cool projects: peace on facebook and seedmoney

Recently I just bumped into these websites, and I checked them out. Here is: peace on facebook and seedmoney(RO).

Peace on Facebook

Facebook is proud to play a part in promoting peace by building technology that helps people better understand each other. By enabling people from diverse backgrounds to easily connect and share their ideas, we can decrease world conflict in the short and long term.

This is a project initiated by facebook in order to support the Peace Innovation (already having listed peace at artofliving, bjfogg, care2, cityofmanor, iftf.org, learning.com, safeway, etc). As you can see in these examples, organizations are increasing peace in different ways. That makes sense to us. There are different levels of peace, ranging from internal to global. And there are different elements that contribute to peace. These elements (or more precisely, “antecedents”) can be concrete and measurable, allowing peace innovators to track progress. By using innovation methods and working together–millions of us around the world – we believe substantial global peace is possible in 30 years. Interesting project…. – it also has a graph of the friend connections created each day between people of different countries, religions, and political affiliations. See more – Facebook on Peace (also listed at Cool Projects).

SeedMoney – RO project

This is a financing project for online projects in Romania(seedmoney). They typically invest 10k to 50K for a maximum of 20% from the project. If you want they can advise you, but the management is yours. They also support you in the next financing steps. They believe in the future of the online ventures – see their vision.

You can apply for financing, and there is a board of advisors with resources you might need(everything you need to know about the advisors). I like this Romanian initiative to help online start-ups and internet-related ventures. Among their recent projects are: veevid, twip, strada32.com, etc. This project is also listed among the Cool Projects on this site.

social media articles september 1st-20th 2009: twitter, facebook, etc

I think that by now everyone knows what twitter (in 140 characters express what u’re doing/a thought) andfacebook(picture sharing, profile, statuses, apps, etc) are. Check out the large family of tweeter related sites. There are so many uses to these sites, and so many articles written / being written about them, so I though I should list some of them here(see the last collection of articles, and the article archive). This is a list of articles written about these sites starting from the 1st of september 2009:

• Effective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices(nice twitter backgrounds and the way2do it+dimensions);
• How To Integrate Facebook With WordPress(integrating a WordPress blog into Facebook&Facebook into a WordPress Blog);
• 5 Tools to Power Up Your Twitter Influence(grow your positive influence, don’t be known as a spammer!)
• Scaling Your Facebook Advertising Campaigns To $100,000/month+: More Ads, targeting, images, CPM building;
• Getting Control of Your Social Media Life – the social media shock/addiction! Quit working in an emergency room!
• Voice chat coming to Facebook – the new Vivox voice chat system will allow any user to talk, and can integrate!
• Is Paid Social Media Just as Healthy as Organic Word-of-Mouth? You can have it both ways, yet there are different opinions;
• Social Media and the Impact on Network Security – many security breaches, and many solutions found/online!
• Twitter And The Revenue Dilemma – they get lots of press/media attention… and once they have #revenue…
• Social Media: Frequently Asked Questions from Small Business Owners(what can I do with a small budget/small staff?)
• Twitter - The microblogging site makes it too easy to get spammed with off-color content, and too difficult to do something about it;
• Free Social Media Icons for Designers – A Life in Pixels(16 free social media icons for sites that designers appreciate);
• Off-Color Spam Plagues #Twitter, Scares Away Older Folks (there’s a tremendous rise in #spam that scares esp older ppl);
• B2B Social Media: Got Your Toe Wet, Now It’s Time to Swim! Content conversion, trackbacks, social bookmarking, commenting;
• stay away from Fan Check application! Facebook Fan Check Virus: Something Fishy is Going On! Malware and phishing involved;
• The psychologist says: facebook makes you smarter, but twitter makes you dumber! Mix Twitter with other online activities!
• Twitter’s Most Popular Users Breaking From The Pack – Study documents “popularity gap”;
• Facebook Pages to Get Click Through Rates – Engagement Rate Metric Also on the Way (via @wpn);
• An Alternative Twitter Strategy for Local Businesses – focus locally, follow with purpose, interact, clean the feed, etc;
• Twitter Marketing: Why You Don’t Need to Mass Follow Users(this makes it more difficult for marketers/self-promoters);
• Zynga Is Twice As Big As Twitter – And Actually Profitable! Social games maker Zynga cruised past 100 million users this week!
• Twitter iPhone Apps Round-Up – basic apps(mobile twitter, twitandrun) and feature-rich apps(tweetdeck, twitterbox, etc);
• Using Twitter for Employment Branding? 15 Things Recruiters Can Tweet About…
• 10 most embarrassing Twitter meltdowns – OMG! Rants, arguments, foot-in-mouth moments and more;
• 15 Design Blogs to Follow on Facebook (Colorburned, Abduzeedo, Design Observer, Design Shard, Fudge Graphics, etc);
• Can Social Media Be Measured? Everyone claims to know what to measure! Involvement, Interactions, Intimacy, and Influence;
• Tweets and New Twitterers Decline in August – is the #DDoS attacks the cause? Based on #Twellow graphs for august @wpn;
• Top 10 Photo/Video Categories on Twitter – Yfrog Shares Insight into the Twitterverse(less tweets in August, yet…) @wpn;
• Very Brilliant: The Advertisers Pay To Drive Traffic From One Place On Facebook To Another Place On Facebook @techcrunch;
• Seven Reasons Your Business Should Be On Twitter – get new customers, keep in touch with fans, watch competitors, sales;
• Twitter Tops MySpace In UK, Spurs Data Center Expansion – twitter experiences Growth and more growth! @wpn;
• August Was Big for Tweeting for Causes – TwitCause Project Sees Great Success (via @wpn);

