Emmett's Blog

Video: Eddy Knocking on the Door

2012-10-12T02:36:40Z

If you don’t know it by now, I’m the proud owner of a Yorkshire Terrier named Eddy whom I might add is a true candidate for cutest Yorkie in the world. Eddy is an endless source of entertainment. He plays injured by crawling on his belly dragging one leg behind, he tries to find animals hiding behind the TV screen (he thinks it’s a window apparently), he stands up on two feet like a human and what I’m showcasing today is his ultra talented door knock.

My doggie likes to knock on the door when he wants to go outside, he will even stop at the threshold and wait for me to close the door just so he has the opportunity to knock! I’ve been thinking of making this video for a couple weeks now and finally had a chance to get it done. I hope it brings you a fraction of the joy that my little Yorkie has brought to me.

Don’t forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel. I’m doing my best to post regularly and of course there will be more Eddy videos!

Emmett's Blog - Blog of Emmett Lollis Jr.

Video: 2012 Perseids Meteor Shower / Star Time Lapse!

2012-09-11T03:02:31Z

Video: 2012 Perseids Meteor Shower / Star Time Lapse!

I have had a deep love for science and astronomy since I was a kid. On August 13th 2012 I decided to photograph some shots to create a time lapse video of the Perseid meteor shower. The short movie came out to just over a minute for somewhere around 2 hours of footage. The video is slowed down to 50% to make it easier to spot the passing satellites, airplanes and meteors. The meteors show up as streaks in single frames (actually 2 frames since it’s slowed down), airplanes and satellites are the streaks that you can see moving between frames.

I created the time lapse using my Canon EOS 60D with EF 24-70 lens using the 24mm focal length. I cropped each photo to the proper aspect ratio and did minor adjustments in Photoshop Camera RAW. After resizing the images I loaded them into Adobe Premiere to do the video editing. The music in the video is a guitar track I recorded about 10 years ago when I was experimenting with music. The track is titled “Rain”.

Here’s the video. I highly recommend watching the movie in full screen HD so you don’t miss out on some of the faint meteors. At this speed they go by really fast!

Emmett's Blog - Blog of Emmett Lollis Jr.

Guide to the New Design and Features of Google+

2012-04-13T10:15:19Z

Guide to the New Design and Features of Google+

On April 11th Google issued a surprise update to Google+. It wasn’t just about new features but a complete redesign of the user interface. Over the past few months there was an issue going on with a reduced number of posts making it to the main stream. While Google provided sliders to select the number of posts you want to see from a specific circle I personally noticed that many of my friend’s posts just weren’t showing up and the main stream was very slow compared to before. As soon as the new update hit, everything started coming back to life. I was finally seeing posts from everyone again and the interaction on my own posts went back up. For me this was the most exciting change though many probably didn’t notice it. As far as the design changes go, overall most users had a positive response to the rollout with the most common complaint being “too much whitespace!”. The most serious complaints came from Google+ extension developers who said they were given no notice of the changes which caused the majority of plugins to stop functioning completely. This article isn’t going to focus on the critiques of the new design, rather it’s a guide on how to navigate the new interface and to give a heads up on new features.

New Layout

The most obvious change to Google+ is the redesign of the entire interface. Instead of the navigation being crammed at the top they moved it to the left side in a customizable navigation bar that they call the navigation ribbon. You are free to move the icons to any order you want or hide them under the (…) more menu. This is great for people who only want their most used features to be on display. The left and right columns are consistent no matter which section you’re in. The right column is used for instant communications with the “start a hangout button” up top and the instant messaging chat area below that. The larger chat list is a great improvement over the short box provided before that frequently showed a very oddly selected list of people you generally had no interest in talking to. Now they seem to be using a much better algorithm for selecting top friends for chatting. Another big change has been the addition of help articles to several sections. It’s great to see Google make a move to educate users on the features of their platform. Lack of help and explanation of new features has been one of the biggest drawbacks of Facebook and a severe limiting factor on their success with the general public.

Home Page

1) In the home section you will find the familiar stream of posts from the people you follow. Photos and videos display great on the redesigned interface, when you mouse over a photo you get a grey box with a link to view other photos from the author of the post, videos also have a grey box containing the title of the video which acts as a link.

2) The posts still have the standard +1, share and “start a hangout” links, they’ve just been converted to more visually appealing icons. One big change is that Google added a new feature called the “activity drawer”. When a post has interaction, a number appears on the bottom right of the post, when you click the button you will see a nice list of people who’ve interacted with that post.

3) Trending topics have finally been added to the home page where they are easier to discover. Just click a topic to see all related posts, when you’re viewing related posts you can create a new post related to that topic and it will be tagged for others viewing the same topic to see. Right below that area are suggested pages, nothing too exciting there.

4) One of the most useful features of the new update are the circle buttons up top. Now you can easily switch between circles you want to view. What’s even more useful is you can select a circle and create a post that has that circle selected automatically, no more cumbersome picking through the list of circles you want to share with.

Profile Page

The new Google+ profile section looks a lot sharper with an ultra wide banner image, large profile photo and hover icons for details. If you want to edit your profile it’s very similar to the way you did it before, just click your profile photo from the home page and it takes you to the edit screen. Once there you just click the area where you want to make changes.

1) The new banner image is interesting. I’ve never seen a site use such a wide crop, in fact it extends all the way under and to the right side of the profile photo. Since the banner slides underneath the profile photo you have to add a little extra thought to your image choice since you don’t want an important part of the photo to be hidden under the other picture.

2) The new profile photo is large, but large is good. After all it’s about you, right? If you had your old profile image cropped down to the old size you might want to make a new version so your photo doesn’t appear pixelated. I’ve ran across some profiles with that issue and the first thought that entered my mind was fake profile. It may not be the case but spammers frequently grab random photos off the web that are too small for profile pics and it raises a flag. Underneath the profile photo you will find a summary of that person’s about section

3) This is where you will find the verification check mark and the for lack of a better word, follow indicator. When you hover over the follow indicator icon it will tell you if you are in their circles or if you are both following each other. If you don’t want to go through all the trouble of hovering with your mouse you can easily tell the status by looking at the icon. If there is an arrow pointing left they are following you, if there are two arrows pointing left and right it means you are both following each other.

