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Taking your Facebook Business Page to the Next Level

June 13, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Facebook Privacy is all in the listsAs a business owner, you already know that your online brand is very important.  Is it the face of your company in the digital world.  An important element to your online brand is your Facebook business page.  This is a place where your customers and fans can interact with you.  They can learn about you and what you represent, and hopefully become ambassadors for your brand.

Here are five elements that should be a part of your Facebook Business Page.  They will set you apart from your competition and grow your brand.

1) Create a custom landing page. When you visit most business pages for the first time, you are taken right to the wall, where you can see all the recent posts.  This is great if you are already a fan of the business.  However, as a first time visitor, this is unappealing, and sometimes can even be dangerous for your brand.  The problem with the wall is that you can’t be certain what will be on there when someone visits your page for the first time.  The comments from your fans are great, but you do not want to leave your first impression in the hands of one of your commenters.  You want to present to first time guests the image of your company.  It is important that you control the messaging.  A feature of these pages is that once someone likes your page, it goes away and they will see the wall each time they visit.  It is done this way because, now that they are a fan, they know who you are and want to get to the wall as quickly as possible.  For a great example of this, please check out Rimol Greenhouses: http://www.facebook.com/commercialgreenhouses?sk=app_4949752878

2) Utilize your business profile photo effectively. The simplest thing to do, and what most folks do, is to put your company logo up as your business profile photo.  The logo is a great starting point, as it is a critical piece of your brand, but there is much more you can do with it.  Do something unique that will get people’s attention.  Dunkin Donuts does a great job of this, they use this space to put up a picture of their “Fan of the Week”.  A photo of your product or service is also great idea.  To see what I am talking about, check out a page such as Hanover Street Chophouse: http://www.facebook.com/HanoverStreetChophouse

3) Effectively use Facebook Advertising. I outlined the features and benefits of Facebook Advertising here.  A good advertising campaign can help jump start your business page, especially if you are just starting out.  The more fans you get, the more your page is exposed to new people and the easier it is to grow.  Because of this viral nature of Facebook, it is much easier to get from 100 fans to 1,000 fans then from 10 to 100.  If you currently have less than 100 fans, I highly recommend a Facebook Advertising campaign to prime the pump.  Start small, an investment as low as $5 per day will create an impact.  Don’t forget, you aren’t just adding one fan, you are adding exposure to those fans’ friends which will lead to even more fans.

4) Integrate e-commerce and other applications into your Facebook Page. The goal of your Facebook Business Page is to build brand awareness and create an online community.  Selling product should not be your primary goal.  If you are constantly selling you will quickly turn folks off and they will unlike you.  With that said, there are many opportunities to incorporate e-commerce directly into your Facebook Page.  The advantages of this is that customers do not have to leave Facebook to purchase from your site.  Some people will have concerns about doing business over Facebook, but for many this will be the only way they do business so if you do not offer this service it could affect their buying decision.  Some examples of this are Victoria’s Secret, which offers the ability to purchase gift cards online, and the NBA, which has their entire store up on Facebook.  There are many other applications available, such as sweepstakes, daily deals, and more.  If you can think of it, it probably exists.

5) Go mobile. Interaction with your followers is critical, and will help to grow your brand online.  Being able to respond quickly and appropriately to comments or requests is essential.  One way to do this is by arming key people in your business with the appropriate mobile applications to interact with the business page.  This will allow them to be the voice for your company.  It can also be very convenient to check on it while waiting in line, at the airport, etc.  Finally, it can open up the opportunity for some spontaneous and timely dialogue.

These five steps will go a long way to helping get your Business Page where it needs to be.  Your Business Page should be a dynamic resources for customers as well as a forum to gather feedback about your company.  It should reflect and augment your brand’s image.  Put a fresh set of eyes on your Business Profile Page and see if your page is accomplishing this for you.  If it is not, please do not hesitate to reach out to me.  I am happy to help and point you in the right direction.

