Computer and Web Articles

Social bookmarking is a method that exists so that Web users around the world can be exposed to sites of interest they otherwise might not encounter. It’s just like normal bookmarking, but with a sharing (social) component to it! Social bookmarking also …

1. Allows web users to bookmark and track sites of interest for personal use – similar to using the normal Favorites and Bookmark buttons in common browsers.
2. Goes beyond the “normal” bookmarking of your standard Favorites and Bookmark tools by allowing sites of interest to be searched for and shared with other Web users.
3. Usually incorporates “tags.” Tags are nothing more than keywords related to each bookmarked site or page that allow for easier, more effective searching.
4. Often exists within sites that employ voting systems so that users can indicate which bookmarks they found most interesting. The bookmarked sites or pages with the highest ratings are given more prominence and exposure to even more people within these social bookmarking sites.

Stay tuned next week for an explanation of how to get involved with social bookmarking…

I recently came across a blog post that recommended keeping records of conversations with customer service representatives with the help of a handy Excel spreadsheet file. The strategy and associated spreadsheet are simple and effective.

Interested? Read the short post and download the spreadsheet for free right here: http://tinyurl.com/lstpfs.

Question:
I’d like to be able to listen to new music that I like for free without having to use iTunes. I’ve heard there are sites out there that play music based on what you tell them you like to listen to. Do you know of any sites like this?

Answer:
Sure. There are indeed quite a few sites out there that offer customized-just-for-your playlists that allow you to listen to, rate, and purchase new music based on your existing musical preferences. My personal favorite is Pandora (www.pandora.com). Just pop in the name of an artist or band you enjoy, turn your speakers up, and leave the rest to Pandora. And yep, it’s free.

Gickr.com lets everyday people instantly create animated photos (i.e., mini photo-slideshows) for their websites, to send to friends via email, and for Facebook, MySpace, and Flickr accounts, etc.

Choose up to 10 images or photos you’d like your image to animate through, choose your image size, then choose the animation’s speed. Easy!

Gickr even provides you with the code you need to drop your animated photos into sites like Friendster, WordPress, Orkut, Hi5, and LiveJournal.

Check it out at www.gickr.com.

Your business’s website patiently sits around 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year – existing solely to provide your customers and potential customers with useful information. Hopefully your website is well-designed and easy to use so that there are no obvious, large barriers keeping your site’s visitors from being able to find the information they’re looking for (or coming across the information you want them to see!)

If you’re not an expert on websites, though, how can you tell if your site is as effective as it could be? How can you tell if an unhealthy website is potentially hurting your business? It can sometimes be tough to receive objective, unbiased information from your own webmaster, as he/she will often assure you that your site is just about the best thing since sliced bread. It can also be challenging to accurately decipher your site’s analytics and statistics – if you’re even able to get a hold of them, that is!

For these reasons timeforcake has set up a free online service that allows you to learn more about your business website’s health and effectiveness. Simply visit www.WebsiteHealthCheckup.com and find out if your website has issues that are keeping it from being the effective marketing tool it has the potential to be.

Question: I was wondering if you knew of a way I could send text messages to my friends when I’m on my computer? I figured there had to be a way to do it but I haven’t been able to figure it out. Can you help? (And I would prefer the cost to be free.)

Answer: I can help. The solution is www.sendafreesms.com – free, spam-free text messaging direct from your computer.

A few things to keep in mind when using this service:

1. You must know the carrier of your friend’s cell phone in order to successfully send a message.
2. Don’t forget to enter in the phone number as numbers only (no dashes, spaces, etc.)
3. Prior to sending your message, you’ll be asked to enter a pin number. You can find this pin number at the top of the form (the pin number changes from day to day).
4. If you submit your information and it goes through successfully, you’ll see a “Message Sent” confirmation. If you don’t see this confirmation, it means there was an error in one of the fields you filled out, so try again.

Head over to www.shorttext.com and you’ll find a surprisingly stripped-down interface. Don’t let the visual simplicity of this site fool you, though; shorttext.com is quite the powerful little tool.

Post text, images, and video online by doing nothing more than pasting your content into the big text field on the page and clicking the “Create URL” button. No sign ups. No sign in. Just an instant web presence and a link you can share with others on the world wide web with absolutely minimum thought and effort.

Check one of the boxes at the bottom of the page if you’d like to allow people to comment on your content or if you’d like to make your URL private (and then choose your password).

Simple, easy, free. Take a look and consider bookmarking www.shorttext.com; it’s likely to come in handy at some point during your online journeys.

These days, who doesn’t want to save time? (And if you were being cheeky just then and answered “me” in response to my generic opening question there, you can just go ahead and skip this entry.)

If you’re not already doing so, I recommend taking advantage of at least one of the many online solutions that can help keep your bills and bill payments organized and up to date.

Paytrust (www.paytrust.com) is a popular example of such a site. For either $4.95 or $12.95 a month (see their “Learn More” page for the plans’ details), Paytrust offers a complete bill management solution for people like yourself. All your bills arrive online, meaning no more lost bills or late payments.

Review, pay, and organize your bills from one secure, convenient, online location. Plus, Paytrust offers a “SmartBalance” feature, which provides you with the most up-to-date, accurate picture of your bank balance by keeping track of your online bank account activity in addition to you bill payment records.

Let’s say …

You’ve put your road bike up for sale on Craigslist and know that people will be asking lots of questions …. or …

You’re asked to fill out a form requesting a good deal of personal information in order to enter a contest with an amazing prize… or …

A handsome yet somewhat questionable fellow at the bar states he’s not leaving you alone until you give him your phone number…

In each of the situations you’d probably prefer to not share your actual phone number, yet providing a fake one could very well come back to bite you in the butt. Thank goodness for LetsCall.me.

LetsCall.me is a free service that allows you to accept calls anonymously. This means that it can be easy and safe for others to call you — without you having to share your phone number.

With no Caller ID blocking, you’ll always know who’s calling, you can keep unwanted callers from reaching you by blocking their numbers, and the web address you hand out in lieu of a number is actually easier to remember.

Just visit http://letscall.me, pick your very own URL (like letscall.me/caketime, for example), and then instead of giving out your phone number, just share your letscall.me address. Simple, easy, free.