Actimedia's Blog

How to: Get More Clicks on Twitter

2012-01-27T14:01:00.003-05:00

Advertising on the Go: Facebook & Mobile Ad revenue

2012-01-20T13:03:00.000-05:00

In the United States alone, companies spent close to US $4 billion dollars on mobile advertising. Many experts believe that by the virtue of being delivered on our cellphones – an object most of us consider personal – mobile advertising is an intimate way of reaching out to consumers. While banners ads and SMS text ads are equally common, the latter, because they’re usually chosen by customers, perform better.

Mobile Search, of course, is the next big thing in search. Almost everybody who can use search on mobile is doing so. Despite this, target advertising is still rare in the mobile marketing world. So it’s not, by nature, interactive and mostly relies on text and banner ads. However, experts, like ABI Research practice director Neil Strother, believes that the future of mobile advertising is going to be much more focus and target specific. Right now, interactive ads are expensive and may not even be reaching the right consumer; certainly, a huge risk for marketers in the current economic environment.

Mobile ads need focus

Temporal and Spatial information is a valuable source for marketers. It helps them get to understand the consumer better, many times over. Tapping into this to create more effective mobile advertising will boost mobile advertising revenues. Strother predicts a future mobile social, in the form of a personal cloud, where social sharing and purchase could be done right from the device in one’s hand.

In recent years, mobile phone, by nature of its affordability and portability, has become one of the most widely used media device. Interestingly, it is also one of the least used media by marketers. Consider these figures: Mobile phone receives just 1% of the global marketing budget, despite the fact, that the total number of mobile phones in the world, are three times more than TV sets and 4 times over internet-based Personal Computers. Despite the fact that mobile isn’t as targeted, and interactive, as the other mediums, the sheer rate of return on investment is fabulous. The median CTR for Text Messaging is 14.06%, where as the median conversion rate is 8.22%; both rates many times higher than TV and Internet.

It sure gets attention

Because mobile advertising is an opt-in, where subscribers choose what they wish to receive, businesses can customize and offer real-time solutions and offers. For instance, a comforting Asian massage could be followed up by a lovely sushi meal. And indeed, more and more users would be open and available to receive this information on their mobiles, as it is believed that the average adult in the United States is spending more time on his mobile phone, as compared to the newspaper or magazine.

With the IPO just around the corner, Facebook needs to find ways to up its revenue. Given all that we have heard of mobile advertising, there’s one stream of revenue just waiting to be cashed by Zuckerberg and co. The company claims that out of its 800 million users, about 300 million use the social networking site on their phones. That’s one helluva revenue base just waiting to be tapped through mobile media.

Going Facebook mobile

Nobody knows yet, how Facebook mobile will integrate advertising with it. It’s quite likely, of course, that the current PC formats, which may be highly customized, but are relatively non-obtrusive, could be adapted to Facebook mobile. Another possibility maybe sponsored stories that appear in the mobile news feed. For instance, actions like check-ins, posts, writing on the wall, could turn into sponsored stories.

Given Facebook’s huge edge in terms of what it can offer mobile marketers, i.e. customer information, users may indeed soon see Facebook advertising on mobile. Marketers could tap into the temporal and spatial variable advantage that Facebook offers and create ads that are better targeted. Facebook friendships could also be used to influence mobile advertising in some way. For instance, friends could ‘like’ a brand or offer real-time opinion, while a friend is at a store. Again, this works against marketers. But the advantages of mobile advertising outweigh its disadvantages for marketers.

Late-comer disadvantage?

While it may seem like the right time for Facebook to enter into the mobile advertising market, many may think the new-age companies rather late embrace of the new technology may be off. However, there are a number of reasons why Facebook may have chosen to hold off on mobile advertising.

One of the reasons, according to Dan Frommer of Business Insider, is that Facebook was originally conceived and later marketed and expanded as a desktop device. The mobile access was a mere convenience. However, given that there are 95 million monthly active users, it is a pleasant surprise for Facebook and now they’re going to use the handheld popularity to their advantage.

According to Frommer, Facebook must now make the site increasingly relevant and just as much popular on mobile devices, as it is on the computer. Navigating between the two media, should be a comfortable experience for users. This ease will help Facebook retain its leadership in social networking, even if the preference for the medium of access changes. It may be easy for experts such as Frommer to say, and while this may be valid, it is not as easy for Facebook itself to adapt to an entirely new medium so easily. Despite the figures of users staring them in their face and extra revenues seemingly so close, they must have chosen to remain focus on their core medium. Although, it is now time to adapt and change.

It’s all about the user

Mobile advertising on Facebook, like Facebook itself would be led by the user. The user will have to voluntarily talk about a product. For instance, at an apple store, a user has seen a new ipad and has posted the picture on his wall. This takes the brand, marketing and mobile advertising to the next level. Thus Apple is reaching consumers who are actually likely to appreciate and buy the iPad and Facebook gets paid for it. While users get to share information about products that they like.

At this point, Facebook’s web partners are Coke, Levi’s Playfish, among many others. It has also tied up with non-profits, such as Amnesty, UNICEF and so on. In fact, many brands can tie-up with non-profits and increase their profile on Facebook. For instance, IKEA has been trying to get Facebook users into its store by advertising that every Facebook friend invited to the IKEA store would be leading to a donation of $1 to Save the Children. This can easily translate to a Facebook mobile campaign!

As a late entrant, Facebook has some serious competition. Google’s Admob, Millenial Media’s Ad network and Apples’s iAd are all potential competitors. In fact, Google gets the biggest share of the mobile revenue pie in the US – about 24% of the $630 million in mobile advertising goes to the Google treasury. But then, Facebook has shown potential for exponential growth on the Web, it may just do them in mobile ad revenue.

Source: Preetam Kaushik - Daily Deal Media

Facebook Commerce Holds Promise for Retailers

2012-01-20T09:29:00.000-05:00

Social networks don’t account for much ecommerce yet, but heavy Facebook users see it as a one-stop shop

Social media and ecommerce have evolved since 1-800-FLOWERS launched the first Facebook storefront in July 2009. Internet users have become more comfortable with online buying on Facebook as they spend more time on the site.

“It is not surprising that shopping and socializing—activities that complement each other in the real world—are beginning to converge online as well,” said Krista Garcia, eMarketer analyst and author of the new report, “Facebook Commerce: Reaching Shoppers Where They Socialize.” “As social media, and Facebook in particular, plays a larger role in consumers’ lives, people are becoming accustomed to performing routine tasks like reading news, watching videos and listening to music, as well as discovering products and shopping, all while staying logged in to a single site. Instead of compartmentalizing daily routines, social media users are treating Facebook as a one-stop platform.”

Retailers are still in the early stages of using social media as a sales vehicle, but the channel is poised for growth. Booz & Company estimated that $1 billion in goods would be sold through social media in the US in 2011. That figure is expected to triple in 2012 and reach $14 billion by 2015.

While social commerce still represents a tiny percentage of overall retail sales, and Facebook is just one social site, that site is the clear leader and already offers retailers a variety of options for converting users into consumers. Some of those consumers are warming to the idea of buying products and services while on the site.

In a Q4 2011 Oracle survey of North American internet users, nearly one in five respondents said they would buy through Facebook or had already done so, while 15% were not aware they had the option. Approximately a third said they would never purchase products via Facebook, however.

“Facebook’s role in ecommerce is currently in flux,” said Garcia. “Brands are beginning to realize its capabilities, while users are growing accustomed to mingling with companies online and sharing shopping activities with friends. Even though social media is still more of a marketing tool than a sales vehicle, Facebook’s influence on shopping behavior extends beyond triggering conversions on the spot.”

Source: emarketer.com

Facebook Marketing: 8 Tried & True Tips For Businesses

2012-01-05T08:37:00.000-05:00

Tip #1: Pages not Profiles

This first tip is pretty important. If your business has a Profile instead of a Page, then you won’t be able to utilize most of the other tips we’ll be sharing. Pages have several advantages for businesses over Profiles, including…

Tip #2: Promote Your Page Offline
If you build it, they will not come. You need to let people know about it. First, go to facebook.com/usernameand secure a vanity URL for your Facebook page. Then, put that URL everywhere…

Tip #3: Use Facebook Ads
Creating an ad for your Facebook Page is an easy 5 step process – design it, target it, set budget, review it and pay. Use Facebook Ad Insights to test and determine the copy and images that get the highest click through rates…

Tip #4: Custom Tabs
Adding a custom tab to your Facebook Page can be an effective way to help your Page stand out from the crowd, promote exclusive “fan-only” deals, showcase a new product or simply welcome new visitors with a branded splash page…

Tip #5: Offers, Discounts & Deals
Facebook fans want discounts. In fact, it’s the number one reason they’ll “Like” a Facebook page. I discussed this in more detail in a March 2010 post called Hook A Facebook Fan Up: They’re Looking For Discounts…

Tip #6: Profile Image Billboards
The profile image on your brand’s Facebook Page is valuable real estate. Take advantage of that. Whether it’s a Facebook contest you’re hosting or an off-Facebook marketing effort you want to make your Facebook fans aware of, turn your profile image into a “billboard” display…

Tip #7: Facebook Video
Video can be a great part of an online marketing mix. Many people upload and share YouTube videos, but there are also advantages to Facebook Video as well…

Tip #8: Wildfire Contests
Facebook contests can be a great way to generate buzz, interest and excitement around your brand. Hosting a contest on your Facebook page is also an effective way to build awareness of your page and boost fan numbers…

Source: Chad Richards

Happy Holidays from Actimedia!

2011-12-19T12:30:00.001-05:00

5 Web Trends for 2012

2011-12-18T22:44:00.000-05:00

1- Mobile Continues to Grow

In previous posts I’ve mentioned where the mobile market is headedand the importance of the emerging mobile market. With over 5 billion mobile devices expected to be in use by 2012, I don’t see this area losing any steam next year. Marketing in the mobile world will continue to grow and according to the Direct Marketing Association, mobile spending is predicted to grow 39 percent and should come close to the $1.2 billion mark. With only 33% of US businesses having mobile friendly websites, the time is now to “go mobile” while the opportunity still exists.

2- Quality Matters

Google’s Panda/Farmer update earlier this year affected a lot of websites and brought to light that a “quality” website is favored by the search giant. Post Panda, design, branding, user engagement and social signals all seem to have more weight to a site’s rank. No one really knows how much weight these factors have but a poorly designed, ad heavy site with thin content that was ranking well will not rank as strongly after this update. You’d think that quality would be a given but this relatively major update has really tried to weed out the content farms and low quality websites.

3- Pin It!

Check out that graph! With vists up 10,000 percent from last year and up 50 percent from last month, I’d say that the scrap booking inspired social network Pinterest, is gaining popularity. Is it just a fad or will this social network really take hold? Compared to other networks, Pinterest is the biggest mover. It might be too early to tell but I think 2012 will be a big year for the pin boarding site. Think of the site as a blend between Google Images and Twitter. Users can create “boards” based around specific interests and “pin” images to them. Users can follow others with similar interests and can share, comment, interact with others boards. The visual nature of the site is pretty cool and really sets the site apart from other networks. Having all of your interests and your friends interests at your fingertips can offer up tons of inspirational ideas and recommendations that are accurate and credible to your tastes.

4- Google Dethroned

Google dominates the search world with a 65% market share but the need for the most accurate and relative search results might push users away from algorithm based search engines. Search results maintained by humans present a socialized search experience that might gain popularity in 2012. At the moment, I don’t think any of these have the potential to dethrone Google but at one point no one knew about Google either.

Blekko’s goal is to use human editors and not algorithms in order to personalize and socialize the search experience. With users maintaining topic tags, search results can be more relative and accurate to the query. Blekko averages 1 million searches a day.
DuckDuckGo has partnered with Blekko and shares some of the same information and technology to improve search results. DuckDuckGo’s main feature provides zero-click info, similar to Google Instant Search, DuckDuckGo tries to provide the most relevant information without clicking. DuckDuckGo averages about 5 million searches/month.
Greplin, Wajam and Quora are three other alternatives that are socially and human driven search engines.

5- Filter Bubbles Burst

Eli Pariser offers up some very insightful thoughts based around how we find information and how that information is filtered to us. We experience these filter bubbles on a daily basis and may not even know that certain content is hidden from us. Google forms user profiles and engineers the info sent to your results page based on past searches and web activity. If I like Obama, Google determines that and sends me pro Obama links when searched, if I do not like Obama, I mainly get negative links when I search for Obama. As Google tries to serve up what it thinks I want, my view of the world is misshapen by the search engine.

Social Business Model

2011-12-18T22:39:00.001-05:00

Social Media and Small Business [infographic]

2011-12-07T21:54:00.001-05:00

Five Companies that are Rocking Social Media

2011-12-07T21:51:00.001-05:00

Who's Using Google+ ? [Infographic]

2011-12-01T10:09:00.001-05:00

US online video ad spending to grow 43.1% in 2012

2011-11-29T09:38:00.001-05:00

Whether they think of it as magnetic content or advertising, marketers are increasingly focused on creating video assets. This type of media reproduces the richness consumers associate with TV, often at a lower cost. And if online venues tend to fall short of TV when it comes to reach, they make up the difference by engaging viewers in an active, lean-forward mode.

The virtuous circle of content and technology adoption that consumers are experiencing is also fueling this trend. eMarketer estimates that US online video ad spending will grow by a compound annual rate of 38% in a five-year span ending in 2015, making this by far the fastest-rising category of online spending.

By 2015, video ad spending will reach $7.11 billion, up from $2.16 billion in 2011. In the past year alone, growth was 52.1%.

Similarly, in the UK video advertising will lead the pack, growing by a compound annual rate of 65% over five years. By 2015, UK video online ad spending will reach $850 million, compared with $150 million in 2011. As a percentage of total online advertising, video will grow to 8.2% in 2015 from 2.1% in 2011.

Still, challenges remain, including the high price of online video ads and the need for better reach and measurement. Several factors will mitigate these problems, making the upward course for video ad spending strong in 2012 and beyond. These factors include better filtering technologies for user-generated content, so publishers can better monetize it with ads; the emergence of cost per view and cost per engagement pricing structures; the increased use of interactive ad units and magnetic content; and personalization and targeting of video ads.

For more information on marketing developments expected next year, stay tuned for the forthcoming eMarketer report “Top Trends for 2012,” available to eMarketer corporate subscribers only.

Happy Thanksgiving from your friends at Actimedia!

2011-11-24T12:44:00.001-05:00

We are grateful for the ongoing opportunity to provide our clients with the most creative and cutting-edge technology through our services. May the holiday bring you and your family much to be grateful for this year and always!

Google and Social can be together!

2011-11-17T11:30:00.001-05:00

Social websites, especially Facebook and Twitter, are now serious competitors for Google’s audience and subsequent advertising revenue.

So Google has tried (but failed) to ‘do’ social eg, with Lively, Google Buzz, Orkut, Dodgeball, Google Wave and Google Me.

Google+ is its latest effort and this time it might succeed. We’ll see.

With +1 buttons, Google is trying to integrate social with search. If you visit a page or see a search result you like, Google wants you to click a +1 button (similar to Facebook’s ‘like’).

And Google explicitly states:

“+1s from friends and contacts can be a useful signal to Google when determining the relevance of your page to a user’s query.”

That means that if a searcher’s friend +1s a page it will move up the results when you search.

Exactly how and when +1s, Facebook likes and tweets will affect others’ results is not yet clear and will evolve. Whatever the answer ...

Social is now part of search and therefore part of SEO.

Social

All forms of engagement including comments, likes, tweets, +1s and mentions, either:

• Might be found by search engines and directly used in their algorithms; or

• Share your content with a person or website (it may be automated) that then might mention or link to your website in a way that is used directly in search engine algorithms.

Also, such engagement might also lead to repeat and new direct visits and response.

That social might work and work for SEO is clear. The question then becomes: is it significant? And the answer is: yes.

A simple piece of evidence to support that answer is that Facebook is now the most visited site in the US and therefore more popular in the US than Google.

It’s not hard to see why Google would like a piece of that social action.

Google Discusses 10 Recent Algorithm Changes

2011-11-17T09:08:00.001-05:00

Google is trying to become more open about their search algorithm changes. Beyond the much-discussed "fresh" update, Google discussed recent changes in SERP titles and descriptions, date-specified searches, image search signals, and more.

While Matt Cutts called this "An experiment in radical transparency", the information remains fairly veiled and covers only a small portion of the algorithm changes that have been made.

Nine Recent Changes to Google's Algorithm

Several of the changes discussed were applicable either globally or specifically for the English-speaking market, while three changes are specifically for foreign markets (the last three on this list). The announced changes are:

Snippets pulling more from page content.The snippet displayed on the SERP, sometimes en lieu of the meta description for a page, will now pull more often from page content as opposed to menu or header text.
Displayed page titles pulling less from duplicate boilerplate anchors. The text of navigation links that's identical from page to page will no longer gain additional weight due to the high volume at which the text is repeated.
Application rich snippets are extended. Apps will now display cost and user review details in the SERP when marked up correctly. (We previously discussed the details of rich app snippets.)
An image search signal has been retired. While Google wasn't completely clear on what exact signal was retired, something "related to images that had references from multiple documents on the web" is being removed as a ranking factor.
The detection of official pages has been improved. Official pages are now located and promoted more effectively.
Results for date range–specific queries will be better organized for that range.Whenever users specify the dates for results, Google will organize the order of results to best meet the specified time period.
Cross-language information retrieval has been improved. In foreign languages, English web pages will now have an additional translated title on the SERP that will link to a translated version of the page.
Length issues in autocomplete predictions for Russian have been resolved. Excessively long queries are now being handled appropriately (in much the same way they were already being handled for English).
Issues with IME autocomplete predictions have been resolved. Autocomplete was inappropriately counting the intermediate keystrokes for IME (non-Latin characters) queries, leading to gibberish predictions for searches in certain languages (i.e., Hebrew, Arabic, and Russian). This has now been resolved.

