitoring efforts the company was able to act quickly and prevent a reputation crisis. Lenovo quickly identified that the battery wasn’t manufactured by them and was able to spread that message before it hurt consumer sentiment towards the Thinkpad line.

Their are lots of online reputation monitoring tools to choose from, but even a simple Google Alert is better than nothing.

9. Ostriches are not great role-models

If you find yourself facing a stampede of angry bloggers, with the mission of calling you out on your company’s foul, sticking your head in the sand does not make them go away. You might initially convince yourself that the problem will simply disappear and besides, what harm can a blogger do anyway? In all likelihood your denial will buy you just a day or two before your scandal makes it to the inbox of a New York Times journalist. Game over.

Instead, the moment you see any reputation attack you should take action. It might only need a comment from you in the blogger’s comments section, or it might require your own blog post or video, announcing what steps you’re taking to resolve the issue. The key is to respond quickly, address the situation, apologize if needed, and prevent it becoming the lead story in the evening news.

10. Three words to remember

I’ve written thousands of words on the topic of building a great online reputation, but I’ve managed to condense everything down to just three words for you to remember: sincerity, transparency, and consistency.

Sincerity means wanting to hear from your customers and the desire to truly provide a positive experience with your company. Transparency involves tearing down the walls of corporate rhetoric and PR spin–the more you share with your customers the more you’ll win their trust. Consistency is a vital component for any reputation management efforts. Your customers will forgive your isolated failure, but if you’re not consistently living-up to your brand promise, they’ll find a company that does.

HOW TO: Take Control of Your Google Search Results

2009-08-05T22:58:00.001+07:00

Google () is the dominant search engine, with over 63% market share. Aside from it being a place to discover product reviews and corporate information, it is the personal brand destination of choice.

When someone Googles your name, the results are telling of who you are and what you do. In other words, your Google results are your resume, both professionally and personally. Companies seek to rank number one in Google’s search results for their brand name as well as terms in their industry, and you should as well.

Before we get started, I want you to Google your name right now. Copy the results to a word processing document and circle the results that have to do with your name. After you do that, highlight the positive ones in green, the neutral ones in grey and the negative ones in red. Only do this for the top 10 results. What you’ll notice is that you either have a presence on Google or not and you’re either positively portrayed in Google or you’re not.

What does Google say about you?

Everyone uses Google, from journalists to teachers to your friends and managers. There is no time in this disruptive world to go through the first 90 results in Google after a single search, so the majority of people stop after the first page and some after the first three results!

Google might say that you are unqualified for a job or that you aren’t “dating material.” Celebrities have their own Google woes. Let’s examine the Google results for A-Rod, Michael Phelps and Chris Brown. Each celebrity recently had a personal branding disaster, which is observable in their Google results.

A-Rod (Alex Rodriguez): A-Rod is the highest paid and one of the most respected professional baseball players on the New York Yankees.

Google “A-Rod“: You’ll find about three of four results calling attention to his steroid abuse. He tested positive for steroids six years ago while playing for the Texas Rangers during a three-year period.

Michael Phelps: Michael is an American swimmer, who has won 14 career Olympic gold medals, which is the most by any Olympian and by the end of 2008 he held seven world records in swimming.

Google “Michael Phelps“: You’ll find “michael phelps smoking weed” as a related search term for his name, as well as results that highlight him doing drugs.

Chris Brown: Chris is a Grammy-nominated American singer-songwriter, dancer and actor. His first album went double platinum at the age of 16.

Google “Chris Brown“: You’ll find his current LAPD investigation for assault following an alleged domestic violence felony battery against Rihanna.

How to control your Google results

These celebrities’ names once garnered positive Google results, through each homerun, gold medal and platinum album achieved. Although, they had pages and pages of positive results, it only took one incident for their reputation to be in jeopardy. The second the press filed their stories, their Google results were rearranged and negative results appeared. Luckily for them, they can still turn their results around by working hard to clean their record and earn positive articles from the press and bloggers alike.

At the celebrity level, you would need some aggressive PR to change these results because top tier outlets such as ESPN have a high PageRank in Google. For the average person (as long as you have a unique name), here are some strategies that will help you control your Google results.

1. Register for a blog and social networks

One way to take control for your results is by owning or renting web properties that carry your name. Blogs and social networks allow you to do just that. A blog allows you to continuously develop content under a single URL. As your blog generates content, Google will be pinged and rank it higher under certain keywords.

Make sure your blog, in some way, connects to your name. For instance, if your name is the URL or the title of the blog has your name in it, it will rank high for your name. Blogs have high SEO value because there is a lot of content that people can link to. I wouldn’t recommend that everyone starts a blog because you don’t want to post once and then leave it on the shelf for three months; it would be looked down upon by your visitors. Instead, start a blog because you’re passionate about a topic and want your voice to be heard.

The largest and most credible social networks have a high Google PageRank. PageRank is a measurement of importance in Google from 0 to 10. Twitter (), LinkedIn (), FriendFeed (), and Facebook () have a PageRank of 8, which might not surprise you. They gain links from users linking to their profiles. Try to use unique identifiers for your profile pages. For instance, if your name is Peter Smith, you’ll want the “linkedin.com/in/petersmith distinct URL for your profile. Anywhere you can use your full name, I encourage you to do so.

Aside from the typical social networks, the leading “traditional media” brands also have social networks accounted for. BusinessWeek, The Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur and The New York Times all have social networks that you can join today for free. They all allow you to have your own profile, a chance to network with peers, high PageRank and massive credibility.

2. Write for other blogs

Much like what I do for Mashable, you can guest post on other blogs, which can take up some of those top ten spots in Google for your name. In general, becoming a content creator will help you take charge of your brand.

3. Create a social media resume

As I stated in my previous Mashable () post “HOW TO: Build the Ultimate Social Media Resume,” a social media resume is optimized to rank high in Google for your name and can support your professional development and job searching needs.

4. Start a wiki under your name

A wiki is an online document that can be edited in real-time and tracked. Pbwiki.com, a service for creating free wikis, has a PageRank of 7, which means that if you use your full name when registering, there’s a good chance it will rank high for you. You could turn the wiki into a resume, a list of your favorite things to do or a listing of websites.

5. Become a celebrity/micro-celeb

When you become more famous, people start to notice and you might wake up one day with your own Wikipedia () page! If this happens, you better believe that it will rank in the top three results for your name. Don’t create your own page though because people will find out (namely the wiki-moderators) and it will be taken down. Becoming internet famous isn’t out of reach anymore, especially when the cost of admission is $0.00.

6. Bond with communities

Whether you join a Ning network or start a Ning network, they all tend to rank well in search engines and are great places to network and meet like-minded people. I would also recommend blog communities such as Social Media Today, depending on what you blog about. Other great examples are Momlogic, and Geeks (owned by Chris Pirillo).

7. Create an eBook

David Meerman Scott, author of World Wide Rave, says that you can get people all around the world talking about you if you give away a free eBook. Instead of making people fill out lead generation forms, give it away for free and you’ll see ten times the eyeballs. Not only that, but with the proper “triggers,” such as a Digg () button, people will share it and link to it, which increases its Google PageRank.

8. Beg people to write about you

Well, maybe don’t beg. You might sound desperate and annoying. You shouldn’t go asking people to write about you. They should do it based on the quality of your content. If you have friends in the blogosphere, they will gladly support you by writing about you. I’ve had people ask me to interview them. Never, ever do that. Join their community first, add value to their discussions and then, over time, they may be interested in promoting your brand.

HOW TO: Create Custom Twitter Backgrounds

2009-08-05T22:12:00.001+07:00

Since the early days of TwitterTwitter, users have had the ability to upload their own background images. From photos of cute kittens to jaw-dropping mosaics, the Twitter background has been a key medium for self-expression, personal branding, and personal fulfillment.

If you’re new to Twitter, or just never took the time to create your own Twitter background, this HOW TO guide is for you. This guide goes step-by-step into the rationale for creating a personalized Twitter background, takes a look at some amazing Twitter designers, and provides a list of useful Twitter design tools and resources. Your artistic juices shall soon be flowing.

Why create a custom Twitter background?

Some of you might ask: is creating a custom Twitter background worth the effort? While this is a valid question, and the final answer is up to you, there are a range of benefits to making your backdrop your own. Both the creative and the brand-conscious can (and have) benefited from unique background designs.

Here are a couple reasons for why you might want to build your own:

1. Personalization and expression: It’s a chance to express yourself and who you are. Are you an artist, a musician, a blogger, or a cook? Do you love Macs or the beach? A new backdrop can really help people understand who you are.

2. Contact info: It’s an easy way to add additional information you can plug into your 160 character bio.

3. Personal branding: Having your contact information, your face, or additional bio information within your background is a common practice. It helps potential followers understand what you do and why you are someone people should follow. Check out HOW TO: Build Your Personal Brand on Twitter for more.

4. Artistic creativity: Twitter is a great opportunity to push the limits of your talents.

Some great examples of custom Twitter background designs

If you’re looking for some inspiration for your Twitter background, look no further. These are some of the most unique, most inspiring, and best-branded Twitter backgrounds around. There’s not enough time or room to showcase the thousands of great backgrounds that exist on Twitter, so be sure to check out some comprehensive lists and discover some on your own.

And remember: you don’t have to spend an obscene amount of time to make a great background. It’s all about making a background that’s perfect for you, not for anyone else.

Doug Cone (@nullvariable): Doug, a web designer and consultant, brilliantly integrates his face with his brand and contact information in this spacey theme.

CoolTweets (@cooltweets): CoolTweets, which collects, well, the coolest tweets on the web, gets an A for its simple and clean layout. Perfect for many brands.

Justine Ezeraik (@ijustine): The popular new media star has a balanced theme that perfectly reflects her brand.

Kristi Colvin (@kriscolvin): Kristi, a favorite tweeter of mine, opted to create a beautiful mosaic of color and life. I could stare at it all day.

Loic Le Meur (@loic): No, it’s not that Loic’s background is the most amazing, most complex, or most visually appealing image in the world. It’s that his background reflects who he is – a smiling, personal, fun-loving guy…who also happened to found SeesmicSeesmic. You just have to love the picture of him kitesurfing, too.

There are literally hundreds of great Twitter backgrounds. Part of the fun is discovering on your own.

Creating your own background: the basic requirements

Now that you understand the reasons for creating a background and you’re feeling inspired, there are a couple of things you need to know about custom Twitter backgrounds.

First, you need to know how to actually change your background. This is a simple process: just go to settings, then design, and then click “change background image.” You can now browse your computer and add any image you’d like, so long as it’s under 800k in size.

Next, the actual dimensions. This is important because improperly-sized images can be covered up by your Twitter profile or can start to tile, which often leads to an undesired effect. In most circumstances, you want your background to be large enough not to tile. To achieve this, the total image size should be around 1600px wide by 1200px tall. This encompasses almost all screen resolutions.

If you build a left-hand column, popular on many Twitter backgrounds, make sure that it’s small enough not to be covered up by the central Twitter content – many designers suggest smaller than 200px or 235px. For more information on dimensions, check out Croncast and their numbers.

In the end, building your ideal background often requires trial-and-error. But if you’re not a designer, that’s not a problem – there are tools to help.

7 helpful Twitter background resources

What would a Twitter resource guide be without some useful Twitter apps? Not only do many of these tools provide pre-designed backgrounds, but many can also automatically update your background, provide detailed information and FAQs, and even fully-functional image editors. Here are a few of the best:

1. MyTweetSpace: MyTweetSpace is one of the simplest ways to create a Twitter background with minimal effort. It allows users to create badges, add graphics, play with text, and more to create elegant backgrounds and left-hand text columns. You can even log in with Twitter and MyTweetSpace will automatically update your background.

2. TwitterBacks: This website provides a set of templates perfect for creating your ideal Twitter background. The templates come in PSD (Photoshop) form. In fact, my Twitter account utilizes a TwitterBack template as the basis for my design. Can you guess which one?

3. TweetStyle: TweetStyle offers free background templates, custom Twitter backgrounds, and a few useful blog posts on the subject of the backdrop.

4. Free Twitter Designer: This handy little app provides an easy-to-use image editor to help you create a professional-looking theme.

5. TwitBacksTwitbacks: This is another tool for creating backgrounds. This one specializes in left-hand column-based backgrounds.

6. TwitterGallery: TwitterGallery is a directory of themes based on color and category. You can even click the “install” button under any theme, log into Twitter, and poof!…your background is ready.

7. Peekr: If you stumble across a great Twitter background and want to take a quick look at it in its pure form, the Peekr bookmarklet is the way to go. Click on the bookmarklet once to show only the background, and press it again to bring everything back to normal.

Start customizing and share your background

With this knowledge and these tools at your disposal, there is no reason you can’t build a killer backdrop for your Twitter account within minutes. So what are you waiting for? Try out some different designs, and be sure to share your artistic flair with the rest of us by linking to your newly-designed Twitter account in the comments.

