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Bored of Facebook? Try The New MySpace

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 04:46:00 +0000

This is a fairly in depth New MySpace Review. The makers claim that its not meant to kill facebook but the New MySpace does have some engaging features and of course a great user interface this time.

I am sure most of us remember abandoning our MySpace accounts for a ‘cleaner’ looking social network – Facebook. But MySpace is back with a bang! Everything old is left behind. Chris and Tim Vanderhook along with Justin Timberlake bought the ‘once upon a time’ social monopolist for a throwaway price of $35 Million. The trio believes that they can give back MySpace its lost charm.

First things first! MySpace as we know it from its previous birth was the public’s connection to their beloved artists and vice-versa. The all new MySpace does the same but comes with a better design, friendly UI (tricky until you ‘connect’ to it) and of course, a smoother music player.

Starting with the UI of the New MySpace

Like on most social sites, on MySpace too, users can have a profile picture and a cover picture. (FYI MySpace was the pioneer in painting user profiles with personalized images.) Unlike previously, MySpace now has a restriction of uploading a cover picture of at least 1024x768 resolution.

Thus, not allowing the tiny cover picture to span in tile format all over the window. Also helping in making your profile look elegant.

Another cool feature of the site is the horizontal scroll. Yes, the site has a horizontal scroll bar instead of a vertical one, making it a little difficult to use initially, but it is fun once you get a hang of it.

Connecting with artists and other people

You can connect with all your favorite artists which you have already ‘Like’ed on Facebook. Thus, helping you to get connected to your favorite artists, without hunting for them all over again.

You can similarly import your connections from Twitter & Old MySpace as well. You can see little icons on artists and tracks suggesting a connection between you and them. Here`s a little connection guide:

Connecting with artists is easy, whereas connecting with other individuals looks like a task to do!

New MySpace Music player

Music player is the heart of the new MySpace. Like all good sites, the music player on MySpace looks appealing and plays quite smoothly, without any buffer. (Provided you have optimal bandwidth). You can create your own mixes (or playlists, if you wish).

You can send these mixes to anybody as a message. These playlists come with standard features like Add, Delete, etc. You can click on any song and select option for queuing it to your current playlist.

You can also watch videos (in full screen, as well). The site is really responsive at all times. If you move your cursor while watching the video, you will see the site navigation immediately. Also you may close the video, while the audio continues seamlessly.

Another cool feature is the Radio! You can search for genre based or artist based radio stations and sit back as these stations play some good stuff!

Music Library

Its owners confirm that MySpace has a music library bigger than any other site ever. But if you try searching your favorite songs, you will see a bunch of covers by random artists. This can make you go back to other music site or even Youtube for that matter.

But we are hoping more and more original tracks will be added. And we would have the pleasure of listening to them with ease. Talking of ease, MySpace has a handy new feature of searching any song by just typing the name at any point of time!

Unlike other sites, you don’t have to find the search bar and type. You can type anytime, anywhere!

Also read our Review of Zurker, a newly launched social network

Final word

If you are a music freak and love socializing and getting to know more about your favorite artists, new MySpace is the place to be. You never know, you might just find a cool cover to your favorite band`s latest single!

And if you are looking for alternatives to facebook, you may want to take a look at Diaspora probably the only open source social network.

14 More Fun Things to Do With Google

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 05:34:00 +0000

Although this time I have a mixed bag of hidden google tricks in a multitude of its products.

After the earlier post was widely appreciated I set out to find more such Google Easter Eggs. On the way to which I discovered a lot of fun Google things like some amazing doodles, Google April fool jokes, Gmail, reader, translate and other Google product tricks.

Putting it all into a single post would have made it a bit messy and I wanted to publish only the best of the tricks. And here they are -

Google I'm Feeling Lucky/Playful/Puzzled...

Go to Google.com (Not working for country specific domains like google.co.in) and just hover your mouse over the "I'm feeling lucky" button. The text on the button changes on every hover like "i'm feeling playful", "i'm feeling Puzzled" or "i'm feeling trendy" clicking on the button takes you to various google powered sites, games or to google trends.agoogleaday ate my 20 mins :(

The loneliest number

Another fun thing to do on google is entering some search term and watching the weird results that google returns. For the above search terms the result returned is the number one a reference to the song by Harry Nilsson.

The Shire to Mordor

This is one cool thing to do with google! Just click the above link which searches Google Maps for the way from Shire to Mordor. When you ask for walking directions a warning is shown - Use caution – One does not simply walk into Mordor. (If you haven't read Lord of the Rings you'll be lost on this one :p ).

Binary, Hexadecimal & octal

I don't know how the google guys find time to put this fun stuff into the google products. If you look up any of the above words, that is binary, hexadecimal or octal just take a look at the number of results found.

Kerning

Kerning in typography means spacing between letters for a harmonious design experience. Click the above link and observe the search results closely.

Konami code up up down down B A

Konami code appears in a lot of japanese games. Its a cheat code that gives the player privileges such as extra lives in the game. Sign into your google reader account and press the kinami code to see a small ninja appear on the screen.

Google Pacman

Pacman is one my favorite google doodles. Earlier it was available at google.com/pacman but now has been shifted to the google doodles archive. Whenever I get bored at work (which happens a Lot) I just open the bookmarked google pacman game to pass my time.

Zerg Rush

Again a gaming term, Zerg Rush means a sudden attack in masses. Check out what happens to the search results after you enter 'Zerg Rush' in the search bar and hit enter.

The Number of Horns on a Unicorn

This one is a simple yet fun. Google confirms that the number of horns on a unicorn is in fact one.

