Then they announced they were closing Google Reader. I was stunned and knew that I would quickly have to change my entire workflow to keep up with the many different sites that I use for my work. (Now I will have an upcoming post on the three options that I’m evaluating as replacements and another option that I never knew about but now love the format.) I have my suspicions about why Google is shutting down Google Reader. (Hint: They are releasing a premium news subscription service through Google Play soon.) But why Google is choosing to close Google Reader didn’t concern me. What concerned me was who the major user of Google Reader was and what Google was doing to its future development projects.

Who was the major user of Google Reader? Most of the people I have talked to agree that Google Reader was the goto online app for Early Adopters. These are the people who are willing to live with bugs and issues and are always seeking to try new products from companies. These are also the chief promoters of new products. I can’t tell you how many people tell me their heard about a new online product (Google Docs, Zoho, Evernote, MailChimp, Twitter, etc) from a current user or a friend that loves technology. I myself have pointed many people to new and upcoming technology as a replacement for their own methods of doing business and work.

For many years, Google was that disruption leader. Churning out new products and tools that were amazing replacements for the old way of doing things. And Early Adopters flocked to Google’s doorstep hoping to get access to the latest and the greatest so that they could tell all their friends about the amazing new tool. Anyone remember how much early entry into Gmail was going on Ebay? But during this time there was great trust in Google that they would be around and would always have our backs as users. Google offered a fair tradeoff in many people’s minds. Google gets to learn information about you so they can better sell ads and the user gets awesome products that just plain WORK!

Then Google goes and kills one of the favorite apps/tools of an Early Adopter. Many users have countless hours sorting, tagging, starring, news stories for better use and then the tool that we use to “find” the latest and greatest is gone. And gone also is trust in that fair tradeoff. Now Early Adopters are beginning to wonder if Google really does have their backs. We can already see the results. Google this past week also released some new product called Google Keep. Some sort of Evernote or Simplenote competitor. But guess what? Many of the Early Adopters (myself included) are just ignoring the product. Why invest yourself in a product when it will just be taken away on a whim. I’m surprised at how little that Google values the Early Adopter here in 2013. Especially since Google relied so heavily on them in the earlier years. Yes, it is true that Early Adopters are way less than 10% of the market. But don’t forget that Early Adopters have a huge sway over the other 90% of the market.

I started thinking about whether I had just been turning a blind eye towards Google and ignoring the signs. So I sat down and just started listing all the products that Google has killed.

1. Google Reader
2. iGoogle
3. Google Labs
4. Google Wave
5. Google Video
6. Google Desktop
7. Google Buzz
8. Google Code Search
9. Google Aardvark
10. Google Gears
11. Picasa for Linux
12. Google Notebook
13. Google Health
14. Picnik
15. Google Listen
16. Google Lively
17. Google Bookmarks/Lists
18. Google Docs Gadgets
19. Google Search Timeline
20. Google Apps for Teams
21. Picasa Web Albums Uploader for Mac
22. Google Fast Flip
23. Jaiku
24. Google Pack
25. Google Sidewiki
26. Google Flu Vaccine Finder
27. Google Classic Plus
28. Google Adsense for Feeds
29. Google News Badges
30. Google Talk Chatback
31. Google Friend Connect
32. Knol
33. iGoogle Social Features
34. Google Video for Business
35. Google Related
36. Google One Pass
37. Places Directory App for Android
38. Google Postini Services
39. Google Mini
40. Google Sync for Blackberry
41. +1 Reporting for Webmaster Tools
42. Google Catalog Search
43. Dodgeball
44. Google Print Ads
45. SearchMash
46. Google 411
47. Google Answers

As you can see there are quite a few tools and resources that Google has killed over the years. Do you have a favorite tool that Google has killed? I miss Google Buzz, Google411, Picasa, Google Bookmarks and will miss Google Reader BIG TIME once it is finally gone for good. Will you trust Google and invest the time into using Google Keep or has Google burned one-to-many bridges with you to go down that road again?

