É um plugin para o navegador Mozilla Firefox que sincroniza as configurações de seu navegador.

There was something about the reviews of Google’s Chromium browser, when the beta was released in September last year, that failed to excite.  I recall its cleaner, simpler window style, but that was about it.  And, back then, I didn’t view Google as a personal software company; their expertise was on the web, not on the client.   It certainly wasn’t enough to tempt a confirmed Firefox user to switch browsers.

At that time I’d been a happy Firefox user for years.  I liked its user interface, the wide range of plugins, the online support community, the fact that it’s open source and, well, that it isn’t IE.  On the downside, Firefox did sometimes take ages to load but, once loaded, it generally ran smoothly and quickly enough.

So, I forgot about Chromium and lived my online life in Firefox for another year or so.

Opinions change

In the meantime, my perception of Google, the Company, changed.  I’d had a Google account for a few months, initially for Google Mail  (being in the UK, we’re not supposed to call it “Gmail”) and the excellent Google Reader.

My Google Mail account started out as a throw away mailbox for web registrations, if spam ever became an issue.  Thankfully, Google’s excellent spam filtering meant I saw very little actual spam.  At the time my main email was with my ISP, forwarded via a personal web domain, but I wanted to change ISPs and saw the opportunity to improve the way email works for me and for others in my household.  We now all have our own Google Mail accounts, mine being my original “throw away” account, all forwarded from the original web domain.  We’re all agreed the Google Mail web UI is so nice and the new web-based email freedom is so much better than the old POP3 download approach.  This did a lot to raise my opinion of Google, the Company.

Over the same period, I had become interested in some of Google’s other cloud-based offerings such as Google Docs and App Server.  (From other posts in this blog you’ll see further Google-related interests.)  I’d also viewed the Wave presentations from the May 2009 I-O event and heard about things like Google Gears and its  support for HTML 5 and Web 2.0.  I’d installed the Firefox Gears plugin for improved functionality in some of the Google online apps.

Time to give Chrome a try

During the summer, Google announced a new public release of Chrome, a stable version of the open source Chromium web browser.  I was a little more interested in this now, and thought, “yes”, I’ll give it a try sometime, but not right now. I was still a happy Firefox user (aside from the slow start up).

Then, for reasons I never discovered, I had problems with some Google Docs functionality, notably the inability to edit documents.  It was quite a show-stopper.  I’d come to rely on Google Docs and so, against all my instincts, I reluctantly tried IE.  It worked!  I could do everything I needed to in my Google Docs.  But it was IE… there had to be a better way!

Like a light from above, I remembered Chrome.  It installed in no time and started up in about two seconds flat.  It was love at first sight.  The UI is so clean.  Minimalist, even.  The main thing was, my Google Docs functionality was all OK, too.  Problem solved.

Getting to know Chrome

After the relief of finding that Chrome fixed the Google Docs problem, I settled into using it full-time, as a replacement for the long-serving Firefox.  Not an easy decision to make, but Chrome has so much going for it.  This is particularly true when you consider how much time we spend on the web.  With Chrome maximised, it’s sometimes as if I’m not running Windows at all!  The Chrome themes emphasise this, with their non-standard window headers.   It feels like a new OS.  This may be intentional by Google.  If so, they’ve achieved it for me, and I’m happy to say so.

Chrome and Chromium

There are a few shortcomings in Chrome.  I’m running the latest version 3.0.195.33.

The most obvious being the lack of plugins.  That said, as a  Firefox user, I never was one to install masses of plugins, preferring to keep it simple.

My first question with Chrome was “how do I access my Google Bookmarks?”.  Others have been here before and I found a good blog post that describes a workable solution.  The same author has a related post on using bookmarklets in Chrome.

I have had one problem with a file download from a very slow server during which Chrome mistook a pause in data transmission (a few minutes) as indicating the end of the file.  The same file downloaded OK with trusty Firefox, btw.  Looking at the Chromium developer forum, this is a known problem that will be fixed in a future release.

Sticking with Chrome

I have become a Chrome enthusiast in the month or so since I started using it.  In the first week I caught up on all the Chrome release info.