Play Snake on Youtube

I discovered this one all by myself (don't roll your eyes at me!). My home Internet connection isn't exactly google-fiber fast so buffering is a part of my life. Once while staring at the rotating dots on youtube

I pressed the arrow keys in some sequence and the dots started moving around the video! Go ahead and try it out. Try various combinations of pressing the arrow keys.

Google Timeline

This one is just for the die hard google fans. Google Timeline shows you the entire journey of Google starting from its inception years 1995-1997. Whats more, the timeline is totally interactive.

z or r twice

This is just another way of making the search results page do a barrel roll.

Google Translate BeatBox

My favorite of all these tricks is this one. The link above takes you to google translate with weird words entered into the translate box. Just click the sound button at the botton and enjoy beatboxing! You can make your own 'translate words' for more fun.

Conway's Game of Life

Comway's life is game invented by British mathematician John Horton Conway in 1970 as a zero-player game. Googling the term "conway's game of life" starts a cellular automaton that spreads through the entire search results page.

These fun things to do on google, in a small way help relieve stress. Even if its just by a bit. I would take this opportunity to thank the google developers for hiding these fun easter eggs in various google products.

Some of the above tricks were added by readers of the blog as comments to my previous post - 10 Fun Things to Do With Google Search. Please feel free to submit your suggestions/feedback/additions as comments. I'll try to incorporate all of them.

Also see my list of the Best Google Reader Alternatives. I have compared all the best ones out there based on various parameters to help you make an informed decision regarding your new RSS reader.

Smartphones: The Basic Internet Access Point

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 28 Oct 2012 17:38:00 +0000

I’m sure no one would deny the fact that in this technologically advanced world, everyone is continuously engaged in some or the other online activity.

It may be texting, chatting, emailing, reading blogs or news, updating statuses on social networking sites, or surfing the web. People are almost 24x7 in touch of Internet.

The statistics provided by Former AdMob executive Jason Spero, who conducted a world-wide survey on popularity and usefulness of New Smartphones, indicates that globally 97% people search Google through browser-based mobile-search.

The survey was sponsored by Google, in which around 1,000 Smartphone users from different countries like US, UK, France, Germany, Spain and Japan were interviewed to collect the data. According to the survey, the new Smartphone users make optimum use of their mobile phone for web search on daily basis.

How Often Smartphone Owners Use Their Mobiles for Search Purpose?

Let’s have a look at usage of search engines on Smartphone in general and the same usage once a week or more.

Country-wise Mobile App Usage

The following survey also noticed that mobile app usage is also very common in all the countries where the survey was conducted. Japan tops the list of mobile apps as the Japanese users have total 42 apps installed in their Smartphone.

US is the second in this rank, and their Smartphone users have an average of 26 apps on their mobiles, though they use only 11 apps on regular basis. Following list provides data on country-wise mobile apps usage.

Online Shopping through Smartphone is Increasing Rapidly

Though most of the Smartphone owners use their phones for social networking and video viewing, many people prefer online shopping through their devices. In the same survey, Google noticed that around 92% Smartphone users in the US use their phones to seek local information and then about 89% of them make decision accordingly.

Moreover, according to the survey, around 25% US users bought things after doing research locally. Apart from that, the survey found 51% people contacting a business and 48% actually visiting the business site.

The survey also discovered that nearly 63% of the Smartphone users in the US make purchases through their mobiles once a month. There are also 20% people who make daily shopping on their Smartphones.

All the above data confirms that buyers’ dependability on Smartphones as research device is increasing very fast, and it is also influencing online shopping behavior.

According to a report by Search Engine Land, by the end of 2012, more than 1 billion people will have Smartphones as the Basic Internet Access Point I’m sure you would be one of them…

Author - Nilesh Sabde

How Hacker-Friendly is Your Password?

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 10:26:00 +0000

I cannot even start to express how vulnerable to hacking all of my passwords were just 12 hours back. Thankfully, yesterday I came across this infographic that explained in detail the importance of creating strong passwords.

After the shock invoked by the stats in this infographic subsided I reset all my passwords according to certain password setting rules (which I'd known about for long but never implemented). I'll share all those rules with you in another post.

You should also read my post on Safer Internet Day 2012 in which I've shared some tips for a safer web browsing experience. This post forms a nice extension to that as the infographic below tells us why exactly your passwords should not be just picked randomly. If you've decided on changing your passwords after reading this post please comment below.

This infographic was brought to you by Lifelock. Follow LifeLock on Twitter.

[Review] Zurker: A Social Network You Own

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 03 May 2012 13:21:00 +0000

Just when I thought there is no room left for innovation in social networking I received an invite to this 'new' social network called zurker. It's currently in beta mode and can be joined only by referral.

You may also want to checkout my review of the New MySpace.

Let us start with the Zurker review right away!

User Interface

Average. Considering their competition with Google+ and Facebook, the UI plainly fails at providing anything new. Also, it is not that user-friendly, making you want to go back to facebook where you know what you are doing (even if it`s absolutely nothing!).

Stress on referral system

Agreed, the network is new and needs more members but that is no reason to feed users with the 'same' referral advantages again and again. And if you use referral links posted on some random FB page or a blog, you end up looking at people you don’t know (rather would not want to know). So it is like roaming on an island with complete strangers!

Comparison with Social Networking Giants

Nothing wrong with a little healthy competition, but 'Zurker' has somewhere lost its value by over comparing itself with other dominant social networking leaders. Also, using the giants` names on the FAQ page makes it look really insecure.

No Wiki Page

Well, even the smallest enterprise tries to have its own wiki page. But 'Zurker' is different! It doesn`t have any wiki presence. Also the owners (termed as Custodians on the website) are either on FB or have a (single page) website to enlist all their interests (Here`s a link to the website of one of the custodians: http://www.nickoba.com/ I am sure a 5th grader makes a better website using basic HTML tags). interestingly, one of the 'custodians' is in charge of 'washing bottles'.

