5 Sites That Make Any Text Look Interesting | Dramel Notes

Got something to say? Make sure your friends actually see it.

Images stand out on sites like Facebook and Twitter, which is why many people put their text into images when they have something big to say. But breaking out Microsoft Word and taking a screenshot is boring – it’s better to make things visual.

Which is why we’ve got some great tools for you to check out today.

Whether you want to leave a birthday message on Facebook that will stand out from the crowd, or just want to lose a few minutes making something for the fun of it, the following sites give you ways to make text look fun. Let’s get started.

Type To Design (Web): Your Text, in Instagram Photos

It’s a growing trend offline: framed photos of letters alongside each other, together spelling a name or word. If you like that look, and want to make something similar online, Type To Design is the site you’re looking for. Using the Instagram photos from #36daysoftype, this simple site will turn anything you type into a series of photos. Just start typing to see your collage, instantly.

If you don’t like any of the letters you see, just click it and it will change. If you’re wondering where any particular letter came from, hover over it; a link to the original image on Instagram will pop up on right. Once you’ve happy with everything, you can download the image for sharing on social networks or anywhere else

NekoFont (Web): Your Text, in Cat Form

Like the above idea, but wish it included more cat pictures? Or only cat pictures? Me too.

Good news: NekoFont is exactly what we’re looking for. Just type anything you want, pick a size, and get your text back in kitten form.

If you want the Internet to pay attention to something, cats never hurt, so give this a try next time you need to leave a short note somewhere. You can download the resulting image when you’re done, for uploading anywhere.

Font Face Ninja (Chrome, Safari): Find Out What Fonts Sites Are Using

Sites that make images quickly are fun, but for something truly personal you need to get to work and design something yourself. Finding the right font is an important step.

Have you ever, while browsing the web, wondered what font you’re looking at? If so, you’re my kind of people. As a reward, here’s a browser extension you might like: Font Face Ninja. This plugin makes it easy to find out the name of any font on a web site. Just click the button and voila:

You not only discover the name of the font, but the size and spacing as well. Whether you want to replicate a look on your own site, or just add another font to your collection, this one is worth keeping in your virtual toolbox.

Get The Font: Search for, and Download Any Font

Found a font you like, but don’t know how to get it? We’ve outlined sites for downloading fonts, and tools for managing your font collection, but it’s always worth knowing about another tool for the job. Get The Font is a simple search tool that scans Github for fonts.

Github might not be the first place you’d think of finding fonts, but many open source projects make use of free fonts for their user interfaces. The result: if a front is available for use on the web, it’s probably hosted on Github somewhere. Get The Font lets you search everything quickly, so if there’s a free font you’ve been looking for check it out.

Remember: just because you’ve downloaded a font from this site doesn’t mean you have the right to use it. Make sure a font is free to use before you put it in a commercial project.

Fake Handwriting (Web): Type Anything; See It Written by Hand

We’ve shown you how to turn your handwriting into a font, but maybe you want something just a little more covert — and easy. Fake Handwriting is a fascinating project that uses machine learning algorithms to actually replicate handwriting. We’re not talking about something as simple as turning handwriting into a font; we’re talking about machines actually kind of learning to write in messy ways, making the sorts of mistakes that humans make.

It’s fascinating to play with.

You can actually read the study behind the project, if you’re really interested. My take: teaching kids to learn cursive is stupid, but teaching machines that same skill is surprisingly awesome.

What Did We Miss?

Do you know of any other sites that make boring text look downright fascinating? Let’s compile some more sites like this in the comments below, then! I’m really looking forward to learning more from you.

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8 Places to Get Feedback on Your Photos | Dramel Notes

One of the best ways to improve your photography skills is to gather genuine feedback from people who know what they’re talking about. These eight sites are where you can do just that.

Having the most expensive piece of kit is no guarantee for taking good photographs. For that, you need a photographer’s eye, some technical skill, advice that can up your game, and practice.

It’s finding that all-important critical advice and feedback (some may call it smart feedback) that we’re focusing on here. Without advice from people who understand photography better than yourself, you’re locking yourself under a glass ceiling. You need access to individuals who can look at your photos and tell you honestly what you’re doing right, and what you’re getting wrong.

Luckily, the web has a few amazing places where you can gather critiques from people who truly know what they’re talking about (and some who don’t). What’s better: on the following websites, that feedback is completely free of charge.

r/PhotoCritique

With over 37,000 readers, r/PhotoCritique is one of the most well populated places to gather feedback on your photos. it’s so popular, in fact, that we’ve written a piece explaining exactly how to get the most out of /r/PhotoCritique.

As is always the case with Reddit though, some of the comments can come off as pretty harsh, but that’s all in your interest to grow as a photographer. To get the best feedback here, upload a quality version of your photo, and include EXIF data in your post. As a minimum this should include shutter speed, ISO, and aperture.

1X

Not all photos posted to 1X get much of a critique, but if you have a truly interesting image, you’ll receive a ton of valuable feedback. Take a look at some of their popular photos to see what I mean.

Each photo on the site is of a high standard by default. This is thanks to 1X’s approval process. Once your photo is live, other users — including many professional photographers — will tell you exactly what they like and dislike about your work.

