Automatic Searching

Q - What do the following services have in common? Backtype.com, Blogsearch.Google.com, Search.Twitter.com

A - They all allow updates, either via RSS or email, whenever your particular search term is found.

Between the three of them, you can be notified if someone mentions your name, your company, your competitors, or even your current gadget love interest, be it in a blog entry, comment, or even a tweet. We all have something that we enjoy reading about or knowing about, why not give them a try? Subscribe to their alerts via RSS or email, and let the updates start rolling in.

(note: News.Google.com has RSS feeds for their search terms as well, if you are looking for mainstream news outlets)

Google Reader *heart* n8x0

I am happy to say that the new version of GReader works many times better on the Nokia N-Series Browsers. Instead of having to go to a crippled version designed for cell phones, you can use the normal reader. It's a bit sluggish (though that may be the device), but certainly serviceable.

I haven't used it that extensively, but the I was able to get around the various feeds without difficulty. One more app that I use on a regular basis available on the n800. I'm loving it.

GReader - Facelift. But is it Faster?

Official Google Reader Blog: Square is the new round.

Looks like GReader is getting a facelift.  I hope it plays better with the Nokia browsers than the current version.  I use Reader all the time at my PC, but am forced to use the mobile version when away beause the MicroB browser on my n800 crawls so bad it's unusuable.

I can't wait to try it out!

TweetDeck: the App That Keeps on Giving

TweetDeck is a Twitter application that I've been using for quite some time. It's developed and maintained by a one man team: Ian Dodsworth. What initially drew me to the program was the ability to group tweets into different columns. While I do not follow hundreds of people, this feature alone made the program worth using for me. As much as I loved using Twhirl, once I started using TweetDeck I never looked back. Like it's predecessor on my system, it runs on Adobe Air, so it'll run wherever you can install that particular runtime environment.

At the time, what I didn't realize, is how responsive Ian is with his development. Not just to bug fixes and giving help to users who need it, but also in response to feature suggestions and then their implementation. Since I started using the program here are some of the things that he's added:

- A slew of URL shortening services (it seems he adds new ones every release).
- TwitPic and 12Seconds support.
- Built in spell check (YES!).
- Visual and audible tweet notifications.
- International font support.
- Color palette customization.
- Un/Read indication, the ability to clear read tweets.
- Integration with Search.Twitter.com.
- Replies are pulled in via the above, so you can see anyone who has replied to you, regardless of following status.

Going forward, we have to look forward to multi account support, among other things. This is particularly impressive considering that he is a team of ONE.

If you access Twitter on a computer, you are doing yourself a huge disservice by not checking out this program. It has changed the way that I interact with the service, and I know that my usage is relatively light compared to a lot of people out there. Just having a separate column for people I know, verses news or other automatic posting services helps to cut down the signal to noise ratio.

There arn't many programs out there that I endorse 100%, this is one of them.

Check it out at: www.TweetDeck.com.

Slight Adjustment to Layout

I've gone ahead and updated the template, very simple, single column. As a result ten posts on the main page made the main page way too long, so I've cut it back to just five.

The header image is something that I've been wanting to use for a very long time just never got around to implementing it. Random shot I took in a subway that conveys, to me anyway a lot of depth.