Computer and Web Articles

1. www.cupidtino.com - Coming June 2010: a new dating site specifically created for fans of Apple products. Must use Safari, an iPhone, or an iPad to access the site after the big launch. I’m not kidding. I’m being serious here.
2. http://tinyurl.com/2cy4mw7 - Learn how to remove those annoying, stubborn documents that get stuck in your printer’s queue.
3. http://tinyurl.com/28v4eod - Did you know that Facebook recently launched a new, simpler version of Facebook events?
4. http://vimeo.com/8699092 - “Underfull” is a tablecloth that actually turns spilling . . . into poetry. (It’s currently in prototype phase, but still quite a neat concept.)
5. http://tinyurl.com/ouyc8c - Helpful article sharing tips on writing effective business press releases in the age of Twitter.

1. www.cupidtino.com - Coming June 2010: a new dating site specifically created for fans of Apple products. Must use Safari, an iPhone, or an iPad to access the site after the big launch. I’m not kidding. Seriously.
2. http://tinyurl.com/2cy4mw7 - Learn how to remove a document stuck in your printer’s queue.
3. http://tinyurl.com/28v4eod - Did you know? Facebook recently launched a new, simpler version of Facebook events.
4. http://vimeo.com/8699092 - “Underfull” is a tablecloth that actually turns spilling . . . into poetry. (It’s currently in prototype phase, but still quite a neat concept.)
5. http://tinyurl.com/ouyc8c - Helpful article sharing tips on writing effective press releases in the age of Twitter.

When you put quotation marks around a set of words in your Google search box, you’re essentially telling Google to consider those exact words in that exact order without any changes whatsoever. You’re telling Google you mean serious business and you know exactly what you want to find.

It’s important to remember, though, that using quotes can potentially eliminate the exact results you may be searching for. Not good. Here’s an example.

Let’s say someone was stalking me. They want to locate every single instance of my name on the web and learn as much as possible about my life. So they head over to Google and, because they want to search specifically for me, they type in “Erin Pheil,” putting quotation marks around my name. Doing so means that they won’t be looking at results showing Rebecca Pheil or Erin Pfiel or anything else that’s … kind of close. All the results Google will list for my stalker will contain the exact phrase “Erin Pheil.”

So where’s the problem?

It’s quite possible that there are many pages on the web displaying my name—but doing so with, say, my middle initial. Or my full middle name. Unfortunately for my stalker, none of the pages on the web that showed my name only as Erin S. Pheil are going to show up in my stalker’s Google results. This is because by putting quotes around “Erin Pheil,” my stalker specifically told Google he wanted results with no other letters or words between the “Erin” and the “Pheil.”

On the other hand, if my stalker had instead searched for “Erin S. Pheil” (using the quotation marks, of course), he would have received zero results that displayed my name as “Erin Pheil.”

In sum: use quotation marks around sets of words when you’re searching—but use them wisely and be wary of the “you could be cutting out relevant results” pitfall.

I’ve mentioned this before and I now have reason to mention it again: if you care at all about your company’s blog, do not keep it on another company’s website. Don’t keep your business blog on Blogger. Don’t keep it on the WordPress.com website. Don’t keep it at Blogspot.com or Blog.com or Macpress.org.

First off, this practice is just straight unprofessional. It makes you look cheap. Yes, you were able to set up your blog for free—but everything from the URL that’s different than your main site’s URL site to the blog design that only vaguely resembles your main site’s design—well, it makes it pretty obvious you set it up for free.

Looking cheap, however, is not the main reason you should refrain from using a free blog service to host your blog. The main reason is: as long as the blog doesn’t live on your server, it’s not truly owned by you and you don’t have full control over it.

Last week one of our clients who had previously opted to use one of the free blog services mentioned above  learned this lesson the hard way. One afternoon she sat down to update her blog… only to find it was… gone. Poof. Nowhere to be found. The blog service hadn’t warned her that it was shutting down her blog, and she in fact remains in the dark as to why her site was taken down. The blog service hasn’t returned her communications. Her blog is gone—most likely for good.

Imagine how you’d feel and how your company would be affected if this happened to you. Imagine if all the time you’d spent updating and maintaining your company blog was thrown out with the trash.

If you have a company blog that you truly care about, I strongly recommend that that you house it on your own server. If at all possible, integrate it seamlessly into your company’s site so that it doesn’t feel like an awkward added appendage. Consider hiring an expert if you’re not sure how to do this on your own.

