As many of us are already aware, anything that we can make viral is usually a good thing. With sites such as YouTube, College Humor, Vimeo and others taking charge, it seems as if video is the wave of the future. However, for those of us who are new to the whole YouTube experience or for those of us who may not have any experience uploading and/or editing our own videos, have no fear.
YouTube is now offering users the option of editing their videos online using a new video editor. Hopefully, this editor will prove to be less of a hassle than other video editing software (which supposedly, it is). You can start using the new video editor by going to TestTube. Some of the features of this editor include:
Combine multiple videos you’ve uploaded to create a new, longer video
When was the last time someone hacked into one of your online social media profiles? Your e-mail? A different online account? It’s not uncommon for search engines to take information from people and use it to build a profile of its users. For example, all it would take is an email address or account with a particular website and *POOF*! Suddenly, you’re being monitored. However, while some of it is harmless, there are other people out there who will use the information that they find out about you to do bad things (i.e. hack into your profiles, etc.). To this end, the following are a few quick tips for protecting yourself while surfing the web:
Automatic Logins- Although they can be incredibly convenient, it’s probably for the best if you leave this box unchecked the next time a website prompts you to “remember you” for the next time you login. If anything, give your brain a little exercise by trying to remember your own password without the computer’s help.
History- Always make sure to clear your history of the sites that you’ve visited at the end of each day. Doing so will help prevent others from seeing what sites you were on.
IP Address- Your IP address is like a personal stamp telling others who you are. If you’re really concerned about someone tracking your online trails, you can always invest in software to help prevent this from happening. Software such as Mask My IP (MMIP), or Anonymous IP may help.
Cookies- Everyone loves cookies; but when it comes to the Internet, cookies can be a bad thing as they often allow websites and/or marketers to create a profile of you based on the information you have provided and your browsing patterns. Therefore, you’ll want to make sure that when you clear your history, you also clear your cookies as well.
Auto Complete- Again, this is a really helpful tool (especially when you can’t remember the full name of something you’re looking up). However, when you have auto complete as well as automatically saved logins, then you have a recipe for disaster. Make sure you change the settings on your computer to turn this feature off!
If you have ever authored a blog or owned a website, then chances are that you’ve received some sort of commentary via the contact form on your site. Typically, the form will require the person’s name and email address…but have you ever wished that you could receive more information from your contact forms- information that would actually tell you a little more about how people are finding you?
Best Contact Form May Quite Possibly be “the best”
Best Contact Form was developed in order to better analyze converting traffic versus simply analyzing all traffic. For those of you out there who own a business and have an active website, this is great news because Best Contact Form helps you by gathering valuable marketing data based on people submitting contact forms on your website. Now, you can know exactly where your target audience is coming from, the time of day that they seem most likely to visit your website as well as a plethora of other information!
What Can Best Contact Form Tell You?
Some of the neat things that you can find out from these forms include (but are not limited to):
Which keywords visitors used to find your web site
Which search engine they used
Whether the link used was organic or PPC based
The landing page on tour web site
The full referrer (without truncation)
The geographic location, plotted on a map
The person’s web browser information
The person’s operating system
The person’s screen resolution
Which keywords are converting into sales
The date and time each form was submitted
In addition, all submissions are automatically archived and can be exported to CSV; and all of the contact forms also have the option for built-in SPAM protection as well. What’s not to like about that? Visit the Best Contact Form website to read up on more of the features and benefits that it has to offer; or, for those who want something more visual, you can watch the video to see how it all works.
You would be amazed to find out just how much personal information is collected every time you log on to your computer to use the Internet. Recently, I came across an article from Palaestra Training that talks about some ways that you can cover your online tracks. Below are five of the tips that they provide. To read the full article, click here.
5 Ways to Cover Your Tracks
Remove Your Most Recently Used (MRU) List: Yes, it may be difficult to believe, but information can be had from your most recently used list. In order to remove or clear this list, click here.
Make Your IP Address Private: Did you know that your IP address is recorded in things such as e-mail headers, discussion boards and mail servers? Your IP address is typically recorded whenever you visit a website and leave a comment and can also tell others what pages you’ve viewed and any transactions that you make (which is pretty scary considering the fact that we use our computers to conduct many personal transactions). That being said, you can actually install software that will hide your IP, such as MMIP or Anonymous IP.
