Getty Images file photo from 05 June 2005

Updated 6/27/10 @ 8:50 p.m.: Added additional Gmail improvement suggestions

Yeah, we’re all on Google’s bird. It may be a phenomenon, financially and socially, but I still have my complaints. I’m sure you do too (even if you just blame them for killing newspapers, like the French do.)

As Google applications have grown in popularity during the past few years, journalists have taken to see Google aps as a way to better unite newsrooms.

The advantages are clear, but having only used Google aps for a couple years, and a couple for half that, but I have already found a number of faults with these free Web-based services, particularly for journalists.

More »

Check the above tag bubble for this site. Looks very cool.

At Wordle.net, you can create beautiful tag clouds for any site or block of text. Give it a try.

Hat tip to 10,000 Words, through whom I found Wordle – very cool application.

I think the Philadelphia Inquirer is doing at least one of its online videos right – mostly.

The storied newspaper’s business section puts out a daily, noontime, three to five-minute news show called Philadelphia Business Today, and it has developed into one of the best newspaper-produced videos online. What are they doing right? What are they doing wrong? What can newspapers across the country learn. And Is anyone watching?

More »

Dan Rubin is asking for your advice.

The metro columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer, a big urban daily newspaper, wants you to tell him what direction Blinq, his blog, should go.

Rubin is crowdsourcing advice on Web 2.0 and, unfortunately, is getting mostly garbage comments from Philly.com’s noted crowd of bottom-feeders – the reasons why are for a different post.

So tell him yourself. I did.

More »

Mark this off the list of simple things I wanted to get done for this site.

I made the above banner, though I don’t have plans for using it as a header. Rather, it’ll serve its purpose as a focus when I need one, in places like on my blogging experience page. Something that no site in the world needs but will get action if it exists.

More »

Courtesy of Marcus Bösch.

I’m always surprised and really proud to see my unique visitors and subscriptions increasing and love nothing more than a fresh comment to help create a dialogue I try to highlight on this site.

Now, that has happily been a fairly regular occurrence for a good portion of this site’s one-year plus existence. Still, sometimes something happens that makes me smile, and, really, helps me to remain appreciative and in awe of the power of the Internet.

As I first Tweeted last week, a German blogger named Marcus Bösch linked to this site (danke!), suggesting aspiring young journalists – who speak some English – should check out my feed.

More »

Here’s a brand.

Trudy Rubin is what’s left of the once glorious international presence of the Philadelphia Inquirer.

She just returned from another tour of Iraq, where she has further cemented her reputation as a top global-reporting force. Her Worldview column and her blog are musts for those following American presences in the Middle East (Subscribe here). Yeah, and she’s doing for the Inquirer, fo real.

On Tuesday, she fielded questions in an online forum and, along with politics and military, I was joined by others asking her thoughts on newspapers.

Find them below.

More »

Today is Jan. 2, 2009.

Looks like you ought to find something new to read. For me, there are those books I can’t seem to put down, even if I’ve already read them and have a stack of new stories I hope to try.

In 2008, I returned to more old friends than I normally do. Below, see the five books to which I returned and why you should give them a go if you haven’t, or a second look if you can.

More »

Fireworks over the Delaware River in Philadelphia, celebrating 2009. Photo by Shannon McDonald.

Everyone does their lots of lists to end of the year. So, consider this my wishing you a grand, happy and successful 2009 and my doing just that.

I celebrated my one-year anniversary on this site early December with some of my most popular and favorite posts, so, because they might otherwise overlap, this is strictly my five most viewed posts of 2008.

More »

I am calling myself the future of journalism.

Now that is self-promotion in a world of self-promoters.

Yesterday I joined a contest on the journalism-bookmarking site Publish2, in which I say “I am the future of journalism because…” Rate my Publish2 submission here.

More »