Digital Photography School

Digital Photography School’s main site offers a wealth of knowledge for anyone wanting to improve their photography. Additionally, their forums house almost 300,000 enthusiasts, just waiting to offer you help and guidance.

Within the forum, you’ll find a host of sub-forums tailored specifically for requesting photo critiques. These range from landscape critiques, to macro critiques, and comparison critiques. The feedback you can receive in these forums is often highly in depth, and as technical as you can handle.

StackExchange

If you need more immediate feedback, try posting your photos to the Stack Exchange chat room. If the right users are online at the time you post, you can receive some fantastic tips. As this is a chat room (not a forum), you can instantly follow up with questions to dig deeper, in real time.

By scrolling through the chat history there, you can find some incredible discussions, with professionals sharing their best-kept secrets with amateurs in response to a photo being posted.

Flickr

Flickr’s critique forum has around 15,000 members, with almost 5,000 photos being posted for critique.

The feedback posted tends to be thorough, and well thought out. Photographers are often asked to post modified versions of their photos based on the feedback given, too. There’s definitely a lot to be learned here. Flickr also has a selection of great photography groups that you may find useful to join.

Professional Photo Critique

By submitting your photo to Professional Photo Critique, an experienced critic could cast a discerning eye over your work. This is open to you whether you’re an amateur, student, or professional.

The objective feedback received will incorporate both the positives and negatives of your photo, with the aim being to have a “conversation about your work”. You’ll also learn a ton by reading previous critiques that have been posted to the site. Find out how to submit your photo here.

The Grid

Each month, KelbyTV publishes an episode of The Grid (watch on iTunes) focusing on offering blind critiques to submitted photos. Not all submitted photos have the chance of being featured, but if yours is, the standard of feedback is phenomenal. You’re not even required to submit your name, so there’s no chance of being embarrassed if your photos suck.

There are a few submission guidelines, though that’s all standard stuff.

FredMiranda

The critique section of the FredMiranda forums is a popular place to gather some genuine opinions on your work, and advice on how to improve.

Take this photo of a waterfall. The photographer is given useful advice on improving exposure, where to place the horizon, introducing shadows etc. all in the name of free guidance.

When It’s Your Turn to Critique

Once you’ve grown enough as a photographer due to the advice you’ve received, you’ll be in a position to dish out advice yourself.

When this time comes, there are a few things to bear in mind.

A critique is not an opinion. A critique should focus on the objective qualities of a photograph. If something has objectively not worked out, such as lack of focus, you should be offering definite remedies. If they’ve gone too far with their photo-editing program, be specific. You should also explain why it happened in the first place, keeping in mind the context in which the photo was taken.

That being said, you should offer your advice with the photographer in mind. If they are a seasoned photographer, go ahead with offering the most techy advice you have. If they’re a beginner, however, help them to master the fundamentals of photography first.

Overall, keep your critiques constructive. If it’s too negative, it’ll turn the photographer away from photography. If it’s too positive, it’s not really a critique, and doesn’t help the photographer improve.

Which other sites do you go to for advice on your photos? Do you find having your photos critiqued useful? And which are the most valuable kind of critiques for you?

Image Credits:People in Meeting by Rawpixel.com via Shutterstock

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5 Sites for Planning and Enjoying Easygoing Travel | Dramel Notes

Plan a more relaxing trip than last time. Instead of scheduling your vacation to visit the sites everyone else has seen, head somewhere different and see things you didn’t expect. You just need to know where to find the right information.

This is a time of year when a lot of people travel to see friends and family, and it can be really stressful. You can make it better: my colleague Matt, for example, recently outlined secret flying tips that make traveling better. But if you’re like me, by the end of Christmas you’re ready to plan a different sort of trip entirely: one a lot more relaxing than the holidays.

Today Cool Websites and Apps shows you five sites for exploring the world in entirely new ways – hopefully ways you’ll find more interesting. Let’s get started.

Atlas Obscura: Find Something off the Beaten Path

Lots of people view traveling as a checklist. Going to Paris? View the Mona Lisa and the Eiffel Tower. New York? Check out the Statue of Liberty and Times Square. If these iconic travel stops don’t interest you, check out Atlas Obscura and find out about something a little different. This travel site is focused less on the big tourist draws and more on the weird sort of things locals might know about.

I actually used it to discover an amazing thing in my newly adopted city of Portland, Oregon: a massive flock of migrating birds that sleep in the same chimney for a month every year. I bet you can find something amazing near where you live, or any place you’re about to visit.

We’ve pointed this site out years ago while talking about free travel guide websites, but it’s come a long way since then – and has a totally different look. Give it a show.

Fareness: Find Discount Fares Quickly

If you’re heading out of town, you’re going to want to find the best deal possible. We’ve talked about plenty of ways to find cheap flights, but somehow we’ve never mentioned Fareness until now. Unlike other sites, which focus on finding you tickets for an exact date to an exact place, Fareness does everything it can to make you aware of when prices will be cheapest.

This is a great way to find somewhere to visit on a whim – perfect if you want to get away and don’t quite care precisely where you end up. That’s what exploration is all about, after all.

Travelisty: Read Awesome Stories About Traveling

If you’re not already excited about hitting the open road and finding amazing new places, maybe Travelisty can change your mind. This site is basically Reddit, but for travel stories. You’ll find all kinds of great tales from people who are exploring the planet.

