James E. Lee's Blog

Use Google Talk's voicemail feature as a general purpose voice memo service

2007-06-01T21:15:24Z

What?

Send yourself a voicemail message using Google Talk and you'll get it as an MP3 audio file via email. This makes it a great general purpose voice memo service.

The ability to record up to 10 minutes of audio and get it as an MP3 via email makes Google Talk's voicemail a useful and flexible tool for recording audio. Sending yourself voicemail gives you several options: listen to the MP3 using Gmail's embedded player, forward it to others (even if they don't use Google Talk), download it, post it to a blog or website, etc.

How?

Send yourself voicemail using Google Talk in 3 easy steps.

Before you begin, you'll need some kind of microphone or headset (I use the Bluetooth headset I bought for my mobile phone) setup as your computer's audio input device. Once that's setup, go to Google Talk's Settings to make sure the right input device is selected. For now, you have to use the desktop version of Google Talk — voicemail is not currently supported in the Gadget version.

Search - Search for yourself in the "Search all contacts" field. (Hey, Google Talk Team: It would be really nice if we could send voicemail to ourselves without having to search first!)
Hover - Once your name comes up, hover over it, and a dialog box will pop up. Click the "Send voicemail" button. (If "Call" is the only button that comes up, use that; it'll ring briefly and indicate that the call was not answered, and you'll see the "Send voicemail" button.)
Record - Wait for the "meep", record your message, and click "End Call". You'll receive the voicemail message via email shortly afterward.

The Google Talk Blog has more information about using voicemail.

Tips & Tricks

To find all your voicemail messages, click the phone icon at the bottom of Google Talk, or type label:voicemail in Gmail's search box.
Easily record a quick podcast without having to find & setup additional software. (Audacity is a free, open source option for more extensive audio recording.)
Enrich email to far-away family & loved ones with the sound of your voice, even if they don't use Google Talk.

Thanks for yet another great free service, Google, and for such a well-designed & useful service, Google Talk Team!

Feedback and suggestions for Google Calendar

2007-03-22T06:00:00Z

Here are my ideas for improving Google Calendar

Display the current time, in all views. Knowing the current time of day is relevant and useful when working with a calendar. I often find myself switching browser tabs to look at the clock gadget on my Personalized Homepage when I'm looking at my day. I'm sure there's a desire not to clutter the interface, but an unobtrusive clock could be added; perhaps a simple digital readout under the current month display. As a bonus, add a thin horizontal time indicator bar in Day and Week view that moves vertically down as the day progresses. The hour indicator on the left of the page could be highlighted in the same color as the bar. This is a quick & easy way to see where you are in the day relative to what's on the agenda.

Update: 2007.03.22 - A day after I wrote this, Lifehacker published a post with an image that shows an example of this horizontal indicator — go check it out to see what I mean. The post was an intro to today's Rock Your Google Calendar in 18 Ways, by Anne Zelenka at Web Worker Daily. She noted that GCal doesn't seem to get a lot of love or attention lately; well, see below for some from me. Thanks for your useful post, Anne!
Add background shading to Saturday & Sunday in Month View. On the small month indicator, Saturday and Sunday are lightly shaded, making them easy to distinguish from weekdays. This useful visual cue would be a great enhancement for the main Week and Month views.
Sync with mobile devices. (I'm happy to see this is already on the list, but I have some comments.) The SMS/text messaging interface is useful, and it's really nice to be able to add events that way. I hope this won't go away or be deprecated even when sync is enabled. For planning, though, we need to be able to refer to the calendar, and browse it. The inability to sync is a serious deficiency, and kept me away from Google Calendar for a long time — the fact that so many of us use it without sync is a testament to how good everything else is!
Update: 2007.05.24 - Google released the mobile web service, Calendar for mobile devices. Thanks, Google! This goes a long way toward solving the problem of real mobile access. I still think sync is the ideal, but maybe that'll be an option for the future. It would be nice to be able to delete entries, though, as well as modify them. (I know it's new.)
Add ability to link events to other calendars as an alternative to copying them. I copy several events among my and my wife's calendars, because we each want the ability to filter the other's calendar, but still see things we're doing together. That means when I update an event, I have to do so in two places. Since I have the ability to write to her calendar, it would be nice to designate some events as linked, so they show up independently on shared calendars, but can be updated on either one, with the changes reflected on both.

This list, which I'm publishing in March 2007 — when Google Calendar is just shy of its first birthday — is almost certain to grow and develop.

Google Calendar is amazing

I recently switched to Google Calendar and I'm really impressed. I wanted to use it when it first came out, but was waiting to switch from Yahoo Calendar because I (and many others) wanted an easy, Google-supported way to sync with my Windows Mobile smartphone. I switched anyway, and even without mobile phone sync, I can't get over how much I like Google Calendar.

The team that built it invested a lot of research and effort into doing so, and it shows. For a look at how they did it, check out Rakesh Agrawal's blog post with notes and commentary about Product Manager Carl Sjogreen's presentation [.pdf] at the Future of Web Apps Summit, 2006.

Google Calendar feels good and is enjoyable to use — it makes me want to use a calendar, and that makes me more organized and productive. It's a great example of what a web application can be now. It's fast, easy, and knows it's connected to the web. Google Calendar isn't perfect — in fact, it's beta — but it's worth serious consideration.

Keep an eye on Grazr — If you use feeds, you'll want this widget

2007-03-07T07:00:00Z

Grazr is a really cool feed widget you should check out

If you've discovered the benefits of using feeds, you should take a look at Grazr. It's an embeddable, web-based feed browser widget that augments your primary feed reader & lets you put feeds anywhere on the web.

Grazr isn't a replacement for a full-fledged feed reader — it's an addition to your toolkit: a blazing fast feed widget that makes sharing and interacting with feed content easy. It's multimedia capable, so you can look at pictures, listen to audio, and watch video in the feed, all without having to subscribe. You can put a Grazr widget on several popular personalized start pages, a blog post/sidebar, a regular web page, even your Windows desktop.

Grazr.com recently achieved two important milestones

Funding - Grazr just completed a Series A financing round of $1.5M. They've already developed an impressive tool, but clearly that's just the beginning.
Outline & feed hosting - Now you can host your web outlines (OPML) & feeds in your own account at grazr.com. This is a great service for people who want to use and share web outlines and feeds, but don't have a web server on which to host them. I have my own web server, but just as hosting & sharing my links at del.icio.us is far better than I could do it myself, I expect Grazr.com to add significant value when you use their service to host feeds and outlines.

These are two very positive events for the company, and I'm excited to see what they'll do next. You can help influence that by participating in the forums. The team really listens to and values input from people who use Grazr, so if you have ideas, share them!

Grazr makes feeds fun and easy

Grazr was originally built to let people "graze" feed content without having to subscribe. It makes feeds fun and easy, and lets people use them without having to understand how they work, install software, or sign up for anything. It will help feeds break out of subscription jail, and that should promote more innovation in how feeds are used.

I expect to see a lot more from the Grazr team, and I think we'll all be beneficiaries of their successes. Congrats, and keep up the good work!

Example Grazrs

Explore interesting Flickr photos, watch the most recent YouTube featured videos, and listen to CNN updated news updates.

(If you're reading this in a feed reader, click on an image below to launch the corresponding Grazr.)

Here's a web outline that displays the 3 feeds above in a single Grazr panel

Yahoo increases authentication timeout

2007-03-01T04:50:00Z

Problem

Yahoo services require re-authentication too often.

