By using simple pieces of Javascript code, or by applying Firefox Greasemonkey userscripts, users can change the appearance and workings of Facebook themselves.

Learn how to hack Facebook accounts for fun, or tweak something useful. Believe me, it really is all in your hands.

Facebook Account Javascript Hacks

In these following hacks we’ll be using basic Javascript to toy around with Facebook. Note that we’re not going to hack into Facebook accounts, or anything of the like. Most of these ‘hacks’ are temporary and will disappear once you refresh the page. They also won’t be visible to users on other computers. So why are we doing it? – Because it’s fun!

These Javascript snippets, which we’ll supply below, simply need to be pasted into the address bar. Hit enter, et voila!

Changing Profile Colour

This will change the colour of your Facebook bar to a color of choice.

Just paste the following code in your address bar and hit enter. You can replace ‘red’ with any color you want – black, white, green or even orrange. If you want to reverse the effect, press Ctrl+F5 for a hard reload of the page.

javascript:void(document.getElementById('fb_menubar').style.background='red');

View Chat History with Offline Friends

Unfortunately, you can’t normally view the chat history of online friends. If you’re trying to remember something that was said, waiting for them to come back online is one hell of a bother. Instead, you can just use this – pretty useful – Javascript hack.

First of all, we need to get your friend’s Facebook ID. When you visit his page indirectly (through your friends list or by using the search engine), you’ll be able to see it as a number in the address bar.

Another way to retrieve someone’s ID is by going to the Friends widget on their page, and right-clicking See All. Then you’ll have to copy the link location and paste it in your address bar.

Once you’ve got someone’s ID, simply paste the following code in your address bar, replacing 1122334455 with the relevant number.

javascript:buddyList.itemOnClick(1122334455);

Other Javascript hacks

The preceding two hacks are without doubt the most impressive or useful ones. Below are some of the other tricks you can pull off by using Javascript. We’re not going to deep on this because they’re all things you can do manually as well.

Change chat status to invisible:
javascript:statusControl.sendVisibility(false);

Change chat status to visible:
javascript:statusControl.sendVisibility(true);

Close all chat windows with person 1122334455:
javascript:chatDisplay.tabs[1122334455].tabXOnClick();

Open application tab:
javascript:applicationDock.toggleTab();

Bring up notifications:
javascript:presence.toggleTab('chat_status_control','chat_status_control_tab');

Bring up friends list:
javascript:buddyList.toggleTab();

Facebook Greasemonkey Hacks

Greasemonkey is one of the best firefox add-ons in existence. By using ‘userscripts’, you can customize nearly every website. Read more about Greasemonkey in .

Facebook Auto-login – One of the simplest, but perhaps also one of the most useful userscripts you’ll find. This one will automatically log into Facebook, as long as Firefox remembers your password, saving you a lot of hassle.

Auto-Colorizer for Facebook – This script will recolor your Facebook page by applying the color scheme of the most dominant picture currently showing on the page. As you can imagine, this can create some exciting, and also ambient effects.

FacebookDeletes – If you want to get rid of a lot of people at once, this is your man. This script can bulk delete friends, making the masacre all the easier.

Remove All Facebook Ads – Adblock still tends to miss a lot of Facebook ads. This script, frequently updated, will remove all thinkable Facebook ads, creating a completely click-safe Facebook environment.

External Apps Blocker – One of the most irritating things on Facebook are the abundance of quizzes, quote generators, and the like. Filtering all external app ’stories’ from your homepage will be a lot easier if you use this script.

Want some more? Userscripts hosts 1112 Facebook related userscripts at the time of writing. Check it out and have a blast!

If you know any other cool Javascript tweaks, or Greasemonkey hacks, feel free to mention them in the comments section below!

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New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• How to View Private Facebook Profiles (109)
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• The 19+ Social Network Aggregator List (19)

What Is Your Twitter Reputation?

Can your reputation be measured? Yes, there are many services that claim to do that using different methods. You can check your reputation on free Twitter tools like Twitterank, Twitter Grader, Twitterholic, Twinfluence, Twitalyzer, and Klout. There is no single model that defines Twitter reputation, and this guide tries to combine all the different approaches used by such tools and suggested by experts.

Your Twitter reputation is important because:

• It may well be the first impression you make on the social web.
• Everything on Twitter is public (assuming you don’t protect your updates, which is 90% of Twitterers). This means your colleagues, current employer or potential recruiter can always see your Twitter profile and your tweets.
• Reputation will play an increasingly important role in search rankings. Already, third-party Twitter search engines like Topsy and Tweefind incorporate ranking in their search results, and Twitter itself is also on the way to ranking search results.

Convinced? Let’s get started.

1. Your Profile

Use your real name, a (decent) profile picture, a meaningful bio, and a link to your website, blog, or social profile. If you have a custom background on your profile page, people are more likely to follow you back.

2. Follow Authentic People

Don’t engage in any “get hundreds of followers quickly” schemes. Follow people you’re already friends with on other social networks. Then grow your Twitterverse as you get comfortable. Use our previously covered 9 sites and 4 ways to find Twitter friends based on geography and common interests.

I use the free Twitter tool Topify to get informative emails when someone follows me. It shows useful information like level of engagement, percentage of tweets containing links, and recent tweets to help decide whether to follow back.

3. Manage Your Followers and Friends

The days of “higher the number of followers, higher your reputation” are becoming a thing of the past, thanks to paid services that allow buying followers. Think of your reputation if there were half-naked women showing up as your followers!

Block suspicious accounts, spammers and bots from following you. I have recently started using Tweet Blocker to filter and clean my followers list and it works like a charm. Another service I find indispensable is Twerp Scan, which shows me a list of my contacts along with details of their number of follows, followers, ratio, etc. You can easily sort the list to weed out nasty spammers and indecent folks right within the app.

4. Get ReTweeted

The best way to increase your reach and influence on Twitter is to get retweeted. Statistical studies of retweets have found that links, quotes, trending topics, breaking news, questions, and creative/novel tweets are more likely to get retweeted. Shrink your tweet and reduce its length to around 100-110 characters so that it becomes easier for others to retweet without editing.

5. Mix Your Tweet Types

Do not restrict yourself to tweeting out informative links or indulging in pointless babble. Use a mix of tweets that are status updates, links, retweets, questions, and self-promotions for your blog posts.

6. Spread Your Tweets Over the Day

Services such as Tweet Stats let you see how your tweets are distributed through the day. Don’t send out a large number of tweets in short time spans and then disappear. Distribute your tweeting activity evenly through the day, using planned “Twitter-breaks” from your work. If you are going to be offline for a considerable amount of time, let your followers know.

7. Be Responsive and Engage in Conversation

Tools like Topify and Mr. Tweet now show your level of engagement. This influences whether people using such tools will follow you back.

Reply to others’ tweets using @Replies. Answer all @Replies and Direct Messages sent to you. Let people see that you don’t use Twitter simply to promote your links. Try to answer people’s questions and if you can’t, be a helping hand by retweeting them.

8. Don’t Misuse Hashtags

A UK furniture firm suffered a huge blow to their reputation on Twitter as they sent out marketing messages using #hashtags that were meant for completely unrelated topics. The Twitter community uses #hashtags for tracking specific topics they are interested in, so stick to conventions.

9. Avoid Many Twitter IDs from a Single IP Address

Some experts have proposed that multiple Twitter IDs created from the same IP address should have a lower Twitter rank in searches. This is a counter measure against spammers and bots who abuse Twitter accounts. If for whatever reason, you need to create a large number of legitimate Twitter accounts, don’t do it from the same computer.

10. Use DMs with Discretion

If I get automated DMs after I follow someone, I unfollow them. The same with people who play mafia-style Twitter games and send me invites to play via DMs.

Do not send Direct Messages to people you’ve recently started being friends with on Twitter. Most people consider DMs to be private messages that they share only with good friends. Use @Replies wherever possible, unless you want to discuss a sensitive issue that warrants a DM.

11 Use Recommendations

Recommendations are a great way to discover and be discovered. The most popular method on Twitter is the #FollowFriday hash tag. Like everything else in social media, the more you give, the more you get, so if you like this method, use it to give recommendations to others.

A better recommendation engine is Mr. Tweet, which is getting popular. It gives me decent recommendations since I joined, along with useful statistics.