Do some reading, get excited.

Travel By Drone: Stay Home and Explore from Above

Maybe you don’t have time for a vacation right now, but still want to see something new. Travel By Drone is a great site that shows you aerial footage from around the world, collected by enthusiastic drone owners. Just browse the map and you’ll find videos from all sorts of places, like this one I found in Malaysia:

If this sort of drone photography doesn’t get you excited to explore more of the world, I’m not sure what will. Explore places you’ve always wanted to see to check them out from a unique perspective.

Traveler Stash: Directory of Travel-Related Sites and Apps

Didn’t find what you need in this list? Then let’s end this roundup of travel tools with a roundup of travel tools. Traveler Stash is a constantly updated directory of useful sites and services intended to always point you at the best tools for things like finding a flight, hotel, or car rental.

Who say they are — “a group of travel hackers & entrepreneurs who have realized that the problem behind trip planning is no longer a lack of tools, but a problem of finding the right ones.” Check the site out and decide whether you agree with their choices.

What Are Your Favorite Travel Apps?

So, there are few sites we think could make planning your next trip a lot easier – and better. What other travel tips do you have? I’d like to discuss them in the comments below.

I’ll get things started: I like using CouchSurfing to find people to stay with, because I always meet people from the place I’m visiting and learn a lot. I also like finding the right tools for road trips. Let’s hear what you have to say.

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5 Sites With Tips and Tools for Creating Presentations | Dramel Notes

Have an important presentation coming up? You should really be working on that instead of browsing the Internet, but if that doesn’t sound good to you right now here are a few sites and tools that might help get you started.

We’ve shown you how to improve your PowerPoint skills overnight, but there’s more to giving a presentation than mastering presentation software. Let’s go over some sites with tips for speaking, then go over a few tools that might make the process easier for you.

You can read this article and bookmark the sites you find useful, but after that you’ve got to get back to work on your talk. Deal? Then let’s get started.

Speaking.io: A Complete Guide to Giving a Presentation

Zach Holman gives a lot of presentations as a startup adviser; this site outlines tips he’s learned over the years. You’ll find tips for writing your talk, designing your slides, and preparing for putting it all together in the presentation. Everything is laid out nicely, the writing is conversational, and the tips are straight-forward but effective.

Each of the above bullet point leads to a link with more thoughts, so there’s actually quite a lot to parse here. If you’re getting ready for a speech, this is a great place to start and get some ideas. Dive in!

Teleprompter.com: Free Online Teleprompter for Presentations and Videos

It’s usually best to memorize your presentation, but if that’s not an option a teleprompter can be a good stand-in. This lets you read without constantly shuffling cue cards, and while recording a video lets you look at the camera while reading.

Teleprompter is a free web app you can use right now, without even signing up, to quickly make yourself a teleprompter script. Put your thoughts together, give yourself breaks, and pace your speech so you don’t rush through it.

We’ve outlined teleprompter apps before, but this one stands out for being clean and functional on any device with a web browser. Give it a shot.

Swoosh (Android): Use Gestures to Control Your Presentations

Changing slides during a presentation can be awkward. You can bring along someone else to do it for you, but if they don’t have time to rehearse with you this can throw off your timing – or force you to say “next slide please” a lot.

Swoosh is an Android app you can use as a remote control for your presentation. Connect it to any computer and you can control a variety of presentation software, from PowerPoint to Haiku Deck.

It’s a little bit of work to set up, and depends on both devices being connected to the same WiFi network. But once everything is ready you can change slides by swiping your hand over your phone, which is a simple gesture that feels natural and shouldn’t distract too much. Test it out before using it on stage, of course!

Swipe.to: Share a Link and Present Online

Can’t give your presentation in person? You might want to give it over the phone, but that means whoever you’re talking to won’t be able to see your slides. Some companies use unnecessarily complicated screensharing apps for this reason, but Swipe.to offers another way.

You design your slide on Swipe itself. When it’s time to present, simply share a link with your audience. They can open the site, and see your presentation in real-time – when you change the slides, they change on everyone else’s screen. So if you want to make a presentation during a teleconference, this is worth looking into.

Slides.com: Design Presentations in Your Browser

PowerPoint is ubiquitous, but it’s not for everyone. If you can’t find a presentation app that you like, it’s always worth knowing about more options. Slides.com is a web-based presentation app with a variety of embed options and a focus on minimalist design.

There’s a variety of tools you can use during a live presentation, such as a speaker view. When your talk is done, it’s easy to share your Slides.com presentations with the world – here’s an example of what that looks like. It’s a solid alternative to the dominant players, so take some time to learn it if you’ve been wanting something different.

What Public Speaking Tips Do You Have?

Of course, websites and tools are only going to get you so far – eventually you’re just going to have to get to work and finish putting together your presentation. While you’re procrastinating, though, why not join me in the comments below and talk a bit more about your favorite public speaking tips?

I’ll get us started! We’ve outlined ways to improve your public speaking skills in the past, and ways to conquer your public speaking demons. We’ve even shown you some TED talks that are worth imitating. But I bet you have some better tips, so please share them below.

