Review of 6 "Social Media Status Widgets"

Want to show off the buzz about your favorite topic and contribute to the virtuous circle of tweeting, re-tweeting, feeding and re-feeding? Well then you need to add a 'social media status widget' to your site to let your readers know what the tweeters are tweeting about what your readers are reading about! Below I review three Twitter search widgets and three newfangled 'social media status widgets' that show the buzz across a variety of sites. It's interesting to note that while they all have similar purposes they show pretty different results.

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Twitter Search Widget

Pros: Easy to set up and customize (color, size, etc.). Nice Animation. And you can also loop old Twitter search results - which helps the gadget look less lame if your chosen query has low traffic.

Cons: Obviously, this only shows results from Twitter, but what's less obvious at first is that unlike normal Twitter search, it doesn't show retweets (anything with 'RT' in the message) so you could be missing some good chatter if people are retweeting and adding on commentary. Also, although this is easy to set up, integrating this widget into your site could be challenging (e.g. this one doesn't play nice with Blogger - which seems to have something to do with referencing the external CSS style sheets and line breaks in the JavaScript code) so you might have to play with it to get it to work properly. Also, it doesn't show tweets older than about 2 weeks.

Example for query 'teampedia':

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Juitter

Pros: This has several advanced options including filtering bad words, and choosing if you want links to open in a new window or the same window. And if you want to use it on Blogger you can simply point and click to add it as a gadget on your blog.

Cons: If you are not on Blogger, you have to download some code files (JQuery and JavaScript) and configure them - this requires more than my level of knowledge to set up, so you are own your own here. Another Twitter only search.

Example for query 'teampedia':

I would show you an example here, but I can't figure out how to embed one in the body of this post, so just go to Juitter to see their example.

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TwitterSearch (BeTwittered) by 32Hours

Pros: Allows you to show a default twitter search for one topic, but then your site visitor can use it to search for something else.

Cons: Figuring out how to embed this it is not obvious from the website, but you do so, by using iframes. It only searches Twitter, but does show retweets unless you encode '-RT' into the search query. Also it includes ads in the bottom of the gadget, which means it not as clean as the other ones.

Example for query 'teampedia':

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Social Mentions Realtime Buzz Widget

Pros: Pulls in more sources than just Twitter, and it has some customizable elements (items per page, hide user profile images, font size, etc.) It also has a nice cascading animation effect.

Cons: Doesn't pull in as many sources the site seems to suggest, and requires some skills to edit it. Basically if you can distinguish a variable from a comment you can edit it... but it seems like it would be easy enough for them to create a form for you to enter the variables which then spits out the code for you to copy/paste to your site.

Example for query 'teampedia':

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FriendFeed Search Embed

This one isn't quite a widget the way the previous two are... you just do a search on FriendFeed, and then chose the 'Share / embed search' link in the top left corner of the page. This gives you the option for an iframe of the search results which you can embed anywhere that accepts iframes... FriendFeed does have a whole page of embeddable gadgets but those only allow you to share your feed or a room's feed, not a search feed.

Pros: Includes buzz from the wide range of sites (actually the most for my test query 'teampedia'). including Delicious, Diigo and Twitter.

Cons: No options to customize to make it blend into your site better.

Example for query 'teampedia':

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Backtype Search Widget

Pros: Nice clean style

Cons: Doesn't pull in results from many sites e.g. it says it is getting results from FriendFeed but not ones that I can see in the embedded FriendFeed search results above.

Example for query 'teampedia':

[update 9/22: this one no longer seems to be working]

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Overall there doesn't appear to be one killer widget yet, but drop me a line and let me know if I missed one. I am sure these will be 'all the rage' soon enough.

Want to contribute to the virtuous circle? Tweet this post:

Michael Jackson & Farrah Fawcett - a Tribute

In memory of Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett, and in honor of the recent Go Skateboarding Day I share these great photos of the King of Pop and Charlie's Angel doing a little sidewalk surfing:

San Francisco Neighborhood Maps

When we first moved to San Francisco, I struggled to find a good map that outlined the many neighborhoods of the city to help with apartment searching and just getting to know the area.

Sure there are static versions (e.g. this one and that one) but you can't do much with them. And there is a decent dynamic one using google maps with markers to give you a sense of where the neighborhoods are... but I was surprised how hard it was to find one that is dynamic and had the boundries to clearly show the neighborhoods. Back when Google Launched Neighborhood Search that's what I thought was coming soon... but that's not quite what neighborhood search did.

Then, buried as a user-generated map within GoogleMaps I came across this version by a guy named Craig that is great! It hasn't gotten much attention (only 405 views to date and one rating). You should check it out and rate it up!

For some reason it is broken up into two maps (both embedded below) so you can't see it all on one, but you can also check it out directly on Google Maps for more functionality at Dynamic Map of San Francisco Neighborhoods.

View Larger Map

View Larger Map

SF Bay Area Sun Finder

Ever since moving to the San Francisco Bay Area, I have been wishing there was a site where I could go to easily figure out where around here it's sunny right now... well today I found that site: Weather Bonk!

Not only does it have a great map of all the local weather cams, it has the option to turn on a cloud layer which shows where it's cloudy (see image below).

Today it looks like we would have to drive to San Jose, or Mt. Diablo State Park to find some sun and avoid the fog... ah, San Francisco!

What are my congresswomen up to?

With the help of MegaVote, presented by Congress.org, I now have an easy way to find out how my congresswomen are voting. I signed up for this email alert recently when I was writing my representatives about the Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education (GIVE) Act. It's a good example of how technology can actually provide more insight into democracy!

Each week (that Congress is in session) you will receive:

• Key votes by your two Senators and U.S. Representative.
  
• Links to send e-mail to your members of Congress using pre-addressed forms.
  
• Upcoming votes for your review and a chance to offer e-mail input before they vote.
  
• Use this weekly vote monitor to track the decisions made by your elected officials on key issues.
  

Signup at: http://www.congress.org/congressorg/megavote/

Check out my latest report:

presented by: Congress.org

April 6, 2009 In this MegaVote for California's 12th Congressional District: Recent Congressional Votes - Senate: Concurrent Resolution on the Budget for FY 2010 House: Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education (GIVE) Act House: To amend the executive compensation provisions of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 House: Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act House: Congressional Budget for Fiscal Year 2010 Editor's Note: Congress is on a two week recess. The Senate will return on Monday, April 20 and the House will return on Tuesday, April 21. Recent Senate Votes Concurrent Resolution on the Budget for FY 2010 - Vote Agreed to (55-43, 1 Not Voting) The Senate passed their version of the national budget for fiscal year 2010. Sen. Dianne Feinstein voted YES......send e-mail or see bio Sen. Barbara Boxer voted YES......send e-mail or see bio Recent House Votes Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education (GIVE) Act - Vote Passed (274-149, 8 Not Voting) The House agreed to the Senate amendments to this national service bill, sending it to the president. Rep. Jackie Speier voted YES......send e-mail or see bio To amend the executive compensation provisions of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 - Vote Passed (247-171, 1 Present, 12 Not Voting) On Wednesday, the House passed this bill intended to curb bonuses of executives at financial institutions that receive Troubled Asset Relief Program money. Rep. Jackie Speier voted YES......send e-mail or see bio Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act - Vote Passed (298-112, 21 Not Voting) The House passed this bill that would give the FDA regulatory authority over tobacco, but would not allow the agency to ban cigarettes or other tobacco products. Rep. Jackie Speier voted YES......send e-mail or see bio Congressional Budget for Fiscal Year 2010 - Vote Passed (233-196, 3 Not Voting) The House passed their version of the national budget for fiscal year 2010. Rep. Jackie Speier voted YES......send e-mail or see bio

Valentine's Day & Freedom to Marry Week 2009

In honor of Valentine's Day & Freedom to Marry Week 2009, please consider supporting the rights of everyone to be with the one they love. 

Tell the Supreme Court to invalidate Prop 8, and let loving, committed couples marry: Join the Courage Campaign and Sign the Marriage Resolution!

"Because marriage is a basic human right and an individual personal choice, RESOLVED, the State should not interfere with same-gender couples who choose to marry and share fully and equally in the rights, responsibilities, and commitment of civil marriage." 

 "Fidelity": Don't Divorce... from Courage Campaign on Vimeo.

Martin Luther King Day of Service

MLK Day of Service is one of my favorite holidays.

Back when I worked at City Year New Hampshire I helped organized a March of Justice and Volunteer Fair, and it's great to see they are both still going strong after 8 years!

This MLK day, I wasn't out marching or volunteering, I was on a plane flying back from St. Louis where we were celebrating Grandpa's 90th birthday. But in honor of MLK day, I did some e-advocacy this year:

1. Helped enable and encourage employees to volunteer at work
2. Set up a Facebook "Cause" to Support Young Heroes (City Year's Middle School Service Learning Program) that now has over 200 members.
3. Created this Wordle from a portion of the 'I Have a Dream' speech to share with you:

Next year I am hoping to be out doing some more traditional service (e.g. painting a mural) and for inspiration, here's one of the best murals I have seen in a long time, by Dan of dstrbo.com:

I love the colors and detail and I have had this image set as my desktop background for about a month now. I like to think of it as MLK reminding me to get out there and do something that matters!