Being forced to sign in to Yahoo services again and again was frustrating. I use several on a daily basis, almost always from well-protected computers at home & work. I appreciate the value of security, but the timeout was short enough to be annoying, especially given my access from very low-risk environments.

This stood in stark contrast to using Google services, where I'm asked to re-authenticate so rarely that I don't even notice — that's how it should be.

Solution

Keep me signed in — for 2 weeks

Yahoo recently added a "Keep me signed in" checkbox that allows me to stay signed in for 2 weeks. This relatively minor improvement has a big impact because it helps reduce friction when using Yahoo services. User-configurable timeouts would be ideal, but this is an effective solution. It will certainly help keep me signed in to and enjoying Yahoo services.

Thanks, Yahoo!

Burn your Yahoo Pipes

2007-02-14T19:00:00Z

What?

Mix feeds with Yahoo Pipes — enhance and analyze them by publishing with Feedburner.

Yahoo Pipes is a feed mixing service, and Feedburner provides tools for enhancing, analyzing, and publishing feeds. It doesn't always make sense to combine the two, but when it does, these complimentary services provide a good set of feedmastering tools.

When?

Publish with Feedburner when a pipe's feed is more valuable than its architecture.

Creating a Yahoo Pipe produces two significant outputs:

Architecture - The ability to publish pipes makes it easy to copy and build on each others' work. This is how a lot of us started learning HTML when the web was new, and it's a great way to share knowledge and help something catch on fast. Publish your pipe with Yahoo Pipes when its architecture is important.
Feed - In some cases, the feed a pipe produces is more important than sharing its architecture. Gina Trapani at Lifehacker writes about using Pipes to create a master feed of all the feeds you publish. In this case, the feed and its readership stats are likely more valuable to the publisher than the details of its construction would be to other people. (Gina offers her useful example pipe for people to copy, but most will consider this a pretty basic pipe once they get the hang of feedmixing). Publish your pipe's feed with Feedburner when its feed is important.

I'm not encouraging anyone to withold publishing pipes using the Pipes publishing interface, but when the pipe's feed is more important than its architecture, publishing it using Feedburner offers several benefits.

Why?

Feedburner is an established feed publishing service that provides valuable feed analysis and management tools, making it a good front end for publishing feeds.

Free basic readership statistics, with graphs.
Feed promotion services that make sure feed search engines know about your updates.
Human-readable feed address. You can choose a meaningful name and address for your feed, rather than publishing the complex one produced by your pipe. This makes it easier to talk about and identify when you are working with your feeds outside the Pipes interface. (Hint: Name your Feedburner feed the same as you name the pipe that produces it, so they're easy to match up.)
Flexibility and persistence. Publishing your feed via Feedburner means its address will remain the same if you decide to use something other than Yahoo Pipes to produce it.
Centralized feed publishing & management. If you're already using Feedburner (e.g., to publish your blog's feed), you may want to consider using it as a central service for publishing all your feeds.
Add various enhancements to your feed.

How?

Build, burn, and share.

Build a pipe. Create a Yahoo Pipe and "run" it to get its feed address. Don't publish the pipe — if you do, people will subscribe directly to its feed, and you want them to use your burned feed. (Running the pipe gives you its feed address without publishing the pipe.)
Burn the pipe's feed. Create a new feed in Feedburner using the pipe's feed as the "Original Feed". Feedburner will guide you through adding any enhancements you want.
Share the burned feed. Feedburner offers various feed promotion and publishing services, but once you've burned it and have the new human-readable address you chose for it, you can share it any way you like — email, social networking services, etc.

Yahoo! Pipes: Feedmixing — and a lot more — done right!

2007-02-08T06:47:28Z

After I had my "aha! moment" about feeds, I wrote up a wishlist of what I wanted to see in a feedmixing service.
Several months later, I read Ray Ozzie's post Wiring the Web, in which he said,
RSS has the potential to be the “UNIX pipe of the internet”
and thought, "exactly!"

Apparently, some smart people at Yahoo! were listening to both of us, and they sure did deliver!

I've only just begun to play with Yahoo! Pipes, and I can already say, it's gonna be hot! I considered my feedmixing wishlist fairly forward-thinking for its time, but a quick glance at the things Pipes can do and the ways it lets you do them shows some real vision.

From the Pipes website:

Pipes is a hosted service that lets you remix feeds and create new data mashups in a visual programming environment. The name of the service pays tribute to Unix pipes, which let programmers do astonishingly clever things by making it easy to chain simple utilities together on the command line

That's really just the beginning of how to think about it; the true description and definition of Pipes will evolve through the innovation it's sure to produce.

Unfortunately, I don't have time to play with or write about Pipes more right now, but I definitely plan to do both, and I strongly encourage you to go check it out. The site provides a good overview — for some in-depth discussion, explanation, and analysis, read Tim O'Reilly's Pipes and Filters for the Internet. I look forward to having a lot of fun, and doing some really cool things with Yahoo! Pipes!

Create a feedmap to help people find, preview, and subscribe to your feeds

2007-01-10T09:00:00Z

What?

A "feedmap" is an outline that provides a central place to find, subscribe to, and see how feeds are organized — much like a traditional web sitemap. A feedmap takes the idea further by making it possible to preview and actually interact with feed content.

We didn't realize we needed sitemaps until the web became popular and websites became complex. Although feeds aren't quite mainstream yet, many sites already publish more than one. As this trend continues, people will want a central place to find feeds. Some sites already recognize this, and publish a list of feeds. A feedmap expands on this by showing how feeds are organized, and letting people preview and interact with the content. Since it's written in OPML, a feedmap;

allows publishers to organize feeds in a meaningful structure
makes it easy for people to preview feeds
can be imported into most feed readers
makes it easy to subscribe to individual feeds
may enable people to subscribe to entire feedmaps in the future

An example feedmap

Here's a feedmap for my blog, (if you're reading this in a feed reader, you'll have to use the link) displayed in Grazr:

Update: 2007.01.15 - There have been some intermittent problems displaying my blog's feedmap in Grazr. I'm working with the Grazr team to try to figure out what's going on, and plan to contact Yahoo! Webhosting support as well. Sorry for the inconvenience! Since the problem is intermittent, it's possible you might be able to see the feedmap in the Grazr panel on my blog's sidebar; it's also listed there, and sometimes that loads even though this example doesn't.

Update: 2007.03.31 - Yahoo's tech support has been quite unhelpful in resolving the problem I mention above, so I'm hosting my feedmap at Grazr.com's new hosting service, which wasn't available when I created this post. Ultimately, that's where I want to store my outines. Unfortunately, this allows the outline to display quickly, but doesn't solve the problem of actually displaying the feed content within Grazr, since there's something blocking a couple of grazr.com's servers from accessing my Yahoo-hosted site. I'm really disappointed that I wasn't able to get better support from Yahoo. I haven't given up, but they seem to have decided to ignore my most recent response in our correspondence.

Audience

Anyone who publishes more than one feed should consider publishing a feedmap.

Why?

A feedmap organizes feeds in one place using a standard format, and lets people preview feed content without being forced to subscribe.

The newest versions of popular web browsers are just beginning to get better at helping people subscribe to feeds, but they're still not very good at it, and subscribing won't always be the goal. Once feeds become mainstream, people will see them as another source of potential information overload and become more selective about subscribing. As James Corbett predicted, we'll want to graze feeds more and subscribe less.

