Recently Evernote came out with a great feature called the “Trunk”. This feature is basically an app store for Evernote. Well if you have an iPad, mobile phone, netbook or any other kind of mobile device you probably can’t get access to the Trunk, or if you can it is limited due to the size of your device.

As of this morning I found a way to get around that issue. If you go to http://www.evernote.com/about/trunk/

You get full access to the Trunk and all of it’s features on any web enabled device.

This year I have been trying to make a point to participate in making the web a better place. I know there are a lot of tools and websites out there, and many of us use these on a daily basis, but how often do we notice a bug, or an issue and just move on?

I myself still do this quite often, but I am catching myself doing it and trying to make it a point to correct it.

There are many tools out there that you can use to help notify a website of a particular issue, such as: Google side wiki, forums on their website, contacting the web site owner via email, twitter, facebook, Google Buzz or even calling them on the phone.

If you are a web site owner you should check out my blog postCommunication: A Must For Any Website it will provide you with more in depth reasoning on which tool would work best for you and your web site.

For the websites I work on I make notes of issues or bugs in Evernote. Evernote now makes it possible to easily find all notes that I have made on a particular website using their Evernote Google Chrome extension. Now when I go back to that website I can see all notes that I have made and correct the issues when I have time.

Do you try to help make the web a better place? If so, how?

I’ve been talking about Google Buzz now for a few months and now it is time to take it up a notch. I am organizing a Google Buzz meet up here in Portland Oregon. The meet up will be Saturday, July 24th.

Help promote Google Buzz by getting fellow Buzz users and non-Buzz users together for a chance to meet face to face and talk about the new social media tool.

If you are interested hit me up on Google Buzz or post a comment below.

Hope to see you there!

Why is this important you ask?
If you own a website, aren’t you busy writing articles, improving the tools on your site or even thinking of a new design or layout? Sure you are, I know I am. Doing these things are great for your website as they help your company grow in the direction that you want your company to grow, but what about how your users want or need your company to grow for them? How can you connect to your users? How can your users connect with you? How can your users help you out when you make a mistake, there will always be a mistake, no one is perfect.

Some people may say that this is what Facebook, Twitter or Buzz is used for, and to some extent they are right, but do you read every comment, every post on those services? Probably not.

How to let your users communicate with you:
There are many ways that you can get real and honest feedback from your users about your website. Below you will find a few useful tools/methods that I would recommend:

1. Twitter with Hash tags – On your “Contact Us” section of your website add a statement or two to recommend your user to send you a twitter post using some basic has tags.
   • #Bug – Used when your users needs to share a bug on your website
   • #Suggestion – Used when your users wants suggest a new feature, an article or anything else
   • #Help – If your user needs help about something related to your website
   • #Spam – If you allow comments on your website, this will let users help if they spot a spam comment on your website
   • #Critique – If you have a user who wants to vent about your site or just let you know how they feel about a certain feature or article this is the easiest way for them to do so, 140 characters at a time
2. Create a forum on your site which can be found easily such as forum.yourwebsite.com or yourwebsite.com/forum
   • Create 6 categories:
     1. Suggestions
     2. Help
     3. Critique
     4. Bug Report
     5. Spam
     6. Other
3. Encourage your users to use Google Side Wiki
   • Add a link for users to download Google Sidewiki
   • Have a section showing all Google Sidewiki Posts (The good and the bad)
4. Create a comboniation of support methods like TweetDeck – http://support.tweetdeck.com/home

The Goal:
Your users are a great source of inspiration, guidence and they help keep both you and your company honest. Reach out to them and give them the services they want and they will reach out and bring more users to your site.

In response to the positive feedback that I got from my previous article, from both Buzz users and the Google Buzz Team, I decided to explore the mobile version more and give my opinion on it as well. Below you will find things that I think could be ironed out further to make the mobile version pop.

1. @replying is unknown who it will go to (can we get a popup to allow us to choose?)
2. After making a post the screen pops down a few posts causing confusing to the last post you were on.
3. If someone posts pictures I would like a pop up or a new window to view those images larger
4. There is no way to view the static URL for a post
5. There is no way to mail a post, something similar to google reader mobile would be nice
6. Unable to add an image to a post, what about the option to choose an image from picasa?
7. We need the ability to email using the body of the email and not the subject, that way we could post images on the go.
8. We need more advanced search features, like by date, time, poster name, comment by, has images, from X source
9. Unable to edit posts or comments
10. Hard to copy and paste text
11. We need to be able a time stamp on a comment, a toggle option would the best option.
12. When viewing a new follower there should be a link to go back (I know there is a back button in the browser so this is low on my list)
13. We need a way to view new followers separate from the following tab. This also goes for the main Google Buzz.
14. A way to quickly show users that are following you that are not being followed by you and ones that you are.

