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Zinio, a digital magazine service I became a fan of as I moved to go media green, just got a whole lot more useful with the addition of awesome search and social sharing capabilities.
The service, called Zinio Inside, opens up 50,000 back issues of popular magazines and newspapers from around the world to full text indexing. Once you find what you're looking for, many of these magazines archived articles can be previewed for free, with individual digital downloads available for purchase in many cases starting at 99 cents. Zinio is also offering free magazine subscription this month through their Read Green program.
Once you find what you're looking for, you can click a button to share a link either on a social network or with a friend via email. For example, this link takes you to the above AdAge story on Richard Edelman, our CEO, which I highlighted in the search above. In addition, they allow you to share it as a widget. (If you're viewing this in a feed reader you may need to click through.)
Great stuff and handy too. And although most news sites offer solid search capes, they don't make it easy for consumers to separate sidebar content and captions. This service does. More info is here. One more chink in the armor of tangible media. Now if they can improve their iPhone service and turn it into an application, this will get even more interesting.
I am always on the lookout for little mobile gizmos/gadgets that make my life either more productive or more enjoyable. Here are three recent purchases that I am thankful for. Any of them make great stocking stuffers for your favorite geek.
My MacBook Air constantly runs hot. Even when all I am doing is running a browser for awhile, the fan kicks in - and it's loud. Targus makes a neat fold up cooling pad called Targus HeatDefense
I have a small desk at home so rather than get a big set of speakers, I found one from Alltec Lansing that does the trick. The one catch is that it runs on batteries, but the sound is amazing. I use it to stream classical music from Pandora off my iPhone. The Alltec iM-237
Finally, I have a laptop bag addiction. I can't seem to find one I like. They're either too big or too small or they hurt some part of my body. Recently, I found one that's like porridge - just right. Brenthaven makes a pair of sling bags
Happy Holidays everyone.
You probably have read by now about Google SearchWIki, a new feature that lets registered users comment on search results and URLs for one's own use and more importantly to share them with the broader world. I am all for opening up the web to comments but this entire launch was botched not thought through. And now (as of this writing) it's gone. Already there are reports of vandalism and spam too. Did anyone not think this would be a PR nightmare?
Unlike Wikipedia, there's no way for users to edit each others comments. You can only vote them up or down. Google should take a page from the Wikipedia and Mahalo playbooks and build a community around the feature that would self police such an open wiki. Otherwise, of course people are going to run amok on the world's biggest online stage! That's like turning a kid with a massive sweet tooth loose in a giant candy store. It's going to be a haven for spam.
What's worse, Google once again is showing what a chaotic culture can engender. Rapid, massive innovation that delights users? For sure. But it also can create massive inconsistencies and PR nightmares. For example, why are Google News Comments vetted by humans at a snail's pace. Yet, SearchWiki is open to all with no mechanisms to prevent abuse. Or why does Google Knol encourage writers to verify their identity? Yet, with SearchWiki Google opens its marquis service to unfettered user editing. It makes no sense. Epic Fail.
Google, call me when you make up your mind.
LATER:: Marhsall Sponder points out that it's still available with sound in Google Labs.
EVEN LATER:: It's now back with no apparent changes. Too bad.
TypePad this week rolled out a new commenting platform that can be integrated into virtually any blog. They also added profiles. I have incorporated both here. This now brings threaded discussions to the blog and also - if you're registered with TypePad - the ability to reply by email. This will allow me to respond to your comments more frequently than I have in the past.
Photo Credit: Adapted from Gateway Arch by docdevore
For the past five years my browser home page has been set to either Google.com or iGoogle. (I briefly flirted with the New York Times as my default but have integrated their feeds everywhere else.) This week I switched it to Gmail. With all of the features they have been adding lately, particularly through their Labs, Gmail is unquestionably my virtual Swiss Army Knife. It is not only my communications hub. It is my knowledge base and to some degree my feed reader. Some say it is becoming an enterprise dashboard - it is. It is my gateway to the web. (Note they added themes today!)
In this post I outline some recent ways I have tweaked my Gmail Personal Nerve Center by connecting Gmail with other web services. (Other posts on Gmail are here.)
Search the Web from Gmail
Gmail's search capabilities are top-notch. It's a big reason why I store tons of articles, factoids and even documents there. However, it's easy to miss the little button that says "Search the Web." These days I begin most of my web queries from Gmail. I even get a head start using their advanced keywords. (For example I type in new york weather when I want to know what the temperature is.) This will become even more useful once Gmail adds its SMS features later this month. Once that's back up you should be able to use it with Google SMS and get back search results via IM.