Google Wave: A Complete Guide

2009-08-05T22:01:00.002+07:00

Today has been dominated by news and excitement surrounding Google WaveGoogle Wave, GoogleGoogle’s new real-time communication platform that will launch to the public later this year. In fact, there’s been so much buzz that you might just not have enough time to read the thousands of articles being released on Google’s biggest product launch in recent memory.

To make sense of it all, we have compiled key information, definitions, and links related to the launch of Google Wave. This in-depth guide provides an overview of Google Wave, discusses the terminology associated with it, details information on Google Wave applications, (i.e. the Twitter Wave app Twave), and goes over ways to keep yourself informed. We know you’re excited about Google Wave, so here’s what we think you should know:

What is Google Wave?

While we suggest reading our article on the launch of Google Wave for more detailed information, here’s the sum of it: Google Wave is a real-time communication platform. It combines aspects of email, instant messaging, wikis, web chat, social networking, and project management to build one elegant, in-browser communication client. You can bring a group of friends or business partners together to discuss how your day has been or share files.

Google Wave has a lot of innovative features, but here are just a few:

- Real-time: In most instances, you can see what someone else is typing, character-by-character.

- Embeddability: Waves can be embedded on any blog or website.

- Applications and Extensions: Just like a FacebookFacebook application or an iGoogle gadget, developers can build their own apps within waves. They can be anything from bots to complex real-time games.

- Wiki functionality: Anything written within a Google Wave can be edited by anyone else, because all conversations within the platform are shared. Thus, you can correct information, append information, or add your own commentary within a developing conversation.

- Open source: The Google Wave code will be open source, to foster innovation and adoption amongst developers.

- Playback: You can playback any part of the wave to see what was said.

- Natural language: Google Wave can autocorrect your spelling, even going as far as knowing the difference between similar words, like “been” and “bean.” It can also auto-translate on-the-fly.

- Drag-and-drop file sharing: No attachments; just drag your file and drop it inside Google Wave and everyone will have access.

While these are only a few of the many features of Google Wave, it’s easy to see why people are extremely excited.

Google Wave was the brainchild of a team based out of Sydney, Australia. The core team members are two brothers, Jens and Lars Rasmussen, and lead project manager Stephanie Hannon, all of whom were involved in Google MapsGoogle Maps previously. Google Wave was announced today at Google’s I/O Developer conference, although the product will not be available to the public for several months.

Terminology

Google Wave actually has its own lingo – yes, you have to learn a few definitions if you’re going to really understand this new communication platform. Having knowledge of these terms will help you understand more about Google’s newest project.

- Wave: A wave, specifically, refers to a specific threaded conversation. It can include just one person, or it can include a group of users or even robots (explained below). The best comparison I can make is that it’s like your entire instant messaging (IM) history with someone. Anything you’ve ever discussed in a single chat or conversation is a wave.

- Wavelet: A wavelet is also a threaded conversation, but only a subset of a larger conversation (or a wave). It’s like a single IM conversation – a small part of a larger conversation and a larger history. Wavelets, though, can be created and managed separately from a wave.

- BlipBLIP: Even smaller than a Wavelet, a Blip is a single, individual message. It’s like a single line of an IM conversation. Blips can have other blips attached to them, called children. In addition, blips can either be published or unpublished (once again, it’s sort of like typing out an IM message but not yet sending it).

- Document: A document actually refers to the content within a blip. This seems to refer to the actual characters, words, and files associated with a blip.

- Extension: An extension is a mini-application that works within a wave. So these are the apps you can play with while using Wave. There are two main types of extenisons: Gadgets and Robots

- Gadgets: A gadget is an application users can participate with, many of which are built on Google’s OpenSocial platform. A good comparison would be iGoogle gadgets or Facebook applications.

- Robots: Robots are an automated participant within a wave. They can talk with users and interact with waves. They can provide information from outside sources (i.e. TwitterTwitter) or they can check content within a wave and perform actions based on them (i.e. provide you a stock quote if a stock name is mentioned).

- Embeded Wave: An embeded wave is a way to take a Google Wave and the conversation within it and place it on your website. Users could use this as a chatroom, as a way to contact you, or for something more.

Wave Gadgets

A Wave Gadget is one of two types of Google Wave extensions. Gadgets are fully-functional applications. According to Google, gadgets are primarily for changing the look and feel of waves, although this seems to only scratch the surface of the potential of a wave gadget.

First: almost any iGoogle or OpenSocial gadget can run within Google Wave. That means thousands of applications that have been already created will work in Google Wave. Second: a gadget built within Google Wave can take advantage of live interaction with multiple users. This means something like a live online game with active participation from all users. In that way, it has similarities to Facebook or MySpaceMySpace applications, which take advantage of your friend network to make games, quizzes, and applications more meaningufl and useful.

Gadgets are specific to individual waves, rather than to specific users. Thus, it’s not like having a Facebook app on your profile – the gadget belongs to everyone within the wave. They also do not have titles, to better integrate with the actual conversation. Some of the gadgets already built include a Sudoku gadget, Bidder (which turns your wave into an auction), and Maps (which allows for collaboration on a Google Map).

For a more technical explanation, be sure to check out Google’s Wave Gadgets Tutorial.

Wave Robots

Robots are the other type of Google Wave extension. Robots are like having another person within a Google Wave conversation, except that they’re automated. They’re a lot like the old IM bots of the past, although far more robust. Robots can modify information in waves, interact with users, communicate with others waves, and pull information from outside sources.

Because it acts like a user, you can define its behavior based on what happens in the chat. You could build one as simple as “change the word dog to the word cat” or one as complex as a fully-functional debugger. We’ll probably start seeming some very advanced robots in the near future.

Some of the robots already in service include Debuggy (an in-wave debugger), Stocky (which pulls stock prices based on stock quote mentions), and Tweety (the Twave robot, which displays tweets inside of a wave).

A more advanced explanation is available at Google’s Wave Robots Overview.

Wave Embeds

Wave embeds are a little more complex than embedding a YouTubeYouTube video onto your blog, yet in the end, that’s really what Google Wave Embeds are: a way to take Google Wavesgoogle waves onto a third party website. Embedded Waves support many of the functions of the actual Google Wave client, including dragging-and-dropping files.

While the Wave Embeds is still very early stage, Google has already built two: YouTube Playlist Discuss and Multiple Extensions Embed. The former allows you to discuss a YouTube video via a wave and the latter allows for interaction with multiple waves on the same page.

One possibility: Google Wave Embeds may be a real-time replacement to static comments. If Google perfects wave embeds, you could even see YouTube.com comments replaced with waves, although it is way too early to make any calls on the potential of this.

Google’s Wave Embed Developer’s Guide has more advanced information embedding waves.

Furthering your Google Wave education

The Google Wave Logo

Still can’t get enough of Google Wave? While information is sparse, hopefully this collection of links will help you understand this new product even more.

- MashableMashable’s Google Wave Coverage: We highly suggest bookmarking our Google Wave coverage and checking Mashable consistently for the latest information on Google Wave.

- Google Wave Federation Protocol: Google has provided some community principles, architecture information, and more detailed definitions on their Wave protocol webpage.

- Google Wave API: For developers interested in building applications for Google Wave, be sure to check out the Wave API website.

- Google Wave Updates: Want to be informed the second Google Wave is available? Here’s the sign-up form.

HOW TO: Customize Your YouTube Channel

2009-08-05T21:59:00.001+07:00

YouTubeYouTube recently redesigned channel pages to make them more dynamic and easier to customize. The beta channels are now a hodgepodge of your uploads, favorites, playlists, and numerous in-channel editing options. Should you upgrade to the new design, you have a greater chance of creating an eye-catching channel that’s likely to keep your viewers engaged for longer.

YouTube originally made the redesigned channels available to a select group of elite members and new users. Now however, the video site is letting anyone upgrade their channel, and eventually they’ll be moving all remaining channels over to the new version.

As previously reported, the redesign allows for wider videos and better organized pages; the result is a viewer-friendly experience centered around your content. As such, we wanted to highlight some of the best ways to maximize the redesigned channels and show you how to customize them to your liking.

The Basics

First things first: upgrade your channel. There’s absolutely no reason not to. The new design is sleeker, more viewer-friendly, and is just more dynamic than the old design. Plus, it’s pretty painless to upgrade. Simply visit your Channel Design page and click “Upgrade my channel.”

You’ll notice immediately that most of your previous channel customizations are already carried over in the new design, which is good news if you put a lot of time and effort into designing your channel’s look and feel.

Now that you’ve upgraded, you’ll immediately want to edit the video content settings for your newly enhanced channel. Thankfully this can be done with just a few clicks. Find the edit button in upper right-hand corner to view the content selection menu. You can opt to display uploaded videos, favorites, playlists, or a combination of all three.

If you select the playlists option, you can then individually select the video playlists you want to include. You also have the option to adjust the featured content set and the featured video for your channel. Since the featured video is the one channel visitors will see first, we suggest you peruse your options to find the right setting.

In-Channel Editing

In-channel editing is the new black on YouTube, and though basic in concept — you can edit everything without leaving your channel — it’s a key time-saver and an incredibly useful upgrade.

You’ll notice that the new design is replete with editing options everywhere. You’ll want to take advantage of these to tweak the information displayed about you, your activity, and your videos.

Here’s what you can edit right from the channel page: recent activity, privacy settings, displayed settings for profile information, subscriptions, subscribers, friends, and channel comments, as well as channel settings, themes, and modules. You’ve got a lot of power right at your fingertips.

When it comes to theme and module editing, users with no CSS or design experience will find themselves completely at ease with beautifying their channel design. The themes and colors are pretty self-explanatory, so you can pick a preset theme, start toying with colors, and get an as-it-happens preview while you tweak. You can still upload a custom background image and adjust the coloring for every element of your channel. Once you’re done, just click save to publish the new design publicly.

Also make sure to take a quick look at the modules tab if you’re interested in removing or displaying content modules. You can do away with, or include, these modules: comments, recent activity, friends, subscribers, groups, and subscriptions.

Extra Channel Tips

Adjusting background image file size: One annoying thing about YouTube background images is that they’re constrained to 256 KB, which means if you have a high resolution image, you’re out of luck unless you’re able to compress the file size with a photo editor. If all of this sounds foreign, not to worry.

An easy way to downsize your image is to use an online photo editor like Picnikpicnik. Simply upload or access your online images from FlickrFlickr or FacebookFacebook, and click the “Save and Share” tab. You’ll notice that you can select from a few different photo formats (try JPG), and then use the sliding bar to compress the image file size below 256 KB. Click to save your photo, and now all you need to do is upload it to YouTube (Edit Channel -> Themes and Colors -> show advanced options).

Expand your color palette: YouTube also only lets you select from 64 different colors, but you can really use any browser-safe color by inputting the right hex code. Why not use a web color chart like this one to have even more choices? Just enter the code of your choosing into the box next to the color palate, hit enter on your keyboard, and your preview is instantly updated.

Keep up with what’s new: YouTube has an under the radar blog dedicated to the Channels Beta project. Since this is a beta offering, YouTube is pushing out changes and adding new features on a very regular basis. Subscribe to this blog to be the first to know about what’s new.

HOW TO: Post Video to Twitter With the iPhone 3G S

2009-08-05T21:51:00.000+07:00

Okay, so you’re one of the cool kids that got yourself the spiffy new iPhone 3G S, and you probably really want to take advantage of its best new feature — video. Sure the new phone gives you a quick post to YouTube option, but did you know there’s already a few great ways that you can post your videos directly to Twitter?

We’ll show you how to quickly get your video creations from your iPhone to Twitter (). We’ll also help you understand some of the dos and don’ts for each particular option, to make sure that your newly tweeted videos show up just as you envisioned them. Happy video recording and tweeting!

1. Use YouTube to Post to Twitter

Earlier this month we half-jokingly noted that YouTube is now the TwitPic of video. Why? Well, they finally enabled a long sought after feature: auto-posting of videos to Twitter. Given that the new iPhone now lets you post your videos straight to YouTube from the camera app, you can combine these two great new things and push your videos from your phone to Twitter in no time at all.

Here’s how: Before you share video with YouTube (), make sure you update your autoshare settings for the site. All you need to do is connect the services you want to integrate with YouTube. In this case, it will be Twitter, but you also might want to make the connection between YouTube and Facebook () and/or Google Reader () as well. Once you’ve made the connection, you can forget about manually sharing your YouTube videos with Twitter ever again.

Now every time you record a video, just tap to post it to YouTube from your phone’s camera app, add a title, description, category, and a few tags, and hit publish. Once your video is uploaded, a tweet will be auto-generated and posted to Twitter on your behalf.

The great thing about this method for tweeting iPhone 3G S videos is that you don’t have to worry about shooting your video in widescreen/landscape or standard mode. You can film horizontally, vertically, and for longer periods of time, and YouTube will still format the video appropriately.

