BlogThis!

Today we learned how to use BlogThis!  BlogThis! is an add-on that allows you to blog from any website on the internet.  To do this, all you have to do is click on the BlogThis link and then start blogging!  To learn more about BlogThis!, visit google's website on it, at http://www.google.com/support/blogger/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=41469.  This is an example of someone using BlogThis!...

E-Mail Post

I am sending this post from my email account!

BibMe

Today we explored BibMe.  BibMe is a website that basically cites your sources for you, like for a research paper.  BibMe is easy to use and user friendly.  It is hard to remember how to cite each different source, but BibMe makes it easy.  You just enter the name of a book, magazine, journal, film, website or newspaper and hit the cite button.  If BibMe recognizes the source, then it will automatically cite it for you!  However, my Comp Teacher just told us today that these website aren't always completely accurate.  If you use an online formatting cite, make sure you check over the information to ensure that it is in the correct format (MLA, APA).

BibMe is not the only bibliography making website though.  Here are some other ones!

• EasyBib
• Citation Machine
• WriteCite (for APA Formatting)

Blogging from A Cell Phone

Today we posted a blog from our cell phone.  In today's society, not everyone has time to sit down at a computer and blog.  Blogger is making it easier for busy people to keep up with their blog by allowing them to text Blogger (256447) a blog post.  To do this, follow these simple instructions to blog from your cell phone!

• First send an SMS with the word 'REGISTER' to BLOGGR (256447).
• We'll reply with the address of your new mobile blog, plus a claim code.
• Post to your new mobile blog, or use the claim code to link your phone to a different blog.
• To opt out of receiving SMS messages to your phone, text STOP to BLOGGR (256447)
• To get help from your mobile device, text HELP to BLOGGR (256447)
• To unlink your device from Blogger, text UNREGISTER to BLOGGR (256447).
• Sending text messages to BLOGGR (256447) is currently available for US phone numbers only.

*to set up a blog from your phone, you will need a computer to start off with*

Firefox Personas

Today we explored and added a Firefox Persona to our Firefox.  Firefox Personas is just another way to customize your internet.  On Firefox Personas, they have over 4,980 pages of different ways to customize the "toolbar" part of your Firefox browser (the part with the address bar).  However, despite the pretty look, some personas make the tabs and buttons hard to read, like the one I had with flowers. 

However, I recently switched my Firefox Persona to one that is autumn themed due to the seas on that we are in now.  This one is easier to read.  

I'm posting this blog from my cell phone!

Google Translate

Today we explored Google Translate.  Google Translate is a very useful tool when needing to look up a word or phrase in a different language.  However, all of my Spanish teachers have cautioned that most of the online translators do not pay attention to verb tenses, so they suggest not translating entire passages with things like Google Translate.  But for just a few words or a phrase, it is awesome!  Plus, it is cool to see how things are translated in different languages. 
On my screenshot, I translated a phrase from Spanish to English.

Google Web Search Features

Today we explored how to use Google's Web Search Features.  Google's Web Search Features are extremely cool.  They allow you to search for specific things in your area, like weather, stocks, time, sunsets/sunrises, sports scores, and music.  Google also has reference tools that you can use, like a calculator, book searches, profile searches, unit converters, and public data which includes data like population and unemployment rates in a certain state.  In addition, they have movie showtimes, synonym and antonym finders, spell checker, the numbers to poison control and suicide prevention, medication searches, flu vaccine searches, money converters, package tracking and patent searches.  Basically, Google is just making searches easier to navigate through by making them specific to one subject.

Google Shopping

Today we explored Google Shopping. On Google Shopping, you can search for a product and it will bring up the most popular sites to buy that item on.  The nice thing about Google Shopping is that you don't have to wade through all of the websites praising or hating the product that you searched for.  Basically, you just search for the product you are looking for and shop away!
In my screenshot, I searched for princess Halloween  costumes.

Google News

Today we explored Google News. Google news is a good idea, because instead of just doing a general Google search on a news story, you could just go to Google News and type it in there.  On Google News, only the news stories show up, so there isn't random blogs or advertisements that mention the story.  One of the popular stories in the news right now is the story about the Chilean miners, so that is what I searched for in my screenshot.  I wasn't really aware of what was going on with them, so Google News did an awesome job providing up-to-date stories and back stories to help readers understand.

Google Maps

Today we explored Google Maps.  Google maps is just another one of the many features that Google has.  On Google maps, you enter a starting address and a destination into the search and then hit enter.  Google maps will give you a picture with the most convenient route and directions to (or from) the destination.  One of the neat features about Google maps are the different types of maps that they offer.  For example, on the "traffic" feature, Google will show the speed of traffic in populated areas.  The regular "map" feature just shows highways, and the "satellite" feature shows basically a picture of the surrounding area.  If you drag the little orange person to a spot on the map, it will zoom so that you can literally navigate up and down the streets to see landmarks and the town's streets.  Freshman year if you dropped the person on Buckeye you could see me driving past the Seelye Mansion in my car!

Google Books

Today we explored Google Books. Google books allows you to search the internet for just books.  On google books, you can preview books and read excerpts or you can read entire books online!  In addition, there are direct links to websites where you can buy the books you search, like barnesandnoble.com or amazon.com.  Right now in English Comp we are reading The Canterbury Tales, so that is what I searched for in my screenshot.

iGoogle

Today we explored iGoogle.  iGoogle is a personalized Google homepage.  Right now, my iGoogle theme is Finding Nemo!  They have tons and tons of different themes to choose from, ranging from nature to travel, anime to trendy, and they even have a theme of the day that selects a random theme everyday.  Apart from customizing your homepage with themes, you can also add different gadgets, which are similar to the gadgets on blogger.  On my iGoogle, I have gadgets like Spanish Word of the Day, Garfield comics, Penguins, Bejeweled, Weather, Recipes (that include some pretty exotic dishes), and a shortcut to my gmail account.  I tried to add a countdown to graduation, but it wouldn't load the data. iGoogle still has has a google search bar, but it just makes google better looking and allows you to check multiple things at a time!  *to get your own iGoogle page, just type in google.com and in the upper right corner there is a link that says "iGoogle" ---may need to have a gmail account to get one---*

Gadgets

Today we explored the gadgets on Blogger.  Gadgets are "extras" that you can add to your blog that make it more exciting and more enjoyable to visit.  In example, I have a pet hampster named Harry, and a random Harry Potter fact.  In addition to virtual pets and quotes, there are also games.  I have a helicopter game on my blog.  There are thousands of possibilities for gadgets, like music, inspirational quotes of the day, the stock market prices, fashion tips, and many other different things.  The possibilities are endless!

HiStats.Com

Today we explored histats.com.  Histats.com, a website that allows you to post a counter to your blog, has the potential to be very helpful.  A counter is a device that counts every time someone visits your blog or website.  We posted these counters on the bottom of our blog on the 4th of October.  A counter can keep track of anything you want: page visits in general, page visits today, people that have looked at the sight, and people that are online at that moment.  This tool could be very useful if you were running a website for a business, because you could see how many people were interested in that business.  Here are some examples of counters:

Word Clouds: Tagxedo

This is a word cloud I made on Tagxedo.  It is in the shape of a treble clef and filled with musical terms!