Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Dig this - Digg Digg Digg !


Now this is interesting. Although I've heard about Digg for quite some time now, I've just begun to use it in the last week or so. For those of you who have missed this (where were we?), Digg is a news website where users submit stories for review. These so called stories normally revolve around a link to a website, and your actual "story" about what was at the end of that link.

After you have done your story, you then submit the story for "review", but rather than allow an editor to decide which stories make it to the front page, called the homepage, the users do. Readers of Digg perform their voting (a la American Idol style) of your story using a "Digg" button next to your story. The more votes or Diggs you get, the higher in ranking your story becomes. Ultimately with more votes, your story keeps climbing up in the ranking ladder until it makes it to the front page. On the other hand, if you do not get sufficient votes after a certain time, your story drops out of the review queue (i.e. it gets booted out). At the end of it all, you get a community of users who both submit, read, and vote for stories.

"So what?", you might say.

So ..... the community gets to consume news or information that they themselves have selected as noteworthy. I kinda like that because I am beginning to use this Digg concept to source for materials that I need in the course of my research and writings. Digg also combines social bookmarking, blogging, and RSS. You are just one click away from bookmarking their materials. This you do after you register your profile. Those articles or stories that you have "dugg" will then appear within your profile area as bookmarks. With one click you can also blog about the stories. RSS is also available for lots of stuff like the frontpage stories, stories that you "dugg" and so on.

Digg is also a social networking website (what ?! Another one ?!). Stories that you have "dugg" may be shared with others in the community. You can also see which stories they have "dugg". Readers may also leave their comments on any story, this is also one click away.

In essence, as an information junkie I now use Digg, del.icio.us, Findory and Bloglines to trawl the internet for information to satisfy my insatiable desire to learn.

p.s. More about del.icio.us, Findory and Bloglines later !

The Role of Squidoo in Blogosphere

Is Squidoo irrelevant in the age of weblogs or blogs? In the internet, content can be static or dynamic, structured or unstructured. In the early days, many websites offer static information. Then, websites were merely static pages with links to one another. Today, there are many websites which still offer static and evergreen content. However, things are now a bit more sophisticated. Wikipedia is an excellent example of a site which is updated and refined by ordinary folks. But Wikipedia content is something that is fairly stable and can be linked to reliably. In other words, its content is quite static, with some degree of refinements.

Blogs, on the other hand, are the very essence of refreshed content. People go back to blogs every day to see what’s new. Good blogs generate stickiness and repeat customers. Essentially, a blog is a website in which items are posted on a regular basis and displayed in reverse chronological order.

The term blog is a shortened form of weblog or web log. Authoring a blog, maintaining a blog or adding an article to an existing blog is called “blogging”. Individual articles on a blog are called “blog posts,” “posts” or “entries”. A person who posts these entries is called a “blogger”. A blog comprises text, hypertext, images, and links (to other web pages and to video, audio and other files). Blogs use a conversational style of documentation. Often blogs focus on a particular “area of interest”.

Squidoo however is something that lie somewhere between Wikipedia and blogs. The basic premise of Squidoo is that anyone can create a Squidoo-hosted weblog (called a “lens”) about any topic that matters to him or her. You can create as many lenses as you want, on as many topics as you want, and other people can build lenses on the same topic you’ve chosen. The goal of Squidoo is to create a collective grouping of information with the aim of providing users multiple points of view on both broad and niche topics. Its a platform that makes it easy for anyone, even a newbie, to teach people about topics they care about. The assumption is that everyone is an expert about something, and the Squidoo.com platform is designed to make it easy to do that. See Squidoo lens on Squidoo-101.

The Squidoo idea was thus simple and easy to explain: allow anyone to build a single page, called a lens, on a topic that he or she is passionate about. The person building the lens, the “lensmaster”, gets recognition as an expert in his or her area of expertise, and cash. Squidoo shares a percentage of profits with its authors.

I see Squidoo lenses as complimentary to blogs in this information age. A Squidoo lens is supposed to present information on a subject in a more structured manner whereas a blog is more chronological in nature. Information or knowledge is best presented in logical blocks. Likewise, a Squidoo lens captures the subject matter in chunks called modules. A module can be several paragraphs of information, or it can also reference other material in the form of links. The link list, RSS and Technorati modules are such examples of modules which are meant to refer to other materials in the internet.

