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17 Mar 2010

It takes a keen mind to fully grasp the aspects of web design, and implement them in fruitful ways. After all, one can have a creative mind but not know anything about the technical inclinations needed to produce a quality site. And by the same token, someone who knows technology doesn’t necessarily have an eye for design. The marriage of both concepts is needed to be a great designer. Then you have to be able to adapt quickly to the changes in technology.

A perfect example of adapting to tech is the evolution of plug-in based content (Flash, Silverlight) into the HTML5 update. As the current markup language stands, whenever video or any other interactive content is present, a plug-in must assist in loading it. This is how Flash has been so successful with the web, along with their software.

HTML5 is the next update of the core markup language, which makes up the internet as we know it. The update will allow for direct implementation of dynamic media, without the reliance of plug-ins.

You’d think Adobe would fear HTML5, and be in panic mode trying to find its relevance in the changing times. However, they seem to be embracing it and changing with the dynamics. As proven by their latest blog, “Design and Web”.

Paul Gubbay writes in the blog, “Recently, we attended technology demos across our design and web products. We saw a range of prototypes, many of which were focused on new services, multi-screen authoring leveraging html5 and css3. We have been spending a lot of time internally thinking about how our tools can best support and take advantage of some of the new functionality in HTML 5, and we wanted to share a couple of early ideas with you.”

There’s a lesson to be found here, and is one many designers face on a constant basis: Adapting to and adopting new technologies. The familiar is safe, and actually is more efficient than learning something new. In the long run though, relying on old technologies can be a massive mistake. Where you’re left with stale sites with little-to-no content worth accessing. Just ask GeoCities, which was once a massive service on the internet.

In terms of markup language, HTML5 is the wave of the future. Which is incredibly important to understand if you’re a designer/owner. Here are a few places to check out further details of HTML5, and what changes are coming:

Differences in HTML4 and HTML5
Dive into HTML5
HTML5 Gallery

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Tags: changes in technology, creative mind, dynamic media, keen mind, markup language, panic mode, plug ins, Silverlight, technology demos

Cool Websites and Tools [March 16th]

In: tutorial

17 Mar 2010

Check out some of the latest MakeUseOf discoveries. All listed websites are FREE (or come with a decent free account option). No trials or buy-to-use craplets. For more cool websites and web app reviews subscribe to MakeUseOf Directory.

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myTwebo – With more and more users flocking to Twitter each month, it has become a prime medium of communication similar to emails and text messages. With this, comes an increased importance of backing up tweets so they don’t get lost in case of a server crash or accidental deletions. myTwebo is one of the best apps to carry this out. Read more: myTwebo: Backup Tweets to PDF.

		Buzz2Feed – Love Google Buzz but not enough to login in to Gmail again and again? Here’s a quick solution: get RSS feed for any Google Buzz profile and read updates on your favorite RSS reader. Buzz2Feed is a quick tool to do that without any hassle. Read more: Buzz2Feed: Create RSS Feed For Any Google Buzz Profile.

		Mood Traxxer – Looking for that one soundtrack that will compliment your mood? Then check out the Mood Traxxer. This is a mood based music player online that will help you find music by selecting a mood and other wacky details. Read more: Mood Traxxer: Mood Based Music Player.

		Easy Poster Printer – Have you ever wanted to create a poster on your little printer but never thought you could due to size issues? Well that is where Easy Poster Printer comes in. It lets you load up an image to printed as a poster and it will set up a grid with 8 1/2 x 11 pieces so you CAN print that poster out. Read more: Easy Poster Printer.

		Dlvr.it – When it comes to publishing feeds on Twitter, people usually mention TwitterFeed. However, there is one application that seems to be more efficient, smoother and feature-rich. Meet DlvrIt. Instead of setting individual feeds to post to a Twitter account, you can create a group and automatically publish RSS feeds to Twitter or Facebook. Read more: Dlvr.It: Automatically Publish RSS Feeds To Twitter & Facebook.

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These are just half of the websites that we discovered in the last couple of days. If you want us to send you daily round-ups of all cool websites we come across, leave your email here. Or follow us via RSS feed.

