Craig's Week in Tech 7/2/11
If you haven't been reading Craig Daniels' blog, you've been missing out on some really great information. He's set up his blog page in an interesting format so he can present a lot of info in a small space.
Check it out, and be sure to amble over to his blog and say hi!
Craig's Week in Tech - Newsletter
July 2, 2011 - Volume 1, Issue 5
Welcome
Another week and I'm happy to report and share some of the interesting things in my tech travels. If you missed the earlier issues you can go back via these links (the first one was not formatted quite as pretty but still has an interesting mix of thoughts!)
Issue 1 :: Issue 2 :: Issue 3 :: Issue 4Google+
This, I think, was the HUGE headline of the week! Google has just unleashed a new social network by LIMITED invitation participation. I'm in it now for a day and like it ALOT. Even if you aren't in it, you will be soon enough. To get used to the new ideas and terminology (circles, hangouts, etc) visit this blog post by google all about it. And BTW +1 buttons make a lot more sense now...TWiG Google+
Last week I introduced you to the tech webcasts on twit.tv. This past week was a SPECIAL episode on this week in google show. As you can imagine, Google+ is HOT and took the entire show. You can watch TWiG Episode 101 on youtube. I found it extremely interesting! ;)Public WiFi
You are going to your favorite public coffee house and hanging out with your free WiFi on your laptop. Watch this cnet video how easy it is for a hacker to get access to your account IF you don't take certain precautions. Take a look and see what you can do about it.Outside Blog
As a Rainmaker account, you have an outside blog. Are you posting your articles to it. Do you know how to style it? Do you know that if you use an outside blog, google is most probably going to land it on the SERP higher than your regular blog page of the same blog post. This is by design. If you feel you need help with outside blogs, head over to ActiveRain University and sign up for the 1 hour webinar on it. You'll be glad you did!QR Code Reader App
We are well acquainted with QR codes now. Which app do you like best to scan with on your phone? On my blackberry, I tried all sorts of readers and wasn't happy with most. I finally found i-nigma and it has worked great. If you haven't yet found a reader app that you like, you might give it a try.Mobile Ready Website
Everybody knows know about QR codes and how to make them. Question is what is your LANDING PAGE for the code? If you just land them on your regular formatted website page, that means there is lots of zooming and panning required. This is a bad experience on a mobile phone. I'll be talking more about this in the future. But for now the question, are you using mobile ready web pages for your QR codes?Empire Avenue
I reported a couple of newsletters back that I had not yet tried Empire Avenue but that it was very popular in the trending category. Well this past week I signed up for my account after listening to Ken Cook/Jason Crouch/Jeremy Blanton/Mike Mueller in their podcast episode on EA. They had special guest Chris Pirillo on air who is one of the ones at the top of the charts in the network. I'm not sure I'm ready to recommend it. I'll give you a better report after I have been in a while...7 Ways to Improve Google Rankings
Social Media Examiner website is one that I have recommended in the past. They have very interesting and informative articles. This past week they published 7 New Ways to Improve Your Google Rankings. Everything that we write should be strategized around the thought of actually being found. Else why bother? Let's keep learning all we can on this SEO topic! :)Recent Classroom Posts
If you missed them, here are my most recent classroom-type (teaching) posts:
Google Flight Information
Getting Points for Comments
Where is that Blog Post? I Know I Wrote it!!!
Using Google Bookmarks [tutorial video]
Customizing and Embedding Google Maps [video]
Graphics For Bloggers [#6] - ActiveRain Math
iGoogle - Dashboard to Your Digital Life
Thanks for joining me in another issue of my Craig's Week in Tech Newsletter :)
About the Author - Craig loves technology and loves to teach others about it!
If you'd like to learn more about Craig, see recent post "Who Is Craig Daniels?"
new - subscribe to my blog via EMAIL
craig's classroom catalog shows articles with lookup by topic
Comments(4)