The lensmaster can thus craft his lens as a master craftsman does by presenting his subject matter as a series of knowledge chunks called modules, some of which contain essays and others which reference other materials. A master craftsman would be able to beautifully weave all his modules as a tapestry. If used in this manner, a Squidoo lens becomes a very valuable piece of knowledge, left behind indefinitely for all to behold.

On the other hand, if a lens is merely a set of links, then it becomes just a directory. Are directories bad? Not really, they are useful in our everyday lives. But they are not really pieces of art are they? Nor are they thesis in nature. But they are useful. Thus, Squidoo lenses have their place in blogosphere as individual nuggets of information containing concise and yet precise knowledge on certain subjects; organized and structured for easy learning.

Blogs on the other hand are like living diaries. They chronicle the lives of the blogger as seen from the perspective of a certain subject. They are not really structured or organized, though some blogs can be. But in general, blogs are just that, web logs. So are blogs less superior than Squidoo lenses, or vice versa? I think neither. They each have their own place in our lives. We track blogs via RSS readers because we are addicted to information or news as and when they develop. But if we need to learn or know more about some particular subject, a Squidoo lens becomes the lamp unto our path.

An avid blogger would thus be able to make use of a set of Squidoo lenses as his or her knowledge building blocks. These can then reference the set of blogs that he or she maintains. Those blogs can also reference the set of Squidoo lenses where appropriate. An ecosystem of lenses, blogs, emails, and links (ala del.icio.us) is thus created in which a “Web2.0 person” shares his or her knowledge to the whole blogosphere Can this be how knowledge is created, shared and presented in this new millennium? Perhaps. Who knows what else will be innovated; findory? MySpace? 9rules?

Monday, May 29, 2006

Creating Dynamic Content in Squidoo Lens


Over the last few days, I was fiddling around with using the RSS Module in Squidoo in conjunction with del.icio.us. I think I have finally got the hang of it all. In my previous post on this topic, I described how this was done. In essence, you may use the bookmarks you saved and tagged in del.icio.us as content in your module. This content is dynamic because as you save more links and tagged them appropriately in del.icio.us, these will appear in your module via RSS. How is this done? Easy, just work through the following steps:

Step #1: Decide what kind of content you want for the module. This obviously has to tie in with the subject of your Squidoo lens.

Step #2: Select an appropriate combination of tags that reflect the content of your module.

Step #3: Begin to bookmark and tag the links that you want in del.icio.us.

Step #4: Using your tags in del.icio.us, click and select the sequence of tags that you decided on in Step #2. This would look something like tag1+tag2+tag3 ..... near the top of the page.

Step #5: Look for the RSS chicklet at the bottom right of the page. Copy that link.

Step #6: Go back to your RSS module in your Squidoo lens and set up that module using the link you copied in Step #5.

Step #7: Publish your lens.

Step #8: You are now ready for some dynamic content !

Step #9: Going forward, as you encounter materials that you want as part of your content, bookmark them using del.icio.us, tag them appropriately and ....... wella ! They appear in your RSS module as your dynamic content !

Isn't that cool? Using this technique, your Squidoo lens will be as fresh as today's eggs ! Give it a try and tell me how it goes. Cheers.

Sunday, May 28, 2006

Compare online prices for the Nokia 770

Yep, the Nokia 770 is now on sale on a number of websites. This is what C|Net has to say about the internet tablet.

The good: The Nokia 770 boasts a gorgeous, high-resolution screen that makes stunning Web pages. It has a full-featured Web browser and an e-mail client, plus it supports Internet radio and RSS newsfeeds. The 770 is attractive, easy to use, and great at detecting Wi-Fi hot spots.

The bad: The Nokia 770 suffers from extremely sluggish operation, with most movies and Flash animations too slow to be useful, and it relies only on Bluetooth and Wi-Fi for connectivity. Unfortunately, VoIP and instant-messaging features have not yet been implemented, and the device accepts only RS-MMC memory cards.

The bottom line: The reasonably priced Nokia 770 is a neat idea and a slick device, but slow performance and a few missing features keep it from realizing its potential.