2. Email Your Videos to Twitter

The simplest method is just to email your videos to Twitter. The ever-evolving email-to-blog platform, Posterous () (now with blog import), has created a dead simple way to get your iPhone 3GS videos from your phone to Twitter via email.

As you would with any other content you want to post to Posterous, simply email the video to post@posterous.com. If you’ve already configured your Twitter auto-posting settings for Posterous, which you can do here, then your video will post to Posterous and automatically tweet out a link.

The Posterous advantage is that if you have cross-posting enabled for a ton of other sites — they do support quite a few — and you just want to share your video with Twitter, you can use the twitter@posterous.com email address. Also pretty nifty is that the subject line of your email becomes the title, the email body becomes the video post description, and tags can be added using the syntax ((tag: video, iphone)) in the subject line.

Posterous is perfect for recording video in widescreen/landscape mode or standard mode, and it will format your video accordingly. The only downside is that videos will need to be short in length, as any videos longer than a minute cannot be sent via email.

3. Get a Video-Friendly App

Although the deluge of video recording and posting Twitter apps has yet to happen, there are a few worthwhile apps that are already supporting posting iPhone 3G S videos to Twitter.

The unreleased TweetReel really is the TwitPic () for video, but it’s only available as an iPhone app (coming soon). This nifty app lets you shoot videos (and photos), or grab them from your library, add your Twitter text, and post it to the web. Videos are posted to your TweetReel site (tweetreel.com/twittername), and immediately shared with Twitter.

If you’re looking for something already on the market, check out Twittelator Pro 3.0 [iTunes Link]. The updated app, which costs $4.99, includes a video recording and sharing option that lets you attach videos to tweets, and upload them to the photo and video sharing site yFrog. Just remember to shoot your videos in widescreen mode if you want them to render correctly (ie. not post sideways). We’d also advise you to record videos from the camera app instead, as videos recorded in Twittelator Pro aren’t saved to your library and might disappear should you choose to tweet without a WiFi connection.

Another possibility for mobile video fans is Kyte’s updated premium iPhone app [iTunes link]. The app also comes with a $4.99 price tag and supports video record and upload, with videos uploading to your Kyte channel. To tweet your video uploads from the app, just add your Twitter login credentials to your Kyte integration settings.

The 10 Best Google Maps Extensions for Firefox 3

2009-07-30T20:44:00.000+07:00

While Google Maps is an awesome application, it has its limits and can sometimes be a pain in the behind to transfer addresses to from other websites. Luckily, there are a slew of FirefoxFirefox extensions that can help you turn Google MapsGoogle Maps into an even more powerful tool.

As we always warn you with any list of Firefox tools, please do not install all of these at once unless you’d like to slow down your browser.

Advanced URL Builder – Lets you set the first part of a URL, such as Google Maps, and then you just highlight a zip/postal code, right click and choose Google Maps to be shown that location.

BlueOrganizer – An extension capable of reading the information contained in a page, such as an address. It automatically pulls up tools like Google Maps to help you find locations.

GDirections – Allows you to set various home addresses in memory, and then you can highlight an address, right click to select which address to begin with, and it will bring up the driving directions from the mapping service of your choice.

iPhoneSender – Right click on a Google Map and you can send a properly formatted link to your iPhone via email for easy access on the go.

Locator – Highlight an address on a Web site, right click with your mouse and choose “locate on Google Map” to be taken directly to Google Maps and shown the location.

Map This – Merges the features of a few mapping extensions in that you can highlight the address on a page to see where it is and you can also get driving directions by the same method if you choose.

Minimap Sidebar – Numerous features for mapping including drag-and-drop of addresses into the sidebar, reads geotags and has an amazing laundry list of other mapping tools. This extension was the Grand Prize Winner in the Extend Firefox 2 Contest.

PackageMapping.com Extension – While more of a Google Maps mashup, this one is great for people who do a lot of online shopping and want to see a graphical representation of where exactly their packages are.

Pre Trip Planner for your Navigation System – Adds a link to Google Maps that allows you to plot a course for a trip and then export it to your navigational system.

Select-n-Go by Cleeki – Allows you to highlight text in a page and then choose the search engine to plug it into, including Google Maps.

Google Maps: 100+ Best Tools and Mashups

2009-07-30T20:27:00.000+07:00

Most people think of Google Maps () in terms of finding a place or business, or getting directions from one point to another. Others use the satellite images and terrain mapping features. But there are tons of other uses out there for Google () maps.

From mapping the weather and news to mapping things that aren’t maps at all, like paintings or magazines, Google Maps has a lot to offer. And there are free tools available out there for those who want to use the Google Maps API without doing a bunch of coding. Here are more than 100 of the best mashups and tools out there right now.

Have a favorite Google Maps tool or mashup? Tell us more about it in the comments.

Travel and Transportation

Mapness – An online travel journal that interfaces with Google Maps to show where you’ve been.

The AA Route Planner – Plan trips around the UK.

Montreal Metro Map – A complete map of Montreal Metro stations.

TubeJP – A London Tube journey planner using Google Maps that also incorporates a search function to find local businesses.

District Taxi Fare Estimator – A taxi fare estimator provided by the Washington Post that shows travel routes in Google Maps.

Washington, CD Taxicab Zones – A zone map that covers each taxicab zone and is zoomable, unlike the ones in the actual cabs that are poorly labeled and hard to read.

Dublin Public Transport Advisor – A trip planner for public transportation in and around Dublin.

Most Dangerous Roads on Earth – A map of the most dangerous roads in the world.

Perfect Escapes – A travel search engine that features a click-through Google Maps search interface.

hotspotr – A map showing more than 14,875 wifi hotspots all over the country.

safe2pee.org – Find a public bathroom anywhere in the country.

Mezzoman – Find a place to meet in the middle of two points on the map.

Wines and Times – Use this map to plan a winery tour anywhere in the United States.

fastfoodmaps.com – Find fast food restaurants, including McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, KFC, Wendy’s and more, anywhere in the U.S.

Photo Enforced – Get maps of red light cameras in multiple cities across the United States.

World Port Source – Maps of more than 3,100 ports in 189 countries, plus a map to find ports anywhere in the world.

IMB Live Piracy Map 2008 – A map of all of the armed robbery and piracy incidents (both successful and attempted) reported over the past year.

flexTraffic – A map of traffic delays and construction projects across the UK.

Cheap Hotels – A map of more than 66,000 cheap hotels in more than 165 countries that also lets you book online.

NOAA Nautical Maps – A mashup that overlays NOAA nautical maps over Google Maps and allows you to adjust the transparency of each.

News, Weather and Politics

Gaza Conflict YouTube Videos Map – This mashup shows the latest YouTube () videos about the Gaza conflict attached to their locations along the Gaza Strip and elsewhere.

Track This Now – Search for news worldwide or in a specific country (or group of countries) and have news stories marked on a map.

TimeSpace: World – An interactive map from the Washington post that shows current news items linked from a world map.

iMap Weather – An easy way to get current weather conditions and the forecast using a map-based interface.

Barack Obama’s Journey to the White House – A Google Map of Barack Obama’s entire life, from Honolulu to the White House.

RMI’s Oil Imports Map – A mashup that shows all of the U.S.’s oil imports from 1973.

Who is Sick? – Find statistics on a map for illness in your area, everything from allergies and runny noses to fever to stomach aches.

HealthMap – Map of disease cases worldwide, including rabies, salmonella, and more.

Taxpayer Contribution to the Iraq War by State – View how much taxpayers have paid for the Iraq War by state.

Missing Kids Map – A mashup that shows the origins of missing kids (from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children) on a Google Map.

Map of Election Conditions in Zimbabwe – A map of the corruption, from vote buying and gerrymandering to abduction and murder, that occurred in elections in Zimbabwe.

MetaCarta GeoSearch News – A map with links to current news stories from all over the world.

Recreation and Entertainment

Theatre In Chicago – An interactive map for Chicago that lists theatres with current and upcoming plays.

Gruvr – A map that shows live music shows at clubs and elsewhere anywhere in the country.

LOST Maps – A map that shows all of the locations mentioned in the ABC television series “Lost”.

The London Knowledge – A map of London that shows tube stations, restaurants, nightclubs and more.

Drive Score – Shows a map of nearby restaurants, schools, hospitals, bars and more for any address and awards points based on what’s close by.

Google Maps Disc Golf Courses – A map of disc golf/frisbee golf courses all over the United States with descriptions and directions.

Live Sports Map – Find sports scores and news on a Google Map that includes stadium and arena satellite views.

FindLakes – Maps for each state showing more than 40,000 lakes around the country.

SafeFoodFinder – A map showing Seattle area restaurants and what their health department inspection scores have been.

Broadway2Day.com – A map of current Broadway shows with information on price, genre, run, and more.

Environment and Climate Change

The World’s Most Polluted Cities – A map with geotagged photos of polluted cities all over the world (though mostly in Asia).

San Francisco Solar Map – This interactive map shows residential, municipal, commercial, and other solar projects around San Francisco.

RoofRay Solar Calculator – Find your house on their Google Maps interface, trace your roof, determine the roof’s orientation and pitch, and get a solar estimate.

Climate Change Wales – Interactive maps that show what flood levels will be based on rising sea levels from climate change.

United States Sea Level Rise Map – A map with geotagged photos that show the impact of different sea level rises in cities around the United States.

Flood Maps – Shows what new coastlines would be for sea level rises between 1M and 14M.

MapEcos – A map showing U.S. industrial facilities that use toxic chemicals and includes information about each facility.

Wasting Away – A map showing all 1,623 superfund sites in the United States, including sites that have been cleaned up.

DaylightMap.com’s Clouds – A map showing regularly-updated cloud cover overlaid on a Google Map of the world.

Prescription Drugs in Drinking Water – A map showing the levels of prescription drugs in various cities around the country.

Carma – A map showing the world’s highest CO2 emitting power plants.

Photo and Media Maps

Panedia – Maps of places all over the world with placemarkers linked to panoramic images.

Driving Detroit – A map of Detroit that includes placemarkers that link to photos, slideshows and other media.

Star Viewer – A Google Map of the night sky that includes YouTube videos of different stars, galaxies, and star systems.

Games and Simulators

googleDrive – Another Google Maps driving simulator.

Real World Racer – A car racing game in Google Maps that is surprisingly challenging.

2D Driving Simulator – A Google Maps Flash driving simulator.

Pedestrian and Bike Maps

Where is the path (or street) – A mashup that shows regular street and footpath maps next to a Google Maps satellite view so that you can see things not indicated on the Google Map.

99Trails.com Philadelphia Map – A map showing walking and biking trails around the Philadelphia metro area.

NYC Bike Maps – A map of New York City’s bike paths, lanes and greenways.

ActiveTrails – A map of trails throughout the United States and France that allows users to contribute trail information.

HikeCT – A map of hiking trails in Connecticut.

I Need A Bike – Find bike rental locations in and around Paris, Lyon, and Marseille.

Information, Education and History

Cassini – An overlay of 18th century maps over Google Maps that lets you adjust the transparency of either layer.

mapdango – A mashup that teaches about a new place every day, showing news, weather, and more.

MapsZipcode – A Google Maps mashup that shows zip codes nationwide.

London Profiler – Get maps of demographic and other public information in London.

Solar Eclipses – A list of solar eclipses from 1961 to the present that link to maps showing the path of the eclipse over the earth’s surface.

Area Code Maps – An area code map overlay.

BibleMap.org – An interactive map of locations from the Bible.

World Heritage Google Map – A Google Map of UNESCO World Heritage Sites worldwide that includes photos.

MailboxMap – Find a USPS or UPS mailbox anywhere in the country.

UFOmaps.com – A map of UFO sightings all over the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Qibla Locator – Find which direction Muslims should pray in from anywhere in the world.

PlaceOpedia – A map of Wikipedia () articles linked to their locations.

Meteor Craters – A map of meteor impact craters around the world.

World’s Creepiest Places – Just as the name implies, this map shows information about the world’ creepiest places.

Housing and Real Estate

Roomapes – An apartment finder app with a Google Maps interface.

CribQ – An apartment finder for San Francisco that interfaces apartment listings, Google Maps and Microsoft Virtual Earth (for a birdseye view, streetview and WalkScore).

SuiteMatch.com – Find shared office space and see a map that shows all of the amenities surrounding that space including coffee, food, bars and gyms.

Non-Map Uses

The Kremer Collection – Use a Google Maps interface to browse a large collection of paintings.

zkimmer – An online publication viewer for newspapers and magazines that uses the Google Maps UI.

Other Maps

Samknows – Find a house or building on a map of the UK and see what types of broadband internet are available at that address.

If I dig a very deep hole, where will I end up? – This map shows you where you would end up if you dug a hole straight through the earth at any point on the globe.

