profile posts

Filed under: Social Software, Web, Microblogging

FriendFeed debuts custom themes

by John Burke Aug 14th 2009

In a quick post on their blog, FriendFeed announced that in addition to the themes already available to users, they would now be supporting custom themes.

Options have been added to let users upload a background image and choose colors for text, links, and more for their profile page. They also plan to add more functionality and customization options in the future but wanted to give users a taste right away. Themes are also supported for groups.

In addition to custom themes, FriendFeed also announced that, starting today, people visiting your profile will see the theme you've chosen or created. In the past, your theme was only visible to you. If you're not into this, they've has also given users an option to turn off theme visibility to viewers.

With Facebook's acquisition of FriendFeed earlier this week no one is sure what the future of FriendFeed is going to look like, but this is a pretty clear indication that they're not just going to let the site remain idle.

Tags: custom theme tool, CustomThemeTool, friendfeed, profile

Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Freeware

How to backup your Google Chrome profile

by Brad Linder Sep 15th 2008

One of the nice things about the Google Chrome web browser is that all you need to do to backup your profile information is locate the folder where your user data is located and copy the data. If you're using Windows XP, that directory is probably in the Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\User Data folder.

But if you're looking for a simpler solution, you might want to check out Google Chrome Backup, a free utility that lets you create, backup, and restore profiles.

Backing up a profile works the way you would expect it to. Google Chrome Backup will attempt to locate your existing profile and all you have to do is right click on it and select backup and choose a destination directory. A much cooler feature is the ability to create new profiles. Just click the new profile button and you can create a new profile with separate settings and browser history. You can later choose between profiles by launching Google Chrome Backup and selecting your profile from the application.

[via gHacks]

Tags: backup, google-chrome, google-chrome-backup, google-chrome-profile-backup, profile

Filed under: Internet, Social Software

Preview the new Facebook profile page

by Brad Linder Jul 14th 2008

Facebook will soon be rolling out a new site design that, among other things, will change the way your profile looks. But you can check it out today by logging into your account and then visiting www.new.facebook.com.

One of the most prominent new features will be an emphasis on the mini-feed. In fact, it might be safer to start calling it a news feed, since it's not so mini-anymore. When you first view a profile, what you'll see is a list of recent activity on that account.

You can also click on tabs for Info, Photos, or Boxes. Info brings up your contact information, group membership, and other info. Boxes shows all the Facebook apps that are currently littering your main profile page. And we're going to let you figure out for yourself what shows up in the Photos tab.

[via Mashable]

Update: Facebook seems to have disabled the www.new.facebook.com page sometime in the last few hours. But trust us, it looks something like the image above!

Tags: facebook, profile

Filed under: Internet, Web services, Social Software, web 2.0

Facebook to offer "Profile Clean-Up Tool"

by Todd Ritter Jan 12th 2008

Facebook has recently announced that they'll be rolling out a "profile clean-up" tool to its users allowing them to move Facebook applications to an "extended portion" of their profile. We think this is wonderful news since Facebook has slowly turned into Myspace where user profiles are full of garbage and the key information is buried beneath "What type of popsicle are you?" quizzes and "My favorite numbers are..." applications. This clean-up tool will naturally upset developers who are trying to monetize the Facebook API's, but how do they expect their applications to be seen on a 10-page profile anyway?

Facebook says that in addition to displaying the standard things like personal information, mini-feed, and the wall, a profile will have up to 12 extra applications on the main profile page. Users will then be able to click a link on the profile to view the remaining applications. Leaner profiles should lead to faster load times and potentially a decrease in the number of users adding applications (since many users add applications when they see that their friends have something on their profile).

Maybe now we will stop getting ninja and vampire requests...

[Via ReadWriteWeb]

Tags: facebook, profile

Filed under: Internet, Social Software, web 2.0

Digg gets (more) social

by Brad Linder Sep 19th 2007

According to Business Week, Digg is launching a series of new social networking features today. But wait, isn't Digg already pretty social? Well yeah, the site leverages the power of communities by letting users submit and vote on news stories. And you can add "friends" to your profile to make it easier to see what other people are digging. But Digg is no MySpace/Facebook/Friendster.