Combining the use of del.icio.us and Squidoo

Want to know how to create dynamically updated fresh content for your Squidoo lenses? It was only today that I discovered a cool and interesting way to combine the use of del.icio.us and the Squidoo RSS module. This is how you do it:

Set-up and Configuration

1. Go to "your bookmarks" in del.icio.us and click on the tag that you are interested in (I assume you have already created your tag in del.icio.us)

2. Go to the bottom of that page and find the RSS chicklet

3. Right click the chicklet and copy the link

4. Go to the Squidoo lens that you are interested in creating dynamic content for

5. Add a RSS module

6. Paste the RSS link that you copied in at 6.

7. Save the Squidoo module

This is what you do when you come across interesting articles on the internet

1. As you come across interesting articles on the internet, tag it using del.icio.us using the tag you selected earlier on

2. Also, ensure that you write a concise and brief note for the bookmark of the article that you have just tagged

3. Wella ! Everytime you tag an article with the tag you selected above, your Squidoo lens is automatically updated !

If you go to my Squidoo lens called "Hello I'm Chris", this technique was used to create the module called "The impact of the internet on our lives today".

Cool yah ?

Saturday, May 27, 2006

Making use of Feedblitz in your Blogs

Wow, this is one really cool tool to use to drive traffic to your blogs. Feedblitz uses email to promote your blogs. It's own promotion line is:

RSS, Blogs, XML, readers and aggregators can be confusing. Adding email services to your blog isn't. Email RSS feed and blog subscriptions powered by FeedBlitz can:
  • Boost your readership to reach the largest possible market
  • Give you valuable insights into your readership
  • All using the familiar, most pervasive Internet application - Email.
Follow the link in the title to this post to the website. I will trying this out and telling you guys how it went. Cheers !

Something new in Blogosphere ---- Its SPHERE !

Here's a blog search engine that has overtaken IceRocket and PubSub.

Sphere is an impressive blog search engine and one that is sure to rise in traffic. In a very short time it has already reached feedster's traffic levels and surpassed Pubsub (they have a while to go before reaching Technorati).

Read O'Reilly's blog posting on this new entrant to blogosphere.

The 25 Worst Technology Products

So what would that be? The Iomega Zip Disk, or the IBM PCjr? Or how about the Windows O/S itself? I'm sure all of us have our own ideas about which tech product is the worst of them all. I think my most hated tech product would be Microsoft Internet Explorer. It is the one product which suffers most from spyware, malware, and all those terrible stuff that creates pop-ups, re-arranges your wallpaper, etc.

What is your vote? Click the link to the title of this post to see what the folks at PC World think.

Friday, May 26, 2006

Making money from lenses in Squidoo

Oh well, if you have read my previous post you might be feeling that Squidoo won't work at all. Nonetheless, I believe I am still a Squidoo addict. It may not earn people much, so if you are thinking of making mega-bucks online on Squidoo, you might be better off doing something else.

But did you know you can make at least some money by developing lenses in Squidoo ? Share what you know, talk about a topic you care about -- and maybe make a little money along the way. Interesting isn't it?

Similar to most affiliate programs, the Squidoo co-op gives you the chance to earn royalties from your lenses. With a twist: You can choose whether to pocket the proceeds, contribute to a group charity fund or donate to a specific cause.

The official lensmaster training guide, SquidU actually lists 8 tips for making more money from lenses. Just make sure you have an account in Squidoo, and that you have created a lens, then follow the link in the title to this blog posting to SquidU where the team from Squidoo shares about how to generate revenue using your lenses.

Do let me know how it works out for you !

Thursday, May 25, 2006

Why Squidoo won't work


From my previous posts on Squidoo, you can see that I am quite excited by the concept. I like the idea of people who are experts in their own fields creating lens which presents their area of expertise in a concise and comprehensive manner. However, there have been people who compare Squidoo to other Web 2.0 favs such as MySpace and Wikipedia and say that Squidoo will not work or survive. Take a look at this link on Why Squidoo Won't Work, it gives a very good treatise on Squidoo and others like it. Enjoy.

Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Google Trendspotting The World Is Funny

In my earlier posts, I covered a little bit about the exciting new service fromGoogle called Google Trends. I also posted some interesting hypothesis that one can conjure up when using Google Trends as a research too. Today, I stumbled upon another interesting article called Google Trendspotting The World Is Funny in which someone has used Google Trends to develop more interesting inferences. Here's an excerpt :

In recent news, the Emerald Isle has led the world in searches for [lonely], according to Google Trends. Before you start sniffling, you should know Dubliners are far from alone. They are joined from the Far East and America, depending on which form of the word you use.


Monday, May 22, 2006

My Squidoo Lens on the Nokia 770

Hi all, with there being some excitement about the Nokia 770, I've decided to construct a Squidoo lens dedicated to the device called the "Really Cool Nokia 770". This lens gather into one place all the information you've ever wanted on the Nokia 770. It also lists resources that you can tap on if you want to do some research on the device. Hope you like it !

Sunday, May 21, 2006

The Power Of Kindness


You know what? In this cold and impersonal world, sometimes all it takes is just a spark by someone to start a "kindness" movement. In this 21st century, the pace of life is just increasing at a break neck pace. First World cities like New York, Tokyo, Singapore, London and many more tend to have its share of Third World residents who don't give a hoot about the people around them.

I think just a little kindness shown by all of us daily to those around us will make the world a much better place. Read about the Power of Kindness by Nancy Graham in Squidoo. It can be a life changing experience. Have a nice day.

Squidoo Tips and Tricks Lecture

Now taking a short break from the excitement of the release of the Nokia 770, I was re-organising my Squidoo lenses today when I stumbled upon this interesting website. It's a Squidoo Tips and Tricks website with a lecture by Dan Beatty. I listened to the lecture and found it very effective. I sure hope Dan makes it into a series. Worth listening, highly recommended.

Saturday, May 20, 2006

Nokia 770 versus Treo 700p


Well now, making use of Google Trends, I decided to see if more people were searching for the Nokia 770 or the Treo 700p. It seems that more people were looking for information on the Nokia 770 rather than the Treo 700p. And it was also obvious that more Europeans were looking at the Nokia rather than the Americans.

Soooooo ..... seems like the Nokia 770 was more popular. What do you think ?

Friday, May 19, 2006

I am not too sure about Google Notebook


It's now been about a month since Google Notebook was released (see Note This from the official Google Blog). I wonder how many people are still using it? Has it been useful for you guys out there? Many have blogged about the functionalities and features of this service from Google (see A Closer Look at Google Notebook). Its defintely a nice tool to use, but has it been really that fantastic? I've been using it while:

1. Researching for new articles for my blogs.

It's neat to have something that resides in my firefox browser that I can simply right click on my selected text of interest and then click on "Note this (Google Notebook)" and wella it saves the text and the link. Using it in this manner keeps the flow and momentum of my research going at a steady pace, the train of thought is preserved.

Many times I use this feature in conjunction with the del-icio.us "TAG" button that I have in my tool bar. In this manner, I save the link to the web page together with comments, and at the same time I can then tag my link as well.

2. Jotting down my thoughts.

Yes, the other thing that I've been doing is to quickly jot down ideas and thoughts that I've been thinking about everyday. The ability to just get the notes written quickly, and then coming back to them later to organise them using the "Section Heading" feature is quite neat. However, I don't do this often because I am not constantly tethered to my computer and the internet. And ideas come and go at a flash and its seems easier to note things down on my Treo600.

So I am still not too sure about the usefulness of Google Notebook for this purpose. Certainly I have not made use of the collaborative features of Google Notebook yet. Perhaps this is where it can shine.

In Conclusion

The one thing I really cannot stand about Google Notebook is that after capturing all our thoughts on this great tool, how do we get it out ! I mean, the only thing we can do it Print. What I would have liked is for a feature in which I can just copy all the contents of one notebook, section headings and all, and then paste it into something else, e.g. MS Word, notepad, etc. But there isn't a feature in which I can do that! Maybe I am missing something here, can somebody tell me if there's a better way to do this?

The Nokia 770 and the Treo 700p



In the last few posts of this blog, I blogged about the Nokia 770. I really like the device, but don't get me wrong, I am stilling rooting for smartphones. In fact I have been using a Treo 600 for more than a year now and i don't think I can live these days without it. A smartphone is excellent as a phone PDA. But an internet surfing device its not. For VOIP, internet surfing, webmail, RSS, I still think that the Nokia 770 is perfect for the job.

