Sometimes when I'm all alone, I Google myself!

Haven't you ever wondered if you were being talked about or if you were famous in some other part of the world, famous cause you did something awesome or talked about because you've achieved greatness? Oh well, aren't you ever curious, a little bit? Well I am and I have to break it you, my name is the MOST common one you'll come across in South India. Or atleast I believe so, no fact checking on this one!

On a more serious note, you can secretly 'listen' to what people are saying about you on the internet. It could also be about your business, your workplace, favourite products, anything at all.

But in case you wanted to know if you're being talked about on the internet, where would you go?  Here are a couple of online tools that I came across which seemed very interesting:

Google Search:  The obvious resource, won't you think of Google to search for the keywords whose results might interest you? You can use the 'past 24 hours' or 'sort by date' options to see the most recent results.

If people tend to misspell your name, like they do mine, use the real name and then input the misspelled version separated by OR.

Yahoo Alerts: If you are some sort of a celebrity, this is a fantastic option that'll alert you as soon as you or your brand are mentioned in the print media.

 

Facebook Public Search: Facebook as we all know is now being tracked not just by you and me but also by big companies and marketers. Use the search to learn whether you're being talked about on anyone's wall or page. Don't forget to use the 'posts by everyone' option.

 

 Yahoo Pipes: Use pipes to discover more and more blogposts. Some of which you wouldn't even know existed.

Yes, I'm not very popular on pipes. Good thing that.

StepRep: The online reputation management tool. I had no idea public relations got so big.  There's a directory of trusted experts to handle your business and you can turn every transaction ino an advertising opportunity.

Socialmention: I think the world is all about being social - on the internet. Try socialmention to see if you were mentioned on any website. It helps you track your name across varied social websites like Twitter, Digg, StumbleUpon and you can get alerts from this service as well!

There you go! So many ways to look up your name and anything else you care about. Be social, Google yourself and stay connected to what's being said on the internet.

All images are under the Creative Commons license 2.0

We are living in exponential times.

I am inspired. Not by a person but by people, all around me. This is not a cheesy line but something of an elaborate conclusion.

You have to see the video below. It is unbelievable and it'll make you think. Not just of today, not just of people around you but also about the future and where we're headed. The progression of information technology has never been better put before. Researched by Karl Fisch, Scott McLeod, and Jeff Bronman.

Did you know?

China will soon become the number one English speaking country in the world 

The 25% of India's population with the highest IQ's is greater that the total population of the United States. Translation: India has more honours kids than America has kids.

We are currently preparing students for jobs that don't...using technologies that haven't been invented ... in order to solve problems that we don't even know are problems yet.

The #1ranked country in Broadband internet penetration is Bermuda 

There are 31 billion searches on Google every month. In 2006 this number was 2.7 billion.

The first text message was sent in December of 1992. Today, the number of text messages sent and received exceeds the total population of the planet.

There are about 540,000 words in the English Language. About 5X as many during Shakespeare's time.

It is unbelievably true. We are living in times where change is the only the thing that's constant. Everyday we evolve and so do the things around us.  And with technology, it doesn't evolve, it grows - exponentially! 

Let's take the example of computers and mobiles: the laptop first came into existence in 1981 by Adam Osborne. Progressing from an earlier version called Dynabook in 1968. Today as we enter 2010, there are more than 8,745,693 laptops in the world! (Source: Wikianswers) In the start of this year more that 950 million mobile phones were sold! The number continues to grow everyday.

Mobiles have ceased to be the boon of the erstwhile 'first-world country'. Third-world countries have now become the favourite haunts of tech companies. In Kenya, one in three adults own a mobile device! The world as I see it, will continue to experience tremendous growth and every device that hits the ground will multiply in sales and grow exponentially!

Companies know that in countries like Japan, China and Korea most people use the mobile phone as the means to connect to the internet and are slowly realizing the full potential of driving advertising and sales revenues on the new medium. Obviously, they want revenues to grow exponentially! People have started to get 'social' through mobiles as well. According to eMarketer, in a article titled 'Mobile Plus Social Equals Opportunity' predicts that the number of mobile phone users accessing social networks from their mobile devices will reach 607.5 million worldwide by 2013!