(Seems legit? Yes! Because it is not photoshoped!)

Asking Us to Invest

Though Subtly, the website asks us to 'invest' a modest sum with them. The first question which pops into any investor`s mind would be - Is Zurker a public company? The answer is - No! It is not a public company. But 'Zurker' owners will be making it public (that`s what they say on their website.)

Will You Make Money With Zurker?

If Zurker grows large enough the Vshares which they are giving out for every refferal, will eventually be converted into shares in the cooperation that is yet to be formed. Zurker is still privately held. So you aren't becoming a millionaire overnight, but there is a possibility.

Ambiguity on Who Actually Owns / Runs it

The site says it is owned by its members. Whereas some members (who already are on this network) have been spamming FB pages and some blogs with the following message:

"Hi...friends...

As u already know that facebook ceo and founder mark Zukerburg has stolen the idea of facebook from two twin brother in harvard university in 2001..... later on they complaint and got 650 million dollar in 2007...... in 2009 they started a new project(ZURKER) and launched the beta version in dec 2011........... ....u can join it now and become a share holder of this website........ ...........this rocking feature of share is added by them........... .....currently there are thousands of member joining this web site in uk alone per day...........totally free , new features than facebook and g+.............IT will rule the future definately..... ............... ........join today and become share holder now from india .... dont use different country ip to join..... because as beta it is limited to 7 country only........... India n US ppl can create their account ....
facebook worth 50 billion today but its users getting 0% ....... so this new idea is invoked by the twin...And its really Good!! Click on the below link to join.. you can only join on referral."

(Whoa! That was too much to read before the referral link.)

On the contrary, there is nothing called 'Zurker' mentioned on the twin brothers` Wiki pages. Apparently Cameron Winklevoss and Tyler Winklevoss do not know that they own 'Zurker'!

Over to You

Let me know your views on this Zurker review in the comments. If you are curious about this new social network I'll be happy to send you an invite. Just leave a comment below with your email id.

Author - Pratik Bhandari

Easily Create Cool Logos for Free with Suplogo

noreply@blogger.com (Pankaj C.) — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 07:00:00 +0000

The post below will give you the easiest way to create a logo online for free and without software! Thats right. This cool web app doesn’t even need a sign up.

Just a few clicks and you get a cool logo for your blog/site which you can download or easily embed into your site. Read on.

When I started this blog I wanted to create a quick logo for it. I didn't know Photoshop or Gimp and I didn't have time to download a logo design software, understand its several tools etc.

Like a normal human I hoped to Google my troubles away. But I had to dig through several free online logo makers/creators/generators to finally discover SupaLogo.

Exactly as I wanted, supalogo had the supa minimalist interface. Yet there were quite a number of customizations I could apply to my logo like gradients, glossy web 2.0 look, number of fonts etc. Just like my previous cool web app this one seems to be a pet project.

Features

No Sign up needed.
Free online logo maker
Create logo with several effects (gradients, multicolor text, glossy, stripes vertical and horizontal).
Several fonts available.
Download in .png format with or without background.
You can also embed the logo on your site/blog or a forum. Pretty much anywhere.
Create unlimited logos for free.
Example logos for Inspiration. You can use them as templates to create your own.
An FAQ page if you have any questions.

So thats how to create a logo for free online and without any software or much hassle.

Try it out - SupaLogo.com

If you know any alternatives to this quick logo maker please share them in the comments along with your views on this post. Also, don’t forget to share this post.

Use This Piece of Paper in The Cloud to Make and Share Quick Notes Online

noreply@blogger.com (Pankaj C.) — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 12:28:00 +0000

Welcome to the Daily App series. In this series I'll review one cool web app/mobile app daily.

Notepad.cc is a simple notepad web app that lets you stash away text snippets in the cloud. Its tag line pretty much sums up its entire functionality - a piece of paper in the cloud.

Developed by Jacob Bijani who is the Creative Director at Tumblr. The beauty of notepad lies in its minimalistic approach. It doesn’t even has an ‘About’ page.

Features

Head over to notepad.cc. You'll see a simple notepad with a random url generated for your snippet.
You can type away/copy paste anything you want and it’ll be auto saved every few few seconds.
You can assign a custom url (http://notepad.cc/loggdin) to your snippet by just editing the link in the address bar.
You can share this url with anyone and they’ll be able to view and edit your snippet.
You can also add a password to your snippet and then share your snippet with selective people.
No registration is required to use the app.
There are no ads, you are not prompted to ‘Like’ them or ‘follow’ them or subscribe to them by email.
My snippets were still there after 15-20 days. I’m guessing they retain your urls and your text for around 30 days.

Notepad seems like a hobby project but it sure is a very useful web app for sharing text and code snippets. If facebook, gmail etc is blocked in your office you can use notepad.cc to chat with your friends by sharing the url with them!

Try it out - notepad.cc

Have you used the app? Do you see any other uses of this cool web app? Please share your views in the comments.

Thoughts on Diaspora - An Open Source Social Network

noreply@blogger.com (Pankaj C.) — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 10:06:00 +0000

Diaspora is the latest addition to the band social networking sites. They’ve sent out their alpha invites to a few people around the web & I happened to be one of them. In this post, I’ll be reviewing this open source social network that is being looked at as the facebook alternative/google+ killer.

Lets find out if Diaspora is really up to it.

kickstarter, a crowd funding service helped the Diaspora project through individual contributions. It was conceived as a solution to the privacy concerns arising from the popular social networks. Diaspora hopes to tackle these concerns by virtue of its decentralized architecture.

What is Diaspora

The meaning of the word Diaspora is “the movement, migration, or scattering of people away from an established or ancestral homeland.” In this context, it can be perceived as migration from an established social network.