Check out the above link, its a nice video presentation on the latest Palm Treo 700p with software demo. Really cool.

Thursday, May 18, 2006

Nokia 770 raw but indispensable


Still on the topic of the Nokia Internet Tablet, the above image was taken from the geek.dom review of the 770. Look how small it is. I have been checking out comments from various people in Blogosphere who have actually used the gadget and it seemed that most have good comments about the device. Nokia 770 raw but indispensable was written by Steve George from UK.

I think that in countries where WiFi access if free in joints such as McDonalds and Starbucks, having Google Talk would be a boon, I would prefer having Skype though. I often call my colleagues around the globle using VOIP while sipping tea at StarBucks. Would be great to use a Nokia 770 to do so. I wonder ..... anyone tried downloading and installing Skype on these devices ?

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

The Nokia 770 Press Conference


Yep, this is the latest news on the Nokia 770 from the official Nokia press conference on this new internet tablet gadget.

Now, its not a smartphone. Neither is it a ultra-portable laptop. So what good is it? Well, in my own opinion, I love it because whenever I just want to get onto the web to check my webmail, my RSS feeds, the performance of my websites, etc. etc., I just:

a. Do not like to use a smartphone because ITS TOO SMALL. The screen real estate does not do justice to internet surfing.

b. Do not like to use a laptop because IT TAKES TOO LONG TO BOOT UP. Have you ever got into the situation where you just need to get onto the internet, but then you open you laptop, press the power button, wait for windows to boot up, launch your explorer ...... .well you get the idea.

So there ! I just want to get my hands on this Nokia 770, and it has GoogleTalk even. Just take a look at these photos of the device !

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

Google Notebook - the good, the bad, and the ugly

Ok, Google Notebook is launched and reports are just coming out on this. Here's the first one on ZDNet.

Google Notebook - the good, the bad, and the ugly | Office Evolution | ZDNet.com

Nokia to offer Google Talk on Web tablet-sources

Now this is what I have been waiting for ! An internet tablet that is smaller than a laptop, but larger than the screen on a smartphone. Take a look at this cool gadget from Nokia, the Nokia 770. WiFi hotspots are now sprouting up all over the place. You can find them in many cities round the world, Shanghai, Singapore, Tokyo, etc. You find them in McDonalds, StarBucks, airports, shopping centres, etc.

What I really don't like is to drag and lug around my laptop, wait 5 minutes for it to boot up, and then launch my Firefox, just to have a quick catch up on my emails or websites. Wouldn't it be really cool if I just whip out my Nokia 770, turn it on in 5 secs, and then get on with my surfing? Wouldn't it be even more cool to call someone over Skype or Google Talk using the tablet ? This is revolutionary because it sure is cheaper than doing an IDD call overseas.

I believe that internet tablets the size of BlackBerries, or slightly larger, will have a major impact on our lives. I can just use it anywhere I like, anytime, without the painful experience of booting up a laptop.

My dream machine !

Sunday, May 14, 2006

Is Google Evil ?

You either hate it or love it. Google. The company whose intention is to "do no evil" is certainly growing up, both in revenues as well as in culture. I stumbled upon this article by The Economist and I think it is a very good article on Google the company. Do have a read and let us know what you think. Have a nice day.

The Google search Juggernaut rolls on !

Yep, the recently launch of the 4 new Google services have seen Google going back to its roots of making information more available to the masses. Google Trends tells you what the masses are searching for, Google Notebook is how you should remember what information you have seen on the net, Google Coop is how people share their expertise, and Google Desktop brings you further out into cyberspace.

Although as usual these products seem to be haphazard from the marketing point of view, they do seem to lend credence to the Web 2.0 vision where "all you need is the browser" because the "network is the computer". Hhhhhmmmmm ....... haven't we heard that before ?

Saturday, May 13, 2006

10 Things I learnt from Google Trends

I know I know .... some people have already done this kind of stuff in Blogosphere, but let me contribute my set of "10 things I learnt from Google Trends". Please please please, hope you don't take these seriously.