• If you need some Smack My Ass and Call Me Sally Green Jalapeno Hot Sauce… Amazon has it.
• If you were having an argument with your friend and wanted to prove that Embalming is Not a Sport… Amazon has your back.
• If your neighbor’s dog keeps pooping on your lawn and you decide to go all military, I’m sure a JL421 Badonkadonk Land Cruiser/Tank will work out swell.
• Who knew that you could pick up Uranium Ore from Amazon.
• …and Amazon will even allow you to buy a nickel for 15 cents.

But you know what they won’t do? Respond rationally to serious issues and massive flaws in their system.

Enter the Era of Personal Selling on Amazon

The Amazon ecosystem changed a number of years ago when they allowed users who owned their own copy of an item from Amazon’s massive catalog to sell/resell it directly to the public at a lower price than Amazon’s own price. The trade-off?

• Amazon got to keep 30% of the sale
• the seller was able to get their “used books / garage sale items” in front of the large internet traffic that Amazon generates
• the buyer was able to get a product at ‘below-value’ prices.

It was a win-win-win for everyone.

Until…

People realized it was super easy to scam the system!

Over the years I’ve sold/resold books, I had many reasons for why I spent time listing items to sell. I inherited some theological books from my father and grandfather and knew there were other consumers who would be interested in purchasing these books. So Amazon provided me the platform. Sometimes I would purchase new books because I wanted to quickly look at only a few sections of the book. I took solace in the fact that a few days later I could turn around and resell the book as “Used-Like New” and recoup a portion of my purchase price while giving someone else a chance to purchase this new book at a fraction of the cost of the new book.

I was very attentive to the people who purchased books through my Amazon reseller account. I also worked hard to stay ahead of the policy changes that Amazon was constantly pushing on its members. I tried very hard to ensure that every single book that I mailed was sent with a tracking number–I wanted to make sure that the books arrived. Amazon has always had a variation of the A-to-Z Guarantee that is supposed to protect sellers and buyers. There was also a dispute resolution system that made a lot of sense. For a long time, when a customer would complain that they never received a book, I would provide Amazon with the tracking number that showed the book was delivered and many times even who signed for the package. This alone was good enough back in the day. Then Amazon would either refund the buyer or acknowledge that the seller had fulfilled their duties.

Then things started changing…

Buyers who complained to Amazon that they didn’t receive the book would instantly be refunded… out of the seller’s account. The seller would then get a black “proprietary” mark on their account which would lower the seller’s account score. In an attempt to prevent those “black marks,” I began dealing directly with the customer and offering a refund even if I had a tracking number showing the package was delivered. Rather than have a complaint filed with Amazon, I wanted the customer to be happy. There were only a few people who claimed to never receive their packages. But it was enough that I wanted to simply refund them the money rather than have them complain to Amazon.

Then Amazon changed their policies again and now you would get “black marks” if you refunded someone. Why, because in Amazon’s mind, a refunded order is a canceled order. And if you are canceling an order you are probably a bad seller.

Fast forward to the present…

The last two times a buyer complained to me about never receiving a package, I had the documentation (tracking number with a signature) that the buyer themselves had signed for the package. I even corresponded with the two buyers and let them know about the tracking number and the signature on file, and they still said the package never arrived. So what did I do? I refunded them their order. I took it as a loss rather than deal with people who were obviously trying to scam the system.

Then Amazon swooped in and canceled my account and said I had too many “proprietary” black marks and had my selling privileges canceled. I was not a big seller… maybe 3-5 books a month got sold. But my refunding of customers had caused my account to get canceled. No recourse or appeal (yes, there is an appeal form but it is a form letter response. I know that no one read my appeal because not one single question I asked–and I asked about 15 specific questions–were addressed or acknowledged).

Here’s How to Get Free Amazon Books and Destroy Someone’s Account:

It really is as easy as this 4-step process:

1. Purchase a product from a seller you want to destroy.
2. Claim the product never arrived… EVEN IF IT DID!
3. Get your money back for your order
4. Smile because you successfully gave someone a “proprietary” black mark on their account… and it will lead to them losing their selling privileges. Plus you got your product free!

