Geek Speak: Do you have a voice?

Google Voice that is... but wait, what is Google Voice?

Google Voice is an internet based call forwarding service, FREE of charge unless placing international calls.  It's currently released by invite only but it's pretty easy to get an invite. Just ask me how if you're interested. Now, I am sure your thinking "Whoopty Doo", what can it do for me?  Well, here is what it did for me.

1. It gave me a local number (you can choose any number you want, from anywhere in the US). This helped a lot. I moved to Charleston not too long ago from another state and do not have a house line. Now I won't get a confused look when I give people my phone number. 
2. It also seconds as a business line. I can make outward calls using the Google Voice number.
   
3. Another awesome feature from Google Voice is the option to screen all calls before answering.  By screening, I do not mean caller-ID. I mean Google Voice informs you of who is on the other line and blocked numbers will not go through unless they announce themselves. No more random phone calls you send straight to voicemail.
   
4. Google voice also has phone management, which is similar to email management. If you are familiar with Gmail, then you will be familiar with Google Voice. You can manage all calls, voicemails, text messages, and contacts using Google Voice.
5. You also have a block list. You can block any calls from annoying telemarketers, relatives, exes, etc.
   
6. Oh yea, did I mention it transcribes your voicemails for you? Well it can! You can get an email, text, or both of your voicemail.  No more "wait, what number did they say?" or "what do they want?"
   
7. A feature I haven't used yet but can see myself using in the future is the ability to add multiple lines to the Google Voice number. So instead of just forwarding it to my mobile, I can forward the number to my house, work, another sibiling (in the case it's your parents), and more.
   

As you can see, I've discovered a lot of great features and I just started using it on Tuesday. And knowing Google, I'm sure they will continue to develop it. One key note... Google is very smart about adding a revenue model into the majority, if not all, of their products. Make sure to pick a number that you like or otherwise it will cost you $10 to get a new number.

Don't forget to comment and let us know how you use Google Voice and what benefits or flaws you see.  My one wish right now? I wish they would let you have more than one number.

 

Managing an Online Reputation

A while back, Steve and I wrote a blog post about brand reputation and how to discover what people are saying about you. Therefore, I was excited today to read an excellent article from the New York Times on the same subject (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/30/business/smallbusiness/30reputation.html?_r=1). Check out the article for even more thoughts about how you manage the task of your brand reputation with social media tools. While the article is meant to help small businesses, many nonprofits are in the same position. How do you handle this important, yet growing responsibility? Hopefully, with more awareness more great articles like this can provide resources and ideas for getting started.

Firefox 3.5: What's New?

I’ve had my head down for quite some time now (haven’t you noticed everyone is so busy lately?) and the launch of Firefox 3.5 almost passed me by without much notice. Well, it almost did until my browser kept crashing unexpectedly and I noticed it recommended I could update. Sure, why not I said because I was already losing time and I really was resisting the sage advice to reboot. Rebooting is my arch nemesis even if it somehow fixes things.

After downloading and installing, something in the new features jumped off the screen. It was a development I heard about but had completely forgotten about. Firefox 3.5 now supports HTML5 and embedded video. The idea being with the new version of HTML they could specify a common video codec for all browsers to use so you wouldn’t need to download any plug-ins like Flash, Silverlight, or JavaFX. They’ve run into some problems getting all companies to agree to this common video codec but there seems to be a light at the end of the tunnel. Someday, we may be able to watch video on a website without any extra software installations. The browser would play the video based on the website’s code.

For me, this is a big deal because when the industry can agree on a common standard, then support for video on pages can improve. Someday, this could mean you would have the ability to see video on any computer, platform, or device. Uniformity can equal improved performance.

As a technical communicator, when they can agree on how to improve watching video online, it can mean finding ways to embed video in help documentation. Currently, we can’t embed video without serious consideration for making sure your viewing experience is positive and headache free. If you have to install something extra, worry about browser stability, and consider performance issues (like internet bandwidth) then the help becomes not so helpful. Therefore, standards and consistency make me happy. Even I have to admit, I don’t like to have to stop my website browsing to install something just to watch a brief video. I also get upset when I can watch video on one website but not another on my iPhone.

