WebRev Blog

Once of the hallmarks of our generation has come to be that about once every couple of months Facebook does something, and the entire Internet revolts.  Sometimes the Internet has a good reason to revolt - especially in the cases in which Facebook has made changes that affected its users privacy or security without adequately informing them first. Facebook seems to have learned its lesson in this regard, however, as evidenced by the fact that it took several weeks to roll out the new "timeline" format for profiles and pages.  This, of course, didn't stop the Internet from revolting.

This revolting every time Facebook makes a move has become a tradition - or a bad habit, depending on your perspective - as evidenced by this week's acquisition of Instagram by Facebook.  Remember Instagram? Just last Friday we were exploring this site, which allows users to create artwork out of their mobile photos before uploading them to their favorite social networks. 

While the real news of this acquisition is that it was reported for One Billion Dollars (with a "B"), which is HUGE for a start-up application that just finally rolled out to (Google's) Android devices last week.  Previously, it had only been available on (Apple's) iPhones.

Why was Facebook willing to pay so much? My guess is that Facebook wanted to get it before Google scooped it up. Critics are concerned that Facebook primarily wanted the user data from Instagram.  This seems unlikely, however, because although Instagram had its own social network, its primary purpose to be used as a tool to filter photos prior to uploading to Facebook and Twitter.  Ergo, most of the users probably already had Facebook, and were already sharing their photos on Facebook or another social network.  And, of course the Twitterverse is going nuts - as per usual.  Even the reaction among Facebook users is mixed, and hysterical.

OK, here's the deal.  Facebook is a for-profit company, and so is (was) Instagram.  So are all of their competitors.  They are going to make business decisions that they hope will make them as much money as possible, and keep them in business as long as possible.  This is how business works, and that's what this acquisition was - a business decision.  I think it was probably a good one all of the way around, and I'm very happy for the folks at Instagram who has the business acumen to develop a great program that turned out to be worth $1B. 

Now, let's all calm down, and save our energy for the habitual outrage that is sure to ensue as soon as one of these media giants buys the other photo-related time-sink, Pinterest.

You may have noticed that digital photographic art is all the rage these days.  If you're unfamiliar with this trend, it's where you take photographs, then enhance them digitally to make art out of them.  People have been doing this with software like Adobe Photoshop and Gimp for a long time.  This usually requires uploading your photos from your camera or phone to your computer, then working on them, then re-uploading them to whatever photo-sharing site you're using (Facebook, Flickr, Photobucket, etc.).

However, now that so many of us are taking photographs on our mobile phones, applications are being developed to do the digital artwork right on the device, then upload it directly to our photo-sharing site (almost instantly).  A couple of months ago, I highlighted an application called Scalado, which will allow users to remove objects from a photo - I'm still waiting for that one to be available on my Droid.

Another application that has been getting a lot of attention lately is Instagram, which has been available on iPhones for a while, and just became available on the Android devices this week. 

I've tried it out, and I think it's a great option for folks who just want to give their photos a little artistic flare before sharing them on your favorite photo-sharing social network.  Basically, you snap the photo (either using the "advanced" features in the program, or your camera's features), and then run it through one of several "filters" available.  The filters are the equivalent of merging a filter in Gimp or Photoshop, to make your photo look distressed, or like an oil painting, or like an old photograph, or whatever.

Instagram has its own voting system and the most popular photos are available for viewing by the community.  You can use the site to network with your friends who are in your contacts lists on your phone, in Facebook, or in Twitter.  The Instagram blog has tips and tricks for using other available marketplace apps to improve your composition, create collages, or get more creative with your photography and mobile art. 

Flickr has a massive compilation of photos created using Instagram, mostly on iPhones, because the app just became avaiable on Android this week.

Have a Happy and Blessed Easter weekend with friends and family, everyone!

 Click on the images above to be taken to the source of each.

So, maybe you've been seeing some great "merged" or "layered" or "textured" photos on the web, and would love to have that look for the graphics on your web page or blog.  Did you know it's easy and fun to do?

This can be done in photoshop, or Gimp (which is the "free" equivalent of photoshop, and is what I use).   First you start with your main photo, and open it in your photo editor.  Let's use this one.

Then, you click on "Layers" and "create a new layer."

Then, you'll add your second photo.  You can either click and drag one of the pre-loaded textures, patterns, gradients, or pallets, or you can use a photo you already have, or you can get one of about a gazillion free textures from places like Deviant Art or Flickr from the web (as always, be careful about downloading files from unkown sources).  You can click and drag from just about any window directly onto your newly created layer.  I'm ujsing a pattern that is alread in Gimp, called "Pine?" (yes, it has a question mark in the title), which I have desaturated, and lightened to look like this:

 Finally, with both layers visible, I used the "opacity" slider, to select how much of the original image and how much of the layer I wanted to show, and ended up with this:

And Voila!  It looks like we've printed the WebRev logo on wooden plaque.  Not bad.  I wonder if I should send this to Tim Short?  ;-)

Here's a video by Malgalin, with more details on exactly how to use textures in Gimp.

Jennifer Pointer (e-mail) is in Tulsa, OK. She promotes a simple, a low-tech approach to effective online profile management, search engine optimization and social networking. 
 

This week, we're reviewing some of the different types of blog posts.  Earlier this week, we discussed the essay, which targets academics and is good for submission for op-ed syndication (cross-posting).  Yesterday, we talked about four types of posts that are specifically designed to attract traffic from the search engines: review, list, link posts, and polls.

A few weeks ago, we gave examples of the code to use for embedding media, and some cautions for the proper ways to give credit, and avoid plagiarism.   Now, let's talk about what types of media can be used in blog posting.

Videos

 

Videos can be uploaded to any number of video hosting sites, and many of these sites provide an "embed code," for bloggers and webmasters, to share the video.  Videos can be funny, serious, touching, or educational.  They can contain music, lectures, presentations, slideshows, sermons, or discussions.  Many can be interactive, such as those on ustream.tv, or youtube.com, on which viewers can actually participate in chats and/or comment sections.  Including videos in your blogging repertoir can also be a good way to include "readers," who actually don't like to "read," but are more interested in being entertained. 

 

Photos

 

Original and/or well-labeled photos (images) are a great way of drawing in traffic from the search engines.  If your photo is not original, be sure to attempt to credit the original source of the photo, and link to that source if it is online.  The use of photos is usually covered under "fair use" laws on blogs, but it's always a good practice to give credit, where credit is due (if possible).  Photos can be used to enhance another type of blog post, or as a stand-alone post.  Some bloggers allow their photos to be used by their readers as wall-paper for desktops or social networking backgrounds.  This can be a good way to build reader loyalty.

 

Cartoons/Art

 

If you are a talented cartoonist or artist, you may want to showcase your art on your blog. If you're not, there are places online that allow you to use artwork for free, or for a fee. 

 

Podcasts

 

Podcasts are basically online radio shows, and some podcasting sites, like Blog Talk Radio provide embed codes for the archives of their shows.  Instead of "writing" a blog post, you may want to record it for your visitors to listen to while they work (or to download and listen to it on their mp3 players while driving).  Some bloggers provide a podcast recording of all of their blog posts for their readers who may be sight-impaired.  You may also want to embed and share the podcasts of others, which you feel your readers will enjoy.

Have you found a creative way to include media in your blogging?  We'd love to hear your stories!

Jennifer Pointer (e-mail) is a trainer and tech writer in Tulsa, OK. She promotes a simple, a low-tech approach to effective online profile management, search engine optimization and social networking. Her weakness is the mocha frappuccino.