I’m relatively new to the blogosphere. Sure, I’ve kept a LiveJournal for almost six years, but that’s always been more of a private diary. Interact is the first time I’ve really started a blog from scratch.

For others who are planning to do the same, I intend to share what I learn about blogging as I go — from one amateur to another.

So, tip #1 (it’s a common sense one): Make sure your comment forms work.

I wondered why I wasn’t getting any comments (except one on the first day). ReCaptcha was conflicting with my theme, therefore anyone who tried to comment until last night was getting rejected. Not cool. There goes any potential readers I would have had.

They likely said, “Uh, this chick’s comments don’t even work. She must not be a legit blogger.” (Or I like to tell myself that so I don’t feel bad about not having any readers).

Who is going to be tagged in your wedding album on Facebook?

As Gen Y gets older, more real-life events are increasingly centered around the online product.

I recently went to the wedding of my boyfriend’s high school friends and this was the case. Every table at the reception had a note encouraging guests to take pictures then upload them to SnapFish for the bride and groom to print.

This is quite the evolution from the days when the bride and groom would purchase disposable cameras to give out to guests for picture-taking. Not only is money wasted on the disposable camera, but also on getting the horrible pictures developed.

With this method, you can only print the photos you like and you don’t have to pay for the camera.

Another money-saver: online invitations. The same wedding party sent out their invitations through Pingg.com, which allowed for quick RSVPing, provided instant directions, looked clean and best of all– was free! Guests were allowed to comment on details of the reception of well, and other guests could see who was and was not coming.

Invitations can be printed, twittered, text messaged, e-mailed, and were even hosted as an “event profile” Web site.

Brilliant, easy, fast, free. The way event planning ought to be.

The new possible new design

When a potential version of the Chicago Tribune’s redesign starting trickling its way through the Web, I fell in love.

Although I’m known as a Web enthusiast, I’m also a sucker for great design — whether it be web or print. All graphic design is intriguing to me, and this prototype definitely sparked my interest.

If newspapers are going to survive, there needs to be major restructuring to represent elements of both the Web and magazines. I think this design accomplishes both:

• Masthead content – They go with the name “Trib.” This is brilliant because it’s casual. It sounds like the name of a blog and it’s what seasoned readers call the newspaper anyway. It’s making that personal connection with the readers, a very blog-like appeal, I think.
• Masthead style – This is no traditional masthead. Again, it reminds me of a blog banner. It feels so casual and clean. I love it.

The current, “old” design

• Headline typeface – The current design uses traditional serif fonts, while this potential new design has a main headline in a Helvetica-like font (much like a magazine would)
• Big central image - This is so magazine-like, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Newspapers are dying, but magazines aren’t.  Everything about the layout reminds me of a magazine, and even the content is a lot more feature oriented
• Basic, bold graphics – Although I can’t read the teasers on the bottom (I’m assuming they’re teasing to the Web), I can tell that the graphics are far more simplified than what the Tribune currently has in their print edition. They’re very much like icons you’d see on a Web site
• Infographics – The current Tribune is very text-heavy. This design adds more visual and presents statistics quickly and organized. Far more visually appealing than that traditional look of the current paper.

If newspapers want to survive, I think they need to do what the Chicago Tribune is considering: a massive redesign. Not only visually, but contextually.

Instead of being a place of who, what, where and when, the newspaper should be a place of “why?”

Instead of cutting pages and jobs and keeping the same content style, newspapers need to add pages and jobs and change their content style.

Instead of trying to break the news in the newspaper, the industry needs to break news online and use print as a deeper, more feature-like and in-depth look at the news that was broken online.

And the Trib already has a head start.

I previously blogged about Sign On San Diego’s interactive job fair, and now that it’s live and running, I didn’t miss an opportunity to chat live with a San Diego Union-Tribune recruiter.

Here are the basics of our chat Monday:

[Comment From Lauren]
I’m a journalism student, but very few people I know are actually graduating to get journalism jobs. In the next few years, where do you see the biggest need in the journalism industry? Where should I focus my studies now to ensure I get a journalism job in two years?

