Toronto Affiliate Marketer & SEO Consultant Lorne Fade

So the time has come again where WordPress decided to revamp their interface, and I must say this time I think it is for the better. The update comes with a much lighter feel to it, with an easier interface for navigation and even some nifty features added in. Be sure to check out a screencast of the new features.

Perhaps the most useful new feature is the customizable dashboard, allowing for you to see vital information about your blog including traffic stats, incoming links, and all the usual stuff you would expect to see on your dashboard. Another new feature that I like is the multi-file upload, combined with the new built-in galleries, makes for any gallery implementation for your posts a breeze. Other notable upgrades include one-click plugin upgrades, tag management, full information text feeds and of course faster load times.

So if you haven’t already upgrade now, and be sure your getting the most out of your wordpress blog.

So I was bored, and I happened across a killer domain using one of my elite domaining tools. Hence JamURL.com was born.

Basically a rip off of tinyurl and countless other short url redirection services, JamURL aims to shorten your websites for usage within either mobile applications or social networks.

It can also be used for hiding affiliate links if you are trying to promote something and dont want your surfer to see your affiliate code. Overall a simple service that I thought I would throw out there.

Well the RIAA isnt going to be happy about this one. A brand new service by young entrepreneur Justin Ouellette has just hit the net. The service or Muxtape as its coined, allows you to upload your favorite songs and have them saved for playback on the web whenever you want.

The site has only been live 24 hours and its numbers are soaring. (wonder if the servers will hold up) 8600+ users, around 20,000 songs and over 35,000 visits. Pretty impressive to say the least.

This site has a lot of great things going for it, and I have to say it looks promising if he can keep up with the server costs. The sign up page is 3 fields, so right off the bat your in love. Your alloted 12 songs, so they better be your favorites, and there is a cap set at 10mb per file, which is sufficient. From here you can pretty much play your songs directly from your browser or media device. Pretty cool.

I played around with it, uploaded a few tracks and it seems to work smoothly. Another great concept turned social media. What will be next? Video feeds?

What is the next step up from addiction? Facebook Chat…

Well apparently people want to be able to feed their crackbook addictions in real time, hence Facebook Chat. A program that will be on the bottom of the page, allowing the user to see number of friends online, and allow you to chat with them in separate chat windows.

So if IRC/AIM/Msn/Skype/Gtalk/ICQ/yahoo etc. messengers/clients weren’t enough for you, you can now get your instant messaging fix on facebook as well. The program will boast such features as online/offline status’, similar to various messengers already in use. Users can also clear chat history and their chat status will appear sitewide for your friends to see, with the option to let everyone see, in case you like those creepers

On a scale of 1-10 (1 being mildly useless/10 being totally useless) I would have to give this a 20… but hey im a hater. Check out a demo video of the chat in use below…its kinda blurry.

Myspace Apps.. who knew?

Yes ladies and gentlemen, Myspace is trying to claw back at Facebook, with none other than their own version of applications in which you can soup up your profile with even more knick-knacks and paddy-wacks. This comes as great news for anyone (??) who still uses Myspace.

Now would be a good time to think about creating/outsourcing the development of your very own Myspace App(s) and take advantage of these viral applications.

Check out the Myspace Developer Platform & you might want to take a peek into Google’s OpenSocial API Specifications.

Also be sure to check out the current Myspace Apps that are being pumped out as we speak…dont miss this opportunity to create and monetize a Myspace App, we all have seen the viral power of Facebook Apps, and a lot of people (for some wierd reason) still use Myspace…prime real estate, so go get your own street sign.

Obviously you should be using firefox, and if your not, you most likely are a microsoft fanboy, or have simply been living under a rock the past 5 years.

The vast majority of extensions are available at Mozilla’s website but there are many hidden gems among their database, and sifting through it can become a daunting task, hence “The 5 Best Damn Firefox Extensions, Period!”

Yeah, I dont like those long stupid lists…so without further delay

Download Statusbar

Instead of that annoying downloads window that consistantly pops up everytime you begin a new download, the download statusbar will replace it with a neat bar in the statusbar of the browser which shows your downloads conveniently. I’ve been personally using this one since I first learned about firefox extensions, and you should too.

Web Developer

Provides for on the fly dynamic CSS editing, html validation and resizing. A must have for any web developer to work out kinks in your sites.

Google Toolbar

No affiliate link, but if you would like to click the Google for Firefox banner on the right. This is a must have to anyone who is a fan of google. You can easily search from your toolbar menu as well as check the pagerank on the go.

Adsense Notifier

Will display your adsense earnings in the statusbar, useful if you are using google adsense across your network.

Firebug

Useful for showing load times of your website along with session variables and other misc. information.

So there is my top 5 as of right now, but I will most likely come across even more useful extensions, at which point I will refer back to this post.. Enjoy!