Category Archives: News

Google+: a One Hit Wonder or a Classic?

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Following up to Google+’s buzz these past couple of weeks, an article that was originally published in the San Jose Mercury News by Mike Swift covered the surge of popularity that Google+ is getting. Noting that this is Google’s fourth try at social networking, Google+ has reached 20 million people in about three weeks. While the numbers and the response seem to be in favor of Google+, two executives that are in charge of Google+, Vic Gundotra and Bradley Horowitz commented that, “We’re Google. We can get anybody to kick the tires of a product…It doesn’t mean it’s going to be successful…”

The sentiment is shared upon as experts also agree that it’s too early to decide. Michael Fauscette, an analyst with IDC, commented, “Until it really starts to go mainstream, and I see my cousin in Florida decide to get on it, I just don’t think we can say it’s a success. We’ve got a ways to go.”

While I do agree that Google+ still has a long way to be titled a hit in the social networking field, it definitely has some, if not a lot, of potential that can be explored in the future. In the mean time, enjoy Facebook’s Zuckerberg’s thoughts on Google+ as shared by Mashable.com.

 

Well, hello there Google+

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“What? Another social networking site?”

No joke, that was exactly what I was thinking when I heard the news about Google+ a few weeks ago. While in truth, there are probably numbers of other social networking sites that have been popping in and out of the internet universe, few actually make it to be quite as big as, say Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn.

Only a few weeks ago, Google released a trailer announcing its new project called “The Google+ project”. From the trailer, Google described its project to have the ability present a different sharing experience to its users. The project is currently open through invitations only as it’s still in its beta stage. Nonetheless, I’m quite impressed. I wasn’t looking forward to completely shifting over to Google+ as I’m now comfortable with Facebook, but Google+ definitely well, has its plus.

A new feature that Google+ introduces that is different to Facebook is the option of categorizing people into “Circles”. While Facebook has its groups, Google+’s circles allow users more options in selecting the people you want the information to be shared with.

Another feature that Google+ has is the “Hangout” feature. Google+ describes “Hangout” to be a place where “the unplanned meet-up comes to the web for the first time”. Although face-to-face chat is a quite old idea, with “Hangout”, Google has integrated both social networking and face-to-face chat.

Overall, I’m not disappointed, though I can’t say I’m that impressed with Google+. Then again, the project is still in its trial status so who knows what other cool knick knacks are going to be added to Google+. I do feel that Google+ is much more personal and homey than Facebook, so it should be interesting to see how, or even if, Google+ can be utilized in the interests of marketing.

 

 

Facebook To Overthrow Yahoo! in Display Ad-Selling

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Through the blog post that I wrote back in April, I expressed the growing development of Facebook Ads in the marketing world. So, I wasn’t all that surprise to see a headline from Mashable.com a few days ago that said, “Facebook To Take Number 1 Spot in Display Ad Market This Year [REPORT]”

Although much speculation had prophesized the success of Facebook in Advertising, the report seems to display that the prophecy is on its way to be fulfilled. The article by Todd Wasserman of Mashable.com was based on a research done by eMarketer. In the report, researchers predict that Facebook will grow its net US display revenues in 2011 by another 80.9% and reaching an estimate of $2.19 billion. With this growth, Facebook will be overthrowing Yahoo! as the country’s no.1 display ad-selling company.

David Hallerman, a principal analyst of eMarketer commented on the revelation, “Facebook’s supreme popularity—both in terms of numbers of people and amount of time they spend there—creates a plethora of display ad impressions, mainly for its unique form of banners…And that popularity is also boosting what advertisers will pay for its display ads.”

Aside from Facebook, eMarketer also report that Google is also showing a solid growth this year with double the revenues in display ad compared to 2010.

 

Microsoft’s Biggest Deal to Buy Skype at $8 Billion

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As reported by the Wall Street Journal earlier in May 10th 2011, Microsoft Corp. has been trying to close up a deal to buy Skype, the popularly used Internet phone company. The deal is noted to be Microsoft’s most aggressive move yet as Microsoft was willing to buy between $7 billion to $8 billion.

As a reasoning for the Microsoft biggest acquisition in its 36-year history, Chief Executive of Microsoft, Steve Ballmer, sees the Internet to be a crucial element to Microsoft as Microsoft is trying to keep up with the investor’s demand in profits with the pressure from other rival technologies. To add, Ballmer also said that the deal will let Microsoft “be more ambitious, do more things” as reported by the Wall Street Journal in its update article in May 10, 2011. It was also reported on the same article that Microsoft reported to close its deal on Skype that was made last month with the price of $8.5 billion.

Although it was reported that Facebook, Google and Cisco Systems Inc. showed interest in purchasing Skype, people familiar with the issue commented that none were as determined as Microsoft in sealing the deal.

By purchasing Skype, Microsoft hopes to boost an area of technology where Microsoft is currently behind Apple Inc. and Google, with 7.5% of the smart phone market with Microsoft software: mobile phones. As reported in the Wall Street Journal, Microsoft’s goals seem to be to “integrate Skype into everything from its Xboc videogame console to its Office software suite for businesses.”

