MakeUseOf.com: “Cool Websites and Tools [November 9th]” plus 9 more |
- Cool Websites and Tools [November 9th]
- The 5 Toughest Tech Questions [MakeUseOf Answers]
- 5 Things Every New Facebook User Should Do Immediately
- Two Awesome SEO WordPress Plugins That Help With Internal Links
- Use Qype To Find Cool New Places To Party
- Hot Tech Deals [Nov 9th]
- 10 Bicycling Websites That Will Pedal You Into The World Of Cycling
- Wireless Music Sync With Winamp Media Player For Android
- How To Easily Turn Your WordPress Blog Into An E-Commerce Site
- 5 Ways You Can Block A Facebook Stalker
Cool Websites and Tools [November 9th] Posted: 09 Nov 2010 07:31 PM PST
These are just half of the websites that we discovered in the last couple of days. If you want us to send you daily round-ups of all cool websites we come across, leave your email here. Or follow us via RSS feed.
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The 5 Toughest Tech Questions [MakeUseOf Answers] Posted: 09 Nov 2010 06:31 PM PST Are you ambitious? Crack the contest with an excellent answer and win $50 via PayPal or Amazon voucher. Valid email address, Facebook, Disqus, or Yahoo login required, so we can contact you should you win. Please help us solve the following questions:
There is an abundance of knowledge hidden within the questions on MakeUseOf Answers. Read, Learn, and Share: Latest Questions, Most Popular Questions, or Unanswered Questions. For regular updates subscribe to the Answers RSS Feed. Need help? Ask A Question at MakeUseOf Answers. Do you like MakeUseOf articles? Don’t forget to share our articles with others! It’s really important to us.
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5 Things Every New Facebook User Should Do Immediately Posted: 09 Nov 2010 05:31 PM PST Don’t have a Facebook account? Last time I checked, there were more than 500 million people in the world, so I know there are a few of you. If you are new to Facebook, there are some tips you should definitely do on your newly created account that take priority over everything else. In this article, I’ll show you what those things are. I Created A Facebook Account, Now What?The first thing Facebook recommends that you do upon creating a new account is locate your friends via your email address. This is funny to me, because it’s actually the last thing I think you should do when you first create an account. Why would you want to start friending people when you have a blank profile? In the next step, Facebook asks you to fill out your profile information. I suggest skipping this step as well, at least for now. Besides, they only ask you for your high school, college/university, and employer information, most likely because they don’t want to overwhelm you. Step 3 we can do, so that is where I would like to start. 1. Upload A Profile PictureFacebook is called Facebook for a reason. Before adding friends it’s important that you have a profile picture, preferably of yourself so everybody will recognize you. I don’t have any statistics on this, but I’d say less than 1 percent of legitimate accounts don’t have a profile picture. It’s a rarity. If you need a more practical reason to upload a profile picture, you’ll be pleased to learn that once you do this step, you will get a new tab on your profile: the Photos tab. This is where you’ll go later on to create photo albums to share your experiences with others. 2. Tweak Your Privacy SettingsYou were probably wondering when I would get to the Facebook privacy issue, so lets get it out of the way now. Facebook has a multitude of privacy settings that control everything about your profile, how it’s viewed by others, found in search and accessed by applications. To view your settings, just go up to your Account tab and select Privacy Settings. Once there, you can click Customize settings to begin altering them to meet your needs. If you want to learn more about these settings, check out our latest guide, The (Very) Unofficial Facebook Privacy Guide. 3. Fill Out Your Profile InformationNow it’s time to fill out your profile information. If you head over to your Profile page, click on the Info tab and select Edit, you will have all kinds of fields to fill out information about yourself. You can choose to fill out as much or as little information as you like here. If you’ve taken your privacy settings into account and feel confident with who will be viewing your profile, you can list more information than you maybe would have otherwise. 4. Join A NetworkOnce you’ve filled out your basic information, likes and interests, education and work, etc. you should join a network. Once again, head up to your Account tab and go to Account Settings. Then, click on the Networks tab. Facebook networks typically consist of colleges, regions and places of work. For instance, the two networks I belong to are Penn State (my college) and VaynerMedia (my employer). One network is enough, but if you want to be able to share and connect with more people, you can join more. 5. Set Up A UsernameAlthough you’ve missed the gold-rush on this one, I still think it’s important for you to claim whatever username you can. On the Settings tab in your Account Settings, click on Username to claim your vanity URL (e.g. facebook.com/stevenjcampbell). It will ask you to verify your account via text message before allowing you to pick your name. As a word of advice, try to use your real name here if you can. Facebook profiles are really close to becoming our online identities if you ask me, and it’s important to claim your name from a personal branding standpoint. [Bonus] Find Your FriendsNow it’s time to add your friends. Chances are you will find a lot of them in the same network(s) you’ve chosen, but you can search for them using your email contacts and standard Facebook search as well. If you completed the steps above, they will have a nice, professional looking profile to look at when they first accept your friend request, rather than a barren wasteland. Are you excited about getting a shiny new Facebook account now? If you already have a profile, is there anything you’d like to add? Hey Facebookers, make sure to check out MakeUseOf page on Facebook. Over 24,000 fans already!