So how many other people have experienced this treatment by Amazon and the fraud they they allow to happen in their ecosystem?

UPDATE: So it looks like my wife’s Amazon selling account (which she has owned for over 12 years… long before we were married) has also been canceled due to Amazon’s “proprietary” algorithm which searches for related accounts. Again, this comes with no recourse or appeal because they’ve proven they don’t look at appeals or care about them anyway.

<IfModule mod_deflate.c>
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/plain
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/html
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/css
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/xhtml+xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/rss+xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/javascript
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-javascript
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-httpd-php
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-httpd-fastphp
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE image/svg+xml
</IfModule>

Now your site will serve compressed versions of your content and should speed up your site (as much as 10x faster). Let me know if you notice a visible difference in the render time of your site. On many of my sites, the difference is clearly visible.

function autoset_featuredimage() {
	global $post;
	$already_has_thumb = has_post_thumbnail($post->ID);
		if (!$already_has_thumb)  {
		$attached_image = get_children( "post_parent=$post->ID&post_type=attachment&post_mime_type=image&numberposts=1" );
			if ($attached_image) {
				foreach ($attached_image as $attachment_id => $attachment) {
				set_post_thumbnail($post->ID, $attachment_id);
			}
		}
	}
} 
add_action('the_post', 'autoset_featuredimage');
add_action('save_post', 'autoset_featuredimage');
add_action('draft_to_publish', 'autoset_featuredimage');
add_action('new_to_publish', 'autoset_featuredimage');
add_action('pending_to_publish', 'autoset_featuredimage');
add_action('future_to_publish', 'autoset_featuredimage');

Now your clients don’t have to mess up your nice custom built front page that utilizes featured images from posts when they forget to set the image.

The first function creates the ability to add the meta boxes to the pages and posts. ProTip: Just add additional lines of code to add this meta box to Custom Post Types.

function bb_custom_css_hooks() {
	add_meta_box('custom_css', 'Custom CSS', 'custom_css_input', 'post', 'normal', 'high');
	add_meta_box('custom_css', 'Custom CSS', 'custom_css_input', 'page', 'normal', 'high');
}

The next function creates the text areas of the meta box so that we can input our custom css. It also ties the CSS typed into the meta box to that specific post/page ID.

function custom_css_input() {
	global $post;
	echo '<input type="hidden" name="custom_css_noncename" id="custom_css_noncename" value="'.wp_create_nonce('custom-css').'" />';
	echo '<textarea name="custom_css" id="custom_css" rows="5" cols="30" style="width:100%;">'.get_post_meta($post->ID,'_custom_css',true).'</textarea>';
}

Then we need to be able to save the CSS that we type into the meta box, so we add the content from the Custom CSS meta box to the post meta area.

function bb_save_custom_css($post_id) {
	if (!wp_verify_nonce($_POST['custom_css_noncename'], 'custom-css')) return $post_id;
	if (defined('DOING_AUTOSAVE') && DOING_AUTOSAVE) return $post_id;
	$custom_css = $_POST['custom_css'];
	update_post_meta($post_id, '_custom_css', $custom_css);
}

Now we need a way to insert the correct Custom CSS into the header of the specific page or post that has content entered into the Custom CSS meta box.

function bb_insert_custom_css() {
	if (is_page() || is_single()) {
		if (have_posts()) : while (have_posts()) : the_post();
			echo '<style type="text/css">'.get_post_meta(get_the_ID(), '_custom_css', true).'</style>';
		endwhile; endif;
		rewind_posts();
	}
}

Finally, we hook all of these functions into the necessary WordPress hooks using add_action.

add_action('admin_menu', 'bb_custom_css_hooks');
add_action('save_post', 'bb_save_custom_css');
add_action('wp_head','bb_insert_custom_css');

If you want the full code, I’ve made a PasteBin file for all to use.