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Design Your Own Christmas Cards with These 6 Websites | Dramel Notes

Christmas is right around the corner, and that means Christmas card season is here! Why not design your own cards this year for a personal touch?

These six websites will help you design your cards, whether you want to add photos, use stock cards, send them out yourself, have them sent out for you, or do it all electronically. And maybe best of all, they’re significantly cheaper than cards you’d buy in a store. Be sure to share your favorite Christmas card sites in the comments below!

Shutterfly

In addition to being one of the biggest photo sharing sites out there, Shutterfly offers a huge variety of Christmas cards—just under 900, at the time of writing. Religious, non-religious, foil stamped, multi-fold, shaped, square, even cards that double as Christmas ornaments. There are so many designs that you’ll certainly be able find one that works perfectly for you. The number that you buy will determine how much you pay; once you get above 75 or so, the price starts to get down below $2.

Then just add a greeting, a picture (or several pictures), and include a message on the inside; you can even choose the envelope and liner. Finalize your order, and Shutterfly will ship them to you to be addressed, stamped, and sent on their way. There are always lots of deals and online coupons to help you save on Shutterfly cards too, so this can be a very economical option.

Tiny Prints

Like Shutterfly, Tiny Prints gives you a lot of options for creating your card with a picture of yourself or your family, including some that double as Christmas ornaments, too. Tiny Prints’ laser-cut cards stand out from the rest of the options out there, and they also offer a number of foil-stamped designs to add some sparkle to your holiday season.

Trim and color options, letterpress, glitter, and other options let you customize your holiday greeting to suit you or your family’s style. As with Shutterfly, the pricing depends on the options you choose and how many you order, so you can pay just about whatever you want. The more you order, the better your pricing will be.

CardStore

One of the best things about CardStore is that you can have them mail your cards directly out to all of your recipients, saving you the time it takes to address and stamp all of those envelopes. Just upload the list of recipients, and they’ll each receive a copy of your card. You can also have all of your cards sent to your nearest Target store to be printed at a Kodak photo kiosk so you can pick them up without waiting for shipping.

If you’re not sold on the idea of including your picture on the front of the card, CardStore has a lot of stock options that you’ll like, from goofy character cards to more classic holiday greetings. And, of course, you can choose from a wide variety of sizes, formats, and designs to get the Christmas card that’s perfect for you.

Postable

Another company that will mail your cards for you, Postable is dedicated to bringing you high-quality, good-looking cards that will stand out from the rest (they’re also 100% recycled, which is nice). Both photo cards and non-photo cards are available, and simple flat cards start at $2. And the interface for typing your cards is as simple as can be.

You also have the option of creating fully custom cards by uploading your own image as the front of the card. The insides of cards can be customized with different fonts for adding a personal touch, and you can even schedule the send date of your cards so they go out whenever seems best. (If you’re in the midst of planning a wedding, consider Postable for wedding invitations, too!)

Punchbowl

There are tons of e-card sites out there, but Punchbowl is one of my personal favorites—there’s an opening animation, and you can customize the envelope and liner, but there isn’t any hokey music or falling snowflakes all over the screen. Just a very nice-looking, customizable card that you can send to anyone with ease. And because there are tons of free options, you can keep your Christmas communications costs to a reasonable amount this year.

You’ll need a membership to send any cards customized with your photos, but plans are very affordable; they start at $1.50 per month. Punchbowl also lets you send digital gift cards with your holiday greeting, so you can include a last-minute present or a quick thank you to someone special in your life. There are even business-themed Christmas cards that you can upload your logo to if you want a more professional card.

Paperless Post

With some of the nicest-looking e-cards out there, Paperless Post is a great option for anyone who wants to send out thoughtful e-greetings that look like high-quality paper ones. While the Paperless Post cards aren’t free, they’re very reasonably priced. The card that I customized, for example, would have cost about $1.20, making it significantly less expensive than a paper greeting (and you get some site credit for free when you sign up).

Your recipients will appreciate the high quality of the e-cards, and there are tons to choose from, so you can send the perfect card to everyone in your family. Paperless Post also offers a surprisingly large number of typefaces and colors, letting you customize your card exactly how you want it.

Your Favorite Christmas Card Sites

These six sites are some of the best out there, but there are a lot more sites that will let you customize your own Christmas cards. Which are your favorites? Do you prefer paper cards, or have you switched over to e-cards? Share your thoughts below!

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5 Online Radios That Travel Through Space and Time | Dramel Notes

Want to find back that one song?

Or get the feeling of listening to the radio like it was when you were a kid?

Today, Cool Websites and Apps brings you five sites that let radio listeners travel through time and space.

I grew up on a farm in rural Ontario, and one of the only ways to make physical labor interesting was to turn on the radio. I’ve got so many vivid memories of specific songs, and specific segments, from the early 2000s, mostly related to cold weather and moving hay around – but good memories nonetheless. Can I find some of those back?

It turns out yes, and I can do a lot more. We’ve shown you where to find unlimited online radio; here’s how to travel in time through that free radio and find exactly what you’re looking for. Let’s get started.

OnRad.io: Some Station Somewhere Is Playing Your Song

Somewhere on this planet, one of any hundreds of thousands of radio stations is playing your favorite song. It might be in Alabama, it might be in Zimbabwe, but odds are it’s playing somewhere. OnRadio lets you find out where that station is, and start listening right now.

