Knot Pipatsrisawat, a software engineering intern in Facebook, recently came out with a Facebook Note announcing some updates in Facebook Groups. Good! For a while, everyone started creating Fan Pages and the original feature to creating communities in the online social networking giant was left in isolation.
The first update is the new design – Facebook Group will “more or less” look similar to Fan Pages and Profile pages. Good or bad, at least, they’ve updated it.
The second update is, just like Fan Pages and Wall Posts, Facebook Group activities will be delivered to every member’s News Feed. However, you will only see stories when one of your friends posts within the Group rather than all the members. You can follow the links from your News Feed directly back to the Facebook Group or make comments on your Home page – just like Fan Pages.
However, Pipatsrisawat mentions that Facebook Group and Fan Page are still different. The former fosters member-to-member collaboration while the latter allows one-to-many broadcasts.
We all know what online social networks provide your network of family, friends and acquaintances: telling them what you’re doing right now. But, for a new breed of 20- and 30-something online denizens, they’re asking for more – like, where are you and, most importantly, can I come join you?
To answer this need, there is a fast-growing new social network that allows people to check-out where they are and recommend what to eat or drink, where to go, etc. It’s like a friend-finder, city guide and bar guide, all rolled into one. Introducing “Foursquare,” something new in the online social networking scene you may want to try.
The first thing you do in Foursquare is to load their mobile app into your iPhone or Android. However, for other kinds of phone, you’re best using their mobile website. SMS is also available but this type of service only works in the US.
People using Foursquare “check-in“, telling your friends your whereabouts. In turn, your friends, knowing where you are, can recommend you places to go to or things to do, whether you’re in a bar, mall, restaurant, cafe, park, at home or in the office. You can also create lists of favorite things to do or places to go. You can also check the faves and tips of others who left that city or place you’re currently. Every tip you and others create are discoverable by everyone in Foursquare.
I’m not really a “merit achiever” when it comes to cyberspace but Foursquare also lets you earn points like going to the same place twice or dragging your friends over. You can even become “Mayor” of a place you frequent unless someone tops your frequent visits.
Foursquare started with 12 cities and are now in 21, namely, Amsterdam, Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas/Fort Worth, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Indianapolis, Kansas City (MO), Las Vegas, London, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Montreal, New York City, Omaha, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, Portland, Raleigh-Durham, Richmond, Salt Lake City, San Antonio, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, St. Louis, Toronto, Vancouver and Washington D.C. You can recommend a new city to Foursquare, too.
There’s also a “don’t tell my friends” option if you check-in somewhere and want to be in cognito. Foursquare calls that “off the grid.” What for? You may be on special date or just don’t want people knowing where you are but still want to log it into Foursquare, collect points and earn badges.
If you’re a blogger, you should watch this video. If not, still, watch it. Then, start blogging because now you’ve got a topic to write. Your thoughts. Your views. Your words.
Blog Action Day – October 15, 2009. Be counted. Be there.
“2012″ gives you a glimpse of the apocalyptic end of the world and the story of its survivors. The movie stars John Cusack, Amanda Peet, Danny Glover, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Oliver Platt, Thandie Newton and Woody Harrelson. Directed by Roland Emmerich, same guy who directed Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow. Play date is November 13, 2009. This is the official movie trailer.
Adobe last week launched its latest Flash software in the United States, called Adobe Flash Lite 3, which will support Adobe Flash Player compatible video in smart phones like iPhone. This allows mobile phone users to now watch Flash-based videos and surf the net with Flash-enabled websites. This also gives mobile content providers a creative way to deliver great content like videos, wallpapers, screensavers and even games.
The first mobile providers to incorporate Flash in its phones was NTT DoCoMo. LG and Samsung are following NTT’s move with Flash Lite 3. Adobe expects Flash Lite to be used by 1 billion mobile phones by the end of the year.
The software cum hardware gadget that allows you to read electronic books and see other digital media will soon be rolled out in 100 countries by October 19. First released in the United States in the latter part of 2007, the Amazon Kindle uses the Sprint network to download content over Amazon, displaying paper-like displays on its screen.
The international version of the Kindle (2) will have a built-in GSM wireless modem and initially use the AT&T global data network to deliver digital books, magazines and newspapers in Kindle’s proprietary format or common formats downloaded from a computer. This version will be priced at $279, twenty Dollars higher than its U.S. version (though Amazon already reduced its price twice this year, from $359 to $299 and, recently, down to $259. A larger format Kindle DX sells for $489 which allows users to automatically rotate between portrait and landscape orientations
Many content providers have joined the Kindle bandwagon, like Barnes & Noble and even Google.
When Lindsay Lohan’s controversial appointment as artistic adviser of the French label was announced last month, Mounir Moufarrige, the new chief executive of Ungaro, said his intention was to give the aging brand the equivalent of “electric shock treatment.” But based on the reaction to the collection that was shown here at the Louvre, the first designed by Estrella Archs with Ms. Lohan’s advice, he achieved more than that: Editors and buyers who were present said it was they who were shocked.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) will be revising its 1980 rules on the relationships between advertisers and product endorsers. Starting Dec. 1 this year, bloggers must disclose any business relationship or connection with advertisers whenever they review any product or service on the net. This includes freebies that some bloggers give away in behalf of advertisers.
Because many celebrities also blog, they will have to conduct themselves the same way, providing information on their relationships with any product endorsement they make in their blogs or any social media like Twitter and Facebook. These upcoming new rules also dictate cases where the advertiser has no control over the content of the blogs.
For many bloggers, gone will be the days where free products just came pouring in the mail for these virtual writers to ponder upon and “blog” about it. Starting December, bloggers need to disclose it whether they received these products or are independent of the companies who made or distributes them.
It’s not that many bloggers decieve their readers – it’s just that because people put their trust in what the bloggers write, the readers themselves deserve the truth.
Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC) —with its remittance network member Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) – is temporarily eliminating all remittance transfer fees (normally $5 or $7) for customers sending money using the ExpressSend® service to friends and family in the Philippines impacted by Typhoon Ketsana (also known as Typhoon Ondoy). The fee waiver is effective September 29 through October 12, 2009.
ExpressSend customers can send up to $3,000 a day for $5 if originated from an eligible Wells Fargo account (or $7 if originated from cash). The fee will be waived September 29 through October 12, 2009. Recipients can claim their funds at more than 800 branches and 1,500 plus ATMs throughout the Philippines.
Call center managers and executives are invited to receive a Complimentary Pass to the Call Center Optimization Forum where you’ll uncover the secrets of the best call centers, and find out how to apply them in your organization! We’ll reveal new call center optimization solutions that are affordable to organizations of all sizes. You’ll learn breakthrough strategies and techniques you can use to exceed customer expectations, raise performance standards, and achieve your career goals. You’ll discover powerful new ways to hire the best employees, set and measure the right performance objectives, accurately forecast workload and schedules, improve quality of service, boost customer satisfaction and loyalty, and win the support of top executives.
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Register [Click Here] with the promo code CCNG to get a Complimentary Registration (a $299 value) and reserve your place.
If you have your photo library stored using Picasa, it’s new release Picasa 3.6 can now allow you to scan your entire photo library and applies a name tag to every match; if it’s not sure of the match, it will allow the option of applying the tag manually. Wow! The TechCrunch article goes on to say that once faces are tagged, users can create a face collage of the same person, time-lapse movies, or sync the tags with the user’s Picasa Web albums.
Facial recognition isn’t new with Picasa. iPhoto and Facebook Photos using Face.com have had it for some time now. So, does that mean facial recognition is now going to be a standard in photo-oriented web and desktop apps?
Apple is in the verge of reeling into a labor walk out by disgruntled employees of its retail store in Alderwood Mall in Washington, according to the IFO Apple Store website. FastCompany is also reporting a planned walkout by one employee in Apple’s Lynnwood, Washington store. The reason for all these? Complaints about abusive management and probable labor law violations. The two articles cite employees complaining to Apple’s HR group but taking a year or so before Apple headhonchos act on these complaints. FastCompany’s article says employees were constantly being threatened with being fired and new people who were hired knew nothing about Macs or other Apple products, and were being paid higher than the employees who are fervent Apple “die hard” fanatics.
Disgruntled specialists, technicians, and geniuses, unhappy with management’s “abusive” behavior, are planning a walkout for 1pm next Saturday, Oct. 3, becoming the first labor action against Apple by its employees. Several former employees plan to join the strike.
September 19, 2009 – I’ve checked Facebook Ads the past few days. Looks like the ad is gone. I do hope this doesn’t happen again!
I couldn’t say “sex” since it’s not explicitly marketing that. Promiscuity? Not really. Depicting an emotional imbalance in a sexual manner? Don’t know. Maybe it can be called an “adult-oriented” ad.
Facebook's adult-oriented advertisement
While going through my usual routine of looking at the wall posts of my Facebook network, commenting and answering private message, I was surprised then saddened to see the ad “Meet Local Singles.” Oh, geez! Is Facebook beoming desperate or no validation to ads? I love using Facebook and Friendster because I’ve never seen anything like this in their ads — except now.
A close-up of the ad
I clicked on the ad and I landed on this site. What the? I copied the phrase, went to www.freetranslation.com and opted to translate it from German to English. Nada. I don’t even know what language this is.
This is were the Facebook ad lands at
I do hope Facebook would veer away from these kinds of ads. I haven’t checked if my children’s Facebook accounts would make these appear but hey! Let’s not go into these kinds of advertising. Fine. I’m an adult. I can easily decide to filter it out of my mind. However, if Facebook can’t remove it, at least give the user the option to filter it out.
Please, Facebook. Don’t be that desperate. I love using your social networking site. It was even my daughter who convinced me to set up an account in 2006 because she moved to it from MySpace. Since then, it’s always been my social networking site “of choice.”
Facebook’s Talking Communities Voice-Chat Room Fan Page began announcing the coming of a FREE voice-enabled chatroom. This new upcoming feature allows users to talk to friends live while playing games online, including doing karaoke. In their Beta version, Facebook users are limited to only one chat room and allows up to 5 people voice-chatting per room. Also, when launched, it will only work with Windows PCs but a Mac version is in development.
The new feature is actually being offered by a Boston-based company Vivox, the same company that provides voice services for popular game Second Life and Eve Online. This means Facebook users will have to download Vivox’s plug-in before they are voice-chat enabled. Vivox may also allow non-Facebook users to join the conversation by setting up dial-in numbers in the United States, looking at a possibility that Facebook may provide conferencing in the future. The good thing about Vivox is that they’ve already proven their technology in Second Life and Eve Online and putting it into Facebook will be less challenging. Second Life and Eve Online combines about 15 million users worldwide.
I.T guru and social media expert Chris Pirilio says in an interview with CNet’s Daniel Terdiman says that “it’s guaranteed to bite into Skype.” Others look at this new feature as a boost to retailing through Facebook, giving them voice-enabled access to prospects much like a toll free number does.
Matt Damon gets top spot in Esquire's 75 Best People
According to Esquire: “There are many more do-gooders, but these particular men and women — because of their talent, achievements, virtue, and two other essential qualifications (having to do with puppies and drinking) — make us happy.”
1. Matt Damon
2. Timothy Geithner, secretary of the Treasury
3. Beyoncé
4. Philip Roth
5. Patrick Fitzgerald, U.S. attorney
6. LeBron James
7. Shepard Smith, Fox News anchor
8. Robert Downey Jr.
9. Jon Huntsman, former Republican governor of Utah and our new ambassador to China
10. Rachel Maddow, MSNBC host
11. Gail Collins, columnist
12. Andrew Sullivan
13. Alan Mulally, president and CEO of Ford
14. Rupert Murdoch
15. Paul Krugman
16. Lyle Lovett
17. Penélope Cruz
18. Warren Buffett
19. Janet Napolitano
20. Sacha Baron Cohen
Get more of the net 55 at Esquire’s website. Click here.