It will take a while for this movement to take effect because websites will have to start authoring in HTML5 but now it’s more possible to see it taking effect when a browser like Firefox supports it.

Other notable features include: private browsing mode, location aware browsing, an improved awesome bar, one-click bookmarking, and more. More information is available on the Firefox website and this great overview video http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/video/. I think I’m just excited because the internet browser market is getting more competitive, faster, and more options to customize your experience.

An Intro to Social Media

We talk about social media, just a little bit , on our Blackbaud blogs. But maybe you're wondering why you should care or you know what it is but need to know more. Where do you go to find more information? I had a friend/professional peer ask me that very question this morning. Where do you begin? Specifically she wanted to know..."if I'm looking for basic, very basic information on social media do you know of any good sites to start with?"

Here's how I responded:

Hmmm... I'm not really sure. Most of social media education is just immersing yourself in the different types of social media/networking websites. I would recommend dabbling on different websites like - Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, Delicious, StumbeUpon, feed aggregators like Google Reader, Plaxo, a wiki site like one from Wetpaint, Hulu, Flixster, Last.fm, LinkedIn, and Digg. To learn social media is to observe how different mediums online encourage community participation. How does bringing the community into the content development process change websites, media, etc? And honestly, the best sites for reading about emerging social media right now are blogs.

Here's a couple good ones to get started with -

• Chris Brogan http://www.chrisbrogan.com/ (you can spend a long time on his site, he's a prolific blogger)
• Beth Kanter (she does social media for nonprofits) http://beth.typepad.com/beths_blog/

And like I told my friend, I hope this helps! Good luck getting started and like my friend, feel free to ask questions (of me) and of those you find to observe on social media websites. I find immersion in the practice of social media the best way to learn!

Social Media and Privacy Settings

Lately, when something hasn’t been working, in between projects, or waiting for edits, I decided to try a little experiment. I wanted to see what would happen if I played with my privacy settings on some social media sites like myspace, facebook, flickr, and more. While it did make me uncomfortable because it is after all, my privacy, I wondered if the value of transparency outweighed my need to protect my own information. Which, if you think about it, is rather silly because anything you put online has no real privacy - it’s online! If you don't want something to be shared (or misused), don't use the internet! I'm one of those believers that anything can be hacked.

What does this mean for your information? Your profiles? Your social media efforts? Your organization's information?

I can't give you the answer, I can only help you question yourself and figure out the answer on your own. Because after all, the more we learn about the terms of agreement of social media websites, the better educated you are to know what you should and shouldn’t share online. When does your content suddenly become not yours? And, when does your privacy cease to be private?

What did I learn from my privacy experiment?

1. I had one random person contact me based on making my profile more available... Hmmm my content must not be that appealing. Lesson Learned - Transparency doesn't mean people will flock to you.
2. Instead, it just meant I had no clue who was seeing my information. They didn't have to ask permission first. Lesson Learned – Unless you have an analytics tool like Google Analytics, open content doesn’t yield you much insight into your users.
3. If you have too tight rules around privacy, it will be hard for people to find you. Lesson Learned – Make it easy for people to find and connect with you. Once they do, you can work on making the connections more meaningful.
4. There are so many settings you have control over on social media sites like Facebook. Lesson Learned – Take some time to browse through the settings, read the help information available, and play with what settings work for your organization. I found it’s nice to have different privacy settings on different sites depending on the content available. On a site like Facebook where I connect with family and friends in addition to my professional work, it’s nice to have more privacy.

Maybe my overall lesson learned however is that it’s easy to set custom privacy settings. However, the unsettling part is deciding what content to share and what settings work best. Never put content online you wouldn’t want the whole world to see even if it’s “private.”

Geek Speak: Twitter Tools to Twind Tweeps to Twollow

Try to say that title one time fast (yeah, don't even bother with three times fast)!  Phew!