The One Big Change

The recent fresh search results change places greater weight on how recently content was posted and/or updated. While not all results will be impacted, any queries that are for recent events (e.g., a news story, a current event, details on upcoming events, etc.), recurring events (e.g., events that happen every few years, TV seasons that renew each year, data on sports that will become less relevant very quickly, etc.), or "high decay" terms (e.g., technology items that change regularly, details on politicians who hold different stances now than they did two years ago, etc.).

While more than a third of searches are impacted, "only" 6 to 10 percent of searches (based on language and Google domain) will see a significantly different SERP.

We discussed further details of the fresh search results change to Google's algorithm previously, delving into the winners and losers, the specific types of "fresh" content affected, and methods for using news, blogs, and events to make the most of the change.

What's significant is that Google is now providing additional details on both large and small algorithm alterations. Do you think this is a sign of things to come? Insufficient "hush money" for webmasters and SEOs who want to know details? Or a way to show the various government institutions that are investigating Google that the company is willing to play nice? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

Source: Rob D. Young,

Google Finally Wins One Against Facebook (Infographic)

2011-11-14T08:46:00.001-05:00

Nielsen: Discounts Drive Brand Love on Social Media

2011-11-09T20:56:00.000-05:00

Nielsen recently conducted a survey to understand what drives users to Like a Facebook Page or follow a brand on Twitter, and it came out with pretty much expected results. Deals and discounts are single biggest factor for Liking/Following a brand followed by the love and the support towards a brand/celebrity. Different regions of the world echoed similar results. Users from North America showed the greatest interest in deals and discounts followed by asia-pacific.

Last year, Exact Target found similar patterns on social media where it saw about 43% of Facebook users liking a Page to receive discounts and promotions.

And in the backdrop of debate about daily deals sites and their questionable business models, Nielsen found out that more people visited sites like Coupon.com, Living social and Groupon in September than previous months thereby thrashing all the negativity surrounding these companies.

W3C Adds Time Element Back to HTML5

2011-11-08T07:35:00.000-05:00

If HTML5 editor Ian Hickson’s recent decision to remove the element from the HTML5 specification left you scratching your head, you’re not alone. The W3C, the group that oversees HTML5, feels the same way and have stepped in to override Hickson’s earlier decision to remove the widely used element from the HTML5 spec. That means is once again part of HTML5.

There’s a hint of friction in W3C member Paul Cotton’s post to the HTML Working Group, suggesting that the W3C feels Hickson overstepped his bounds in removing . “Therefore we direct the HTML5 Editor to NOT process this bug further,” writes Cotton, who goes on to say that the element will be reinstated to the spec by Nov. 8.

The HTML WG wants, ahem, more time to hash out. It’s unclear exactly what this means for the WHATWG version of the HTML5 spec (see our article onthe Difference Between the WHATWG and the HTML WG), but the W3C’s new love for time should be welcome news for web developers who’ve already deployed on their sites.

While Hickson’s move to toss time out was probably premature, there are nevertheless some problems with . The element offers the ability to add semantic meaning to pages by marking up dates and other time data, but not all use cases have been covered and some gray areas still exist. For example, the code 2:30 could refer to a time of day or perhaps the length of a movie. Both are theoretically valid uses and figuring out the details and the various potential use cases, is exactly what the HTML WG wants more time to do.

In the minutes from the last HTML WG meeting developer Tantek Çelik, makes the case for re-instating just as it was, but also adding several new capabilities. Çelik suggests accounting for use cases like a tag with only a year (commonly used on sites like Wikipedia or for copyright), and also for using with only a day and month, commonly used when specifying dates like Christmas — 12/25 or 25/12, depending on where you live. Still to be decided are use cases like duration and some details around time zones.

Like the rest of HTML5, remains a work in progress. Now that it’s once again a part of the HTML5 spec that work can resume and those who are already using in some of its well-established roles can breathe easier.

Source: Scott Gilbertson

Anatomy of Conversion

2011-11-03T22:11:00.000-04:00

When asked what we do I typically don’t answer advertising, marketing or websites. Our business is all about customer acquisition. Our role is to affect that conversion from an anonymous person visiting the site to a contact, sale or lead. Its all about conversion. Websites, Facebook pages, blogs and other measures are tactics employed to affect that result.In digital marketing conversions and ecommerce transactions are credited to the last campaign, search, or ad that referred the visitor when he or she converted. But what role did prior website referrals, searches and ads play in that conversion? How much time passed between the visitor’s initial interest and his or her purchase?

The Multi-Channel Funnel

The Multi-Channel Funnel is the data related to how your marketing channels (i.e. sources of traffic to your website) work together to create sales and conversions.

For example, many people may purchase on your site after searching for your brand on Google. However, they may have been introduced to your brand via a blog or while searching for specific products and services. The Multi-Channel Funnels reports show how previous referrals, searches, and exposure to other channels contributed to your sales.

Conversion Paths

Conversion paths are the sequences of interactions (i.e. clicks/referrals from channels) during the 30 days that led up to each conversion and transaction. Conversion path data include interactions with virtually all digital channels. These channels include, but are not limited to:

paid and organic search (on all search engines along with the specific keywords searched)
referral sites
affiliates
social networks
email newsletters
display ads
custom campaigns that you’ve created, including offline campaigns that send traffic to vanity URLs

Multi-Channel Funnel Reports

For your digital campaign you should maintain regular multi-channel funnels to observe how your traffic sources work together to create sales and conversions. A conversion happens when a visitor completes an online purchase or an activity that you’ve defined as a goal.

See how search phrases progress towards conversions.
Know each traffic source’s role in driving conversions.
See each interaction in your sales cycle.

In the reports, channels are credited according to the roles they play in conversions– how often they assisted and/or completed sales and conversions. The report also shows how many sales and conversions each channel initiated, assisted and completed, and the value of those conversions and sales.

You will be able to identify the top conversion paths that your customers took on their way to purchase. You can also begin identify how long (in days and in interactions) it took for visitors to ultimately become customers.

Conclusion

To make the best decisions its important to have good data. Analytics data when understood can help us make better investments in our customer acquisition efforts. The best way to steadily improve the growth of your business is to make lots of good decisions and the more insight the better our chances for success.

Source: Dean Whitney

The All Consuming Social Web

2011-11-03T22:07:00.001-04:00

We are surrounded by content. We consume masses of information on a daily basis. We truly live in a consumption age. Now there is nothing wrong in consuming data in fact it is a wonderful way of learning. It is a wonderful way of exploring the world through the eyes of others, it is a wonderful way of expanding your knowledge.

But consumption in itself does not make you a wiser person. It may make you more knowledgable about the world...but it won't develop your thinking.

You need to combine reflection with consumption. Reflecting on what you are reading, reflecting on what you are learning allows you to turn that consumption into development.

It was Socrates who said "The unexamined life is not worth living"

I would update Socrates for the social media age by saying

"The unexamined consumption of information is information not worth having"

The question we should ask ourselves is

'Do we consume or do we consume reflectively?'

The Anatomy of an Effective Homepage

2011-10-18T10:46:00.001-04:00

How Social Media is a Lot Like Dating

2011-10-18T02:46:00.000-04:00

Social media, like many things in life, is about relationships. If you don’t build a great relationship (online or offline), you won’t accomplish much. That said, how is social media like dating? You can apply “proper dating etiquette” to just about every aspect of social media.

Don’t Just Talk About Yourself

Ever been on a first date and realize you couldn’t get one word in? I think most of us have. Even if you started the conversation, some people can always make it about them. It’s not fun on a date, and it certainly isn’t fun to listen to someone on Twitter only talk about themselves.

This is where many social media newbies can miss the boat. Using Twitter and Facebook to promote a blog post is great, but make sure to mix it up with other news and topics as well. Using social media as a tool to position yourself or company as an expert is how you are going to gain your followers’ trust.

Tweet industry news as well as your company’s current events. It’s okay to not talk about yourself — your followers will thank you. You might even get a re-tweet or share for doing so.

Relationships Take Time

When you start dating someone, it’s fun and exciting. Once the honeymoon phase is over, this is when you really see how you two deal with each other. Sometimes it works, and other times it becomes a complete disaster.

Have you ever followed someone who you thought was a great marketer, PR pro, or other industry “expert,” only to find out they may not be the person you thought? Relationships take time and need nurturing. Sometimes someone who seems really awesome turns out to be a jerk — in dating and in social media.

Remember to take your time and really build up your online community. It takes awhile to get followers who engage with you. It’s not a numbers game, it’s a matter of finding people who want to talk to you and find you interesting as you find them. That is when the real engagement happens.

Don’t Overdo It

Have you ever gone on a date and then as soon as you get home, your date calls you? Then in the morning, you get another call or text, and so on and so on. If you don’t have anything important to say, don’t say it. You don’t want to annoy the people in your Twitter stream or Facebook news feed.

If you talk nonsense most of the day, how do you expect anyone to filter out the important updates? Make sure whatever you are sharing is compelling. It doesn’t have to be the great American novel you’re sharing, but make sure your followers will find value in it.

Don’t Under Do It

On that same note, make sure you aren’t waiting a week before calling your date back. Humans are creatures of habit, so make sure you update on a constant basis. This doesn’t mean tweet every ten minutes, but make sure you’re online around the same time everyday. Eventually, your followers will know when to expect your updates and even start looking forward to them. Don’t disappoint them by only updating here and there.

Be Yourself

I know on a first date, I’m going to make sure I look my best (who doesn’t?), but as time goes by, you start to let the “real you” shine through. I’m not saying I look like a bag lady everyday, but I also don’t dress to the nines either. When I first start dating someone, I try and be myself. If not, who is this person think they are dating? I don’t
want to give them the wrong impression.

This is the same in social media. You don’t want to be giving updates on one subject when you are really an expert in another area. Trying to be someone you aren’t is exhausting and misleading to your followers. Be up front with who you are and what you do. If you tweet for your company or any public figure, let your followers know there is more than one person running the account.

President Obama is a great example of this. Obviously, the President of the United States doesn’t have time to update his Twitter account on a regular basis, but when he does, he signs his tweets “BO”. This lets all of us who follow him know when he is actually tweeting.

It’s OK to be Funny

When you are new to social media, you sometimes don’t know what to say. Or better yet, what not to say. You can still be funny and be professional at the same time. The same is in dating. There is a difference between being funny and being annoying. There is a fine line, but you’re smart and can figure it out.

Don’t Diss Anyone

Who wants to be on a date with someone who only talks negatively about someone or multiple people? I know I sure don’t. Negativity is a downer wherever you are— in a bar or on Twitter. So just don’t do it.

It’s okay to like another person’s blog or article. Going back to my point of not just talking about yourself, it’s okay to retweet an industry colleague’s blog post. This can
actually help your relationship with that person, and you probably will get a retweet of your own when you share a blog post.

Dating is difficult. It’s a lot of give and take, and until you are comfortable with someone, it’s usually awkward. The same can be said for social media. When you first start a Twitter account, you probably are going to feel like you are talking to no one. Give it some time, remember these tips and you should end up creating a great community of followers.

Do you think dating is a lot like social media? If so, let us know what we missed in the comments below.

This is a guest post by: Shannon Evans Suetos

Actimedia Digital Corp (Miami Branch) 4 Years Old

2011-10-12T17:27:00.001-04:00

The Three Types of Companies: Biggest, Better, and Different

2011-09-22T09:47:00.001-04:00

I want to share with you, I’ve found there are only three types of companies. Once you understand the three variations, you’ll be a better consumer, marketer, or leader.

I take a lot of briefings from companies, in fact, hundreds every year. I also meet with many different corporations who are our clients for longer term engagements and have found a clear pattern in just about every industry. In fact this doesn’t just apply to the brand, but also the specific products within a market. And deep down, when you look carefully, you’ll find this applies to siblings too.

The Three Types of Companies:

1) Biggest.
This company or product, will always make the claim they are the biggest, largest, have the most customers. You’ve heard of how McDonalds’ has served billions of Hamburgers, or how Microsoft has sold the most software licenses, or how Ford was the first auto manufacture, or Coke is the top beverage brand on the planet.. You’ll also know these companies as they’ll tout their rankings on Fortune 100, or financial growth. Often, these companies are the standard, and all others measure up to them, “We are the largest, the first, the wealthiest”. We often find these products fit the masses, but may lack in other areas such as specialization or variety.
2) Better.
This company or product, is locked in a second place position against Biggest. For example, you’ve heard of how Burger King offers variety of their menu, or how Dell offered the customized on the web products over 10 years ago, or how Toyota challenge big cards during the gas crises decades ago, or how Pepsi wants you to take their taste challenge. They will differentiate by making their products better than the competitors, by changing variety, pricing, or customization, “We’re better than the other guys, who can’t serve everyone’s needs”. We often find these companies to offer premium alternatives, suiting for more than mainstream appetite.
3) Different.
This company or product will distinctly position themselves as an alternative to the the first two by offering a complete different option. Perhaps you’ve tried In-N-Out Burger, or seen how Apple wants you to think different with their products, or how Mini wants you to drive their unique cars, or how 7up positioned themselves as the UnCola. They will attack the primary model of the first two, and suggest they are only for a certain type of buyer. “be different, stand out, and we’re only for distinguished tastes”. These companies have specific offerings, that buck the trend, and will go out of their way to stand apart.

A few rules of the road: It goes without saving that multiple companies and products can all fit in one category, we often see multiple companies claiming to be the top dog. And also we should expect to see companies traverse these three different categories, and all of that is normal.

Now that you know the three types of companies, you can start to be a better buyer, marketer, and leader. Know where they fit in the your selection process, and know where you fit between Biggest, Better, and Different. Source: Jeremiah Owyang / SF, Silicon Valley

SEO vs PPC

2011-09-22T02:32:00.000-04:00

If you want to attract visitors to your site then there are a couple of ways of doing this. Among the most popular and effective ones are SEO and PPC. Which one is better?

I have been thinking about this issue for a while and have come up with a few points to try and help me reach a final decision. Let’s take a look.

The Cost

PPC stands for Pay Per Click. As the name suggests, you pay for every time someone clicks on your ad and gets directed to your site. In theory this means that the more visitors you receive the more you pay. Anyone who is completely confident of converting the majority of their visitors into paying customers should get big benefits out of this. SEO is all about search engine optimization and the price you pay is generally not related to the results you get. You will be paying for a package which involves carrying out the tasks necessary to get you up the search engine rankings. However, you are not paying for the results as such but rather for the process.

The Results

In SEO the results you see will really depend upon how competitive a market you are operating in. For instance, if you are up against some big hitting sites then you are going to have to plug away for a while before getting into a good position on the rankings. On the other hand, if the competition is pretty puny then you should sweep them aside more easily. PPC is a different kettle of fish, as you aren’t really battling it out to get more visibility; you are paying for it. You would think that this means that the results are more guaranteed but I have a spanner to throw in the works. With SEO the people who find you are those who are looking for you. With PPC you might get a lot of idle clickers reaching your site. If your page is SEO optimized for your keywords and it has been done professionally then you know exactly what your visitors have typed in as their searches. With PPC you are attracting visitors who were maybe looking at something completely different but saw your advert and decided to have a look at it. Therefore, they probably have less intention of buying something when they enter your site.

The Long Term Sustainability

The final point I want to consider is which of these two methods is better in the long run. This is another close call and again comes down to the website’s own position in the overall market. For example, if I have a site which doesn’t have particularly strong competition then I can run some SEO work for a few months and blitz my way to the top of the rankings. If the rival sites don’t wake up then I can carry on in my lofty position with little or no maintenance work or costs. With the PPC approach you only get what you pay for. If you stop doing it you stop getting visitors from it, as simple as that.

Takeaway

This means that I have to go with SEO here, as it is something which is designed specifically to give your site visibility on an ongoing basis. Getting business from organic searches seems to me like the most natural and long term solution to finding your next generation of customers.

5 Great Content Strategy Resources

2011-09-11T17:22:00.000-04:00

Content strategy is a topic that I find myself talking about with people more and more lately through my job as Manager of Communications, Web Content and Community at Connecting Up. Through these conversations, I get asked questions like: “So, what is it?”, “What should be part of a content strategy?”, and “How do we get one for our organisation?”

So, I keep saying that I’d blog about everything I know about content strategy (Mind you, I don’t know everything about it! I’m still learning a lot. And mostly, learning on the job.). But, like many things on my “To Blog” list, it keeps getting pushed down the list.

But, today, during one of my regular content meetings*, I was reminded that I haven’t really shared much of what I know about something that I’ve been doing for years. You see, my basic training on content strategy has officially started in 2000, when I joined About.com as a Guide for Language Arts for Kids. And again, when I rejoined them in 2004 as the first Guide to Web Logs. In-between 2000 and now, I’ve planned and created dozens of sites, including a whole network of blogs.