A few years back we featured Radio Search Engine. OnRadio is the latest incarnation of that same service, this time with a refined interface that works well on mobile.

The idea is simple: search for a song, hear it instantly from some radio station somewhere. You won’t hear that track from the beginning, but you’ll typically hear most of it. You can leave the station on, if you’d like – odds are you’ll hear something you like and learn a little about the world while you’re at it. Or you can just search for another song, if you prefer.

You can copy any song’s URL and share it, if you’d like, or set up notifications so you can find out when a particular song is playing somewhere.

Radiooooo: Music from Any Decade/Nation Combination

Instantly travelling to where your favorite song is playing is cool and all, but you were promised time travel. Let’s start delivering on that, shall we?

Radiooooo gives you a map and a panel for selecting a decade. Just click a decade, then click a country, to hear a song from that particular place and time.

There is a wide world of music to explore here, so go ahead and dive in. I recommend pre-revolutionary Cuba as a place to start, but I’d love to know which gems you discover – and where. Leave some tips in the comments below, okay?

Rewind Radio: Travel to Radio Stations from Past Decades

Radio sucks these days – kids listening to their rap/pop/whatever-it-is-you-don’t-like just don’t realize what they’re missing. Back in the 90’s/80’s/whenever-you-grew-up, everything was way better.

If you feel that way, congratulations: you’re old! It’s okay, it happens to all of us eventually (and it is better than the alternative). Just know that there’s a remedy for your radio problem: Rewind Radio. This service uses Spotify’s catalog of songs to re-create radio playlists from any year – and even season.

Just find the exact time you last found radio to be appealing, then turn the volume up.

Remember: you’re not out of touch. It’s the children who are wrong.

Magic Transistor Radio: Open and Enjoy Some Early Rock

Magic Transistor is a podcast that looks into the early history of what we today call rock and roll. They also offer an interactive online radio, and it’s totally worth checking out if you want some great music you’ve never heard before.

Just open the site and start listening – you can change the station if something you don’t love comes on. There are some really great deep cuts here, so fire it up and enjoy.

Old Radio World: Archive of Old Radio Shows and Broadcasts

Radio wasn’t always all about music and news: it used to be full of dramas, comedies, and all sorts of things we now use TV for (or did use TV for, until we started replacing that with the web, but that’s another article entirely). Old Radio World is a great archive for finding out what some of that sounded like.

For the MakeUseOf crowd, I recommend diving into the science fiction stories. It’s amazing how far that genre has come, but there’s still something charming about its early broadcast roots (Flash Gordon!). History buffs shouldn’t miss the WWII archive.

There are lots of ways to find amazing free audio dramas, but this site offers a great starting point. Dive into the early days of radio!

What Radio Era Would You Like to Travel to?

Do you have any fond radio memories? Let’s talk about those in the comments below, along with any resources for bringing them back.

Or, if nothing here satisfies you, why not start your own online radio station and create something that does? I’d love to hear from you, should you get something going. Let’s chat below!

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How Alt Tags can Hurt Your Business, Especially When Under the Legal Magnifying Glass by @5le | Dramel Notes

Anyone who has turned on a TV, read a newspaper, or used the Internet in the last year has likely been bombarded by ads for the controversial fantasy sports sites like FanDuel and DraftKings. The controversy stems from the uncanny similarities that fantasy sports, which is legal, has to online poker, which is illegal.

Despite growing criticism, these sites have remained legal, until last month when the Nevada Gaming Commission ruled that these sites constituted online unlicensed betting. Despite the great lengths that the executives and PR teams at these companies have gone to distance themselves from any statement that remotely resembled the words “online betting”, the Nevada attorney general cited as evidence something that the executives probably had no idea existed. Image alt tags.

Someone at DraftKings, likely seeking a little bit of extra SEO juice, decided to insert “betting” into the image alt tags describing a particular banner that was present all across the site. While the statement from the attorney general doesn’t offer an explanation of why this alt tag was used, they still use it as proof that DraftKings is an online betting site.

Here is that portion of the Nevada attorney general’s statement in full:

“Similarly, the DraftKings website uses the following image on its website for its pages for fantasy football, weekly fantasy football, fantasy college football, weekly fantasy college football, weekly fantasy golf, daily fantasy basketball, fantasy college basketball, weekly fantasy basketball, weekly fantasy college basketball, and weekly fantasy hockey:29 That image is identified on each of those webpages, through alternative text (‘‘alt text’’) 30 with a phrase that includes the word ‘‘betting’’ (i.e., ‘‘fantasy golf betting,’’‘‘weekly fantasy basketball betting,’’‘‘weekly fantasy hockey betting,’’‘‘weekly fantasy football betting,’’‘‘weekly fantasy college football betting,’’‘‘weekly fantasy college basketball betting,’’‘‘Fantasy College Football Betting,’’‘‘daily fantasy basketball betting,’’ and ‘‘Fantasy College Basketball Betting’’). Although it is unclear why this image is identified using the alt text ‘‘betting,’’——whether it is because these sites are trying to draw Internet search traffic from gamblers, because ‘‘betting’’ is how the sites internally discuss their product, or for some other reason——it appears that although the sites’ representatives publicly state that they do not believe daily fantasy sports involve ‘‘wagers’’ or ‘‘bets,’’ they do use the terms ‘‘betting’’ and ‘‘wagering’’ when they are not dealing with law enforcement agencies.”