First up, you'll be able to create a more complete personal profile. This will make it easier to find friends with similar tastes and interests. And you'll be able to send out story links to a limited group of friends rather than submitting them for review by the whole community.

In other words, if you've created a friend group filled with 19th century literature enthusiasts, you can share stories with your friends that would never make it to the front page of Digg.

By beefing up the personal profile page, Digg is also hoping to create a stronger user community base. You'll be able to post more information, links to profiles on other social networks, and multiple pictures. Apparently only about 15% to 20% of Digg's users actually have registered accounts, but that could change if users see more benefits to signing up than just the ability to submit links and comment on stories.

Digg hasn't officially announced the new features yet, but the existing Digg community is already having a thoughtful discussion in the comments of link to the Business Week article.

Tags: business-week, digg, facebook, friendster, myspace, profile, social

Filed under: Internet, Mozilla

DLS Tip: Manage your Firefox profile(s) on Windows, Mac and Linux

by David Chartier Apr 28th 2007

Firefox profiles are a seemingly hidden feature that brings a lot of power and flexibility to the browser. Users can create separate profiles that have different add-ons installed, preferences, bookmarks - you name it. Each profile is like a new, clean slate for the browser, but accessing the profile tool isn't exactly straightforward. Other Mozilla efforts like Thunderbird and the Mozilla Suite offer better access to profile tools, but for Firefox users, Mozilla maintains this Profiles support page that offers step-by-step processes for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux on how to access the profile manager (however, this page is also handy for copy/paste-able command line code). With this manager you can create and delete all the profiles you need, as well as toggle whether the profile manager appears when you start Firefox (this setting, as you might imagine, is turned off by default).

If you aren't a chronic nut for Firefox profiles however, this tip can also be handy for another reason: troubleshooting. If Firefox is misbehaving or crashing a lot lately, chances are an add-on or Greasemonkey script is the culprit, and not Firefox itself. Setting up a clean profile to test things might just be the trick you need to get back to trouble-free browsing.

Tags: add-ons, Firefox, manager, profile, profile manager, ProfileManager, profiles, troubleshooting

Filed under: Internet, Blogging, Web services, Yahoo!, Social Software

MyBlogLog adds profile integration with Flickr

by Chris Price Jan 28th 2007

After the recent acquisition from Yahoo!, I only just got around to checking out MyBlogLog (My profile shows me registering on 1/26/2007).

These days, most social services integrate with the Flickr API, so I thought nothing of it when I saw that I could set that up. However, according to a post on Mashable!, it looks like this is a shiny new feature (we love those here).

Further investigation finds a post on the MyBlogLog blog where the developers announce this new way of adding pictures to your profile.

The Mashable post gets into additional thoughts for Yahoo! property integration - Yahoo! IDs is a given, and del.icio.us makes sense also. I'd also like to add Yahoo! 360 - for those of us that use it, it'd be nice to incorporate the MyBlogLog tracking into the 'official' blogging service from 'Big Daddy'.

If you already use MyBlogLog, we'd love to see you in our Community.

Tags: flickr, integration, mybloglog, pictures, profile, yahoo

Filed under: Internet, Security, Text, Utilities, Windows, Linux, Web services

Sxipper - forget your passwords

by Ryan Carter Dec 10th 2006

Sxipper is a Firefox (1.5 or 2.0) add-on that allows you to set then forget your personal details. All your logins will be kept safe behind your own personal guard dog. It strikes me a lot like roboform, but is free for use and stores all your info for work, personal, openID, and all your other identities. Sxipper lets you hand-pick the color and icon for your profile, and even import a v-card. If you watch the video above, you'll notice that it is only 18 seconds long. This is how fast it is to use Sxipper. I remember hearing about Sxipper a while back when it was just a twinkle, and thought it was a great idea, so it is really cool to finally see it in action. Sxipper is a bit more powerful than most password managers, and aims to be your one stop shop for protecting all your personal information by logging you in securely. The biggest benefit is not having to fill-in forms, and selecting what type of information you want to share with a website. It won't be long before you will be entering in all your favorite bugmenot logins, so you don't even have to go look those up either. Sublime.