1. Oracle is more popular that SAP as an ERP.
2. Windows is still far more popular than Linux, or Unix.
3. HP is still an interesting company.
4. Larry Ellison is not so popular.
5. Yahoo is still a very popular company.
6. Most software development in the world today uses Java.
7. Many people using Google are Christians.
8. People using the internet are more into Sex than Love.
9. People are as interesting in blogging as podcasting.
10. Tom Cruise is a better actor than Tom Hanks or Bruce Willis.

25 Things I Learned on Google Trends

Steve Rubel's article on the 25 things he kinda "deduced" from using Google Trends is sometimes hilarious, and sometimes utterly serious. Just what can we infer from comparing search terms? And just how "strong" are these deductions? Can serious research be based on trends of search terms on Google? Google Trends may become the tool which statisticians use to form their hypothesis, or it may lead us all into making extremely flawed deductions. I think the jury is still out on this.

Friday, May 12, 2006

Flickr and Google Trends



Now this is interesting. Using Google Trends, I compared the popularity of the search terms Flickr, WebShots and BuzzNet. These are the three most popular online photo storage and sharing systems. The red line represents WebShots, the blue is Flickr, and Orange is BuzzNet.

Looks like not many people know about BuzzNet. But take a look at WebShots. I have been using WebShots for around three years now and I found that there was just not much buzz associated with the site for some time now. It's a good site, especially for those of you who would like to use the photos posted on the site as wallpaper for your PC desktop. However, its photo sharing and community services is just not really there.

Flickr on the other hand seems to be steadily gaining in popularity. Take a look at the blue graph. Its climbing and this year it has gained the same popularity (as a search term) as WebShots. I guess from the statistics of the search terms, it would seem that more and more people have begun to know about Flickr. I wonder how the rest of 2006 and 2007 would look like. I would certainly like to do another trend 6 months from today.

This little experiment showcases Google Trends and how it can be used for research in many different domains.

Any thoughts anyone ?

First Look at Google Trends



Google Trends looks set to be a real addictive time waster, just like computer games ! With it, you can see how each search term has been used over time. But the best part is that you can compare one or more search terms.

The picture shows my comparison of the search terms Yahoo (in red) and Google (in blue). Funny why Yahoo is searched more often than Google ... in google itself !

Ok, we can also compare the frequency of the search terms across geography, as can be seen in the lower part of the picture. I think all in all, its such a fun research tool. If you are into Google AdWords, this tool can help you choose your search terms carefully to drive more traffic to your ads. If you are a marketing person, it can also tell you how people react to certain brands (in my example, Yahoo s. Google).

I think you should give Google Trends a try. It is easy enough to use.

Rating: 8 out of 10 (really good)
Ease of use: 9 out of 10 (really easy)

Thursday, May 11, 2006

New services at Google !

Google launch Google Co-op, Google Desktop 4, Google Notebook and Google Trends

Hey everyone ! Google just launched new application services. A quick cursory look at these services tell me that they are cooooool. As usual, Google services are always well received. It seems to me that this time round, Google isn't venturing into some new space or domain but focusing on deepening their strengths in existing areas.

Google Co-op is a cooperative environment where various people can tag websites and pages so that others using Google Searches can op to use these tags to zoom down to more detailed and focussed searches.

Google Desktop 4 becomes quite like the Yahoo Konfabulator engine and its widgets. Google's version of these widgets are called Gadgets ..... how original.

Google Notes sounds like something I would like to use, it allows use to cat and paste portions of web pages, make comments and share these.

And finally Google trends which allows people to research on the popularity of search terms over time and geography.

Links to more articles:

Google unveils new applications

Google Desktop 4: now with Gadgets

Software Engineering Proverbs

Just today I stumbled upon this really funny website. You must see this !

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

How Squidoo was launched

As I was surfing the net about Squidoo, I stumbled upon some material on how the founder of Squidoo, Seth Godin, launched Squidoo. In October, on his personal blog (http://sethgodin.typepad .com), Godin offered a free 31-page ebook called Everyone's an Expert (about something): The Search for Meaning Online (www.squidoo.com/pages/EveryoneIsAnExpert.pdf).