What This Means for Search Marketers

Even if an on-page SEO element doesn’t seem that important, it is a part of the page and visible to anyone who looks in the source code. If there is a product that a website is legally prohibited from selling, it is probably a good idea to never put that product’s keywords anywhere on the site, even in something as mundane as an alt-tag or useless as a meta keywords tag. Clearly there are people in law enforcement that know to look for these things and it will come back to haunt anyone that hides illicit keywords. It is not even worth using the keyword for a short amount of time because archives of the source code on sites like archive.org will always exist somewhere.

DraftKings does not currently rank for the term “betting” and ranking on that term would probably take a lot more than a rogue alt-tag.  The short-sighted alt-tag decision certainly isn’t the only reason that DraftKings was declared to be unlicensed betting by Nevada, but this could turn into one of the most expensive alt-tag fails in history.

Lesson for All Websites

Clearly, the directive to avoid the use of the word “betting” didn’t make it all the way through to the SEO and front end web teams, and this can serve as a lesson to all companies that specifically want to avoid using certain words. Whether you are a webmaster or marketer, make sure blacklist keywords are never used anywhere including in any code, and everyone all across the company has to be informed.

When it comes to paid advertising, the search engines have blocks put in place that prevent you from running ads on prohibited ads; however, with SEO you are on your own. If you have even a slight amount of doubt over whether to use a specific word anywhere on your site, err on the side of caution and don’t use it. Even a barely visible metatag can come back to haunt you.

Featured image Jackson/Shutterstock

In post photo Wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock

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5 Fascinating Sites for Watching Language Evolve | Dramel Notes

The English language is constantly changing, and the Internet is no small part of that. If you’ve ever wondered why that is, and what the changes look like, here are five sites worth exploring.

From the changing way that Reddit users are speaking to what your tweets mean to the robots that might someday replace human writers, these sites all give you another way to think about language. Let’s get started.

How The Internet Talks: See How Reddit’s Speech Is Evolving

Do you ever wonder how language is changing? Which words are becoming more, and less, common? Randy Olson and Ritchie King of statistics blog FiveThirtyEight archived around 1.7 billion Reddit comments so you can find out. You can discover all sorts of things by searching for words and seeing how often they’re used in Reddit conversations. For example: “whoa” used to be more common than “woah”, but the two words are now at parity:

Why? I can’t begin to answer, because to me “whoa” is clearly superior. I guess I’m just an old-timer. Get off my lawn.

Wait, what just happened? Went into a trance. Anyway: there’s all sorts of trendy online slang you need to know online, but what’s in now might change later. This site can help you see how that happens.

Also: remember Ragecomics? Glad that’s over with.

AnalyzeWords: See What Your Tweets Say About You

Your language can reveal a lot about you, whether you mean it to or not. AnalyzeWords is a site that can scan any Twitter feed and show you a bit about what your word choice says about you. Here’s a quick look at my Twitter timeline:

Apparently I’m more analytic than sensory, and I’m also pretty spacey. But you knew that already. What’s more interesting is the research behind this site. Apparently studies show that “junk words have proven to be powerful markers of peoples psychological states.” The site explains:

When individuals use the word I, for example, they are briefly paying attention to themselves. People experiencing high levels of physical or mental pain automatically orient towards themselves and begin using I-words at higher rates. I-use, then, can reflect signs of depression, stress or insecurity.

Take a look at your own timelines and see what you discover. And if you want more knowledge about your tweets, you can learn to track your Twitter analytics.

ASL Dictionary: See Any Word in Sign Language

You probably use words in two forms: spoken and written. One of the most widespread alternatives to those forms is American Sign Language, the native language of hundreds of thousands of people. If you want to get an idea of how that language works, the ASL dictionary is a good place to start. It has videos for almost every word you can imagine.

Taking the time to communicate is the biggest sign of respect you can show, so if someone in your life uses ASL this site could be a great way to find common ground. Someday someone could make a sign languages translation app, but dictionaries like this let you learn yourself.

XKCD Simple Writer: Write Using Only The 1,000 Most Common Words

The vast majority of words you use, day-to-day, are among the most common 1,000 words in the English language. But what would it be like to only use those words? Randall Monroe of XKCD famously stretched this to the limit with his Up Goer Five comic, which explains the Saturn Five Rocket using only those words.

He recently put out an entire book, Thing Explainer, based on the same concept. If you want to try such writing out yourself, you can use his Simple Writer app:

As you can see, any word not among the 1,000 most commonly used is highlighted red. It’s amusing, sure, but it’s also potentially useful: the resulting text can be read by non-native English speakers and young children. Some sites use only such language: Simple English Wikipedia, for example, is great for people just learning English, and also a great online encyclopedia for kids, because of its limitations.

Content Forever: Type One Word, End Up with an Essay

Someday writers like me will be completely out of a job, replaced by computer algorithms. It probably won’t be Content Forever that does that. This site lets you enter any word, specify a time range, and get a meandering essay that ties one paragraph together to another in a way that kind makes sense, sort of (not really).