I like a lot of detail, and one of the best sources of in-depth Chrome information is the comic book style presentation.  Don’t be put off by the 39 pages… it’s an entertaining read if you have the curiosity to know.  Key points:

• Built-in security, from the ground up.
• One process per tab.  If a tab freezes up, the other tabs are unaffected.
• HTML 5 support.
• Google Gears built-in.  This is a real bonus for Google users, improving the functionality of Google’s web apps.
• The clean UI.

Chrome has changed the way I see the web, for the better.  I look forward to future releases with functional improvements like plugins but, even without these, it’s definitely worth a try.

Estic fent recerca sobre les comunitats Socials y les formes de compartir-ho tot per internet.

Les idees es poden compartir de moltes maneres i en molts formats… cada vegada més pàguines inverteixen en proporcionar un servei complet de publicació i contacte amb el món virtual.

So, I after getting a bad case of carpel tunnel from blog writing and social bookmarking, I’m just kidding about the carpel tunnel, but hey, it is ALOT of manual work.

Nevertheless, I was looking for a tool to make my job more easy and not effect my rankings in a negative way. Yes, that can happen.

For example: Using a free search engine submission software which promises to blast your site out to over one million search engines! Although, there are only a handful of search engines which really really matter.. When they “blast” your website url out you may find your web site in a bad neighborhood and web surfers who view it may wonder, why is your web-design blog/website doing  on a puppy food distributor site in Ireland?!

Anyhoo, I found this cool service called OnlyWire they have a few account in which you can use their services, if you promise to give a link back. Don;t drag your feet, they are serious, there’s not on there site, conviently BEFORE you can even access their services stating “If you fail to link back, in a prominent place on your website or blog, we will deactivate your account within 24 hours’,  hence the reason for this post (smiles).

Purposes:

1.  You can set up all your social bookmarking sites here and have them all in one place.

2. If you are a developer, you can integrate it with API and submit post directly to social bookmarking sites from your website. Now how beautiful is that, thing I am going to go read up on some API tips and tricks.

3. Place it in your web browser, for individuals, like me, who have not harnessed the wonderful power of API or do not have a web site (tisk tisk tisk)

4. They even have a wordpress plugin, you just download, extract and upload and you are ready to go. Again, the beauty of word press, THE PLUGINS!

Pricing:

Free if you post a link in return
$2.99 per month
$24.99 per year

Also, get wind of this!You can submit to up to 30 social bookmarking sites by  using OnlyWire, however there is a cap on 5 sites a day. Dear OnlyWire, you guys are going to have to fix that “bug” for serious internet marketers, like myself.

Now get off my blog and get off you butt and start social bookmarking! if you decide to use the service, let me know and I will do the same. Toodles!

PR: wait… I: wait… L: wait… LD: wait… I: wait… wait… Rank: wait… Traffic: wait… Price: wait… CY: wait… I: wait… YCat: wait… I: wait… Top: wait… I: wait… L: wait… C: wait…

Many beginner level users have this question in mind. How to find websites that will make me entertain ? or how to find sites that contain good contents to read when i am bored ? . If i want to answer a question “Why the user is not sitting with the computer not more than 30 min’s or many times just coming online to check their email and orkut then shutting the system off ?” i must say its all because they don’t know the sites where they can find some interesting readings, pictures or stuffs. If they know some 10 to 20 websites atleast, where they can find their favorites then it will surely make them to stay online for many hours. Keep on reading this article. At the end of this article you will be given few sites which delivers the title and guides you to begin your new internet experience.

Read more..

Precipitate 1.0.5 (2008-11-24) Stuart Morgan @ Google, Inc.

Spotlight과 Google Desktop에서 다음 인터넷 서비스의 검색 내용을 보여 준다:

• Google Bookmarks
• Google Docs
• Picasa Web Albums

각 서비스 회원 가입 필요.

내 맥에서는 동작하지 않는다.

Precipitate 1.0.5 (2008-11-24) Stuart Morgan @ Google, Inc.

Spotlight과 Google Desktop에서 다음 인터넷 서비스의 검색 내용을 보여 준다:

• Google Bookmarks
• Google Docs
• Picasa Web Albums

각 서비스 회원 가입 필요.