 

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New Year’s Resolutions, where will your company be in 2012?

March 1, 2011 By Leave a Comment

ResolutionsNow is a great time to reassess your company’s marketing plan. Here are 5 things you should keep in mind as you create this marketing plan:

1) What is your goal and how will you measure success? There are many different reasons for having an effecting online marketing campaign. It is important that you analyze your business and understand what you are trying to accomplish. This may include customer service, attracting new customers, or engaging with existing customers. The next step is to understand the metrics you will use to gauge your level of success. We work with companies to identify these key metrics and set goals that reflect the goals of the company. This can include impressions, clicks, conversions, likes or follows. Each one of these metrics represents a different level of engagement. It is important to understand the value each brings. A good marketing campaign will recognize the link between, for instance, a “like” on Facebook and an increase in sales. Unlike traditional marketing, with online marketing you can instantly see what is working and what is not working. Analytics on web site traffic, Google Advertising, and Facebook advertising is updated daily if not more. You can see what advertising is bringing in returns and what is not. With TV, radio, or print advertising, you are lucky to get a 10% response. 90% of your money is wasted, but you never know where so you continue to spend. With intelligent online marketing, you will learn what is working and what is not. In a manner of days you can make adjustments to stop spending money on unsuccessful campaigns and put your energy into what campaigns are bringing you business.

2) Know your marketplace: There are hundreds of online directories, catalog, and social media platforms. Being a part of all of them is not practical or even beneficial. Being listed on the right directories or active in the right social media space is critical to your business. The first step is to decide who your customers are. Then you must understand where those customers live online. For instance, if you are a restaurant, it will be essential that you have a listing on Yelp, UrbanSpoon, and a presence on OpenTable. Yelp is a directory that features reviews of local businesses. It has 41 million visitors per month and over 15 million reviews. UrbanSpoon specializes in restaurant reviews. OpenTable allows users to browse restaurants and make a reservation right from their computer at one of over 15,000 restaurants. Clearly, if you are a restaurant that is not playing in these marketplaces in a highly effective way you are missing out on a great opportunity. Not a restaurant, there are online forums for every profession and industry you can think of. The restaurant example can be applied to your business whether you are a business-consumer or business-business company.

3) How will you utilize mobile technology in 2011? There are 45.5 million people in the United States who own a smartphone. This is augmented by the new arrival of the iPad and other tablets. More and more, people are turning to mobile devices as a source of information. How does this affect your business. Is your website optimized for mobile browsing or is it completely unusable? When someone finds your site on their phone, is it easy to click to call you? Better yet, have you create an app that is tailored to the needs of your mobile user? Is it functional across all platforms including iOS, Android, Blackberry, and Palm? Is your online advertising campaign targeting mobile users? If you are unsure of the answers to any of these question, you are leaving money on the table. Our Mobile Technology Experts at Altos Marketing Group can create a plan to meet your needs

4) How will you utilize location-based services? One of the big questions in 2011 is the future of location-based services such as Foursquare, Gowalla, and Facebook Places. As previously mentioned, mobile technology continues to grow. With it comes an opportunity to connect with customers directly through their phones and mobile devices. These location services reward customers for visiting or “checking in” to your location. You can utilize this to create brand ambassadors, grow loyalty, and attract new customers. For instance, a retail shop can target people who are near their store for a one day special. The power of location marketing is in its instant call to action. If you are a restaurant and it looks like it will be a slow night, a quick message out to your followers can offer a 2 for 1 special to bring in business. These techniques encourage people to stay engaged with your business.