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Two Awesome SEO WordPress Plugins That Help With Internal Links Posted: 09 Nov 2010 03:31 PM PST Opinions vary, but there is definitely a basic core list that most SEO experts agree upon. Within that core, internal links are towards the top of the list. A while back I wrote an article on SEO mistakes that could ruin your website, as well as a part two. Karl also previously covered three useful WordPress plug-ins that can help with SEO. There are a couple more WordPress plug-ins I want to cover that focus on improving your internal linking strategy. Automatic Internal LinksThe first WordPress plugin is called SEO Smart Links. The beauty of this plugin is that it removes at least one of those SEO tasks on your checklist of things to do for every one of your blog posts. Now you don’t have to worry about going through and adding internal links to your other relevant blog posts, because instead they’ll be automatically inserted into your posts for you. Setting up the two plugins that I’m covering in this article is no different than any other WordPress plugin. Just upload the folders into the plugin directory using your favorite FTP client. Go into the Plugins area of your WordPress admin settings and activate the plugin. Once it’s activated, you’ll find the SEO Smart Links options under the Settings menu. At the top of the settings are the following options. The first section is where you select whether you want the internal links inserted into only posts, only pages, or both. The bottom section under “Target” is what areas of your blog you want the plugin to link to. A bit further down the page you come to the next set of options. If you have a decent server and the load time of your main page isn’t an issue, go ahead and deselect “Process only single posts and pages.” However, since load time affects your SEO it’s usually best to leave this checked. This plugin will also embed links into your RSS feed (pretty sweet feature). Finally, the best part of the settings area, and the place where you’ll likely come back to often, is the “Custom Keywords” section. Here is where you can manually configure certain keywords to always link to specific pages on your site. This is an excellent way to make certain pages ranks highly on specific keywords, when you have multiple pages on your blog linking back to that page using the same phrase. Make sure to enable “prevent duplicate links” (duplicates are a no-no). Don’t set max links too high, as the last thing you want to do is spam the reader (or the search engine bot) with too many links. Here is an example of a blog post where the phrase “top secret” is now linked to another post automatically. Best Related PostsThe next excellent SEO WordPress plugin is Best Related Posts. Install this plugin the same as the one above. When you go to the options under your WordPress settings area, all you’ll see are text fields where you can customize the appearance of the related posts list on your page. To actually install list on your page, copy the code “<?php boposts_show();?>” shown at the top of the page. You’ll need to edit the file single.php in your theme, and add the code into it just after your post, in the location where you want it to show up. Don’t let the code scare you – as you can see I’ve placed it underneath the list of tags for the article. Once the file is saved, here’s what the related posts looks like. What I love about it is that the links are graphical – and users are far more likely to click on pictures than simple text links – thereby increasing your PVPV (page views per visit). A small excerpt from each post is also included – giving your reader some insight into the article, enticing them to click the link. Optimizing your blog or website doesn’t have to be a nightmare, and you don’t have to be a guru to use these plugins. The automatic internal links and best related posts plugins actually make it so you don’t even have to remember details – they’re finished for you automatically! With these plugins, you’ll notice changes in your blog traffic almost immediately. Just give them a try and see for yourself, and make sure to come back and let us know how it went! Do you know of any other cool SEO WordPress plugins for linking? Share them in the comments section below. Image credit: miki kucevic Got Questions? Ask Them Now FREE on MakeUseOf Answers!
