Bing

Wow, I've been majorly slacking on my blog posts (or complete lack thereof) lately.

In case you haven't heard (you will soon, trust me), check out Bing. It's Microsoft's latest attempt to take on Google.

My first impressions? It's sort of like Word or Excel - lots of "features" that sound great, but in reality 90% of people won't use them.

Google is simple, and people get simple. I'm willing to bet people won't be saying "just bing it" anytime soon.

Chat on the Web - Quick and Easy

Chatting (instant-messaging) on the web just got a whole lot easier. No need to worry about signing up for anything or installing any applications.

1. Visit TinyChat.com
2. Click the "Create your room" button
3. Copy the URL they show you
4. Send this URL to friend(s)
5. Give yourself a nickname
6. Start chatting

No signing up. No registering. No worrying about cross-application compatibility. Just chat. Who would have thought?

Times New Roman is So Last Year

Bored with your computer's available fonts? Now you can create your own.

Tip of the Day: Advanced Google Search

Have you ever found yourself searching for information on a website, but to no avail, you can't seem to find it?  Perhaps the site has poor navigation, or even worse, a terrible search engine. Don't fret...you can let Google do the work for you.

Perform your normal Google search, but add a "site:[website name without the www.]" to your search string.  This instructs Google to search only that site for those keywords.

Here are some examples (these would be typed exactly into google):

minnesota tax form site:irs.gov

dog sledding site:iamonthedotcom.blogspot.com

store locations site:ikea.com

Try it out...it's saved me lots of times.

Why Twitter Matters

If you're a regular visitor to my blog, you're probably used to seeing my Twitter feed broadcast my latest ramblings.  And I'm willing to bet there are a number of people out there that a) don't know what Twitter is, b) don't understand Twitter, or c) think Twitter is overrated and will be gone in a year.

Well I've just read an article tweeted by @jcuene preaching why Twitter (and Twitter search) may become more important than most people think.  It boils down to this:

Google Search: provides the most relevant content on the Web that match your search terms

Twitter Search: provides the most recent content on Twitter that match your search terms

In other words, Google helps you find information.  Twitter helps you find information that is being discussed right now.

Social Media 101 - a.k.a. The Barack Way

I was about to write a post highlighting a particularly bad use of social media, when I stopped and (no offense) thought about my audience.  So instead, I thought I'd take a step back and briefly touch on what social media is all about in case there are any lingering questions out there.

Social Media is about you... whether you are a creator, consumer, or contributor, social media needs you.  Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and YouTube are all exemplary examples.

YouTube would be a worthless site if nobody uploaded a video.  It would be equally worthless if nobody ever watched those videos.  And it wouldn't be as strong of a website if nobody commented on, linked to, or shared its videos either.

Social Media is about taking traditional content & publication models and flipping them on their head.  Instead of a few powerhouse publishers creating content and distributing it out to the masses, Social Media is about the average Joe or Kjersten writing a blog post, Digging an article, Twittering about Super Bowl commercials, writing a product review, or...you get the idea

This can be both extremely exciting and/or incredibly scary, depending on who you are.  Are you a CEO of a company whose products are being bashed by thousands?  Scary.  Are you a marketer who just happened to put together a web video that was forwarded to friends by the thousands?  Amazing.

And thus, the reason why this "new" form of media is so amazing.  It's 99.9% democratic, there are no boundaries, and nobody knows what the heck to do with it.

Thanks for reading and doing your part.  I'm trying to keep up with my end of the deal.

I Want My MTV

I am super excited that MTV has finally taken a step in the right direction and put "Music" back into their acronym.

Watch all of your favorite videos from your favorite artists on their new site, MTVMusic.com, or watch them embedded in your favorite (albeit infrequently-updated) blog, I'm on the dot com.

Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five? Got it.
Digital Underground? You betcha.

Dire Straits - Money for Nothing? Bingo:

Dire Straits |MTV Music

2 Degrees of Separation

My coworker forwarded me a link to his friend's PalinAsPresident.com site a week ago, and said: "let me know...if you have any ideas or builds, I think he’ll be launching in a few days."

Naturally, in my too-busy fashion, I never looked at it. Today, my coworker asked if I had checked it out, and mentioned it had incredibly received over 9,000 Diggs. Not only that, but today's VSL Web even highlighted PalinAsPresident.com.

Talk about two degrees of separation...

(By the way, spend your time clicking around -- it's pretty good)

I'm on the dot com (no, really, I am)

I'm not going to quit my day job, but check out the talent:

http://www.bettycrocker.com/entertaining/

Art is a Gift

Make yours here.

Turn on the Magic of Colored Light

Do you know what rocks? Lite Brite. So what would any techno-nerd with a penchant for this wonderful toy do? Make a digital version, naturally. If it's good in real life, it must be better on the dot com, right?

Apparently, my sensitive green side came out when I created this. I'll have to work on a more appropriate manly scene...

Songbird = Sweetness

Have you heard about Songbird yet? Think Firefox meets iTunes. It's your one-stop shop for everything multi-media. Open it up and play your iTunes library. Or browse to your favorite website, and Songbird will serve up in a sub-window any and all media found. Find a tune or a movie you like? Add it to your Songbird library and it's yours to queue whenever you wish. I'd try to sum up all what Songbird can do, but this video demonstration is about 1000 times easier to understand.

My vote for coolest app of 2007.

goconsolidation

I've come to the conclusion that I need to consolidate my web presence. Ol' Bradley has pointed out that having a unique name has proved helpful when searching for people that quote, reference, or use your work. Taken from Luther College's canoe derby about 6 years ago, I'm proposing to use "gomattolson".

Speak now or forever hold your peace...

Yours,
gomattolson

El Bandito

Haven't posted for a while...

Apparently that's what happens when you try to cram work, studying for the GMAT, working out, and weekend trips into your schedule. I couldn't possibly imagine being a single mother that works, raises kids, and goes to school.

And speaking of school, did you know that an ever-growing amount of classes from some of our best schools are being offered completely free online?

Want to brush up on your Classical Physics? Need a refresher in The Old Testament? How about Producing Films for Social Change? Look no further than MIT, Tufts, Notre Dame, or naturally, iTunes.

Boo

What to see something scary?

Go to PublicRecordsNow.com and type in your name and birthdate. I understand that certain records are public domain, but do they need to open them up for the entire world to see with just a few clicks?

Programmers Love Flickr Too

You can spell anything from Flickr.

I Heart Firefox

Just downloaded Firefox 2.0.

Talk about a sweet web browser with awesome search capabilities baked right in. Want to search Flickr? IMDB? Wikipedia? GoodSearch? Oh yeah, or what's that one company?...Google? You can search all and even more from within your toolbar.

Afraid of mistyping when filling out a form, sending an email, or posting a comment on the greatest blog on this side of the dot-com? With Firefox 2.0 there is automatic spell checking. As I type this, it is politely underlining any misspelled words in red, suggesting I change them or add them to the dictionary. Brilliant. These people are brilliant.