Internet and real life

Next iPhone to be unveiled in October

2011-09-22T13:30:00.002-06:00

Al Gore, former Vice President of the United States and current Apple board member stated that new Apple iPhones will be released next month. This was said during a speech he gave at the Discovery Invest Leadership Summit. I haven't been able to find any official release from Apple yet.

Review: Samsung Galaxy Tablet 10.1

2011-09-22T13:25:00.002-06:00

Here is a review of the Samsung Galaxy Tablet which is currently rated as the best choice for Android Tablets. http://pcworld.co.nz/pcworld/pcw.nsf/mobile/review-samsung-galaxy-tab-101

Facebook unveils Timeline profiles

2011-09-22T13:17:00.004-06:00

Here is a good article on the changes that came this week to Facebook. Most people complain whenever a change is made. In my opinion, the changes have all been good. It is just a matter of getting used to the new formats and making sure that you have your settings the way that you want them. http://content.usatoday.com/communities/technologylive/post/2011/09/live-coverage-facebooks-f8-developer-conference/1

March Madness

2011-03-18T09:40:00.001-06:00

Syracuse, Duke, Kansas and Wisconsin are already front runners for the Final Four — in Internet buzz at least.

March Madness is just beginning, but these four teams topped the positive online buzz rankings, according to Zeta Interactive. The agency analyzed about 200 million blogs, message boards and social media websites looking for keywords related to each of the 68 first-round teams. (For instance, “I have Duke winning my bracket” would count as a positive mention, while “I don’t think Duke will make it past the Sweet 16,” is a negative.)

Zeta also picks Gonzaga, Utah State and Richmond as favored “upset” teams this year.

And now to add my buzz in........Go Marquette!

Facebook Change is good... Yes it is!

2011-02-11T16:56:00.004-06:00

Yesterday was quite a shock for anyone in the social media marketing business. Not that we weren't warned that the changes in Facebook were coming but we didn't know quite how or what things would look like.

The good news is that we can now have more control over our Fan pages and we can switch back and forth between our personal profiles and our Fan pages to see notifications that are on our Fan Pages! That is a great feature!

As developers, We now have the ability to completely customize our client's Fan Pages! We can run applications, emulate websites, and the possibilities are endless!

With Facebook's new IFrame Apps we can really take Facebook to the next level.

If you currently have a Facebook Fanpage and find the new changes overwhelming, feel free to give me a call and I will walk you through the new structure. 715-377-0233.

Here is a great article summarizing the changes http://www.techradar.com/news/internet/facebook-pages-get-redesign-927940

Facebook in the sky!

2011-02-01T10:33:00.001-06:00

Can’t wait to update your Facebook status even when you’re 30,000 feet in the air? You’re in luck; several airlines have teamed up with Gogo Inflight Internet and Ford to offer free in-flight Facebook access throughout the month of February.

Gogo’s partners in this promotion include AirTran Airways, Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Delta, United Airlines, U.S. Airways and Virgin America.

It’ll work like this: Once the travelers are allowed to turn on tablets, phones, laptops and other personal electronic devices, they will be able to access the Gogo Wi-Fi network, and then click on the Ford/Facebook banner to access Facebook.

If you want to access something other than Facebook, you’ll have to pay a fee, starting at $4.95 and depending on the flight’s duration. Gogo says that Facebook is its number-one website visited by travelers, and Gogo hopes that customers will get hooked to the service during the free promotion in February.

iPhone coming to Verizon

2011-01-11T10:59:00.005-06:00

Even though I am a devoted Droid user, I thought I would let you iPhone lovers know that Verizon just announced that it will be carrying the iPhone 4 early next month.

The Verizon iPhone 4 will be available on February 10. Existing Verizon Wireless customers can pre-order beginning February 3.

The 16GB iPhone 4 will be $199.99 with a two year activation and data package. The 32GB version will cost $299.99 — the same cost offered by AT&T.

One nice thing that I do see coming out of this is the possible lowering of prices on any upcoming new phones. With the competition increasing, we could be able to get new phones more often than every two years which would be great!

Toshiba will announce a new, yet unnamed 10.1-inch Android tablet this week

2011-01-03T11:04:00.003-06:00

Toshiba will announce a new, yet unnamed 10.1-inch Android tablet this week.

The device is not yet ready for production as it awaits the new version of Android (Honeycomb), which is believed to be optimized for tablets. Features include: a dual-core Tegra 2 chip, a capacitive, 1280×800 resolution display, and a 5-megapixel back camera as well as a 2-megapixel front camera for video calls.

It has a full-sized USB and a mini-USB jack, HDMI, an SD card slot, and a rubberized, spill-resistant, replaceable back cover.

I will keep you updated as more details become available but this is definitely going to be on my "must have" list.

HDD Virus Alert

2010-12-13T13:43:00.003-06:00

Over the past few days I had many calls from clients and family members who have fallen victim to the HDD virus that has spread across the Internet.

The HDD virus was initially spread via fake ads on Google and MSN produced by hackers. The virus disguises itself as a computer optimization and analysis program that displays false information so that it can scare you into thinking that there is something wrong with your computer in order to scare you into purchasing the program.

If you think you might have this virus, you can get rid of it with a few simple steps:

1) Boot your computer into safe mode - Shut down your computer fully. Press the power button to start it back up and then press the F8 key repeatedly. Use your arrow keys and the Enter button to select SAFE MODE

2) Once in safe mode you should go to START, PROGRAMS, ACCESSORIES, SYSTEM TOOLS, then select SYSTEM RESTORE.

3) Follow the instructions for restoring your computer to a date before you believe you had the virus

4) SYSTEM RESTORE takes a while to perform but once it is done you should be back to your normal windows screens

5) Now you need to remove the virus. You can do this by purchasing any good Malware removal tool. I recommend Spyhunter from Enigma Software http://www.enigmasoftware.com/products/

Hope this helps!

How Important are Testimonials?

2010-11-08T13:30:00.005-06:00

As you can see, I recently re-branded my website, print collateral and social media. It is always a difficult decision and process. However, when your image becomes out-dated, it is a "must!"

I am always telling my clients how important testimonials are to their business and their website. As I was re-designing my own website, I realized that I needed to "practice what I preached."

With a simple E-mail to my most current project clients asking them for a testimonial, I was able to update my testimonial page with some great comments. To be honest, it felt really good to get an E-mail or two every day from someone telling me how I had impacted their business and I was constantly updating my testimonial page for a while.

The moral of this story is.... Don't be afraid to ask your customers for testimonials or how they feel about your products & services. You might be surprised at what they write and it is a great way to showcase your business on your website and gain trust from prospective customers. Beyond that, it can be highly motivating.

You can read all the great comments here http://www.wizedezigns.com/testimonials.html

So thank you to all the Wize Clients out there for your business and support!

Start looking for geek gifts!

2010-11-02T09:54:00.003-06:00

Now is the time to start searching for the perfect gift for the geek in your life. One way to get a quick glimpse of the top deals is to visit this handy page http://www.makeuseof.com/pages/hot-tech-deals

The website gives you a listing of the top deals found on the Internet over the last 24 hours.

Cool Halloween Android Apps

2010-10-28T09:44:00.003-06:00

Here are some Android apps to keep your Halloween fun. Search for them at the Marketplace!