I’m well aware that the vast majority (if not all) of you will ignore my recommendation. Just keep my client’s recent experience in mind. Similar to the act of setting up a backup for your computer’s data, the effort involved with taking preventative steps to protect your blog seems like a waste of time…  And it will seem like a waste of time up until the morning you wake up to find that your blog is gone for good.

Let me let you in on a little secret: I’m afraid that Google is, well, how do I put this without hurting your feelings?  Well… it turns out that Google indifferent to a lot of the punctuation you’ve been using in your searches. There. I said it.  Google just doesn’t care. Don’t be offended; just keep this in mind as you work to become a better Google searcher.

Let’s say you forgot the (most common) color of the sky. You head over to Google and type “What color is the sky?” You didn’t do any harm or decrease the likelihood that you’d receive relevant results, but do know that Google just totally ignored your question mark. Acted as if it wasn’t even there, as if it didn’t even exist. You know, just like that one super-popular girl in high school.

Google doesn’t care about your exclamation marks. Put in two exclamation marks or put in fifty; Google couldn’t care less. Those commas, periods, and semicolons you’ve been using in your searches? Save ‘em for your emails.

Pound signs? Less than and greater than keys? They might as well be invisible unless you’re using Google Calculator.

What about quotation marks, you ask? Ahhhh. Great question. Hopefully your brain is remembering previous discussions we’ve had about the use of quotations marks in searches; Google absolutely, positively cares about quotation marks–and using them correctly can greatly increase the relevance of your search results.

We’ll have a refresher next Monday on the use of quotation marks in searches.  Stay tuned…

Yes, the glass-like translucency effects you see in Vista are nice. But they come with a price: their graphical fanciness slows down your system.

If you’re not married to Vista’s Aero-glass effects, consider disabling them to see if they’ve been slowing your computer down. (If turning off the glassy effects doesn’t seem to improve your computer’s speed, just turn them right back on.)

To disable the effects:

1. Right click on an empty area of your desktop, then click Personalize.
2. Click Window Color and Appearance.
3. Uncheck the Enable Transparency box.
4. Click a color you’d like to use for your Start menu and taskbar (you’ll need a solid color now that your transparency effect is going away).
5. Click OK and try using your computer for a day or so.

Did turning off the glitzy glassy effects make a noticeable difference? If yes, that’s great! If no, simply return to the Window Color and Appearance area and re-check the box next to Enable Transparency.

If you use Google on a regular basis, a Firefox add-on called CyberSearch might help make your searching experiences simpler and more efficient.

Installing CyberSearch 2.0.5 (download and install instructions here: http://tinyurl.com/3twze2) allows you to conduct quick Google searches in Firefox’s address bar (that bar at the top of your screen that displays the address of the website you’re viewing).

Let’s say you’ve gone ahead and installed CyberSearch. And let’s say that upon opening up Firefox you’ve suddenly decided you want to learn more about Whackbat. To search all the web, you’d click inside the address bar (or use the shortcut Ctrl + L) and type “gweb whackbat”. The gweb part just means you’re using Google (g) and you’re searching the whole web (web).

But perhaps you’re only interested in finding videos on how to play Whackbat. In this case, you’d type in “gvid whackbat”.

If you’re interested only in finding the latest Whackbat news headlines, you’d type in “gnews whackbat”.

Oh–you say you only wanted to see *images* of Whackbat? In that case, try typing “gimg whackbat”.

Only care about instances where people have mentioned Whackbat in blogs? You’d want to type this instead: “gblog whackbat”.

After using this quick-search functionality for a couple days, you’ll begin remembering the little “g-codes” to use in your searches. And remember, these searches are done right smack dab in the address bar at the top of your page. No need to go to Google.com.

And for those of you thinking “Why would I use this when I have the Google toolbar??” — the Google toolbar is all well and good if you conduct simple, standard web searches all day. But if you’d like to be able to quickly specify what type of results you’re interested in (images? blogs? videos? news?), CyberSearch adds that extra level of convenience.

1. http://tinyurl.com/ycgor3o - A *really* neat interactive signpost…that also just happens to be the world’s biggest signpost.
2. www.sonomabikes.com – Chainless bicycling. Yep, I said it. Chainless bicycling.
3. http://vimeo.com/9679622 - Short film showing a day in the life of NYC. The film is made out 35,000+ individual tilt-shift photos. Amazing, Amazing, AMAZING.
4. http://tinyurl.com/6bqc6f - Blog post by David Mihm: Local search ranking factors.
5. http://tinyurl.com/akcq35 - How to prevent competitors from seeing your Google Adwords ads.