Quite a good read. In the eBook, Godin launched Squidoo, describing it as being about online lenses: a way to filter a person's expertise on a subject onto a single page. Godin claims that by checking out a lens on a topic of interest, we can quickly find what we are looking for. A person who makes a lens is a lensmaster, and he or she uses a lens to provide context. Everyone is an expert, and Squidoo helps them to share with the world.


Good reading.

The Squidoo FAQ on lenses and how to get paid

Yes, its been around two weeks now that I have been fiddling with Squidoo. I must say, its quite addictive, and useful as well. Today I received a payment for 13 cents from Squidoo as part of the share of the royalty from the company for my lenses. Not much, but hey its cool. I think the guys at Squidoo are really serious about their vision. Its not the amount that matters, but the principle that Squidoo stands for, and the effort that they put into the system just to make the royalty payment happen. That's good.

Do follow the title's link into the FAQ. I think its well written and concise in the way it explains the essence of Squidoo, its lenses, and how lens masters can get paid.

The Squidoo It Yourself Blog

This blog is recommended reading and tracking. I find that the articles are well written and comprehensive, whereas mine are shorter and to the point ! :( . I kinda like this blog. It makes interesting reading. There are several good postings here. Let me reproduce a section which I like, this concerns building fresh and relevant lenses, posted on March 17th, 2006 by Richard.

Unless your lens is deliberately archiving content, you will want to write original material whenever possible. This content might take several forms. One method is to feed your own blog postings into the lens via an RSS feed. This provides fresh content on a regular basis, without any additional effort from you on the Squidoo side.

Other shortcuts to building significant original Squidoo content include posting previous articles you have written into your lenses. Our only caution here is that you will probably want to make these postings an introduction to the article, rather than reposting the entire article itself. Although there is no limit to the amount of content you can add to your lens, it will become difficult to read and cluttered with longer, intact articles. Our suggestion is to write a short abstract of the article and then link to it elsewhere - using the text link module - to an instance of the full piece hosted on another site or blog.



Tuesday, May 09, 2006

The Squidoo It Yourself Lens

This is another interesting resource on how to build lenses in Squidoo. This particular lens is quite comprehensive in its coverage of Squidoo. It's however not a step-by-step guide on building a Squidoo lens however.

Sunday, May 07, 2006

Singapore has a new government !

Well there you go, general elections 2006 has just concluded. We have a new government ...... very much the same as the PREVIOUS government. 82 seats go to the People's Action Party (PAP), 1 to the Singapore Democratic Alliance (SDA), and 1 to the Worker's Party (WP).

I think the WP did much better this time round. They put up a credible team with a new party branding. They will definitely pose a stronger challenge to the ruling party next time round.

That's it ..... on with the usual stuff now.

Squidoo 101

Hi all, I think I am addicted to Squidoo. It is definitely a very innovative website, up there with the rest of the "Web 2.0" pantheon of new websites. Since the inception of Squidoo, it has been getting rave reviews around the internet. Just what is Squidoo? With there being tons of information going around in the internet, what impact does Squidoo have on our cyberspace lives?

Well, I have created a Squidoo lens that takes you through the basics of Squidoo and how to build squid lenses (more about this later!) . Here it is, Squidoo 101.

Saturday, May 06, 2006

The Official Squidoo Blog

Squid Blog. This is the official blog on Squidoo. Generally informative. In particular I like the article posted on April 18th, 2006 by Megan Casey entitiled "The Power of Personal Recommendation". Let me extract something which I like here:

And so the important thing here is what causes the action. What is the secret sauce behind every interaction? What’s the nudge, the lighted fire, the springboard, the jumpstart?

9 times out of 10, it’s recommendation. Recommendation is the fundamental, LCD of all the stuff you’re hearing a lot about these days: user-generated content, personalized search, filters…. Recommendation is what web 2.0 is all about.

Of course, the best recommendations are authentic and personal and trusted, which makes it easy for you to take action on them. That’s why we invite passionate people to make lenses on topics they know or care a lot about.

Some of our best lenses are about spreading ideas, awareness for issues, sharing advice, giving hobbyist how-to’s. Basically, great content from passionate communities. Recommendation from real people.

Yep, build your lenses, recommend to others resources about your area of expertise. I think this is what Web 2.0 all about, collective knowledge.


