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Friday finds + friendly tips

Just when I thought I was growing tired of things online, (I actually even tweeted that I was bored with the web) Google and a few other companies have dropped some serious bombs and there are now a bunch of interesting things online worth exploring. With all this geeking it up, even an old hat like myself can learn a thing or two, I feel worth sharing with you.

Finds

  • Google+ launched and has already got 10 Million+ users. It’s still by invite only, so send me your gmail address and I’ll invite you.
  • If you have email overload, then perhaps Shortmail’s 500 character limit will help. No attachments, no junk mail, no folder management. Just pure text. Claim your name @shortmail.com
  • Adobe released the Flash Player 11 beta for desktops. This particular build brings with it Stage3D APIs, for “advanced” 2D and 3D rendering, 64-bit support, H.264 encoding, and 7.1 surround sound.
  • +1 buttons let people who love your content recommend it on Google search. Follow the instruction’s and easily add the +1 button here.
  • Kevin Rose decided to point his domain kevinrose.com to his Google+ account as it gives him more (real time) feedback and engagement than his blog ever did.
  • Over 36 000 businesses may have already signed up for Google+ which will launch later this year.
  • State of the Internet 2011 is an interactive infographic created by Online Schools.
  • If you like infographics, then you need to visit Visual.ly, the world’s largest community for exploring, sharing, creating, and promoting data visualizations.
  • Plus buddy analyzes your public Facebook profile and provides recommmendations of who to follow on G+
  • You can register for DesignSignoff, a new elegant tool for design presentation & review.
  • For interesting stats and to discover and Find People on Google+
  • Tweet my Plus is a service to tweet your Google+ posts.


Friendly Tips

  • Don’t tweet at 2am about yawning, you might have yawned several times tweeting, but no one will be around to respond to your curious questions.
  • Keep your url’s short by using the Google url shortener
  • Despite being irritated when receiving calls from blocked numbers, answer the phone, apparently clients might be calling your from PABX systems etc which will block the number.
  • Create a short URL for your Google+ profile on http://glpl.us
  • If you are a client, please don’t call, email us so we have a record of our conversation. If we talk, we’ll do it face to face, I promise we play well with others.
  • Learn how to redirect your homepage /+ URL to your Google + profile like this http://digiguru.co.za/+
  • Lots of functionality not available in Google+ can be achieved by using Google Chrome’s extensions
  • If you hit the home button on your keyboard, it scrolls to the top of the browser (Yes, I really didn’t know that)
  • If you’re not sure what is going on currently on Google+, don’t worry, the hottest topic is currently people are talking about Google+ as it’s full of early adopters.

Responsive Web Design by Ethan Marcotte

The latest book from the clever people at A Book Apart, Responsive Web Design by Ethan Marcotte was not only brilliant to read, challenged how to approach web design in this new way, but it had Ethan’s personality all over it, which kept it as entertaining as it was brilliant.

Digiguru 2011

After several successful Flash portfolio sites, I decided to build my new portfolio in HTML5 & CSS3 in an attempt to push myself further. I built the bulk of the site in 3 weeks, from learning HTML5, figuring out how to use jQuery and using the brilliant Handcrafted CSS book by Dan Cederholm. I had picked up the trend of responsive web design, it made sense to me simply because I’ve always believed in using the screen to it’s full potential with fullscreen Flash websites. The site currently doesn’t showcase all of my work, but I intend on rectifying that. It’s not a single page website either, which I love, but unfortunately with all the work in my showcase, it just doesn;t make sense, I did not want to do a lightbox. But it is long, has just enough work, information and it’s easy enough to contact me. Best of all is the responsive design, which makes the site look amazing on computer, iPad or iPhone devices.

I’ve received an overwhelmingly positive response to my site, plenty of recognition online, but the award I’m most proud of is the FWA mobile of the day, making me the first South African to win a FWA for mobile. Best part, it’s not my mobile website, it’s the same site built for multiple devices.

I have some tweaks to make on the site, like adding a full portfolio archive, a navigation problem affecting usability and correcting buttons on the iPad. So expect a refresh sometime soon.

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