Facebook Takes Aim at Twitter: New Publisher Makes Public Status Updates Easy

June 24th, 2009

Cool articles – SEO, blogging, internet marketing(september 07-20, 2009)

We read online lots and lots of things, and we come across some very interesting articles. I was just thinking to place them here, with a link, maybe I’ll revisit them later, read them again, or maybe they help you also (see last week’s articles september 1-6 2009, august 16-31 2009, july 16 – august 16 2009, july13 – july 19 2009, 06-12july2009, ->24june2009, june24 – july05, articles archive) – categories available: internet maketing/seo, design/web design,web programming, and other miscellaneous articles

Internet marketing, SEO, SEM, online services

• 10 Revealing Infographics about the Web(Web Trend Map, Internet Traffic, Online Communities, World Map of Social Networks);
• Popular Search Engines in the 90’s: Then and Now(HotBot, Excite, WebCrawler, Ask Jeeves-now Ask.com, Yahoo! Google, etc);
• 300+ Resources to Help You Become a WordPress Expert(themes, templates, frameworks, tutorials, tips, installs, etc);
• Data Visualization and Infographics Resources(making complex datasets easier to understand and comprehend);
• How to Display Your Content on a Blog’s Front Page(options for showing content on the front page of the blog);
• SEO Tips & Tricks For Your WordPress Blog(introducing the HeadSpace 2, a little better one than All In One SEO Pack);
• How to Stand Out in a Crowded Niche -find&implement the “hidden benefit” – for #savvy #marketers!
• Crawling & Indexing – It’s Not as Simple as Just In or Out(see a diagram of the levels of indexation);
• Google Busts the Duplicate Content Myth – Talks Ways to Avoid Related Ranking Issues(link popularity, offset branding);
• Adding Search to Your Marketing Mix(achieve Buy-in, upper management, the sales / IT department);
• Blogging Small Businesses have 55% More Traffic, 97% More Inbound Links(from a study by Hubspot);
• 17 things you should know about building links(keywords, high PR, stay away from spammy sites, diversity of links, etc)
• Ecommerce Know How: Public Relations 101(the art of managing your business’ public reputation through media…)
• A Link Building Rule to Cut Out and Keep(the most valuable links are the ones your competitors don’t get but you do!)
• 3 Ways to Search Without SERPs(search results in your IM, in the preview pop-up – #ubiquity, and in the preview drop-down);
• How do we compete with other companies? What are our unique differentiators? Velocity, distance, distribution, DYI, etc;
• Google Quietly Pushing More Links + Data in Snippets: rich text snippets, internal anchor links, page specific sitelinks;
• Google Quietly Launches an Internet Stat Resource(from macroscopic economic and media trends to consumer behavior, changes);
• Google Labs Rolls Out Fast Flip, Google Book Preview for News(find interesting content in the news, flip the newspapers!)
• How To Monitor Search Engine Positions – you need a strategy! Don’t pay att to fluctuations, compute site rankings, etc;
• Scribd: Linking & Branding via Document Sharing – it’s free, search engines love it, it’s good for business relationships;
• 3 Broken Link Checkers Reviewed and Compared – using Xenu, LinkAider, and W3C Link Checker; testing broken links;
• Why You Should Create Controversial Content at Least Once a Week (sounds like #shoemoney’s advices) – to be noticed;
• How to Find Similar Sites with Tags – use similar-site.com(based on user annotations or tags on websites);
• Real-Time RSS Feeds Coming Soon to Your Favorite Feed Reader – in the RSSCloud, automatic notification of new articles!
• Top 5 web trends of 2009: the realtime web(everything is Real-Time Now); ambience, automation, emergence;
• Which Website Visitors Are Potential Clients? compel your audience 2 pay attention 2 your marketing message&act upon it;
• WordPress Enters Real-Time: 7.5 Million Blogs Reach Twitter Speed(wordpress may be realtime,but RSS isn’t quite yet);
• 11 Firsts In Internet History: first image, email, spam email, banner ad, item sold on ebay, tweet, search engine, etc;
• Lessons from very tiny businesses: go where the customers are, be micro-focused, outlast the competition, leverage, respond;
• You don’t deserve to be no 1! You pay for SEO, but you don’t have value! “the value-add” sites should be no #1!

Web design, design tips, digital photography, fonts, themes

• 40 Creative and Inspiring Website Backgrounds Techniques(Illustrative & Sketchy Backgrounds, Photoshoped Backgrounds, etc);
• 9 Useful jQuery Calendar And Date Picker Plugins For Web Designers(like FullCalendar, jQuery UI Datepicker, jMonthCalendar);
• 12 Really Useful Image Optimization Tools For Web Designers(Smush.it, PunyPNG, Shrink O’Matic, OptiPNG, ImageOptim, etc);
• 10 Adobe AIR Applications To View, Download And Share Photos On Flickr(flair, Flickroom, zFlick, Snoto Photo, etc);
• 80+ Absolutely Beautiful Dual Screen Wallpapers(related to nature, cosmos, spaces, fantasy, abstract, games, etc);
• 760+ Photoshop Tutorials For Web & Graphic Designers(useful #photoshop tutorial list for web and graphic designers)l
• 8 Ways Freelancers Can Make Money In The Holiday Season(offer a logo updating service, special rates, design e-cards…)
• 100 Fantastic Resources For Web Designers(icons, tutorials, scripts, helpful resources for web programmers/designers);
• 30 Typography Posters That You’ve Probably Never Seen Before(making sure that the type is both legible and artistic!)
• 50 Dazzling Examples of Creative 404 Pages – error pages served to u when u visit an URL that does not actually exist;