So, after over a decade of working on content strategy, and having the word ‘content’ in my official job title nowadays, I figured it may be time to start sharing. And, I’d like to start off my content strategy sharing by pointing you to five of my favourite resources (there’s more, but let’s stick to 5 for now):

1. The Elements of Content Strategy by Erin Kissane – I really liked the simplicity and brevity of this book. It’s a great little “starter” book for anyone thinking of understanding content strategy better. It doesn’t have a lot of how tos/templates on getting a content strategy up and running, but it’s a good way to get an overview of the topic without feeling overwhelmed.

2. Content Strategy for the Web by Kristina Halvorson – This book is both an overview and an in-depth look on content strategy. It has some really great insights on why there is a need to have one, and what may be the necessary steps to create one. It’s more comprehensive than “Elements…” so it may be overwhelming for people who are still trying to get their heads around content strategy. But, if information overload doesn’t put you off, then this book is definitely a good resource to work with.

3. The Web Content Strategist’s Bible: The Complete Guide To A New And Lucrative Career For Writers Of All Kinds by Richard Sheffield – Another great, comprehensive resource on content strategy. Some useful insights on different aspects of content development, such as design, matrix, and even translation.

4. Chief Content Officer – This is a print and/or digital for content specialists. While it’s not primarily on content strategy, the articles in this quarterly publication are very useful for anyone interested in the topic. There’s an Australian version and a U.S. version, I believe. The one linked here is the Australian version. Oh, and as a bonus, I just found out that Contents Magazine is also coming out soon, which is a publication on content strategy and related topics.

5. Content Strategy Group on LinkedIn – Moving on from reading material, I thought I’d also share a network/community resource. On this front, I highly recommend the Content Strategy Group on LinkedIn. There isn’t a lot of activity, but I always find something useful in the discussions and resource sharing within the group. So, it’s definitely an online community of content strategists that’s worth connecting with.

Social Media and Real Estate

2011-09-11T12:39:00.000-04:00

Social media is where people immediately go to for recommendations for anything and everything, from eateries to vacation spots to even real estate. As a service-oriented business predicated on spheres of influences, social media is more relevant than ever for this industry. Real estate is all about referrals and who you know...which, if you think about it, is what social media is all about.

Information overload is what most people feel when researching real estate. It's overwhelming the amount of data available on the internet. Some of it is junk, some of it is advertising, and a lot of it is just wrong. People are starved to get quality reliable information they can trust. So consumers gravitate to sites and communities that shared their interests and points of views. Sites like Yelp, Facebook, Branch Out, Twitter exploded because they satisfied this need. Knowing what their peers think and find interesting helps shape a consumer's opinion. People are not looking for just info anymore, they are looking for recommendations. It's the power of feedback. The testament of a testimonial. It helps them edit down their choices.

Real estate used to be a private transaction between a Realtor and client. However, it is increasingly now a shared social experience for a community. Open house visitors upload photos of what they saw, buyers blog about their inspection, sellers search Twitter streams for mentions of their house, agents get rated online. Today's buyers and sellers rely heavily on social media. Yet this is lost on many of my colleagues who cling to an era when agents were the gatekeepers of info. Tsk tsk.

So, next time you interview a real estate agent, ask them:

1. What are your strategies for marketing my property?
If they just mention fliers, open houses and website, tell them this ain’t the 1990’s! If they cite social media as part of their plan, ensure they really possess the social media savoir faire to meet your needs. (ie, Posting once a month on their facebook business page doesn't cut it. They obviously have a facebook page for the sake of having a facebook page, which is useless to you as a client).

2. How big is your social following?
If an agent has 10,000 twitter followers who hang on to their every word about real estate, that is 20,000 eyeballs on your listing. That’s more exposure than any flyer or open house will get you. One tweet to plug your home and it is on the radar of thousands of people.

3. Who follows you and how engaged are they?
Perhaps your agent's online tribe isn't the largest, but it may be an active targeted demographic. It’s a good sign when local businesses, past clients and even other real estate professionals are fans of a Realtor. (You can tell a lot about how engaged an agent is by reading their online chatter with other followers.) These people who have “liked” the agent’s page actively chose to read what that agent posts. They clearly expressed an interest in your agents business and want to keep tabs on their local market. With any luck, they will share/viralize your property to their sphere as well!

Bottom line: The traditionally stodgy real estate industry is finally catching on that social media can't be ignored. An agent with strong social media savvy can command a lot of attention towards your house for sale. The more people who are aware of your listing, the more likely someone will write an offer. In this market, a seller can not afford to lose out on any marketing edge, especially when Gen X/Y and Millenials are driving the market now. And guess what, they live on social media. Select your agent representation accordingly.

Editor's note: the following is a guest post by Herman Chan.

The End of Social Media 1.0

2011-08-30T11:12:00.000-04:00

I would like to talk about an inflection point in social media that requires pause. I am not suggesting that there will be a social media 2.0 or 3.0 for that matter. Nor do I see the term social media departing our vocabulary any time soon. After all, it was recently added to the Merriam-Webster dictionary. Instead, what I would like to discuss is the end of an era of social media that will force the industry to mature. It won’t happen on its own however. Evolution will occur because consumers demand it and also because you’re willing to stake your job on it.

From Social Network Fatigue to Deals Fatigue to Follow Fatigue, businesses are facing a crossroads at the intersection of social and media. Following the path of media continues a long tradition of what Tom Foremski refers to as “Social Media as Corporate Media.” Following the path of social is a journey towards relevance.

As Foremski states, “Social media is not corporate media…if corporations try to turn social media into a corporate sales or marketing channel then they risk losing the naked conversations, and the insight into customer behaviors.”

His point is that there’s more to social media than clever campaigns and rudimentary conversations. Talking isn’t the only thing that makes social media social. Just like adding Facebook, Twitter and other sharing buttons will not magically transform static content into shareable experiences. Listening, learning and adapting is where the real value of social media will show its true colors. Listening leads to a more informed business. Engagement unlocks empathy and innovation. But it is action and adaptation that leads to relevance. And, it never ends.

Indeed, there really are more examples of media than there are that of social media in many of the celebrated examples out there today. Even though distributing corporate media in social channels sets the stage for dialogue, there really isn’t much that’s social about it. In fact, study of many social media initiatives have led me to believe that much of what we benchmark against is actually anti-social in its approach.

The future of social media comes down to one word, “value.” Without it, businesses will find it much more difficult to earn and retain friends, fans and followers (3F’s). As adoption of social networks soared in previous years, growth is now plateauing. eMarketer estimates that Facebook growth will hit only 13.4% this year after experiencing 38.6% acceleration in 2010 and a staggering 90.3% ascension the year before. Facebook isn’t alone in its sobriety either. The rate of Twitter user adoption fell from 293.1% growth in 2009 to 26.3% this year.

Don’t get me wrong, people are still embracing social networks. However, the severity of competition for consumer attention is now unmistakable. Once liberal with their likes, Retweets, and follows, consumers are becoming much more guarded and realistic. Therefore brands will now have to more effectively listen to markets to make more informed decisions about how social media impacts the enterprise and in turn customer experiences.

The GlobalWebIndex “Wave 5 Trends” report delivers insight into how consumers are using social networks and technology in general. According to the report, growth in social network usage among 16- to 24-year-olds in the US is stalling. And, in a few countries usage within this group is declining. In fact, one of the key insights shared in the report is subduing, “Facebook is no longer the one stop shop for the total internet experience.”

However, the report is not a harbinger of social networking’s demise. It is merely a lens into how behavior is changing. This is important for any business to realize that business as usual in social networks is in fact anything but.
Between June 2009 and June 2011, the following changes were noted in Facebook activity:
- Uploading videos is experiencing a modest increase around the world up 5% in the U.S. and 7.6% worldwide.
- Installing apps is on the decline, down 10.4% in the U.S. and 3.1% worldwide.

- Sending virtual gifts may not be gifts worth giving after all, with numbers declining 12.9% in the U.S. and 7.5% around the world.
Twitter on the other hand is a rich exchange for information commerce, where links become a form of digital currency. For example, 45% share an opinion about a product or brand more than once per day. Another 34% of Twitter users also share a link about a product or brand more than once per day.

When asked what consumers want from brands, knowledge and entertainment soared to the top of the list. Additionally, The GlobalWebIndex Wave 5 Trends report tells us that online consumers want brands to provide services that fit with their lifestyle. They also want brands to listen to them.

What can we learn of this?

1) Businesses must first realize that there’s more to social media than just managing an active presence, driven by an active editorial calendar. Listening is key and within each conversation lies a clue to earn relevance and ultimately establish leadership.

2) Consumers want to be heard. Social media will have to break free form the grips of marketing in order to truly socialize the enterprise to listen, engage, learn, and adapt. You can’t create a social business if the business is not designed to be customer-centric from the outside-in and the inside-out.

3) Social media becomes an extension of active listening and engagement. Strategies, programs, and content are derivative of insights, catalysts for innovation, and messengers of value. More importantly, social media becomes a platform for the brand and the functions that consumers deem mandatory. From marketing to HR to service to R&D, brands will expand the role they play in social networking to make the acts of following and sharing an investment in a more meaningful relationship.

The end of Social Media 1.0 is the beginning of a new era of business, consumer engagement, and relevance.

ICANN Approves Historic Change to Internet's Domain Name System Board Votes to Launch New Generic Top-Level Domains

2011-06-21T12:31:00.000-04:00

ICANN's Board of Directors has approved a plan to usher in one of the biggest changes ever to the Internet's Domain Name System. The Board vote was 13 approving, 1 opposed, and 2 abstaining.

During a special meeting, the Board approved a plan to dramatically increase the number of Internet domain name endings -- called generic top-level domains (gTLDs) -- from the current 22, which includes such familiar domains as .com, .org and .net.

"ICANN has opened the Internet's naming system to unleash the global human imagination. Today's decision respects the rights of groups to create new Top Level Domains in any language or script. We hope this allows the domain name system to better serve all of mankind," said Rod Beckstrom, President and Chief Executive Officer of ICANN.

New gTLDs will change the way people find information on the Internet and how businesses plan and structure their online presence. Internet address names will be able to end with almost any word in any language, offering organizations around the world the opportunity to market their brand, products, community or cause in new and innovative ways.

"Today's decision will usher in a new Internet age," said Peter Dengate Thrush, Chairman of ICANN's Board of Directors. "We have provided a platform for the next generation of creativity and inspiration."

The decision to proceed with the gTLD program follows many years of discussion, debate and deliberation with the Internet community, business groups and governments. The Applicant Guidebook, a rulebook explaining how to apply for a new gTLD, went through seven significant revisions to incorporate more than 1,000 comments from the public. Strong efforts were made to address the concerns of all interested parties, and to ensure that the security, stability and resiliency of the Internet are not compromised.

ICANN will soon begin a global campaign to tell the world about this dramatic change in Internet names and to raise awareness of the opportunities afforded by new gTLDs. Applications for new gTLDs will be accepted from 12 January 2012 to 12 April 2012.

Journalist and media expert Oksana Prykhodko arrived at ICANN 40 in San Francisco with a mission. She had set out to improve understanding in Ukraine of the importance of the Internet.

Oksana characterizes the week that followed as "great, wonderful, and a little crazy." She found an ally in the manager of the Russian country code top level domain, and gained insight into Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs). Attending her first ICANN meeting as a Fellow, Oksana found the experience rewarding – and three short months later, has been elected Secretariat of the European Regional At-Large Organization (EURALO). She also has joined the Working Group for Cyrillic IDNs.

Can participating in ICANN's volunteer community accelerate your Internet agenda? Quite possibly. Listen to Oksana's video. Then, if you're from a developing country, consider applying to ICANN's Fellowship Program to attend a future ICANN meeting with some travel expenses covered.

The application round for attending our October meeting in Dakar, Senegal, as a Fellow is open until 8 July 2011.

Friendly, outgoing, and technologically savvy, Fouad Bajwa was the State Webmaster for the government of Pakistan. When he returned to private sector employment, he thirsted for technical knowledge that could keep him relevant in the international market as he promoted the open-source movement.

Despite strong doubts regarding ICANN's model and motives, Fouad attended our meeting in Seoul, South Korea, in 2009. Today, he volunteers as the co-Vice Chair for the Asian-Pacific Regional At-Large Organization (APRALO), a key part of ICANN's At-Large community.

What changed Fouad's opinion of ICANN? And how has working with ICANN helped this accomplished IT trainer? Hear Fouad's story, in his own words, in the accompanying video.

This video continues the "Who Is ICANN?" series we launched last week. Part One introduced Mistura Aruna of Nigeria.

Fouad attended his first ICANN meeting courtesy of the Fellowship Program. If you're from a developing country, you can learn more about the Program on our ICANN Meeting Fellowships page. Apply now to attend our October meeting in Dakar, Senegal, as a Fellow. The deadline for applying is 8 July 2011.

Actimedia Digital Corp on Google Street View

2011-05-11T12:04:00.001-04:00

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Adobe Anuncia Disponibilidad de Aplicaciones Photoshop Touch para iPad

2011-05-10T21:27:00.000-04:00

Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) anunció la disponibilidad inmediata de las aplicaciones de Adobe® Photoshop® Touch (Adobe Color Lava, Adobe Eazel y Adobe Nav) para Apple iPad en Apple App Store. Estas tres aplicaciones de Adobe fueron desarrolladas usando el Kit de Desarrollo de Software (SDK) Photoshop Touch para demostrar el potencial de la interacción entre Photoshop y los dispositivos tipo tableta.

Adobe Color Lava para Photoshop, Adobe Eazel para Photoshop y Adobe Nav para Photoshop reúnen la experiencia divertida e interactiva de los dispositivos de pantalla táctil con el poder y precisión de Photoshop permitiendo a los usuarios crear muestras de color personalizadas, pintar directamente en la pantalla y usar conocidas herramientas de Photoshop desde sus dispositivos tipo tableta.‡ Estas aplicaciones aprovechan la pantalla táctil del iPad para ofrecer una experiencia móvil táctil y rica para todos los sentidos y amplían los avances realizados por Adobe en el mercado de móviles y tabletas, que empezó con Photoshop Express, Adobe Ideas y Adobe Connect™ Mobile.

Photoshop es parte de la familia de producto Adobe® Creative Suite® 5.5 recientemente anunciada, con la que diseñadores y desarrolladores en todo el mundo pueden crear contenido para las más recientes plataformas de teléfonos inteligentes y tabletas. Los usuarios actuales de Photoshop CS5 pueden descargar la actualización de forma gratuita y empezar a disfrutar de la interacción entre Photoshop y los dispositivos tipo tableta.

Los primeros comentarios de la industria acerca de las aplicaciones Photoshop Touch han sido muy positivos; en una revisión First Look de Macworld, Lesa Snider dice que “al no tener obstáculos entre tu pieza de arte y tú, puedes enfocarte en crear en el más puro sentido”. Snider también denota emoción acerca del nuevo SDK de Photoshop Touch, diciendo “no tengo duda de que los desarrolladores no querrán soltarlo hasta dominar la tecnología y crear otras útiles aplicaciones Photoshop integradas”.
El SDK de Photoshop Touch hace que sea posible desarrollar para numerosos dispositivos, como iOS®, Android® y BlackBerry® Playbook®. Con el SDK, los desarrolladores tendrán amplio acceso a la funcionalidad de Photoshop con la libertad para innovar y crear nuevas aplicaciones o agregar capacidades a las existentes. Adobe ya está comprometido con un número de desarrolladores para incorporar las tabletas y otros dispositivos a los flujos de trabajo creativos, lo que dará a los usuarios de Photoshop mayor poder de vanguardia.

Photoshop Touch y los Procesos Creativos

Adobe Color Lava permite que los creativos usen la punta de sus dedos para mezclar colores en el iPad y crear muestras personalizadas de color que puedan luego transferir a Photoshop.

Adobe Eazel aprovecha la avanzada tecnología de pintura para que los artistas creen pinturas realísticas enriquecidas con la punta de sus dedos, y presenta un nuevo tipo de interacción entre pinturas “húmedas” y “secas”. Estas pinturas pueden luego enviarse directamente a Photoshop CS5 para composición o para trabajar más en la pieza de arte.

Adobe Nav incrementa la eficiencia del flujo de trabajo porque permite que los usuarios seleccionen y controlen las herramientas de Photoshop usando el iPad como la superficie de entrada, personalicen la barra de herramientas, exploren y hagan acercamientos en hasta 200 archivos abiertos de Photoshop, o creen fácilmente nuevos archivos.

Kit de Desarrollo de Software Adobe PhotoShop Touch (SDK) para que los desarrolladores elaboren aplicaciones de tableta que interactúen con Photoshop desde dispositivos Android, BlackBerry PlayBook y iOS.

Happy Mother's Day

2011-05-06T00:00:00.000-04:00

New Search Engine Optimization Tips

2011-05-04T12:46:00.000-04:00

Social Networking:

Social Networking and SMO is one of the best way and these are now considered as the web 2.0 and web 3.0 technologies, so i think every webmaster must use these technologies and make a network there, this will live your brand name in the public, even you don’t have to invest more money for online advertising if you this method.
Most of the tech gurus and other big giants are still using this method to grab leads for their websites, so it is also an important thing in search engine optimization. For this you need to use Twitter and Facebook share buttons to publicize your content.

Content is King – Updated Content:

Content is the heart and brain for any website, even you have done a perfect optimization and you do not have a Good and fresh content, then it is just waste of time. Because search engines love fresh content, they are always wanted to get updated content for their search viewers. So it is very important that you have to give more priority to the Content. Maintain standards while writing a post, means you have to be very careful while writing content for your web page, need to use some header tags, bold tags, keyword Prominence etc.
And also it is very important to keep update your content regularly, if you keep update your content, then search engines think that your website is in an active state and updating always, so you will prioritize in the search results.