There's a new generation of embeddable, "widgetized", web-based feed browsers that are purpose-built for grazing feeds and interacting with feed content — Grazr, Optimal, and Bitty Browser are examples. Grazr is my favorite; it lets you see pictures, listen to audio, and watch video, right in the feed. You don't have to worry about subscribing, but it's easy to do by right clicking on the feed, copying the link, and pasting it into a feed reader.

How?

Build it in OPML, display it in Grazr

This post isn't a tutorial, it's a recommendation for feed publishers to start publishing feedmaps. The details are an exercise for the reader, but it's not hard to create a feedmap:

Use OPML to build your feedmap. OPML is an outlining language you use to define the structure of your feedmap. Among its other uses, OPML has become the de facto standard for import and export of feed reader subscription lists. If you're familiar with HTML, OPML is easy to pick up, and the Grazr team has developed really good OPML primer that will get you started.
- OPML isn't an "official" standard, but until or unless one emerges, having your feedmap in a well-known format that's as widely used as OPML will increase the likelihood that it's easy to convert.
Use Grazr to display your feedmap. Grazr is the key to bringing a feedmap to life, since it makes feeds immediately usable. You don't have to use Grazr to display your feedmap — you could just link to the raw OPML file — but that's like linking to the source code of a web page. To make it easy for people to check out your feeds, display it in a feed browser.
- To display your feedmap, you can either embed a Grazr panel into your site, or provide a link to your feedmap displayed in Grazr.

Tips & Tricks

Make your feedmap modular. If your site publishes various feeds in different topic areas, consider creating separate OPML files for each area and including them in the feedmap. This way you can use them in other outlines, and people can access the specific one they want. (Determining the appropriate level of granularity for doing this will undoubtedly become an art.)

Terms like OPML & XOXO are too technical and specific — let's call them "live outlines"

2006-12-31T01:55:00Z

What?

I propose we use the term "live outline" to refer to dynamic content — such as OPML files that contain lists of feeds — that people create using XML outline formats.

I've seen some discussion about what to call the information organized using these formats, but there doesn't seem to be a convention for referring to them in general. This leads to difficulties sharing ideas related to the formats, and explaining them to people who aren't familiar with them. I really like Dave Winer's idea of a reading list, but that's just one kind of live outline; these formats can be used to create live outlines that can serve various purposes (for example, the one on my blog's sidebar or a travel outline).

"Live outline" is friendlier and easier to talk about (and say!) than "OPML", "XOXO", etc. It's a good general term everyone can use and understand without too much difficulty. It's fine to use "outline" and "outlining" in context; "live" can be omitted when people know what's being discussed.

Audience

This proposal is intended for people creating content and applications using structured outlines based on XML formats, such as OPML, XOXO, and OML.

Why?

To encourage widespread adoption and use of these formats and reltated technologies, we need simple, non-technical terms that convey meaning well. People are much more open to learning something new if it has a name they can relate to, understand, and pronounce.

Live outlines will have a significant and growing role in how people consume, organize, and share feeds:

OPML is already a de facto standard for export/import of feed subscription lists.
Hopefully, Dave Winer's idea of feed readers allowing people to subscribe to reading lists (and other live outlines) will become a reality soon. This is a really good idea!
Tools like Grazr make it easy for anyone to browse, navigate, and share live outlines.

If we want people to get comfortable using structured outline formats, we need to talk about them in terms that won't alienate or put people off. Try telling someone about the cool OPML file you're building, and watch how quickly their eyes glaze over. Changing the language we use can make all the difference, and we already have a familiar example of this: Consider the idea that live outline is to OPML document as web page is to HTML document. People can relate to the idea of writing a web page, and it's easy to talk about web pages; a major reason is the lack of hard-to-pronounce technical acronyms.

People are already familiar with the concept of an outline. They don't have to learn an entirely new concept to understand a live outline, just a new use for something they already know.
People can easily understand that live = dynamic (e.g., feeds). Again, though, "live" sounds better and is easier to say than "dynamic". I know that OPML, etc. are not just for feeds, but I think organizing and managing feeds will be the highest-profile common use for the formats, at least for a while.
Firefox has already begun to popularlize the term and concept of "live bookmarks". We can take advantage of that and extend the idea to live outlines.
Non-technical people who use these outlines aren't going to (and shouldn't) care much about the details of the format in which they're written.. They'll need to recognize names for compatibility, but only until services and applications interoperate well (how many feed readers support RSS and not ATOM, or require a specific version of either?) Recognition can be important for a while when a technology is new, but how many people that use the web care about the language in which web pages are written? In most cases, they don't want to know.

I'm not arguing that we should stop using format-specific terms in technical discussions and documents; they certainly have their place. I just want to promote the use of terms that insulate people from unnecessarily technical, specific acronyms that aren't likely to be relevant to them. Plus, I want a general way to talk about the information structures we build with these formats. "Live outline" conveys meaning without being overly technical or specific to a particular format or technology. I hope the term will help these formats and creative uses of them proliferate more quickly and easily.

What do you think?

I hope this proposal will provoke some discussion. Unfortunately, I've had to disable comments due to spam (and the lack of a good mitigation capability), but if you have thoughts on this proposal, link to this post from your blog. If discussion ensues, I'll add a live search feed of links to this post to tie it all together.

Diagramming Tip: Write first, then draw the box

2006-12-21T17:55:26Z

What?

When you're drawing a diagram, write the words first. Draw the box or circle around the words after you've finished writing what will go in the container.

Why?

Writing first ensures the words will fit inside the container, since you'll draw it around what you've already written. You won't get stuck trying to squeeze the words into a space that's too small.

How many times have you seen people draw boxes on a whiteboard, then try to fit words and phrases into them, and have to start writing smaller or erasing the lines to make more room? Writing the words first

eliminates the problem of running out of space,
results in a nicer looking diagram, and
helps you look better while creating it.

Sometimes it's good to be inside the box.

Benefits of using feeds

2006-12-15T23:00:00Z

For both subscribers and publishers, feeds are a useful addition to the tools we use to distribute, consume, and manage information.

Benefits of subscribing to feeds

Key steps toward addressing the problem of information overload include classifying & prioritizing the information you receive, and reducing the amount of work required to get the information you want. Feeds and a feed reader can help you redirect some information away from your email inbox and automate the retrieval of information you may currently be getting manually.

You can stop checking websites for updated content — the content comes to you. Once you subscribe to a website's feed, you never have to go back and check for updated information. Think about how many sites you visit on a regular basis &mdash news, sports, weather, stocks, blogs, etc. A feed reader automatically checks sites you choose on a regular basis, and lets you know if there's anything new. You can truly "set it and forget it".

