The choice of Chrome extensions doesn’t yet match those available for Firefox, but the range is growing by the week, and amongst the existing ones are a number which should prove invaluable to bloggers. The following list contains some of my favourites, but you can find many more on the Chrome extensions site. If you have any suggestions you’d like to share, tell us about them in the comments section!

Bit.ly – official Bit.ly extension which quickly creates short urls for use on Twitter. Users have the option to log in, so once a shortened url is created it’s possible to track it’s usage.

Lorem Ipsum Generator – Lorem Ipsum is the random text used by designers to create place-holding text during theme design. This extension creates blocks of Lorem Ipsum at the click of a button, you just paste it into place.

MeasureIt – Adds a ruler to your browser which can be activated with a click, and used to measure any element on the screen.

Pendule – A package of advanced tools for developers and designers, includes options to work with javascript, images, stylesheets and more. Very handy!

ScribeFire – Chrome version of the popular blog posting tool. Once installed, ScribeFire can be used to publish and schedule new posts, edit tags and categories and manage existing posts.

Zemanta - adds an extra tool to your blogging dashboard which suggests related images and links that can be added to your posts with a click.

Next time: The best of the rest, great extensions that don’t fit into a category

Google Chrome Extensions: Part Two – Blogging is a post from: eggnchips.com - cracking good technology

I have a couple of blogs, my personal one where I ramble on about television, gaming, books and so on and then there’s my business blog where I talk about not only web design but other business-y type stuff and the perils and highs of working for myself.

I find though that my personal one gets neglected as I am always logged in on the business one and that does take priority. Yet I have ideas aplenty and should post them as I think of them.

So, that brings me to Windows Live Writer.

Here I can open one program and choose which of my blogs I want to post to, write the entry, add pics etc and then upload to my blog. Set up was quick and painless. I did have to alter some permissions in my WordPress admin section but that was explained clearly by the pop-up box and once done I was away.

Live Writer also (tries) to show your post as it would look once published with your backgrounds etc. This didn’t quite work for my personal blog but did for the business one. There are also plug-ins to add functionality – I added “Insert Video”, “Flickr4Writer” and “Blog this for Firefox” so I could try them out. I can confirm that the Flickr4Writer is great – you can choose your own Flickr images or another user and then align, resize and even assign a CSS class to achieve the right look.

So, all in all I am impressed by Live Writer and here’s hoping it makes me more productive.

If this has piqued your interest in Live Writer take a look at Top 10 Things I Like About Windows Live Writer.

Windows Live Writer is a post from: eggnchips.com - cracking good technology

But in what way do you use those messages? You can send a basic message, or reply to someone else by using @username so everyone can read it. Alternatively you have a direct message option, which can only be seen by the person you have sent it to.

As you use Twitter more and more, you will start to find situations where direct messages are the best things to send. The best part of using them is that they are confidential, so they are ideal if you want to send a somewhat sensitive message to someone. Some Twitter users have managed to snag jobs by using the social media site, and this is an ideal way to do so.

I found that during my early days of using the site, I had no need to use direct messages at all. It really only happened for me after I had started to form some connections with people on the site. I think you can overdo your use of direct messages if you aren’t careful – the key should always be to ask yourself if you want other people to read your message or not.

Sometimes a reply is better as it can draw other people and opinions into the conversation. There is no real right or wrong here though, so provided you are happy with how you are going to use them, direct messages are a valuable addition to the Twitter service.

Using Direct Messages On Twitter is a post from: eggnchips.com - cracking good technology

“According to the latest news reports, it would appear that the answer is no.”

With any social media site, there will always be a percentage of people who sign up to use it and then do not, for whatever reason. They might give it a try and not like it, or decide it just is not for them. The percentages for this group of people vary between sites, but according to the latest research Twitter seems to have the highest number of non-users, as you might term them.

According to this study, the vast majority of content on the social networking site is created by just ten per cent of the people using it. Now with every site of this type you will always have a core group of people who really make the most of what is being offered.

But why is Twitter apparently the home of so many people who just don’t use it?