Increase External link Popularity:

Getting external links for your website is most essential to increase your page ranking, external links are just like a vote for your website, as many links you get from external websites, that much good rank you make in the SERP, this called Bakclinking in search engine terms.Not only this you can use directory submission, article writing, guest posting and many methods. But be careful don’t do the excess amount of submissions as search engines can consider it as SPAM.
So if you are working on the external linking part, you must remember some issues..
Don’t do excess amount of directory submissions, because search engine may consider it as SPAM.
Always use anchor text with targeted keyword when providing a link to a directory.
Use Article writing directories and SPIN your articles and get effective backlinks.
These are quite enough to work out, if you have more suggestions please let me know.

Wishing you a Socially colorful and Cheerful Easter!

2011-04-24T12:39:00.001-04:00

Why Websites Are Slow & Why Speed Really Matters [INFOGRAPHIC from Mashable]

2011-04-10T09:37:00.000-04:00

What a difference a millisecond can make. When it comes to browsing the web, every tiny moment counts — and the fewer moments that pass between a mouse click and a fully loaded page, the better.

Speed is a bit of an obsession for most web users. We fret over our Internet connections’ and mobile connections’ perceived slowness, and we go bananas for a faster web browser.

Top 5 Facebook Marketing Mistakes Small Businesses Make

2011-04-03T09:34:00.000-04:00

This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business.

While Facebook marketing is on the rise among small businesses, many are still struggling to master the basics.

“Many people have difficulty with just the basic Page set up,” says social media marketing consultant Nicole Krug. “For example, I still see people setting up their business as a profile page instead of a business Page. I have other clients who jumped into Groups when they came out and have divided their fan base.”

Here are five more common Facebook marketing mistakes to avoid:

1. Broadcasting

Ask any social marketing consultant what the number-one no-no is on Facebook, and he’ll likely tell you it’s “broadcasting” your messages instead of providing fans with relevant content and engaging on an continual basis.

“With Facebook, marketers of any size can do effective, word-of-mouth marketing at scale for the very first time. But Facebook is all about authenticity, so if your company is not being authentic or engaging with customers in a way that feels genuine, the community will see right through it,” says Facebook spokeswoman Annie Ta.

Peter Shankman, social media consultant, entrepreneur and author of “Customer Service: New Rules for a Social Media World,” agrees.

“Your job is to interact, not just to broadcast,” says Shankman. “Fans are looking for a reason to connect with you, and they’re showing you that by clicking ‘Like.’ Your job is to give them a reason to stay.”

According to Andy Smith, co-author of “The Dragonfly Effect: Quick, Effective and Powerful Ways to Use Social Media to Drive Social Change,” many businesses immediately ask how Facebook is going to make them money and have that be the focus, as opposed to trying to engage customers and provide a meaningful, authentic online experience. “Marketers need to recognize that people go to Facebook to make a connection or feel like part of a community,” says Smith.

2. Not Investing Adequate Time

Another common mistake is underestimating the amount of time a successful Facebook strategy entails. Many social media consultants report seeing a pervasive “set it and forget it” mentality among small businesses.

“Some small business owners are under the impression that if they set up a Page on Facebook, that’s all they have to do. They think people will just naturally come and want to be a fan of their product or service,” says Taylor Pratt of Raven Internet Marketing Tools. “But it takes much more of a commitment than that.”

It’s not just fan growth that will suffer from this approach — it may also hurt your relationships with existing fans, particularly customers who have come to expect timely responses to their posts and queries.

“Unlike traditional advertising methods such as a radio spot or a Yellow Pages listing, you can’t just create a Facebook Page and just let it run its course,” says Alex Levine, a social media strategist at Paco Communications. “Creating a Facebook Page is the first of many steps, but the Page needs to be updated and monitored constantly.”

3. Being Boring or Predictable

When they’re thinking about marketing, some business owners forget that Facebook is a social place where people share things they find funny, interesting or useful with their friends. Think about what kind of content your fans would actually want to share when planning your posts.

Shankman also cautions against becoming too predictable. “Status updates by themselves get boring. But then again, so do photos, videos and multimedia as a whole. Your job is to mix it up. The moment you become predictable, boring or annoying, they’ll hide you from their feed. So keep it varied and personal — a video here, a photo here, a tag of one of your fans here.”

Creating too much “filler” content by auto-publishing content from your blog or Twitter feed can also derail your efforts. Joseph Manna, community manager at Infusionsoft, recommends using Facebook’s native publishing tools to gain the most benefit from Facebook.

“Whatever you do, DON’T automate everything,” says Manna. “It’s nice to ‘set and forget,’ but the risk is two-fold: publishing systems sometimes have issues, and Facebook places low-priority on auto-published content.”

4. Failing to Learn About Facebook Mechanics and Tools

Since Facebook is a relatively new medium, some businesses have yet to explore all its functionality and they’re missing out on creating an optimal brand experience.

“Many small businesses do not take advantage of the tools to introduce themselves to the Facebook audience,” says Krug. “For example, the ‘Info’ tab is rarely utilized well, and very few small businesses [create] a custom welcome page.”

Krug also sees frequent mistakes around one of the most basic elements of Facebook presence: the profile image. “Most companies upload a version of their logo, but the resulting thumbnail image that shows up in news feeds often only captures a few letters in the middle of their logo — this partial, meaningless image is then how they’re branded throughout Facebook,” says Krug.

Facebook Insights, Facebook’s built-in analytics system, is also often overlooked, and with it the opportunity to analyze post-performance to see what types of content gets the most engagement.

5. Violating Facebook’s Terms

Not only is it critical to know how Facebook works and what tools are available, it’s also important to know the rules of the road — something that many businesses miss.

“Every day I see organizations endangering the communities they are growing by violating the terms they agreed to when their Facebook presence was created,” says small business marketing consultant Lisa Jenkins.

What are the most common violations? Some build a community on a personal page instead of a proper Facebook Page. Others fail to abide by Facebook’s rules around running contests. And don’t even think about “tagging” people who are in an image without their permission.

“Tagging people to get their attention is not only a violation of Terms but can be reported by those you are tagging as abusive behavior on your part — which brings your violation to Facebook’s attention and opens your Page’s content to review,” warns Jenkins.

To avoid these common mistakes, invest time in learning about the Facebook platform, educate yourself on how to build and sustain an audience, and don’t forget to engage with people like you do in real life.

“What sets small businesses apart from large companies is their ability to make personal connections with customers,” says Ben Nesvig of FuzedMarketing. “They tend to forget this when they join Facebook, yet it’s their biggest strength and asset.”

Google rinde homenaje al helado sundae

2011-04-03T09:26:00.001-04:00

Hace 119 años el joven Chester Platt la pidió por primera vez en una heladería de la ciudad de Ithaca. Google se pone dulce. El buscador más grande e importante de Internet dejó atrás por un momento los homenajes a los grandes científicos y literatos y esta vez decidió recordar el 119 aniversario de la creación del helado sundae en EE UU.

Quizá acorde a la cada vez más cerca temporada veraniega en el hemisferio norte, Google cambió su clásico doodle para mostrar una imagen en donde un helado con doble bola provoca a millones de internautas.

El más clásico de los helados está compuesto, por lo general, por una bola de cremoso helado cubierta con jarabe de cerezas, fresa, o fudge de chocolate.

En 1992 la cadena de comida rápida McDonalds lo incluyó en su carta de postres y logró que el postre adquiriera resonancia mundial.

Nuevo Adobe SocialAnalytics, de Omniture, para Supervisar, Medir y Monetizar Medios Sociales

2011-03-15T19:42:00.000-04:00

Adobe Systems Incorporated anunció Adobe® SocialAnalytics, un nuevo producto parte de HUAdobe Online Marketing Suite, desarrollada por Omniture®, que permite a los mercadotécnicos supervisar, medir y monetizar los medios sociales. Los clientes de Adobe ahora cuentan con una sola aplicación que reúne toda la actividad relevante de las redes sociales y comunidades online e identifica cómo impacta dicha actividad las métricas clave de negocios y la percepción de marca, para finalmente guiar la actividad social en los diferentes canales e impulsar el retorno de inversión (ROI).

“Las redes sociales son el grupo foco más grande del planeta y los mercadotécnicos se esfuerzan por saber de qué forma pueden escuchar y participar mejor en ellas”, dijo Brad Rencher, vice presidente y gerente general de la Unidad de Negocios Omniture en Adobe. “Los que los mercadotécnicos han echado en falta es una solución que les ayude a identificar las voces y actividades más relevantes, ligar las actividades sociales al impacto sobre la marca y el negocio y luego tomar acciones para optimizar dicho impacto. Adobe SocialAnalytics es capaz de informar de qué manera participa una compañía en las redes sociales, evitando las aproximaciones y reemplazándolas con estrategias o experimentaciones basados en dichos resultados”.

Con Adobe SocialAnalytics, los clientes pueden supervisar y medir plataformas populares, como Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, blogs, foros y cualquier lugar en el que ocurran conversaciones sociales, para ver los datos sociales de valor en contexto con todas sus iniciativas online. Esto ayuda a los mercadotécnicos a obtener respuestas rápidas a preguntas de negocios como: ¿Cuál es el impacto de los medios sociales en mi negocio? ¿De qué manera nuestras iniciativas y conversaciones sociales están impulsando la conversión a facturación? ¿Quiénes son los influyentes sociales de mi negocio? Cuando un sentimiento social positivo llega a un punto alto, ¿sube también nuestro tráfico Web o nuestras métricas de conversión se ven impactadas positivamente?

Adobe SocialAnalytics aumenta las capacidases de optimización y medición social innovadoras existentes de las compañías, como:

Medición de Facebook

Los mercadotécnicos pueden usar Adobe SocialAnalytics para entender la efectividad de algunos de los elementos originales de Facebook como Facebook Pages, demográficas de fans, Me Gusta y Compartir, etc. Ver estos datos en contexto con las conversaciones actuales que ocurren en Facebook puede ofrecer conclusiones acerca de cómo atraer mejor a los clientes en Facebook.

Medición de Aplicación Facebook y Medición de Aplicación Móvil

Con Adobe SocialAnalytics, los mercadotécnicos pueden ver los datos de uso de sus aplicaciones en contexto con otras actividades sociales. Esto les ayuda a identificar mejor la efectividad de su estrategia de aplicaciones móviles y sociales y de qué forma dicha estrategia afecta o se ve afectada por otras actividades sociales.

Medición de Videos Virales

Usando la medición de videos virales, los clientes pueden obtener resultados acerca del desempeño de campañas de videos virales en los sitios de intercambio de videos y pueden afinar mejor la forma de usar los videos en las redes sociales.

Medición de Twitter

Esta capacidad permite a los mercadotécnicos online medir la actividad de marca en el conocido sitio de microblogging. En el contexto de Adobe SocialAnalytics, es posible ver de qué forma los picos de actividades en Twitter afectan otros canales, como las visitas a sitios y otros comportamientos online.

Happy Valentine's Day

2011-02-14T16:15:00.000-05:00

Social Networking Americans’ Valentine’s Day Plans [INFOGRAPHIC]

2011-02-13T17:33:00.001-05:00

Social Media and the end of Gender

2011-02-05T09:15:00.000-05:00

Ten principles that contribute to a Google user experience

2011-02-04T13:07:00.000-05:00

1. Focus on people their lives, their work, their dreams. 

The Google User Experience team works to discover people‘s actual needs, including needs they can‘t always articulate. Armed with that information, Google can create products that solve real-world problems and spark the creativity of all kinds of people. Improving people‘s lives, not just easing step-by-step tasks, is our goal.

Above all, a well-designed Google product is useful in daily life. It doesn‘t try to impress users with its whizbang technology or visual style – though it might have both. It doesn‘t strong-arm people to use features they don‘t want – but it does provide a natural growth path for those who are interested. It doesn‘t intrude on people‘s lives – but it does open doors for users who want to explore the world‘s information, work more quickly and creatively, and share ideas with their friends or the world.

2. Every millisecond counts. 

Nothing is more valuable than people‘s time. Google pages load quickly, thanks to slim code and carefully selected image files. The most essential features and text are placed in the easiest-to-find locations. Unnecessary clicks, typing, steps, and other actions are eliminated. Google products ask for information only once and include smart defaults. Tasks are streamlined.

Speed is a boon to users. It is also a competitive advantage that Google doesn‘t sacrifice without good reason.

3. Simplicity is powerful. 

Simplicity fuels many elements of good design, including ease of use, speed, visual appeal, and accessibility. But simplicity starts with the design of a product‘s fundamental functions. Google doesn‘t set out to create feature-rich products; our best designs include only the features that people need to accomplish their goals. Ideally, even products that require large feature sets and complex visual designs appear to be simple as well as powerful.

Google teams think twice before sacrificing simplicity in pursuit of a less important feature. Our hope is to evolve products in new directions instead of just adding more features.

4. Engage beginners and attract experts. 

Designing for many people doesn‘t mean designing for the lowest common denominator. The best Google designs appear quite simple on the surface but include powerful features that are easily accessible to those users who want them. Our intent is to invite beginners with a great initial experience while also attracting power users whose excitement and expertise will draw others to the product.

A well-designed Google product lets new users jump in, offers help when necessary, and ensures that users can make simple and intuitive use of the product‘s most valuable features. Progressive disclosure of advanced features encourages people to expand their usage of the product. Whenever appropriate, Google offers smart features that entice people with complex online lives – for instance, people who share data across several devices and computers, work online and off, and crave storage space.

5. Dare to innovate. 

Design consistency builds a trusted foundation for Google products, makes users comfortable, and speeds their work. But it is the element of imagination that transforms designs from ho-hum to delightful.

Google encourages innovative, risk-taking designs whenever they serve the needs of users. Our teams encourage new ideas to come out and play. Instead of just matching the features of existing products, Google wants to change the game.

6. Design for the world. 

The World Wide Web has opened all the resources of the Internet to people everywhere. For example, many users are exploring Google products while strolling with a mobile device, not sitting at a desk with a personal computer. Our goal is to design products that are contextually relevant and available through the medium and methods that make sense to users. Google supports slower connections and older browsers when possible, and Google allows people to choose how they view information (screen size, font size) and how they enter information (smart query parsing). The User Experience team researches the fundamental differences in user experiences throughout the world and works to design the right products for each audience, device, and culture. Simple translation, or “graceful degradation” of a feature set, isn‘t sufficient to meet people‘s needs.

Google is also committed to improving the accessibility of its products. Our desire for simple and inclusive products, and Google‘s mission to make the world‘s information universally accessible, demand products that support assistive technologies and provide a useful and enjoyable experience for everyone, including those with physical and cognitive limitations.

7. Plan for today‘s and tomorrow‘s business. 

Those Google products that make money strive to do so in a way that is helpful to users. To reach that lofty goal, designers work with product teams to ensure that business considerations integrate seamlessly with the goals of users. Teams work to make sure ads are relevant, useful, and clearly identifiable as ads. Google also takes care to protect the interests of advertisers and others who depend on Google for their livelihood.

Google never tries to increase revenue from a product if it would mean reducing the number of Google users in the future. If a profitable design doesn‘t please users, it‘s time to go back to the drawing board. Not every product has to make money, and none should be bad for business.

8. Delight the eye without distracting the mind. 

If people looked at a Google product and said ”Wow, that‘s beautiful!” the User Experience team would cheer. A positive first impression makes users comfortable, assures them that the product is reliable and professional, and encourages people to make the product their own.

A minimalist aesthetic makes sense for most Google products because a clean, clutter-free design loads quickly and doesn‘t distract users from their goals. Visually appealing images, color, and fonts are balanced against the needs for speed, scannable text, and easy navigation. Still, ”simple elegance” is not the best fit for every product. Audience and cultural context matter. A Google product‘s visual design should please its users and improve usability for them.

9. Be worthy of people‘s trust. 

Good design can go a long way to earn the trust of the people who use Google products. Establishing Google‘s reliability starts with the basics – for example, making sure the interface is efficient and professional, actions are easily reversed, ads are clearly identified, terminology is consistent, and users are never unhappily surprised. In addition, Google products open themselves to the world by including links to competitors and encouraging user contributions such as community maps or iGoogle gadgets.

A greater challenge is to make sure that Google demonstrates respect for users‘ right to control their own data. Google is transparent about how it uses information and how that information is shared with others (if at all), so that users can make informed choices. Our products warn users about such dangers as insecure connections, actions that may make users vulnerable to spam, or the possibility that data shared outside Google may be stored elsewhere. The larger Google becomes, the more essential it is to live up to our “Don‘t be evil” motto.

10. Add a human touch. 

Google includes a wide range of personalities, and our designs have personality, too. Text and design elements are friendly, quirky, and smart – and not boring, close-minded, or arrogant. Google text talks directly to people and offers the same practical, informal assistance that anyone would offer to a neighbor who asked a question. And Google doesn‘t let fun or personality interfere with other elements of a design, especially when people‘s livelihood, or their ability to find vital information, is at stake.

Google doesn‘t know everything, and no design is perfect. Our products ask for feedback, and Google acts on that feedback. When practicing these design principles, the Google User Experience team seeks the best possible balance in the time available for each product. Then the cycle of iteration, innovation, and improvement continues.

Google y Bing ‘pelean’ por un algoritmo

2011-02-01T20:49:00.001-05:00

Muy interesante este pequeño artículo publicado por CNN sobre la rivalidad de los Search...

