Twitter Launches Vine – A Service For Sharing Short Videos [Updates]

Over the last couple of weeks, we’ve heard rumblings of Twitter launching some kind of video sharing service, and it looks like those rumors have come to be in the form of a cool new service called Vine. For the time being, using Vine to create videos is only available with the Vine iOS app, but Twitter has made it clear that Vine will be coming to other platforms soon.

In keeping with Twitter’s theme, videos created on Vine are very short. In fact, videos can only be six seconds or less. This will keep long-winded videos off the service, and just like tweets themselves, everything needs to get to the point. Between the short video clips, and the fact that the app is able to record sound, it should be easy enough for Vine users to get their point across in the time allotment.

Creating videos is as simple as holding a finger on the screen to record, and letting go to stop. You can stop as few or as many times as you want, so you can record one continuous six second video or a bunch of short clips. It only records while touching, so you can change the shot and tell a brief story though the videos without actually having to do any editing.

The videos are embedded directly in Tweets, just like a photo shared on a supported image service. Videos can be played on the Twitter website or on the Twitter mobile app. However, on the mobile application, the videos do not loop as they do on the desktop version of Twitter.

Here’s an example of a Tweet made with Vine:

https://twitter.com/sideox/status/294511424808550400

One thing Twitter neglects to mention in its official announcement of Vine is that users can also share videos on Facebook. However, my Vine posts were not showing up on my Facebook Timeline. The app comes with its own social network, so users can share videos within the Vine network even if they don’t have a Twitter or Facebook account.

Source: Twitter

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7 Vital Google Image Search Hacks

Where do you go when you need to search for something? Probably Google. Where do you go when you need to find images? I’m guessing the same again. Google’s image search has been around for over 12 years, and in that time, it’s advanced from being a cute novelty feature to a powerful search tool, with billions and billions of indexed images.

With all these images right at your fingertips, how do you go about finding the one image you’re really looking for? Over the years, Google has added many useful features to its image search, some more advertised than others. In addition, many features which are not yet available natively can be found on third-part websites. With these vital Google image search hacks, there’s no way in the world you won’t find what you’re looking for.

Note: Yes, I know Google Images is about to change, it’s just been announced today. However, it will take a while before the change rolls out to everyone, and many of these tips will stay helpful even with the new design.

Use Search Tools & Advanced Search

This is pretty obvious, but I want to mention these tools before we go further just in case you’re not using them yet. Google Image Search has seen some significant upgrades in the past several years, and you can now fine-tune your search with just a few clicks.

Click on the “Search tools” button after entering your keywords, and create some quick filters for your search. For example, you can arrange your results by subject, add image-size indicators, look for images in certain colors or sizes, and focus your search on photos, sketches, clip arts and more.

As with any Google search, you can use the advanced search syntax to narrow down your search. For example, look for “chocolate –cake” to avoid any cakes in your results, “chocolate OR cocoa OR cacao” to find images containing any of these words, etc. To access even further options, choose “Advanced search” from the cogwheel menu.

Search For Specific File Types

Although available in advanced search, the file type filter is absent from the more accessible search tools, which is a shame. If you often need to look for specific image file types, you might not want to use the advanced search every single time. Luckily, you don’t have to. Want to find only PNG files? Enter “filetype:png” after your query.

By doing this, not only will you get only the file type you need, a new option will also be added to the Search tools, which you can use to switch the filter to other file types such as JPG, GIF, BMP and more.

You can use the filetype operator to look for any supported image file type.

Get The Old Google Image Search Back

Remember this? If for some reason you really miss this old layout, getting it back is surprisingly easy. All you have to do is enter a search as you normally would, then scroll the page all the way to the bottom. Once there, find the “Switch to basic version” link, and voila. You have the good old image search back.

While not as slick as the current layout, some people may still find the old layout easier to use, and it’s also not as heavy on resources if you’re using an old machine. As simple as it is to do this, Google’s done a pretty good job at hiding it, so most users aren’t even aware it exists.

Find Similar Images

This is another very simple trick, which many users (including me) still manage to miss. There are many add-ons and apps out there that help you find similar images, but this feature is actually built into Google’s image search, albeit somewhat obscurely. If you’re looking for a specific kind of image, and you find one that fits the bill, hovering over it will reveal two new options: More sizes and Similar.

By clicking “Similar” you can find dozens of similar images, which can go to great lengths to helping you find the right image. You can also look for the same image in different sizes.

Search Using Your Own Image

So you can look for similar images to those you found on Google, but what if you want to find similar images to ones you have on your own computer? This too is possible. While in image search, click the small camera icon on the search bar.

In the dialogue that opens, you can either paste an image URL, or upload your own image. Once uploaded, Google will search for any and all images that resemble your image, and will come up with some results.

While it’s very good at finding color resemblances, Google will not always do a good job deciphering the actual subject of the image. For this reason, you might get very accurate results at times, and at other times get images that are similar only in color. Try it out with several images to see for yourself.

Skip Source Website

Sources are important, but when you’re looking at dozens of images one after another, it gets pretty tiresome to have to go through the source website every single time you click an image. Instead of seeing an interesting image and getting to view it immediately, have to first see floating on the source website, and only when you click on “Full-size image” can you get to the actual image. This annoyance be overridden with a simple user script.

The script is called “Google Images direct links”, and you can install it here . All the script does is skip the source website part, bringing you straight to the image once you click it in search results. Some browsers require a script manager in order to install user scripts. For Firefox, download Greasemonkey. For Chrome, you might need Tampermonkey.