If the earth were a sandwich – This pair of maps shows you the point on the earth that is the exact opposite of any other point you select.

RoadlessLand.org – Map of all of the designated road-free areas in the United States.

Google Maps Recent Edits – A constantly updating map that shows the most recent edits to Google Maps.

DishPointer – An application that shows you which direction to point your satellite dish based on your address.

DaylightMap.com – A map of where daylight currently is on earth as well as the lights appearing on the night side.

We Tell Stories – A map of the stories of six different authors that lets you follow the trail of their stories around the world.

Directories

MapTube – A directory with nearly 200 different mashup maps available.

Popular Google Maps – Browse popular Google Maps covering a variety of topics.

Tools

Map Builder – A quick and easy Google Maps mashup builder.

MapMyPage – A simple tool to put Google Maps on your website.

Map My Life – An easy to use mashup that will map your life and show a timeline using an XML file you provide.

The Google Maps Image Cutter – A free application for cutting any image into tiles for use with the Google Maps interface.

Automatic Tile Cutter – Another app for cutting any image into tiles to use with Google Maps.

GMapCreator – A tool to make creating thematic Google Maps easier.

Geo Twitter – GeoCode your tweets and plot them on an embeddable map.

Mapmsg.com – An app that lets you put a message (smoke signals, crop circles, etc.) into a map and then email it to anyone.

Dual Maps – Free mapping tools to combine different Google Maps views as well as Microsoft Virtual Earth maps.

maps-for-free.com – Get relief layers for Google Maps free for creating your own mashups.

HeatMapAPI – Use this API to create your own heat maps to overlay Google Maps.

PdMarker – An app to help you easily customize Google Maps marker behavior.

FACEBOOK FAIL: How to Use Facebook Privacy Settings and Avoid Disaster

2009-07-29T22:04:00.000+07:00

Facebook provides users with the opportunity to share just about everything: photos, links, videos, virtual gifts and random musings in the form of status updates. Under the guise of “being social” and “maintaining transparency,” Facebook () fiends post anything and everything about themselves on this now omnipresent social network.

This begs the question, how much is too much? Younger generations have no problem sharing nearly every detail of their lives, but is publicly posting all this minutiae really such a good idea? Knowing what you had for lunch is hardly ever going to be interesting, unless you’re a chef, and seeing your drunken antics very well may get you fired. So where do we draw the line, and for whom?

The beauty of Facebook’s many features is that now you can choose what you show and to what type of people. By using friend lists and playing with your privacy settings, you can create different views for each segment of your life.

Segmenting your friends into lists

Facebook Friend Lists can be utilized for a variety of purposes, but the biggest draw for the average user is that they can label their friends for easy adjustment of Profile Privacy Settings. Creating Friend Lists may sound harsh or judgmental, but this categorization happens every day in real life; Facebook just allows you to put it to good use.

The names or types of Facebook Friend Lists you create will depend on your use of Facebook and the overall purpose of your Profile. If it’s personal, I suggest “People You Don’t Know,” “Real (offline) Friends,” “Work People,” and “Online Buddies” for effective tweaking of privacy settings to control each list’s level of profile access.

There is no limit to how large a Friend List can or should be when discussing Privacy Settings; however, if you want to use lists to batch invite, message or tag people, you will need to create smaller, more targeted lists. But for privacy purposes, you can make each list as large as you’d like.

You can create a list from the Friends page, or choose them individually by name while working on the Privacy Settings page. Simply choose a feature you want to limit, like your Wall, and select “Customize” from the drop down. Then enter the name of the person or list you want to keep from seeing that feature. You will be prompted to create a list if you enter multiple names by hand. Privacy settings can be adjusted by hovering over “Settings” in the upper right corner of Facebook and clicking on “Privacy Settings.”

What’s safe to share?

How much you’re inclined to disclose on Facebook depends on a lot of factors, and can change based on what you did last weekend, who has recently joined the network, and what your overall goals and use of the site are. But a basic breakdown looks like this:

1. People you don’t know (your public profile listing)

First, adjust how someone you aren’t connected to views your profile. Allow them to view a bit of personal information, in case a potential employer, networking contact or old friend is looking for you. To do this, make your profile available to “My Networks and Friends” and your search visibility to “Everyone.” You should also make sure that the “Public Search Listing” box is checked off so your profile can be indexed.

Now decide what you don’t want non-friends to see and change these settings, allowing “Only Friends” to see that information. This also sets up the all-access version of your profile for your friends. “Safe” stuff typically includes Basic Info, Personal Info (depending on how much detail you provide), Education Info and Work Info. That means no photos, no videos, no wall. Applications with a more professional focus, like your blog or LinkedIn () profile, are also okay.

2. Your “real” friends

You may or may not consider online-only acquaintance to be “real” friends; if so, put them in this list. Either way, these are the people who get the full version of your profile. Things reserved exclusively for actual friends might be Photos Tagged of Me, Photo Albums you upload, Videos Tagged of Me, Wall Posts and the ability to post on your wall. You also might want to limit “fun” applications to this list as well.

3. Online buddies

In the old days, people would recommend hiding indentifying details from this group of friends, but that goes against the nature of Facebook. However, if you have children you may want to block these friends from viewing photos of your kids. Decide what works for you; you can switch your settings at any time.

4. Coworkers

Sometimes coworkers are friends, sometimes they are a kind of in-between friend. If it’s the latter, you may want to shield them from some of your Photos, Status Updates and Wall Posts. People have been caught lying about “sick” days on Facebook and fired for it, so think long and hard about how friendly you get with your coworkers.

5. Family

Yes, Facebook is finally popular enough that you might need a separate list for your family members. Depending on how cool your family is, or how out of control your photos and various Facebook antics are, adjust your settings accordingly.

Final tips

No one will know you’ve changed settings, either for them or in general; these updates will not show up in your news feed, so block people with abandon. Also note that photo albums settings must be changed individually, either when you set up a new album or by going to the Photos section of the Privacy page. However, any photo you use as a profile picture goes in a separate album called “Profile Pictures” which the settings cannot be changed for. So don’t make an inappropriate photo your profile pic. But you knew that.

HOW TO: Deal With Social Media Conflict

2009-07-29T21:54:00.000+07:00

No matter how knowledgeable you are and how much research you do, there will come a time when someone disagrees with something you write. Might be a friend on Facebook () or a stranger on Twitter () or your blog. How you handle a differing opinion will speak volumes about you and can either enhance (or undermine) your personal credibility.

When you encounter conflict in the face-to-face work environment, you can go into that person’s office, have a private chat, talk out the matter then go out for a beer. But, how do you handle it in the world of social media? And with the whole world watching?

Let’s use an example. Say you’re a Mac and I’m a PC. You write something about how great Macs are…and I decide to write a vivid response about my differing view. There are 3 things to remember when responding to differing points of view.

1. Don’t take it personally

Chances are the negative comment is not about you personally. It’s about something that you wrote. Yes, there’s a difference. No one is calling you stupid, ugly or talking trash about a close family member. They’re just saying they don’t agree with what you wrote.

So let’s use the example above. You write an article about how great Macs are and I write a reply that Macs are lame because you can’t right click. (Might seem like a simplistic example but people can get very attached to their computers.)

2. Process before responding

You might be tempted to shoot off an immediate knee-jerk reply but resist that urge. It’s important to take time, fully understand the other guy’s position, and compose your thoughts. Determine the purpose of your reply. (And, as tempting as it may be…the purpose is not pwning the guy back.)

The other thing to remember is…by just allowing a little bit of time, other people could give you some creative inspiration or maybe even help fight your battle. For example, someone recently posted a comment on my blog. Something that I needed to respond to. As I was compiling my thoughts, another comment came in. That next comment was directed at the same person and helped me refine my reply. So patience can indeed be a virtue.

3. Find something to agree with

This is important. Try to find something…even if it seems minor, that you can agree with. It helps to balance the conversation.

Using our Mac/PC example, you might say you agree the no right click capability is a pain but the stability of the operating system far outweighs the inconvenience of the no right click feature. You’ve found some common ground. That opening statement immediately takes the sting out of anything else you might say.

Don’t forget when responding to differing views that conversation is key. It’s obvious that this person felt comfortable expressing their negative or alternative view with you. The last thing you want to do is betray that trust.

So while you can’t have a private convo and buy this person a drink afterward, it’s possible to have a productive and beneficial difference of opinion. You might need this person’s PC view some day…and you will be able to tap into them as a resource. In the end, following these three steps might mean you are achieving the goal of conversation…which is pretty much what social media is all about, right?

HOW TO GUIDE: 60+ Great How To Sites and Resources

2009-07-28T08:22:00.001+07:00

Ever had one of those moments when you really wished you knew how to do something specific? If only there were someone you could ask…

Thanks to the social web, particularly niche blogs and expert-driven communities, it’s easy to find knowledge, insights and guidance direct from the pros, no matter what the topic area. In fact, online tutorials and how-to sites have been around almost as long as the web itself.

Here’s a run-down of more than 60 great how-to sites and guides covering everything from building a mashup to being more productive, creating a website and more.

Have a great how-to site that will teach us something new? Add it to the comments and tell us more about it!

General How-to

wikiHow – A huge collection of how-to guides edited by the community.

eHow – One of the largest collections of tutorials on the web. eHow is a 2008 Open Web Awards Blogger’s Choice winner.

How To Do Things.com – Find articles from experienced contributors on how to do just about anything.

WonderHowTo – A human-edited collection of video tutorials from more than 1700 websites.

Instructables – A community that creates tutorials on an enormous variety of topics, some practical, some not-so.

Expert Village – A collection of more than 130,000 video tutorials.

Howcast – Find how-to videos on a variety of topics. Howcast is the 2008 Open Web Awards Blogger’s Choice runner-up.

MindBites – Watch how-to videos or create your own to earn money.

VideoJug – How to videos for just about everything in life.

SuTree – A collection of how-to videos covering everything from beauty & fashion to language.

Technology How-To

Wired How-To Wiki – Get information on how to do technology-related things from linkbaiting your blog to surviving a nuclear blast.

The Java Tutorials – A collection of Java tutorials from Sun on using various components.

the How-To Geek – A collection of computer tutorials covering everything from protecting your children online to using different wallpapers on dual monitors.

How to Make Your Own Web Mashup – A short tutorial outlining the steps necessary to build a mashup.

How to Podcast – A complete, free tutorial that teaches you how to set up your own podcast.

HowtoForge – A huge collection of user-friendly Linux () tutorials.

PCWorld – A huge collection of tutorials for PC users.

HowToJoomla.net – A collection of Joomla () tutorials.

Screencasting: How To Start, Tools and Guidelines – A guide outlining why you should screencast and how to do it.

How to get traffic for your blog – A huge list of things to do to get traffic for your blog from marketing guru Seth Godin.

How to design a website layout in Photoshop – A complete tutorial showing you how to create your website layout in Photoshop.

Tutorialized – A collection of tutorials and how-to guides on a variety of tech-related topics.

How to design a website – A comprehensive tutorial on how to design using HTML and CSS.

How to Design a Website – A web design guide from About.com.

Good-Tutorials – A large collection of web-design tutorials covering Java, HTML, CSS, PHP (), Ruby, and more.

Video-Tutes.com – Free video tutorials for a variety of software programs including Photoshop, Dreamweaver, and MS Word.

A Beginner’s Guide on How to Install Linux Software – A basic guide to installing Ubuntu ().

PSDTuts – A huge collection of Photoshop tutorials and other resources.

PhotoshopStar – How to Photoshop articles and tutorials on a variety of different techniques.

Gimp-tutorials.net – A collection of tutorials on everything from photo manipulation to text effects in GIMP ().

Tutorial Blog – A blog filled with how-to guides and tutorials on design topics.

Blog Tutorials – A blog offering how-to advice for blogging.

Noupe Tutorials – A blog that focuses on web design and development and offers a large repository of great tutorials.

CBT Cafe – The Computer Based Training Cafe offers free tutorials and how-to guides on Flash, Dreamweaver, Photoshop, and more.

Niche Blogging Tutorials – How-to blog posts from DoshDosh covering niche blogging techniques.

Productivity and Efficiency How-To

How to be More Productive – A guide from the Blog Herald that focuses mostly on how to be a more productive blogger.

How to GTD – A small collection of blog posts covering how to get started with Getting Things Done.

How to Start with GTD – A basic 10-step guide to starting out with GTD.

How To Be More Productive – A very complete guide to becoming more productive, covering everything from technology to dietary changes.

Business and Career How-To

Inc. How To Guides – A collection of business guides for just about every topic.

How To Write A Resume.org – A complete resource for writing resumes and cover letters.

How to Blog Your Way to Small-Business Success – A short guide on using blogging to promote your business.

Startup How-To Guides – A collection of business how-to articles from Entrepreneur.com.

Score – Find how-to articles on a variety of business topics from advertising to management to starting a business.