4) If a user has email enabled you will find this email icon. I know this is an amazing revelation but you can actually send email to them by clicking the icon!

Explore Page

The explore section seems to be geared toward new Google+ users. It offers up tips on getting the most out of G+ along with popular posts, trending topics, follow suggestions and saved searches.

1) At the top of the explore section we have a selection of educational topics that can help users discover new features. I think this will be useful as Google makes changes and updates attributes of the service.

2) The what’s hot section is featured here. New users will find it helpful for finding new content and might prove useful for hushing up the journalists who keep calling it a ghost town. Since they don’t seem to know how to follow people and never post to public at least they can see there is real interaction going on.

3) Like the home page this area contains trending topics and follow suggestions but they also added in saved searches here. If you ever used Sparks this is what your Sparks were converted to.

Hangouts Page

Google added a hangout section to bring a little better attention to the very popular hangouts feature.

1) Google added a help / tips section to assist new users in getting familiar with the hangout experience.

2) The hangouts to watch area gives you a list of current on-air hangouts. On-air hangouts are broadcast to everyone who wants to watch. Generally they are set up around specific topics like a TV show or any other online broadcast.

3) Under the on air hangouts is a list of hangouts to join. These are hangouts which the public is invited to join so if you see someone you know or are comfortable talking with strangers you can feel free to join and participate.

4) Hangout Invites are hangouts that either you were specifically invited to or a circle you are in was invited to participate. Previously these were the only hangouts listed on Google+ without an extension.

Photos Page

The photos page is where you find your albums, photos you were tagged in, mobile photos and photos you added to posts. Not much has changed here so it doesn’t really require an in depth explanation. Like some of the other pages they’ve added some help articles up top.

Circles Page

The circles page is virtually unchanged from what they had before. You can still drag circles to organize them and rank people by relevance like before. There is no need to spend anymore time on this one.

Games Page

Google has done a great job with their handling of games. Unlike Facebook the game status updates don’t show up in the social stream and game notifications are kept to a bare minimum. Here’s the new games page.

1) The scrolling banner up top shows the current featured Google+ games. If you don’t see one you like you can just click the directory button for a full list of available games.

2) On the provided screen shot it says “play a game” but on my account it says “your games”. I’m going to assume that the screen shot is what it looks like before you’ve played a game. The “your games” area shows games you’ve recently played for quick and easy access.

3) Game stream. This is where all game updates are held. Google made a wise decision by separating the game stream from the social stream, this keeps good conversation from being interrupted by game boasts all the time yet still lets the gamers talk to each other and have fun.

4) The notifications area shows you all your recent game notifications. Below that you will find games that your circles have played followed by a list of new games and the most popular games list.

Overall I’m very excited about the new changes to Google+. With the redesign it looks less like a website and more like a GUI based operating system. Even with all the added features it still has a much less cluttered and more streamlined design than Facebook. Even with the added gadgets the site loads amazingly fast and it’s very easy to read. While Google maintains that Google+ isn’t meant to be a competitor with Facebook I have a feeling more Facebook users will be jumping ship soon.

Emmett's Blog - Blog of Emmett Lollis Jr.

Fun With Dry Ice – How to make dry ice bubbles!

2012-04-13T09:59:46Z

Fun With Dry Ice – How to make dry ice bubbles!

We received a shipment of Omaha Steaks the other day and to my surprise they came packed with dry ice! I’ve never had a chance to play around with dry ice before so I had a lot of fun that day. I also decided to film a couple dry ice tricks for YouTube so it didn’t go to waste. (watch the video below)

First experiment: Large Dry Ice Bubble

During my research of fun things to do with dry ice I came across some examples of large dry ice bubbles. To make a large dry ice bubble first you need a bowl or some other container, the shape doesn’t really matter so much. You’ll want to put a little bit of hot water in the bowl, the amount depends on how large the container and with a little experimentation it’s not too hard to figure out what works. For my kitchen bowl I used about a cup of steaming hot water. You’ll have to guestimate how much dry ice you want to use, in my case I chipped off a couple chunks that were 2 or 3 inches long and about 3/4 inch thick.

Before you add the dry ice you’ll want to have a piece of cloth big enough to cover the diameter of the bowl that has been soaking in a bubble solution. Straight dish soap worked fine for me. At this point you can go ahead and add the dry ice. Use a set of tongs, never touch dry ice with your skin, it can cause frostbite in just a few seconds! Once you’ve added the dry ice the water will boil immediately. Take the soapy cloth and get the edges of the bowl good and soapy so your bubble edges have a head start. Then stretch the cloth out to cover the diameter of the bowl and drag it across. It might take a couple tries but soon the smoke should start to form a large bubble. Watch the video below for a good visual.

Second experiment: Small dry ice bubbles!

This one will be a lot of fun for small kids and is extremely easy to do. I used a couple small chunks of dry ice in a large sized coffee mug filled about 1/3 to 1/2 way with steaming hot water. Once the bubbles are going just add a small amount of dish soap, about 2-3 tablespoons should work and you’ll get an instant chain of bubbles and when you pop the bubbles you’ll get tiny puffs of smoke. There are plenty of ways to toy around with this one, I’ve seen setups to make a bubble spray hose and other inventive techniques.

The video!

Here it is. I created this video around 3am so I sound like a spacey redneck but it’s all in good fun. I decided to try adding some into music, it’s a little riff I wrote in the early 00′s. I hope you enjoy the video and have some fun with dry ice yourself! Just remember to play it safe, dry ice can be dangerous.

Emmett's Blog - Blog of Emmett Lollis Jr.

Google Plus Tips, Guide for new Users

2011-09-29T02:31:43Z

Google Plus Tips, Guide for new Users

On September 20th 2011 Google+ became open to the public after a two month invite only period. Now that there are a lot of new people joining Google+ I thought I’d put together a guide with some useful tips to get the most out of your Google Plus experience.

