MikeyCampling

You may already have tested gmail’s new look.  Even so, it’s worth looking at their intro video:

The term ‘new look’ doesn’t really do it justice.  Google’s apps now function in a much friendlier way – they’ve made the mundane task of email more interesting and yes, I’m going to say it, more fun.

Integration is at the heart of these changes and that’s OK so long as it works – otherwise, users become frustrated and feel tied in.  For example, the more facebook crammed in content, the more it nagged me to click on things/people/apps and give away my data, the more I hated it.  Yesterday, I deleted my facebook account and it felt great.

It’s not that I’m a google groupie – I just like things that work properly.  Google’s relentless pace of development gives everyone a nudge forward, and that can’t be a bad thing.

Go and download Firefox  6.  Here’s a link: mozilla.com.

Ignore, if you can, the little animal figures – especially the cat in the nurse uniform – and revel in FF’s features.

Are you still here?

Go get the browser – and get it on your android device too.

OK – so I haven’t posted anything for a while, which in blog years is almost a millennium, but here’s something to share. Hop over to the logo factory to see how it’s possible to land yourself in court by doing things on the cheap. To whet your appetite, the sub title to this post is ‘how I bought the WWF panda for $69′. Talk about false economy.

Meetings can be useful or soul-destroying. Here’s a presentation on Broken meetings and How to Fix Them. It’s a little bit rambling but there’s plenty there to think about and – hopefully – to put into practice:

“Broken Meetings (and how you’ll fix them)” from Merlin Mann on Vimeo.

It’s hard to see the slides in the video so here they are:

Ok – no need to get too excited – I’m talking about a professional relationship.

I don’t just want to build you a website and I won’t just throw a template together for you.
I won’t make a copy of somebody else’s work and I won’t work on spec.
I want to provide a professional service that will make you smile and make me proud.

Please watch the video below.  If you find yourself laughing, get in touch and we’ll do business.

Go try this out: harmony sketching tool

Why? Because it’s fun.

Here’s one I made earlier:

The faintly disturbing work of five minutes

The NetSetter blog is a fantastic source of advice and inspiration for anyone wishing to make money online.

It’s part of the envato group of websites, along with Freelance Switch – which I also enjoy following.

As an example, you may like to read this article on how to monetize* blog posts – short, clear and to the point advice.  You may not plan on taking up blogging in a big way, but even so, there’s advice here that could help you formulate a strategy for productive blogging as part of a marketing effort.

There are many blogs out there with long, rambling general pieces that make me lose the will to live – this piece from NetSetter is not one of those.

I’m desperately fighting the urge to say, ‘Check it out’ at this point, so I’ll stop there.

*Yes, I’m sorry for anyone on the UK who prefers to spell it ‘monetise’ but that’s what the article’s called.  Personally I’d prefer to say, ‘how to profit from blogging’ but there we are.

Proud to be a NetSetter

Here’s something I can’t believe that I didn’t know about – XRAY.  It’s a bookmarklet that allows you to see the box model of any element on any web page.  It works for many flavours of browsers and I can see it being extremely useful when taming an unruly layout as well as for the ‘how did they do that?’ type of research.

To check it out, visit http://www.westciv.com/xray/

Simply drag the bookmarklet to your bookmarks toolbar, load a page, click your XRAY bookmarklet and then click on any element on the page to see its attributes

It works, it’s free, what’s stopping you?

I know that you can do something similar (and more) with firebug, but this strikes me as a quick and convenient alternative that won’t take up any of your browser window.

If, at this point, you’re wondering where my list of 49 other tools are – then sorry, but I’m getting fed up with seeing that type of article in design blogs.  I just end up skimming through without really reading them.  So I’m going to stick to very selective articles and then at least you know that I really am recommending something specific.

If you have a useful tool to suggest, then by all means add a comment.

Google provide many useful resources to website owners. You may already know about google’s Webmaster Tools -pretty much a must-have for any self-respecting webmaster, but they also have an informative blog: Webmaster Central. Here’s a video as an example of the highly accessible information they provide – it really does put SEO in perspective:

It’s worth checking out the info from google on a regular basis – they didn’t get where they are by sitting still.  There are a lot of myths about SEO and there are many cowboys making a living from peddling nonsense about SEO.  Do yourself a favour and assume that everything you hear about ‘SEO tricks’ is plain wrong.  Go to google for your information and remember that they are on your side if you want to make a great website that’s full of interesting, useful, relevant content.

Content is king – now more than ever.

WordPress just keeps on getting better.  If you’re looking for a solid content management system (cms) then look no further.

I’ve been playing about with wordpress for a few years now and I use the word ‘playing’ advisedly.  WordPress is fun.  It works, it’s elegant, it’s reliable and best of all, the good people responsible really listen to their community of users.  I’m finding myself thinking, ‘How did they know I wanted it to be like that?’.

If you’re already a WP fan, then don’t forget to update – it won’t take you more than about ten minutes and that includes the obligatory pre-upgrade backup (you were going to backup first weren’t you?).

Here’s a video: