SUBLIMINAL PIXELS LABS

I have been using FireFox exclusively for 4+years. I love everything about FireFox, the add-on’s, the themes and definitely the versatility. A year ago, I started playing around with the new Mozilla based social browser called Flock. Several versions later, I think I’m ready to make the switch to full time use of Flock for all social media related web browsing. Here is why I think you should to.

1) Built in Media Sharing

Flock has built in support for Photobucket, Flickr, Facebook, Piczo, Picasa, YouTube and more.
That makes it really, really easy to share everything from pictures to videos to links to text. Just Drag and Drop from the Media Bar or right-click to send to email or to a blog.
You can even carry photos, videos and text, wherever you go online, right on the Media Bar or on the Web Clipboard. This feature alone saves me so much time, allowing me to drag and drop media at will, making working online much easier. Another very cool feature is “Media Streams”, if you find someone who has media you like online - Just click on the the small star next to “Media Streams” to subscribe. You will then be notified every time they upload new media across various social sites like Flickr, Facebook, Youtube and others. You can also search photos and videos on Facebook, Flickr, Photobucket, Picasa, Truveo or YouTube right from within Flock UI. Just click the arrow to scroll across the various search results across the Media Bar, without it affecting your tabs.

2) Built in Social Networking

Flock has built in support for LiveJournal, MySpace, FaceBook, Blogger, Delicious, Twitter and more. Once you configure ALL your social Network accounts, Flock automatically populates your People Bar with all your friends. This makes it a cinch to receive and share media with friends across various social networks. You can also drag and drop photos, videos and text from the web or the Media Bar to share with your friends in the sidebar. Flock will also notify you when any of your friends upload new media with an orange Media icon next to their profile on the People Sidebar. All you have to do is click on the logo, and the new media will automatically be loaded into the Media Bar or Web Clipboard.

3) Built In Blogging Support

Flock has a One Click built in blog post editor. You can drag and drop pictures, videos and text right onto it, and start editing your post within Flock. This is a feature I LOVE! The blog editor allows you to post to multiple blogs across multiple platforms, including self hosted blogs.The Flock blog editor has all the standard features of other popular free blog editors. Below are some of the blogging platforms supported by Flock.

Blogger
Blogsome
LiveJournal
Typepad
Wordpress
Xanga
Self Hosted Blogs
ATOM
MetaWeblog
Moveable Type

4) Built in RSS reader

Flock has a handy built in RSS reader right on the sidebar of the UI. It also has automatic RSS feed detection and a one click subscription button. If the site has a feed, Flock will tell you by highlighting the RSS button. The built in RSS reader works great to organize and share your feeds, just email to friend or blog it with just one click. As of today, I have not imported the mother-load of feeds to my Flock browser. I will do a follow up post, and let everyone know how that works out.

5) Enhanced Search and Bookmarking Functions

Flock has built-in one click search and bookmarking enhancements, which makes it simple to add, edit and manage favorites and bookmarks. Just click on the orange star on the UI to bring up the Favorites and Bookmarks Side Bar and categorize the current site.Click on the star twice to edit Favorites and Bookmarks It also has a great folders feature for categorization. Tags can also be used to find or organize sites with similar characteristics or in similar groupings. Another VERY helpful feature is the Live search results from various sources.
Live results are generated as you type from: Amazon, Craigslist, eBay , Favorites, Technorati, Wiki, Wink People, Yahoo, Ask, Google.

Since Flock is based on Mozilla/FireFox, it is compatible with most of the important add-ons and plugins. So far I have installed and tested the following Add-ons: Stumbleupon, Mixx Bookmarklet, GBookmarks and several others. For a full list visit this link:
To give Flock a try download here:

Disclaimer: Yes, I like Flick this much. I have no incentive or motive, other than wanting to share it with others.

Today as the Olympic Torch drama was unfolding in San Fransisco, CA  many of those who are passionate about Tibetan human rights issues, but not internet savvy, had to wait for reports on CNN, MSNBC or even worse the local news to be informed.

