The Netbook Review

Friend Connect - How the Google Digg Love Child Affects You

Friend connect is cleverly disguised as a so-called widgettitled “Followers” and released on google’s blogspot bloggerdomain. This is most likely a response to the broken downnegotiations between Google and Digg.

As you may know Google was just a hair away from purchasing Diggand integrating its data and results into search results. Thiswould supposedly improve the search listings but at the 11 hournegotiations broke down and the Googlers left the table seeminglywalking away forever.

You can see an example of what it looks like on some bloggerblogs. Do a search for friend connect followers widget on bloggerand that should give you a good start.

When you go to a page which has the widget you have theopportunity to become what is called a “follower”. You can see thewidget and the pictures of the current followers avatars at theupper left of the page or upper right depending on the templatebeing used on that blog.

There is no way to tell at this point whether Google will usethe number of followers and how long people read your blog posts asfactors for increasing or decreasing your ranking in big G’s searchresults.

It may just be the G men of search following their standard MOby mostly secretly under cover of night releasing this. This isabout par for the course for the googlers.

Friend connect is only found on certain blogspot blogs right nowbasically the bloggers in the know on how to install it. It isavailable to all blogger blogs just most people don’t know about itbecause of the launch secrecy and many people on blogger arenewbies and amateurs who don’t know how easy it is to install thewidget.

I believe you have to be logged into your account to be able tofollow blogs. (Sidenote: I also recommend putting in a good photoof yourself into your google account). Depending on what you’regoing to be using your big G profile for the photo should reflectthis. Obviously business photo should be more professional and ifyou’re going to be using it mostly personal you can certainly throwup a wacky photo of yourself. I leave that part up to you

Confirm the settings you want because you’re in control of howyou get your content. You can join publicly and your picture willshow same as it does on the MyBlogLog and BlogCatalog widgets.

Or you can join “anonymously” and just receive the updateswithout being seen. This is the very cool part about friend connectbecause it keeps you in complete control of what content you getand how you get it.

I join blogs publicly and recommend you do the same becauseyou’re part of the community and want to be participating in thediscussions and being seen by other members.

Next, click one of the avatars of those who have already joinedand add the person as a friend and send them an introductory blurb.This will give you a fledging taste of using friend connect as yourfirst baby steps. Obviously, I’ve taken the time to talk about thiswith you because I believe it is going to be a huge part of the webgoing forward.

I’ll be talking about this more in my Facebook research. Theprocess of adding friends here and making true connections is thesame as it is on FB. This is true for any and all social networksbecause the underlying key is the “social” aspect.

There are some basic fundamentals to make you much moresuccessful in meeting new people and making new connections.Deepening those connections will be the key but beyond the scope ofthis article.

The next screen you will see after clicking on their photo istheir profile, links to their social networks and their G Readershared items. This is big G’s social bookmarking application.

For those of you who do not know how to use Google Social,called Googling Social, I have instructions to create a profile,add friends to it from Gmail and get started with the Reader whichis the social bookmarking application.

Currently, the links to get to the pieces of Googling Social arehard to find so the best starting point is someone elses profile,you can find mine in the resource box at the bottom of thisarticle.

Once you are on my profile page, look in the upper right handcorner of the page, the link is “my profile” and it is just to theright of your gmail address. Assuming he you’re logged into youraccount it will take you to a screen after you click on the my”profile link” where you can set up your own profile.

Sidenote: it looks like big G is starting to index theseprofiles in their main search engine index. So be aware of thisprivacy reasons and also as a predictor of how influential theirsocial platform will be in their 2009 search engine results.

Word of warning, the Gmail address that you are logged into willbe your public Gmail address in Reader and how you make friendsthru Gmail. So if you have a private address then don’t use it. Useone you’re ok being public (despite G’s best efforts some spam botsmaybe able to harvest your address and spam you).

You only get one profile no matter how many Gmail addresses youhave, so choose wisely.

If you have any questions you can email me from my contact pageon my site also in the resource box.

You make friends in this system by first initiating an e-mail.And then your new friend has to reply back to your e-mail.

This does a couple of things which are beyond the scope of thisarticle but the main one you need to know about now is the morefriends you have the more follow links you’ll get to your website.If you don’t know followed links are very important to your Google,Yahoo, and MSN rankings.