Dave Winer, widely credited as the "father of RSS", described feeds as automated web surfing:
"...when people ask what RSS is, I say it's automated web surfing. We took something lots of people do, visiting sites looking for new stuff, and automated it. It's a very predictable thing, that's what computers do -- automate repetitive things."
Free up your email inbox for correspondence. As an information tool, email has long been overloaded as a catch-all for information people want to send and receive. A lot of the email we get isn't correspondence, and often doesn't deserve a high priority. The problem is, we don't have enough control over what we get via email — it just arrives and competes for our attention. One part of the solution is to direct information away from your email inbox and into your feed reader, a tool that's purpose-built for managing information you want to see but don't need to necessarily respond to via email.
Put "read-only" information in its place. Feeds are well suited to one-way and "read-only" communication, and a good feed reader can help you manage a wide range of information you might be getting now via email or by visiting individual web sites. You can use feeds to:
- keep current with the latest news
- monitor stock prices
- get weather updates
- check the traffic report
- track a package
- share links to websites
- monitor topics of interest (using a "search feed"; a feed of search engine results)
- read blogs
- keep up with busy discussion groups
Consider how much less cluttered your email inbox might be if you redirected some of the information above to a feed reader. It's worth noting that the tagline for Google Reader is "Your inbox for the web." Email is great for two-way communication, but for information you just want to read, a feed is often a better choice.
You can unsubscribe with confidence. You own and manage your list of feed subscriptions, not the publishers. Unlike with email lists, when you want to unsubscribe from a feed, it's your choice and it happens immediately — you don't have to ask, wait for confirmation, or wonder if it's really going to happen.
The content has a consistent look & feel. Given the variety of website designs, getting to the actual content you want on each website can take a while. With a good feed reader, the content is all displayed using a consistent interface. Feeds are typically more content-centric than design-centric. Some feeds contain ads, but they're often displayed inconspicuously compared to looking at the same content on the publisher's website.

Benefits of publishing feeds

Publishing feeds lets you maintain and update your content centrally, and stop worrying about how to distribute it.

You get the centralization benefits of a web page & distribution benefits of email. Once you send email, you can't make changes if the information needs to be updated; you have to send a new message. When you publish a feed, you maintain the content centrally. When you update content, subscribers automatically get the current version &mdash in some cases highlighted as updated, depending on the feed reader — even if they already seen the previous version. Any time they refer back to it, they'll have access to the most current version; with email, they'd have an out-of-date copy. (Note that some feed readers keep copies of previous versions.)
You don't have to do anything to notify your audience. Feeds solve the problem of notification; there's no more having to ask people to "check back soon" for updates, or ask for their email address. Neither the publisher nor the subscriber has to do any work to be notified when new content is published; feed readers do the work for us.
You don't have to maintain email lists — you can stop sending content and let subscribers come get it. When you publish a feed, subscribers take responsibility for consuming your content. You just publish it, and you're done; people who want it can get it. People may be more likely to subscribe knowing that they have full control over unsubscribing. (If you want to know who your subscribers are, you can create an individual subscription form and publish a unique feed for each subscriber. This could be a great way to provide spam-free, individualized, direct communication with your audience.)
There's a high probability your audience wants what you publish. People have to consciously subscribe to feeds, and don't usually do so by accident. When someone subscribes to your feed, there's a good chance it's because they want the information you provide.
Non-email communication may be better received by your audience. People are tired of being inundated by email, and often ignore it when they feel overwhelmed. By publishing a feed, you give people a choice in how they consume your content, and they may be more likely to do so as a result.

Use feeds to stay current with discussion groups without cluttering your email inbox

2006-12-15T22:00:00Z

What?

You can reduce noise and clutter in your email inbox by subscribing to feeds of discussion groups and forums. Keep your email subscription so you can participate, but filter the group's email list messages away from your inbox.

Check to see if your discussion group publishes a feed. If you're on an email list for a discussion group or forum, but don't usually participate in the discussion, see if you can subscribe to a feed of the discussion. For example, you can subscribe to feeds for both Google Groups and Yahoos Groups. (Regrettably, feeds from Yahoo Groups seem to be just summaries of each post.)
Subscribe to the feed, but don't remove yourself from the email list. Instead, setup a filter in your email to bypass your inbox, and send the list messages to a folder. This gets them out of your way, but allows you to access them if you want to respond to a message.

Why?

Use your feed reader for "read-only" monitoring, and reserve your email inbox for correspondence.

Redirecting the discussion to your feed reader reduces the clutter and interruptions competing for attention in your email inbox. This reduces the burden on email — a tool we all know is overloaded — and makes it easier to use for correspondence; two-way communication.

Put multiple Google Reader gadgets on your Personalized Homepage

2006-12-07T07:00:00Z

What?

You can see several of your Google Reader subscriptions at once by putting multiple Google Reader gadgets on your Personalized Homepage. Each gadget can display a different folder or tag in your Reader subscription list.

If you use Google Reader (it's worth serious consideration!) and you're not using the Reader gadget on your Personalized Homepage, you're really missing out. This miniature interface to the full version of Google Reader is extremely useful, with pop-up "bubbles" for quick reading, the ability to switch between your folders & tags (but sadly not individual subscriptions) and smooth scrolling, all without taking you away from your homepage. You can multiply the benefits of using the gadget by putting more than one on a single homepage tab.

Why?

Look at a single page for a "birds-eye view" of your Google Reader feeds.

Scan the latest headlines or read entire articles right from your homepage. You don't need to go to Reader to see your feeds. You can get a quick update on several feeds at a glance, right from your homepage. If you want to read more than a headline, just click on it, and a "bubble" will pop-up and display the entire article. It's lightning fast, and you don't leave the homepage.
Syncs with full version of Google Reader. All the Reader gadgets stay in sync with your full version of Reader, so if you read or star something in a Reader gadget, it'll be that way in the full version, and vice versa. The basic feed gadget doesn't do this, since it has nothing to do with Reader.
- This is a key feature, and it's worth highlighting: I can use the full version of Reader, Reader gadgets, or Reader Mobile to read feeds from almost anywhere, and state is always maintained. That means there's no downside to any of the methods, and it makes reading feeds easy and efficient.
Manage just one set of subscriptions. You've long been able to put multiple basic feed gadgets on your homepage, but if you do that and use Reader as your primary feed reader, you've got two sets of subscriptions to deal with. The Reader gadget uses the subscriptions you're already managing in Reader.

How?

Add a Google Reader gadget, press the Back button, add another, repeat. It's that simple.

Tip: Create a separate tab. If you plan to put multiple Reader gadgets on your homepage, you may want to start by making a separate homepage tab for them. Once you've done that, make sure you've got that tab selected, since gadgets get added to the current tab.

To add multiple Google Reader gadgets to your Google Personalized Homepage, follow these steps:

Find it. Find the Google Reader gadget in the Homepage Content Directory. (You can either click on the link here, or go to your homepage, click on "Add stuff", and search for "reader").
Add it. Click the "Add it now" button.
- This will take you back to the Homepage Content Directory, and you'll see a "Back to homepage" link at the top left of the page. Do not click that link yet.
- If you are not redirected to the Homepage Content Directory, you'll probably see the "Add it now" button disappear, and in its place, a check mark next to "Added". If you see that, you should be able to reload the page, and skip the next step.
Go back. Use your web browser's Back button to go back to the previous page.
Add it again. Click the "Add it now" button again.
Repeat. Repeat the two steps above until you've added as many Reader gadgets as you want.
End. After you've added your last one, click on the "Back to homepage" link.

Tips & Tricks

Each Reader gadget is an individual. You may find that you want different behavior for different feeds, depending on what they contain or how often they update. Try configuring gadgets to display various numbers of items, or changing whether or not they display items you've read.
See what you've starred. I star articles to highlight them for further reading or action. Putting my Starred Items on my "BirdsEyeView" tab ensures I don't forget about them, and makes them quick & easy to access.
You can scroll within each gadget. If you want to see more than the max of 10 items per gadget, you don't have to open Reader, you can just click on the up/down arrows, or hover over the gadget and use the scroll wheel on your mouse.

