The Lay of the Land [Quick Tip]

Happy New Year!

Did you notice, in the rush of the holidays, that Google Maps has added a new terrain feature to their site?:



Obviously, this has huge implications for genealogy researchers, for whom an awareness of natural travel barriers like mountains, rivers, etc. can be helpful in determining behaviors of ancestors.

Here's a typical street map view of Belt, Montana, a residence of my great-grandfather Peter Shannon:



Compare the information available through the street map to that available from the new terrain view, and you can see how the terrain view could influence my understanding of Peter's activities and movements around this town:

Tag Dragging [Quick Tip]

Sometimes, in the course of your research, you open a slew of tabs, and then realize, for one reason or another, that the order of the tabs is less than optimal. Don't forget that in all browsers you can remedy this situation by dragging tabs into an order that more approximately suits your needs.

In this case, I want my ancestry.com tab to move to the second tab position. Just click and hold the tab, then drag the cursor to place you want the tab to be:



Release the button, and voila'!



Your tabs are reordered like magic, and your addled brain has one less hurdle to overcome while doing vast amounts of online genealogy research!

Live Image Search [Quick Tip]

I am usually a Google girl, but in some things Microsoft's Live Search has the best functionality. Their image search is one case in point. I especially like their option to search by photo or illustration, which comes in handy for certain searches.

As an example, I am running here a search for Oakland +"Lake Merritt". Live search returns the following at the top of its search results:



The power in Live Search's panel is on the right-hand side, where you can use various criteria to modify and refine your search. The option to view solely photos or illustrations is located here:



In selecting "Illustrations" the search returns adjust accordingly:



Note that among the returns are maps for the area in which I am searching. Very handy! You can try it our yourself at live.com.

Quick E-Mail Filtering in Gmail [Quick Tips]

Filters are a fabulous tool in Gmail that allow you to tag and autofile incoming email messages. This is great for lists that you may subscribe to (from Societies, from Rootsweb, etc.). This quick tip will show you how to quickly create a filter using a message in your inbox.

In this case, I am creating a filter for the monthly e-newsletter I receive from the California Genealogical Society.

After opening the message you want to create a filter for, begin by selecting "Filter messages like these" from the "More Actions" drop-down menu:




Gmail will take you to the screen below, where you can input the criteria Gmail will use to apply the filter to incoming messages. Gmail will autopopulate the "From" field with the email address from which the message was sent. Since I receive more than just these newsletters from this address, I have chosen to include the subject line associated with these newsletters as an additional criterion. Obviously, the more fields you fill-in, the more specific the filter will be.



After filling in the criteria for the filter, click on "Next Step", and you will be taken to a screen where you will tell Gmail what to do with any incoming mail that matches the criteria you just outlined:



"Skip the Inbox" means that incoming mail to which your filter is applied will not appear in the inbox at all, they will immediately be archived. If you choose to skip the inbox, be sure to apply a label to your message, as this will allow you to find the filtered messages easily, by browsing tags.

You'll also find that upon reaching this screen, Gmail will have searched and will display messages that match your filter settings. You can apply your filter settings on this page to apply to those messages Gmail found by clicking the "Also apply filter to the X messages displayed below".

Congratulations, you've quickly and easily made your email life a little neater, a little simpler, and a littler more organized!

You can read more about filters, labels, and using Gmail as a searchable mailing list archive in this post and this post.

Facial Recognition Online [Tidbits]

Earlier this month, it was announced that Google's Picasa had launched a facial recognition feature. The feature helps automate the tagging of photos of people, which, obviously, could be a great tool for genealogists looking to organize collections of family photos. There are limitations on the usage of the tagging, all of which are noted in the article linked above.

I ran a quick test with some photos I had already uploaded. The facial recognition worked well enough to find most of the photos of my son right off the bat, and as I tagged photos, it seemed to learn his face more efficiently:



It even started suggesting tags for photos, and, remarkable, the suggestions tended to be from the same family! Picasa had a hard time identifying some photos, especially profile shots.

Head on over to Picasa to give the facial recognition tagging a shot!

