PriteshGupta.com » Web 2.0

Facebook Shortcuts

Pritesh Gupta — Fri, 21 May 2010 15:39:13 +0000

Lately I was surfing facebook.com and found that facebook has some default keyboard shortcuts which work cross browser. Thus, I am sharing few of the shortcuts which I found.

Alt+1: This key combination takes you to your Facebook home page, No matter where you are in facebook.com
Alt+2: This combination takes you to your profile, Again from anywhere in the facebook.com
Alt+3: This combination opens up the pending friend requests dialog.
Alt+4: By pressing this one you can see your Inbox(i.e. Messages).
Alt+5: You can see your Notifications by pressing this combo.
Alt+6: Pressing this takes you to the “My Account” where you can change your name and other details.
Alt+7: Pressing this takes you to the “Privacy Settings” where you can update/change your privacy settings.
Alt+8: This one takes you to the facebook fan page.
Alt+9: Takes you to the Terms and Conditions page(Statement of Rights and Responsibilities) which is bigger than a constitution of a country.
Alt+0: Takes you to the “Help Center” page. Where you can browse your applications and see facebook features.

Also, Facebook added a new emoticon this must be in context to the number 42. Read its wiki for details and significance. You can get this in chat by typing :42:

Posterous vs. Tumblr

Pritesh Gupta — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 16:24:15 +0000

Posterous and Tumblr are fit for content which is too small for a blog and too big for Twitter. I have started using these two services quite lately. These 2 sites support all kind of rich media, Have longer entries as well as short entries which get auto posted to Twitter. Tumblr provides a hub for storing/sharing text, photo, quote, link, chat, audio and video(via a bookmarklet right in your browser). Where as Posterous provides a place for blogging, lifestreaming, photo sharing, and video and audio posting. Tumblr and Posterous are less than a Blog, Thus they classify as Microblogs. (Though Posterous can be used as full fledged Blog too.)

Posting

The posting in Posterous is quite easier, One just needs to drop a mail at post@posterous.com and it gets posted to his/her Posterous. Moreover, There’s also a WYSIWYG Web Interface which does fine. And Tumblr also has an Email posting option and SMS posting option. You can create also create an audio post in Tumblr by calling a toll-free number and leaving a voicemail message. Both these sites have bookmarklets to choose thus easing the usage of its users. There’s no clear winner here, But Posterous is slightly more feasible than Tumblr in posting due to its Email posting feature.

Integrations

Tumblr connects to your Facebook and Twitter and posts your Tumblog stuff there. Tumblr also has an auto-import feature, Which imports your RSS feeds and Diggs and shows on your Tumblr. Where as Posterous has a edge over integrations, It connects to your Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Youtube and few other sites. This means if you post a video to your posterous it gets posted to your posterous as well as your Youtube. Also, If you post a picture to your Posterous it gets posted to your Flickr and Facebook too. You can also import your Blogs to posterous and also export posterous. Moreover, If you have connected your many profiles on posterous but you just want it to post to facebook, You can do it by sending the email at facebook@posterous.com. Also, If you are in a mood of sending it to Twitter and Facebook, You can do it by sending the mail at facebook+twitter@posterous.com. Here, Posterous is the clear winner, Because of the number of accounts you can integrate with. But, The auto-import feature of Tumblr also can’t be underestimated.

Customization

One can do a lot with the looks of both. These sites already have a gallery to chose themes from. Moreover, One can also install or create his/her own theme(Using xHTML and CSS). Here, I think both the sites provide with equal customization.

Commenting

Tumblr doesn’t provides a Comments option on the posts by default. But, Its already there in Posterous. Though you can always install Disqus in you Tumblr, Thus enabling people to comment on your posts. It has been tested against Spam too as it is used in many popular blogs. Here again Posterous takes over Tumblr by providing comment system by default.

Conclusion

Both of these sites are decent on features, Though I felt posterous is slightly better as its upcoming. But at the end personal preference will win out.

Perfect way to Subscribe to RSS

Pritesh Gupta — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 18:54:17 +0000

Trying to catch up a Blog(Or Blogs) which don’t provide with an Email Subscription option OR provide a Weekly dispatch only. Well, I encountered the same problem with Ars Technica and some other tech blogs, Ars Technica is an awesome Blog but it just provides with a Weekly email dispatch only and coming to its site everyday just to read it is a big pain. For everyone out there who encounter the same problem in various other Blogs, Here is the solution. There’s a Web Site which converts the RSS or Atom feed into Email and mails you regularly and works as efficiently as the Email Subscription thing. The site is http://www.feedmyinbox.com. I use it to follow many sites which don’t provide with Email Subscription option.

