Microsoft offers free Office Online eBook

Katherine Murray, an accomplished author of over 50 books related to Internet technologies and the digital lifestyle, has joined with the Microsoft Office Live team to produce an extensive (304 page) reference to the Online Office product.

Initially launched as a 'Get a website for your business free' product last year, Microsoft Office Live now integrates a variety of online applications, some free, and others by subscription.

The product has improved significantly since we began our simple beta test last year.  More recently, the team has been introducing new features to existing users, as well continually to beta testers.

The book, 'Take Your Business Online', provides a simplified approach to new users, as well as marketing tips and ideas for putting a small business online for the first time.  It also serves as an easy-to-read,  walk-through guide to Microsoft's Online product.

Katherine Murray is the founder of reVisions Plus, Inc. Her 'occasional' blog announced completion of the book in April.

The ebook, a 20 MB download in PDF format, is available free until October 19th, from Microsoft here.

Google Page Rank updates begin to appear

SEO specialists and their clients are watching tonight as the anticipated PageRank update by Google is now beginning to appear.

I was going to do a quick rundown of some of the websites and blogs I follow and their new PR here,  but I'm not sure I'm seeing all of them yet, so that would be a little misleading.

PageRank was the original 'formula', developed in the very beginning (In fact, the trademark belongs to Stanford University and Google purchased the exclusive rights).

It's very important to recognize that PageRank is now just one part of a complex algorithm that Google uses to determine where a website lands in the SERPs (Search Engine Relative Positions).

While it's amusing to see what your new PR is, it's a mistake to fixate on it.  There are many websites that rank in the Top-5 for specific search terms (or phrases) that have PageRanks of 4 or less.

Google's latest toolbar is the easiest (and most accurate) way to surf and check PageRank at the same time. 

No doubt, if you follow the SEO space, you'll read a lot of  "My PageRank went up" and "My PageRank went down". 

Unless you go from a 6 to a zero, don't lose too much sleep over it :)

LinkedIn, WikiMetro, and yes, Friendfeed

I've done more than a few posts on brand and / or 'Reputation Management'.
I've also done more than a few on Wikipedia.

Read on ... It may effect YOU.

Recently, I've become a little more active on LinkedIn.  I like it.  It's been a good vehicle for me in numerous ways, and I like to follow online sites that I feel strongly will be around for a while. LinkedIn is in that group.

Possibly the place I've been the most active for the past 4 months is Friendfeed, where I feel that the founders' vision is strong, and I have enjoyed a community of smart, interesting, and just fun people to interact with.

This blog has been scraped almost from inception. (Long before the Louis Gray, Mike Fruchter, Inquisitr, Robert Scoble, and other lists). It never really bothered me. All one has to do is wander over to Technorati.  About 25% of 'authority', which I've never really concentrated on for this blog, is coming from sites that scrape it's content.

That brings us to today's fascinating find.

Apparently my twin has reappeared in upstate New York!

A site called Wiki Metro has me listed as the CEO of US Airways, residing in Buffalo NY. Neat huh?  Buddy Passes?

WikiMetro appears to be a LinkedIn-type site, but publicly edited.  It also REQUIRES your Friendfeed ID to join which had me wondering.  I did join briefly to make a little note on the page .... and e-mail the CEO.

I may not be the chief executive of a major airline (and that may be a good thing?), but I'm pretty proud of what I do here and elsewhere, and unless someone legally changed their name, there is only one me.

This is just another little amuzing heads up on the human-edited community (and possibly for the people at LinkedIn and Friendfeed).

So here I am, flyin' around upstate.  Feel free to send the paycheck (I'll pass on the stock options)

 
Maybe I'll post a bio to Knol ?? :)

Have a GREAT WEEK to all.....
Charlie

More Googley Stuff - Google News in the wild

Google appears to be testing a new layout for Google News.  This screenshot, captured earlier tonight, not has a new layout, but the drop-down box allowed visibility to a slew of versions from different countries.  It was only visible on one of my IP's and disappeared rather quickly ?!

 

Picasa 3 (beta) has released a significant upgrade which will auto-update if you have the Google Updater installed.  (It's MUCH better and has even more features).  Details can be found here.

Hope everyone's having a great weekend!

Charlie

Brief: Firefox updates the update !

Mozilla just released Firefox 3.0.3 which fixes a bug in the new version featured earlier in the week here.

CCleaner updated to include Google's Chrome

CCleaner, the handy, small, and free system utility featured here numerous times in our 'Free Stuff to play with over the weekend' feature, is out with a new version.

If you've never used it, CCleaner is a lightweight (adware and spyware free) utility that lets you delete your cache, temp files, cookies and more 'gunk' fast, with a couple of mouse clicks (Sometimes gigabytes worth!).  It also has a decent registry analyzer and fixer on board which lets you back up before repairing.

(Note:  If you don't want a Yahoo! toolbar or automatic updates, you can opt out during the installation.  Upgrades can be performed by simply installing the newest version over the old one).

Version 2.12 released yesterday impliments these changes:
Added Google Chrome support.
- Improved cleaning security checks.
- Improved recursive cleaning functions.
- Fixed bug in INI FileKey evaluation routine.
- Updated INI file processing engine.
- Improved system info checks for modern CPUs.
- Various language and translation improvements.
- Minor GUI tweaks.

You can download a copy of CCleaner here.

Blogger lets you share your blogs

Introduced a couple of weeks ago, Blogger is now letting you 'follow' (and share) other blogs directly on your sign-in profile screen.



(Click image to enlarge)

I'm not sure whether to call this a social network, an aggregator, or just a cool tool to let you see what others are saying before you post?

I originally thought it was Blogger-specific when it was first announced and held off trying it.  It's not.  You can add any RSS feed to the list, and the step-by-step interface makes it simple.  (Very simple).  You could, if you wanted, add your entire reader list (although I think for most that would be impractical).

This blog is produced in Blogger so I see that page each time I update.  I can think of a lot of possibilities utilizing this moving forward.

To try it out, all you need is a Blogger profile and simply go to the main page or draft.blogger.com.

Microsoft takes I'm a PC to the next level

Last week, Microsoft subtly launched this page which allows you to submit your own video telling why 'you're a PC'.

Starting today, visitors to MSN.com will see a collage of people that submitted their own videos surrounding the MSN home page.

Clicking on any of them will play the selected video in the MSN front page ad box.

After the first few plays, it wears a little, but luckily you can turn it off (upper right).

Are you a PC? 

Assuming this runs for a while (It was live at 12 AM ET), just go to MSN.com to check it out.

As for me, I think the next video is headed for Seesmic :)

Charlie

Mozilla upgrades Firefox Version 3 to 3.0.2

Earlier this afternoon, Mozilla upgraded both Firefox 3 and it's predecessor Firefox 2.

The latest version of Firefox 3 is now 3.0.2 and Firefox 2 is now 2.0.0.17.

If your browser isn't set to automatically update (or just hasn't yet ... ), simply tap 'Help' (at the top) then 'check for updates', and follow the instructions.

While Mozilla is now urging users to upgrade from Version 2 to Version 3, they are still supporting the older technology browser.

Included in the latest release are numerous security and stability fixes, a variety of new languages, better rendering of some web pages, as well as some Mac OS X specific issues.

Firefox is been steadily gaining ground as the second most used web browser next to Microsoft's Internet Explorer over the past two years, and continues to be a favorite among the 'blogging' and tech communities.

The full (free) install of Firefox 3.0.2 (for Windows, Mac OS X, or Linux) can be found here.