Others, with a bit more internet prowess, accessed the information via AP , Google News, You Tube or other forms of RSS feeds. But those of us active in the Twittersphere, were receiving updates in real time. Thanks to LaunghingSquid, we had not only Twitter updates, but also videos and pictures

It’s no wonder print is on that horrible decline. With information exchanging at this rabid pace, who the hell is willing to wait a whole day for news? I mean don’t get me wrong, I love to chill on Sundays with my coffee and my NYT. (Yes , I roll like that).

Check out some of the Tweets, Videos and Photos here

http://twitter.com/laughingsquid

http://www.flickr.com/photos/laughingsquid/sets/72157604458841560

I have to confess, I fiend for the Twit, I love Twitter, I can’t get enough of it!
That being the case, I have to ask myself ,what is that important on Twitter that I have to have it on a PermaTab on my Firefox browser?
It reminds me of watching MTV. I mean the old school MTV that actually played videos all day.There was something so hypnotic and addictive about sitting through those 25 shitty videos, to see that 1 kick ass Beastie Boys video. But even that got old really fast.

Twitter is the same to me, because half the stuff that is tweeted, I don’t really care about. Either, because it’s not relevant or because it is some abstract reference to an inside joke between friends that I just don’t get or care to get.
But this brings me to my point, We need to have a better way to organize our followers and friends.

I really hope with all the wonderful apps. on deck for Twitter, that someone can develop a way to categorize friends and followers. Possibly, something like Twitter channels or stations, based on interests. Or, If we had the option to group friends and followers by tag based categories and sub categories. Anything to allow us to tame the crazy beast, that’s taking over my life.

With the popularity of Twitter growing ,this is going to be become more and more of a need.

Slicing, Dicing and Splicing RSS like an Iron Chef

RSS is my friend, without it I could never stay current with the 200+ feeds I subscribe to. But besides just aggregating feeds from my favorite blogs, I have found several other cool uses for my RSS reader, which allow me to save both time and money.

The RSS reader is a great place to find new content. From ideas for linkbait to images for your blog post. With the right feeds and settings the possibilities are endless ,but in the meantime, here are a lucky 13 to keep you busy.

1 -

Here is a RSS mashup on Yahoo Pipes that makes your boring old Digg RSS feed into a SUPER Digg rss feed. It adds category information, submitter information (with a link to the users page), Digg count, number of comments, etc..

http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.info?_id=_Dj0DgMi3BGIx3_Sp2IyXQ

2 -

Here is a Yahoo Pipes mash up that works with Digg, Delicous, Reddit and slahdot. With this one you can filter and search by keyword, user profiles , and tags.

http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.info?_id=GGZDQ1e32xGMXWKzXqIxGw

3-

This pipe enables you to monitor what the world is saying about your brand, company, product or url. It checks Google Blogs, Technorati, IceRocket, Blog Pulse, Yahoo News, MSN News and Google News

http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipes.popular?page

4-

Here is a simple Yahoo and Google News mashup , which allows you to filter and customize the feeds.

http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.info?_id=1nWYbWm82xGjQylL00qv

5-

The idea behind this mash-up is to find questions that aren’t getting answered on Yahoo Answers and also helps you filter the results to make finding new content easier and faster.

http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.info?_id=8rNEOVjd2xGieN8Vdrq02Q

6-

Combine your facebook status with blog feeds, news searches, twitter, last.fm flickr and youtube.

http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.info?_id=7Jqm__RE3BGGJIWUyjUFzw

7-

A combination of New Yorker, New York Times Magazine and Vanity Fair feeds. This pipe also allows for customization of all the results.

http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.info?_id=1qj9XFW32xGgtAairuymrA

 

8-

To create a mashup for ANY RSS feed, check out this tutorial on building a really easy RSS filter with Yahoo Pipes.

http://www.technologyevangelist.com/2007/08/a_simple_yahoo_pipes.html

9-

Get notified of the BEST deals before the sell out.

Subscribe to a category on craigslist, ebay or other time sensitive shopping sites to find great deals first. Subscribe to specific items for sale or categories to find GREAT deals on everything from clothes, to electronics. I personally have used this to buy some IKEA furniture for about 75% off, a 24″ ViewSonic Flat Panel Monitor and several other items. Saving over $1k!!