Features Overview

Circles:
Circles work similar to lists on twitter or Facebook.

Stream:
The stream is where all the action happens. All your friends posts, photos and shares appear here.

Hangouts:
Hangouts allow you to video chat with up to 10 friends at a time. Live broadcasting was just added so you can share your hangouts with the world!

Search:
Use search to find friends, search posts in your stream and find articles.

Sparks:
Sparks are your source for instant news access. You can setup a spark for any topic you are interested in and you can view it at any time to see the latest updates on your interests.

Huddles:
Use Huddles to setup a group texting session with a circle of friends.

How to make Google Plus work for you!

Making Friends / Networking

To get the most out of your Google+ experience the first thing you need to do is setup your circles. You aren’t restricted to just the people you know, there is no waiting for a friend request to be accepted. If you want to follow someone just add them to a circle and you will see all the posts which they share to the public. If you need help finding people to follow you can check out some of the many Google Plus user lists which are now available. Recommendedusers.com, Google+ Counter and Group.as are all good places to find people you like and if you want others to find you just add yourself to a list.

The new search feature is another great way to find new people to interact with. See who’s posting the subjects you’re interested in and follow them if you like what you see.

If you want people to follow you the best thing to do is contribute to the social community. If you see an interesting post offer your thoughts, if someone likes what they see you just might gain a follower. Making public posts is another great way to meet new people, Google+ isn’t limited to 500 characters like Facebook. You can currently post 10,000 characters so don’t hold back. If you want to catch people’s attention use a bold heading (by putting * before and after the sentence) and attach a photo to your post. You can also add italics by using the underscore character (_) or dash (-) to strikeout text. If you made a mistake you can even go back and edit the post later.

If you find someone who is spamming posts or making offensive comments use the block feature on their profile to prevent them from commenting on your posts or joining your hangouts.

A common complaint I see from Google+ users is that when people circle them they will check out that person’s profile to see if they want to circle that person back but there is no profile information or profile photo so they won’t follow back. If you want to gain followers be sure to fill out your profile to let them know a little about yourself. Adding suggested circle categories to put your profile under would be a big help. Also, no profile and no posts when they see your profile might make you look like a potential spammer so take a few minutes to fill out your info for the best experience.

Using Hangouts

Hangout is one of the coolest features on Google Plus. If you want to start a video hangout with up to 10 friends of your choosing or even the public all you have to do is click the green “Start a hangout” button on the right side of the screen. Some new features were just added which allow you to share your screen, share documents and even broadcast your hangout to the world on YouTube. You can even hangout from your mobile phone now. If you want to talk to a couple friends or start your own TV show it’s all right there to explore.

Managing your Stream

If you’re like me and you have a lot of people in your circles you will find that the stream is constantly updating so fast that you can’t keep up with it. If you reach that point it’s a good idea to have a circle setup that has the most important people in it. Perhaps bloggers or news journalists that you want to follow closely or close friends. Once it’s setup you can just select that circle to view only their updates and you won’t have a seizure watching the stream update.

Chat on Google Plus

If you don’t want to utilize Hangouts to chat with friends you can utilize Google Talk for chat directly through Google+. Since Google+ has such a dynamic circles system for following users it wouldn’t make sense to allow anyone on the network to chat with everyone without some level of control. To request permission to chat with a friend you need to enter their email address in the search box on the chat section. Once you do that it will send a request to your friend which they can accept to make you visible on each others chat screen.

You may have also noticed that there is no wall on Google+. Now you don’t have to deal with people spamming your section of the universe with junk. If you want to have a private communication with a friend all you need to do is create a new post and +mention them, then simply remove Public from the post and it will only be visible to you and the person you are talking to. They will receive a notification that you mentioned them and will have the option to reply to your post.

Things to Avoid

If you want to make an impact on the Google+ community and build a base of loyal followers there are things you should avoid.

Google+ has a developing game community which has been intentionally separate from the regular stream. Feel free to share high scores, ask for mafia members all you want but do it within the games section. There is really no point to copying those items and pasting them into the normal conversation streams. If you leave those updates where they are generated then people who are playing the games will see them and the non gaming community won’t be distracted by those updates.

Copy/paste status messages are a thing of the past. On Google+ when a post is share credit is given to the original author of that post. If you copy/paste a message into your status they won’t get credit. Also if it’s a copy/paste message along the lines of “if you don’t copy/paste this you will have bad luck / Jesus will be mad etc” you might find people blocking you just because that sort of thing is seen as spam on Google+.

Solicitations/Spam links will get you instantly blocked by most members of the Google+ community and it’s likely the profile will be reported for abuse. No one is going to click the get rich quick scheme that was added as a comment to Guy Kawasaki’s latest enchanting post and when that type of thing is found I know a lot of people who will block the spammer and post their profile to alert other members to block them as well to keep the community free of spam.

People to follow on Google+

There are hundreds of people I would like to suggest you circle on Google+ to get the most out of your experience but I haven’t had time to put together those lists. The people I’m listing here will help you enjoy your Google Plus experience.

Google Community Managers
The Google CMs are here to help Google+ users so if you have an issue feel free to +mention them for help. I’m sure they are busy right now with all the new users so just be patient. It’s also a good idea to follow them to keep up to date on the latest features as they get added to the service.

Natale Villalobos – Community Manager for the Google+ Project
Toby Stein – Google+ CM
Brian Rose – Google+ Photos CM
Katherine Gramann Google+ Hangouts CM
Evan Steinberg – Google+ Mobile CM

Great Active Posters

Linda Lawrey - Tech blogger
Alida Brandenberg – Pandora / Table for Ten
Daria Musk – Musical Artist / Hangout Performance Pioneer
Michael Mozart – Fail Toys / YouTube Broadcaster
Michael van der Galien – Journalist
Colin Lovett – Journalist / Voice of America
Leo Laporte - TV Host / TWiT.tv
Jeff Jarvis – Author
Trey Ratclif - Photographer
Thomas Hawk – Photographer
Keith Barrett – Disney / Vidcast Producer

Also see Celebrities on Google+ for more to pick from!

