Although you might not have noticed – most people haven't – Google recently added another search tab to its advanced features: the ability to filter sites by their reading level. It's an interesting idea, and one that was probably inevitable in this age of bad grammar and the text-type shortcuts we've all gotten used to sending each other over the past few years.
When Chase Bank customers recently lost access to their accounts, it caused a bit of an uproar, online and off. Apparently it's one thing for users to go without their banking balances and other details during scheduled maintenance, in the rare hours of a Tuesday morning… and it's quite another for Monday to start without access to the things they're looking for.
Are you tired of seeing the same old thing when going to your computer? Maybe a clutter of icons, black screen or the blue windows default screen? How about some beautiful, scenic images to brighten up your desktop wallpaper?
As far as laws go, the bill that created the national "do not call" registry was a clear winner, giving people an easy way out of being interrupted by telemarketers at dinner. Now, with concerns over Internet privacy rising all the time, the same types of options may be coming online soon, in the form of a "do not track" online option.
Buried somewhere in the business and online marketing news in March was the announcement that a popular app – called "Boomerang" – had recently topped one million sales, making the company that developed it a profitable one. While that's certainly something to note for all of those businesses thinking of taking mobile computing to the next level, it's maybe an even more important commentary on the state of our inboxes.
Do you remember the days when you had to stay up late watching the news on TV to find out how a football game or election turned out? Or do you recall peeking through the back pages of a newspaper searching for a stock price or other piece of non-headline business news?
There is an old saying that, in business, it isn't what you know but who you know. While we could spend hours debating the truth or wisdom of that statement, the reality is that we all know that it gets a lot easier to accomplish your professional goals when you're running in the right circles. In other words, it might not be all about who you know, but it certainly matters.
Have you ever thought of email marketing to help improve your business and connect with clients? Email marketing is a great way to keep in contact with clients and share valuable information with them. Believe it or not, your clients are interested in your company and want to know the latest news in your industry or community.
When you work in the web design and online marketing industry, it can be easy to start seeing Google as that crazy, eccentric genius who works in another building that always seems to be up to something. In a constant effort to redefine the Internet, and the ways we interact with it, they have come up with a host of new ideas: from Google Wave to Gmail and dozens of others.
Privacy on the Internet is always been a bit of a dicey topic, and the lines between what is acceptable and what isn't are still a bit blurry. In recent weeks, major companies like Apple, Sony, and Google have gotten into trouble with consumers and governmental agencies alike for the way they collect and distribute information about their users… and there's no sign that these struggles are going to let up any time soon.
In the same way that successful comedians eventually yearn to become serious actors, and serious actors strive to become rock stars, it seems only inevitable (in retrospect) that Google, Facebook, and Twitter seem to want to be more like each other... or at least they want to do whatever they can to eat up each other's share of online attention and marketing dollars.
For most of us, "spring cleaning" involves giving the house a good scrubbing, or maybe putting away those sweaters for another season. But could you stand to do some virtual spring cleaning, too? Specifically, should you look at clearing some space in your social media profiles?
When you work in the web design and online marketing industry, it can be easy to start seeing Google as that crazy, eccentric genius who works in another building that always seems to be up to something. In a constant effort to redefine the Internet, and the ways we interact with it, they have come up with a host of new ideas: from Google Wave to Gmail and dozens of others.
One of my clients was telling me how finding a job can be a frustrating experience. I suggested her joining LinkedIn and connecting with others within her industry and a few recruiters. I feel that one of the fastest growing methods of finding a job is networking through social network sites. Social network sites can be an extremely valuable tool that will help you learn of job opportunities that are not even posted on job websites yet.
I had a wonderful seminar today with SCORE Peoria for the Facebook for Business workshop. We had a great crowd with all different user levels. I wish I had more time to go over additional important ideas using Facebook for Business. I know what works for my customers and I was hoping to share some of that with the crowd today. I had such great questions at the workshop. I thought I would share them here.
For all the wonderful things social media can do for your business, a lot of our clients do have one tiny complaint: they just don't have enough time to update their own profiles and content, much less pay attention to what's going on in the social networking universe.
Back in the 90's when I caught the computer bug, I spent way too much time looking for free software programs. I downloaded everything from coloring books for the kids to Tiny Elvis, a small program that would run on the bottom tool bar. Elvis would sit there and watch you work. Then Elvis would randomly stand, and say "Hey man, look at the size of that icon! That sucker is huge!" He would do his dance and sit back down. Classic!
We have all been there, trying to research a question on the internet and find ourselves watching a video of a talking dog. Our computer can certainly be a time-waster or as my husband and I like to say "T.W." It's hard to focus on something with the vastness of the internet. A picture, interesting link or comment catches our eye and before we know it, an hour has passed on a project that was taking 5 minutes. This is a terrible problem for me since I spend a lot of my time on the computer working. I've found a few things that have helped me that I can share.
“The only things worth learning are the things you learn after you know it all.” - Harry Truman
When it comes to the internet, no one knows it all. If a person does actually know something about computers, it can change the next day with a simple upgrade. When working with computers and the internet, you can potentially learn something new every day! I love Jimmy Fallon's character, Nick Burns the computer guy on Saturday Night Live, who is annoyed because his co-workers ask him a computer question. He makes them move away from their desks, as his fingers fly around on the keyboard and he shows off with his condescending "tech talk". Thank goodness, not all people in the computer support industry are like this.
It's that time of the year again, where we anxiously watch insanely huge millionaires slam into each other for the right to come back and do it again for another weekend... and naturally, to think about how that relates to e-commerce and online stores.
