On Wednesday, June 10, WordPress released another top-notch update with version 2.8.

Now that I’ve had time to upgrade a few blogs and do some preliminary testing, I can assure you that you’ll want to upgrade as soon as possible for AT LEAST two reasons:

1. The WordPress team has radically improved the code that runs the administration panel, and this means faster admin page loads, smoother interface behavior, and even faster page loads on your live site (due to some database query improvements).

2. The new Widgets panel is flat out awesome. From the design to the controlling JavaScript, the WordPress team has really outdone itself here, and many experts agree, this is the highlight of the 2.8 release.

What is Google Wave?

Was that an eMail? Was that an instant message? Is that a Blog? Or is it a team document production tool?

It is all of those things – and much more. Created by the developers of Google Maps, Waves WILL provide a fundamental change in the way communications are organized – in your very near future.

Will The Web Ever Stop Changing?

eMail was invented some 40 years ago, and remains the most common means of communicating online. That’s a fantastic product life-span, but we have all experienced the limitations and difficulties of a long conversation via email, especially when new people are added to the conversation. Instant Message services and Twitter have become a Killer App because of the new way you can communicate – but soon, we will forget about Gmail, Google Docs and we will ALL be speaking about Waves.

Ideal For Working With Organizations

Finally, we will all have a central place where a Board of Directors can all be kept abreast of the development stages of a project – without ballooning the project costs in endless meetings and time-consuming email trails.

]]> http://www.queticointernetmarketing.com/google-wave-will-be-a-tsunami/feed/ 1 http://www.queticointernetmarketing.com/does-everybody-know-what-a-blog-is/ http://www.queticointernetmarketing.com/does-everybody-know-what-a-blog-is/#comments Mon, 17 Nov 2008 09:07:56 +0000 Doug http://www.queticointernetmarketing.com/?p=74

Does everybody know what a blog is?

I will get into a definition of what it is, like I said, I’m not going to get technical on you, but I want to keep it as simple as possible about what a blog is. It is a huge topic. You could probably spend three days just doing a talk on blogs. There’s a lot of technical data involved, search engines and RSS feeds and Keywords and Social Networking and Web 2.0… All these things are associated with blogs. If you want to know any of that stuff, talk to this fella right here. Doug (Lampi), he’s a technical guru – that’s his field, he know’s all about how to make your blog.

I’m also not going to get into any debate with anybody about which is better, wordpress or blogger, and I know there’s another couple other ones out there. I use blogger. I’m familiar with it and it works fine for what I want it to do.

Ok. I’m going to try to make my little conversation so that your blog will become effective, as apposed to just sayin’ “put this widget over here, put that picture over there”… just how to promote some of your stuff

The Internet Is Changing

The Internet Is Changing and most of us have web pages. The web pages started out as a static brochure. They didn’t change very often. So what happened is somebody would go on your website, then they go on your website a month later – it’s the same thing, a month later it’s the same thing, a month later… a year later… it’s the same thing, it’s the same pictures – nothing was changing. It’s like you had the guy your brochure and he just keeps pulling it out of the cupboard and keeps looking at it.

— Like what you’ve read? Get the whole series! –

In the never-ending search to bring my web visitors the latest and the best, I’ve been joining and learning about the various forms of Social Media Sites.

After joining groups and communities, learning what they do to build their memberships, I started creating groups and communities within the Social Media sites too.

Though my journey of registering at

• the sites listed with Profilactic.com,
• all the video sites fed through Tubemogul.com,
• all the blogging sites supported by flickr.com and YouTube.com,
• all the micro-blogging sites that Ping.fm distributes to and
• all the additional social media sites compiled by SecondBrain.com and lifestream.fm -

I’ve come to understand that I’m not in Kansas anymore.

Even as a full time web-nerd, I’m shocked at how different things have become.

Now for The Search
Given #1: I can install software and build websites on Linux and Windows servers.
Given #2: Open Source software exists for running a social media website.

I’ll start my search on Sourceforge.net – a great place for any Open Source software you may need, and I’ll work my way through testing out the demo software that I find.

Here are three systems I’m reviewing:

Truthfully social networking platforms, A SOA system for lover and friends.provide a reliable, fast, social networking package.Easy to install,use,manage,and have web service api raise your business to the next level.

IB Social Network System – Complete social networking system for school clubs, small in-school programs, and even entire schools.

Elgg – Elgg is an open source social networking platform developed for LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) which encompasses weblogging, file storage, RSS aggregation, personal profiles, FOAF functionality and more.

Another great place I search is HotScripts.com

With a quick search in the php area, I found a nice list of Social Networking software, but I don’t think these are Open Source, and they are not likely free. However, you do get to save a lot of headaches by surfing through some example sites that are already running on the software.

Many of these systems offer similar features to Myspace and Facebook, but, as I’m reading through, I don’t see one that also includes feed aggregation from other social media sources…

Many include features like social bookmarking, tag clouds, profiles, image voting, classifieds, events and calendar, clubs, e-cards, forum, polls, bulletins, flash chat and instant messenger.

Some of the better scripts also included audio and video blogging, voice and video messaging, audio and video comments, video chat, music and videos, FLV and MP3 players!

My favorite features -

• address book import (supports Yahoo!, GMail, AOL, Hotmail, MSN, MySpace)
• PayPal IPN support

Missing Features -

• Feed Aggregation from other sources
• Widget tool for users to share their content
• Clear mention of RSS Feeds created

I’ll let you know more as I experiment with different software and scripts -

but, if you have your own social networking website, and you are happy with how the site is working for you, please recommend the software here through your affiliate link.

Set up your own Free Hosted WordPress with a range of specialized WordPress Plugins pre-installed.

Aimed at a financial audience, www.forexfrat.com is a community of blogs on futures trading, stock trading and the forex markets.