Numbers with four zeros at the end multiply and see millions in matter of a few years.  Devices that are new and  awesome today are obsolete in the next. Everyday we hear of a new innovation, a new mind, a novel idea being put to test. Even if we're assured that tomorrow is not promised to us, let's wait for the question mark to fade away and see in its place, the light of something new and exciting.



We are living in exponential times and there is no denying that.

Meet BillMonk

Unlike the bald man Max Brenner who made chocolate so awesome, there is one other bald man who has piqued my interest lately - meet BillMonk.

He is the virtual money man for me - okay not really cause I have just started to use his services - but well, let me tell you more. In case you are like me and interact with a lot of friends, meet and socialize very often, you may have the usual 'let's settle bills' awkwardness or the 'hey! when can I get back the book you borrowed from me?' weirdness, BillMonk is the man for you.

About BillMonk: The description on the website goes like this - 'Whose turn is it to pay for pizza? How much do you I owe you for rent? No idea? Let BillMonk help you keep track of money that you've borrowed or loaned, and eliminate the awkwardness of mixing money and friends.


Use it to keep track of IOUs, and shared bills like beer, food, or utilities. Let us deal with the pain of money math and reminders, so you can concentrate on the beer and not who paid for it.'

Using BillMonk is easy, you have two main options: Money and Library. The money option helps you report a bill, shuffle debts and settle with Obopay.

The library option helps you, every time you loan a very rare edition of your favourite comic book that you are very possessive about. Use BillMonk to make life easier for you, keep a track of who has your dearly beloved books and get them back! So you're minimizing weirdness in everyway!

If this description of their application sounds cool, wait! there's more! They also have an sms feature! Its automated so you can record bills on-the-go using your mobile phone! The facebook app goes a long way as well, so incase you love being social, why not try this too!? Also, to keep updated with information on Billmonk and to keep a tab on user comments and ideas, you can also follow them on twitter. Follow BillMonkFriends. Read their blog that tells you more about the startup and the implications of social money.

So why not try this application that makes sharing mean everything you've ever wanted it to be! Spread the word and use BillMonk so that the next time you can spend and share without worrying about being square.

Watch this video about BillMonk and its co-founders: newbie entrepreneurs and a cool tool. Awesome.




* Images are under the creative commons license.

Social Siberia

While I thought of how we used the term, I read that 'Social Siberia' isn't just a metaphor.  The New York Times  reported that people who face social rejection perceived a 5 degree drop in temperature, in the lab and have hot food cravings. 'Warm welcome' and 'cold shoulder' seemed to relate to physical reality, according to the research.  So taking this information, I drift away and think of the metaphor as a reality of my world. Research or no research, I feel like there's more to it.

I've heard people use the above term numerous times before and now I can finally say it makes sense. It's like experiencing a new wave of media that is making being 'social' very different from how it used to be.

The term 'social' in the days of yore - no I don't mean centuries ago, let's switch back to a decade - meant that I got out on a Friday/Saturday night all excited about looking nice and meeting people, checking out a new restaurant/club and just 'schmoozing'.

For those of you who aren't aren't aware of the term, Schmoozing means to 'converse casually especially in order to gain an advantage or make a social connection.'

But with the rise of the new media, my being social has narrowed down to Facebook. Well, most may argue that there is orkut, tagged, bebo, hi5 and all those numerous other social networking sites, but honestly, to keep one profile up and running is a task. It seems to me that we're definitely looking at a necessary evil. With obstacles like distance, time and place, people are now using the internet not just as a means to keep in touch with friends and loved ones, but also to be social and well, fall in love.

Does this not feel like it's the end of the world? This is it all - this is Social Siberia. We're not meeting people anymore we don't see and get the real thing. It's like reading a book. I know you're awesome Kindle and I'm glad I can carry you around and fit you into almost anything, but will you take me to another world and make me feel as involved as a book does? - I think not.

I know our world is now all about advancement and moving into the new and upcoming, but what we're losing along the way is reality coupled with experience. I like being social but it's like we're always one shot away from the real deal as we sit comfortably on our couch and say 'I love you' to someone we've  never met in person. I'm not discounting the fact that social networks have made it easier for people to talk and discover but they're bringing about 'connected cocooning' where we're just getting more distant - from friends, family and all the people we love.

iGoogle to Making Wave(s)!

