FabianPattberg.com

I am using Google applications in many of my daily online activities and todays post is about providing you with what applications I am using and how this might help you as well depending on what you do online and how you use the web.

First step for everyone will be to create a Google Account. I know that we have too many accounts online these days. But this is an absolute necessity to have in my opinion. If you are looking to utilize the best online tools, etc there is no way without a Google Account. To create an Google Account just go to Google.com and click on the Sign In link on the top right hand corner.

These are the Google applications I find most useful and I am using currently:

Google Mail (Gmail)
Gmail has some amazing email features and is really useful for managing all of your contacts as well. But make sure to back up the contacts into your spreadsheet to always have them secure as well. It is also fully iPhone compatible and you can use Gmail offline or add it to your email client. Either way. Having a gmail account is a must in my opinion.

Google Docs
Google Docs is the ideal solution for sharing documents with others and for working on the same documents at the same time while being online. Here is a short video of how to use Google Docs as there are so many features for this post:

The Google Reader:
This is my central application for gathering information, news and the only way to stay on top of my blog subscriptions (250+). I found that this is the best way to manage your RSS feed subscriptions. There are many other applications that build on top of the Google Reader but the original still works the best for me.

Google Calendar
This is the application I use to manage my schedule/calendar. This calendar is fully integrated into your account but can be accessed many other different ways. I use this calendar on my iPhone and my mac and it just works like a charm. It is also nice that the Google calendar has a full integration of my Remember the Milk task/todo manager.

Google Wave
This is the new kid on the block. It will be a great collaboration tool in the future. Currently in the beta phase and Google still needs to add a lot more functionality, etc to make just right. So stay tuned. Currently you need to be invited to use Google Wave but I usually always have invites left so let me know if you need one. Here is the introduction video for you to have a first look:

These are some of the Google applications I use but there are many more to choose from. This is where to find them all: All Google Applications

Note: I am not associated with Google by any means. The intention of the post is to be helpful and useful to you the reader. Nothing more and nothing less.

Picture Credit: adria.richards

This is the second post of the new series on domain names. Domain names have been my hobby for a long time now and the purpose of this series is to explain what I find important about domain names.

The topic of this post will be about the key uses of a domain name across the internet. The so called domain different classes.

People, organisations and governments now make different use of domain names. Here are so called domain names classes I have identified when looking at uses of domain names.

Class 1 – Personal Names
These are domain names that derive from the person’s name. Like my blog. FabianPattberg.com. mostly used for blogs and personal websites. I have only come across one different usage. Check out MaxGladwell.com. Max is not a person but only a blog brand, very clever Max.

Class 2 – Generic names
A generic domain name features a word or words that can not usually be trademarked on their own. That is why generic domain names are so popular. They are not nonsense names (class 3) that do not make sense. An example would be OrganicFood.com or MobilePhone.com these generic names are sometimes referred to as the “Real Estate of the Internet”. Some of them can be very valuable. Parked.com (Domain Parking Service) is an example.

Class 3 – Brandable and Nonsense Names
Brandable and nonsense names do not usually have an inherent meaning or obvious use on their own and are usually combinations of words. Because there are so many combinations possible with brandable / nonsense names the value usually is not more then the registration costs if undeveloped. But if you intend to develop this domain name into a website and you have pronounceable name, then you are in a good position to create your own nice brand. Examples are: Yahoo.com or Google.com

Class 4 – Acronyms
These are interesting when you have a longer company or a phrase that you would like to use as a domain name. An example is the writers network I run. The name of the network is “The Sustainability Writers Network” and the domain name I use is TSWN.org. In this way you are making the domain names a lot more user friendly when it comes to communicating with your visitor on the web. Instead of writing the full name he/she just needs to type in the acronym.

Class 5 – Numbers
Numbers are good to remember but usually do not serve as a good and useful domain name. I have seen some websites with number domains but these tend to be trendy and web designer websites. The only examples not fitting in this is 888.com but we all know that 888 is a lucky number in some cultures.

Class 6 – Letter and Number Combinations
This is the last domain name class that is really a mix of good and bad. You can have really useful names such as F1.com but these combinations are in most cases branded and trade mark protected. The important thing here is to have a short and pronounceable domain name. If you have that then you are in luck. Other wise are these domain names useless in my opinion.

One last point is that these domain name classes can be blurred sometimes. Different cultures across the globe have different words and expressions. These then used sometimes are great domain names. But also means something else: Always check the meaning of a domain name in different cultures to make sure you are not developing a brand with multiple meaning across cultures.

Next weeks domain series will be on the different domain extensions such as .com., .org, etc.  So stay tuned.

Picture Credit: Daniel Broche

I have started using iGoogle over the past weeks and I am really amazed what you can do with it. This post is about how you could use iGoogle to better organize your day.

The general purpose of iGoogle is to provide you with one or more pages to combine many gadgets as they call that can make your life easier.  Gadgets can either be RSS feeds, blogs and applications. Everything is customizable and really a pleasure to work with.

Here are my favourite gadgets for raising your productivity and for the better organisation of your day through iGoogle:

• A simple but highly useful To-Do list: To-Do List
• The best “Date and Time” gadget in my opinion: Date And Time
• Important when going out and you are thinking about taking the umbrella. The Weather Gadget
• A great and easy to use currency converter: Currency Converter
• If you using Twitter then BeTwittered is indispensible: Twitter on iGoogle
• For all the website owners this Adsense gadget is extremely useful: Adsense
• For directions is the Google Map Search the ideal companion: Google Maps
• Translation anyone: The Babelfish translation gadget: Translation Gadget
• Facebook for iGoogle. Access your Facebook account through the interface: Facebook

And finally when you look at your iGoogle page and think that it is a mess then take a look at this gadget. The compound gadget is a great tool to organize your gadgets into tabs in a compound gadget to give you a cleaner and easier usage of the page.

This is rounds up our look at iGoogle today so let me know whether I missed any good gadgets. All gadgets can be found here: All iGoogle Gadgets

All the best,
Fabian