Chris Courter: kudos to you: This is an outstanding question. I would recommend learning online skills such as HTML, some common programming languages, and a content management system in an effort to pursue online positions such as content producers. Content producers are the reporters of the present and future.

[Comment From Lauren]
Chris, when you say “content” producer, are you talking editorial-related content (multimedia/interactive reporting?) or more of marketing-related content (such as this job fair)?

Chris Courter: We hire both types on a regular basis and will continue to do so. The variables that distinguishes journalists these days are their multimedia and online skills.

His response, although seemingly good news for a new media enthusiast such as myself, wasn’t satisfying. I still feel like I won’t get a job. So yesterday, I asked a different recruiter a similar question during the live chat.

[Comment From Lauren]
I asked this same question of Chris yesterday, but now I want to hear your perspective. I’m a journalism major but I don’t feel as though I’m going to get a job in the journalism industry, despite my web knowledge. Is there anything else I should focus on to ensure I get a journalism job by the time I graduate in 2 years? Graphic design? Marketing? Or should I just give up on the journalism industry?

Alicia from the U-T: That’s a good question. Only you know if you want to pursue another field.

Alicia from the U-T: Internships are also a great way of getting experience and networking.

Alicia from the U-T: Journalism is a tough industry but I think there still are a lot of opportunities.

Alicia from the U-T: Networking in this industry is key. Consider going to association meetings.

As you can see, even those working in the industry don’t really know how to answer the question. But two key things are taken from these conversations — to get a journalism job you need to know the web and you need to know people. The end.

P.S. I encourage everyone to take a look at the job fair this week. It’s a completely innovative approach to looking for jobs online with speaker session podcasts, resume critiques, company video, live chats and more. The Union-Tribune chat is happening right now until 2:00 p.m. PST.

This morning before making the drive back to school, I made a quick stop at the grocery store (food is so much cheaper at home than it is on the Central Coast).  Upon exiting the building, a woman was handing out free newspapers.

They weren’t just any little community flier. We’re talking Fresno Bee, which in 2007 had a circulation of 157,546.

“Wait, free?!” I asked the woman. “Yeah,” she replied. I thought for a moment.

“That’s sad,” I said. (“They’re getting desperate,” I thought) and walked away. I couldn’t even bring myself to pick up a free newspaper.

A new media journalism professor should support blogging, citizen journalism, free speech, a marketplace of ideas. So why would one NYU professor require students to get permission before blogging about her class? Looks like a case of egotism to me.

NYU journalism junior Alana Taylor wrote a blog on Media Shift two weeks ago about her dissatisfaction with a new media class. In fact, it was that very blog entry that inspired me to start Interact.

But after that blog became widely circulated online, even appearing on Poynter, Taylor’s professor, Mary Quigley, sat her down for a little heart to heart.

A Media Shift follow-up by Mark Glaser reads:

By Taylor’s account, Quigley had a one-on-one meeting with Taylor to discuss the article, and Quigley made it clear that Taylor was not to blog, Twitter or write about the class again. That was upsetting to Taylor, who had been planning a follow-up report for MediaShift that would include Quigley’s viewpoint and interviews with faculty.

This sounds a little like censorship to me. What if Taylor had gone to Quigley before writing her initial blog for Media Shift? Would Quigley have said no? Would/should Taylor have listened?

As a person who is supposed to be educating aspiring journalists — not only about the freedom of speech, but about the fresh perspectives blogging can bring to the table — Quigley’s move seems completely hypocritical (and a little selfish– instead of worrying about her reputation, why didn’t she praise her student for being so new-media-savvy?).

I got a lot from Taylor’s blog on Media Shift. It opened a new door for me to contribute to the blogosphere.

Quigley should have embraced the criticism Taylor offered about the class and worked off it to make a curriculum that is better fit to students’ needs.

I hope Taylor writes the other side for Media Shift after the issue cools off. I’d be very interested in reading student/faculty perspectives, as well as Quigley’s.

Why go to a newspaper site to find/post job listings when Craiglist is easy and free? Localization and interactivity is the answer at the San Diego Union-Tribune.

SignOnSanDiego.com, the U-T’s site, is doing something completely innovative and brilliant– an interactive job fair.

