Strikingly review: Make mobile-friendly Web sites with your Facebook profile and a click

Strikingly Free Strikingly makes building a slick-looking website a breeze. Its one-click feature, which takes content from your Facebook page and turns it into your personal website, is especially valuable.

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Facebook contains plenty of your personal information, but having a Facebook page is a far cry from having a personal Web site. Unless you use Strikingly, a cool Web site building service that pulls data from your Facebook account and uses it to create a slick-looking Web site you can call your own.

Strikingly builds your Web site very quickly.

Strikingly is easy to use, especially if you rely on its one-click feature: Give it permission to access Facebook and it does all the work for you. It pulls relevant data from Facebook, such as your profile picture, work experience, and places of residence, and arranges that into an attractive Web page that you can customize—to an extent. Strikingly lets you add and remove sections to the site it builds using its intuitive editing menu. Freelancers and job seekers will like how easy it is to add a section highlighting work samples, while parents and photo enthusiasts will like the ability to quickly add a photo gallery.

If there's no quote on your Facebook page, Strikingly will add one to your site for you.

The site Strikingly built for me was close to something I’d actually build for myself—if I had the technical knowledge to do so. I liked the way it presented my basic bio and work experience, though I could have done without the screen-wide image of purple flowers sporting a quote about the joys of dancing in the rain. Strikingly says it will pull in a quote you’ve posted to Facebook; if you’ve left that section blank—like me—it supplies a quote for you.

Strikingly’s dashboard lays out the tools you need to build your site.

Fortunately, it's not that hard to change. I was able to easily delete the flowers and replace that section with a photo gallery of my favorite Instagram shots. I really liked how this gallery looked on the published site, especially when scrolling through the photos. You can add photos from a variety of sources, including your own computer, Facebook, Flickr and Picasa—though I found it slightly odd that I had to go back in and add the Facebook photos manually. Given that Strikingly pulls so much of your info from Facebook, I’d hoped it would pull more photos than just my profile picture. The company says its one-click feature that builds sites from Facebook is still in beta, and it plans to add more photo capabilities in the future.

I also wish Strikingly had a preview feature, and didn’t push me to publish the site without previewing it first. Of course, you can see what you’re creating on your computer screen, but I always like the ability to do a final check before making anything live on the Web.

Strikingly does have nice touches that professionals will appreciate, such as the ability to edit your site’s Meta tags, and to add actions specific to the mobile version, such as dialing a number or launching a map. And it’s a bonus that the mobile version of your Strikingly site looks pretty darn slick, too.

You can easily add or remove sections from your personal site.

Strikingly is free if you use to create one site smaller than 5GB in size with a Strikingly domain (though you can customize it). An $8-per-month Limited plan ups the limit to 50GB and supports 2 sites, as well as the ability to connect a custom domain. The $16-per-month Pro plan supports 3 sites, unlimited bandwidth, custom domains, and more. The free version doesn’t display ads on your site, which is a really nice touch, though it does feature Strikingly’s branding. The Pro plan lets you remove that branding.

Strikingly limits you to creating a site using the building blocks it provides. It likely won’t appeal to the super techie folks who want control over every aspect of their personal Web site. But for anyone with a Facebook account and a desire for a simple way to create a pretty Web site, Strikingly is worth a look.

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Can You Trust Penny Auction Sites?

You’ve probably seen the ads for BeeZid.com, QuiBids.com or SkoreIt.com. These penny auction sites entice you to place bets on such drool-worthy gadgets as an iPod or MacBook Pro, seeming to promise deals of 90 percent off or better. However, as I found out by participating in numerous auctions over the span of an entire week, these sites are, at best, unregulated and unscrupulous. At worst, some could be illegal, especially if they use automated bids.

“The main problem with penny auction sites is that it is difficult to verify the legitimacy of the sites,” said Kyle-Beth Hilfer, an attorney in New York who studies tech trends. “Because these online auctions move so fast, consumers can lose a lot of money very quickly, even with legitimate sites.”

