A better solution, if you have a Google Apps-run domain, is a service called Google Short Apps. This is a Google powered URL-shortening service you can run using your own domain and which you can customise the way you want it. 

The advantages include :

• With every short link you send out, the name of your domain is attached to it. If that link goes viral around the web, so does your web domain name. Good advertising!
• Most importantly, you can decide what the short URL should be called. So instead of the ending being 28jenq (which tells people nothing about where the link leads to), you can instead tell people that a link comes to MakeUseOf by inserting makeuseof into the tiny URL link.
• It requires zero setup on your part. Unlike other domain-based URL-shortening services we have profiled in the past which seem to require that you have a degree in IT to understand how to set it all up. With Short Links, you just press a button and it is instantly installed on your Google Apps domain. Then you just need to do a little tweaking to get it the way you want it. Typically Google – very easy, direct and to the point. No messing around.

To get the whole lot set up on your Google Apps domain, first go here and press the “add it now” button. This immediately puts a new link on your Google Apps Dashboard.

You’ll see on the screenshot, the URL http://tinylinks.markoneill.org. That isn’t there on your Dashboard immediately. You have to go into the options and decide what you are going to call your URL-shortening service (and “tinylinks” is what I decided on).  It’s to your advantage to not make it a long name though because all of that becomes part of the shortened URL. The longer you make the URL….well you would be eventually defeating the whole purpose of a short URL service in the first place!

So, the next step is to customise things the way you want them. Go to the Service Settings at the top of the Apps Dashboard page and choose Short Links. The first option you will see is naming your URL service. As I said, I chose “tinylinks” but you can choose whatever you want. But being a short URL, make your choice as small as possible. I initially contemplated “tl” but I wanted to give my shortening service a proper name. Saying that, you can have as many links as you want. So I have http://tinylinks.markoneill.org but I will also shortly set up http://tl.markoneill.org (which I will probably exclusively use from then on as it’s shorter and therefore easier to remember and type.

Once you have chosen your URL-shortening name, you then have to your domain webhosting panel and make what is called a CNAME record.  This is basically an instruction to your website that everytime someone goes to your URL-shortening weblink, it should automatically redirect to Google so they can do their shortening magic. Once you have set up a name for your service, Google then sets out, step-by-step, what you have to do to set up a CNAME record and it is very easy.

The other options are not really that important, such as enabling API access and creating IP Whitelists. There are a couple of good options though that you should consider.   They are :

• Only Administrators can create new links :  this is handy if you have other people using your Google Apps domain for email and you don’t want them using the URL shortening to send out their own links.
• If a link cannot be found, do a lowercase search
• Convert all new links to lowercase

OK, now that you have successfully set up your very own URL-shortening service, it’s time to start using it.   Just go to your weblink that you set up and you should now see this screen :

To make a short URL, just enter the URL into the URL box. Then on the left hand side, decide what you want the link to be called and enter it into the box after your domain name. So a link to MakeUseOf could be called http://tinylinks.markoneill.org/makeuseof (click it, it works).

You can also have a “hashed short link” created which is the same as TinyURL. By entering the URL and then pressing the button for a hashed short link, you would get something like http://tinylinks.markoneill.org/vhzvc. But as I said at the beginning, URL’s like that tell you nothing about the link destination so I personally won’t be using that option.

You are also provided with bookmarklets which you can drag up to your browser toolbar. So any time you want to make a Google short link, just go to the webpage link you want to send out and click on the bookmarklet. You will then be taken directly to the Short Links page with the URL boxes already pre-filled with the website URL you were just on.

The last feature I should mention is the stats page.  The Short Links service gives you a page where you can see how many people have went to your short URLs :

On this page, each entry has an edit button so if you messed up typing the destination URL or if you want to delete one of your short URL’s, then you can do so at the click of a mouse button.

All in all, this is a very nice service and I have noticed visits to my personal domain increase since I started using this.  So if you do short URL’s a lot and you are also looking for a free easy way to advertise your domain, then give Short Links a try.

If you don’t have your domain attached to Google Apps, then I highly recommend that you do it now. Your email can be run via Gmail and you can store all your documents via Google Docs, as well as some of the other usual Google Services (but not Google Reader, which is very strange). Plus you get little Apps goodies like Short Links.  Setting up on Google Apps is also very easy and can be done in under 30 minutes. I showed you how to do it here.

Which URL shortening service do you use? Do you use Google Short Links? If so, what has been your experience with it?

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Luckily, I have a resource for you that can conduct a domain name search for those which were recently released or deleted. People forget to renew domains or companies go out of business. With JustDropped, we can which domains have become available in the last day, week or even hour.

