September 3 - Google
By Tobey Shevrin

5 Cool things you forgot (or didn't know) Google could do:

1. Google Base:
Easily publish and find recipes, classifieds, vacation rentals and job listings at Google Base, a no-web site way to get data online and into Google's search results. What's great about Base is that it offers data type-specific search operators. For example, you can search recipes by ingredient, or vacation rentals by location and features like how many bedrooms, and what type of property it is (cabin, cottage, hotel, villa, house, etc.)

2. Google Trends:
Compare the "world's interest" in certain words and topics at Google Trends, which charts the number of times a word or phrase appeared on the web over time. Great for checking out the history of popular brand names (like iPhone or Sony). Google Trends also shows how frequently your topics have appeared in Google News stories and in which geographic regions people have searched for them most.

3. Google Alerts
Make your web search results come to you with Google Alerts. It's great for monitoring news stories, industries, celeb gossip, or even your favorite sports team. I like to use it to keep track of my own name, webshef, and word salad. To get results for several term searches in one alert, combine terms with AND, like word salad AND webshef.

4. Google Code Search:
Mostly of interest to programmers, it's a pretty incredible mechanism for finding and browsing the innards of countless open source projects. Use the “lang:” operator to limit your results to a certain language, and search by developer name, file name, or comments. Google Code Search also offers tips, tutorials, expert advice and even featured products. So if your interested in learning code and don't know an awesome programmer (like my mom) Google Code can help.

5. Google Book Search  
Remember those rectangular objects that you used to read by turning a page from one side to the other? Ah, those were the days. You can still get your books online at Google Book Search. Flip through pages of books scanned into Book Search, and add books to your personal virtual library as well. Along those same lines, academics won't want to forget about Google Scholar for searching papers, theses, abstracts and articles, from academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories, universities and other scholarly organizations. See, i'm helping you get an A already.

So, since Google is a reliable search engine, I'd say your chances of getting any word salad is slim so happy searching!

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August 28 - Yahoo Widgets
By: Tobey Shevrin

Yahoo Widgets, bringing all the things you love right to your desktop.

Recently I decided to adventure into the land of widgets. It’s a busy place and there are lots of options but it’s helpful and very cool. Basically widgets are mini applications you can easily access on your desktop. You save time with live updates, can personalize your settings, have as many as you want (over 4,000 to chose from) AND all that while using less computer memory leaving you more memory for other stuff.

So if you’re an organization freak like me, you might enjoy learning how I use my widgets at work. I have eight widgets currently on my desktop.

1. Astrology, because I like to know my forecast for the day and bonus, it’s a video so at 8 a.m. I don’t have to read it.
2. Facebook, my widget automatically logs me in and updates right from my desktop, so when Becca posts a new status update I don’t skip a beat because it’s right there.
3. Marketing Roadhouse, this is for all you marketing gurus out there who like to stay on top of your marketing gossip and tips.
4. Calculator, because Im not very good at math and don’t want to find the tool in my start menu.
5. Cute Kitty Cat, it follows my mouse and amuses me… enough said.
6. Sudoku, for down time and boredom relief.
7. Weather, because there are no windows in my office and I like to know what im walking into when I leave work.
8. Lastly, my favorite… JC Sticky Deluxe! I’m very proud of myself for how I used this widget. On my desktop I have a calendar for the month of August and on certain dates I have a customizable sticky note with my reminders. They never fall off, or get lost! Best post it system ever! I can color coat them, change the text, delete them, change the font etc. etc. It’s fantastic.

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August 26 StumbleUpon
By: Tobey Shevrin

StumbleUpon, are you familiar with it? Well get to know it, because when you’re looking for fresh ideas, or something to do, it can be a life and time saver.

StumbleUpon is a gizmo you ad to your toolbar on your web browser. Before you install it you tailor it to your personal preferences, that way you don’t get any garbage that you won’t want to read. When you click “Stumble!” it delivers you high-quality web pages similar to your interests, helping you discover sites you never knew existed. You can click “Stumble!” as many times as you want, and you’ll always get a new webpage.

But how does it work?

StumbleUpon uses ratings to form collaborative opinions on website quality; meaning you will only see pages that friends and like-minded stumblers have recommended. It helps you find content you wouldn’t find through a search engine, because lets face it… going through pages and pages on Google isn’t exactly what I had in mind when I’m looking for cool new recipes. StumbleUpon lets your customize your preferences so you only get sites you like. My preferences include cooking, wine, marketing, graphics, traveling and funny cat pictures, and BONUS if I don’t like the site, I can tell StumbleUpon and I won’t get that site ever again.

I love people driven technology, thanks guys!

So when you’re faced with an information overload or maybe some down time at work, Stumble, I guarantee you won’t get any word salad.

http://www.stumbleupon.com/