Why the alliteration? Well I recently signed up for Twitter a few months ago to see what it was all about, and it wasn’t until I understood the power of it that I began to really dive in.  After a month or so, I began to get frustrated because I wanted to find people to follow, but not just anyone.  I wanted to follow those who had something to say or those who I could potentially build a professional relationship. So naturally I turned to Google to solve my conundrum. My results? Well, that's what I'm hoping to share here in this blog post. Here's a list of tools that helped me. 

1. Twitter Search – I used Twitter Search to see if anyone I knew was on Twitter. You can also use it to find a conversation about a particular topic. Great to use when you're just getting started.
   
2. Twellow – Twellow is definitely not the prettiest tool to use, but it contains a massive database of users that you can search by location or category.  Great tool, just a bit clunky.
3. LocalTweeps – Local Tweeps is fairly new.  However, the database is growing and the main focus of this is to find Tweeps (Twitter people) that are in the same locale as you.  I found quite a few people to follow using this tool. 
4. WhoShouldIFollow – Who Should Follow is an interesting site, you enter your Twitter name and it finds users that match what you have tweeted, your bio, and who you are already following.  This tool didn't help me as much because lately my focus has been finding people in my locale because I just moved to the area. 
5. TwitterLocal – Twitter Local is an Adobe Air application that is great.  Basically you follow conversations that happen in specific areas - based on city, zip code, state, etc.  It's great to see what is going on locally and to see who the big players are in the area. 

Each of these tools helped me find more people to follow.

Other Helpful Hints -
It's also a good idea to see who the people you are following, who they themselves are following. Typically they are interested in the same people, so it's always good to check that out.  Also, one of my favorite things to do is to check out the twitter user's ration. What's the ratio of who they follow to how many people follow them. I like to make sure its kind of close, however, if you are following a celebrity or a group or company, you cannot expect the ratio to be close. In addition, I also tend not to follow people without avatars, or a few quality updates. I do a quick twitter history check to verify quality and not just quantity. Sometimes those with quantity lack conciseness and worthwhile tweets. 

These are just a few things to look out for when you are looking for more people to follow. Hope this helps and happy tweeting. 

Feel Free to follow me @Phamtastik and Lindsey @lindseyrobbins

Live Blogging from WritersUA Conference

Hello Chatterbox world...

I thought I'd try something new this time around. The WritersUA Conference on Software User Assistance has free wifi in the meeting rooms so I'm going to try a little live blogging. First time for me, so humor me in my stumbles and perhaps some less than interesting updates. Hopefully some will be exciting to follow if not a little interesting. **Note -- read bottom to top for a chronological order of events**

Wednesday

Yay! Presentation finished. Enjoyed talking to people and starting new conversations. It's been a great conference. Off to the final session (including raffle prizes) and then to the airport. It's a late night flight back to the East coast. Only have one request, please be nice to me Delta. Going to a conference has turned me into a bag lady. We'll see if I get scolded or not. Otherwise, it's been a great conference and I've really appreciated the opportunity to learn and take back great information to my team. Maybe someday WritersUA can have me back. Attending and speaking has been a great experience for a technical writer who still feels new to the field after only three years! And thanks Seattle for playing my host for the last five days. It was nice meeting you. However, I'm ready to go home and back to *normal life*. I miss you! :-)

All set up in my session room, lappy (my laptop) is ready to present, but am I?

For lunch, made a quick run (in reality brisk walk in the snow) to Pike Place Market. Picked up a couple dozen doughnuts (they're small). Hope they travel well. Also found Three Girls Bakery where I had the best turkey sandwich ever! Saving half for the airport later. Always thinking about ways to save my company money for the bottom line. Purchase one dinner for 6.85 and make it last for two! :-)

Listened to Charlene's great session on twitter, lots of resources to look over especially because I'd like to expand my use of twitter and make sure it's a relevant work tool. I found it fun to tweet about the session on my mobile, I felt very in the now for once and not two steps behind (at least for the writers ua crowd).

Good morning! Had a great breakfast and eager to hear this session on usability testing. We have a group of technical writers on the Documentation team interested in usability testing, hoping to take back some good information to improve our processes. Admittedly, I am getting nervous/excited for my session @1:30p. Before that though, I'm going on a doughnut treasure hunt. I hear some of the best doughnuts are at the Pike Place Market!

