blogs

Add A Google News Feed To Your Web Site With NewsShow

4:30PM Angus Kidman | Fancy adding a topic-specific headline feed to your blog or site? Google has just added the ability to generate an automatic Google News box (which it brands as a NewsShow), either covering broad topics or specific keywords. If you’re programming-friendly, you can work directly with the News API, but most users will probably just settle for the wizard that automatically creates code to paste into your blog or site template. It’d be nice to see a wider range of formats, but it’s still an easy way to put some topical links on your site. NewsShow Wizard[via The Official Google Blog] More »

Plinky Comes Up With Content For Your Status Updates And Blogs

12:00PM Angus Kidman | You don’t want anyone in your online social network to think you’re boring, but it’s often hard to come up with updates that are punchy and amusing. Save yourself from being unfollowed on Twitter or abused by your Facebook pals with Plinky. Plinky asks questions (like “name three songs you would put on a road trip mix tape” or “Defend your vice”) and then builds them into posts which anyone can view. You can set up Plinky to automatically feed updates to Facebook, Twitter and a bunch of blogging services, including WordPress, Blogger, TypePad and LiveJournal. New prompts get supplied each day (and you can suggest future prompts to the service). It’s no substitute for real creativity, but we all know there are days when that is in short supply. Plinky is free, requires signup. Thanks Mark J! Plinky More »

The White House Gets A Blog

4:30AM Adam Pash | US President Barack Obama’s campaign embraced technology like none before, so it’s no surprise that the new face of the White House on the web comes complete with a brand new White House blog. If you want to keep up with the latest from the Oval Office blog, just drop the WhiteHouse.gov blog feed into your newsreader. [via Twitter] More »

IceRocket Big Buzz Puts Web’s Reaction On One Page

10:30PM Kevin Purdy | Search site IceRocket gives near-real-time results from the web, blogs, Twitter, news sites, images, and videos (phew), but its Big Buzz feature conveniently mashes it all onto one page. For those “What’s going on?” moments—such as when, say, a plane crashes into the Hudson River—it’s a great spot to get a quick scan of what’s going on, and what’s being said, on one page. IceRocket’s advanced preferences open up some results-cropping tools. For those looking for a serious bathing in information, you can also grab an RSS feed from your search results. IceRocket is free to use. IceRocket Big Buzz [via Micro Persuasion] More »

Don’t Forget To Vote For Gizmodo In The 2008 Weblog Awards

10:25AM Angus Kidman | Voting for the 2008 Weblog Awards closes soon, and our gadget-obsessed sibling title Gizmodo needs your support in the Best Australia or New Zealand blog category. So case your vote over at the the awards site, and give Nick and the team something to brighten their day. Remember, it’s all about the geeks! More »

YackTrack Keeps an Eye On Comments

2:00AM Jason Fitzpatrick | YackTrack is a comment tracking service. If you’ve ever wondered who is talking about a blog post or news article you can enter the URL and see who is talking about it and where. YackTrack currently tracks comments on Blogger/Blogspot, Digg, Disqus, FriendFeed, Google Blog Search, Google Reader, IntenseDebate, Mixx, Reddit, StumbleUpon, Technorati, TypePad/MoveableType and WordPress blogs. Additionally there is a “Chatter” function that lets you search for key words instead of single URLs. On the time saving side of things it’s possible to set up a bookmarklet to help you search YackTrack and you can turn a search term into an RSS feed to plug it into your favourite reader and stay abreast of new comments. YackTrack [via Download Squad] More »

Windows Live Writer Update Makes Tagging, Searching Posts Easier

12:00AM Kevin Purdy | Windows only: Windows Live Writer, Microsoft’s multi-platform blogging tool, was one of many Live Essentials apps that recently received a few upgrades, and they’re really helpful for anyone writing on the web. Most helpful in this release candidate, for anyone writing a blog on Live.com, Blogger, WordPress, MovableType, or any other supported platform, is the ability to search through local drafts and published posts for text in any post, letting you get at older posts for editing and unfinished ideas quickly. WordPress.com and self-installed WordPress users get the same kind of auto-completing tags as on their site editors, and new plug-ins for Writer have been released that let you upload and link pictures from Flickr, auto-tweet your posts on Twitter, and do more. New to Live Writer? Head over to blogger Jared Goralnick’s tips and tweaks for Windows Live Writer. The release candidate of Windows Live Writer 2009 is a free download for Windows systems only. Windows Live Writer 2009 [via Digital Inspiration] More »

BackType Tracks Your Comments or Others’ Across Blogs

10:30PM Kevin Purdy | Free web service BackType aggregates all the comments you make on various blogs and web sites. The site uses the URLs entered in commenter forms or in the posts themselves to track a person’s musings, or can combine URLs under a single account URL. It’s a great tool for those who want to catch up on discussions they left behind, but the site also provides a search engine of its indexed comments and links to see another social-browser’s comments. This type of URL tracking would normally leave the door open for comment impersonators, so BackType offers a moderation option to have you approve any comments posted under your name. BackType is a free service, requires a sign-up to use. BackType [via Download Squad] More »