A Brief History of Blogging Blogs have become an integral part of online culture. Practically everyone reads blogs now, whether they’re “official” news blogs associated with traditional news media, topic-based blogs related to one’s work or hobbies, or blogs purely for entertainment, just about anyone you ask has at least one favorite blog. But it wasn’t always so. And it’s only in the past five to ten years that they’ve really taken off and become an important part of the online landscape. The Early Years It’s generally recognized that the first blog was Links.net, created by Justin Hall, while he was a Swarthmore College student in 1994. It wasn’t until 1997 that the term “weblog” was coined. 1998 marks the first known instance of a blog on a traditional news site, when Jonathan Dube blogged Hurricane Bonnie for The Charlotte Observer. “Weblog” was shortened to “blog” in 1999 by programmer Peter Merholz. The original blogs were updated manually, often linked from a central home page or archive. The Growth Period
10 Steps for Successful Social Media Monitoring Maria Ogneva is the Director of Social Media at Attensity, a social media engagement and voice-of-customer platform that helps the social enterprise serve and collaborate with the social customer. You can follow her on Twitter at @themaria or @attensity360, or find her musings on her personal blog and her company's blog. Recently I wrote about the differences in social media monitoring and measurement, as well as the importance of doing both. However, taking the first step to actually start monitoring can be daunting. How do you engage? I've developed these throughout my career and as part of my regular listening, participating and contributing to the space. 1. Why are you monitoring? Having an end goal in mind will help you target your resources correctly, select the right tool for the job and be more effective in the end. 2. Social media is relationship and conversation media. 3. Recall that monitoring is keyword-based, and thus selection of the right keywords is important. 4. 5. 6. 7.
300+ Awesome Free Internet Resources You Should Know Ali Mese is a freelancer, wanderer, and contributor to few startup projects. Say hi on Facebook or Twitter. This post originally appeared on his Medium blog. I’ve prepared a list of 300 web resources that are not only awesome, but free to use. Business + Marketing HTML5 UP: Responsive HTML5 and CSS3 site templates.Bootswatch: Free themes for Bootstrap.Templated: A collection of 845 free CSS & HTML5 site templates.WordPress.org | WordPress.com: Create your new website for free.Strikingly.com Domain: Free website resources for strikingly.com domains.Withoomph: Beautiful logos designed instantly.Hipster Logo Generator: It’s Hip, It’s Current, It’s Stylish, It’s Hipster.Squarespace Free Logo: You can download free low-res version for free.Hive: First free unlimited cloud service in the world.Invoice to me: Free Invoice Generator.Free Invoice Generator: Alternative free invoice generator.Slimvoice: Insanely simple invoices. Design + Code Some hand-picked some free photo packs: Discover & Learn
6 links that will show you what Google knows about you — Productivity in the Cloud 6 links that will show you what Google knows about you (Photo by Alex Koloskov at www.photigy.com ) Want to find out all the things Google knows about you? Here are 6 links that will show you some of the data Google has about you. 1. In order to serve relevant ads, Google collects data about you and creates a profile. Google also has a tool called Google Analytics, that helps publishers see what pages you have viewed on their website, how many times you have visited it, how long did you stay etc. 2. If you use Android, your mobile device may be sending your location to Google. 3. Google saves every single search you have ever done. 4. Google offers an Account activity page that tells you about all the Google services you are using. 5. 6.
12 Lesser-Known Google Projects That Are Amazing Google revolutionized the Internet by making the global brain easily searchable by anyone. In addition to search, Google has created all kinds of different tools like Google Maps, Gmail, Analytics, Android and Apps that many of us use everyday. One of the reasons why Google has consistently released new innovative project is because of their 20% time policy, which gives many of their employees one day a week to experiment with new concepts and ideas. In this post, I want to show you some of most fascinating websites that Google employees have created and how you can use them as educational tools. 1. Tap into the visual intelligence of the global brain by visualizing search trends as they are happening right now in every country in the world. 2. Explore the ancient and modern wonders of the world like Angor Wat, the Pyramids of Giza, Stonehenge and the Great Barrier Reef in high-res photos and 3D Street View style imagery. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12.