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Tuesday, August 31, 2010

How to Undo "Wrong Sent E-mails" in Gmail.

Have you ever regretted e-mailing a message right after clicking the “Send” button? Have you ever addressed an e-mail to the wrong person? Have you ever spotted those typos just seconds too late? If you have, then you must be one of the many who’ve been dreaming of ways to right a wrong send.


Well, time to wake up. No need to dream anymore. Thanks to the people at Google, the feature to undo a sent e-mail now does exist… in Gmail, at least.


Admittedly, it’s still not a well-known feature just yet, especially with most users not knowing where to look. So here’s a quick guide to avoid that impending blunder with just the click of a button.


Go to Gmail Labs

Since the “Undo Send” feature is part of Gmail Labs, you’ll have to activate it via the Gmail Labs page. Access your Gmail account and look at the top-right corner of the page. Between your e-mail address and the Settings link, you’ll see the Green Labs icon. Click it.


Enable “Undo Send” and Save

Once in Green Labs, you’ll find a list of Google features currently being tested for Gmail. You’ll usually find the “Undo Send” feature close to the bottom of the list. Just select “Enable” it, then scroll down and save your changes.


Customize Undo Send’s Duration

Go to “Settings” in the top right corner of your main Gmail page (right next to the Green Labs icon) and find the “Undo Send” section under the “General” tab. There you can enable or disable Undo Send and change the duration with a drop-down selection box as pictured below. By default, you’re given 10 seconds within which you may undo a sent e-mail, but you can change that to 5, 20 or 30 seconds.


Write and Send Your E-mail

Now that it’s enabled, “Undo Send” should work each time you send a new e-mail. No need to do anything unusual beforehand to make it possible to use Undo Send with an e-mail.


Click the “Undo” Button After You Send

As soon as you hit Send, text saying “Your message has been sent” will appear above your Inbox. Beside that, you’ll find a few extra options. Among them is “Undo.”

Now should the need arise, you have either 5, 10, 20 or 30 seconds to “Undo” your sent e-mail, depending on what you selected under Settings. You can also hit “Z” on your keyboard, which is the Gmail shortcut for “Undo”.

Just make sure not to navigate away from or close this page, because once you do, you’ll lose the opportunity to undo your sent message… forever.


Undo is done!

If done successfully, text saying “Sending Has Been Undone” will appear above your inbox. You’ll then be taken back to the e-mail composition page, with your e-mail in draft form, unsent and ready for further editing — or deletion, should that be the drastic need necessary.


Voila! You now know how to right that wrong send! Be aware though, that the “Undo Send” feature is still part of Gmail Labs. That means it’s still in testing and it might not always work as intended. But, promising, it is! It is!

Images courtesy of iStockphoto, budgetstockphoto

Hotbox Creations - A Web Development and Design Studio

Monday, August 30, 2010

Tips to Get Your Website Noticed


Having a website is great, but without the traffic, it's not going to do a heck of a lot for your small business or startup. We’re talking about website visibility here. And when thinking website visibility, simply ask yourself, “Why create a website if people can’t search it!?”

Surprisingly, the secret to website visibility is no secret at all: search engines. Millions of people, yourself probably included, use search engines on a daily basis to scour the net for what they want and need. Search engines are also your allies to internet success.

Just having your name as a staple in the results list of relevant searches on Google, Yahoo!, MSN or any other search engines is an achievement in itself. And if you’re on the first page of the search results, consider yourself a winner.

Here are some tips to boost your website visibility:

1. Use descriptive and informative words on each page of your website, focusing on words that relate directly to your product, service or industry.

2. Highlight and feature your most important content first. Remember, organization is key. Be clear, and keep things uncluttered.

3. Link to other relevant sites. The quality and volume of outside sites that link to your own can affect how search engines measure your site’s importance.

4. Create distinct titles for each page of your website. Use these titles as opportunities to reiterate your keywords.

5. Write descriptions that are clear, factual and free of excessive superlatives (i.e. best, cheapest, biggest). Sites that are more fact and less sales talk leave more of a mark.

6. Use your geographic location in your site and make it part of your list of keywords. This is particularly beneficial for products or services that target a certain geographic market.

7. Don’t expect all search engines and online directories to instantly find you. Some directories offer paid submissions that you can benefit from.

This art of making the most ripples on search engines is called search engine optimization or SEO. SEO is all about increasing your online visibility by connecting yourself to the exact keywords to describe what you offer. It is also about organizing your site properly to get the most search engine attention, and building a reputation by getting yourself linked to other reputable sites.