Emmett's Blog - Blog of Emmett Lollis Jr.

Google Authorship Changes Make it Easier to Claim Your Articles

2011-08-23T10:09:41Z

Google Authorship Changes Make it Easier to Claim Your Articles

A couple months ago Google announced a new feature that allows blog writers and content publishers to claim authorship for their blogs. I posted this article about the new feature a while back and noticed some issues people were running into when trying to implement authorship on blogging platforms. For some reason, many blogging platforms such as WordPress were stripping out the rel=”author” attribute when saving the changes. Other times widgets didn’t understand the extra link parameters which resulted in the rel text being saved as part of the link address. Fortunately Google has provided authors with a new solution which is much easier to implement.

Google’s Authorship Changes

Now, instead of using the rel=author link attribute, Google has changed the system to accept a special rel=author parameter in the actual link to the author’s Google profile. To make this new link format work you will also need a + sign at the beginning or ending of your anchor text. The old format looks something like this (the 0′s would be your profile id):

<a rel=”author” href=”https://plus.google.com/00000000000/”>Written by John Smith</a>

The new format which is much easier to implement on restricted blogging systems looks like this:

<a href=”https://plus.google.com/00000000000?rel=author”>+John Smith</a>

According to the Google help documentation anyone using the old method should be unaffected by the new changes. I went ahead and updated to the new format for my authorship links just to be on the safe side. Once you have made the changes on your site you can visit the rich snippets tool to make sure that your authorship information is coded correctly.

The final step, once you are satisfied with your changes is to submit your site to Google using this form. When they’ve reviewed the form, they may let you know about any implementation issues with your submission. However, they note that they can’t respond to everyone. I originally made authorship changes for this site several weeks ago but have yet to see the changes in Google’s search results. However, when they do implement this on a mass scale it can be a huge credibility boost for you and your articles. For full details, check out Google’s authorship help article.

Emmett's Blog - Blog of Emmett Lollis Jr.

Throw Live Premiere Parties for your YouTube videos!

2011-08-21T13:20:34Z

Throw Live Premiere Parties for your YouTube videos!

Google recently added a new feature to YouTube which I think could make things a lot more exciting for YouTube producers. Embedded within the share feature is a new link to “Start a Google+ Hangout”. A Google plus hangout allows you to watch the video with up to 10 friends in a live video chat session.

Use the hangout option to throw premiere parties.

Since Google Plus hangouts have been in existence we have been able to watch YouTube videos with friends but this new link has really got me thinking about new ways to use this. Since it’s so easy to launch a hangout directly from videos I believe this is a great way to help promote your newest YouTube productions.

How to do it.

There are a couple of ways you could go about using the new hangout option to promote your new YouTube content. The easiest way would be to give your fans notice of a special video premiere event where they are all invited to start their own hangout at a pre-determined time. This is an easy way to spread your YouTube video to new audiences and start a buzz without a whole lot of work.

The second way you can take advantage of video premiere hangouts is to have one primary hangout started by the video creator. The video creator can setup a live stream of the hangout to be broadcast on one of the many live streaming services out there such as livestream.com, justin.tv or ustream.tv. This is a more involved process since you will have to spend some time installing special software to capture the hangout window and participant audio that can be pushed to the live streaming service. By going this route you can invite special guests to be at your premiere which helps your credibility along with giving your guests some extra exposure.

Emmett's Blog - Blog of Emmett Lollis Jr.

Google Plus Games Arriving Now!

2011-08-12T01:05:33Z

Google Plus Games Arriving Now!

Google has announced that their Google Plus games have began rolling out to users of the social network. With Google Plus only being a little over a month old, the quick addition of games along with a series of user requested updates shows their commitment to the new social network platform.

The games being announced for initial roll-out are Angry Birds, Bejeweled Blitz, Bubble Island, City of Wonder, Collapse! Blast, Crime City, Diamond Dash, Dragon Age Legends, Dragons of Atlantis, Edge World, Flood-It, Monster World, Sudoku, Wild Ones, Zombie Lane and Zynga Poker.

Will my stream be cluttered with Game notifications?

No, Google has said they are keeping the Game notifications separate from the conversation streams. If you want to see the game content you can see it, but only if you choose to. This is a big relief to users who moved to Google Plus just to escape the spam like game notifications on Facebook. If you do want to enter Google’s game universe all you have to do is click the Games button at the top of your streams. On that page you can view game invites, share your high scores and see game updates from your circles.

Google Plus Opens to Developers

The good news for developers is that Google has setup the Google+ developer blog. You can visit the blog to keep up to date with the latest API news for application developers. Hopefully we will see some innovative non-game apps in the coming months!

Emmett's Blog - Blog of Emmett Lollis Jr.

Table for Ten Cooking Show hits Google Plus Hangouts!

2011-08-09T11:24:21Z

Table for Ten Cooking Show hits Google Plus Hangouts!

When I first started using Google Plus I was overwhelmed with the ways people learned to take advantage of the new features Google presented on it’s social network. One of the most exciting features to hit the service has been Google Hangouts. Hangouts allow for 10 people to be connected in a high quality video conference that doesn’t require an involved setup process or unattainable computer resources. In the first few weeks we’ve seen this put to a variety of creative uses. Daria Musk has put on a live concert for thousands of people. Michael Dell has regular hangouts to chat with his followers and Michael Mozart (of Fail Toys fame) has been experimenting with the live streaming of Hangouts on YouTube.

One new Hangout which I’ve had the fortune of participating in is the worlds first Google Plus cooking show called Table for Ten. Table for Ten is the brainchild of Alida Brandenburg (Pandora) and Rob Grega (DJ/Producer/A&R). I had the opportunity to ask them a few questions about this inspiring new show and gained a lot of insight. If these words don’t spark your creative flame or get you excited about the new social frontier I don’t know what will. If you want a sneak peak, check out the video and stills from the show!

