The company aims to battle with other powerful real-time platforms such as Facebook´s News Feed, FriendFeed and Twitter.

How does it work?

• Since it is right in your Gmail account, you won’t need to set up anything. This means that you will automatically follow people you frequently email and chat with. Once and for all, you will not have to import your contacts or friends.

• You can choose if you want your posts to be public or private. It’s important to know that the default is public. Still, you can also send posts directly to a friend using a variation on Twitter’s @ reply syntax, like this: @name@gmail.com.

• You can connect Google Buzz to other sites you usually use such as Picasa, Flickr, Google Reader and Twitter. So, you will be able to keep up with everything your friends have been doing around the Web-all in one place.

• It offers big and full resolution photos. Moreover, you will be able to play videos online, so you can watch them without the need of opening a new window.

• Post can be geotagged. So, Buzz will be able to show recent post around the user’s current location.

Watch this instructive video for further information!

How did Google’s arch enemies react?

Apparently, they are not happy at all!

Yahoo’s authorities claim that the company launched Yahoo! Updates one year and a half ago. They argue that this tool is very similar to Google Buzz since  it’s a social feature that lets people share their status, content and online activities. It’s a tool that keeps them informed on what their friends and family are doing on Yahoo! and across the Web.

On the other hand, Microsoft considers that Google’s product is both late an unnecessary. Busy people don’t want another social network, what they want is the convenience of aggregation.

Facebook didn’t have much to say about it: Generally, we’re supportive of technologies that help make the Web more social and the world more open and are interested to see how Google Buzz progresses over time”.

In a nutshell, we will have to wait and see Google’s Buzz performance. Still, we know one thing for sure: social media will keep on growing and expanding its horizons!

Sources:

Hands on with Google Buzz – It’s a Stream in Your Inbox

Google Gets More Social With Buzz

Google Buzz in Gmail

Microsoft, Yahoo Diss Google’s Buzz

Google Buzz vs. Facebook

Facebook celebrated its 6^th anniversary with a complete Web redesign (yes! AGAIN) which seeks to make the homepage search more user-friendly and interactive.

On February 4^th, 80 million users received the new homepage update according to Inside Facebook.

Ok, so let’s try to highlight and identify some of Facebook’s most relevant changes and new features.

Search bar relocation

Now, you find it at the left side of the screen. It shows results for users depending on how closely they are connected to you, how many friends you have in common, etc.

 

 

Top Menu

Attention please! You will see an alert in the left right corner near the search bar every time you receive a notification about someone writing on your wall or sending you a message. If you click on the icon, you’ll see a drop-down menu with the most recent notifications that you have.

 

 

Left Menu content

You can access all the core features in one place: News feeds, messages, photos, events, and so on.  

 

 

More prominent Chat also situated at the left- hand menu

It only shows people who you frequently communicate with. If you want to see all your online friends, you must open the Chat bar in the bottom right-hand corner or click “See All” at the bottom of your left-hand menu.

 

 

Peter Deng, a Facebook’s Product Manager, also provided a useful overview about the recent modifications and new features:

But…. are people still afraid of this kind of changes? Remember that on March 2009, Facebook had introduced a new Web site layout, and user’s reactions weren’t positive. According to a survey by that time, only 5% of the respondents liked the redesigned site. What’s going on now?

There is no doubt that the recent Facebook updated page makes everything more user-friendly, intuitive and interactive. The web site is turning to be more easy to use showing that redesign means that the company is updated all the time according to people’s changing and increasing needs and desires.

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More Sources:

Facebook gets a facelift on 6th anniversary

Introducing Your New Navigation

Apparently, other corporations are working on similar tablet devices that will be launched soon into the market. Will these alternative products represent an even competition? The Tablet market will be introducing a wide variety of options in the short and middle term. Let’s take a look!

• Google Tablet. It is said that Google’s Tablet alternative has been in development for the last 19 months. Although there aren’t any official announcements, this device might be the iPad’s strongest competitor. In fact, some mockups of what Chrome OS will look like on its tablet version were published on the official Chromium site. If you want to see Google Tablet in action, you should watch the following video!

• HP Slate. This year, the prototype of HP Slate was presented by Microsoft’s CEO Steve Mallver. HP experts guarantee that Slate will allow users have rich media experiences that not only include reading material, but also audio and video. Its size will be between 4 and 10 inches and will run Windows 7. For further information, we invite you watch this video.

• Asus Eee Tablet. The company showed a 9 inch tablet prototype which has four control buttons reminiscent of the favored layout for an Android-powered phone. Take a look!

