Twitter is one of the most popular social networking sites. While celebrities use Twitter to connect with fans and fans to connect  with celebrities, many other people use twitter as a marketing tool for their products too. It thus becomes essential to track your twitter account wherever you are. Here are some tools that can help you to check twitter updates from your inbox.

If you remember, we had also listed out a few tools that can help you to send/receive tweets via Gtalk/Gmail Chat. Check that out too, in case you didn’t know!

TweetByMail

This is one of the popular services known for sending and receiving tweets through emails. After the registration of your account- which is done by the usual OAuth process, you will find your “private” tweetbymail email address. I repeat, the address should be kept private as anyone can control your account through that email address.

The frequency of mails you want to receive can be set from the control panel and starting from there, you will start receiving the updates, @replies etc. to your inbox. Next, to send tweets you need to send mail to the “private email address” which you  got earlier, with your tweet in the “Subject” line. That’s it. Your tweets will be posted. You can check out some handy commands here which can help you to do many other things like following, unfollowing etc. through email.

TweetyMail

TweetyMail claims itself as an all-in-one email solution for Twitter and it stands to be one. There are two modes of access- Free Access and Full Access. Free Access mode is one with limited and common features. Full Access has pretty interesting and useful features but you need an invitation code to use them. However, you can get an invitation by clicking on the “Get Full Access Invitation” on the dashboard.  You can check the features on their homepage. (Link above)

Also Read: Post Computer Screenshots To Twitter With DesktopTweet

NutShellMail

This tool sends you notifications about the happenings on Twitter in a predefined interval of time. For example, if you have set the frequency of receiving notifications, one hour, then you will receive a single mail consisting of all the latest updates that have happened in one hour. You can check out a sample of how your email looks here. Check out their video too.

TwitterMail

TwitterMail is a tool from the  TwitterCounter service. To use this tool,  you have to create a seperate TwitterMail account here. While creating you have the privilege to select your own “secret email address” which cannot be guessed by anyone (as I said earlier). You also can select which part of the mail you send should be tweeted. Like, the body part, subject part or both. You can also send pictures through the mail. This needs your Twitter account password to access TwitPic.

That’s it. These were some of the good tools that I could find. Please share any other tool that you know by leaving comments below.

Starting from as small as u.nu to as big as goo.gl, there are lots of URL shortening services out there. However, when you want to share multiple links on a networking site like Twitter, even the shortest may not be of any help.

In such cases, there are many tools that can help you to shrink all your URLs into a single, shortened URL, neat and tidy to share. In this post, I am going to list out a few tools that can help you to combine multiple URLs to a single URL.

Link Bunch

A small text box and fewer ads is what that defines LinkBunch. It has a very simple interface. You just need to put all the URLs you want in the box provided and click on the “Bunch” button. It will generate a new URL which leads to the page containing all the URLs you had entered into the text box. Here is an example: http://linkbun.ch/unum . If you feel this URL is longer, you can further shorten it by other shortening services.

Krunchd

Unlike the tool I mentioned above, this tool is a little more advanced. This tool helps you to see the actual pages of the URLs that you had “krunchd” in its own page. With easily navigable “left-right” buttons you can navigate through different URLs. It asks you for your email id, but it is not mandatory. You may skip that step. Check this out!

1Link.in

It has similar features as the above tools but one unique feature in this tool is the password protection to your links. You can set your own password to the URLs. This helps you to share confidential links online with your friend alone.

ShareTabs

ShareTabs is a tool similar to the LinkBunch. This tool copies all the URLs you wants into a page and generates a new short URL. This new short URL redirects you to a page where the links you have given are arranged in “tiles”. Example: http://sharetabs.com/gdv

MultiURL

Apart from the features similar to the above tools, this tool gives us an option to name each link. Also, this tool helps you to name the whole group of links and also set a password for that group. You can track the number of clicks on your URL too.

