Facebook Changes and Privacy… Think about it!

What do you want others to see now and in the future?

*** How to protect your Facebook Timeline privacy ***
PLEASE WATCH THE VIDEO in the above link!!! It is a very clear description of the new privacy settings you need to consider and how to change them if desired.

Some of you Facebook users may have already seen changes to Facebook in recent months as Facebook rolls out its new Timeline and sharing features. If you haven’t seen this yet, you will soon, as Facebook has said it will be rolling out Timeline to all users within the next few weeks. Once Timeline is activated, you have SEVEN DAYS before it “goes live”, during which you should take a trip down memory lane and possibly delete or hide some of the not-so-glorious moments.

“Timeline changes the old Facebook profile from a list of your recent updates to a summary of your life since birth. Among its new features is a cover photo at the top of your profile and a timeline to which you can add life events not previously captured by Facebook. The new profile is thought to be one of Facebook’s most extreme redesigns so far, redefining what a social networking profile can do” (Petronzio).

This is definitely something you should think about before jumping in and posting tons of pictures from the past…or the present. I am providing links to some articles/slideshows below that examine this issue and also show you how to use the Timeline and control various aspects of it. Please figure out how to use the “hide” feature and the new privacy settings, and think about what to show and what to “hide.” As always, think hard before posting ANYTHING that you may not want others to see in the future. Once something is posted, you cannot completely have it removed from the web.

*** Facebook Timeline Privacy Tips: Lock Down Your Profile ***
PLEASE READ THIS!!! It is a very clear description of how to use the new privacy settings associated with the Timeline.

The New Facebook: How to Take Control of Your Privacy
Facebook changes too much sharing for your comfort? Here’s how to control who sees what.

How to Use Google Search More Effectively: Infographic with great tips!

Infographic via HackCollege used through a Creative Commons License

How to Improve Your Searches

Image from http://www.geek.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/1_google_logo.jpg

Quoted from Google (http://www.google.com/support/websearch/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=134479&topic=1221265):

Tips for better searches:

• Keep it simple. If you’re looking for a particular company, just enter its name, or as much of its name as you can recall. If you’re looking for a particular concept, place, or product, start with its name. If you’re looking for a pizza restaurant, just enter pizza and the name of your town or your zip code. Most queries do not require advanced operators or unusual syntax. Simple is good.

• Think how the page you are looking for will be written. A search engine is not a human, it is a program that matches the words you give to pages on the web. Use the words that are most likely to appear on the page. For example, instead of saying [ my head hurts ], say [ headache ], because that’s the term a medical page will use. The query [ in what country are bats considered an omen of good luck? ] is very clear to a person, but the document that gives the answer may not have those words. Instead, use the query [ bats are considered good luck in ] or even just [ bats good luck ], because that is probably what the right page will say.

• Describe what you need with as few terms as possible. The goal of each word in a query is to focus it further. Since all words are used, each additional word limits the results. If you limit too much, you will miss a lot of useful information. The main advantage to starting with fewer keywords is that, if you don’t get what you need, the results will likely give you a good indication of what additional words are needed to refine your results on the next search. For example, [ weather cancun ] is a simple way to find the weather and it is likely to give better results than the longer [ weather report for cancun mexico ].

• Choose descriptive words. The more unique the word is the more likely you are to get relevant results. Words that are not very descriptive, like ‘document,’ ‘website,’ ‘company,’ or ‘info,’ are usually not needed. Keep in mind, however, that even if the word has the correct meaning but it is not the one most people use, it may not match the pages you need. For example, [ celebrity ringtones ] is more descriptive and specific than [ celebrity sounds ].

**For more info, check out these more advanced tips from Google.

MLA Formatting Screencast

Having trouble remembering how to format an assignment according to MLA’s guidelines? There is a lot of written info online that can help: from our own website as well as the Purdue OWL (Online Writing Lab) site.

This video (screencast) will quickly show you on the screen how to set up MLA formatting in Microsoft Word. The last 30 seconds or so will also show you how to save to your USB drive.