Despite the falling off that eBay encountered with Skype when it was bought in 2005 for $3.1 billion then selling a 70% stake to a group of technology investors, Steve Ballmer commented that Microsoft and Skype have far more in common than Sky with eBay as both companies are in the “communications business”.

The former CEO of eBay who acquired Skype commented on Microsoft’s high bidding of Skype, “Is Skype worth $8.5 billion? I don’t know, but it depends on how big the platform grows.”

What do you think of Microsoft’s bid for Skype?

Delicious Acquired

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Social bookmarking service Delicious has been acquired by Avos, a new Internet company headed by YouTube founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen.

Hurley and Chen’s vision for delicious seems to be to keep (and improve of course) the status quo. Accoding to the release, “Their vision for Delicious is to continue to provide the same great service users love and to make the site even easier and more fun to save, share, and discover the web’s “tastiest” content.”

“We’re excited to work with this fantastic community and take Delicious to the next level,” said Chad Hurley, CEO of AVOS. “We see a tremendous opportunity to simplify the way users save and share content they discover anywhere on the web.”

Avos will work closely with the community over the next few months to develop features to help solve the problem of information overload – something which spurred much of the interest in the service (as well as its social aspect) in years past. ”We see this problem not just in the world of video, but also cutting across every information-intensive media type,” said Chen.

The question remains however if Hurley and Chen can reverse the steep traffic drop with a social bookmarking service alone in light of more engaging social media sites like Facebook or Twitter.

What are the four common mistakes of company blogs?

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Of all the many tips and tricks of how to maintain a company blog that I’ve read, this quite recent article that I found while browsing by detik.com, an Indonesian-based independent online news forum, is one of my personal favorite. It’s rudimentary and simple. Of course, each of us can have our personal preference to what tips and tricks work best, but personally, I think the article by detik.com should be highly helpful for smaller companies who are still in the beginning phase of their social media websites and blogging journey. Since the article is in Indonesian, I’ll try my best to translate and paraphrase the content on the article.

Basically, the article provided four mistakes that company blogs tend to make:

1)      Starting without a strategy

2)      Thinking that the blog should be all about your company

3)      Failure to create links

4)      Ignoring the social media

The number one rule that companies should stick to when starting a blog is: have a strategy. In a previous blog post, Relationship Marketing Through Facebook Ads, I’ve stressed highly the importance of strategizing before launching the blog itself. Even then, it’s still commonly the first mistake that companies tend to do. As stated in the 2nd company blogs’ mistake in the article, your blog is not a press forum. Just as Facebook markets to the consumer by relationship marketing, blogs market to the consumer by the process of information sharing. After all, ultimately, no one wants to know that they are marketed to.

What the 3rd mistake that the article refer to is the common failure for company blogs to cite their sources (Yes, I may sound like an English teacher here). Instead of thinking that linking your article with other articles will drive away traffic, think of it as building up your credentials, thus maintaining your image and relationship with the readers.

Lastly, many companies tend to forget to link up their company blogs to other social media sites, such as Twitter and Facebook. The Re-Tweet and Share function in Twitter and Facebook, respectively, are highly crucial and helpful in spreading your blog, thus driving more traffic to the blog. As you are constructing your strategy, make sure that your company blog is connected to other social networking sites so that it’s updated automatically.

As I’ve said before, these tips and tricks are relatively simple and easy, but I believe that to advance into more development, companies should strive to cover their bases first by making sure that at least, these four mistakes have been avoided. When all of these bases have been covered, then companies can proceed into the next step such as maintaining a blog content or theme and so on.

vBidLive Redesign Project

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We have the opportunity to work on vBidLive new skin and landing page.

vBidLive is the only online marketplace where service providers compete to win your business. Just post your service work order, desired time and price, and invite your preferred service providers to compete for your service work/project.

Wait for the new website relaunched soon.

Sound Body Fitness Blog

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We have the opportunity to create a personal blog for a great and aspiring entrepreneur – Katie Wygant.

Katie Wygant is also the owner of Sound Body Fitness.

Sound Body Fitness was created for men and women who are seeking to learn about and develop exercise and eating habits that will lead to a healthier life. We provide our clients highly effective Nutrition and Fitness Training that yields fast, safe and long-lasting results. Our small group programs provide cost effective fitness and nutrition training that is guaranteed to help you achieve your fitness goals.

Our approach grows out of our passion for results-oriented, progressive fitness combined with nutritional education. We don’t rely on gimmicks or diet fads, preferring to work with clients to create a healthy overall lifestyle.

Sound Body trainers keep their workouts creative and diverse and the nutritional education interesting and to the point. Enjoy a mix of circuit training, core rehabilitation, total body conditioning, boot camp exercises, cross-fit, yoga, Pilates and more.

Wait for the new launched BLOG soon.

Twitter and Facebook Are Top Hacker Targets in 2010

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McAfee Labs released its 2010 threat predictions, and –surprise, surprise– social networks, including Twitter and Facebook, are at the very top of the list. Social networks are constantly evolving, so security flaws present themselves on a somewhat regular basis, and new users are constantly adopting these services, so there is always going to be a n00b around to click the link that nobody with a brain would normally click. It’s a circle-of-life thing.

For more information, click this source.