• How to Rank #1 on Google – By Matt Cutts
  Google's Matt Cutts finally comes clean on exactly how to get your website at the top of the search engine's rankings.
• Adobe Lightroom Instagram Presets
  A set of Lightroom presets which do a darned good job of replicating the current set of Instagram filters
• The Coming Meltdown in College Education & Why The Economy Won’t Get Better Any Time Soon
  Mark Cuban breaks down the state of college education and financing, and why we are headed for a crisis
• Install a Solid State Drive in a MacBook Pro and Enjoy the Ride
  Derrick Story walks through the process of replacing a MacBook Pro spinning drive with a SSD.
• So Much For That Glorious iPad Screen: iOS and its Apps are Not Even Color Managed
  iOS devices, even those with pretty "retina" displays, are not color managed.

What have you seen lately that’s interesting?

What if we followed that up with a look at the fact that public perception isn’t necessarily in line with current law?

What if an entire generation generally holds a view on copyright that’s incompatible with current law?

What will copyright mean in five years? Ten years? Twenty? How do we balance the livelihood of creative artists vs. a growing desire for the ability to remix and create derivative woks?

If you’re at WordCamp Seattle this weekend, let’s get together and explore these things during my talk. If you can’t attend, I promise some copyright resources and thoughts will be shared here on my blog on Saturday, and I’ll pass along the video if my talk is recorded.

While the Google+ web browser experience was pretty good, their mobile experience (at least on the iPhone) was pretty bad. There was a lot of wasted space, navigation was cumbersome, and some serious performance problems made it an onerous task to do something as simple as post a status update or share a photograph. My mobile photo sharing continued to focus on other applications while I mostly ignored Google+ when I was away from my desk.

The lack of a good mobile app led me to question how much time I’d spend with the service in the future. I became skeptical.

And then last week, this happened:

 

An update to the iPhone app brings a new, beautiful photo-centric display which makes browsing a Google+ steam a very nice experience… arguably even better than the Instagram stream which now looks a bit plain by comparison. It’s easy to +1 photos (just tap on the + count), easy to comment, and the performance when posting new items is improved. In short, Google got this mobile experience right. Mobile photography is a big deal ($1 billion for Instagram, anyone?), and a beautiful mobile experience represents a big plus (pun intended) for Google.

There’s one big piece that’s missing (still): an API for third-party apps. My current mobile photo workflow involves using Camera Awesome to upload mobile photos to SmugMug and then cross-post to social services (sometimes Twitter, sometimes Facebook, sometimes Instagram). If I could post the images easily to Google+ as well, that would be a huge time-saver that could only increase my usage of Google+ while on the go.

I’m on the fence about switching to Google+ as my primary mobile social network (instead of Instagram). The API would make it easier, but it’s not too bad now with the new app. There’s a local Instagram meetup in a few days; I’m curious to hear what other Instagram users think about the new Google+ interface…

Join me?

I had a great time chatting with the folks who attended the event and it was fun dipping my toe into the TWIP waters.

You can now view my review list on one page.

I assume that most people enjoy saving money, so I’d like to pass those discounts along but I want to do so in a non-spammy way. How would you prefer to hear about such discounts or deals? Please leave your response below.

The conference drew over 10,000 web, technology, and creative types for a variety of formal sessions as well as parties and other social gatherings. It was interesting being a photographer at a conference not specifically focused on photography; I made some interesting observations on conference behavior and the ways to make the most of such an experience.

At a large conference with multiple sessions, tracks, and panels, odds are that you’ll be really interested in some of them, and only casually intrigued by others. Don’t go to sessions that don’t excite you; use that time to connect with people.

Hang out in the hallways. If there’s a social lounge, grab a seat. Chat with a neighbor. The most important things I got out of SXSW were the personal connections made while not in one of the conference sessions. I was able to enjoy a dinner with Leah Jones, who I had “known” via Twitter for three years but never met in person. Fast forward a couple years and Leah reached out to me to go to Alaska with GoPro. I was able to chat briefly with Darren Rowse from Digital Photography School. I spent a while chatting with Trey Ratcliff as we walked in downtown Austin. I found the one empty chair in the crowded blogger’s lounge on the last day of the event at lunchtime and discovered that I was sitting next to none other than Gary Vaynerchuk (if you haven’t read Crush It!, order it now). One afternoon, I had coffee with Jack Hollingsworth to share thoughts on social media for photographers and talk about some plans.

Apologies for that last paragraph sounding like a bit of namedropping or fanboy-ism, but I wanted to note that these are the types of connections that can be made, and many of those incidental connections wouldn’t have happened if I spent all day inside of convention center conference rooms. Some of those connections were enabled by networking in advance via social media with folks that I wanted to meet. I would interact via blog comments, Twitter, or other social services with folks who I wanted to meet at the conference, and as I met them our relationship and conversation could start at a more meaningful level than if we were meeting for the first time.

