{"id":2833,"date":"2011-01-14T14:05:44","date_gmt":"2011-01-14T12:05:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/?p=2833"},"modified":"2011-01-23T21:02:28","modified_gmt":"2011-01-23T19:02:28","slug":"2010-year-in-review-sites-tools-statistics-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/2011\/01\/14\/2010-year-in-review-sites-tools-statistics-2\/","title":{"rendered":"2010 Year in Review: Sites, Tools &#038; Statistics"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Past editions of my year in tools, sites &amp; statistics: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/2010\/01\/08\/2009-year-in-review-my-tools-sites-and-statistics\/\">2009<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/2009\/01\/19\/2008-year-in-review\/\">2008<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/2008\/01\/11\/2007-year-in-review\/\">2007<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/2007\/01\/04\/how-i-conquered-the-world-and-how-you-can-too\/\">2006<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>2010 was a difficult and great year for me &#8211; I did a lot of freelance projects in addition to my fulltime job, which meant I blogged less frequently but one of those opportunities turned into my current job at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.automattic.com\">Automattic<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Here are some sites, tools, and statistics from my 2010. Feel free to add your recommendations and own tips in the comments!<\/p>\n<p><strong>Social Networking<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Daily sites I visit<\/strong>: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.twitter.com\/rosso\">Twitter<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sara.rosso\">Facebook<\/a> are still my favorite networks though I use <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/msadventuresinitaly\/\">Flickr<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/sararosso\">LinkedIn<\/a>. I like having dedicated Site pages on Facebook  for each site I run &#8211; it gives me a different way to interact with  readers for those specific topcis.<\/li>\n<li>I joined <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/joindiaspora.com\">Diaspora<\/a><\/strong> (the open-source social network platform) but it&#8217;s too early to tell if\/when it will be useful &#8211; I <a href=\"http:\/\/www.whenihavetime.com\/is-diaspora-a-threat-to-facebook\/\">don&#8217;t think Diaspora will be a threat to Facebook<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.quora.com\">Quora<\/a><\/strong> is gaining some buzz as a Q&amp;A platform.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Epic virtual relationship made physical<\/strong>: Finally met the lovely Michelle from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bleedingespresso.com\">Bleeding Espresso<\/a> after exchanging emails and Skype calls for 4 years. When you know someone this long, it&#8217;s almost anti-climatic, but we still stayed up until 2am talking every night like it was a slumber party.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Domains I have active websites on<\/strong>: 8 &#8211; all using <a href=\"http:\/\/get.wp.com\">WordPress<\/a> :) Several more domains sitting and waiting to be born into awesome ideas. Launched the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.eyeonitaly.com\/podcast\">Eye on Italy<\/a> podcast as well as a few other sites.<\/li>\n<li><strong>RSS Feeds<\/strong> &#8211; I crested 400 feeds, and I continue using <a href=\"http:\/\/reader.google.com\">Google Reader<\/a> to manage all my feeds. A noted increase this year in personal <strong>travel<\/strong> bloggers (like the very interesting <a href=\"http:\/\/www.legalnomads.com\/\">Legal Nomads<\/a> blog) and <strong>women<\/strong> who provide some inspiration (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.gwenbell.com\/blog\/\">Gwen Bell,<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/mightygirl.net\">Mighty Girl<\/a>)<\/li>\n<li><strong>Popular posts<\/strong>: The most popular posts in 2010 on this site were: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/2010\/06\/09\/10-tourist-mistakes-when-visiting-italy-tipping-tickets-and-more\/\">Top Mistakes Tourists make in Italy: Tipping, Tickets &amp; more<\/a>, my <a href=\"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/2010\/02\/05\/nutella-mascarpone-cream-chocolate-tarts-recipe-for-world-nutella-day\/\">Nutella &amp; Mascarpone chocolate tarts<\/a> for <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nutelladay.com\">World Nutella Day<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/2010\/02\/26\/broccolo-romanesco-roman-cauliflower-with-pasta-recipe-2\/\">Broccolo Romanesco &#8211; Roman cabbage with Pasta<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Camera, Videocamera &amp; other Gadgets:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li> <strong>Camera<\/strong>: This year I did a pretty decent upgrade &#8211; taking my Canon XTi (<a href=\"http:\/\/astore.amazon.com\/msadventuresinitaly-20\/detail\/B0012YA85A\">entry-level DSLR<\/a>) to a <a href=\"http:\/\/astore.amazon.com\/msadventuresinitaly-20\/detail\/B002NEGTTW\">Canon 7D<\/a>. It&#8217;s a learning curve even though things are familiar at the same time.