Tuesday

i think after this last session, I'm going to get some good chowder on the waterfront before heading back to my hotel room to practice *lots and lots* before my session tomorrow. Want to do well and provide value in my presentation. However, all I can do is talk from experience. I've learned a lot of lessons from corporate blogging, let's see what my audience thinks of my best practices and benefits!

All of a sudden, I got really cold, maybe Seattle forgot to turn up the thermostat when the temps started dropping. Otherwise it's on to my last session of the day... best practices for embedded user assistance. Hoping it will build upon my last session.

Still unable to check work email. Have bad feeling Friday will be ugly email day where I have to dig myself out. However, session on user assistance in forms is giving me lots of great examples and things to think about. There sure are a lot of really bad forms out there!

Yum, grilled cheese from Beecher's Handmade Cheese shop. A slight case of food coma but I'm on to a session on user assistance in web forms. I'm hoping to learn some more information about good user assistance for web-based application fields. 

Time for lunch... going to pike place market to roam around and get my walk on!

In my first breakout session - Docs to Wiki: Redesigning and Restructuring Content. I've been doing some docs to wiki in the last year myself by taking content from structured and unstructured Framemaker to our internal Sharepoint wiki. Wondering if I can learn some new tips today in case we do some more documentation to wiki in the future.

Starting the day with the keynote session on the status of Microsoft in the post-Gates era. It's funny and interesting and I'm wanting to research more about Ray Ozzie and how he's bringing change to the company (including open source?!?) as the chief software architect.

Day 2 of the conference. I think I might have altered the weather pattern in downtown Seattle. I didn't see rain on Sunday or Monday or so far today. Have I brought sunshine from Charleston all the way to the West coast?

Monday

First day at the conference has been great. Will try to review my live blogging skills and improve my technique before tomorrow. Important step to remember, charge laptop!

Last session of the day is about techniques for reviewing a user interface. She presented the session at last year's writersua and I can't remember if Steve or Denise attended it last year. I hope not because if that's the case I should hop into another session. She did give out australian chocolate! Bonus points for including chocolate! We'll see what I can learn in this session, then I'm off for a walk outside before retiring for the night. I'm trying to stay on EST time so the transition back isn't so rough.

Finally found a fueling station, after a great networking lunch, my next session was on Microsoft Help version 3. The laptop charged while I attended the session. Then I charged it some more during a break. Laptops are slow to recharge I'm learning. Also slow, development at Microsoft. Turns out they made a key design change on Friday and no demo at the conference.

Up next... I'm off to my first breakout session. I'm attending one on User-centered Design of Context-sensitive Help. Will have to give a blog update after the session, my laptop battery needs some re-charging. Lesson learned, find a fueling station every chance I get! 

I really like what he has to say about how visual communication can be incorporated by technical communicators, even if you don't have a cartoonist (luckily BB does!), you can really work on isolation through sequence. You don't have to put everything into the technical documentation, just the need to know. Sequence through static images has similar theory around it as comics.

"That's the beauty of sequence" It helps you focus on one thing at a time instead of worrying about steps 14, 15, 16, 17 when you're still on step 2. Interesitng thoughts from Scott so far! He's a genius about visual communication especially in way comics can relay facts and not just tell a story.

Paraphrasing here - comics help you "focus the mind on only what it needs to know now..."  

Keynote is more of a Q&A than a traditional presentation. Scott's giving the background of Google Chrome and how he got there.

Ready for the keynote speaker, Scott McCloud. Joe Welinske, President of WritersUA, is doing the introduction. I think he just said 323 attendees are here.

Conference begins! Picked up my packet easy peazy. For being a presenter, they even gave me a nice box of chocolates. Breakfast was a deluxe continental breakfast. I tried to fill up so I didn't have to worry too much about eating the rest of the day. TIme to focus!

