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Two Useful Google Tools for Journalists

If you race around the Web, searching for information, getting sidetracked, and ultimately returning to the same tried and true sources, there are two easy-to-use tools that are brilliant at sorting stuff; getting it out of your head and moving it to the Web.

Google Personalized Homepage

Rather than clog your favorite’s folder with URL’s that you may only use a handful of times, personalized homepages allow you to categorize smarter. You have six tabs (which you name), and each allows you to add as much content as you wish.

If you don’t have a Google account, you need one. If you have one, all you need to do is sign in and start adding stuff.

You can add content by looking through what’s on offer from ten categories, or add it by URL (next to the Google search box). If the content you want to add is not off a feed, there is a Google bookmark module that you can add to your page, so just use that to add your favorite sites.

Google have been offering homepages for some time, but last month they overhauled it. You can now personalize the page to suit your mood, and although you can only choose from six themes, it’s very cute because the pages are dynamic (meaning they change with your local time, season and weather conditions). Read Jessica Ewing’s post about adding personality to your Google homepage.

Another feature for those among us that are a tad lazy is the option to let Google decide what sites may be of interest to you, based on the names you give tabs, or content you include.

Google Notebook

A brilliant tool, especially during the research phase when you don’t want to be writing down each URL you find, or adding them all to your favorites, is Google notebook, which allows you to copy bits off the Web easily.

It also gets rid of the need to cut and paste between programs, time consuming and painful because you usually need to reformat text for ease of reading. Google notebook lets you easily grab all the pertinent URL’s or text, so that later, when you do need to start writing; it’s all there in the one place, in a common format.

How to have a Clean Result on Google

by Lid 1 comment

I was recently given the opportunity to speak with Adam Lasnik, Google’s Search Evangelist about search engine optimization, and it started me thinking about title elements and meta description tags; specifically, just how important is it to get the words right?

When you search on Google, the two most obvious things that come back are the title of a Web page, and a brief description of it. Most people will easily recognize a result from a search query.

Harvey Norman: The Anatomy of a Messy Search Result

by Lid 2 comments

Harvey Norman, a household name in Australia, is a franchise that retails products for the home and office. Its diverse product line and quality of merchandise allows you to completely furnish your house or office with one visit, should you want to, and, if you know it exists.

By all appearances, Harvey Norman is a successful company; from a search point of view, not so much. Let’s take a look at their site.

How to Blog Well

by Lid 5 comments

One year ago, when I first arrived in Silicon Valley from the Land Down Under, one of the most significant differences I noticed, when it comes to technology, is the size of the blogosphere.

Utilized by businesses and individuals in the States, blogging is still in its infancy in Australia.

Ironic really, given one of the pioneers of the phenomenon is fellow Australian Darren Rowse, founder of ProBlogger, one of the best reference sites on the Web for bloggers, and a blogger himself since 2002.

Six lessons learned from six months of play:

1. Find a blogging tool that you like, that gives you most of what you need. They all have their quirks, you just need to decide which you can live with, and those you can’t. Don’t listen to anyone else, you are unique; work it out yourself. This acquainting process took me six months, you may be quicker. Don’t be scared of starting five blogs while you learn, you can always delete them later on

2. While you are playing with the various blogging tools, read. Read voraciously. Find blogs you like and check them daily. See what inspires you, what annoys you, and what is out there. It helps you find your niche; what you will ultimately be writing about. Me, I love information, writing, and the Internet, and this leads us to:

3. Write about something you are passionate about. You absolutely have to love the subject and want to suck up as much information about it as you can. You have to know the subject inside out; if you don’t, your blog will bomb. In which case, what was the point of it in the first place?

4. Make the time. To understand the blogosphere, to outline the plan, to reacquaint yourself with basic grammar, and to write; then work out how many hours you can, or want, to dedicate to it daily. Then think Nike: Just do it.

