Tag Archives: web

Online Presence

Okay I need to know the truth here. Be honest: have you ever Googled yourself?

My teammates and I were doing that earlier, just for kicks. Obviously, doing a search with my name will give you this site as the number one result, followed by my Facebook account and other places in the web where I managed to leave a footprint. Or when people leave a footprint for me (like this GroupCard that was sent to me for my 23rd birthday). There are also blogs that re-posted some of my contributions for Didache and Jun’s e-newsletter, too. And…so…much…more.

Just a few days ago, I realized that I’ve been online for 10 years now — the first time we had Internet was 1999, I think, right after first year in high school. I can’t believe it’s been a decade since I first got connected to the Internet, which means I’ve also been “webdesigning” for almost ten years too! How about that?

It’s really no surprise if it’s so easy to find me in Google (or Yahoo, or BING, even). Which then leads me to think…how many accounts have I set up all over the Internet ever since I started? Let me try to remember them:

  • Hotmail – I think the first ever account I signed up for when I got connected was my old, old hotmail account. It’s the time when the only thing you can collect online are email addresses, you see. I got my first email address there — kylie108@hotmail.com. I can’t log in to that anymore. :P
  • ICQ – I got introduced to this after I got introduced to mIRC (oh the memories), and I remember loving the typewriter sounds and the cuckoo alert. I can’t remember my number anymore, so sad. Is anyone still using ICQ?
  • MyOwnEmail – Now this was fun! This is like the coolest email service I ran into way back then. MyOwnEmail provides custom domain names for emails, and I think what sold me for this was the @backstreet-boys.com email. :P I had purplegal@backstreet-boys.com! Haha!
  • Angelfire – This was where I first made my own website, an Animorphs fansite. I taught myself HTML from scratch, and used to code only in Notepad. Haha geek!
  • gURLpages – After Angelfire, I got to gURLpages. I don’t know why or how I found out about this, but I stayed in gURLpages for almost a year before moving to Geocities. This was one of the free website places that offered ad-less hosting. I think my URL was http://www.gurlpages.com/writing/purplegal7 . Hah!
  • Dreambook – My first guestbook. I left this one after I realized how limited it was.
  • Bravenet – I wanted a better guestbook other than Dreambook, so I went to Bravenet, which seemed to provide everything a website owner could possibly want at that time. I got a guestbook, email form and polling system, all from Bravenet.
  • girlslife.net mail – Can’t remember where I found this site too, but this was my primary email for a while – mihana@girlslife.net. I think I signed up for this after I moved from gURLpages, and gURLmail is already too cluttered for me.
  • Geocities – I signed up for Geocities because I wanted my website to be hosted on a domain. It worked. :P

After this, I honestly can’t remember what other free services I signed up for. I remember having web hosting accounts in envy.nu and virtue.nu, as well as gbook.nu (don’t you remember how this seems like the coolest guestbook provider before?), scribble.nu (a journal provider), pitas.com, diaryland.com, signmyguestbook.com, diary-x.com, and one free forum provider. I also signed up for webrings, created a webring of my own, and signed up for so many online forums (and met a lot of good friends there too).

I’m pretty sure most of my accounts on the sites above no longer exist — some of those websites no longer exist, either! That’s web-life for you, I guess?

Okay, now for a more current Internet inventory. Where have I signed up now?

Dreamhost. Google. Yahoo. Livejournal. Multiply. Facebook. Friendster. Flickr. Goodreads. Listography. Twitter. Plurk. Vox. Uh…what else? Oh yeah, the newest one: Tumblr.

Whew. That was hard to remember.

The Survey for People Who Make Websites

 

One of the things that I committed to do this year at work is to participate in surveys sent by the organization. To be honest, answering surveys is one of the most boring things I could agree to do. No offense, but really. Surveys that have definite answers (i.e. Yes/No, Agree/Disagree, etc), but those which required me to give a comment gives me a headache. :| I remember back in college, I always hated it when some people interrupt our class to ask us to fill out a survey about our prof’s performance, and I hated it more when I feel no special kinship with the prof. :|But I do recognize how important surveys are to groups especially to a big organization that I belong to. If taken and filled out seriously, these surveys could really provide valuable information that the survey givers are looking for. :)

And now I segue to the point of this post…A List Apart just launched their 2008 Survey for People Who Make Websites. And I quote:

Calling all designers, developers, information architects, project managers, writers, editors, marketers, and everyone else who makes websites. It is time once again to pool our information so as to begin sketching a true picture of the way our profession is practiced worldwide.

Possibly the most important invention of the past century, the web is undeniably one of the most robust engines of knowledge transfer, political and social change, artistic endeavor, and economic growth the world has seen.

Remove the web, and billions in trade disappear. Websites enable people who can’t walk to run to the store. They bring knowledge and freedom of thought to places where such things are scarce; make every person with a connection a citizen of the world; and allow every citizen to be heard.

[source]

So if you’re a designer, a developer or you just play around with the web, take the survey now! I just finished answering it a few minutes ago, and it’s really quick and easy to answer, and would not take more than 10 minutes of your time. :D

I took the 2008 ALA Survey

 After taking the survey, tell all your friends (and strangers :p) about it, just like what I did now. ;)