How to Market in a Recession – A how-to guide from Harvard Business school.

How to Twitter your way to marketing success – A guide to using Twitter () as a marketing platform.

Mashable How-Tos

HOW TO: Build Community on Twitter – Build a loyal following and engage those followers.

HOW TO: Market to Bloggers According to Timothy Ferriss – Techniques for marketing to bloggers from the New York Times bestselling author.

How to Track 500 Business Blogs in 10 Minutes a Day – A great guide for all of us who need to keep up with tons of incoming information.

How to Manage Your Social Profiles and Create Virtual Business Cards – A must-have guide for anyone who uses multiple social media sites.

How to Build Your Online Brand – Covers how to use social media and Web 2.0 tools to create a name for yourself online.

How to Know if You Should Fire Your Social Media Consultant – A guide to some tell-tale signs that your social media consultant isn’t all they’re cracked up to be.

How to Develop a Social Media Plan for Your Business in 5 Steps – A simple guide to creating an effective social media marketing campaign.

How to Live Blog a Conference – A guide to live blogging preparation and execution.

Miscellaneous How-To

How To Meditate – A complete online guide to teach you how to meditate in the Buddhist tradition.

How to Draw Manga – Manga University has a great collection of how-to articles on drawing different elements of manga characters.

Sushi Eating HOW TO – A complete guide outlining how to eat sushi and sushi bar etiquette.

How to Go Green – A collection of guides to green your life on topics ranging from investing and hybrid cars to workouts and weddings.

The Storque How-To – The how-to section of Etsy’s blog covers all sorts of topics from cooking to selling on Etsy.

How to Clean Stuff – Tutorials for cleaning everything from old photos to ballet flats.

Lowe’s How-To Library – A huge collection of home improvement how-tos.

PopPhoto HowTo Archive – A collection of photography how-to articles covering image editing, composition, lighting, and more.

How to Photograph… – A series of tutorials on photographing a variety of situations and subjects from weddings to urban landscapes to zoos.

HOW TO: Survive the New, New Facebook

2009-07-28T08:05:00.001+07:00

Earlier this week, Facebook promised a number of changes to appease user concerns about the latest homepage re-design. Users have been noticing these improvements being pushed live to their homepage over the last day or so, and this morning, I finally got them enabled on my account.

After doing a bit of tweaking, I’m definitely enjoying my Facebook homepage more than I was the past couple weeks with version 1 of the redesign. I thought I’d share with you a few of these tweaks – designed primarily to reduce information overload – so you can try them on your own account, unless of course you’re happy with the new, new Facebook as-is.

Custom Friend Lists

This problem probably only applies to those of us that add hundreds of friends, but let’s face it, if you’re reading this article, that’s probably you! I’ve always used Facebook’s custom friend lists, but now, since they’re front and center, it’s time to really take advantage of them.

What I’ve done is create lists for “People I Know” (folks I could actually identify if I ran into them walking down the street), as well as “Colleagues,” “Close Friends,” and “High School,” which, should be self-explanatory. You can create new lists from the “Create” link at the bottom of your list of friend groups on the left side of the Facebook homepage.

One thing you can do – which isn’t immediately obvious, is make any of these groups your default, so it’s what comes up every time you open Facebook. To do that, just drag the list you want as default to the top of the list of groups on the left of your homepage.

If you don’t do this, Facebook will just default to “News Feed,” which shows updates from everyone you’re friends with.

Tweaking These Lists

With the newest rollout, Facebook has also made it easy to tweak these lists at any time. To do so, just click the little icon next to the Group name, select the list you’d like to add someone to, and then start typing in their name. Facebook auto-detects who you might be trying to add. You can do all of this without leaving the page.

Hiding Application Notifications

One common complaint with the new Facebook () was the influx of information from third-party apps like Flickr (), YouTube (), and Last.fm, ala Friendfeed (). With the homepage improvements, you can now hide not only people from your feed, but specific application alerts as well.

In this example, I’ve decided to hide alerts from Last.fm, so I no longer see the songs that my friends are loving:

Other Improvements

Facebook has also moved “Requests” back to the top right of your homepage. This creates more real estate for friend updates above the fold, which is pretty nice once you’ve tweaked the other settings.

Still Missing

What’s still missing from my homepage are updates featuring photos that my friends have been tagged in (though some of these show up in “Highlights” on the right), as well as the promised “live updating” that will restore the functionality people miss from the former Live Feed feature. These are both in the works and expected to launch in the next few weeks.

Top 10 Misconceptions About Mommy Bloggers

2009-07-27T12:48:00.000+07:00

There’s no mistaking it. Moms have an impact in the blogosphere. And a lucky few, like Dooce, are turning it into the main source of income for their family.

But are these “Mommy Bloggers” who you think they are? You might be surprised to find out there’s more to being a Mommy Blogger than one might think.

Here are the top ten misconceptions about Mommy Bloggers and the truth behind them revealed.

10. Mommy Bloggers just write to get free stuff

This is probably one of the most common misconceptions and unfortunately some of the biggest culprits of this are the PR people pitching the free stuff in question. However, I think as both mommy bloggers and PR professionals start finding a common ground with one another, we’ll see smarter pitches to Moms. The result? Better return on investment for the companies that offer the free product.

9. Blogging is considered a hobby by most Mommy Bloggers

For some, sure, this could be the case. But there are many more reasons why Moms blog, including: offering support and creating support networks for those dealing with illnesses, tragedy, and strife; to build a brand around a business they are launching; to offer product reviews to other parents looking for information; to educate others based on their own experience about adoption, autism, living simply, being more green, and a myriad of other topics. The majority of Mommy Bloggers aren’t simply dabbling for fits and giggles.

8. Mommy Bloggers only write about baby-related topics of conversation

If this was the case we’d see a turnover every year with lots of Moms dropping out of the blogosphere once their babies become kids. Once a mom, you’re always a mom. Some of my favorite Mommy blogs are written by Moms of teenagers. Even though I have a three-year old I can still relate.

7. Mommy Bloggers make tons of cash

Yes, there are a few Mommy bloggers that are raking in the dough as a result of their hard work on their blogs. However, this is not the case for the vast majority. Which brings me to the next common misconception about Mommy Bloggers…

6. Mommy Bloggers don’t make any money at all

While it is true that a lot of mommy bloggers aren’t profitable. There are a significant number of Moms that blog that are turning it into a source of income. My prediction is that more Moms will translate the skills honed and refined through their blogging into lucrative writing, marketing, and product spokesperson gigs.

5. Mommy Bloggers are uneducated, lack creativity, and don’t take writing seriously

This misconception couldn’t be further from the truth. A lot of Mommy Bloggers are former professionals who have decided to spend more time with their kids and blog to keep those business, marketing, and writing skills sharp. And those who don’t have a college degree or a professional background? The creativity and writing chops some of them bring to the table would put some Ivy Leaguers to shame.

4. Mommy Bloggers only make headlines when they stir up drama

This is one of my favorites. Let’s face it…when you put a bunch of passionate, opinionated women in one room, drama is almost unavoidable. Even moreso when that “room” is the internet. A lot of people think of the whole “Motrin Moms” debacle when they think about Mommy Bloggers making headlines.

However, Mommy Bloggers are also making headlines for their best-selling books (Alexis Martin Neely’s Wear Clean Underwear is one example), their charitable contributions (Blog Action Day), and their accomplishments (@SoCalMom was featured in People magazine for the weight she lost using the Wii). So yes, Mommy Bloggers can make waves but it’s not only when they’re witchin’ and moanin’ about an issue.

3. Every Mom that blogs loves being referred to as a Mommy Blogger

Actually, because of the misconceptions we talk about here, a lot of Moms that blog cringe when they are referred to as a Mommy Blogger. There are quite a few moms that blog but really don’t touch on motherhood in their blogs at all. Many blog about fitness, business, advertising, travel and while they are Moms…it’s not the focus. Moms are women before they embark on motherhood and being a mom and having other interests aren’t mutually exclusive.

2. Mommy Bloggers will do anything for free as long you promise traffic in return

This is one misconception that continues to plague the blogosphere. A lot of large companies sign on Mommy Bloggers to take on the role of publicist, evangelist, marketer, and video spokesperson with the huge promise of “tons of traffic and exposure” in return. Sadly, in most cases, the Mommy Bloggers are actually sending more traffic the company’s way when it’s all said and done.

As Mommy Bloggers (and bloggers in general) become more savvy about the return on investment they offer I expect we’ll see more push back on this. And we’ll also see those that offer a high level of influence equity vs. traffic equity being able to illustrate that return on investment that would make Nielsen ratings swoon.

1. Mommy Bloggers are frumpy women that hang out in their sweats all day

Top 20 Ways to Share a Great Blog Post

2009-07-27T12:14:00.001+07:00

One of the best things about the web and social media is how much great information is written and produced every single day. If you’re a regular reader of blogs, you probably come across great articles that you just want everyone to know about. But what’s the best way to share these posts?

Luckily, there’s no shortage of ways to spread the word. Blogs, social networks, instant messenger, and mobile phones are some of the many ways to let others know about the best content on the web. Here are our 20 favorite ways to share a great blog post:

Sharing Via Social Media:

1. Using Twitter to Tweet and Share: Perhaps the fastest and most effective way to share a great blog post is through Twitter (). Sharing or retweeting a link in Twitter can spread like wildfire. Use a URL shortener such as tinyurl or bit.ly () to shorten links to fit within 140 characters.

2. Posting to Facebook: Sharing a blog post on the world’s largest social network is as simple as going to the Facebook () homepage and posting a link.

3. Digg it: Not only will you help bring that blog post one step closer to reaching the front page of the news site Digg () (which will spread it even further), but all of your Digg friends will see it as well.

4. Post on MySpace Profile: Don’t forget about the world’s second largest social network when sharing your favorite articles. Post the link to your MySpace () profile so your friends can enjoy it too.

5. Posting to LinkedIn: Some blog posts are worthy of being shared by your business network on LinkedIn (). Post a link to the Network Updates area in the homepage.

6. Stumbling on StumbleUpon Stumble the post! StumbleUpon () is a favorite network for discovering fun websites and useful information, so make sure that you give the post a thumbs up. The StumbleUpon Toolbar is the easiest way to Stumble.

7. Bookmarking to Delicious: Delicious () is great for not only sharing posts, but for helping categorize blog posts for others to find. In addition, you can import your delicious bookmarks to Facebook, FriendFeed (), and other social media websites.

8. Sharing on FriendFeed: The social media aggregator FriendFeed has a vibrant community who love to share videos, links, and pictures. Use the FriendFeed bookmarklet to quickly share a good blog post to FriendFeed.

9. Adding to Reddit: Reddit () is another great social media site for sharing and voting on articles. It’s quick and easy to submit a link

Sharing Via Blogs:

10. Reblogging Great Posts: Blogging about a great article is one of the best ways to engage with the topics being discussed. Post a link, write some commentary, and share it with all of your readers. And don’t forget to share your own blog post as well!

11. Sharing via Google Reader: Google Reader () has a great feature for sharing blog posts. If you use Google Reader as your news reader of choice, all you have to do is click the “share” button at the bottom of blog posts to share it with all of your Google () friends. You can also add notes and comment as well.

12. Posting on Tumblr or Posterous: If you want to share something via a blog, but don’t want to write a full blog post about it, there are great options for that as well, primarily Tumblr () and Posterous (). They are the quick and easy versions of full-fledged blogs, ideal for posting about pictures and blog posts.

Useful Tools for Sharing

13. TwitThat: TwitThat is one of the quickest and easiest tools for sharing blog posts. It will post to your Twitter quickly and easily. Just add the bookmarklet to your browser toolbar and click it whenever you come across a great post.

14. Shareaholic Firefox Extension: There are a lot of great social networks where you can share a great post, but who wants to visit Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and LinkedIn to share a post? If you are a Firefox () user, then install Shareaholic, an extension that goes on your toolbar. It provides quick links for sharing to all of the major social networks.

15. Ping.fm: If you’re a busy person, you might not have time to share on all of these social media websites. Isn’t there an easy way to share a blog post everywhere, all at once? Ping.fm () links to all of your social networks and sends your updates to LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, to any other website you wish to link to it. You can even update from your instant messenger. It’s the perfect solution for those who like to share content all over the web.

Other Ways to Share:

16. Emailing: Email has always been a good way to share articles, especially with close friends and family. Although it may not reach as many people as Twitter, it will definitely reach anyone who isn’t as deep into social media as you are.

17. Texting: Did you know you that many blogs, including Mashable (), support sharing an article via text message? Look out for the ShareThis button (three green dots connected by lines) under blog posts and select the “text” option. iPhones and mobile browsers have made it easy to read links sent by texts.

18. Changing IM Statuses: You probably have dozens, if not hundreds of IM contacts. Share great posts with all of them by changing your IM status to a great post you just read or wrote.