Cricket is the most popular sport in India. There is a lot of excitement during this season as there will be lots of matches going on. To all the cricket fans, here is something that you will be definitely interested in. ESPN has launched a new official extension for the Google Chrome browser. It’s called Cricinfo.

Also Read: Get News Tickers On Desktop

Cricinfo is a Google Chrome extension that gives you all the latest news, updates and live scores just with a click. This extension alerts you with a notification on the top right corner of your browser whenever there are any updates in the cricket world. A new feature has been added to this extension very recently which even alerts you about the wicket falls in the ongoing matches along with live scores.

Cricinfo is an excellent extension for working cricket freaks. Go ahead and install Cricinfo here!

Google Doodles are creative logos created by Google for special occasions such as Vancouver Olympics, Birthdays of scientists or for any other achievement in the history. Google Doodles are very creative and are a treat for our eyes. Want to get one of those superb, cute and fantastic Google Doodle on your homepage always? Favorite Doodle helps you do this.

Favorite Doodle is a Google Chrome extension that replaces the normal Google logo on the homepage with the Google Doodle you choose. This logo will stick to the Google homepage until and unless you change it or remove it.

Look at the top-left corner of the page

Tip: Tools To Create Google Logos Online

How To Use Favorite Doodle?

To use this addon/extension, you need to install it here from the Extensions gallery. After this, you need to go to the doodle gallery page. There, you would find a button saying “Make This My Favorite Doodle”. Choose your favorite doodle and enjoy!

P.S. - Favorite Doodle addon doesn’t replace the new doodle’s that Google releases. At present, as Vancouver Olympics Doodle series is on, you can’t see the doodle you choose on the homepage. However, you can see at the top left corner of the search page.

Many blogs fill their post pages with lots of widgets such as Related posts, Popular posts and so on. Some blogs even place lots of flashing affiliate links on the sides of the posts. This is a complete distraction to the readers. Even though there is good content written on that blog, visitors can’t read it because of the clutter.

Readability is a tool that helps you to read any webpage clutter free. Whenever you want to read a webpage without any distraction, you just need to click on this bookmark and Voila! all clutter is cleared! You will be presented with pure content without any ads. Check the below two images to see how it works!

Tip: 5 Tools That Help You To Tweet From Gtalk

Now, who would want to read that with Clinton and Bush?

Now, just click on the bookmarked button. Wow! Clutter-free! You have to click that “refresh” button (See below image) to get it back to normal mode again.

Bye Bush, Clinton: Ah! I can read that post easily and quickly now!

Add Readability bookmark to your browser and enjoy clutter free reading! (To add a bookmark to your browser, drag and drop the link to your browser bookmarks bar.)

While working at office, you are not at your freedom to download new applications onto the system. However, many a times you might have to zip files. In such situations, Filetac can help you.

Filetac.com is a online tool which helps  you to convert any uploaded file into .zip file. With this online tool in hand, there is no need of downloading any other converter to convert your files. The user-interface is also pretty simple to use. All you have to do is,

1. Add the files you want it to convert into .zip format.
2. After you upload them, click on “Compress”.
3. Download the .zip file that is obtained.

That sounds simple, isn’t it? However, this tool has a small disadvantage. You can add only files. A complete folder cannot be added due to the size restrictions.[Max upload: 10MB]

Overall, this tool is pretty handy while you are at your office work, or literally anywhere.

Recommended reading: Send Files Online Using PipeBytes

Via [Sites To Use]

Youtube had recently added some new features like expand video, and also turn-off lights. This turn-off light feature was quite interesting as we could avoid all distractions while watching a video. This feature is actually meant to view videos in theatre effect.

However, we don’t see these options on every video. Now, here is a greasemonkey script that could help you to add the turn-off lights feature on every Youtube video.

For those who don’t know what is Greasemonkey: Greasemonkey scripts are tiny Java snippets that help you to enhance your browsing experience by adding new elements on a webpage. To install a Greasemonkey script, you need to install the Greasemonkey addon first. Here is the link to install Greasemonkey addon.