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Lens<\/strong>: In addition to the <a href=\"http:\/\/astore.amazon.com\/msadventuresinitaly-20\/detail\/B00009XVCZ\">50mm 1.4<\/a> I use often &amp; <a href=\"http:\/\/astore.amazon.com\/msadventuresinitaly-20\/detail\/B00006I53S\">my zoom 28-135mm<\/a> travel lens, I also got the <a href=\"http:\/\/astore.amazon.com\/msadventuresinitaly-20\/detail\/B00007GQLU\">85mm lens<\/a> which I experimented with in Thailand but I think my next lens will be a wide angle lens, like the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B0002Y5WXE?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=msadventuresinitaly-20&amp;linkCode=xm2&amp;creativeASIN=B0002Y5WXE\">10-22mm<\/a>, the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B00009R6WO?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=msadventuresinitaly-20&amp;linkCode=xm2&amp;creativeASIN=B00009R6WO\">17-40mm<\/a>, or my <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B000NP46K2?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=msadventuresinitaly-20&amp;linkCode=xm2&amp;creativeASIN=B000NP46K2\">dream lens 16-35mm<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Quick shots &amp; video:<\/strong> I still use the <a href=\"http:\/\/astore.amazon.com\/msadventuresinitaly-20\/detail\/B000NK6INU\">Canon PowerShot SD750 7.1MP<\/a> for quick shots and the <a href=\"http:\/\/astore.amazon.com\/msadventuresinitaly-20\/detail\/B002HOQ08S\">Kodak Zi8<\/a> for video &#8211; it was a huge help for the whales I saw in Alaska.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Other toys<\/strong>: It was the year of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.whenihavetime.com\/the-ipad-one-month-later\/\"><strong>iPad<\/strong><\/a> for me &#8211; a purchase I don&#8217;t regret at all, but I am definitely l<a href=\"http:\/\/www.whenihavetime.com\/the-ipad-one-month-later\/\">ooking forward to the next version to see what other features will be added<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Digital frame<\/strong>: A bit of a late entry is the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B003WOLOLK?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=msadventuresinitaly-20&amp;linkCode=xm2&amp;creativeASIN=B003WOLOLK\">Kodak Pulse 10&#8243; digital frame<\/a> I got thanks to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.twitter.com\/Kodak_IT\">Kodak Italy<\/a> in December &#8211; I love using it to display my pictures as I rarely print anything anymore, and the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.moo.com\">Moo<\/a> cards I constantly carry can only give me so much satisfaction. I see it also being great for people who want to keep up with family &amp; loved ones far away &#8211; you can send the frame pictures via email and it will download them automatically via wi-fi! The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B0030MIU16?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=msadventuresinitaly-20&amp;linkCode=xm2&amp;creativeASIN=B0030MIU16\">7&#8243; Pulse<\/a> is nice, too.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Backing up Data &amp; External drives<\/strong>: This continues to be the most important part of my regime \u2013 backup! I am still employing the 3,2,1 method \u2013 <strong>3 copies of everything, 2 onsite, 1 offsite.<\/strong> For the onsite, my <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B002QEBMB4?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=msadventuresinitaly-20&amp;linkCode=xm2&amp;creativeASIN=B002QEBMB4\">Western Digital<\/a> MyBook 750GB, and for offsite I\u2019m also still using <a href=\"http:\/\/mozy.popularmedia.net\/click\/share\/a37983d848152413bbabd3d08945dbd9\">Mozy online backup<\/a> (a Pro account) to do a further backup online of my photos and other critical files, now from my Mac. I&#8217;m interested also in testing <a href=\"http:\/\/www.carbonite.com\">Carbonite<\/a> but haven&#8217;t had a chance yet. Read more about <a href=\"http:\/\/www.whenihavetime.com\/how-to-backup-files-and-data-with-backup-software-and-online-resources\/\">How to Backup Files using Online and Offline Software<\/a> on my tech blog.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><br \/>\nFundraising, Donations, and Supporting Causes<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li> <strong>Working with causes, powered by Social Networks and Bloggers:<\/strong> this year I had my hands full and we didn&#8217;t do a dedicated effort for Ovarian Cancer, and Menu for Hope was unfortunately not held this year, but luckily I participated in the travel blogger-run <a href=\"http:\/\/www.passportswithpurpose.com\">Passports with Purpose<\/a> which raised more than $50,000.<\/li>\n<li> <strong>Offline<\/strong>, the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.girlgeekdinnersmilano.com\">Girl Geek Dinners in Milan<\/a> events I organize did a used clothing donation drive at our December dinner and filled 2 cars of clothing for Sicomoro organization destined for Tanzania.<\/li>\n<li> <strong>Supporting other entrepreneurs via Kiva.org<\/strong> &#8211; I am still re-investing my initial investment with <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kiva.org\/lender\/rosso\">Kiva<\/a> &#8211; I&#8217;ve now made 12 $25 loans to different entrepreneurs, all female.<\/li>\n<li><strong>New to me:<\/strong> I&#8217;ll be checking out <a href=\"http:\/\/www.donorschoose.org\/\">DonorsChoose.org<\/a> this year and adding them to my list. (Updated to add: I got a Donors Choose gift certificate from my awesome company, Automattic, for the holidays so I&#8217;ll be trying it sooner than I thought!)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If you have another charity\/fundraiser site to recommend, let me know in the comments!<strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Reading and eBooks<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I read more books than ever &#8211; though I stopped keeping track of them in my little spreadsheet part-way through. I started using the iPad as my main reading device, and I&#8217;ve started using the Amazon Kindle app as well as the Stanza app for my reading.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li> <strong>Books (new) read in 2010<\/strong>: 83 newly purchased books and dozens of re-reads. My reading increased quite a bit as the 1-click buying experience on the iPad means I&#8217;m never without a book, and usually have a few in my TBR (to be read) pile.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Book tracking:<\/strong> Recently I signed up for <a href=\"http:\/\/www.goodreads.com\">Good Reads<\/a> as an experiment to see if I find it useful. I&#8217;ll let you know &#8211; so far I like their lists.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Ebook Advocate<\/strong>: I have been digital for 5 years now and have never regretted it \u2013 I wrote <a href=\"http:\/\/www.whenihavetime.com\/a-guide-to-ebooks-for-read-an-ebook-week\/\">a Guide to Ebooks<\/a> on my tech blog, When I Have Time, for those that are new to ebooks or are interested in getting started!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Travel and Moving Around<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Tracking with online sites<\/strong>: I stopped using <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dopplr.com\">Dopplr<\/a>&#8216;s travel site and started using <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tripit.com\">TripIt<\/a> which I love mainly because I can forward them my flight reservations and they will import them automatically. They have an iPhone app, too.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Cities lived in:<\/strong> 1 \u2013 Milan, Italy. Our apartment is starting to feel too small&#8230;who knows what will happen in 2011, though we really love our neighborhood.<\/li>\n<li> <strong>Countries visited:<\/strong> 5 \u2013 U.S. several times, England, France, Thailand, Scotland<\/li>\n<li><strong>Trains taken:<\/strong> Dozens &#8211; I spent a lot of time running around the Lake region for <a href=\"http:\/\/www.fodors.com\">Fodor<\/a>&#8216;s guide books, and several trips down south.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Longest trip<\/strong>: coming back from Thailand and going to Puglia in the same day: 20 hours to get back to our house in Italy, 3 hours at home, and then another 9 hours to Puglia via train. It was a long day.<\/li>\n<li> <strong>Years with a car:<\/strong> 1 (previously was years without a car). I still need to get my Italian license &#8211; I don&#8217;t drive the car and we take it out occasionally for a weekend jaunt.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Commute:<\/strong> My daily commute hit its peak in 2005\/2006 when I was commuting 3-3.5 hours a day, and then reached a lower average of 1.5-2 hours a day until recently. Now that I work from my home office I put those hours to better use.<strong> <\/strong>I still take public transportation first and foremost, though working from my home office means I don&#8217;t commute every day.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Random<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Number of trips to the emergency room<\/strong>: One, just hours before departing to the US, for a dangerous skin infection. My fear I wouldn&#8217;t be able to depart was almost as strong as the pain I was in.<\/li>\n<li>I completed 442 items with To-do list manager I love <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rememberthemilk.com\">Remember the Milk<\/a>! Their iPhone \/ iPad app is free, too.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>Note: I have an Amazon affiliate store \u2013 many of the links in this  post have an affiliate link to the Amazon site in case you are  interested in buying that product. I will get a small percentage of the  purchase price if you do (4-6%) and I thank you for helping support this site and my writing. Otherwise, plug the name of the product  into Google and buy it somewhere else!<br \/>\n<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Past editions of my year in tools, sites &amp; statistics: 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006. 2010 was a difficult and great year for me &#8211; I did a lot of freelance projects in addition to my fulltime job, which meant I blogged less frequently but one of those opportunities turned into my current job at Automattic&#8230;.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/2011\/01\/14\/2010-year-in-review-sites-tools-statistics-2\/\">Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[82,22,101],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-me","category-tech-talk","category-tips","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4uB1-JH","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3723,"url":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/2012\/01\/05\/2011-year-in-review-sites-tools-statistics\/","url_meta":{"origin":2833,"position":0},"title":"2011 Year in Review: Sites, Tools &#038; Statistics","author":"Sara, Ms. Adventures in Italy","date":"January 5, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Past editions of my year in tools, sites & statistics: 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006. My 2011 Year in Review in Pictures. 