What are WordPress Action Hooks?

At the very basic level, action hooks are placeholders. They are specific locations in your WordPress theme that allow functions/code/etc to hook into. The most basic examples of a action hooks, that normally exists in every single WordPress site, are the wp_head and wp_footer action hooks. Both of these are placeholders that are located at… (you guessed it)… inside the header of the theme and in the footer of the theme. Typical uses of these two action hooks are to place analytic tracking codes or to add some additional CSS files to a WordPress page.

In a nutshell, an action hook is a predefined place on your site left open by the developer of the site where the user/developer can insert specific code to expand the capability of the site.

How do you use an Action Hook?

Let’s use an example of adding some additional meta tag descriptions to the section of our WordPress site. Because an action hook is just a placeholder, we need to create a function, a piece of code that will run in that action hook location. Our sample function will add a meta tag description to our WordPress site.

function bb_actionhook_example() {
  echo '<meta name="description" content="My new meta description." />' "n";
}

This function is then hooked into the action hook by using the WordPress add_action() function. (More information about add_action() can be found on the WordPress Codex.)

add_action('wp_head', 'bb_actionhook_example');

Now our site contains our new meta description tag because we’ve run the function in the wp_head action hook location.

What if my theme doesn’t come with any action hooks?

Most WordPress themes today have many action hooks to enhance the flexibility and capability of the theme. Four popular and powerful themes, Catalyst, Builder, Genesis, and Startbox have a wide assortment of action hooks to give developers a lot of power in customizing the look and functionality of a site. But what if your theme doesn’t have the amount of action hook you want? Or what if your theme doesn’t have action hooks in the right place? This is an easy fix, because you can add your own action hooks to any WordPress theme.

If you open up your theme’s template files (PHP files) you should be able to locate the location where you desire an action hook to reside. At that location, simple use this line of PHP code to create a new action hook.

<?php do_action('my_new_action_hook'); ?>

Now you can use the newly created my_new_action_hook to hook in your own functions and expand your current theme dynamically.

How do you use Action Hooks?

Side Note: If you want a list of all default action hooks in WordPress, visit this page on the Codex.

I have built a career on top of WordPress. For the past two years I’ve been blazing new trails with WebDesign.com training business leaders, educators, freelancers, developers, designers and people who are life long learners how to use and maximize the potential of WordPress. We’ve dug deep into the code and development aspects of building rock-solid websites with cutting edge functionality. We’ve been dissecting the individual necessary elements that when combined create a comprehensive SEO strategy for success. We’ve been going “right-brained” on design and creativity while striving to harness the power of design tools like Photoshop, Pixelmator, and more. We’ve detailed the roadmap required to become a successful business owner and freelancer. All in all, this has been an exciting and fascinating year. We’ve got so much in store for the upcoming year at WebDesign.com and I’d like invite you to take a closer look at who we are and what types of training and community we can provide for you.

But I realize this year would not have been possible without the amazing talents of many people within the WordPress ecosystem. So I wanted to take a moment to thank many of them and I’m sure some have no idea they have had any such influence on a large group of members at WebDesign.com. So without further delay, here are some of my top influential people within the WordPress world.

Chris Jean

Chris is the lead developer over at iThemes.com and the brilliant brain child of the Builder Theme. Chris exemplifies the words of Lao Tzu when he said that “to see things in the seed, that is genius”. Chris is able to see complex topics/solutions/ideas and see them from the littlest element and what that small tool/code/sample could become. Plus, Chris knows how to turn that little element into the fully fleshed out practical tool that he originally envisioned. His love of code, logic, and the ability to think through solving problems has been an inspiration to me. Plus, his Builder theme which enables all levels of programmers/developers/designers to harness immense amounts of power in crafting websites. So to you Chris, I raise my glass of holiday egg nog!