You have to give credit to the inventor of this gizmo. Of course, you’re not suppose to drive while doing this. Since the steering wheel gets in the way of a truck stop diner, drive-thru thing-a-magig, and it’s a waste of time to hop to the co-driver’s seat — hence, the invention of this gadget.
Facebook has just added a new, cool feature that uses the familiar “@” (at) symbol being used by Twitter. When you are writing on your wall and you happen to type or press the symbol, Facebook displays a message right below the wall-post-box “type the name of something or someone.” When you do, a list of people, groups or pages pops up below where you can point and click those that you want tagged in your wall post.
This is totally cool! Here’s Twitter’s viral replication of one of their functions. I just hope there’s no legal issues about this (or is there?)
You can read more about this new feature at Facebook’s Blog site.
Google has done something wonderful again. A new Google Labs app called “Fast Flip” is currently being tested to the public shows you a graphical representation of what the current news and information sites look like on a “larger than a thumbprint” perspective. From the phrase itself, you flip through the different bureaus and sites or choose to move left through right. Totally cool! Fast Flip currently has four categories:
Popular - Recent, Most viewed, Recommended, Headlines
Topics - San Francisco, Swine Flu, 9/11, Music, September 11, Computer, Taylor Swift
Sources - Salon, Washington Post, Billboard, The Atlantic, Slate, Popular Mechanics, All sources
I’m not sure if you log into Google these sub-categories will change. I wasn’t logged in and these were what was shown. But, it’s better than surfing to each site one by one by just click a phrase link.
This week Apple unveiled a new version of its iTunes music software that integrates both Facebook and Twitter. There’s now a “Share on Facebook” and “Share on Twitter” options in a drop-down menu on album purchase pages in the iTunes Store to broadcast which music you’re interested in. This means that you can show off your music taste or attempt to convince friends to buy albums for you. The links in Twitter tweets and Facebook posts will likely go straight to the option to purchase the album, potentially driving up sales.
Welcome to Scrapplet, the online web design and development application that needs no technical knowledge of HTML, PHP or the like. You can easily create your new Blog or Webpage using Scrapplet’s easy-to-use GUI themes and tools. Start with a blank page or one of their templates, envision a theme, and create and consolidate content from all over the web. Add pictures, music, news feeds, videos, websites, widgets and more. Mix and match, according to your tastebuds. Drage and drop. Share it. Show off your creative content in Facebook, MySpace and others including YouTube, LinkedIn, FriendFeed, Twitter, Photobucket, Flickr, etc.
You can even create commercial websites with viral marketing integration or create and host web applications. Of course, you don’t get virtual space to download your content — just links to other places in the web it’s located or stored. But Scrapplet now makes web programming a thing of the past.
Glue is a free browser plugin for Firefox that helps you automatically find books, music, and movies through your friends as you browse popular sites, especially the online networking sites you frequent. Developed by AdaptiveBlue, Glue enables you to connect with your friends on the web around the things you visit online. It is powered by “semantic recognition technology” that automatically identifies books, music, movies, wines, stocks, movie stars, recording artists, and more.
Attack of the Show says Glue is “a social networking tool that allows you to see what friends and people you want to be your friends are spending their time looking for on the internet. We’ve all got a little voyeur inside of us.“
Ghost Inc., using the domain g.ho.st (why didn’t I think of that?), has the developed what it touts to be the world’s first and true web operating system, the global hosted operating system — hence, the word “ghost.” This virtual computer packs a personal desktop, files and applications, available from any browser or mobile phone. As a web operating system, the company says “it works openly and seamlessly with leading third-party Web applications.”
TweetMeme
TweetMeme (http://tweetmeme.com/) is a service that aggregates all the popular links on Twitter to determine which links are popular. TweetMeme also makes the retweet button, which is for content publishers who want to invite their audience to tweet their content on Twitter. The button shows a live count of the number of times your Web page or blog post has been tweeted. Why did we start with this one? eWEEK uses it! Yes, eWEEK uses TweetMeme to tweet and retweet its stories on Twitter with one click of the mouse button. If you are a content publisher, give TweetMeme a try.
TweetMeNews
Hailing from nobosh labs (http://nobosh.com/), TweetMeNews (http://tweetmenews.com/) tweets users’ personalized news based on their interests. Nobosh Labs’ reason for creating TweetMeNews captures the Twitter zeitgeist in a nutshell: “Nobosh has been developing a news personalization engine for over a year. As time went on Twitter exploded! Since that explosion the world has seen a convergence of information on Twitter, reducing the need to visit other sites.”
TweetDeck
A super popular application, TweetDeck (http://tweetdeck.com/beta/) is a real-time Web browser that connects users to their contacts across Twitter, Facebook and other social sites. TweetDeck also boasts a version of its social application for the iPhone (http://tweetdeck.com/iphone/) that geeks are giddy over.
TweetVite
TweetVite (http://tweetvite.com/) is pretty much what you’d think it would be from the name: Use it to create invitations for events you’re hosting or to find local Tweetups.
TwitVid
Again, as you’d guess from the name, TwitVid (http://www.eweek.com/twitvid.com) lets users upload and tweet videos on Twitter.
Vidly
Another app for sharing video on Twitter, Vidly (http://www.vidly.com/) recently changed its name from Twitvid.io.
Twitoaster
Another of many, many tweet stream aggregators, Twitoaster (http://twitoaster.com/) threads and archives Twitter conversations, adding context and statistics, such as how many replies a Twitter user has received by the hour and on a weekly basis.
TwitPic
You get one guess as to what TwitPic (http://twitpic.com/) lets you do. You would not be wrong if you said it lets you share photos in tweets.