Got Tech Questions? Ask Them on MakeUseOf Answers!

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Tags: accidental deletions, account option, cool websites, google, music player, poster printer, quick solution, rss reader, server crash

The Ins & Outs Of Doing An Effective Facebook Picture Search

In: tutorial

17 Mar 2010

Facebook has more than 3 billion photos uploaded to their site each month. That’s a lot. And with more and more people using Facebook in more and more ways (i.e. mobile devices), these numbers are guaranteed to go up.

When there is that much content being uploaded it can be pretty difficult to keep track of it all. Users are constantly putting pictures of themselves online and they are using Facebook to share them. By organizing their photos into albums and tagging them, they are making their pictures easily accessible to their friends. Do you know how to conduct an effective picture search?

Finding the pictures you’re looking for can be pretty difficult sometimes, especially if you have a lot of active friends. In this article, I am going to walk you through some effective Facebook picture search tips so you can locate the goods.

Facebook Picture Search – The Photos Tab

Facebook picture search

The easiest way to find the photos your friends have uploaded is by going to the ‘Photos’ tab in the left-hand navigation part of the screen. You can view the pictures a few different ways:

Individual Photos – Just by clicking on the ‘Photos’ tab you can view all of the recently uploaded photos individually. Below them you can see the name of the album they’re in, as well as the name of the person who uploaded them. You can click on the tag to go to that person’s profile.

Recent Albums – If you click on ‘Recent Albums’, you can see all of the freshly uploaded albums that your friends have posted.

Mobile Uploads – Clicking on the ‘Mobile Uploads’ tab shows you only those pictures that were uploaded from your friends’ mobile phones or devices.

I realize that this isn’t really a “search” function, but if you are completely new to the whole Facebook photo experience this should be of use to you. If you’re ready to become a search expert, please continue.

Facebook Picture Search – Applications

Photo Finder

Facebook picture search

Photo Finder is a 3rd party application designed to help you search your/your friends’ Facebook photos. Now we’re talking search! Just click ‘Go to Application’ to install.

tag facebook pictures

The application itself is pretty straight forward and very easy to use. All you do is type in the names of your friends and click ‘Find Photos!’ and it will return with all of the pictures that the person (or people) are tagged in.

tag facebook pictures

Photo Finder has a feature entitled ‘Favorite Friends’ that allows you to enter the names of those who you would like to keep track of in the app. Any photos uploaded by those users you list as your favorite friends will be able to be seen together on one page.

Note: Near the search box there is a little box that says “Notify these users”. If you do not want people to know you are searching for them I suggest you uncheck this box.

Facebook Picture Search – Worth A Mention

Face.com

tag facebook pictures

Face.com is probably the coolest way to tag and search for pictures on Facebook. Their PhotoTagger app uses facial recognition to tag your photos for you.

You heard right, facial recognition software. We covered Photo Tagger briefly in a directory entry. It’s pretty accurate as far as I can tell. All you have to do is type in a name (e.g. Steve Campbell) and watch as it brings up all of that person’s photo albums.

facebook picture

When you click on the album you want to tag, it analyzes all of the faces in the photos and takes you to a page for review. If everything is correct you can tag your photos.

facebook picture

Face.com also has a Photo Finder application that is for finding lost Facebook photos that you may have never seen because you were never tagged in them. This program is in alpha at the moment, meaning you can sign up for an invite but you are bound to experience some bugs/errors.

Photo Tag Search

Facebook Photo Tag Search is a prototype built by a Facebook engineer. It is an experimental feature that allows you to search for photos based on who is tagged in them.

Just click on ‘Activate Prototype’ and head over to Facebook Photos to try it out.

Note: Since Facebook’s recent layout update, Photo Tag Search has stopped working. They have not announced whether or not they will update the app to work with the new layout or if they are pulling the plug. It’s worth keeping an eye on because it worked really well and has a lot of support from fans.

Conclusion

As time passes I’m sure we will see some interesting apps for picture searching on Facebook. After searching for the photos you’re looking for, why don’t you try downloading them? If you have any comments, ideas, thoughts, etc. please leave them below in the comment section. Did I forget to mention your favorite app?

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!