Social Networking and Web 2.0

Filed under: Fun, Internet, E-mail, Web services, Social Software

Cellfish is a simple online tool that lets PC users store information in a special online locker, then retrieve them later on mobile devices.

When logged into this social network site, you get your own page, like any other social network, and can hook up with friends, so let’s just forget about that aspect of the site and get onto the usable part, the Cellfish locker. Users can upload information into their locker and later retrieve them on mobile devices. This includes a giant list of stock photos, music and videos from the Cellfish site.

Getting to your Cellfish locker from your mobile is simple. Visit Cellfish.com from your mobile browser, enter your account information and you will see all items that are stored in your online storage locker. You can choose to download them, send them to friends, save as wallpapers, or store them on your phone.

Users can also send photos and videos from mobile devices using your special Cellfish emaill address. These photos will be stored on your Cellfish user page and can then be placed in other social networks or blogs using a supplied html embed code.
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If your online business banks on Google searches for traffic, then Brendon Scott is a good ally. Scott offers what he and some other search marketers call “negative Search Engine Optimization” or “negative SEO,” a harmless-sounding term that amounts…

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Filed under: Business, Design, Developer, Fun, Games, Internet, Photo, Utilities, E-mail, Productivity, Web services, Apple, Social Software

Now that all the first day iPhone-ers have them up and running, (hopefully, given the backlog that occurred), The next question they might be asking is “Where can I get some applications to fill this sucker up?.”

If you’ve spent last night and this morning tooling around on your new iPhone, have everything set up, and want to check out how some additional applications work on it, DownloadSquad is here to help.

• Appleopolis.com - An Apple iPhone application directory. This site was created as a way to help developers and users get the best possible experience for their iPhones. The team is also working on a way for users to start an account and be able to manage all of their iPhone applications from one central location. This site has everything from Digg, Cheap gas, and LivePhone which integrates Xbox Live with the iPhone.

• AddFone.com - This site has a directory of over 83 web applications specifically built for the iPhone, and claims to be the largest database. Its simple search interface can be accessed on mobile devices. It contains Links to web apps for anything from calculators to bookmark managers to a Google Reader app.

As guessed with many of these applications, the development teams may not have had an Apple iPhone to actually test them on. So, if the apps aren’t working properly, you know why. If you have made your application iPhone friendly you can also submit your site to both of these directories.
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Clarence Briggs, founder of the Advanced Internet Technologies in Fayetteville, is taking on a new undertaking. But he faces some huge rivals. Briggs believes tyBit could become a major player in the search industry, which is dominated by Google…

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Domain name parking is one of the less reputable fast rising sectors of the Internet economy. Entrepreneurs register names that are either misspelling of common domains or generic titles. They fill them with ads from Google or Yahoo and…

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Matt McGee of Search Engine Land gives us 21 essential SEO tips and techniques to yield improved search engine rankings. Here are the DO's: 1. Commit yourself to the process. 2. Be patient. 3. Ask a lot of questions…

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Invotus, Inc., a leader in web design and marketing, announced Friday the launch of AgentAdvertise, a new Search Engine Optimization service featuring ListPipe Technology that offers fresh, automated content for real estate blogs. “AgentAdvertise real estate marketing services help…

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Filed under: Internet, Web services, Social Software

With iChat not being amongst the features of the iPhone, folks looking to burn through some of that unlimited data via Instant Messaging might be interested in this neat little web-app: iPhoneChat.

You log in using your AIM credentials - however before account security becomes a concern, the author of the application states: “No data is logged, but all of your information does pass through my server. I am not harvesting any information.” There are a few known issues with the service - no buddy icons or groups, some rendering and scroll issues and it becoming a little awkward with more than 4 conversations open at once (IM junkies take note!) - and it seemed to work fairly well in testing. The main problem (and this is a server limitation as apparently it’s rather resource intensive) is that sessions are limited to 10 minutes.

For those of you who just have to have an AIM fix this might be an interim solution - however with iChat functionality being such a glaring omission from the handset, we’d hazard a guess and say it won’t be long before we see improvements to iPhoneChat and perhaps a few other rivals offering a similar service.