Creepy Tales is a collection of short stories, tales and urban legends. This Android app has stories organized in categories for ghosts, mysteries, insanity and demons. Free.

Hauntcast Radio brings you feeds, updates and live streams from the popular podcast. The program covers haunt news, horror reviews, music and interviews. Free.

Spooky fun
In Zombies Live you start out as a lowly zombie, freshly undead. Fight your way to the top, in order to become the most powerful crypt lord, battling zombies and vampires. Free.

Halloween Countdown offers a new icon each day. Ghosts, glowing pumpkins, black cats and flying witches are just some of the widgets that will rotate on your home screen. $1.00

The Mask is an app that turns your phone into a fun facial effect. Choose from a number of creepy cover-ups, like bloody vampire teeth, jagged jack-o-lanterns and chattering skull heads. Free.

The Halloween Memory Match lets you choose a skill level, and get to matching! Each card flip reveals a ghost, goblin, mummy, pumpkin and more. Free.

I know what I want for Christmas... Google TV must read!

2010-10-13T08:28:00.002-06:00

Sony unveiled its newest TV line at a media event last night in New York City. The new model line, known simply as Sony Internet TV, gives users access to the Web like never before. Unlike current Internet-connected TV sets that give users closed, restricted access to the Internet - meaning they can only use special online apps - Google TV literally lets users access everything on the Internet, from their TV. No external box required.

The TV platform uses a full Web browser, Google Chrome, letting users do whatever they want on the World Wide Web, while also watching TV. That's something else unique about Google TV, because most other IPTV applications force TV playback to be halted in order to devote all of the unit's resources to the app.

Sony Internet TV can keep a live TV picture-in-picture box on the bottom-right of the screen no matter what other apps or websites you're running in the background. The TV itself has an Intel Atom chip inside it to power everything. It also has 8 GB of storage, unlike the very measly handful of megabytes Samsung offers on its Internet-connected TVs.

Sony Internet TVs go on sale at Sony Style stores across the country beginning this weekend. They'll also be available in Best Buy on October 24. Price range from $600 -$1400.

I am totally excited about this so if you need a new website, search engine optimization or social media marketing help, let me know. I gotta find a way to get one of these!

The Facebook Announcement

2010-10-12T12:46:00.004-06:00

I promised that I would update you on this latest announcement but, in my opinion, the only cool thing to come out of it was the ability to download a .zip file of everything you ever uploaded to Facebook.

I was waiting for the feature to come live and it already is for some accounts so I will give you the instructions:

Sign in to Facebook and select Account -> Account Settings. In the dialog box that pops up, look for Download Your Information near the bottom. You may not have it yet. If you do and you click, it will submit a request to Facebook to create the Zip file. That could take a few minutes to a few hours, since it involves collecting, formatting and compressing everything you have posted. When the Zip is ready, Facebook will send you an e-mail with a link to the download. If you don't have it yet, keep checking over the next few weeks!

Once the Zip file is downloaded to your computer, just double-click it to see what’s in there. There’s an index page that, when double-clicked, will open in your browser. A simplified profile page links to your photos, videos, etc. Or you can skip the index page and use your computer’s desktop to open the photos folder inside the file to see all your photos saved.

Our lives are now archived! Pretty Cool IMO

The Social Network - The Movie

2010-09-16T15:42:00.002-06:00

I meant to blog about this a while ago when I first saw the trailer but time is a funny thing and just because something is on my brain doesn't mean that I have time to talk about it.

Mark your calendars for Oct. 1st. The movie "The Social Network" comes out that day http://thesocialnetwork-movie.com/ . This movie is about the founding of Facebook and the struggle with other budding social media platforms. I am expecting it to be much like "Pirates of Silicon Valley," another awesome movie, IMO. Now wait, my mind is thinking of the comparision of Anthony Michael Hall to Justin Timberlake. I can buy AMH as a geek, but Justin? I'm not sure but if he can pull it off that is just fine with me! Maybe his next song will be "I'm Bringing Geeky Back."

Yahoooooooo!! hmm we'll see

2010-09-16T15:32:00.002-06:00

Yahoo Inc., struggling to win back Internet users who have been drawn to popular sites such as Facebook says that it plans to give many of its products a makeover this fall. At a special event held today at the company’s Sunnyvale, Calif., headquarters, Yahoo’s Blake Irving, who joined the company as chief product officer in April, said Yahoo is going to “feel a little bit different.”

Among its plans: Yahoo will let users send messages and post updates to Twitter from its site. It is also planning to make its e-mail service twice as fast and plans to stock its search pages with more visual content to engage users. It’s also working on a revamped advertising platform.
Irving said new features, updates and products will come out faster than in the past because Yahoo is going to focus on innovation. He pledged that Yahoo will get its “cool” back.

My take on this..... Wow Yahoo you came to the prom at 11:45!!!! The good news for them is that they still have some loyal users and they will still be a contender in the search engine market share. I doubt they will be able to conquer social media though so they might want to go back to the drawing board and try to find a different way to keep their market share.

Facebook Dislike Button Is Fake [WARNING]

2010-08-19T08:34:00.003-06:00

A new Facebook scam is circulating which attempts to get users to install the non-existent Facebook feature, the dislike button.

There is no such thing as an official Facebook dislike button. It’s possible that Facebook will implement a similar feature in the future, but right now it simply does not exist.

So, if you see a status update containing the message “I just got the Dislike button, so now I can dislike all of your dumb posts lol!!” or “Get the official DISLIKE button now” followed by a link, you should know that it’s another one of many scams that aim to extract your personal data.

I advise you not to click on suspicious links on Facebook, especially if they promise something that sounds impossible or unlikely. Do not give away your personal information, unless you’re absolutely sure why and who you’re giving it to.

Amazon Releases Kindle App for Android Phones

2010-07-06T09:34:00.002-06:00

My Droid never ceases to amaze me and this gets me super pumped!

Amazon is quickly expanding the reach of its electronic books business by offering its Kindle application on PCs and mobile phones.

Amazon just announced the release of a new Kindle reading application, called Kindle for Android, that is available as a free download for phones running Google’s Android software.

A Site for the Videos You Don’t Want Everyone to See

2010-06-15T09:44:00.000-06:00

Some people post videos to YouTube and Facebook with the hope that everyone will see them. But for many others, the idea of the whole world viewing a personal video is not what they want.

VidMe, a new video site lets people share videos privately with only a chosen group of friends; the videos cannot be forwarded or downloaded.

The Butterfly Effect

2010-06-11T09:55:00.000-06:00

Can the simple flutter of a butterfly’s wings change the world forever? If you’re a believer in the butterfly effect, the answer is indeed yes.

The notion of the butterfly effect states that a seemingly minor event can create ripples that ultimately trigger an outcome of far larger proportions.

It’s known as the butterfly effect based on the idea that a butterfly flapping its wings on one side of the earth can create a tornado on the other side. Real life butterfly effects are now evident online everyday in social media!

It all starts with a tweet, post or blog! The question to ask yourself is if you are a Caterpillar, Cocoon or a Butterfly!