5) Unleashing the power of e-mail marketing: Sending out an e-mail is a simple enough concept that anyone can do it. However, can they do it effectively? A well crafted e-mail will engage customers and give them a call to action. It will also help you build, cultivate, and maintain your customer database. This starts by writing an e-mail that appeals to the recipient. But an effective e-mail goes further. By using advanced tracking, you can find who is reading and clicking on what within your e-mail. From there you can better understand your customers and what interests them. You can then send out targeted e-mails to that segment of customers. You will also be able to see what products/services your customers are browsing. This will allow you to later circle back with them to close the deal. For instance, you will see that 200 customers that received your e-mail browsed the shoes section of your webpage. You can target those 200 with a 10% off or free shipping coupon to entice them to buy. This targeted approach is very effective because you already know that they are interested.

We want to hear from you. Which of these 5 items do you plan on focusing on?

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Link Post for July 9th through July 11th

July 12, 2010 By Leave a Comment

This is the A2SM Link Post for July 9th through July 11th. To see more of the bookmarks we’ve found, check out our Delicious Feed.

  • Top 10 USB Thumb Drive Tricks – What can you do with a few gigabytes and a USB port? Quite a lot, with the right software. Learn how to encrypt your work, run whole systems, rescue Windows, and customize your thumb drive with these USB-geared tricks.
  • MediaPost Publications Mobile Devices Continue To Take Market Share 07/09/2010 – Advertisers wondering when mobile will catch on might want to take a big breath and hang on. Two separate reports released Thursday reveal that mobile device use, from smartphones to tablets, continues to increase.
  • Former Googler And White House Staffer Katie Jacobs Stanton Heads To Twitter – Twitter has made another key hire today: former Google vet and White House and State Department staffer Katie Jacobs Stanton. According to Stanton’s Tweet stream, she will be leaving her role at the State Department for greener pastures at Twitter. She will be based out of the company’s California office.
  • Why Facebook Killed A $100 Million Baby – This evening Facebook announced that they will officially kill the company’s gift shop on August 1st of this year. Currently generating tens of millions of dollars for the company a year, one has to wonder why the company would take such dramatic steps. Facebook regularly touts how few developers run each segment of their business, but even if the company was generating tens of millions on a couple of developers, apparently more can be generated with the small gifts team working on other projects. So what does this really mean?
  • Rich text signatures – Official Gmail Blog – Rich text signatures have long been one of our most widely requested features. Some of you have tried your own solutions, including Greasemonkey scripts, browser plugins, and even using canned responses from Gmail Labs. Others have simply lived with frustration of not being able to change the colors or font size of your signature, or insert images and links. Either way, you'll be happy to know that today we're launching the ability to write your own rich text signatures right in Gmail.
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Link Post for June 16th through June 18th

June 18, 2010 By 1 Comment

This is the A2SM Link Post for June 16th through June 18th. To see more of the bookmarks we’ve found, check out our Delicious Feed.

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Link Post for June 9th

June 10, 2010 By Leave a Comment

This is the A2SM Link Post for June 9th. To see more of the bookmarks we’ve found, check out our Delicious Feed