It lets you host your own social network (Diaspora) so that you don’t have to share your personal data with anyone. If you have a trusted friend who is hosting his own Diaspora you can choose to operate your account through his server.

Either way you are in full control of your personal data. This is called a distributed network where one server does not have complete data of any of its users.

Sadly, the process to operate such a system if far too complex for an average Internet user. Nonetheless, you have the option to own all your data if you use Diaspora.

Diaspora Vs Google Plus Vs Facebook

The UI

The UI looks quite similar to Google Plus. There have been rumors that the G+ UI has been inspired from diaspora. First of all Diaspora takes more time to load as compared to Facebook and Twitter.

The home page is divided into three parts, Aspects and profile picture on the extreme left, Stream in the centre with a "Whats on your mind" bar at the top, and navigation column and other information on the extreme right.

Features

The main aim is to have a better privacy than Facebook. For this, Diaspora has got a concept of "aspects". Aspects are nothing but categories of the people on the in your account. You can create as many aspects as you wish. Friends, family, work people etc. are a examples of aspects.

Whenever you want to share a post, you can decide the aspect you want to share it with. Diaspora Aspects are Google Plus Circles and Facebook lists.

Diaspora has got other features like hashtags and cubbies. Hashtags are areas of interests you choose to follow. Movies, Music, Books are a few hashtags (similar to twitter with a slight difference). Cubbies is an application that allows you to post pictures found on the internet instantly. This application needs a browser extention.

Connecting to Facebook and Twitter

Diaspora allows users to join their Facebook and twitter accounts to their diaspora account. You can update your facebook status and tweet the same thing by updating your Diaspora status. This shows that Diaspora is not trying to take down Facebook or Google+, but trying to co-exsist.

Moreover connecting to Facebook allows you to invite your facebook friends to Diaspora. Friend requests can be sent through email also. So basically finding friends is easy on Diaspora.

Diaspora has started off well, providing its users all the comfort and privacy expected from a social networking site. It would not be totally correct to say that Diaspora will take over Facebook but, rather it'll make it's own mark in the social networking world.

Diaspora Downsides

They took way too long to introduce their product (its still in alpha). Which gave ample time to Google + to rip off Diaspora’s best features (even UI) and to facebook to adapt its features to those that Diaspora had planned to distinguish itself by.

Diaspora Invites anyone?

I hope you liked this Diaspora social network review. If you wish to receive invites to Diaspora please drop a comment to this post using your email id and I’ll send you the invites.

Also, share your ideal-social-network-feature-wish-list in the comments.

Also Read:

15 Interesting Facts About The Internet [Infographic]

noreply@blogger.com (Pankaj C.) — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 10:50:00 +0000

The Internet has spread to the farthest corners of the world. Almost everyone has a Facebook account or uses Gmail or at least Google for sure.

If you're a regular Internet user, I'm sure you'd love these interesting facts about Internet presented in an easy-to-digest graphical format.

The Internet has changed our lives for the better. It creates millions of jobs and connects people across continents.

It brought information on any imaginable topic on our fingertips and provided a platform to millions of struggling artists, writers and musicians.

When you are done reading these interesting Internet facts you'll realize that for every good thing on the web there are also bad/harmful things. So its important we take Internet security seriously. Read these facts about internet safety.

If you are careful while surfing, theres a lot to be discovered on the web.

Please share your favorite of these Internet facts in the comments.

Basic Online Safety Tips and Resources You Should Know About

noreply@blogger.com (Pankaj C.) — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 12:06:00 +0000

Safe Internet Day is a global campaign organized and coordinated by InSafe. It actively encourages safer and morally correct use of the Internet across all Internet enabled devices. Over 600 Safer Internet Day events were held in 73 countries and regions in 2011.

The event is held on the 2nd day of the 2nd week of the 2nd month of every year. The Safer Internet Day 2012 is focused on the theme "Connecting generations and educating each other", where the organizers hope to encourage users young and old to -

'Discover the digital world together...Safely!'

As the Internet grows far and wide, so are the threats posed by it. So I've been wanting to share some safer browsing tips for a while and what better occasion to do that than Safer Internet Day!

Here are some very basic but important Internet safety tips to browse the web securely. These tips are primarily meant for teens and youngsters.

Basic Internet Safety Tips

Watch What You Post Online

You probably know that you shouldn't share your passwords online. But you should also refrain from sharing your email address or mobile number openly.

Avoid posting personal photographs on social networks. If you do share them make sure the privacy settings are set properly so that only your friends can see them. - Courtesy Nimrules.

Watch your Choice of Passwords

There was a time when I had set a single password for all my accounts because I couldn't remember different passwords. Although, after one of my friends simply guessed my password and hacked my Orkut account I realized my mistake.

So choose strong passwords and preferably have different passwords for different accounts. You could use a master password system that I have mentioned in my post tips for surfing the web productively.

Take Privacy Settings Seriously

Privacy issues have been a major shortcoming of facebook ever since it started. No matter how deep these settings are buried in the UI you should make it a point to customize them according to your needs because most of the default settings are public and thus leave you exposed.

Communicate Your Problems

Make sure you communicate with your parents if you are in trouble because of something you did online. Also, cyber bullying is a serious issue so if someone is making you uncomfortable report it to your parents or approach the cyber security cell in your city.

Anti-Virus and Software Updates

First thing you should do after buying a computer is buy a legitimate licensed antivirus and turn on auto update. Reason being that most free antivirus software don't provide full protection against all threats. Also, turning on auto updates will ensure that you have all the latest operating system security patches.

