Successful Blog

Great Find: 50 Coolest Websites

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Great Find: TIME: Tech Time–50 Coolest Websites by Maryanne Murray Buechner
Type of Article: End of Year List
Permalink: 50 Coolest Websites
Target Audience: Any Internet user

Content: Maryanne Murray Buechner defines one quality of cool as something you probably haven’t bookmarked already. She figures there is no value in pointing out what most people already know. The article is divided into five sections.

On the last page, Ms. Murray Buechner reviews the criteria for each section. As a publisher, I might have put this overview first to give readers a “roadmap” to the article. So if you’re like me, you might want to start there and then return to the sections that interest you most. The sections are these.

NEWS AND INFORMATION–less-traveled links to the real world.

LIFESTYLE AND CULTURE–great content and presentation that showcases a particular area of interest.

COMMUNITIES–sites that do a great job of connecting people for work, play, or other common interests.

TOOLS AND ESSENTIALS–sites chosen for their ability to perform a service.

JUST FOR FUN–as the name implies, entertainment.

I’m partial to the lie detector. Although it’s great to see Bloglines getting its due in the “real world.” The IpodLounge and some of the Just for Fun links were nice discoveries.

I think you’ll pick up a site or two from this list you’ll want to visit again. I just can’t imagine that you’ll know everything this list has to offer.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Speaking of Zeitgeist–Don’t Leave Trends

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Blogger know thyself.

While you’re finding out how your readers search, why not personalize Google to find out what you might learn from your own search trends?

Just last week Google introduced Trends–a feature that lets you look at your top searches, clicks, and other info about your personal search activity. To use it, you only have to sign on to your Google account when you search.
All of the details are described for you at this page of the googleblog_blogspot.com logo.

The key features of Personalized Search offered through Trends are that it

  • Orders your search based on what’s relevant to YOU. Over time, new search results are ordered using your search history, particularly what you have clicked on in the past, to deliver more personalized and relevant results to what you are looking for.
  • Past searches–web pages you have browsed– are available to you for browsing, researching, and removal.
  • Labels and bookmarks you attach to your Personalized Searches can be accessed from any computer.

I’ve been playing with it for the last three days and here’s what the read out looks like.

Google Trends

I’m thinking this could be very useful for that “where did I see that” syndrome. No extra work, a better record. I like that.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Holiday Prezzies

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fabulous presents

One little way to say Happy Two-Month Blogiversary! Happy Holidays! and Thank you, Readers!

To get into the holiday feeling, click the picture christmas lights

to read a short, short story about Christmas lights and stars.

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Click this picture suduko to play the game

people are saying is the next Tetris–most addictive game of the year.

And here are the mobile versions of Suduko.

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If you want to track Sants’s progress tonight, click his letter to Google Track Santa

It will take you to the official “Track Santa Google Earth.”

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If you really wanted blogging presents:

From Improbulus at A Consuming Experience, How to postpone your posts, even at Blogger.

From Article Dashboard.com, Top 10 Innovative Web 2.0 Applications of 2005.

From Zopheus.com, Sightsee Famous Landmarks from Space.

From fasticon.com, more cool icons to download.

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If you’re confused about who left these presents,
click this heart heart box and then you’ll know.

[research via digg.com]

Fun Find: Design Personality Indicators

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FUN Find: Web Design and Development Personality Indicators by Molly of Molly.com
Type of Article: Psychological Analysis, based loosely on the Myers-Briggs Personality Indicators
Permalink: Web Design and Development Personality Indicators
Target Audience: Anyone who is a designer, works with designers, or plans to do either

Content: Molly, a self-professed geek, typed up this article on a ship in the Eastern Caribbean where she was teaching CSS on a Geek Cruise. (Now doesn’t that sounds like something we should be putting into our own business plans?) She loosely applied the Myers-Briggs personality type indicators to Web Designers and Developers to describe who you might find the next time you meet a designer to work on your blog. These are the six types Molly identifies.

  • OFAD–Old Fart Anti-Design Designer
  • OSVD–Old Skool Visual Designer
  • TTLM–Trying to Learn More Designer
  • SAVD–Standards-Aware Visual Designer
  • SASS–Standards-Aware Structural Semanticist Designer
  • SACE–Standards-Aware Cutting-Edge Designer

Molly describes each personality type in detail and places herself on the scale as well. It’s a fun read that rings true to this writer who’s spent some time with designers and their idiosyncracies.

Still, since I’m not in the market for a new design yet, I’m going to file the document–right after I check into that number for Geek cruises. I could use a vacation that’s a tax write off. I wonder how it would feel to be the only nerd on a shipload of geeks? I guess I’d have to bring my son along–he’s multi-lingual.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Google Homepage–Got Yours Yet?

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googleblog_blogspot.com homepage article

Here’s what Google says:

The personalized homepage was created to bring together the stuff that interests you from across the web. From an engineering perspective, this became an opportunity to create a framework for all types of content and information. Supporting RSS and Atom feeds was one step in that direction, and today we’re excited to start supporting richer web apps as well. With the Google Homepage API, developers can now create modules for the personalized homepage. It’s designed to be flexible and easy to use, and you don’t need to download anything to create a module. To get the ball rolling, the team’s created a few modules to add to the directory. So check these out and get started creating your own.

Have you got yours yet?

Or are you waiting for the reviews?

You can find all of the links and more about how to build your own Google Homepage at the Google blog.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related articles:
Google–Do You Have Something to Tell Me?
Check Google Backlinks Through Yahoo
Google Site Maps–Looking for Lancelot or Guinevere
Google Blogger–403 Forbidden–How Could You Let that Happen!
Google Zeitgeist–Will Make ME Millions