Google has unveiled its own social network known as Buzz.
It is integrated with Gmail – allows users to post status updates, share and read and comment on friends posts.
This is pitching Google directly against Facebook, which has nearly 400 million users. Buzz will try to capitalise on the number of Gmail users, which is around 170 million now. It needs to be seen if they can snatch users from Facebook & Twitter
Some features of Buzz
The features are directly built into Gmail.
- Users can post private or public status updates – known as a buzz – and share content from other sites such as Twitter, YouTube, Flickr and Picassa.
- The messages – highlighted with a Buzz symbol – are incorporated directly into the inbox. Private updates are automatically added to a user’s profile page, whilst public updates will also be available to search engines.
- The site also incorporates elements of Twitter, such as the ability to “follow” people that share updates, and features that appear in Facebook such as the ability to “like” content.
- Buzz will also recommend content from people that it thinks you may like to see and incorporate it directly into a users content stream.
- Google mapping service has been set up with this for mobile platforms.
- Google also says public updates will also be added to Google Places, a directory of businesses that include reviews of restaurants and theatres, for example.
This is not the first attempt of Google with social networking site. Orkut did not take off except in Brazil and India.Hopefully they got it right this time. But it will still be hard to beat Facebook with that kind of popularity. The new site design to search and chat only makes Facebook better.
Did you know that “Facebook” has become a verb? “Do you facebook” or “do you FB” is a common query at social occasions!
I read a very interesting article today on the BBC website.
The article traced the advent of Internet and how it has grown with a huge impact on the global population. We do banking, shopping, learn, interact with family and friends through the Internet.
Take me for example, I don’t think I can live without the Internet. I make my living because of the Internet- building websites. I learn all sorts of things from financial matters to craft with the help of sites like Youtube. (could not live without Youtube). I keep in touch with family and friends all over the world skyping and through FaceBook. I know a lot more about what is happening in their lives now. I twitter, blog, linkedin plaxo and a whole lot of other stuff for business.
The article states
“The implications of the rapid penetration of the internet are staggering. If current industry estimates prove correct, there will be 1.5 billion new internet users in the next two to three years – just over double the number of current users.” WOW!
The introduction of Internet Protocol (IP) version 6 into common usage means that the address space available to connect devices to the net is growing from 4.2 billion with IPv4 to 340 trillion, trillion, trillion addresses. With pervasive wireless connectivity, this means everything can talk to everything. (How about that)
Think of the opportunities that will be available! Staggering. You can sell, buy, download, learn, connect even more. You can make a lot of money if you play your cards correctly.
The article goes on to say
“The internet has proven to be a deeply transformative technology in the developed world, as so it will be for the developing world.
It will be an economically important tool that will provide a mechanism for the development of new business models, previously unknown ways connecting people and communities, new possibilities for the delivery of services, and a feedback loop for the population.”
So true Internet transformed me. I have managed to learn stuff that would have taken me years to access in a library in a few weeks/days. So think about this – do some brainstorming, find out what you are passionate about- create a business out of it, Slowly build it up and you can retire sooner!
Someone searched for wordpress ready sites in my stats today. Once you have an idea contact me and I can whip up a wordpress site for you in a jiffy for a reasonable price.
Twitter brings down your moral compass
A study in an American university recently found that peop who twitter regularly get numbs your sense of morality.
The connection is affects your emotional response. Since it is in bite size and so fast they found that you just move to the next thing without giving much thought. In the long run apparently this is not good for the brain. In this day and age where we are constantly updating our facebook page or blog or being bombarded by all the news channels – twitter adds one more stream of constant news. This in turn increases the anxiety levels in people and some have to go on medication to calm down.
The remedy according to doctors is to compartmentalize your time. Check your email/facebook.twitter once or maybe twice a day. (no checking 30 times). The way our brains are wired is to do one task – digest – respond and then go to the next task.
So maybe slowing down and going back to basics will help bring anxiety levels down.
How about old fashion remedies like walking your dog, listening to music lying down or a warm bath? It alwys helps me unwind after a hectic day.