12. Monitor Your Brand

If you own a brand name, create a search to monitor for all mentions of your brand. Most popular Twitter clients let you create saved searches, some like Seesmic Web even let you sync your saved searches with those on Twitter’s website.

Will these techniques help you enhance your Twitter reputation? Have any other suggestions? Do let us know in the comments!

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• Track Your Short URL Links With tr.im (10)
• Su.pr – An Extraordinary URL Shortener from StumbleUpon (13)
• How to Track Breaking News Alerts Online With Twitter (5)
• A Bunch Of Easy Ways To Spice Up Your Twitter Page (7)
• 3 More Cool Twitter Tools To Do Your Tweeting With (9)

Controlling the Google search engine top rankings for what comes up on a search page may seem out of reach, but with a few easy steps, you can take charge of the results to improve upon your name and personal brand. Whether you’re disappointed with what appears or nothing comes up at all, remember that results will vary, literally, depending on a number of factors like how common or unique your name is and its current presence on the Web.

With employers and basically everyone who knows you potentially Googling your name to find out about you, it’s becoming increasingly important that you have at least some kind of grasp of your online identity and reputation and that you understand how to take better control of the search engine top ranked sites that mention your name (in a positive light). It’s relatively easy, and best of all, it doesn’t have to cost you a dime.

Privacy and Security

First things first. Dealing with and using your real name online can be risky business. It shouldn’t, however, be a problem as long as you do it wisely and correctly. It’s vital that you never publish personal information that you don’t want anyone to get a hold of. Stuff like your home address or phone number should be kept to yourself.

Some of the things Google simply doesn’t tolerate on its search pages include your social security or government ID number, your bank account or credit card number, or an image of your handwritten signature.

If such content is published on the Web somewhere, you can request its removal from Google search results. Learn more about how to remove false information about yourself on the Internet.

On social networking websites, be sure to check out your privacy settings so that you can specify who gets to view your profile.

Create Your Own Google Profile

Google created profiles to give you greater control over what people find when they search for your name. Profile results are displayed at the bottom of search pages.

First, you’ll need to make a profile with your name and a little information about yourself. You can also write a short bio and add links to some of your public pages if you have any, like online photo albums, social network profiles, and personal websites.

You then have the option of adding contact information, which is not made public and you get to decide who can view it.

From my experience, the more information you add to your profile, the higher it’s ranked, so keep that in mind.

2. Join Social Networks

Take advantage of the popularity of social networking websites and services. Profiles on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Classmates, and LinkedIn are musts. These websites have significant PageRank, meaning your profile may be able to achive top search engine rankings - with placement on the first page of Google search results for your name.

Feel free to go the extra mile by making a profile and listening to music on Last.fm, putting up videos on YouTube, or sharing photos on Flickr. Just be sure to enter your real name as the profile’s username only if you’re comfortable with doing so.

3. Start Your Own Blog

Another thing you may want to try if you have the time is to start your own blog. Websites like Blogger and WordPress allow you to publish your very own blog for free.

I highly recomment you check out recent MakeUseOf article on How To Easily Create a Blog with Tumblr.

Ideally, the subdomain should include your real name (yourname.blogspot.com or yourname.wordpress.com) when you register.

4. Get a Domain Name

If all else fails or you want to try to go for the very top of Google’s search listings, buying your own domain name may be the answer. Check to see if your first and last name together is available for a .com domain name registration.

As far as the content for your websites goes, it doesn’t have to be the best. Just writing in a little bit about yourself or posting your resume should do.

Getting your own domain is probably the best way to grab that top spot in Google search results for your name. However, the downside is that it’ll cost you to purchase the domain name and have your website hosted.

For the obsessive, you can actually set up Google Alerts to track any mentions of your name on the Web.

We have done some similar articles on online reputation management and controlling your online name in the past. Here’s three of them :

- How to Maintain a Professional Reputation Online
- 15 Websites to Find People On The Internet
- Manage Your Various Online Identities With Chi.mp
- Cool ‘Identity Search’ Tools for Social Web

What pops up when you Google yourself? Let us know in the comments.

Image Credit : Techprodigy

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New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• Master the Google Operands – Search Like a God & Save Time (41)
• Live it like a spy: Create a fake “You” (2)
• Legacy Locker – Life Insurance for Your Online Identity (4)
• How To Search Multiple Social Media Sites At A Time (18)
• How To Maintain a Professional Reputation Online (9)

It’s sort of a morbid thought to think of, but what would happen to your “social profile” if you were to become unable to communicate or worse, died?  Many of these types of websites have no or very little ways to allow the immediate family or beneficiaries the ability to “re-claim” these profiles on behalf of the person who created them.

Now there’s a new web app on the block that aims to fix this hole in social networking. Legacy Locker aims to protect your online assets the same way you would with your physical ones like your savings account, retirement account, etc. Having a will, estate or even a trust protects all of your things including your house, accounts, and all other assets. Legacy Locker comes in to protect all of your “internet assets” the same way.

Think about it for a moment, do you have accounts like email, eBay, Amazon, Paypal, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, iTunes, etc? Normally, all of these would be lost upon your passing, but Legacy Locker takes them, protects them for you and ultimately puts them in the hands of those you’ll list as your beneficiary.

If we were to think about how much time and effort we put into our online profiles and identities these days, it makes sense to protect that and have them safeguarded in the event that something was to happen to you.

Ease your Mind

Using this service obviously isn’t the only method to save and store your online information. You could write everything down on a piece of paper and secure it in your desk drawer at home/work or even write it to a file on your computer. You could also just always use the same login/password for every site you’re a part of. These scenarios often happen, but we know that these are not good ideas to protect your identity.

This service is easy, safe and convenient when it comes to storing, tracking, and updating your account information and they promise to only provide the data to the right people at the right time. Of course you can easily update, change, or modify not only your accounts but the beneficiaries at your whim. You can also have Legacy Locker send you reminders to update old passwords, or to add new assets occasionally.

Ease of Use

This app is simple to setup; they boast that setup takes less than 60 seconds! As soon as you’re logged in, you can begin inserting your “assets”.

For each account, you can assign a beneficiary to that account who will have access when the time is right. Plus, since this is a web app, all data can be added/edited from anywhere in the world. Think about it as life insurance for your online identities.

Legacy Locker is easy to use and understand. First things first, you must create an account and fill out your profile with your basic information. Then you start the simple step-by-step process.

Security Questions

Security questions here are just the same as in any other online web application.  Just things that you have knowledge of and those close to you do as well. Here are some of the available security questions:

Verifiers

Then you should enter what they call “verifiers” or the people whom you have complete confidence in to handle this information in the unfortunate event of your passing. For most of us, its our spouse or other family member that quite frankly you think might just outlive you.

Legacy Locker likes two verifiers, but will allow you to continue using only one. After you enter these verifiers, Legacy Locker will email them to verify once again that you are who you say you are and they are indeed your “verifiers.”

Online Assets

Thirdly, you need to identify all your online assets, entering the Website, username, and password for each of them. On each one you enter, you’ll assign one beneficiary to whom will have this sensitive information.

Think of your Legacy Locker as being similar to a safety deposit box – it’s a secure place to store important assets – only online.

Upon your Demise

Mortality isn’t fun to talk about, but its real for all of us and to truly give this app justice, you have to mention what happens next (with Legacy Locker, not death).

Basically, its very straightforward. When a Legacy Locker customer passes away, one of their verifiers must report the death. Then the service uses something called “human oversight with secure technology” to ensure the user’s assets are passed off correctly and to the right people. Emails are then sent to the beneficiaries with secure links to the site that contains the secure assets.

Pricing Options

It wouldn’t be on MakeUseOf if there wasn’t a free option. The free option gives you one beneficiary and three online assets to protect. This is free for life. If you need more, they have a very reasonable price for two more tiers of pricing. $29.99 annually, or the one-time fee of $299.99 and with both of those you have unlimited assets, beneficiaries and legacy letters.

Are there any other services like this out there?  Do you use a service like this yourself? Let us know in the comments…

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

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• 20 Tips to Define And Manage Your Social Networks [Part 2] (9)
• 20 Tips to Define And Manage Your Social Networks [Part 1] (46)
• Retaggr Lets People Know Who You Are (10)
• Three Awesome Tools To Create Your Own Social Networks (17)
• Threadsy – Integrates Your Email and Social Networks (+Invites) (24)

Have you ever asked yourself, “How do I make a background on MySpace?” Well, today I’ll show you how to find, create, and use a custom background on your MySpace profile.

