Backing Up Your Internet Explorer Settings

We've covered many aspects of data backup here at Facebook Bootcamp including external hard drives, online backup sites as well as backing up your Blogger content and templates.  We can now add Internet Explorer settings to this growing list.

A web application aptly named Internet Explorer Backup allows you to download this free program and then walks you through the process of backing up all the settings.  Once installed, you have the option of capturing settings for:

- favorites

- proxy connections

- security zones

- cookies

- user preferences 

- history

- dialup accounts and more!

If you received a new pc or laptop this holiday season and need to transfer data from the old system to the new one, consider capturing your settings using this program.

ZoomClouds - A Better Way To Make A Label Cloud?

Today I stumbled upon ZoomClouds which bills itself as an easier way to place a much-desired label cloud on your blog. You may remember an earlier post here on Facebook Bootcamp on how to create a nifty cloud label. While the process is not easy and involves some editing of the CSS and blog template, the results are great.

So when ZoomClouds came along with what seems like an easy way to create a cloud label based on the blog's feed and customizations you add (such as font size, color, etc.), I thought I'd take it for a spin. Here are the steps involved:

1. Go to the ZoomClouds website. Click Signup.

2.  Enter your account details and once complete, a confirmation message appears.  Click define a new cloud to proceed.

3.  Enter a name for your cloud, a description and the blog feed details (you may need to log in to your FeedBurner account to check the exact details).  Click create cloud! when finished.

4.  A confirmation message appears.  Click Go update my cloud! to have ZoomClouds work with your blog feed to build the label cloud.

5.  Once the cloud is built, another confirmation message appears.  Click see the look of your cloud . . . to customize the look and feel of the label cloud.

6.  Using various options in the Define your cloud section, you can adjust the font size and colors of the label cloud.  Once your settings are the way you desire, highlight and copy the html text and paste it into a blank HTML widget in your blog.

The end result as pasted into my Destination: Austin Family blog are shown below.

While the process is much easier than dealing with cutting and pasting CSS code into my Blogger template, I have some problem with allowing a web service to generate my label cloud:

- first, if you compare ZoomClouds with my "hard coded" label cloud below, for some reason some pretty important labels (like the surname Austin) are omitted.  I used the "forever" setting when creating the label cloud (meaning it would use all posts going back to when the blog was created) and I also fooled with the font sizes.  After much frustration, on the FAQ section of ZoomClouds, it states that despite selecting "forever" it will still only use the content that is in your feed at the time (roughly 10-15 posts).

- second I can't find a terms and conditions section but the FAQ does mention use of the Yahoo! Content Analysis API as part of building the label clouds.  I have concerns about how my labeled blog posts might be linked to or used.

Backup Your Blogger-Based Blog

Good news on the blog backup front especially if your blog resides on the Blogger platform. Back in September, I posted about backing up your Blogger template (especially if you've configured lots of widgets) and if you wanted to backup your blog posts, your only alternative was to create a parallel, non-advertised blog over on WordPress by using their import from Blogger feature.

Well now it seems that Blogger has finally gotten on the page and realized the possibility of losing users to WordPress as they backed up their blog and examined all the neat features at WordPress. (Full disclosure: I have blogs on both WordPress and Blogger and while I think that WordPress is far superior and more in line with the "zen of blogging" I stick with Blogger due to its popularity)

To backup your Blogger blog, on the Settings tab, locate the Blog Tools section at the top.



Click Export Your Blog and the blog will be exported in xml format to a location you specify. It is just that easy.



I will be posting a reminder about backing up your blog template and your blog posts as part of the next Data Backup Day.

Blog Content Theft

It's happened again - my blog content at the California Genealogical Society and Library blog has been stolen. I remember my first thought when it happened last February: why would anyone want to steal my content?

Lorelle VanFossen of Lorelle on Wordpress has the answer:

"The joke about size doesn’t matter applies to blogs. Some splog scrapers don’t care about who you are, what you blog about, or how “big” your blog is. They grab what they can, when they can. And they republish it as theirs or as if they have your permission to republish. They are using and abusing your hard work and making money on it."

The first time I discovered the theft accidentally. I stumbled onto the California Genealogy Headlines and Idaho Genealogy Headlines sites and was dumbfounded when I found several of my articles. (I know, Idaho?!) The theft was pretty blatant – full formatting and photographs were taken with no credit to myself or the society. I contacted the web design company in Phoenix, Arizona, told them to "cease and desist" and they took everything down right away. The response I got was "I was simply trying to provide another avenue for genealogy researchers to get the information they may be looking for. I was not meaning to 'Steal' anything." As you can see, they do now credit each post but they don't link back to the original. I guess that is progress. And yes, they do have a site for all 50 states although they aren't posting to all of them yet.

After that experience I set up a Google Alert to look for any mention of the CGSL blog. That's how I found out today that another "genealogy blog" is stealing content from me and from many other genea-bloggers. I contacted Thomas MacEntee at Destination: Austin Family right away. Thomas is much more knowledgeable than I about the workings of the "internets" and whose posts were among several that I recognized. Thomas has posted the full details of the interloper.

Lorelle is the Queen of Blogging and she has written extensively on copyright infringement and what to do if your content gets scraped. Some of her relevant posts include:

The Growing Trends in Content Theft: Image Theft, Feed Scraping and Website Hijacking

Finding Stolen Content and Copyright Infringement

What Do You Do When Someone Steals Your Content

Stop Content Theft Buttons and Badges

One Year Anniversary Review: Splogs - the Dark Side of Blogging

I'm guilty myself of not following all of Lorelle's advice about posting copyright information and warnings. I'll be correcting that omission right away, and adding a anti-theft badge as well.