I have gotten into this new phase of recycling. I found this old top I have stopped wearing as it shrunk a lot after washing. I can’t fit into it anymore. Was going to take it to the goodwill bin. The sewing machine beckoned me to make something out of it. So here is what I made last week. It took me a couple of hours.
I lined the bag with an old sheet. There was some left over fabric. Made that into a small pouch to hold my phone, some cards etc. No more rummaging for them at the bottom of my bag. The bag has two large pockets inside to hold my keys notebook etc.
The inside of the bag
What a cool project. And I am sure I will enjoy this bag for a long time. I know this post is way off what I usually write. But if this is useful to someone out there I did my little bit to save the planet. contact me if you need more info on how to make bags out of old fabric.
I have been away from this blog for the past two weeks. Life got in my way. When I logged in to write a post. I saw about 50 spam comments selling the usual viagra or canadian pharmacy. It has become a bit of a pain deleting the spam posts from time to time. So I googled for a solution. Saw Shoemoney’s blog had some tips. So I will be implementing these in the next couple of days. I hope they do work. Otherwise I will be researching on this some more.
Download how to stop spam comments on your blog
I am also going to install captcha to post a comment. You can download it from protectwebform.com. It is free, all you have to do is to create an account. Let us see if all these steps will reduce the spam comment in my blog.
Now that I am back from my break I will be post 2-3 a week.
image by willgame
For middle-aged and older adults, searching the Internet could be a boost to the brain, a new study suggests.
Two groups were used in this study. One read passages from books. The second read passages and performed searches on the Internet.
While all the participants showed the same activity as during the book-reading, the Web-savvy group also registered activity in the frontal, temporal and cingulate areas of the brain, whereas those new to the net did not. (These areas of the brain control decision-making and complex reasoning.) The researchers found that only those who had experience using the net had this activity.
What’s going on?
Compared with reading, the wealth of choices on the Internet requires that people make decisions about what to click on, which engages important cognitive circuits in the brain.
“A simple, everyday task like searching the Web appears to enhance brain circuitry in older adults, demonstrating that our brains are sensitive and can continue to learn as we grow older,” the researchers said.
I always suspected the Internet will change the way we think, live etc. But look at this bonus it keeps your brain healthy and maybe one day can help the prevention or at least slow down the progress of diseases like dementia or Alzheimer’s disease.
OK people surf the Internet more and stay healthy!
As for affiliate marketers I see this as an opportunity. How about choosing niches that target senior citizens. I read somewhere that they are the fastest growing Internet users.
I am sure you have seen it on TV read in the newspaper. It is everywhere. The doom and gloom – the credit crunch the housing market collapsing etc. I am sure you know all these things are cyclical. Yes it is bad this time round due to the greed of those in Wall Street. There are 2 options available to small business owners
Option 1
Get really worried and run around like a headless chuck.
Option 2
See the opportunities that are available and make use of them.
The bright side – houses are cheaper. Stocks are cheaper. Things will get worse in the coming months. And you know that means? It’s a GREAT time to invest, because you can get rock bottom prices and when things recover a few years from now you’ll make a hefty profit.
As a small business owner I am sure you are worried what will happen to your business. One marketing tip is to ramp your online advertising.
- You can revamp your website to make it look fresher and get a CMS. Learn to update your site regularly. Search engines love fresh content. This way you will get more organic traffic. Learn more about CMS websites.
The website packages with content management system are made to attract organic traffic.
So instead of waiting & worrying about your business contact me and see how I can help your business.
finally my procrastination ends. I have wanting to redo this site for the past 6 months and also to start a blog. I thought Wordpress will be hard to learn. A few hiccups and here I am. It all started a couple of months ago when I got a call from Angie Dennis and artist in Auckland. She wanted a site with CMS (content management system) so that she could update her site. I looked at a whole lot of possibilities. Finally I set up Joomla for her and walked her through updating her site. That is when I realised I have to get out of the static site for pixels and get onto Wordpress. I am using WP as a CMS on this site. It is a great feeling to be able to post. You will hear a lot from me about a whole range of topics…