Delete Your Cookies! Most people nowadays are at least somewhat familiar with what ‘cookies’ are. Essentially, cookies allow websites or marketing people to create a profile on the type of person that you are based on information that you’ve unknowingly provided them regarding your Internet surfing patterns- all because your movements on the Net are tracked. Deleting your cookies occasionally will help to resolve this problem.
Clearing the Cache: A cache is a place on your computer that stores temporary Internet files such as previously visited web pages, images, etc. It allows others to see where you’ve been. Clearing this periodically is always a good idea.
Turn off AutoComplete: It may have seemed like a good idea at the time. However, other people can easily see where you’ve been if you’ve got the AutoComplete turned on. Why make it easier for them? Switch it off!
A Poken is a small USB device that allows you to store your social networking info and share it with other Poken users. Essentially, it is akin to having a social business card because it makes sharing your contact details and online social networking info incredibly easy (not to mention paper-free).
How do you Poken?
To activate your Poken, you have to pull apart the body and hand (yes, they look like little people) and pull out the plastic tab. If you see a flashing red light, then this means that your activated and read to go. When you meet up with your boss for lunch or with other business prospects, instead of handing them your business card, simply connect your Poken to theirs. You can choose what sort of information you would like to share with other people before hand. Remember, your poken card only shows whatever information you want to share with people.
Where Do I Get One?
Pokens can be purchased in packages or individually from official resellers found here. Pokens can come in sleek and sophisticated designs (for those of you who like to keep things super simple) or you can purchase them in one of the many characters that they are popular for. Most of them average between $20-$35 depending on the style that you get. To get an even better idea of what Poken is all about, check out the following video:
In a recent article published by the LA Times, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is envisioning a future in which people can check their email and flip between their favorite cable television show all from the same electronic device: their television sets. According to the article:
Comcast Corp.’s chief executive, Brian Roberts, was gushing last week about his company’s impending takeover of NBC Universal, saying the deal would give consumers what they want, “which is access to all different types of content on different platforms and different times.”
That’s not the half of it — but it may not be Comcast in the driver’s seat.
If federal regulators have their way, the next big thing on the tech horizon will be a brave new world of Internet-ready, work-with-any-network set-top boxes, offering consumers unprecedented multimedia options through their TVs, not just their computers.
And if this plays out as the Federal Communications Commission envisions, the world as cable companies know it will radically change, making the potential synergies of the Comcast-NBC deal all but obsolete.
“The consumer will be king,” said Colin Crowell, senior counselor to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski. “You’ll be able to get your own set-top box that does all the whiz-bang things you want it to do, and you’ll be in control.” [source]
That’s not the half of it — but it may not be Comcast in the driver’s seat.
If federal regulators have their way, the next big thing on the tech horizon will be a brave new world of Internet-ready, work-with-any-network set-top boxes, offering consumers unprecedented multimedia options through their TVs, not just their computers.
And if this plays out as the Federal Communications Commission envisions, the world as cable companies know it will radically change, making the potential synergies of the Comcast-NBC deal all but obsolete.
“The consumer will be king,” said Colin Crowell, senior counselor to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski. “You’ll be able to get your own set-top box that does all the whiz-bang things you want it to do, and you’ll be in contro
But wait a minute…Can’t we already sort of do this?
For instance, in my boyfriend’s brother’s house, he took the CPU to one of his computers and hooked it up to his main television in the family room- this way he can check his email and/or do computer-related work. If he wants to watch television, all he has to do is press a button on his remote control for the TV to switch it back to cable. That being said, I am not really sure how the FCC is going to introduce something similar without making the prices extremely competitive.
With all the talk of maybe combining television with Internet access, there is a great deal of speculation that the official merge of the two will result in more people walking away from cable television- especially since many of us can catch our favorite shows on sites such as HULU and YouTube for free and sans commercial interruption (for the most part).
I recently moved into a new home and haven’t had cable television hooked up yet; and you know what I decided? I’m not going to get it because everything I need is right on the Internet. Case and point: One of my favorite shows comes on on Sunday nights. Thanks go the magic of YouTube, the episode is downloaded within mere minutes of being on the air. And what’s even better is that there aren’t any commercials in the version that I watch. I guess the only downside is the fact that you have to have patience to wait a little later to watch it, but its worth it. I compare it to bargain shopping. If you wait just long enough, there are fabulous deals to be had!