Update and Track Your Social Networks via IM
I am slowly in the process of trying to shift more of my communications out of email towards social software and IM. (More on this topic soon.) Still, I want an easily accessible record of all of these streams. So I am using Gmail much of the time to post to these services and also receive updates.
If you set up Ping.fm you can update all the major social networks via Gmail Chat. I post to Twitter via Ping.fm. I receive back replies by subscribing to a Twitter search feed for @steverubel via IM via notify.me. In addition, I receive Facebook alerts also by running my feed through notify.me. You can find your Facebook feed here. (You can also IM Friendfeed and Yammer directly and receive updates back from them too, which I do.)
Subscribe to High Priority Feeds and Alerts
I love Google Reader but I also like to be able to subscribe to some of my feeds via Gmail so that they are archived in a single place online and offline (via IMAP). However, I want to make this easily managed. So, I put all of my high priority feeds in Google Reader into a folder, make this folder public and then subscribe to the feed in Newsgator Online. Newsgator offers POP delivery so I have Gmail automatically fetch this account, scoop up the feeds, filter/archive them and tag them with the label "Feeds."
Track the Day's News with Gmail Clips
I am a news junkie and like to stay in the know. Gmail makes this a snap with Gmail Web Clips. I have pretty much standardized on the New York Times as my source of choice. In addition, I like to be able to track Techmeme too as well as all the news on the Presidential transition. So I have added a bunch of feeds to Clips including one from the awesome Times Topics site that stream into Gmail via a nice handy little news ticker.
Use Gmail as a Writing Tool
Sometimes writing can be intimidating, but it doesn't need to be. I like to start my writing in Gmail and then move it into other services where I can do more. For example, I wrote this blog post in Gmail and then sent it directly to TypePad. I also start documents here and then email them into Google Docs for additional tweaking (eg word counts, etc.). Finally I have a huge swipe file of articles and ideas stored in Gmail for inspiration and reference (for more on this concept see this great post from Write to Done). LifeClever offers some more thoughts here on using email for writing. See my other Gmail posts for how to use the service for storing ideas.
Build Links in Gmail to All Your Other Services
Finally, last but not least, when I do need to access other services they are all a click away in Gmail. I have added the Google Calendar and Google Docs gadgets to my sidebar. I store my To Do List in Google Docs so it's usually the top item in the gadget. In addition, I store my bookmarks in Gmail by exporting them to HTML and sending the page to myself using Ubiquity, which I pull up using Gmail Quick Links. Also, the links at the top of the page put me a click away to secure https versions of some of Google's other big services.
I keep adding to my system as Google rolls out features, but to me Gmail is my gateway to the web and the one web site I could never be without. Gmail turns five in the spring and I amazed how they continue to make it even more awesome once you start to really tweak it to your needs.
If you haven't seen it, Darren Rowse has a great new blog about Twitter called TwiTip. This week he and his followers interviewed me about how I started using the service, how I Tweet today and what companies who want to engage on Twitter should do. I won't steal his thunder, but want to share an excerpt here on a potential business model and where Twitter will be in five years time ...
If you were on the management of Twitter how would you monetize Twitter? (or would you) - question from @sachendra
It seems to me that Twitter is sitting on cash. It just needs to unlock the value. One way is through insights. I bet marketers would pay for advanced insights on what people are saying/doing. The other is through contextual search. Twitter should do a deal with Google or Yahoo to put pay-per-click ads on all the permalink tweet pages and then share the revs with users. The other idea is to monetize search.twitter.com, also with contextual ads. I think the only reason they’re delaying this is to make sure they don’t alienate their community. That’s the biggest risk they face.
Is Twitter just a passing fad or will it still exist in 5 years? How do you see Twitter evolving? - question from @AnitaBruzzese and @justcreative
I have been a participant and observer of online communities since 1988 - that’s 20 years. There’s no community where I am spending time today that was not born in the last five years. If I think back to what I used over the years it spans from Compuserve to AOL to GeoCities to Facebook, Twitter and Friendfeed today. No community has ever had staying power. TIme will tell if Twitter can break the trend. I don’t see a moat there yet.
Further, they’re at risk at becoming just infrastructure as people interface with the site through all of the other ports, most notably, apps, Facebook and Friendfeed. I hope I am wrong. Five years may not be a timeframe long enoughf for change.
Image Credit: HP 2133 Mini-Note PC
Over the last few weeks I have been curiously studying the rise of netbooks - which could become this year's breakout category. As of this writing, six of the top ten laptops on Amazon's bestseller list are netbooks.