TwitBin
Twitbin (http://www.twitbin.com/) is a Firefox extension that allows you to keep up with all of your Twitter conversations right from your browser sidebar.
Twitterholic
Twitterholic (http://twitterholic.com/) scans the Twitter public timeline for new twits to tweet and calculates individual statistics for each Twitter user.
Twhirl
Owned by Seesmic, Twhirl (http://twhirl.org/) is a desktop client based on the Adobe AIR platform that lets users … well, this slide tells it all.
Twtpoll
Another Twitter tool whose name spoils any nomenclature mystery, Twtpoll (http://twtpoll.com/) is a feedback tool that lets users create and distribute polls/surveys on Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed or any other social media site.
Retweetist
Retweetist (http://retweetist.com/) tracks retweets, or messages tweeted on Twitter that repeat information previously tweeted by another user.
Tweepler
Tweepler (http://www.tweepler.com/) lets users separate the wheat from the chaff, helping users decide if they want to follow new followers or not.
Tweetburner
For those who can’t get enough of following the data flow on the links they share on Twitter, here’s Tweetburner (http://tweetburner.com/).
Twittervision
This is so cool: See who is posting what from where in real time with Twittervision (http://beta.twittervision.com/), as a sort of mashup of Twitter and Google Maps.
Twibs
Twibs (http://www.twibs.com/) helps users find businesses on Twitter. Great promotional tool.
Twitdom
Finding Twitter apps can be a royal pain, particularly because so many are built by some programming shops, or even just lone wolf programmers. Twitdom (http://twitdom.com/) is a Twitter apps database that provides a “consolidated view of all the applications developed for the Twitter ecosystem.”
Facebook recently rolled out a new web app called “Facebook Lite.” This app is targeted towards users with slow internet connection (does dial-up still exist?) PCMag.com reports that this version is only available in India and the U.S. but Facebook is certainly going for a more global rollout — soon. Facebook’s analysis of its users place 70 percent to be residing outside the United States.
Enrico Pandian (@superpandi) tweeted me about TwitReply which is an automatic application that reply to twitter conversation for FREE. With twitReply you can automatic reply to other conversation with a customized text/link.
The site lists four rules:
(1) You can’t place an automatic-reply tweet on keywords that generate more than 5 tweet/hour.
(2) Your automatic-reply tweet will be reviewed by a human. Ok. This may take a minute or an hour?
(3) If your automatic-tweet will generate less then 30% CTR (click-through-rate), your tweet will be deleted. So, there’s got to be a link in your auto-tweet?
(4) You can send only 1 tweet per tweeter. I’m assuming “per tweeter” means one Twitter account, eh?
TwitReply is owned by Italian company “Idea Manager” and is managed by Enrico.
If you are the CEO of a Technology Company currently raising capital from ANYWHERE in the United States or ABROAD, then you NEED to come to New York City. On November 12, 2009, FundingPost will be organizing its Fifth
“Perfect Venture Conference” with 40+ early-stage VC & Angel Investors and only 20 early-stage Technology companies coming together for a day of pitching, investor panels, interactive workshops, and private meetings. FundingPost will be putting the right companies in front of the right Venture Capitalists (VC) and Angel Investors to tell you exactly what it takes to get funded. Every company will pitch multiple times to the Investors. There will be 2-minute elevator pitches to every panel, and even more 1-on-1 private Investor meetings than the previous Perfect Venture Conferences.
The panels and workshops will cover the important parts of the fundraising process including: How to give a Great Pitch, Setting Valuation and Terms, Meeting with Investors and the current state of IT Investing. All of the Entrepreneurs are also invited to attend our Pitching Workshop Dinner of the evening of Nov 11.
FundingPost is limiting this event to only 20 Technology companies who will be hand-picked, screened and coached to participate in this conference. Every company will get to pitch multiple times throughout the event.
Taking a page from the Obama Administration’s Broadband Stimulus Program, Canada is also jumping into the broadband stimulus fray. Industry Canada, a government-led agency responsible for economic development and innovation, has issued a call-for-applications for the government’s “Broadband Canada: Connecting Rural Canadians” initiative. Launched in July, this initiative is part of Canada’s Economic Action Plan, which gives $225 million to Industry Canada for the development and implementation of a strategy to extend and improve broadband coverage.
Digested from [ci] channel insider’s “Errata: 10 Biggest Blogging Bungles.”
[ 1 ] Is your Blog a “real blog?”
Yes, your blog may be a marketing vehicle. But people don’t follow blogs to be sold or pitched. They visit to be informed, entertained and occasionally even titillated. Sex sells. Version 2.1 of Vendor X’s product does not.
[ 2 ] Spell your spelling!
This one may be a know brainor. But speeling and grammer erors make yous look liek a minor leeger. Seriously, however, for a corporate blog that is aimed at partners and customers, it’s critical that the basics of correct writing are adhered to. Spell check and if your organization provides for it: Have a third-party proofread before posting.
[ 3 ] K.I.S.S.
Think Hemingway, not Tolstoy. Blog posts pushing past 500 words or so are likely to be abandoned halfway through anyway. In today’s world of Twitter and acronym-laden text messaging, brevity in the extreme has taken hold. That doesn’t mean you can’t elaborate a point in a blog, but to be most effective and hold interest, keep the entries succinct and concentrate on writing a compelling headline to pull your audience in.
[ 4 ] Don’t fall asleep.
A half-baked blog is sometimes worse than simply not having a blog at all. You can’t build a following without a steady stream of content, so it really has to be a situation of all-in or all-out. Worst-case-scenario, if you aren’t writing regularly potential customers might even wonder if you’re still in business if they see your last post was six months ago. Blogging is effectively a form of marketing and going dark sends wrong message.
[ 5 ] Have a point.
At the same time, don’t just post pointless ramblings. If you’re having a hard time coming up with something pithy or relevant, try examining the news for something to tie into or even interview a customer or vendor about a discrete topic and write about it.