The ‘Read’ link will take you to the app’s homepage, but those of you wanting to dive in will want to go direct to the service here.
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Bloggy thought three. Something I was mulling over for a while, even shared in a completely inarticulate manner with Rajesh yesterday, who by the way awarded me with the Thinking Blogger Award.  He shared with me some Links that report on the recent IAMAI Web2.0 conference, with the comment - “am getting a bit restless with marketers”!  Then I got a call from a journalist, who wanted to discuss ‘unconferences’ - and I took off on her a little and told her how I dislike the term - any activity that is prefaced with an ‘un’ makes me feel not-so-nice about it.  Anyways, it also reminded me about another phrase or term in the social media realm that I generally dislike —- user-generated content and I started my rant on her! 

I particularly dislike it when I hear mainstream media and corporate organizations get a high on the phrase ‘user-generated content’.  In India, many times, its shortened to UGC (the only UGC I know of is the University Grants Commission!) and it bugs me no end. 

I dislike it, especially when, in the background, I hear their minds ticking away the rupees they can generate, behind all this buzz and excitement around the term.  When they have not really embraced it themselves.

I dislike it when they distance themselves from it - it’s something other people — oops users do.   How many of them have actually generated content themselves?

I am happy with adopting the term when I am talking about content that is created by users of a service - so there is user-generated content on Youtube, or on blogging platforms, or on wikis.  But I dislike it when marketers, PR agencies talk about the ‘potential’ in harnessing user-generated content for their brands, products and services through advertising messages on the user-generated content spaces or sites, and then believe they are really using social media in their strategies.  Am not knocking advertising based strategies - I just feel they are skimming the surface of the true potential in participating in the conversations, co-creation, community and collaboration that occurs when there is user-generated content.

I think they have it wrong, when they feel that getting onto the user-generated content bandwagon is a quick-fix for their social media strategies. Inherent in the phrase is a division, the notion or assumption of ‘us vs them’.  They have got to see themselves as co-participants and partners rather than marketers or advertisers who are ‘using’ user-generated content as another media opportunity.

I simply loved Toby Bloomberg’s rant at Unilever which so well illustrates what I am trying so hard to articulate!

“So I really want to see that ad. I really Need to see that ad. What do I do? Do I search for Lux? Do I go to the Unilever website? Nope. I head for YouTube and sure enough here it is! It’s a must watch. Oh and the Unilever Lux site?
Good I didn’t head that way, my coffee would have turned cold looking
for any mention of the campaign. Anyone for integrated marketing?

Questions To Ponder
Does a marketing campaign have to be “social” to be successful?
Is traditional advertising dead?
Is there room in the proverbial marketing mix for the good old 60 second TV spot?

Diva Marketing Thoughts
Marketing 101 tells us to hang where our customers hang. For some the “tube” means television and for others it means YouTube. And for many people it means Both. 

Bonus link: Here’s Jon Udell on why he dislikes the term per se.

Bloggy thought two. It’s not worth it, if it’s not searchable. Robert Scoble and Steve Rubel seem to feel so. Am actually feeling the contrary only because of my recent experiences with Facebook and Twitter. The other day, I was chatting with a young friend who is 18, and he told me a few things around Facebook. His dashboard and homepage is Facebook - all his social interactions happen around it, along with a few IM clients. He doesn’t really use email very much. And most pertinent to this post, was his comment that he was disturbed that his whole family including aunts and grand-aunts could ‘peep’ into his entire life. In fact, it was so funny when he related a story about how an aunt actually sent his grandma some pictures of girls who wanted to ‘marry’ him. He’s now got most of his family on ‘limited’ profile — but his friends have full access to him!

I still believe that what you write or say or show on the web is there for everyone to see, read or hear, and I like that openness and transparency of the web. Still I am enjoying the levels of privacy that Facebook offers me. When I blog, I do sometimes (not when I am feeling particularly ranty) wonder whether what I write will come back to bite me some day or how people will view me as a result of what I write. I do feel more ‘responsible’ about what views I share on my blog - perhaps this happens when you have been blogging since 2003 and when your blog becomes your single-point public profile, for the whole world to see - family, friends, clients, potential clients etc.

But on spaces like Facebook and Twitter, I feel so much more comfort - I can rant, I can be silly, throw some food at a friend, hug someone else, share when I am upset or ecstatic. I don’t ever ‘think’ too much when I am on Facebook - my mode is a more feely one. It’s more about me and who I am. And less about my thoughts on a particular subject and less of the ‘Dina’ I want to project or promote or share around what I do.

