Today Mark Zuckerberg announced the new video chat feature on Facebook. This new application is being powered by Skype. To get started:
- Login into your Facebook account
- Go to https://www.facebook.com/videocalling
- Click on the large button titled “Get Started”
- Then click on “Setup” to install the new add-on
Other than clicking the “Get Started” button, there is no login required. You will not be rerouted to Skype to create a new account. After the add-on has been installed you are ready to start making calls.
Starting a video call with one of your Facebook friends is incredibly easy. When you are ready to call a Facebook friend go down to your Facebook chat in the bottom right hand corner and select their name. At the top of the chat box you will see a tiny camera icon that you click. Your friend will then receive an incoming video call prompt.
If they do not already have video calling setup they will be asked to set it up at this point. Also both parties don’t have to have webcams. If your friend doesn’t have a camera they will still be able to see you. Once your video call is established a medium sized video box appears in the middle of your screen. Your friend’s video feed will take up most of the box like most other video chat software.
While trying it out on my iPad it gave me a Flash Player required message. So we will have to wait until Mark releases the long awaited Facebook iPad native app. When testing in Internet Explorer, I was not only able to expand it to full screen but I could move the box around my computer screen as well as resize it.
If your friend does not pick up the call or hits the “Ignore” button it will ask you if you would like to leave a message. Once you opt to leave a message a Facebook chat box pops up giving you the option to send a written message, photo, or a video message. On your friends account they will be prompted with a new message. At the top is the written message and underneath is a video.
Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook wanted to make this as easy as possible which I believe they succeeded in doing so. Have you been able to test it out for yourself? If so, what are your thoughts?
Today Facebook announced its latest feature, Deals. Facebook’s Deals will compete against Groupon, LivingSocial and Google Offers by offering discounts to local businesses and attractions.
Deals is currently available in:
§ Atlanta
§ Austin
§ Dallas
§ San Diego
§ San Francisco
Facebook is planning to expand across the US later this year. Facebook is hoping to redesign the way users find discounts by combining it with social interaction. Deals is primarily targeting coupons directed towards group activities as opposed to those intended for individuals which plays into the social networking aspect.
Facebook is looking to expand social networking beyond the World Wide Web and into reality such as when they introduced the check-in feature.
Facebook users will be able to access the coupons by clicking on the Deals tab from their homepage, signing up for emails as well as seeing what deals your friends are interested in. Privacy and safety are still concerns with Facebook users. However, you will have the option to not share every purchase with your friends. There is a privacy option allowing you to keep certain purchases private. By offering so many options to learn about deals users won’t be forced to seek out discounts.
Facebook Credits will allow users to take advantage of those coupons more easily. Credits is a virtual currency that can be purchased with a credit card, PayPal or mobile phone. Until now Credits has only been used to purchase virtual and digital goods.
By allowing users to plan group outings such as concerts, wine tastings, rafting, etc. online with a discount expands not only the reach of Facebook but our need regularly check out our Newsfeed updates.
Image used is from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fudyma/5224898383/
On Monday, Facebook launched their new messaging system. This all-in-one communication network simplifies and combines all of the tools we use to talk to one another. The new Messages combines messages, texts, chats and emails allowing you to receive all forms of communication to whatever electronic device you choose. The new system will also automatically organize your incoming messages. All of your conversations with each individual will be grouped allowing you to easily see your history.
You will have the choice to sign up for @facebook.com account although it is not mandatory. The chief executive of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, feels e-mail is becoming outdated and their new Messages reflects what young people want. However, they do not expect Facebook users to abandon their Yahoo and Gmail accounts.
Many people are intrigued by how this system might change the way we communicate but are still hesitant as to what extent. This service is currently only being offered by invitation only, but will be available to all users within the next few months. This is just the latest update to Facebook in recent months, helping them to slowly become more than just a social networking site.
A healthy competition is continuing to brew between Facebook, Google, Yahoo and Microsoft for the future leader of the world wide web. Facebook and the new Messaging faces challenges in the next coming months to see how they will handle spam and how easy it is to use. The are battling spam by organizing your inbox by friends and those you are not Facebook friends with. You will have the ability to move people from folder to folder to make sure you receive your most important messages first. Facebook hopes to encourage businesses to incorporate the system into their interoffice communication. However, with a large number of companies banning the use of social media websites in the work place, how successful can it be.