Today is Singapore's Polling Day

Elections 2006 is well under way for Singapore. Today, we will choose which political party we want to lead the country for the next 5 years ..... not to mention that we have been choosing one party since 1965 ! The four main parties vying for votes are:

1. The incumbent ... PAP = People's Action Party
2. The challenger .. WP = Worker's Party
3. The underdog .... SDA = Singapore Democratic Alliance
4. The funny ones .. SDP = Singapore Democratic Party

Follow the title's link to our local favourite blog, mrbrown.com. Quite a funny look at the political scene in Singapore.

Thursday, May 04, 2006

More about Squidoo lenses

The more I think about the concept of lenses in Squidoo, the more I begin to think that Squidoo as a co-op of lens masters is going to be BIG !

With search engines today producing copious amounts of results everytime you do a search, you will appreciate that lenses are hand-crafted webpages that leverage a human's expertise by pointing to recommended content and resources online. These lenses help you find a unique, human perspective on things that interest you... fast, as opposed to less meaningful machine generated search results.

So whereas searches with Google and Yahoo would be good if you are willing to wade through tons of material as you are doing your research, Squidoo lenses are more effective if you want to effectively LEARN about a subject FAST. Having understood a subject better, you may then resort to a little more in-depth research using Google or Yahoo.

By aggregating these lenses, Squidoo attracts and then redirects traffic all day long. Seth Godin and his team have built an online platform that makes it easy for anyone to build lenses on topics they are passionate about. Not only can Lensmasters spread their ideas, get recognized for their expertise, and send more traffic to their Web sites and blogs-they could also earn royalties.

Check out my lens

What are lenses in Squidoo?

Interesting concept. Lenses are focused topics or subjects. Lensmasters use lenses to share what they know, highlight little- known lore, show off their skills and recommend resources to readers. Lensmasters can also make money via their lens building.

The following definition of lens can be found in the Squidoo Glossary of terms in SquidU:

Lens A single page built by a lensmaster; a set of handpicked, organized content about a single topic; a collection of modules pointing to content on a single topic; a page, a single page, that highlights one person’s personal view of the web -- not the whole web, just one tiny part of it.

Do take a look at the anatomy of a lens as well, it gives a very good overview of what a lens is supposed to be and what makes up a lens.

Wednesday, May 03, 2006

Blogging 101

Well, I have been blogging for about two years already ... on and off ....

I must say, it has been quite exciting. Many people are blogging today. Yes, it seems that the whole world is blogging. But just how easy ... or hard is it to start a blog? After searching through the web for some easy step-by-step guide for blogging, I found that there were not many clear and concise guides that can help a real beginner to start blogging. With that, I have decided to start one myself and hope that my efforts will help many others to start their own blogs.

I call my guide the Blogging 101 manual. This can be found as a lens in my Squidoo website. I really hope that this contributes to blogosphere in some small little way. May more people get to blog out of this !

The genesis of an online prescence

I've been trying to set up an online prescence for sometime now. As of today, I believe I have an embryonic structure to build on. I have thus far linked together a fabric of websites from my Yahoo 360, my Squidoo lenses, Flickr and my blogs in Blogger. Each of these now have cross links to one another.

For the moment, the "Hello ! I'm Chris" Squidoo lens would be the top-level website which will serve as a jump-off point for the other websites.

My next step would be to find out ways and means to increase traffic throughout all of the above websites. I am also trying to weave in Google AdSense into my blogs.

Interesting times indeed.

The wonders of Squidoo


Wow, time flies. It has been a year since I've posted anything on this blog. Well, better late than never. What have I been up to? Over the last few days, I have been playing around with Squidoo. Quite an interesting concept.

Squidoo is basically a website where people, called lens masters, may create topics for which they are experts in. These topics are called lenses in Squidoo. A lens master can create as many lenses as he or she wants. Each lens is a very focused subject which the lens master would like to share with the world.

As of now, I have created two lenses. One is called "Hello ! I'm Chris". This serves as my personal lens which tells people a little about my self. It also lists all the lenses that I have created. The first topical lens which I created is called "Really Cool and Interesting Websites". This lens lists and describes all those websites which I think are really cool and which I use almost everyday.

Do check out Squidoo, registration is free !
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Web chris-open-book.blogspot.com