Well it is different for a start. Not everyone can get to grips with having only 140 characters to converse with. Just as some people do not like Facebook or MySpace, there are going to be some who don’t like Twitter either.

But for my money, I think it is more likely that all the news and publicity surrounding Twitter has led to it attracting people who are just wondering what all the fuss is about. The one sure way to do this is to open a new account, use it for a day or two… and then forget all about it.

It is unfortunate that there are people who take this as being a sign that Twitter is not good enough when compared to other social media sites. The term ‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder’ could apply here, and those who do like it have shown that it is possible to achieve a lot with the website.

So perhaps the question is not whether Twitter has plenty of active users or not. Perhaps it should be whether YOU are one of them, and if not, why not?

Is Twitter Packed With Active Users? is a post from: eggnchips.com - cracking good technology

One of the wonderful things about the WordPress blogging platform is the wide range of plug-ins available which can be used to give it extra functionality – in other words, make it do more things. Some plug-ins are very well known and widely talked about, for example: Akismet or the All In One SEO Pack. However, others, although very good and fairly popular, don’t receive the same amount of publicity. In this post I’d like to share a few of my favourite, lesser known plug-ins.

Add Post Footer: One of the more useful features of Blogger is the option to add custom code to the end of every post. This feature isn’t available in WordPress, but you can duplicate it with the Add Post Footer plug-in. Once installed you can use it to add a signature tag, advertising, and even a related posts list.

Blogroll Autolinker: If you’re in the habit of linking to blogs listed in your sidebar, this plug-in makes it much easier. Instead of using the full url, you just type the name of the blog inside custom code of your choice (I use two *) and the plug-in inserts the url for you.

Contextual Related Posts: Most related post plug-ins work by grouping posts according to categories or tags, which is not always useful if your blog happens to be more eclectic in nature. Contextual Related Posts works by identifying keywords within posts and building a list from those which is displayed at the end of the post. It’s very accurate, easy to install and customise, and probably a better option for personal blogs.

Dagon Design Sitemap Generator: Although traditional HTML sitemaps are not seen as a feature of blogs, they are a useful addition – I notice a lot of visits to mine. This plug-in creates one automatically, which you can display by adding a small snippet of code to a page. From then on, any changes to your blog will instantly appear on your sitemap.

Maintenance Mode: There are times when your blog may may not be fit for viewing, for example: if you decide to edit the theme. This plug-in gives you the option of creating a splash page to greet visitors during maintenance, letting them know when your blog will working again and saving you the embarrassment of making your changes in public.

5 Lesser Known WordPress Plug-ins is a post from: eggnchips.com - cracking good technology

But does blogging qualify as well?

A lot of people have at least one blog nowadays – no matter how frequently (or not) they update it. And in my view these are just as much a part of social media as other websites are.

Think about it for a moment. What are you doing every time you put a fresh blog post together? You are connecting with people in just the same way as you would on any other social media site. You’re just doing it in a different way.

And there can still be some two way interaction if you allow responses and comments to be a part of your blog. Not everyone decides to do this but the opportunity is there. It all depends on how many you get, where you are in the scheme of building your blog, and how much attention you want to get.

The main thing to remember about social media is that you are connecting with people. No matter what type of site it is – whether it is a bookmarking site, a site where you get together online with your friends or a site that enables you to share videos – you are sharing content with other people.

Now you could argue that all websites are connecting with other people, and you’d be right. But perhaps we should be talking about degrees here. With a blog post you tend to talk directly to a person and you can invite replies. If we’re talking about any old website trying to sell something to you, we’re talking about purely promotional spiel. This would be very different from the content you would find anywhere else.

Some people might think that blogging is more professional and can be a step up from social media sites like Twitter and MySpace. I think it all depends on the user. You can use your blog to connect with other people who like the same things as you, and if you do it properly and you approach it with regularity, then you can get good results from it.

In short then, there are different types of social media. The ones you use will depend on what you enjoy and what you want to achieve. So long as you know the answers to that, you will certainly be able to get the best out of it – blogging included.

Does Blogging Count As Social Media? is a post from: eggnchips.com - cracking good technology