2011 was a great year for me, really. It was the year that my body caught up with my mind in terms of happiness.\u00a0Here are some sites, tools,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Me&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Me","link":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/category\/me\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3713,"url":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/2012\/01\/02\/2011-year-in-review-in-pictures\/","url_meta":{"origin":2833,"position":1},"title":"2011 Year in Review in Pictures","author":"Sara, Ms. Adventures in Italy","date":"January 2, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"I started my Year in Review in Pictures in 2009 (2010's review, 2009's review) as a complement to my text-heavy Year in Review full of tools, sites, and statistics I started in 2006 - I'll be posting that later this week. In January, I started to share some pictures from\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Me&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Me","link":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/category\/me\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Thai Coconut Ice Cream on a Hot Dog Bun in Bangkok, Thailand","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm6.static.flickr.com\/5123\/5348824772_5ff1fc07f1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2252,"url":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/2010\/01\/08\/2009-year-in-review-my-tools-sites-and-statistics\/","url_meta":{"origin":2833,"position":2},"title":"2009 Year in Review: My Tools, Sites and Statistics","author":"Sara, Ms. Adventures in Italy","date":"January 8, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"It's that time of year when I geek out over what has happened in 2009, in terms of social networking, blogging, my photography, travel, and food! If you prefer picture books to novels, you can check my 2009 Year in Pictures. Interested in how other years have gone for me?\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Me&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Me","link":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/category\/me\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2817,"url":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/2011\/01\/07\/2010-year-review-in-pictures\/","url_meta":{"origin":2833,"position":3},"title":"2010 Year Review in Pictures","author":"Sara, Ms. Adventures in Italy","date":"January 7, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"I like the visual recap of my year in pictures (2009's is here) since I share so many pictures on my site during the year. In 2010, I had a very very very eventful year, and I wasn't able to share everything on my site, including some of my favorite\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Me&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Me","link":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/category\/me\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Nutella & Mascarpone Cream Chocolate Tarts for World Nutella Day 2010","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4056\/4332183102_be3c491989.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3792,"url":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/2012\/01\/24\/i-have-a-newsletter-wont-you-sign-up\/","url_meta":{"origin":2833,"position":4},"title":"I have a newsletter &#8211; won&#8217;t you sign up?","author":"Sara, Ms. Adventures in Italy","date":"January 24, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"I've started a newsletter. The newsletter will come to you from me, Sara Rosso (you did know that was my name, not Ms. Adventures, right?), and will be inspired by the areas that most interest me and my various sites: food, travel, technology, healthy living, photography, and more! It won't\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Me&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Me","link":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/category\/me\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Letters, Lettere","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm2.staticflickr.com\/1198\/892660792_2cf2fa817e.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":618,"url":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/2008\/05\/13\/getting-banned-by-google-and-upgrading-wordpress\/","url_meta":{"origin":2833,"position":5},"title":"Getting Banned by Google, and Upgrading WordPress","author":"Sara, Ms. Adventures in Italy","date":"May 13, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"This weekend in Milan, there was the iWordCamp, a BarCamp for developers and users of WordPress software (which I am proudly running). A cool thing is that the co-founder of WordPress, Matt Mullenweg, came and participated! Any guy who can quote Zoolander gets a gold star in my book (and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Italy&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Italy","link":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/category\/italy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2833"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2833\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2946,"href":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2833\/revisions\/2946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msadventuresinitaly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}