Other tablet alternatives will run on the new, high-powered Tetra 2 processor. This platform provides 1080p high-definition video and can deliver days of battery life.

Some of the tablet devices that will run Tetra 2 are Compal Tablet, Notion Ink Adam, MSI and Quanta.

In a nutshell, iPad is about to face a big challenge as new alternative tablet devices will show up soon.  We still don’t know how customers will react to these gizmos. However, one thing is for sure: users need an intermediate device that is bigger than smart phones but smaller than netbooks. Extended battery life, 4G capable, high performance graphic cards are only a few requirements based on tech fan postings all over the internet.  Eventually, that market gap will be finally filled!

Sources:

9 Upcoming Tablet alternatives to Apple iPad

A first taste of what the Google’s tablet’s interface will look like (pics)

How to do it? Well, you can find several useful tools that can help you obtain practical results. Most of them are for free!

Google Analytics

It’s probably the most popular analytic tool for individual site owners and for free. You can measure the results of your display, search, new media and offline advertisement efforts. You can also compare your site usage metrics with industry averages. Furthermore, you can track what’s your impact on Flash and Social networks.

Google has recently launched a new version that aims to add power to the existing capabilities. Now, you can measure user engagement and the branding success of your brand. With this new released version you can set thresholds for Time on Site and Pages per Visit. Additionally, you can now define up to 20 goals per profile.

Yahoo! Web Analytics

This tool instantly segments both near real time and historical data with advanced graphs. You can see individual click paths, time spent, actions taken and track up to 50 different online actions.

AWStats

AWStats is a powerful software for monitoring and generating graphics of advanced analytic data, streaming, ftp or mail server statistics, etc. In addition, it may be pre-installed by many web hosting companies.

SiteMeter

SiteMeter provides a free version for small blogs that receive up to 100,000 visitors per month. It offers all the basic tools such as tracking referrals, visit duration, among others. It’s a good option for new bloggers!

W3Counter

It provides a free and a paid version. If you get a free account, you will be able to track up to 5,000 page views a day across 10 Web sites and check all of the statistical analysis of data.

A deeper analysis always leads to stronger marketing strategies and better targeted-ads. Moreover, you can measure your web traffic and analyze how effective is your marketing campaign.

What’s really interesting is that it provides social and web measurement and it also offers a complete solution for your business to fulfill your stat needs and improve your digital marketing campaign.  This one is a paid service and usually for medium to large size businesses.

Apparently Apple’s authorities are not willing to listen to Apple fans and AT&T enemies.

iPad, the newest tablet computer, is radically transforming the hi-tech world. Rumor has it that it will become an extremely popular and successful device among the members of the Apple community.

Still, Apple’s fans and followers are highly disappointed since the Apple named AT&T as the U.S. 3G network provider for the new iPad despite iPhone’s users numerous complains.

Many experts and bloggers have warned, grumbled and complained about AT&T’s deficient service. Such is the case of Jason Kincaid at Techcrunch, who said that “AT&T… has been absolutely notorious for already being unable to cope with the 3G data usage of the iPhone. This sure isn’t going to help things.”

Why did Apple decide to stick to a company that is a pain in the neck? Philip Redman, an analyst at Gartner explains that the company had already done the design work for AT&T’s GSM/WCDMA network on the iPhone. So, sticking to the partnership will make them save both time and money.

In fact, Timothy Cook, Apple’s chief operating officer, has recognized that AT&T’s mobile broadband network is slower than AT&T would like in cities with high concentration of iPhones.

Pricing scheme
As you may know, the iPad will have 6 different price levels. Some of them only have Wi-Fi access while others also include 3G.
From the ones that only have Wi-Fi, you can find a 16GB version at $499, a 32GB version at $599 and a 64GB version at $699.

The 3G ones are available with the same capacity levels but the pricing varies: $629, $729 and $829, respectively.

Whereas 3G is available for some carriers, why release something so great under AT&T again? Will we be able to use our 3G for Ipad and iphones? I don’t think so…

Actually, Apple iPad 3G service plans on AT&T will cost $29.99 a month for unlimited data and $14.99 for up to 250 MB.

The activation process is on the device without visiting any store or making phone calls. By the way, there isn’t any contract involved, so you can cancel anytime. In addition, take into account that the iPad is fully unlocked, so if you want you can use your GSM carrier. Maybe, it can work for you.

Remember that although the product is not available yet, you can get notified!

More Sources:

Why Apple stuck with AT&T for iPad; and will it work?