It’s an amusing way to send your friends an article that’s not at all about what they think it’s going to be. Remember: robots may be the creative artists of the future, but they’re not quite there yet.

What Other Sites Should We Check Out?

That’s what I found, exploring the web for interesting language tools. What can you find? Let’s talk about any other fascinating sites in the comments below, okay? I’m looking forward to it.

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Are Social Media Websites Listening to Their Users? | Dramel Notes

Social media apps try to keep their users interested with fancy new features and exciting updates – but sometimes those updates just don’t make sense. These four recent updates to social media sites have us scratching our heads.

People who use social media regularly have strong opinions about how it should look and perform – and they definitely aren’t silent about it. One would think that this kind of instant feedback on features would give developers a wealth of information to draw from so that they could release nothing but perfect fixes.

Instead, sometimes it seems like the developers are completely ignoring the user base and adding new features based on the position of the sun in the sky, the temperature of the Adriatic sea, and whether their coffee had cream in it that morning.

While you certainly can’t please everyone (and trying to is a guaranteed recipe for disaster), the last couple weeks have left users with some questions:

Why do Tumblr users need instant messaging? Why isn’t Reddit’s homepage algorithm working? Why has Facebook decided that a post-breakup feature should be a priority? And, most importantly, why do Twitter users need to “like” things instead of “favoriting” them?

Instant Messaging on Tumblr

What’s Happening: Many Tumblr users who signed in over the last week or so have been greeted by an explosion of confetti and the message “Congratulations! You’ve got Instant Messaging!” on their screen.

If it hasn’t happened to you yet, trust me, it will soon – it’s a rolling update, with full availability expected by early next month.

What Users Wanted: Tumblr users have wanted improvements to the site’s messaging system for ages. Before this update, there were four methods of communication on Tumblr:

1. Reblogging a post with your own commentary (great for running jokes, poor for private conversations)
2. Replying to a post (the post wouldn’t end up on your blog, but your comment was still visible to the public)
3. Fan Mail (you could send a message to another blogger and they could respond privately, after which it would disappear from their inbox)
4. Asks (you could send a message to another blogger and they could reply either publicly or privately, after which both your response and their ask would disappear from your inbox)

The messaging system was definitely broken, and Tumblr users wanted it fixed.

What They Got: Instead of simplifying the messaging system, Tumblr removed the reply feature (arguably one of the most useful of the above options) without any explanation, and then began offering a private instant messaging system.

Yes, you read that right. You can now send someone a fan mail, an ask, OR an instant message, but you cannot reply publicly to someone’s post without reblogging it to your own blog.

“Why does there need to be an arbitrary distinction between these three types of private messaging?” you call from the back.

I have no idea, and neither do any of Tumblr’s users.

Static Algorithms on Reddit

What’s Happening: Reddit advertises itself as “the front page of the Internet” has a seriously out-of-date algorithm that determines what posts are visible on its front page. When large-scale events happen, Reddit is now often one of the last social media sites to highlight current events on its main page.

Reddit used to fill a niche that no other social media website did, and it really was the best place to learn about current events (and kitten GIFs, and less savory content) for a very long time. However as other sites like Twitter and Facebook have evolved to include trending hashtags and suggested news stories, Reddit is either going to have to step up its game or change its focus completely.

What Users Wanted: Reddit users want to see revisions to the front page algorithm that allow controversial topics (such as tragic stories in the news) to reach the front page. While this has historically been effective, a recent surge in visitors has left Reddit with a broader user base, many of whom use upvotes and downvotes as “likes” and “dislikes” instead of indications of whether or not a link has added something valuable to the website’s ongoing conversation (John Bonazzo offers a more in-depth explanation of this phenomenon here).

What They Got: Well, nothing yet. Initial responses from Marty Weiner (Reddit’s chief technology officer) were defensive, and insinuated that there was nothing wrong with the site’s algorithm because “nothing has changed.”

He has promised to look into changing the algorithm, but as of this writing nothing has been done, and with each trending current event, Reddit’s credibility as a site for breaking news is going downhill.

Breakups on Facebook

What’s Happening: Breakups are complicated, and Facebook has decided that it should be the one to help you through this difficult time. An update just released in the United States offers a step-by-step process called “Take a Break” that can help you hide updates from your ex without notifying them, keep your ex from seeing your posts, and un-tag you from old photos.

What Users Wanted: Speaking very generally, I think what most casual Facebook users want are easy ways to control who sees their posts and to limit how much Facebook knows about them.

In some cases that might be because of a breakup, but users are just as likely to want to hide check-ins during a “sick” day from their bosses, photos of a wild night out from their grandparents, and upsetting life updates from casual acquaintances.

While Facebook does have very customizable privacy settings, they can be unwieldy to navigate (especially on a person-by-person basis), and often lead to more confusion than clarity. Basically since its inception, users have been asking Facebook for a simple process that will let them know with certainty who is (and isn’t) able to see their photos and posts.

What They Got: Facebook’s Take a Break wizard isn’t a bad thing, necessarily, it’s just incredibly limited in its scope. While it is helpful for the end of a relationship (it’s triggered by you changing your relationship status, so you won’t be able to use it on friendships that have recently ended), it doesn’t actually introduce any new features and has left the rest of the available privacy settings on Facebook as confusing as ever.