Carl Hancock

For many people Carl’s name is synonymous with Gravity Forms. But really it is Carl and his team that have done so much to shape the direction of premium plugins within the WordPress ecosystem. Carl’s dedication to ease-of-use, accessibility to advanced functionality, and a rock-solid plugin is a great blueprint for any other plugin developers to heed. Gravity Forms has revolutionized the toolbox of freelance and professional development studios. Gravity Forms is now one of the “must install” plugins that should be on every single WordPress installation. Gravity Forms allows me to point the community of WebDesign.com to the plugin as a solution for many of their problems. So to Carl and the Gravity Forms team, this second glass of egg nog goes to you.

Dustin Bolton

Dustin has the ability to change an entire industry. He did this with a homerun right out of the gate as the lead developer at PluginBuddy with BackupBuddy. BackupBuddy single-handedly changed the way developers worked with and backed up their WordPress sites. BackupBuddy allowed for simple (and complex) site migrations from different servers, automated backups, and so much more. Like Gravity Forms, BackupBuddy is a “must install” plugin for WordPress. And for many developers and studios using WordPress, BackupBuddy has created a new revenue stream as they are easily able to automate backup solutions for clients. Dustin (and your PluginBuddy team), I was able to get a special coupon code for buying one egg nog and getting two for free. This one’s for you.

Scott Kingsley Clark

Sometimes a person has to think outside the box to not only get something done but to change the way people interact with technology. And as Steve Jobs said, “Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.” Scott Kingsley Clark and the team he works with on the Pods plugin is the embodiment of that type of thinking. WordPress had an issue and pods solved that issue and allowed developers to have little relational databases of content existing inside of WordPress. Pods provided a new way of dealing with data in WordPress, from creating new content systems to a simple way to customize thousands of dynamically created pages. Pods even powers a large portion of the WebDesign.com training library. So Scott and the pods developers out there… $pods->showTemplate(‘MassiveGlassofEggNog’);

Justin Tadlock & Pippin Williamson

I put Justin Tadlock (Hybrid Theme) and Pippin Williamson (Pippin’s Plugins) together because they both have a great desire to not only educate the WordPress community about developing with WordPress but are also committed to releasing great products that add useful tools to the WordPress community and WordPress itself. Whether it is Justin’s Members plugin or Hybrid theme, or Pippins’ Easy Custom Post Type plugin or his Post Type Column Editor, these two developers are good at identifying needs within the community and providing solid solutions. And to Justin and Pippin, I drain the final bit of egg nog in your honor.

These six individuals have shaped my approach to development and also shaped how I teach development. It is my opinion that these six individuals have made WordPress a better community to be a part of and I’m thankful that they are who they are. And while there are many people who have great influence in the WordPress ecosystem, I wanted to highlight these six who have had tremendous impact in the WordPress community.

Who do you think in the industry has changed the way you worked with WordPress this past year?

First, it is not a stretch to say that in the early days of Twitter it was viewed as some “nerd/geek” thing that was pointless. The only people who spent time on Twitter probably had no friends of their own. Plus, the biggest statement about Twitter users was that they were “over-sharers”. People who were so narcissistic that they believed other people actually wanted to know when they were brushing their teeth or what they were having for dinner or the fact that they “just woke up”.

Fast forward to today and we see that Twitter has morphed into an amazing avenue of content sharing. But the truly amazing thing is that it’s not just for content sharing but also for content consumption. People from all different demographics are sharing content, conversation, and consumption. These are people that users probably would have no way to connect with or discover without Twitter.

I remember when talking to people about Twitter and its usefulness, most people simply laughed and made some reference to the fact that Twitter was simply a tool to keep you from doing any work. It was a procrastination enhancer. This probably correlated to the first issue where people just thought others were “over-sharers” and that anyone who spent time on Twitter was just wasting their time following people’s daily tasks… watching paint dry.

Now when any major news or event happens around the world Twitter is one of the most reliable and fastest sources of information. People tune into news and individual Twitter accounts to get the latest and even real-time reporting of events. When was the last time we heard about a plane crash, earthquake, tsunami, sports victory, or election debate where we didn’t hear something about Twitter saying this or that?