Resources to Stay Safe on The Web

The best resource that I came across is this GoodtoKnow site by Google. It has complete information on several online security threats like phishing, spam, identity theft etc.
10 Things Gen Y Do Online...and Shouldn't.
Whole bunch of resouces from Microsoft.
You can also get involved in the Safer Internet Day 2012 campaign.
Family Safety site from Google.

Also, keep watching the browsing tips section on Loggd.in for more secure browsing and online productivity tips.

Don't forget to share your ways of safe online in the comments.

10 Fun Things To Do With Google Search

noreply@blogger.com (Pankaj C.) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 13:37:00 +0000

Did you know that you use only 5-10% of your actual brain capacity?

You do the same with Google.

There is a considerable number of hidden tricks you can use with Google search. Some are just for fun while others prove to be really handy while digging out exactly what you are looking for.

But I'm focusing just on the fun tricks in this post and will write another post on the more useful google search tricks. Also, I haven't explained all the tricks completely as it would be more fun for you to see the trick for yourself.

Here are 10 words/sentences which when you enter into the Google search box will result into Google responding differently than usual. I'm trying to find more such words.

Recursion
Once in a blue moon
Tilt
Anagram
Deepavali
Do a barrel roll
Let it snow
(sqrt(cos(x))*cos(200x)+sqrt(abs(x))-0.7)*(4-x*x)^0.01, sqrt(9-x^2), -sqrt(9-x^2) from -4.5 to 4.5
answer to life, the universe and everything
ASCII art (hint: look at the Google logo) .

There are a lot of cool Google services that are not known widely. My favorite amongst them is What Do You love. You just enter the thing that you love in the box and see the magic.

For example - I entered 'web' and got a nice representation of everything about the 'web' on the web. Check out the screen shots -

I'm sure there are more such hidden tricks to have fun with Google and I'm working on putting together in a single post. Keep visiting for more such fun Google tricks.

If you've discovered any such fun Google searches please share them in the comments along with your favorite trick from my list.

Update - 14 More Fun Things to Do With Google

Cool Breeze Blogger Template

noreply@blogger.com (Pankaj C.) — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 13:50:00 +0000

Cool Breeze is another minimalist blogger template from me. Ideal for personal blogs, it works well for pro blogs as well.

I created it for my personal blog. The demo will lead you there, don't be confused. Rest of the details are covered below.

DEMO | DOWNLOAD

How to Upload the Template

First unzip the template archive and save the template XML file at any desired location. Log in to your Blogger account.
Click on the “Design” link below your blog’s name. Now, go to the “Edit HTML” tab and upload the design XML template.
Remember to backup your active theme before uploading the new one by downloading the template.

Template Details

Name Cool Breeze Blogger Template
Author Pankaj C. - Loggd.In

Features

2 Columns
Fixed Width
White, gray and Blue colors
Main Navigation Menu
Right Sidebar
Search Engine Optimized
Ads ready
Page Navigation ready
Adsense support
Tested and compatible with all major browsers like IE 6+, FireFox, Chrome, Safari and Opera.
All files have been hosted on blogger.

5 Ways of Boosting Blog Traffic and Engaging Readers

noreply@blogger.com (Pankaj C.) — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 17:35:00 +0000

You started a blog. A personal one or one to share your knowledge of a particular topic. You seek appreciation, attention and in a lot of cases commercial gains too.
You are not alone. Millions of other bloggers want that too.

So how do you set your blog apart, make it stand out? I say take it to the next level by incorporating these widgets into your blog.

These aren’t your usual ‘top commentator’ or ‘related posts’ widgets. These widgets will truly transform the way users interact with your blog. Check them out.

1. Start a Free Loyalty Program On Your Blog

Repetitive traffic is the heart and soul of your blog. It proves that people like your content and that they want more.
Check out punchtab. A free service that lets you add a loyalty program on your blog. Just head over to punchtab.com, register your blog, add their code to your blog template/theme and you are good to go. Works for blogs on any platform.

How it Works

Your readers will have to login through facebook and then they will earn points by-

Visiting – for their first visit to your site every day your users will earn 100 points

Liking your content– for their first Like on your site every day your users will earn 100 points
Tweeting your content – for their first Tweet on your site every day your users will earn 100 points
Google +1 your content – for their first Google +1 on your site every day your users will earn 100 points
Commenting – for their first comment of the day your users will earn 100 points
Loyalty programs have been used in a lot of other businesses successfully and I think such programs would work for blogs too.

2. SimpleReach Slide

The Simple Reach Slide is another must-have widget for your blog. It simply suggests related articles on your blog to your readers. The reason I like it so much is that it doesn’t occupy unnecessary space on your blog. It slides into view only after the reader reaches below the fold on a post page.
If you have enough good content, this widget helps you keep your readers looping through your blog.

You can see your reports/analytics just like Google Analytics at their Website (SimpleReach.com).

Another cool thing about this widget is that you can easily customize the slide’s look and feel to suit your blog design.

3. Launch a Giveaway on your Blog

People who have been into blogging for a while know the importance of a giveaway. If planned and executed properly it can draw huge traffic to your blog. of course, after that its upto you to retain this wave of traffic.
Rafflecopter is a service that helps you plan and launch your giveaways.. for FREE!

There is no plugin required, simply copy-paste their code into the html section of your site and you’re done.

4. Hello Bar

Now that you have launched a giveaway, you need a way to promote it. Thankfully there is a fantastic and free widget that does just that. Its a simple bar that floats above your website/blog. It instantly grabs eyeballs.
You can use it to make an important announcement or to promote your giveaway and for several other things for which you need instant attention of your readers.

5. Let Readers Discover your Content

Dhiti.com is a content discovery service. Its widget helps your readers discover content on your site based on their interests and the popularity of the content. The widget loads asynchronously thus avoiding latency issues.
These were only some of the widgets available that can help you take your blog to the next level. I'll post more of them in future posts.