The job fair, dubbed Mega Jobs, has a motto of: “Go to work. Look busy. Find a new boss.”

While most online job fairs is just a list of links, Mega Jobs features:

• Live recruiter chats
• “Meet the recruiter” videos
• Expert resume critiques
• Speaker session podcasts
• Resume posting/searching

The entire process of looking and learning about jobs can be done from home, from Starbucks, from work — anywhere. It’s free to participants and easy to access.  Localization just might be the only way to win over Craigslist job classifieds.

Should small newspapers post stories to the Web first (i.e. before the presses are running)?

That’s the very question Mark Van Patten explored in his blog on Media Shift today. It’s the same question I ask myself asking about the Mustang Daily every day.

Each night, we do a little process called “shovelware.” After the paper is printing, I’m finally allowed to copy and paste all the articles into our CMS.

It feels like such a ridiculous process (the web should not cater to print!), but it’s really the only practical process.

I have to wait until 10 p.m. to post because stories are being copy edited right up until 9:59 p.m.

Being a student publication, our copy editors can’t spend all day editing stories as the come. They have other commitments. They edit stories only when they have to. The whole atmosphere of our newsroom is based on the print deadline.

The only person who is truly committed to breaking/posting news as it happens is our sports editor. Although all our staff claims to be pro-”new media,” print is always their first priority. With sports though, we always have breaking news on our blog and on the site.

My goal: the extend this enthusiasm for the web to everyone on staff. (How to do it? Hell if I know. That’ll be another blog).

What Van Patten notes in his blog is that a majority of his newspaper’s readers don’t go online for their news:

Right now, our readers aren’t particularly Internet savvy. Many still use dial-up for Internet access. They generally only check their email a couple times a week. They don’t know much about what’s available online. They still depend heavily on the printed paper for their news.

It’s a proven statistic at the University too. Students pick up a paper while walking down the hall and read in class. Most of our online readers are alumni and parents.

But my rationale says the reason students don’t go online for their news is because we’re not posting news online until 10 p.m.

The news industry is a 24-hour industry. News doesn’t only matter when the clock strikes 10. If we want to be an industry-leading college publication, we have to change up the way we do things.

Print editions will probably never die at universities. Why? Because Sudoku and crosswords ease boredom during lecture hall. There shouldn’t be a worry that breaking the news online will hurt print. It won’t.

After Facebook was down for a few hours today (an inevitable consequence of the big switch to the New Facebook), users will find a major difference on their bottom menu: Application navigation.

Production manager for the new Facebook Mark Slee first announced the change in a blog yesterday:

We also heard that people were confused about how to find their applications, so we are moving the Applications menu to the menu bar at the bottom of every page. This will make it much easier to get to your favorite applications whenever you want.

Despite alleged complaints, the move may seem redundant to many Facebook users — the bottom right menu contains the same content as the menu on the front page.

The benefit though, as Slee noted, is that the menu stays at the bottom of every page, rather than only being located on the homepage.

The bottom menu is unobtrusive and can be hidden, exactly like the cooresponding notifications menu on the right of the toolbar. The new feature is interactive, allowing users to customize the order of their links. Items from the pop-out menu, however, cannot be dragged onto the bottom bar.

CNN has a new interactive political community called the Forum, but it appears to be pretty buggy from what I can see.

A Google search for “Forum CNN” brings up no results about the feature, indicating that it’s relatively new, although the oldest comment I found was already 18 days old.

Located at theforum.cnn.com, the feature allows users to create a political “badge” that shows which candidate/issues the user supports. This is where it starts getting buggy for me. Each time I try to upload a photo and select my issues, I’m directed to a Symfony error page.

After building a badge, you can go to a “forum comparison” to see where other users stand on the issues. Currently, the most popular issue is the economy, with 62 percent of users ranking it as their No. 1 concern.

The data can also be grouped by age, gender, candidate choice or “voter leage.” There are five voter league options:

• League of First Time Voters
• League of Political Junkies
• League of Conservative Voters
• League of Independent Voters
• League of Liberal Voters

It’s an innovative move by CNN to appeal to that “community” feeling that Internet users so desperately long for.

Although there appear to be minor, arbitrary bugs, the system is surprisingly user friendly. In the section that asks where users stand on political issues, the wording is in everyday language.