  • AdMob CEO: Apple’s New Mobile Advertising Rules Will Hurt Developers – Yesterday, All Things Digital’s Peter Kafka pointed out the possibility that Apple could be limiting Google-acquired mobile ad network AdMob from selling ads on the iPhone and iPad platform. The language was a little vague in Apple’s new developer licensing agreement, but indicates that only “independent” ad-serving companies will be able to serve ads. AdMob could be prevented from showing ads because it is not independent as a part of Google, which “develops and distributes mobile devices and operating systems.” AdMob founder and CEO Omar Hamoui told us hours before Apple’s new terms of the agreement came out that nothing good would come of disallowing AdMob to serve ads. But today the company has officially responded to the potential issue.
  • Google Completes Caffeine Update After Nearly a Year | WebProNews – Google announced today that it has completed its new web indexing system called Caffeine. The company claims it provides 50% fresher results for web searches than the previous index and is the largest collection of web content it's offered.
  • New Twitter Links to Play Significant Role in Resonance Algorithm | WebProNews – Twitter has introduced a new, secure link-shortening service called t.co. All links shared on Twitter.com or third-party apps will be wrapped with a t.co URL.
  • Majority Of Facebook Users Are Fans Of At Least One Company | WebProNews – More than half (58%) of U.S. online consumers begin their day interacting with companies via email, compared to 20 percent who start their day on search engines and 11 percent on Facebook, according to a new study by Exact Target.
  • Bing Offers New Take On Social Search | WebProNews – This afternoon, Bing will take a big step forward in terms of social search. Yusuf Mehdi, Senior Vice President of the Online Audience Business at Microsoft, announced at SMX Advanced that a Bing site will start to integrate information from Facebook.
  • How Political Campaigns Are Using Social Media for Real Results – Just as social media has opened a dialogue between businesses and consumers, its value is apparent to those in political office, whose work and very professional survival hinges on the needs and perceptions of their constituents.
  • Bing Adds Facebook Updates and Links to Search Results – Facebook search will go live later today at bing.com/social and will include the full Facebook firehose complete with non-Pages content.
  • How to Display Twitter Updates on Websites – Displaying your Twitter feed on your website is a wonderful way to show visitors real-time news and events. An attractive Twitter widget can encourage your website’s audience to follow you on Twitter, serving as an additional method for expanding your network. Furthermore, when designed right, a Twitter feed can improve the aesthetics of a website’s layout.
  • Facebook Expands Its Reach with Address Book Import – Facebook now allows users to bulk import their e-mail address books so that they can invite non-Facebook friends to join in Facebook games and apps, including people who may not even have a Facebook account.
  • HOW TO: Follow the 2010 FIFA World Cup on Twitter – The 2010 World Cup is going to be a very interesting one as far as social media goes — it’s the first to be played out in the Twitter era and the first to fully embrace the social media universe.
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Link Post for June 1st through June 2nd

June 2, 2010 By Leave a Comment

This is the A2SM Link Post for June 1st through June 2nd. To see more of the bookmarks we’ve found, check out our Delicious Feed.

  • Diaspora’s Final Tally: $200,000 From Nearly 6,500 Backers – When Diaspora set out to raise money to build an open Facebook alternative site, they had a pretty modest goal: $10,000. Of course, they were raising the funds through a less than traditional means — using Kickstarter, an online fundraising site. Still, they shot past that goal in 12 days. And within 20 days, they had raised over $100,000. Yesterday, the fundraising closed, the final tally: just over $200,000.
  • New Toshiba Screen Lets You Bend to Zoom in Google Earth [VIDEO] – Toshiba is showing off a novel user input case for its flexible LCD screen: you can physically bend the screen to zoom in or out in Google Earth. Shown off at the Society for Information Display 2010 Conference, the bend sensor in the display changes resistance values as the screen is flexed.
  • AP Stylebook Adds 42 New Guidelines for Social Media – The AP Stylebook has released its new social media guidelines, including the official change from “Web site” to “website” (a move first reported back in April) and 41 other definitions, use cases and rules that journalists should follow.
  • Bing Health Maps Highlight the Healthiest Places to Live – Whether you're cruising for data about the new locale your company is transferring you to or you're a sucker for a good information mashup, Bing Health Maps overlays dozens of health indicators over U.S. states.
  • Google Search Homepage Gets User-Customizable Backgrounds – It's a simple enough feature that we've heard rumors of here and there: Just go to Google.com, move your mouse to the bottom left of the screen and click Change background image, and pick any image from Google's Public gallery, your Picasa web album photos, or upload any image from your desktop.
  • The FriendFeedization Of Facebook Continues: Bret Taylor Promoted To CTO – Facebook has a new chief technology officer, Bret Taylor. The FriendFeed co-founder and initial product manager of Google Maps came to Facebook with the $50 million acquisition of FriendFeed last year. He took on the role of director of platform at Facebook, and led the recent rollout of Facebook’s Open Graph and Open Graph API, which attempts to make social connections on the Web as important as hyperlinks. He played a key role in making the Facebook platform much simpler to build on.
  • Gregarious: Facebook privacy controversy does nothing to damage its reputation – Google "Facebook privacy" today and you would think that recent allegations about Facebook's privacy breaches could potentially threaten its very existence. "Could privacy be Facebook's Waterloo," asks BusinessWeek. "Has Facebook Gone Rogue?" is the title of a NPR segment on All Things Considered.
  • WordPress.com Adds Its Own "Like" and Reblogging Features – WordPress.com’s millions of blogs are getting social with two new features: quick reblogging and the ability to “like” posts.
  • Oil Spill Firefox Plugin Blacks Out BP Across the Web – Creative agency Jess3 has developed a Firefox plugin that aims to black out all mentions of BP (British Petroleum) across the web. As one popular tweet espouses, “Want BP to [blank] up your browser like they’ve [blank] up the Gulf? Install the Oil Spill Firefox plugin from @jess3.”
  • 30,000 quit Facebook in protest – Yahoo! Canada News – A group protesting Facebook's privacy policies said Monday more than 30,000 people had heeded its call to quit the social networking giant.
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Link Post for May 12th through May 13th