How did the idea for a Google hangout cooking show come about?

Alida: I was invited by Natalie Villalobos and Timothy Jordan to join Google+ when it first launched. I was a little bewildered at first as to what to do with yet another social networking site, but after hopping in my first Hangout with the two of them and others from all over the world, I was hooked. It got me thinking about all the ways the Hangout feature could be utilized and the more I considered it, the more the possibilities seemed endless. Specifically, group video chats seemed like such a revolutionary way to connect with individuals and share- to sort of break what seems to be the last barrier of online interactions, namely how impersonal and detached it feels without the expressionism of a live human face and voice. It really humanizes the online experience.

So I had all these ideas about what the Hangout feature could be used for, so really it was just about narrowing it down to which one to experiment with first. Fortunately it was interesting timing because just a few weeks before Google+ launched, I was telling Rob that he should post a video to YouTube of him making lasagna cupcakes. He shared pictures of the dish on Facebook the last time he made them and people were going wild about the idea. Everyone wanted to know how he did it. I thought it would be a fun project that people would likewise enjoy. Transitioning that YouTube idea to instead be applied to the Hangout feature was a natural fit. Preparing and sharing meals is one of the most social activities shared universally, and the opportunity to do that live with people all over the world and with instant reciprocal feedback is something that- to my knowledge- hasn’t been done before. It takes the idea of a cooking show to a whole new level. It totally breaks down the 4th wall for the first time, which changes everything.

Rob: Needless to say, G+ really got Alida’s wheels turning, and she kind of became an overnight G+ addict, so I had to quickly figure out a crafty way to still hang out with her.. Haha. No, seriously, I’ve always enjoyed cooking and I’ve been hosting dinner parties for years. Sharing food with others is kind of a family thing to me. I grew up in an Italian household where my grandmother would make big Italian dinners for my mother’s entire family every weekend. The house was packed with four sets of aunts and uncles, countless kids running around, Grandpap smoking cigars on the porch, the men all yelling at the television when the Steelers would lose- you know, traditional Italian, Pittsburgh style. The women were always in the kitchen at my grandmother’s, and my mom cooked at home pretty much every other night of the week, as well. I was the oldest son, so I spent a lot of time in the kitchen helping her out. It’s just second nature to me so it’s a fun thing to share with my friends- and now the world- via the Hangout.

When was the first Table for Ten show?

Just two weeks after the launch of G+: Saturday, July 16, 2011.

What did you learn from the first show and what changes did you make?

Rob: Our first Hangout started about 45 minutes late. We had been trying for an extended period of time to enable recording of the Hangout after a number of users expressed disappointment at not being able to join for whatever reason, mostly because they were international and the time-zone difference was an issue. However, we couldn’t get any of the recommended programs to work. We also tried using an external camera to give people a better view of the action in the kitchen, but we found out that only the built-in camera would stream to the Hangout. We were left experimenting with different angles at which to place the laptop to get the best view, which was pretty hilarious actually. It ended with us emptying out my entire kitchen cabinet to set the computer inside it on a shelf.

Beyond that, the biggest challenge was keeping everyone working at the same pace. For example, some people were at higher altitudes, so their water boiled faster than others. It wasn’t until the second Table for Ten that we developed the plus-sign check-in. When we’re ready to move on to the next step, we ask everyone if they’re ready, too. If they’re all set, they throw up a plus-sign made with their two index fingers.

Alida: Another interesting obstacle was Rob’s tendency to not measure when he cooks. As most great chefs do, he cooks by intuition. (“Pinch of this, splash of that.”) This obviously doesn’t necessarily work when you’re leading a large group of individuals in cooking a recipe, particularly when they have different skill levels. I, however, am a “cook by the book” person, and I have a tough time just knowing that type of stuff. I’m not sure if it’s inexperience, or just differences in the ways our brains work, but I think it actually makes for a great complement in the kitchen. We can both learn a lot from each other, and I think that translates well to everyone else cooking along with us during Table for Ten.

How well has Table for Ten been received?

Alida: Amazingly well. We were the first cooking Hangout on Google+ and people really took to it. Word spread very quickly and the results went over better than we expected. Since launching this just a couple weeks ago, several people have approached us asking to write articles on it- from blogs to newspapers to Google+ features- and we get tagged all over Google+ as recommended people to follow for our creative use of the Hangout feature. Someone even referenced Table for Ten in a rap he wrote!

How do you see Table for Ten evolving in the future?

Alida: We’d like to bring in guest cooks to host with us, as well as open it up for other users to select recipes and take the lead as instructor in the Hangout. Similarly, we’re talking about doing a more shared, collaborative effort in which a few select users each choose a dish or course to take ownership of, and together we create a more elaborate, mutli-course meal.

Additionally, we’re talking with our friends at Dinner Party Records about joining forces to create an amalgamation of music, art, and food. It would be a multidimensional experience to feed all the senses and engage users even more.

Do you have any other projects in mind?

Rob: Well, we experimented just this past Wednesday with a live music Hangout at one of my DJ gigs. I host a weekly happy hour here in SF at Eve Lounge, and we decided on a whim to start a hangout session while I played. The inspiration came from a number of music-related comment threads on my and Alida’s pages. There were a ton of users from other areas of the world without direct access to thriving music scenes expressing how much they wished they could get exposure to more cutting-edge songs and artists. Again, given the way the Hangout feature breaks down geographical barriers, hosting a Hangout for plussers hungry for new music seemed like a natural fit. Anyone, anywhere can virtually participate in a live music event hosted from any location. Before we knew it the hangout was full of excited music-lovers really stoked to listen in. Alida chatted via the sidebar, I mixed records, and users were really engaged. They were asking questions about the tracks I was playing, reminiscing with each other about days past, giving each other artist recommendations… it was really cool to watch it naturally unfold. After seeing the immediate, positive response, we decided to do this on a regular basis, but expand on it by opening it up as a weekly Google+ meet-up. Bay Area G+ users will have the chance to meet each other in real life at Eve, and also host their own Hangouts on their laptops so they can stream the music, too, and connect with even more people. Circle both of us for details to be posted soon!