Searching the Awesome Bar [Quick Tip]

[Firefox only]

Today's Quick Tip is more of a "did you know?" than an instruction per se, but it is about as useful as it gets!

Reading something online, then promptly failing to bookmark it, then instantly needing it again is a common online malady. Did you know you can use your address bar (which is the field at the top of your browser where you usually type in the URL for sites) as a search field for your browser's history? Did you know this allows you to refind what you have already found? Others call this searchable address bar in Firefox "the awesome bar", and this may be deserved... let me give some examples of how it works:

Let's say I recently was reading about copyright research online and wanted to revisit some of the sites I ran across. I can find what sites I read by typing "copyright" into the address bar. Notice that the bar searches as I type:



Note that the search only includes the page titles of the pages you have visited, and not their content.

You can also search using multiple words. This works in pretty much the same way as the single-term search, it just adds a level of refinement to the search. I can enter my search term, in this case "family tree", and scroll through the results to find what I was looking for:



This multiple word search omits other results, such as results that would appear if I only used the word "tree" as below:



Of course, you may find this feature annoying, useless, a compromising of your privacy, or all three. If so, you may just be interested in how to turn off the search feature for good!

Quick Tip: Taming Facebook Overload

If you've been swept up in the Facebook Geneablogger revolution, you've probably come to realize that Facebook, while a great tool for us all, can add to an already overwhelming amount of online data overload.

Today I just wanted to share a quick way to organize your Facebook contacts, so that you can head over to Facebook with goals in mind, and not always be sucked into the pleasurable social morass that Facebook so excels in.

An Organizational Tool

Among my many friends on Facebook, I have a number of different "groups" of friends... friends from my hometown, friends from college, work acquaintances and also the Geneabloggers.

If I head to Facebook with the express intent of, say, seeing what my Geneablogger friends are up to, I can streamline the process by organizing my friends into Lists.

Creating Lists

Creating lists and assigning friends to those lists is simple. To start, begin by clicking "Friends" in your navigational bar on your landing page:



Once on the friends page, click on the "Make a New List" button, and you will be prompted to enter a group name:



Once in the editing section for this newly named group, to make life easier, choose the "Select Multiple Friends" link in the upper-right hand side:



To add friends to this list, simply click on their photo as below:



Now, when visiting Facebook, you can filter your friends to view things like Status Updates, Profile Updates, etc. for only the group you are most immediately interested in reading about. For instance, here I have visited my Geneabloggers group, and selected "Recently Updated":



Voila'. An easy way to catch up on my Facebook friends, without being confronted by the status updates, links, and activities of all 73 friends at once. Lists trim the chatter to a manageable way to keep up to date while still staying sane.

Enjoy.

Quick Tip: Adding Ancestry Surname Search to Lookitup2

I talked last week about Greasemonkey and some tools you can use to make online genealogy research even easier. Today I want to show you how to add an Ancestry surname search capability to LookItUp.

To do the following, you must have Greasemonkey and the LookItUp2 add-on installed in your browser (instructions can be found in my prior post here). You must also be logged in to your Ancestry account.

To Add Ancestry Search to LookItUp2:

1. Highlight any word on any webpage (it doesn't matter what or where, as long as something is highlighted). While the word is highlighted, press Shift+3. The following screen will appear:




2. Click the "New Site" button as indicated by the red arrow above.

3. Fill in the information for the site name (e.g., "Ancestry")

4. Insert the following URL into the URL field*:

http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?rank=0&=&=&=&=&=&=&=&=&=1%2C+&=&=&=1%2C+&gsfn=&gsln=[words]&sx=&=&=&=1%2C+&=&=&=1%2C+&gs1co=2%2CUSA&gs1pl=1%2CAll+States&year=&yearend=&=&=&=&=&=1%2C+&=&=&sbo=0&sbor=&ufr=0&wp=4%3B_80000002%3B_80000003&srchb=r&prox=1&db=&ti=0&ti.si=0&gl=allgs&gss=ansmp&so=1

5. Add a letter shortcut for your site. If you have not deleted any sites, be aware that the letter "a" is defaulted to ask.com in LookItUp2. (You can remove any sites you don't think you will use by deleting them using the "Delete" button located to the far right of each line).