Sunday

Sunday was a taste of Seattle. I did some sightseeing including the Space Needle and a walk along the waterfront. I even took a ferry boat ride. I enjoyed seeing the city my favorite way... walking! Only thing not accomplished was a visit to the Pike Place market. My hotel is pretty close so I'm thinking i'll take several trips over the next three days. I even bought a rain coat here! I'm thinking it will come in handy (according to the weather forecasts). Overall an awesome day to get settled in and learn what Seattle is like. Favorite thing, the city is pretty chill and not crowded. Seattle is relaxed despite the abundance of coffee shops everywhere. I'm anxious to try a few espressos here and there. Tomorrow, the conference starts.

Chatterbox Heads to Seattle

I’m sitting in the Altanta airport right now waiting for my flight to Seattle. It’s a bustle of activity but I’m too excited about where I’m going to notice. Chatterbox is headed to Seattle for the WritersUA Conference on Software User Assistance – Better UX through Better UA.

I’ll be attending sessions from Sunday, March 29 to Wednesday, April 1st. I’m geeked to be going and among the 45 awesome presenters is yours truly. Yup, that’s right, I’ll have my own session Wednesday talking about my experiences writing this blog and for From the Doc Side blog. I definitely think it’s valuable for user assistance professionals to be involved in the blog world and I’m honored to share my lessons learned and best practices with my peers.

The focus of the conference will be the following user assistance areas:

• Emerging Technologies     
• Emerging Skills
• Technology Updates
• Design Strategies
• Tool Techniques
• Content Development
• Open Standards
• Special Interest

The keynote speaker is Scott McCloud who will be speaking about his experiences with the Google Chrome Comic  and Visual Communication in general. One of my teammates has been begging to be an assistant at my session just for the chance to hear him speak… to say I’m feeling lucky to go is an understatement.

Here’s the overview on my session –

Lessons Learned in Corporate Blogging
Lindsey Robbins, Blackbaud Inc.
Wednesday 1:30 - 2:45pm
This session examines the corporate blogging environment and how to benefit from establishing your personal identity alongside your company brand. We'll discuss the benefits of blogging for the user assistance specialist as well as the challenges of writing for your company. We'll examine audience analysis, social media efforts, and SEO and what they can mean for your user assistance team. The session will provide examples of my work authoring three corporate blogs and include details on the benefits realized thus far.
— YOU WILL LEARN —
    * How to use social media to promote your blog
    * How to create ongoing conversations with users and peers
    * Best practices for group blogging
    * Best practices for individual blogging
    * Personal benefits of choosing to blog
    * Value of blogging for corporate transparency

Wish me luck. I’ll try to report from the conference on twitter and later on here. It’s always fun to learn, challenge what you know, and take back lessons learned to your team. Who knew blogging would take an East coast girl all the way to the West coast!

Little Tricks for Big Help!

Once and a while I find a cool, small detail about a tool or website that makes a huge difference to me – so much so, I feel the need to share. I especially appreciate them when they save me steps and time! Here are eight to get you started...

1. Merge Contacts in Gmail.
Gmail made me happy in early February when they announced several changes to Gmail contacts. This little tip will help you if you use Gmail for professional or personal reasons. When I discovered this new feature, I was relieved! I can recall too many experiences trying to update contacts who appear more than once in my Contacts list. I wanted to combine them and had a frustrating time with copy/paste because it would say a contact already existed with that information. Now, you can just select as many contacts as you want and click Merge these [ ] contacts in the far right pane. Sweet!

2. Multiple Attachment Selection in Gmail.
The other small feature from Gmail making me happy now is the ability to select multiple items for upload to an email in Gmail. Instead of painfully adding an attachment one at a time to the email form, you can now select multiple and watch them upload with progress bars.

3. TripIt Application for LinkedIn.
A professional colleague sent me a request for TripIt. Not only did I discover a fun site for tracking travel but I also discovered it integrated well as an application on LinkedIn. I love how it can update your network updates so people know when you are traveling for business. Could be an especially helpful tool for meeting up with colleagues you are “linked” to but hardly ever see!