If there is one company that is making waves it's - Google, again.

Google is all set to introduce to the world of new media and the internet their latest offering - Google Wave.  The developers call it a communication and collaboration tool. It's all set to  be an open source application and is already making waves in the internet world. The best part is, it isn't available  to everyone yet - it is by invite only. 

I was lucky enough to receive an invite to view Google Wave quite early on and I realized that I had a couple of invites that I could send out as well. I wanted to check with other people I knew, if they did send out the invites as yet. As I spoke to people I knew over the phone, I realized that there was a bigger conversation happening all over blogs and the internet: people were ready to pay for the invites!


"Google Wave invite selling for $70 on eBay " - I looked at at the headline and thought to myself, there is always a larger conversation happening elsewhere! A peek into new and upcoming technology makes most tech lovers go weak in their knees and gets them very liberal with their wallets. Google has always made their position on this clear and so have they with the terms for using Google Wave as well - Users are prohibited to "sell, trade, resell or otherwise exploit the Service for any unauthorized commercial purpose." Though this has been clearly mentioned, 19 bids have been made and the auction is still on.


We have seen the rise of the many products that Google has developed, this one seems to be just as exciting. Just the thought of doing everything in real-time, is amazing. It'll kill the barriers of distance, time and resources. People will be able to collaborate and share rich text, videos, gadgets, etc. Looks like its not just iGoogle anymore.


While the saga continues, everyone awaits with bated breath to see what the internet behemoth will bring on next. Something most Tech Pundits vouch will send ripples throughout the world. 



Google Wave - its shared and its live. Ask me if you want an invite, be nice to me, don't buy it online and I'll see what I can do :D


Article written by Soumya Rao for Digitally - a tech magazine inspired by opinions on technology and more, Alternatively to be published on Topicbean - the website for the new topic.

Click-ed!!

I use Picasa a lot - both the desktop and the web album versions. I was heartbroken when Picasa reminded me that as I was using space more than 1GB, I will be required to buy the extra space that I need. This free service, wasn't free anymore. Hmmpf.

As I thought of what I could use as a next best alternative, I was reminded that my most recent online habits tell me that I use facebook quite often to upload pictures that I want my friends to see! So I went ahead and uploaded the pictures to my facebook albums instead of Picassa web albums.

Now came the issue of backup. With Picasa, it saves the album on the desktop and then uploads it online, but with Facebook I was worried that should my account get suspended, I'd be done for!

I found an interesting way to solve this on my friends reading list.

Reasons you may want to save your albums:

• For viewing pictures even while you are offline.
• For sharing photo albums with family members who aren’t very active on social sites. Just download a local copy of your Facebook albums and send them as email attachments or burn a DVD.
• You have decided to close your Facebook account and therefore need a quick mechanism to move all your existing Facebook albums to another photo sharing website (like Flickr).
• For offline backup.

And to make all the above reasons worthwhile, try Fotobounce - it's a free application to download your albums and save them to your desktop!
'You can download old photos, upload new ones to the web or simply view your existing photo albums as a slideshow without downloading them locally.
Fotobounce also includes built-in face recognition (similar to what you have in Google’s Picasa Albums) so you can quickly tag photos on the desktop and these people tags will be preserved even when the photos are uploaded on to Facebook.'*
So the next time a free software, isn't free anymore, try looking out for some other way to help you recover from the heartbreak and trust me there's always a way out, only if you really look for it.
*Description from the official Fotobounce website.

Browse the Browser

The 'browser' is a very important part of our internet experience. It's very important that I use a browser that suits my use as best possible and that it helps me keep my surfing experience the best that it can be. Here's my take on the browsers I've used:

If you like a clean interface with little or no browser 'frills' try Google Chrome. It's fast, simple and stylish. You can get themes to make the simplistic chrome interface a little more interesting.

If you are the type who like customizing your browser as much as you probably can, try Mozilla Firefox. Its got themes, skins, a large no. of add-ons and everything you need to make your browser as interesting as it can be! The nicest add-ons for example are the ones where you can control itunes or any other media player right from your browser, so you do not have to disrupt your browsing experience to play, pause or stop a song.

