Google for Webmasters

Google for Webmasters 
If you are realy serious about your site use these tools. They often come with the site-builders. Not useful if you just want a site that friends can pull up using your URL.

Photos/Images: Photo Programs,Online Photo Albums and Photo Editors

If you are going to use your own photos/graphics you will need some place to edit and store them. You have My Pictures on your computer. I suggest you keep a separate folder for each site labeled images. Also it is a good idea to put backup copies on the web or a CD. Images placed on the we are usually jpg.

You can edit pictures in Paint by right clicking on the picture and clicking on edit.

You also have Windows Photo Gallery on your computer. Very basic but makes it easy to tag, caption and burn to CD's'  Also Windows Media Center.

I really like Irfanview as an editor and viewer. It is free to download and is a most complete editor. You can scan and do batch editing and change your photos in a great number of ways.For Photoshop effects free download Gimp. 

InkScape is illustration software similar to the commercial packages Adobe Freehand and Adobe Illustrator, but without the cost.

Godaddy: Photo Hosting Made Easy
by Godaddy.com has a small cost. If you like Godaddy it is worth it.

Picasa is a free site that must be downloaded to your computer. It is very complete and gives you an online web album.

Snapfish is free online site that is quite complete. Not as good editing, but you can do all sorts of things with your photos.

Photobucket is another excellent free site that has a very interesting feature, Scrapbooks.

There are other good sites, and many of the free editor sites, like Godaddy, have image storing and editing capabilities included.

Twitterfeed.com : Feed your blog to Twitter

twitterfeed.com : feed your blog to twitter
Also other social sites. You need to post only once to have the post on each site. Posting is by set times, e.g., by the hour.

AddThis - The #1 Bookmarking & Sharing Service

AddThis - The #1 Bookmarking & Sharing Service 

Share across sites. For the serious SN worker. Seriously increases traffic. (Good or Bad?)

Revised List of Active Social Networking URLs

SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES


URL

http://www.bebo.com/

http://www.blogger.com/

http://www.bravenet.com/

http://www.broadbentpage.blogspot.com/

www.commoncraft.com/video-social-networking

http://www.craigslist.com/

http://www.delicious.com/

http://www.digg.com/

http://www.drupal.org/

http://www.facebook.com/

http://www.flickr.com/

http://www.flock.com/

http://www.frank-broadbent.blogspot.com/

http://www.friendfeed.com/

http://www.furcadia.com/

http://www.gather.com/

www.gimp.org/

http://www.gmail.com/

http://www.google.com/sites/help/intl/en/overview.html

http://www.groups.google.com/grphp?hl=en

http://www.google.com/intl/en/googlereader/tour.html

www.google.com/talk/

http://www.grandparents.com/

http://www.imeem.com/

www.irfanview.net/

iWeb

iPone and others

http://www.kompozer.net/

http://www.linkedin.com/

http://www.mashable.com/

http://www.mashable.com/2007/10/23/social-networking-god/

www.mashable.com/2009/01/13/free-social-media-iphone-apps/

http://www.meebo.com/

http://www.meetup.com/

http://members.suscom-maine.net/?body=support&cat=webspace

www.myfamily.com/welcome/tour/

http://www.myspace.com/

www.units.muohio.edu/psybersite/cyberspace/cmcreal/index.shtml

http://www.opensocial.org/

www.irfanview.net/

http://www.orkut.com/

http://picasa.google.com/  

http://www.pixlr.com/

http://www.photobucket.com/

http://www.regroup.com/

www.shutterfly.com/

http://www.snapfish.com/

http://www.spoke.com/

http://www.tweetdeck.com/

http://www.twitter.com/

http://twitter.com/fbroad

http://www.typepad.com/

http://www.vimeo.com/

http://www.weebly.com/

www.wetpaint.com/

http://www.wikipedia.com/

www.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites

http://www.wix.com/

www.microsoft.com/windows/rookies/kylie4/?ocid=ftp_rookpmk_wl_281

http://home.live.com/

http://www.fbroad.spaces.live.com/

http://www.wordpress.com/

http://groups.yahoo.com/

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/broadbentclass

http://www.yola.com/

http://www.youtube.com/

Create a Custom Toolbar | Conduit

Create a Custom Toolbar | Conduit
Get traffic and leave visitors with a piece of your site. Allows you to run sweepstakes or contests, etc. Small monthly cost therefore mostly for commercial use.