After installing the above addon, go to this link and download the script. [Note: You have to keep your Greasemonkey addon enabled] The script automatically downloads and now you can see “Turn-off lights” feature on every video.

Do you watch Youtube videos a lot? How do you like this Youtube feature? Do not forget to leave comments below!

Happy watching!

SEO I Did To This Post

SEO Title: How To Get Turn-Off Lights Feature On Every Youtube Video

Be specific. Enter sufficient keywords in the title. Google gives primary importance to titles. So, be very careful while writing titles. Note here that “Every” is not a noise, in the contrary it’s the main keyword.

SEO Excerpt: Here is a greasemonkey script for your firefox browser that helps you to get Turn off lights feature in every yotutube video.

Keep it less than 160 char. Most search engines have except limits. Be brief in excerpt and also, keyword filled excerpts rank higher.

SEO tags: turn off lights on youtube, youtube turn off lights, turn off lights features on all youtube videos

Search Engine Optimization is one of the toughest concept I have seen while blogging. This is the reason why many blogs writing about SEO have emerged and get good traffic too! There are lots of tools to check out of how much “search engine friendly” you website is. Today I found a very interesting tool that you may like it.

SEO-Browser.com is a tool that helps you to check how search engines sees a particular website/blog. This is helpful for the bloggers to analyze and optimize their website with ease. To use this tool, you need to enter your blog URL and you are done.

There are two modes for analyzing your website. Simple mode and Advanced mode. Simple mode just shows you how a page is viewed by a search engine. Whereas in advanced mode, it helps you to analyze many internal aspects of a website/blog like metadata, external and internal links, CSS sheet, duplicate content and so on… These are the aspects which are very important to note while optimizing your website for search engine.

Overall, SEO-Browser is very helpful for website optimization. What do you think about this tool? Do you think it will really help in optimizing blogs? Share your thoughts through comments below. Every comment you make is of great value to me.

SEO I Did To This Post

SEO Title: Know How Search Engines See Your Blog/Website

“Blog/Website” again as in the previous post , you need to use double keywords in your title. This helps you to rank higher. Actually, “know” here is a noise, however it would not be nice to submit a title which contains only keywords. So I added that word. BTW, I have a doubt here. If you are reading this line, please be kind to answer my small doubt:

“What’s wrong in adding only keywords in the title instead of sentences?”

SEO Excerpt: Here is a tool that helps you to look at your blog/website in a way search engines look. This gives you a deeper understanding of SEO and make your blog more SEO-Friendly!

Some important keywords: “blog/website”, “SEO”, “SEO-Friendly”

SEO tags: seo for blogs, tool to seo, how search engine looks a website,

Recently when I was chatting on GTalk with Sriram, one of my friend I saw that he was making text italic and bold in Gtalk. I wondered how he did it and asked him about that. And I found that it was cool and simple. I thought many don’t know this and so am writing this post.

To italicize your text in GTalk you need to use two _ (underscores). For example, if you want to italicize a word then you need to type _italic_.

If you want to make a word bold, then you need to use * (Asterisk). For example, to make a word bold *bold text* should be used.

You can also use compound tags like _*bold and italicize*_ to do both of them.

That’s it simple and cool, isn’t it?

Thanks to Shriram for the tip!

SEO I Did To This Post:

Post SEO Title: How To Make Text Italic And Bold In GTalk | Gmail tricks

When you are writing a SEO title, keep in mind that you are the Googler. How would a person search for some trick like this? Add that as your SEO title. Here I have not used “Without any external applications” because they are noises in the title. If I had added that too, then my ranking would have been less as there are some extra words. So it is important to e brief while writing titles.

Post Excerpt: Here is a simple trick that will help you to make your text bold and italic while chatting on Gtalk. Making text bold and italic helps you to chat with more feelings on Gtalk.