• How to Effectively Use Contrast, Auto Levels, and Batch Processing – tutorials in #Photoshop effects, tools and tips;
• Believe It Or Not But These Are Not Photoshopped – not a photoshop manipulation, but 10 excellent photos!
• 9 Things You Can’t Forget When Designing a Blog(favicon, gradients, textures, shadows, icons, whitespace, alignment, etc);
• 60 High Quality Photoshop PSD Files For Designers(Computer and Gadgets, Phones, Food,General Stationaries, etc);
• 91 Trendy Contact&Web Forms For Creative Inspiration(modern/interesting contact/web form solutions found on the Internet);
• Best of The Web – August 2009(the best articles and tutorials related to Photoshop, Illustrator, freebies, articles);
• WordPress Showcase: 40+ Beautiful And Well Designed Blogs Powered By WordPress (very nice blog designs!);
• A compiled list of highly beautiful, creative and most importantly inspirational portfolio designs over web;
• 36 High-Quality Latest Free Fonts To Enhance Your Designs – Typography(working with type, type design, type glyphs);
• 45 Inspirational Corporate Website Designs – a perfect layout, a good design&nice resources can produce a creative output;
• 30 Examples of Inspirational Typography-a wide variety of different styles of typographic design(hand-drawn, 3D, text art, etc);
• 30 Examples of Brilliant Logo Design(should help you with your own excellent logo ideas) @webdesignledger;
• 56 Absolutely Brilliant and Intriguing Photoshop Video Tutorials – video tutorials are the most effective ones!
• 30 Horrific Commercial Photoshop Disasters(made by professional graphic designers) – via #creativenerds;

Website programming tips, programming languages

• 10 Top-Notch CSS Editors(Stylizer, Style Master, RapidCSS, Free CSS Toolbox, CoffeeCup StyleSheet Maker, etc);
• Seven jQuery Plugins That Let You Do Cool Stuff With Images(jParallax, jCrop, jCaption, and Image Annotation);
• Dynamic Image Replacement: Practical Techniques and Tools(like sIFRvault, sIFR Lite, typeface.js, Cufon, Facelift, etc);
• How to Draw with HTML 5 Canvas (why Canvas? What Tools? Simple tutorial of dwaring with #HTML5, effects, animation, etc);
• 35 Stylish And Modern WordPress Plugins Using jQuery UI (jQuery Carousel, WP Slimbox2, jQuery Lightbox, Carousel Gallery);
• 20+ HTML Forms Best Practices for Beginners(related to Semantics, Accessibility, Functionality, and design);
• 35 Websites To Teach You How To Use CSS Effectively(CSS is easy to understand – it is mainly design; tutorials online);
• 38 jQuery&CSS Drop Down Multi Level Menu Solutions (from “outside the box” navigation to IzzyMenu builder, Pro CSS/DHTML);
• How to Create a Valid Non-Javascript Lightbox(a solution with valid markup, non-javascript), via @carsonified;
• Step by step to create your plugin: Display Delicious Counts For WordPress Users, via @webdesignbooth;
• 15 Great jQuery Plugins For Better Table Manipulation(DataTables, uiTableFilter, Scrollable HTML Table, Tablesorter, etc);

Miscellaneous, funny stuff, free things online, tips

• How We Gamed Digg for Fun and Profit! – protect your site against security breaches attacks! Here’s a case about digg.
• The Evolution of Apple Ads – from the late 1970s, thru the 80s: Apple’s most notable advertisments(in pictures);
• 5 Things Small Business Owners Should Do Today Online(start a blog & listen! Try twitter OR facebook, get the word out);
• 20 Top Designers Share the Coolest iPhone Apps They Use Everyday(share cool #iPhone apps with your friends);
• 100+ Useful Bookmarklets For Better Productivity – the Ultimate List via @hongkiat (cool, social, sharing, readability, etc)
• How to Stop Making Yourself Crazy with Self-Editing(self correction drives us bananas! Yet we’ll self-edit quickly soon!)
• 100 Firefox Add-Ons to Create a Truly Brilliant Browser(Alerts, Blogging, Photos, Music and Video, Information and RSS, etc);
• Incredible Miniatures by Thomas Doyle(outside the box: building miniatures that amazes people! Check out the pictures);
• US Government To Embrace OpenID, Courtesy Of Google, Yahoo, PayPal Et Al.(still a pilot program, data.gov / infocards);
• Students who sat where you sit 20 years ago who founded Google,Twitter&Facebook, and changed the way we communicate today!
• Back to School: 10 Terrific Web Apps for Teachers(SchoolRack, SchoolTool, Curriki, Edmodo, Shmoop, Footnote, ClassMarker, etc);
• *3001#12345#* on the iPhone to see some cool settings(GSM RR info, GPRS information, GSM Cell Info)

To find other older articles, visit the Cool Articles’ archive.