Feedback and suggestions to the developers

I've become a strong advocate of Google's Personalized Homepage, and an was instant convert to Reader as of it's redesign. I'm really impressed that the two work together so well, and the developers of both should be proud.

To the developers of Reader and the Reader gadget, thanks for such a nicely executed, well thought-out tool (and service)! Please consider these suggestions:

Enable us to choose individual subscriptions to display in the gadget. Currently, the gadget allows us to choose a folder or tag to display, but not individual feeds. (Each "folder" in Reader is a mix of the feeds it contains.) I know "river of news" style feed reading is all the rage, and it certainly has its benefits (I've advocated feedmixing myself). That said, it would be nice to be able to specify a particular feed to display in a gadget, just as we can do in the mobile version of Reader.
I'd like the option to auto-hide the bubble if I move the mouse away from it. That would mean one less mouse click, and potentially faster navigation. (Note the word "option"!)

Credit

I was inspired to try putting multiple Reader gadgets on my homepage by thinking about:

Dave Barnard's comment that he'd like to be able to customize what shows up on PopUrls.
Marshal Kirkpatrick's recent comments on using a startpage as a component of his feed-reading in his recent Open Sourcing My TechCrunch Workflow post. Marshall writes:
Almost anything can be read by RSS feed, so you can display almost anything on a startpage. These services fulfill a very specific function for a person working on the web - they provide a one click view of updates from various sources, inside the browser and distinct from the more heavy duty environment of a feed reader.
Exactly!

My Hardware Toolkit

2006-10-23T06:00:00Z

I'm not a construction professional, handyman, or even much of a do-it-yourself enthusiast. I am a homeowner, though, and from time to time I have to do stuff that requires tools. Having the appropriate, good quality tools makes doing any job a lot easier (and often safer), and frankly, makes me a lot more likely to want to do it!

I've already written about My Digital Toolkit, and as I've been building up my set of hardware tools, it occured to me that it might be useful for others if I share the list of what's in my physical toolkit and why. I'm not going to list every tool, just the ones I think are especially cool or useful. Rather than duplicate what the vendor lists as the benefits of each, I'll try to focus on talking about why I like each tool.

They're not listed in any particular order, though I've loosely grouped them by powered/not powered and put them into two major categories. I've also purposely linked to the manufacturers' websites, rather than to any particular vendor, since part of the reason for putting this list together is to show my appreciation for the tools and the manufacturers that created them, not the resellers.

A List of My Cool Hardware Tools

Outdoor/Garden/Other Tools

Ladder
Lopper
Saw: Branch Cutting
Cordless Hedge Trimmer

Hand Tools

Toolbox

Husky Pro Tool Bag (Model: 45121) - Jan 2007

Since we own a home that's not new and tend to do a lot of projects/updates/etc., we found ourselves keeping more and more tools inside, as opposed to in the garage. I had a toolbox, but I quickly learned why it cost only $5 — it was small, and actually unpleasant to use. It was just too much work; I had to open it, remove the top shelf, get a tool, put the shelf back, close it if I wanted to carry it somewhere, etc.

So, we started just keeping a few frequently-used tools in a Sterilite storage box. That worked okay, but wasn't ideal — it provided good visibility, but required two hands to carry, didn't allow organization, and wasn't very safe, given that many tools have sharp edges, which are less visible as their numbers increase in a disorganized box.

I'd been casually on the lookout for a better solution, when my parents recently gave me The Husky Pro Tool Bag, which solved all those problems. It's a large, rigid, open container, with a metal handlebar that allows one-handed carrying (it even comes with a shoulder strap!) and provides plenty of clearance. It has:

19 storage pockets on the inside and outside of the main storage bin
A sheath for a handsaw, with a strap to secure it in place
All kinds of straps & hooks, even a carabiner

I don't know that I could have imagined a better toolbox; thanks, Mom & Dad!

Pry Bar

Stanley FatMax® Xtreme™ Fubar™ Utility Bar (Model: 55-099) - Oct 2006

I've been wanting this since I first saw it, just because it's so badass! I don't even have plans for any demolition projects, but the moment I need to destroy or break something, this is the tool I'm reaching for. In fact, I couldn't really even justify gettng this, but if you get a chance to check out one of these in real life, you'll see why it's irresistible for any tool junkie. Fortunately, my wife understands (and agrees!) ;)

Super-strong, one-piece forged steel.
Heavyweight hammer.
Pry bar.
Nail puller.
Board bender/breaker.
Comfortable, slip-resistant, rubberized grip.

If any tool can justify being called "Xtreme", this is it; the Fubar ("Functional Utility Bar") is an all-around super destruction tool!

Hammer

Stanley 20 oz. Rip Claw Jacketed Graphite Hammer (Model: 51-508) - 2005

A full-sized hammer is a staple (no pun intended!) of any toolkit. This one's fairly basic, but feels good in my hand, and I don't think I'll ever have to replace it; it's got a graphite core, so it's not likely to break -- something I don't think one should have to stress about when hammering!

Strong, graphite core.
Well-balanced.
Comfortable, slip-resistant, rubberized grip with flared end.

Retractable Utility Knife

Stanley 6-1/2" InstantChange™ Retractable Knife (Model: 10-788) - 2005

A retractable utility knife comes in handy so often, I think it's reasonable to have more than one. Sometimes, you need to be able to cut something without worrying about damaging or dulling a nice knife blade. Being able to retract the blade does a lot to increase safety. Our standard is to always retract it before putting it down, even if it's "just for a second". That's easy to do since it's got a mechanism that locks the blade into three positions, and has a positive feel even when wearing gloves.

Rubberized upper grip and thumb rest reduce the chance of slipping.
Blades stored in the handle.
No tools required to change blade.
Integrated string cutter.

Staple Gun

PowerShot® Heavy Duty Forward Action® Staple & Nail Gun (Model: PowerShot) - 2004

A staple gun is generally useful to have if you own a home, but also good for projects and repair jobs. This one is designed really well; if you've used a "normal" staple gun and try this, you'll see why the PowerShot makes sense.

"Forward Action® " system applies & maximizes force in the place you're trying to put the staple.
Staples remaining window.
Easy to load staples.
Rubber non-slip handle.

Pliers: Tongue and Groove

Channel Lock 10" Tongue and Groove Plier (Model: 430) - 2004

When we bought our first house, a friend who knows his tools told me to "just get a pair" of these because I'd need them, and he was right! They seem to be able to do almost anything, and really came in handy when changing a rusted toilet handle.

Wide, adjustable jaw.
Enable you to exert a lot of force.

Flashlight/Utility Light

Stanley MaxLife™ 369™ Tripod Flashlight (Model: 95-112) - Oct 2006

I've loved flashlights since I was a kid, and have been eyeing this one for several months; after all, it doubles as a work-utility light! It was actually my wife that prompted this purchase though; I didn't know it, but she'd been coveting it too! It has some really good features, and a very high cool factor. Check out the TV commercial!

Tripod and movable head provide hands-free light right where you need it.
Can run on 3, 6, or 9 batteries, which are housed inside the tripod legs. Provides the same illumination/brightness regardless of how many batteries, but the more you add, the longer it lasts (200+ hours on 9 batteries).
Three levels of brightness.
Low-battery indicator - Lets you know batteries are low before you pack it for a trip!

Voltage Tester

Greenlee Non-Contact Voltage Tester (Model: GT-11) - Sep 2006

We had one of those cheap, combination screwdriver/voltage testers, and if you have one, I recommend you throw it away now and go get one of these non-contact ones that has no exposed metal. This tester isn't cheap (nor is it expensive), but this is one case in which you really get what you pay for, and when you're dealing with electricity, safety is especially important.