Your source image could be from your personal photo collection or some wallpaper made available for free download from a site like Customize.org, one of my favorite sites, Digital Blasphemy, or Google’s Image Search (we suggest using the Advanced Search to narrow it down to non-commercial-licensed content).

When selecting your image, keep your audience in mind. Does the image provide a pleasing pattern or illustrate a great moment? Will it distract from your profile’s content? Is it age-appropriate, considering your friends? These are all things to consider, as well as image size. If your image is larger than, say 1024 pixels in length, we suggest using a tool like Resizr or any image resizer to shrink the image down.

Rather than linking to the image as hosted elsewhere, it’s good etiquette to save a copy of the image and upload it to a free host such as PiccDrop, and also to give credit somewhere on your profile to the artist or photographer. For demonstration, I’ve chosen this photo by Tim Snell. Once you’ve uploaded your image to your host, make note of the image’s URL (copy it into Notepad) for future use.

Your next step varies based on what type of MySpace profile you’re using. There are two versions of your MySpace profile. If you’re a long-time user and haven’t switched, then you’re using Profile 1.0. Here’s how to determine what type of profile you’re using. When you login, click the “Edit Profile” link next to your MySpace URL. Then, select “Customize Profile.” On the next screen, your profile type will be displayed at the very top of the page.

If you’re using “Profile 1.0”, follow these directions: Hit your “back” button to go back to the original profile editor. Use this background generator with your image’s URL to create the HTML code, then copy that code into the profile editor’s “About Me” box. Save your changes and check your profile.

If you’ve upgraded your profile to “2.0”, the process is easier. First, select your basic theme. If you have a dark image like mine, for example, it’s important to pick a dark theme to start with. In your customize menu, click Advanced Edit, then Background, and then paste your image’s URL into the URL field. Publish your changes and check your profile.

If everything worked, you’ll have a custom background for your MySpace page to show off to your friends (my profile is here). Feel free to share in the comments about any profile-customization tips you may have. There’s more MySpacey goodness on MUO here.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• The 19+ Social Network Aggregator List (19)
• Scrapboy- Desktop Client for Facebook, Myspace & Orkut (Win) (5)
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• Legacy Locker – Life Insurance for Your Online Identity (4)
• How to View Private Facebook Profiles (109)

As you can see, those tips are for the “beginner” online socialist.

Here are some more to help you become a power user of social media and networking sites.

11. Use Your Mobile for Social Updates

If you spend a lot of time with your mobile phone, use applications that interface with multiple networks. Access Flickr via mobile. Use CellSpin to post video, voice, photos, or text to multiple social networks. Chatterous is great to chat with your existing IM buddies, while MobiLuck is a good mobile friend-finder. Check out Hellotxt for updating your status across 40+ networks, and Mobypicture for sharing pictures/audio/video.

12.  Engage and Participate

Are you sharing a lot of content in your blog posts, photos, videos, and bookmarks, but not receiving many comments, ratings or feedback?

Sometimes we get so caught up in our ‘create/discover-post-share’ routine that we forget to listen, view, comment and rate others’ posts. Use your social map visualization to see where your content is landing. That’s where you need to spend time. Engage and participate in the community. The more you give, the more you get.

13. Use an Aggregator

Choose an aggregator service that supports your favorite networks. Use only one service and make sure your content is not being pushed twice. Avoid spamming your friends! Select from some of the popular aggregator services like Friendfeed, Plaxo Pulse, or Lifestream.fm.

An important consideration is data portability. Some lifestreaming services like Profilactic and Swurl have shut down or are struggling, so choose a service that aims to make all your data portable across services like Chi.mp.

14. Unleash the Power of Feeds

RSS Feeds are very powerful. For example, you can get an RSS feed update every time you Digg an article or save a bookmark in Delicious. Flickr provides 3 different feeds for your photostream. All Twitters have a feed. Use feeds in combination with your aggregator services, and in sites like Facebook. Use feeds in widgets in your blog’s sidebar. Use them in your HTML email signatures. The possibilities are limited to your imagination!

If you are the DIY type and want to get creative with RSS Feeds, use Yahoo Pipes.

15. Create a Portable Online Identity

If you have signed up with a lot of sites and services, letting people find you on all of them can be a daunting task. Use specialized services like Retaggr or DandyID to create an online identity that is portable and consolidates all your web locations. Your profile can then be easily shared as widgets in blogs, in email signatures, posted to Facebook and more.

16. Merge Your Social Media

Your social media (photos, status, bookmarks, etc.) lies scattered across different websites. It is not easy to share a single URL that encapsulates all your social media together. There are some services that aim to help you do just that.

Cliqset lets you merge all your scattered data and share it with people, applications, or devices. With Chi.mp, you can get your own personal yourownname.mp domain and website for free, and it automatically feeds many of your social interactions to your site. With Gizapage, your contacts can see your social media presence across several networks in a tabbed interface at yourname.gizapage.com.

17. Auto Sync Your Profile

Want to change your profile picture across several networks at once? Atomkeep helps you keep your profiles in sync across 23 social networks as well as cool stuff like keeping your resumes in sync across job sites.

18. Use Dashboards

Dashboards let you view and update statuses in real-time across multiple networks. Since Twitter is the de-facto real-time service, all dashboard applications are centered around Twitter. TweetDeck and Seesmic Desktop are popular desktop clients that also let you view and update Facebook status feeds.

Peoplebrowsr is a web-based dashboard that provides a column-view of custom groups that combine friends and updates across many services at once. It supports a plethora of other services Facebook, Flickr, LinkedIn, Friendfeed, YouTube, etc. and is also available as a desktop application.

19. Manage Your Reputation

Social Networks are powerful. Whether you are an individual or a business, you should track your reputation by what people are saying about you. The viral nature of social networks can cause reputations to swing very fast.

Setup Google Alerts to monitor your brand name, or use MonitorThis to subscribe to a feed of search results from 26 search engines. Keotag lets you search and subscribe to everything in the blogosphere by tags, and it supports several different search engines like Technorati, Digg, Delicious, etc.

Use RSS feeds of Twitter searches to monitor mentions of you or your brand. You can use Facebook Lexicon to monitor what’s being written on Facebook Walls. Use BackType to monitor comments around the web, including all comments of specific people who may be intent on tarnishing your reputation. Use Social Mention for real-time search across social media networks and to set up social media alerts. Trendrr gives you automated tracking and reporting for various types of social media. With the help of BoardTracker and BoardReader, you can search forums and discussion boards to see what people are actually saying about your brand.

20. Live the Real Life!

Social media and networking can get very addictive. Remind yourself to take adequate breaks from your online social life, and spend time offline with your real-life friends and family. In case you forgot, that’s what being social really means!

Did you find these tips useful? Do you have any that we missed? Do share with us in the comments!

small>Image Credit: єvαиdяσ иαรciмєитσ

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• 20 Tips to Define And Manage Your Social Networks [Part 1] (46)
• Legacy Locker – Life Insurance for Your Online Identity (4)
• Retaggr Lets People Know Who You Are (10)
• Psst…Do You Plurk? (21)
• Manage your Online Social Life with SecondBrain (12)

I no longer knew what I had dugg, found delicious or stumbled upon. Keeping track of groups of friends on multiple networks, commenting on their updates, updating my status, responding to email, and pretty soon, I had ‘social networking fatigue’.

If this sounds familiar, don’t lose heart: these tips may help. If you have not yet dived deep into social waters, these tips can help you stay afloat and in control.

1. Visualize Your Social Map

Use pen and paper or mind mapping services like MindMeister to better define your social networks or your social map. There are several ways in which you can group and design your lifestream: Capture–Process–Share, Discover–Consume–Collaborate, Create-Share-Discover-Collect, etc.

Don’t be disheartened because it may be a mess. The process of visualizing it will bring much-needed clarity, and help you identify what you need to change and where.

2. Define Your Target Audience

For each network where you share data, define your target audience. Who are the target audience of your blog, your photo-sharing account, your Facebook/MySpace account? Whom do you want to interact with on email, IM, Twitter? Do not mix family with friends, or friends with business.

Use multiple accounts in Twitter so that your tweets are relevant to your followers. This also helps you set appropriate privacy settings for that network: I might wish to keep my family Twitter account updates protected, and keep the other one public.