Some sites where u can find interesting articles:

• techcrunch, mashable, smashingapps, readwriteweb,
• engadget, thenextweb, smashingmagazine; sbwire; tech blorge;
• programmable web; seo scoop; webdesign booth; search engine journal; css reflex; shoemoney; 1st web designer; instant shift; blog oh blog; graph paper press; web design dev; design reviver; noupe; doshdosh;seosmarty; creative SEO; outlaw design blog; SEO design solutions;

Cool articles – SEO, blogging, internet marketing(september 01-06, 2009)

We read online lots and lots of things, and we come across some very interesting articles. I was just thinking to place them here, with a link, maybe I’ll revisit them later, read them again, or maybe they help you also  (see last week’s articles august 16-august 31 2009, articles july 16 – august 16 2009, articles, july13 – july 19 2009, articles 06-12july2009, articles ->24june2009,june24 – july05, articles archive) – categories available: internet maketing/seo, design/web design, web programming, and other miscellaneous articles

Internet marketing, SEO, SEM, online services

• Google Introduces Multi-Client Accounts for Product Search – Makes it Easier to Link Checkout to Google Base Accounts;
• Google Cash Scams – SEOs to the Rescue – “White Knights” Take on Fraudulent Results (via @wpn);
• Some Tips for Mobile E-Commerce Success from webpronews – Many Companies Still Planning Their Strategies;
• Yahoo Search & Index Update these days – a new web index is being rolled out(ranking changes, page shuffling happen);
• Tips for Getting Found in Real-Time Searches – You’ve Got to Stay in the Now! Use keywords, talk about events, followers;
• 5 Rules for Better Web Writing(know your objective&your audience, keep it short, make it scanable, embrace constraints);
• Bing Readies Sharing Feature for Search Results – They Call it “Bing and Ping”(share your search results with friends);
• Five Things PR Folks Can Learn About Social Media From Advertising(scale matters, creativity beats staid, measure, etc);
• Directory Submissions: do they still work? Still a tool to gaining traffic & SEO help; some are not good though;
• Marketing Your Website Without Search Engines(pretend #google and the search engines don’t exist – optimize for users!)
• An Essential Marketing Principle: Give Before You Try to Get. This is the principle for successful online marketing&selling;
• 101 Tips from 50 Small Business Bloggers(on the small business advantage, motivation, persistence, and resiliency, etc);
• How to analyze and improve your bounce rate – measuring your bounce rate agains overall site goals, more page views, etc;
• From Google to youtube, from craigslist to flickr – how some of today’s biggest sites looked back in the early days of their existence.
• The week in which digital grew-up(the challenge that ad agencies & PR firms face in recalibrating their businesses digital);
• 9 Things to Do To Make Sure Your Next Blog Post is Read by More than Your Mom;
• Going the Distance – Integration of Your Marketing Efforts across as many channels as possible. Integrate… @sew;
• Blogging for Search Engine Optimization – via @sew: subdomains, subdirectories, separate domains, etc – tips for blogging;
• Google Wave To Splash Down This Fall – Google Apps users promised first access(video from google enterprise & wave teams);
• Talk Of Gmail Being Down Is Trying Like Hell To Bring Down Twitter(when gmail was down, everyone was talking about it!)
• Why did gmail fail yesterday? Erik Schonfeld @techcrunch explains about the regular email servers for routine maintenance;
• Does Google value its own links 4 PR/Linkjuice? Google Bookmarks, Google Profiles, etc. Matt Cutts Talks About the Topic;
• Google Adds “Real-Time” Suggestions to Google News – Google Suggest Timely for News Searches(via @wpn);
• though women are big online content consumer and creators, it looks like women and wikipedia are not best friends

Web design, design tips, digital photography, fonts, themes

• 56 Absolutely Brilliant And Intriguing Photoshop Video Tutorials(intriguing Photoshop Manipulation techniques captured);
• Fotobounce Downloads Full Facebook&Flickr Albums in One Click – so cool: download&upload pics with tags;
• Wallpaper Roundup: The Intimate Life of Circuits(a veritable metropolis of circuits, switches, and electro-mechanical marvels);
• Create a Web Layout with 3D Elements using Photoshop via #sixrevisions (step by step guide to 3D effects in #Photoshop);
• 40 Fresh & Beautiful Websites for Design Inspiration (starting from Barista iPhone app to Pasikeitimai – excellent!);
• 45 Brilliant Examples of Photo Manipulation Art(Nice ones: Chog, fruit manipulation, the eye, falling letters, etc);
• Design a Textured Portfolio Site Layout Using Photoshop(designing a portfolio homepage in Photoshop) via designm.ag;
• List of 31 Websites Using Huge Type(hugeinc, Francesco Mugnai, Johny Favourite, Dreamer Lines, etc) Large Fonts!

Website programming tips, programming languages

• 10HTML-CSS Cross-browser best practices;