Facebook Fans will love this Facebook Friend Graph – and Business Owners should take this Free Facebook Marketing Course and learn how your business can benefit from a business page on Facebook.

Here’s a great way to view your network of friends on Facebook.

TouchGraph Photos


This is the first screenshot I’ve taken while using the Touchgraph Facebook Photo Viewer.  I like how you can easily view the photos of your friends if you are on a highspeed connection, but the images are not cached, and if you return to view the same friends images later, they must be re-loaded.  This app is NOT for dial-up users.  Sorry.

The photo viewing aspect is cool, but it’s more interesting to see who knows who among your friends!

Cheers.

Quetico Internet Marketing is your Online Traffic Specialist

Douglas Lampi provides Internet Marketing insight into more that just top Search Engine Rankings. Today, visitors should be coming to your site through many differnet sources – and your business is at risk if your main source of traffic is from Google.

An Online Traffic Specialist must have broad knowledge and actual experience publishing in all the various media formats in order to benefit from visitor sources like

video sharing sites,
podcast sharing sites,
photo sharing sites
news feeds,
blogging sites,
social bookmarking,
social networking and
special interest groups,
from joint venture partnerships,
from purchased advertising sources like PPC and interstitials,
from Blog commenting,
from article writting – as well as
from link trades and
gaining consistent top search engine rankings.

In the new world of Web 2.0 – your ideal traffic footprint should include dozens of referral sources.  Including bringing Offline sources to view your online messages.

Your Online Traffic Specialist can help you
Achieve Internet Marketing Diversification!

Pulling in RSS feeds from several sources is not as easy as it sounds.  Inspite of the explosion of available RSS feeds, and the proliferation of desktop RSS Managers, it would seem that a server-side php script for webmasters is a little harder to find.

I started out confident I could just find a WordPress Plug that would behave as an RSS Aggrigator.  Some Plugins claimed to pull picasa pictures, others make it easy to pull YouTube Videos - but after trying several unsuccessful attempts with different WordPress Plugins, trying to manage various RSS feeds, I started researching stand-alone hosted php applications that pull RSS feeds instead.

This also turned into an unexpectedly long journey – but, as always, there are a few GEMS that make it all worth while.

Here are a few RSS Mashup Solutions, one may work for you:

http://feedonfeeds.com/

My Headlines

ZebraFeeds

First Say

PlanetPlanet

CafeRSS

Now I have a few bits of code to experiment with and I’ll be tucked away trying them out for the next while… 

The Tourism Keys Seminar in Thunder Bay last week resulted in an explosion of research, here at Quetico Internet Marketing.

The comprehensive view of utilizing all the various forms of media opened a full set of doors, all at once. Producing your content in the form of Video, photos, audio, pdf and text can provide your visitors with your information in the form they prefer. This strategy is literally Super-Powered by using RSS feeds in both directions!

But other forms of media exist where data and information are pooled and accessed by millions.

The Marketing Keys Tourism Marketing Seminar also explained the astonishing leverage that the connectivity in social networks can provide to help get your message out. For example, if your business has a Business Page Listing in Facebook, people can join as a ‘Fan’ of your business. If they comment on your Wall, all of their friends are notified about this comment – and your word can spread far and wide, very quickly.

(profilactic.com provides a central service collecting over 120 social networking websites.)

After some research, I found a WordPress plugin that will update your Facebook account via RSS feed whenever you post to your blog… excellent… that saves me one step of updating my content in to many places. After I set this up, I’ll test and see if my Facebook Notification RSS Feed includes these updates – so I can pull the Facebook RSS feed and link to myself three levels deep, automatically.

%%awsomnews%%

Then Marketing Keys introduced yet another bombshell. A form of media that takes the entire world into scope, in every detail. Maps. Particularly Google Maps.

Todd Lucier, the creator and presenter of the Tourism Keys Seminars, introduced us to the simple, but detailed, process of adding your business data to the Google Maps database. But further, Todd demonstrated how travel providers can utilize these maps to create detailed trip guides, such as canoe routes. Travel routes can be mapped and points of interest can be flagged. Each map entry can be tagged with descriptions, images, audio, video, podcasts, links to further resources… you name it!

Todd showed us an amazing virtual canoe trip in Algonquin Park using Google Maps RIGHT ON HIS OWN WEBSITE! Using a simple embed code, Todd demonstrated how you can add your own custom Google Map to your blog or website – in a few simple steps.

Follow-up Research into Google Maps resulted in some completely unexpected discoveries.

By following the Google Maps embed code backwards, searching for RSS related information, I uncovered a deeper layer to the internet. I have found myself another step closer to accessing the ROOT of the largest databases in the world. I feel like I’ve exposed a part of “the machine” where only Heavy Mechanics work – it’s called GOOGLE DEVELOPERS API’s.

If an RSS feed lets me pull the last 20 posts from a news source, the Developers API’s will let me write a query that lets me pull every post that was ever made… If my picasa RSS feed pulls the last 20 images, the API feed query can pull ALL the images, all the YouTube Videos and on and on.

I figure that, if I’m just learning about it, someone else already knows AND they already have applications built around it… and yes, after some searching I’ve found some powerful examples of how people have pulled API’s from several sources to create very useful Niche services!

Next – I’ll share the list of WordPress Plugins that I have collected to pull images from picasa, videos from youtube, niche-specific social bookmarking activity, news from Google, weather from environment Canada, events from Google Calendar, podcasts from iTunes, and Social Feeds from multiple sources – all this content comes to your site automatically!

Everything you need to provide amazing content FROM everything Web 2.0 and become interconnected INTO everything Web 2.0 – and at the same time, utilizing every one of the various sources of Media and connection between people.

Thank you Fednor, for bringing Todd to us.