Photo Buffs Try Splashr and Photoshow

Splashr takes the photos you have on Flikr and makes a great presentation.

You may like Photoshow better. Why not check them both out?

I will have more on this later, if anyone requests it. You can follow the instructions yourself if you are a photo buff or are considering a commercial or a site for a cause.

This could be a class or group project by making a show about Senior College.

Sidewiki

Sidewiki is valuable if you wish to interact with certain websites, wish to cut/paste material from the web, and/or have multiple blogs.

"Google Sidewiki is a browser sidebar that enables you to contribute and read helpful information alongside any web page. It is available as a feature in Google Toolbar.
To get started, simply download the latest version of Google Toolbar and enable the Sidewiki button in the Toolbar Options menu. Learn more about enabling Sidewiki. "

Some Thoughts

Have you looked at the suggested list of SN sites for ones that serve your purposes?

Have you tried Yahoo groups(e.g. Portland groups), Grandparents groups, or Craigslist forums to find people with similar interests?

Do you think the class should undertake a class project?

I would like to do a video of the class doing a skit or something. Any ideas?

If you have suggestions for the class please lets hear them. Our purposes are to become familiar with social networking and create our personal space on the web.

Using Labels

You can indes you posts by topic using LABELS. For instance, if you want to find all of your
posts about Maine you will be able to if you put Maine in the Label box of each post. For more information: LABELS.

Publish your Book

Check out Blurb if you want to compile your image materials into a book inexpensively.

On-Line Editor Pixlr

Pixlr can be used as a free Photoshop substitute. Plus it is free, fast, and online. There are add-ons for Firefox if you use a lot of images.

GOOGLE-411

I know this is not a Blogger item, but it is rather neat.
GOOGLE-411 is a free service to get information about local businesses using your phone.

Adding a Picture (old Editor)

Most times you will add picture from your "My Pictures" on you computer or from a photo site you have subscribed to such as Picassa or Flikr.

To add a picture from your computer:
Go to New Post.
Click on the picture icon in the toolbar.
Go to Brouse.
Select your picture.
Choosea Lout and Image Size.
Click Upload.
Your image should appear.
Click Done


To Add a Picture from the Web.
We will get a picture from my Picassa Web Album.
Select a picture
Copy its url by right clicking on the image.
Click Properties.
Copy the URL
Return to Blogger Post
Paste the url into the box.
Select the Location and Size
Click Done.
The picture should show.

Pictures added to your blog should be fairly small or else they will take forever to load and in some cases be rejected if too large. Irfanview will resize pictures and make sure they are in JPG or TIFF format as will Picasa and some other programs.

Graphics and photos can be edit using the free program GIMP.

SOCIAL NETWORKING COURSE

WHAT IS SOCIAL NETWORKING?

http://www.commoncraft.com/video-social-networking (Good plain English, non-technical intro)

PURPOSES AND ADVANTAGES OF SOCIAL NETWORKING

Friends—Old and new

Sharing interests

Family unity

Business and organization

Getting Involved

Entertainment

Education and news

WHAT ARE YOUR INTERESTS NOW?

EXPORING SITES AND FORMATS

See our Social Networking blogs: http://www.broadbentpage.blogspot.com/

http://seniors-blogging.blogspot.com/

http://mashable.com/2007/10/23/social-networking-god (Fairly complete listing of links)

Youtube

FaceBook

GMAIL

TALK

Blogger

OrKut

picasa http://picasaweb.google.com/frank.broadbent4/GETTINGYOURPLACEONTHEWEB#a

flickr

myfamily.com/welcome/tour/

Twitter

linkedIn

Imeem

Bebo

RSS and Gadgets/widgets (AJAX)

opensocial (Google)

MySpace

Wikipedia

Wikis

Blogs

Craigs List

Furcadia (Role playing game)

Usenet, MUDs, listserves, chat rooms, forums, bulletin boards

GETTING ON LINE WITH BLOGSPOT, FACEBOOK AND TWITTER

SELECTING YOUR OWN MEDIUM OR GROUP PROJECTS

SHARING (Will you be my friend?)

Share ideas, discoveries, and questions on the Class blog

Share project with class.

http://www.grandparents.com/gp/content/expert-advice/long-distance-grandparenting/article/get-splashy-with-it.html

LIST OF SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES