Tag: Google Chrome

Email Is Not Broken; We Are

Gmail logo

Here’s an interesting perspective on the ‘problem’ of email…

There’s a constant flow of “email is/is not broken” articles across the internet, but most of them miss the point. Email as a system is not broken, but we, through our email behaviors, are.

Nearly all of the articles written recently about fixing email have concentrated on technology and building a better client or implementing the specs more closely or bringing two systems together. These are all great ideas and have a ton of value, but they will not fix the inherent issue that people are experiencing with email, but which most articles fail to articulate: we think email is broken because we are overwhelmed by it and get less real work done because of it.

So instead of asking how we can make email better/faster/cooler, we need to ask ourselves how we can get more work done while still using email. Unfortunately, many experiences have shown over the past decade or so that this problem is not easily solved by new technology, as much as I would love that. It is solved by teaching people better email behaviors. This is certainly a less sexy solution, but guess what? It’s the attainable one. Here are some ideas that I’ve come across from others, and that warrant further investigation. They are all designed to help us get more real work done, which is the real problem with the email timesink.

Source: Email Is Not Broken; We Are

You can go to the source and read the author’s perspective, but while you’re here consider this: I think email is ‘broken’ because we let the wrong things in to begin with — in other words, we have no one to blame but ourselves. Most peoples’ inboxes are like their kitchen junk drawers – how can they expect to find anything of value in there? Instead, try using email only for ‘just in case’ information – information that affects relationships and revenue and all that goes along with it – and use an rss reader like Google Reader for all the ‘just in case’ info. That philosophy alone will make your email infinitely more manageable! As you get more efficient, you can add David Allen’s ‘Getting Things Done‘ principles to your approach…

If you’re looking for more ideas like this, check out my free ebook on ‘personal news aggregation’. Go to http://elevation.company/pna/ and click the register button. You might also be interested in this recent post I did on effectively consuming information…

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A Day in the Internet
Created by: MBAOnline.com

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How to be an ‘Inbox Hero’ with Gmail

Image representing Gmail as depicted in CrunchBase

Last Wednesday we began a series of ‘lunch and learn’ presentations at The Docking Station in Green Bay, WI and I am pleased to share it [almost] in its entirety below. This is the first in a series of ongoing presentations on the topic of thought leadership marketing which will be published in a book called “Be Known” on July 8, 2012.

Why start with Gmail? The answer to me is obvious; if you can’t manage your e-mail how can you be proactive in social media? Personally I don’t believe that you can ever get ahead as long as you are a victim of your inbox…

I have outlined my thoughts on these topics in previous e-book called ‘personal news aggregation‘ which is free for the registration here. Just click on the word registration, supply a username and e-mail address and you will immediately gain free access. If you want to be a thought leader you have to be able to manage the content you need so that you can become and be known as the expert. The journey starts in your inbox!

http://youtu.be/hq5yksbplhE

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Open Share Icon
Image by Si1very via Flickr

Here’s my new, favorite Firefox plugin…

“Shareaholic makes it easy for you to submit the web page you’re on to your favorite sharing or bookmarking service, including: digg, del.icio.us, facebook, friendfeed, google bookmarks, google reader notes, kaboodle, magnolia, mixx, myspace, pownce, reddit, stumbleupon, tumblr, twitter, and ycombinator. You can also e-mail the web page directly to a friend.” Shareaholic – The browser add-on extension to share, bookmark and e-mail web pages quickly

If you’re a blogger, one of the most important things you can do is to get your content out into the social media stream is to share, share, share. Shareaholic is the fastest, easiest way I’ve seen to do that so far…

6/29/2011 My old friend the ‘Blog Post Promoter’ tells me via this post that I’ve been officially loving Shareaholic for over three years now. Although I have moved from Firefox to Chrome as my primary browser, Chrome remains the one extension or add-on that I could not live without. While I’m not a Chris Brogan or Darren Rowse, when an internet mechanic like me says this extension rocks, I’d suggest you find out why…

;-)

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Image via Wikipedia

Firefox is my primary browser, although I use them all…

“What makes Firefox different? Most importantly, we’re open. That means anyone around the world (and we have thousands of experts watching our back) is able to look into our code and find any potential weak spots in our armor. 

And when we hear about a problem, we roll up our sleeves and get to work fixing it right away. It’s in your best interest (and ours) to take care of the issue, even if it means admitting we’re a little less than perfect.

Simply put, your security is our top priority.” Source: Mozilla Products | Security

Besides security in addition, it’s one of the fastest browsers available and it’s the most extensible. Second favorite? Google’s Chrome. Least favorite? The one most people use: Internet Explorer. Ask me why!

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Image representing TweetDeck as depicted in Cr...
Image via CrunchBase

All the topics that interest US in the past 24 hours…

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Netscape Communicator
Image via Wikipedia

Somehow this escaped my attention…

“Given AOL’s current business focus and the success the Mozilla Foundation has had in developing critically-acclaimed products, we feel it’s the right time to end development of Netscape branded software. Read the history page for more details about this decision.” Home :: The Netscape Archive 

It’s the end of an era, although Netscape as a company and a product has been dead for a long time. Long live Firefox! Get your free copy here.

Powered by ScribeFire.

…

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Google Chromebook med Chrome OS
Image by Martin Bekkelund via Flickr
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Firefox or Chrome; which one should I use?

Image representing Google Chrome as depicted i...
Image via CrunchBase

This question is NOT a slam dunk! Also, you may be surprised to know that the answer depends on what computer platform you use…

“Which Should I Use on Windows: Firefox or Chrome?

There’s no short answer to this question, really, since neither browser is clearly better, so instead of a straight out “Use X” recommendation, let’s consider the pros and cons of each.

First, in our regular web browser performance tests, Chrome has regularly beaten up the competition or come in a very close second in most categories, while Firefox rarely leads the way. That might seem like a pretty big deal, but most browsers actually perform really well these days, so the fact that Chrome beats Firefox in most of our performance tests doesn’t mean Firefox is extremely slow—it just means that compared to Chrome, it’s not the fastest.” Source: Which Browser Should I Use: Firefox or Chrome? – Web browsers – Lifehacker

“But that brings us to another important point: Bloat. Despite the fact that Firefox generally does pretty well on memory use tests (strangely enough, it regularly wins that test in our browser performance tests), a lot of Firefox users are increasingly frustrated with slow-downs caused by what they see as browser bloat. It’s not at all uncommon to see a Firefox installation eating up more than any running application on your system, and while the memory consumption itself isn’t that big of a deal (Chrome eats a lot of memory, too), the high memory usage is often accompanied by serious browser slowdowns, which is a very big problem, and one that, anecdotally, at least, we hear from tons of Firefox users and very few Chrome users. (Presently company included.)

So what keeps Firefox users coming back despite Chrome outperforming it on Windows by most accounts? One of the biggest issues is extensions. Firefox’s extension ecosystem has long been a selling point of the popular open-source browser, and if there’s anything you wish your browser did differently, chances are there’s a Firefox extension to address it.” Source: Which Browser Should I Use: Firefox or Chrome? – Web browsers – Lifehacker

“Unfortunately, in our experience, Chrome for OS X is still much too young for full-time adoption. Remember, Chrome for Mac launched quite awhile after the Windows version and has been around much less than a year overall. Like Chrome on Windows, it shows a whole lot of promise, but it’s also prone to the occasional non-responsiveness and other bugginess that we aren’t used to and probably shouldn’t be seeing from a prime-time browser.” Source: Which Browser Should I Use: Firefox or Chrome? – Web browsers – Lifehacker

Me? I’m using Chrome more and more every day as Chrome versions of my indispensable Firefox addons become available. What about you?

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If you’re using Ubuntu…

Google Chrome Logo
Image by Randy Zhang via Flickr

…like I recommend [especially for older computers] then Google’s Chrome browser combined with GNOME Do is a great combination. I create application shortcuts for web applications and then summon them with a keystroke combination. Very fast! Very powerful…

Posted via web from The e1evation facebook page

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“Creating beats consuming”

Auren Hoffman has a great post on consuming vs. producing. He says…

“We are meant to be both creators and consumers. Today, however, most people consume far more then they create. Part of the reason for this is because being both a consumer and a creator at the same time is very difficult, and because goods and services have never been more accessible. But a healthy life is one that balances both creation and consumption.

When you consume you are often appreciating other’s work. You eat, watch movies, visit nice places, read books, and party. You vegetate to the sounds of your favorite musical artist on a wonderful couch while surfing Facebook on your beautifully designed laptop.

Creators do just the opposite: they strive to make something that others (or their future self) will appreciate. Creators toil, try different things, fail, and try again.” Source: Summation: creating beats consuming

…follow the link for the rest of his article.

It’s not hard to move from consuming content to producing content for your internet marketing. I’m working on a screencast to show you how Google’s Chrome, Shareaholic and Posterous can work together to help you make the transition from thinker to thought leader. Stay tuned…

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Spring clean your PC; outside and in!

CCleaner
Image via Wikipedia

Here’s something constructive to do this weekend…

“Most of us clean our computers about as often as we spill something on the keyboard. But to keep your computer in good working order, you should scrub it down about twice a year–more often if you like to eat chips at your keyboard. Before you start, you’ll need some supplies: a large microfiber cloth, a can of compressed air, and a solution of 50 percent isopropyl rubbing alcohol and 50 percent mineral water, and a pair of tweezers. Once you have everything together, shut your computer down (if you’re cleaning a laptop, remove the battery as well). Now that you’re ready to go, review these five simple steps for getting your hardware shiny again…” Source: Spring Clean Your PC in 5 Easy Steps — Life Scoop

You’ll have to go to the source to get the list, but before you do, here are some thoughts for cleaning the INSIDE of your PC…

Click the ‘Tune Up Utilities’ button at the bottom of the right sidebar and download a free trial — Tune Up Utilities is the only utility that I pay for every year. Unlike most tools of this nature, it works quietly and unobtrusively in the background without sucking the life out of your computer. If you only have $50 to spend on improving your computer [subsequent years are $30] then this is where you should spend it! Now, if even that’s too much for you, I suggest you go to Ninite.com and download these 5 things:

  • Ccleaner [used to be called ‘Crap Cleaner’; for getting rid of computer detritus and fixing other issues]
  • Defraggler [for defragmenting your drive]
  • Revo Uninstaller [for performing CLEAN uninstalls]
  • Microsoft Security Essentials [this free Microsoft tool will fix all your antivirus and security needs — after all, Microsoft caused them! It’s about time they cleaned them up…]
  • Chrome browser [because it rocks with Google products and if you’ve been reading this blog, you’re using Google products!]

These tools will serve you well — almost as well as Tune Up Utilities — as long as you remember to use them at least every week…
;-)

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Tactic #1: Master Firefox!

Image representing Seth Godin as depicted in C...
Image via CrunchBase

First, what’s this nonsense about ‘Tightening your Tribe’? Well, it’s a reference to Seth Godin’s social media masterpiece ‘Tribes‘. As I read the book, I really enjoyed the strategic discussion but found any reference to practical, tactical tools was missing. I therefore decided to create a series of posts on tools that could possibly accompany the book. This is the first post — there are 9 more. I hope you enjoy them all!

Just in time for the first major entry in my series ‘Top 10 Tactics and Tools for Tightening your Tribe’, Google was kind enough to do a short video on the topic of browsers…

They even launched a new site called What Browser? for people who are unclear on the concept. The truth is there are dozens, maybe hundreds, of different browsers you can use to view content on the internet, but most people never venture beyond the familiarity of Internet Explorer. Personally, I go back and forth between the 5 browsers [Internet Explorer, Firefox, Flock, Chrome and Safari] I have installed on my computer and many times I have multiple browsers open at the same time because not only is it possible, but also desirable, to use a certain browser for a specific task.

I have joked before that Firefox is my wife and Chrome is my mistress, but my wife does not think that analogy is very funny. Maybe it’s better said that Firefox is my workhorse and Chrome is my show pony. In either case, I do most of my work in Firefox, although I am using Chrome more and more — especially with web-based Google products. So why do I love Firefox so much? Let me break it down for you… Continue reading “Tactic #1: Master Firefox!” →

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