Example of question wording:

One plan to reduce global warming would have the government set a limit on the amount of those emissions that companies could produce each year. Companies that exceed that limit would face fines or higher taxes, but they could avoid those penalties by paying money to other companies that produced fewer emissions than allowed. Would you favor or oppose this proposal?

As far as the “forum” aspect of it goes, there appears to be a lot of discussion taking place about the issues (economy, energy, health care, security, Iraq, social issues, social security). So far, the economy is in the lead with 1127 comments and social security is in last place with 237 comments.

I’m not sure how long the forum will survive because it’s not the type of community that’s continually updated. It feels as though you put in your information once, snoop around a little, then never return. It’s not the kind of thing you need to experience more than once.

UPDATE: Just found another bug, after submitting responses to where I stand on the issues, I got this message:

djdub63, based on your answers, here’s your political badge!

I definitely did not register as djdub63, but as laumichell. The badge doesn’t match my question responses. I cannot find an option to change my name or my league back to what I registered as. Instead I’m stuck with some random person’s political views on my account. Interesting.

In theory, it’s a great concept, but maybe they should have waited to launch it. I guess they call it “beta” for a reason.

Today marks the seventh anniversary of 9/11. Most major news sites featured something 9/11 related on their front pages. We’ll take a look at how coverage differs.

CNN.com

CNN was the only major news site to not feature something grandiose about 9/11 on the front page. To get to the coverage, you have to navigate to the U.S. section (and half an hour later, it’s not even the lead U.S. story anymore).

But, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It’s a prime example of how CNN is constantly updating their site and changing their front page story. It was also bold of CNN to put the patriotic day on the back burner to cover issues that are happening now (like, say, a little hurricane called Ike?).

BBC News

BBC News had coverage that seemed to closely mirror CNN. Their video felt more feature-like and less broadcasty than CNN’s. The slideshow was a little plain, but necessary. One thing I liked was how they tied in current events to 9/11 by getting views from people in the Middle East about security and militancy in their countries.

WashingtonPost.com

The Washington Post had the most going on in terms of 9/11 coverage. Three articles (each with a different focus), video, an interactive flash tour of the memorial, an “audio tour” (something new to me), a forum for community discussion, two photo galleries and a three videos. For information about the 9/11 anniversary, the Washington Post was definitely the place to be. They even had live travel updates with traffic information for people wanting to get to the memorial. One video also gives great insight into the planning process for the designers who built the memorial. The Washington Post definitely gets an A+.

The New York Times

When I visited the New York Times around 10 a.m. PST, there was a rotating slideshow of photos from the 9/11 tribute and an interactive feature on the center of the home page. The NYT was the only site of the five I looked at that featured interactive content embedded within the front page (as opposed to links to multimedia).

Los Angeles Times

The LA Times didn’t have the greatest 9/11 coverage, but that’s probably because they’re located at the wrong end of the country. The video was just a clip from KTLA, but they did have a bland little “interactive feature” (really it was just four photos of ground zero).  They did do a good job of bringing it home to California with a local story about how SoCal firefighters were honoring the event.

Google being unpatriotic?

And this is just for fun, but I noticed Google didn’t have a special 9/11 logo. Interesting that they would make a custom logo for the first hot air balloon flight or the 50th anniversary of the LEGO brick, but not to honor an American patriotic holiday.

The online newspaper at my old high school has a nationally award-winning site, although you probably can’t tell from their newest design. Although they update daily, a surprising (and headache-causing) fact is that they don’t use a content management system. It’s all done by hand.

I don’t know whether it’s a benefit or a drawback.

When I worked for my high school newspaper (from 2004-2007) we knew nothing of the advent of a CMS. My first year attending the NSPA conference in San Francisco though, I saw the back-end of the Paly Voice’s CMS and immediately thought, “Hey, that’s cheating.”

We updated everything manually. We created templates in Dreamweaver, copied and pasted the new articles each day, changed all the font sizes and inserted a “print version” link at the bottom. We then pasted the article into a blank HTML page and linked the print version link to it. Then we added and linked the story to the front page again. It was surely and arduous process.