May 14, 2010 By 5 Comments

This is the A2SM Link Post for May 12th through May 13th. To see more of the bookmarks we’ve found, check out our Delicious Feed.

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Link Post for April 26th

April 28, 2010 By Leave a Comment

This is the A2SM Link Post for April 26th. To see more of the bookmarks we’ve found, check out our Delicious Feed

  • Cechriecom.com.js.php – WordPress Hacked on Godaddy | Case Study | WPSecurityLock – WordPress blogs hosted on Godaddy were hacked by another malicious attack on April 24, 2010 at 6:54am. What was visible in the source code was <script src="http://cechirecom.com/js.php"> located just above the </body> tag on all .php files.
  • Steve Wozniak On Apple Security, Employee Termination, and Gray Powell – Steve Wozniak – Gizmodo – The Woz speaks out!
  • Bebo speak: Teenagers create secret language to hide partying and drinking | Mail Online – Teenagers on social networking site Bebo have created a secret language to stop adults knowing what they are up to, researchers say.
  • How To Use Hot Chicks To Spread Your Brand Message On YouTube – Brands are trying to figure out this whole social marketing thing, but the success stories are still few and far between. “I think everyone is grappling with how to use digital these days,” says Judy Hu, who is in charge of advertising and branding for General Electric. She oversees one of the world’s largest advertising budgets which spans TV, print, and the Web. I spoke with her last week about one early success GE is seeing with an online video campaign organized by Howcast that is generating millions of video views on YouTube as part of its larger Healthyimagination branding effort.
  • Blippy’s Security Plan: The Details – As I mentioned in Sunday’s post, Blippy’s founders were hammering out a new security plan to assure users that all their information, especially their credit card numbers, would be safe. They delivered this morning, in their latest blog post, issuing new details about the blunder, how it worked with Google, and the framework for a go-forward plan. In addition, Blippy sounded more contrite about the situation. On Friday their post said, “it’s a lot less bad than it looks,” this Monday the tone is less defensive and more apologetic: “However, this is a very serious issue and simply apologizing is not enough. We’ve spent the last 48 hours working around the clock to dissect the issues, reach out to affected users, and put together a plan to ensure this never happens again.”
  • The Age Of Facebook – Two years ago I was on the Charlie Rose show and we talked about, among other startups and trends, Facebook. It wasn’t clear then that Facebook had what it took to become one of the great technology companies. They had conquered the college market and were destroying the hopes and dreams of MySpace. But they were also reeling from the Beacon debacle and hadn’t proven that they could turn those massive reach and page view numbers into sustainable revenue streams.
  • HOW TO: Spring Clean Your Twitter Account – It’s no secret that we love Twitter. It’s a fantastic social media tool, a window on the world that can keep you updated on the big things, such as global news and events, the little things, like where your buddies are headed on a Friday night, and just about anything in between.
  • 10 Killer Tips for Creating a Branded YouTube Channel – There was a time when YouTube was considered a wild-wild west of content — a place where marketers shied away from uploading their commercials, let alone building a branded channel. But these days, YouTube has become more mini-van than stagecoach. From Toyota Sienna’s high-profile television commercials urging consumers to visit their YouTube channel, to (what might be considered the anti-minivan) Harley Davidson’s fan-centric YouTube universe, there has been a noticeable shift in corporate adoption of the platform.
  • The Wall Street Journal Partners with Foursquare – Foursquare’s bread-and-butter is the partnerships that seed the location-based social network with curated content. Now, that includes editorial tips and badges from the renowned business publication The Wall Street Journal.
  • Google Adds Local Business Annotations to Street View – While Google works to extend Street View to the inside of stores — at least according to rumor — for the time being they’ve released a handy utility for better browsing with Google Street View: local business annotations.
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Link Post for April 14th