All of this being said, when it comes down to using the Internet and trying to obtain information, what is it that we look for? For instance, earlier today, I was trying to find information for research on a topic that I was writing about. However, when I clicked on the first website that came up, I quickly clicked right off because there was WAY TOO MUCH information being presented to me at one time, in one space.
Think about how big your computer screen is. Now think about how much information you would ideally like to see on that page. It’s no wonder people who use computers often have headaches. Web users use the Internet for a variety of everyday functions such as:
Watching television shows
Shopping
News
Information
That being said, what we want is very simple- so simple, in fact, that it is downright laughable: easy-to-find, clearly stated information that will help us make a judgment as to whether or not the website is credible or not. Additionally, most often, I find myself curious to know who the “brains” behind the operation is- you know, the person who is actually running the website. This simply helps to build trust between me knowing that there is an actual person running things- someone whom I can reach in case I have a question or complaint. What are some things that you look for on a website?
When you visit someone’s website or webpage, do you know that it’s bad right away? One way to tell this is by the color choices and schemes. One of the top mistakes that newbies make when it comes to web design has to do with the color contrast.
My Computer Doesn’t Look Like Yours
Because we all work from different computers that have different color settings on it, what may look like pink to one person may look like red to another. When you are choosing a design layout for your website, you really need to be conscious of the colors that you’re throwing together. If the colors don’t gel together well, it can cause readability problems not to mention turn of possible readers from your site.
Take a look at the picture to the right. Which one of the PayPal logos is easiest to decipher? Not all of us are born web designers. This why there are so many programs available now such as AccessColor. AccessColor is an online tool which tests the color contrast and color brightness between the foreground and background in order to make sure that the contrast is high enough for people with visual impairments.
Why is Contrast Such a Big Deal?
Color contrast is extremely important because it determines how long someone will stay on your webpage. It affects one’s ability to read and comprehend information. According to one website,
Low contrast is mostly a text issue – If you have colors that are too subtle next to each other, then it will be hard to read, or impossible for some people….If you are using colors that you are not sure of, test them on more than one monitor – different monitors display colors slightly differently, and you can end up with something being readable on one, borderline on another, and just a bit hard to read on still another. Try a flat panel monitor, and a CRT monitor, and try different manufacturers. A Mac and a PC is another good option.
What does a crappy website look like, and how can you tell? For starters, if you can’t figure out what the website is about within 2-3 seconds of being on the landing page, that alone should start sending up red flags.
We are all analysists
Believe it or not, we are all analysts in our own right. Every time we use a search engine to look up a web page where we are searching for a specific piece of information, we are constantly looking and evaluating the quality of what is present before us. According to Consumer Reports WebWatch Investigations,
…2,684 people evaluated the credibility of two live Web sites randomly assigned from one of 10 content categories (e-commerce, entertainment, finance, health, news, nonprofit, opinion or review, search engines, sports, and travel.) A total of 100 sites were assessed.
What the study found was that most people failed to pay attention to the credibility of the sources of information on websites. Rather, as the 2002 study indicated:
The data showed that the average consumer paid far more attention to the superficial aspects of a site, such as visual cues, than to its content. For example, nearly half of all consumers (or 46.1%) in the study assessed the credibility of sites based in part on the appeal of the overall visual design of a site, including layout, typography, font size and color schemes.[source]
So, should we be alarmed by this information? You bet. While reading through a person’s website may be interesting, to say the least, we really need to evaluate what we’re looking at. It’s one thing to sift through a site for aesthetic reasons, but when you’re actually referencing information from a particular website, wouldn’t you like to know where they got their information from?
Sure, blogging is about writing, connecting, marketing, and free expression; so why not get informed about some really neat tools that can help to enhance not only your blogging experience but the experience of those who visit your blog?
25 Cool Tools for Bloggers
AdSense- an ad program run by Google to help bloggers generate some $
If you have ever authored a blog or owned a website, then chances are that you’ve received some sort of commentary via the contact form on your site. Typically, the form will require the person’s name and email address…but have you ever wished that you could receive more information from your contact forms- information that would actually tell you a little more about how people are finding you?
