Mobile blogging (or moblogging) is blogging directly from a cellphone. For example, Flickr provides a unique email address that will simultaneously add photos to your Flickr stream and your personal blog. Blogs from ten major providers are supported, including WordPress, Blogger, TypePad, Movable Type and Live Journal. Simply snap a photo (or record a video) with your cellphone’s camera, and send it to your special Flickr email to publish it on your blog.
In addition to being a handy way to keep up with updates from your favorite sites, RSS feeds also can also be added to your own website as source of fresh content. There are a variety of free tools that enable webmasters to publish third-party feeds. My favorite is Carp but it requires a bit of technical know how. An easier option is RSS Feed Reade. Be sure to check a feed’s copyright and usage restrictions before republishing it.
If you are ready to join the blogging revolution in the new year, here are some recommended platforms. WordPress receives high marks for ease of use, and offers both free hosting and free software for those hosting their blogs elsewhere. Movable Type offers a free, personal version of their high-end blogging software to those who have hosting. But if you want a hosted Movable Type account at TypePad, there is a monthly fee. Blogger is also free, easy and includes hosting, but doesn’t have the array of sophisticated features the other platforms have.
“What are you doing?” Twitter is a micro-blogging social networking site that asks that one question, and gives you 140 characters to broadcast an answer to all your friends, family and co-workers. Intrigued by the possibilities? Here are a few guides to get you started: MasterNewMedia’s Twitter - A Beginner’s Guide , Caroline Middlebrook’s Big Juicy Twitter Guide, and Rafe Needlemen’s Newbie’s Guide to Twitter.
Ning.com is a free, online tool that creates custom social networking sites. Possibilities include photo sharing, video sharing, ratings, reviews, bookmarking, blogging, group networking and more. It’s easy to use, fast to setup, and free. Start by registering a username, selecting an application template to copy, and then choosing a name for your very own Ning site.
Both Google Video and it’s newly acquired subsidiary YouTube allow you to post their hosted videos on your own website. The YouTube code is listed directly on each YouTube page, but the Google code is somewhat hidden. To get at it, first click “Email - Blog - Post to MySpace ” then “Embed HTML.”
If you’ve spent any time wandering around the blogosphere (the world of web logs and social networking) you’ll have come across the term “permalink”, a concatenation of “permanent” and “link.” Because blogs post only the most recent stories on their front pages, the permalink gives you a URL where a story will always be accessible, even after it’s been pushed off the front page by more recent articles.
Want to get to know your favorite search engines a little better? Try reading their official blogs. Here are a few of the biggest: Google Blog, Yahoo! Search Blog, MSN Search WebLog , Ask Jeeves Search Blog. If you prefer a feed format, all are available in RSS.
RSS (Rich Site Summary) is an up and coming online format that allows subscribers to receive feeds (such as headlines or full-content newsletters) from their favorite websites. But RSS feeds can not be read by your existing browser or email client; they require a special RSS newsreader. My two favorite RSS readers are NewsGator, and the free, web-based Bloglines. For more information read About Email or the Surfnetkids RSS newsletter announcement.