My own thoughts on SEO

2010-05-11T10:11:00.005-06:00

Lately, I have been talking to a lot of people about Search Engine Optimization and Submission (SEO). I am amazed when I find out that website owners might be working with a firm on their SEO but have no idea what they are paying that firm to do. Surprisingly, many know little about what good SEO is and how to achieve it and the firm they are working with has done little to explain the process to them.

What all website owners should know is that every SEO specialist has their own philosophies on what makes for good SEO. It takes a lot of explaining so I decided to jot down mine. This way I will have a place for prospective clients to go and read about my philosophy on SEO and what really works! I hope you enjoy it and also please contact me if you have any questions at all! Thanks

PART I: Keyword Optimization
The first step in a search engine optimization campaign is to choose your keyphrases for each of your web pages. Keyphrases are the terms that search engine users type in the search box to conduct a query. The right keywords are those that:

1. clearly describe the purpose and content of your site (what you do or sell & where you do it)
2. allow your site to show up as close to the first results page as possible.

Look at your business carefully and write down the words and phrases that best define what you do and where you do it. Try to form two or three word phrases, since competition for one-word keyphrases is fierce, and it is virtually impossible to get a top position for them. Once you have developed your list of potential keyphrases you are ready for the next step: to analyze the demand and supply for those keyphrases, and choose the best ones (those with good demand and not enough supply).

My favorite way to do this is using Google's keyword selector tool https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordSandbox Using this tool will let you type in your selected keyphrases and then give you the amount of times these were used in a search. It will also suggest new keyphrases.

The next step is to check the supply, or, in other words, to see how much competition there is for your selected keywords. You want to focus on keyphrases where competition is less fierce so the more unique your keywords are the better! For this step, go to Google and type-in each of your keyphrases in the search box. Enter your keyphrases with and without quotation marks and see how many results each individual query produces, making a note of those with a relatively small number of results (less competition).
You will stick with the keyphrases that:
1. Best describes what you do where you do it
2. Is a popular search term according to Google's keyword selector
3. Generates a relatively small number of results after performing the Google search.

PART II: Web Page Optimization
Once you have chosen your keyphrases, the next stage is to optimize your page for those keyphrases. You do that by positioning your keywords in strategic locations within your page.

• Create a descriptive title for your page: Your web page title is very important because it is what the search engines display as link text as the result of a search. The title must include your main keyphrases!
• Unless your business is big and well known (like Microsoft or Coca Cola) don't start your page title with the name of your company. Start your title with the words search engine users will most likely use (your keyphrases)
• Put your main keyphrases at the beginning of your page title (keyphrase prominence) and keep your keyphrases together (keyword proximity).
• Keyphrases in your Keyword Meta Tag: Search engines rarely use the Keyword Meta Tag any more (Google completely ignores it). However, place a list of your main and secondary keywords in the Keyword Meta Tag of your page, just in case search engines decide to use them again in the future.
• Keyphrases in your Description Meta Tag: The Description Meta Tag is still important, since some search engines use them to elaborate on the results link.
• Keywords in the body of your page: It is important to use your keywords heavily on your page, since this will help the search engine determine the topic of your page.
• Use your keyphrases several times in the text of your pages, and place them as close to the top of the page as possible.
• Place your keyphrases between Header Tags (H1, H2 or H3) in the first two paragraphs of your page.
• Place your keyphrases in the alternate image tags on your site
• Repeat your keyphrases often to increase your keyphrase density.
• Since you have to repeat your keyphrases often, you must be especially careful not to make your text sound awkward.
• You must make your page easy to navigate by the search engines. Search engines heavily favor text over graphics, and HTML over other editing formats.
• Use text heavily, especially in your navigation bar. Avoid placing text in graphic format since the search engines won't be able to read it.
• Avoid frames. Search engines have trouble following them, and they may index only the framed content page and not the navigation frame.
• Avoid Flash and JavaScript: search engines don't follow either one.
• Create a Site Map that includes all the pages in your site and submit it to the search engines. When the search engine follows the site map link, it will find and index all the pages in your site!
• Make sure that all your internal pages link to your homepage.

Part III: The next and final step to increase your site's ranking is to get as many links to your site as possible, from quality sites that have a topic related to yours.

Once you have selected your keyphrases and optimized your pages for them, the last step is to make sure that you get linked from the best directories, and from lots of quality sites with a topic related to your site's. The best search engines, and in particular Google (who alone can deliver 80% of the search engine traffic to your site) "crawl" the web looking for links to your site. They interpret a link to your page as a vote, and the more links (votes) you have coming from quality sites the higher your page rank will be, and the higher the possibility that your page will achieve a good position in the search results pages. The best way to do this is to seek out other websites and directories that will give you a free link back or a reciprocal link back.

The Flash debate - cont... & html5

2010-04-30T06:33:00.003-06:00

Back when I blogged about the iPad, I told you that it was a deal breaker for me because it didn't support Flash, which is a major plug-in that supports many videos and websites. Yesterday, Apple's Steve Jobs confirmed that the iPad, iPhones, etc... would never support flash. He called the plug-in proprietary, a battery hog and ill-suited for modern mobile devices.

So what does this mean for the future of web development? Not to worry, there is a solution. HTML5, a new Web technology that Apple is promoting. The biggest thing about HTML5 is that it will eliminate the need for 3rd party plug-ins such as Adobe Flash and MS Silverlight.

What does this mean to you? Don't freak out because you have a Flash website. There will be plenty of work-arounds coming that will probably allow your website to function properly for years. However, if you are in the process of getting a website developed I would recommend that you steer clear of Flash and any other technologies that require plug-ins. Let your developer know that you would like your website to be html4 and css code compliant and that you would like it adaptable to html5 when it is fully rolled out and stable.

Personally, I am very happy for these changes. I never liked Flash and rarely use it on websites except for accents or photo galleries. I am looking forward to the seeing the evolution of html5!

What's That Bird - MAMA's story

2010-04-12T06:56:00.001-06:00

Every year I have the same bird that comes and nests right below my deck outside my office window. I call her "Mama." She always nests in the same spot and lays her eggs. They usually survive and fly from the nest in late July.

The problem is that I just don't know what kind of bird she is and it is driving me crazy. I decided to search out a website. I came across http://www.whatbird.com/ It is a pretty cool in that it has a wizard that you can run to help you identify what bird you are looking for.

Unfortunately, I still can't be sure what kind of bird Mama is so I need to keep searching. Please let me know if you know of any good websites that I can try.

Above Mainstream - The name says it all!

2010-04-05T08:22:00.013-06:00

For the last year, I have been blogging endlessly about the importance of Social Media Marketing. Well if you haven't gotten the hint yet, you are now officially way behind the curve. The hottest new trend in social media marketing has emerged and it is called FMBL! (Facebook Mark-up Language) What is FBML and why do you need it? Well, basically it is a way to take your Facebook Fan Page to the next level. Custom programming and tabs allow you to mimic your existing website or spice up your existing fan page. The "WOW" factor that this gives your existing and potential fans will show them that you are serious about Social Media Marketing.

So you have a Business Fan Page, so what? So does everyone else. Now is the time to jump ahead of your competition and get yourself a Custom Fan Page. Need help? Of course you do. This stuff is not for novices! Check out http://www.abovemainstream.com/ and www.facebook.com/abovemainstream and call them today! I can personally recommend this firm and I can tell you that the owner comes from a very stong gene pool of programming - Me, her Mom, LOL

I am currently getting my Custom Fan Page programmed so look for that link to come later this week! Exciting!