Miscellaneous, funny stuff, free things online, tips

• Google Introduces New Drawing and Form Features for Docs – we have Easier Flowcharts and More Form Options;
• Google Releases Instant Messaging API – Apps Can Exchange Messages with Google Talk/Wave(App Engine software SDK);
• Google Shares New Privacy Policy for Books – they also share the letter to the FTC(google is still waiting…)
• iPhone Solar Charger Will Keep You Twittering in the Sun All Day(the first Apple-approved solar charger for iPhone!)
• Vietnam Clamps Down On Bloggers And Online Journalists – Media watchdog condemns action(what can we do anyways?!?)
• Google Shows Off New Android Market – see a video presentation of some more features for #Android App #Developers;
• Street View: Soon it will be With More Blurriness – Swiss complaint will result in a global change! @wpn
• Movie Studios Discuss Ways to Rent Films Over YouTube(youtube considers offering paid movie content);
• 15 (More) Free Web Tools To Simplify Your Work Life(MyFontbook, Box.net, Ronin, Go2Convert, DeskAway, Atmail, etc);
• South Korea shows what the world might look like if the iPod and #iPhone had never happened: A World Without #Apple!!!
• Selling 65% of Skype to a team of savvy tech investors leaves eBay poised for healthy gains on a reinvigorated Skype;
• eBay and GM Extend New Car Program - Declared as a success (so far), weigh nationwide rollout(gm.ebay.com) @wpn;
• 100 Most Educational iPhone Apps – brain exercises, quizzes and flashcards, math related, science, geography and history, etc;
• Use the internet to get someone else to do the chores for you! check out the runmyerrand.com website(less than 10$/chore);
• LA Fires: Images and Video from Around the Web(online footage for newshounds to check out in one place) @mashable;
• Part of the interview with the Imprisoned American Journalists: We Were Violently Dragged to North Korea @mashable;
• Chrome To Come Aboard Sony Computers; First deal with hardware maker struck as market share rises;
• 7 Ingredients of Successful iPhone Apps (Source: Apple) (delightful, innovative, designed, integrated, etc);

To find other older articles, visit the Cool Articles’ archive.

Some sites where u can find interesting articles:

• techcrunch, mashable, smashingapps, readwriteweb,
• engadget, thenextweb, smashingmagazine; sbwire; tech blorge;
• programmable web; seo scoop; webdesign booth; search engine journal; css reflex; shoemoney; 1st web designer; instant shift; blog oh blog; graph paper press; web design dev; design reviver; noupe; doshdosh;seosmarty; creative SEO; outlaw design blog; SEO design solutions;

social media articles august 16th – august 31st 2009, twitter, facebook, etc

I think that by now everyone knows what twitter (in 140 characters express what u’re doing/a thought) andfacebook(picture sharing, profile, statuses, apps, etc) are. Check out the large family of tweeter related sites. There are so many uses to these sites, and so many articles written / being written about them, so I though I should list some of them here(see the last collection of articles, and the article archive). This is a list of articles written about these sites starting from the 5th of july2009:

• How to Go Beyond Your Small Business Blog and Create a Social Media Footprint(on #problogger by @mark_hayward);
• 10+ Websites that Offers Free/Premium Twitter Backgrounds(Twitter Image, Twitter Background, Twitart, Twitter Patterns, etc);
• Is Big #Brother following you? Government’s guide to using #Twitter; Guidelines suggest tweets should be frequent&credible;
• 5 Things To Do When Twitter Goes Down(complain about this injustice! Look for another social network, wait… WORK!)
• B2B companies should tweet from facebook: easier 2 be twitter&facebook approved,use cross-promoting, reduce the time spent;
• More to Retweeting Than Meets the Eye for Businesses? The Rise of the Retweet with Pros and Cons via @wpn, #webpronews;
• BackTweets.com – Your URLs On Twitter – allows searching for tweets about a specific URL, searching inside the URL;
• Facebook Now Just Integrating Directly with Twitter – FB Page Admins Can Post Updates to Twitter via @wpn, #webpronews;
• Use One #Email Address with #Multiple #Twitter Accounts – use the glitch in gmail accounts(name@ gmail = na.me@ gmail);
• How to Get Started with the Twitter API(getting the timeline from twitter, use the search api; twitter #documentation!);
• ChatterBox, a social media ggregation widget of Facebook + Twitter + Chat(allows fans to chat about favourite teams);
• 10 valuable Twitter utilities 4 business users(bit.ly, twitpic, tweetscan, twitterfeed, twinbox, cotweet, tweetstats, etc);
• Screenr: Simple Screencasting for Twitter Users(with extras and seamless integration with twitter, comments as retweets!);
• Twitter’s 20 Most Prolific Spammer Avatars [Pics] - some of these I also “recommended” not to be followed, via @mashable;
• Fail Whale Part 2: 15 Non Tech-Related Things to do when Twitter is Down(read a book! Go to the Gym! Write something!);
• Facebook is opening up its virtual gifts platform to 3rd party developers. And it’s going to include physical gifts.
• Twitter is a Twademark. Tweet: Not Yet, Maybe Never(via @mashable: will twitter ever trademark “tweet” or not?);
• Twitter Is Growing Without a Major Youth Following(and the #twitter #buzz equals that of #facebook);
• 50+ Really Cool Twitter ‘Fail Whale’ Images/Graphics(via @techxav) – some really funny #twitter #fail #whale pictures!
• Top 10 Most Exciting Web Apps or Services(twitter, gmail, google reader, google wave, facebook, spotify, seesmic, etc);
• It’s Broadway Gone Viral, With a Musical Meted Out via Twitter – “Next to Normal,” the Broadway musical, on #twitter!
• Scary: Facebook Message Points2a Phishing Site(This is something really scary&could affect your Facebook account as well);
• ILike CEO: Twitter and #iPhone are the platforms of the future. (What about #MySpace, who bought iLike?)
• Directory: 100 technology experts who are active on Twitter(from wired, techcrunch, CNET, google, Wall Street, Mahalo, etc);
• 20 Ways to Begin & Improve Your LinkedIn Presence(create an account, details to: summary, experience, education, etc);
• 33 wonderful pictures of twitter addiction – “in case of fire, do not use twitter” and “wearing my twitter shirt”;
• Productivity and Time Wasters in Social Media(get on twitter, respond to email, comment on blogs, linkedin, links, etc);
• 15 desirable features for ‘Twitter Pro’(Measurement / management / communication Tools, Interface Options, labelling, etc);
• The Proper Way to Pitch on Twitter(let’s get specific about how not to pitch on Twitter!);
• Seeking: How the brain hard-wires us to love Google, Twitter, and texting. And why that’s dangerous.
• How to Manage Twitter: use tools(desktop – seeismic/tweetdeck, iphone – tweetie/tweetdeck, twitter search, bit.ly);
• Facebook’s FriendFeed Acquisition Could Have Implications for Search (Yes, Search);
• Backing up Facebook with SocialSafe - download the content, do local browsing – use the SocialSafe application;
• More Companies Firing People Over Social Media (Mis)use. Proprietary info not meant for Facebook! Careful what you blog;

