Easy Webbers

I think it’s time to end the poll that has been around for a while now. These are the results on the question “What kind of stuff do you want to see more on this blog?”:

1. More Programming stuff: 42.9%
2. Photoshop Tutorials: 35.7%
3. I like it the way it is: 14.3%
4. Dreamweaver MX Tutorials: 7.1%
5. More Domain Name news: 0.0%
6. More Design news: 0.0%

You have voted and of course we will listen to what you want to see more off on Easy Webbers. So in a near future you will see more programming news and tutorials. But now and then we will also post a Photoshop tutorial and a few Dreamweaver MX tutorials.

But you guys surprised me when not a single person voted for more domain and design news. Oh well, the new poll question is: What do you think of Blogger.com’s new features?

Google has released a new version of it’s popular Blogging tool Blogger.

It is still in BETA but it seems that you can register if you sign in using your Google account and not your Blogger account. Update: This is how it works:

If you can’t wait, you can create a new account on the beta now and make a new blog to test out the new features. Because the new Blogger uses Google Accounts, you can use your existing Google login, or create a new one. (Later, you’ll be able to merge your current and beta accounts, and have all your blogs in one place.)

You can go and check a little tour before you decide if you want to switch over already.

Some of the new features are pretty cool and some features have we been waiting a long time on. Haven’t we? The new features can be summed up like this:

• Categorize your posts with “labels”
• Dynamic Serving (leading to faster publishing)
• Control who can read your blog (private blogs) update - seems there are some bugs with this - don’t go publishing anything too private yet.
• Change the appearance and content of your blog with your mouse instead of HTML (sort of like widgets)
• New Dashboard
• New Templates
• User accounts will now be Google accounts instead of Blogger accounts
• More Feed options (ie feeds for comments on your blog, feeds for comments on individual posts as well as RSS 2.0 and Atom 1.0)

If you have already switched to the new BETA please post a comment and tell us how it works, and if it’s any useful. Thank you!

Windows has just released Windows Live Writer. It is a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) desktop application that let’s you write your blog posts easier. It is still in BETA but you can download it for free.

It looks and feel like a small version of Word. See for yourself (click image). But please remember that this program is still in BETA, so it will probably contain some bugs and so.

RSS is a Web content Syndication format and its name is an acronym for Really Simple Syndication. All RSS files must conform to the XML 1.0 specification.

RSS is a standard XML format for delivering content that changes on a regular basis. Content is delivered in small chunks, generally a synopsis, preview, or headline. Using RSS, you can easily track any type of information that changes on a daily or even hourly basis (view an example RSS feed for topselling DVDs).

By Using RSS files, you can create a data feed that supplies Titles, links, and description of content from your Web site.

RSS feeds comprises two componenets:
1. RSS data feeds : (a sources of contents)
2. RSS news Aggregator:

RSS aggregator is a a System that fetches Information from your web sites and dropped it webpages like weblog and more….

RSS is the hottest thing in Web communication. It powers many popular applications such as weblogs, knowledge management networks, and news syndication.

(more…)

Just a little warning if you ever thought getting a hosting account with them:

I have just had my first ever horror story with a webhost. This webhost is called Blazernetwork (www.blazernetwork.com).

I signed up for their hosting service a little over a year ago. For the first year, they were great - just a few outages here and there. But ever since I renewed my domain and hosting with them, my website has been down nearly 5% of the total time I’ve been paying for it to be up.

Currently my site has been down for nearly 4 consecutive days, with the exception of a few minutes of uptime during yesterday afternoon. Furthermore, they have not responded to a single one of my emails for months during previous network outages. I luckily had enough time to backup all of my files to my computer so I can begin looking for a new webhost. But unfortunately, since I can’t get in contact with anyone there, I can’t change the domain over to a different server since they are my registar. Furthermore, my main email account is on my domain, and all emails to it are being bounced. Wonderful.

I’m writing this as a warning to all of those looking for a webhost. Do NOT user blazernetwork.com if you care about your site being online.

- George Ingham

More people seems to have a problem against Blazernetwork.com, check the reviews here.

Ever wanted to get that background to work with your website the way you want but never been able to? Well maybe you need to discover some CSS Background Properties?

The CSS background properties allow you to control the background color of an element, set an image as the background, repeat a background image vertically or horizontally, and position an image on a page.

http://www.w3schools.com/css/css_background.asp

So you have a blog or two. Then you also have a RSS-feed (RSS = Really Simple Syndication) that your readers can subscribe too. A RSS-feed is a great tool and shouldn’t be forgotten. But how do you actually make it more useful for you and your blog?

You can easily and for free check the stats of your RSS-feed using FeedBurner.com. It’s just as easy and important like checking the stats for your blog or website. So go and register your free account at FeedBurner and add your blog feed.

Done that? Okey, now the fun begins! On your FeedBurner account you can now see live stats of your RSS-feed. But you need to spread the new feed url, otherwise no one can subscribe to it. So go to the “Publicize” section in FeedBurner.

(more…)

Clicksor has disabled the “Live Support” feature for it’s publishers. “At this time, our network feels it is more profitable and beneficial for publishers if we allocate our resources to innovative ideas and upgrades”, Clicksor Support Team tells us.

Clicksor will still have trouble tickets, emails, and phone inquiry services available for it’s publishers. Clicksor promises that their “trouble ticket’Â’s response rate will be just as instantaneous as our old live support service”.

http://www.clicksor.com

Wan’t to become a top Digg user? Then you should read some of Marketallica’s tips. The points can be summed up like this:

1. Recognize Big Stories
2. Track Pulse of Internet
3. Interesting Headlines
4. Humanized Story Description
5. Trackback Your Submission
6. Comment First
7. Timing
8. Make Friends
9. Digg Your Friends News:
10. Finally, Enjoy

Click here to read the full article.

Google has a, well, new layout for their video service, Google Video. You may be asking now, where is it? You can access it, but only if you want to.

To test it, just go to any Google Video. Then type the following into the address bar:

javascript:setCookie('np','old');window.location.reload();

That should now put a “Test our new design” on the side. This may not be needed.

I am sure that you can work out now, just click that link and you will be viewing the new design.

So a YouTube ripoff? Personally, no. It is just a simple design, Google are allowed to do what they want. I like Google Video over YouTube, but that is only my opinion.

Posted by Josh.