Google Presentation Widget

Here's an interesting new feature from Google. We have seen how common embedded YouTube videos have become on websites and blogs. Google have now applied the same concept to Google Docs. If you create a presentation in Google Docs (or upload one built in PowerPoint), you now have the option to publish it with a viewer widget.

This is very easy to do:

1. Log into docs.google.com
   
2. Select 'New' from the menu bar and click on 'Presentation'
   
3. The tools are very simple. It's like using a minimalist PowerPoint.
   
4. You can add images either as uploads or as URLs that point to images on the web.
   
5. Click on the 'Publish' tab on the top right.
   
6. Copy the code in the text box and paste it wherever you want on the web.
   
7. You now have a nifty presentation widget!
   

Online Reputation Links

• Blogs Blossom into a Big Business - eMarketer
  Statistics and projections on the growth of blogs and readership. eMarketplace estimates that 16% of the internet population will be publishing blogs by 2012. 67% will be reading blogs by 2012. Thanks to Vicki Ziegler for this link!
  
• Online Business Networking.
  "Increasingly people accept that Facebook serves a different function than LinkedIn. In simple terms: deals on LinkedIn, dates on Facebook. But the real race for business networking has two horses. LinkedIn is clearly one. The other is not Facebook, but Xing"
  

New Del.icio.us Links

A new feature of this blog is that I will be sharing my Del.icio.us web links as blog posts. These will appear as a daily compilation on any day after I have added these links. At the bottom of the blog you will find a tag cloud of topics in my Del.icio.us account.

Tech Note - how I set this up:

Del.icio.us has a tool called a 'Thingy' that is supposed to publish a link compilation automatically to a blog - but it does not seem to work for this platform (Blogger). But if you know of a way - let me know!

Here's the work-around that I used. It is based on a solution by
Anand Kishore. Here's what I did: How to get Del.ico.us daily blog posting to appear in Blogger:

1. Set up a new blank blog in Blogger. This blog won't be used for anything so it does not matter what it looks like. It's only role is to be the root of an RSS feed.
   
2. Configure the blog where you want these posts to appear to receive posts by email. (i.e. not the blank one you just set up) You can find this under "Settings/Email". Click on "Save emails as draft posts" you might want to edit what these look like before the world sees them.
   
3. Next pick up the feed in Feedburner. This is a feed from an empty blog so it will have nothing in it.
   
4. Under the "Optimize" tab, I turned on the "Link Splicer" feature. This allows you to tap into your Del.icio.us account and add your new links as an item in the feed.
   
5. Open up the RSS feed in your browser (the RSS icon at the top left of the page) You should see a compilation of your Del.icio.us links.
   
6. Click on the "Get … delivered by email" link. Enter in the email of your blog. If you add any links to Del.icio.us, you should see this as a draft post the next morning!
   

Again, if you know of a simpler or better way of doing this, please post a comment!

Audio Blog Posts

Did you notice the little button at the top of each post: 'listen now'? Go ahead, give it a click. This button comes to you courtesy of Odiogo. This is a web based service that reads blog content, converts it to spoken words and delivers it back to the browser. It allows you to listen to my blog as spoken by a robot voice!

It's remarkably simple to set up. You simply sign up at Odiogo, provide your rss feed and your email. An hour or so later you receive an email letting you know that the audio files are complete. It is then very simple to add a button to link the file from your blog.

So is this simply a novelty? Or are there other benefits? One key advantage of this tool is that it also generates mp3 files. You can access these from the 'listen now' button. You can quickly save audio versions of blog posts that you can listen to later.

Marketing Blogs

I've come across two excellent blogs on marketing. The first one is by Guy Kawasaki. Guy used to be the chief 'evangelist' at Apple and is now a VC, writer and all round guru. The blog covers a wide range of topics from new technology to marketing and management. It's got a lot of humour and the scope is very wide. My suggestion is to start from the 'Categories' list half way down the page on the right hand side and pick what you are interested in.

Here's the address: http://blog.guykawasaki.com/

The second marketing blog is by Paul Dunay. Paul currently is Global Director of Integrated Marketing for BearingPoint. This blog is more focused on specific marketing techniques. Paul has done a lot of work on integrated marketing and he has a great deal of experience with web based marketing, lead generation and social networking. A nifty aspect of this blog is that Paul conducts interviews with other thought leaders and managers. He makes these interviews available as pod-casts. He's in the iTunes store and you can subscribe to him for free! I've been listening to these podcasts on my way into work. They're really good. This blog (and podcast) is excellent for anyone who is interested in effectively using the web to expand business.

The web address is http://buzzmarketingfortech.blogspot.com/

You can find the podcasts in the iTunes store if you search for 'Buzz Marketing for Technology'