The benefits

• I learned all the basics of Dreamweaver
• I learned how to create a site
• I learned basic HTML
• I became familiar with using an FTP client

The drawbacks

• I focused on the technical end more than the writing, video and multimedia
• Most of my time was spent cleaning up little errors like broken links
• It took at least 15-20 minutes to post one article (and it was much longer, near 50 minutes for others in the class)

Looking back, I think it was best that we didn’t use a CMS in high school. Although I didn’t get to focus as much on writing, I certainly would not know how to create a site from scratch had we been using a CMS.

The Grizzly Gazette launched its new site yesterday and I am starting to think maybe it’s time to move on to a CMS.

As they start to get more content and features, the design starts getting sloppy. They don’t have the time to make it look good when they’re writing multiple articles each day along with slideshows and video (and all those are poorly produced too because of the lack of time, I’m assuming). Then, there are other mistakes that there are just no excuses for. How hard is it to take a photo in focus, really?

Each year, the Gazette launches a new design. The advisor says he does this so each new staff of students can “re-learn” the basics of HTML. One problem: only a handful of students are “page editors” who actually see Dreamwever, and even then, they’re likely using design mode. Another student does all the uploads.

What I’m trying to figure out is:

• When a publication should start using a CMS?
• At would point is it more beneficial?
• And do we need more high schoolers learning HTML basics so that they can catch on to the more complicated stuff by the time they get to college?

Let me know what you think. Let’s interact.

I’m generally a quick learner and determined worker. If I have a design project or goal, I usually will go countless nights without sleep until it’s done. But no matter how hard I try, I consistently screw up the Flash preloader.

I’ve read dozens of tutorials and spent hours upon hours trying to create the perfect preloader, but I never come close.

I usually end up with a white page for a few seconds while my Flash content loads (without a loader), then quickly a preloader will pop up and load to 100% in a hair of a second (if you blink you’ll miss it). Obviously, I’m doing something wrong.

My goal in upcoming days is to train myself on creating the perfect loader, then post the tutorials I used to get there, or make my own step-by-step guide for others to use.

It’s something absolutely essential to a Flash multimedia piece and can add a lot of class/credibility. Plus, the white page while content loads is just tacky.

If you know of any good tutorials, please throw ‘em out there for me.  I’ll keep you posted!

Getting started
This tutorial is for those who already have basic/intermediate knowledge with Adobe

Example of a vectored image

Illustrator. This can also be done in Photoshop, but I recommend Illustrator just because you have more canvas space to work with. Keep in mind that I myself am an amateur at doing this, so don’t be too hard on me.

What is a vector-based image?
Vector graphics use geometrical elements such as points, lines, curves, and shapes. As opposed to raster graphics, vector-based images retain their resolution at any size because it’s all based on mathematical proportions.

This type of digital art has kind of a cartoon-like feel to it. Many people wrongly assume that this effect is created using some type of pre-made Photoshop filter. In actuality, it takes hours –if not days — of precise hand work to create a vector graphic like this.

Why should I learn it?
It’s good to know how to create vector graphics if you’re a Web designer or a student journalist. That way, you won’t have to rely on stock images to spice up your site icons or your Flash multimedia story. Plus, they’re just really fun. I’ve made a few and printed them out at 8x10s for my new apartment.

Step No. 1: Get a photo
Start with a decent sized photo that has good quality/lighting. The higher the resolution, the better– you’ll want to be able to zoom in on it (pushing CTRL + and CTRL – to zoom in and out, either in Photoshop or Illustrator) to see the details.

Step No. 2: Base outlines
First you’ll vector the basic shapes and colors. Use the pen tool in either Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop to trace along the outlines. It doesn’t have to be perfect, keep it simple. As you can see, I traced the body, with pretty rough skin tones and the hair and shirt. To connect your shapes with the pen tool, just click back where you started. Use the eyedropper to get the colors you want.

Step No. 3: Start the face
Next you’ll want to do basic facial features. Eyebrows, nose and mouth. For the nose, rather than tracing the outline, just get the nostrils and any defining shadows. You don’t have to worry about the eyes yet. We’ll get to that in the next step.