19. IMing a friend: If changing an IM status seems too impersonal, then just IM your friends the link. You can then have a fun chat about the blog post.

20. Talking to Friends: If you don’t have a computer handy, then don’t forget about the analog approach – call a friend or tell him or her over coffee about a great blog post you read. You can always send the link later if necessary.

HOW TO: Find a Job on Twitter

2009-07-26T23:01:00.001+07:00

Tough economic times call for innovative approaches. An estimated 51 million people internationally are expected to lose their jobs in 2009, and with the unemployment rate on the rise, how does one find career opportunities fast? One great option is Twitter.

Twitter () is evolving as another resource, in addition to traditional methods, for both job searching and recruiting.

Get the most out of your page

• Make your Twitter presence “employer-friendly”

o Put your job pitch in your Twitter bio (which is 160 characters)
o Use a professional looking avatar
o Tweet about your job search

• Utilize your Twitter background. There’s lots of space you can use to promote yourself. Don’t know how to create a professional-looking Twitter background? Use this free template to design your own.

• Include a link to an online CV or resume in your bio. Use a tool like VisualCV. (For more information on building an online resume, see Dan Schawbel’s post HOW TO: Build the Ultimate Social Media Resume)

• Establish yourself as an expert in your field on Twitter. It’s important to note that you should not misrepresent yourself. If you’re not a medical doctor, don’t play one on Twitter. As those on Twitter become interested in your content, when employers are looking at you, you’ll have more than just your resume to back up your knowledge and experience.

“It’s about who you know”

How do you get to know the right people? It’s not always about who you’re looking for, some people on Twitter are actually looking for YOU.

There are many job recruiters who use Twitter to look for potential candidates. Before contacting a recruiter via Twitter, check out:

• Their bio
• Follower/Following ratio (Have they been around a while? Do they follow people back?)
• Click the link to their website
• Ask others in your network whether or not the recruiter is a credible source

Here are a few recruiters representing different professions and industries on Twitter:

Christa Foley a.k.a. @electra – Christa is the recruiting manager and recruiter at Zappos.com. Christa gives followers an inside look into her career at Zappos. She tweets out examples of negative recruiting interactions with potential clients, outreach she does with high school and college students, and ultimately looks for potential Zappos candidates.

Craig Fisher a.k.a. @Fishdogs – Craig is an IT and executive recruiter who co-founded A-List Solutions staffing firm. On Twitter he offers tweets on how to find a job in the web industry, hiring tips and tricks, along with professional career advice.

Jim Durbin a.k.a. @smheadhunter – A social media recruiter, Jim is active on the Twitter scene. His goal is to partner “social media gurus” with the right companies. Jim responds to followers’ questions, offers general recruiting advice and sends out “teaser” tweets for positions he thinks followers might be interested in.

Jennifer McClure a.k.a. @CincyRecruiter – Jennifer is an executive recruiter/coach. She often tweets out specific advice for job seekers, including words not to use on a resume. Jennifer is accessible to her followers and tweets about non-recruiting topics as well.

Laurie DesAutels a.k.a. @biotechjobs – Laurie recruits a specific niche, looking for senior level leaders in the biotech and pharmaceutical industry. Her tweet stream includes links to other job search resources and lots of Twitter information.

Job search tools & resources

A reactive job search on Twitter probably isn’t the best way to find a job. There are many new Twitter tools and applications to assist with a proactive job search.

@Microjobs

Started by well-known PR professional, Brian Solis, @Microjobs was developed to bring together job seekers and recruiters through tweets.

How does it work?
Recruiters begin their tweets with @Microjobs, and then submit. The @Microjobs account automatically tweets out requests to its growing network of job seekers.

TweetMyJobs

Another tool born out of Twitter for job seekers and recruiters. Follow the hashtag #Tweetmyjobs and visit the website. This is a very simple (and free) tool for job seekers. You can subscribe to desired job channels and even have new openings automatically sent to your mobile phone. Even better? You can specify which cities you want notifications from.

Job search accounts

There are a variety of Twitter accounts dedicated to providing job listings by field, company, region, and more. Once you’ve decided which best match your job search, consider turning on mobile alerts for these accounts to be among the first to receive messages (if your mobile phone plan includes SMS messages).

By company

@attjobs – Jobs at AT&T
@mtvnetworksjobs – Jobs at MTV
@TRCareers – Jobs from Thomson Reuters

By field

@alldevjobs – Developer jobs
@ArtDirectorJobs – Art director jobs
@cwjobs – Copywriter jobs
@jobsinhiphop – Jobs in Hip-Hop
@journalism_jobs – Jobs in journalism
@juicyjobs – Green jobs
@libgig_jobs – Library Jobs 
@mediabistrojobs – Media job listings from mediabistro.com
@medical_jobs – Medical jobs
@media_pros – Jobs for media professionals
@narmsjobs – Retail marketing jobs
@PRSAjobcenter – Jobs in public relations, communications and marketing
@reflectx – Physical Therapy jobs
@seojobs – SEO job listings
@socialmediajob – Jobs in social media 
@travelmaxallied – Healthcare jobs
@travelnursejob – Jobs for traveling nurses 
@usmusicjobs – US Music Jobs 
@web_design_jobs – Web design and other graphics jobs 

By job type

@findinternships – Internships and entry level jobs for college students
@freelance_jobs – Freelance jobs
@heatherhuhman – Entry level jobs and internships
@Project4Hire – Freelance and temporary jobs
@jewish_jobs – Jewish job listings

By region

@MyBristolJobs – Job listings from mybristoljobs.co.uk
@chicagowebjobs – Web-related jobs in Chicago
@ChicagoTechJobs – Technology jobs in the greater Chicago area
@ITJobsLondon – IT jobs in London
@ITJobsSydney – IT jobs in Sydney, Australia
@JobsBoston – Jobs in the greater Boston area
@jobshawaii – Jobs in Hawaii
@NewYorkTechJobs – Technology jobs in the greater New York area
@PDXJobs – Jobs in Portland, Oregon
@sdjobs – San Diego technology jobs 
@sfmobilejobs – Mobile Web and Digital Media jobs in Silicon Valley
@mtltweetjobs – PR/marketing/social media/tech jobs in Montreal
@TopJobsInLondon – Top jobs in London, UK
@web20jobs – UK-based web 2.0 jobs 

General

@JobAngels – Helping the unemployed find jobs
@indeed – One search. All jobs. 
@jobshouts – General job postings
@simplyhired – Job search site 
@StartUpHire – Jobs at VC backed companies
@twithire – Job board service  

To find additional Twitter job resources, use the Twitter search function and type in keywords important in your job search. For example, “job openings,” “looking for a job,” or “healthcare career.” Additionally, you can search out others in your desired career field on sites like Twellow (), Just tweet it, and TwitterTroll.

Your next job could be just a tweet away.

HOW TO: Leverage Social Media for Career Success

2009-07-26T22:50:00.001+07:00

Social media tools are becoming mandatory for career success. They are free advertising and give you the ability to connect directly with hiring managers, entrepreneurs and recruiters, instead of applying for jobs through job boards, which are black holes. Your digital assets — blog, podcast, and social networking profiles — are your online identity and how people discover and connect with you. You have the ability to leverage one or all of these social media tools in order to present a positive image and be recruited for a position that aligns with your passion.

In this post, you’ll learn how to conduct a situational analysis, figure out exactly what your personal brand is, select the best social media tools to connect with your audience, build your online empire and finally, market your brand for career success. In light of the launch of my new book, Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success, we’re also giving away free copies (details at the bottom of this post).

1. Conduct a situational analysis

You can’t leverage social media for career success unless you know where you stand today. This includes taking a good look at your life, what your current responsibilities are, the amount of resources you currently have and your career position. For instance, if you have two children and a full-time job (two children is probably another full-time job), you won’t be able to spend ten hours a day building a community using social media tools. If you’re twenty years old and your parents are wealthy, then you will have more time to invest in your online brand and you may have extra cash to help market yourself. Also, you may have a strong or a weak professional network, which can either support your brand or hinder it moving forward.

When it comes to your career, you need to decide if you’re looking to go to graduate school, start a company, or get a full-time job at a company and climb that corporate ladder. These decisions will impact how you use tools to communicate what you do, who you serve, and how you want to be positioned relative to everyone else, along with your goals and mission.

2. Unearth your personal brand

Since social media tools require multimedia and written components for profiles, you’ll need to figure out your personal brand before you start building your profiles. Start by assessing what your strengths are, what you’re passionate about and then ask your network for feedback. Figure out how people describe you already and how you want people to perceive you in the future. During this time, you’ll want to stay true to yourself, remain authentic and be completely transparent because that is how people are going to relate to you.

Decide on your personal brand statement, a single picture/avatar to best represent you and fill out the typical profile fields that you will find on the majority of social networks (i.e. a summary, work experience, personal interests, etc). Your personal brand statement isn’t a job title, like financial analyst or marketing manager. Instead it tells the world two things: what you do and who you serve. After you’ve written all of this information down, you’re prepared to select the best social media tools for your branding strategy.

3. Select the right tools

Social media tools should be selected along the lines of three sets of criteria. First, the volume of the social network is an important qualification because you want to market yourself where a lot of people are already searching for people that have your expertise. Plus, social networks like Facebook (), LinkedIn (), Twitter (), FriendFeed (), YouTube (), Flickr (), Delicious () and Digg () have millions of users that can share your resume, profile, blog entries and more. This allows your brand to go viral and that exposure can help you land a job without applying. Second, the credibility of social networks helps you consider only the tools that have successful individuals you’d want to network with to help your career. For instance, LinkedIn is known to have many executives on it, including Bill Gates.

Finally, the relevancy of the social network, as it ties in to your career and industry, can void the other two requirements. There are social networks for doctors (Medical Mingle), real estate agents (Active Rain), and many more. You’ll want to join these because you’ll meet people just like you. Ning contains social networks for almost every vertical as well.

Aside from social networks, I highly encourage you to have your own personal digital asset. This could be either a blog or a traditional website registered under your name or the topic you want to own (with keywords). For blogging, use either Wordpress.com/.org, Blogger (), Typepad () or Tumblr (). For traditional websites, use a host such as Bluehost, Godaddy, or a free host like Bravenet.

4. Build your online empire

Now that you have all the tools in place and have filled out all your social networking profiles, it’s time to start building your online empire. This means you have to start generating a lot of content, either written, audio, video or all three. It also requires you to become a resource and a valuable contributor to your community.

You’ll have to constantly share interesting articles that you create or that you find on your topic and distribute them throughout all of your networks (the ones that you chose in step 4). The process for building your empire includes creating interesting and relevant content and publishing it, over and over again. To do this, you need to be committed, confident and passionate about what you do or you’ll end up giving up.

5. Market your brand

Marketing your brand for career success is the hardest part of the process. Most bloggers don’t even bother marketing their blogs. They believe that creating content markets itself, which is completely false and the reason why they have yet to reach a high level of success. Just having social networking profiles isn’t enough. You need to invest ten times as many hours in your marketing campaign as you do actually creating content.

There are many routes you can take to market your brand, such as being a member of a special interest group, becoming a leader in that group and speaking to organizations. Then there’s commenting on blogs in your industry, guest posting on other sites and interviewing bloggers. You can pitch bloggers and traditional journalists so that you can be a part of their stories and you can join forums, Facebook fan pages and groups to meet other people that may want your services. Regardless of the way you get your name out there, ensure it’s consistent with your brand.

6. Monitor your reputation

Whether you choose to use free or fee-based reputation monitoring tools, you need to keep your pulse on what people are saying about you all the time. The mandatory tools you need to use are search.twitter.com and google.com/alerts because you’ll be able to catch microposts (Twitter) and macroposts (blogs/news articles) citing your name.

You want to have a fast reaction time so that you can locate Tweets or blog posts that you can leverage as endorsements or find negative messages that you can prevent from spreading. Think about monitoring your reputation as an opportunity to learn more about how you’re projecting your brand to the world and take some of it as feedback to help you in your future career development.

Syarat Blog Sebelum Mendaftar Google Adsense

2009-07-25T15:29:00.000+07:00

Sebenarnya bisnis apapun yang anda jalankan di internet mempunyai peluang income yang sama besarnya, cuma sekarang tergantung seberapa pintar anda melihat peluang bisnis online itu sendiri. Sama seperti halnya anda berkecimpung di bisnis adsense, seberapa besar focus anda?? kalau hanya mendaftar dan kemudian di approve itu sich gampang. Namun, untuk benar-benar merasakan penghasilan besar dan rutin dari google adsense itu tidaklah mudah. Banyak hal-hal yg harus anda ketahui, salah satunya teknik strategy optimasi adsense tingkat tinggi.. maksudnya disini adalah jika punya uang anda dapat bermain di Google Adwords demi untuk traffic blog dengan tujuan meningkatkan konversi per click iklan dari setiap kali kunjungan.* bingung?? Sama.. :)

Oke dech, sedikit aja intronya, Ntar kebablasan malah beda topic, hehe.. langsung aja yah..?