Google reveló a través de un periodista estadounidense que su competencia Bing de Microsoft ha copiado el algoritmo con el cual refina sus búsquedas, al menos en los últimos seis meses.
El buscador con mayor participación de mercado en Internet indicó que se percataron de esta copia, luego de que implantaran 100 palabras sin ningún significado en sus tablas de búsqueda y su competencia hizo lo mismo.

Al ingresar las letras como "hiybbprqag" o "mbzrxpgjys" en el buscador de Google, lanzaba el mismo resultado en Bing, aún cuando no tuvieran ningún significado real.

"He pasado mi carrera persiguiendo realizar un buen motor de búsqueda. No tengo ningún problema con un competidor desarrollando su propio algoritmo. Pero copiar no es innovar", dice Amit Singhal, ingeniero de Google, a través del blog SearchEngineLand.

Bing respondió este martes a través de su blog oficial que utilizan más de 1,000 formas para mostrar sus resultados y que durante los dos últimos años se han dedicado a tratar de dar a sus consumidores la mejor experiencia posible.

"Lo que vemos aquí es una historia novelesca con tintes de espía para generar contoversia. Fue una táctica bastante creativa por parte de nuestro competidor y lo tomamos incluso como un halago", dijo Harry Sum, vicepresidente corporativo de Bing.

Ana Paula Blanco, jefa de comunicaciones para el norte de América Latina de Google, comentó que no se planea ninguna acción legal por el momento y que el equipo de ingenieros de la tecnológica está comprometido en hacer cada día mejor su trabajo.

Google se mantiene en el primer lugar dentro del mercado de buscadores de Internet, con 66.2%, seguido por Yahoo, con 16.4% y Bing, que ocupa la tercera posición con 11.8%, de acuerdo con las más recientes cifras de comScore.

Twitter y Facebook nuevamente utilizadas para propagación de códigos maliciosos

2011-02-01T19:04:00.000-05:00

Durante enero, la popular red social de microblogging, Twitter, fue utilizada una vez más para propagar malware. Por su parte Facebook sufrió un ataque multi-stage, confirmando la tendencia a utilizar las redes sociales como plataforma de ataque. Asimismo, se descubrió un nuevo troyano para la plataforma de dispositivos móviles Android que convierte al equipo infectado en parte de una botnet, según informa la compañía de seguridad informática ESET.

El mismo día en que se dio a conocer la noticia de que Twitter había alcanzado las 200 millones de cuentas de usuario, se detectó la propagación de un gusano que utilizaba el acortador de direcciones URL de Google para su propagación en la popular red social de microblogging.

Mediante el envío de mensajes masivos por medio de Twitter, con textos breves y atractivos y un enlace con un acortador de URL, se invita al usuario a hacer clic. Cuando esto ocurre, el usuario es direccionado a diversos sitios web donde se lo alerta sobre una supuesta infección en sus equipos y se ofrece la descarga de la aplicación llamada Security Shield, que no es otra cosa que un rogue.

“El rogue es un software que, simulando ser una solución de seguridad, en realidad instala códigos maliciosos en el equipo de la víctima. Si bien los ataques en Twitter para propagar esta amenaza ya han sido bloqueados, es importante que el usuario tenga en cuenta los riesgos de hacer clic en enlaces de dudosa procedencias”, aseguró Federico Pacheco, Gerente de Educación e Investigación de ESET Latinoamérica.

Para saber cómo identificar un rogue o falso antivirus puede acceder al Blog de Laboratorio de ESET Latinoamérica: http://blogs.eset-la.com/laboratorio/2010/09/14/5-formas-de-identificar-un-rogue/

Por otro lado, durante los últimos días del mes de enero, Facebook fue protagonista de un ataque multi-stage. En este caso, se trató de una amenaza muy elaborada que por medio de la combinación de diversas técnicas de ataque recopila datos de la víctima, infecta su equipo y así propaga códigos maliciosos.

El ataque comienza con la infección del equipo del usuario utilizando técnicas de Ingeniería Social. Luego, la víctima es redirigida a una página falsa donde se le solicitan las credenciales de inicio de sesión de Facebook que serán robadas para continuar con la propagación de malware. A su vez, se hace uso de la vulnerabilidad CVE-2010-1885 de Internet Explorer, que fuerza la ejecución de un código malicioso y luego ejecuta la descarga de otro código malicioso.

“Este ataque resulta muy interesante ya que permite observar cómo un atacante combina diversas técnicas y herramientas con el fin de recopilar datos de la víctima e infectar el equipo para propagar su código malicioso”, concluye Sebastián Bortnik, Coordinador de Awareness & Research de ESET Latinoamérica.  
Además, durante este mes, se descubrió un nuevo troyano para la plataforma de dispositivos móviles Android, que recibió el nombre de Geimini. Entre las principales capacidades de este código malicioso se encuentra la posibilidad de recibir instrucciones desde un C&C (Centro de Comando y Control) haciendo que el dispositivo infectado pase a formar parte de una botnet y envíe información del teléfono a una serie de dominios externos posiblemente maliciosos.   Una vez que el dispositivo ha sido comprometido, el malware envía cada un período aproximado de 5 minutos información tanto del usuario como del equipo. Además, Geinimi cuenta con la posibilidad de recibir comandos remotos y de esta manera puede ejecutar acciones tales como la descarga e instalación de aplicaciones, el envío y borrado de mensajes de texto, la realización de llamadas o el acceso a páginas web. Además, esta infección puede derivar en la instalación de otros códigos maliciosos o incluso la explotación de vulnerabilidades que pueden llevar al robo de información.

“La aparición de Geinimi pone en evidencia la complejidad que están adquiriendo actualmente los códigos maliciosos para plataformas móviles, incrementando notablemente el riesgo de infección de los usuarios. Por tal motivo resulta muy importante que los usuarios se encuentren bien informados, cuenten con la protección adecuada en sus equipos y conozcan las buenas prácticas para el uso de dispositivos móviles”, declaró Bortnik.
 Con el fin de acompañar la tendencia del mercado global y frente al incremento de amenazas informáticas para dispositivos móviles, Richard Marko, CEO de ESET a nivel mundial comenta: “Durante este año desde ESET buscaremos enriquecer el portafolio de soluciones para dispositivos móviles extendiendo la protección de nuestro producto ESET Mobile Security a sistemas operativos Android. Además, estaremos siguiendo muy de cerca el desarrollo del mercado de las tablets que continúa creciendo de forma exponencial”.

Internet in 2010

2011-02-01T11:44:00.001-05:00

About the 500 Million of Facebook

2011-01-31T17:27:00.000-05:00

"Like" it or not, online ads are getting personal

2011-01-29T15:46:00.000-05:00

Is the future of online advertising one of incredibly targeted advertising based on your interests, online activities and Facebook "likes," or is it one dictated by robust privacy controls that keep those details out of the hands of marketers?
Increasingly, it seems to depend on who you ask.

In the past week, both Google and Mozilla (the organization that makes the Firefox browser) have introduced ways to opt out of so-called behavioral advertising -- industry speak for ads that target users through the use of cookies that can track your internet browsing and shopping history, among other activities.

Google's solution is an extension for its Chrome web browser that lets users proactively block certain advertisers from serving them behavioral ads.

Mozilla's approach would bundle a "do not track" feature with its browser, but require websites and ad networks to agree to recognize such requests from Firefox users. Microsoft has previously announced its own plans for letting users opt out of such ads. These efforts come at a time when the Federal Trade Commission is considering a formal Do Not Track list that would work much in the same way in the online marketing realm as the Do Not Call list works in telemarketing.

They also come at a time when the social media world is moving in the direction of highly personalized ads based on your activities, relationships and profile information.

Facebook has just rolled out a feature called Sponsored Stories that lets marketers repurpose activities such as "liking" a fan page, checking into a retail store or interacting with a branded app as advertisements that users see when they log in to the social network.

And this happens automatically -- any time you interact with a brand on Facebook, your action could be used as an ad that entices your friends to do the same. For the moment, there's also no way to opt yourself out of being featured. Facebook's not alone in this type of targeting, however. Business-focused social networking site LinkedIn has added the ability to target ads based on job titles, company name and group level, features that the company says have resulted in three to four times more clicks than standard ads during initial testing.

Meanwhile, research firm eMarketer predicts that Twitter will bring in $150 million in revenue this year, driven largely by the Promoted Tweets and Promoted Trends ads that the company introduced last year. Much like Facebook's Supported Stories, these ads showcase users talking about a given brand, with advertisers paying upwards of $100,000 per day for the privilege.

The next logical step in all of this, it would seem, is for the likes of Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter to utilize this data outside the walls of their own sites and either create their own ad networks or license their data to third parties that want to enhance their personalization capabilities.

Of course, that's even further at odds with proponents of "do not track," who are already highly critical of ads that, among other things, "retarget" you based on shopping sites you have visited.

But it seems all but inevitable that personalization is here to stay and is only going to get more intimate. Sure, a small percentage of internet users may use tools that opt them out (if such options even become available in meaningful ways), but the vast majority will continue shopping, browsing and "liking" things on the Web without a second thought. Legislation could conceivably force advertisers to offer more in-your-face alerts about when you're sharing information that could be used in ads, but you can bet that user experience designers will be ready to create prompts that get users to click "continue," as has been the case with endless terms of service agreements and, in more recent times, Facebook applications.

Of course, that's only if it gets to that point -- most of the key players in this debate are all spending big in Washington to make sure any new regulations are as unrestrictive as possible.

Soon-to-be former Google CEO Eric Schmidt caught flak in December when he told CNBC that, "If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place." While that might be a short-sighted way of looking at the current debate on online privacy, it does represent a reality of where things are headed, especially within the advertising realm. As users, the smartest path for now may simply be to heed Schmidt's advice.

Fuente: CNN tech / Adam Ostrow

Google Changes Algorithm To Penalize Site Scrapers

2011-01-29T15:33:00.000-05:00

Google updated its search algorithm this week to help reduce webspam in its search results.

These changes were made in response to increased criticism of Google and its search engine results. The criticism has been partly inspired by the emergence of newer forms of webspam alongside traditional webspam (pages that consist of lots of keywords and phrases without context or meaning that “cheat” their way up to higher search ranks).

The latest webspam outbreaks commonly come from content farms and sites that syndicate content. Earlier this month, Stack Overflow‘s Jeff Atwood pointed out that in the last year, some content syndicators have routinely began outranking Stack Overflow on Google. In other words, the syndicates are outranking the originals.

In Stack Overflow‘s case, the problem was bad enough that a community member built a Google Chrome extension designed to redirect to Stack Overflow from spammier syndicates.

Matt Cutts, principle engineer at Google and head of the webspam team, responded to some of the criticism in a blog post and said Google would be “evaluating multiple changes that should help drive spam levels even lower, including one change that primarily affects sites that copy others’ content and sites with low levels of original content.” On his personal blog, Cutts confirmed that those changes have indeed gone into effect.

Cutts writes that this was a “pretty targeted launch” and that the “net effect is that searchers are more likely to see the sites that wrote the original content rather than a site that scraped or copied the original site’s content.”

7 internet sins that could make you go viral with your friends

2011-01-26T20:55:00.000-05:00

When trapped within the confines of a particularly dreary workday, a carefully chosen GIF, cat video or gallery of terrible My Little Pony tattoos can act as a ray of luminous sunshine, breaking through the dark cloud structure of your mood and touching your black heart with the playful soul of levity.

Thank the nondenominational higher power for the internet, right? Yeah, unless everyone's laughing at you.
Memes and viral videos are an increasingly integral part of our web culture -- hell, The Cheezburger Network (of LOLcats fame) just scored $30 million in funding and 4chan founder Christopher Poole (aka "moot") joined New York City seed fund Lerer Ventures as a venture adviser.

So, this week, in honor of the growing legitimacy/lunacy of this particular internet culture, we're asking you to take a closer look at the FAILs, Rage guys and videos of dudes getting hit in the junk that you so admire.
Now tell us, what's at the root of many of those stimulating shareables? Fumbles, travesties, the hot, red-faced soul of human folly. In short: Most of these people are being laughed at.

Not to suck the delicious marrow from the bones of these meaty morsels and leave you with a dry, dusty skeleton, but inherent in these memes and vids is an instructional manual on how not to act online -- if you're looking to avoid public humiliation, that is. So, next time your boss catches you surfing YouTube at work, just tell her you're trying to better yourself. We're sure she won't fire you for that. Without further ado, here are seven online sins that will make you go viral with your friends:

1). Poor spelling/grammar
Last week, a hilarious video titled "dotdotdot" featuring a gamer's enraged rant went viral -- after a voiceover actor and a designer brought the words to life, that is. Granted, the comment was likely penned by a 13-year-old, but a very important lesson can be gleaned from this vid: No one will take you seriously if you use nonwords like "beacuase."
Many a browser underlines spelling errors in bright, glaring red -- take heed, or everyone will (rightly) laugh at you.

2). Vanity
Yes, it's great to have self-esteem! We know because our school nurse had copious posters proclaiming as much.
Still, tweeting incessantly about how you're a "rock star" or posting to Facebook Photobooth picture after Photobooth picture of yourself looking seductively into the webcam will, ironically, result in your friends feeling the inverse about you. Heed the lesson we learned from many a prideful teen lifecaster: Attempt to be beautiful on the inside, or be prepared to face the trolls.

3). Irritating fanboyism
Remember that "Leave Britney Alone" kid? Yeah, that's what you look like when you get into vitriolic fights in the comments section about how your Droid Incredible is so much better than the iPhone 4.

4). Being stupid
Before being allowed to compose a status update, one should be forced to read Failbook in its entirety. Especially people who are friends with their parents on Facebook.

5). Being a sad sack
The Sad Keanu meme (pictures of Keanu Reeves holding various objects like sandwiches and cupcakes, looking sad) went so incredibly viral in part because Reeves' alleged melancholia seemed so ridiculous: Who could possibly look so unhappy while holding a cupcake?
So, before you respond to an e-mail detailing exciting weekend plans with an Eeyore-esque comment about how you have a pounding headache and you're not sure you can have fun at a concert when animal testing is still going strong, think of Keanu, and the wise words he uttered in "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure": "Party on, dudes!"

6). Getting really, really ridiculously angry
It's pretty easy to use the web and various social media tools as an outlet for your overwhelming rage: "WHY IS THE SUBWAY SO CROWDED ON TUESDAY MORNINGS!!!!!!!!!! SOME CHICK'S HAIR WAS LODGED IN MY MOUTH THE WHOLE TIME! I HATE NYC!!!!!"
However, the question becomes -- in the wake of such a message -- does anyone really care about your (totally justified) ire?
Well, take a look at Rageguy -- a comic character that grew popular via 4chan -- who basically just screams "ffffuuu" when something goes awry. He may be funny on the internets, but we wouldn't want to hang with him in real life.

7). Being adorable
Wait, how did that get in there?
Awwww, we want to stare at it all day! (Claps hands!)
What were we saying again?

The Social Networking History

2011-01-26T13:37:00.000-05:00

The Social Networking History... Visit: http://actimediadigital.com/social_media_history/

Twitter podría alcanzar en 2011 150 millones en ingresos publicitarios

2011-01-26T13:05:00.000-05:00

El sitio de microblogs Twitter podría obtener ingresos publicitarios de 150 millones de dólares este año, tras los 45 millones que alcanzó en 2010, según un estudio publicado el lunes por la firma eMarketer.

Para el año 2012, los ingresos podrían alcanzar los 250 millones de dólares, de acuerdo con el estudio.

"Uno de los motivos para esta fuerte previsión al alza es el futuro lanzamiento de una plataforma publicitaria autogestionada", al estilo de las que ya existen en Google y Facebook, explica eMarketer.

Twitter recibió el mes pasado unos 200 millones de dólares de financiamiento adicional por parte de fondos de inversión que deberían ayudar a gestionar su crecimiento. Según información de prensa, esta toma de participación valoriza el sitio web en 3.700 millones de dólares.

La TV quedó relegada por internet en los EEUU, Europa y China

2011-01-21T10:35:00.001-05:00

El consumo de contenidos web desbancó a la televisión y demás medios convencionales por primera vez en dichos territorios. Visitar redes sociales, la actividad más realizada. El estudio sobre consumo digital fue realizado entre cerca de 50.000 usuarios, de 16 a 60 años de edad, en 46 países.

La televisión sigue siendo el medio preferente en Latinoamérica, Asia, Oriente Medio y África, mientras en la India sigue siendo el clásico periódico de papel el más utilizado, por delante de la televisión, la radio e internet.

Del total de consumidores entrevistados, el 61% señaló que accede a diario a internet, el 54% consume televisión todos los días, el 36% escucha la radio, y el 32% lee periódicos a diario.

Según Jordi Ferrer, responsable del estudio Digital Life presentado en Madrid, la explicación sobre la preferencia de internet en los países más desarrollados, se debe a que "el medio digital responde a más necesidades que cualquier otro medio".

El informe analiza las actividades e intereses de los consumidores en internet, y revela que se dedica mas tiempo a las redes sociales -4,6 horas a la semana- que al correo electrónico, -4,4 horas- y a las páginas web, con 3,9 horas semanales o la lectura de noticias, 2,7 horas.

Respecto a las redes sociales, el estudio muestra que la media de amigos por usuario es de 120, aunque en Latinoamérica se llega hasta los 200, siendo los brasileños los que más amigos adjuntan a su cuenta, con 231.