If you love to be 'social' try Flock- the social web browser. It's built on Mozilla Forefox but its caption reads; Stay connected. Rule the web. The browser enables using facebook, twitter, etc. a lot more interesting and worthwhile! Become a flockstar!

If you don't care to exemplify your browing experience and are happy with status quo, you can always stick with Internet Explorer. While all windows run systems will come with the browser, make sure you visit the web to engage in making the browser work better for you. You can for example get it optmised by Google, that will help you use the search engine and toolbar with the browser. You can take a look at it here.

If you are an Apple user, Safari is always reliable. But in case you like the browser a lot, the PC user also can get the Apple experience by downloading and using this browser.

There you go with my views on 'browse the browser'. Make using the internet and the web a pleasurable experience! - Webeasily!

Travel. Learn. Discover

When people ask me: What will you do if you come into a lot of money?

My answer is simple: I will travel far and wide!

There is something exhilarating about travelling and seeing places. It not only helps you discover the earth and its myriad ways but also helps you learn so much about the history, geography and other small things that seem so trivial and are yet so very important about every place we visit. We don't just discover the place, we learn more of our likes and dislikes, people and things that make us happy and other land and water choices that we make. It's unbelievable.

The Internet has opened up a very useful and resourceful place, not just for the producers of services but has also (with the advent of Web 2.0) opened up a space for travelogues and other travel blogs that are based on personal experiences and sharing the same in a community setting. This consumer-centric view of services that are made available makes the information a lot more reliable as people have already experienced the place, hotels, travel that are in discussion.

Ergo, I have decided to look up websites in the travel vertical. They are as follows:

From India: www.okatatabyebye.com (the name cracks me up as well!)

From Australia: www.austtravel.com.au (I haven't used many travel sites in Australia)

From the US: www.tripadvisor.com (This site is the reason I'm inspired to use travel sites in the first place.)

Go online the best way possible

Tripadvisor.com is known all over the world to be the 'mother of all sites' so to speak. It has a clean, informative yet interactive landing page and like oktatabyebye.com has most of the necessary information that include trip ideas, travel guides, reviews all above the fold. In web jargon, above the fold is the top part of the website that a user can see when they and on your website. Every visitor comes to your website with a goal: For example, honest hotel reviews. In both websites, the search box is placed above the fold and oktatabyebye has bold tags displayed right below it to entice the user and provide a search history of terms that the user might be interested in. On the other hand, austtravel alo has links above the fold on the right but there are way too many links which may distract/alter the reader's attention. The website however is a informative website rather than a travel community. All three sites also use simple sentence structures and adopt a conversational, friendly style of writing. While all three websites limit scrolling, one would notice that tripadvisor and oktatabyebye are community websites and will therefore have information updated more often by travellers who have something to say and review right after every trip.

Working with design

Of the three websites, tripadvisor wins on popularity grounds. It also goes to say that the design elements are excellent and the immaculate work of the web design shows: neat, scroll over reviews, good clarity images and good usability features. The use of images in oktatabyebye.com seem to be in the right places, thought I would have preferred that the 'travel picture for the day' found a spot above the fold. If you look more closely, you notice that the most important information retains its place right on top of the website. It has a whole list of travel blogs to follow (ones that keep up with the same theme), newsletter subscriptions and a travel photo gadget that changes everyday. These small nuances make the website very personal and reliable.

Page templates in tripadvisor seem to be of a very high resolution and good design but may take a long time to load for a user with limited bandwidth; austtravel on the other hand uses a clean and low resolution website that seems easy to load with stationery images and low interaction.

Scannability and Navigation

Scannability and navigation in case of oktatabyebye seems to be the best. It provides all limited but necessary information right on the landing page and helps the user navigate to other sections based on what he is looking for. The ability to navigate in the website and navigation to other external links hosted seems well thought out in all cases. While tripadvisor and oktatabyebye.com navigate the user to mostly in-website content, austtravel seems to use a lot of external links that help the user navigate to other related websites. This may be differentiated based on the objectives that each of the sites adopt: Community based vs. information portal.

