Author: Nancy McCord

Nancy McCord is the President and resident blogger for McCord Web Services LLC. She has been providing global web services since 2001. She is a web designer, search engine marketing professional, and search engine and blog expert. She lives in Maryland just south of the Washington DC metro area.
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Check Out McCord Web’s e-Newsletter

Hey guys come check out our most recent e-newsletter at McCord Web. It talks about the new addition to Google, the Friend Connect. This is a new fun way to get noticed using your website. It gives your site social networking if you put the Friend connect application into the source code. It will allow you to use your Yahoo, AOL, and Google base accounts to join and find friends. It allows its users to be able to leave comments, rate the page or website with a star based rating system. Also you can upload videos. Over all it will allow you to extend your reach on the Web.

Content overview

Google created Friend Connect Gadgets

  1. Member panel gadget
  2. Comment gadget
  3. Rating gadget

Also the e-newsletter touches on the top content viewed in 2008 on the McCord Web Services website. In this article we give you links to the most viewed pages and content from the past year.

Concluding the e-newsletter we mention that we have four blog writers employed at this time. Most of the writer have been with McCord Web Services for about a year and a few writers for over 2 years.

To learn more or read our full e-newsletter visit this link to McCord Web Services. http://www.mccordweb.com/e-newsletters/2009/jan-09.html.

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Instant Messaging Acronyms

Have you ever wondered what your kids are saying in their IM sessions or on games chatting with friends with those strange acronyms? Well no need to wonder any more I am going to give you a quick run through of all the acronyms I see most frequently.

  • LoL – laugh out loud
  • WTF –  you might want to look out for this one, if you see it you will want to have a talk with your kids about cursing.
  • ASL – this stands for Age/ Sex/ Location ( if someone is asking this they probably dint know your kid and you shouldn’t let them talk to this person, for safety reasons)
  • ASAP – as soon as possible
  • BRB – be right back
  • BTW – by the way
  • FYI – for your information
  • GTG or G2G – got to go
  • IDC – I don’t care
  • JK – just kidding
  • OMG – oh my God

These are the top ten I see when talking on the Internet to people on games or on AIM (AOL instant messenger) and other instant messenger systems. Just keep your eyes open for your kids using or receiving some of these messages.

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2008 iPod Nano Review

The new iPod Nano is a great improvement over the older version of the iPod Nano. I got the Nano for Christmas and I have to say I love it and wanted to share the best new features with you.

  • 8GB memory (smallest size now, was largest size 2 years ago)
  • More durable then the old model (stronger screen and casing doesn’t flex)
  • HD screen
  • Capability to watch movies (not available in old iPod Nano)
  • Screen adjust to how you hold iPod (flips when you hold it sideways)
  • Like all iPods easy to upload music (just plug into computer and iTunes opens and syncs music and videos)

I would definitely suggest the iPod Nano to everyone. If you like music on the go and don’t want to spend $300 for an iPod Touch or Microsoft Zune, then the iPod Nano is the MP3 player for you.

I also have the LG Chocolate cell phone and I used to use that as my MP3 player until I got the iPod Nano. The big reason for the switch is that I was unable to plug my phone into the stereo outlet in my car. I was unable to  play the songs through my stereo while I’m driving.

Also the iPod Nano has an 8GB memory, which is a lot, that’s about 1,200 songs. I was able to put all my music on my new iPod Nano and still had room for videos. I also put 4 videos on it and one of them happens to be a full length movie, and still have room to spare for more songs.

These are all reasons that I wanted the iPod Nano. Over all, I think it was a great switch. Thanks for the Christmas gift Mom and Dad!

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Blackboard, A College Student’s Best Friend

Blackboard is a college student’s best friend. If you’re in college and you don’t know what I’m talking about, I feel for you. Blackboard is the best thing to happen in keeping up to date with assignments and grades.

For all of you who don’t know about Blackboard, it is a website which professors can use to post anything they want from class schedule changes, to upcoming assignments you need to prepare for. They also can post your grades online in this secure environment. My teachers only posted grades from my tests and online projects. I loved this feature because I would then communicate with my teacher, if I didn’t do so well. I would ask questions and find out what I needed to work on, and they could help me without ever having to meet up after class.

Another useful feature of Blackboard is that it has integrated email. This is useful if you don’t know your teacher’s school email address.  You can just use Blackboard and they will get the message in their in box. Also you can communicate with all the other students from the class to start study groups or ask questions for peer assistance.

I found Blackboard to be very useful and wished more of my teachers used it because it got a little bit annoying when some teachers would be so kind as to post things online and others did not. So, if you forgot something you could always just check online. But with the old fashioned teachers you don’t have this luxury, you have to go ask them next time you have class, and if it just wasn’t your day perhaps next class is when the assignment was due. Yikes!