내 맥에서는 동작하지 않는다.

Tombloo 0.3.16 (2008-09-20)

웹페이지의 글, 이미지, 링크, 동영상 등을 다음 사이트에 업로드 해 주는 Firefox 확장 기능:

• Tumblr, FriendFeed, FFFFOUND, Flickr, WeHeartIt, 4u, PingFm, Twitter, Jaiku, Rejaw, Plurk, GoogleBookmarks, Delicious,Digg, StumblrUpon, Instapaper, YahooBookmarks, Snipshot, HatenaFotoLife, HatenaBookMark, LivedoorClip, Wassr

위 사이트 등에서 이미지 등을 인식하기도 함. Local과 Firefox Bookmark에 저장할 수도 있다.

계정관리를 별도로 하지 않고, 브라우저에서 해당 서비스에 로그인 해 두어야 한다. 여러 개의 서비스에 동시에 포스팅할 수 있다.

Tombloo 0.3.16 (2008-09-20)

웹페이지의 글, 이미지, 링크, 동영상 등을 다음 사이트에 업로드 해 주는 Firefox 확장 기능:

• Tumblr, FriendFeed, FFFFOUND, Flickr, WeHeartIt, 4u, PingFm, Twitter, Jaiku, Rejaw, Plurk, GoogleBookmarks, Delicious,Digg, StumblrUpon, Instapaper, YahooBookmarks, Snipshot, HatenaFotoLife, HatenaBookMark, LivedoorClip, Wassr

위 사이트 등에서 이미지 등을 인식하기도 함. Local과 Firefox Bookmark에 저장할 수도 있다.

계정관리를 별도로 하지 않고, 브라우저에서 해당 서비스에 로그인 해 두어야 한다. 여러 개의 서비스에 동시에 포스팅할 수 있다.

Interesting wishlist, over at tbarrett’s classroom ICT blog.

11 Google Apps Improvements for the Classroom | ICT in my Classroom.

In a way, Google is in a unique position in terms of creating the optimal set of classroom tools. And Google teams have an interest in educational projects (as made clear by Google for Educators, Google Summer of Code, Google Apps for schools…).
What seems to be missing is integration. Maybe Google is taking its time before integrating all of its services and apps. After all, the integration of Google Notebook and Google Bookmarks was fairly recent (and we can easily imagine a further integration with Google Reader). But some of us are a bit impatient. Or too enthusiastic about tools.

Because I just skimmed through the Google Chrome comicbook, I get to think that, maybe, Google is getting ready to integrate its tools in a neat way. Not specifically meant for schools but, in the end, an integrated Google platform can be developed into an education-specific set of applications.
After all, apart from Google Scholar, we’re talking about pretty much the same tools as those used outside of educational contexts.

What tools am I personally thinking about? Almost everything Google does or has done could be useful in educational contexts. From Google Apps (which includes Google Docs, Gmail, Google Sites, GTalk, Gcal…) to Google Books and Google Scholar or even Google Earth, Google Translate, and Google Maps. Not to mention OpenSocial, YouTube, Android, Blogger, Sketchup, Lively…

Not that Google’s versions of all of these tools and services are inherently more appropriate for education than those developed outside of Google. But it’s clear that Google has an edge in terms of its technology portfolio. Can’t we just imagine a new kind of Learning Management System leveraging all the neat Google technologies and using a social networking model?

Educational contexts do have some specific requirements. Despite Google’s love affair with “openness,” schools typically require protection for different types of data. Some would also say that Google’s usual advertisement-supported model may be inappropriate for learning environments. So it might be a sign that Google does understand school-focused requirements that Google Apps are ad-free for students, faculty, and staff.

Ok, I’m thinking out loud. But isn’t this what wishlists are about?

Hacía tiempo que no escribía (es lo que tiene preparar el trabajo antes de las vacaciones), pero esta pitxia de Google me ha parecido muy útil, ya que tengo unos pocos documentos en GoogleDocs. Precipitate es un componente para MacOSX que extiende la búsqueda de Spotlight y/o Google Desktop Search para que incluya los documentos almacenados en la nube (es el palabro de moda), añadiendo por ahora GoogleDocs y GoogleBookmarks.