Source: Sxipper

Tags: identity, profile, security, sxip, sxipper, theft

Filed under: Internet, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Windows Mobile, Symbian, Palm, Web services, Social Software

Digg user auctions profile on eBay

by David Chartier Jul 31st 2006

Digg user 'Geekforlife' has decided to put his profile, ranked 73rd out of all users, up for auction on eBay. Amidst accusations hurling at both Digg and Netscape for their respective approaches towards the social news site and business models, one of the many debates that has arisen centers around a question: can the participation of these sites' users (especially the top contributors) be measured in dollars and cents? Jason Calacanis (disclosure: our CEO and general manager of the new Netscape) certainly thinks so, as do plenty of other bloggers, such as Ian Betteridge.

Understandably, not everyone is happy with the concept of monetary incentives being inserted into the realm of grassroots social news aggregating, but 'Geekforlife' has apparently been inspired to try out his own take on the situation with this auction. As of this writing, bidding (possibly due to fraud/inflation) is already up to $325 after 27 bids. I guess time will tell as to what, if anything, this little experiment could mean to the social news universe.

Tags: auction, digg, ebay, geekforlife, profile, user

Filed under: Internet, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Windows Mobile, Symbian, Palm, Web services, Social Software

Flickr Profile Widget banner generator

by David Chartier Jul 23rd 2006

Here is yet another Flickr toy to add to your arsenal, hailing from flagrantdisregard.com's extensive Flickr Toys section: the Flickr Profile Widget banner generator. You have a nice array of options to specify, such as which of your photos to show (most recent, most interesting, random recent, random interesting), and you can chose whether to show the photo count I have pictured here. As expected, you can also specify the background's color, as well as the username text color. It all comes together to generate a slick banner image that measures 500 x 100 (I had to downsize mine per Download Squad formatting specifications), complete with just a touch of drop shadow. Nice.

[via electicism]

Tags: banner, code, Flickr, generator, image, images, photos, picture, profile, profile widget, ProfileWidget

Filed under: Fun, Web services

SingleStat.us: Be notified when your MySpace crush is single

by Jordan Running Jun 5th 2006

Have you ever spent all night refreshing that special someone's MySpace profile over and over again just waiting for for their relationship status to change to "Single" and thought, "there's got to be a better way"? Okay, um... me neither. But say you had a friend who did that. You could tell your friend to check out SingleStat.us, which will watch their ~~stalkee's~~ special someone's profile and e-mail them as soon as their status switches to Single. You can use SingleStat.us for free if you plug the service on your MySpace profile, or if plugs aren't your thing you can pay a one-time fee of $3.95. Incidentally, SingleStat.us was built by PB Wiki CEO David Weekly in three days for this weekend's SuperHappyDevHouse coding competition.

[Via Waxy.org]

Tags: David Weekly, DavidWeekly, fun, myspace, pbwiki, profile, relationship, singlestat.us, singlestatus, status, superhappydevhouse

Filed under: Internet, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Mozilla

Run multiple Firefox versions or profiles at once

by Jordan Running Apr 13th 2006

Out of the box, there's no way to make two different version of Firefox, or two copies running different user profiles, run at the same time. This can be a big pain when doing stuff like developing extensions or testing alpha builds, or maybe you just want to have both your and your roommate's profiles open at once. Of course, there's a workaround. It requires setting the MOZ_NO_REMOTE environment variable to 1 and David Schontzler at planet::dojo describes the process. He provides a shell script that will save you a step (choosing a profile in the profile manager) on Mac OS X or Linux, and in the comments another reader provides a Windows VBScript. If you'd prefer a batch file take a look at this tip by "The Edmeister.

Tags: firefox, multiple, profile, tip, version

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