*TIP: Change the opacity regularly to see beneath back to the original image you’re tracing. It’s also helpful to group together similar parts that you want linked by right clicking and choosing “group.” You can go within these group to edit by double clicking.

Step No. 4: Eyes
Now we’re going to do the eyes. They can be a little bit tricky. Just take your time with them. Start off just tracing the whites. Try to be as exact as possible. You’ll also have to be patient because you’ll be changing the transperancy a lot to be able to see back to the original eye.

After you trace the white, use the main color (in this case brown) to trace around the interiors. Add a lot of detail to the color of the eye. Do variations of shapes and colors (I used green on mine) and take down the opacity to make them really pop.

Step No. 5: Shadows, lips
Now we add the shadows. You may want to add a slight gradient over your original face shape. On other deep shadows, just use a shade a little darker than the color below. This is where you’ll really define your style of vectoring. Use your own judgment to get it just right. Just trace over the main shades you see.  You’ll also want to do a few of the finer details like adding creases to the lips.

Step No. 6: Hair
The hair in my example isn’t too complicated. But with hair that has different shades and highlights and shapes, you’ll need to get really creative. For vectors like that, the hair will probably be what you spend half of your time on. Pay close attention to where the light falls. You can even add more highlights when none exist, just to really give it that “vectored” touch. For women, focus on the shape of the hair and the it’s parted. Focus your shapes toward the direction of that part. For men, pay close attention to the actual hairline and sideburns.

*Tip: add a subtle gradient with the darker color away from the light souce.

Step No. 7: You’re done!
When you’re done, you’ll probably have more than 200 layers. This piece was obviously very rushed (completed in about 3 hours) for the purposes of this tutorial, but to get a really good quality vector illustration, you’ll probably find yourself spending days or weeks on a single piece. But don’t worry– time flies when you’re vectoring.

You’ll really need to get comfortable with the pen tool. The more often you vector, the better you’ll get. As for the purpose… hell if I know. It looks cool and its fun to do. It’s digital art. And if you’re not really an artist and you suck with a pencil and canvas– don’t worry. It takes no real talent to be able to do this. It takes taste and patience.

Have fun!

Additional Tips:

• Save your vector as an Illustrator file, an EPS, or (in photoshop) a PSD. That way, your image isn’t flattened and you can close it to come back later to work on it.
• Save OFTEN.You seriously want to be saving your work every few minutes, or else you’ll be one grumpy person when you recieve that much-hated “error” message.
• Don’t get frustrated. If this if your first time vectoring, it’ll be difficult. You’re probably not best friends with the pen tool yet and you’re not going to be able to know how to do things. In fact, your first vector is going to look pretty horrible. No worries. You’ll laugh at it in a month after you’ve perfected this art.
• Make sure you have a lot of time. Don’t start doing this is you’re going to go to work/class soon. You’ll get addicted. You’ll be up for hours.

Remember:

• It will look ridiculous the first time. Until you get comfortable with the pen tool, you will not be happy with the initial result. I’ll dig through old folders to try to find my first vector ever, and you will likely laugh your ass off. It takes time. Be patient. Good luck.

UPDATE: I found the original files for the first two vectors I ever attempted (this was around May 2007). I’m risking a lot of dignity by posting this, but I’m optimistic that it will give you hope. A little practice is all it takes. Laugh all you want, really.

This is an updated version of a tutorial I wrote on Hubpages in May.

I haven’t had a TV in more than a year. As a college student on a budget, cable is not something I necessarily want to pay for, and all my favorite TV shows are online anyway. I’m currently visiting my boyfriend in San Diego, and for the first time in a long time I’ve actually been watching the evening news.

It’s not an experience I particularly enjoy.

Each night, I’ve listened to the same news that I read online at 10 a.m.. For example, last night’s big political story was about a speech Obama gave on education. I got the CNN alert for that very story in my e-mail inbox at 11:09 a.m..

So I’m really wondering what people get out of watching news on TV. The local perspective? The sense of community? Entertainment value? Broadcast news isn’t feeling the hit that print is in the online era.

What I’ll be interested to see in upcoming years is how that sense of “community” from local news stations will be replaced online. Although Rob Curley hopefuls would like to say hyperlocal additions to news sites is the answer, that proved to be a failure.