How do you find value in conferences? Are the panels and classes most important, or is it the personal connections? Do you use social media to foster those connections in advance?

• The Most Overrated Social Media Metric
  Jay Baer breaks down the fact that "traffic from social media" doesn't really mean much.
• 8 Reasons to Use Clicky Analytics
  I'm a fan of Clicky. Here's a good breakdown of some of the reasons I like it.
• Byword for keyboard nerds
  A smattering of keyboard shortcuts and tips for the Byword editor.
• The Square Crop is My Favorite Crop and More Thoughts on Photo Layout and Design
  Thomas Hawk offers his thoughts on the current state of photo display on social networks
• False Positives by Micah Baldwin
  There are two things working against the entrepreneur. The first is the realization by others that being an entrepreneur is hard, and therefore should be respected, and second a sense of jealousy from non-entrepreneurs.
• A Super Mario Summary
  Play Super Mario Brothers in a web browser, with each level consolidated into one screen.

What have you seen lately that’s interesting?

This month’s bestseller list is interesting to me in that it features more DSLRs than usual (and only a few compact cameras) and we see a couple GoPro cameras fairly high on the list representing a lot of combined sales.

1. Canon EOS Rebel T3 Digital SLR with 18-55mm IS II Lens – Canon’s Digital Rebel series has long been a mainstay in the entry-level DSLR market, and this package of the T3 combined with the 18-55 kit lens is a great deal at less than $500. While it’s an entry level camera, it supports a wide range of controls that make it ideal for someone learning photography – they can start out in the more automatic modes and then move into more manual controls as they learn to better control their imagery. Highly recommended for someone wanting to jump to their first DSLR.
2. Panasonic DMC-FH25K Digital Camera – This looks like a good little compact camera at quite an affordable price (around $130 at the time this article is written). Panasonic isn’t mentioned as often as Canon and Nikon, but they have some good compact cameras and this one is rated very well.
3. GoPro HD HERO2: Outdoor Edition – The GoPro units have become quite popular in the last year or so. The cameras not only offer an easy way to record interesting video, but it will do so in a durable, waterproof way. Last month I had an opportunity to travel to Alaska with GoPro; it was great to learn about these cameras. See a bit of my GoPro dogsledding story.
4. GoPro HD HERO2: Motorsports Edition – Same camera as the previous item, but slightly different mounting options. If you’re curious, click through and compare the two. It’s impressive that two versions of it are here in respectable positions on the bestseller list.
5. Canon SX40 HS Digital Camera with 35x Wide Angle Optical Image Stabilized Zoom – The superzoom form factor is a popular one. It’s not a DSLR, but it starts to approach the DSLR size factor. My wife once had a similar unit and it performed very well. The big advantage to this type of a camera is the extreme zoom capability of the lens. The SX40 has been on the bestseller list pretty consistently lately – folks seem to like it.
6. Canon PowerShot S100 Digital Camera – Canon offers two high-end compact cameras; the S100 is the smaller of the bunch. A better-than-typical image sensor in this unit allows for excellent images even in low-light situations, and the samll size means that the camera fits easily into a jeans (or jacket) pocket. I have a previous model in this series (the S90), it’s a solid camera that allows for quality photos. I’m actually heading out on a day trip to Seattle today and bringing my S90 due to its nice compact size and great quality.
7. Nikon COOLPIX L26 Digital Camera (red) – this highly-rated Nikon compact camera provides big images (16 megapixels) in a metallic red package. For the fashion-conscious casual photographer.
8. Nikon D5100 CMOS Digital SLR Camera with 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 AF-S DX VR Nikkor Zoom Lens – the D5100 is one step up from Nikon’s entry-level DSLR, offering a nice feature set in a package that comes with a lens for under $700. This camera is positioned in an interesting place as it has a few nicer features than the entry-level 3000-series cameras, but it’s definitely lacking in several areas (such as image quality and autofocus system) when compared with its big brother the D7000.
9. Nikon D3100 Digital SLR Camera with 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 Nikkor Zoom Lens – Nikon’s entry level DSLR, the D3100 is a decent camera especially given the price. The only downside in my mind is that the body doesn’t have an autofocus motor. As long as you use Nikon’s AF-S lenses that include an autofocus motor, you’re fine, but some older/cheaper lenses don’t and that will limit you to manual focus. Like the Canon T3 at the top of this list, this is a great starter unit for someone who isn’t sure if they want to dive all the way into a big SLR system.
10. Canon EOS Rebel T3i Digital SLR Camera with EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS Lens – The T3i is an improved version of the T3, in exchange for a couple hundred extra dollars you’ll get a bigger (and flip-out) screen, 1080p video, a bit more dynamic range, a self-cleaning sensor, and slightly faster continuous shooting. Recommended.

If you use the links above and end up purchasing through Amazon, a small commission will be returned to me that helps fund the operation of this site. Thanks for your support!

Found while wandering northwest Portland on the Google+ photowalk yesterday afternoon.