Berikut ini blog yang harus anda persiapkan sebagai syarat sebelum mendaftarkan blog di PPC google adsense, dimaksudkan pastinya agar supaya blog/ site sobat cepat diterima:

1.Content blog memiliki bahasa yang mendukung persyaratan adsense. Misalnya bahasa inggris, porsinya minimal 75%, lebih bagus lagi kalau 100%.

2.Untuk blog bisnis yang baru lahir atau baru beberapa hari dibuat sebaiknya jangan langsung didaftarkan, tunggu beberapa minggu. Kira-kira 10 hari.. Usahan artikel memuat minimal sepuluh postingan, lebih banyak makin bagus. Artikel di isi secara bertahap jangan sekaligus, jadi setidaknya buatlah 2 postingan setiap harinya.

3.Pada saat mendaftar dan menunggu di approve, usahakan tetap posting setiap harinya.

4.Blog yang memakai platform blogspot sebaiknya jangan menggunakan template default/ bawaan dari blogspot.!! nanti broker adsense menduga bahwa blog itu sengaja dibuat secara khusus hanya untuk menampilkan iklan dari google adsense. Diluaran banyak koq situs/ web-web menyediakan template gratis dengan berbagai macam tema menarik dan sesuai selera serta kebutuhan tema blog kita.

5.Jika mau cepat di approve pakai domain sendiri dan hosting-nya pake blogspot.com!! kalau yang ini dijamin dech.. pasti Adsensenya langsung di terima .. hehe… Oya, kalau ingin beli domain saya rekomendasikan di sini!! Karena selain murah layanannya menurut saya lumayan bagus. :)

6.Pada Title/ judul blog maupun content blog, isi dengan keyword yang berbau duit atau mempunyai nilai jual, contohnya: make money online, tips adsense, online business, affiliate marketing, Gadget, seo marketing, dsb. Jgn gunakan kata kunci “bisnis online", soalnya gak laku buat pasar global! (maksain bgt ya.. he2x :)

7.Ini paling penting yaitu berdoa dan serahkan semuanya pada team google adsense.. eitt.. maksudnya sama Tuhan Yang Maha Esa.. karena semua yang menentukan adalah tuhan, manusia hanya bisa berdo’a dan berusaha.. halah.. kweke…

Sebagai bahasa penutup tentang topic adsense ada baiknya menyentil keywords bisnis sekali lagi untuk blog bisnis online ini!! agar posisinya makin mantab.. :p karena mempertahankan lebih sulit dari pada menggapai.

HOW TO: Use Social Media for Enterprise Business

2009-07-25T15:22:00.002+07:00

Companies such as Zappos, Dell, and JetBlue are all known as successes in harnessing the power of social media for business. However, the aforementioned businesses sell directly to consumers. How about the business that sells products to other businesses? What if you’re a company that builds inventory software or datacenters for the likes of Walmart? Is Twitter, Facebook (), Ning, or a company blog going to be any use?

In fact, the answer may surprise you. There are business-to-business companies that are utilizing the social web to find customers, to build up a reputation, and to get the upper hand on landing the big deal. There’s a great deal that social media offers to the non-consumer business. Here are four of the best ways to use social media when you’re in enterprise:

Step 1. Build a reputation of expertise

What use is a company blog if you only have 10,000 customers, rather than 10 million? While it may be true that a B2B’s blog or Twitter () is not going to be followed by as many people, it doesn’t change the fact that it will affect the decisions of your customers. Say a potential customer becomes aware of your software solution, and goes to your website to find out more about you. How can you stand out from the crowd? By building a blog with your expertise in focus.

If a potential customer comes to your company’s website and sees an active blog with insightful posts on how your company’s product helps customers, reads detailed posts demonstrating your company’s knowledge, and comes across a few case studies, they’re going to be far more inclined to come to you for their needs.

Social media provides an outlet for displaying who you and your company are. Talking about your industry in an intelligent way via Twitter and a regularly-updated blog can raise your company’s profile and brand it as a thought leader and expert in its specific business area.

37Signals, the maker of Software-as-a-service business collaboration products, is a prime example of this philosophy in action. Their blog is regularly read by thousands of people, shared among businesses, and has even opened up another revenue stream in the form of a popular job board. Social media builds reputations.

2. Research your customers

Everyone thinks of social media as a communication tool, but not enough people think of it as a research tool. With the ridiculous amount of data produced every day on social networks, blogs, and in conversations, it should be apparent that you can learn tidbits or spot major trends by tracking the social universe.

Know what your customers are saying: If you’re trying to secure a contract from a big business, then they are probably talking to their customers via Twitter, Facebook, and more. Learn what they’re saying to their customers and read the blogs of decision makers to learn what they value and how they think.

Know what your customers’ customers are saying: Your customers don’t care about you – they care about their customers and their bottom line. If you can find behavior patterns in their customers that your product can address, your pitch will resonate more. Driving the point that their current solution doesn’t work, and then proving that with social chatter is even better.

Track industry trends: Think about the keywords that define your industry, and then track them so you know what’s changing in it. If you’re a medical company creating devices for spine fusion surgery, then you’re going to want to track any developments in spinal fusion technology. Use Twilerts and Google Alerts to track keywords by email, or create an RSS feed of new information via the Content Keyword RSS Yahoo Pipe.

Step 3. Ramp up your networking

If you are competing with another company to land a big deal, it always helps to have connections and friendships within the company you’re trying to woo. You should always be networking, because you never know when a contact can become your advocate or even the decision-maker. And that’s where social media can help.

There are a lot of things you can do to get started on the networking front. They key, though, is that you have to reach out. Otherwise, how will people know to listen? While there are literally hundreds of ways to network with potential partners, vendors, clients, businesses, customers, and decision-makers, the truth is it doesn’t matter which tool you use as long as it is one that the other person values. LinkedIn (), Twitter, Plaxo (), etc. are always great places to start, but if you can network with him or her on niche social sites, you’ll stand out just a bit more.

Step 4. Learn from others

In the end, you want to come out sharper, more knowledgeable, and better prepared than your competitors. It doesn’t matter if you have 60 or 600,000 customers, and it does not matter whether or not you sell to general consumers or Fortune 500 companies. Almost everyone is using or tracking social media and it provides you a prime opportunity to make you and your business a leader rather than a follower.

- Seek out blogs and publications in your industry and subscribe via RSS
- Network with relevant experts, including those who may only be partially related
- Follow the insights of business leaders on Twitter
- Connect with commenters on your own blog
- Make yourself very easy to find on the web – if people search for your name or your business, you should be at the top of Google ()’s results. Building a blog, using a Twitter, and creating a decent corporate website always helps
- Keep an open mind

Don’t underestimate how much information is on the web. It’s stunning what you can learn just by reaching out. If you and your business have a strong social presence, it’s simply easier for potential partners, customers, employers, and businesses to find you. In enterprise, it’s about closing the deal and standing out; social media’s one of the easiest ways to achieve this goal.

Paypal X : Prepare for The New Paypal

2009-07-24T17:32:00.002+07:00

For years, PayPal had no rival in the online payments industry. Then, in 2007, Amazon launched its Amazon Payments, which not only gave PayPal a rival with real muscle, but was considered friendlier and more open to third party developers, thus why many apps utilized Amazon Payments instead of PayPal. And let’s not forget about Google Checkout, which also competes in the space.

However, Paypal is taking a swing back at the competition today, revealing PayPal X and Adaptive Payments, a new initiative that allow third party developers to utilize PayPal in completely new ways. Prepare yourself for split payments, payment aggregation, and PayPal on other websites.

The Basics of Paypal X

PayPal is essentially opening up its platform to developers so that they can build new products off of PayPal. This is called PayPal X. The first part of this new initiative is PayPal Adaptive Payments, which refers to the new APIs (application programming interfaces) that will help developers do new things with PayPal.

All of the developer-related information will be placed on PayPal’s one-character domain, X.com. Here are some of the things that are now possible:

- Send Money: Peer-to-peer payments can and will happen on multiple platforms, not just on PayPal.com

- Split Payments: You can now split payments among many recipients via the Platform. For example, if you need to pay multiple people a commission on the sale, you can send just one payment instead of four or five.

- Payment Preapproval: Once you log into a system and confirm prepayments, the API will automatically transfer funds based on pre-set specifications.

- Payment Aggregation: To reduce the costs of payment transactions, users can soon aggregate multiple payments into one lump transaction. Amazon Payments already offers this.

This could be good news for a lot of smaller firms and third-party developers. Let’s take TwitPay as an example. TwitPay allows users to send and receive micropayments via Twitter (). It is run on PayPal, and in fact is one of the first apps utilizing the Adaptive Payment platform (and probably the reason they switched from Amazon Payments). The new API lets you do things like send payments right on Twitpay.me (and hopefully soon split payments).

PayPal Adaptive Payments doesn’t come out to all developers and users until November, but expect to see more websites utilizing the new PayPal X very, very soon.

Google Latitude Comes to iPhone

2009-07-24T17:28:00.002+07:00

Earlier this year, Google made major noise by releasing Latitude, a location-aware service that lets you see where your friends are on a map, on your phone. However, although it worked on a variety of handsets, including BlackBerry, there was one huge omission that has perhaps limited adoption and hype for the service: iPhone.

Today, that changes. Google has announced that there’s now a version of Latitude for iPhone and iPod Touch, although, it’s not a downloadable application like it is on other mobile platforms. Rather, iPhone users can simply navigate to google.com/latitude in Safari () to sign in, see where there friends are, and automatically update their location and status.

Why no downloadable app in iTunes? Google explains on their blog:

“We worked closely with Apple to bring Latitude to the iPhone in a way Apple thought would be best for iPhone users. After we developed a Latitude application for the iPhone, Apple requested we release Latitude as a web application in order to avoid confusion with Maps on the iPhone, which uses Google () to serve maps tiles.”

Google also notes that unlike the other mobile platforms that Latitude currently works on – Android (), Blackberry, Symbian and Window Mobile – your location will only be updated each time you use the app, since iPhone can’t run applications in the background. This could make the app a lot less interesting – on BlackBerry, the locations of the few friends I currently have on Latitude are changing all the time as it updates with their movements as opposed to when they directly access the app.

Nonetheless, bringing Latitude to 40 million iPhones and iPod Touch devices is nothing to scoff at, despite the current limitations. Latitude is one of Google’s more important and ambitious social products, and now, it has a more legitimate opportunity to succeed, though we’ll have to wait and see how users respond to a mobile browser-based version as opposed to a native app.

23 Cara Mempercepat Running Windows XP

2009-06-11T16:05:00.004+07:00

Bagi user awam, biasanya untuk membantu meningkatkan performa OS Windows, defrag adalah cara utama.
Namun ternyata, ada bbrp jalan lain yang dapat membantu Anda meningkatkan performa Windows lebih baik lagi.

Berikut ini terdapat tips2 yang diambil dari artikel pakar luar negeri:

1. Untuk menurunkan waktu booting dan meningkatkan performa, tidak usah menggunakan software defrag pihak ketiga, gunakan saja perangkat Defragmenter yang buatan (built-in) Windows, tidak akan jauh beda. Dan juga, sebaiknya menggunakan Harddisk dengan tipe Ultra-133 atau Serial ATA (SATA) dengan buffer 8-MB.

2. Jika RAM PC kurang dari 512 MB, maka sebaiknya ditambah kapasitas memorinya. Hal ini relatif tidak mahal dan akan membantu meningkatkan performa sistem Anda secara dramatis.

3. Pastikan file system yang digunakan Windows XP adalah NTFS. Cara memeriksanya:

a. Buka Windows Explorer (My Computer)
b. Klik kanan pada drive C:
c. Klik Properties.

Kalau ternyata file system Anda menggunakan FAT32, maka untuk mengubahnya adalah dengan cara sebagai berikut:
- Backup data-data penting dulu ya.
- Klik Start > Run > ketik CMD
- Setelah muncul jendela Command Prompt, ketik:

Code:

CONVERT C: /FS:NTFS

Catatan: Komputer jangan disela ketika melakukan konversi ini, dan juga dalam keadaan bebas dari virus. File system yang digunakan oleh drive bootable (biasanya C:) bisa FAT32 atau NTFS. Saya sangat merekomendasikan untuk menggunakan NTFS demi keamanan superior, ketahanan dan efisiensi ruang yang lebih besar.

4. Non aktifkan File Indexing. Layanan File Indexing mengekstraksi informasi dari dokumen-dokumen dan file-file lainnya yang ada pada harddisk dan membuat sebuah “searchable keyword index” (index keyword pencarian). Bisa dibayangkan proses ini sangat memberatkan sistem.