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Use Qype To Find Cool New Places To Party Posted: 09 Nov 2010 01:31 PM PST Using a computer or a handy smartphone application, Qype can let you very quickly browse venues nearby to you and read other people’s reviews. Qype is originally based in the UK, so there’s plenty of reviews for places all over English-speaking countries and Europe, plus a growing amount of reviews for other countries.
To use Qype, all you do is choose the type of place you’re after and it will find venues within a specified radius for you. Then you can browse the reviews and see if the place is worth checking out and bookmark it for later. If you’re keen to go there straight away, Qype will link directly to the location on Google Maps. You can even easily use something like Layar to help guide you there, since Qype is a suggested map on Layar. When you’re there, it’s easy to share your whereabouts with your friends (which then goes to RSS, Facebook or Twitter if you want it to). Add a review and a rating with a few simple clicks, plus upload pictures of the venue or the food to help future customers know what to expect. The more information we put in, the more useful information there is to get out. If the place you’re visiting isn’t listed on Qype, it’s quite easy to add it to the database. Qype also allow users to create guides, meaning you can link together a number of local venues for a miniature tour of your town. Very handy for tourists! Another great perk for tourists is that you can nominate all of the languages in which you want to read reviews. Qype also keeps track of events, so if you’re in a new town you can quickly find something interesting to do for the evening. Handy! In a way, Qype is a little like Foursquare since you can check into the venue. This could work against Qype, due to the popularity of Foursquare. However, the focus in Qype is really to deliver the reviews. Qype are so keen to get quality reviews that they offer you the option of posting your Qype reviews directly to your blog, encouraging lengthier reviews and pictures. For instance, it means if you’re out and about and want to have a little rant about how good or bad the restaurant you chose for dinner was, if you do it through Qype and have it set to automatically go to your blog too you might choose to write a slightly longer and well-written rant. Smart thinking, Qype. In the end, Qype makes it tempting to write decent reviews. However, even if review-writing isn’t your thing, you can still make use of Qype’s database by using the smartphone app or something that hooks into it, like Layar. What’s not to love? Here’s some other articles you’ll probably also love:
Let us know what you think of Qype compared to other review-based sites in the comments! Hey Facebookers, make sure to check out MakeUseOf page on Facebook. Over 24,000 fans already!
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Posted: 09 Nov 2010 12:15 PM PST For more fresh hot deals, visit our Hot Tech Deals page, which is constantly updated. Keep reading to find out today’s Hot Tech Deals.
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10 Bicycling Websites That Will Pedal You Into The World Of Cycling Posted: 09 Nov 2010 11:31 AM PST The thrill of pushing the pedals and 'burning rubber' is there, even as a few motorcyclists make me see dust. But we bikers of the lesser kind may be losing out on the glam quotient but gaining a lot when it comes to exercise and carbon credits. Bicycling or biking is not as simple as it sounds. There's a lot of technology and technique involved. For instance, coming to grips with the right gear and the right safety precautions is a must. Thankfully, the stock of dedicated cycling websites on the web stops you from taking a wrong turn.