Hey look, it's my thesis!

Wow, it's been a while since I have blogged! What can I say? Life comes at you fast once you have a baby, and everything else takes a back seat for a bit. 

Speaking of things I haven't thought about in a while, here's something that was incredibly gruelling and personally fulfilling.... my college thesis! 

Researching and writing my thesis was way harder for me than running an actual marathon, but since I am still planning to go to grad school one day, I'll consider this my "academic half marathon."

Here it is, in all its glory:

A Sea Change in the Social Sector: Examining Earned-Income Ventures and Entrepreneurial Nonprofits in Rhode Island

By Seth J. Marbin

Brown University, May 2005

In case you are working on your own life goals, and don't have time for 104 pages of pleasure reading right now, here's the two-page Executive Summary.

And to wet your appetites, here's the abstract:

Nonprofits across the nation are increasingly launching earned-income ventures to support their social missions. Even though this is not a new strategy for many nonprofits, for the sector as a whole it is a fundamental shift from traditional sources of revenue. This study identifies and evaluates significant factors associated with nonprofits operating earned-income ventures in Rhode Island and compares these results to data collected for a recently published national study. New data collected from a web-based survey of over 325 Rhode Island nonprofits is analyzed along with data from over 375 nonprofits in a national sample. This study also examines the types of earned-income ventures organizations are operating, the perceived impact, how nonprofits define themselves as “entrepreneurial,” and the reasons why some organizations have never operated ventures. Insights from Rhode Island nonprofit leaders, academics, and funders are also included in this mixed-methods approach, to help understand the motivations of nonprofits launching and operating earned-income ventures. The findings suggest that Rhode Island organizations are operating earned-income ventures at a rate of three times the comparable national sample. Additionally the majority of ventures are related to the organizations’ social missions, and the impacts are overwhelmingly positive.

An extra special shout out to: Ann Dill, Debbie Schimberg, Cynthia Massarsky, Samantha Beinhacker, Social Venture Partners of Rhode Island, The Rhode Island Foundation, and my lovely wife Jyothi Marbin - without whom I would have never finished this silly thing.

Google for Non-Profits

Some exciting news from Google today... we launched Google for Nonprofits! http://www.google.com/nonprofits/

It is a portal for nonprofit organizations to learn more about free tools from Google to help save time and money and promote and expand the great work of the nonprofit sector!

I think it does a great job of breaking down all the various tools, letting you know how to sign up and use each one. It also has some case studies and stories showcasing how others are using the tools... that part could use more - so submit your stories and help spread the word!

For more, see the: Official Google Blog: Google for Non-Profits

p.s. It's been a while since I posted, but in case you haven't heard, I had a baby, and joined a new team at work, so it's been busy!

What to name the baby?

So far we have just been calling her Knut - as in Cute Knut the Polar Bear but we definitely won't be naming her Knut. We will be waiting until she is born to bestow the name upon her, but we have a running list of possible names and and are looking for good suggestions.

We are strongly leaning towards a name in honor of Kasthuri (Jyothi's mother) - so names that start with "K" get extra points.

I came across this site IndiaParenting.com which has an amusing category called Names Easily Pronounced by Foreigners with the description:

You are living outside India or may plan to move abroad, and you want to ensure that your child's name is not mispronounced by foreigner friends.

But their website is busted so I can't actually see any of the names! Maybe they will fix it soon. Anyway, while I like the idea of an "easily pronounceable" name, it seems to me that every name is going to be hard to pronounce by someone.

On a related note, in the process of researching names, I learned something new about my name too. Apparently not only does Seth mean "appointed one" - as in the son of Adam and Eve in the Bible, but Seth (or Set) was also an evil and powerful god to the ancient Egyptians and a ruler of destruction and chaos!!

For those of you who missed the Knut reference, here's a video showing just how cute Knut is:

Countdown to Fatherhood

The next major life goal I am about to embark on is fatherhood. That's right folks, on January 23, 2008, Jyothi and I are expecting a little baby girl!

Here's a count down timer so you can follow along with us as we eagerly await the arrival.

This also gives me an excuse to try out Google's create a calendar button, so here it is:

If you are A Google Calendar user, clicking on that link should add our due date to your calendar with the title "Jyothi and Seth are having a baby!"