Facebook Takes Aim at Twitter: New Publisher Makes Public Status Updates Easy

June 24th, 2009

Cool articles – SEO, blogging, internet marketing(august17th-august31st 2009)

We read online lots and lots of things, and we come across some very interesting articles. I was just thinking to place them here, with a link, maybe I’ll revisit them later, read them again, or maybe they help you also  (see last week’s articles july 16 – august 16 2009, articles july13 – july 19 2009, articles 06-12july2009, articles ->24june2009,june24 – july05, articles archive) – categories available: internet maketing/seo, design/web design, web programming, and other miscellaneous articles

Internet marketing, SEO, SEM, online services

• SEO goes back Underground in 2009 – most of the real SEO’s don’t speak about themselves, they went “closed-doors” #johnon;
• Symantec identifies ‘Dirtiest Web Sites of Summer‘(sites with web attacks);
• Matt Cutts: What factors influence video results in Universal Search? High quality links, #pagerank, #topicality, etc;
• Search engine optimization and gaming the system – use the white hat SEO(hire the experts) or cheating the system?
• IBM Calls Internet Wild West; Malicious links up 500% (according 2 IBM’s X-Force 2009 Mid-Year Trend and Risk Report) @wpn;
• Matt Cutts endorsed WordPress as a superb choice for an SEO-friendly blog platform. “Best Blogging Platform”? WordPress!
• The Future of WordPress Themes 2009 (by Brian Gardner, Andrew Rickmann, Elliot Jay Stocks, Darren Hoyt, Nathan Rice, etc);
• 11 Open source project management tools (Achievo, dotProject, SimManTools, Projectivity, BORG Calendar, TaskJuggler, etc);
• Educate to Dominate Your Competition(psychological shortcuts of influence, with example: shoemoney tools) @problogger;
• 5 Essential Qualities Required For Affiliate Marketing Success;
• Top 26 Most Important Rules of Email Etiquette(Read the email before sending it! Keep the emails Short! – cool!);
• Accelerate your site by paying attention to these rules for commenting on other’s blogs and articles(site sketch 101);
• Sitemaps 101 – Back To #SEO School(what is a sitemap, How should you structure your #sitemap, tips);
• SEO & the Cycles of Optimization(The Ping Phase, The Gap, Link Insurance, The Authority Ranking) Battle: with your site;
• 7 Facts All SEOs Should Know About Google Caffeine(test it, don’t panic! Link building, fix the crawlability issues, etc);
• Two Tools To Compare Google With Google Caffeine(Facesaerch Caffeine Compare and Google Caffeine Bookmarklet);
• Testing Tools(Validators and Accessibility Testing, Browser #Compatibility, Link #Checking, #Usability Testing, etc);
• 15 Creative WordPress Footers(Net Tuts, YoDiv, The Ressington Podcast, Art Working, Just Pixel, Div Voted, etc);
• Case Study: How Much Do Rankings Matter? (ow that ranking drop and subsequent recovery affected search traffic);
• 15 Tools for Testing your Website(HTML validator, CSS Validator, Links Validator, RSS Feed Validator, etc);
• 4 Essential SEO Infographics(Pie Chart of SEO Time Expenditure, Hat Color vs. Value Scatterplot of SEO Tactics, etc);
• Subscribe to 75+ Awesome Design Blogs in 2 minutes with this file via your RSS Reader;
• Bing Begins “Double Saving Days” – Cashback offers get even better – via #webpronews;