Bicycling MagazineWith articles like 5 Rookie Maintenance Mistakes and Get Off Your Plateau, this website has become one of my favorite reads as I try to catch up after a decade. There's a whole section for beginners where one can learn the nitty-gritty of bicycling. Bicycling tools like Find a Ride/Map a Ride, a Training Log, or the mobile phone apps (for iPhones, Android, Blackberry etc) make this website worth a bookmark. Also check out the videos on Road Biking Skills in the video section of the site. Bicycle TutorIf you thought that your new bicycle is a maintenance-free machine think again. But you have these video tutorials and a helpful forum to fall back on. The Bicycle Repair Guide is a quick way to get to the video tutorials. This is where I learnt how to shift gears on my bicycle and make sense out of all the gear combos available. Commute by BikeA nice little blog with a focus on the more utilitarian uses for a bicycle – going from Point A to Point B amidst the urban chaos. Read through the Top Ten Commuting 101 Articles if you are a commuter cycling beginner. Cycling ForumsI bumped into this pretty active forum (200,000+ members) on cycling and although I am not yet a member, it seems to be a nice place to be for bicycling knowhow. The forum also has a regional section on cyclists from Europe, Australia and New Zealand. You can check out the Wiki for any bicycling related information (and also contribute). Map My RideOn this site, you can plan, plot, and log your bike runs with just a few mouse clicks. The site is a training application and has a suite of websites on the same concept. The training tools are based on geo-mapping and also give you single-click information on many saved routes, fitness calculators, global event listings and opportunities to compete virtually. The site has a social community built around your training needs. If you prefer something simpler, try out Gmaps Pedometer. PedalingThis site is only for U.S and Canadian cycling buffs. It's all about getting on the perfect cycling route. Here you will find the straight dope on the best trails because they have already been ridden by zealous cyclists. You can search by ZIP, or by region. Pointers like the difficulty level and traffic rate is also included. Maps and cue sheets are printable for some routes. VeloNewsYou can treat this journal of competitive cycling as a trail post if you are headed that way. The site is chock-a-bloc with resources on hardcore cycling and I can't even mention them all here. But you might want to check out Tech Answers where Lennard Zinn runs through a lot of technical Q&A on cycling. Bike RadarBikeRadar.com takes a 360 degree look at mountain, road, and beginner bikes. There are lots of news, reviews, tips, route information, upcoming event alerts, with a large forum thrown in. Go through the Buyers Guides or the Bike Maintenance Workshops just in case an emergency strikes on the road. One of the sections I really like to browse through is the Bikeradar Blogs written by a lot of guys on the seat. Bicycle LawBob Mionske is a former Olympic and professional cyclist. He is also an attorney with lots of experience when it comes to dealing with cycling mishaps. His site is all about the best legal advice you can get for free if you are in the United States. Contrary to popular opinion, bicyclists also don't lead charmed lives on the road. About.comAlong with Wikipedia, About.com's pages on all things that have to do with cycling were my first reference point. They could be yours too, if you have just decided to take it up. Follow the links to some helpful hubs on why bike in the first place, finding the right bike size for your height, or the different kinds of bikes that are there. The information is brief and easy to grasp. So, are you ready to let some sparks fly? Drop a comment if you are an avid cyclist, and also let us know if you have a favorite cycling website of your own for supporting your pedal pushing. Happy cycling! Image Credit: Shutterstock Do you like MakeUseOf articles? Don’t forget to share our articles with others! It’s really important to us.