Your added fields should look something like this:



6. Click Save and the window will close.

7. Try your search out! (Remember, to use LookItUp, you simply highlight the word you want to search on, then press Shift+Control+Space). The Ancestry search will be on the last tab. Click on the tab or press the shortcut key you assigned to see your results. Here's an example using a surname from a Wikipedia article:



* Note that the URL provided above searches on the surname defaulted to the entire United States. To limit the search to one particular state, replace the phrase "2CAll+States" in the above URL with the name of your state, capitalized, using a "+" sign between words for states with two names. For example:

Replace 2CAll+States with 2CCalifornia to search in California

Replace 2CAll+States with 2CNorth+Carolina to search in North Carolina.

As you can imagine, you can set up multiple Ancestry search possibilities with different states in which you typically research.

Greasemonkey-What It Is, Why You Should Care

If you are using Firefox, you should have heard the term "Greasemonkey" being tossed around once or twice on your internet travels. If you haven't, no sweat. Let this post serve as your primer on Greasemonkey, and by the end you will be itching to get Firefox greased up and ready to speed down that infamous "information highway."

What it is

Put simply, Greasemonkey is an extension (also called an add-on) for Firefox that allows you to manipulate web pages to your liking. More than just a simple add-on that works on a single site or in certain ways, Greasemonkey gets under the hood of your total browsing experience, and allows you to create a more seamless, efficient web.

Sounds great, right? So let's get started!

Getting Greasemonkey

You begin by downloading the add-on here. Simply click the "Add to Firefox" Button and the following box will come up:



Click "Install Now" when the button de-greys, and the extension will install. You will have to restart Firefox for the extension to function correctly.

Give the Monkey Bananas

On its own, Greasemonkey doesn't do a whole lot, but sit idly in the background waiting for something exciting to happen. Much like a banana to a monkey, so is the User Script to Greasemonkey... it's what makes Greasemonkey come alive and start to show its charm.

User Scripts are simply small scripts, written by individuals, which use the power of Greasemonkey to accomplish certain things within your browser. Some user scripts are designed to work along with specific sites (like Google, Amazon, or even online gaming sites). Some make very minute changes to the layout or toolbar options for certain sites. But some user scripts stand out for the ways in which they re-configure the web to make it more efficient and user-friendly.

You can browse the gamut of these scripts at userscripts.org.

Some Very Useful Scripts

So what can greasemonkey and user scrips do for the genealogist?

LookItUp2- A great script that extends your ability to use the web in a more seamless way. LIU2 allows you to select text and search for a word or term in a variety of different websites without leaving the page you are on.

Let's say I am on the Allen County Government Website, and was wondering if this "Allen County" had any genealogy resources I should be aware of. With Greasemonkey and the LookItUp2 script installed in my browser, I can simply press Shift+Ctrl+Space and a screen appears over my current screen:



The top red arrow shows the search field, where I have entered my query, "Allen County Genealogy". Next to this field is the drop-down menu which allows me to select what site I would like to search (the list includes Wikipedia, Wiktionary, Google Images, Google, Websters, Answers.com and more).

The second red arrow shows the results I have gotten for my search in Google. Note that under this pane is the original Allen County Government page on which I started. I can browse as normal within this pane, then, when I am finished, simply click-off of the pane into my standard browser window, and the pane disappears!

Google Extras- Another powerful script that adjusts search results in Google to provide search over multiple different sites like Google Images, Wikipedia, Google Videos, and Dictionary.com.

Let's say I search on Google for "genealogy" with this script installed. This is what I see after performing my search:



This "megasearch" makes use of the traditional white-space in the right margin of Google results pages, and makes short work of finding what data is online related to your search terms.

Custom Sticker-Adds temporary markers to web pages to be used while working on that page. The markers disappear after a page refresh or upon returning to the page, but will remain if the page is re-navigated to by going backwards through your history.