Also, please check out this video on Social Media Marketing!

I sure hope Johnnie doesn't read my blogs

2010-03-24T07:18:00.002-06:00

First I just want to apologize for not blogging the last 2 weeks. I just got back from an incredible family vacation cruise on the Carnival Dream. The weather was perfect and the ship was amazing. One big change was the amount of computers they had on board for use. They were everywhere. You could literally hop on and check your facebook and email anytime you wanted. They named them "fun hubs."

Now on to the blog.... I just read that Nintendo has released plans for their newest gaming device, The Nintendo 3DS, on which games with three-dimensional capability can be played without the need for any special glasses. The company said that the new 3DS could possibly be out before Christmas which would mean my 13 year old son won't have to think about what to put on his list. I also read that the existing DS games will be compatible with the device, nice!

Google Launches Chile Earthquake Person Finder

2010-03-01T10:47:00.002-06:00

With the recent earthquake in Chile communications are strained due to damage caused and people around the world trying to contact family who were there. The most reliable form of communication to and from Chile right now seems to be e-mail and the Internet.

Google has picked up on that fact and decided to help the information flow by launching People Finder. Taking the form of a very simple website, People Finder consists of two links:

•I’m looking for someone
•I have information about someone

If you are in Chile and have information about individuals there then you can get that information up on the web for friends and family to find. Alternatively, if you haven’t heard from someone in Chile you can post their details in the hope someone knows something about them.

People Finder already has over 35,400 records being tracked, meaning it is already proving useful and Google should be commended for stepping up so quickly to help. http://chilepersonfinder.appspot.com/

Bye Bye Blackberry!

2010-02-23T12:00:00.002-06:00

Honestly as much as I hated my Blackberry Storm since the moment I got it, I hated it even more when it broke for good last week.

So what is a person supposed to do if they don't like Blackberries and don't want to switch to AT & T to use the iPhone?

It is a dilemma but I found the solution. My new Droid Eris is awesome! With all the features of a Blackberry and iPhone combined along with a great interface and lightening fast transitions, this phone is making me very happy.

The amount of Apps available is insane but my favorite feature is being able to load whatever apps, programs and shortcuts onto the 6 easily accessed home screens. This makes it so easy for me to find what I am looking for. I grouped all of my favorites onto their own home screens that I can access just by scrolling the home screen to the left or right.

So far I have no complaints other than the battery life is poor (only stays charged for about 8 hours) but so was my Blackberry's so I am used to having to plug it in every once in a while.

If want to find out more about the phone, feel free to contact me!

The Buzz on Google Buzz

2010-02-16T09:08:00.003-06:00

Last Tuesday, Google announced Buzz, a new social networking service integrated with Gmail. Buzz is a brand-new social tool that helps users to share updates, links, photos, videos, and more.

Just when we all thought we had mastered tweating now we have to master buzzing! Google Buzz is built right into Gmail so if you are a Gmail user it is already built right into your account. It can also be used on your mobile phone. If you don't use Gmail you can sign up for a free account to use the service. http://www.google.com/buzz

How is Google Buzz different from Facebook and Twitter? In many ways it's very similar. Users can post new buzz by sharing links, photos, videos, and status updates. You can comment on and "like" friends' postings just as on Facebook, and send @ messages to get specific users' attention much like on Twitter. Picasa, Flickr, Google Reader, YouTube, Blogger, and Twitter are currently integrated into Buzz.

So what should you do about this? Like anything new, try it out and see if you like it. I have a feeling we will be adding another social media icon to our websites!

Have you played with Google Buzz yet? What do you think about it? Let me know.

New Facebook Layout

2010-02-08T08:02:00.004-06:00

I want to give you all a quick heads-up on the new facebook layout. Some of you saw this change over the weekend. Others will get the change soon as facebook rolls it out for you. I know a lot of you don't like change but this one isn't that bad. Facebook has put out a full description of the layout changes along with a diagram for you to refer to if you need help http://www.facebook.com/sitetour/homepage.php

Don't see your changes yet? The company says they would take another week to make the changes to the over 400 million members of Facebook.

I hope this helps and remember "change is good."

Did you miss a commercial?

2010-02-08T07:44:00.003-06:00

Like a lot of people I watched the superbowl yesterday entirely to see the commercials. I had some interest in the game and I did want the Saints to win but the ads are what really kept me interested.

Some of them were good enough to watch again. My favorite was the Snickers one featuring Betty White. Now that was funny. But of course I loved the e-trade baby ones and I am glad that godaddy is still hanging in there. My daughter really wants the Black Go-daddy jacket that Danica wears. And of course, you know I loved the Brett Favre one!

Just in case you missed the game all together or some of the commercials or if you just want to see some of them again, there is a a website for that! http://superbowlads.fanhouse.com/

Phil - I demand a do-over

2010-02-04T10:40:00.004-06:00

Much to my dismay, Punxsutawney Phil, the groundhog, saw his shadow the other day – so now he has forced me into another 6 weeks of winter. I went onto http://www.groundhog.org/ to see if I could do anything but all I found was useful information about the day and the groundhog.

Maybe if Phil was be blogging, tweating and facebooking about himself instead of walking around looking for his shadow I wouldn't have to endure more of this global warming.

Oh well, it was a nice visit to his website and his pictures were cute too. Hopefully next year he will be too busy to come out. He can always contact me at Wize Dezigns if he needs help setting up his social marketing campaign or optimizing his website. I will be happy to get him started and next year he can just post to his fan page. He can't see his shadow if he is staring a computer screen.

Ipad - a deal breaker for me

2010-01-28T13:07:00.006-06:00

My extreme joy at the announcement of the Apple Ipad yesterday was followed by extreme disapointment!

Now don’t get me wrong, I like the iPad. I can see one in my future. It’s cool, and based on the wide range of computers and mobile devices I have used over the years I know I won't be able to resist it.

However...............

The lack of Flash in the browser is huge deal breaker for me, and will be a total deal breaker for many. A lot of the web is driven by Flash, including thousands of websites, embedded YouTube videos and most on-line games. This alone can have a direct impact on my experience of the iPad on the web. It’s easy to understand why Adobe is unhappy with Apple and its refusal to play with Flash and I am just as unhappy.

So while I will probably get my hands on one of these in the future I am going to wait and see if Apple comes to its senses first.

Website makes it easy to follow latest web-buzz

2010-01-26T13:06:00.003-06:00

As you know, I am constantly searching for news and new things on the Internet in order to write this blog. Once in a while I find something that I really think is cool. Today is one such day.

I just found a new website that is a one-stop shop for all your internet reads. Popurls http://popurls.com/ is the dashboard for the latest web-buzz! It is a single page that encapsulates up-to-the-minute headlines from the most popular sites on the Internet.

You can find news headlines, the most popular blogs, recently uploaded pictures on Flickr as well as videos added to YouTube. Also on this home page, you will find top stories from websites catered to particular hobbies, or personal preferences.

You can customize your Popurls home page by creating an account. This allows you to select only certain news feeds, change the format and even customize the display.

Take a minute to visit and bookmark this site. I think you will find yourself visiting it a couple times a day!