[ 6 ] One-stop-shop for “everyone” doesn’t work.
Are you writing for customer CIOs? Or are you targeting IT technicians? How about CEOs? You can’t hook them all, so pick a targeted audience and tell compelling stories that will bring them back to the blog. As a solution provider, take a hard look at the services you provide, the market you serve and person your sales people typically talk to when making a call: That’s your audience.
[ 7 ] Market you blog or else…!
Registering a Word Press account and throwing up a few posts guarantees you nothing. You’ll need to get the word out, be it by linking back to other blogs, putting out newsletters, marketing via social networking or even pitching the media story ideas based on your posts. Also, encourage community comments to your blogs – both positive and negative – as these threads become entities all their own.
[ 8 ] Careful what you say (or write).
Grinding that old axe about a deadbeat client or a lousy vendor may feel satisfying. But there are those little things called libel and good taste standing in the way. And no matter how veiled the accused parties remain, you’ll just sound like a crybaby.
[ 9 ] It’s a two-way street.
You are not writing a white paper. It’s a blog post and it’s meant to be conversational and colloquial. That’s the appeal. Not only is it easier on your readers, but it makes customers perceive you as an approachable guy or gal. Don’t go overboard with profanity or excessive slang. Keep the tone professional. However, do feel free to inject your own personality into the writing.
[ 10 ] Is your “headline” eye-catching?
Face it. When it comes to readers’ limited Web browsing time, you’re up against stories about Jon and Kate and the world’s oldest dog. The least you can do is punch up your headlines a bit. As mentioned before, shorter blogs are more digestible to readers, but compelling headlines are what often causes them to click in the first place.
Silicon Alley Insider’s Shel Israel has some good recommendations where businesses can actually benefit or gain by letting Twitter become a productive tool rather than a nuisance. Check it out:
Always-on newsletter - much like YM, it allows your workforce to collaborate across divisions, departments and channels.
Recruit talent - using the online social media is a great place to find the right candidate.
Launch for nearly nothing - launch and build the base of customers.
Cultivate a valuable niche - learn the value of listening than speaking (joke: that’s why God created man with two ears and one mouth — so we can listen more)
Roll your own marketplace - new buyers and sellers are mostly found through Twitter
Show that the company is at least slightly cooler and hipper that the image implies - even if you’re a 100-year old company; especially if you’re a 100-year old company!
Harish, Grey Group Asia Pacific’s regional communications planning director, has identified five Asian ‘Brand Tribes’ in a comprehensive study which included interviews with over 33,000 people from Australia, Bangladesh, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.
(1) Perceived Value Seekers, (2) Function Firsts, (3) ‘New’ Brand Enjoyers, (4) Individualistic Believers, and (5) Status Seekers.
These five Asian Brand Tribes offer distinct clues to marketers on how brands can formulate their in-store messages to effectively target and engage shoppers across channels. Each mindset is looking for a very distinct retail experience and has different expectations when it comes to ambience, sales staff and the nature of messages.
What sounds ridiculous sometimes becomes a lifesaver — has it ever happened to you that you drank too much pop or soda and had to pee while in the middle of a great movie (yes, that means you’re really inside a movie theater)? Runpee.com lists movies that are currently in movie theaters and when it’s best to “run pee” during the film. No longer do you have to miss those scenes that break the reason of why you’d rather watch in a movie theater than wait for the DVD, and bother your movie-mate asking “what happened?” The site’s slogan reads: “Helping your bladder enjoy going to the movies as much as you do.”
Also available are Runpee mobile applications for your iPhone and, soon in release, for the Blackberry, Nokia, Palm Pre, Windows Mobile and Android phones. Runpee is also expected to expand its reach into other countries.
FutureMe.org is based on the principle of writing something to your future self, today. You write yourself today and use FutureMe to deterine the date it should be delivered on. Like, write yourself something that tells you what your professional career should be next year and, in a year’s time, see if you met those goals. You can also send future e-mails to other people. Why rely on your failing memory to write something in the future when you can do it now while you can.
In the middle of its massive review of broadband in America, the Federal Communications Commission seeks an answer to a fundamental question: Just what is broadband?
As required by the stimulus package, the FCC has until February 2010 to develop a national broadband plan that will have to be presented to Congress. But for the FCC, first things are first: “We seek tailored comment on a fundamental question—how the [National Broadband] Plan should interpret the term ‘broadband’ as used in the Recovery Act, recognizing that our interpretation of the term as used in that statute may inform our interpretation of the term in other contexts.”
The current FCC definition of broadband service states that it is a static 768 Kbps downstream and 200 Kbps upstream, something that’s way too old for today’s current mega-speed digital world. However, there is a link that the FCC provides for the public to submit their comments on the FCC’s inquiry.
While the national debate about health care reform continues to rage, the federal government is looking to revamp the IT infrastructures of many companies by offering $1.2 billion in grants to convert their health and medical records from paper to electronic files. The grants are part of the federal stimulus package. The funds are dedicated to establishing approximately 70 Health Information Technology Regional Extension Centers across the country and to support states’ efforts for information sharing within the emerging nationwide system of networks. The grants will be awarded on a rolling basis, with the first awards being issued in fiscal year 2010. Grants to states will also be made in fiscal year 2010.
The funds are dedicated to establishing approximately 70 Health Information Technology Regional Extension Centers across the country and to support states’ efforts for information sharing within the emerging nationwide system of networks. These centers are required by law to establish cooperative agreements through a competitive agreement. The centers will support at least 100,000 primary care providers, through participating nonprofit organizations, to achieve meaningful use of electronic health records and to establish a nationwide health information exchange.
Wikipedia is getting a $2 million cash infusion from a group started by eBay found Pierre Omidyar. The grant will be used to support the free online encyclopedia’s goals of bringing free educational content worldwide and get the support of more people to help create content. Also, Wikipedia also plans to change the way people enter information by limiting changes to articles about people who are still alive. Approval by an editor will only allow changes to the content. This is one way Wikipedia can stop pranksters from writing bogus news, especially about celebrities.
