Tarah's Digital Voice

I’ve found that the iPhone, and indeed many phone cameras, are actually pretty good at close focus photography, but if you really want to get up close and gross with some bugs or flowers or what have you, a macro lens is the only way. And as it turns out, you can use the lens that comes with a disposable camera just for that purpose. Of course, it’s not as simple as cutting and pasting the thing on there, but this Instructable will walk you through ...

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via Mashable

Read TiPb's full walkthrough here. This is their video that sums it up:

By now, whether you're a digital/social media fanatic like us or not, there's no doubt that you've heard about Google's newest service, Buzz. As with any new technology, it can be a bit daunting to dive in, especially when, like Buzz, it incorporates a massive amount of information and the content flow increases exponentially as more people get involved. Add to that the fact that Google often launches their products before they're completely ready for prime time, letting the masses poke holes in them and help to tell them what's wrong. This is great, because real users, as opposed to professional software testers, know what they want, but it can be frustrating to try to figure out how to wade through sometimes confusing user interfaces and hidden features. Right now, Buzz is incredibly chaotic and a bit difficult to sift through, but it will get better fast. The most powerful element of this platform is that it makes it very easy to bring a lot of your services into one stream with customized privacy settings, such as Flickr/Picassa, YouTube, Google Reader, Twitter, etc. It seems like a more organic way to conduct conversations and share media, since it's integrated with email and will ultimately have the powerful sorting capabilities of Gmail. Why they launched without a better user interface and those features front and center is beyond us, but they'll be there soon. Google reacts fast... Well, we've spent a good amount of time figuring it out with other passionate digital media folks, so here's a guide to some of our key initial learnings and links to some of the best posts we've found to quickly get you started and help you sift through this new addition to the social communication sphere. We're going to assume that you have a basic understanding of Gmail for the purposes of this, but feel free to message us if you want a bit more help. Read on for our tips...

Privacy Settings

There has already been some contraversy about the privacy settings in Google Buzz, as people have expressed concern that Gmail contacts were being automatically followed and that anyone could view your list of followers. This might or might not matter to you, but here are some tips on the settings that are available to you, from Google's blog. Google will continue to change these as time passes. If you don't want to share the lists of people you are following and your followers publicly on your profile, you can opt out during the profile set-up when you first use Buzz or at any time from the edit profile page. You can block anyone that you don't want to see your Buzz posts by clicking "Block" next to their name in the list of your followers or on their Google profile page. Clearly see who has a public profile and who doesn't. Also, note that when posting a Buzz, you can choose whether that post will be viewable by the public or you may choose to only make it available to specific contact groups, by choosing from the dropdown menu below the posting box.

Connecting Other Services

When you're in Buzz, above the Buzz posting box, next to your name, click the "# connected sites" link to configure which of your other social media accounts get brought into Buzz. By default, your menu of potential connected sites includes your Picasa Web Albums, Google Reader activity, Google chat status, Flickr photos, Blogspot blog, and Twitter feed. This is also where you can set your privacy settings for these accounts to be public or private (only your Buzz followers). We suggest that you only include Twitter if you believe your tweets would be of interest to your Buzz followers. If they're one and the same as your Twitter followers, this might be redundant. Likewise with Google Reader - if you share every article you like on Buzz, you're probably going to lose followers fast. Think of this as a communication platform, rather than an archive for everything you find interesting (use StumbleUpon or Delicious for that), and you'll ignite some great conversations in no time. As of now, Buzz does not provide a way to post your Buzzes to Twitter. This workaround (via LouisGray.com) allows you to link your Buzz account with your Twitter account:

1. Go to http://reader2twitter.appspot.com/buzz
2. Connect it to your Twitter account using OAuth
   • (You need to navigate back to http://reader2twitter.appspot.com/buzz after this, as the OAuth returns you to a page without the Buzz directory)
3. Add your Google Profile Number ID (find it here at the bottom of the page by clicking "See other options")
   • Add your bit.ly login if you'd like
4. Make sure "Sync" is On and hit Submit

If you'd like to search your Twitter contacts to see who's on Buzz and easily follow them, try out a service called Tw2Buzz.