April 15, 2010 By Leave a Comment

This is the A2SM Link Post for April 14th. To see more of the bookmarks we’ve found, check out our Delicious Feed

  • Tweet Archives to Find Home at Library of Congress – Most of the information you find in the Library of Congress is a bit more substantial than: “Saw Jimmy at the mall. He winked. OMG!! LOLOLOL!!!” But now the Library of Congress is going to have plenty of vapid, meaningless content. Both Twitter and the LOC announced today that the entire catalog of Twitter archives is going to be digitally stored at the national library. Every single tweet since the beginning (March 2006) will be there.
  • Each Facebook Fan Is Worth $3.60 Annually – Social media marketing platform company Vitrue has determined that the average value of a Facebook ‘fan’ is about $3.60 in equivalent media each year. This calculation is based on having one million Fan Page fans, and is not weighted for brand recognition.
  • 6 More Desktop Chat Clients That Use Facebook Connect – As a follow up to our 9 Killer Desktop Facebook Chat Clients, we looked to our readers for suggestions about more desktop chat clients that use Facebook Chat. Fortunately, our readers came through, and here is the list of 6 more clients that you download to your desktop and connect to Facebook Chat.
  • Is Social Media Becoming Boring? » Techipedia | Tamar Weinberg – For most, social media is new and fun. For others, though, social media is old and is falling out of favor. I’m seeing it happen of users who were happy about social media when it became hyped but are now realizing that they’re not yet ready to hold onto social media any longer. It’s boring, too challenging, and uninteresting. Catering to individuals seems to mean you need to bend to their will at every turn. Nobody wants to have to to a minority that seems to be unhappy with the content you’ve spent hours upon hours writing.
  • 7 Truths About Social Media Marketing » Techipedia | Tamar Weinberg – But despite the vastness of opportunities that social media affords, it’s just one channel in a series of many. We should still tackle some realities about social media marketing before you get too excited about its potential.
  • Why Banning Social Media Often Backfires – Humans have a natural proclivity to want what they cannot have. Our insatiable appetite for sharing information, combined with the nearly limitless ways to access the web have thus far frustrated the most sophisticated attempts to block access to social media services.
  • Analytic.ly Provides Real-Time and Historical Twitter Analysis – For brands, developers and curious users, PeopleBrowsr is rolling out an interesting new tool. Analytic.ly helps people and companies “visualize, study and measure” Twitter conversations happening all over the web through general and custom reports and graphs.
  • History Channel Launches Foursquare Campaign and a New Badge – America might be one of the youngest geopolitical nations around, but we’ve still got some interesting history to discover. Thanks to a partnership between Foursquare and the History Channel, some of the app’s users will get to learn a lot more about the history of their checkin locations over the next couple months.
  • The Streamy Awards: How to Unwreck the Car [OPINION] – In the small world of made-for-the-web TV, industry figures and fans alike hoped that the 2010 Streamy Awards would prove to mainstream audiences that made-for-the-web television is the next big thing — an industry of serious artists, fine entertainment and ultimately, booming profits. After a crowd of professionals in suits and lavish dresses took their seats, it started with a Broadway-style musical number. That’s as high as Icarus flew before his wings melted off.
  • Notable Makes Website Annotation Fast and Easy – otable makes it extremely easy for teams and individuals to provide effective feedback on websites.
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Link Post for March 30th through March 31st