As usual the excerpt should contain more keyword oriented. As they say, using right keywords in right place and time will fetch you huge traffic. In the above excerpt I have emphasized on the two words, “Gtalk” and “Bold and Italic”.

Note that keywords should not be stuffed. If done so, Google will blacklist them.

Keywords SEO: make text italic in gtalk, make text bold in gtalk, make text italic and bold in gtalk, gmail tricks, gtalk tricks.

Again keywords are the tags you give to Google. It shows your site whenever a search query is made using these keywords.

Windows Live Writer (WLW) is a an excellent tool for blogging. It has lots of features helpful while writing a post. However, WLW consumes a huge amount of RAM which is unaffordable by many bloggers who use computers with low configurations. In those situations, this trick would be ideal! You can blog from Microsoft Word! Be your blog hosted on Blogger, Wordpress or LiveSpace, it doesn’t matter anymore.

To enable, this feature in MS Word, you need to first setup your account in the MS Word. The following tutorial could help you doing so.

1. Click on the Office button on the top left corner of MS word. Go to “Publish” option and select “Blog”.
2. In the new window open, create new blog account. This image tutorial will guide you through the installation.

   

3. While setting up the account, click on “Picture Options”. Select my own server and enter the URL of where you upload the pictures. For example, http://www.techmonk.com/wp-admin/uploads.php. If you are using FTP server, then give the corresponding URL. In the “Source URL” enter your blog URL.
4. If you are setting up an Blogger account then you can simply select the blog provider option or set up any other server online like Flickr or Photobucket wherein you can upload your pictures.

Note: If you are using Wordpress.org (Self-hosted) then you need to enable XML – RPC. (Remote Publishing Client). To do so, go to “Settings- Writing”. Check the Enable Remote Publishing option.

Advantages Of Blogging From MS Word

There are many advantages when you are blogging from MS Word.

1. It has more formatting options. So you can choose among variety of fonts.
2. You feel at home when you use MS Word.
3. You can use font sizes with greater flexibility.
4. You can insert chart, clip-art, wrod art and so on.

Disadvantages Of Blogging From MS Word

1. You cannot SEO your articles like in Wordpress or in WLW.
2. You cannot create tags and categories for Blogger account. However, if you are using wordpress you can create categories.

SEO I Did To This Article:

This is a new practice that I am adopting in my blogging. This section of the blog will contain all the SEO I make to a article as it would be helpful to my readers. I discuss the importance of the SEO below every post from now on as much as I know. Suggestions about SEO and the article are welcome by means of comments or mails. Will continue it depending on how people react to this.

Post Title: How To Post Articles To Your Blog Using Microsoft Word.

Here the post title is same as the one I have entered into the Platinum SEO pack. This is because people search like “How to post articles from MS Word” and as Google gives more importance to the title I have entered the same.

More about Platinum SEO pack. (A must have wordpress SEo plug-in.)

Post Excerpt: Here is a simple tutorial that helps you to blog from MS Word. If you are searching for an alternative for WLW, then you can use Microsoft Word as your blog writer.

This the post excerpt that the search engines see. If you look at the post excerpt on my blog homepage, it is different. The important point in this post excerpt is the keywords. “Blog from MS Word”, “Alternative for WLW”, “Microsoft as your Blog Writer”. People are likely to search these keywords. and if they do so, this would help me to rank high in the search position.

Also note that the excerpt just contains 165 characters. Most search engines just take 160 characters of the excerpt. So being brief in your explanations with keywords will help you to rank higher.

Note: Google gives second position to the Excerpts after Post Titles.

Keywords: blog from MS word, blog from Microsoft Word, alternative for WLW, alternative for Windows Live Writer

These tell search engine to invoke our links when a query like the above ones are entered. People are likely to search using the following keywords.

Image Optimization: I am still a novice in image optimization and still learning it. Any suggestions on optimizing images are welcome.

An important note: Here, we are in no way fooling the Search Engines as many might think. This is just making our post much related to the search queries.