The site is very easy to use but it does require registration. But as always, you can check out BugMeNot for a user name and password. If you will be using this service constantly, I suggest registering for your own set of credentials.

Once you are logged in, you will see this on your screen:

As you can see, the search engine has lots of available options. I started with filling in the “Domain should contain” field and put in a word I wanted in my domain name. Then, I chose the check box that says “contains only words”. Next, I made the maximum length 15 characters and then I clicked on the Domain Availability drop-down list.

I like to use Deleted so that I can see what I can buy right now. Choose your extensions that you want to search for, I strictly use .com. So my options looked like this:

Finally, hit the Show The Domains! button at the bottom and you will see the results from the domain name search on screen, like so:

It pulled up a list with more than 2000 items, and that is the maximum number of results displayed. But what I like to do is create a search and then have JustDropped email me a text file with all the names. I can then go through them in Excel. To do this, all you have to do is click this button at the bottom of your results page:

That emails me a list that looks something like this:

To me, this is an invaluable domain name search tool. They even offer some more paid services besides domain searching. But we won’t go into that here. Do you have a free tool you use to help you find domain names? If you do we would love to hear about it in the comments!

Haven’t got a clue for your new domain name? Check out 6 Domain Generators To Find That Killer Domain Name. From our directory, take a look at DomainTyper and BustaName.

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RoundCube Webmail is a browser-based multilingual IMAP client packed with plenty of AJAX goodness. It comes with an application-like user interface and provides full functionality you expect from an email client, including MIME support, address book, folder manipulation, message searching and spell checking.

The best thing about RoundCube is that it is lightweight, simple to use and lightning fast. As long as your web host supports PHP 5 and MySQL, you will be able to install in your site and access it on your domain. A point to note here: while the installation is relatively easy (and fast), you will need to obtain the email server information from your web host and setup a database in your phpmyadmin before you can configure it to work.

You can configure your RoundCube account to access any of the email accounts out there as long as you have the IMAP configuration information. I am able to access my Gmail account and receive/send emails from the RoundCube inbox.

Once you have got it up and running, everything else will be a breeze. Just point to the designated URL and login with your email username and password.

The inbox is just like any of your email client, except that it is cleaner and neater. When you open a message, send a message, check new message, everything is achieved via AJAX interface which make it elegant and interactive. At the moment, the search function does not supports on-the-fly searching, but that doesn’t reduce any of its functionality.

RoundCube Preferences

Other than the basic inbox layout and management stuff, you won’t find too many superfluous features in RoundCube. Even so, it still comes with excellent management options such as creating of folders to store various mails, compact inbox on logout, daylight saving time etc. One useful feature that I found is the ability to create multiple identities. The identities allow you to send emails using different username (and email account) and signatures. This is useful if you are using RoundCube to manage several email accounts.

Skinning and Plugins

A software is not complete if it does not support skinning and plugins. The good news is, RoundCube supports both. The latest beta comes with a Plugin API that allows third party developers to create plugins for the software. RoundCube plugins can be found at the repository, though most of them are already included in the download package. You can also find and download some of the beautiful themes at the Roundcube forum, or simply searching for them in Google or Bing.

Conclusion

Is RoundCube Webmail for everyone? Most probably not, since not everyone owns a domain or have multiple email accounts to attend to. However, if you are one of the those Webmasters that are looking for a simpler and more elegant way to manage your emails, I am sure RoundCube Webmail will fit the bill well.

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When building your new website or blog – having the best possible domain is a key factor that adds to your success. When selecting a domain, people generally will take the following factors into account :

• Easy to remember.
• Standardized spelling (except for this whole Web 2.0 thing).
• Keyword rich (though this generally only applies to professional marketers).
• Represents and creates an image of your site or product.

It is well known that dot.com is the gold standard in domains with everything else coming after.   However with all of the crazy TLDs out there, it is possible to create cool blends in order to gain branding.   Look at Last.fm or current.tv if you need to know more.

So the actual act of finding that domain is a perilous process to be sure. You could go to a registrar and keep typing in names and searching until you come up with a match. OR you could use one of these great tools and get creative.

Instant Domain Search

This one is my personal favorite and I use it to quick check any domain I think of on the fly.   It will search out domain availability as fast as you can type for .com . net and .org

It’s great for brainstorming sessions where you need to check lots of domains within a short period.   Even better, it has quick links to whois and other information for quick lookup.

Similar to this is Domize which lists out less character spellings of the search as well and has an iPhone app.

Geek.Name

A very strange and very useful service that creates a constant stream of available domain names that you can sort via certain criteria. Great for explorations and getting new ideas as it incorporates various TLD’s in its creations.

DomainsBot

This is a very useful brainstorming application which lets you type in a word or phrase and it searches related and synonyms.  You can get some pretty good filtering and suggestions if you turn off “for sale”  in the search results.