Display Your Shared Items from Google Reader

Yesterday I added a new feature to Destination: Austin Family called Items of Interest. This widget displays some of the blog posts, on a variety of topics, that I feel might be interesting to my readers. The widget is sourced from my Google Reader and the ones that I make with Share at the bottom of each post.

Here is how to set up your own widget and share would you find on Google Reader:

1. Go to Google Reader and click Share in the left sidebar.  The Your Shared Items dialog will appear.

2.  Click the Add a Clip link.

3.  The Put A Clip On Your Site dialog appears.  Here you can customize what readers will see in the widget including the title of the widget, the color scheme, number of items to display, and whether or not to show the source for each post.

4.  When finished, click the Add To Blogger button or copy and paste the html code into your own widget.  

My only issue right now is the inability to restrict the results to a certain folder within my Google Reader.  Since I have several blogs - some are tech-focused while others are genea-blogger types - it would be nice if I could target the types of posts to be displayed.

Give The Gift Of Following!

Do you use the Follow feature on Blogger? Have you set up the widget so that everyone - your faithful readers as well as the first time visitor - can follow your blog? And, have you sought out other genea-blogs to follow?

Using the Follow feature is not only a gift you give to other genea-bloggers by being a "follower" but a gift you give to yourself by allowing others to follow you. Here's how it's done:

To Add The Follow Widget

Under Customize, select the Layout tab. Click Add A Gadget, locate and select the Follow gadget, then when the Follow dialog appears click Save.



To Become A Follower

Locate the Follow This Blog link on the blog you wish to follow. In the Follow dialog, decide whether to follow Publicly or Anonymously. If you follow publicly, your profile picture will appear along with the other followers of the blog and blog visitors can then access your profile and blog information. Click Save.



How to Increase The Number of Followers?

Basically it is a reciprocal relationship: if I find a new follower on a blog, I click on their profile picture, look at their blogs and then set myself up as a follower.

Take the time this weekend to review the 150+ blogs listed here at Facebook Bootcamp for Genea-Bloggers and see if there are any that you would like to follow!

Updated Blog List

Last week I received a request from a fellow genea-blogger to update the list of blogs on Facebook Bootcamp for Genea-Bloggers. But when I went in to revise the widget, I realized that I did not have rights to do so.

In speaking with Terry Thornton we determined it was too difficult to maintain the list using the current widget. So I spent time this morning adding many genealogy related blogs to my Google Reader and then have them imported using the Blog List widget.

That process is now complete and if possible, take a chance to review the list.

I also made some adjustments:

- only blogs can be listed, meaning they must have some sort of feed in order to show up in Google Reader

- only genealogy or family-history related blogs will be included

Thanks and if you want to have your blog included please let me know!

Adding Feed with Blog Networks

There are several Facebook applications that allow you to add your blog feed to your Facebook Wall. Earlier today Thomas described one way using Facebook Notes. I've tried several of the applications, including My Blogs and Blog RSS Feed Reader with varying degrees of success. My favorite FB App - Blog Networks - recently added feed functionality. It is still in beta but it seems to be working well and it has the added advantage of pulling the photographs into your feed. Here are the directions for adding your feed using Blog Networks.

1. First click on HOME to go to your Facebook homepage to see the list of your installed Applications.


2. Click EDIT in the Applications box on the right side of the screen.


3. Find BLOG NETWORKS and click on "Edit Settings." If Blog Networks is not listed, you'll need to go to the Blog Networks Application Page and add the application.


4. A dialog box will pop up: "Edit Blog Network Settings."

5. Choose "Allow Blog Networks to publish specific story sizes automatically without prompting. Also choose "Short." This will allow you to see your stories with images. Then click "Okay."

6. Now click on "Test Publish." A test entry will be posted to your wall.


This post was scheduled to publish at 3:00 a.m. It showed up on Facebook at 4:05 a.m.


As with all items on your wall, comments are enabled. Blog Networks gives two additional links - "Read Post" and "Follow Blog." Both take your visitors to your Blog Networks page.

I just noticed that they have also added "Feed Settings" to the choices on your blog page in Blog Networks.

I'll need to have someone check this feature for me. It looks like it is an even easier option for adding feed functionality.

By the way, it looks like Blog Networks is changing its name to Networked Blogs.
Please leave a comment if you decide to add your feed with Blog Networks. Let me know what you think.

Using Facebook Notes for Blog Posts

Recently a fellow genea-blogger asked how I was able to have my blog posts from Destination: Austin Family appear as posted Notes in Facebook. I had set up the Facebook Notes application so long ago that I just forgot about it! Here is how to locate, install and adjust the import settings so that your blog posts are automatically posted on your Facebook profile for others to see.

1. Locate the Facebook Notes application by typing Notes in the Search field and selecting Search Facebook.



2. A list of applications appears. Select the Notes application which lists Facebook as the developer. Click View Application.



3. A description of the Facebook Notes application appears. Click Install Application. Note: in the image below, there is no installation link since I've already installed it on my Facebook profile.



4. Once the application is installed, locate the Notes Settings. Click Edit Import Settings.



5. Enter the URL for your blog. You are limited to only one blog and the Facebook Notes application can only be installed once per Facebook profile.