Since launching Dribbble has grown its community very quickly. They have included some of the most amazing web designers, UI artists, illustrators, and mobile developers I have ever seen. Their entire collection of shots range so widely in variety, it’s really outstanding! The spectrum ranges to include newsletter clippings and even web forms.
Below I’ve gone through to select just a small gallery of photos. This includes some of the most popular Dribbble shots for iPhone and iPad designers. The collections include icons, buttons, tabs, and many of the other popular interfaces options. If you’re just dying for more I recommend visiting Dribbble’s website yourself and go searching. Continue reading →
Google+ has finally opened its doors and many Google users are flooding in. Having been invited into the network early I have seen a lot of the features evolve and noticed the massive flood of traffic recently. If you’re new to the system it may take a bit of getting used to. But browse through this guide and you’re sure to pick up some answers.
If you’re still a bit lost, Google+ is the new social network which was launched by Google. It rivals Facebook’s privacy system with a unique set of friendship groups called circles. You may prioritize updates to include specific groups you belong to such as co-workers, friends, family etc.
Learning the Profile Layout
To join simply visit http://plus.google.com/ and you should see a signup form. This includes your full name, e-mail, password, etc. If you already have a Google account much of this will be filled in for you. Google can also pull your avatar image and use this for your overall Google profile account. Note that the private beta invites are only for those who have an @gmail account. Unfortunately others will have to either register new or get an invite from a friend.
Once you’re in you may notice the display is very similar to Facebook. You have a main activity stream down the center with an updates box for your status. Here you are able to share links, images, videos, and whatever else you may be interested in. Before sharing you may also set who can see your post and change this from public to private.
In the left column you’ll notice some details about yourself. You can get to your account and also change your stream based on your friend groups. Simply choose a new option from your Streams and this will filter out new posts. You can also search Google for the hottest articles published recently. This is labeled as Sparks and is fully customizable to your interests.
Simply click a spark to pull up the search functionality. If you enter in a new search term or set of terms you may then save this to your sidebar for later use. Google+ is your fully customizable home page which works as a search engine, status update stream, and even GTalk client! Yes, you are even given a small Google Talk app built right into your G+ homepage.
Working with Circles
Your privacy settings have been given much consideration in Google+. Instead of creating one-to-one friendships where both members must confirm, Google has taken the Twitter-esqe route. When you find a profile who’s stream you would like to follow you add them into one or many of your own circles.
These are groupings for the people you follow specialized and created by you. This could be separated by school friends, classmates, designers, programmers, or even simply followers. If you notice in the Google+ header area there are 4 small buttons. The first is your home page, 2nd is photos, 3rd is your profile and 4th are your circles. Click here to add new circles and work with your already existing contacts.
Google is wise enough to offer you suggestions based on how many people you e-mail, and how often. I found these suggestions to be extremely accurate when I first signed up for my account. It’s also extremely easy to drag and drop each profile into a circle to build your lists in a speedy manner. The functionality to include people in multiple lists is also available, which builds upon features we have never seen on Facebook. Twitter does feature lists, but it’s not as prominent or easy to use.
Where to go Now?
It’s hard to say where Google can take this. Google+ could truly be the Facebook killer if they can keep up with demand and server load. Many people will be looking to share hundreds of thousands of photos, videos, links, and other media every day.
Try getting your profile set up now with early invites. The place is already pretty crowded and Google is limiting invites based on the amount of traffic. Load times have been pretty responsive so there’s no complaints here. It can take a bit of time getting used to the circles friendship system. But ultimately it’s truly a more secure formatting for splitting up your friends lists. Let us know your thoughts on Google+ in the discussions area below.
Google has recently released some invites into Google Music. The program is still in beta but is competing on the major music market. Apple clearly has the industry standard cornered with their $0.99/song pricing charts. And with direct connection to all their iOS devices it’s no surprise how quickly music can be shared.
Not many have been added into the database yet, but we’re taking a quick peek behind the scenes. Since the app is still in beta you can expect some bugs and missing features. But Google is one company which doesn’t give up, so I’m sure they are hiding a few tricks up their sleeves.
Home Screen
Atop you’ll notice all the familiar links you’d normally find in any Google Accounts app. In the right corner are all the details for your Google Music account. Access your settings, account profile, or signout from here.
Listings of all the most recent albums will appear on the front page. These have been mostly uploaded by Google users which offered their own music into the library. Google offers all of these streaming inline with a custom music player (located at the bottom of your screen). Their UI design boasts a very large set of buttons, so it’s really simple to use.
If you notice in the lefthand sidebar you may choose additional search settings. Here you can replace recent items with other search criteria including Artists and Album Names. You may also go through Genres, however the selection is fairly limited at this point. Since Google Music is still heavily holding in Beta there haven’t been many uploads accounted for. But at the time of writing I can only see 4 total genres.
Ranking Tracks
User input is a fantastic feature which Google has always worked into their apps. As a company Google respects their user base and truly appreciates their feedback. Thus with any Google Music account you may upload music but also rank previously added tracks.