5. Learn the terminology. The blogosphere is full of portmanteau words and you’ll do your head in if you can’t work them out. If you plan to make money blogging, you really need to know what options are available to you. Speaking of money:

6. Don’t think: “Cool, I’ll start a blog, and the cash will flow in.” Doesn’t work. Sure, there are ways you can make money blogging; join link exchange sites, plaster your blog with ads, or join groups/sites that offer a couple of bucks a post. You’ll fail; here’s why:

Search engines don’t like link farms. If search engines don’t like you they ban you. If they ban you, you won’t be found. If you can’t be found, what exactly is the point of blogging? I’m sure you are not the only form of entertainment for Aunt Gertrude.

Readers don’t trust sites full of ads, especially the in-your-face, flashing, noisy, epileptic fit inducing advertisements. They drive your readers away and get them thinking about malware, “Hmm – is this one of those drive-by sites that puts something awful on my computer?” If they are thinking that, they don’t come back, and they warn others to stay away. So, if you’ve lost your readers, who will click on those revenue building advertisements?

A buck or two a story – cool. How many stories do you think you can knock out an hour? Let’s call it miwacrapping; the collision of minimum wage and crappy writing. Even at five bucks an hour, with my time constraints, I could—at best—be miwacrapping to the tune of $75 a week. In this instance, the readers don’t get the chance to go away; you go away.

So how exactly do you make money online?

Write about something you love; it will help you remain committed.
Find your niche; narrow your subject matter down and write to a specific audience.
Do your research; readers want information – supply it!
Write compelling content; readers (and search engines) will love you and keep checking back.
Write well; bad grammar is often associated with bad information. Don’t do it.
Update frequently; give people a reason to keep coming back (and search engines).
Don’t whine and opine: until you are seen as a leader in your field, keep it to a minimum.
Build a community; respond to comments and comment on like minded blogs. Ignore idiots
Link well; Link only to relevant blogs and dare I say it…advertisements.
Market thyself; once you have the basics down, promote, promote, promote.

If you are intersted:

18 Lessons I’ve leant about Blogging:
Darren Rowse, ProBloger

The First 100 Days: Observations of a Nouveau Blogger
Guy Kawasaki, Marketing Evangelist

What is: Digg, Reddit, Fark, StumbleUpon, Del.icio.us?

by Lid 9 comments

Digg, Reddit, Fark, StumbleUpon, and Del.icio.us are only five of the many Web sites known as social bookmarking sites or social networking sites (but for Delicious, which is more about bookmarking only). They all fall under the social media umbrella.

They provide an online home for people to save stories, videos, and podcasts. Rather than fill your favorites folder to the point of overkill, use an online bookmarking tool, and have the ability to access it from any computer.

Additionally, all of these sites provide a way for you to share the stories that you love, with other people.

Anyone can visit these sites for information (they’re a great way of learning what is being talked about in the blogosphere; staying current), but if you want to submit content or vote, you usually need to become a member.

Also often referred to as folksonomy, because folks generate the taxonomy, these sites categorize Web content by using tags (specific categories). The ultimate aim of these Web sites is to make searching and navigating the Web a lot easier.

It’s a simple process. When you find something on the Internet that you love, bookmark it. Other members of the site, or the site’s community, then have the opportunity to rank it. This drives the better stories to the top of the list and pushes the shockers down, or even out.

A recent Wall Street Journal article, The Wizards of Buzz, defines social bookmarking sites as “A new kind of Web site turning ordinary people into hidden influencers, shaping what we read, watch and buy.”

If a story becomes popular it can literally drive thousands of visitors to a Web site within minutes.

The WSJ article mentions Henry Wang, a high school senior in the United States, who pointed out a site called Famster, on Digg. After getting 1,700 votes from the Digg community, Henry’s influencing power became evident; he drove Famster’s daily visitors to 50,000 within days.

Henry didn’t do too badly either; he now earns $1,000 a month from Netscape, doing what he loves best, searching the Internet for great stories in his down time. Not bad for a part time influencer.

For writers, social bookmarking sites are a brilliant starting point for research.

The information is usually topical and current, and the need to rummage around the Internet for hours is eliminated; someone else has done the work for you. All you need to do is find a bookmarking site you like, and then find the tag that best fits the information you are looking for.

So next time you’re checking out Web sites and come across one of these buttons, click it, and let the writer/producer—and the world—know you enjoyed it.