The average download speed in the United States is only 5.4 megabits per second (Mbps), up from 4.2 Mbps in 2008. Compare this to South Korea’s average speed of 20.4 Mbps while Japan goes for 15.8 Mbps, Sweden at 12.8 Mbps and the Netherlands at 11 Mbps, to name a few of the 20-plus countries outrunning the U.S. in average internet speeds. These data are according to a report by the Communications Workers of America which clearly shows that the U.S. lags 15 years from South Korea in internet speeds.
“The report calls for more investment in the nation’s Internet infrastructure. It also suggests shifting the outdated universal service payments that support voice telephone service over to pay for better and cheaper high-speed Internet service for everyone.”
Yahoo recently announced that it intends to buy Jordan-based Arabic website Maktoob.com. The former didn’t specify how much is involved but says its part of their strategy to move into underserved markets. Yahoo says there are 320 million Arabic speakers worldwide and only a small percentage of online content is in that language. The new business called Jabbar Internet Group where Maktoob has 280 workers and offices throughout the Middle East.
The Museum of American Finance was faced with an awkward situation recently: some of the corporate sponsors of the museum — dedicated to glories of free markets — had, well, failed. It tapped its own entrepreneurial spirit and mounted an exhibit — “Tracking the Credit Crisis”. Attendance at the museum — located at 48 Wall Street, near the epicenter of last year’s market collapse — has risen to about 200 visitors a day, nearly double its tally last summer.
As essential as push email is to corporate users, something that BlackBerry has that iPhone doesn’t, the 99-cent GPush application for the iPhone promises to push notifications for new emails in GMail. Take note it doesn’t open or send emails; just lets you know when a new one has arrived no matter where you are or what you’re doing.
Click here to get a detailed look at GPush for your iPhone at Mashable.com.
Google’s Matt Cutts recently disclosed their “secret project”, behind-the-scenes updates to Google search which is now testing the next-generation architecture of web search. They call it “Caffeine.”
Though nothing is yet available for testing because of “system maintenance,” Cutts the update of this magnitude hasn’t yet happened for many years. “The new infrastructure sits ‘under the hood’ of Google’s search engine, which means that most users won’t notice a difference in search results.” The new architecture is said to include size, indexing, speed, accuracy and ranking changes and Google is asking searchers to give the pre-beta release a try it and report their feedback. The pre-beta is available at http://www2.sandbox.google.com although you can test the old Google against the new for yourselves at http://www.comparecaffeine.com.
Mashable.com calls the new update “lightning fast.” Their conclusion was that Caffeine is very fast and it often doubled the speed of the old Google, it relies more on keywords and it places “more reliance on keyword strings to produce better results”.
Qwest Communications International Inc. has begun sending notices to its customers notifying them they have 60 days to switch to another wireless provider. Until last year, the company sold wireless phone plans under the Qwest Wireless brand using Sprint network access, which Qwest bought wholesale. In May 2008, it had reached a five-year agreement to sell Verizon Wireless services and handsets under the Verizon brand. Qwest said that less than 25% of its 763,000 wireless subscribers are still using Qwest Wireless; the remainder are already signed up with Verizon Wireless. For more information on the change, visit www.qwest.com/wirelessfaq.
Motorola and Blockbuster teams up to provide on-demand movie downloads for its cellular phone users through selected types of Motorola phones using a special phone application. (Ugh! I can’t imagine watching a movie on such a small screen.)
Five people in California are suing Facebook for violating the privacy laws of the state and misleading users on how their personal information is being used, reports Silicon Alley Insider. The suit contends that children were able to upload their personal information without their parents’ consent or knowledge, bringing concern on how the childrens’ information is being used in and by Facebook. Another lawsuit says their digital images have been used by Facebook and other users without their consent, including just compensation for such.
Compact disc sales scores 65% of all music sold in the United States this year, compared to 35% of which were digital downloads — this despite the dominance of web stores for the past decade and the emergence of iTunes as a legal means of buying music online.
Maybe it’s because of many people’s fear of identity theft for online transactions with the recent news of a hacker caught with millions of credit card accounts; or maybe it’s the old habit of going to the music store — where’s the fun in buying music online? Actually, no one knows why (yet).
Aaron Sorkin, the creator of the hit TV series “West Wing” and the movie “The American President,” says that he’s going to write the script for a movie based on Ben Mezerich’s book about the founding of Facebook.
Cable companies have emerged as key suppliers of telecommunications services to small and midsize businesses. However, one area where they have not been able to match telcos is cellular services. That may change, as Cox Communications is poised to gamble $1 billion on its ability to become a trailblazer in this market.
A new Web site that provides daily deals, online coupons, grocery coupons, local coupons, store circulars and exclusive deals will soon be launched by Yahoo. This is in the light of its internal data that web searches for “printable coupons” on Yahoo are up 50 percent in 2009, compared to the same time in 2008, and up 135 percent compared to 2007.
The new site includes grocery coupons for kitchen staples through Coupons.com, offers for local chain and neighborhood restaurants, retailers and service providers provided by Valpak, exclusive deals from Visa, Next Jump, Ecobunga, Greenzer, TechBargains.com, LogicBUY, CouponAlbum, CouponMountain, BradsDeals.com, Dealnews and more. Also included are video stories on consumer shopping trends and savings tips, a gas finder module, social features that allow shoppers to share deals, and a community feature that lets users post or read comments on each deal.
The first paragraph of the Financial Post article states: “Why maintain marketing and public relations budgets during down times? Simply put: Because you can’t afford not to. At least, that’s the message coming from the experts.” Companies that maintain marketing efforts through a recessionary time will always recover faster and stronger than those businesses that do not.