3. Use a Password Manager

When we sign up with a lot of different web services, we are tempted to use the same password across several websites. The problem with using different passwords was remembering all of them. With Password Managers to the rescue, you can now have both security and convenience. Never use the same password for multiple sites.

Use a browser-independent desktop application like KeePass, or LastPass, which integrates with all the major browsers.

4. Separate Private & Public Photo-Sharing

Use two or more photo-sharing sites for different types of photos. One example: private photos go to Picasa, friendly photos go to Facebook, public images/photos go to Flickr. I find this a safe and convenient approach because all social networking sites keep changing their privacy settings and options regularly. I do not want to risk my private photos being exposed just because some site changed its default options and I was too busy to notice it.

5. Use One Social Bookmarking Site

Social bookmarking helps keep all your bookmarks together, easily search and tag them, and share them with your friends. Do not spread your bookmarks across different sites. Choose Digg, Delicious, Redditt, or any other service you fancy and stick to it.

For example if you use Delicious, get the Delicious for Google Reader script to save bookmarks directly from Google Reader, and digg.licio.us Greasemonkey script to save Digg stories on Delicious. If you’re spread out across different sites, look for export/import options to consolidate.

If you are starting afresh, check out Twine. Twine uses artificial intelligence to automatically tag and sort your bookmarks.

6. Use a Gravatar

Use an avatar that looks good in both 64×64 and 128×128 sizes and save them for reference. Using a gravatar helps you get a consistent avatar across multiple sites. Gravatars also help create a brand identity for your profile, allowing people to instantly recognize you. Not sure how to get a gravatar? It’s simple!

7. Use Social Surfing

Do you browse a lot of websites, open separate tabs to social sites, and copy-paste to share interesting stuff with your friends? Or keep several tabs open to check updates in Twitter, Facebook, and Friendfeed? If you’re using IE or Firefox, get the Yoono plugin to make life easier. Yoono also supports popular IM networks. Or if you’re a power social user, try using the Flock browser.

8. Integrate IM, Email, and Social Networking

If you use a browser that doesn’t yet support plugins or are a heavy user of IM, check out the latest version of Digsby or Trillian. Both of them support all popular webmail accounts, IM networks, and social networking sites.

9. Use a Consistent Username

For people to easily recognize you, use a common username across all sites. Use specialized sites like Knowem, Namechk, or Usernamecheck to check availability of your preferred username. Maintain consistent brand names across networks using these tools. As individuals, avoid signing up on services you are never going to use.

10. Track Your Comments

Ever leave a comment on some blog or site and never visit it again? You may be disgruntling those who respond to your comment with a question. Get control of your comments across blogs, sites, and social networks, with comment tracking systems like BackType.

In Part 2, we will look at tips for more seasoned social networking aficionados. Were these helpful for a start? Are there any aspects of social networking you need help on? Let us know in the comments!

Image Credit: Brian Solis, єvαиdяσ иαรciмєитσ

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Is It Possible to View Private Facebook Profiles?

I like Facebook – it’s a great social network that MakeUseOf has covered in detail, such as my last article on how to email mobile photos to Facebook, or Tim’s great article on how to “friend” someone on Facebook and hide it from your status updates. What I learned during my nightly hacking sessions is this – whatever sort of hack you uncover today, Facebook will have it patched tomorrow. Early on there were different methods how to view private Facebook profiles by typing a URL using just the right format and code, and inserting the person’s Facebook ID into the URL. However, every time one method worked, it only took Facebook a few weeks or less to patch up the hack.

Why would anyone want to spy into someone else’s private Facebook profile?  If you think about it, there are lots of valid reasons.

• You have a crush on a really hot girl. You’re pretty much a stalker, and you’re okay with that.
• You suspect your daughter is dating an axe murderer and you want to check out his Facebook profile for evidence.
• You discovered your significant other is cheating on you, and you want proof.

Regardless your reason, whether moral or not – many people find that they have a need to peek into the private world of someone’s Facebook profile. Well, I’m here to tell you that there’s no easy way to “hack” into someone’s profile. Even if there was – it wouldn’t work long enough to be useful. However, thare are ways to work your way into someone’s private profile, but it takes a little bit of patience, and a lot of unique social engineering techniques.

How to View Private Facebook Profiles With Social Engineering

When I realized that it’s virtually impossible to peek into someone’s Facebook profile using my programming knowledge, I decided to borrow a chapter from the psychology class I took Freshman year in college. Social engineering is essentially the use of psychology to get someone to comply with your wishes. In this case, you want the person to grant you access to view their private Facebook account.  Before you make things too complicated, the first and easiest way to access someone’s private Facebook profile is to simply send them a message and hope they reply.

Whenever you click on someone’s picture or name, whether it’s someone on your friends’ list of friends or search results from the Facebook database of users, you’ll find that you have three options to the right side of the person’s bio photo. You can either send them a request to add you as a friend, send them a message, or view their friends. Obviously the first option won’t help you much right now. However, you can use the second option, “send a message,” to work your way into the person’s private Facebook account. How does it work?  Well, Facebook’s help section states that anyone who you add as a friend or send a message to “…will have temporary access to view a small portion of your profile. They will see Basic Info, Personal Info, Work Info, Education Info and Friends.”

1. Send them a message like, “Hey! We went to school together, do you remember me? I think we sat together in Geometry.”

2. They may respond with something like, “I don’t know who you are, get lost.”

3. You now have temporary access to view their profile.

The James Bond Approach to Accessing Private Facebook Profiles

If the person doesn’t reply to you, there’s still hope. This next approach makes use of of a form of social engineering called, “demand characteristics.”  This is where you set up a group situation where the person adds you as a friend just to “go with the flow” because everyone else has.  First, you need to create an identity that the person will recognize.  Click “View Friends” in the bio preview box, and scroll through their friends to find someone who doesn’t have a profile picture loaded.

This person is someone who you know is a friend of your target, and the fact that they haven’t loaded an image means they may not use Facebook often and rarely keep in contact with your target. It also means that you can present youself to your target as this person, and they’ll never know the difference. You should also make note of at least 20 or so of the other friends on her list. Next, go to Facebook’s main page and sign up using the same exact name of the friend you found without an image.

Make sure to sign up with an anonymous email account. For help, check out the MakeUseOf review of MakeMeTheKing, or the review of noSPM.  Once you get into this new “fake” Facebook account, ask the 20 friends of your target to add you as a friend.

Carefully add all twenty or so of your target’s friends to your friends list by using the approach above. Nine times out of ten, it’s human nature to assume that the message they’re receiving in Facebook is from the person they know, and they’ll always click “Add Friend.”  Once you’ve accumulated a good list of mutual friends with your target, you’re ready to go in for the big win.  Go back to that person’s profile on the search page, click “Add Friend,” and write one of the most convincing notes you can muster.

The reason you spent so much effort getting her friends to show up on your fake account before you contacted her was to make your “fake” account look far more convincing. She’ll see the number of mutual friends, the sincere plea for help, and just as group psychologists predict – she’ll “go with the flow” and add you as a friend just like everyone else did. The moment she does, you have access to her employment information, school information, photos and anything else she’s added to her account. With a bit of social engineering, you’ve gained the keys to her private Facebook profile.  Well done.

Do you know of any other ways to view private Facebook profiles? Share your feedback in the comments section below.

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New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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Don’t be deceived by the perception that everything you do online appears to be rather unreal or “in game”. All your traces will lead back to you. In the worst case scenario, people you least wish to spot your faults and failures will discover your “other side”. Read on if you’re worried or want to avoid mistakes in the future.

Why you should worry!

Every person with access to the internet knows search engines (e.g. Google) and search engines know you. Search engines naturally collect all the data they can get a hold of. And everyone who knows you may be interested in finding out more about you.

For example your boss or the company you would like to work for or your girlfriend or that stalker who has a crush on you. What are the things they should rather not know about you? Signing up for a dating website for example is harmless, unless your significant other finds out about it. Worried, yet?

How bad is it?

Ever googled your name or your eMail address? Instead of Google you may also try Spock, the people search engine. At Spock you can claim your own results, edit or improve your profile and monitor new information coming in.

So what do these searches reveal? Anything your family or a potential employer may find disturbing? Hopefully not!

Guard yourself!

What can you do to protect your privacy?

Set up an alternative disposable eMail address and use fake name generator to browse incognito. That way you can more or less anonymously engage in private activities that should not be discovered by the wrong people.