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Wireless Music Sync With Winamp Media Player For Android Posted: 09 Nov 2010 10:31 AM PST Recently, Nullsoft, the team behind Winamp, seems to have been exploring other platforms. Winamp for Android was long rumored and hoped for, and now it seems to have become a reality. We took the Winamp Android Beta for a spin, and listed the most prominent features for you below. Winamp for AndroidLate October, Nullsoft released the first Winamp Beta for the Android mobile platform. Although Winamp is already showing the other application who’s boss, especially feature-wise, this means there’s still room for improvement. Currently, the media player can only be installed on Android 2.1 and above. Winamp for Android offers a slick, dark interface that’s easy and intuitive to use. Unlike most media players, Winamp makes good use of the available screen real-estate, and doesn’t make it feel too crowded. You can fluently jump to and fro the Now Playing screen by means of a pull-up bar (shown above). You’ll also notice that in every Winamp Android screen, regardless of where you are, the player buttons will be present. In most cases, this means you won’t even have to visit the Now Playing screen. In conclusion, the Android Winamp interface makes you keep a relaxed and complete of your media. Home & Lock Screen WidgetsAndroid’s Winamp also comes with two viable media player widgets, so you can keep using your phone as usual without losing sight of your media. The home screen widget, shown below, sports an album thumbnail, some general information, and the media player controls – all in all, very standard. You’re also able to switch between repeat and shuffle options. On the flip side, a number of people have noted this particular widget as a battery drain, rapidly losing mobile life-juice, even if not actively using the widget. Winamp has succeeded in mimicking the official Android media player application, and also offers a lock screen widget. This allows you to control your media immediately when taking your phone out of standby, without having to open the home screen or Winamp application. The lock screen widget effectively runs on top of the regular lockscreen, so does not integrate as well as the official media player, although it is a really good start. (Wireless) Desktop SyncWinamp’s flagship feature on the Android must be the Desktop Sync. This allows you to keep your music on your Android current and synchronized with your desktop Winamp library, even using wireless. Of course, you can also connect over USB, which improves your battery life and transfer speeds. To use Desktop Sync, you need to have the Winamp Beta installed on your Android phone and the Winamp 5.59 Beta installed on your Windows desktop. This does not currently work on Linux and Mac. On your Android, you can enable wireless sync in the Winamp Settings -> Media Syncing. This does not need to be enabled to transfer files over USB. If all goes right, you’ll be able to see your device in the Winamp left sidebar on your desktop. Hre you can view, and update your mobile media library (shown above). Options include streaming music from your phone to your desktop, synchronizing and automatically filling up your available phone memory. DownloadWinamp for Android is officially available. Search for ‘Winamp’ on the Android Market to download and install the application. Alternatively, you can point a mobile barcode scanner to the QR code below. What’s your opinion on Winamp for the Android? Share your thoughts and experiences in the comments below! Follow MakeUseOf on Twitter. Includes cool extras.
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How To Easily Turn Your WordPress Blog Into An E-Commerce Site Posted: 09 Nov 2010 09:31 AM PST There are several nice online store builder services out there such as Goodsie. In general, these services are convenient and allow anybody to build a store with ease. But users are relying so heavily on the service that they don’t have full control over their store. There’s another alternative though. We can utilize WordPress as the basic framework to build an e-commerce site. All you need is help from a specified plugin (and theme). The E-Commerce PluginI am always amazed at the flexibility of WordPress. It has grown so far beyond just blogging. With the right plugin(s) and theme, you can change it into whatever kind of site you can imagine. Our project today requires a plugin called – I think you’ve guessed it – WP e-commerce. With the latest generation of WordPress, you can find and install it directly from within your admin area. No FTP required. The popularity of this plugin has made other people create additional e-commerce plugins to complement the original. You can find a whole bunch of them by searching using “WP e-commerce” as the search string. After installing the plugin, you can manage various aspects of your store from the “Store” menu at the sidebar. For example, you can view a list of your available products from the “Products” tab under the store menu. Another thing that you can do from this menu is add products. The process itself is similar to writing a blog post with additional fields like available units and price. The best way to learn how to build the store is to familiarize yourself with the plugin and do some experiments. E-Commerce ThemesAfter setting up the plugin, you can continue with your store front by complementing the plugin with a matching theme. There are actually WordPress themes specifically designed to accommodate WordPress e-commerce sites that use the WP e-commerce plugin. You are not likely to find these kind of themes inside the WordPress.org theme gallery (I tried to search but could only find one), so you can’t install the themes using the search and install function of the WordPress admin area. You can however search for them using a search engine, download them to your hard drive, then upload and install them to your WordPress via the admin area using the “Upload” menu. It’s more steps involved, compared to the plugin installation, but still no FTP required. Here are four of several alternatives of WordPress e-commerce themes that you can try. The first three come from one developer, so they have more or less similar looks and tastes. The fourth one is one that I found from searching inside the admin area. 1. AppCloudThis theme has a minimalistic look and design. The interface is fairly easy to navigate so its easy to turn your future customers into real customers. 2. KelontongThis theme is the dark version of AppCloud. I think the round corners and side menu makes it more elegant. 3. DangdootThis theme is designed to sell music-related items, but it’s also applicable for general use. 4. Crafty CartA retro shop theme designed for the WP e-commerce plugin. As the name suggests, the theme is perfect for those who wants to sell hand-made crafts. The plugin and themes that I mentioned above are just one of the many alternatives that you can use to turn WordPress into an e-commerce website. If you know more plugins and/or themes, please feel free to share them using the comments below. Got Questions? Ask Them Now FREE on MakeUseOf Answers!
