The fact is that creating a quality infographic is not an easy task and not everyone can do it properly.  It takes design skills, time, a good computer program and patience to get it just right.  Unfortunately not everyone has those qualities and so as a result, a lot of infographics end up in the email trash bin.  But done properly, an infographic can be a really beautiful and informative thing, a feast on the eyes.

Our infographic today comes courtesy of DIY Blogger and it shows you the 7 steps necessary to make a good infographic that people will want to look at.  All you Mac fans out there will be pleased to hear that the first recommendation is not to make an infographic on a Windows computer but on a Mac instead.

What do you think of the infographic?  Do you think it’s correct that infographics can’t be made on a Windows computer?  Have you ever made your own infographic before? If so, did you follow the rules set out in the infographic?  If not, how did you do it?  How easy or difficult was it?  Tell us all about it in the comments below.

Click on infographic for a larger version

Infographic Source: DIY Blogger
Image Source: Selva

Fast forward 30 years and the situation has completely changed.  Now the Internet is King and everyone is buying their items online, turning online shopping into a major industry in itself.  Amazon rules in a lot of areas but there is still room for other heavy hitters such as supermarkets who offer home delivery for groceries, eBay for that hard to find item and Groupon for that last minute unbelievable deal.  You can download a lot of stuff too – all that’s needed is a fast Internet connection, some patience and a credit card.  The shopping experience has been turned upside down and it’s bricks and mortar stores that are suffering as a result.

Our infographic today comes courtesy of Grovo and it displays some staggering figures such as the total amount spent online in 2010 ($143 billion!), the rising influence of mobile phones in online shopping, who dominates which retail sector, and finally what kinds of stuff people tend to buy the most online.

Let us know what you think of it. How much of your stuff do you buy online?  Do you ever go out to a “real shop” anymore or is everything bought on a computer with a credit card?  How do you see online shopping progressing in the future?  Let us know in the comments below.

Infographic Source: Grovo
Image Source: -{ thus }-

Adding us to your circle and following our updates will entitle you to exclusive previews, giveaways, and of course, the latest and greatest content you’ve come to love on MakeUseOf for Windows, Linux, Android, Mac, XBMC, Arduino, and so much more. You can also talk to the MakeUseOf team in the comments of the posts!

We hope to see you soon!

Well as I like to say to them, it doesn’t work that way.  Google isn’t HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey (at least not yet anyway) and it doesn’t read minds.  If you want Google to give you relevant results, you need to know how to search properly and which keywords you need to enter (and not enter).

Step forward this rather well designed and informative infographic, courtesy of HackCollege which gives a nice rundown of some of the most useful operators and shortcuts.  It also gives examples of how you would look for specific files and pages such as PDF’s and webpage archives.

Were all of these operators and shortcuts already known to you?  Or did you learn something new from it?  Do you have any other search tips you’d like to share?  If so, let us know in the comments below.

Created by: HackCollege

I know, not quite so romantic is it? But ironically, investors seem to favour the opposite. They seem to like company founders who have relied more on life experience rather than life at university.  But again, as the infographic illustrates, there are some successful Internet moguls who went down the higher qualification route and did extremely well such as Sergey Brin and Jerry Yang.  So a university degree doesn’t seem to be a hindrance if you want to make it big online.  You just need to work hard and have a lot of luck.

If you were an Internet investor looking to put your cash in the Next Big Thing, would you want to see some evidence of a university degree?  Or does the University Of Life carry more weight?  Are you planning to start your own online company soon?  If so, are you getting further education first or will you be relying on the world to give you all the skills that you will need?

Click on the infographic for a larger version

Source : Gist.com

All of us here at MakeUseOf would like to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas.

Thank you for reading the site and we hope you enjoyed the posts and manuals that we brought to you in 2011.

Here’s to the next 12 great months of more cool web apps, software, news and tips on your favourite tech blog.

See you all and more in 2012!

Now it seems that the next trick up their sleeve is the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) which has been introduced to the US Congress as possible legislation. The Bill has its prominent supporters and opposers both inside Congress and outside it, as they argue either the Bill’s benefits or its disadvantages.

Here to lay it all out for you below is an infographic by the Business Insurance Blog.  It explains what SOPA is, who supports it, who opposes it and what the advantages and disadvantages of it are.  It also tells you what you can do if you want to get involved in the debate.

After looking at the infographic, what are your views on SOPA?  Are you for it or against it?  Will it protect creativity and innovation, or destroy the freedom of the Internet?  Let us know in the comments.  Don’t be shy.

Click on the infographic below to be taken to a larger clearer version

Via: Business Insurance Blog
Image Source : Toms Baugis

OK I’m back.  It seems the germs are everywhere and are running rampant around all our houses. I am definitely never touching another lightswitch again and as for the remote control….well I am going to start getting off my lazy butt in future and changing the channel manually!  And 16% of cellphones had poop on them?  Up to now, I thought I had heard it all.  But that statistic is right up there with 90% of US banknotes having cocaine on them.  Suddenly I’m not hungry anymore for my dinner.

Let us know what you think of the infographic, brought to us today by Keeping it Kleen.  Do the stats sound right to you?  What does your keyboard look like?  Do you have the leftovers of dinner from two weeks ago hiding under the space bar?  Or are you very OCD and rubber gloves when it comes to cleaning your keyboard?  Let us know in the comments.

Click on the infographic to be taken to a larger version

Source : Keeping it Kleen
Image Source : Sappymoosetree

Of course, it’s not without its flaws.  Linux doesn’t always produce software that matches up to the standard of its Windows equivalent and games for Linux are not that impressive according to people who care about these things.  However, you can tweak the system to your heart’s content and the huge number of distributions means there’s a version of Linux for everyone’s requirements.  Oh and of course, being big Linux fans here at MUO, there’s plenty of Linux articles for you to read and make use of.

Today’s infographic comes from BlogSearchEngine and it shows the history of Linux, starting in 1971 with Richard Stallman who would go on to set up the Free Software Foundation.  Later would come the operating system called MINIX and in 1989, the Finnish student Linus Torvalds wanted to upgrade MINIX and, finding he was barred from doing so, wrote his own OS called Linux.  The rest, as they say, is history.

Let us know what you think of the infographic.  Anything important that was left out?  What is it about Linux that you love so much?  What is it about Linux that you hate so much?  Give us your views in the comments below.

Click on the infographic to view a larger version

Source : BlogSearchEngine

As an online worker, I am always looking for something that will enable me to complete my tasks faster and more efficiently, and I’m sure you are too.

We here at MakeUseOf have been committed from day one to teaching you how to do things faster, easier, and more efficiently. Now we have produced 24 PDF cheatsheets for you to download absolutely free of charge which will list all the shortcuts available for different popular programs such as Microsoft Outlook, Skype (including the secret emoticons), Firefox, Chrome, Gmail and many more.

The other programs for which cheatsheets are available are :

• iPhone
• Gmail
• Twitter
• Photoshop CS5
• iTunes (for both Windows and Mac)
• Windows
• Windows CMD
• Mac OSX
• Linux
• GIMP
• Chat smileys
• Facebook
• VLC Player
• Google Reader
• Mozilla Thunderbird
• Internet Explorer
• Google Chrome
• Mozilla Firefox (for both Windows and Mac)
• Google search

If you use any of these programs, then download our cheatsheets today. And be sure to bookmark and continually check the page in the future for new additions.

If we have missed your favourite program so far, let us know and we will see if there are enough shortcuts to be able to produce a cheatsheet for it.

Image Credit : gothick_matt