Screencasts of tech tools are all well and good, but Google’s Demo Slam videos are terrific fun as well. Each one demos a Google tool or Google tip in an unconventional way. I’ll be using some of these in workshops, they’re lighthearted and very creative ways to demonstrate the power of Google’s many tools. Yes, ok, I’m a Google fan-girl. But you knew that!
A few of my favorites.
Markup, a new tool from the folks at Medium, lets you draw shapes and add notes to a web page. The marked up version of the page is then saved and can be shared with others who can then add their own markup notes and shapes. Pretty nifty.
To use Markup, drag their bookmarklet to your browser’s toolbar and click on it whenever you want to mark up a page. A simple toolbar appears on your browser screen with options for different shapes, text and colors. When you’re done marking up the page, use the Publish option to get the URL for your marked up page.
The screenshot below shows the markups on a page from this site. Go to this page and you can add your own markup to the demo.
Readability, from Arc90, removes the clutter from busy Web pages, making them much easier to read. On the Readability website, set your preferences for how you’d like to view web pages – font size, margin and page style. Then add the customized bookmarklet to your browser’s toolbar. When you come upon a cluttered page, click the bookmarklet and get a nicely cleaned up page, ready to read or print. (via Tech Chicks Tips)
TBuzz, also from Arc90, helps you quickly post a note about a web page to Twitter, while showing other Twitter comments about that page.Prezi looks like an absolutely fascinating new presentation tool. It’s in beta testing and I don’t have an invite yet, so haven’t been able to play. (hint hint prezi – invite please??) But Jason Rhode posted a photo to flickr today and this blog post about it that intrigued me. Take a look at his great demo presentation to find out what it’s all about. Much better than me trying to explain it!
Looking for a great WordPress reference book? This is one of my favorites. Digging into WordPress by Jeff Starr & Chris Coyier