Obviously, if you’re using a public computer, make sure you erase all your traces, like cookies, browsing history, passwords, cache etc.

Don’t post intimidating pictures on social networks or anywhere else for that matter, you don’t know who may find them.

Generally, the safest way to stay out of trouble is to avoid trouble. Simply act like the sympathetic and professional person you wish to be perceived as. At least when you’re using your vital data.

Be searchable!

Rather than be completely under the radar and remove all personal information about yourself from the web, you should remain searchable! Because what would be more suspicious than fishy information? No information at all!

Take advantage of the system and do use your real name and your main eMail address in the right places. Make sure people will easily find good things when searching for you and don’t make them dig deep.

For example register a domain or sign up with a career website like Xing or LinkedIn. On these sites you can create the profile you want others to see. Feed it with honest facts about yourself and make connections that matter. Don’t be afraid to mention your private online projects, like websites, forums or blogs, if they are safe and may be relevant for a future career.

What to do when it’s too late?

If information has leaked into the World Wide Web that you would have liked to conceal, it’s almost too late. But you may be able to partially revert the leak and hide it. Is your eMail address pointing to an ugly forum? Go there and change your eMail address. Simply go ahead and tackle the search results one after the other and see what data you can change or remove.

Finally, hope that none of the details were cached. If it’s really bad you may want to hire professionals to help remove information from servers and databases.

Just in case your searches have revealed that someone writes libelous things about you, Ryan recently published a great article about How to Remove False Information about Yourself on the Internet. Good luck!

Need tips for browsing anonymously and removing your traces? Search the MUO article base for safer browsing and privacy.

Picture credits: barunpatro, Hardisty

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I noticed that many of our commenters are not making use of Gravatar yet. Of course you don’t have to. But maybe you would like to and just haven’t found a cool enough image to represent you online so far. Here’s a small selection of online avatar creator tools that may float your boat.

DoppelMe

Would you be surprised if this site was different than all the rest? Well, it’s not really. You start with a naked avatar, select little bits and pieces from a variety of looks, styles, and extras, then you’re done.

Unfortunately, you only get access to all the options when you sign up with the site, hence my slightly annoyed face. But once you have signed up and in, there are plenty of unique options – with the exception of a cool posture.

Simpsonize Me (Simpson Avatar Creator)

This Simspon avatar maker is in fact different because you can’t get it started without a photo of yourself. Based on the photo and some details about your gender, age, color of Simpson you’d like to be, choice of clothing, and hair style, the machine will create a suggestion which you can perfectionize using a few sliders and custom settings.

They denied me the Marge hair tower, though. Probably because I selected straight instead of curly.

ObamiconMe

And now for the highlight: the Obama hype moves on…now we have Obama avatar generator as well.

At ObamiconMe you can upload your own image or acquire an image through your webcam. There is no restriction on image size and you can zoom into any picture. The text below the image can be customized, as well as the color balances. Simple and cool.

In case you want to use any of these avatars for Gravatar don’t worry too much about the exact size or resolution. Gravatar lets you crop the image when uploading.

Sill need more resources? Don’t know how to use Gravatar to get your picture next to your comments? Let me refer you to some other MUO articles. Here you go:

Create Avatars Online Without Any Image Editing by Varun
Liven Up Your Wordpress Blog Comments With MyAvatars by Mark
Get A Pic Next To Your Comments On MakeUseOf & Other Blogs by Aibek

And now is the time to comment and show off your new Gravatar. If you are aware of any other good online avatar creator apps,please share them in comments.

Picture credits: mzacha

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So what can you do? And how can you remove false information from the internet and ultimately remove that info from Google.

What is Libel?

In the United States and in many countries around the world, truthful statements about another person are safe to publish. However, publishing outright lies with the intent to defame or injure the reputation of others is illegal.

In the U.S., the victim of libel has the right to bring a civil lawsuit against the defamer. Such lawsuits are usually very expensive and not worth the effort for most people. If you find that someone has published untrue information about you online, there are less expensive and more effective ways to remove that false libelous information from the web.

Beg For Mercy

Before you do anything else, swallow your pride and contact the person who published the information. Locate the contact details on the website if you can, and send a friendly email pointing out why what they wrote is untrue. Don’t call them a liar, just ask them if they wouldn’t mind entering into a friendly dialog with you regarding the issues that were published. You’d be surprised how many of these situations arise out of a gross misunderstanding. Communicating with the other person can immediately clear up any disagreements you may have had, and you may discover that the author is willing to remove the hurtful page. Kindness can often go a very long way to getting what you want.

Unfortunately, the odds are pretty good that you may be dealing with an unstable or unreasonable individual. They may get obnoxious and rude in response to you, and refuse to cooperate. That’s when it’s time to step it up a notch.

Shut Em’ Down

Before you conduct full-fledged warfare against the offending website, you’ll need to do a little bit of investigating. The first step is to identify the name and contact information for the person who registered the site that hosts the libelous material. Personally I like the Domaintools Whois Lookup because it provides detailed information about the website. The results you get back from a whois search will look like the results below.

The two items that you need are “Admin Email,” and towards the top of the listing, Domaintools also reports the host company in the “Server Data” section as shown here. The admin email listed above is the address you’ll need to contact the webmaster if no contact emails were listed on the website.

Once you know the name of the web hosting company, visit the website and obtain their contact information as well as a list of their Terms and Conditions. Make a list of those terms that you can determine the offending webmaster has broken on his website.

#1 – Report All Terms & Conditions Violations to the Host

If you’ve contacted the webmaster and they are unwilling to cooperate, then the first part of this battle will be firing off as many abuse violation reports as needed. Your first order of business is to report a violation to their web host. It’s important that you find a violation on the web page that goes against the terms and conditions of the host. Most web hosts do not allow libel or copyright infringement.

For example, Hostdime, the web host of the offending site listed above, provides an “Unauthorized Personal Material” claim form. One of the first things HostDime will do when they receive such a report is to “Expeditiously remove or disable access to the personal material that is claimed to be unauthorized.” This occurs immediately! There is no faster way to remove a website with libel on it. All you need to do is find any place on the website where the author makes use of your name, personal information or any other “personal material,” without your permission.

Usually you’ll need to send in the notice via snail mail, so do so as soon as possible. Wait a week or so, and then follow-up with an email to make sure they received it okay, and to let them know that you’re very serious and expect a prompt response. You should notice the website go down within just a week or two.

#2 – Report Privacy or Copyright Infringement To Google

Another approach is to remove information from Google and get that web page delisted from the search engines. Google is the powerhouse of online search rankings, so getting delisted from Google would virtually destroy any chance the offending website would have of getting any visibility. There are specific situations when Google will willingly remove the site from their listings. Those situations include when any of the following are published on a web page:

* Your social security or government ID number
* Your bank account or credit card number
* An image of your handwritten signature
* Your name or business published on an adult content site spamming Google’s search listings.
* Infringement of copyrighted content like text or images

In most cases you can use Google’s web page removal request tool to submit your request to Google.

#3 – Report Any Other Abuse to Google

If the website that’s posted libel about you hasn’t broken any privacy rules, you still have a chance of removing their site from Google if you can find a case of abuse related to Google’s Terms and Conditions. Search the website and try to find examples of any of the following.

* If the site is just spam
* If the site buys or sells links
* If the site is infected with malware or malicious software

If you can identify any of the above activities on the website, submit a report to Google using the Spam Report Tool.

Don’t Give Up

One of the most important things you can do when you’re looking to take down libelous content about yourself online is to be persistent and tenacious. In 2006, a person seeking to libel me sent out my personal information to a mass list of over 200 email addresses. By following the guidelines in this article, I was able to trace down the sender’s ISP, and after submitting an official report for both spam and distribution of private information – the spammer’s ISP issued him a warning and removed his Internet access for a full week. It was very sweet retribution.

Have you ever had to remove libel about yourself from the Internet? What tools or tricks did you use to do it?

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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- Wikipedia

Your online avatar is the first thing people would notice about you or your profile. So it becomes important that you have a stylish avatar.

So you’re not an avid Photoshop user? No need to worry. Here are some solutions where you only need to point and click and you would have a cool avatar in no time.

FaceYourManga

FaceYourManga allows you to create avatar or what they call a “Mangatar” (which is essentially an avatar). You are presented with a basic avatar which you can build upon and customize to your liking. You can choose different hairstyles, customize features, eyes, nose, garments and apply some makeup if you are inclined to do so. There are plenty of choices for each of them and if you spend some time on it, you will get pretty close to what you were looking for when you started.