In June, the Wall Street Journal attributed that failure to a lack of community connection:

One reason: the team of outsiders didn’t do enough to familiarize itself with Loudoun County or engage its 270,000 residents.

Four months after Curley left the Washington Post, LoudounExtra.com still exists as a hyperlocal addition to the newspaper.

Still, somehow, people would rather watch two annoying talking heads on a TV screen read old news with a smile.

I counted down the days until Google’s new browser Chrome would be available to download. Initially, I was hooked on it, but each day I find myself clicking that familiar Firefox logo more and more.

For those Mac users who can’t download it yet, here’s a quick review of features.

The good things:

• Tabs on top. While Firefox and IE (ewww) have tabs below the address/favorites toolbar, Chrome does the opposite. The tabs are located at the very top of the page, so that each tab has the feel of being its own little window.
• Full-screen feel. Tabs on top and lack of a file menu give Chrome the feel of a full-screen all the time. It’s a really effective use of screen space.
• Speed dial. For those of you who have never used Opera browser, Speed dial is a set of “most visited” sites that appears when you open a new tab. Speed dial goes beyond a basic list and shows the actual screenshots of your top pages. While convenient, for our multi-tasking generation, it can also be very distracting.
• Resizable text boxes. This wasn’t a feature I saw a lot of publicizing about. But, when I started using Chrome, I realized that my text boxes on Gmail’s chat feature and on Facebook comments had a draggable corner for resizing. As trivial as it seems, I always want.  I hate having to scroll to read what I’m writing.
• Clean design. The sleek, classy look of Chrome means a lot in a browser. I often find in Firefox that the top navigation feels cluttered and messy, so I’m constantly renaming bookmarks to shorter words to make it feel more clean. Not the case with Chrome. Google knows simplicity like no other.
• Dragging out tabs. Sometimes you just have one tab that deserves its own window. In Firefox, you have to copy that URL, open a new window, then paste it again. In chrome you just drag it out. Why didn’t we think of this before?

Negatives

• Ads misplaced. When using Myspace, I found that ads from the right side of the page (presumably placed in iframes) were somehow bumped to the middle of the page, covering content. I’m sure it’s a little bug they’ll work out.
• Can’t type keywords into address bar. For example, on Firefox, if I were to type “Mustang Daily” into the address bar (no http:// or www or .com), I would automatically be directed to the top search result for Mustang Daily. Although you’d assume Google would follow suit (much like the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button on Google homepage), it does not work so flawlessly. Instead, it takes you to a Google search results page of listings.
• Security issues. In Firefox, to retrieve saved passwords, there is an option for a required “Master password.” This means, if someone steals your laptop and tries to view all your passwords, they can’t access that information without having an additional password. Google hasn’t stepped up its security game yet. If you save your passwords and someone steals your laptop, you’re SOL without a master key.
• The logo. Although this has nothing to do with how the browser functions, having to look at that logo drives me crazy sometimes. The older generation probably doesn’t get it, but for generation y, notice how it resembles a multi-colored pokeball from Pokemon. Yuck.

Yesterday, I was reading a great little piece on Media Shift by Alana Taylor about NYU’s inability to adapt to new media demands in journalism.

One part of that blog especially stood out to me. It read:

Professor Quigley begins by explaining how blogs are becoming more important and asks if any of us have a blog. One hand slowly rises. It’s mine. None of the other students in the class have a blog.

Then I asked myself one question: As one of the “new media” stars at my university, as someone who started an award-winning Web site for my high school newspaper, why did I not have a blog?

Really, it’s not something I’d ever thought of doing — at least not consciously.  As an ardent blog-reader, I always felt like a consumer, rather than a producer.

Now I’m going to give it a shot and see where it goes.

Constantly, I’m someone who is sending links to friends, posting on Newsvine and sharing on GoogleReader. That’s all a blog really is, right? Linking and commentating on those links. It’s what I do everyday anyway.

Funny thing is, I’ve always lectured others about the importance of blogging and written research papers on why blogging is important. I’ve always felt close to the blogging community. I never considered doing it myself.

So, here goes nothin’.