4. Subscribe to Facebook Status Updates in a Feed Aggregator.
I don’t ever feel like I can keep up with my Facebook friends status updates. They just happen too quickly in real time. Then, one day I discovered you can actually subscribe to a feed of your friends’ status updates. On the top menu bar, click Friends. In the far left column, under Subscribe, click Friends’ Status Feed. This will give you the feed address to plug into your favorite blog aggregator or you can add to Google Reader like I do. Now, when I have time I can scroll through updates quickly and respond to the ones I feel worthy. This is especially helpful to fast readers who’d rather scroll quickly and spend more time writing goofy messages on friends’ walls or getting back to my “real” work.

**Additional suggestion** Subscribe to your LinkedIn Network Updates in your feed aggregator as well.

5. Blackberry CallsBlocker Application.
A great app for you crackberry addicts. You can now block unwanted calls on your phone using CallsBlocker. I haven’t tried this one out yet but it came highly recommended from Geek Speak Steve. Seems like I might have some R&D (research & development) in my near future.

6. Use Picnik to Edit Photos Online.
Picnik is a great site I recommend in my sidebar sites section. It's an online picture editing application. I love it because it gives me enough editing options for free without having to buy an expensive application with too many options. Now, the site is even more improved. You can open and save your photos from Flickr, Facebook, Myspace, Photobucket, Picasa, Webs, and Webshots, all within Picnik.

7. Check Your @Replies on Twitter.
Some people you aren’t following reply to your tweets. You might not be ready to follow them just yet but it’s important to regularly check your replies to make sure you don’t forget to respond. It’s a newer feature on Twitter but one that’s been on my Blackberry Twitter app for some time now.

8. Googlify Your Smart Phone!
Have a new smart phone? Or just have a smart phone that you never added all the awesome Google applications? (Because we all know Google makes some amazing free tools to make our lives easier!)  Best place to start for adding Google applications is a website by Google (Google Mobile) that helps you find and download all the available applications for your phone. For example, my super awesome pink blackberry can download the Google Mobile App, Search, Maps, Gmail, Sync, Reader, Calendar, and more!

Hope you have fun with these tips and find that can help at least a little!

Geek Speak: Do you fear having your email address visible to spammers?

Well have no fear, because Scrim is here!  Scrim is a wonderful new tool that masks your email address from the spam bots that scour the internet to find an email to send their "spicy meat" to.  Think of Scrim as Tinyurl for your email address (why didn't I think of this?), you simply enter in your email address and let Scrim do its business.  After it works its magic, you get a URL that a user will have to click on and correctly select the captcha to reveal your email address.  I created a fake email address for fun (ieatspamforbreakfast@fakemail.com) and this is what Scrim created: http://scr.im/15b. 

Oh yea, did i mention you get 12 characters to create your own link?  Unfortunately, if you already created a randomly generated link for your email address you are stuck with it.  So now place your email address freely on the web and let Scrim do the spam fighting for you. 

What are people saying about you?

Your brand reputation (either personal or professional) is an important aspect of your business.  Being "in the know" about what people are saying about your brand is important.  Unfortunately, branding is not like the world of glitz and glamour where any publicity is good publicity. 

For instance, you may be one of the top players in professional baseball, a role model for kids, and yet admit to taking steroids to gain a professional advantage. While when Alex Rodriguez took the drugs, they were not banned by Major League Baseball, he still tarnished his reputation and that of the sport. It's the same for organizations. If you are a financial institution and you require assistance to maintain your ability to do business, it does not project stability. You may scare your current and potential customers away. General Motors is the same. People are concerned about buying cars from a brand that may no longer exist in a few years. Branding is sensitive to public opinion. These examples show how your brand can be severely damaged or even ruined.  

In the always competitive market of business, you may want to know what your competitors are doing. You may want to know what people have to say about your products and services. You may want to find out how you can improve. Or, you may just want the opportunity to reach out to your customers.

Enter Google Alerts! Google Alerts is a great tool that will send you an alert (you set up) whenever any of your search criteria is mentioned on the Internet.  Pretty simple right?  By being constantly vigilant about what is being said, you can stay current with damage control, be aware of what people like and dislike, improve your products, or maintain a close watch on your competitors. You can set up alerts for anything your heart desires including watching the news for when the iPhone goes open source (I can dream!).