Apple Defends iPhone Partner AT&T

AT&T is a big, steaming heap of failure

iPad is a gizmo that could really change the way we surf the Web, we communicate with others and keep all our information portable—just to mention a few stuff!

Yes, there’s a lot the iPad can do.

Without any doubt, the Apple tablet is trying to change the way of traditional media is delivered. It provides multi-touch, gesture-based media slate for navigation, video playback, social-networking applications, text, and even e-books and other electronic publications. For that last feature, the iPad could mean be a challenger for the publishing industry.

How does it work?

• The iPad is a multimedia-rich one-piece computer that utilizes a more high-end technology than the iPhone, the iPod or the iPod Touch.
• It is a 10-inch color touch screen, which is larger than an iPhone but smaller than a laptop.
• It features all iPhone and iPod applications.
• New Apple Tablet is based on the iPod touch and an update version of iPhone OS.
• It features persistent wireless connection over 3G cellphone networks and Wi-Fi.
• Apply believes that the tablet can be shared by multiple family members to read the news and check e-mails at home.

Last but not least, the bigger point, which is blindingly obvious when you think about it, is that iPad brings a lot of promises for the online world and it will probably change the way we will be interacting with sites in the future.

Take a look of the video of Apple CEO Steve Jobs during the debut of Apple’s tablet-style device in San Francisco, California:

More sources:

Live form Apple ‘lastest creation’

Updates:

• Apple will sell its new tablet-style iPad starting at $499.
• It will be available in 3 versions: 16GB, 32GB and 64GB.
• It promises a battery life of up to 10 hours, and a standby time of over a month.
• It also features speaker, microphone and 3G, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR connectivity.

Google reminds us how significant it is having a competent customer service. Yeah, it’s a fact: you can offer a great product —and even analysts can say it could challenge the market domination… There’s a little problem, though. If you don’t offer an efficient customer service, you will get into trouble! For instance, just one week after the launch of the smart phone Nexus One, everything looks perfect. Nevertheless, the giant’s support forum has been overloaded with criticism and complains demanding an efficient feedback. Ouch!

Why? Among its drawbacks, customers identified delivery inconveniences, network incompatibility, dropped calls and operation woes. But, that’s not the point! The thing is that there’s no phone number for customer support, and you must wait at least TWO long days for an answer to your e-mails.

Google’s recent experience can help you understand the meaning and the importance of an efficient customer service strategy. Being always there for your customers is crucial to achieve success and build a positive corporate image (and yes, that goes for us, too.) Moreover, you must provide your customers with answers and solutions immediately, or at least you should let them know that you are working on it!

So, if you are developing your marketing plan for your new product or idea, there are some customer service tips that you should have in mind:

• Customers make your business possible. Truly listen to them! Be aware of their needs and always aim to satisfy them.
• Take the time to explain how your product or service works and how to simplify it. Your business may have several specific steps that customers need to follow in order to buy your product or service. Make sure they understand how to do it!
• Give an apology. Everybody makes mistakes, even corporations (you know it!). When something goes wrong, customers always appreciate an apology. So, deal with the problem and value their complaints immediately.
• Welcome suggestions, ideas and also generate regular feedback. Try providing a method that invites beneficial criticism, comments and suggestions.
• Make the difference from the competitors. Look at it this way: what can you give customers that they cannot get anywhere else? What can you do to follow up and thank customers?

In conclusion, there are many and varied benefits and features to an efficient customer service plan. Above all, without customers your business wouldn’t exist. Moreover, a good customer service will help you improve your reputation, and gain recommendations and new audiences.

Remember to focus on customers’ needs first!

More sources:

Google’s Nexus One Review

Google’s Nexus One phone sparks flood of complaints

Hey Google, Anybody Home?

Returning your Nexus One? Prepare to pay up to $550.

The Ten Commandments of Great Customer Service

Note that most of these sites aren’t for everybody; they have their own targeted audience. Do you know which one is yours?

Anyway, one thing is clear: what they have in common

• They are simple and easy to use
• They are interactive
• They offer real-time solutions
• They are 100% free!

Newsmap

It’s true, Internet has a lot of information, but unfortunately much of it is garbage and you often don’t even know where to find valuable information. So what? What is really important? What is going on now throughout the world? Would you like to easily visualize what is happening at this moment?

Newsmap answers all those questions. It’s a simple application that visually reflects the constantly changing landscape of the Google News news aggregator. You will just see what is really important.