Google-Pimping my blog

As part of my blog re-organization I have been "Google-Pimping" my blog by trying to add in a variety of Google enhancements.

So far I have:

1. Integrated a Custom Search Engine which lets you search this blog and all the sites I link to
2. Set my feeds "en fuego" with FeedBurner - which allows you, dear readers, to subscribe via RSS and/or email, and allows me to see some cool stats about subscribers
3. Provided another window into my head with a Google Reader gadget that allows you to see snippets of stories I have read lately (and decided to share publicly)
   
4. Analyzed my traffic (or lack there of) with Google Analytics
5. Jazzed-up a post with an embedded slide show via Picasa
6. And I have even installed AdSense to monetize these musings (actually this is just an experiment to see how AdSense works - I don't expect to make any money off of this. ;)

What else should I try... any suggestions?

Moving forward

I ran a Marathon. I enjoyed it. But I didn't enjoy it enough to keep running that many miles on a regular basis. Don't get me wrong, I am glad I did it once, but now I am excited to be moving on to other things.

Since this blog had been called, "Another First-Time Marathon Blogger" I contemplated setting up a new blog to write about other life goals (raising kids, building a house, bicycling cross country, etc.) but instead I decided to just keep the same blog and do some re-organization.

First, I went back and labeled all the posts that have anything to do with running the marathon as "first time marathon." Second, I changed the name of the blog to "Life Goals and Other Random Nonsense..."

So if you interested in other stuff I am up to, check back here soon for more details.

Less Running and More Goofing around on the Internet

Since the marathon, people keep asking me, "so, are you still running?" and "when is the next marathon?" and the truth is, I have only been for 1 run since. It was a 5 mile jog around Stow Lake last weekend. It felt good, of course it always feels good during and at the end of a run, but I can't say I really miss it when I am not running.

So what have I been up to? Mostly I have been spending time catching up on other areas of my life and am back to goofing around on the internet. One thing I have been goofing around with is the new Google Analytics. I thought it was funny to see the traffic for this site looks kind of like the elevation map for the marathon!

A few photos from marathonfoto.com

I will have to purchase these from marathonfoto.com once they are done uploading and identifying all the race images, but for now here is a sneak preview. Sorry the images are so small, but they don't have the larger sizes available yet.

A Marathon Slideshow

UPDATE: I had tried to embed a slideshow from Picasa by using i-frames before that was a supported feature, and it worked ok, but now it is as easy as cutting and pasting code from Picasa Web Albums. So cool!

Last Minute Marathon Preparations

SLEEP:
I haven't been sleeping very well the last few nights which I think is mostly due to some nervous excitement (and the fact that my wife has been working nights at the hospital this week). I was relieved to read this bit about sleeping from Last-Minute Marathon Tips:

You may sleep well, or you may not. Don’t worry about it if you don’t sleep at all. Many runners I work with every year don’t sleep at all the night before and have the best race of their lives. Of course, don’t try to go sleepless, but if it happens, it is not a problem.

MUSIC:
I spent too much time last night trying to pick out the perfect marathon music mix. I was trying to pick ~5 hours of music from what I have stored on my computer and my sister gave me an iTunes gift card so I had all that to choose from also. This was a case of too much choice being a bit overwhelming.... but I think I got a good mix. Some rap/hip hop songs like The Seed 2.0, and Ninety Nine (Flash the Message), and The Whole World have been good solid training tunes, and then I added in a few others from random genres like Road to Nowhere, Bittersweet Symphony, Dani California, When I come Around, What a Wonderful World and of course the Rocky Theme. Very few people have ever told me I had good taste in music, so feel free point out how cheesy my selection is.

I meant to blog about this a while ago, but I started training with the Nike + iPod early on, and found it to be a great way keep my pace and music really does add to the enjoyment of the run. At $30, it really is one of the best investments I made, and you don't have to buy Nike shoes to make use of it. Podophile's shoe mod was an inspiration for me to try Caselogic holder and it has worked well with my Mizunos.

My "power song" (the one that comes on when I hit the center button - to power me up the hills) is Lose Yourself by Eminem for both the beat and the message:

You better lose yourself in the music, the moment
You own it, you better never let it go
You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow
This opportunity comes once in a lifetime, yo!