I went to go buy the Fluke VoltAlert that was recommended on Cool Tools, but the salesman practically laughed me out of the store. They didn't carry the Fluke, but even if they did, I don't think he would have let me buy it; I was half expecting him to accompany me to the register to make sure I got this one! He said it's much higher quality and more durable. I'm not an electrician, and he claimed to work as one, so I figured with such a strong opinion, I'd take his word for it. After all, how many people are emphatic about voltage testers?

All plastic; no exposed metal.
No contact required for detection.
Bright red, visible and audible alert when voltage is detected; no wondering if you saw the dim light on the cheap models.
On/off switch to preserve battery.
Batteries are included!

Stud Sensor

Zircon StudSensor Pro SL (Model: Pro SL) - 2003

A must for hanging pictures (or anything else) on the wall, mounting towel racks, etc.

Detects wood or metal studs.
- Normal mode: scans 3/4 inches deep with 1/8 inch accuracy.
- Deep Scan mode: scans 1-1/2 inches deep with 3/16 inch accuracy using the dual scan and mark procedure.
Visual and audible alert.
Projects a beam of light on the surface when it detects a stud.
Incremental detection, so you know when you're close.
Belt/pocket clip; easy to put aside while marking wall or using other tools.

Rotary Tool

Dremel 10.8V Lithium-ion Cordless Rotary Tool Kit (Model: 8000-01) - Dec 2005

You can buy the 10.8V Cordless Dremel separately, but the kit comes with a lot of accessories you'll need, and a nice hard plastic storage case.

I've wanted a Dremel for years, but waited until I had a good excuse before I got one: I had to expand the size of the wooden frame of our HVAC air return to accomodate a custom filter that was a tiny bit too large; the Dremel worked great! It's really come in handy since we got it, and I expect it will do so many times in the future.

It's got a very high-speed motor -- up to 35,000 rpm, which is impressive when you're holding it -- because it's effectiveness isn't about applying force; in most cases, you don't have to exert much at all, you just let the speed do the work.

Grinds, sands, cuts almost anything.
Cordless, which removes what often becomes an impediment to using a tool; dealing with the cord! Also, I reasoned that I might need to use it where stringing a cord would be difficult.
Battery level indicator.

Cordless Screwdriver

Black & Decker 3.6V Rechargeable 3- Position Screwdriver (Model: 9078) - 2003

Another basic must-have tool, a cordless screwdriver takes the tedium out of most routine household tasks. There's still definitely room for a standard non-powered screwdriver, but this is usually the one I reach for first, and this Black & Decker does its job well and retains its charge a remarkably long time.

Handle can be adjusted from straight to pistol grip; useful for smaller spaces and applying force.
Adjustable torque, with decent maximum.
Forward/reverse switch is well-positioned and easy to operate.
Really good battery life and exceptional charge retention!

Outdoor/Garden/Other Tools

Ladder

Werner Multi-Master 16-Foot Articulated Ladder++ (Model: M1-8-16) - 2004

As a homeowner, I've come to understand that it's conceivable to actually need more than one ladder. This one is configurable, so it can serve many purposes, and we've used it in several of it's 18 possible configurations. If you're going to get a ladder, this is a great one to start with; you may not need another. It even worked great while painting on our curved staircase!

Configurable to 18 positions, including step, stand-off, straight, and scaffold.
Lightweight aluminum.
16 feet tall, but foldable and fits in a car trunk!
Includes a bolt-on stability-enhancing base.

Lopper

Fiskars 21-1/2" PowerGear® Bypass Lopper (Model: 9127-6935) - Dec 2005

If you have a yard, chances are, you're going to need a lopper to do minor pruning of trees and bushes. This one has an ingenious gear that doubles your cutting power. We have yet to find a branch that can challenge this lopper; it slices through most with minimal effort, even when we ask it to bite off a bit more than it can chew.

Force amplifying gear.
Super strong handles - I hate worrying about breaking tools, so I really appreciate when they're built to take a lot of force.
Replacable blade - I wish more tools were built with this kind of thinking!

Saw: Branch Cutting

Corona 13" Curved Razor Tooth Saw (Model: RS 7120) - Dec 2005

It's clear that as homeowners, we're going to need more than one saw, but this was our first, and it's impressive! A branch fell off a tree in the backyard, and it took no time to cut it up using this saw. It's long, curved blade and 3-sided teeth (which facilitate cutting in both directions) make this a very efficient cutting tool.

Long, very sharp, curved blade makes it easy to cut effectively when pulling as well as pushing.
Very comfortable, secure, pistol grip, and good overall ergonomic design.
Replaceable the blade, handle, and connecting nuts & bolts.
Did I mention that it's extremely sharp?

Cordless Hedge Trimmer

Black & Decker Hedgehog 18-Volt 22" Cordless Hedge Trimmer (Model: NHT518) - Sep 2005

I do have one of those orange, heavy-duty extension cords, and I almost never use it. When I was younger & doing yardwork with my dad, I always dreaded getting it out, unrolling it, managing it during use, and rolling it back up. All I have to do to use this trimmer is pick it up. It's got decent power, good reach, and a comfortable holding position.

Cordless; no extra effort required before (or after) use.
Secure, two-handed grip with hand guard.
50 minute run time.
Interchangeable battery, so you can swap in a fresh one.

Windows Tip: Put Task Manager in widget mode

2006-10-20T15:45:00Z

What?

Collapse Windows Task Manager into a desktop widget that's between full size and the minimized system tray icon.

In two clicks, you can put Task Manager in "widget mode" and see useful information at-a-glance, without taking up a lot of room.

Why?

Widget mode is much smaller than normal, but still large enough to display different kinds of useful information.

Windows Task Manager is a great way to see what your computer is doing, but sometimes it takes up too much space. Minimizing it to the system tray moves it nicely out of the way, but it

displays only the current processor load,
doesn't show processor load history, and
doesn't display any other information.

How?

Double-click on the inner border of any Task Manager tab to put it in "widget mode". Double-click again to restore Task Manager to its normal state.

Tips & Tricks

Click and hold on the border to drag the widget around your desktop.
This works for any tab in Task Manager, so you can use it to keep an eye on all kinds of information, like network utilization, your process list (to see what's hogging all the memory or processor), etc.
Find a creative way to use Task Manager in widget mode; look in the View menu in each tab to choose optional information to display. Some things (e.g. I/O reads & writes, network throughput, etc.) might be really useful to see at-a-glance, depending on what you're doing.

Disclaimer: I stumbled on this by accident. In fact, I'll come clean and admit that I did this months ago on one of my computers, and figured there was just something wrong with Task Manager. :) It wasn't until I accidentally did it again today and started to experiment with resizing it that I realized it might be a display mode!

Update: I didn't think by any means that I was the first to "discover" this; I mainly wrote it up because I'd been too lazy to look into the "problem" before, and thought I'd share it with others who may have done the same. My wife encouraged me to search for more information; it turns out this is called Tiny Footprint mode. (I think "widget mode" is cooler!)

Put Google gadgets on your Windows desktop

2006-10-05T06:30:00Z

What?

Put individual, "standalone" Google gadgets directly on your Windows desktop using built-in Active Desktop. No web server required.