Table for Ten on YouTube

Table for Ten Screen Shots

Emmett's Blog - Blog of Emmett Lollis Jr.

Google Search Rankings and Google Plus – Take Advantage!

2011-08-09T08:35:15Z

Google Search Rankings and Google Plus – Take Advantage!

Google Search Rankings and Google Plus

For years having the most popular search engine on the market has meant a constant struggle between Google and website spammers. Having a site or page that ranks high for popular keywords can mean hundreds or even thousands of dollars in revenue for website owners. The problem has gotten so far out of hand that in some search categories it’s hard to find relevant content against the sea of pages using black hat methods to push their content higher. Sites have been getting ahead by buying links from high ranking pages , building fake blogs to promote their content or hiring authors to write content which looks good to a search engine but is totally useless for someone seeking information. Well, the search world is changing, and it’s changing for the better! Read on and learn how you can use these changes to your advantage.

What Google Plus Means to SEO and Site Rankings

The news has been filled with stories saying that Google Plus needs to beat Facebook in order for Google Plus to win. In fact, even if Google Plus doesn’t gain more active users than Facebook the truth is that Google still wins. Google Plus offers much more than a new product to Google. It gives them something they desperately need to keep them ahead as a search engine, real time social signals. With Google Plus, Google can get an instant measure of what content on the web is truly popular.

Instead of looking at incoming links, Google can now look at links shared on it’s social network and +1 recommendations of web pages to help determine where a page should be ranked. As the social network grows, Google can add more weight to it’s social signals and search results will drastically improve. Google has already implemented the social world into search results. Right now I can search for a topic and the top few results are pages which were recommended by my friends on Google Plus. This tells me that the content is trust worthy right away and increases the chance that I will visit the link.

The executives at Google have been reminding us in recent blog postings that page rank and links are a thing of the past and I believe that social signals are the future of search. If you are writing articles or blog posts I highly suggest sharing the articles on Google Plus so you don’t lose out on the new ranking that’s in place.

What Google Authorship will do to Google search

Google recently let people know of new tools available to bloggers and writers. Google Authorship allows you to add a special link parameter which tells Google who authored a blog post or article. This new linking tells Google that you are the author by referencing your author page or Google profile. Google has hinted that they will implement authorship by adding your profile picture along with a link to your Google profile to every link you author on the internet. This, in my mind is just as good as a friend recommending your page in search results with the +1 button. Maybe even better!

Having your name and Google profile listed on all your articles will give you credibility and help you to brand your name. It’s also a good way for Google to increase the quality of content on the web. If you know your name is going to be listed with your articles it’s only natural to write the best content you can. If you want to implement these changes you can read about Google authorship here.

Take Advantage!

When people share or +1 your articles it’s just as good as buying an AdWords ad to promote your link. Same thing with Google Authorship. It’s free advertisement that’s even better than buying an ad. It’s recommended content. Get your articles in the social world before you find out that you’ve been buried by everyone else’s recommended articles!

Emmett's Blog - Blog of Emmett Lollis Jr.

Google Helps Sites Get Faster with Page Speed Tools.

2011-07-28T20:50:00Z

Google Helps Sites Get Faster with Page Speed Tools.

Google has made it a point to let webmasters know that page loading speed is becoming an important factor in how pages are ranked in Google search. In a blog entry on Google Webmaster Central they provided examples of sites who are getting a 25% to 60% performance boost by using Google products to improve speed. Along with reminding us about Google’s page speed tools there was an announcement about a new Google service called Page Speed Service. More on this new service later.

Page Speed Browser Extension/Plugin

The Google Page Speed browser extension used to be available only to FireFox but it’s now available for Google Chrome browsers. When you run this add-on on your website pages you get a report on load times for different aspects of your page, such as image download time, script downloads etc. The report also gives you suggestions on how you can improve performance by implementing tweaks to your server and individual pages.

Google’s mod_pagespeed Apache Module.

Webmasters who have access to their web server can also take advantage of Google’s mod_pagespeed Apache module. I’ve known about this module for some time but I’ve been hesitant to implement the module on my own server since it falls outside the box of modules available to me through automatic installation in my server setup. If you are confident with your skills on Apache Server then I would encourage you to try out the module for yourself as it does have great benefits.

New Google Page Speed Service

Along with reminding us of the existing Google page speed tools currently available, Google has announced a new Page Speed Service which is available for a limited time free of charge. There weren’t a lot of details on the service offered on Google’s blog post but it certainly can’t hurt to sign up for the free page speed service. The Google blog post does mention that they are only offering page speed service for a limited time and it will be a paid service in the near future so get in while you can!

Emmett's Blog - Blog of Emmett Lollis Jr.

Google Introduces AdWords Express for Small Business

2011-07-27T19:02:06Z

Google Introduces AdWords Express for Small Business

On July 25th, Google officially launched Google AdWords Express. AdWords Express was created to help small businesses advertise on Google search without knowing all the complicated features of regular AdWords. When a small business signs up for AdWords Express the service will walk them through setting up a custom ad to display in search results for computer and mobile based platforms. Along with the online ad, Google will place a blue pin marker on Google Maps to help your business stand out to potential customers. Once a campaign is setup, Google will manage the campaign for you by determining the best searches to bid on in.

While this new service sounds promising, having an automated service bid on searches for you could prove to be inefficient compared to a custom campaign. However, for a business that doesn’t have the time to manage their own campaign, AdWords express may be a good choice. This may have an impact on business who provide AdWords management services for smaller businesses. Time will tell if AdWords Express is a step in the right direction.

Emmett's Blog - Blog of Emmett Lollis Jr.

Learn how to Make the +1 Button Load Faster

2011-07-27T19:02:40Z

Learn how to Make the +1 Button Load Faster

Learn how to Make the +1 (Plus One) Button Load Faster

Page load speed has become an important ranking factor for websites in Google’s search engine index. All the website widgets we add to our blogs tends to slow things down which can lead to lost visitors. Today, Google announced an update to their +1 social network ranking button that will help any site using the +1 button load faster. The code improvement is supposed to help pages that use the +1 button load up to 3 times faster than sites without the extra code.

