You may be wondering, wtf is DemoGirl thinking? Well, imho, I think lolcats are funny. They totally make me rotfl and lmao. Afaic, lolcats do actually make people lol. Idrk where lolcats came from and idc. It is Friday however, and that means you should be lyao - aight? You might watch this and think, aypi? That’s OK. I don’t really have one. Without further ado, here’s my screen dance of lolcats:

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Translation of above post:

You may be wondering, what the f**k is DemoGirl thinking? Well, in my honest opinion, I think laugh out loud cats are funny. They totally make me roll on the floor laughing and laugh my ass off. As far as I’m concerned, laugh out loud cats actually do make people laugh out loud. I don’t really know where laugh out loud cats came from and I don’t really care. It is Friday however, and that means you should be laughing your ass off, alright? You might watch this and think, and your point is? That’s OK. I don’t really have one.

You may not see it at first glance, but Gmail has updated some features and released a “Newer Version”.    When you first log in it looks like business as usual but if you see “Older Version” in the top right hand corner, you’ll know you have some updates.  Most noticeable is how you manage your contacts.  From your contact list, you can quickly view their vcard, send an email, start a chat, and view recent conversations.  When you hover over a name in your inbox, you can take the same actions.  In Gtalk, you now have the option of adding a photo from your Picasa Web Album to your friends profile.  The new updates aren’t going to make you run around the office screaming and high-fiving your co-workers, but it’s nice to know that Gmail is continuing to improve.  Here’s my screencast tour of Gmail Updates:

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Faves is a Topics network that wants to help you find, share, and store content that you find interesting.  You start out by selecting topics that you want to be informed about.  Everything that other Faves members have favored that fit into your selected topics, will show up on your homepage.  These Faves can be voted up or down enabling you to find the most popular content.  As you scroll through stories, they’ll be marked as read so you won’t keep getting the same stories over and over.  Every time you vote on something, it will be saved so you can find it later.  There are friends to be made on Faves, but you don’t have to be friends with anyone in order to find content you want.  Adding things to Faves is easy with their bookmarklets and you can even choose the image you want associated with it.

BlueDot just relaunched as Faves, and I think they did a great job.  It was July 2006 when I created a screencast for BlueDot and a few weeks later they invited me to their launch party.  Wasn’t that sweet?  When I saw they had relaunched as Faves, I quickly went back to my screencast of BlueDot to see the differences.  Whoa!  Not only has BlueDot improved with their new name and site, but my screencasting has definitely improved as well.  Now, I never ever toot my own horn.  In fact, it’s usually the opposite.  But watching the screencast for BlueDot (it’s not even in Flash!) made me want to crawl under my desk and hide.  If you decide to check it out here, note that at the time I was using a twenty dollar microphone and sound like I didn’t have a clue as to what I was talking about.   Here’s my screencast tour of Faves:

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( source:  CenterNetworks)

Crazy Blind Date is a new type of dating site from the folks at OkCupid. It wants to give adventurous and curious people a new way to meet. By adventurous and curious, I mean that you get about 30 minutes notice before a date and you have no idea what they look like. You start by answering very basic questions and giving up a very brief description about yourself and what you’re looking for in a potential match. You’ll also be asked to choose dates and times when you’re available and to choose neighborhoods in which you’re willing to travel to for your date. CBD only sets you up in public places and you communicate with your date through them using SMS. 30 minutes before your date you’ll be sent a text and you can choose to say yes or no. Make sure if you say yes you actually show up though, because it’s just not nice to stand someone up who’s desperate enough to use CBD.