So, what should an effective marketing plan include? What are the five components of promotion? Why should small business owners invest in public relations?
Microsoft recently bought office.com domain, which may be the new home of its upcoming web-based version of Office. The original content of the domain, which is also a set of web-based tools, has moved to ContactOffice.com. Microsoft’s web-based Office will be part of the online Windows Live service and will work with Safari and Firefox, besides Internet Explorer. Microsoft declined and ContactOffice did not respond to any details about the former’s acquisition of the Office.com domain.
MySpace unveiled its new messaging system this week–which now lets members use the formerly internal service to e-mail others from an @myspace.com account–and the reactions have been pretty positive. MySpace says that nearly a fifth of its traffic is related to the messaging platform, and it has 130 million users worldwide. MySpace Mail has made it easier than other e-mail clients to attach music, video, and picture files.
Ericsson won the auction for the bankrupt Nortel Network’s wireless assets valued at $1.13 billion. This means Ericsson will now own Nortel’s CDMA and next-generation LTE wireless technologies.
Nortel filed for bankruptcy in January this year, filing for creditor protection and blaming the economic crisis for a turnaround effort that started in 2005 but never happened. At its height, Nortel employed almost 90,000 employees (now down to 25,000) where its shares traded at more than Can$1,100 each in the mid-2000 but is now down at less than 10-Canadian cents per share.
Nice Kicks was started to solve the information problem pertaining to sneaker release dates, pricing and availability, and offers readers a daily destination where credible information, the history of the sneakers, and an expert’s opinion is made the priority. Nice Kicks has established itself as the leader in sneaker information on the web, growing from a few hundred visitors a month, to now reaching over 2 million unique people, and boasting 9.1 million page views.
Readatwork.com is a website that encourages people to read stuff during work — yes, another of the “bumming around while working” fake stuff. The fun part about this is that it creates a “fake Windows-like desktop” where you can sit all day reading e-books without your boss suspecting a thing!
Wait until the Windows-like desktop is loaded on your browser.
Click on the “NZ Council Book Guest” link.
A fake Windows-like full-screen appears as your desktop.
Click on any of the folders available in fake Desktop.
A fake Powerpont 2008 will appear when you select the book you’d like to read.
Pressing “ESC” puts you back to your original screen (which presumably is the browser).
Readatwork requires Adobe flash player version 9 installed. If you don’t have it in your workstation and your IT guy needs to install, then, get ready to bribe your co-worker!
Double Vision is a completely free software that lets you watch video and surf the web in a transparent browser. “Go Double Vision” and you can click through the browser to your open applications and work seemlessly.
Best when trying to hide those unproductive hours from your boss — all in the name of not doing work while at work!
Kongregate is a leading site to play games or to make them. There are thousands of free games with community features that go with many of the games – profiles, chat comments, private messages and forums. The site promotes and supports “indie developers” and uploading a game is quick and easy.
There are many bloggers, web designers that have websites and blogs which are not being used or updated anymore. And these sites do not mean anything anymore to their owners. If you are one of these owners, there is an easy-to-use option to monetize them:
SiteRedeemr.com is a company that specializes in purchasing defunct, unwanted websites of all types.
Blip.fm is a way for you to create your own music station and much more. You get access to millions of streaming songs, you have your own music station (which can also be programmed by your friends), have an audience of music enthusiasts, and can be integrated with popular networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed, Tumblr and others.
According to Blip.fm, “a BLIP” is a combination of 1) a song and 2) a short message that accompanies it (Hey! Sounds like Tweeting!). The way you create a blip is to first search for a song that you want to hear (or a song that you want your listeners to hear), then add a short message (under 150 characters), finally you submit it. Submitting a blip is also referred to as “blipping”, so from here on out, when you read “he blipped my favorite track” it means “he submitted a blip that had my favorite song attached”.
So, go check out Blip.fm and start DJ-ing (is there such a word?)
Want to heat up your food while you’re at the park? Simply plug the world’s smallest microwave contraption into your notebook’s USB port and…done!
Heinz’s Beanzawave touts the world’s smallest, portable microwave that’s powered by the USB port on your laptop computer. It stands just 7.4-inches tall by 6.2-inches wide and 5.9-inches deep, making it a perfect partner to Heinz Snap Pots (or just about anything that’ll fit inside it’s oven), thus allowing a nutritious snack to be whipped up anywhere in just 60 seconds. The Beanzawave costs $160.
There’s a new site that offers free web design and hosting, a “DIY” website builder that’s probably a great alternative to WordPress or Blogger. Moonfruit.com incorporates “Drag & Drop” editing on the web, “Ads Free,” add your own stuff like images, videos and sound files, integrates seamlessly with Facebook and Twitter, has some tools that can help you promote your site, and you can even add third-party content like YouTube, Google Maps, etc.
The free hosting comes with 20Mb of space, 1GB of bandwidth per month, up to 15 pages, over 4,000 templates to choose from, ad-free, membership tools (whatever that means), video players, picture galleries, jukeboxes and widget libraries.
Moonfruit provides software that allows users, with no previous web technology experience, to build and develop websites. There is no requirement to learn any programming languages or specific web codes; users are limited only by their own imaginations. Moonfruit was founded in August 1999. In 2006 it was recognised as one of the top online brands in the UK and was included in eSuperbrands.
Have you seen the smallest (I think it’s the smallest) USB thumbdrive? It’s 5mm long and carries up to 16GB of flash-disk space. It retails for $136 a piece. Oh, wow! Gotta have one soon!
The newly released first-quarter 2009 “U.S. E-mail Trends and Benchmarks Study” by Epsilon shows opt-in communications yield greater consumer response. For the third quarter in a row, the global consumer E-mail study revealed that consumers are more likely to make an offline purchase based on permission-based E-mails.
