The image on the left shows some of the options available on your right Google+ sidebar.  You can send invitations to others, start a hangout, or create a Google+ page. I didn’t even notice the create a page option until today, so haven’t tried it yet. I imagine it’s Google’s version of a Fanpage, but can’t say for sure.

What I can say is how much I’ve been enjoying using the hangout feature. You can invite up to ten people for an impromptu video chat. The quality of video and audio are both clear and if you don’t have a webcam, or are in a don’t look at me mood, you can still participate and your photo will show instead. There is also a text chat feature.

Here’s a look at the first screen you’ll see once you start a hangout:

Underneath the green ‘Hang out’ button, there is an option to use ‘Hangouts With Extras’. If you do, you’ll have the ability to share your screen – great if you are trying to explain a concept to someone.

The only problems we’ve had so far are that the share screen can be a bit finicky and doesn’t always work, and once in a while one of the five people in our hangout gets booted off the call and has to re-join. For a free service, I can live with those things.

Have you tried Google+ yet? And the hangouts option in particular? Would you like me to do a video tutorial for it? Let me know by commenting below.

Technorati Tags: Google+ hangouts, Google+ features, using Google+

I found this intro video that shows how to use Blogger and if you have been wanting to start a blog, I hope this will be helpful.

Now don’t forget to let me know your new blog address so I can check it out.

Technorati Tags: Blogger, blogging, WordPress

Anyway, this time I am including the option to use the free version of WordPress as well. Half the class decided to go with Blogger and the other half are using WordPress. So far, its been working well and this way, anyone who decides they would like to pay for a hosted version of WordPress can export their work without having to start all over again.

Since WordPress.com doesn’t allow plugins, which to me is a big minus, they have added some of the features that they think would be most useful. That way, the site still has a lot of functionality. I don’t think you can advertise on those sites, so not sure if even affiliate links are allowed in the content. If anyone knows all the do’s and dont’s for WordPress.com, please let me know.

My questions to you are:

1. Do you have a free blog or website on Blogger, WordPress, or any of the other website builders?
2. If you do, what have your experiences been as a user? What do you find easy, difficult, etc. Would you recommend any of them to your family and friends if they were beginners?

And for those of you who have never ventured into the world of blogging, I encourage you to give it a try. One of my previous students is an older man who uses Blogger to share his love of Open Wheel Racing (whatever that is). He has a great time sharing his experiences at different races in the past and the photos he’s taken. I love hearing the enthusiasm and zest for life that he has when telling me how his blog is doing. I’d love to hear your story too.

That’s it for today.

Technorati Tags: Blogger, WordPress, free websites

Why? Because when I’m reading my email, I often get links to check out. To get through my email quickly, I click the link so that it opens in Firefox and delete the email. Sometimes I end up with half a dozen or more tabs open, waiting for me to look at them. If there is video or a lot of text to get through, or a really good site that I want to re-read, I might not get to them all in one sitting. So I really liked the ability to close my Internet connection, yet have those tabs show up again next time I went online.

With the old version of Firefox it was easy. When I closed my Internet connection, I was asked if I wanted to save the tabs for next time. But I upgraded to the newest version and it no longer does that. I closed the browser and lost the websites I wanted to look at about three times before I finally realized it wasn’t working anymore. And since I delete the emails that mention them in the first place, can’t go back again.

I couldn’t figure out how to fix it, so I did a Google search (as usual). And here is the quick and easy answer if anyone else wants to know:
Go to the Firefox menu and under ‘Tools’, select ‘Options’. Then, under the tab that says ‘General’, there is an area marked ‘Startup’, with a drop down box beside it. The default will probably be set to ‘Show my home page’. Look at the other available options under it and select the one that says ‘Show my windows and tabs from last time’. Then click ‘OK’ and things will work the way they should again. At least in Firefox:)

Let me know how it works for you, and if you have a tip that can save the rest of us hours of searching for the answer, we would love to hear it!

Technorati Tags: Firefox update, saving tabs

Instructions were to take a screenshot of a Youtube video and paste it into the email subject area. Normally I would use my Snagit program for that, but I was in a hurry to see if it worked, so I copied a photo from my computer and pasted it instead.

Note: to access all the email tools, you may need to check your ‘tools’ menu and make sure that HTML is chosen, rather than plain text.

The next step was to find a graphic of a ‘play’ button, download it my computer, and then ‘Insert’ the button in the middle of my image on the email. I didn’t want to take the time to do that either, so I typed the text “Click this photo” beside the picture instead. Remember, my reason for doing this was to see if it actually works, so I didn’t want to take a lot of time.

The final step was to click the image so that the icons in the toolbar would be active, then click the hyperlink icon (it’s the one that looks like a chain – if you can’t see it, you might need to maximize your email view).

That would open a dialogue box with an area to put the website address of the video. To find that address, I needed to go to the Youtube video I wanted and click the ‘Share’ button. Then, I copied the link that showed up, went back to my email program, and pasted it in the URL address box as shown in this small diagram.

That’s it. When the email is sent, the recipient should be able to click the image you’ve included and the video you want to share will open. Try it and let me know if it works for you too.

Technorati Tags: email, sharing video