Cara kerjanya sbb:

Seorang user mencari kata, frase, atau properti sebuah dokumen, dari dokumen-dokumen yang jumlahnya ratusan atau ribuan dan ia tidak tahu nama dari dokumen yang dicari. Windows XP dengan fungsi built-in search masih bisa melakukan berbagai macam jenis pencarian tanpa melibatkan Indexing Service. Tapi agak lebih lama. Sistem Operasi harus membuka tiap file ketika diminta tolong mencari apa yang user inginkan.

Kebanyakan orang tidak membutuhkan fitur pencarian ini. Yang biasanya membutuhkan adalah lingkungan perusahaan yang besar dimana ribuan dokumen diletakkan pada paling tidak satu server. Akan tetapi jika hanya semacam system builder, yang kebanyakan kliennya adalah bisnis kecil dan menengah, dan jika para klien tidak membutuhkan fitur tersebut, saya rekomendasikan supaya mendisfungsikannnya (disable) layanan tersebut.

Caranya Mendisfungsikannya:

a. Buka Windows Explorer (My Computer)
b. Klik kanan pada drive C:
c. Pilih Properties
d. Hilangkan tanda centang (checklist) “Allow Indexing Service to index this disk for fast file searching.”
e. Klik tombol Apply, muncul: apply changes to “C: subfolders and files”
f. Klik tombol OK.

Jika ada pesan peringatan atau error muncul (seperti “Access is denied“), klik tombol Ignore All.

5. Update driver VGA dan chipset motherboard, termasuk update BIOS dan konfigurasinya. Carilah info-info tentang konfigurasi BIOS secara tepat di internet.

6. Kosongkan folder Prefetch windows setiap 3 bulan atau lebih.

Windows XP merekam sebagian dari data atau aplikasi yang sering digunakan agar membuat proses load kelihatan lebih cepat ketika dipanggil oleh user. Hal ini bagus, tetapi untuk waktu yang lama, folder prefetch bisa jadi kelebihan muatan referensi file dan aplikasi yang tidak lagi digunakan. Jika hal itu terjadi, Windows XP akan membuang-buang waktu dan memperlambat performa sistem, ketika melakukan load aplikasi atau file. Tidak ada yang penting dalam folder tersebut, dan seluruh isinya aman untuk dihapus.
Folder tersebut terletak di: C:\WINDOWS\Prefetch\

7. Sekali sebulan jalankan disk cleanup.

Caranya:

a. Buka Windows Explorer (My Computer)
b. Klik kanan pada drive C:
c. Pilih Properties
d. Klik tombol Disk Cleanup dan delete semua file temporer.

8. Pada Device Manager, klik ganda pada IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers device, dan pastikan DMA di-enable (diaktifkan) untuk tiap drive yang terhubung ke Primary Controller dan atau Secondary controller.

Lakukan hal ini dengan cara:

a. Klik ganda pada Primary IDE Channel. kemudian klik tab Advance Settings.
b. Pastikan Transfer Mode -nya diset pada “DMA if Available” untuk kedua Device 0 dan Device 1.
c. Lakukan hal serupa pada Secondary IDE Channel.

9. Upgrade Pengkabelan.

Untuk peningkatan teknologi harddisk, dibutuhkan pengakabelan yang akan mendorong performa lebih baik.
Pastikan untuk menggunakan kabel 80-wire Ultra-133 untuk semua device IDE dan gunakan konektor yang cocok dengan socket Master/Slave/Motherboard.

Kalo Device-nya cuma satu, harus dihubungkan pada konektor yang paling ujung dari kabel pita (kabel data), jangan pada konektor yang di tengah kabel pita, jika tidak, maka akan terjadi masalah sinyal. Pada harddisk ultra DMA, masalah sinyal ini bisa mencegah harddisk memaksimalkan potensinya.

10. Buang semua spyware dari komputer.

Gunakan program gratisan seperti AdAware buatan Lavasoft atau SpyBot Search & Destroy. Setelah program ini terinstal, pastikan untuk melakukan cek update dan mendownloadnya jika ada, sebelum melakukan pencarian spyware di komputer.
Apapun program yang ditemukan bisa dihapus secara aman. Semua program gratisan yang meminta spyware untuk dijalankan tidak akan berfungsi lagi. Jika program-program gratisan itu masih dibutuhkan tinggal instal lagi saja.

11. Buang semua program atau item yang tidak perlu dari rutin (routin) Windows Startup dengan menggunakan utilitas MSCONFIG.

Caranya:

a. Klik Start > Run > ketik MSCONFIG > klik OK
b. Klik tab StartUp ?> kemudian hilangkan checklist (tanda centang) dari program yang tidak diinginkan.

Tidak paham dengan item-item tersebut? Kunjungi WinTasks Process Library. Situs itu memuat proses sistem, aplikasi yang diketahui dan juga tentang referensi spyware dan penjelsannya. Atau bisa diidentifikasi nama item-item tersebut secara langsung dengan menggunakan google.

12. Buang semua program yang tidak digunakan dari Add/Remove ProgramsControl Panel. di

13. Matikan beberapa atau semua animasi yang tidak dibutuhkan dan nonaktifkan (disable) active desktop.

Pada kenyataannya, untuk optimasi performa, matikan semua animasi. Windows Xp menawarkan banyak setting-setting yang berbeda pada bagian ini.

Caranya:

a. Klik System Icon di Control Panel
b. Klik tab Advance
c. Klik tombol Settings pada kotak Performance.
d. Hilangkan checklist (tanda centang) opsi apa saja yang tidak ingin dijalankan.
Atau bisa langsung klik pada Radio Button: Adjust for best performance.

14. Kalo bisa mengedit Registry Windows XP, lakukan untuk meningkatkan performa XP.

Bisa menggunakan software tweak atau manual mengedit registry. Di internet sudah banyak tersebar.

15. Kunjungi situs update Microsoft Windows secara rutin dan download semua update yang berlabel Critical.

Download juga Optional update yang dibutuhkan. (ingat, kalau software OS windows XP -nya bajakan, jangan coba-coba untuk mengupdate, bisa dikasih “stempel” tanda bajakan sama Microsoft yang justru akan memperlambat sistem ketika booting dan running).

16. Update anti virus dalam sepekan sekali atau bahkan harian. Pastikan hanya satu software yang terinstal. Menggabungkan lebih dari satu antivirus hanya akan mengundang penyakit bagi performa dan kahandalan komputer.

17. Pastikan font yang terinstal kurang dari 500 jenis saja pada komputer. Makin banyak font, makin lambatlah sistem. Walaupun windows XP lebih efisien dalam menangani font dari pada versi sebelumnya, tapi kelebihan font akan berdampak pada melemahnya sistem.

18. Jangan partisi harddisk. (Opsional saja)

NTFS File System Windows XP berjalan lebih efisien pada satu partisi yang besar. Data tidak lebih aman pada partisi terpisah, dan format ulang tidak dibutuhkan untuk instal ulang Sistem Operasi (OS). Satu partisi ini berfungsi agar tidak ada pembatasan oleh partisi akan tetapi akan dibatasi oleh ukuran kapasitas harddisk itu sendiri. Sehingga tidak perlu melakukan resize partisi yang meghabiskan waktu dan resiko kehilangan data.

19. Lakukan pengecekan terhadap sistem RAM untuk memastikan beroperasi dengan baik.

Saya merekomendasikan untuk menggunakan program gratisan MemTest86.
Setelah didownload, bisa membuat bootable CD atau disket (sesuai pilihan) yang akan melakukan 10 macam tes pada memory PC secara otomatis setelah malakukan boot dengan CD atau disket yang dibuat. Biarkan semua tes berjalan sampai paling tidak melewati 3 tes selesai dari 10 tes. Jika program mendapati error, matikan dan cabut listrik komputer, cabut RAM memory, ganti dengan yang lain dan lakukan tes lagi. Ingat, memory yang rusak tidak bisa diperbaiki, dan hanya bisa diganti.

20. Jika terdapat CD atau DVD recorder / writer, carilah update firmware dari pabriknya. Pada beberapa kasus, upgrade terbukti bisa mempercepat recorder tersebut dan biasanya gratis.

21. Non aktifkan (disable) service (layanan) yang tidak penting.

Windows XP memasang banyak service yang tidak dibutuhkan. Untuk menentukan service apa saja yang tidak dibutuhkan, buka situs Black Viper untuk konfigurasi Windows XP.

22. Jika tampilan tunggal Windows Explorer mengalami masalah ketika menampilkan file dan menghambat sistem operasi, lakukan langkah berikut:

a. Buka My Computer
b. Klik Tools
c. Klik Folder Options?
d. Klik tab View
e. Geser / gulung ke bawah menuju “Launch folder windows in a separate process“, aktifkan opsi ini. Setelah komputer di-restart, opsi ini akan berjalan.

23. Setidaknya sekali setahun, buka casing komputer dan bersihkan semua debu dan “puing-puingnya”. Sementara itu cek juga kipasnya, apakah putarannya masih proporsional.

NB : ada baiknya sebelum merubah seting diatas sebaiknya data-data di partisi C (system) dibackup terlebih dahulu...

Cara Instan Cek Keamanan Server

2009-06-11T08:36:00.004+07:00

Menjaga server tetap aman itu penting. Cuman kadang mempelajari security bukan perkara yang mudah. beruntung ada bli michael boelen yang bikin tools instan di linux, untuk memeriksa keamanan server pc linux kita tercinta. tugasnya menscan hole, backdoor dan berbagai kelemahan sistem kita. Namanya Rootkit Hunter.

Rootkit scanner is scanning tool to ensure you for about 99.9%* you're clean of nasty tools. This tool scans for rootkits, backdoors and local exploits by running tests like:

- MD5 hash compare
- Look for default files used by rootkits
- Wrong file permissions for binaries
- Look for suspected strings in LKM and KLD modules
- Look for hidden files
- Optional scan within plaintext and binary files

Rootkit Hunter is released as GPL licensed project and free for everyone to use.
* No, not really 99.9%.. It's just another security layer
proyek open sourcenya ini bisa didownload di: www.rootkit.nl

rilis terakhir versi 1.2.7:
download disini http://downloads.rootkit.nl/rkhunter-1.2.7.tar.gz
manual install:

1. $tar zxvf ./rkhunter-1.2.7.tar.gz
2. $cd rkhunter/
3. $./configure && make
4. su
5. #make install
6. jalanin pake perintah #rkhunter -c

jangan lupa update databasenya dari internet dengan perintah:
#rkhunter --update

Mashabless Blogspot

18 WordPress Plugins for RSS Management and Tweaks

Analytics & Tracking

Feed Insertion & Tweaks

Management

20 of the Best SEO Plugins for WordPress

OPEN SOURCE GOD: 480+ Open Source Applications

Accounting

Content Management Systems

CRM (Customer Relationship Management)

Desktop Environments/ Shell replacements

Email Clients

Encoding, Conversion & Ripping Tools

ERP

Filesharing & FTP

Graphics-Design & Modeling Tools

Media Players

Messengers & Communication Clients

PDF drivers & Tools

Personal Information & Task Managers

Project Management

Reporting Tools

RSS

System Utilities

HOW TO: Plan a Vacation Using Social Media

Part 1: Research

Part 2: Planning and organizing

Part 3: Using social media on the ground

Part 4: Documenting and sharing

Ten Tactics That Could Save Your Online Reputation

HOW TO: Take Control of Your Google Search Results

What does Google say about you?

How to control your Google results

1. Register for a blog and social networks

2. Write for other blogs

3. Create a social media resume

4. Start a wiki under your name

5. Become a celebrity/micro-celeb

6. Bond with communities

7. Create an eBook

8. Beg people to write about you

Top 7 Twitter Tutorials on YouTube

1. Twitter in Plain English

2. Twitter Tutorial – Getting Started

3. Twitter Tutorial: Finding People to Follow

4. Top Twitter Tools Tutorial

5. Twitter Retweet Explained

6. Customized Twitter Theme Experience

7. Twitter Tutorial: 5 Desktop Apps

HOW TO: Create Custom Twitter Backgrounds

Why create a custom Twitter background?

Some great examples of custom Twitter background designs

Creating your own background: the basic requirements

7 helpful Twitter background resources

Start customizing and share your background

Google Wave: A Complete Guide

What is Google Wave?

Terminology

Wave Gadgets

Wave Robots

Wave Embeds

Furthering your Google Wave education

HOW TO: Customize Your YouTube Channel

The Basics

In-Channel Editing

Extra Channel Tips

HOW TO: Post Video to Twitter With the iPhone 3G S

1. Use YouTube to Post to Twitter

2. Email Your Videos to Twitter

3. Get a Video-Friendly App

The 10 Best Google Maps Extensions for Firefox 3

Google Maps: 100+ Best Tools and Mashups

Travel and Transportation

News, Weather and Politics

Recreation and Entertainment

Environment and Climate Change

Photo and Media Maps

Games and Simulators

Pedestrian and Bike Maps

Information, Education and History