Is this something you would consider introducing at work? Or would you simply use it for personal use?
Photo used is from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tsevis/4785888323/sizes/l/in/photostream.
On Wednesday, the online social network Facebook unveiled their latest tool to connect you to your friends and family. The updated Groups feature allows you to share information with a select group of friends as opposed to all of your friends.
You will be able to create a group, add friends and share information, photos, etc more privately. Members of the group will also be able to add friends. Everyone added to the group will be posted as well as the name of the person who added them. The names of the groups and the member of each will be visible to everyone but the information shared is “closed” by default.
New features of Groups includes creating and editing group documents, e-mailing the entire group using a custom e-mail address, as well as the most requested item group chat. Facebook users were only allowed to chat one on one until now. When an individual posts an item within a group a notification will be sent to all members of the group ensuring everyone sees the post.
There are a number of reasons to create a “closed” group such as your baseball team, your closest friends and family, your various clubs, the possibilities are endless. What kind of groups would you find most appealing?
After reading about the latest update to Facebook, I created my own private Group of “out of town family members” who can now easily watch my children grow up through pictures, videos and stories while I can keep those memories private. The newest feature is user friendly and is a great addition to the world of social networking. The success of the updated Groups depends on you the users.
So, Facebook users will you be taking advantage of a “closed” group or will you continue sharing your information with all of your friends?
Netflix announced their new updated free app for the iPhone and iPod Touch at the last Apple Media event. Being a Netflix subscriber myself for the last several years I was very excited. My iPhone 4 is my most used portable electronic device.
Being able to watch movies and television from my Netflix account helps pass the time while traveling. With a small monthly fee of just $8.99 this added feature gives you more bang for your buck. Not only do you have the ability to stream Netflix from my Playstation 3, xBox 360 and most recently my Wii but you also receive both regular and Blue Ray DVDs in the mail.
After receiving my Apple iPad, Netflix was the first iPad specific app I downloaded. Having a more compact and easily portable device with Netflix availability is very exciting. I was pleasantly surprised to find out AT&T and Apple approved this application for use with their 3G Network and did not limit it to WiFi use only. Netflix currently has more than 15 million subscribers but after this application is released I believe this will attract the attention of even more.
The only feature users feel is missing from this application is a TV Out function. TV Out would give you the option of connecting your iPhone or iPod Touch to your television. Hopefully, Netflix will listen to its subscribers and introduce this option in future updates.
Included in this post, are two demonstration videos shot with my iPhone 4 of this application in use on the iPod Touch as well as the iPad. Does the availability of this app entice you to subscribe to Netflix? Have you had the opportunity to test the new iPhone and iPod application? If so, what are your thoughts?
iPhone/iPod touch Netflix App
iPad Netflix App
Screen Shots
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The iPhone 4 was released to the public on June 24th 2010. In the first 3 days over 1.7 million new units were sold. On June 15th Apple allowed its large customer base to start pre ordering their new iPhone 4. The pre order system on Apple and AT&T’s websites did not last long as they were up and down all day. Most customers, including myself, tried to pre order online over and over again. Finally a large number gave up after a long day of disappointment. After being denied by apple’s online order system, I personally called AT&T and placed my order over the phone. Many other customers went into their local AT&T retail stores to place their pre order. Because of the high demand AT&T was forced to place pre orders hand written on paper and processed at another time. Even with all the problems surrounding the pre order, the new iPhone 4 has done very well in sales. Selling over 3 million new iPhone 4’s in the first 3 weeks.
When everyone started to receive their new iPhones on June 24th people started noticing a problem with their reception signal. Within a few hours more and more stories were reaching the web as well as other media outlets. Many documented videos were posted on YouTube and other video sites of users gripping their new iPhone 4 and the signal dropping just like when the xBox 360 had the red rings of death. The new iPhone 4 has its own “death grip”. The new innovative antenna design for the iPhone 4 includes a steel band that wraps around the phone. At the bottom left corner of the antenna there is a small gap. When you place your finger over the gap or wrap your hand around the phone, signals have been reported to drop from five bars to no signal. Even though the new iPhone 4 has some new innovative and ground breaking technology, the press surrounding the antenna “death grip” problem have overshadowed the positive new steps the phone has taken.