• Simple: Bigger is the title, more articles were written on that topic. Subsequently, the story is more important.
• User-friendly: News story summaries and photos are revealed when hovering over the headlines.
• Shareable: It has usable URLs so it’s easy to bookmark and share.
• Customized: Fonts, colors, etc. can be customized once you login.
  • Each color means a category like Business, Health, Entertainment or Sports; and each tone how new they are.
  • You can choose which countries you’d like to see.

Crazy Blind Date

Potential dates are out there, sniffing around; so if you like having real blind dates, this site is just for you.

Having blind dates with total strangers at public places like bars and coffee shops could sound inappropriate or crazy for some people, but not for the most adventurous ones.

How does it work? You just sign in and fill out when you are free, and specify some details about your perfect date like the age, body type, level of education, etc. Even if you wanna meet a Latin guy in your area, you can do it too! Don’t forget to mention the type of date you’re looking for!

Finally, you play with the matching system without seeing ANY pictures or contacting people.

Interestingly, it’s quite reliable since you must include your mobile number to be contacted by the site and verify your identity with a text message. OK, you can breathe now!Interestingly, it’s quite reliable since you must include your mobile number to be contacted by the site and verify your identity with a text message. OK, you can breath now!

DailyLit

Wanna read a book, but feel that you don´t have enough time? Well, DailyLit.com has a great idea for you. It’s a site where you read short book installments by email or RSS feed little by little and 100% free! It features bestselling and award winning titles and over 1000 classic and contemporary books.

• You can be read books on your desktop, laptop or even mobile device like iPhone or Blackberry.
• Installments can be read in fewer than 5 minutes.
• You schedule when to receive installments. For example, at 6:00pm every weekday.
• It’s very easy to register and you can link your account with Twitter, Facebook. You can also tell your friends about a book and suggest they read it!

Musicovery

If you feel like discovering great music, Musicovery is a fantastic option for you. Musicovery is a great music-streaming site with a mood-ring interface that adapts your robot DJ’s musical taste.

It’s a completely interactive site where you just indicate your mood from dark to positive and from energetic to calm; and also the tempo you like from slow to fast. In addition, boxes allow you to choose genres from metal to classical music.

If you use the free registration, you can mark your favorite songs and band the ones you don’t like to ever hear them again!

Qik

Qik is a powerful, easy-to-use site that enables you to stream live video and share every-day life experiences in real-time from your cell phone with your friends, family and even the whole world. You can broadcast live footage online via a fast 3G connection or over Wi-Fi.

You can sign into this great Web site using your Facebook or Twitter login. Then, you choose your phone brand, model and number…and Whoo-Hoo! Luckily, you can send out live updates instantly to your friends on your favorite social networking sites on Facebook, Twitter, your Windows Live page, and so on. And your friends can interact with you too!

Yeah, it’s a fact that Qik offers many ways to enable you to share your videos anywhere very easily! It is also available for download from the iPhone App Store.

Last but not least, we are going to see two opinions on these Web sites from a Web design perspective.

Yellow Sensation’s thoughts:

“At first glance we can differentiate these sites in terms of technology for its development. Newsmap and Musicovery are sites in Flash/Actionscript, and the rest of the sites used xhtml/css.

Carrying out a general analysis (without considering factors such as usability or the purpose of each site), we can recognize different styles of design. On one hand, from an experimental aesthetic we see newsmap.jp, which is a site that is maybe saturated with information and the compilation of news from different countries. On the other hand, we can see a much more minimalist style like Musicovery. Although both sites use the current programming techniques, the first one has a quiet old-fashioned look, where nobody pays attention to the spaces and structures to facilitate quick access to information.

In the next group of sites in html, we can see—perhaps unintentionally— the progress that this kind of sites has experienced after the emergence of the Web 2.0 era. And according to my thoughts, I would put them in the following order:

http://www.crazyblinddate.com

http://www.dailylit.com

http://www.qik.com

It is evident the 2.0 style through the good use of white space, large fonts, few colors and not much—but accurate—information. The headers maintain this feature in common: being big and important, as well as the footers. These Web sites are very accessible to the average user and have a quick download of information.”

Red Warrior’s thoughts:

“I would like to share my opinion on these sites. Here we go!

Finally, in Newsmap and Musicovery it is clearly seen the codification through the use of color.

1. Newsmap:

The use of color is handled through a desaturated chromatic palette, where colors necessarily should facilitate the reading, since it is the objective of the site. These colors have a brightness saturation and pair luminosity, but it almost doesn’t highlight a section, giving the same importance to all. The typography used is a sans serif condensed; it’s modern with good readability!

