All We Share...!: [NEW] How to Make Most of MakeUseOf.com

Friday, September 25, 2009

[NEW] How to Make Most of MakeUseOf.com

Hi

By now you should already have received at least one of our newsletters. I hope you liked them. If you have any suggestions on how we can improve them, just shoot me an email at aibek@makeuseof.com.

OK, so you have received our newsletter and checked out some links. That's all good but the newsletter only brings latest updates. What about the other 7000+ published articles?

Actually, today I wanted to show you a few things about MakeUseOf.com that you're probably not aware of yet. Below, I will show you how to effectively browse/search our website and find the stuff you need. Whether you're looking for a free alternative to a commercial program, wondering what the best anti-virus is out there, not being able to open a video file etc, then we probably covered it. It's all on MakeUseOf.com - you just need to be able find it.

Before we get started, you should know that MakeUseOf.com consists of 3 main sections:

Blog (www.makeuseof.com) - the main part of the website where we publish articles. Howto's, cool websites lists, Windows/Mac/Linux hacks, internet tips, software reviews etc.

Directory (www.makeuseof.com/dir/) - all profiled web services and mobile apps organized into categories. If you're looking for a specific website or mobile app look it up here. The directory entries are much shorter then blog articles.

Geeky Fun (www.makeuseof.com/tech-fun/) - funny geeky videos and pics that we discovered while browsing the web. Lots of hilarious stuff here.

1. Using MakeUseOf Search Engine

When you want to find something on MakeUseOf, first I would recommend using the on-site search engine. I use it very often when I need to quickly look up a website or a program for this or that purpose. It works for most of the searches. Although sometimes it takes me 3-4 searches using different terms before it finds something, I still know that we covered it in the past and it is there somewhere. The search engine scans both blog articles and directory entries.

If you're a Firefox user I highly advise you to setup a 'Quick Search' for MakeUseOf. It's the best Firefox feature in my opinion and unfortunately ignored by new users. It allows you to search any website directly from the Firefox address bar without the need to go to the website. Very useful.

So, go ahead and setup a Quick Search for MakeUseOf. If you're not familiar with that excellent Firefox feature, see how it can make your life easier @ http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/firefox-quick-searches-you-should-set-up/.

2. Using MakeUseOf Tag Cloud

Search is great, but what do you do when you want to find all articles that were ever published on some specific topic? For instance, how can you see all MakeUseOf articles related to Microsoft Office, desktop enhancements, Outlook 2007, Gmail or say productivity? That's where our tag cloud comes in, check it out @ www.makeuseof.com/tag-cloud/.

Basically, each published article has some tags assigned to it. For instance, an article about playing YouTube videos on the iPod can be tagged as 'youtube, iPod, video conversion, mp3 player'. Our tag cloud page shows all tags on one page with the size of each tag being directly proportional to the number of articles tagged with it. As you can see from the screenshot above, tags like 'firefox tips' and 'desktop enhancements' are fairly popular.

The tag cloud page is for blog articles only and doesn't include MakeUseOf directory entries.

Tag Cloud: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag-cloud/

3. Browse MakeUseOf Archives

Finally, there is an archives page. Our archives page lists all MakeUseOf blog articles ever published, sorted by month and year, going way back to July 2006. It's located @ www.makeuseof.com/archives-2/

Well, that's about it. I hope you found the above tips helpful.