Google Chrome Hits the Web
Google’s new web browser Chrome hits the internet today and Google is now even better positioned to take over the world.
I just downloaded the browser and will be learning about its features today, but here is a breakdown of what those new features are:
New Tab Page
A small plus sign gets you a new tab that will show you your most recent visits, recently bookmarked sites, etc.
Application Shortcuts
Open web apps such as GMail write from your desktop without opening your browser. This is really a cool feature and it saves your passwords so accessing your Gmail is now a double click on your desktop. Nice.
Dynamic Tabs
This is similar to Firefox where you can drag the url right down to your browser tool bar.
Crash Control
This will probably be one of my favorite features. If your browser crashed Google Chrome will only have to close the tab you are browsing instead of the entire browser.
Incognito Mode
If you want to be stealthy while browsing the web and leave no trace of where you’ve been or what you’ve been up to try this new incognito feature.
Safe Browsing
Google Chrome will alert you if you’ve arrived at a site that may have a malicious intention. (phishing, malware, etc)
Instant Bookmarking
All you have to do is click on the star to the right of the toolbar and voila you are bookmarked!
Import Settings
All of your bookmarks, passwords, browsing history and settings will be imported to Google Chrome at the time you download it.
Simple Downloading
No more download manager window. The download status will be displayed at the bottom of the window.
The other cool feature is that when you are using Google chrome the Google search box is chrome.
So far so good Google. Thanks for adding some bling to my search box.
What’s missing…Home button and lots of awesome FF plug-ins.
Top 10 Reasons Why You Must Tweet
As I stated in my SESSJ post Twitter was a hot topic at the conference. People were talking about it and people were using it. When Greg and I go to conferences we always turn on our mobile tweets so we can keep up with where everyone is and what everyone’s doing. God forbid we miss something good.
Between the two of us we have about 1700 followers (Greg has more damn it). Now I know a few hundred of those are bots, but the point is we’ve been on Twitter less than a year and that’s a lot of frickn people to be connected to throughout the day. In fact it was last year at Pubcon that Vanessa Fox forced talked us into signing up. We were very resistant to it. We thought it was totally lame and only for total nerds. Nine months later we are admittedly hooked on Twitter.
Twitter has so many benefits and the opportunities you can find on Twitter are endless. It isn’t going anywhere and with over one million users, everyday that passes before you join is a missed opportunity for you. Stop asking how and why. Stop saying you just don’t know what to do or what to say. Stop saying nobody cares what you would tweet about. It’s a simple question…What are you doing? Answer it a few times a day.
Still a hater? Let me give you some examples of some amazing, funny, interesting things that happen on Twitter.
Proposals
In March of 2008 the micro-blogging world was privy to its first virtual wedding proposal.
and she said
If you want to know more about this one you can check out the Wired post or follow them on Twitter.
Survival
In April of 08 James Karl Buck, a UC Berkeley graduate student, was in Egypt covering a protest when he and his translator were arrested. James reached for his cell phone and tweeted one word.
Now can you imagine the stress and anxiety you’d feel if you were across the world and got arrested and were unsure of what was going to happen to you. James was eventually released, but he had the comfort knowing that all of his followers knew what had happened. Not planning on traveling to foreign countries? Replace the word arrested with ‘accident’ or ‘robbed’ or ‘help’. It could come in handy.
Finding a Job
Look out Monster here comes Twitter.
Customer Service
Many companies are using Twitter to reach out to their customers and to keep an ear open for people talking about them.
Now I know from first hand experience that when you complain about @southwestair on Twitter, they respond. Just one more reason why I FLY SWA. A couple other companies tweeting are @starbucks and @jetblue.
Diggs
You might totally suck at getting stories to the Digg front page (not saying this guy does), but if you have enough people following you on Twitter, you may just get enough of a boost to get noticed on the Digg upcoming. Of course your story still has to be good.
Host a Party
So just like that, we’re having a party. Tony tweets it and all of his followers in LA get the message and we are getting together (the 6th is fine for me Tony, see you at the Bow).
Having a Baby
I found this one on BlogHer. Now granted she didn’t actually do it because well, she wasn’t in labor long enough :/. It’s only a matter of time though.
Expose Dumbness
Michael Gray is really good at this. In fact if there were a crown for the best Twitterer…he’d be wearing it.
In case you’re wondering what Michael is talking about here’s the link to the LA Times home page. I’d actually be interested in an explanation too.
Ask a Question
Chris wrote up a great presentation about Twitter using all of his responses from this question. Just brilliant!
Breaking News
This past week I have been marveling about how so many of my bloggy mom friends are at the DNC. My tweets from them have gone crazy and I almost feel like I was there. Getting all this breaking news every few seconds is better than watching it on TV.
I hope you’re more intrigued and give it a try. Just do it. Join Twitter today and of course follow @barbaraboser and @gregboser.
Things People Put On Their Blogs
Over the past couple weeks I’ve had the joy of reviewing blogs that will be in the ‘Do-Follow‘ list. Now let me just say that I’ve seen a lot of blogs in my day. SEO blogs, mommy blogs, sports blogs, blogs about men that think they are better than women, etc. I thought I’d seen it all. Apparently I’ve missed this trend.
In all the blogs I read, I have not seen the Paypal requests until I started looking for badges on the Do-Follow blogs. These are hysterical to me. This is what I’m talking about:
Do people really do this? Does anybody buy bloggers tea or fast food? I mean seriously, I need to know. I saw these in all shapes and sizes, but I didn’t feel compelled to buy the bloggers a meal. Anybody out there have these or know of someone that has actually purchased or has had someone purchase something for them?
If this works, I may consider adding one to my blog. Mine would be more like…’Donate to my Louis Vuitton fund’ or ‘Buy Me a Martini’.
Google Page Rank Update
I was just asking my SEOH yesterday … “When was I gonna get some page rank?
The day I’d been waiting for finally arrived when that bottom bar on the lower right hand side of my screen turned green. Yeah!! SEOWife has some page rank. Finally.
So where there’s good news, there’s bad news too. My other blogs went down 1. Now I know that the whole ‘Page Rank’ thing is similar to being graded on a curve right? Well, I hated that in high school also. I wanted my A to stay an A, or in this case a 5 to stay a 5.
SEOH says don’t obsess on it. I can’t help it, there’s just something about seeing that number.
Mommy Bloggers
Okay so I’ve been getting some pretty good link love from the mommy bloggers. As I said to my SEOH last night…”Women are nice!” However, I can’t help but comment on some of the page rank I’ve been seeing out there. These ladies are showing PR 5 and 6.
Not bad for a multitude of stories about kids, marriage, friends, etc. Seeing and reading all of their posts and blogs has given me a new appreciation for what the net has to offer. These ladies are working hard and involved with affiliate programs, advertising, networking, etc. I am really quite impressed with it all actually.
The blogher network is ‘ginormous’, and it really opens up doors of opportunity to SAHM’s (Stay at home moms) everywhere. With a computer, an internet connection, drive and motivation the sky is the limit to what you can accomplish. Not internet savvy? No problem, there is a tutorial out there for anything you’d want to learn. Seeing the number of mom bloggers and networks out there is motivating to me. I really didn’t realize how big of a chunk of the blogosphere they own.
Side note: I was talking to Dax last night because I found a website that referenced “Daxohol” (The mom had a son named Daxon.) So anyway, Dax said “What’s up with all these mommy bloggers and their PR5’s and 6’s? They all have Blogroll’s the size of a phonebook. They shoot links out of a canon.” He’s right. What is up with that? I want to be just like them. I want to shoot links out of a canon while standing on my blogroll the size of a phone book. : )