PS: Don’t subscribe too much, It will just help in increasing your Unread Emails count

// Get these from http://developers.facebook.com
$api_key = ‘xxx’;
$secret = ‘xxx’;

// Names and links
$app_name = “Application name”;
$app_url = “app-url”; // Assumes application is at http://apps.facebook.com/app-url/
$invite_href = “invite.php”; // Rename this as needed

require_once ‘facebook.php’;

$facebook = new Facebook($api_key, $secret);
$facebook->require_frame();
$user = $facebook->require_login();

if(isset($_POST["ids"])) {
echo “

Thank you for inviting “.sizeof($_POST["ids"]).” of your friends on ”.$app_name.”.

\n”;
echo “

Click here to return to “.$app_name.”.

”;
} else {
// Retrieve array of friends who’ve already authorized the app.
$fql = ‘SELECT uid FROM user WHERE uid IN (SELECT uid2 FROM friend WHERE uid1=’.$user.’) AND is_app_user = 1′;
$_friends = $facebook->api_client->fql_query($fql);

// Extract the user ID’s returned in the FQL request into a new array.
$friends = array();
if (is_array($_friends) && count($_friends)) {
foreach ($_friends as $friend) {
$friends[] = $friend['uid'];
}
}

// Convert the array of friends into a comma-delimeted string.
$friends = implode(‘,’, $friends);

// Prepare the invitation text that all invited users will receive.
$content =
“ has started using ”.$app_name.” and thought it’s so cool even you should try it out!\n”.
“get_add_url().”\” label=\”Put “.$app_name.” on your profile\”/>”;

action=””
method=”post”
type=””
content=””>

actiontext=”Here are your friends who don’t have yet. Invite whoever you want -it’s free!”
exclude_ids=”” />

}

Blogger.com vs WordPress.com

Pritesh Gupta — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 17:33:58 +0000

So you must be having a Blog(If NO, Go get one today). Where do you host it Blogger.com OR WordPress.com. Or if you have your own Hosting space with php and Mysql then for sure WordPress.org. This post will compare Blogger.com with WordPress.com. Also don’t get confused with WordPress.com and WordPress.org. WordPress.org is a CMS which you need to host and is the best Blog System currently. I will not be including features which are in both of them OR neither of them.

Feature	Blogger.com	WordPress.com
Customization with themes	Yes, You can edit the HTML and CSS	No
Import	No, Only from another Blogspot Blog	Yes, From most of the Blog programs
Static Page	No	Yes, As much as you want
Analytics/Stats	No, But you may install a third party Analytics program	Yes, In built and is great
Image Storage	1 GB, Can be browsed through Picasa	3 GB, Can be upgraded
Classification	Through applying Labels	Through applying Categories and Tags
Contact Forms	No, But Third Party contact forms can be installed	Yes, Using [contact-form]
Comments	Simple, But you can install powerful comments system like Disqus	Nice comment system but you can’t install Disqus
Embed Object (Like: Flash)	Yes	No
RSS	Yes, And can be optimized with Feedburner	Yes, But No Feedburner optimization
Spam Fighting	No	Akismet
Change blog URL	Yes	No
Javascript	Yes, You can Add it here	No
Google Webmaster Tools	Yes, Verify using tag and Add blog/atom.	No

Please See:

If you wish to upgrade to WordPress.org soon then go for WordPress.com. As it supports Categories as well as Tags(Which is common in WordPress.com and WordPress.org).
If you don’t wish to upgrade to WordPress.org and don’t want to host things then go for Blogger.com
Most of people start from platforms like WordPress.com or Blogger.com and move to WordPress.org(It includes me).
Also if you are newbie in Blogging go for Blogger.
Blogger is also owned by Google which is a 800 pound gorilla in Internet.
There is also a http://draft.blogger.com where you can see features if blogger about to come.

My Suggestion: Go for Blogger.com. As it has the biggest advantage that is Flexibility.

Web Analytics

Pritesh Gupta — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 09:58:26 +0000

Web analytics is the measurement of the Visits to a Website to track website performance , Its also the process of collection, measurement and analysis of user activity on a website to understand and help achieve the intended objective of the website. So it is a tool that collects data on web site users behavior.

How can we use it ?

For Web Analytics you just need to Sign Up for a Web Analytics program and then add the essential code given by the Program to your site. Or Install a couple of plugin’s if you are on WordPress.

What programs are available ?

There are many of the programs available for analytics for Websites. I have included few which I am aware of.