The voting system is based on thumbs up/thumbs down and works for anything in your music library. You can search using the toolbar above and find practically anything. From the results layout you’ll notice voting buttons at the right side of the table. Also when playing a song you may vote on the right side of the audio player.
Upload Your Tracks
Google has offered a custom application which allows you to add tracks into your music library. This feature seems to run as a .exe, so strictly Windows only for now. But you can download the installer by clicking Add Music from your top right menu links. The upload processor will scan any piece of music player software you choose and automatically pull tracks from your library.
This could be iTunes, Windows Media Player, or any others from a small handful. If you have over 1000 songs to send into your account Google Music will take its time and upload them slowly to the server. If you let their app run in-background it should only take 2-3 hours to finish uploading your entire library.
It’s a nifty feature! I’m really hoping to see solutions for Mac OS X users, though. But granted the program is currently in beta their uploader is truly fantastic. Much easier to use than say Dropbox or a similar website app.
Missing Social Aspects
For many of the apps which Google has launched it seems that social connections have always been priority. It’s surprising this feature is blatantly missing in Music since there’s no way to even find other users. Uploads are displayed as public only if you choose, and even then they’re added into a global Music Library for everybody to browse.
Perhaps Google does plan on adding user profiles and further details. With the launch of G+ tons of members have signed into this new social networking app and started filling in their details. This could be a much wiser solution as Google floods the markets to possibly take down Facebook. And it would be a simple task for engineers to tie in your profile information to Google Music.
And although there are plenty of features still lacking, I’m excited to see where this app could go. Google has had some really great ideas recently and music is only one more area to revolutionize. If you’re looking to get in sign up at http://music.google.com/ and just be patient!
For the many social media CMS’ available today it’s not so strange to see powerful libraries. Boonex is one of the lesser-known companies which sponsors the creation of powerful open-source scripts. Of their vast library Boonex Dolphin is their most prominent release.
Dolphin 7 is the latest release in their free open source software package. Inside you’ll find loads of files and demo plugins which work to add functionality into your website. This process is very simple and provides a routine way towards building your own social networking community.
The results are astounding based upon the many social news and media websites. Boonex offers tons of demo links for the curious mind of web developers. A full example of their Dolphin script demonstrates how many modules are set for download by default.
Pre-Packaged Features
When downloading Dolphin you’ll find many social networking features which come standard in other websites. MySpace and Facebook are two prime examples, although there are many lesser known companies such as Friendster and Hi5.
Among the many media types you’ll find images, articles, threaded forums, user profiles, and video uploads. Possibly one of the best features coming out of Dolphin is how customized each plugin becomes. Your social networking site could be entirely bare with just a users directory of profiles and links. Similarly you may want to include just images, just videos, just blogs, or any combination!
The entirety of the script includes over 25 unique plugins from scratch. Particularly some of the newer additions are very eye-catching as they haven’t been seen elsewhere. These include in-page messenger (such as Facebook IM), shoutbox, file storage, and mobile communication. The latter is a very powerful plugin optimizing ringtones and text messages for your social networking profile.
The Backend
The entire script is run over a PHP/MySQL backend. This is a standard LAMP setup on any Linux server stack found in the most popular hosting companies. Although the installation process is fairly simple Boonex does offer self-install services for a nominal fee.
Aside from free downloads they also offer an Enterprise edition to the software. With this you’ll be awarded unlimited licences to install and customize your own social networks. Similarly the team is more than happy to answer your support tickets above the rest, hold the state of a premium member.
You’ll also be given access to the Boonex marketplace which is chalk-full of templates and unique plugins. These have been created by members of the Boonex staff or 3rd party developers looking to earn a small living. There are tons of new apps such as resume builder and SEO management. Truly the hottest sellers are templates which offer custom logos and page views.
Considering Page Design
If you’ve viewed their demo you may notice how modular each aspect has become. This makes the designing process much simpler as editing template files becomes routine maintenance. Even a novice in HTML and CSS should be able to convert a very simple layout to a live running network.
Much of the admin panel has been redesigned with version 7, meaning you are given much more control over the user base. Admins have full power to delete and create new users along with purging outdated database storage.
It’s also easy as cake to install social media badges within your pages. These include small buttons such as seen on Digg or Reddit for sharing your pages with the world. Google tends to recognize these types of websites better, so you may be surprised with how quickly your network can grow.
If you’ve still got questions the Boonex information page offers a lot more details. They run a fairly small operation, so contact details are presented front and center. For those curious minds their personal YouTube channel has a demo video reprising some of the better features. I’ve included it below for those wishing to understand the system a little better.
If you have worked with Dolphin 7 I’d love to hear more opinions on the topic! Clearly this script has been ironed over and truly enhanced within a matter of just a few years.
All personal opinions and suggestions for new developers are welcome. Those of you with personal experience should certainly open up and help the community interested in running their own network! Incidentally if you manage or follow a Dolphin social network I encourage you to share links within the comments discussion below.
