del.icio.us : Make Your Bookmarks Accessible on the Web, Share Them with Others, See What Others Are Bookmarking

If you haven't checked out del.icio.us bookmarks yet, do so! It's a great service that allows you to keep your Web bookmarks in one place — that you can access from any computer with an Internet connection.

Just as cool is the fact that you can search del.icio.us to see what other people are bookmarking.

This can sometimes be a better way to find things on the Web than a simple Google search, because you can almost always look at bookmarks created by people who know more about a topic than you do.

When you are searching for info on a topic but you don't really know enough about it to know the best keywords to use, you can start by browsing through a collection of publicly available bookmarks.

Check out the del.icio.us Guide to Discovering Bookmarks for more ideas on how to research a topic using bookmarks.

Here are my mcbuzz bookmarks on del.icio.us

Here's another nice feature: You don't have to let everyone see all your bookmarks. If there are some bookmarks you would rather not share publicly, you just check a box to make those bookmarks private.

How to Blog About Faulty Products: Lexmark Printers and Open Type (.otf) Fonts

My complaint regarding a flaw in the Lexmark C522n Color Printer -- that it does not print OpenType fonts (also called .otf or "Open Type" fonts) -- has created some blogger buzz.

Making Communications Buzz is getting significant traffic from search results on Google, Yahoo and MSN.com regarding this subject. Try searching "lexmark opentype" or "lexmark .otf" to see why.

These searches -- using only the words "lexmark" and "opentype", for example -- don't even mention that there is a problem. The mere association of "lexmark" and "opentype" takes you to my post as the top result. (Google and similar sites ignore capitalization for search, so "lexmark" and "Lexmark" -- or "opentype" and "OpenType" -- are essentially the same.)

Here's a challenge for search marketers and for anyone with a blog: Many people looking for information about OpenType fonts will spell it like this: "open type fonts" -- with two words for "open type".

Search on Google for "lexmark doesn't print open type" and you find my Making Communications Buzz blog post. What's more, Google offers you a link at the top of the page that asks, "Did you mean 'lexmark doesn't print opentype".

But, if you use the same keywords in Yahoo or MSN.com, my post is nowhere to be found.

This is unfortunate. It will probably not occur to some people that OpenType might be one word, and they will not find confirmation that a problem exists with their printer.

Hence the interjection above (also called .otf or "Open Type" fonts). This is one way to try to show Yahoo and MSN that searchers may be using the latter spelling. Let's give it a few days and see what happens.

Updated Review: Lexmark C522n Color Printer Does Not Print OpenType Fonts

Thanks to a McBuzzBlog reader, we have confirmation that the Lexmark C522n Color Printer does not print OpenType fonts. (See the comment at the bottom of this post: Lexmark Color Printer for $299 - Read This Before You Buy .)

OpenType fonts are a common font format for use in both Macintosh and Windows computers. (Installing New Fonts, Continued: What's the Difference Between TrueType, PostScript and OpenType Fonts?)

A new laser printer that does not print OpenType fonts is seriously flawed.

The fact that a new Lexmark C522n Color Printer does not print OpenType fonts is unacceptable, regardles of how you plan to use the printer. Selling -- or reviewing -- the Lexmark C522n Color Printer without disclosing the fact that it does not print OpenType fonts is negligent at best. I have spent about 10 hours doing tests of my own, talking to Lexmark tech support by phone, corresponding by e-mail, and talking to the supplier I bought it from, CDW.com , in an effort to resolve the issue.

As mentioned in the previous post, it took Lexmark about 10 days to get back to me after I sent them an e-mail through their Web site. Phone tech support was completely unhelpful. They told me I needed to buy more memory for the printer! The printer comes with 128MB of memory, which is a lot by any standard. More importantly, memory has nothing to do with printing OpenType or any other font.

The McBuzzBlog reader who found that the Lexmark C522n Color Printer he bought had the same flaw wrote me by e-mail directly with his name and more detail about the circumstances, so I have good reason to believe what he says is true. He also notes that Printerbase Ltd, whom he bought the printer from, has now agreed to take it back. Printerbase Ltd told him that Lexmark is aware of the problem.

CDW.com is definitely aware of the problem. Whether they were before I told them about it, I don't know. They agreed to take back the Lexmark printer, pay for the shipping and refund my money. In general, I have found CDW to be a responsive and responsible company. I will be interested to see whether they continue to sell the Lexmark C522n Color Printer after this.

If Lexmark is aware that the C522n Color Printer does not print OpenType fonts, why are they selling this printer anywhere other than a swap meet -- with a big "SOLD AS IS" sign on it?

What's more, if they are really aware that the C522n Color Printer does not print OpenType fonts, why doesn't their tech support department have an immediate answer when someone asks about it? But, in truth, what could they say? -- other than, We're sorry and we have no explanation for why we continue to sell it that way without informing customers up front.

Will I ever buy a Lexmark printer again? Not likely.