Google Analytics

For me its the best as it is owned by 800 pound gorilla of the internet market and the features it provides are very useful. Al though it’s not highly advanced or High on features kind still it has everything which is required for analytics. One can add multiple sites here and most importantly its 100% Free. You just need to add the code to your website for its functioning(Or a plugin if you are in WordPress). Google Analytics can track visitors from all referrers, including search engines, display advertising, pay-per-click networks, email marketing and digital collateral such as links within PDF documents. You may integrate it with Your Adwords account too.

Clicky Web Analytics

It has all the features of Google Analytics plus many more like giving a Mobile version of your dashboard, Viewing the history for an individual page, Visitor segmentation, Twitter Analytics etc. It’s hugely accpeted. But the drawback is its not Free. Though it has a Free version too but that is useless.

Analytics for WordPress using a simple Plugin(WordPress.com Stats)

Its like Google Analytics providing an incredible depth of information. Installing this stats plugin is easy, all you need is to put in your API Key. When running it’ll begin collecting information about your pageviews, popular posts and pages, traffic source, etc. It’ll also add a link to your dashboard. And because all of the processing and collection runs on there servers. it doesn’t cause any additional load on our hosting account.

2 Great Twitter Tools

Pritesh Gupta — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 13:39:41 +0000

Mutuality

Well Huitter.com offers a service called Mutuality which has the following features and are very useful in the journey of becoming a Pro-Twittrer.

Unfollow all who do not follow you back
Unfollow all
Follow all who follows you

I dont use the 2nd one but the 1st and 3rd are quite useful. One can also use the 3rd one as a manual auto follow feature.

Twitter Follower

is a database of Twitter users who will follow you if you follow them. By following the users in the database, you can quickly and effectively build your list and avoid that dread zero in the follower count. But everyone doesn’t follow you back in that list that’s the drawback as anyone can submit there name there.
Another feature from Twitter Followers:

Mass Unfollow Everyone Who’s Not Following You: The other feature of Twitter Follow is the mass unfollow button. Push this button and Twitter Follower will unfollow everyone who’s not following you back.

Source: http://www.johnchow.com/twitter-follower-my-new-twitter-site/

Free and Legal Music in Web 2.0

Pritesh Gupta — Tue, 26 May 2009 08:01:21 +0000

This is probably what everyone one wants these days.

Last.fm:This thing has a Free Music Downloads section in bottom of the page, One can go there and browse for free downloads in that section, Of course the Downloads are limited still one can listen to unlimited and new songs there. I use this site frequently to share the name of my favorite tracks in my Twitter and Facebook.

ARTISTdirect:This is a brilliant place for free music, Some of the big releases aren’t always free, You need to pay for them. Still I use it a lot to see new tracks by top artists. One can use this site for browsing music by various Artists.

Kazaa: This site can be used to listen and download lots of free and latest music but this is only open for US. Not for any other country.

Flickr vs Picasa Web Albums

Pritesh Gupta — Wed, 20 May 2009 15:03:22 +0000

What if your digital camera is full of Pictures and you want to share with friends and relatives, Of course you wont mail them. You will probably like upload it somewhere and share.
There are 2 major 800 pound gorillas for photos sharing in Web. Yahoo’s Flickr and Picasa Web Albums by Google.

Flickr

Flickr is a well known in the photo sharing market and is owned by Yahoo. It has a good interface, it’s polished, works well, and is indeed addictive. But Flickr has some limitations Flickr offers 100 MB of free storage each calendar month but the storage counter is reset every month so you get virtually unlimited space on Flickr without spending a penny. (100 MB is good for storing upto 120 picture of average size). New pictures can be uploaded to Flickr via mobile phones, desktop software, email attachments or through the web-based interface available on Flickr website. Pictures can then be grouped in sets (like “Conference in New York”) as well as tags (like “conference”). You can upgrade to Pro for making the number of photos unlimited for each month but even after you upgrade to Pro, you’ll bump up against more limitations if your JPG files are over 10MB each, which happens quite often when you shoot with a late-model DSLR and upload at full resolution with the intention of printing that photo in a large size. Use Flickr if you want to engage actively within the big and friendly Flickr user community, get comments on your photos, join groups and submit photos to them — in short, partake fully of the social community of photo sharing.

Picasa Web Albums

This is the photo sharing client owned by Web Giant Google, This was made to enable Google Image Organization Software Picasa user’s to share there photos online. One can create private and public albums there and order prints. This is the best option for Photo sharing for a regular person but the storage is limited(Disadvantage over Flickr) it has a 1 GB storage and then Paid storage of 7Gb for $25 a year, You can come over this just by resizing the images rather than uploading the full High Resolution Pics. The default option is to resize only, so that’ll get done automatically. Once you’ve done tell your friends and its done.