If you think this post has helped you in some way consider sharing it with your friends.

Simple Charm Blogger Template

noreply@blogger.com (Pankaj C.) — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 06:53:00 +0000

Download | Preview

Simple Charm is a clean, minimalist blogger template. Its elegance and simplicity make it ideally suitable for personal blogs but you can use it for any kind of blog due to its professional looks. I’ve used custom fonts (thanks to Google Web Fonts) and some CSS3 properties to give it the smooth look that it has.

I'd appreciate any kind of feedback regarding the template. It'll help me provide better templates in the future. So please comment.

How to Upload the Template

First unzip the template archive and save the template XML file at any desired location. Log in to your Blogger account. Click on the “Design” link below your blog’s name. Now, go to the “Edit HTML” tab and upload the design XML template. Remember to backup your active theme before uploading the new one by downloading the template.

Template Details

Name Blogger Template
Author Pankaj C.
Designer loggd.in

Features

3 Columns
Fixed Width
White, black and Blue colors
Main Navigation Menu
Right Sidebar on Post pages Search Engine Optimized
Ads ready
Page Navigation ready
Adsense support
Tested and compatible with all major browsers like IE 6+, FireFox, Chrome, Safari and Opera.

Shocking: Facebook Criticisms and Outright Failures [Infographic]

noreply@blogger.com (Pankaj C.) — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 04:51:00 +0000

In my earlier post - Is Facebook Losing Focus, I argued that facebook seems to be more engrossed with competing with Google+ and that it has digressed from its prime motto of providing people with a platform for keeping in touch with their friends.

Instead, it is focusing on imitating every feature that G+ has so as to retain its user base. But this approach has unfortunately backfired and now facebook is facing sharp criticism from a lot of its users.

Wordstream has taken this opportunity to put together all that has been and is wrong with facebook in the form of an infographic shown below. I guess they've been wanting to this for a while and have researched well.

While we are on the topic, I would like to know if anyone is considering leaving facebook. Please share your views in the comments.

How To Discover Interesting Stuff Online

noreply@blogger.com (Pankaj C.) — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 16:33:00 +0000

Google's search engine may be the smartest of them all but it still doesn't get it when i say 'Surprise me!'.

So when I'm on one my 'binge web-surfing' sessions and i want to discover something new and exciting, 'where to start' is a big question for me.

If this has happened to you as well check out these ways of discovering new stuff on the web.

Social Bookmarking

It was the prime purpose of social bookmarking sites to let people discover what other people have liked and shared.

StumbleUpon is my favorite site in this category. All you have to do is open an account and you can start discovering great sites, web apps etc in your favorite categories.

SU serves you a random new site every time you click stumble! You can also avail the service directly through your web browser.

AllTop

Alltop.com is the first url i enter into my web browser every morning.

The concept is simple - aggregate feeds from the best sites around the web. And the sites come from every topic imaginable.

The thing that I love the most about alltop is the way they have categorised and arranged so many feeds in a very user friendly manner.

Clipmarks

Clipmarks is a bookmarking faiclity thats meant to throw you surprises while you are browsing the web.

It lets you discover loads of interesting stuff liked by thousands of other web users and save and share anything you find interesting while surfing web.

It allows users to save webpages, partial text blocks, images, videos, and even bites from several webpages in one note or clip.

Makeuseof

Although you could just deem the entire makeuseof site as a playground for discovering exiting web stuff, they provide a special tag for us curious discoverers.

I also like their user friendly navigation system and their cool web apps tag which is a treasure trove of very useful and cool sites.

Kiobo

Kiobo is a social surfing and recommendation service that lets you randomly explore the web. Their bots collect and monitor your browsing history to suggest you sites that you might like. The site has an impressive graphical interface which you'll love to use.

Minthink

Minthink generates a random site on the press of a button.

The difference between minthink and the rest is that if you're accessing it from its standard site, you can preview the URL before you visit the site.

Although, if you're a Firefox user there's an extension, and a script for Ubiquity that will take you directly to the site without you knowing what it is first.

Discovery Through Trends

Other places for discovering cool stuff on the web can be the

Got Any Ideas Of Your Own?

Tell me how you discover stuff on the web through comments. Also, please let me know if you agree with the ways I've shared in this article.

7 Tips For Surfing The Web More Productively

noreply@blogger.com (Pankaj C.) — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 09:06:00 +0000

The vastness of the web and the interesting stuff it offers, make it hard to focus on one thing at a time while working on the web.

Especially if you are a blogger or a freelancer who has to spend a lot of time online there can be a lot of distractions. Introduce these small changes in your surfing habits for getting the most out of your surfing sessions.

1. Use an RSS Reader

An RSS reader helps you keep track of the latest updates on your favorite sites and blogs. So instead of visiting all of your favorites sites everyday, you just open your RSS reader and check which of them has been updated.

This also saves a lot of bandwidth. You can also organize your favorite sites and articles by tagging them.

I prefer using Google reader which is (like any other google product) easy to use and full of features.

Check out these 5 tips for getting the most out of google reader which will further increase your productivity on the web.

2. Bookmarking is Good But...

I used to bookmark a lot. But they would all land in my bookmarks folder till one day I had more bookmarks than there are porn sites on the web! What I mean is unorganised bookmarks can defy the very purpose of the bookmarking facility.

Create separate folders for separate purposes and if you are using multiple browsers try to keep your bookmarks from all browsers in one place. Also, go through your bookmarks every few days and weed out the ones you think aren't much use anymore.

Here are some more tips and tools for better bookmarking and saving time on browsing.

3. Master Password

Using a master password for all your profiles on the web can reduce your effort of remembering several passwords along with saving a lot of your login time.