An example of using the red markers on Ancestry:



The nice thing about these markers is that they remain when printing the page, providing an easy way to mark text or lines for printed web pages!

In Conclusion

These are just a few examples of the useful scripts you can find to make Greasemonkey a most useful browser extension. Greasemonkey and its attendant user scripts seems to me to be a glimpse of where the web is headed... a streamlined place where web sites interact across URL, less boxed in to their sites and more energized because of their fluidity and customizable use. As is apparent, the new web is one driven by you and your specific needs... no more waiting for a webmaster to add or removed certain tools, features or functions! The browser is back in the driver's seat.

A Word of Warning

You should make sure that you have installed (or updated to) the most current version of Greasemonkey, as vulnerabilities are always possible, and have emerged in the past. Of course, if you are using Firefox and not Internet Explorer, you probably know how to manage your online security already. But hey... never hurts to hear a helpful reminder.

Quick Tip: Locating Groups on Flickr

I posted earlier this month about subscribing to RSS feeds for flickr groups to keep tabs on photos being uploaded.

To locate groups of interest, make use of the search function, located next to the Search field on the right-hand side of every screen. In this case I am looking for groups concerning the Civil War:



The power is hidden in that modest little arrow next to the search. Clicking on this arrow gives you a host of search-refining options. Selecting "Groups" from this drop-down menu gives me some great results:





Note that results can be sorted via the sorting links underneath the number of search results reading "View: Most relevant • Most recent activity • Group size • Date created". I find you'll get the most appropriate results sorting by the default, "Most relevant".

Happy hunting!

Cutting Blog Overload

When I finally got my one-year old down for his morning nap, and settled in front of the computer to get my blog reading done, this is what Google Reader had waiting for me:



This adds up to 2,399 blog posts that I supposedly am interested in, and supposedly want to read. And, in truth, I do. But, as aforementioned one-year old will be up within an hour or two, and with other household duties to perform, I simply can't take the time to read it all.

How to cope?

Enter AideRSS and their spiffy Google Reader add-on for Firefox or Greasemonkey.

The extension makes use of PostRank to identify blog posts with the most value, judged by user interaction, linking, etc. You can then filter your posts by PostRank value, and skim posts to keep up on the latest, without having to plow through every post in your lineup in order to find what really matters.

The install for Firefox is incredibly easy... one click and you're done. The usability is great, although it will take me a while to judge just how efficiently or accurately PostRank is determining what "really matters" in my various blogospheres.

This video tells all about the app and how to install:

Going the Distance with LiveMaps

Live Maps has an interesting post up about calculating distances and area using their maps.

Certainly another way in which Live Maps is outshining Google Maps in the functionality and usability departments.

Set Gmail as your Default Email

The Gmail Blog also has up a tip on making Gmail your default email in Firefox, meaning that clicking on a mailto: link on a web page will open your new email in Gmail.

This is great for someone like me, who has been killing accidental launches of my unused Outlook client for ages!

Gmail Hot Tips

The Official Gmail Blog recently posted a list of their most read gmailing tips. Among the highlights:

• Tips for importing old email to Gmail... great if you want to create a centralized genealogy email address and have to move messages from other accounts.
  
• Little known Gmail features, like the fact that you can bookmark individual messages, because every email has its own distinct URL. Who knew?
  
• And the all-important 9 reasons to archive, designed to wheedle, cajole and impress you into laying off that delete button and start archiving.
  

FHL Gets Earthy

The Family Search Labs Blog yesterday blogged about the new release of an FHL catalog plug for Google Earth.

Going to the KML lookup page (.kml is the extension for Google Earth files), you can now access the files for various states.

I love the visualization power this brings to the FHL Catalog. If you use Google Earth in other ways (such as locating homesteads or examining terrain) the option to quickly ascertain what resources FHL has available for your research area is extremely handy!

Remember the Milk... On Your Desktop!

I covered the benefits of Remember the Milk awhile ago, and how it can help organize and "efficientize" your genealogy research.