How to implement the new +1 code

The new code is a JavaScript snippet that you paste after the last instance of any plus one button code you have on your page. The code will delay the loading of the +1 button until after the rest of the page loads to increase the perceived download speed of your page. To get the extra code just visit the +1 button configuration tool, copy the code and add to your site. Again be sure to place it after the last instance of the +1 button on the page you are working on.

Emmett's Blog - Blog of Emmett Lollis Jr.

Google lets you Claim Authorship for your Blog, Articles and Sites!

2011-08-11T06:13:52Z

Google lets you Claim Authorship for your Blog, Articles and Sites!

Claim Authorship for your Blog, Articles and Sites!

Update! Google has release a video on the authorship process, I embedded the new video below.

Back on June 7th Google introduced a new feature that allows you to claim authorship for any article you post on the internet. By using the new tools that Google has given publishers you can be assured that you receive credit for the articles and websites you create. It’s not just about claiming ownership for your articles, it’s about making your articles stand out in Google search! Keep reading to find out how.

Using Authorship to your Advantage with Google Plus Profiles!

The new Google authorship tools don’t just allow you to claim your blogs and articles, it actually allows you to have all your writings linked up to your Google Plus account or the author page of your choosing! Imagine someone doing an online search, instead of just a bland search listing, your photo comes up along side the article with a link to your Google Plus account, Google profile or your own author page! If you link up to your Google Plus account or Google profile, Google will automatically add all your articles to the +1 section of your profile. Google has also hinted in the help page that you should upload a high quality photo of yourself as your profile picture in order to be eligible for be shown as a thumbnail in search results. In theory, this means that as people are searching your articles, they see you listed as the author along with a link to your profile, maybe even your profile picture! If that’s not enough to get you excited I don’t know what is.

Implementing Google Authorship on your Blog / Site

Now that you know what it can do I would imagine that you’re itching to add this feature to your articles. If your entire site/blog is authored by you it’s as simple as adding the following code to every page you claim ownership for:

<a rel=”author” href=”https://plus.google.com/<your profile id>”>About Your Name Here</a>

If you are using WordPress or have multiple authors on your blog site the Google help article has a lot more information. I highly suggest reading the help article anyway. It gives a lot of insight on ways you can use the authorship feature as well as a link to a form that you can fill out to let Google know that you updated your site with the tags.

Be sure to stay tuned to this blog for the latest Google Plus news and tips!

Emmett's Blog - Blog of Emmett Lollis Jr.

Google Attempts to Clarify Google Plus Name Policy

2011-07-26T02:16:39Z

Google Attempts to Clarify Google Plus Name Policy

Over the past few days lots of Google Plus users have seen their accounts suspended due to Google’s strict enforcement of it’s Google Plus naming policy. Even high profile celebrities like William Shatner have seen their account suspended pending verification of their real identity.

Bradley Horowitz attempted to clear up the confusion tonight through a post on his Google Plus account. He mentioned that a number of community standards violations appear to be inadvertent and Google is working on ways to better address the issue. Horowitz says that Google is now sending a warning message in advance of suspension (with exception of those in violation of other policies like spamming). Google is also looking at ways to improve the sign up process to make it clear that people are to use their real names. He also suggested that people wanting to use nicknames take advantage of the “other names” field. He said that Google Plus users can also take advantage of the employment, occupation and education section which shows up in the hovercard to add their nickname or handle. You can view the official Google naming policy for more information.

International Issues

Many people in China have expressed concern over the naming policy due to their governments strict control over communication. They feel the need for anonymity to be able to speak freely in their own country. So far it appears that there hasn’t been much discussion on potential remedies for that situation. For now, anyone not using their real name to identify themselves on the network risks account suspension or deletion.

Emmett's Blog - Blog of Emmett Lollis Jr.

Google Plus Games Coming Soon!

2011-07-23T02:20:58Z

Google Plus Games Coming Soon!

According to Tricia Duryee over at All Things D, Google Plus will soon be offering games to it’s social networking users. It appears the Google Plus Games will offer a much better incentive to developers compared to Facebook and Apple by only taking a 30% cut of profits.

Google Plus Game Payments

Google has also recently launched In-App Payments for the Web. A service that allows web application users to take payments from customer with a simple right click interface. This allows the application users to continue enjoying the app without interruption. Right now the In-App Payments are geared toward the Chrome Web Store but it would be very easy to tweak the interface to work with a Google Games API.

How Soon is it Coming?

According to the All Things D article, the new Google Plus Games API may be here within the next month! Google is one of Zynga’s biggest investors so it’s very likely they are already working on Games to be introduced when the Google Plus Games service goes live. That’s not good news for the smaller game companies since there won’t be a level playing field out of the gate.

Reaction of Google Plusers

The news of social gaming’s arrival at Google Plus may not sit well with the early adopters of Google Plus. One of the advantages to Google Plus has been the lack of constant online game and social application invites. Hopefully Google will be smart enough to make the games/applications an opt-in feature or at least restrict the games from cluttering the circle streams with game status messages and invitations.

Emmett's Blog - Blog of Emmett Lollis Jr.

Google Plus Business Profiles Major Announcement!

2011-07-23T02:25:41Z

Google Plus Business Profiles Major Announcement!

Google has been telling it’s Google Plus business users to hold off on creating business profiles until they have a business product launched. Plus businesses were referred to a signup form to be put into a pool of businesses, from which Google would pick a select few to beta test their business profiles.

Today, Google Plus Project / Ads Guy Christian Oestlien posted a major update on Googles business profile decisions. According to Oestlien, Google has received tens of thousands of applications for their business project. In response to the overwhelming response Google has decided to make a major change of plans. Instead of transitioning only a few businesses to test out the new service over time, Google is now planning to roll out the business profiles to everyone in the next few months!