Anthony Giorgianni, an adviser for Consumer Reports, echoes this sentiment, saying the sites can be dangerous because you’ll need to visit frequently to win. There’s an illusion of imminent victory, but few people are actually victorious. And even when you do win, he says, the final cost of an item may be higher than the price you would find at an outlet store or through a legitimate auction.

The Federal Trade Commission started investigating the legitimacy of penny auction sites last year, and issued a warning about how they work and the nasty surprises consumers may encounter. For instance, the FTC warns, “Many complaints about penny auctions involve late shipments, no shipments or shipments of products that aren’t the same quality as advertised.”

The government agency goes on to tell consumers to be wary of insecure payment options, hidden costs and misleading terms. Basically, consumers looking for a bargain will find that penny auctions are not all they’re cracked up to be.

Yet there’s a reason they exist. We all crave the latest shiny gadgets — Apple MacBook Pros, the Apple iPod, a Kindle Fire — whether we can afford them or not. And these companies know it. Interestingly, while such sites as QuiBids.com certainly include everything from golf clubs to knife sets, the most popular, front-page auctions are almost always related to gadgets. And discount prices are especially alluring for Apple products, which typically sell for a set price at every e-tailer.

In my first foray into the wild world of penny auction sites, I lost about $20 before I even knew what I was doing. One of my early discoveries: You’re not actually bidding with pennies. This is an ingenious trick: You typically pay about 60 cents for each “penny” bid. But during the actually bidding process for an item, the bid amount goes up only one penny per click.

The sites seemed designed to encourage random clicking, not shopping for specific items. You can’t find items easily because there are so many links, colors and prices. You end up feeling like you have to just start clicking on any auction to win something.

My overall experience: Penny auction sites present an illusion of victory, but the reality is that you can spend hundreds and only win occasional auctions.

Hilfer says the ongoing legal debate regarding penny auction sites centers on whether skill or chance is the predominant factor in determining a consumer’s success. If chance is the main factor, these sites could be considered illegal gambling or illegal lotteries. So far, the case law has been inconclusive.

Yet even if there is skill involved, Hilfer says, these sites could still be dangerous because many in the past have employed deceptive techniques to increase bidding activity.

One argument suggests these sites are using “shill bids” generated by software programs. During an auction for a MacBook Pro, you might not be bidding against another human at all, but the site itself places bids to make it seem like there’s a flurry of activity, an attempt to make sure you bid often.

In the end, this is what makes penny auction sites so dangerous, and it may lead to their demise. The FTC may eventually move to regulate these sites, making sure every bidder has an equal chance (say, even if you are on a slow Internet connection). In the meantime, we would steer clear.

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Add Slide Shows to WordPress Sites With SlideDeck

According to usability guru Jakob Nielsen, when someone visits your website, you have 10 seconds to capture their attention before they decide to move on. Having a fresh slide show lets you combine images, animations, and bold typography to catch a visitor's eye and get them to click deeper into your site. SlideDeck (starting at $79 for a single site) is a sophisticated WordPress plug-in that lets you create high-quality, customizable slide shows that can pull in content from all over the Web, including Google+ Images, Instagram photos, Twitter timelines, Vimeo videos, and much more.

SlideDeck's configuration interface uses vertical tabs and has numerous options.Once you install SlideDeck, it shows up as part of the WordPress admin interface with a dedicated menu entry leading to an elegant configuration system. The system matches the general WordPress look, but adds its own visual flair with embossed icons and typography.

SlideDeck makes it easy to pull in Google+ image albums.Creating a new SlideDeck slide show is easy. SlideDeck offers five presets: ImageDeck, for showcasing images; SocialDeck, for showing Google+ public posts, Instagram posts, or tweets; PostDeck, for showing your own WordPress posts, an RSS feed, or Google+ public posts (again); VideoDeck, for showing YouTube, DailyMotion, Vimeo, or other kinds of online video; and FeedDeck, for pulling in RSS feeds and Google+ posts. The number of duplicates on this list is confusing, but you can also just switch directly to the Sources list and pick the source you want to create a SlideDeck for. Being able to pull in content from almost any conceivable service means you can use your online presence elsewhere to bolster your website, making the content you create do more.

