It seems to be new Google features discovery week, with new search parameters for searching the web in real time, and now a Labs feature called Fast Flip making an appearance. Fast Flip is a visual browser of online publications, designed to give you a quick snapshot of what’s being blogged and talked about at many major news sources at a glance.
If you’re looking to take the pulse of the web at any given moment (and you don’t want the static or excess sensationalism that goes along with using Twitter), Google Fast Flip is as good a place as any to start. It sort of feels like a concise, pre-filtered Alltop that provides a macro level view of some of the web’s most influential and respectable news sources. Read the rest of this entry »
Not too long ago, I posted about BookGlutton, a service which allowed for online collaborative reading. You could also upload your own work, but that wasn’t the main focus of the site. Smashwords, on the other hand, is a web site devoted to self-publishing. It doesn’t lend itself to collaboration, necessarily, but it does present another possible method of content delivery, and for web workers looking for another revenue stream, it may provide an avenue for monetizing your content.
For me, it also raises the age-old question: is self-publishing really just a form of vanity publishing, along with all the negative connotations that implies?
It’s a thorny question, and one that takes on new significance as we slowly but surely move away from print media towards online publishing. I went to school for writing, and had it drilled into me pretty much every day that unless it was someone else’s name on the masthead of the journal or press I was publishing with, I wasn’t accomplishing anything.
Online, however, many of the most successful professionals are self-published, and self-made. Darren Rowse, Guy Kawasaki and Om Malik Richard MacManus come to mind. They are dealing primarily in the medium of the blog, however. The stigma associated with self-publishing doesn’t seem to have entirely disappeared when it comes to books. Read the rest of this entry »
(Editor’s Note: This is the first of a series of posts from our writers covering all aspects of web working for beginners)
Doing what we do here at WebWorkerDaily, it is sometimes easy to forget from whence we came. That is to say, everything has a beginning, including a career, or part of a career, devoted to working online. For many of us already in the field, the starting point may have been a natural inclination towards technology that gradually blossomed into a full-fledged professional pursuit.
But for those just getting their feet wet, the process might not be so organic. You might be showing up late to the game, and with only a basic grasp of the rules to begin with. Let’s take some of the pressure off by taking an introductory look at two of the basic tools of the trade. Read the rest of this entry »
I was recently interviewed as a “web expert” for a national women’s magazine. The reporter kept trying to get me to explain how a professional could build a static web site on the cheap to effectively “manage online reputation.”
“Web sites don’t really actively manage your online reputation,” I countered.
“Yes, but aren’t there free templates that people can use to set up cheap web sites? And what about hiring someone to create a one-page site?”
“I’m sure there are templates, but I would never recommend to a client today to build a web site like that,” I explained. “And I’d never recommend that anyone just put up a single page.”
My comments didn’t faze the writer, who was determined to present me as a “web expert” recommending cheap and easy web site building solutions for her article.
That exchange got me thinking: How did I – a former web developer – become so anti-web site? And why is a national publication promoting an article advising that businesspeople build web sites for themselves to manage their online reputation, especially when their chosen web expert was telling them, “Don’t do it!“? Read the rest of this entry »
There is no shortage of small team wiki and collaboration platforms available to us as Web Workers, and we’ve certainly covered our share of them here. While feature sets and functionality certainly vary between products and services, it seems that most systems assume that because our teams may be small, our needs and requirements are as well.
Do we really need to forgo the functionality that we are really looking for when choosing a small team solution? Traction Software says “no,” and they are offering up TeamPage5, a free 5 user version of their Enterprise TeamPage workspace system, as proof.
Read the rest of this entry »
As simultaneously announced on GigaOM and The Apple Blog, Giga Omni Media has acquired The Apple Blog. This adds an entire blog of Apple-specific coverage to our growing network. If you’re keeping score, the GigaOM family of blogs now includes:
- GigaOM, for reporting and analysis of the big stories in Web 2.0, mobile, and other new technology.
- Web Worker Daily, for coverage of the new world of online work.
- NewTeeVee, for everything related to the video revolution.
- Earth2Tech, looking at the intersection of green and technology.
- OStatic, with thorough coverage of open source software and its ramifications.
- jkOnTheRun, covering the world of mobile devices.
- The Apple Blog, for news of all things Apple-related.
Read the rest of this entry »
In a move that is sure to strike fear in the heart of local news providers such as your newspaper or TV affiliate, Google News has added the ability to see local news based on your location.
Here’s how it works: simply go to Google News, look half way down the page you’ll see a text box allowing you to enter either a zip code or city/state. Do so and Google News will reload with your local city listed as one of the categories of news available for your reading pleasure. Aggregating local news stories from a variety of sources is nothing new for Google News, but this is the first time we have been able to see a specific city’s news items as a news category.
One obvious missing feature is the ability to search the local view. If you do enter a search term, you see the global search results. Additionally, at this point in time the local news feature only works in the United States and only in English.
Read the rest of this entry »
If you’re looking to take the pulse of the web at any given moment (and you don’t want the static or excess sensationalism that goes along with using Twitter), Google Fast Flip is as good a place as any to start. It sort of feels like a concise, pre-filtered Alltop that provides a macro level view of some of the web’s most influential and respectable news sources. Read the rest of this entry »
Web Work 101: How To Escape The Cubicle
