Friday Roundup: Tech edition!

by Laura on August 13, 2010

I thought to do something a little different on today’s Friday Roundup. Instead of interesting and resourceful blog posts and articles we usually find around the web, I’ll be posting a few little tech trick how-tos and resources that you may or may not know.

Item One: Disabling Skype auto formatting

Okay, I’ll have to admit, this post really was born out of the above. I was formatting some of Kaffeeklatsch’s email reminders for our upcoming call and finally had enough of the way Skype would automatically insert code around phone numbers I’d type in. If you know even remotely what I’m talking about, you know how this can quickly turn into a formatting nightmare.

So to disable the auto formatting, go into your web browser of choice (Don’t disable it from Skype itself. You’re not going to find it. ), go to Tools –> Add Ons –> Select Skype add on and disable it.

Every browser is different, but this short but sweet article shows you how to turn off Skype’s auto formatting for Firefox and Internet Explorer. If you use any other browser, just find where your add ons are stored and look for Skype and turn it off.

Item Two: Customizing LinkedIn links

If you’re on LinkedIn (or thinking about it in the future) there’s a section in your profile where you can list websites (kind of like a limited version of a blog roll for yourself). You get up to three links, and when you fill it out, there’s a little drop down menu that lets you select what kind of link it is. i.e “My blog” “My website” “My RSS”. In other words: very boring unhelpful labels.

Many people select this instead of customizing because it’s an option in the drop down menu, and usually when you’re given categories, you connect the link to the right category for organization. It’s human nature. But you can skip all of this (because we all want to stand out) and select “Other” from the drop down menu.

This won’t label your link “other.” It’ll actually give you an extra box where you can write your own title for your link. Like for example “My Kickass Website” or “Where I Blog About Socks.”

Item Three: Stat Tracking on Steroids

So this isn’t a tutorial, but if you are the type of person who obsessively looks at website stats (well, you don’t have to be) you should try GetClicky.com. Their free trial version only allows you to track one website (I tried tracking our FB fanpage and it wouldn’t let me ) but if you are just watching your business website, this is all you need. It gives you everything, including referral sites, an easier way to view different countries that might be stumbling onto your website, and what are the most viewed pages of the day.

The only thing about this site is that it’s on a day to day basis. Meaning that it only lists the day’s stats in comparison of yesterday’s stats, and doesn’t keep the long term graphs and data for more than 24 hours unless you are paying for premium service (I think). But I like it to get a quick glance of daily activity and where it’s coming from. It’s also fun if you’re just the very curious type.

And that’s it for today’s roundup! If you like what we did here, I’m thinking of opening up the comment section for questions/requests for tutorials and I’ll answer them next Friday. Have a great weekend!