The variable used is appropriate due to the need to include large numbers of characters within a container. In addition, the logo maintains a direct relationship with the layout of the site, structure, and colors. However, due to the amount of information, different colors, font size, menus of country selection, and other elements, your eyes require an effort to look around, read and place on the Web site.

2. Crazy Blind Date:

The site colors are pale, which broadly highlights key full color images. The logo hasn’t relevant qualities, and it is limited to use a clear and modern typography. In a nutshell, it can be recognized a clear structure, but the elements are far apart, and they break up into the page.

3. DailyLit

The iso of the logo refers directly to the industry to which it belongs. The use of pastel colors combined with serif typography and maroon color details give it a sense of some seriousness. In summary, I think that both features are very relevant to this site!

4. Musicovery

The site is very interactive and modern. The logo maintains a connection with the elements used on the Web site. Being surrounded by so many elements and having such a ‘light’ font, it should have a greater visual weight. The colors, interactivity and the use of white give a youthful style to the page. And the background images used are organic and have association with all the atmosphere of the site.

5. Qik

This site uses bright colors, and a clear and structured layout. The aesthetics of the video doesn’t have relationships with the elements, miscellaneous and images used in the rest of the site. I think it’s very entertaining, but it could have taken its graphic style in other parts of the page. The logo is very organic, because of their inclination and endings of the three characters that involve it. The fonts used are sans serif, and the use of big headlines highlights the content. Then, the reading order is well marked ”.

In general, search engine spiders couldn’t see embedded content in Flash files when instead of HTML code. Entire Web sites designed using Flash were impossible to find without HTML links. Therefore, Google’s improved its capacity to index Adobe’s Flash files, and now it can display as searching result any Flash file contents such as text, HTML, XML or Flash content itself. Google is now capable to detect internal links in a Flash application, but not to recognize items with no text elements yet.

However, this big Google effort has three main limitations to keep on mind when Web designing on Flash:

• Googlebot, the search bot software used by Google, that builds a searchable index for the search engine, doesn’t execute some types of JavaScript, so a Flash file loaded by Java might not be seen by Google.

• Content from external resources loaded by Flash files, will be indexed separately, not as part of the main Flash file yet.

• Flash text content is now searchable in almost all of the languages found on the Web, but there’re still difficulties with bidirectional written content as Hebrew or Arabic that, for now, won’t be indexed.

Beyond those little considerations, designers are now pretty much free to work with Adobe’s Flash without thinking on tricky strategies to make Web sites searchable.  On the other hand, users can stop breaking their heads trying to find some particular Flash material. This Google hit benefits us all, webmasters, designers, advertisers and users. Since Internet is about being searchable and findable, Google has done a good job!

Sources:

• Perez. (2009, June 19). Google Improves Flash Search and Indexing. IDG News Service
• Alder, Stipins & Ohye. (2009, June 30). Improved Flash indexing. Official Google Webmaster Central Blog.
• Thomason (2003). Promotion Tip: Some Search Engines Index Flash Content. Webmaster Tips.

Did you know that two-thirds of US households use coupons, according to a recent research by Experian (a global leader provider of information, analytical tools to help you manage the risk and reward of commercial and financial decisions)?

In addition, the number of people using online coupons has grown 46% in the last three years. Moreover, Experian reported that 80% of online coupon mailings had higher transaction-to-click rates and transaction rates than non-coupon campaigns.

So, if you are willing to attract more customers, you should definitely consider a coupon campaign. Using coupons for your e-mail marketing can help you increase your popularity and sales. How can e-merchants improve their coupon strategies?  Well, let’s see!

• Urgency. If your coupons are open-ended and they don’t have an expiration date, then they won’t be a motivation for your customer. Indicating a specific period of time on which they can obtain the benefit is of crucial importance… if you really want to catch their attention.

• General or specific? You have to think if you want your coupons to be personalized. This strategy may help you build an exclusive and unique approach with your target audience. But, personal ties will make your business spend a lot of time. For that reason, you should consider forward to a friend coupons. You will be able to reach a wider audience. You can be general, specific or both depending on the occasion!

• Timing is important. If you send too many coupons, then your customers will always be expecting an offer. Throw them out on special occasion, a few times a year.

Okay, so these are some important tips you should have in mind when you implement an e-coupon marketing strategy. Everyone is taking care of their wallet, so look after and satisfy your customer’s needs.

Sources:

E-coupons Part 2: Best practices

Coupons Boost E-Mail Open Rate