While you can do much of this yourself, why reinvent the wheel? Seek the assistance of companies that specialize in Search Engine Optimization. What are you waiting for? Take the initial steps to boost your visibility with search engines, and watch your traffic and sales grow now!


Hotbox offers the web design and SEO services you need! Hotbox Creations is a web development and design studio that helps individuals and businesses put their ideas online. Hotbox also provides clients with elegant and sensible solutions for branding, print, web and motion. Get on the web and make the world your market! Start your own online business now! Visit our website at
http://www.hotboxcreations.com

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Bebo Me! – Are You Already in Bebo?

So What is Bebo?

Bebo is a popular social networking website which connects you to everyone and everything you care about. It prides itself with being your life online – a social experience that helps you discover what's going on with the world and helps the world discover what's going on with you. Bebo successfully blends together community, self-expression and entertainment, enabling you to consume, create, discover, curate and share digital content in entirely new ways.

Bebo was Founded in January 2005 by Michael Birch and his wife, Xochi, in San Francisco, California, Bebo is actually an acronym for Blog Early, Blog Often. It was acquired by AOL in 2008 for a whopping US$ 850 million. In April 2010, AOL announced it was planning to sell or shut down Bebo. By June of 2010, the deal was sealed and the company was sold to Criterion Capital Partners.


How does Bebo work?

Users receive a personal profile page where they can post blogs, polls, photographs, music and videos for other users enjoy. And to insert the social network aspect, users may add others as friends and send them messages, and update their personal profiles to notify friends about themselves.


Bebo’s Latest Features


Social Inbox

Bebo's Social Inbox is the perfect way for you to organize all your messages in one easy-to-use inbox. The Social Inbox now features updates from Gmail, Yahoo! and AOL, and media recommendations that deliver you the most relevant online entertainment in one place.


Lifestream Platform

The Lifestream platform delivers real-time, chronological updates from all of your friends from various platforms, including Facebook, Twitter and others. Striking but easy-to-use, the timeline format updates instantly each time you add a post, from photos and videos to stories and events. What’s more, with Bebo accessible even through your mobile phone, you can stay connected even when on the move!


Bebo Music

Launched originally as Bebo Bands in 2006, Bebo Music allows bands or solo artists to create a profile to showcase their music. The band profiles include a band member list, a list of fans, an area for tour dates, a blog, and a list of songs which have been uploaded for playing through Bebo's media player. These songs can even be grouped into albums, along with each album’s cover-art.


Bebo Authors

Also known as Bebo Books, Bebo Authors was first launched in 2007. While currently there is no way to display books on a profile page like there is for Bebo Music, in this section, authors can upload chapters of their books, and also get them reviewed by the community of Bebo users.


Bebo Groups

The "Group" module was added to Bebo in 2007. This enabled people to form and join groups such as schools, organizations, advocacies, and the like, the pages of which are only viewable to the members of the group. While primarily educational, the Group pages also gave users the chance to join groups they found interesting, as well as to connect with others who shared the same interests.


So it sounds like Bebo has got the components to make the best social networking site, eh?
Create your own Bebo account now! Register for free and start networking and sharing your thoughts through Bebo.


Hotbox Creations is a web development and design studio which helps individuals and businesses put their ideas online. Hotbox also provides clients with elegant and sensible solutions for branding, print, web and motion. Visit Hotbox Creations’ website at http://www.hotbox.ph/ and start your own personal or corporate website today.

By: Hotbox Creations

Source: Wikipedia

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Creativity that Pays… and Pays Well

You're a creative person. Not exactly an artisan, but somehow an artist in your right. But then, the phrase “starving artist” comes to your mind. Bummer. Not to fret. These days, there are ways of being with the creative that earn you a living as well. Check out these jobs that let you delve in the creative world, but earn a pretty decent salary as well.


Creative Job #1

Marketing and Business


I know marketing and business doesn’t immediately ring a creative bell. But think about it. An artist can create the best masterpieces in the world, but without the right marketing, how would they sell anything? Someone who has the business and marketing senses can ensure that every artist finds an audience.

A bachelor's degree in business administration or marketing will prepare you for this job. And some on the job experience coupled with a master's degree could position yourself for career advancement. The average wage for marketing managers with experience is PhP 35,000. Remember though, that marketing salaries can vary greatly depending on responsibilities, experience, education, and other factors.


Creative Job #2

Education


Do you think you have what it takes to inspire the next Manansala or Cayabyab? As an art/music teacher or an education specialist for an arts organization, you'll be able to live your love for the arts, as well as spread that love to others.