Google just opened up their inventory of gadgets that were previously available only on your Google Personalized Homepage. Now you can put Google gadgets on any web page, which makes it possible to use them in a wider variety of places and ways than before. One example is to put Google gadgets right on your Windows desktop. This is easy to do using Windows' built-in Active Desktop feature.

Google said they made the gadgets available for "webpage owners everywhere to browse and select gadgets for their own pages". That's great, but in fact, you don't have to be a webpage owner; you can use gadgets on your Windows desktop without a web server.

Why?

This is an easy way to use gadgets in "standalone" mode, without hosting them on a web server, browsing to a web page, or installing additional software.

The concept of gadgets/widgets on the desktop isn't new, but this variation allows you to:

Use gadgets without a web server. You can store the code for a gadget right on your computer.
Use gadgets without manually opening a browser and visiting a web page. Technically, you are using a web browser -- Internet Explorer -- when you use Active Desktop, but it's embedded in the desktop, and always visible.
Have a consistent set of gadgets. Now you can use the same gadgets on your desktop as you use on your Google homepage. (NOTE: Not all gadgets available for Google Homepage are available for webpage use.)
Use gadgets without installing any additional software. Other widget/gadget frameworks that use an installed "engine" -- such as Yahoo Widgets/Konfabulator -- might provide richer functionality and look & feel in some cases, but there's a certain appeal to avoiding yet another piece of software to install and update.

How?

Add Google gadgets to your Windows Active Desktop just like any other webpage.

Find a gadget in the directory of Google gadgets for your webpage and click the "Add to your webpage" button to configure it.
Click the "Get the Code" button, and copy the HTML.
Create a new HTML document (e.g. "gadget-name.html") on your computer or web server, paste in the code for the gadget, and save it.
Right-click on your Windows desktop and select Properties.
Click on the Desktop tab, and the Customize Desktop button.
Click on the Web tab, and the New button.
Click the Browse button, and find & select the HTML document you created to hold your gadget code. If you saved it on a web server, enter its URL in the Location field.
Click OK 3 times, and you should see the gadget on your Desktop!

Tips & Tricks

Repeat the steps above to add more gadgets to your desktop.
Finishing touch: By default, there's a white background surrounding the gadget (even larger than in the screenshot above). You can add

above your gadget code to make it blend seamlessly with your desktop background color.

Beyond Windows?

Does this work on other platforms? If so, blog it, and link to this article!

I haven't looked at Linux or MacOS in a long time, so I'm not sure if either (or any other platform) has an equivalent to Windows' Active Desktop. If you get this to work on something other than Windows, please blog about it and link to this article. I've disabled comments due to spam, but one of the search engines will pick up the link, and I'll see it & link back.

Google Personalized Homepage "picks up the tab"

2006-09-14T23:30:00Z

Google's Personalized Home Page now supports multiple tabs

I'm a big fan of Google's Personalized Homepage, and today I noticed that they added the ability to have multiple tabs:

This feature makes it easy to organize content, group it by function/context (e.g., Work, Personal, Project X), etc. I know it's not a new concept, but it's been the one thing I've been wishing for, and I want to thank the Google team for implementing this feature!

Firefox Tip: Make the active tab more visible

2006-07-21T18:23:10Z

What?

Change the color of the active tab in Firefox to improve its visibility.

By default, the active tab in Firefox is not very visible, and it becomes less so the more tabs you open in a single browser window.

Why?

Changing the color of the active tab makes it easy to see at a glance.

Firefox's tabbed browsing makes it easy to manage having several websites open at once, but with multiple tabs open, it doesn't take long to lose sight of the active tab. Spending time looking for the active tab reduces the benefit of using multiple tabs. Changing the active tab's color solves the problem by making it stand out in the crowd.

Before

After

How?

Make a quick change to your userChrome.css file, then restart Firefox

Edit your "userChrome.css" file and add:

/* Change color of ACTIVE tab */
tab
{
    -moz-appearance: none !important;
}
tab[selected="true"]
{
    background-color: rgb(255, 106, 106) !important;
    color: black !important;
}
/* Change color of normal tabs */
tab:not([selected="true"])
{
    background-color: rgb( 70, 130, 180) !important;
    color: white !important;
}

The colors in the example code above will make your tabs the same colors as mine in the screenshot above; you can use any colors you like.

Note: You must restart Firefox for this change to take effect.

Reference

Firefox Help: Tips & Tricks - Make the active tab easier to distinguish

Things I have to recharge

2006-07-08T18:40:00Z

I really like the convenience of rechargeable electronics, but they can also be a headache. Sometimes I feel like I'm always recharging something, so I thought I'd see just how bad it is by making a list:

Things I have to recharge

Mobile phone
Bluetooth headset
Digital camera
Wireless computer mouse
Notebook computer
Beard trimmer
Electric razor
Electric screwdriver
Dremel rotary tool
Cordless drill
Hedge trimmer

The list is shorter than I expected, but I think the real challenge is not the number of things to recharge, but managing everything so it's ready when I want to use it. This can be tough when it comes things I use very rarely, but want to be charged when I need it, like my cordless drill. It came with two batteries, but despite having used it ~5 times and rotating the batteries once in a while, one is dead & the other holds only a small charge. I guess that's why it was only $49. In fact, buying two replacement batteries would cost just about as much as a new drill (of the same type)!

Update: 2007.03.31 - It looks like this may become less of a problem, now that a company called Powercast has invented a way to transmit power without wires!

Not all rechargeable electronics are created equal. Here are my preferences for the major types:

Ideal:

Works with a power cord attached in addition to battery power. Example: notebook computers.
Takes standard batteries (rare these days) in addition to rechargable ones. Example: my old digital camera (If I ever ran low on power, I could stop at a store or gas station almost anywhere and get batteries.)

Reasonable: Permits easy battery swapping. This is fine, provided battery cost isn't exorbitant. Example: modern digital cameras.
Bad: Uses integrated rechargable batteries. Example: my electric razor and screwdriver. Both of these have lasted and performed very well, but why not give them virtually infinite life with a replacable battery? These devices fall into the category of unnecessarily disposable items, about which I'll write another time.

What's on your list of things to recharge?

Firefox Tip: Search from the address bar

2006-07-08T18:30:00Z

What?

Use the Firefox address bar instead of the built-in search box to search any website or search engine.

By default, if you enter a search query in Firefox's address bar, the browser will perform a Google "I'm Feeling Lucky" search. You can change this so it will perform a normal search using Google or any other search engine you want.

Why?

Fewer text input areas = simpler & faster searching

It's much more efficient to use a single input field for all text entry, rather than one for addresses and another for search. This eliminates the need to think about which one to use based on what you want to do, which means one less keyboard shortcut to memorize, and one less decision to make.

Computers can do a pretty good job of figuring out what to do based on what you enter, so let the browser work for you, and get in the habit of always using the same keyboard shortcut to jump to the address bar, whether you're navigating or searching. After you try it for a while, you'll wonder why anyone would want two text input areas. No, it's not perfect, but it works great 99% of the time.

One less thing on the toolbar

Now you can free up space on the toolbar by removing Firefox's built-in search box (right-click on the toolbar, select Customize, and drag the search box off the toolbar). If you were using it to access other search engines, try setting up Quick Searches for those instead. Quick Searches use the address bar, and let you quickly perform a search on any website or search engine.

How?