Since February I have been a dedicated Macbook Air user. I love the weight of the machine but have issues, particularly with the loud fan and heat. A chronic craver of all things new and shiny, I have been resitsting the emotional pull of netbooks, but I still may get one anyway. Hugh's account of the Dell Mini 9 didn't help. So far, I am resisting. (Note: Edelman, my employer, represents HP - a netbook manufacturer.)
When I can, I increasingly try to look at these technology trends in a more detached way without emotion and with greater reasoning. I am wondering if the netbook truly is a breakout category that's here to stay or something that's a stopgap. Is the category going to stick or is it just that smartphones are unsuitable for certain tasks and traditional notebooks are now serving the role desktops once did? Or is it that rising use of web applications reducing our day-to-day needs for a powerful computer? Further, then there's the recession. Why buy a laptop when you can get 90% of what you need from a $500 netbook and keep your old computer running a few more years?
Ultimately, what holds me back from jumping into the netbook fray is the size of the keyboard and screen. Jeff Atwood calls netbooks portable web browsers. However, I fear that the limited resolution may give rise to an entire new class of web sites much like the iPhone did when it launched last year.
What's your view of the netbook craze? Have you jumped in? Weigh in with a comment.
Rolfe Schewe sent me a heads-up on Twitter tonight that Google Profiles now has added photo streaming. All you need to do is point Google toward Picasa, Flickr or any other photo sharing service that supports feeds and it will pull in your public photos. Here's my profile. (Also, if you haven't verified your Google Profile as I have below you might want to follow these instructions.)
Google keeps adding features to these profiles. Recently, they made them searchable. This is clearly a not-so-stealth social networking site being built right before our eyes. But I am wondering if they will turn this into a lifestreaming site that competes with Friendfeed. Keep an eye on this space.
I want to make a bet with you today. By January 2014 I will wager that in the US almost all forms of tangible media will either be in sharp decline or completely extinct. I am not just talking about print, but all tangible forms of media - newspapers, magazines, books, DVDs, boxed software and video games.
Don't believe me? Consider the following news items, all of which broke in the last month ...
Finally, if you need further proof, when was the last time you bought a CD? Exactly. For me it was back in 2003. I haven't purchased a newspaper in at least two years and the number of people who I see toting them on my morning train have declined too. I canceled my last print subscription this month and I am now living 100% "media green." Also I recently signed up for Safari Books Online and I am liking it a lot, though it's pricey and their iPhone client needs a lot of work.
We're moving fast toward becoming a society that consumes media entirely in digital format. Part of it is environmental, but a lot of it is because of broadband and connected devices. Now of course it will take a long long time for this to become a global phenomenon. But in the US at least, the pace has picked up a lot just in the last few months. Further, with the very green-aware millennials set to become the dominant demographic in the US by 2010 I would expect you will see even more of this.
So what do you think? Participate in the poll below. (Feed readers will need to click through)
I actually found this one through an Adwords link in my Gmail and it's a gem.
Tabbloid is a "hatchling" project from Hewlett-Packard that turns your favorite feeds into a personal magazine (HP's personal systems group is an Edelman client). All you need to do is point it at one or more feeds and set up a delivery time and you will get a nicely formatted PDF by email. You can also generate a PDF on the fly from one or more feeds.
Below is what a sample magazine issue looks like. I simply pointed Tabbloid at my favorite feeds from Google Reader and generated this PDF.
I am a big believer in cloud computing. It's the wave of the future. Work is transitioning from the desktop to web applications, albeit slowly and not without challenges. But make no mistake, it's coming. The success of the netbook market is a great sign of things to come. However, I believe smartphones will give this category a run for their money.
Earlier this week Alex Wolfe at InformationWeek published an interview with me about how I use my iPhone as the fulcrum of my productivity system. I want to share with you one part of the interview here since it summarizes my thoughts on how cloud computing and smartphones are going to change the game...
Wolfe: Do you foresee additional uptake of tasks by smartphones?
Rubel: I believe we're in a great era of transition. Ten years from now, we will laugh at people who still take laptops on business trips. The reason is that smartphones will be the center of everyone's computing experience and they will blend personal/professional lives.
Our data will be stored on the cloud. The devices will connect wirelessly to LCD monitors and keyboards/mice and utilize the full Windows or OS X experience. Once detached, they will adopt a more mobile-centric paradigm like the iPhone or Windows Mobile operating system. The same thing will apply at home. Hotel rooms will even have these peripherals. People will have one device that does it all, but these will leverage the cloud and peripherals for tasks that require it, and adopt different personalities based on context.
While others like my friend James Kendrick disagree, the future is coming a lot quicker than I imagined. In fact, it sort of arrived today. This morning a brand new iPhone app from Quickoffice called MobileFiles hit the App Store. You can get it on iTunes here and it's free. I downloaded it and boy it is sweet.
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