Technology and Money

The Benefits of Lifestreaming in Plain English

Lifestreaming, as you probably know, is all about sharing your daily activities (both in the online and offline world) with friends and family. (See how to create a Lifestream with Google Reader).

You upload a picture on the web, you change your current geographic location on the phone, you favorite some videos on YouTube, you comment on your cousin’s picture, you change your status in messenger.. all these events are captured and show up in your "lifestream" in reverse chronological order.

 

Sounds simple but in case you need help in explaining the whole concept of lifestreaming to someone who is very new, show them the video above.

Microsoft will soon be adding lifestreaming capabilities into Windows Live and they recently hired the Common Craft guys to do a video that helps explain the whole concept in plain English. The video obviously talks only about Windows Live products but the concepts can easily be applied outside Live as well.

Related posts:

1. Common Craft Video: LinkedIn in Simple English
2. Web Search 101 for Dummies - New Common Craft Video
3. Men and Women Strip To Protest Global Warming

The Benefits of Lifestreaming in Plain English - Digital Inspiration

Building a Better Blog: Google Offers Some Blogging Advice

Ms Google - your new virtual teacher.

"A useful blog post once a week is better than low-quality content published daily." – Ms. Google

Last week, Google released an helpful SEO Guide [PDF Book] that discusses factors which are often responsible for improving the rankings of your websites in Google and other search engines.

Now there’s a new document from the same Google Webmaster Central team that offers tips on how bloggers can improve their blogs.

It suggesting publishing full feeds, using tags and getting readers though comments on other blogs. If you have a blog, you probably know all of this already but for those in a hurry, here’s a quick summary:

1. Provide full-text RSS Feeds: Rich, full-content feeds make users happy because they can view your content with minimal effort. They may result in a short-term decline in visits to your actual blog, but the long-term gains of increased readership and mindshare are typically worth it.

2. How often should you blog: A frequently updated site encourages people to return - as long as your content remains relevant and engaging. A useful post once a week is better than low-quality content published daily.

3. Leave thoughtful comments on other blogs: Visit these blogs, comment on posts, and participate in the discussion. Thoughtful comments with useful information will make readers more likely to visit your site.

4. Use Categories & Tags in your blog: Labels and tags are a great way to organize your content, and encourage users to browse your blog.

5. What should your write about: A great idea is to search Google for subjects of interest in your field. If you can’t find a good answer, create a blog post about the subject - chances are that other people are searching for the same thing. (Related: Beating Bloggers Block)

Related posts:

1. To Succeed in Blogging, Know Your Blog Competitors
2. Google Blog Search Now Reads Links on Web Pages
3. The New Definition of a Blog is Better Listing on Google

Building a Better Blog: Google Offers Some Blogging Advice - Digital Inspiration

How Kerosene Lanterns Helped Bill Gates Save a Day

Last week, Bill Gates was all set to leave India in his private jet from the Jodhpur Airport, when trouble struck. The Jodhpur airport was under repairs since mid-April and the authorities ordered that no flight could take off after 4 pm.

While security officials knew that the light from Bill’s aircraft was sufficient for pilots to take-off, the local airbase officials were not prepared to take a chance. So the authorities arranged for more than 200 Kerosene Lanterns to lit up the runway and saved the day for Gates.

Related posts:

1. 13 Year Old Bill Gates with Paul Allen
2. Goodbye, Bill Gates!
3. Gizmodo Blogger Prefers Windows XP over Mac Because of Bill Gates

How Kerosene Lanterns Helped Bill Gates Save a Day - Digital Inspiration

Looking for a Good Book on Learning CSS? Download It Free

If you are looking for some offline resourcs to learn CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), here’s an offer that you should not miss.

The Art & Science of CSS is a good CSS book (read reviews at Amazon) packed full of practical examples. You’ll learn about CSS techniques like making rounded corners, creating navigation tabs, styling web forms and list, designing web page backgrounds with images and so on.

The book costs around $40 but you can download this for free as a PDF ebook. All you have to do is either follow @sitepointdotcom on Twitter or put your email address at SitePoint.com.

If you are worried about sharing your email, go with the twitter approach – as you soon as follow sitepoint, they’ll send you a direct message with a link to download the free CSS book.

This is Sitepoint’s second giveaway – earlier they had offered a Photoshop ebook for free.

Update: Here’s a direct link to download the eBook. It’s about 24 MB in size.

Related posts:

1. Photoshop for Web Design - Download This PDF e-Book for Free
2. Download Free PDF Book from Amazon - Blue Planet Run
3. CSS Tools That Compress & Strip Unused Styles From Your CSS Files

Looking for a Good Book on Learning CSS? Download It Free - Digital Inspiration

Yahoo Glue Pages Now Available in all Countries

Yahoo Glue is like a more comprehensive version of Google Universal Search. Type in a search terms and you can view web pages, news headlines, images, videos and even blog posts related to your search topic in one easy-to read page.

Glue search pages are contextual in the sense they show information based on the query type. So if you searching for a celebrity name (like Barack Obama), you may see excerpts from Wikipedia as in this screenshot.

If your query represents some company (like Google), you may see stock quotes and even related job opening in the search page. And if you search for sports (like Cricket), the glue pages will show live scores for any current games happening around the world. Pretty interesting.

Yahoo! Glue Search initially launched in India but after some six months of testing, Yahoo! is making the Glue search service available internationally.

Related posts:

1. Yahoo! Makes Backdoor Entry In Google Search Results via their Glue Pages
2. Use Yahoo! Glue Search Outside India With Yahoo! Alpha
3. Yahoo! Integrates Images from Facebook Profiles in Search Results

Yahoo Glue Pages Now Available in all Countries - Digital Inspiration

Time to Grab a Copy of PC Magazine from the Newsstand

May it’s time to grab a copy of PC Magazine from the nearest newsstand and preserve that for our grand-children.

That’s because the popular computer magazine is shutting down their print edition and Jan 2009 will be the last issue. The website and digital edition of PC Magazine will however continue to exist as they are extremely profitable ventures.

Related: Read PC Magazine for Free

Related posts:

1. PC World Magazine Tired of New Gadgets
2. Mutiny Blog Now Published as a Print Magazine
3. Free Digital Magazines from Zinio - Is the offer valid anymore?

Time to Grab a Copy of PC Magazine from the Newsstand - Digital Inspiration