Yahoo Avatars

Yahoo Avatars offers a lot of choices. If you found FaceYourManga enough then you will certainly be overwhelmed with the amount of choices offered at Yahoo Avatars. If you were looking for something more than you should definitely check them out.

Here again you start with a basic avatar which you can build upon. You can customize the face, hair, skin tone and choose from extensive options for branded garments and other accessories. Put on some glasses or hats, have a dog besides you or whatever. There is plenty of stuff to keep you involved for some time.

Yahoo Avatars supports some animation in that you can have an animated smile, eyes and backgrounds.

While Yahoo Avatars appears with your Yahoo Profile, there is no option to download your avatar to use on other places. That said, you can always take a screenshot and use it on other sites.

Doppel Me

The same strategy: start with a basic avatar and build upon it with all the fancy bells and whistles the site has to offer.

While Doppel Me doesn’t provide as many choices as Yahoo Avatars, it still has plenty of options. I found the interface clean and well designed. Once you are done with the avatar you can download it and use the way you want it, or you can register. Registration of course provides some extra features like inviting friends, managing your avatars (doppleme’s) etc. You can also get the code to embed your avatar on web pages, social networks, etc so that changes you make to your avatars are instantly reflected all over the internet! Overall, it’s another good free avatar maker that we actually profiled earlier.

SP-Studio

South Park fans will love this. This site allows you to create and customize your avatar in a “South Park” style. Put in a hat, eyes, hair, mouth, body and legs of your choice and you have a South Park character avatar! There are plenty of choices to customize the avatar to your liking. You would have to make a screenshot to save it though.

Turn Your Name Into a Face

If you are the no fuss guy, don’t give a dime as to how your avatar looks or you just want an avatar with minimal effort then there are some options. You can pick someone else’s and claim its yours, fetch an image off the web and use it as your avatar or use “Turn Your Name Into a Face”. The site just requires you to enter your name and it gives you an avatar, which is not head turning but at least you can brag that you created it with your name!

Here are a few MakeUseOf names (using full names):

Aibek	Mark	Varun

Hmm.. Don’t mess with Aibek! 

Which site do you like the most? Or do you have some other favorite place to create an avatar?  Let us know in the comments and maybe turn your name into a face and share it as well?

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New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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Doing so has made me realise all of the customization options I never knew existed up to now and you can spend literally ages tweaking it and twunking it (I think I’ve just invented my own word) the way you want it.

So let’s take a look at some of the things you can do to make your YouTube user page your own.

The first step (of course) is to make your YouTube account. Then, once you are logged in, your user page can be found at http://www.youtube.com/user/YOUR USER NAME. As you can see from the screenshot above, the box at the top left hand corner of the page has a yellow “edit channel” button. Click that to find the customization options available to you.

The three options are :

Channel Info

It’s highly recommended that this is filled out properly as this information is indexed in the search engines. So make sure the description and the tags are done properly.

Channel Design

This is the most important option of all. This is where you can specify the colours of your page or specify a background design. You can also rearrange the layout of the boxes on your page, specify which video will show at the top of your page and much more.

Now many users may choose to have a default plain colour on their page but did you know that you can upload another wallpaper as your background? Jimmy recently talked about Twitter wallpapers and you can use those same wallpapers on your YouTube page as well. Just upload your wallpaper in the “advanced design customization” section, choose “repeat background image” and bingo, you’ve got yourself a nice background.

It’s worth taking a lot of time over this option until you get things exactly the way you want it.   You can change the font, the playlists that are displayed, the boxes that are displayed, the colour of the links and the colour of the text.

Organize Videos

This option is not so important in my opinion. All it does is allow you to rearrange the order of your uploaded videos so you can move certain ones to the front. So if you have a video that you would like to display more prominently, you can bring it forward. But if you don’t care, you can give this option a miss.

So these are the three options that YouTube offers you to customize your page. If you spend some time working on these options, you’ll be amazed at how great your page looks afterwards.

What customizations have you done to your YouTube page? What tips and tricks can you offer to people looking to spruce up their page? Let us know in the comments.

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First of all, there are some quick and easy options built right into Twitter. The site recently underwent some structural changes and one of those included the removal of some custom elements. At first I was distraught about this, but now I really like the new layout and their new options have definitely made up for it. For instance, you can now go into the Settings/Design tab of your profile and edit much of the page’s look and feel.

The easiest thing to do is to pick one of 12 prefab wallpapers that all look like Threadless t-shirts (not a bad match for Twitter, actually). If you want to add your own wallpaper, hold your horses, we’ll get to that in a bit.

To match up your fancy new background with the general page elements, simply click “Change design colors” and you can pick each element’s color from a palette.

Getting back to custom backgrounds as promised, there are a couple of options for you. Some people find really fantastic photographs to use as their backgrounds. Usually they are epic landscapes that will do well even when you scroll down a ways. Also, it doesn’t hurt to just have something neat in the upper left-hand corner. Personally, I am artistically inept, so I use services like TwitterPatterns and BgPatterns to find new backgrounds. The former is interesting because the designs are specifically for Twitter profile pages.

If you’re not feeling like a fabric-backed Twitter is right for you, look into BgPatterns. They focus on a single shape or object and tile it over and over for an attractive, uniform look. Personally I found a nifty little star pattern that I use for my own page and it has served me well. With the new layout, though, I may play around with my element colors here and there until I find something new and snazzy.

Once you have a new background picked out, click the “Change background image” link and browse to your image. If it is like one of the above, make sure “tile background” is checked (if you went that way) or you’ll only get one lonely iteration of your background. Click “save changes” and you’re all ready to go!

Once you’re done configuring the layout, there is still one more thing you can do to jazz up your Tweets. In fact, your Tweets are specifically applicable to this next service. It’s called TwitPic and I can’t believe we haven’t mentioned it before here on MakeUseOf. While it probably deserves an entire article unto itself, TwitPic will essentially allow you to upload images and associate individual Tweets with them. It’s kind of like a micro-Flickr for microblogging.

Because seeing is believing, I made up a little sample:

The process of uploading is essentially two steps (choose and customize) once you’ve signed into your Twitter account through the API. The service has mobile options and works through several clients as well, so definitely take a closer look when you get a chance.

Lastly, Epic-Fu just dedicated an entire podcast to Twitter, so be sure to check it out, as they mentioned a lot of services I’d never heard of before.

P.S. – If you’re wondering about the first graphic in this article, it comes from Ben Walker, who wrote “The Twitter Song.” Here’s a quirky little video to inspire your future Twitterings:

If you make a particularly spectacular profile page share it with us and describe how you made it better! Plus, don’t forget to follow MakeUseOf !

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1. Create and Backup Multiple profiles

When you type in the omnibox, Google Chrome is capable of digging up your history and show a list of suggestions that is closest to your search. Now, if you are those who like to frequent ‘naughty’ sites, what would happen if someone (hopefully not your wife) types in a search term and all your ‘mischief’ acts are instantly displayed in a well-organized list? I am sure that is the last thing that you want to happen.

Rather than switching to incognito mode all the time, an easy way out is to create multiple profiles for everyone that uses the browser. In such cases, you can keep all your stuff (and maybe privacy) personal and avoid those embarrassing moments.

Google Chrome Backup is a small application that allows you to easily create multiple profiles with a few mouse clicks.

Creating a new profile is as easy as clicking on the ‘New Profile’ button, enter the profile name and specify the location to save the new profile.

To backup your profile, simply right-click on the profile and select “Backup Profile”. In the event that your system crashes, you can also restore it back to your original setting.

2. Install Greasemonkey

Firefox users will know how useful Greasemonkey is. The good thing is, with a simple tweak, you can also get Greasemonkey to work in Google Chrome.

In your Google Chrome, press Ctrl + B to show your bookmark bar (if it’s hidden). Drag this Monkey bookmarklet to the bookmark bar.

Now, go to Userscripts.org and select the scripts that you want to install. On the installation page (the page with the button “Install the script”), click on the Monkey bookmarklet. This will convert the script to Chrome compatible script. Now drag the “Install the script” button to your Chrome bookmark bar. That’s it! (This trick will only on certain scripts. Scripts that contain specific functions like pre-fill comments, reload page etc will not work.)