En el caso de productos comerciales, el estudio concluye que en las redes sociales hay un promedio de cuatro marcas incluidas como amigos, y su presencia es considerada intrusiva.

En este sentido, cuatro de cada diez internautas consulta en la red antes de comprar, pero el 74% de ellos hace sus adquisiciones por la vía tradicional.

Digital Life completa el retrato del consumidor digital con seis perfiles diferentes: el influyente, el funcional, el buscador de conocimiento, los conectados a redes, los comunicadores y los aspirantes.

Un 23% se reconoce como "influyente", aquellos que participan y actúan en redes sociales, escriben en blogs y consideran que internet es una parte integral de su vida.

Ferrer aseguró que este perfil se concentra en los países "recién llegados a internet" como India o los países de Oriente Medio y norte de África.

Dos de cada diez dicen ser "comunicadores", usuarios activos en las redes sociales; un 17% siente que pertenece al perfil de "buscador de conocimiento", aquel usa internet para informarse y un 15% es "aspirante", ya que desea tener un espacio propio en internet.

Por último, un 13% dicen ser "funcionales", aquel internauta que usa internet como herramienta útil, y un 12% se encuadran en "conectados a redes", que consideran que internet ayuda a crear y mantener relaciones.

Fuente: EFE

Facebook será ahora accesible desde los celulares básicos

2011-01-21T10:31:00.000-05:00

La red social lanzó una aplicación para quienes no tienen un smartphone, como iPhone o Blackberry, que funcionará en más de 2.500 teléfonos de 14 países. Los usuarios de dispositivos de Nokia, Sony Ericsson o LG podrán acceder a una versión simplificada de la red social, y tendrán una descarga gratuita de datos durante los primeros 90 días.

"Queremos que la gente tenga una gran experiencia móvil, tenga el celular que tenga. Los teléfonos inteligentes ofrecen mejores características para compartir con amigos, pero no son los que usa la mayoría de la gente de todo el mundo", dijo en el blog de la compañía Mark Heynen, director de productos móviles de facebook.

La aplicación incluye una pantalla de inicio "de fácil navegación", una opción para sincronizar los contactos y otra para "desplazarse rápidamente" por las fotos y las actualizaciones de amigos.

Por ahora, está disponible en la República Dominicana, con el operador Viva, en Sri Lanka (Dialog), en Ucrania (Life), en Polonia (Play), en Singapur (StarHub), en Arabia Saudí (STC), en Hong Kong (Three), Túnez (Tunisiana) y Rumania (Vodafone).

Además, llegará "próximamente" a México (Telcel), Brasil (TIM), Canadá (Mobilicity), India (Reliance) y Bulgaria (Vivacom).

Wishing you a Socially colorful and Merry Christmas!

2010-12-09T16:28:00.000-05:00

Facebook holding mobile event next week

2010-10-31T15:30:00.000-04:00

The much-rumored and quickly denied Facebook phone could finally be unveiled next week--or at least something new relating to using the social network on mobile devices.

Earlier today the company began sending out invites to members of the press for a mobile-focused event next Wednesday at its headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif.

Back in September, rumors began swirling that the company was working with device manufacturers on a Facebook-branded handset. A Facebook spokesperson quickly responded by saying that it was flat-out false, and that "building phones is just not what we do."

Recent numbers made public by the company had said more than 150 million of its 500 million active members use the site from their phones. Facebook maintains both a mobile-friendly version of the site, and native software applications--both of which could end up being the focus of Wednesday's event, among possible hardware developments and partner tie-ins. CNET will be on the scene to bring you the news.

Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-27076_3-20021267-248.html?tag=mncol;title#ixzz13xzCJmCE

Apple goes shopping Adobe?

2010-10-25T21:13:00.001-04:00

You may have seen many rumors about super acquisitions in the technology world that have not passed it, rumors, but if the buzz that went through the internet today is confirmed, we will see in the coming months the explosion of one of the biggest bombs in history.

With 51 billion dollars in cash, it took Steve Jobs declares during a conference last week that Apple is keeping the money in order to use it in a “strategic opportunity” for some market analysts began to speculate about what are the targets of the company.

Among the names cited there are Adobe, Netflix, and even Facebook, which co-founder Mark Zuckerberg recently dined with Jobs, but the list does not stop there. Besides the giant Disney and Electronic Arts also included in the list, the most shocking possibility certainly talks about a possible purchase Sony. Although this deal seems very unlikely, it is important to mention that last year the creators of the Playstation family had a loss of $ 400 million and its market value today revolves around U.S. $ 40 billion, which would allow Apple still stay with a few bucks in the coffers to organize a party.

Does this mean that one day we will see an iPlaystation? Was very unlikely, but maybe people are just thinking with the head of a mere mortal, who can hardly imagine a transaction of this size and who are not prepared to experience a big change in the gaming industry. But who knows?

Facebook's 500MM + Users + Under-Monetized "like" Connections offer Significant New AD Opportunities

2010-10-25T21:05:00.000-04:00

5 Ways to Get a Job Through YouTube

2010-10-23T22:20:00.000-04:00

Not only is it possible to use YouTube to get a job, but it’s becoming a more popular option, especially for the current crop of would-be-employees that grew up with web video. Some argue that video is a more personal tool for job searching, acting as a digital interview, while others see it as cold and alienating, as it lacks the face-to-face element. But YouTube isn’t just about video resumes — there are a variety of creative ways to hop online and get hired.

Even better, YouTube isn’t just for Millennials. Web video can be useful for professionals of any age looking to expand their audience or pick up new clients. With a little creativity, honesty and hard work, you can utilize YouTube to create a more effective (and more interesting) professional and digital image, rather than just falling back on the ol’ resume (digital or not). Read on for five ways to use YouTube to get a job. If you’ve landed a position through YouTube, add your story and tips in the comments below.

1. Promote Yourself
While this may seem a little obvious, amazing opportunities can come out of promoting yourself on YouTube. Tom Ferry is a real estate training coach with a best-selling book, Life! By Design. He hopped on YouTube two and a half years ago in order to grow his audience and to own the SEO in his field. Ferry has received speaking engagements and consulting jobs across the world by showcasing his talents in one or two videos each week.

“I believe in the theory of free, perfect, and now,” Ferry said. “Perfect, means short [and] easy. It’s a free twist to marketing. It’s never a concern of, ‘Gosh, if I put all my best content up for free, will people stop hiring me?’ … If I do put it up, people will see I’m a force.” For his book, he made a weekly video explaining each chapter and offering crib notes. Rather than give his book away, it became a New York Times Best Seller.

Ferry said that his audience has been steadily building, thanks to properly tagging his videos to maximize SEO and by constantly offering useful videos to his followers.

2. Post and Hope
This strategy may be the “Hail Mary” of getting jobs through YouTube, but it has proven successful in many cases. Perhaps the most famous YouTube discovery is Justin Bieber (yes, that Justin Bieber).

Bieber posted homemade videos of himself singing. He quickly jumped from hundreds of views to thousands. After he built up enough buzz, he was discovered by his now manager, Scooter Braun, and introduced to Usher.

While it helps to have boyish good looks and singing talent (like fellow discoveree Greyson Chance), this strategy isn’t just limited to teen idols. Create a channel and post videos that highlight your expertise. If you’re great at building fences, film that and offer some added value. Cultivating your fan base and reaching out to your fans can help build enough credibility or buzz to launch your career.

3. Build It
YouTube can help get you a job even if you don’t like putting your face on camera. That’s what happened for Stanford student Feross Aboukhadijeh when he created YouTube Instant on a bet to his roommate. Aboukhadijeh built YouTube Instant shortly after the launch of Google Instant to bring the same insta-search features to the video platform.

The CEO of YouTube, Chad Hurley, was so impressed that he offered him a job over Twitter. Aboukhadijeh, now an employee at YouTube, continues to add features to his design while finishing his degree at Stanford.

Not all of us can build a site that will get noticed by major execs, but Aboukhadijeh proves that creativity and hirability aren’t limited by your on-screen personality. Try programming, coding, sketching or designing something in your desired field. For example, create a new bird design for Twitter or better user interface for Facebook and post it online — you never know who’s watching.

4. Be Creative
When 23-year-old Brian Freedman saw an ad to write financial articles for iGrad, a financial advice site for college students, he focused on a small side note offering to submit video instead. Freedman created a sample video on how to budget by using envelopes and was offered the job on the spot.

Freedman felt more comfortable speaking in front of a camera than writing a cover letter or traditional resume. YouTube allowed him to show his financial sense and on-screen personality to help him land the job ahead of other potential contributors. “Doing a video with YouTube is much more effective than a resume,” Freedman said. “It basically shows what you can do, what you are capable of.”

After nine videos, Freedman parted with iGrad to start his own channel taking a bluer (read: NSFW) approach to relationship advice. He was able to build his brand and draw in far more followers than with iGrad.

5. Enter Online Contests
These days, it’s not uncommon for a company or employer to host a video contest on YouTube to draw in potential candidates. For example, Dr. Pepper teamed up with Step Up Director Jon M. Chu to hold a YouTube Dance Contest to find a dancer to feature in an Ultra Records music video — check out the winner’s video above.

Video contests are so popular on YouTube that it has an entire page dedicated to contests ranging from short film contests to social good efforts. Keep an eye out for contests in your area of expertise and enter when the right opportunity comes along.

Final Tips
YouTube is a simple, snappy way to get yourself seen. Aside from the social media pop and pizazz, it’s quickly becoming an effective way to own SEO terms, build a brand, and find jobs. While some video proficiency helps, fancy film work and high tech cameras aren’t key to success. Approach YouTube with creativity, authenticity and consistency, and the results might just come your way.

6 of the Most Memorable Google Doodles

2010-10-23T11:33:00.001-04:00

On Friday, 21 May 2010, on the 30th anniversary of the arcade game Pac-Man, Google unveiled worldwide their first interactive logo. Anyone who visited Google could play Pac-Man on the logo, which featured the letters of the word 'Google' on the Pac-Man maze. The logo also mimicked the sounds the original arcade game made. The "I'm Feeling Lucky" button was replaced with an "Insert Coin" button. Pressing this once enabled you to play the Pac-Man logo. Pressing it once more added a second player, Ms. Pac-Man, enabling 2 players to play at once, controlled using the W,A,S,D keys, instead of the arrows as used by Player 1. Pressing it for a third time performed an "I'm Feeling Lucky" search. It was then removed on Sunday, May 23, 2010, initially replacing Pac-Man with the normal logo. Later on that day, Google released a permanent Google Pac-Man site, due to the popular user demand for the playable logo.

Google's August 29th logo celebrated Michael Jackson's birthday a couple of months after his death. The two Os in Google were replaced with two feet, en pointe, wearing patent leather shoes and shiny white socks below slightly-too-short trousers.

In 2009, Google marked the 40th anniversary of Sesame Street with a new 'doodle' featuring the programme's Cookie Monster. Users of Google in the UK, France and Canada were greeted with the hungry blue character's familiar 'googly eyes' in honour of the programme's four decades on air.

This doodle that appeared online in Sept 2010 was meant to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Flintstones.

On Friday, October 8, 2010, to mark what would have been the day before the 70th birthday of John Lennon, a 32-second "Video doodle" appeared on the google homepage. The "E" of google was shaped like a play button. The video was a simple animation that was accompanied by Lennon's song "Imagine."

On March 2010, the Pi Day, 3.14 was celebrated by math nerds and Google, worldwide. Having been conspicuously missing from Google's ever-growing repertoire of special-event doodles for years, Google finally relented and unleashed its inner nerd, not that it tried to hide it too hard in the past. And, perhaps to make up for all the years it skipped, Google went all out this time and showed off six common uses of the famous number. The Pi Day Google logo starts off with the formula everyone knows (?) for the area of a circle A = πr2, but goes on with some more advanced stuff. The two 'os' in Google are used to represent the sin(x) function over a 2π period.

Coolest Computer Mice

2010-10-23T11:28:00.000-04:00

Sexy Body Mouse
How could work with a computer ever be a sensual experience? Well, with the Pat-Says-Now Body Optical Mouse ($29.90) you'll be touching and moving around a voluptuous body dressed in fancy lingerie... the whole day.

World of Warcraft Mouse
What's a World of Warcraft session without a dedicated WOC mouse? That was gaming peripheral makers SteelSeries' sentiments when they created the SteelSeries World of Warcraft Mouse ($99.99) for its 11 million devoted users. It would take three hands with all digits intact to match the number of buttons on SteelSeries' new World of Warcraft MMO mouse. That's right - 15 programmable buttons grace the rodent's funky cyborgish exterior, and each one of them was designed in conjunction with Blizzard specifically with WoW addicts in mind. The new mouse level's up its macros skillset by affording macros up to 160 characters long, with over 130 predefined commands for drag-and-drop macro creation in place. But you might find yourself spending the majority of your time grinding away at the light scheme. And get this: the world's first WoW mouse boasts no less than 16 million illumination choices with 3 intensity and pulsation levels. Not bad!

Hamburger Mouse
This is one burger at the deskop that won't drop any crumbs into your keyboard - the Hamburger Mouse ($19.95). Its deliciously ergonomic design has a guarantee of approximately three million clicks, probably one million more than you'll ever need in your lifetime, unless you're a sucker for point-and-click RPGs such as old school Diablo.

77% de los empleados de PYMEs usan redes sociales en horario de trabajo

2010-10-13T20:46:00.000-04:00

Panda Security, the Cloud Security Company, anuncia los resultados de su primer informe anual sobre el Índice de Riesgo de las redes sociales para PYMEs en Estados Unidos. El estudio, que ha sido llevado a cabo en 315 empresas de USA de hasta 1.000 empleados durante el mes de julio, revela que el uso de redes sociales durante horario de trabajo es una práctica habitual (el 77% de los empleados lo hacen), y consecuentemente, el 33% dice que se ha infectado la red corporativa por malware que se ha distribuido a través de estas comunidades.

Según el estudio, las mayores preocupaciones de las PYMEs respecto a las redes sociales incluyen la privacidad y las pérdidas económicas (74%), infecciones de malware (69%), pérdida de productividad de los empleados (60%) y las relacionadas con la reputación de la empresa (50%), seguida de los problemas del rendimiento y uso de la red (29%).

Sin embargo, esta preocupación no impide a las PYMEs la utilización de los beneficios de las redes sociales, ya que un 78% de los encuestados reportan que utilizan estas herramientas para apoyar la investigación y la inteligencia competitiva, mejorar su servicio de soporte al cliente, implementar las relaciones públicas y las iniciativas de marketing y generar beneficios directos. Facebook es la herramienta social más popular utilizada por las PYMEs: 69% de las empresas tienen cuentas activas en este sitio, seguido por Twitter (44%), YouTube (32%) y LinkedIn (23%).

Facebook se convierte en la fuente principal de infecciones de malware

Facebook es mencionado como el principal culpable para las compañías que han experimentado infecciones de malware (71,6%) y violaciones de privacidad (73,2%). YouTube ocupa el segundo lugar en cuanto a infecciones (41,2%), mientras que Twitter contribuyó a una cantidad significativa de violaciones de privacidad (51%). Para las compañías que han reportado pérdidas económicas debido a violaciones de privacidad por parte de los empleados, Facebook, fue una vez más el sitio más mencionado como el sitio social en el que se originaron las pérdidas (62%), seguido de Twitter (38%), YouTube (24%) y LinkedIn (11%).

Políticas y educación prevalecen entre las PYMEs

Para minimizar los riesgos asociadas con las redes sociales, 57% de las compañías tienen en la actualidad políticas de regulación, con un 81% de estas empresas que tienen personal para poner en marcha estas políticas. Además, el 64% de las compañías encuestadas reportan haber tenidos programas de formación para educar a los empleados en los riesgos y beneficios de las redes sociales en el trabajo. La mayoría de los encuestados (62%) no permiten el uso personal de las redes sociales en el trabajo.

Las restricciones más comunes incluyen: juegos (32%); publicar contenido no apropiado en las redes sociales (31%), e instalar aplicaciones no autorizadas (25%). Además el 25% de las compañías dicen bloquear activamente los sitios populares para los empleados, mayoritariamente a través de appliances y/o servicios de seguridad basados en servicios web (45%).

Además, el 35% de las empresas infectadas han sufrido pérdidas económicas, y más de un tercio de éstas, estiman las pérdidas en más de $5.000.

“Las redes sociales están ampliamente extendidas en las PYMEs por sus obvios beneficios, aunque estas herramientas suponen un serio riesgo“, según Luis Corrons, Director Técnico de PandaLabs. “La concienciación y la educación en el correcto uso de estas redes sociales es fundamental para sacar el máximo provecho de la comunidad. Junto a la mejor protección de la red corporativa, la utilización del sentido común –muchas veces el menos común de los sentidos- es lo que nos va a evitar dolores de cabeza derivados de problemas tanto de seguridad como de privacidad."

Apple to get back to basics, possibly Mac with FaceTime

2010-10-13T20:44:00.000-04:00

Amid all of the hoopla around the Apple’s iPhone, iPad and the once a year debut of new iPods, it’s easy to forget that the Mac is a key cog in the company’s performance.

On Oct. 20, two days after Apple’s earnings, the company will hold a “Back to the Mac” powwow. Given the title it’s safe to assume there are some revamped Macs on the horizon.

It’s about time. Perhaps I’m too old school, but it’s a bit galling that the trusty Mac has been so forgotten. In Wall Street reports you have to scroll through iPhone and iPad talk—with the mentions of Apple TV and iPods—to maybe get to a footnote about the Mac.