March 31, 2010 By Leave a Comment

This is the A2SM Link Post for March 30th through March 31st. To see more of the bookmarks we’ve found, check out our Delicious Feed.

  • Mobile Firefox Comes to Android (Sort of) – Fennec, the mobile version of the Firefox web browser, is now available in an early build designed for Android handsets thanks to a fan-compiled download posted on an Android developers forum. And by early, we mean unofficial, pre-alpha, device-specific and downright buggy. But for anyone interested in mobile browser developments, this port is an interesting sneak peek into the future of Firefox's mobile plans.
  • Global Pulse 2010 Wants Your Solutions to Global Challenges – Global Pulse 2010 is a completely online virtual event running through tomorrow where you can participate in a global conversation whose stated goal is to “create innovative solutions to the most pressing social issues of our time.” Sponsored by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Global Pulse 2010 is also being supported by the U.S. Departments of State, Education, Commerce, and Health and Human Services.
  • Judge: Isohunt Must Remove Infringing Content – One of the largest BitTorrent search engines in the world, Isohunt, has been ordered by a US judge to remove all infringing content from the site. The ruling follows similar ruling against torrent tracker Mininova which has lost a great amount of traffic after complying with the order to remove copyright-infringing links from the site.
  • Board Games on the iPad: Oh Yes, This is Going to be Big – TUAW has a preview of an iPad application called Game Table. It costs 99 cents, and it lets you play classic board games, such as Chess, Poker or Checkers, on the iPad.<br />
    <br />
    The beauty of its approach is the fact that it’s not really a game – it just gives you the necessary components and the mechanics to play a variety of games. And, when you think of it, for many users this app (or similar apps like it) might be the killer app that makes the Apple iPad worth purchasing.
  • 10 Amazing YouTube Magic Trick Videos – Who doesn’t love magic? Whether you’re obsessed with finding out “how they did that,” or you just like to gaze with child-like wonder at a good trick, YouTube has become a wealthy repository of illusion.
  • Google Earth Helps Deputy Make Arrest – Google became true-blue crime-fighting tool for one Florida Panhandle deputy this week. The law man, Deputy Gregory Barnes, recently made use of Google Earth to arrest a man charged with illegally dumping his one-ton boat.
  • iPad, Meet "Star Trek" – In Star Trek, members of the crew are carrying a tablet-like device called the PADD, or Personal Access Display Device. It comes in many shapes and flavors — there’s even a horizontal one. And, circa 2151, the device that was in common use looked pretty much like the thing we’ll be frantically testing this weekend: the Apple iPad.
  • Gmail Adds OAuth Support for Safer 3rd Party Sign-ins – Google announced the addition of OAuth support in Gmail in a blog post today, which is a highly positive move that allows you to give third party applications access to the contents on your email without having to give them your password. You may be familiar with the term from Twitter, who added OAuth support back in April of last year.
  • Automattic Announces VaultPress Security Plugin – (Via @glenngabe)
  • Facebook Squeezes Digg Into A New Business Model – While I personally love using Digg to find my news content, the majority of the internet is perfectly satisfied finding content through their friends. While Digg is in the process of rolling out a new version of their site, Facebook’s decision to release a “like button for the internet” could significantly impact Digg. Combine that with their previously released share analytics and share button, and you can see how Digg is getting squeezed into a new business model.
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