I have released 1.1 of my extremely popular Snap Preview Anywhere^TM Plugin in responses to the changes made by Snap.

Changes :

• Fixes for internal links as per latest SPA update
• Added the option to disable SPA on all links. You can add class="snap_preview" only on those links you wish to have the SPA display on.

To use the plugin you still need to register for SPA and get the key.

Read more & download SPA Plugin for WordPress »

I have just updated my Open Picture Window Plugin for WordPress.

The only update is the much requested Quick Tags button.

The plugin still doesn’t have a button for the WYSIWYG editor. I’m still working on that. Turns out to be a bit more complex that I was expected.

Anyway, if you are not using the WYSIWYG then you’re in luck.

The quicktags button with the name OPW should now be visible in your editor. This works similar to the link button, but it requests you for the window dimensions and title in addition to the URL.

Would you like to see more functionality? Please do comment and let me know.

Read more and download »

Being a thorough techie I’m always on the lookout for technology news and updates. Am constantly searching for some good freeware to try out.

But to keep myself up-to-date required me to daily go through almost a hundred websites (and steadily increasing).

This inspired me to start a blog that will get the choicest of technology news all in one central location.

Hence, 30th October 2006 saw the launch of my technology blog titled Techtites.

Why Techtites?

Since the central theme of the blog is technology, for the purpose of SEO I wanted the domain to contain the word “tech”. Unfortunately, almost every technology name I could think of was taken.

Until my astronomy pal suggested the name Techtites, which is a play on the word Tektite.

Any of numerous generally small, rounded, dark brown to green glassy objects that are composed of silicate glass and are thought to have been formed by the impact of a meteorite with the earth’s surface.

Tektites are considered to be of great value and I hope that Techtites will also be of the same value to you.

Today with a new look, I’ve decided to tell the world about it

Do check it out, subscribe to the feed and let me know what you think about it.

And if you have some hot news, you can tip me off.

Come Halloween and Netvibes is ready with a brand new Halloween Theme.

This one is very different from the other themes that Netvibes has because this is the first dark theme they have.
Though there is a dark background one wise thing is that the modules still have a white background with black text making it easy to read.

You can apply this theme or set it in the Settings panel.

WordPress today released v2.0.5. This release has been named Ronan after Ryan Boren’s son.

There are a huge number of fixes as well as some security related ones. Hence, it is highly recommended that you upgrade your installation. Mark’s got quick list of changes in 2.0.5 if you want to review in short what has changed.

I’ll try and see if I can churn up a list of modified files between 2.0.4 and 2.0.5.

Until then you may want to upgrade your installation.

Received an email today of a brand new blog launched by C|Net.

The blog is called Crave

So what exactly is Crave?

Crave is a blog from the editors and writers at CNET that shows the hottest and sexiest digital gadgetry on the horizon. And this dedicated site is all about showcasing the products that people like you and me lust after–that is, crave

I’m surprised that it is a “new” blog because there are already 196 posts as of this moment and already has a 106,295 rank on Technorati, which I am sure will steadily rise!

If you are a gadget freak like me then this is one blog worth keeping track of. If we can’t own it, atleast we can ogle at it!

Yahoo! may own Del.icio.us however, that hasn’t stopped it from launching a fantastic update to Yahoo! Bookmarks.

If you compare that with the old version (which I didn’t know existed), you will understand how major the upgrade actually is!

They also have a comprehensive Flash Tutorial that will teach you how to use the new bookmarks interface.

I would think that with the upgraded Bookmark service, Yahoo! would go all out to promote it, however C|Net reports that users of Yahoo! My Web will soon be directed to Del.icio.us

If you intend to use Yahoo! Bookmarks do get the updated version of Yahoo! Toolbar which has integrated support for the same.

As for me, I’m sticking to Del.icio.us
The main reason being that I can easily integrate Del.icio.us bookmarks within my feed. So, if you have subscribed to my feed you can view some of the resources I’ve been finding online

Found via Techcrunch

WordPress.com today released Domain Registration and Mapping for your WordPress.com blog.

This is a paid addon. Only mapping with your existing domain is $10/year. If you don’t have a domain name you can register and map it for $15.

There was a time I would have taken this service. However, I no longer maintain and update my WordPress.com Blog as much as I hoped to.

Besides, I prefer having complete control over my blog and have plenty of space to host any future initiatives.

But, it could work out to be a very useful service for those who want the convenience of hosting their own blog, letting someone else do all the maintenance and having your own domain as well!
Look at it as a blog hosting service at $15/year. You won’t find such a low-priced host anywhere

Original Blog Post.

You can now harness the power of Google to build your very own search engine tailored to sites you want to search.

Google has just launched Custom Search Engine. All you have to do is give it a name and select which sites you want it to search from. You have the option of either searching only these sites or emphasizing the results from these sites while searching the web.

You can also embed the search engine on your website via the AdSense for Search program and make some money via the traffic that it generates.

You also have the option of letting users volunteer by submitting their list of sites to be added in the search results.

This helps if you are creating a topic specific search engine, e.g. a search engine that gathers all information about WordPress. It can help if you get visitors to suggest sites to be searched.

I’ve gone ahead and created one search engine which searches through my network of websites.

Search my CSE or create your own.

You can now ping Google Blog Search directly when you post a new entry on your blog.

This is similar to pinging PingOMatic.

The benefit is that you can let blog search know that you have updated your blog as soon as you do it.

I don’t know how quickly they take to add this into their database, but it is definitely faster that waiting for Google to pick it up from another site.

You can ping it manually or if your blog software (e.g. WordPress) supports automatic pinging then you can enter http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2 in the respective field.
In WordPress, you will find it under Update Services in Options » Writing

Source: Problogger