Another way to get Greasemonkey to work in Chrome is to install Greasemetal, a userscript runtime for Chrome. To get the Greasemonkey scripts to work, you will need to download and save the scripts to the “userjs” folder in “My Documents” and run Chrome with Greasemetal.

Somehow, I find that the Monkey bookmarklet method is more user-friendly than the Greasemetal way. You can try out both and let me know which one you prefer.

3. Increase the Number of Omnibox Suggestions

By default, Chrome shows 5 URL suggestions when you type in the omnibox. If you want it to show more/less suggestions, you can change it via the “omnibox-popup-count=” command line switch.

In Windows, right click on the Chrome shortcut icon and select Properties. In the Target field, add the command line switch “-omnibox-popup-count=10″ (without the quote) to the end of the command. Change the number to your preferred number of suggestions that you want Chrome to show.

4. Change the Theme

So you wanted to dress up your Chrome but can’t find the button to change the theme? Google Chrome does not allow you to change the theme by default, but a simple tweak should get this done easily.

Download a Chrome theme of your liking.

Extract the “default.dll” file.

Navigate to your Chrome installation directory (for Vista: C:\Users\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data, for XP: C:\Documents and Settings\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\User Data and go to /Application/Chrome version/Themes folder. The “Chrome version” folder will be in the form of 0.2.149.29 (The number will vary according to the version of Chrome that you installed). Replace the “default.dll” file in the folder with the “default.dll” file that you have just downloaded.

Restart your Chrome. You should see it dressed up in the new theme now.

(If you find the above steps too complicated, or you need an application to manage your themes, you can download the application XChrome and change the theme from a nicely designed GUI.)

5. Stumbleupon without the Toolbar

In Firefox, I used Stumbleupon to get new article ideas and to keep myself informed of interesting stuff. With this simple tweak, you can get Stumbleupon to work in Chrome as well.

Right click on the bookmark bar and select “Add page”.

Name the new bookmark Stumble! and place the following code in the URL field: javascript:window.location.href = 'http://www.stumbleupon.com/demo/#url';

Now, everytime you want to stumble a site, just click the Stumble! bookmarklet and the Stumbleupon toolbar will appear.

To submit a review to Stumbleupon, create another bookmark and name it “Review for Stumble“. In the URL field, copy and paste the following code: javascript:window.location.href = 'http://www.stumbleupon.com/submit?url=' + document.location;

Whenever you come across a page and wanted to submit a review to Stumbleupon, simply click on the “Review for Stumble” bookmark and it will bring you to the SU review page.

6. Preview RSS feed in Google Chrome

One feature sorely missed by many in Google Chrome is the ability to preview and subscribe to a RSS feed. To tackle this issue, RAMisp.org has written a script that allows you to preview and subscribe to a site’s RSS feed in Google Chrome.

• In your Chrome, go to http://feeds.ramisp.org
• Drag the “Auto-Detect RSS” link to your bookmark bar.

Now, whenever you want to preview a site RSS feed, simply click on the “Auto detect RSS” bookmark and you will see the preview of the feed on the RAMisp site. You can also subscribe to the feed via Google, Yahoo, or Netibes.

7. Customize your Own Shortcut Keys

Google Chrome comes with a set of useful shortcut keys, but if you want more of it, you can make use of Autohotkey to create your own shortcut keys.

Download Autohotkey from http://www.autohotkey.com/download/

Install it in your Windows.

Check out HowTo Tuts for some ready-made shortcut key scripts for Chrome.

Save the “.ahk” scripts to your system. Double click the “.ahk” scripts to activate the shortcut keys.

Open your Chrome, you should now be able to use your custom shortcut keys in the Chrome.

Some of the ready-made shortcut key scripts found in “HowTo Tuts” include:

• Win+a or F1 Switch to previous tab
• Win+s or F2 Switch to next tab
• Win+z Go back
• Win+x Go forward
• Win+c or F4 Close current tab
• Win+v Paste and go
• Win+Alt+v Paste and go in a new tab
• ctrl+z or F12 Undo last tab
• CAPS Switch to Chrome and create a new tab (If Chrome isn’t already running, it opens Chrome first)
• Scroll mouse wheel on the tab bar switches to previous and next tabs
• Ctrl+Shift+T to post to Twitter (automatically tinyurls the current page)
• Ctrl+Shift+D or Ctrl+Shift+B to bookmark to Delicious

Which one is your favorite hack? Do you know of any other Google Chrome hacks? Let us know in the comments.

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• 10 Cool Extensions for Google Chrome (57)
• Stumbleupon Tools To Stumble Around The Web (14)
• Quick Tip: Backup Firefox Preferences (18)
• How to Start Google Chrome in Incognito Mode by Default (23)
• How to Save and Monitor Bandwidth when using Firefox (11)

Let’s face it, no matter which operating system you are using, you got to surf the web. It seems like a good idea if your browser automatically knew what you had bookmarked on the other operating system and you don’t have to customize your settings, passwords and search pages all over again.

Well if you use Firefox, and want to achieve something like this, then read on:

The Profile Manager

Firefox geeks may already know this but just to be on the same page, let me tell you that a profile manager exists for Firefox. The profile manager can be accessed by typing “firefox.exe -profilemanager” on Windows and “firefox -profilemanager” on linux systems. We are going to use this profile manager and Firefox profiles to accomplish our task.

The Steps

1. Let’s assume we are using Firefox from within Windows XP and want to be able to access our bookmarks and settings from within Ubuntu. (If it’s other way round, read ahead, only minor changes are required).

2. Take a note of these locations, we will be using them in steps that follow.

- Windows XP : C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\xxxxxxxx.default\
- Windows Vista : C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\xxxxxxxx.default\
- Ubuntu / Other Distros : ~/.mozilla/firefox/xxxxxxxx.default

where xxxxxxxx refers to a random string, username to you windows user name and ~ to you Linux home directory

3. Make sure that the profile directory in Windows XP as mentioned on step 2 is accessible from within Ubuntu. This should not be a problem as modern Linux systems have read write access to almost any file system that is used by Windows.

4. Now boot into Ubuntu, open terminal and type: “firefox -profilemanager”

5. Click create new profile, a wizard appears, give the profile a name, click next and when prompted to choose a directory, choose the Windows XP directory for your profile as found from Step 2.





6. Click Finish and you are done. You will now have access to all the add-ons you installed, the bookmarks and other settings!

Variations

I want to do this the other way round Ubuntu to XP?

No problem, everything is the same except you have to make the Linux File System accessible from within Windows. This is easy to achieve using the freeware Ext2fsd. Once you do this, create a new profile for Firefox in XP and point it to the Firefox directory on Ubuntu / other distros. (refer Step 2)

I want to do this between XP and Vista ?

Still no problem, I already mentioned the location for the Firefox directory on Windows Vista. Just use that location and create a new Firefox profile on either operating system that points to the other.

What if I have a dual boot of Vista and Ubuntu ?

Same steps, just use the respective directories.

How can I get more creative?

If you have a home network, and you switch between computers you can share the profile directory on the network and obtain the same results.

How about sharing the profile over the internet ?

Well you can use the same method and share the profile directory over the internet as well, however this may not be the best solution. Try looking into Weave (Make Use Of article), or sync your bookmarks using Foxmarks (this will only sync bookmarks).

Any other Profile hacks?

Well not really, just a mention that if the browser is the mainstay of your work and you do a lot of work online and you don’t want to lose your customizations and bookmarks then you can backup your profile directory, just in case something goes wrong.

Also try using different profiles for different types of work you need the browser for. This way you don’t clutter up your browser with too many add-ons and this also avoids some problems. Like for example I use different profiles for developing sites in which I have installed Firebug, Web Developer Tool bar and similar add-ons, and I use a different profile for the casual – fun – entertainment browsing!

Have you used the Profile Manager creatively in a way that I forgot to mention? Why not share it with the world? Write it up in the comments.

(By) Varun Kashyap, who blogs about such interesting tip, tweaks and hacks on TechCrazy Blog

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• Transmute – Migrate Bookmarks Between Your Browsers (3)
• Lazarus – Bring Your Form & Browser Data Back From The Dead (3)
• Close N’ Forget Covers Your Firefox Browsing Tracks (7)
• 6 Reasons Why Mozilla Firefox Is Safe Compared To Internet Explorer (23)
• The Winners of ‘Extend Firefox’ – Best Firefox Addons (14)

Once you sign up for Retaggr, you must fill out a few different things in order to give Retaggr enough information to populate your Profile Card. This Profile Card isn’t just limited to screen names and basic information. There is a lot of room for customization.

