Twitter

Twitter for News rooms (#TfN) helps media houses find resources to help journalists at every step of the reporting and publishing process. Well, there’s nothing new info except organized form of helping newbie on the sites. Anyone using twitter for sometime should have explored out all these themselves in the mean time. And most of the information, I believe, was already available on help section of Media guidelines on twitter. However, popular social media sites like Twitter coming up with a separate guide for media shows the influence Social media has made on our news. Recently, Facebook also launched a separate page for Journalists.

Here’s what Twitter media has to say in it’s about section;

“It’s our goal to help creative professionals in news, TV, sports and entertainment use Twitter effectively. The development of #TfN was a cross-company collaboration, so thanks to @Support, @TwitterSearch, @TwitterMobile and the rest of the @Twitter team. This is a living document, so there will be more to come here in #TfN.”

Explore the Twitter for News rooms Guide. Do you use twitter for reporting purposes? Let us know in the comments below.

While Google generally keeps on doing some minor updates on page ranks frequently, some major ones are done generally four times a year. Here’s the predicted schedule for this year!

Google PageRank Update Schedule for the year 2011:

First 2011 PageRank (PR) Update

Time-frame: 31 January – 3 February

Second 2011 PageRank (PR) Update

Time-frame: 30 June – 3 July 2011

Third 2011 PageRank (PR) Update

Time-frame: 30 September – 3 October 2011

Fourth 2011 PageRank (PR) Update

Time-frame: 31 December – 3 January 2012

All these updates are major PR updates.

What do you think of Pagerank? Does it still have a great influence in terms of ranking on Search engine results pages and traffic? You can also let us know if your page rank has increased or decreased since last update.

Javascript Method:

By use of a simple javascript code on your browser, you can select all your friends.

1. When you are on the page you want to suggest, click on the Suggest to Friends link on your left of the page.
2. A popup appears with your all your friends list. Now right click the friend select box, and select open frame in a new tab.
3. Copy the java script code below and paste it in the address bar.

 javascript:elms=document.getElementById('friends').getElementsByTagName('li');for(var fid in elms){if(typeof elms[fid] === 'object'){fs.click(elms[fid]);}} 

4. Click on the page and you will see all of your friends being selected.
5. Now click on Send Invitations and you are done.

We will come up with some other scripts methods as well in upcoming post. Let us know if it worked for you or anything else we can help you with in the comments.

2. Click on the South Africa 2010 theme and save changes.

3. You should have the World cup background of South Africa in Black.

What else? Let us know.

Well, it’s really easier to chat in google but it wasn’t that easier to find the voice and video call, and you need to have those plugins required for it. Now you still require those plugins but the new interface that just has the icons above the chat box make the process of installing the required plugins and opting for the features lot easier. See the Image below or just try you Gmail chat to experience.

How to go for the Feature

I hope you should have already enabled the feature. Anyway here’s how to do it if you still wandering;

1. Click on the contact you want to chat on your contact list.

2. Click the video icon in the chat window and you and your chat buddy will be able to install it.

3. After installing that, you should be enjoying the video and voice chat easily.

And did you know that they have the rating options for your chat experience? Let them know if the chat was of poor experience to you.

Via Gmail Blog

Hurry up! Skype 2.0 for iPhone now lets you make calls over 3G. Make sure you enjoy it till it’s free: After August, you’ll need to pay for the feature.

Yes, you heard that right.Your 3G Network can now let you make call on Skype 2.0 . That’s really awesome of Skype 2.0. You can of course enjoy all those features of high call quality. Here are some more features;

- Near CD-quality sound for Skype-to-Skype calls using wideband audio (SILK codec) on iPhone 3GS and 2nd generation iPod touch.
- Enhanced call quality indicator.
- Improved start-up time.
- Fast access to the dial pad from iPhone home screen.
And one more but hope that won’t make you sad till then.
- Call using your 3G connection. Skype-to-Skype calls on 3G are free until at least end of August 2010, after which there will be a small monthly fee (operator charges for data will still apply).
If you want to enjoy till august, here you can download Skype 2.0 at the App Store.

What do you say about this feature ? Do you like the catch ? Let us know in the comments below.