Of the many professional stock photography galleries on the web there are many different options to choose from. Professional bloggers and digital artists are always looking for strategic photographs. These can be used in articles, web magazines, website layouts, and tons of other places!
The fact comes simply as Fotolia is easily one of the best choices out there. Generally images are charged per download where you may choose a size from small to full-scale. These all come without watermarks and are offered for multiple downloads after a single payment. Of course the even greater benefit is how quickly their library is growing!
Many photographers are happy to offer their works into the gallery. The entire community runs internationally with photographers from around the world. There is a lot of information for contributors or for those seeking to have their photos featured. Payouts are sent via royalty checks and add up per download.
The System
For each download of a photo the site tallies a full count and stores each individually. Once photos get over 250,000 downloads they reach ribus status. This is the second to highest element in the downloads section.
You may use this criteria to aide your search for high-quality photos. Within the search files of the website it’s not difficult to limit queries based upon popularity and rankings. On a similar scale all photos with 1,000,000 downloads or more are granted diamond status. Some photographs in this highest ranking will be worth more and thus offer photographers more money.
For graphics designers there is a whole portion of the catalog devoted to digital works. Photograph is big, however there are website designers looking for page graphics and vector work. you may browse these galleries and be pleasantly surprised with the quality of downloads. Vectors include icons, patterns, business cards, wallpapers, and many other types of web graphics.
User Experience
The great process of browsing Fotolia is matched by a complementary user experience process. When digging through collective galleries each image offers a hover state. This can be seen quite clearly in any fashion and makes processing your queries much easier.
Each single entry page offers a watermarked copy of the download file. The original demo isn’t scaled to full size and makes it much harder for digital artists to render and steal the copies.
Most download files are stored at 300DPI, but there are similar solutions which offer the web-friendly 72DPI. Resolutions and dimensions are displayed in an organized table for consideration. Depending on your membership status or total credits it’s entirely possible to rack up a full set of vector artwork and photographs rather quickly.
In the right-side menu you’ll find a few useful tools. The shopping cart links allow you to purchase multiple files at a time, with or without an account. The full tag cloud of keywords may help browsing the portfolio and save you a lot of time. There are well over millions of photos within their gallery, so it’s crucial to limit your searches specifically towards what you need.
Aside from keywords or tags each image is sorted into a category. 3D images, icons, buildings, and nature are just a few examples. Sorting through these category links may give you a better idea towards what you’re looking for. You will also find the unique image URL and embed code. This is displayed for members only, or for those who have purchased the full image rights.
All-in-all Fotolia is a beautiful website with an organic user experience. Their prices for photography are on par with other similar competing brands. However I find their quality more than exceeds most other communities. If you’re looking for a brilliant stock photography provider I highly recommend trying out their system for yourself!
The Pligg CMS has grown tremendously in just a few years time. The development team is hard at work constantly churning out updates and new patches for their libraries. Often times the community is able to release new collections and launches of the most popular brands running the open source script.
Below are some of the latest launches for Pligg. The social news/social bookmarking script runs on a PHP & MySQL backend with an integrated plugins and template system. The gallery below contains some of the hottest websites launched in 2011. These communities have been building and gaining membership rapidly.
Please feel free to peruse the short list below. Link submissions are often picked up quickly by Google and other search engines. If you know of any similar communities or recent launches please share them in the discussions below.
Working on the Internet can become burdensome as you find yourself becoming distracted more frequently. There have been apps created to help organize your time and planning, but these aren’t always too great. With news becoming more prevalent than ever before it’s not a surprise to find our society addicted to information.
A new launch titled Instapaper is changing the way we work. The genius of this tool is within simplicity. Instapaper started off as a mobile app for iOS and has grown into a full-blown web application. The Firefox and Chrome extension(s) are some of the many plugins tied into the site’s API.
With Instapaper you are able to save URLs and read them at a later date. It’s almost a personal archive of bookmarks, with the ability to create new folders for organization. After you’ve finished reading a page you may click the archive button, or simply delete it if you didn’t enjoy the link.
This works great with not only news articles, but videos and even images or image galleries. I have created numerous folders where I save interesting posts, wallpapers, and resources for iPhone development.
The beauty of Instapaper is how easy it is to get up and running! All you need is an e-mail and password for creating your account. Validation is simple and it’s even possible to connect your Instapaper account into other mobile applications. Both Tweetie and Twitterrific as Twitter clients tie in seamlessly with the application – allowing you to bookmark links found in your twitter feed.
If you’re interested in the site check it out and see what you think. Instapaper preserves many of the great features found in Delicious or Diigo and brings a brand new nature into the picture. This is of course the mobile revolution, and with Android catching up it’s truly a shoppers paradise.
The mobile app for iOS is free with an optional upgrade for $5.00. It removes all ads from within the app and allows you to work with multiple account signins. For many of the browser add-ons it’s completely free of charge!
