StumbleUpon This Website
July 22, 2008 by Ari
Filed under Search Engine Optimization
How many times have you opened your web browser to find yourself staring at the Google search bar thinking about what to look for? With millions upon millions of websites on the Internet, it becomes very difficult to decide where to go to sometimes. Even worse, how do you come up with what to search for? Even though Google has the I’m feeling Lucky button right on its search tool, it always takes you to a random website and you really have no clue or control what type of a site you will land on. And the only way to get back to your starting page to try again is to hit the back button. Now, having said that, get ready for StumbleUpon. StumbleUpon is a hybrid type service on the Web that allows you to sign up and install a toolbar on your browser that will enable you to click on its StumbleIt button and take you to a different site each and every time. But, not before you specify your likes and interests in all areas including the arts, humanities, computers, science, politics, humor, hobbies, family, relationships, religion, etc. etc. etc.
What you will find is that every time you hit the StumbleIt button, it will bring up a new website, but it is relevant to your choices and preferences. You are almost going to feel like you could have never lived without StumbleUpon before this moment. However and I caution you, that it is very addictive. Before long, you will be clicking it continuously just to see what may come up next. If you have an interest in learning about any specific field or thing, you will find at having all sorts of relevant websites coming up and displaying useful data at every interval will not only accelerate your learning curve but you will also find it very entertaining. Every time you come across a website you like on StumbleUpon you can vote for it. The page is then shared with others who have similar interests.
StumbleUpon is the type of website service that you can continue to expect as the Internet moves more and more towards Web 2.0 and beyond. As a social marketing tool for your blog or site, it works wonders also. So, if you visit the site and sign up, remember to StumbleUpon Laberinto Social too!
The purpose of using plug-ins.
July 18, 2008 by Ari
Filed under Search Engine Optimization
By now you’ve heard the word plug-in many times in the Internet. But the way we are going to discuss it here is as it applies to WordPress. If you’ve read the posts on using WordPress in search of information on how to install WordPress for personal use or self hosted professional use, then you will probably want to know more about plug-ins. Depending on the purpose of your site or blog, you can make it as simple as you want or as complicated as you see fit. Let’s take a step back for a minute to a website. A website has static pages that you may have to re-create each and every time when you are trying to get information out, plug-ins on the other hand allow you to manipulate (in this case the blog) your content in a way that allows us you to add features and capability to your blog, enhancing the experience of your visitors.
You can use plug-ins to add additional features like calendars, mortgage calculators, advertisements, translation widgets, classified ads, user directories, music players, video players, etc. etc. etc.. Just about anything can be transformed into a plug-in that works with your site. Keep in mind though that using plug-ins under Web 2.0, is a powerful delivery method on your site that doesn’t "break" your site. What I mean Manette is that you can upload and install as many plug-ins as you want into your WordPress plug-ins directory and you loose these plug-ins or "activate them" and use them if they work, or remove them if they don’t. Either way, you can continue to search for new or different plug-ins which are being created on a regular basis to the generosity of the very talented open-source programmers that are out there.
Some of them can be very elaborate, while some of them can be very simple. One of the most powerful plug-ins that I have been able to find is the translator plug-in created by Carlos Quiles. Tyros created this automatic translation plug-in that you can activate and install into your sidebar on your blog or website and automatically translate the webpage or blog in two a number of different languages. My congratulations and thanks go out to Mr. Quiles for his ability and vision in thinking about everyone else on the Internet.
You can find all kinds of WordPress plug-ins in the WordPress plug-ins directory here.
What are RSS feeds anyway?
July 18, 2008 by Ari
Filed under Learn Search Engine Optimization
Some of you have been asking lately what RSS feeds. RSS simply stands for Really Simple Syndication. If you’ve noticed in your car lately, sometimes you are driving along and when you turn on a radio station you see a scroll of text going across may be showing you the name of the song or information about the station, this is RSS in your car. Now, as it applies to the Internet RSS is a way that you can transmit to any visitor you may have two your website or your blog your regular updates. For example, let’s say that you update your blog or website daily and your visitors like what you write about. Well RSS feeds allow you to send automatically these updates (in the form of new posts or new information on your website) to your readers.
Nowadays, you can have your homepage or custom page at Google or my Google as its called customized in a way that delivers news, weather, sports horoscopes, time clocks or anything else you can imagine to screen. Would you are basically seen is the delivery of those feeds through what are called plug-ins. These plug-ins are at the hallmark of Web 2.0. The original Web design model was one way or content, formatting, etc. was all jumbled together. Now, with Web 2.0 powerful tools like these plug-ins allow you to deliver a lot of information to a main page from various different sources. An example of this is Laberinto Social, our blog brings you information from various sources by the use of these plug-ins. You can incorporate these plug-ins into your website or blog too.
The scope and scale to which you can do that may be beyond this post entry, but you can see that plug-ins, Web 2.0, and RSS feeds are making for a whole new experience on the web. You can read a little more on plug-ins by visiting the plug-ins post.
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