Grab Bag: Your Seven Links of the Week

Posted in: Website Links

  1. http://tinyurl.com/yhxodbz - And here we go, everyone. Here’s the obligatory “best gadgets to give as gifts for the holidays” Gift Guide article you’ve been waiting for! Courtesy of CNet. Make sure you check out their Stocking Stuffer suggestions.
  2. http://vimeo.com/28962540 - A great find courtesy of the Etre Blog, this video shows you how technology can render synthetic objects into legacy photographs. In other words, this is the technology “that has product placement companies salivating.”
  3. http://tinyurl.com/7r4mhw3 - A colorful, fun infographic comparing the Internet in 1996 to the Internet in 2011.  Most popular site back in 1996?  AOL.  Most popular site in 2011? Google.  Average page load time in 1996? 30 seconds.  Average page load time in 2011? 6 seconds.  (Six seconds is still a bit too high for me.)
  4. http://tinyurl.com/7wvnlcz - The “new” SEO. Take everything you know. Now throw in some branding, some user behavior, and some social factors. Mix it up and then get back to work on improving your search engine rankings.
  5. www.iGrillinc.com – Are you a griller?  Would you like to be able to monitor your food without getting up off the couch (so long as the couch isn’t more than two hundred feet away?) The iGrill is an app-enabled, meat and fish, wireless thermometer that works with Applie iPod Touches, iPones, and iPads via Bluetooth.  Dual probe capacity, works as a standalone thermometer, alerts you when your food is ready, and comes in your choice of black or white.
  6. http://tinyurl.com/7fh9f5c - Spend a lot of time in the kitchen (but grilling and the iGrill aren’t up your alley)?  Belkin now offers a $39.99 Fridge/Cabinet Mount for your iPad2. No tools or hardware needed, no permanent installation required, no surface damage when it’s removed.
  7. www.ChefSleeve.com - Spend a lot of time in the kitchen but don’t care about grilling and don’t have a desire to mount your iPad2 to a cabinet or fridge?  If you’d like to better protect your iPad from goop and goo and crumbs and spills and grease, take a look at the iPad Chef Sleeve. It’s a smart, exceptionally designed clear plastic sleeve with a perfect fit that allows you to “easily grip your iPad while providing coverage for all output/input ports. Just slide your iPad into a sleeve, peel off the resealable strip to close, and you’re ready to go.”  You can recycle the sleeves when you’re done.

Grab Bag: Your Five Links of the Week

Posted in: Web Info, Tips & Tricks

  1. www.TheColorOf.com — What is the color of summer? Of happiness? Of fear? What is the color of school? Of work? Of Monday? This simple site attempts to answer these questions. Type a word into the box on the homepage and the site will look through search results to find associated colors, all the while building a beautiful, digital painting right before your eyes of its interpretation. Make sure you take a minute to browse the gallery.
  2. http://tinyurl.com/6djtqvb — Where and when did you learn to open doors? I’m going to go ahead and guess that you didn’t learn how to open doors in the proper manner. Good thing this 1979 Finnish instructional video, helmed by a man with the most fantastic of mustaches, walks you through the correct manner in which you should open all outward-opening doors. Super awesome.
  3. www.Grasshopper.com — Grasshopper is an entrepreneur’s/small business owner’s phone technology dream with “all the features to run your business from anywhere with no hardware to purchase.” Get your calls, voicemails and faxes anywhere — and oh so much more. Plans range from $9.95/month up to $199/month and come absolutely overflowing with features. We’re talking unlimited extensions, on-hold music, conference calling, customized call forwarding and screening, read-your-voicemails technology, fax on demand, true 800 number, number portability and even informational extensions that let your callers learn everything they need to know, from your hours of operation to driving directions to product descriptions.
  4. www.GetConcentrating.com — (For Mac users only!) An impressive online tool that eliminates distractions and allows you to work (or study) more productively. If you might benefit from a good distractions-prevention tool, I recommend popping over and watching the homepage intro video to get a better idea of how Concentrate could help your productivity. You can sign up for a 60-day free trial and, if you like it, purchase a license for $29. (Family license packs are offered for $44.)
  5. http://tinyurl.com/7c25cbv — Is link building a part of your SEO strategy? Do you spend time each month reaching out to other websites in hopes of increasing your site’s total number of inbound links? If so, do you ever feel frustrated because a large number of your link requests fail? This blog post by Ken McGaffin of WordTracker walks you through 10 possible reasons your link requests are failing and how you can address each issue to increase your link building success.