Twitter is another great resource for monitoring your brand.  With nearly six million unique visitors a month (according to compete.com), you can assume the number of active users is massive. Those active users represent current customers or potential customers. They also represent a powerful social network who can spread information instantly to a domino network. Reach out to them and be aware. Practice listening and responding to feedback even when it's bad. Acknowledge potential for improvement if needed. You don't have to be perfect, just transparent, honest, and willing to improve. Besides developing a network of followers, you can search Twitter for key information. As well, Monitter is a great site for seeing real time tweets of your key words. Enter in up to three key words on the page and see a live stream of what people are saying. A great resource if you want live feedback.

With Google Alerts and Twitter, why waste time crawling the web to see what people have to say. Instead, spend the time wisely listening and then use it to improve your brand, your products, and your services. Afterwards, you can reap in the praise and rewards. When that happens, you can come back and thank me.  

Co-Authored By: Lindsey Robbins

Discovering Xobni

Yeah! It’s fun to have co-workers just randomly mention a cool tool in a meeting and then off you go on a learning adventure. Thanks to Georgeanne, I was recently introduced to Xobni (inbox backwards).

http://www.xobni.com/

Xobni (pronounced Zob nee) is a plug-in for Microsoft Outlook. So far it’s been giving me cool email analytics about different people who email me frequently (for example, my manager is ranked #1 for emails). It can also show me recent conversations and files exchanged with that person as well as who is in their network. I really like the recent conversations section because when you select a conversation, it shows you the emails in threaded view (like Gmail). This helps save you time searching for your communication history! Also, it has an email search tool. Haven’t had a reason to search my email yet, but when I do, I’ll be interested in seeing how well it works.

Also, Xobni has integration features for Facebook and LinkedIn. I still have more to learn about what I can do with this tool but I wanted to get the word out so you could start optimizing your inbox as well (if you feel so inclined).

Geek Speak: Facebook and Gmail sitting in a tree...X.O.O.P.I.T

Facebook and Gmail sitting in a tree, how does that happen and what does Xoopit have to do with it?  Well, Xoopit in a nutshell, is a Firefox plugin that integrates with Gmail.  Xoopit enhances Gmail by displaying your photos, files, and videos from your emails all from within the Gmail interface.  See the cool example below! 

But wait...there's more!!!  Xoopit just released an update to their plugin. Facebook users can now view profile photos and status updates, as well as set your own status updates in Gmail. Best yet, you can get all this for the low, low price of...FREE!

I can't wait to spend some time up that tree with Facebook and Gmail. Who knows what productivity and fun I'll be able to find up there?!

Geek Speak: Google Releases Multiple Inboxes

When I saw the headline I was ecstatic with a grin the size of the Joker's.  Mainly because I have multiple Gmail accounts for personal, business, junk, etc., but I've always wished I could view these different inboxes without having to login and out of each of them every time.  I know there are others that are in the same boat as me.  However, don't get too excited, because it was all TRICKERY!!!

 

What they really meant was you can view one inbox in sub-divided panes to see the different filters/labels that you may have setup.  I mean this is great for users of filters/labels (which there are plenty of), but for me, not so much.  If you are a filters/labels user, would you use this tool and how excited are you about this new feature?

 

Introducing Geek Speak with Steve

I’m excited to have a new regular guest blogger, Steve Pham. Steve joined the documentation team as a technical writer a few weeks ago – moving here from the great city of Philly. Hmmm… wonder why he did that? He must be drawn to beaches, sunshine, and friendly people .

I quickly discovered Steve had a talent for speaking geek and digging around the interwebs so I stealthily recruited and convinced him to write with me. After all, then I could have more time for *work*. Steve’s done some blogging here and there but I’ll still be here to keep my eyes on him.

With the new Geek Speak segment, Steve will share any cool new features or tools that might make our lives a little bit easier. But don’t let his geekiness fool you; while he’s a technical writer by day, he’s a DJ by night. DJ Phamtastik, as he’s known, hopes to keep you reading by day just like he keeps people dancing all night!

Please give a warm Chatterbox welcome to Steve!