1. First go to your WordPress Dashboard and navigate to Appearance >> Editor

2. Now open your theme’s functions.php file.

3. Add the Following code to the file.

    function fb_filter_query( $query, $error = true ) {

    if ( is_search() ) {
    $query->is_search = false;
    $query->query_vars[s] = false;
    $query->query[s] = false;

    // to error
    if ( $error == true )
    $query->is_404 = true;
    }
    }

    add_action( 'parse_query', 'fb_filter_query' );
    add_filter( 'get_search_form', create_function( '$a', "return null;" ) );

Please note that if you set $error to be true in the above code, then the user will be redirected to your 404 page. So you must have your theme’s 404.php . If you set it as false, then the user stays at the page where they tried to run the search.
Let us know if have disable the wordpress search in your blog through any other options.

Quick Edit Buttons helps you easily edit your WordPress posts rather than going back to your edit posts, searching for the particular posts and editing it. If your theme hasn’t got the quick edit button yet, it’s time that you add it now. It’s really time saving and efficient. In this post, let’s go through the steps of adding the button to your theme;

Adding Quick Edit Buttons to your WordPress Posts

1. While you are on the WordPress Dashboard of your blog, navigate to theme editor.
Appearance >> Editor
2. Now open your theme’s single.php file and add the below code anywhere in the loop.

  <?php edit_post_link(__('{Quick Edit}'), ''); ?> 

Adding Quick Edit Buttons to your WordPress Comments

First see you already have this in your theme. If not then follow these steps.
1. Open your Theme’s comments.php file and add the below code.

 <?php edit_comment_link(__('{Quick Edit}'), ''); ?> 

Let us know if you using these quick edit buttons in your wordpress theme.

Most of you display thumbnails in our blog post and it really looks attractive doing that. But have you checked out your feeds? With two three sentences (If you have just the summary to display) they may not look appealing. And when you can add your post thumbnail to that it can be worth thousand words. If you have high feed readers, it’s essential that you make them more interesting to visit your site through the feeds that they have subscribed and you are presenting to them. And so Image can be a perfect solution to spice up your feeds.

In this post, we will learn how to add thumbnails to your WordPress RSS feeds. Ready? Walk through these few steps.
1. First go to your theme editor

2. Select and open the “functions.php” of your wordpress theme you have activated.

3. Add the following line of codes to the file.

 function rss_post_thumbnail($content) {
global $post;
if(has_post_thumbnail($post->ID)) {
$content = '<p>' . get_the_post_thumbnail($post->ID) .
'</p>' . get_the_content();
}
return $content;
}
add_filter('the_excerpt_rss', 'rss_post_thumbnail');
add_filter('the_content_feed', 'rss_post_thumbnail');

4. That’s it and you should now get thumbnails in your feeds.

I hope its easier and lot effective. Let us know in the comments below.

Steps for Adding Google Fonts in your wordpress theme

If you want to use these fonts let’s get started. With some simple steps you can be able to use these fonts with your WordPress themes.
1. Go the Google Fonts Directory and choose the Font you want to use. (The Screenshot Below Shows some fonts)

2. To Use the font, Just click on it and you will be shown the preview.

3. Now navigate on “Get the Code” button to get the code you need to use.

4. After you have got the code, you need to edit your wordpress theme you are using.
>> Editor >> Header.php. Below your head tag (<head> add the code you copied for the Font you want to use:
For example if I used the font, the code that I need to use will be

 	<link rel="stylesheet"  type="text/css"  href="http://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Tangerine"> 

5. Update your file.

6. Next, you will need to open your CSS style file style.css . Now you need to add or edit the code for whatever element you need to apply the font.
For example, if I need to make change to the h4 tag, I will change it to

 h4{font-family: 'Tangerine', serif;font-size: 48px;text-shadow: 4px 4px 4px #aaa;} 

7. And that’s it. You can Update the file and See the changes live in your wordpress blog.
If you are looking to use it in your blogger blog, then Blogger User has a detailed post “Make Blogger Template look better with Google’s Font API“.

Additional Resources for Google’s Font API

Let me point out some additional resources that you can explore to understand the Google’s Font API.

• Google Fonts API use on Net Tuts
• Google Font API home page
• Getting started with the font API
• Google Web Fonts FAQ
• How to use the new Google Font API (DesignShack)
• Google Font API in Use for Bloggers
• Introducing the Google Font API and Google Font Directory

You Speak

Are you using the Google Fonts API in your design and is it helping you with the process ? Let us know in the comments below.