Even when Twitter was getting started back in 2006, Jack Dorsey (founder/creator) tweeted the first tweet, “just setting up my twttr”. It was setup to share short bursts of inconsequential bits of information. It was built around the 140 character limit in order to encourage a more condensed form of chit-chat.

That original limiting 140 characters has become the creative building block to shape headlines and even help popularize the shortening of URLs so that linking of content would take the least amount of space because space was so valued. The 140 characters enabled user’s voices to get right to the point and not deal with idle chit-chat.

In the early days of Twitter, there were times it would seem like a massive black hole sucking all content and thoughts. This impression was left not only on critics but even many users felt that when they tweeted on Twitter it was like talking to the wall. Even though there were lots of people, at times it could seem like nobody was listening.

I can’t tell you how many people I meet today who say they first made a connection with a friend or business associate first on Twitter because of a discussion revolving around a topic both participants were engaged in and spun the conversation out into real life. Twitter has because a resource for creating connections and facilitating conversations.

Twitter was viewed as a mob scene with everyone shouting at the same time. There were only individuals. There were no brands, there were no products, there were no organizations. Even Twitter itself spent countless hours (and years) trying to find its own brand and financial stability.

But now, Twitter has an ongoing engagement between companies and brands and their valued customer base. Twitter gave a voice to brands. Twitter became useful for driving traffic… because now people were listening. It isn’t just a shouting black hole. And for those companies and brands who take customer service seriously, Twitter has been an amazing gift for them as they are able to connect with and assist their customer base.

How have you seen Twitter change? Do you think Twitter has gone in a positive direction? Where do you want Twitter to go from here? Oh, and if you want…. you can follow me at @benjaminbradley

And while there are plugins that you can use that will auto-insert the Google Plus icon on your site… why waste the overhead of a plugin if you can accomplish the same thing with a single line of code. That’s right, I’m going to show you how to easily add the Google Plus icon/button to your site/post.

All you have to do is add this single line of code into the header section of your website.

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js"></script>

If you are using the Builder theme, you can accomplish this in the Settings page of Builder by placing the code like so…

The next step is simple. Whenever you want a Google+ button to appear, you place the following HTML tag in that location.

<g:plusone></g:plusone>

So now you have a very simple way of utilizing the Google Plus social sharing capabilities.

This is how it will appear on your site:

Example:

What if there was a way for you to assist these social networking website with choosing the CORRECT image or the preferred image so you’re not going around promoting ads instead of your site. Well there are two quick bits of code you can add to your site to help with this situation.

What if there was a way for you to assist these social networking website with choosing the CORRECT image or the preferred image so you’re not going around promoting ads instead of your site. Well there are two quick bits of code you can add to your site to help with this situation.

First Image Fix Option

The first option is to add the following single line of code to your header area of your site. When we’re using WordPress we can do this several ways. We can modify the header.php file and insert the line above the tag, or we can add it into the header area by creating a simple function in our active theme’s functions.php file. The line that we need to add looks like this:

<link rel="image_src" href="http://www.yourdomain.com/defaultpic.png" />

The rel=”image_src” essentially gives your entire site a “default image”. Any site that might be using your site’s url to grab information, if they have a need to create a thumbnail or visual representation, this link is one of the first places they will look.

Second Image Fix Option

This next option is specific for Facebook. Facebook has some new markup protocols called OpenGraph. We can take advantage of these protocols and literally instruct Facebook to use the Featured Image of a post as the default thumbnail. The following code goes in the active theme’s functions.php file.

function fix_facebook() {
	global $wp_query;
	$thePostID = $wp_query->post->ID;
	if( has_post_thumbnail( $thePostID )){
    		$thumb_id = get_post_thumbnail_id( $thePostID );
    		$image = wp_get_attachment_image_src( $thumb_id );
    		echo '<meta property="og:image" content="'.$image[0].'" />';
	} 
}
add_action('wp_head','fix_facebook');

So now when I share a post on facebook, I will get the correct thumbnail without messing around with the images and ads on my site.