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5 Ways You Can Block A Facebook Stalker Posted: 09 Nov 2010 08:31 AM PST If your stalker’s prime route of contact is through Facebook, there are several things you can do to block that Facebook stalker and make it difficult for them to contact you. This article will guide you through the options you have. The two final steps can also help to never attract a stalker in the first place.
There are three different routes through which you can block people. 1. Via Your Block ListsYou can block both people and applications. In Facebook, go to > Account > Privacy Settings and find the item called > Block Lists at the bottom of the page. Click the > Edit your lists link to proceed. On the following page you can enter Facebook users by name and email address and block them. If there are several people with the same name, you will see a list of matching profiles. Click the > Block button next to the person you were looking for. 2. Via Their ProfileOn each Facebook user profile there is a > Report/Block this Person link at the bottom left. Click this link and a window will pop up that allows you to make a selection. For example, you could report the person for > Unwanted contact and check the box to > Block this person. If you go with the block, the name will appear in your Block Lists, as described above. 3. Via Their MessagesIf the person you wish to block has sent you any messages, you can block them by clicking the > Report link next to their name and the date the message was received. To see the link you must open the message. Once you click it, a window with further options will pop up. Note that no one you block will be notified of the action. However, if they are on your friend list, they will be removed and your profile will not be visible to them. Likewise, you won’t be able to view their profile. You both will be invisible to each other, with the exception of third party applications. If you accidentally blocked someone, you can easily remove the block. Go to your Block Lists and click the > Unblock link next to the person’s name. You will be asked to confirm. Unblocking a person will not restore a previous connection. 4. Remove Your Basic Directory InformationIf you have a serious stalker, chances are they will just set up a new Facebook account once you block them. In this case you should consider making your profile private, so that strangers can not find and harass you. The first thing you should do, is remove as much of yourself as possible from the > Basic Directory Information. Go to > Account > Privacy Settings and click on > View Settings. On the following page you can define who can search and find you on Facebook, send friend requests or messages, see your friend list, and more. For each item choose carefully from the following options: Everyone, Friends of Friends, or Friends Only. Unfortunately, you cannot completely hide yourself. Facebook states that “your name, profile picture, gender, and network are always open to everyone.” This explains why. 5. Tighten Your Privacy SettingsBesides restricting basic directory information, you should also restrict who can see the things you are sharing. Go back to > Account > Privacy Settings and click the > Customize settings to adjust your > Sharing on Facebook options. You can also choose from a default setting. A new page with a list of options will open. Go through all the points and decide who you want to see your posts, your personal information, or things others share with you. You can choose from Everyone, Friends of Friends, Friends Only, or Customize each point and make the information visible to only yourself or hide it from specific people. ConclusionIt goes without saying that Facebook is just one medium through which a person can stalk you. No matter how tight your privacy settings or how trustworthy the people on your friend list are, someone determined to find and harass you still has the rest of the internet at their disposal. Be sure to treat your personal information, your contact data, and your online privacy in general like a raw egg. This article can only scratch on the surface. For more detailed information, check out The (Very) Unofficial Facebook Privacy Manual written by my colleague Angela. Here are several more articles you may find helpful:
Image credits: Ronen Boidek Hey Facebookers, make sure to check out MakeUseOf page on Facebook. Over 24,000 fans already!
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