This is great news for small businesses who want to take advantage of this new social network. They are allowing a small handful of existing business profiles to continue to exist, however Google will still proactively remove and unauthorized businesses who create a profile while they are working on the official business product. Google recommends (as I recommended in this article) to find someone with a personal profile to represent your business. You can view the original statement here. I also included the video update below.

Emmett's Blog - Blog of Emmett Lollis Jr.

Mashable Steps Down From Google Plus

2011-07-23T02:25:51Z

Mashable Steps Down From Google Plus

According to Mashable founder Pete Cashmore, Mashable is removing their branded presence from Google Plus. Aparently they have been in talks with the Google Plus team about their Google Plus profile presence. Google has asked businesses to refrain from putting their brand on the social networking site until they have a business solution developed. Many users in the Google Plus community have expressed concern over their early entry into the market including Leo Laporte who has refrained from adding his TWiT profile to Google Plus. According to Pete Cashmore they will be working with Google to implement their presence once Google has the Business Profiles ready to test. You can view the entire post here.

Emmett's Blog - Blog of Emmett Lollis Jr.

Google Plus For Business / Getting Ahead Without A Business Profile

2011-07-23T02:26:01Z

Google Plus For Business / Getting Ahead Without A Business Profile

A lot of businesses have been trying to get their foot in the door with Google Plus. Google has made it clear that they will delete any business who sets up an account on their social network service. Down the road Google Plus will begin rolling out Business Profiles for a select few businesses who signed up to test their new business products. However, the sign up deadline passed on July 15th. So, what can you do if you missed the deadline? The answer isn’t as bleak as you might imagine.

How are businesses using Google Plus without breaking the rules?

I’ve spent a lot of time analyzing the Google Plus user base. Yes, there are some early adopters who appear to be breaking the rules such as Mashable, CNN and Ford Motor Company. While it may be tempting to setup a profile for your own business, there is a high risk that Google will remove your account. So, how do you help your business on Google Plus without breaking the rules and risking account deletion? The key is you. You, as an individual are a marketing spokesperson for your brand. If you use Google Plus wisely you can build a reputation as an expert in your field, you can build a loyal following which in turn will turn into business leads and happy customers.

Looking at the most successful Google Plusers

I’ve spent a great deal of time observing some of the more popular personalities using Google Plus. Many of them were high profile before Google Plus came along but that doesn’t mean you can’t build your own following by offering useful content. Sean Bonner has nearly 9,000 followers. He’s become known as a sort of “king of funny” when it comes to Google Plus posts. He has a knack for posting hilarious graphics and animated gif’s. Why is this important? Entertainment brings new followers. Mashable News is giving a continuous stream of Google Plus news which Plusers are re-sharing like crazy. This may explain why their brand hasn’t been pulled by Google. Why is this important? They are offering content that G+ users like to share. Tom Anderson (founder of MySpace) offers a constant stream of Google Plus tidbits and help info. His niche is firmly entrenched in social networking and makes for a good example of defining your role in the Google Plus universe. Leo Laporte has been around since the early days of computing, before everyone was on the internet he was writing articles for leading tech magazines. While he hasn’t been able to build a brand page for his TWiT Netcast Network, he has still been able to communicate with his audience through his personal Google Plus profile.

Bringing it together, making yourself a success

When you look at the top Google Plus users a pattern emerges. They all offer something to their audience and I’ll guarantee that any mention they make of a product, service or brand won’t be ignored by their followers. They are making a personal connection rather than a “buy this” marketing scheme. If you can become the spokesperson for your field, people will follow and it will lead to business. Let’s face it. Business pages are boring, people are interesting. Take advantage of that! Another important note: When you post on Google Plus it works differently than Facebook. Any post you make that gets re-shared will list you as the original author, no matter if it’s shared by a friend of someone else who shared your post. You get credit! This is huge for gaining followers and spreading a viral message.

Integrating your Google Plus profile into your blog or website.

Not only do you want your Google Plus followers to visit your blog or website, you need your bloggers to follow you on Google Plus. Social Statistics has created a widget you can use to display your profile badge on your blog. To get it, just visit their site and log in with your Google id or paste your profile id in the space provided on the top right of the page. Then you can copy your badge code to your blog or site. If you look to the right hand side of my blog you can see what the widget will look like on your site. Another useful addition to your website is the Google +1 button. I can’t stress enough how important this simple button is. When a visitor click the button it will display their recommendation in the Google search results anytime one of their friends is doing a Google search and it can have a major impact on new visitors. Also Google will surely use the number of +1′s as a ranking indicator that will boost your page in the rankings for anyone doing a search. You can get the +1 button from Google.

I hope this article has helped clear up the benefits of becoming an early adopter of Google Plus and given some insight about gaining momentum for your business. While you’re here, check out some of these related articles: Google Plus Business Profiles / Pages Coming Soon – Celebrities on Google Plus / Who to Follow! – Google Plus Project Redefines Social Networking.

Emmett's Blog - Blog of Emmett Lollis Jr.

Google Plus Business Profiles / Pages Coming Soon

2011-07-23T02:26:19Z

Google Plus Business Profiles / Pages Coming Soon

Since the introduction of the Google Plus social network, businesses have been clamoring for a way to get their brand noticed in the midst of all the buzz. As of now, businesses who have tried to get setup on Google + have been quickly taken down by Google with exception of internet news site Mashable. However, there is good news for businesses who are patiently waiting for their chance at Google Plus stardom. Up until July 15th Google has been accepting submissions from businesses who wish to test out Google’s social networking business solutions. Over the next few days Google will be notifying selected businesses which were chosen to participate in the Google Plus Business Profiles test. They should begin springing up any time now and I for one am excited to see what will become of these new business profiles. If you didn’t get accepted in the program don’t fret. There are still ways you can promote your business on Google Plus. I’m working on an article that shows how you can utilize Google Plus to promote your business without a business profile. I’ll post the link here as soon as it’s ready!

Edit: The article is ready Google Plus for Business / Getting Ahead Without a Business Profile

Emmett's Blog - Blog of Emmett Lollis Jr.