SlideDeck ships with several skins or "lenses," suitable for different content sources.Once you pick a data source, it's time to decide what your slide show should look like. SlideDeck ships with eight skins, or "lenses," each compatible with a number of content sources. For example, the Proto Video lens works only with video sources, while the O-Town one works with just about all sources. Each skin has numerous configuration options, split into vertical tabs. You can decide whether or not to randomize the order of content shown, what colors to use, whether to use a light or dark variant of the skin, and more. If the numerous configuration options still don't give you the look you're going for, and you know HTML, JavaScript, PHP, and CSS, you can even create a copy of any lens and customize it further--at least in theory.

Once you create a SlideDeck slide show, it is easy to embed it into a WordPress post or page.I also had some trouble embedding the beautiful slide show I created on my test WordPress website, which used a relatively narrow theme. I was able to make the slide show narrow enough, but it would not render correctly. Switching themes fixed the problem, which means it is not inherent to SlideDeck, but was caused by some conflict between SlideDeck and the original theme I was using. That's the flip side of the coin to SlideDeck using standard technologies rather than Flash: CSS and JavaScript conflicts can happen.

Despite these technical glitches, I came away impressed with SlideDeck 2. You can debug any theming conflicts relatively easily with any modern browser that has an Inspect Element function, or in Firefox with the excellent Firebug add-on. SlideDeck's appealing admin interface, the great variety of possible sources, and the beautiful and detailed lenses that ship with the plug-in convinced me: This is one high-quality way to set up a slide show for your WordPress website.

--Erez Zukerman

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Is the Use of Sites Like MegaUpload Sinking the Arts Ship? Not So Fast, Says New Advocate Study

From the dramatic MegaUpload takedown to draconian legislation like SOPA, it is easy to assume that commercial art profits (such as from album sales) are a sinking ship.

Not so fast, argues a new study from self-proclaimed open market advocates Computer & Communications Industry Association and Techdirt founders floor 64. Called The Sky Is Rising, this January 2012 study provides compelling case after compelling case to prove that artists are actually thriving. It also shows that, when they trust the artists and the consumers, the corporate entities actually win, too.

The proof is in the numbers, and the group pushes the point home with a cool infographic, shown below. The viral visual shows that the consumption, sales, and growth of video games, music, books, and film and video have been skyrocketing over the past few years.

The report itself has a solid essay on these growth areas, as well as ten case studies. Great examples range from the game company Valve successfully dealing with piracy to comedian Louis C.K. grossing a million-plus dollars on a DRM-free special he put up for sale on the Internet. In each example, it comes down to a simple concept: Consumers want to support their artists.

In the report, the argument here isn't that piracy hasn't affected the aforementioned industries--it obviously has affected business models. Instead, the report pushes commercial art businesses (not artists themselves, but businesses) to stop whining about the new challenges today and learn how to make a stronger profit using new rules.

As the study’s summary states:

“We hope that this report will help shift the debate away from a focus on a narrow set of interests who have yet to take advantage of the new opportunities, and towards a more positive recognition of the wide-open possibilities presented by new technologies to create, promote, distribute, connect, and monetize.”

Was MegaUpload a uniquely illegal enterprise? It allowed people to house their larger media and share it with other people, but the same description could be used for Silicon Valley darling Dropbox, and Box.net, and so on.

Would the passage of SOPA actually have helped the music industry get back to the good ol' days of piracy-free music? It's doubtful, but it definitely would prevent the kind of rampant, viral sharing that helped indie artists like Soulja Boy and Drake become stars and, later, made literally tens of millions of dollars for these same companies.

The Recording Industry Association of America was not available for comment, but on its site it argues that $12 billion is lost annually to piracy. The real question is: Is getting rid of MegaUpload the best way to combat digital theft?

In light of the increasing creation, revenues, and opportunities available today, it's hard not to see the MegaUpload takedown as the digital equivalent of a televised drug bust. The move is great for show, but it doesn't really help in the long run.

We can expect piracy numbers to continue at their same level until the music companies themselves change their strategy. Based on this new report, some are already reaping the benefits.

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