At 10:00 am Pacific Steve Jobs addressed the public with his latest press conference where the main focus was the antenna “death grip” problem. At the beginning of his statements he explained that all smart phones have this same issue. His smart phone examples included the HTC Droid Eris, Blackberry Bold 9700 and the Samsung phone. Previously announced by Apple the actual signal strength bars had been using the wrong bar formula for the last three years. So the first step to help fix this issue is to download the new software update 4.0.1. This update fixes the signal bar formula and also makes the signal bar icon larger, making one bar signal strength more noticeable. Jobs went on to discuss the success of the new Apple bumper case which gives the user a small buffer between him and the antenna resulting in a solution for the antenna “death grip” issue. From these findings Apple has decided to give their loyal iPhone 4 customers a free bumper case for those ordering one before September 30, 2010. However, Apple is unable to produce enough bumper cases to meet the demand. Starting late next week users will be able to apply on Apple’s website for a free case. If the free case and new software update still does not meet your standards Apple is allowing you to return your undamaged iPhone 4 within 30 days for a full refund without the restocking fee.
Jobs wanted to make it clear how much they appreciate their customer’s loyalty. He concluded with “We love our users. We really love ’em. And we try very hard to surprise and delight them. We work our asses off for them. And it’s great. And we have a blast doing it.” Do you feel that Apple has redeemed themselves by offering the free bumper case or will you be taking advantage of the full refund?
I have been using SEOmoz tools now for a while so I thought it would be nice to do a review of some of the SEO tools they offer. There are many free tools but I will be focusing mainly on the PRO membership.
Knowledge Resources & Guides
One of the best things that a Pro membership offers is actually not the tools at all but resources. One of the best sections is the SEOmoz Q&A. This gives you the ability to connect with the SEOmoz staff directly. You can either ask them a question in private, or post in the public section. This great feature allows you to learn from other members questions as well as your own. It’s like having your own private SEO specialist available to you at all times. Questions are generally answered within a couple of days or less.
Your membership also includes access to a ton of reports & guides on various aspects of SEO with titles like “The Professional’s Guide to Link Building” and “The Beginner’s Checklist for Small Business SEO (Local Search)”etc. These guides are very instructive and are updated pretty frequently.
You will also have access to a ton of video and audio cast all aimed at teaching the latest SEO techniques. This can be a great way to supplement SEO training for a new staff member.
SEO Tools
Along with the Guides and Q&A sections, your pro membership will also give you access to the SEO toolbox. The SEOmoz Toolbox functions very well, and is very reliable.
The mozBar for firefox is extremely valuable. When you are logged into it as a pro member it gives you even more valuable data. One of the huge advantages of this toolbar is that it won’t get your IP banned by Google. Most toolbars scrape link data and PR from Google so this can result in a temporary ban on your IP address. The mozBar pulls internal data so you can use it without fear of being banned.
The mozBar also connects to arguably the best tool seoMoz has to offer. Open site explorer – will let you see up to 10k links pointing to a specific URL. You get the data in an easy to use tabbed format and can download it to excel. The data loads almost instantly too which for SEO research this is truly a gold mine!
The two features I use all the time are how many unique Root Domains are linking to a URL and the anchor text breakdown of links pointing to the site. I find these both to be very telling stats. It doesn’t matter much that you have tons of links, it matters that you have tons of unique root domains linking to your site. Also, anchor text density for specific keywords can be too high and too low. Check your site vs. the top 10 to find out what is working in your niche.
When you are doing your on page analysis, the SEOmoz toolbox will also come in handy. You have access to a Term Target tool that helps you decide whether your pages are doing a good job of targeting your relevant keyword phrases. The crawl test tool will help you fix any internal server errors, and helps you fix any duplicate title/meta tags.
Previously the best tool SEOmoz had to offer was Linkscape. However, open site explorer really has replaced it and IMO it’s really not needed anymore. The company is now recommending pretty much the same thing.
Problems
In general there have been few issues to date but I will list out a couple because no service is perfect. Initially the Keyword Difficulty tool was basically not reliable. It has since gone through a major overhaul and is much better. However, I do find the % score they give out can be confusing to a client at first. The % is from 1 to 100 but they start saying things in the 50% range are “highly competitive” and it goes up from there to extremely competitive etc. The issue is a person not familiar with their score is going to see a batch of keywords and think oh look this keyword is only 56% that’s not too bad and it gets a ton of traffic etc. Anyhow, my advice is to not look at the % just look at the description bellow it, such as “extremely competitive” to get the real feel for it.
