At this day and age it’s not unusual to be using multiple computers at once – one desktop at home, another at the office, a laptop, a tablet computer, even a mobile phone. But it can be quite tiresome to have to back up or synchronize all your folders and files from these computers – regardless of whether you’re using a USB disk, an external hard drive, or a stack of blank CDs. Sure, E-mailing the files to yourself might be a pretty cool idea (since everything is stored online), but when you’ve done it more times than you can take, and when attaching files takes more time than you actually have, it’s a definite sign that you should be looking for a better solution. Enter Dropbox – a service for automatically syncing, storing, and sharing files online. Launched in late 2008 for Windows, Linux, and Mac, Dropbox makes it simple and easy to access your documents from anywhere, from – Read the full article
When researching or choosing a product or service, visitors typically follow a keyword path. This keyword path can be used to help inform your SEO campaigns. For example, let’s imagine we have an imaginary visitor who is trying to choose a digital camera. Our visitor might start off by researching digital cameras. In Google, they will search upon the keywords “digital cameras”. They might complete some research, read some reviews, and decide upon a make of camera – let’s say they have decided upon a Nikon. Let’s now imagine that our visitor will now carry out a search for “Nikon digital cameras” and following further research, eventually decides upon a Nikon P100. Finally, at this stage, the visitor will carry out searches for “Nikon P100 prices”, which now indicates they are ready to buy and are carrying out price checks online. This keyword path will typically apply in most sectors, and your job as a website owner is to figure – Read the full article
Critics are quick to point out that the Apple iPad isn’t exactly a replacement for your laptop. More than a mobile business platform, it’s a sleek tablet device for consuming content on the Internet. This doesn’t mean, however, that the iPad can’t increase your productivity while on the go. As the Apple commercial goes, “There’s an app for that.” Below you’ll find a list of essential iPad apps for small business users of the device. GoodReader At 99 cents, GoodReader is an affordable app for viewing PDF files and important business documents in other formats – like Word, Excel, PNG, PPT, TXT, and JPEG. It also supports high-resolution images, and can even do audio and video – perfect for opening and viewing all kinds of files, regardless of size. Need to download a presentation or a report from Google Docs for offline reading? GoodReader can also do that, and can even unzip those files and folders for you. Memeo Connect – Read the full article
What happens if the best of the Internet and television came together? This is the question that search giant Google aims to answer as it launches Google TV, a new service that combines television programming with search capabilities and rich Web applications. The recent announcement by the company revealed that the service is developed in partnership with other technology companies, including Sony, Intel, and Logitech. Google TV is being marketed as a new “entertainment hub” that lets viewers search channels, recorded TV shows, and websites – and watch television content using web-enabled sets or Google TV set-top boxes. Moreover, the service also allows users to browse the Web on television, including their favorite video, music, and photo sites. The service is powered by Google’s own Android software and Chrome web browser. Users can conduct Internet searches using a drop-down box that appears at the top of the TV screen, with results from millions of channels of entertainment across TV and the – Read the full article
Social media can be pretty confusing to individuals, businesses, and organizations who haven’t adopted – and who aren’t used to adopting early – to online trends and technologies. While some may have taken Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and other social media sites as an indelible part of their lives, others are left to wonder how and where to start. There’s just too much clutter, too much noise, and without proper guidance, successful adoption may seem out of reach. And now Google Buzz has been added to the mix. While as a business owner you may have heard a thing or two about how critical social media is to one’s business strategy, you may still find it next to impossible to keep up – especially with all these new social media sites appearing and growing all at once, like mushrooms. “So how is Google Buzz different from Twitter?” “I need a Google profile to use Google Buzz?” “Oh, I already have a – Read the full article
As a small business owner, you may find yourself going crazy over the number of things you have to do for work. But don’t worry: if you own an Apple iPhone, you’ll at least have some apps at your disposal – apps which can truly help you stay connected to your business and hang on to a little bit of sanity. While the iPhone is a fun device, it can also make for a great business tool – especially if you’re always on the go. Here are several Apple iPhone apps with which you, as a small business owner, cannot go wrong. Money matters A number of apps let you keep track of your expenses and finances. These include BalanceDo, a productivity app through which you can send customer invoices, track receivables or billings, and manage payments through PayPal. If you want to perform credit card transactions with your iPhone, check out MerchantWare Mobile. (You’ll need a Merchant Warehouse account.) – Read the full article
It’s all about choices and alternatives. It was with this in mind that search and advertising giant Google recently announced that it’s going to support Adobe by bundling the popular Adobe Flash player with downloads of the Google Chrome browser. New releases of the browser will thus feature the latest version of the Flash player. A company spokesperson indicated that Flash will be the first plug-in that is not actually from Google’s stable to be integrated into Chrome. “This will make Flash on the browser a seamless experience,” says the spokesperson, “so (users) will see performance benefits and use of fewer resources. A lot of the controls and shortcuts will work better and Flash will truly feel like a part of the browser.” While not a lot of Internet users surf with the Chrome browser – research indicates it’s only 5 percent – the announcement represents a major step towards strengthening the company’s two operating systems, the Android (available for – Read the full article
Just as Microsoft is trying to gain greater foothold in the search engine wars, which Google dominates, Google is trying to do the same in the Windows-controlled OS market. Yes, you heard that right. The company is launching its own operating system early next year: the Google Chrome OS. Google recently previewed Chrome OS, which is an open-source, lightweight system that is based off Google Chrome, the company’s web browser. While the company already has a mobile OS in Android, Chrome OS is primarily targeted at netbooks, at least initially. And why not? Netbooks are enjoying increasing popularity today, as more and more users push for innovation in their mobile computing devices. Google emphasizes that Speed, Simplicity, and Security are the pillars of the Chrome OS. Speed Google is taking out every unnecessary process and optimizing operations and running everything possible in parallel. The goal? To turn on the computer and surf the web in a matter of a few – Read the full article