Aurora Alert - Please make sure you are "fixed"

2010-01-22T07:51:00.006-06:00

As you have probably already heard the last few weeks, in an operation dubbed “Aurora“, Chinese hackers have used a previously undiscovered security hole, existent in several major versions of Internet Explorer, to gain unauthorized access to data belonging to a couple of targeted individuals.

Microsoft has since tried to downplay the significance of the security hole, but it was undoubtedly a serious issue for Microsoft and finally yesterday they have issued a patch to fix the problem.

What this means to you is that if you don't have automatic updates turned on you should go immediately to the micrsoft website and get this update for Internet Explorer (all versions, but you really should be using IE8) http://www.microsoft.com/security/

If you want to read more about this problem and the fix you can find the critical bulletin here
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms10-002.mspx

And now for something completely different....

My top 10 tips for Search Engine Success

2010-01-13T07:56:00.004-06:00

This week I have had a lot of calls and questions about SEO (Search Engine Optimization).

Remember the movie "Field of Dreams?"
Ray Kinsella (Kevin Costner) is a farmer who lives in rural Iowa with his family. While walking through his cornfield, Ray hears a voice whisper, "If you build it, he will come" (often misquoted as "If you build it, they will come"), and sees a vision of a baseball field. Ray plows under his corn and builds the field. A year passes without incident. So many times I talk to perspective clients who were under the impression that if they built a website they would automatically get visitors and are often disappointed by the lack of traffic to their site. This is because their websites are not optimized or submitted properly to the search engines. Just because you build it, doesn’t mean anyone will come.

SEO is a tricky business and there are never any guarantees. Search Engines are constantly changing their algorithms (the way they evaluate websites). I spend at least 10 hours a week keeping up on the latest needs of the Search Engines and each site that I perform SEO on follows a different strategy based on these changing conditions. As of right now, the top ten things that I can recommend to you in order to get your website found and visited on the Internet are:

1) Make sure that you have good meta-tag programming. This is a part of the website that you cannot see but if you look at the code behind your website, the first few lines of code should contain meta-tags. The most important of these tags is the description tag where you tell the search engines what type of information can be found on your site. This tag should contain keywords that visitors might type in when looking for sites like yours.

2) Make sure that your Title tag is keyword rich. The Title tag is perhaps the most important piece of SEO. This is what appears in the very top of your browser screen and this also tells the search engines what your site is all about

3) Have site owner verification meta-tags - These are also in the programming of your site and you will need to have them programmed separately for each of the major search engines, Google, Yahoo & Bing. This tells the search engines that your site has been verified as a legitimate website and gives them the go-ahead to index your site.

4)Use H1 & H2 html tags when appropriate for keyword emphasis. Again, this is done in the programming of your website.

5)Program alternate image tags using keyword text. For each image on your website there is an option to program alternate text. Make sure that your images contain your keywords.

6)Develop a website sitemap (such as sitemap.xml) for search engine spidering. Once you have created a sitemap make sure to submit it separately to each of the major search engines. This allows them to easily index your pages.

7)Manually submit your website URL to Google, Yahoo, Bing, Ask.com & the Open Directory Project (DMOZ). 95% of all Internet searches are done using these engines or other sites that use the results of these engines.

8)Manually submit your URL to industry specific directories that allow free links. This is often the part that takes the most time but this is what will really get your website good results. This is because the search engines place a lot of weight on in-bound links. The number of quality sites linking to your website will increase your popularity.

9)Use Social Media Marketing and Web 2.0 services. I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to use all the Web 2.0/3.0 services available. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Blogs, YouTube, etc... The search engines look very favorably on these services and tend to index the content higher than regular web content.

10)Install a good statistics program on your website. Google Analytics is one such service and it is free. This will allow you to track how many visitors you have had, where they came from and what keywords they used to find your website. Analyzing this data can help you tweak your keyword positioning and will let you know if your site is performing well on the search engines.

I am sorry for the length of this post but there is a lot of information to cover and I haven't even scratched the surface. If you feel like your website is an empty corn field please give me a call at 715-377-0233 and we can talk about how we can get you into the major leagues. Also, for more information please visit www.wizedezigns.com Have a great day!

Website Makeover - 2010 Style

2010-01-05T12:45:00.004-06:00

I can't believe that Wize Dezigns is on our tenth year of designing websites. Things sure have changed a lot over the years but believe it or not, I still have clients out there using their original websites from ten years ago. That either proves that a simple website can be just as effective as a trendy one or that I haven't done a good job convincing them to re-design.

I always get a ton of questions this time of year inquiring about website re-design... "Do I need a re-design?", "How much will it cost?", "What should I be doing different?," etc...

My response to anyone asking these questions is that if you are thinking that your website needs a re-design, it probably does.

I could write or direct you to many reasons why you should have your website re-designed or what qualities make a good website. We all know that a website needs to be visually appealing, easy to navigate, content rich, etc... but there are 2 huge reasons why your website (if older than 3 years) needs a Makeover. It comes down to the changing standards and technologies that the various browsers now support and the epic emergence of Social Media Marketing.

The development of programming techniques such as CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) and XML (extensible markup language) make any website older than three years old practically a dinosaur. This is because websites that utilize these advanced programming techniques are more easily and accurately interpreted by browsers, smartphones and other browsing platforms. So while your website might look just fine to you, its integrity might be compromised and the code behind its beauty, might just be outdated or plain non-compliant. As for Social Media Marketing, in the last 3 years what is known as Web 2.0 platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, etc.. have began to dominate web content. If your website is not utilizing these mediums, you are way behind the curve.

My advise to you is to talk to your webmaster or web designer and have them evaluate your current website based on what I just talked about. Don't just look at your website's appearance, content or ease of navigation (though this is very important) but really have them look at the code behind your site to make sure that your website is utilizing the very latest in programming techniques. If you are not using the Web 2.0 services, make sure that you make this a part of your re-design and mindset.

I encourage you to think seriously about your 2010 website makeover. If you are unsure where to start or what questions to ask, please contact me. My consultations are always free even if you chose to work with another firm. I look forward to hearing from you and hope you will chose Wize Dezigns as your Website Spa Specialist!

Google to unveil iphone competitor - Nexus One...

2010-01-04T10:02:00.003-06:00

Google will reveal its iphone competitior tomorrow.

The Nexus One Smartphone, which uses software designed by google, has been developed to take on the dominant iPhone.

The Nexus, said to have a larger screen than Apple’s iPhone and a more powerful five-megapixel camera.

Its unlocked version will allow consumers to use any wireless internet provider of their choice which is great news for everyone who doesn't want to be stuck with the iphone's exclusive provider, AT&T.

Look for more details to come...

New Years Eve - ON-LINE!!!

2009-12-28T17:05:00.003-06:00

I hope that everyone had a great Christmas! We gave two of our kids and my Mom ASUS Netbooks. They have been enjoying the Internet from their laps for the last couple days. Kind of nice not to have to be sitting at a desk all the time.

For those of you that can't get enough of New Year's Celebrations on T.V. you can also have some fun watching the Times Square Ball drop and countdown online on several sites. Hulu & MSN both have live coverage as well as my favorite site, http://newyears.earthcam.com/ Visiting earthcam will get you views from multiple webcams as well as a very accurate countdown.