PS: ya han sacado la 1.0.1!

En este lento camino que emprendí hace un año largo hacia el 2.0, hace unos días que estoy “jugando” con los marcadores sociales y, concretamente, con del.icio.us.

Hace unos meses me dió por probar google bookmarks. Me parecía interesante tener los bookmarks en un lugar en la red, al que se pudiera acceder desde cualquier ordenador. Esto me resultaba particularmente cómodo para guardar páginas que podrían servirme en el trabajo y que descubro en casa, en esas horas intempestivas en las que me da por moverme por la red. Hasta entonces la forma de compartir esos enlaces era mediante e-mail: yo me enviaba a mi mismo un correo con las direcciones que me podían interesar. También me podría servir para guardar noticias que salen sobre la competencia, que hasta ahora guardaba en ficheros pdf organizados por carpetas, por si perdía los marcadores en algún formateo. Google Bookmarks resolvía ese problema, guardando los marcadores en un lugar accesible desde casa y desde la oficina, y además nunca lo perdería por no hacer un backup de los marcadores antes de formatear el ordenador.

La pega que le vi inicialmente fue el tener que ir a la web de GB cada vez que quería guardar o recuperar un marcador. Pero para eso están los add-ons de Firefox, uno de los cuales te permite tener un menú y acceder a los Google Bookmarks como si fuesen los marcadores de tu navegador. El inconveniente de este sistema es que perdías la posibilidad de dar varias etiquetas a un enlace, ya que el add-on funcionaba como un sistema de carpetas. En todo caso, la ventaja de tener los marcadores accesibles desde cualquier lugar me parecía suficiente como para empezar a usarlo.

El salto hace un mes a Ubuntu 8.04 supuso también el salto a Firefox 3 beta 5, con la consiguiente incompatibilidad de todos los add-ons que tenía instalados, entre ellos, el de GB. Eso, y la sospecha infundada de que del.icio.us habría desarrollado ya un add-on compatible con FF3, me llevó a probar esta plataforma. Ese add-on no ha estado disponible hasta hace unos días.

Del.icio.us me ha parecido bastante más versatil que GB, y me quedo ya con él:

1. la importación de los marcadores de GB es sencilla, lo que facilita la migración a la plataforma. También es posible la importación de los marcadores del navegador.
2. permite organizar las etiquetas en grupos (bundles)
3. permite compartir tus marcadores (de ahí, que sean sociales, GB creo que no permite)
4. permite crear tu propia red con otros “del.icio.us’ers”. Eso permite ver los últimos marcadores guardados por los miembros de tu red, o pasarles determinado marcador tuyo que consideres que puede ser interesante.
5. permite búsquedas de varias etiquetas (ejemplo, alquiler+vivienda)
6. te puedes suscribir a determinadas etiquetas (o combinaciones), de manera que todo lo que se etiquete de determinada manera, te va a llegar.

Pues bien, casualmente la semana pasada Loretahur y Ketari hicieron hecho pública la nueva “nireidea”: Niremap, un sistema de marcación social georeferenciada. Desde ayer soy betatester de este sistema, del que me estoy llevando muy buena impresión.

Total, que entre unos y otros, se me ocurren algunas ideas para ¿mejorar? estas plataformas.