BustaName

Previously covered in detail on MakeuseOf, BustaName allows you to combine various words, prefixes and suffixes and check domains on the fly to find that perfect match.

Domain Hacks

For those that don’t know, a Domain hack is using either sub-domains or unusual TLD to create a word out of the domain. Probably the most famous domain hack was del.icio.us which was actually registered as the domain www.icio.us and then added a subdomain. This tool by Xona allows you to search for a word or domain and it will recommend various hacks to get you to where you need to go.

Obscure TLD Registrations

Old hands will have their preferred register of choice, but others won’t know where to go to register that obscure TLD from Micronesia. Who to use is your preference, but I like the Moniker registration as they have over 140 TLD’s ready to search and register with just a few clicks.

Finding that perfect domain is like sifting through an antique store looking for that Van Gogh. It is there and can be found. Remember that the value of a domain is not in how much it is appraised at, but rather what you can do with it.

To that end, we would like to ask our readers if there are other cool domain search tools out there that we have missed. Leave your answers in the comments section!

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I talk a little about being hacked and about Simon’s article on betting websites.

This podcast is available through iTunes so don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast if you have an iPod, or in another podcatcher if you have a different MP3 player.

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So I’ve decided to go “back to basics” for a while, go through my Gmail archive, look at some of the email requests that I have received, and show Make Use Of readers some of the simple basic stuff.

One of the emails I get the most from people is how to create a “favicon” for their blog or website. In case you don’t know what a favicon is, it’s the little logo next to the website address in the browser. Make Use Of has one.

If you have a blog or website then creating a favicon is a very good idea. For a start, if someone has your site bookmarked in their browser then your favicon will also show in their bookmark list. This makes your link stand out from all the links that don’t have favicons. Secondly, a favicon brands your site and gives it that extra professional look.

To give you an idea of how important a favicon is, just look at all the fuss that was made when Google changed their favicon! Some people can attach a lot of importance to what they see in their browser bookmarks and URL bar.

So here is your easy 3 step guide to making your own favicon. Hopefully without all the controversy that Google managed to stir up with theirs! You can only do this if you have your own self-hosted domain.

1. Decide what you want your favicon to be

This can be the hardest part. For big blogs like Make Use Of, it can be the easiest part if there is a logo which can be easily adapted. But if you don’t have a readily available logo to use then you will have to give some thought as to what you want your favicon to be.

For my blog, I used the initials of my blog title, Better Than Therapy – BTT. Before that, I had a Scottish flag and before that a Star Trek logo. Try to find something that represents you, that says something about you or your blog. Try to get something that you are not going to change either. You want something that people are going to remember. Then again, I’m not in a position to say that to you, considering how many times I changed mine!

2. Create the favicon

OK, once you have your logo, now it’s time to shrink it down to favicon size. First of all though, a little trick. If you decide to use letters for your favicon like I did, you can make it by typing the letters onto a MS Word document then when you have them the way you want them, make a screenshot of the letters using a screenshot app such as SnagIt or IrfanView.

To create your favicon, there are LOTS of favicon creators on the internet. We have profiled quite a few in the Directory here, here, here and here. The one I have always used and which has never let me down is this one.

As the site says, just upload your image to the site and it will create a smaller 16×16 version for you. This is done in seconds and you should make sure that the smaller version has an “.ico” file format.

3. Upload the favicon to your blog / website

OK, we’re nearly there. You have your newly made favicon in your computer and now you need to get it uploaded to your domain so that when people come visiting to your site, they’ll see your logo sitting on their browser URL bar. So how do you get it there? Very easy.

First of all, the favicon’s location in your site has to be at http://yoursite.com/favicon.ico. So upload the favicon to your site using a FTP program or perhaps your hosting company offers their own uploading program? Just make sure that the favicon sits in the main root directory at http://yoursite.com/favicon.ico and at no other location, otherwise it won’t appear when it needs to.

Next, go to the template of your blog and at the beginning of the template, you’ll see a piece of code that says <HEAD>. Immediately after <HEAD>, enter the following :

Then save the whole lot.

Now one of two things will happen – your favicon will either appear instantly or it may take some time to appear. With my Scottish flag one, it appeared instantly and with my “BTT” one, it took 3 or 4 days to show up!! It’s even worse with Internet Explorer. So after you’ve done the above, and you don’t see anything, don’t start to get angry and think “I’ve wasted all that time for nothing!”. It WILL work eventually – it may just take a day or two for the favicon code to kick in properly. But when it does, it will work 24/7.

So does anyone have any strange and unique favicons that they would like to tell us about? What do you have sitting up on the URL bar when net surfers come to visit?

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