Heres an article on how to use a master password in firefox. It also explains how this technique can make your web surfing more productive.

4. 8aweek

8aweek is a Firefox toolbar that allows you to track how you surf and then helps you wean yourself off the sites that you deem to be unproductive. Just download the toolbar and then see the sites you visit everyday in a graph format.

Once you’ve detected where you are wasting your time, choose to either completely block those sites or to gradually use them less.

5. Mail Notifier

Anyone who has an email id checks their mail at least twice a day even when they only get spam and crappy forwards. Imagine the situation for a person who earns his living online.

To control this obsessive need of checking your mail, facebook updates or latest tweets every few minutes use an email notifier program like Gmail Notifier.

The app displays an icon in your system tray to let you know if you have unread messages, and shows you their subjects, senders and snippets, all without your having to open a web browser.

6. Smart Searching

Search is involved in almost 90% of our online activity so if we improve our searching efficiency we can be more productive in a given time span. Here are handy tips for searching Google more efficiently.

7. Using A Master Profiles

Multiple profiles is a firefox feature which is unfortunately not known to a lot of people. It allows you create separate profiles for separate tasks. For example, if you are a blogger you can have a writing profile, a casual surfing profile etc.

Or if you are a web designer you can have a design profile, a social media profile and so on. You can have different browser settings, add-ons and bookmark folders for each profile. Read this article to know more about firefox profiles.

The above mentioned tools and tips will help you organize your workflow and thus increase your online productivity. Heres another big list of online productivity tools.

Do let me know if you find these 7 tips useful.

Is Facebook Losing Focus?

noreply@blogger.com (Pankaj C.) — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 16:36:00 +0000

I'm sure you have noticed the constant changes being made to fb. A lot of people are even complaining about them. These changes are signs of panic in the fb camp over Google Plus.

Although by making so many changes fb may be pushing their users further toward Google Plus. To know how, let’s first look at how fb managed to attract and retain 500+ million users.
Facebook has been the favorite virtual hangout for millions and people love it because of its simple UI and familiarity.

They like coming back to this known place and catching up with their friends and family. But the changes being rolled out every other day on facebook are putting these people off as they don't feel the familiarity and comfort that they used to.

It feels like fb is trying too hard to prove itself better than G+. According to this TechCrunch article facebook may even enter the search market which is a clear indication that facebook is losing its focus and its core motive of connecting people.

Although Google+ does seem like a threat to facebook and it has got 10 million users on board already but that doesn't mean it’ll be a ‘facebook killer’. Also, according to this PCworld article there is a chance that these two social networks may be able to coexist like Twitter and Facebook have all this while.

So what I’m trying to say is that the best thing for facebook to do right now is to stay calm and maintain the familiar, comfortable user experience while improving on things like privacy and making only subtle changes instead of trying to imitate everything Google+ has. It should actually try to show its users how it is different from Google+.

I would like know your views on the matter. Do you think facebook should change itself to give its everything Google+ is offering or should it stick to its existing features?

Best HTML And CSS Tutorials Around The Web

noreply@blogger.com (Pankaj C.) — Sun, 08 May 2011 09:45:00 +0000

Html and CSS are the pillars upon which this amazing web of web pages has been and is still being built. So having a sound knowledge of these technologies is important for every web design and development student.

Fortunately, there is an ocean of resources available on the web that can help you master html and CSS. Following are the best of these html & css learning resources.

1. W3.org

World Wide Web consortium is the international commitee that develops and maintains web standards. They also provide tutorials for most of the standard web technologies.

These tutorials are not only easy to get and short but also completely adhere to standards.

2. CSS-Tricks.com

Useful code snippets, amazing tutorials and insightful articles on web design, make css-tricks a web designer's heaven. He has also penned a book on getting started with wordpress.

His screencast covering the basics of html and css is considered as one of the best places to start for web design and development students.

3. w3schools.com

W3 schools is a website that provides excellent free tutorials for almost all the web technologies. Although their explanations are not very in depth, they provide you with a lot of small example programs which you can edit and see the output right away.

So I would suggest that you read some theory from somewhere else and then dive into the practicals at w3schools.

4. Google Code University

Who better to learn web technologies from than Google! Google provides some extensive tutorials for not just web technologies but also for general software engineering on Google Code University.

The site has tutorials from Google as well from prestigious univeritys.

5. SitePoint.com

Sitepoint has been one of the prioneers in providing good web programming tutorials and their Html and Css beginners guide is a proof of that.

6. cssbasics.com

You'll learn everything there is to learn about html and css from the above links but here is an entire site dedicated to CSS tutorials that can come in handy when you want a quick reference.

Its organised like a book and properly divided into chapters so it is easy to refer.

7. net.tutsplus.com

Once you have mastered the basics of html and css you should take a look at these html best practices. they will help you become a good programmer.

Though you can directly plunge into html n css, its better to be familiar with basic programming principles first. As that will benefit you when you want to go beyond html and learn more dynamic web technologies.

Please make sure that you share this article and also let me know of your remarks on it in the comments.

Hows The Internet Different From The Web

noreply@blogger.com (Pankaj C.) — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 16:20:00 +0000

The Internet and the web are two entirely different entities. When we use them interchangeably in our daily conversation 99% of the time we are referring to the web.

Not that its a "crime" to do so I think web addicts like me would find this information interesting.

Lets jump to the real stuff by starting with understanding the individual definitions of the terms.

What is The Internet

The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet Protocol Suite (TCP/IP) to serve billions of users worldwide. - wikipedia.com

What is The World Wide Web or Web

The World Wide Web, or "Web" for short, is that large software subset of the Internet dedicated to broadcasting HTML pages. - netforbeginners.about.com

So basically the Internet is the hardware or the infrastructure that hosts the web. The computers, networking devices, cables etc form the Internet. Whereas the web is a network of all the HTML and other documents residing on the net. All the websites, web apps, blogs etc form the web. So we can conclude that the Internet can exist without the web but it won't work the other way round.