First, you fill out your profile which consists of basic information about you, your work and your website. The real strength of Retaggr is in its ability to let you add links to your Profile Card for just about every social network under the sun. As someone that tries to connect with my readers in every way possible, I have so many profiles it can get hard to keep up with all of them. Retaggr allows me to show off all the ways to connect and interact with me in one place.

Retaggr has a total of 136 different websites or social networks that you can add to your profile. This was staggering to me, because I thought I used lots of social networks until I started looking through this list. If Retaggr doesn’t have your social network of choice, there is a place to add in any other profile you may have.

Widgets can also be a part of your signature. The main widgets they currently have allow people to instant message you directly from your Profile Card. This is fairly basic but there is a place that allows you to build your own widgets. This makes the possibilities almost limitless for your Profile Card and the information it contains.

One new feature on the site was the ability to make your Profile Card into an email signature. This is great because it includes all of the things you could want in your email signature and more.

Retaggr is a great tool for anyone that wants to connect with new people online. It provides enough information about the person and gives lots of different options to learn more about them and lists all the ways you can connect with them.

I can see the added value for bloggers and people that do business online. Describing Retaggr as an “interactive business card” couldn’t be a better description. You can now do more than just leave your website in a comment or leave a link to one or two profiles. Retaggr provides you with a clean profile that contains all the information any potential reader or buyer would need from you. Your Profile Card can be embedded into whereever you would like.

The only downside to Retaggr is that in order for it to work on comments and photos, the website must support it. I think Retaggr is something worth supporting but only time will tell if enough websites feel the same way I do.

Kyle Judkins is a 24 year old marketer and part-time tech blogger. He is the author of LostInTechnology where he talks about some basic technology tips and tricks that everyone can use.

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• Threadsy – Integrates Your Email and Social Networks (+Invites) (24)
• The 19+ Social Network Aggregator List (19)
• Manage your Online Social Life with SecondBrain (12)
• Legacy Locker – Life Insurance for Your Online Identity (4)
• Have All Your Social Updates Collected & Sent With NutshellMail (1)

The Fake Name Generator. However it goes a little farther than merely giving you a fake name. The website can generate names according to the nationality you choose, it gives you an address for the country you choose, gives you a website for your ‘fake self’, an email address, a phone number, mother’s maiden name, a credit card number (with the date it expires on) and even a social security number. Cool or what?

If you are in the US and you happen to need a fake identity while away from the Internet, no problems just Text FAKE to 41411. Following is a test run:

I know what you are all wondering, “What? Why are they doing this? Isn’t it bad? It can surely be misused”. If you were thinking along similar lines I say: “Be constructive, see how many positive uses it can have:

1. Quality test data can be hard to come by, especially with laws (such as HIPAA) preventing use of real data. So it can be used for testing.
2. Many websites, such as message boards, are poorly designed, making it difficult for visitors from foreign countries to sign up for accounts. Using fake information, you can easily fill out the sign up forms and log in to the site.
3. Use fake information when filling out forms to avoid giving out personal information.
4. You can generate a false identity to use as your pseudonym on the internet. This allows you to keep your real life and your internet life separate.
5. You can get ideas for names to use for characters in a book or story.
6. Generated credit cards can be used to test basic client-/server-side validation techniques without accidentally processing a real card.
7. Generated national identity numbers can be used to test basic client-/server-side validation techniques without risking disclosure of real information.

If you are indeed going to use it for testing purposes which I suggest you should, you can generate bulk data and download it in csv format. There is however a minor point that I will like to mention that the names are generated by randomly matching a first name and a last name so there is a thin chance that the name it claims is fake is not really fake and someone, somewhere has that very name. However using it with the other information that is generated will make it a less likely clash with someone alive or dead.

As for the credit card number it’s not real, it just follows the format and the expiry date is a date in the near future so hard luck you guys who thought you’d hit the jackpot!

I would reiterate that you should only use this site for legitimate reasons. We at Make Use Of don’t encourage the illegal use of such sites and also because we don’t want to you to get into trouble and lose you!

Have fun, use it for testing your databases, your applications, your scripts or whatever you decide it to use for.

(By) Varun Kashyap – A programmer, tech enthusiast and a blogger who believes in living it “REAL” but loves to find stuff like this. He blogs about such things and tips, tweaks, tutorials and walk throughs on his TechCrazy Blog

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

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• 20 Tips to Define And Manage Your Social Networks [Part 2] (9)
• 20 Tips to Define And Manage Your Social Networks [Part 1] (46)
• Quickly Create Temporary Email Addresses with YopMail (21)
• Legacy Locker – Life Insurance for Your Online Identity (4)
• How to View Private Facebook Profiles (109)

When I first heard of Friendfeed, I will admit I rolled my eyes and moved onto the next site. But gradually I was won around by the positive reviews that the site received so I went back for a second look. On my third visit, I made an account. Now I’m handing out my personal feed to anyone that wants it.

The site basically aggregates all of the networks that you use into one easy to use page that anyone can then follow. If your friends use Friendfeed, you can have their account activity merged with yours. Once a day or once a week, you can have everything emailed to you. So if you use say ten different social networks, instead of checking those ten different sites individually (which take up a lot of time), your friends now only have one site to check. If they use a RSS reader, it can all be instantly funnelled in there as well.

No passwords are asked for so your online security is assured. By simply entering your usernames, you can bring together your online activity from 28 networks.

All of your activity for these services will then be imported. Then when you use one of these services, that information is immediately passed to Friendfeed who then update your page with the link and any comments you may have made on that site :

So it goes without saying that if you want to keep something private, don’t do it on an account associated with Friendfeed because everything you do on a Friendfeed-linked account is going to show up pretty much right away – comments, photos, links, the whole lot. But the benefits outweigh any possible privacy concerns. Most of your online activity can be brought together under one umbrella, you can monitor your friends and this all in turn can save you an enormous amount of time which can make you more productive.

The URL that Friendfeed gives you is also a simple one to remember. It’s basically http://friendfeed.com/YOURUSERNAME and is helpful for handing out to family and friends. There’s no long complicated URL’s to remember, no chance of re-directing your mother to a “Rate my Booty” website.

You might also want to check out Steve Rubel’s excellent post on making Friendfeed your master aggregator. Steve highlights how you can set up “imaginary friends” to collect information from sources that don’t have Friendfeed accounts. So there’s all sorts of possibilities you can throw around to see what sticks.

Do you have a Friendfeed? What do you think of the service?

(By) Mark O’Neill is a blogger and professional freelance writer. Check out his blog at BetterThanTherapy.net

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New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• 5 Social Aggregators To Keep you Updated (10)
• The 19+ Social Network Aggregator List (19)
• Retaggr Lets People Know Who You Are (10)
• Manage your Online Social Life with SecondBrain (12)
• 9 Steps To A Great Start In Friendfeed (12)

1. 8Hands
2. Ex.plode.us
3. Fuser
4. HypeIt
5. Minggl
6. MyLifeBrand
7. Naymz
8. OtherEgo
9. Profilactic
10. Profileomat
11. Profilefly
12. Profilelinker
13. Snag
14. Socialnetwork.in
15. Socialurl
16. Spokeo
17. Tabber
18. Upscoop
19. Zoolit

COMMENTERS! Please help choose the top 5 of the following Social Network Aggregator Sites by basing your votes on the following criteria:

• A) Actual Amount of Networks Supported - we’re looking for 1 of these to be the 1 we use, otherwise we’ll need a Social Network Aggregator Aggregator
• B) Actual Functionality of the Integrated Networks – I obviously just don’t want to see all my friends from all my networks and then that’s that, I want more!
• C) Ease of Use – Could the 12 year olds on Facebook and MySpace work it?
• D) Trustworthy Status -will the site accidentally lose all your usernames and passwords
• E) Aesthetics – Does it look sexy?

(By)This article was posted by Adam Hirsch from TheFattyTalks

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• Retaggr Lets People Know Who You Are (10)
• Get your Social Networks in order with Friendfeed (8)
• Threadsy – Integrates Your Email and Social Networks (+Invites) (24)
• Manage your Online Social Life with SecondBrain (12)
• Legacy Locker – Life Insurance for Your Online Identity (4)