To teach, you'll need a bachelor's degree in education or a specific subject area like science or music, plus a PRC license in education. This can also prepare you to be an educational specialist. The average wage for graphic arts, multimedia arts and interior design teachers ranges from PhP 800 to 2,500 per hour, depending on which universities and which modules they teach. Those who teach the latest design software can earn even more.


Creative Job #3

Web Design and Development


A well-designed website is an important tool these days for promotion in the arts. Whether you're keeping fans up to date, raising money, or selling your works online, the job of web designer is an indispensible component of many arts organizations. It takes a fair amount of creativity to build websites, too!

Get the skills you need to create and maintain websites with a bachelor's degree in information technology or graphic or web design. An average salary for an experienced web designer is PhP 25,000 per month. Or on a project basis, making PhP 60,000 per website is common.


Creative Job #4

Technology


Theaters, museums, art schools, concert venues, and camps all have technology infrastructure. And just like any other organization, they’ll need to maintain their networks, manage databases, and troubleshoot systems. You'll find that database administrators and technical support specialists are as much in the art world as anywhere else.

Some jobs are available with just an associate's degree, but most require a bachelor's degree in database technology, computer science, or information. An experienced database administrator earns an average salary of PhP 35,000 to 65,000 per month. Both local and International companies who outsource these types of jobs to Filipinos apply this industry rate.


Creative Job #5

Paralegal Studies


Yes, even the legal field offers opportunities to work with creative people as well! With music and media becoming more easily available online and new delivery systems like e-readers and mobile devices, the issues of copyrights and intellectual property rights are never far behind. As a paralegal, you could help lawyers as they protect artists and their works.

An associate's degree in paralegal studies or a paralegal certificate program will prepare you for this job. You'll need to look for opportunities with law firms or larger arts organizations focused on this type of work. The average monthly salary for paralegals who work in the industry, some of whom are even outsourced from international countries as legal transcriptionists, earn an average of up to PhP 22,000 per month.


Start your own online business now! Get on the web and sell your ideas to the whole world. Hotbox Creations is a web development and design studio which helps individuals and businesses get online. Either for personal or corporate design concepts and website development, Hotbox is one of the best and most highly-recommended companies in the creative design and web development industry. Visit our website at www.hotbox.ph.


By: Hotbox Creations
Source: Yahoo Education Articles

Monday, August 23, 2010

PLURK - A Social Journal For Your Life


verb. plurk (plüer-kh) - To chronicle the events of your always on, action-packed, storybook, semi-charmed kinda life.


noun. plurk (plüer-kh) - A free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to send updates through short messages or links, which can be up to 140 text characters in length.



So what exactly is Plurk?


Put simply, Plurk is a really snazzy site that allows you to showcase the events that happen in your life, and follow the events of the people that matter to you, in deliciously digestible chunks, called plurks. If it were food, plurks would be guaranteed low in fat, 5 calories per serving, yet chock full of goodness.


When compared to other micro-blogging sites, the unique feature of Plurk is that updates are shown on the user's home page using a timeline, which lists all the updates received in chronological order. Users who have signed up to receive your plurks can then respond from their own timeline on Plurk.com by instant messaging, or by text messaging.


Plurk was developed and envisioned as a communication medium to balance between blogs and social networks, and between e-mail and instant messaging. Since Plurk was launched in May of 2008, it has become very popular in Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia and the United States.



How does Plurk work?


It's easy. First, you’ll need to sign up. It takes… oh, about 10 seconds. Then, you can begin posting your plurks to tell the world what you're doing, how you feel, what you're thinking or anything else for that matter. And instantly, it'll appear on your timeline. You can post updates through the Plurk website, through instant messaging like MSN or AIM, or even by text messaging.


Plurk's interface shows updates in a scrollable horizontal timeline form. There are also advanced features such as sending updates only to a subset of your friends, posting updates on events earlier in the day, having group conversations between friends, using of emoticons, and sharing images, videos, and other media. Plurks can also be "liked", as in other social networking sites.


Due to messages being sent between users almost in real-time, Plurk is now touted as the alternative to chat, as well as “the next Twitter”.


Don’t get left behind on the latest trend in social networking. Create your own Plurk account for free, and start creating the timeline of your life. And be sure to invite all your friends to Plurk along too, so it becomes that much more fun for you.


So what are you waiting for? Register now and start Plurking today!


Hotbox Creations is a web development and design studio which helps individuals and businesses put their ideas online. Hotbox also provides clients with elegant and sensible solutions for branding, print, web and motion. Visit Hotbox Creations’ website at www.hotbox.ph and start your own personal or corporate website today.

By: Hotbox Creations

Adapted From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plurk / Plurk.com