Thirderror has a great tutorial on how to embed your RTM to-do list on your desktop, so that those lonely little tasks don't get forgotten in the morass of your online existence. I love the ability to pull the online functionality onto your desktop and be able to use it outside of the browser environment!

(Win 98 and XP only.)

[Via lifehacker]

Feeding Flickr

If you have never perused the photo-sharing site Flickr for genealogy-related photos, you are missing out! On Flickr you can find everything from photos documenting particular family histories, to photos of historic architecture, clothing, jewelery, monuments, gravesites, and more. You can even search by location, thanks to recent "geotagging" efforts. You'll be amazed at what you can find.

As if that weren't enough, did you know that you can subscribe to RSS feeds of Flickr photo groups and individual users? This allows you to receive a continually updated stream of the photos through your favorite feed reader (Google Reader, My Yahoo Page, browser, Bloglines, etc.). As they do for following blogs, Flickr feeds make it amazingly easy to keep tabs on new photos that are being uploaded to groups that interest you. You can also follow the photostreams of individuals, which can be very helpful for collaborative efforts.

Getting Your Feed On

Subscribing to Flickr feeds is incredibly easy. Here's how to do it:

In this instance, I am interested in the Long Island, NY History photo group. While browsing the page of photos for this group, you can see that the standard feed icon appears in the address bar of my Firefox browser:



If you are using Internet Explorer, you'll find the feed icon appearing in the toolbar below the address bar:



You can also find the feed icon at the bottom of any Flickr photo page:



When you click on the icon, you will be given the option to subscribe to the RSS or Atom Feed for that particular page:



Important: Make sure that you are on the "Pool" page for a particular group, or you may end up subscribing to the group's comments instead of the photostream! To be sure, the click option should read as it does in the image above (note that it says "pool feed"). For individuals, this will read "photostream".

You'll have to follow instructions for your particular reader in order to get your feed setup completely. I use Google Reader, so the setup is pretty easy. Here's the final product, the feed as it appears in my reader:



Voila! I can now follow my favorite Flickr groups without having to leave the comfort of my reader!

Making the Most of Bookmarks in Firefox 3

I had considered writing a post on maximizing the new bookmark features in Firefox 3, but someone else already did a great job!

Especially helpful are the items on using tagging within your bookmarks, and "smart" bookmarks.

Quick Tip: Clip images from Google Books to your Google Notebook

Did you know that you can "clip" sections of text from any open copyright (any full-view) book in Google Books and paste that clip into your Google Notebook?

To do so, simply select the "clip" button in Google Books (indicated by the red arrow in the image below). You can opt to embed the image in another web page, send the clip to Blogger, or send the clip to your Google Notebook:




I have selected to send the clip to my Notebook. Here is the clip as it appears in my notebook:




Great way to keep track of the information you find on your ancestors online!

A few caveats with this:

1. Until I upgraded to Firefox 3, I could not get this feature to work. I am unsure if this was peculiar to my system or not.

2. Selecting the "text" option and sending to notebook will still send an image clip to your notebook. The text option only seems to work when sending to Blogger.

3. The selection cannot span more than one page at a time, which stinks if you have something like a biography that spans a page break.

On the bright side, however, the text in the clip you send to notebook is fully searchable!

Quick Tip: Google Blog Search

If you are a blog fan, and are always on the lookout for new blogs covering content that interests you, you should try out Google's Blog Search.

This specialized search engine is easy to use, capitalizing on the same search functionality and phraseology that you can use for any typical search. Simply enter your search:



... and Google will present to you all of the blog posts containing your search term(s). You can refine the dates of the blog posts using the toolbar on the left-hand side of the results:



This feature is helpful for when you are looking for posts on time-sensitive subjects, such as recent announcements, data releases, etc.

Another Tool

Another useful tool, available if you use Google Reader, is the ability to create and subscribe to a feed based on your search term. This customized feed will store your search term, and continuously update itself with applicable posts as those posts are made.

The link to create a customized feed is located at the bottom of the blogsearch screen, underneath the results:



Clicking on the link will take you to your Google Reader account, where you can subscribe to the feed, file it as you please, then sit back and enjoy the customized information streaming into your reader!