I think my fairy godmother was present for this life moment.

I like tech. And people. But what I like the most is helping people with technology.  Sure, I’ve received a few frantic phone calls in my time from family and friends that have gone something like…

“ALANA!”

“Hey, whats wrong?

“I’m really sorry to bother you… BUT… I just spilled [coffee, water, hot tea, beer, wine, etc.] all over my [macbook, macbook pro, iPod, blackberry, cell phone] AH OMG!”

Lately, my people+tech work has been a little bit different than the whole “ok. breathe.  make sure your computer is off and remove the battery ASAP! Don’t try to turn it back on! step away from the computer.”

When I see a blog or some sort of online effort that has some serious promise, I can’t keep my mouth shut. I mean, doesn’t everyone love free tech consulting?

It started with Kappa Alpha Theta, @BettieLocke, and their blogs.

Next up is my friend Brittany‘s blog, “Crowning Celebrations.” Brit is an extremely talented designer, event/wedding planner, and overall just the classiest person I’ve met. If you don’t believe me, check out a photo gallery of her past work.

Also up on the list is Run ‘Til I’m Fun. These fellow ‘Cuse alums are dedicated to the cause of running long distances (which is awesome) and they’re pretty hilarious too. It shows that they are fans of 2B1B.  My former (slash lifelong) roommate Sarah says:

A security guard standing outside of a building applauded me, stuck out his hand for a high-five and yelled out “keep it going, gorgeous!”   This man single-handedly made my day.  A standing ovation, a high-five and a compliment when I have no makeup on and my hair is in a sweaty bun?  God, these tights are magical. – via Run ‘Til I’m Fun.

So, all you bloggers out there who are interested in my “5 minute e-mail of advice” feel free to shoot me an email at amedmunds@gmail.com.

Sure I’m no member of the Startup Princess Fairy Godmother Consulting team, but who knows, maybe I’ll drop them an email too.

Think back to this morning. What have you entered into that simplified one-line text box on Google’s homepage in the past few hours?

Today I’ve googled:

• Mobile Maximo Solutions
• IMLP Blog (to check how far up it arrives in results)
• Millennials Photos (don’t ask- for a side project at work)
• Syracuse University Homecoming Court (to see who succeeds me as queen)
• Syracuse University Diversity Business Summit & Career Fair (I might be attending!)

Either way you look at it, tracking and analyzing search trends on Google is an interesting way to see what we’re up to out there. People Google personal things, medical conditions, interests, definitions, urls, photos… you name it.

Check out Google Cloud if you’re interesting in seeing what people are searching, Google Hot Trends,  Google Checkout Trends, or  Yahoo Buzz for what’s hot out there in cyberspace right now. Or even use Google Insights for more advanced features- like comparisons across time or locations.

But what about those who have additional insight and access to what we’re searching and when we’re searching for it? It’s powerful marketing information- not only directly from the source (me and you) but the research opportunities relating to this data is truly remarkable.

A friend of mine sent me an msnbc article focusing on Bill Tancer, head of Research for HitWise, a company that provides insight into internet usage (searches, etc.)

In the article, Mr. Tancer made some very interesting suggestions into changes of searches relating to pornography:

[Bill Tancer] said surfing for porn had dropped to about 10 percent of searches from 20 percent a decade ago, and the hottest Internet searches now are for social networking sites.

“As social networking traffic has increased, visits to porn sites have decreased,” said Tancer, indicated that the 18-24 year old age group particularly was searching less for porn.

“My theory is that young users spend so much time on social networks that they don’t have time to look at adult sites.”

Bill also agrees that the amount of false/inaccurate on the web is something that we need to work on:

“With the explosion of this type of false information on the Internet I think we will see someone come forward and develop a new type of software that can filter for the most accurate information,” he said.

I’ll end with some of Bill’s best work…

Some of his findings are great trivia, such as the fact that elbows, belly button lint and ceiling fans are on the list of people’s top fears alongside social intimacy and rejection.

Thanks bill, I know I feel a lot better knowing that this incredible research power has truly remarkable findings

Hard work. Yea, it’s a bit rough at time, but in the end it can really pay off.

(Oh and blogs count for this too).

Take my situation: I started Techyness in a quest to become “master of my own domain” to say the least. Some sleepless nights, 404 errors and browser incompatibilities later, I’m at the place where the blog is (closer) to where I’ve always wanted it to be. Heck, I’m proud of this baby.

I’ve been fielding some questions lately from friends or visitors wondering, “Who do you write this for? Is it for your friends?”

My answer is a bit less concrete. I wrote techyness without a single demographic in mind. It’s for anyone who is interested in how “techyness” intersects with many aspects of life and love. I’m not talking regurgitated tech specs or technical drawings in this blog. You can get that anywhere.

In working on a new corporate blogging initiative, I’ve met a few people with whom a passion for wordpress and blogging is shared. One is the founder of Newly Corporate, somewhat of a “brother” site to techyness, as we have a similar byline (and it’s not a bad one, thanks to the declaration of independence).

Newly Corporate takes into account perspectives from a variety of bloggers, covering topics that hit home with the driven young professional.

Look for guest post from yours truly in the near future. Could be the beginning of a wonderful blogging relationship (you know, with the whole inalienable rights byline thing in common).

I promised I’d be back with part deux and you know how I feel about keeping promises…

Any new web app (or mobile device, iPod, etc) always inspires a slew of add-ons, third party accessories and software applications. Twitter‘s no different.

So this post is dedicated to cool stuff to check out if you’re into twitter or just checking out the scene.

If you want to twitter right, you need to be connected wherever you are (who wants to visit the site to update!?). Mobile connectivity is a must.

• Outlook: OutTwit
• Blackberry: TwitterBerry
• iPhone/iPod Touch: Hahlo 3
• Windows Mobile: HelloTwitFace
• Windows: TeleTwitter (google)
• CLI: Twitter CLI (if you don’t know what this means, don’t dl it)

Technorati is to Blogging as Summize is to Twittering. In normal terms, Summize is a search engine that follows twitter feeds exclusively. The best part about it are all of the applications the team has developed.

My favorite is Twistori, a beautifully designed site that displays twitter messages from anyone who uses any of the following: love, hate, think, believe, feel, wish.

For example, one twitter-er wrote, ” I wish I could work 4 google. Ill sweep their floors. I dnt care. I need 2 learn the ways of the google. I am but a young grasshopper.”

If you’re looking for an ingenious and somewhat addicting way to graphically present twitter updates, visit TWITTERVISION

Another response to David from Forbes: I really think you missed the point of Twitter altogether. As with any major web app.. the beauty is in the expansive collection of data. These startups fail when they can’t expand or handle traffic, but mainly if they can’t harness the amount of information that passes through.

For example, take Facebook. You can track music and movie trends, as well as how many times a certain interest is noted. Now add in how you can cross-reference gender, occupation, age… now we’re talking. (you really think all those investors were bidding on access to photos from your attendance at last night’s frat party?)

Think of the amazing statistics and reports that come out of these. Wayyy better than a focus group.



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