These items are in no particular order, they are only numbered so that they can be referenced for easier commenting.

I find that the mobile Buzz version is a little more reliable when viewing unread items and when using it on a regular basis. A big thanks goes out to Punit Soni and the mobile Buzz team for creating a solid mobile version.

Update 8:50am 6/12/10:

• Add the re-share button
• An option in the “Menu” To Show Mentions. It could just be the simple search query of @yourusername@gmail.com
• A map to view all of “My Posts” similar to how Evernote shows your Geo-located posts

Over the past few years that I have been doing freelance work I have come across a handful of tools which allow me to create wireframes,  flow diagrams and general project plans. Most of these tools are free, but tend to give you a limited number of features. April 12th 2010 this has all changed.

Google released a new Google Docs format called “Drawing”. In this drawing tool I am able to easily create wireframes, flow diagrams and other project planning techniques without having to “learn” the tool. Granted this lacks some useful features found in dedicated project planning tools like sticky lines and stock images, but it offers multiple reasons for it to become my new project planning tool.

Here are some of the key benefits to planning web projects with Google Drawing:

• Able to save the wireframes and flow diagrams then import them into other Google Doc files for better project planning.
• Able to share wireframes and flow diagrams easily with clients
• I can collaborate with clients on the fly (Up to 40 people at once)
• I can publish to the web so that my clients can download a large file
• I can save it out to multiple formats: PNG, JPG, SVG and PDF
• Built in snap/align tool

Here is a sample wireframe and flow diagram that I created with just a few minutes of opening the tool for the first time.

Flow Diagram

Wireframe

I started using Google Buzz about a month ago and from the very beginning I wanted to share articles with other readers. Sometimes the articles I wanted to share would only show up in my Buzz stream. Google Buzz is still new so there is no standard way to repost an article, since there is no standard way I talked with a few Buzz users about reposting etiquette.

After some great discussions we came up with some Buzz reposting etiquette.

Step 1. The word “via” at the beginning to tell you that it is a repost.
Step 2. @username so that we know who originally posted the article
Step 3. Where it was reposted from
Step 4. New line
Step 5. Paste text from the original post
Step 6. Paste Buzz URL from original post

Here is what a proper repost should look like:

via @Mashable – - Buzz – Public
Do you ever feel stressed out by the fast-paced flow of social media?
4 Tips for Reducing Social Media Stress
If the fast-paced, real-time flow of social media is stressing you out, take a moment to heed these 4 tips on achieving balance in a constantly connected world.
http://www.google.com/buzz/101849747879612982297/Gycd61qJUhM/Do-you-ever-feel-stressed-out-by-the-fast-paced

I mean if you think about it, we as developers are trying to make the web more secure for all of our users. We use the information gathered from web analytics (mainly Google Analytics) to know what operating system and browser they are using. I think that once Google creates this tool, I hope they add in options for the users to share the information about the system they are using while still allowing them to keep some of their information private, otherwise this will really hurt the people who are trying to use these tools to better the web.

Website usability testing is something that should be done by any major web development company, or freelancer.

Forget what people say, usability testing is boring and seems like you are looking at the same thing, over and over and over again with little to no problems.

I found a way to make usability testing easy to do and fun.

Step 1:
Hook up a laptop or computer to your living room TV

Step 2:
Hook up a wireless keyboard and mouse

Step 3:
Open up the browser you are testing in and now, with a larger screen to look at, it makes you notice the smaller things. And since it is on your TV you can turn the channel and come back to it and do testing every once in a while.

HINT:

1. Get your family or friends to chime in and give their opinions, they will be more willing to help out since the website is viewable without having to get in front of a computer
2. If you have a wide screen TV and a game console then you can setup picture in picture(side by side) with your computer on one side and your game on the other and you can go back and look at the site every time you get to a save point, complete a level, or complete a check out. The important thing to keep in mind is to do it when it feels convenient to you so that it makes usability testing effortless and fun.

Now my two favorite tools, Google Chrome and Evernote now work in harmony with one another.

Benefits:

• This allows coders to quickly grab code that they use often for a project
• To find notes while using only one program for both surfing the web and notes

How I set it up:
When I read the tutorial it made me excited, but I wanted to launch the search feature using less characters, and since Evernote uses the “@en” for their twitter handle, i decided to use “en” to launch the Evernote search.

Here are the tools that I have that use Evernote:

• Twitter @en
• Evernote dedicated email address
• Google Chrome Search Bar
• Google Chrome Extension
• Google Reader “Send To” Feature
• JotNot iPhone image scanner
• Scan Directly into Evernote with my Epson Scanner

Summary:
Evernote continues to get my support since their developers work hard by integrated Evernote into every toolthat I use.

Since Evernote keeps surprising me and adds more features to their services, and as long as they keep this up I will write about them and suggest everyone I know to use their service.