Is that anyway to treat Macs, which are expected to ship 13.5 million units for the year ending Sept. 30? And these Macs have an average selling price of $1,323, according to Jefferies & Co. Apple made no mention of the Mac OS at its developer’s powwow a few months ago, but appears to be hinting at OS X Lion. And aside from a revamped Mini, Mac users haven’t had much to fawn over. Instead, the Mac has taken a back seat to the iPad, which is now being dubbed the Mac for the masses.

Well enough of that. Give us some Mac love dammit!

So what will we see? Analysts seem to be betting that a FaceTime enabled iMac is around the corner.

Indeed, Barclays Capital analyst Ben Reitzes has been beating the Apple FaceTime drum. To Reitzes, FaceTime is Apple’s killer app that can propel the company’s entire line-up.

Reitzes said in a research note:

We project Apple will sell almost 63mm FaceTime capable devices by the end of FY11. In FY12, we see that figure jumping to an installed base of over 150mm, which could prove conservative if FaceTime is put in all iPads & Macs. It seems Apple has the complete package to make FaceTime grow into a multiplier for its device sales through vertical integration.

Sounds interesting. Perhaps it’s time to meet the Mac as video conferencing unit.

Life after Google: Brad Neuberg's HTML5 start-up

2010-10-12T08:55:00.000-04:00

For someone interested in capitalizing on the new era of advanced Web standards, you'd think Google would be a pretty good employer. After all, it's got an up-and coming browser, some of the world's most influential Web applications, and plenty of money to invest in both.

But in the culture of Silicon Valley, sometimes there's a time to strike off on one's own, and that's what Brad Neuberg, a very visible Web programmer at Google, decided to do. He announced his departure on the eve of a speech last week at the Future of Web Apps conference here.

In an interview with CNET afterward, Neuberg said he plans to launch a San Francisco start-up in November focusing on the same suite of Web technology he's been steeped in at Google. He's cagey on details, but he said he plans to focus on Web applications for consumers.

"I drank the HTML5 Kool-Aid," he said, saying it and other Web standards are fueling a new wave of entrepreneurial activity. " I really believe we're starting to see those start-ups. We'll see that accelerate in the next six months to a year and a half."
Plus, he didn't like spending three hours a day commuting from San Francisco to Google's Mountain View, Calif., offices and back for two years and nine months of his life.

"What am I sacrificing? It didn't all fit," he said. "I should be doing what I would do if I won the lottery," so now he's begun trying to gather a group of like-minded folk for the start-up.

Read more: http://news.cnet.com/webware/?tag=hdr;snav#ixzz129I5ob00

Importante herramienta para descargar tu data publicada en Facebook

2010-10-12T08:52:00.000-04:00

Among the three new features introduced by Facebook last week, one of the last ones to make it to the hands of users was the personal data downloader. It's also one of the most interesting of the bunch, since it effectively gives users an escape hatch to grab everything they've ever uploaded to Facebook and take it elsewhere.

The feature finally went live over the weekend, and I've had a chance to put it through its paces. The good news is that it's one of the simplest options I've ever seen for such a large amount of data. The bad news is that because it's just your information, you may find it's missing a lot of things that include you, but that were uploaded by others.

So what does the service do? It grabs every photo, video, wall post, private message, event, and scrap of profile information from your Facebook account, and puts into a tidy little zip file. In essence, it's your entire Facebook identity in just a folder.

To get this wealth of information, you have to jump through a handful of security hoops. Even if you're signed into Facebook, you need to re-enter your password to request it. Also, if you're on a computer that Facebook is unfamiliar with, it will ask you to solve a captcha. Facebook will then beginning pulling together all those files, which it does in the background, before sending you an e-mail to let you know it's done.

For me, the turnaround time from filling out my information to getting the download link was less than 10 minutes. And the size of the download? 270MB.

Once you have that file in hand, your profile is broken into folders. This includes photos and videos, though unfortunately, this works out a little better for videos than it does for photos.

Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-27076_3-20019200-248.html

Adobe Presenta Flash Media Server 4

2010-09-10T11:07:00.000-04:00

La nueva familia de software Flash Server mejora radicalmente la entrega escalable de video y aplicaciones de medios sociales. Adobe Systems Incorporated anunció durante la Conferencia y Exhibición IBC 2010 la disponibilidad del software Adobe® Flash® Media Server 4, la solución líder de la industria para flujo de video y comunicación en tiempo real. Con este importante anuncio, Adobe está develando una solución de video para cada tipo de cliente con tres nuevas versiones: Flash Media Streaming Server 4, Flash media Interactive Server 4 y Flash Media Enterprise Server 4, el primer lanzamiento que permite red asistida por expertos, con Real Time Media Flow Protocol (RTMFP), que reduce drásticamente el uso de ancho de banda. Estas nuevas versiones son un avance en el liderazgo de la compañía en la entrega de medios ricos y abre importantes nuevas oportunidades para propietarios de contenido que desean entregar experiencias de medios de alta calidad y eficientes en red a un costo menor, al tiempo que alcanzan la más amplia audiencia posible, en cualquier pantalla.

La información en detalle la pueden encontrar en http://actimediadigital.com/site/det_noticia_a.php?id=154

Algunos fósiles de la evolución de la música y sus formatos

2010-09-08T12:12:00.000-04:00

The Social Network Official Trailer -In theatres Oct 1 2010

2010-08-27T10:51:00.001-04:00

El lápiz de Wacom hace su debut en deviantART.com

2010-08-27T09:57:00.000-04:00

DeviantART la aplicación para dibujo con base en la Web, que ahora tiene un plug-in de soporte para las tabletas Wacom, presentó una herramienta de dibujo para artistas, con opciones de sensibilidad a la presión del lápiz, manejo de las capas y multiplicidad de pinceles. La herramienta de dibujo, llamado deviantArt Muro está desarrollada en HTML5 y ofrece a los usuarios de las tabletas y pantallas interactivas de lápiz Wacom una forma natural e intuitiva para dibujar, pintar y expresar su creatividad dentro de la comunidad deviantART.

Proporcionando función, velocidad y flexibilidad superior en comparación con otras aplicaciones de dibujo basado en Web, deviantArt Muro es gratuita para todos los miembros de deviantART y su lanzamiento virtual garantiza su adopción inmediata por parte de millones de artistas en todo el mundo. "DeviantART Muro da un importante paso para la comunidad de las artes al integrar la sensibilidad a la presión en la Web”, dijo Scott Rawlings, vicepresidente de marketing de Wacom. "Ahora, cualquier usuario de las tabletas de lápiz Wacom puede crear arte e interactuar con la comunidad de artistas en deviantART, lo que abre la puerta a un nuevo y apasionante mundo en la exploración creativa y la colaboración".

Wacom provee opciones magníficas de tabletas y dispositivos interactivos de lápiz para el artista profesional y serio: la tableta de lápiz de escritorio Intuos®4, disponible en cuatro tamaños, da 2048 niveles de sensibilidad a la presión en un diseño ergonómico y elegante; y la pantalla interactiva de lápiz Cintiq® de 12 o 21 pulgadas, que permiten el modo más avanzado y natural de trabajar, al mezclar el arte y el diseño directamente en la pantalla con el lápiz sin baterías, cables y sensible a la presión de Wacom.

Hay gente que nunca debería usar un iPhone

2010-07-31T22:02:00.001-04:00

El mundial terminó pero esta celebración de gol es la mejor vista

2010-07-31T21:59:00.000-04:00

Versión 2 - TV Spot para Service America

2010-07-30T15:40:00.000-04:00

Versión 2 del comercial de Televisión (30 segundos) de Service America.
Producido por Actimedia

Nuevo TV Spot de 30" para Service America

2010-07-30T15:37:00.000-04:00

Versión 1 del comercial de Televisión (30 segundos) de Service America.
Producido por Actimedia

Adobe Abre Inscripciones para MAX 2010

2010-06-28T21:43:00.000-04:00

El evento mundial reúne a diseñadores y desarrolladores para idear el futuro de los medios digitales y las experiencias Web.

Adobe Systems Incorporated anunció el inicio de las inscripciones para MAX 2010, la conferencia mundial anual de Adobe que tendrá lugar del 23 al 27 de octubre en el Convention Center de Los Ángeles, en Estados Unidos. En MAX 2010, miles de diseñadores, desarrolladores y líderes de negocios descubrirán la nueva ola de oportunidades impulsadas por la explosión del contenido y aplicaciones ricas en múltiples pantallas, la fusión del contenido digital y comercial y los flujos de trabajo integrales para diseño y desarrollo.

El lema de MAX “Connect. Discover. Inspire” es el telón de fondo de 5 días de sesiones informativas, laboratorios prácticos e incontables oportunidades de relacionamiento que se enfocarán en tres tendencias tecnológicas emergentes: la entrega fluida de contenido en múltiples pantallas, nuevas maneras de monetizar contenido y aplicaciones y nuevas tecnologías para permitir flujos de trabajo integrales de diseño y desarrollo.

MAX 2010 contará con presentaciones del presidente y CEO de Adobe, Shantanu Narayen, y el director de tecnología Kevin Lynch, así como de luminarias de la industria. Los participantes podrán conectarse con miles de personas de la comunidad, así como con equipos de producto Adobe, en sesiones organizadas y discusiones “no conferencia”. El evento también incluirá adelantos de tecnología, sesiones técnicas y un pabellón central de la comunidad con exhibiciones de clientes y socios.

Para más información: http://actimediadigital.com/site/det_noticia_a.php?id=147

Social Media Revolution... enjoy!

2010-06-01T08:30:00.000-04:00

Twitter, ¿es bueno para la publicidad?

2010-05-31T09:01:00.000-04:00

La red social de microblogging, Twitter, empezará a crear ganancias con la venta de publicidad focalizada (mensajes de 140 caracteres específicos de una marca o empresas) a finales de este año, pero, qué tan viable puede ser contratar este servicio cuando la penetración del Internet en América Latina es bastante limitada?

Twitter anunció el pasado mes de abril que agregará a su sistema de negocio mensajes promocionales (promoted tweets) los cuales se mezclarán en el flujo de información de los usuarios que se relacionen con el tema o la marca. Firmas como Sony, Starbucks, y Best Buy han sido los primeros interesados en el servicio.

"Esto se aprecia cuando en el sector no hay una respuesta a como hacer negocio y se van por la publicidad. El modelo basado en ingresos publicitarios nunca ha funcionado, puede ser un ingreso complementario pero nunca ha sustentado al 100% un negocio", comentó Ernesto Piedras, director general de The Competitive Intelligence Unit (CIU).

Hay que señalar que el microbblog había dicho desde su nacimiento que su propuesta era totalmente vinculada al entretenimiento y la comunicación por lo que nunca optaría por tener publicidad.

Más información: http://actimediadigital.com/site/det_noticia_a.php?id=142

Cosas que probablemente no sabias de Facebook

2010-05-26T21:23:00.000-04:00

Cómo promoverse en Twitter!

2010-05-26T19:00:00.000-04:00

Todos sabíamos que, tarde o temprano, la publicidad iba a llegar a Twitter. La cuestión, más que el “cuándo”, era el “cómo”. Este vídeo, encontrado en esTwitter.com, explica muy bien la manera de financiarse de los creadores del Tweet

Social Media vs Pornografía en Internet...!

2010-05-26T18:55:00.000-04:00

Llegó el Adobe CS5 en Actimedia... mucha evolución y profesionalismo en los Screens

2010-05-26T14:25:00.000-04:00

Adobe Anuncia Soporte para HTML5 en Dreamweaver CS5

2010-05-20T15:26:00.000-04:00

Adobe Systems Incorporated anunció en la conferencia Google I/O una nueva solución HTML5 que está disponible de inmediato para diseñadores y desarrolladores Web. El Adobe HTML5 Pack es una extensión de Adobe Dreamweaver CS5, la más reciente versión de la herramienta de autoría HTML líder de la industria para diseño de sitios Web. Esta extensión ofrece más opciones creativas a los usuarios de Adobe Creative Suite 5, para que puedan crear, entregar y optimizar de forma más fácil y consistente los conjuntos de contenido, sobre la más amplia gama de pantallas, y así maximizar la facturación y llevar adelante sus negocios.

Para más información visiten: http://actimediadigital.com/site/det_noticia_a.php?id=139

Un intro animado para el recuerdo!

2010-05-17T20:33:00.000-04:00

Explicación de Steve Jobs sobre Flash (Adobe) y los productos de Apple

2010-05-13T22:40:00.000-04:00

Aquí está el enlace a la explicación de Apple sobre la situación que ha ocurrido entre Adobe y Apple por el tema de Flash y los productos iPhone, iPad, etc. Bien interesante por la visión del mercado de internet a nivel de movilidad que sin duda reinará en los próximos años, También importante la introducción del HTML5... para todos los diseñadores web que deben ir apegándose a estas nuevas tecnologías... por lo visto bienvenido el "CODIGO".

http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughts-on-flash

...

Actimedia le "RECUERDA" el día de las madres a todos sus panitas

2010-05-07T21:24:00.000-04:00

“Furia de Titanes” potenciada con NVIDIA Quadro

2010-05-05T17:43:00.000-04:00

Desafío:

Es más que evidente que donde quiera que usted mire las películas en tercera dimensión (3D) están captando la imaginación del público. Como lo muestran los recientes éxitos de taquilla “Avatar” y “Alicia en el País de las Maravillas”, las audiencias siguen exigiendo películas en 3D. Los estudios cinematográficos y los espectadores de todo el mundo han invertido millones de dólares en los últimos meses para sumergirse en la experiencia 3D.

Hollywood está respondiendo con más de 20 películas en tercera dimensión listas para estrenarse en lo que resta del 2010. Este apetito por 3D está demandando que muchas más compañías de efectos visuales (VFX) apoyen el desarrollo de películas y contenido de televisión en 3D.

Una de estas compañías es Prime Focus, que recientemente necesitaba equipar a su oficina en Hollywood con una línea de proyección en 3D actualizada para soportar la conversión de “Furia de Titanes” (Clash of the Titans) de Warner Bros. en menos de 10 semanas.

Para crear una versión en tercera dimensión de la película, Prime Focus requería una solución que fuera capaz de producir una secuencia en 3D de interfaz digital serial (HD-SDI) en alta definición, y permitir rápidamente revisiones de alta calidad del trabajo en 3D en progreso para sus artistas y supervisores de efectos visuales. Como un proceso impulsado por artistas, la línea de conversión 3D View-D™ propietaria de Prime Focus depende de la capacidad de los artistas para colaborar de forma estrecha y efectiva con el equipo de filmación.

Solución:

Aquí entra NVIDIA. Aprovechando la tecnología de procesamiento gráfico NVIDIA Quadro (GPU), el equipo de View-D pudo facilitar revisiones de alta calidad rápidas del trabajo 3D.

Prime Focus preparó una línea para permitir el direccionamiento del video 3D SDI hacia las estaciones de trabajo equipadas con soluciones gráficas profesionales Quadro. Los sistemas de reproducción de 3D de la oficina pudieron direccionar las secuencias de contenido 3D a tres diferentes salas de proyección en cualquier momento dado. El equipo utilizó IRIDAS Framecycler para reproducir los archivos de revisión y conformar los rollos. IRIDAS es una compañía que utilizó la primera solución de graduación de color en tiempo real basada en los gráficos profesionales NVIDIA Quadro, y fue uno de los primeros sistemas en ofrecer debayering en tiempo real así como soporte de Stereo 3D. Teniendo Framecycler acelerado para NDIVIA Quadro, el equipo de Prime Focus pudo hacer ajustes de convergencia y paralaje en el momento para reflejar las revisiones del director y los artistas.

Impacto:

El diseñador de la línea de proyección 3D de Prime Focus, Sean Konrad, explicó, “Con la plataforma NVIDIA Quadro SDI, mientras los clientes estaban revisando en una sala, nosotros permitimos que los estereógrafos internos revisaran las tomas en otro proyector en una sala distinta. Pudimos establecer simultáneamente la convergencia y hacer ajustes mientras un editor trabajaba en conformar las tomas en otra sala de proyección. La línea basada en NVIDIA nos permitió hacer mucha multitarea dentro de las oficinas – esto fue absolutamente crítico, ya que estábamos enviando casi 20 minutos de tomas en estéreo a lo largo de la línea todos los días”.

Konrad continuo, “Mucho del éxito de nuestro proceso depende de repetir a menudo, y ver el material en estéreo en tan alta calidad como sea posible. Entre más a menudo podíamos poner a los clientes, editores, estereógrafos internos y artistas frente al material, podíamos permitir más avanzar en la dirección indicada, porque con el 3D estéreo hay un número infinito de direcciones a las que usted puede ir. Tener algo tangible y visible en el mejor medio posible fue realmente importante, y eso es lo que NVIDIA Quadro nos da”.

“El 3D estereoscópico ofrece a las audiencias una experiencia interactiva sorprendente, pero también agrega una dimensión de complejidad a los efectos visuales y los flujos de trabajo de posproducción”, señaló Dominick Spina, gerente de tecnología de cine digital de NVIDIA. “La NVIDIA Quadro Digital Video Pipeline con la entrada y salida HD-SDI ofrece tecnología completa, flexible y accesible que las compañías pueden usar para crear películas 3D y otro tipo de contenido 3D”.
“Furia de Titanes” se estrenó en 2D y 3D el 2 de abril y fue el primer proyecto de conversión 3D estéreo que utilizó el proceso View-D de Prime Focus. Prime Focus tuvo varios proyectos de conversión adicionales de 2D a 3D de cine y televisión, y anticipa utilizar líneas de proyección 3D similares en sus oficinas de Londres, Vancouver y Mumbai.

