Husbands beware! Buddyping is here

I discover more Internet via books. I had blogged about this here => Discovering Internet Through Books

The books I referred to in the above-mentioned post were books on Internet. But to find something new and potentially as powerful as twitter in an economics book, now that is serendipity.

The Logic of Life has a delightful chapter that is a play on 'The World is Flat', called 'The World is Spiky'. In this Tim Harford goes on and on about Buddyping.

Now what is Buddyping?

The idea behind BuddyPing is simple and the execution deceptively simple, making something quite complex appear effortless. Text your location to BuddyPing and it will text you back with the location of your friends (if they’re BuddyPing members) and what they’re doing. When your friends login to the system via text, you get a text if they’re nearby, and they get a text back saying you are nearby. The number of friends is limited to the 5 closest friends and “nearby” in Buddyping terms is 10 miles.

For more information go to BuddyPing: The new wave of MoSoSo

Uh oh! I see a danger already: wives can now keep a tab on their husbands 24 x 7.

10 Spectacular Blogs, so far

I started collecting spectacular blogs in the month of February. And now I have a collection of 10. Hence this announcement.

I have simple criteria of choosing spectacular blogs.

a) The blog needs to grab my attention by its neck and hold it there for at least 15 minutes.

b) "I wish I had thought of that," is what comes to mind as I read these blogs.

Check out my collection of Spectacular Blogs. Drop a line and let me know if you think these are any good.

Squidoo Lens in February

I envy those who have numerous Squidoo lens - so me have 400+ :-0. Isn't that amazing? Need to reach that goal asap. Meanwhile, here's what I managed in February.

Learn German with me - I have completely redone this lens. It used to list the free resources available on net. It now has (almost) all the German lessons I developed for this blog. Having all the lessons on one page makes so much more sense. I still have transfer a few more lessons before starting of on new ones. Meanwhile have a look and let me know if it is an improvement.

Created 2 lens dedicated to blogs.
The first one, Best on Indian Blogs, can be deemed a success. It is a list of blogs by Indians (including NRI's). Bloggers can submit their blogs and vote for each others' blog. As of now there are 81 blogs in the list. Check it out. If you are a blogger, feel free to submit your blog (listing your blog on a platform that has high Google visibility will not do you any harm) and if you are not a blogger, even then it is worth a visit to see what Indians blog about.

The other one, Spectacular Blogs, is a personal list of blogs that I really like. I gather these as I surf the Net. Let me know if you like my collection. It is still a small collection but will definitely grow.

And finally, I added 3 more what I call photo-lens (basically a Squidoo lens consisting mainly of photographs) to my repertoire:

Photographs of Intricately Carved Photographs of Hoysala Temple - part 2 (Halebid photographs); the part 1 of this series (Photographs of Intricately Carved Photographs of Hoysala Temple) is on the temple at Belur.

The giant of Shravanabelagola - Bhaubali

My memories of England and Northern Ireland

Let me know if you like the pictures.

All this noise about twitter

Looks like I am totally taken by web 2.0 applications. Twitter being the latest in series.

The idea of mini-blogging is sweet. You keep in touch with others and they with you by simple typing out the answer to: what are you doing now? If it is worthwhile, that is.

And if you have large fan following you may also divert traffic to your website. But why am I saying this when there is fantastic lens (unfortunately not by me) on twitter:


50 ways to use twitte

twitter applications

But what I find most fascinating is the limitation of 140 characters. It takes an effort (at least for me - unless it is something mundane) to confine your thoughts to such constraints. But it is fun.

Go tweet!

Picture courtesy: George Popa

Lens on Blogs

I have been toying with a cross-over idea: to combine the convenience of a lens on Squidoo and the blog world. At first I thought I would use the high search rank of Squidoo to promote my lens but then I was stuck by the selfishness of it all. So I decided to do something for other bloggers.

I have launched two new lens. One is called the Best of Indian Blogs. This is an attempt to build the list of best blogs by Indians. Indian bloggers can submit their blogs and vote for the blogs, their own and those of others. I am hoping that this will give Indian blogs a high-visibility platform. Squidoo is in the top 500 most visited sites in the world, and in the top 250 most viewed in the United States. So far about 50 blogs have been submitted. So, that is going well. So if you are an Indian blogger who has stumbled upon this blog, please feel free to submit your blog on this lens. Let's have fun.

As I scan the blogosphere I come across some fantastic blogs. Those that I am not capable of dreaming of. They are so good that I have spent hours browsing these blogs. So the second lens is a list of blogs that I find spectacular. This is my private lens and I do not allow others to add any blog on their own. But if you come across a blog that you think is worth including in the lens please feel free to leave a comment on the lens and I promise to look it up. The lens is called Spectacular Blogs (very original name!) Check out the blogs on this lens. Let me know if you too find these spectacular.

I haven't seen any other Squidoo lens quite like these. I am wondering if I can take a copyright on this idea :-)

Photo courtesy: Jaylopez

Blogging - 7 Things That Work For Me And 1 That Doesn't

Having blogged almost continuously for about 4 months now, I am getting a feel of what works for me. I haven't yet figured one that doesn't.

Here's the list of what works ...

1. Using a neat template ... Too much clutter is a no-no. The attention span of a visitor is short. Need to capture and keep the visitor for a long time.

2. Using pictures ... Pictures capture attention. Not too many of these. But definitely above the fold-line. And the best place to get royalty free pictures is Stock Xchng. Remember to leave a message for the photographer thanking him/her - that also ensures that one extra person will visit your blog. Also remember to credit the photographer in your blog.

3. Blogging My Mind ... I know it is good to focus, great for traffic, etc. I have other blogs which are extremely focused. But you got to have one for fun. Where you can blog your heart out. So that even when no one is visiting your blog, you are driven to blog continuously.

4. Being a Good Citizen of The Blogosphere ... It is fun to make virtual friends. It also means that people in whose blog I have left a comment visit mine. I make it a point to leave comments in at least 5 blogs per day.

5. Welcome Text ... I think my hit rate increased after I introduced a welcome note for my visitors. In any case, it is nice to greet strangers. I read somewhere long ago in Reader's Digest:

A stranger is just a friend you haven't met before

6. Non-linear narrative ... I get more visitors to the posts that do not follow a plain, straight line narrative.

7. Asking For Feedback ... Asking for feedback of like minded friends you met on a forum is a great help.

Here's the list of what I still need to figure out ...

1. How do I ensure quality advertisements on my blog that interests my visitors? Blogging is in my control. But how do I get my visitors to become interested in the ads.  I wish I had the creative control on the advertisement on my blog. Meaning, I wish I could design them.

But then that would mean that the advertisements would look exactly like my blog!!  Is that a good thing or a bad thing? You decide.

Note: The picture used belongs to jaylopez (See gallery)