Austtravel seems to have both the elements of linking. One, it uses hypertext efficiently as a pertinent part of the document and provides other additional links in the web page margin or right at the end of the page. Scannability in case of this site however leaves a lot to be desired. If we consider that on the web a reader follows a 'F' pattern, it is vital that all the most important information and links are be put right on top. The font-size in the website could be enlarged to improve scannability.

Writing to be read

It is said that the best place to start is at the beginning. Headlines, captions and subheads make reading a lot more interesting if you look at this as a whole-website point of view, you'll notice the following about the three websites:

Oktatabyebye.com

The domain name or the name of the website to me seems very interesting. It seems to me that is peculiar, weird and funny to use the words: ok, tata, bye in the name of a website! But what I can also tell you is this: In India, it is very common for people to use the phrase 'Ok, tata' to mean 'Goodbye, I'll see you soon!'

The name will not only help a particular savvy, niche audience to want to see the website but it also appeals to the masses. They will relate to the website because of it's name: A phrase often used by the junta (common man). What one can immediately notice is that there's a para that works as an introduction for the website: The online travel community for travellers to find and share personal travel experiences, honest hotel reviews, holiday travel ideas and travel advice on India destinations and cities.

Austtravel.com.au

This website is named the 'Australian Travel Emporium'. If the title as clear and easy to understand as is this one does not excite you much - the caption under it, definitely will: Australia's no. 1 resource for destination planning and travel reservations.

It is a site mainly for travel, tours and accommodation in Australia. Above the fold the website has quick links to the states in Australia on top and accommodation on the right. On scrolling below, there are a couple more booking and insurance quick links. When I evaluate the style of writing, it hits me almost immediately. This site seems like a report. Impersonal but states the facts.

Tripadvisor.com

I have used this website numerous times. If travel advice is what you're looking for, then this is THE website. As its grown through the years and has become more and more popular it has features worldwide. every country featured and information provided on the same is worth relying on. As it's caption says: 'Get the truth, then go.'

To immediately attract a reader's attention it says: Get advice from real travellers - more than 15,000,000 travellers from 190 countries planned trips this week. Such a large number of users sharing information makes the website an enviable source of information. The style of writing also moves from austtravel's factual presentation(though it makes for friendly reading) to a more user-based experience sharing mode.

Credibility

Overall, oktatabyebye seems to have the right element at the right place. Below the fold, you not only find external links to travelogues and maps but also find a community guidelines section. I find this a very necessary and important part of the website. This is where I love to evaluate web-writing. This section seems to be written like as if it were an indivual or a group(most likely who have a passion to travel) reaching out to readers not a large company that you as a user can never reach out to or get a hold of. The friendly, conversational style of writing makes you want to be a member and contribute to the growth and success of the website by sharing travel ideas, reviews, etc. People tend to overlook the guidelines and almost skip reading them as they are usually elaborate and long. I like that here they stick to 2 main guidelines around: what's important and what's not.

The website has an objective to drive a U2U kind of forum setup where the members of the community discuss, answer and provide solutions of various queries based on personal experiences. Therefore the few but important rules that are laid down enhance the credibilty of the site.

Tripadvisor's popularity must talk volumes about the credibilty of the website. Its reviews, travel ideas and discussions are reliable and gives you all the information you need. User reviews are the best in all sections.

Austtravel does not seem like the largest source of information to plan your trip: accomodation and bookings incuded. In case you don't know where to go the website enhances its credibilty by providing additional information sources for a user.

Writing to be found

The most important thing for a website is to be found. Tripadvisor does not need to be found anymore, it been around a while now and tops most search engine results. Keyword optimisation in this case seems top-notch and the familiarity of using this site has grown every year.

Oktatabyebye limits to searches of Indian cities and travel within India but does highlight the more important elements on the page. Austtravel uses hypertext well and usage of superlatives trigger a larger response for searches and may query a user right to the website.

While I have mentioned a few ways that these websites can be better under each criteria to write for the web, in terms of usabilty and writing for the web, I can summarize my evaluation by saying: Tripadvisor is probably the best in the business as it has the best usabilty and scannability characteristics in place, while Oktatabyebye and Austtravel, though with distinct objectives, can use many ways to improve usability and popularity: Font sizes, image clarity, keyword optimization, page template arrangements are the various aspects that can be looked into to engage readers better.

