Demo Girl

Yesterday, while I was talking to my Mom, I learned something fascinating.  Not everyone has, or even knows, what a Google account is.  As I was trying to explain to her what you can do with a Google account, I realized that nothing I was saying was sinking in.  I also realized that there are probably a lot of people out there that have no idea what Google is beyond a basic search engine.  That’s where this screencast comes in.

I originally created this screencast just to send to my Mom as sort of an introduction to Google.  I had plans to create a few more screencasts showing her how to set up a Google Calendar and how to chat with me using Google Talk.  I decided that there may be more people out there who could benefit from a quick intro to the search giant, so I’ve decided to share the screencast I made for my Mom, here.  In the coming weeks I plan to create more “how-to” screencasts for basic services that we may use from day to day but some of our loved ones may not have the faintest clue how to operate.  If you have any suggestions on a topic that you think could be helpful, please let me know in the comments.  Remember, I made this screencast with the intention of helping someone who is just getting started with Google, so it’s very basic.

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Click Here To Watch Better Quality 3m27s

TweetParty allows you to create groups out of your Twitter friends which you can then send direct messages to on Twitter.

You need to create a separate account on TweetParty first and then enter in your Twitter credentials.  The first time you log into TweetParty it will download all of your Twitter friends, so if you have thousands of friends then this step may take a minute or two.  After all of your friends have been synced into your TweetParty account you can simply create a name for your group, like co-workers, and then drag and drop each person you want added, underneath the group name.  That’s about as difficult as it gets.

When you want to send a message to a group of people on Twitter, whether it’s via IM, SMS, or the Web, you need to first add TweetParty as your friend.  Then simply send TweetParty a direct message, followed by your group name as a hashtag, and then the message.  The members of the group you created on TweetParty will receive a direct message and you only had to send out one tweet.

To see TweetParty in action, watch the screencast below:
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Click Here To Watch Better Quality 1m42s