Use An Alternative Interface

Can’t stand the Google Images interface no matter how you tweak it? Try alternative layouts, such as Google Image Ripper . While not as feature-rich as the native Google image search, Google Image Ripper makes it easy to download images with one click, and also includes a slick slideshow view to browse through results.

If all you want to do is perform some simple queries, browse photos and download, you might find Google Image Ripper quicker and easier to use.

Bottom Line

Google’s image search is a powerful tool, and with the right tools and know-how, can be used to find pretty much any image you set your mind to. Know of more tips and tricks that help you find the right images? Share them in the comments!

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8 LinkedIn Hacks You Should Use To Further Your Career

If you’re a jobseeker or just keen to move up in the world, you’ve probably set up a LinkedIn profile and started building a network there. You may have put a little thought into your profile at some point and then probably let it stagnate somewhat between moments of enthusiasm for career-building behaviour.

However, this need not be the case. There are a number of great hacks you can use with LinkedIn, some of which will help to keep your profile looking fresh for longer, and all of which will help to further your career in some way. It’s well worth taking a quick look at a few of them to see what you can incorporate into your regular activities.

Learn How To Create A Great LinkedIn Profile

To begin with, you will need to have set up a LinkedIn profile with as much care and attention as possible. If you haven’t already read our manual Learn LinkedIn: How To Build Your Living Resume, then download your free copy now and use that to start yourself off.

1. Update LinkedIn With Unique Content Via Apps

To encourage yourself to use LinkedIn more frequently, get a LinkedIn app for your smartphone or tablet. In particular, check out the new iPad app and Windows Phone app. Use tools such as Hootsuite or Buffer to schedule updates to your LinkedIn Network. Please note, it’s not always advisable to link Facebook and Twitter accounts to LinkedIn as you are talking to a completely different audience.

By using multi-network scheduling tools instead, you are more likely to create unique content just for LinkedIn. Note that scheduling updates doesn’t have to be difficult as you can simply forward a link to a great article. Try to avoid blatant “hire me” posts unless it’s really necessary.

2. See Who’s Been Viewing Your LinkedIn Profile

While viewing your home page on LinkedIn, take a look on the right just under the “People you may know” section. You’ll see a section for “Who’s Viewed Your Profile“. As a free LinkedIn user, clicking on this link will show you a selection of people who have viewed your profile in the last three months. Paid users will see the full list of people who have viewed a profile, although sometimes they will be anonymised somewhat with a message like “One of these 10 people viewed your profile”.

If you can’t afford to pay for a paid account, or you want to narrow down which of those 10 people actually viewed your account, you can always take a screenshot of the list each day until you build up a better picture.

3. Answer Questions Using Answers & LinkedIn Groups

An overlooked tool of LinkedIn is the Answers section, which you can access from the home page by visiting More > Answers. Here you can ask or answer questions, meaning that you can prove your expertise in certain areas. If you are one of the week’s top experts you will be featured on the home page.

LinkedIn have thoughtfully provided access to professional groups via the site. If you want to make the best of your networking efforts, it does pay to give a little of your time to these groups. Focus your attention on a handful of the most relevant groups for your industry and see if you can answer a few questions a day. With any luck, people will notice you and want you to join their professional network, perhaps even recommending you for a new job.

4. Pay Close Attention To Your Network

Take a close look at the people you are connected to via LinkedIn. Pay close attention to the industries people are in, companies which are represented and who you are indirectly connected to. If there are people working in your dream company then make contact early on. Don’t wait until you’re unemployed and desperate for work.

5. Follow Updates From Your Network Using Signal & BottleNose

One great way to see what your network is up to is to use Signal, which is the full LinkedIn feed of things your network has done. Signal is a little like what you see on the home screen, but you can filter it by company, location, seniority, industry or more. You can also expand it to show updates from 2nd and 3rd connections, which makes it really easy to find movers and shakers that meet your criteria.

Another idea for following your network is to combine LinkedIn updates from your network with news from other social sources and news with tools like BottleNose or HootSuite. It doesn’t matter what you use, rather that you see what people in your network are saying and are in a position to respond in a timely matter if relevant to you.

6. Build Up Your Recommendations

The best way to build up a collection of great recommendations is to give recommendations yourself. Every now and then, write a great recommendation for someone in your network. This may prompt them to return the favour at some point. If you do this regularly, then over time you will get a wide collection of recommendations from a variety of people in your network. Whatever you do, don’t wait until you need a job. This is a task that can only be done over time.

7. Frequently Update Your LinkedIn Profile

It goes without saying that you should always try to ensure your profile has current information about work roles and positions. Some things which may encourage you to frequently update your resume on LinkedIn are the vast number of resume-creating tools that you can use, which create beautiful resumes using data from LinkedIn. Some of the resume tools are quite visually appealing, so give them a go!

Don’t forget, there are always more LinkedIn tools and tips to check out. Some of these are really fun and will make you more likely to network on LinkedIn.

8. Back Up Your Network Contacts

Many people don’t realise it, but it’s possible to lose access to your LinkedIn account. LinkedIn will sometimes block accounts that are too active. There has also been at least one case where an employer deemed that the account was their property and demanded that it was handed over when the employee left the company. It only takes a few seconds to back up your network. Go to Contacts > Connections, then follow the link in the bottom-right to Export Connections. Easy!

What are your best tips for using LinkedIn?

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