Archive for the ‘ internet tools ’ Category
This might be the most useful website to come out of the Facebook “like” project: LikeButton.me amalgamates the top “liked” content from popular websites to give you a one-page overview of online content people want to share.
But if you really want to take it step further, you can enter your own website, and that of your competitors, to see top liked content.
If you’re into content analysis, this is pretty awesome.
After reviewing how I use my desktop as a toxic waste dump for files I want easy access to for a one time use, I recently downloaded a new Mac software app called Hazel from Noodlesoft to clean up my MacBook Pro. Basically, it creates rules to clean out your downloads folder, your trash and move any file you wish to a more organized spot. Downloaded an application to then later deleted it? Hazel will sweep away any left over support files. It’s cool like a roomba – cleans and you don’t need to do a thing.
The free trial was a great idea because now I want to buy buy buy.
So, if you’re lazy like me, try it out. Have a better way to clean your computer? Let me know!
A recent article in Mashable pointed me to a new website that promises to help you stay on track of your resolutions: Dorthy. The site promises to give the user a living page that focusses on their specific goals, provides information on said goal, and connect the user to other like-minded goal searchers. It’s a focussed Google with a bare-bones community attached.
On first visit, I’m left wondering what to do after I input my dream: to find more time to update this website (lame dream, yeah). I’m taken to an overview page (called a dreampage – very Oprah-esque) that looks similar to what I would find if I typed “I want to find time to update my website” into a Google search: I see online articles, videos pulled from You Tube and Vimeo, photos and links to blogs that I think have the “update website” phrase within their copy. Since it seems to work by automatically pulling keywords (even though the site says “We’ve abandoned key words and moves beyond traditional semantics to develop an implicit understanding of what you’re interested in,”) I wonder if this blog entry you’re reading now will eventually show up in this Dorthy feed about updating websites? Vouldn’t that be Veird?
When I click on the community tab, it takes me to other members who have entered similar goals and I can subscribe to their dreams so my own page is updated with their updates. From what I can see, there’s no way to contact the person, which the introvert in me likes but may have helped create a virtual “cheerleader” squadron to the user’s goal achievements. The site uses Facebook Connect, which could translate that community support from Dorthy onto a Facebook page, I suppose.
Snooping around, I see someone entered a dream to run a marathon in Maui. This opens a dreampage that’s a little more focussed than my vague goal but again, I don’t see anything I wouldn’t have seen without entering the same dream into a search engine.
This isn’t to say the site doesn’t have potential… As more people subscribe and enter data, perhaps the algorithms will improve and my Dreampage will be more relevant and less vague.
Maybe I’ll set a goal on this site to review Dorthy in 6 months to see what’s changed on the site.
Let me know what you think and what sites you use to keep on track of your goals.
Tech blog StartUpMeme wrote about a new service called UserNameCheck, a service that shows you if your preferred username is already taken by another in this growing social media world.
I use it, however, to remind myself of all the social media sites I have signed up with and have subsequently forgot about using. I tend to jump into any social media network and sign in with my preferred user name to maintain my online identity in case that service takes off. Quite often, though, I end up never visiting that site again.
This site is also good to keep abreast of some of the social networking sites you may not have known about existing.
This might be a lazy post, but important nonetheless!
Watch this amazing video to give you a sense of the world we’re working in today and tomorrow. Five minutes well spent. And you can bop along to Fatboy Slim while you ponder. It’s a win-win.
Broadband viewership has doubled! Well, at least in the States.
And a large number of people want to see companies on social networking sites… or so it may seem. Social networking is a very broad term. Personally, I’d be happy to stop receiving ads for celebrity dieting techniques while I’m on Facebook.
I have tried to cancel these ads (you can click a thumbs down on each thumbnail advertisement and let Facebook know why you don’t want to see it) but so far, their technique isn’t working too well. I regularly see a Rachael Ray diet beside my profile, despite regularly telling Facebook it’s irrelevant. I don’t want a Rachael Ray diet! I don’t want to start calling everything yummo.
I currently work in the educational gaming world for kids. I like to argue that all games are educational, but there’s this little ‘curriculum’ issue. We’re sometimes told to create “math” games or “literacy” games… but how can you make learning fun?
This argument makes a lot of sense. It says there’s this great divide between educational games and ‘fun’ games and this can be solved easily through more thoughtful development. It totally makes sense to me. People want to learn things they’re interested in – not things that are rammed down their throat. Video games can act as a conduit to that information.
I’d like to think I’m trying this angle with the games I help write with my coworkers. For example, whenever I use a phrase such as Firewall or Verbosity, it’s sometimes suggested to me that “kids don’t know that term.” I’ve always believed that those kids who want to learn what that means will ask an adult or look it up themselves. Those who aren’t interested won’t absorb the content anyway.
Are there any educational games out there that are more about the fun? Let me know!
I do write an awful lot about Google. I’d stop writing about them if they wouldn’t keep coming up with cool new things that are bound to shake things up on the internets (sic.)
The first is the announcement its new web browser of Google Chrome. Just like its Google Docs application, Chrome is easy to use. It’s a great way to view websites if you’re using Windows. There’s a free beta that should be available right about… now.
This is cool because if one site crashes, the other tabs won’t be affected. No more canceling and restarting your browsers.
Google has also created a video service for the business set. If you want to create a training video for employees, spend $50 for a premier business version of Google Apps. It will work like YouTube, with comments and videos.
Google in the midst of creating a mobile phone device. I know! We just got used to the iPhone craziness. Rumour has it the first device with this software (called Android) will launch will happen in the States sometime in November. The phone is built by HTC and will include Google software and lots of other features.
Web Monkey studies the six reasons why the iPhone will deliver where Android won’t.
There’s also some talk that it’s more than just a mobile device and might reach TV sets. The iPhone already acts as a universal remote for the Apple products, so this isn’t too big of a surprise.
This is pretty big because it’s Google, a company that offers free usage on products that have traditionally gone with a paid-for model. For example, they have a free-to-use documents path that leads users to services that work just like Word and Excel. Its Analytics service is used by many companies (and me!) as a free way to monitor website usage. Did I mention all this is free? Perhaps this phone is another device that may, or may not, shift how business is done.
Bring this up next time someone asks you why you don’t have an iPhone yet.
This post from Julian Cole on Adspace Pioneers in Social Media marketing is interesting. He lists the top 12 moments that help define some of social media moments for advertising. It’s a clever look back at how social media has grown in just three years. It has gone from a niche service for the computer savvy to everyone on the planet, then slowly back to niche.
Organic’s Three Minds outlines whether niche social networks will attract marketing dollars as corporate media focuses its attention on the idea of spreading the word online.
I just wonder if the marketers will get it right in the niche world. If they don’t speak the language, or end up insulting those in the group, it can backfire. Also, some marketers are using social media all wrong. As ReadWriteWeb pointed out, why is there a site for those who want to talk about cat litter?
It would be OK if the litter site turned into a place where users could mock the ability to comment on kitty litter. But I guess that would put the delicate brand into the hands of the masses. It happened at Amazon.com when its users could describe their experiences with every product available, including groceries… and Uranium Ore. One favourite: “This Uranium Ore facial scrub has given my skin a beautiful glow!” Also read about Land Tanks “… it also has plenty of room for groceries.”
Sadly, Amazon took down the over 1,000 reviews for milk.
Let me know if you’ve seen other ridiculous social media sites.
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