Happy New Year!

Shipping deadlines: order your gifts soon in time for Christmas

2009-12-14T07:39:00.002-06:00

This year, as always, I buy most of my gifts online. I love not having to go out into the crowds and I am nearly always happy with what I order. Plus it is fun when the packages arrive to open them and find that what I ordered will be a hit. I am almost done but I still have a few things to get so I went online this morning to research whether or not it is getting to close to Christmas to have delivery on time.

I found out that if you still have gifts to buy and you plan on shopping via the Internet, you don't have much longer to meet the Christmas deadline.

Two-thirds of retailers are giving you until Dec. 18 to order gifts and assure that they get delivered by Christmas.

Dec. 17 is also free shipping day. At least a couple hundred retailers, including Toys R Us and Crate & Barrel will offer free shipping that day and guarantee delivery by Dec. 24.

So you still have a few more days!

Wize Dezigns adds RSS feeds

2009-12-08T10:40:00.002-06:00

RSS is a web content syndication format. Its name is an acronym for Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary. It is used for syndicating dynamic material such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video and is a defined standard based on XML (Extensible Markup Language). Programmers use RSS to provide website users with fresh content and headline news. Consumers use RSS readers and news aggregators to collect and monitor their favorite feeds in one centralized program or location. Content provided by programmers and viewed in a RSS reader or news aggregator is known as an RSS feed.

Wize Dezigns has added a custom RSS feed on our website to share our latest news with you. We have also added feed headlines from this blog. Both can be found at http://www.wizedezigns.com/

If you use a news aggregator such as Google reader or My Yahoo or a feed reader on your email application, you can subscribe to our news feed by clicking on the RSS icon on our homepage or by using the address http://www.wizedezigns.com/feed.rss and/or you can subscribe to our blog feeds using the address http://wizeblogs.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss

Here comes St. Nick!

2009-12-04T07:32:00.005-06:00

In the Bendt house we celebrate St. Nicholas Eve as the start of the Christmas season. Every year I forget the date, I know it is the 5th but I can never remember if the eve is the 5th or the 4th. So every year I a have to do a google search to figure out which is the eve. This year was no different so yesterday I did my search and found that the eve is the 5th. So if you celebrate St. Nicholas day or you would like to start, have your kids leave their shoes by the door or fireplace on Saturday night. In the morning St. Nicholas will have brought them little presents to indicate whether or not they have been good this year. It is a great way for you to get your kids ready for the Christmas season and to remind them that Santa and the elves are always watching. You can find out more about St. Nicholas and his history here http://www.stnicholascenter.org/Brix?pageID=38

While I was searching I also came across a great site http://www.santaclaus.com/ This website has a ton of information related to Santa and will even let you track him on Christmas eve.

Facebook hits 350 million

2009-12-04T07:21:00.002-06:00

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook now has 350 million users!

They have also been working on better ways to improve privacy and networks. Look for these changes coming soon. You will begin getting notices and prompts to adjust your privacy settings based on these changes. The goal is to allow your personal activity to be seperate from your business activity or protected from users that you do not wish to share information with.

Cyber Monday was blazing!

2009-12-01T14:50:00.002-06:00

By 2:20 p.m. ET, more than 270 retailing Web sites tracked by Internet monitoring firm Akamai were drawing more than 4.3 million visitors per minute in North America. Traffic was up nearly 39% compared to the same time last year.

I know that I got some good deals, did you?

Not to worry, there will be plenty more, just keep checking everyday for the items you are looking for. Prices change by the minute.

Should you upgrade to Windows 7?

2009-11-18T09:22:00.002-06:00

A lot of clients and friends have been asking me whether or not they should upgrade to Windows 7. The information that I am posting here is just my personal opinion but I will give you a few things to consider as well.

The quick answer is this...I never recommend upgrading a computer's operating system. There are many reasons for this including hardware and software issues but the most important reason is that upgrading a computer's operating system almost always results in some problems, mostly because of registry files. The only way to really get a trouble-free version of Windows 7 on your computer is to reformat your harddrive and do a clean install of the full operating system, not the upgrade. If you choose to do this, make sure that your system can physically handle the operating system. You can do a quick check here http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/get/upgrade-advisor.aspx. That being said, if you are going to go through the trouble of wiping out everything on your system, installing a new operating system and re-installing all of your programs, you might as well purchase a new system and benefit from the hardware upgrades you will get with a new system, in my opinion.

The biggest issue that you need to be concerned about with both options is whether or not your existing software programs are compatable with Windows 7. You can check to see what programs will work with the new operating system here http://www.microsoft.com/windows/compatibility/windows-7/en-us/default.aspx

If your favorite program will not work on Windows 7 you might want to reconsider switching or be prepared to purchase new software.

The best advise that I can give you is this. If your system is older, slow, and you have been thinking about getting a new one then this would be a good time to do that providing that you are prepared to re-load all of your software, purchase new software and learn a new operating system. If you are happy with your current system and operating system (XP, Vista, etc...) then you should probably wait until all the bugs are worked out of Windows 7 and make the switch later. The major benefit that I have heard of so far of switching to Windows 7 is that it does make systems run faster and safer.

I didn't want to provide a ton of information here but you can always visit the Windows 7 website to get all of your questions answered. http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/

Happy 19th Birthday Kristen!

2009-11-12T10:28:00.002-06:00

It's hard to believe but 19 years ago today I gave birth to an amazing person. I am so proud of my daughter, Kristen. She is a beautiful, intelligent and fun loving woman. She is a freshman at St. Thomas University studying Public Relations and Marketing. She is also the first freshman ever to have an internship with the University in Social Media Marketing. She is in charge of the St. Thomas Facebook page as well as being an ambassodor for the school. You can see all of her great work on their page at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?page=2&aid=-3&id=532595715#/stthomasmn?ref=ts

I hope she has a terrific day full of fun and celebration. Love, Mom

My Tips for fixing your Facebook Page - MUST READ

2009-11-12T09:19:00.003-06:00

In the last few weeks Facebook has really frustrated me. Just when I thought I had my page the way I wanted it, they go and change things up on me. Facebook now has what they call "live feeds" and "news feeds." Live feeds has constant updates and News feeds highlights some of your friends activities. The problem is that if you have a lot of "friends" you aren't necessarily getting the updates on the friends that you really want to know about because Facebook choses what to feed you.

One thing that you can do to sort of switch back to the old Facebook is to change the default on your Homepage from live feed to status updates. To do this go to your homepage, in the very left hand margin there is a column listing the various feeds and applications that are available in the order they are available to you. Below the top 5 there is a little word called "more. " Click on MORE and then you are able to select and drag whatever feeds or applications you want to appear first on your homepage to the top. For example if you want to go back to the way the old Facebook was, you can drag STATUS UPDATES up to the top replacing live feed. Problem solved.

Next... I love all the different Facebook applications that are out there but I am sooooo tired of getting a feed everything someone obtains a Farmville, Mafia Wars, Bejeweled accomplishment, etc... The fix is this. Choose someone's post from one of these applications that you don't want to see anymore. Next to the post is a label called HIDE. Choose HIDE and voila, you won't see that application posts from anyone-anymore. YIPEEE! If you change your mind and you do want to see the posts again just go to the very bottom of your homepage. At the bottom right there is a label called EDIT OPTIONS. Click on that and you will be able to unhide any applications that you have blocked from your news feed.