After you’ve made the initial e-mail contacts and gotten a replyback from your new friend, then invite your new friend to Gchat byclicking the link at the bottom of the email communication you hadwith them. At that point you’ll be connected. The friending processis made purposefully difficult to insure there’s a 2 way connectionand cut down on spam which is a good thing for all of us.

This is WIN WIN. The more friends you have in this the better itworks for you; and everyone in your network.

This will be huge so jump into the deep end now and be an earlyadopter dominator.

Stay tuned for more info about the big G’s big changes to theirsocial platform, how the new search results will show (hint:personalized), and how you can profit from it the whitehat way.

About the Author

Social media marketing expert and long-time copywriter. Newestproject “Gets You Free Instant Social Media Exposure” atInstantSocial Media MarketingFree Traffic
Alexander’sGoogle ProfileYou can edit your profile from here.

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Tags:  affects, big, blogger, connect, digg, friend, friends, gmail, love, photo, profile, search, social

Where To Find Laptop Wireless Internet Access While On Vacation

Locating laptop wireless Internet access, also known as WiFi,while traveling can be quite a challenge, particularly when you arein a strange town and do not know where the best hotspots are. Manypeople do not realize WiFi hotspots can be found if you know how togo about looking. Here are a few tips for finding wireless Internetwhile traveling.

Get WiFi in your hotel. Many hotels these days offer laptopwireless Internet access, particularly business class hotels. It isbecoming fairly common for people to bring their laptop computerswith them when they travel, and therefore desire a connection inorder to check email, browse the Internet, check banking accountsonline, and attend to their professional business. Therefore hotelsoften have WiFi, sort of as a selling point for attractingclientele to their facilities.

If having it is important to you, you should probably keep thisin mind when searching for and booking hotel rooms during travelresearch. Check a hotels website thoroughly before booking a room.If they offer wireless Internet, their website will no doubt sayso. The preference should obviously be free wireless access, butsome hotels will only offer WiFi on a paid basis. Keep this in mindand be sure to see how much the charge will be.

Look for coffee shops, bookstores, and other establishments thatoffer it. Coffee shops are the most common places to find laptopwireless Internet access, followed by bookstores, especially thosewith cafes. For instance, Starbucks coffee shops can be found allover the U.S. and they almost always offer it. You may be able tofind this as a free service for paying customers, but it is morecommon to have to pay for a short block of time, such as an hour ortwo. Also, if you have a paid account with one of the hotspotcarriers, such as T-Mobile or AT&T, you may want to look for anestablishment offering that specific carrier. Even McDonalds isoffering WiFi these days!

Airports are another good place to find WiFi, which isespecially handy if you are traveling. You can also usually findfree wireless Internet at libraries.

Pay for mobile wireless. Laptop wireless Internet access canalso be purchased for a specific laptop, just as cell phone servicecan be purchased for your phone. Basically, you install a specialPCMCIA card and software on your computer, pay a certain amountevery month, and get a certain amount of bandwidth to use on theInternet each month. You access the Internet wirelessly via thecell phone network, which allows you to get online from mostlocations where there is a cell phone signal strong enough to allowyou to download email and web pages.

Although mobile wireless plans are great for people who need tobe able to access email and the Internet on the go, they also havesome significant drawbacks. For one thing, the connection is can besomewhat slow, since it is a connection with a regular cell phonenetwork. Also, you often do not get very much bandwidth per month,and going over your quota can be quite costly. Thankfully, newcarriers are expanding their selections on plans, and costs aresteadily decreasing. Knowing you can hop on the Internet right awaywithout having to find a WiFi location is often more convenient,which far outweighs the disadvantages.

Having laptop wireless Internet access is extremely importantfor some people while they are traveling, particularly businesspeople and those on business trips. Luckily there are many ways tomake sure you remain in touch virtually while you are away fromhome!

About the Author

Andy West is a writer for Velocity Guide, providing high speedinternet to all users. From rural users to those looking forlaptop wirelessinternet access. Get the best deal possible atVelocityGuide.com.

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Tags:  business, coffee, free, hotels, internet, laptop, offer, people, phone, traveling, vacation, wifi, wireless