Open site explorer is truly amazing but one thing that is very annoying is that when you look at the anchor text used in links pointing to your URL it separates upper and lower case keywords that are the same word. So..”Widgets” and “widgets” are considered two separate keywords. I have seen sites with like 6 keywords listed that were all really the same exact keyword just with different capitalization. I realize some may want to see that but I should be given the option to standardize the data. This would make it much faster to see the true anchor text density.
The Crawl Test Tool is really neat but is no match for the IIS SEO Toolkit which is also free. However, it is super-fast and nice for quick hits…and again its free so no big deal.
To be honest the problems we have had are very minimal and we have seen seoMoz actively improving its tools all the time.
Conclusion
Overall it is well worth your money to buy a pro membership. I did not have the time to cover all of the tools SEOmoz has to offer. These are just a few that I find the most useful. Head over the SEOmoz website to learn more about the membership packages they have available.
What is your take on their services?
4 WordPress SEO Tips To Help Optimize Your Blog
After you’ve signed up for your free WordPress account it can be a little daunting trying to give your blog proper SEO optimization. Lucking there are so many free plugins and guides online that you can optimize your site in no time. Here are some simple steps you can take in the next 15 minutes.
1. Optimize URL Structure:
Your first step is going into the permalinks section; you will find this under your settings tab. It gives you a few options to choose from.
You will want to choose the last option “custom structure.” In the empty field you will want to enter /%category%/%postname%/. This will automatically assign your category and postname section as your URLs.
2. Prevent Your Archives from being indexed:
Yoast has a great plugin that takes care of this for you. Simply download and install it for free and use the following settings.
While you are under this settings tab you can choose whether or not to use the www in your root domain. We would suggest using the www for your URL structure. Since the categories and postnames are going to be used as your URLs you want to use rich keywords phrases.
3. Blogroll Optimization:
Your blogroll links really do not need to be on every page. Google is not going to count them anyhow so why not stop all the duplicate content and site wide links and just have them appear on your homepage.
4. Related Post
Give your old post some link love with the simple “Yet Another Related Post Plugin”. With a name like that how can you not want to install it. It really works well and I would suggest just using the default settings at first to see how you like it before making changes.
I have also found that these leads to more page views per visit. Because of their nature blog post usually have a high bounce rate but this little add-on can entice someone to keep reading.
Summary:
These are just a few tips that will help you get started on optimizing your WordPress blog. By taking full advantage of all that WordPress has available and inputting your own creativity you can create a unique and successful blog.
Of course the most important part of your blog is content. No amount of plugins or optimization can fix bad content so make sure you nail the SEO basics and then get back to churning out great content.
If you do however want to diver deeper http://yoast.com/articles/wordpress-seo/ is about the best guide you will ever hope to find. Oh and one last thing…I would suggest just looking these plugins up from within the WordPress console because it makes installation quick and painless.
On January 12, 2009 Google Inc. posted a very important blog post about reviewing their business operations in China. In 2006 Google.cn went live in attempt to increase access of information for people in China. However, the Chinese Government censored a large amount of information on Google.cn. Until now, Google allowed this type of censorship.
In December of 2009 a highly sophisticated cyber attack on Google had originated from China. Google launched an investigation for these cyber attacks. During the investigation, they found evidence that suggested the goal of the attacks were to access control over Gmail accounts owned by Chinese human rights activists. After further review, only two Gmail accounts were accessed by third parties. Only the accounts profile information and subject line were read, the content of the actual emails were left untouched. Because of this problem, Google has decided they will no longer censor the results for Google.cn.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has come out strong in defense of Google’s threat to pull out of China unless Beijing permitted it to “operate an unfiltered search engine”.
However, a new report from Fox News has suggested that Google is in “delicate” talks with the Chinese Government about trying to keep business open in China. The main business would be the new Google phones, advertising sales team, and its research center.
After Google’s decisions, Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmar has announced they will continue censoring information for the Chinese Government. In an interview with ABC Bill Gates stated that China’s censorship is“very limited”. A large number of the Chinese media supported Mr. Gates statements.
It will be very interesting to see how this situation will play out in the next few months.