References:

Writing for the web by Jakob Nielsen, distinguished engineer; P.J Schemenaur, technical editor, and Jonathan Fox, editor-in-chief www.sun.com.

Don't remember events easily?

Well I have a pea-sized brain or basically it has way too much information to remember and keep upto speed with every event/meeting/birthday coming up. Sometimes I remember the event that I am supposed to attend but I forget the venue. Similarly, I remember to put an update day before on my phone to remind myself about a friends birthday, but my awesome brain makes it impossible for me to remember my friends birthday, well... on their birthday!

So here's a simple answer for those of you who face the same issue as I do:

Google Calendar!

Without me explaining this further, feel free to watch a video that explains some basics.

Always rememeber to update your mobile setup. To do this, all you need to do is go to the settings tab on the top right corner and enter your phone details. You can now customize your calendar and each event in your calendar to receive reminder emails or smses as suited.

The first few days when I didn't know where I was supposed to be, right in time I'd have the phone buzz as my calendar reminded me where I ought to be at that time and also that I'll miss out on an event if I don't move in the next 30 mins!How you use Google Calendar is more about what's important to you, what you need to be reminded of and how you want to be organized.

Glossary of often used terms

I just thought that the best way to start off this post, whose title is self-explantory ;), would be to introduce for some and refresh for the others, all the terms we may need to familiarize ourselves with, that are oft used on the web:

URL: Universal Resource Locator and in terms we are more likely to understand - a web page address :D For example: http://www. abcd.com

In this again:
http is hyper text transfer protocol
www is the world wide web
abcd.com is the domain name

HTML: Hypertext markup language which helps us define the page layout, fonts and graphic elements as well as the hypertext links to other documents on the Web.

In this again:
Hypertext is an umbrella term for all links. It transfers the reader to related information on the web.

WYSIWYG: Problogger explains this best:

WYSIWYG stands for What You See Is What You Get. This acronym is used to distinguish a category of various media editors (graphics editors and text editors, for example), which represent the content you edit in almost the same way as the final product.

For instance, if you're talking about a WYSIWYG text editor, this implies that you're going to see your text on your screen in the same way it will look when you print it out – the same families and sizes of fonts, the same formatting, etc.

RSS:

Really simple syndication or the generally used term feeds. RSS benefits readers who want to subscribe to timely updates from favoured websites or to aggregate feeds from many sites into one place.

Feeds is what helps us read all our subscriptions to various blogs in Google reader. We can also go a step ahead and look for websites that interest us on various topics and subscribe to their feeds. Looking at one place i.e. the reader will help you update yourself on all the new content and information that is available on your favourite websites.

Now I can't think anything more, but as and when I do, I'll make sure I update this post. My posts going forward will be on some tools that help ease your way on the web and in life in general.

Webeasily FAQs

What is this blog about?
This blog is aimed to be a one-stop shop for easy and exciting web navigation. As we all watch the new medium of publishing come to life, we'll also try to learn about what it has on offer and be a part of this new and defining sphere.

What are its aims?
This blog aims to:
> answer simple web-related questions.
> provide a sneak peek on all the tools and ways you can make web-publishing exciting!
> make aware of all the resources available to make surfing the web easier in all ways possible.

Who is behind it?
Easywebber is a profile of a digital media enthusiast who is looking to make life easier for others on the web and share information and knowledge on things related to the web world, while keeping the learning up for herself!

Why are you here?
If you are NOT in my digital media class and reading this blog anyway, I'm happy that you are an interesting web surfer (or a bored, has nothing better to do person :P ) taking time to read all the exciting tools and make using the web easier and more beneficial for you. If you decide to follow my blog, well... what can I say? - Webeasily!

Blogging is easy!

New to online publishing and blogging?

Don't worry it's easy!

1. Go to blogspot.com

2. Sign in with your gmail address. (In case you don't have one, create it prior to signing up. Get your gmail account now!)
3. Follow the steps given and you're ready!

:D