As far as not getting all the feeds you want from your most important friends and getting feeds from people you barely know - here is the solution for that. Click on your News Feed option, then go to Live Feeds. At the very bottom of that page there is a label EDIT OPTIONS. Click on EDIT OPTIONS and you will be able to manually add friends that you really want to keep up with and you can hide feeds from friends that you don't want to know about anymore.

I really hope that this will help make your Facebook life more bearable with all the changes they have made. I know that I feel better :) Have a great day!

LinkedIn & Twitter Partner!

2009-11-10T11:14:00.002-06:00

LinkedIn and Twitter announced a partnership on Monday allowing you to push your LinkedIn status updates out to your Twitter account or pull your tweets into your professional profile.

You have three options for integrating LinkedIn with Twitter: you can rebroadcast your LinkedIn status updates to Twitter, turn your tweets into your LinkedIn status or both. To start integrating your tweets, you need to edit your LinkedIn settings by adding Twitter from your profile page or by clicking the Twitter icon next to your status on the homepage. Twitter integration will be rolled out to all LinkedIn users over the next few days, so you may not see the new feature right away.

Just for fun

2009-11-06T09:12:00.002-06:00

I don't know why I thought of this song this morning but it really made me laugh!

Keep in touch!

2009-11-06T08:25:00.005-06:00

Last night I attended a very informative Professional Womens' Network Meeting. The featured speaker was Brenda J. Carlson. Her firm provides coaching to businesses and work teams to maximize strengths for success and discover what to do about challenges. Her topic was maximizing your social media. She reminded me how important it is to utilize all the great social media marketing tools that are free and available in order to promote your business and YOURSELF! It was really helpful for me to reflect on my own social media use and I realized that I have been neglecting my LinkedIn profile. Facebook, Twitter and Blogger are such a big part of my day but it is also important to make professional connections through LinkedIn. So I invite you to create a profile and add me in your network. http://www.linkedin.com/in/angiebendt You can get linked in and find out more about Brenda here: http://www.linkedin.com/in/brendajcarlson

The spotlight speaker was Darla Donley. She is a representative for a company called SendOutCards. SendOutCards is an online greeting card system. You choose your card from over 15,000 cards or you can upload your own. You enter the recipient's address and SendOutCards prints the card, stuffs it in the envelope, puts a stamp on it and mails it out for you. AWESOME! I can't wait to try this. She emphasized how important it is to use email, personal contact and greeting cards to maintain contact with friends, relatives and business partners. Again, I was reminded how important it is to use all types of communication that we have available to us. You can check out this service at www.sendoutcards.com/havemorefun

Well, thanks again for reading my ramblings. I hope that you take away this.... Don't get so wrapped up in your day to day routines that you forget to use all the tools that are available to you.

Fun and safe games to play on the Internet

2009-11-05T10:59:00.002-06:00

Just for fun I thought I would share with you some of the Internet games that we enjoy playing here at the Bendt house. I love to play Farmville and Bejeweled Blitz on Facebook. If you have a Facebook account you can access these games under the Applications tab or just add me as a friend and you will see my updates. My daughter, Keri, plays Farmville and also visits http://www.bored.com formore games. Johnnie is an avid Roblox player (http://www.roblox.com) This game is a game for creating robots and places. It uses an advanced scripting language so is a great way for young programmers to get a start. For younger players, http://www.millsberry.com/ is a fun way to play learning games and earn millsbucks to decorate avitars and houses.

As always, monitor your child's activities on the Internet and limit their game playing time but these games are all safe and free to use.

To Blog or not to Blog

2009-11-03T08:01:00.003-06:00

I have been getting a lot of great compliments about my blog lately and I want to thank everyone for reading and giving me the feedback. I hope that my posts have been interesting and helpful to you. A lot of my friends and clients have become more interested in blogging have been asking me if they should start blogging and how to get started. Here are some good reasons to start blogging...

1. You can organize your thoughts in one place.
2. You can develop your writing skills.

3. You can get your voice heard. You can blog about anything from and interest you have to your family to your business.
4. You can meet new people. It's amazing how many people can find your blog online and start following what you post.
5. You can get feedback on your ideas. It's always nice to get comments about something you cared enough to blog about.
6. You can teach others. We can't all be good at everything, but we all have our strengths. So, why not share some of your knowledge so others can learn from you?
7. You can open doorways. Blogging isn't only a hobby. Blogging can help you promote your business or yourself and might even land you a job! Imagine adding your blog address to your resume! What a great way for a potential employer to get to know you.
8. You can make better use of your free time. Ever feel like you're not using your free time very productively? Blogging can be a great use of your time. It doesn't have to take over your life - but it can be a good option if you have some time to spare.
9. You can get into a routine. Set aside a few minutes each day at the same time to blog. It can be a great break from your daily grind.
10. You can find it to be very therapeutic. Angry? Sad? Overjoyed? Lonely? Ambivalent? Therapists have recommeded journaling for years. Guess what? Blogging is JOURNALING!

So the next question is how do you get started? There are many blogging websites out there. My personal favorite (obviously since I use it) is Blogger. Found at http://www.blogger.com/, blogger is subset of Google. Visiting that address gets you right to the homepage where it couldn't be easier to set up your blog. Just click on CREATE BLOG!!!! You will be walked through a step by step process and away you go! Best part is.... It is completely free of charge and ad free.

So future bloggers get going and be sure to send me your new blog link! Oh yeah, and watch this music video about blogging if you get a chance.

Happy 40th Birthday to the Internet!

2009-10-28T10:45:00.010-06:00

Tomorrow is the 40th Birthday of the INTERNET

What a busy old year 1969 was.
When man wasn't landing on the moon, the Beatles were performing their last concert together, Led Zeppelin were releasing Led Zeppelin I and the Rolling Stones were playing Altamont. Say no more.
Meanwhile, on October 29, the first Arpanet network connection between remote computers was established.
Arpanet was the military precursor to what we now know as the internet (the term "internetting" would not be coined until 1977).
Anyway, at 10.30pm precisely, the first message was sent over the Arpanet between the University of California, Los Angeles, and the Stanford Research Institute by student Charley Kline. The message itself was the word "login". The "l" and the "o" transmitted without problem but then the system crashed. So, trivia fans, the first message transmitted over the internet was "lo".

Oh and sorry Al Gore, but you did not invent the Internet.

Online Map to check your area for flu outbreaks

2009-10-22T12:11:00.002-06:00

With all the talk of H1N1 (or as I like to call it, THE Swine Flu) and all the other viruses going around, I thought you would enjoy visiting this website which provides the latest information on flu outbreaks in the world. http://healthmap.org/en

HealthMap aggregates news feeds from the WHO, Google News, ProMED, and elsewhere to map out all of the disease outbreaks. It includes a heat index to understand how bad certain situations really are and the most recent health-related news items.

Tip: To check just for influenza-related news, check only the box that says “influenza” under “Diseases, last 30 days”.

Family Guy to air Windows 7 Episode!