DIET:
This morning I had granola and yogurt with a banana and a PowerBar energy gel (which I have been eating 1 of every morning for the last few days to make sure I can tolerate it first thing). I am skipping the official "Pasta Party" tonight, but will be looking for a good Italian restaurant in Monterey. I am a sucker for the fettuccine alfredo, but I think I will avoid the cheesy sauce tonight and stick with marinara. Shortly I am headed to Jamba Juice for a smoothie, and getting on the road to Monterey... see you at the Finish Line!

Water Bottle Woes

The first few weeks of training, the runs were short enough so that I did not need to carry any water or Gatorade with me, I could just drink before and after the run. Then as the runs have grown longer, I have tried a few solutions to carry liquids along the way.

I tried drinking from the water fountains on the street - but I guess I have become a water snob, because that water was literally hard to swallow. In addition, the challenge of mapping a route with enough working water fountains at the desired intervals along the way meant I was more limited in where I could run than I really wanted to be.



My sister gave me an Ultimate Direction FastDraw Plus (pictured above) which is a water bottle designed specifically to be held while running. I did not actually run with it, because carrying it around the house, I realized that having to hold something in my hands for 2-3 hours was likely to aggravate the Repetitive Stress Injury (RSI) I have developed in both my wrists from too much keyboarding and mousing. I ended up bringing the Ultimate Direction back to REI and exchanged it for an Amphipod RunLite 2+ (pictured below).




The Amphipod is a belt meant to be worn around the waist with two small bottles and a pouch. Since this was the first water belt system I tried, I thought it was a big improvement over having to carry a bottle in my hands, but after a few weeks of trying, I gave up on the Amphipod. Although they describe it as a "no-bounce" design, I had to keep adjusting it while running to keep it from bouncing around on my hips and waist. I could have lived with the bouncing, but the other problem was that it was hard to keep the bottles clipped in to the holders. The bottles fell off a few times, so I had to check every few minutes to make sure they were still there. But then on a 9 mile run, I did not notice when one fell off, and I lost a bottle. I sent an email to the company explaining what happened, and they told me to call in and they could get me a new bottle, but before I had a chance to call them, the same thing happened and I lost the second bottle on another run.

I was explaining the problem to a good friend who previously trained for a marathon and she mentioned she had a FuelBelt I should try. The bottles had things growing in them from sitting unused for a few years in a drawer, so I ordered a fresh set of bottles and have been using her belt with great success for the last month!


Like the Amphipod, the FuelBelt frees up my hands from having to carry anything and it has a pocket for my keys and some PowerGel. But unlike the Amphipod, on the Fuelbelt the bottles stay put, and the FuelBelt really does not bounce around as I am running!

My one complaint with the FuelBelt is that the caps for the bottles are not designed very well. The spout tends to leak a little bit which results in me spilling water/Gatorade on my self as I am trying to drink or even worse, they can leak in the car or my gym bag on the way to a run. Water leaking isn't a big deal, but I don't really want Gatorade all over my clothes or car.

I just looked back at the website to get the image above and now I realize that when I got the new bottles, I did not get the newest model, so giving them the benefit of the doubt, maybe their newer models do not leak... one can only hope!

Now I am just trying to decide if I should wear the belt on the day of the marathon, or I should take my chances with the aid stations along the way. I am leaning towards wearing the belt because I want to carry my energy gels anyway, but maybe I think I will just use 2 of the bottles to lighten the load.

The Marathon Route (2) - This time on Google Earth!

For those of you who can't make it in person, here are some snapshots of the Big Sur International Marathon Route which I created in Google Earth.


Note: No these are not "official" images endorsed by either the Big Sur International Marathon or Google Earth... I mapped the route on Google Earth, took some screen shots, and then added on the logos to make them look good.

Driving the route in person was awesome, but driving it on Google Earth was almost as amazing! I will find a way to post the KML file soon, so you can "fly" the course yourself on Google Earth.

Update: Here is the link to the KML file and here are some helpful instructions on how to change your "Camera Tilt" all the way to the right (80 degrees), and the "Camera Range" to the left (150 meters) to feel like you are on the course.

The Marathon Route

I went down to run the last 8 miles of the course on Sunday and ended up driving over the entire thing to scope it out. My first impression: wow is it hilly! And of course it is also scenic and beautiful (if you are into that whole "cliffs overlooking the artic blue ocean" thing).

By popular request, above is a satelite image of the route, courtesy of Google Maps and here's the link for a map you can zoom in on. What neither of them really show are all the hills... did I mention it was hilly!

Below is the image provided by bsim.org to give you a sense, but that doesn't really do the hills justice either. If you are really interested, in seeing the hills, I recommend Google Earth or of course, you could always come on down on Sunday and run it with me! :)