Extra Features
For describing the photo, both services let you edit tags and a caption for the image, with Flickr also letting you give each photo a title. Both have a mapping feature letting you set a location for the photo on an interactive map. For the technical data relating to the photo, both services will read and display the EXIF data from a digital camera such as shutter speed, date/time etc. And for viewing a bunch of images, both have a slideshow feature built in. Finally, both services let you specify a name to make a more user friendly URL to give to your friends or family.

Flickr Vs Picasa

Transferring Photos: In Flickr the picture upload thing is very easy but downloading photos from there is difficult, for this you may need to have a 3rd part Flickr App where as in Google’s Picasa Web Albums it comes with an application Picasa. Through Picasa, you can do basic image editing (like crop, rotate, color adjustments, etc) and then upload the edited pictures online. The software can also download photos from the online Picasa albums to your hard-drive without any effort.

Organization: Picasa lets you create as many “albums” as you like to sort your photos into. Flickr lets you have just 3 “sets” to group your photos in, otherwise they all get added to a single “photostream”. For unlimited sets at Flickr you’ll have to go pro.

Storage: Picasa gives you 1GB of storage with the option to buy more (7GB for US$25 per year – shared storage with your Gmail account). Flickr doesn’t state a storage limit, instead they have an upload limit of 100MB per month and limit your “photostream” to the 200 most recent images. The “pro” option at Flickr which will give you unlimited uploads, storage, bandwidth and more.

Cost: Both Flickr and Picasa offer a free service initially, but with limitations on the service at Flickr And a word of warning here, Flickr’s FAQ states “if your free account is inactive for 90 consecutive days, it will be deleted”. Picasa is better here. You can upgrade to Flickr Pro for $25 and upgarde you 1GB to 7GB in Picasa for $25 a year.

Facebook changes Chat experience. (Good OR Bad) ?

Pritesh Gupta — Tue, 12 May 2009 05:18:36 +0000

Huh !, Another modification in Facebook, That’s what I was thinking But this time this upgradation in the chat service is really worth, You will find that It looks bit similar but works in a different way.

The new list enables user to sort the online peoples list according to one’s Friend List’s and set different privacy settings for them . So Facebook is certain to power its chatting style more. Users can now organize their previously unwieldy Chat lists into groups, defined by their Friend Lists.(That’s Cool )

On opening first time the users are promoted to select the Lists which they want to display in there Online List and the other users(Which are in no list OR no selected list) are seen under other friends.

The chat window as has two Tabs “Friend Lists” and “Options”
Friend Lists enables us to select the Friends Lists which we want to get displayed and the Options has various options like the Sound notifications and Go offline etc..

One wont be able to see the Display Picture under Other Friends but will be able to see DP under Friend Lists.
This is the only thing I found weird. Rest the New Facebook chat is amazing and better.

The usefullness of Twitter for me

Pritesh Gupta — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 04:13:00 +0000

Today even 1 day without Twitter kills me, Twitter is the best thing in the Web I have found yet(Another is facebook). Many people feel Twitter has no advantages and it is addictive, Time Waste and Lame. This isn’t true at all, There are great advantages of it but only one who uses Twitter can get it. A non Twitter user will surely think its a waste. This included me too earlier I didn’t know about Twitter and didn’t joined it, then one of my friend @ramkarthik Told me about Twitter and explained its uses and advantages in detail. Since that day I became twitter-addicted and just saw advantages in it. No disadvantages.

To make my point clear I am sharing this video its very humorous and one of mine YouTube favorite’s

The First good thing about Tweeple’s(Twitter People{Twitter user’s}) is that the Twitter crowd is very helpful. For an instance I broke up my WordPress and wasn’t able to fix it myself. I twitted and soon got help from many people(Mainly @Rampantheart).

Its great for connecting to people via Twitter, and Twitter provides us with 140 Chars so that no one gets bored by one’s Tweet and isn’t time consuming also. Most of the times I see Humorous Tweets in my twitter Timeline, Which is great. Basically it is a medium for connections with others in an easy and unobtrusive way.People say that micro blogging(Twitter) Makes one a better Blogger too.

A few possible advantages of Twitter are:

Stay connected with colleagues and friends when you are away.
Provides us with immediate support.
Be the first one to cast events/meets/summits by twitting in between and sharing the experiences.
Share Links and Other information
Learn more about people’s interests.

Do these basic steps and start tweeting today.

Sign up
Follow others.
Make friends on Twitter
Tell other people to join
And start communicating with people