That was the basic difference between the Internet and the web. If you'd like to go deeper into the matter, here are some useful links-

http://netforbeginners.about.com/od/internet101/tp/Internet-Beginners-Quick-Reference-Guide.htm

http://www.differencebetween.net/technology/difference-between-internet-and-world-wide-web/

7 Best Blogs to Keep Track of ChromeOS Developments

noreply@blogger.com (Pankaj C.) — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 07:48:00 +0000

The much hyped Chrome OS (part of Google’s open source chromium project) has been in the pipeline for a Long time now. There was some activity here and there but it was all mostly scattered, nothing big was happening.

However, after the launch of the Chrome Web Store things started looking better and moving….finally!

Here is a small list of blogs that have been keeping track of the developments around the Chrome OS for quite some time now.

As the OS is open source there is going to be a lot of activity from a wide developer community, it’ll get harder to stay updated on everything. So make sure you bookmark the list of chrome OS related blogs below.

Chrome Official Blog

The official chrome blog about all things Google Chrome, maintained by the chrome team.

Chrome OS News

The news section of the official Chrome site. You can subscribe through RSS.

Chrome OS Site

A community dedicated to the upcoming Google Chrome Operating system (including other open source distributions of Chromium OS. They also have an active forum for Chrome OS (chromeoslounge.com) enthusiasts.

Hexxeh.net

Liam Mcloughlin aka Hexxeh is the most recognized Chrome OS developer. He has released a couple of Chrome OS builds (which you can download for free from chromeos.hexxeh.net) and he blogs about them on Hexxeh.net.

The Chrome Source

Provides readers with a lot information regarding both Chrome browser and Chrome OS. It was started after Google publicly released the Chromium OS source code in late November 2009.

Since then, they’ve broke stories that have been featured on sites like Mashable, LifeHacker etc.

Chrome Story

Another good source of Chrome OS updates, tutorials, tips n tricks etc. The site also provides various themes for Chorme OS.

Chrome OS Index

This is actually a human edited directory of a lot of Chrome OS related stuff from around the web.

If I’ve missed out on anything, please lemme know in the comments.

Service	Cost	Web	Android	iOS	UI (Out of 5)
Feedly	Free	Yes	Yes	Yes	4
AOL Reader	Free	Yes	No	Yes	3.5
Feedspot	Free	Yes	No	No	3
Multiplx	Free	Yes	No	No	3
Digg Reader	Free	Yes	Coming	Yes	3.5
theOldReader	Free	Yes	No	No	2.5
Commafeed	Free	Yes	Yes	Coming	2.5
readable.cc	Free	Yes	No	No	3.5
News Blur	Free / $24/yr	Yes	Yes	Yes	3.5
Baz-Qux	Free / $9-29/yr	Yes	No	No	3
FeedBin	$24/yr	Yes	No	No	4
Feeder	Free / $10/yr	Browser Addon	No/Yes	No/Yes	2.5
FeedReader	Free	Yes	No	No	3
FeedWrangler	$19/yr	Yes	No	Yes	3.5
G2Reader	Free	Yes	Coming	No	3
InoReader	Free	Yes	Coming	Coming	2
NetNewsWire	$20	No (Desktop Client)	Coming	Coming	3.5
Ridly	Free	Yes	Yes	No	3.5
Google Currents	Free	No	Yes	No	3

loggd.in

Top 19 Google Reader Alternatives Compared

Bored of Facebook? Try The New MySpace

Starting with the UI of the New MySpace

Connecting with artists and other people

New MySpace Music player

Music Library

Final word

And if you are looking for alternatives to facebook, you may want to take a look at Diaspora probably the only open source social network.

14 More Fun Things to Do With Google

Binary, Hexadecimal & octal

Konami code up up down down B A

Smartphones: The Basic Internet Access Point

How Often Smartphone Owners Use Their Mobiles for Search Purpose?

Online Shopping through Smartphone is Increasing Rapidly

Author - Nilesh Sabde

How Hacker-Friendly is Your Password?

[Review] Zurker: A Social Network You Own

User Interface

Stress on referral system

Comparison with Social Networking Giants

No Wiki Page

Asking Us to Invest

Will You Make Money With Zurker?

Ambiguity on Who Actually Owns / Runs it

Over to You

Easily Create Cool Logos for Free with Suplogo

Use This Piece of Paper in The Cloud to Make and Share Quick Notes Online

Thoughts on Diaspora - An Open Source Social Network

What is Diaspora

Diaspora Vs Google Plus Vs Facebook

The UI

Features

Connecting to Facebook and Twitter

Diaspora Downsides

Diaspora Invites anyone?

15 Interesting Facts About The Internet [Infographic]

Basic Online Safety Tips and Resources You Should Know About

10 Fun Things To Do With Google Search

Update - 14 More Fun Things to Do With Google

Cool Breeze Blogger Template

5 Ways of Boosting Blog Traffic and Engaging Readers

How it Works

Simple Charm Blogger Template

Shocking: Facebook Criticisms and Outright Failures [Infographic]

How To Discover Interesting Stuff Online

Social Bookmarking

AllTop

Clipmarks

Makeuseof

Kiobo

Minthink

Got Any Ideas Of Your Own?

7 Tips For Surfing The Web More Productively

Is Facebook Losing Focus?

Best HTML And CSS Tutorials Around The Web

Hows The Internet Different From The Web

What is The Internet

What is The World Wide Web or Web

7 Best Blogs to Keep Track of ChromeOS Developments