I loved this comment at Steve Rubel’s post by Ryan McKegney - it resonates:

I was driving back from a meeting when I had a few bloggy thoughts … long drives in traffic and beating rain tend to do that to me! It was a good meeting - regular (I actually said that!!!) qualitative research project among IT students and professionals to understand motivations that drive them to join certain sorts of organizations in a highly competitive field, to figure out a strategy to draw them to my Client’s organization. As we were discussing the research, I suddenly felt - wow - this is the perfect case for a social media / new media strategy —- you have young professionals, in the IT industry, probably heavy users of the internet, a captive target audience that must be familiar with blogs, social networking sites, youtube and the like! When you think of motivations and drivers for this segment, how can you not think of The Influentials, who help them frame their opinions. Am waiting eagerly for my copy which is winging its way here currently. It would be neat to figure out who or what they are in the project I am doing. So somewhere midway in discussing sample definitions, I broke away and asked my client - do you have a social media or blogging strategy - you need one! She was interested I think, particularly since one of her marketing objectives is to build a powerful corporate identity in order to attract the best talent.

Now am hoping it’s a qualitative research +++ project!!  Am beginning to believe any organization or brand that is targeting an audience that is ‘online’ must have a social media strategy.  Social media is in-your-face today, no web user or surfer can really escape it.  

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Filed under: Business, Design, Fun, Internet, Web services, Social Software

Selling presentations? I’m sure Microsoft didn’t think about that when they started development on Powerpoint. Who would have ever thought that it would be possible to make some pocket change for selling the notes you jot down in a PowerPoint presentation? Welcome to Web 2.0 where everything is possible, but not everything is a viable business.

PPTExchange is a service that allows users to publish, trade and sell any document created in a PowerPoint presentation. It is a neat idea…sort of. But can it benefit people in the long run, and make money? I highly doubt it. Content so far on the site includes animated stories, a presentation entitled “people that look like their dogs”, and a Student of the month certificate. Just from that small list you can get the idea of the type of site it’s turning into. This one just doesn’t stand out in the long list of online applications.
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Filed under: Design, Developer, News, Web services, Social Software

Starting to get annoyed with all the requests to add this or that useless Facebook application? You’re not alone. Groups of users are popping up all over to protest the slow drift towards Myspace-uselessness land that Facebook has begun since opening its platform to every Tom, Dick and Harry.

Inside Facebook writes, “this counter-platform movement is certainly not going to have any long-lasting traction” although we’re not so sure. Facebook was once a place of refuge from the assault and battery on your eyeballs that is Myspace, but increasingly that safe place is becoming more and more like its most loved and despised competitor.

All we know is, the next person to “Super Poke” us is getting it back, right in the eye.
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Filed under: Internet, Web services, Yahoo!, Social Software

Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp picked up MySpace in 2005 for $580 million. Now the company is trying to offer MySpace, and possibly some other properties like IGN, to Yahoo! in exchange for a quarter stake in the portal. After the merger, that 25% stake could be worth more than $12 billion.

It’s not clear whether the recent leadership change at Yahoo! will help or hurt the deal in any way.

Yahoo! is definitely interested in breaking into the social networking game. The company made a failed $1 billion dollar bid for Facebook last year. It’ll be interesting to see how much MySpace, a site that’s been losing ground to Facebook in recent months, is worth to Yahoo!
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The New York Times has recently published an article about Amit Singhal. Amit Singhal is in charge of Google’s ranking algorithm. The interview reveals some interesting facts about Google’s ranking algorithm.

Your website is perfectly optimized having lots of Links, fresh content and competitive keywords. But why is it that you don't get high Search Engine rankings? …Is the situation familiar to you? As an SEO enthusiast, this could've happened…

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Dynamic and static. Those are the 2 types of URLs. Basically, a dynamic URL is a page address that results from the search of a database-driven web site or the URL of a web site that runs a script….

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Filed under: Fun, Internet, Adobe, Social Software

Combine Facebook’s API, Adobe’s portable AIR runtime and a little ingenuity and you get Airwaves, and IM client built from the ground up with social networking in mind.

Developer Mike Huntington explains, “The application is being built with Adobe AIR and will feature an IM System that can be integrated with the users Facebook account, Video Chat, Video Messaging, and lots more.”

Still in a yet to be released state, the screenshots and concept are absolutely thrilling — it’s one of those applications that makes you smack your head and say, “Why didn’t I think of that?”

Will we see a flood of new and exciting apps like this one as Adobe AIR and Microsoft’s Silverlight battle it out for the kind of the somewhat portable next generation runtime of choice?
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Troubled by moving pages or changing file names? One of the most efficient methods for webpage redirection is the 301 redirect301 redirect. By far, it is also one of most friendly techniques to Internet search engines because it preserves…

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