Love on Twitter

What’s Happening: Twitter updated its user interface so that instead of “favoriting” another person’s tweet by pressing a star icon, you now “like” it by pressing a heart icon.

What Users Wanted: Twitter users have a lot of changes that they would love to see – updates that would improve Twitter’s functionality, ease-of-use, and aesthetic design. None of these users were especially bothered by the fact that they were pressing a little star icon, and none of them were insisting that what would really improve their user experience would be if they could press a little heart icon instead.

What They Got: Twitter changed the little star into a heart. Users lost their minds.

On one hand, it’s easy to see this as a silly reaction to an arguably tiny change to how Twitter works.

However, in the nuanced language of social media, there have actually been several legitimate arguments made about the connotations implicit in “liking” something that aren’t present when “favoriting” something. Favoriting is seen as a non-emotional statement that can range in meaning from  “This is excellent commentary” to “I disagree with this, but it’s a valid point” to “I’m noticing this ironically.” Liking something, however, is rarely an unemotional comment and is almost impossible to interpret as anything other than enthusiastic agreement.

There’s also some indication Twitter might be testing an emoji response system – a move that would definitely allow for nuanced responses, but would simultaneously remove a lot of Twitter’s streamlined design. 

Social Media Design Theory

You just have to wonder — with all the research, money, and time that goes into every update on social media, how are these the priorities that social media websites choose to focus on?

What are the updates that you actually want to see on your preferred social media platform? Let me know in the comments!

Image Credit: businessmen are shouting by 6kor3dos via Shutterstock

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5 More Free History Education Resources You’ll Love Exploring | Dramel Notes

Humans are just so fascinating, which is why history just might be the most engrossing topic to learn about. Whether you’re a student or just someone who wants to learn, here are five websites that look at different parts of history in unique ways.

I outlined some history education resources earlier this year, and you all seemed to like it, so I’m back at it again today. These sites are all different, but they all offer ways to look at the past and learn something.

Old Maps Online: See How Any Place Used to Look

Have you ever wanted to trace the history of your house, or even your neighborhood? It’s easy to think of history as something that’s about important men in faraway places, but history is happening everywhere – even your own neighborhood. Old Maps Online brings this idea alive, by letting you see old maps from any area on earth. Just type a city or location, then start exploring maps from other decades.

I recently moved to Oregon’s Silicon Forest, an area that’s seen massive construction since Intel set up shop. Using Old Maps Online, I can check out just how fast this has all been: as recently as 1990 my densely populated neighborhood was a forest and a field, no houses in sight.

Kind of crazy to think about, and I’m sure you can find all sorts of patterns looking at your own home.

Histography: Interactive Timeline Based on Wikipedia

Too many history classes focus on memorizing dates instead of culture and context, but that doesn’t mean knowing when things happened into relation to each other isn’t interesting. Histography is a fascinating way to put things in context: this interactive timeline lets you explore history as a series of Wikipedia articles.

Ever dot represents an article on the online encyclopedia that refers to an event. Everything is arranged in order, so you can learn when things happened in context. Dive in and see what you can find, okay? Report your findings in the comments below.

Music Timeline: Explore The History of Music

So far as we know, humans have pretty much always made music, but things really got interesting in the last 60 years or so. Recorded music spawned global genres of music, which in turn spawned sub-genres. Music Timeline is an attempt to map all of this out through history.

You’ll see when particular genres were most popular, along with key albums that came along the way. Click any genre and you’ll be taken to another timeline, outlining the rise and fall of sub-genres. It’s a fascinating look at modern music history, so dive in.

Career Of Founders: Compare The Lives of Entrepreneurs

How much can you really accomplish in your life? It all depends on your relationship with time, really, but if you need some inspiration to get going I recommend checking out the Career Of Founders. It’s an interactive infographic that shows you milestones in the lives of people like Steve Jobs, Colonel Sanders, Bill Gates, and many more.

You’ll see how old these people were at pivotal moments in their lives. There’s a lot of diversity here: some people start early and keep building, but others don’t have a lot of success until relatively late in life It just goes to show that it’s never too early, or too late, to try something new.

Spurious Correlations: Randomly Generated Charts That Mean Nothing

One way of learning from history is through statistics, but to do this well you need to know a thing or two about statistics. With this in mind, we end with a site that teaches a valuable lesson: just because two things look related on a chart doesn’t mean they have anything to do with each other. Spurious Correlations is a collection of such charts

Just because two things line up on a chart doesn’t mean they’re connected – it could be just a coincidence. This is what’s meant when people say “correlation is not causation”, and the lesson is easier to learn after browsing this site for a while. Unless, of course, you sincerely believe that Nicolas Cage movies are causing people to drown in pools. If that’s the case, I’m not sure what to say.

What Will You Learn About History?

The world’s a big place, and there’s a lot to explore out there. I want to know which sites have taught you a thing or two about history, so please recommend any such sites in the comments below. While you’re at it, feel free to point out any highlights from the above sites – I always love to learn.

We’ve dug into history resources before, of course, from teaching history CSI style to engrossing history sites. But learning more is always good, so let’s keep the conversation going.

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