Earlier today, Google officially announced Google Instant- a real-time search experience that predicts search results as you type. As with most announcements, the long-term impacts are not yet known, but let’s look into the important parts.
Facebook. Twitter. MySpace. Tumblr. Hundreds and hundreds more. For individuals trying to find out where they have signed up for among social media networks is probably like trying to find a specific scroll in the Library of Alexandria. The sheer size of where you have to look – much less update – is intimidating. It’s the same for businesses. Do you know where your brand, product, trademark, or even company name is being used in all these popular and emerging social media websites? You might be surprised to find that it’s being used unofficially – a classic case of brand identity theft. You lose control. Your online reputation isn’t secure. Thanks to something called KnowEm, representation across all social media has become a lot easier. KnowEm is a service that lets you discover where your name, brand, trademark, or product is available on social media networks. It also lets you know where it has been stolen. Developed in April 2009 – Read the full article
Intel’s recent purchase of McAfee for $7.68 billion directly addresses the movement towards an age of Internet of Things. According to IMS Research, the number of objects connected to the Internet is expected to hit 5 billion this month and eventually 22 billion by 2020. Right now we are accustom to “devices” like computers, cellphones, GPSes, modems, and televisions having connection to the Internet but there is already incredible momentum of more things gaining connection. That is to say, Internet connection is no longer restricted to devices. Objects are gaining Internet connection, or rather, Internet identity and presence, which in turn makes them into devices. Think about the Smart Meters ComEd now offers around Chicago. We can monitor our energy usage with real-time updates when we visit our account online. Considering this quote referring to the necessity of cyber security in the coming of such an age on ReadWriteWeb.com, though, we see that there is a lot more to in – Read the full article
There are many benefits to creating an online community- mostly to make sure your specific messages get out within the right audience. This is quick guide to building an online community. And, the truth is, this is not a simple task, that takes a lot of social networking. Your Website Building an effective website is critical to building an online community. Landing Pages Information Pages Multimedia section (video and picture pages) User Submitted Section Resource Page (Tools and Links) A Blog A Forum This will offer the user everything they would be interested in on the subject matter. Now, some subject matters are harder then others. Doing something on cancer is harder then doing something on, say, the pop entertainer Kesha. People have more of a will to interact with entertainment then they do something serious, Kesha has hundreds of pictures and tons of entertaining videos. Cancer has odd photos and videos of doctors explaining it and parents discussing subjects – Read the full article
A Content Management System (CMS) is a Web-based tool that makes it easy to change and manage the web copy, imagery, and layout of your website using a Web-based backend. Easy – meaning you no longer have to worry about managing multiple versions of HTML/ Dreamweaver templates (remember those?), since everything’s stored online. Lakeshore Branding leverages the power of two open-source content management systems that have been designed to create, edit, manage, control, and store all the materials you’ll be using for your website. Our recommended systems make the complex a lot simpler and the Internet a lot friendlier. Why open-source? It’s all a matter of opportunity: for lower costs, greater flexibility, better reliability, improved security, smoother collaboration, and more innovation. Because more developers and more programmers can work on open-source projects – compared to the limited few who create proprietary software – the possibilities become limitless. With open-source, Lakeshore Branding continues to develop unique, sophisticated website, the kind you – Read the full article
Old-fashioned PR professionals will tell you that there is no such thing as bad publicity. Well, this no longer holds true, at least not in the age and realm of the Internet. Thanks to Google, it has become so much easier to search and find customers, clients, employees, employers, readers, fans, and business partners online. It’s become so much easier to “Google” a name or a brand and find out everything there is to know about it. The downside? It’s also pretty easy to get misrepresented online. Just ask the boss who has to deal with an undiplomatically-mouthed ex-employee. Or the brand owner who’s facing an angry, dissatisfied ex-fan. Or the business owner whose troubles from many years ago have come back to haunt him. Negative search results on Google – or on any other search engine – can potentially cost companies and business organizations thousands, even millions, of dollars. A number of online reputation management companies promise to remove – Read the full article
A few weeks ago marked the onset of major changes in the landscape of social gaming: Google announced plans to launch its own social gaming service and Disney purchased social gaming company Playdom for $763 million. Playdom is currently vying for second place in the social gaming industry, battling with Electronic Arts and other competitors. Industry leader Zynga is the developer of FarmVille, the wildly popular Facebook application that is set to bring in $500 million in revenue this year. Another factor that could have a major impact on social gaming is the possibility of a repeal on the ban of online gambling. At the end of July, the House Financial Services Committee voted 41-22 in favor of new guidelines that would regulate, but not outlaw, some forms of online gambling. If legalized, the federal government could bring in a great deal of revenue by heavily taxing online gambling. Real money gambling could increase opportunities to generate revenue for social – Read the full article
Chicago is lucky enough to host a only a few great tech events in Chicago each year and Social Dev Camp, is one of them. The two organizers, Tim Courtney (@timcourtney) and Andy Angelos (@andyangelos) ran a wonderful event last year and we are very much looking forward to this years conference. SocialDevCamp Chicago is a summer camp for the social web. Immerse yourself in two full days of sessions with leaders of the Internet. Topics include learning opportunities surrounding building applications, working with APIs, mobile, new media strategy, and much more! They have a rockstar lineup of speakers this year for Social Dev Camp. Keynote presenters for the August 13-15 event include Groupon CEO Andrew Mason, Google Open Web Advocate Chris Messina, and Cheezburger Network CEO Ben Huh. In addition to technical and business track sessions, attendees can compete in the developer Hackathon—with more than $3,000 in prizes—and share practical knowledge at Unconference gatherings. Last year they had some – Read the full article
SEO 101: Black Hat and White Hat SEO Practices
Mobile Copywriting Tips: How to Write a Business SMS that Converts
Working for an Agency vs. Working for Yourself in the SEO World