1. los tags geográficos deberían hacer referencia, no solo a puntos concretos del mapa, sino a unidades administrativas. Por ejemplo, yo podría etiquetar una url en la Plaza de la Virgen Blanca, y el sistema me la tendría que mostrar si pidiese info de Vitoria, Alava, País Vasco, España, Europa…. Es decir, este post mío debería salir en las búsquedas “Virgen Blanca”, pero también en “Vitoria+concentración”. Eso implica que tiene que haber un sistema automático de marcado, en el que si yo etiqueto como “Virgen Blanca, Vitoria”, el sistema añade las etiquetas Vitoria, Alava, Euskadi… Es decir, sería una especie de etiquetado taxonómico geográfico.
2. Se debería poder poner varios tags geográficos para artículos que, por ejemplo, hablen de la política de viviendas vacías en distintos países europeos (España, Francia, Reino Unido…)
3. Traducción de etiquetas. Una de las cualidades diferenciales de nire* es que está disponible en idiomas que se hablan en lugares cuya existencia yo desconocía. Eso facilita hacer un diccionario de traducción de tags, de manera que si yo busco “alquiler”, me puede aparecer también rent, aluger… Esto implica que tiene que haber una búsqueda avanzada para afinarla, porque con una sola etiqueta podrían aparecer listados enormes de resultados.
4. Diccionario de sinónimos. El problema de las etiquetas es que cada uno tiene un estilo y una terminología. Lo que yo puedo etiquetar como web2.0 otro lo etiquetará como web-2.0, internet20, internet2.0, 2.0, dospuntozero,… Pues bien, sería de mucha ayuda que en las búsquedas de web2.0 aparecieran todas las etiquetas equivalentes. La construcción de ese diccionario de sinónimos podría ser colaborativa.
5. Una cosa mejorable de del.icio.us es poder compartir o no por etiquetas (ahora permite compartir o no url’s, pero no todo lo que tenga determinada etiqueta). Por ejemplo, supongamos que estoy trabajando en un proyecto determinado que no puedo hacer público, y que todos los marcadores relacionados con ese proyecto tiene una determinada etiqueta. Esa etiqueta podría definirse como “no compartida”.
6. No se por qué, hay sistemas que te permiten etiquetas con espacio separadas por coma  y otros separan con espacio. Entre las primeras, wordpress, y entre los segundos, del.icio.us, youtube… Yo prefiero separar con comas y que se permitan espacios en las etiquetas.
7. Sería muy interesante poder incluir comentarios en los marcadores. Por ejemplo, si yo guardo un marcador que tienen otras 200 personas, cada uno de nosotros (y los visitantes de ese enlace) podríamos hacer un comentario en el link, aportando la opinión sobre el mismo, e incluso entablando ahí conversaciones.
8. Yo, que soy un poco narcisita, necesito estadísticas de visitas en mi página de marcadores sociales.

Bueno, por hoy, no más ideas. ¿Alguien coje el guante?

While doing research for the Social Media Plan paper, I discovered several Social Media SEO tools that I thought I’d share.

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To add the “Fave This Blog” button to my blog, I went to my Technorati account and clicked “[Edit]” (you will be on the “My Account” page). Then I went on to:

• Click “Blogs” tab
• Click
• Scroll down to code. Highlight and right click to copy the code.
• Paste it into a “Text” Widget (in WordPress “Design”).
• Click “Save Changes.

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To add RSS Feed Options (“Chicklets”) to my blog, I logged in at Feedburner and clicked “My Feeds” in the upper left hand corner. I then went on to:

• Click my blog name in the “Feed Title.”
• Click the “Publicize” tab.
• Scroll down to “Chicklet Chooser” on the left menu of Services.
• Choose the “Chicklet” …(code appears).
• Right click and highlight the code; paste it into a “Text” Widget (in WordPress “Design”) .
• Click “Save.”

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To add a Social Media bookmarking and sharing application button, I went to AddThis . I then went on to:

• Open an account.
• Click (do not enter a blog type.)
  

• Choose the button.
• Cut and paste the top code (in the box) into a “Text” Widget (in WordPress “Design”) .
• Click “Save.”

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To add a Digg button to a blog post, I went to WordPress FAQs. I then went on to:

• Register the blog post at Digg.com (clicking “Submit New” in the upper right-hand corner).
• Enter URL for the blog post, click “News Article” and click “Continue.”
• Enter Title and Description
• Choose Topic and “Submit Story.”
• Click “Totally Original, I Swear.”
• Click “My Profile” (upper right-hand corner).
• Click on the “1 digg” button; copy the URL.
• Paste URL into blog post–and put [digg=insert URL] around URL.
• Click “Save.”

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To Digg this post (for example) using the “Add This” button, click (the button is also on the right-hand column of this blog) and then click on the Digg link on the right column of the pop-up page (see copy of page below).

The “Add This” button links to 36 social media platforms (click here to see the platforms).