Filters

We recommend that you set up some filters so that you can easily focus on the content and people you really care about.

1. If you haven't already, enable "Quick Links" from the Labs menu (little green beaker icon to the left of "Settings" at the top). A "Quick Links" box will appear on your left sidebar.
   • POWER TIP: You can also use this to create quick searches that you want quick access to within your email, like "Unread Messages"
2. Go back into Buzz
3. Search Buzz for whatever you want to create a filter for. Examples:
   • Authors: "author:[author1]|author:[author2]" --> Eg. "author:brandnewworld|author:mashable"
   • Tags: "#buzztips"
4. In that Quick Links box on the left sidebar, click on "Add Quick Link", choose a title and it'll appear in that box immediately

A buzz will show up in your Gmail inbox if someone “@replies” you (more about that below) or if someone comments after you in a Buzz. If you don’t want to receive any Buzz notifications in your inbox or the “Mute” button just isn’t doing enough for you, you can use Gmail’s filter functionality to direct the Buzz elsewhere. The image below shows the steps to establish a label (label:buzz or is:buzz) to archive, or even delete, the messages as you wish.

Link to & Notify Other Buzzers

Buzz allows you to easily notify someone of a status you think they should see by typing "@" in your comment and selecting them from your contacts (the person has to be your contact). To include people that are not your contacts, hover over a hyperlinked username to see the Google username at the end of the URL, right before “#buzz”. If it's a series of numbers, then that person is protecting his/her address, so you will not be able to notify. Start typing out the username and follow it with “@gmail.com”. Type the rest of your reply and post it. When posted, the “@username@gmail.com” should morph into the hyperlinked name, which will link to the Google profile. Ex: “@BrandNewWorldBuzz@gmail.com” will change to “BrandNewWorld“ and the user will be notified of the new comment via email.

Formatting

To create basic formatting, use the following: For Bold, use asterisks around the word(s) that you want bold: *Text* For Italics, use underscores around the word(s) that you want in italics: _Text_ For Strikethrough, use dashes around the word(s) that you want struck through: -Text-

Post via Email

To post an update to Buzz from your email, just sent the text to buzz@gmail.com from your Buzz Gmail account. Want to post a photo? Just attach it! Note that it only posts the subject and the attachment, ignoring the body of the message. We're not sure why, or how long that will be the case, but as of now it's a quick way to post on the run. If you copy the permalink of a Buzz post into an email to buzz@gmail.com, it will repost that Buzz in your stream, like a retweet.

Buzz Browser Extensions & Plugins

BuzzIt! for Firefox allows you to quickly post the link and title of the webpage you're on as a Buzz status update. Buzzer for Chrome allows you to post updates to Buzz. For it to work, you need to set up Google Reader and connect Reader to Buzz. Chrome Buzz allows you to read your Buzz without opening a new tab, but it doesn't allow you to post at this time.

Mobile

On an iPhone or Android, visit buzz.google.com to view a mobile-optimized version of Buzz, which you can use to both view and post, including location information and the ability to filter Buzz posts based on your vicinity. On Windows Mobile and Nokia S60, you can get Buzz on Google Maps; visit m.google.com/maps on your mobile phone to enable the Buzz Maps layer.

Mute Buzz

If a conversation on Buzz loses your interest or gets too chatty for your taste, you can mute it by choosing "Mute this post" from the dropdown menu on the right of each stream.

Turn Buzz Off

If you want to turn Buzz completely off, just scroll to the bottom of your Gmail and click "Turn Buzz Off". [caption id="attachment_312" align="aligncenter" width="309" caption="Turn Buzz Off Link"][/caption]

More reading:

Web Strategy Matrix: Google Buzz vs Facebook vs MySpace vs Twitter. http://j.mp/ckBo5H (via @jeanlucr) A Video explaining Buzz: http://bit.ly/93qMxA An analysis of the obstacles that Buzz faces: http://bit.ly/8Xxq07 More Tips, including APIs and developer info: http://bit.ly/agjd5l