Customización de páginas web en Facebook

2010-04-28T23:27:00.000-04:00

Bueno para no seguir diciendo ese terrible pero verdadero dicho "casa de herrero cuchillo de palo" finalmente tenemos lista nuestra página en Facebook "customizada" para todos nuestros amigos que allí disfrutan nuestras noticias, galerías, demos e información en general.

Por cierto y hablando de Facebook bien importante mencionar el crecimiento que proyecta y como ha logrado ganar un espacio llamado "competencia" contra un grande como Google con un claro modelo de negocio bien definido y éxitoso, dejamos abierta una idea, solo por un momento imaginen que Facebook ofreciera un Search Engine no solo dentro de Facebook como es actualmente sino en la web completo, tal como Google. Lo cual no es una idea tan descabellada ya que si bien desarrollarlo pudiera significar una fuerte inversión de tiempo y dinero que pasaría con alguna alianza o compra de Yahoo, Altavista, Ask o algún modelo similar que pudiera ser mejorado en corto tiempo y sin mucho esfuerzo.

¿Exagerado e iluso? y no fue algo parecido cuando escuchamos que Adobe compraría Macromedia, o que de HP con Compaq... y así tantos verdad.

Bueno, eso ya es un tema mucho mejor de leer o compartir con empresarios especializados en la compra y venta de empresas y/o inversionistas conocedores de acciones y hasta de wallstreet, por ahora simplemente revisen el look de nuestra página en Facebook lo que si es importante que mediten después de verla es ¿por qué Actmedia debe tener una página dentro de Facebook si ya tiene su propia página? - ¿Por qué las grandes empresas que ya tienen excelentes sitios web y en los cuales invierten fuertes sumas de dinero en infraestructura, software, desarrollo, seguridad y mercadeo también estan haciendo lo mismo?

Página en Facebook de Actimedia: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Caracas-Venezuela/Actimedia/48264843219?v=app_4949752878&ref=ts

Adobe Creative Suite 5 Production Premium

2010-04-21T17:26:00.000-04:00

Facebook ofrece anuncios gratis para fundaciones de caridad

2010-04-20T19:36:00.001-04:00

La red social puso a disposición de diversas entidades caritativas la posibilidad de anunciarse de manera gratuita, aunque podría ser rechazada

La iniciativa se entiende como respuesta a la declinación de instalar un 'botón del pánico' para ayudar los menores. Sin embargo, la propuesta podría ser rechazada por la Asociación Nacional de Prevención de Crueldad contra los Chicos (NSPCC, en sus siglas en inglés), ya que las entidades caritativas "no quieren una alternativa" a la instalación del citado sistema de seguridad.

"Si facebook tiene propuestas que hagan más seguro su espacio, estamos contentos de escucharlo. Pero no sería interesante para nosotros que esto supusiera una alternativa para el botón de alerta", explica un portavoz del NSPCC, según The Times.

Por su parte, la responsable de la organización caritativa BeatBullying recuerda que la "oportunidad de trabajar" con facebook abre la puerta a estas entidades a introducir el 'botón de pánico', al igual que han conseguido con otras redes sociales como MSN o Bebo.

Después de la reunión con representantes de estas asociaciones, facebook ha explicado en un comunicado que la oferta que ha presentado es "equivalente a lanzar un millón de consejos de seguridad de expertos al día".

Adobe Anuncia Creative Suite 5 Web Premium

2010-04-20T19:05:00.000-04:00

La Analítica Integrada de Omniture y las Poderosas Capacidades Flash Ofrecen una Serie de Herramientas para Crear, Probar y Desplegar Contenido Web.

Para más información: Click Aquí

Adobe Presenta Creative Suite 5 Design Premium

2010-04-15T19:04:00.000-04:00

Adobe Systems Incorporated anunció hoy Adobe® Creative Suite® 5 Design Premium, el kit de herramientas crucial para expresar y publicar ideas en medios impresos, en la Web como contenido interactivo y en dispositivos móviles. Adobe Creative Suite 5 Design Premium incluye todas las nuevas versiones de Adobe Photoshop® CS5 Extended, Adobe Illustrator® CS5, Adobe InDesign® CS5, Adobe Flash® CS5 Professional, Adobe Dreamweaver® CS5 y Adobe Fireworks® CS5, así como Adobe Acrobat® 9 Pro, integración con los nuevos servicios Adobe CS Live (los servicios en línea CS Live son gratuitos por tiempo limitado)* y Adobe Flash® Catalyst™ CS5 para el diseño interactivo sin necesidad de escribir código. También estará disponible una nueva versión de Adobe Creative Suite 5 Design Standard.

“La expectativa es que Adobe produzca una Creative Suite capaz de diseñar visuales fantásticos, pero desde nuestro punto de vista, eso ya no es suficiente”, afirmó John Loiacono, vicepresidente senior y gerente general de Soluciones Creativas de Adobe. “Con el contenido volviéndose móvil y un mercado editorial listo para una nueva generación de dispositivos, los editores y los diseñadores dependen de Adobe para también ofrecer ahora la funcionalidad y la precisión para desarrollar un trabajo sorprendente que puede mostrarse virtualmente en cualquier medio. Es por eso que Creative Suite 5 es una versión atractiva”.

Para más información: http://actimediadigital.com/site/det_noticia_a.php?id=131

El Top10 de nuevas y más importantes Features de Adobe CS5

2010-04-12T19:37:00.000-04:00

Un recorrido general por las nuevas features de la suite... http://www.maclife.com/article/news/top_10_new_features_cs5

Lo nuevo de Google: Search Stories Video Creator

2010-04-12T18:58:00.000-04:00

Google no para. Hace poco nos sorprendió con Google Buzz y ahora nos presenta Search Stories Video Creator. Al margen usarlo la primera vez para montar un vídeo gracioso no se me ocurre una buena razón para utilizarlo. ¿Se te ocurre a ti?

Redes sociales: ¿Moda, tendencia o revolución?

2010-04-12T18:50:00.000-04:00

Proyectado en el evento “Vive le roi”, organizado por la agencia de publicidad cientouno y AERCO. Muchos datos del vídeo llaman poderosamente la atención, pero los que más me interesan son éstos:

El 30% de los usuarios que utilizan las redes sociales recuerda la publicidad que ve en ellas.

El 52% se hace seguidor de alguna marca.

El 46% habla favorablemente de esas marcas.

El 20% de los tweets en Estados Unidos habla de alguna marca o producto.

La empresa con más seguidores en Twitter es Dell: @delloulet tiene más de un millón y medio de followers, y en dos años ha dado unos beneficios de seis millones y medio de dólares.

El vídeo plantea la duda de si las redes sociales son una moda pasajera. La “burbuja de las punto com“, a principios del siglo XXI, dio fin a una era en la que Internet estaba asentado sobre pilares muy poco sólidos. ¿Nos encaminamos a una quiebra como la de entonces, en las que había empresas cuyo valor en Bolsa multiplicaba su valor real?

Nadie lo sabe. Lo que sabemos seguro es que, aunque estén Tuenti o Google sobrevaloradas, las redes sociales están cambiando muchos de nuestros hábitos. Las empresas se han dado cuenta, y por eso surgen nuevos perfiles como el community manager, y asociaciones en torno a esta nueva profesión como AERCO.

¿Y tú qué piensas que son las redes sociales? ¿Una moda pasajera o un cambio que ha llegado para quedarse?

Adobe Presenta la Familia de Productos Creative Suite 5

2010-04-12T15:57:00.000-04:00

Las Herramientas Innovadoras de Diseño Interactivo Aumentan el Impacto del Contenido Creativo y de las Campañas de Marketing Digitales para diferentes Medios y Dispositivos

Adobe Systems Incorporated anunció hoy Adobe® Creative Suite® 5, una innovadora versión del software de diseño y desarrollo líder de la industria, para virtualmente todo flujo de trabajo creativo. Enfocándose en la interactividad, el desempeño y maximizar el impacto del contenido digital y de las campañas de marketing, la línea de productos Creative Suite 5 aporta actualizaciones de las versiones completas de las herramientas creativas representativas al tiempo de ofrecer mejoras importantes en el flujo de trabajo a diseñadores y desarrolladores. Integrando por primera vez capacidades de optimización de contenido en línea y mercadotecnia digital, los productos Creative Suite® 5 incluyen acceso a las tecnologías Omniture, para capturar, almacenar y analizar información generada por sitios Web y otras fuentes. Además, un componente totalmente nuevo, Adobe Flash® Catalyst™ se une a Creative Suite, e inicia la capacidad de diseñar contenido interactivo sin escribir código y mejorar el proceso colaborativo entre el diseñador y el desarrollador.

La familia de productos Adobe CS5 también permite la creación de contenido y aplicaciones para los anticipados lanzamientos de Flash Player 10.1 y Adobe AIR® 2, que están optimizados para un alto desempeño en las pantallas móviles y diseñados para aprovechar las capacidades propias de los dispositivos para otorgar una experiencia más rica y profunda a los usuarios.
La nueva línea esta liderada por la Adobe Creative Suite 5 Master Collection, que incluye en un solo paquete todas las renombradas herramientas Creative Suite de Adobe como Photoshop® CS5, Illustrator® CS5, InDesign® CS5, Flash Catalyst CS5, Flash CS5 Professional, Dreamweaver® CS5, Adobe Premiere® Pro CS5 y After Effects® CS5. Estas herramientas también están disponibles por separado o en una de las cinco ediciones de Creative Suite. La línea Creative Suite 5 incluye: Creative Suite 5 Master Collection, Creative Suite 5 Design Premium, Creative Suite 5 Web Premium, Creative Suite 5 Production Premium, Creative Suite 5 Design Standard, así como 15 productos, tecnologías asociadas e integración con los nuevos servicios Adobe CS Live (los servicios CS Live son gratuitos por tiempo limitado).*

“Mientras Creative Suite 5 continúa la ilustre historia de Adobe de ofrecer sorprendentes y nuevas características creativas, esta versión supera en primer lugar los desafíos que enfrentan los editores y creativos de todo el mundo – cómo generar negocios rentables alrededor del contenido digital”, señaló Shantanu Narayen, presidente y director ejecutivo de Adobe. “Al unir la analítica de negocio en línea con nuestras herramientas creativas estamos asegurando que los editores, diseñadores y vendedores puedan crear, ofrecer y optimizar experiencias digitales atractivas y de alto impacto a través de diferentes medios y dispositivos”.

Diseño sin Fronteras
Se han integrado más de 250 nuevas características a la Adobe Creative Suite 5 Master Collection. InDesign CS5 está potenciando la transición a la publicación digital con nuevos documentos interactivos y el soporte mejorado de dispositivos de lectura electrónicos. La creación y edición de imágenes reciben un impulso con la tecnología Refine Edge en Photoshop CS5 que ofrece una mayor ventaja para detectar tecnología y cubrir resultados en menos tiempo. Photoshop CS5 también incluye la capacidad de eliminar un elemento de la imagen y reemplazar de inmediato los píxeles faltantes con Content-Aware Fill. Las nuevas opciones de pinceladas permiten que los usuarios de Adobe Illustrator CS5 creen pinceladas de grosor variable y ajustar con precisión el grosor en cualquier punto a lo largo de la pincelada.

Trabaje Más Rápido con Mayor Precisión
Los avances en ingeniería de la Adobe Creative Suite 5 Master Collection trabajan en conjunto para mejorar considerablemente el desempeño. Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Premiere Pro y After Effects ahora son aplicaciones nativas de 64 bits en Mac y Windows®, permitiendo a los usuarios trabajar más fluidamente cuando trabajan en proyectos de alta resolución. El tan anticipado Adobe Mercury Playback Engine acelerado por la NVIDIA® GPU permite a los usuarios de Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 abrir proyectos más rápido, refinar secuencias HD ricas en efectos en tiempo real y reproducir proyectos complejos sin renderización. La revolucionaria herramienta Robo Brush de After Effects ayuda a los usuarios a aislar los elementos en primer plano en movimiento a una fracción del tiempo normal. Además, Dreamweaver CS5 ahora soporta los populares sistemas de administración de contenido Drupal, Joomla! Y WordPress, permitiendo a los diseñadores tener vistas precisas de contenido Web dinámico desde el interior del producto.

Acelere y Perfeccione los Flujos de Trabajo Creativos
Los productos Adobe Creative Suite 5 se integran con la nueva Adobe CS Live*, una serie de cinco servicios en línea que aceleran los aspectos clave del flujo de trabajo creativo y permiten a los diseñadores enfocarse en crear su mejor obra.

Los servicios en línea CS Live son gratuitos durante un periodo de tiempo limitado y actualmente incluyen: Adobe BrowserLab, Adobe CS Review, Acrobat.com, Adobe Story y SiteCatalyst® NetAverages™ de Omniture. Adobe CS Review permite las revisiones de diseño en línea directamente de las aplicaciones Creative Suite 5, mientras que Adobe BrowserLab es una herramienta indispensable para probar contenido de sitios Web a través de diferentes navegadores y sistemas operativos. NetAverages ofrece información del uso Web que ayuda a reducir las conjeturas al inicio del proceso creativo cuando se diseña para la Web o las plataformas móviles. Adobe Story es una herramienta para hacer guiones en colaboración que mejora los flujos de trabajo de producción y posproducción de CS5 Production Premium.

El acceso a los servicios de Acrobat.com, como la conferencia Web Adobe ConnectNow, también se incluye para mejorar la discusión e intercambio de información con colegas y clientes alrededor del mundo.

Crear y Entregar a Más Plataformas Móviles
Usando Flash Professional CS5, los diseñadores y desarrolladores pueden crear, probar y entregar contenido Web a través de una amplia gama de plataformas y dispositivos móviles como teléfonos inteligentes, tabletas, netbooks, smartbooks y otros dispositivos electrónicos. Pueden desplegar contenido en el navegador con Flash Player 10.1 y como una aplicación independiente con AIR 2. Además, ahora pueden crear aplicaciones AIR, usando el nuevo Packager para la herramienta de vista previa del iPhone, un componente de Flash Profesional CS5, el cual puede desplegarse en el iPhone y el iPad (sujeto a los requerimientos y aprobación de Apple), con soporte futuro para dispositivos Android, BlackBerry y Palm webOS.

Qué es Google?... una bestia hambrienta?

2010-03-23T15:34:00.000-04:00

El crecimiento de Facebook

2010-03-23T14:38:00.000-04:00

Sin duda al ver estos números comenzamos a pensar si realmente es Facebook el rival de Google o Google el rival de Facebook

Cómo usan las grandes empresas las Redes Sociales.

2010-03-17T10:07:00.001-04:00

Presentación bien interesante para considerar

Global Social Media Checkup

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Ejemplos de HTML 5 en acción

2010-03-13T00:25:00.000-05:00

Sin duda la próxima generación del código fuente de la web promete lograr una gran integración del concepto "interactivo" y "participativo", sobre todo que lograremos obtener soluciones con un performance similar al que Adobe Flash ofrece pero sin necesidad de usar ningún Plugin. Por supuesto que no todo es una maravilla y el factor o producción torna la balanza hacia la utilización de código inteligente que puede matemáticamente resolver este tipo de recursos y brindar interfaces de alto impacto y con funcionalidades que apenas estamos comenzando a imaginar.

El reto en nuestro parecer, el mismo que CSS vs HTML 4 ha tenido siempre, la eterna lucha contra la diferencia en representación por la extensa variedad de browser existentes en el mercado... firefox, explorer, safari, chrome, opera, etc! aún el reto e idea de "standard" no logra cristalizarse y por el contrario la introducción y fuerza de la navegación en dispositivos móbiles gana cada día mas fuerza, sobre todo con la prominente llegada de las iPad que sin duda marcan un nuevo segmento del mercado y posiblemente masifiquen aún más la navegación en internet en paises donde la lectura y la investigación literaria es muy apreciada.

Aquí tienen una galería bien interesante de diferentes ejemplos escritos ya en HTML 5...

http://html5demos.com/

Peluca anti-fumadores

2010-02-28T18:06:00.001-05:00

Un Merchant Account en tu iPhone... sin palabras

2010-02-12T16:06:00.000-05:00

Para todos los que trabajamos en la evolución del e-commerce, este video pone en evidencia la tendencia del mercado que desde hace algún tiempo habiamos observado en las Apple Store solo que con otro tipo de terminal, Ahora solo con tu iPhone y este pequeño "Plug" ya tienes el sistema de cobro para Credit Cards...

Photoshop y Mac como decoración

2010-02-12T14:54:00.000-05:00

Una imagen dice más que 100 palabras...

Pastel de Manzana o Apple Pie

2010-02-11T21:05:00.001-05:00

Sin duda Apple prosigue con su filosofía de innovación verdadera y sobre todo de pensar y crear soluciones para necesidades reales del mercado, en uno oportunidad dijimos que Apple con el Ipod rescató el aprecio por la música que habia ido desapareciendo con la tecnología y los avances, pues el iPad sin duda representa una nueva alternativa, no solo de entretenimiento eso es apenas la visión inicial pero porque visualizar con los ojos futuristas y pensar que el iPad representa el Control del futuro que permitira una comunicación portatil más interactiva y audiovisual... Bueno aquí les dejamos este pastelito de manzana