There were a lot of people leaving comments on this article about CBD, saying that they didn’t think that any good looking people would ever use the site and that it’s a breeding ground for stalkers and other online predators. Well, I suppose going out with someone you met in a bar after downing a bottle of tequila is much safer. Not. I wouldn’t mind seeing a feature for people who aren’t looking for a romantic relationship, but just some new friends to go to happy hour with. When you’re new to a city (like me) it can be intimidating to go out and make new friends - and frankly, I’m just as picky about what kind of friends I have as to the kind of person I’m dating. How fun would it be to get a text at the end of a long work day saying that 3 people you’ve never met want to meet for drinks down the street? Here’s my screencast tour of Crazy Blind Date:

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(source: Webware )

Drop.io is a service that allows you to upload files and media instantly to your own space.  You can make your space private so only you have access or make it fully collaborative and allow others to add files, notes, and links.  You’re also given your own email address for your drop space so you can add files by simply emailing them.  There’s no sign up process and is free to use with 100 MB of space.

I came across Drop.io after reading Allen’s post where he had a chat with the founders.  He also created his own video demo that you can view here.  Here’s my screencast tour of Drop.io:

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Jottit is a tool that allows you to build a wiki-style website, instantly. You can try it first, without having to sign up or choose a title and tagline for your website. Just enter some text into the text box on Jottit.com and if you like what you see, you can claim your page. You can set privacy levels so only you can view and edit the site or allow others to edit your work. There’s also a revision history so you can go back and see all of the changes that were made.

I found Jottit after reading this article and wondered why I hadn’t heard of it before. It’s a fun little tool that definitely deserves a screencast. Here’s my screencast tour of Jottit:

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Hopefully by now you’ve heard about the great online photo editing tool, Picnik.  If not, go check it out now.  Well, they’ve added a couple of new tools to make you look just right in your photos.  Zombify and Bloodstains.  Yes!  You can turn yourself into a zombie complete with a bloodstained mouth.  Since it’s Halloween and all, I thought I’d show you what I would look like if I was a zombie.  Here’s my screencast tour of Picnik’s Zombify effects:

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Thanks Brains!

GetItNext wants to help you find the actual items your looking for when shopping on eBay.  Usually when you search for something on eBay, such as an iPod, you’re bombarded with items like iPod accessories or other useless items that just get in the way.  When you do a search for an iPod on GetItNext, you’ll only get actual iPods in your results.  You can add keywords if you’re looking for something more specific, like a red iPod.  You can also remove keywords if you don’t want, for example,  iPod Shuffles included in your results.  There’s a “find a deal” tab which will only show you items without any bids and less than 4 hours left of auction time.  There’s nothing to sign up for in order to use GetItNext and all of your purchases are still done on eBay so you don’t need to worry about sharing any personal information with GetItNext.  Here’s my screencast tour of GetItNext:

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If you’ve ever wanted to create your own website, but feel it’s too difficult a task, Jimdo may be just what you’re looking for.  Jimdo gives you the tools to create a custom website, and it’s as easy as clicking anywhere on your page and adding text.  That’s not all though.  You can add YouTube videos, a photo gallery, forms, files, etc.  They have numerous layouts and templates to choose from but you can customize your own.  The entire time you’re creating your site, you’ll see it as your visitors will see it, and it’s updated automatically.  The free account allows you to add as many pages as you want, gives you basic statistics, 500 MB of storage, and total customization of your site.  The pro account, for six dollars a month, lets you use your own domain, removes ads, gives you 5 GB of storage, and provides you with an email account.  Here’s my screencast tour of Jimdo:

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YourStreet gives you a way to see exactly what’s going on in your neighborhood - “down to the street level”.  After you choose your location, you’re presented with an interactive map that displays news stories, conversations, and people.  You can see news that happened down the street from you, participate in conversations with people who live nearby, and read profiles of people around you.  Members can add their own news stories and place them exactly where they happened.  Someone even started a conversation simply titled, “Looking for love”.  (Too bad the first person to comment suggested that they hang out at Jamba Juice.)

I made a screencast for YourStreet back in April, when they were more of a real estate guide for neighborhoods.  Obviously the site has changed dramatically since then, and now the name “YourStreet” actually holds a bit more meaning.  Here’s my screencast tour of YourStreet:

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