Web design, design tips, digital photography, fonts, themes

• 60 Free, Yet Premium Quality WordPress Magazine News Themes(ImpreZZ, MagZine, Magazeen, FREEmium, Fonta, Elegant Designs, etc);
• Beautiful Single Page Website Designs: 65 New Examples(Ffive, Eric Johansson, Envato, 2udoku, Tqinteractive, Incadeo, etc);
• A Basic Guide to Photoshop CS4 Adjustment Layers(take a tour around the new panel: Adjustments, via psd tutsplus);
• Download 75 Free Useful Icon Sets for Web Designers and Developers(Web Development & Pixel and Social Media Icons);
• 15 Extremely Cool and Beautiful Free Web 2.0 Fonts(Corpulent, Airstrip Four, Automatica, Rezland, Ubuntu Title, Tuffy, etc);
• How to Create a Clean Blog Design with Photoshop, method for designing a clean blog design with stunning gradient effect;
• 90 New And High Quality Photoshop Web Layout Tutorials(via #1stwebdesigner, excellent round-up of webdesign tutorials!)
• 5 Best And Colorful Collection Of Dual-Screen Wallpapers(it will surely refresh you&force you to download any or all);
• 10 Tips on how to think like a designer(Embrace constraints, Practice restraint, Obsess about ideas not tools, etc);
• 100 Artworks from the Top 20 Digital Artists in Latin America(Pablo Alfieri, Ezequiel Matteo, Adolfo Correa, etc);
• 15 Stunning Examples of Data Visualization, true works of art via @webdesignledger fav: the Genome and Leisure & Poverty;
• 21 Mind-Buzzing Photo Manipulations: stunning works of absolute creativity, works of art that people created in #Photoshop;
• How To Create the Photo Manipulation “Brightness Tomorrows”;
• 123 Beautiful Personal Logos, Monograms and Wordmarks For Your Inspiration(from designers, web developers, etc);
• Create Vintage Traveler Diary in Photoshop(mix brushes with stock photos&blend modes2achieve the effect);
• Inspiration: 13 beautiful single page websites you should really see(psdlayout, bulletpr, delarocque, mattnickdesign, etc);
• The Best Adobe Illustrator Text Effect Tutorials(gradient strokes, trendy retro type, vibrant 2D pixel Type, etc);
• Design a 3D Box Icon in Photoshop – View
• Design a Vibrant Blackberry Inspired Ad in Photoshop – View
• Single-shot HDR effects – View
• How to Create a Fantasy “Mother Nature” Scene – View
• Create a Rebellious Skateboarder Using Digital Painting Techniques in Photoshop – View
• Manipulate Smoke to Create Hyper-Real Images – View
• 3D Typography in Photoshop – View
• Photoshop Tutorial: Design the Mac OS X Leopard Folder – View
• 3D Text Shatter Effect – Tutorial – View
• Reader Tutorial: Create Vintage Traveler Diary in Photoshop – View

Website programming tips, programming languages

• Top 10 UX Myths(people don’t change, design to avoid clicks, preferences, design always with implementation in mind, etc);
• 10 WordPress ‘HOW-TO’ to Give Your Blog the Quality it Deserves(disable scripts and styles, thumbnails 4 related posts, etc);
• 250+ Resources to Help You Become a CSS Expert – massive compilation of CSS resources&references(via #webdesignerdepot);
• Useful Classes&Libraries For PHP Developers: Database,Development,Document,Email,Forms,HTML / CSS, Image / Media / File;
• 17 Awesome Web Developer Cheat Sheets(Server Side Development, Command Line, Blogging Tools, GMail, Version Control);
• Really Useful Classes And Libraries For PHP Developers(Database, Development, Document, Email, Form, etc);

Miscellaneous, funny stuff, free things online, tips

• Features We Want to See in #Firefox: Better Memory Management! Syncing of Everything! Tab Isolation(like in #Chrome), etc;
• what would happen in Microsoft if Steve Jobs is the boss? Divisions closed, PCs made, re-write Windows, tweak X-box, etc;
• 8 Free Online Entrepreneurial Finance Classes from MIT(business analysis, applied economics, entrepreneurial finance, etc);
• Keyword Research – research synonyms of any terms(use dictionaries, reference guides, synonyms-based tools, etc);
• 15 Stunning examples of waterfall photography – more stunning than a well executed photo of a waterfall!
• 5 Best Apartment Search Tools(via #lifehacker: HotPads, Craigslist, Apartments.com, MyApartmentMap, Pounding the Pavement);
• 20 Useful Resources To Download Free Website Templates(OSWD, Open Designs, Free Website Templates, Templates Box, etc);
• Google Doubles Its Cartographers As Maps Continues To Go Wiki-Style(via #mapmaker, locals can edit the area details!)
• Listia Is eBay, But for Free Stuff – if you have smth that u don’t need anymore & don’t wanna sell but give away: #listia;
• Top 7 Sites for Parenting How-To Videos(via @mashable): BabyCenter, The Go-To Mom, Parenting, Kaboose, Martha Stewart, etc;
• How To Kick Start A Community – an Ongoing List;
• Yahoo Quietly Rolls Out Yahoo Meme In Spanish (via @techcrunch, #yahoo #meme is a portuguese micro-blogging product);
• Hiroshima: The Lost Photographs – The United States Strategic Bombing Survey Archive, 1945, International Center of Photography;
• The Most Interesting New Tech Startup of 2009: The executive branch of the federal government of the USA;
• How to Upgrade Windows XP to Windows 7 – do an Easy Transfer from XP to Windows 7;
• 8 Ways to Majorly Fail at Customer Support – 8 examples of failing to offer proper customer support;
• Convert HTML to PDF with Full CSS Support, an OpenSource Alternative Based on Webkit(with WKHTMLTOPDF);
• How to Create Your First iPhone Application(Have an idea – a Good Idea! Tools Checklist; do some market research, etc);
• Can You Build A Community Website Without Involving The Community? via @1918 – involve the locals in your local news!
• PayPal Doubles Fees, Forgets to Tell Customers – they charge 2.9% fee + 30 cents 2 receive payments 4 “Goods” / “Services”
• 11 Lessons I Learned Earning $119,725.45 from Amazon Associates Program(traffic! Loyalty, Trust convert, etc) @problogger;
• HireFlyer.com – Interesting For Employers And Employees – find new employees, efective job search website startup;
• The 10 Worst Jobs You Can Get Today: Lumberjack, Dairy Farmer, Taxi Driver, Sailor, Emergency Medical Technician, Roofer, etc;

To find other older articles, visit the Cool Articles’ archive.