Make a quick change to your user.js file, then restart Firefox

Edit your "user.js" file, and add:

// Change to normal Google search:
user_pref("keyword.URL", "http://www.google.com/search?btnG=Google+Search&q=");

You can substitute the URL with the appropriate syntax for whatever search engine you want to use.

You may have heard about making changes like this by typing "about:config" in the address bar, but as far as I can tell, those changes apply only to the current browser session, and don't persist when you restart.

Note: You must restart Firefox for this change to take effect.

Reference

Firefox Help: Tips & Tricks - Change the search mode in the address field

Firefox Tip: Enable instant "find as you type" in your browser window

2006-07-04T21:00:00Z

What?

Instantly find and jump to any link or text in a web page just by typing into your Firefox browser window. No keyboard shortcut required.

As part of the Accessibility functionality, the Mozilla developers made it possible to "find as you type" without using a keyboard shortcut. You can set this up by enabling "Begin finding when you begin typing" in Firefox, which takes less than 10 seconds.

Why?

This makes finding anything on a web page almost effortless, and eliminates the need to do something (e.g. use a keyboard shortcut) to tell the browser you want to start searching.

Why go through extra steps when you want to find something on a web page? Once you try this, you'll see it's really fast & convenient to be able to just start typing when you think of something you want to find on a web page.

Great for finding a tag in a tag cloud

This is a generally useful trick, but it's also a perfect solution for finding tags in a busy tag cloud, since you often know the name of the tag you want, but have to find it among many others.

I'm discussing this in the context of del.icio.us tag clouds since mine is pretty large, and that's what inspired me to start using this technique. One of the strengths of del.icio.us is that it facilitates using a lot of tags. Unfortunately, if you do so, it soon becomes a challenge to visually locate and click on the one you want. "Find as you type" solves this problem.

Screencast demo: See it in action

The best way to see the benefit of this is to try it, but you can get a sense of it by watching the screencast I made to demonstrate how this works:

(This is my first screencast, and it was very easy to create using Wink, so I want to thank the developers for this great free software!)

How?

Enable "Begin finding when you begin typing" in 2 easy steps:

Go to the menu and navigate to: Tools - Options - Advanced - General
Select "Begin finding when you begin typing"

To use it:

Go to any web page and start typing a word you see on the page.
When the link you want is selected, press "Enter" to open it.

Tips & Tricks

Try this on any web page that has text and links.
Try this with your tag cloud on your del.icio.us start page.

If you don't use del.icio.us, or don't have enough tags to warrant searching, try it with the main del.icio.us tag cloud that I used in the screencast.

If your cursor ends up on a word in the link title or notes that you don't want, just press "F3" to find the next instance.
I haven't seen an obvious way to do the equivalent of this in Internet Explorer; if you know how, please comment.

Reference

Mozilla Documentation / Keyboard Feature: Find as You Type

A bit out-dated, and this feature is now implemented via dialog boxes, but the documentation provides some tweaks some may find useful.

Grazr Tip: Add a "Supersize This Panel" link for comfortable reading

2006-05-08T15:30:00Z

What?

If you're using a small Grazr panel, add a link to display a larger version of the same panel. This makes it easy to quickly "supersize" the panel so it's comfortable for longer periods of reading.

If you're using Grazr in a blog sidebar or as part of a page that has other content you want to keep visible (e.g. Google or Live.com start page), you're probably using a condensed Grazr panel to fit within space requirements. It's easy to add a link in your outline to supersize the panel.

Update: New version of Grazr makes this unnecessary

Shortly after I posted this article, Mike released a new version of Grazr that effectively removes the need for this technique. You can still use it if you want to make things really easy for the reader, but the new version allows the reader to change the font and panel sizes using a built-in configurator. You can detach a panel from the page you're looking at and resize it just like a normal web browser window.

Why?

A larger panel makes reading within Grazr more comfortable.

A small panel is great for quick access to status feeds, bookmarks, headlines, and for exploring & grazing feeds. One of Grazr's strengths is its ability to display information in a compact space. The tradeoff is that it's not so great if you end up reading for a longer period in that compact space.

A larger panel

Reduces the need to leave Grazr (e.g. to read a long article in a feed).

Gives the reader the benefit of Grazr's speed of navigation without the size constraint of a blog sidebar panel.

Makes it quick & easy to switch from a brief glance to extended reading.

I have an OPML "start file" -- a collection of OPML files I've customized for my regular use -- that I access from my Google home page using Grazr. I use this as my primary feed grazing interface, but it's too small for anything beyond a quick check of headlines.

For example, I include my Bloglines subscriptions in my start file (1), so I can peek in on my feeds without changing their read/unread state. Typically, when I found something that I wanted to actually read, I'd either have to switch to Bloglines or use Grazr as a service to open my OPML file in a larger panel. Both of these are cumbersome and time-consuming, and I wanted to make the process more convenient; that's when it occurred to me to add a "Supersize This Panel" link to the panel itself.

You can try this out using the Grazr panel in the sidebar of my blog.

How?

Go to "Get Grazr for Your Page", enter the URL of your OPML file, customize the settings for your supersized panel, then copy the URL and add it to your panel.

Here's an example of the OPML code to create a Supersize This Panel link:

Note: Grazr uses URL encoding for many special characters, but the ampersand is HTML encoded (&).

Disclaimer: I'm learning OPML, and am by no means an authority or expert, so please excuse any errors, syntactic or otherwise.

Tricks

Make the font larger in the supersized panel. After all, this is about comfort!

Put the "Supersize This Panel" link at the top. This way, it:

is immediately, easily accessible
seems like a browser control; that's effectively how it's functioning, and people will look for it at the top once they think of if that way

Consider putting a supersize link at the bottom too, if it's a long list in a small panel.

Also add the supersize link to any OPML files you include (if they're yours), so "branches" can also be supersized.

Re: "branches" - I think there's a great deal of thinking to be done on the appropriate level of granularity for outlines. For now, I'm creating what I consider to be functional modules, but I'm far from having any static taxonomy. I may share some thoughts on that topic in another article.

Firefox users: Open the supersize link in a new tab! If your mouse has a middle button, it just takes a single click to open a supersized Grazr panel in a new tab.

Further Thoughts

Might this be a good built-in capability for Grazr? I could imagine using the real estate on Grazr's back "button" for more than one purpose; perhaps a "supersize" button? I love that it's large & easy to hit, and don't want to clutter it up, but this might be worth it.

It seems to me that most people are familiar with the term "supersize", but I'd love to hear suggestions for a better way to get the point across. I considered various terms before settling on "supersize", but they were either clunky (too many words) or had implications I didn't want to make. For example;

"View Larger Version of This Panel" isn't exactly succinct.
"Expand This Panel" might imply that the panel would expand in place, so I decided against it. I'm not sure if Grazr has the capability to dynamically resize, but if so, I'd love to know! Opod, which uses the Grazr API, does dynamically resize, so perhaps it's possible.

Mike, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the two points above! (Built-in capability idea & dynamic resizing.) Update: Mike responded.

I imagine it's possible to do something similar with other configurable OPML browsers, like Optimal, and Bitty, (both great tools for their respective purposes) but I haven't had the time to try yet. The supersize link doesn't keep you in the original OPML browser even if it's Grazr, but it does work even if you're reading an outline in something other than Grazr, since it just points to a "Grazr-skinned" version of the outline.

(1) I manually export my subscriptions and copy the file to my web server. This isn't terrible, as I don't update my subscriptions that often, but I sure wish I could just point to the OPML file in my account! (Are you listening, Bloglines?)