Heres a link to an RSS Craigslist Search Script to filter your feed results.

http://jeremy.zawodny.com/blog/archives/001440.html

Here is a RSS / Yahoo pipes app called Craigslist price watcher.

http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.info?_id=9gMLgKK52xG6PNm8jwtvUw

10-

Finds deals from all major deal sites in US… Fetches deals simultaneously by running parallel threads… Sorts deals based on publication date of the deal (latest first)… Usage: Enter one word (e.g., dell) or an Exact Phrase (e.g., Core Duo) per filter

http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.info?_id=_E8FgV_42xGWa5pfZVUMqA

11-

Webpage-to-RSS Pipe generates RSS from any webpage which doesn’t have native syndication. It utilizes a data mining service called Feedity ( www.feedity.com ) to dynamically build the RSS, and then only return unique items. This pipe accepts the URL of the source webpage for which the feed is to be rendered, and it returns a valid RSS for reuse in other pipes. This pipe is designed to be used as a modular sub-pipe in your own pipeline. Clone and reuse!

http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.info?_id=NlNQKdO62xGAq1ZgZoQMOQ

12-

Track the latest Stumbles on StumbleUpon. Use your RSS reader to track your friends or those you are a fan of on StumbleUpon. Simply find stumblers whom are active and share the same interests and subscribe. This allows you to always stay ahead of the curve in the never ending pursuit of quality content.

13-

Don’t find a mashup, filter or feed you like? Go ahead and create your own. Check out Yahoo pipes and either start one from scratch or build onto an existing one.

http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/

Here are couple great Yahoo Pipes tutorials. I’ve been playing with Yahoo Pipes for a while now. I give Anil Dash’s great post back in Feb credit for that!!  Anyhow here are several of the tutorials I have found useful.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bijSL5KR558&feature=related]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0jZmvFJwek&feature=related]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3h6ROs__II]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pVxqgt5jTs&feature=related]

This is funny stuff! Dick Cheney talking about his wifes revelation that he is related to Barak Obama. Priceless expression.

read more | digg story

Google is going green with its online store and by selling good ole Cannabis products. From hoodies to footies, Google store has all your hemp needs. Check out the flix below! I dont know how far they want to take this whole Hippie Dippie All you need is live schtict, but they are even selling pens called Summer of Love Wide Body Pens  I think they’re supposed to get you off. Possibly dipped in a secret formula Google’s been conjuring up @ Google Labs

I wonder if they take showers @ Google and if the female Googlers let their leg and armpit hairs grow naturally. I can see it nowthough  , Matt with a Pyrex Two Hiter Bong , Phish on his laptop blaring.
Marisa Mayer dancing across the desks, flailing her arms around, hair flying freely in the cool Google breeze. Is that what they want us to believe? That Serge and Larry and Eric are sitting outside on the lawn in a circle , passing a doobie and  chaning OM. Yeah right!

This is a 25 billion dollar empire, I hardly think this is the case. So , why then, why they trying to run this cheap elemntary type game on us,

read more | digg story

“Google Adwords is changing how high quality ads are selected for top positions above Google search results. ”

This is Google’s angle on why they are changing how our ads rank and how much we pay for the top spots. What this statement from Google actually translates into in laymens terms, is another method for them to to artificially raise our CPC ’s for no apparent reason other than a whim.

https://adwords.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=72795&hl=en_US

To me, seems like just a ploy to trick the poor fools that will pay an already unreasonable amount in some industries, for the top 2 spots, into paying even more than they already do.

Seems like there is an internal campaign at Google to push everyones CPC up. I deal with 3 different reps for various accounts. Each one on a separate occasion in the last 2 weeks, gave me the same pitch about having to raise my CPC becuase of my Quality Score. ‘Oh”, I said to one of them, ” my Quality score is Great on those ad groups?” Her answer was quite amusing! She proceeded to tell me that the Quality Score on the interface is not the Quality Score they use in their Adwords algo. Obviously I was floored, and I asked her to elaborate, but of course she didn’t!

Anyways check out Google’s own words on this and tell me what you think!

https://adwords.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=72795&hl=en_US