Some sites where u can find interesting articles:

• techcrunch, mashable, smashingapps, readwriteweb,
• engadget, thenextweb, smashingmagazine; sbwire; tech blorge;
• programmable web; seo scoop; webdesign booth; search engine journal; css reflex; shoemoney; 1st web designer; instant shift; blog oh blog; graph paper press; web design dev; design reviver; noupe; doshdosh;seosmarty; creative SEO; outlaw design blog; SEO design solutions;

social media websites(twitter, facebook, etc) articles, 19 July-16 August 2009

I think that by now everyone knows what twitter (in 140 characters express what u’re doing/a thought) and facebook(picture sharing, profile, statuses, apps, etc) are. Check out the large family of tweeter related sites. There are so many uses to these sites, and so many articles written / being written about them, so I though I should list some of them here(see the last collection of articles, and the article archive). This is a list of articles written about these sites starting from the 19th of july2009 up until the 16th of August 2009:

• 100 Useful Twitter Tools and Feeds for Your Job Search(search, connections, organization, monitoring and research);
• Top 6 Richest Billionaires on Twitter(via @techxav – Michael Bloomberg, Pierre Omidyar, Oprah Winfrey, etc);
• Let’s socially network, Charlotte! Article about Social Media in the Charlotte Observer;
• Marketing Startups Get Serious About Twitter(A diverse set of companies pile on to leverage the fast-growing microblogging service);
• Twitter: Social Media for the Sophisticated User? As people become more savvy with social media, they pick up Twitter.
• 101 twitter tools to help you achieve all your goals(twitter analysis, information gathering, network building, etc);
• Social Media Is The Marketing Power of YOU(A Beginners Guide To Social Marketing And The Effects Of The Power Of “YOU”!)
• The Ten Social Media Marketing Laws of Facebook(Do YOU have a facebook? If not, where have you been?);
• Literary Tweets: 100+ of the Best Authors on Twitter(Children’s and Young Adult, General Fiction, Mystery, Crime, Thriller,etc);
• VOIS and Twitter Hooking Up Employers and Freelancers in 140 Characters or Less;
• 32 Ways to Use Facebook for Business(manage your profile, connect and share with others, use networks/fan pages);
• An In-Depth Look Inside the Twitter World(Twitter’s Hockey Stick-Like Growth in 09, Twitter Self-Disclosed Age Demographics, etc);
• CHART OF THE DAY: How People Share Content On The Web;
• Twitter at the heart of new real-time web innovation(The future of real-time technology is obvious…) @ajkeen;
• A Tweet By Any Other Name: The Power Of The Real Time Web(what is happening right now: twitter!)
• 12 Things That Suck About Social Media Consulting(overwhelming pace, very demanding, success is ephemeral, etc);
• People have started following the 58,000student school system as it makes the leap to the Internet’s Facebook and Twitter social networks.
• Twittering from the tractor: smartphones sprout on the farm(Steve Tucker, twitter, driving the tractor, Nebraska);
• Is Facebook Killing Your Employees’ Productivity? Some studies say that facebook is a positive impact, others: negative!
• LocalBunny Gives Businesses Custom Twitter Bots, But It Longs For Old @ Replies System(via @techcrunch);
• Facebook, Twitter, & Wikis Really Do Impact the Bottom Line(Most Engaged Brands Reaping Financial Benefits);
• Twitter Cracks comScore Top 50 Web Properties(Facebook Claims Its Highest Ranking Yet);
• MindTouch Upgrades Collaborative Platform With Video And Developer-Friendly Tools (via @techcrunch);
• Do-it-yourself social network Ning has added another $15 million to its coffers from LightSpeed Venture Partners…
• Twitter needs to act urgently on direct message spam;
• Buddy Media Unveils The Ultimate Twitter Client For Brand Management;
• The 3 E’s of Social Media: Embrace Educate and Empower;
• cnn about the twitter documents leak(guy kawasaki, chris perillo, richard colemon, al tompkins – pointer);
• Has Twitter become more important than Google for traffic generation?
• 25 Ways to Recharge Your Twitter Experience(Get out and micro-mingle! Tweak your tools!)
• 33 Ways to Use LinkedIn for Business(use widgets, do market research, answer Q&A, combine your social media approach);
• Top 10 Great Social Sites for Movie Lovers: imdb, flixter, filmcrave, criticker, flickchart, I heart movies, spout, netflix, the auteurs, BoxOfficeMojo, Blippr Movies;
• 100 Entrepreneurs You Should Follow and Learn From on Twitter;
• Bring Legal in Early on Your Social Media Strategy(dealing with the legal repercussions of someone saying something…);
• A study from Harvard has turned up that 10% of users on Twitter generate 90% of the content.
• Most Popular Social Networking Sites for Business: facebook, twitter, linkedIn, ning;
• Report: Twitter gets $48M a month in free publicity;
• The Ultimate Guide for Everything Twitter the first part. The Ultimate Guide for Everything Twitter Part II.
• Thank Twitter for that great lamb chop(Alternative dining options like food carts are made possible by social networking sites);
• Report: Hacker broke into Twitter e-mail with help from Hotmail;
• Social Media Blueprint;
• Using Twitter a challenge for area politicians(via dayton daily news);
• Contests and Giveaways Move To New, Fast Terrain of Twitter;
• The Coming Change in Social Media Business Applications – http://www.socialscoop.biz/
• Twitter docs hack exploits stupidity vulnerability. Google Apps and the mental midgets – the Register;
• Is Twitter Sending You 500% To 1600% More Traffic Than You Might Think? About The Numbers Bit And The Analytics Companies Say?
• Twitterers Ask: Why No Apollo 11 Google Logo? – Bing did this, yet google… nothing! Why? @webpronews

Facebook Takes Aim at Twitter: New Publisher Makes Public Status Updates Easy

June 24th, 2009