2009-10-19T08:51:00.003-06:00

Seth McFarlane, creator of Family Guy, confirmed that a Windows 7 themed, Microsoft sponsored episode of the irreverent TV show will air soon.

There will be no commercial ad time, no network promotions, and no commercial breaks--just a 30-minute Windows 7 trailer. It will feature original animation, live-action performances of Family Guy's most memorable musical numbers, comedy sketches, and surprise celebrity guests.

The show airs on Fox Sunday, November 8th at 8:30 PM EST/PST, 7:30 PM CST.

In my opinion it should be well worth watching but keep in mind that the "Family Guy", by nature, is meant for mature audiences.

Considerations Parents Should Make When Naming a Baby

2009-10-16T11:48:00.007-06:00

Naming a baby 30 years ago was much easier. Parents just needed to pick a name they liked, say John or Michael, add the surname, and that was it.

Enter the Internet, and everything changes. Now you need to think twice before naming your kid or else he/she might have a lot of trouble on their digital interactions. Below are some new considerations parents should make when naming a baby these days.

1. Is NameSurname.com Still Available?
In the future it is very likely that every person will need to have an online presence, and having the namesurname.com domain is the best way to go. You can check this by going to any domain registration website such as http://www.godaddy.com/ and entering the first and last name that you are considering followed by .com in the lookup box.

2. Is NameSurname Still Available on Twitter and Facebook?
Another cornerstone of your child's online presence will be their Twitter and Facebook accounts. Make sure that the prospective name is still available on those websites by visiting http://www.twitter.com/ and http://www.facebook.com/ and starting the signup process.

3. Will the name trigger email spam filters?
Email will probably remain the digital communication channel of choice. Make sure that the name or surname of your kid will not trigger spam filters for sexual or common scamming content.

4. Will it be easy to rank in Google’s first position for “name surname”?
Evaluate whether or not it will be easy to get your kid’s website ranked in the first position of Google for the “name surname” search query. Virtually everyone will use a search engine to find information in the future, and you don’t want people who are searching for your kid (i.e. to make a job offer) ending in the website of some footbal player or rock star.

I am sure there are many more things to consider but this should get you thinking!

Want to be a Gyan?

2009-10-15T09:37:00.002-06:00

Gyan is the Sanskrit word for knowledge. As Hindi borrows heavily from Sanskrit, the word has the same meaning in Hindi too.

Gyanis are knowledgeable people, those who are maestros in their fields.
Words like guru and gyanis, though are Sanskrit words, are now becoming more popular in English, especially to denote a person proficient in technology field.

Read this blog every day and you might become one!

“Woo-Hoo...Woo-Hoo-Hoo...”

2009-10-15T07:22:00.004-06:00

Good morning! I have something that I want to share with you but I hope you don't take it the wrong way. I am not trying to sell you anything.

We are really trying to cut expenses around here so in reviewing our bills we found that we were paying over $160 for our 2 phone lines with MCI (one home, one business). I decided to take the leap and sign our home phone up for VOIP (voice over Internet protocol). I did a lot of research first and went with the company that had the best jingle. Just kidding. But I did chose Vonage because of their unbelievable $24.99/month plan that includes every feature under the sun including visual voice mails (they actually transcribe your voice mails and send them to you via e-mail) Very cool. All local toll and long distance calls are included in the price, even most internationally calls. You must have a high speed Internet connection (no dial-up) and you have to get used to the fact that your phone line is no longer a POTS line (Plain old telephone service). That means that your jacks do not have dial tone anymore. They send you an adapter that you connect to your cable or dsl modem. You will probably want to invest in a cordless phone system that has multiple handsets. I picked a nice VTECH system up at Walmart that has 3 handsets. It was only $59.99. You can plug the extra handsets in anywhere in the house so you won't miss a call and you don't have to have a RJ21 (telephone jack) in a room to have a phone in it.

My review so far is that I love it! You can log in to your account and configure your services the way you want them. Another cool feature that you can have is "call hunt." When someone calls your main number and you don't answer you can program it to ring on up to 2 different numbers (example.. cell phone). If there is still no answer the call will go to voice mail.

I like it so much that I switched my business line over too. So now I will be saving $110/month on phone bills!!!

If you have any questions or would like to learn more just send me an email at info@wizedezigns.com or call me at 715-377-0233. I am including a sign-up banner and link. If you click on it and put my telephone number 715-377-0233 in the "get it now and start saving box" we will both get 2 MONTHS FREE! That's all for now. More later of course...

2009-10-14T11:20:00.004-06:00

Mid-week is here and before another week gets away from me I wanted to post another article. I spend an average of 10 hours a week updating myself on search engine optimization and submission. I thought it would be a good idea to let you know about the newest search engine on the scene, Microsoft's bing.

Bing is becoming the new Google. Who would have guessed that the yet-another-search-engine-attempt-from-microsoft-to-beat-google would really turn successful?
Well, it surely seems that Microsoft has finally worked its magic this time as Bing has become the 13th most visited site on the web. According to Compete, Bing’s traffic has overtaken that of other prominent sites like Digg, Twitter and CNN.
Now, for those people who would like to switch to Bing, but finds Google to be unavoidable, there is a solution.

http://www.AskBoth.com

AskBoth.com is a new Web 2.0 search engine that combines the results from Google and Bing and displays them side by side. Note that entire Bing page or Google page is not displayed, but just the results are displayed here.

Check it out if you get a chance and make sure that if you have a website that you contact your webmaster and request that your site be submitted to bing as a proactive measure.

Welcome to my NEW blog (I deleted the old one)

2009-10-13T15:00:00.000-06:00

Welcome to my new blog. I deleted my old one because all of the information was out of date. This blog will try to take you through day to day uses of the Internet for your personal and business use.

This week I spent my usual amount of time on my favorite websites: http://www.facebook.com/ http://www.drudgereport.com/, http://www.rivertowns.net/, http://www.ebay.com/, http://www.wellsfargo.com/, http://www.searchenginewatch.com/, http://www.coburnsdelivers.com/, http://www.youtube.com/ and I could go on and on. The most unusual thing that I did on the Internet this week was to develop a Facebook Fan page. This is different from a regular Facebook profile page. Facebook fan pages are for businesses and allow you to custom program your pages. Please take a peek and become a fan here. Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Blogger etc.. are community websites that are part of what is collectively known as web 2.0 soon to be web 3.0. Easy to use programming interfaces that allow even a half way intelligent 8 year old to do advance tasks on the Internet such as posting photos, creating and joining discussion groups, posting multimedia, configuring design, etc.... Johnnie, my 12 year old son, has a pretty nice Facebook site and is proficient at using MSN messenger and developing applications on ROBLOX. Keri and Kristen, my teen daughters are active daily on Facebook. Kristen just landed a social media marketing insternship at St. Thomas University. I mention this because I intend to include them in my blogs from time to time as their Internet activity is the window to the future. (please note: I do not recommend letting any child go unsupervised on the Internet. Computers should always be in common areas of the home, usernames and passwords must be known to the parents for all sites and services and children should know that they have no privacy when it comes to the Internet.)

To wrap up now, this blog will hopefully keep you interested in the Internet without being too overwhelmed or bored. Hopefully you will come back and visit from time to time which is the whole purpose of blogs: driving traffic to your website. Feel free to email me with topic suggestions or comments.