As a blogger, I use Flickr a lot to find relevant images that correctly portray what I’m trying to express in my words. That means I’m often mired in Flickr search. Yesterday, the Flickr blog announced a redesign of their search page.

The page now allows you to search based on keyword through the individual images/videos, as well as search for groups and people. As always, you can search through the entire text associated with an image or just the tags. You can also change the view from Small and Medium (Small is shown in the screenshot) to Detailed view, which is similar to the old Flickr search results. Small view resembles CompFight, which I occasionally use to search for Creative Commons-licensed photos. In Small and Medium view, every photo has an i button in the lower right corner. Clicking the i provides a pop-up with detailed information, such as date, location, and number of comments.

The right-hand column now provides a new perspective as well.

On the right side of the page we try to provide a new perspective on your search. Based upon how our members are tagging their photos and participating in the Flickrverse, you’ll see links to the groups, photographers, tag clusters and places that are most closely related what you’re looking for. We hope these will occasionally provide a little extra inspiration for your search.

My only complaint is that there is no easy way to search Creative Commons-licensed photos. You still need to go into Advanced search, click the appropriate checkboxes, and then Search again. I’d love it if Flickr would add a CC button to the main search page.

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Cheers!

Tweet Michelle @writetechnology, send her technology news at michelle[at]writetech[dot]net, visit her wine blog when you’re thirsty, and drop by her day job.

by Michelle Lentz

About a month ago, I posted that Twitter had officially added search and trends. Well, they’ve added them again, in that they’ve moved them. According to the Twitter blog,

A few weeks ago we started testing Twitter Search in the web interface for a subset of folks. We had the search box way up near the top of the page and the results on a separate page. It turns out that’s not the awesome way to do it. The best way to experience Twitter Search is when it’s a natural part of your normal Twitter experience.

I’d have to agree. Now, the Search box is in my right-hand column with Trends underneath. In this screen capture, I did a search on social media. Instead of going to a new page, my search now shows up right on my Twitter.com home page. Much more seamless than last month’s design, where I was taken to a new page of search results. Settings and Profile have both been moved back to the top of the screen, which is good.

Interestingly, you can also save the search. That’s a great feature, especially if you reference the same search repeatedly. (Maybe you’re tracking your brand.) However, once you save a search, I can’t figure out how to access it again. It’s supposed to be permanently in my sidebar, but that didn’t seem to stick. Ah, the joys of beta.

This newest redesign is in beta for a subset of users. Once Twitter gets some feedback, it may or may not roll it out to everyone.

Any thoughts on the newest changes?

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Email: michelle[at]writetech[dot]net
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by Michelle Lentz

Well, actually it’s more like some nips and tucks

Twitter made some cosmetic changes last week and this week it’s Alltop. Alltop is Guy Kawasaki’s site that lists the “top” blogs in a category. As there are now 200+ categories, it was time to redesign the site and make it easier to find things.

My wine site is on Alltop. The day I got the email from Guy Kawasaki (I realize that it might have been an intern just signing his name), I jumped up and down. I don’t often see emails from famous tech folks in my inbox you know. How are the top sites determined? According to Alltop:

We rely on several sources: results of Google searches, review of the sites’ and blogs’ content, researchers, and our “gut” plus the recommendations of the Twitter community, owners of the sites and blogs, and people who care enough to write to us. Let us declare something: The Twitter community has been the single biggest factor in the quality of Alltop. Without this group of mavens and connectors, Alltop would not be what it is today.

The site now includes a handy topic search as your entry page. You can now search by keyword, view by category, and view by topic name. The site is only 180 days old (give or take a few days), so its growing by leaps and bounds. It’s had over 5 million page views during that time.

My favorite thing about the new redesign? The tutorial. The trainer in me is thrilled with their fun video on how to use Alltop.

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Contact Michelle with your news, apps, and events via email, Twitter, Pownce, or FriendFeed. Visit Michelle at Wine-Girl.net and Write Technology.

by Michelle Lentz

I’m presenting two sessions on Twitter in November at DevLearn, and I keep getting called upon as a local Twitter expert. (Now if only someone would pay me for this knowledge.) So I’m sensitive to Twitter changes. I don’t often log into the Twitter site – I primarily access Twitter via Twhirl. So I was rather surprised this morning when I logged into the actual Twitter site and found a rather nice redesign.

Most of the changes are rather subtle, and there are still things that I think they really need to add. The Twitter blog hints at an upcoming release with new features, so hold onto your fail whale. In the meantime, we have some cosmetic changes.

The biggest change seems to be that we no longer have tabs across the top. The tabs (@Replies, Direct Messages, etc) have been moved to the right column. In addition, your latest tweet now appears below the “What are you doing?” text box. According to the Twitter blog, clicking on a tab now results in Ajax-updating. What does that mean? It’s faster.

Twitter has also removed the Archive tab, and here’s why:

The reason is, it showed you the same stuff you see on your own profile page, it was oddly named, and people rarely used it. It didn’t deserve the space it took. If you miss it, hopefully you’ll get used to going to your profile page (which you can get to by clicking on your picture or the Profile link up top).

Your Twitter “stats” are now in the top of the right-hand column. These list your number of updates, number you’re following, and number of folks that follow you.

The favorites (star) and reply to (arrow) are now only available when you hover over each specific tweet. Twitter has also improved the overall look with tiny changes, such as rounding corners and lightening lines. Some of these changes can’t be seen in IE, but are viewable in most other browsers. If your customized Twitter design was a bit messed up in the makeover, you can now use their new Design tool to completely customize your home page.

I would love to have a direct link to Summize, er, Twitter Search on my Twitter home page as well, but maybe that’s coming. The Twitter blog makes it clear that these cosmetic changes are setting the stage for a bigger and better feature release. Let’s all cross our fingers for that and meanwhile, enjoy the redesign.

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Contact Michelle with your news, apps, and events via email, Twitter, Pownce, or FriendFeed. Visit Michelle at Wine-Girl.net and Write Technology.

by Michelle Lentz

You can now preview your new Facebook profile, as the redesign has been released in beta. It’s a real beta though (as opposed to a perpetual beta) and some things just aren’t working. Playing with your profile in beta will not change your current profile. It’s more of a sandbox. Log into your Facebook account, then go to new.facebook.com. You’ll see your profile in the new design.

They went with Boxes as the label for your Applications tab (I would have gone with Apps). I tried to add a Causes tab to show off my Causes application, but that function is apparently not working yet.

My Wall tab is actually a feed of everything, including my original Wall. This operates a lot like FriendFeed and is something Facebook has been gently nudging its users toward in the last few weeks. In addition to the Wall and Boxes tab, there is a tab for Photos and for Info. Info displays all of your general profile information (quotes, education, jobs, etc). Photos displays your albums as well as any photos in which you’ve been tagged. I also saw an empty album called “Mobile Photos.”

This is worth playing with, if only to see what the Facebook developers have been working so hard on these last few months. It’s a great little sneak peek.

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Events, news, apps, and more – let me know at michelle[at]writetech[dot]net, via Twitter, Pownce, or FriendFeed. Visit Michelle at Wine-Girl.net and Write Technology.