VoIP-News is excited to share with you our latest free comparison of the industry’s top 7 business phone solutions. See which providers deliver advanced telephony features AND at the same time give IT departments new cost-cutting strategies for your network infrastructure. Here’s a free comparison to the top 7 IP Business Phone systems before upgrading or migrating to a hosted IP PBX telephony infrastructure.
I love trivia, especially ones that involve technology companies and (new and old) media. Like AOL, which began as an on-demand video game service in 1983 for $12 a monht; or that Facebook was built in a week’s time; or the first Apple computer cost $666.66 (why on earth?).
I love numeric articles, e.g. 5 tips, 25 great ideas. After having grazed the online social network circuit for a few years, I’ve managed to understand what works and what doesn’t. Actually, there’s no rocket science to online social networking — it’s just the same dang thing as you would do when you network live, onsite.
Here are 10 things to look at (yourself?) to answer why your online networking isn’t working for you today — from Community Marketing.
I’ve met many bloggers who are very passionate in what they write. However, I’ve also met those who’d like to see their blogs transcend into the “making money” aspect of the new media. Three things come to mind why they don’t make it: (1) they write terribly, e.g. wrong grammar, points of views are all over the place, (2) they don’t have that much readers or “hits,” and (3) what they write about won’t interest the sponsors or advertisers.
Need a switch? Read this “Blinding Glimpse of the Obvious” article and maybe it’ll change your perspective in blogging — if your intent is to make money.
The American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACESA) won a tight vote of 219-212 in the U.S. House of Representatives last Friday which has been touted to be ill conceived, inadequately considered, misguided meddling and overreaching state intervention, and labelled as “Economic Suicide Act,” according to the Nationa Post story. Its so broad, complex and extensive, all based on vague standards. This legislation poses serious risks for Canadian trade and investment. adopting ACESA standards would cause fuel and energy costs to increase
Officials from the Canadian Radiotelevision and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) are expected to announce plans on a revamped funding scheme that will funnel more money to smaller TV stations, allowing them to continue to produce local programming such as newscasts.
If you’ve been using Google Docs or think it’s the best web-based collaboration application in the market, take a look at the “other” available tools you might just enjoy using. The article features Pastebin, Google Docs, Zoho Writer, Dabbleboard, Dimdim, Yugma and Bubbl.
Good news to self-service entrepreneurs and business owners. Yahoo recently rolled out its “My Display Ad” self-serve ad program targeting local advertisers and search advertisers. Much like Google, MySpace and Facebook who have all rolled out their own versions much earlier, Yahoo still contends to (also) run after those businesses who haven’t started any online advertising. The self-serve idea should interest these kinds of organizations to do so.
A big part of Facebook’s $550 million revenue target will be coming from “cost-per-click” advertising from self-service advertisers, usually entreprenuers, SOHO or small businesses. But there’s a ruckus exploding within these advertisers that Facebook is defrauding them of bloated click numbers–not just 20% or so but almost 10 times the actual clicks. So, advertisers are complaining that Facebook is recording clicks that don’t really exist at all. But Facebooking isn’t acknowledging the ghost clicks nor are they refunding advertisers. They are, however, asking advertisers for proof by sending Facebook the actual logs that display the discrepancy.
The recession began in December 2007. Did it end sometime this spring? Paul La Monica of CNNMoney explains, with stats about past recession years and a view of the hardest hit states.
If you’re an AdWords advertiser, Google Advertising Professional, or just interested in learning more about AdWords, you can use our free training to sharpen your AdWords knowledge. We offer both multimedia and text lessons to match your preferred learning style. While lessons are organized to build upon previous ones, you can skip between topics and take them in any way you like. After each lesson, test your knowledge by taking a quiz. Because so much is covered, you probably can’t complete training in one sitting (without the help of caffeine), so return often. Content is updated regularly to keep you current.
Doh! Even Homer Simpson wasn’t spared from the effects of the ongoing recession in the U.S. The 12th episode of “The Simpsons” spelled trouble when Homer’s house goes up for auction and Christian neighbor Ned Flanders buys it and rents it out back to Simpsons.
You have to love the “rich and famous” for wooing you with words of substance or experience (whether you love ‘em or hate ‘em). Here are the commencement speeches of those we know to be famed and rich. Below is a link to the videos and transcripts of their speeches.
Steve Jobs: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.”
Jeff Bezos: “Successful folks focus in on what they love and they wait for the world to come to them. The alternative, which is chasing the day’s hot trend is a difficult road.”
J.K. Rowling: “It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default.”
Bill Gates: “Humanity’s greatest advances are not in its discoveries – but in how those discoveries are applied to reduce inequity.”
Larry Page: “Your families brought you here, and you brought them here. Please keep them close and remember: they are what really matters in life.”
Eric Schmidt: “It’s possible to spend your life inside the computer. Life is the people around you.”
Summer Redstone: “Follow your heart, but stick to what you know.”
Omid Kordestani: “To keep my edge, I must think and act like an immigrant.”
Carly Fiorina: “Use the knowledge that you have earned here to find ways, not only to connect to computers, but to connect people…”
Jeff Immelt: “Commit yourself to build competency.”
CEOs are part and parcel of the company brand they represent. When these executives use Twitter to communicate, they become part of their customer’s “brand” and can provide a strong forum for thier views. However, many executives keep asking (or procrastinating) if they should even venture into the 140-character messaging system that many have not found “what the heck does it do for my business?” Even if you’re not a CEO but belong to the decision-making echelon of your business, you’ve got to consider the power of social networking and, for this matter, Twitter.
Here’s a great article (especially for CEOs) to ascertain if Twitter will truly achieve strengthening their public image and brand. Click here to go to the Mashable.com article.
In its continuing push to expand the reach of its System z mainframes, IBM is planning to release enhancements to more than 30 mainframe-based software offerings in 2009. IBM already has released 12 of those upgrades. The move comes as vendors such as CA, BMC Software and Unisys expand their mainframe offerings and HP tries to lure IBM mainframe users to its own Intel-based ProLiant and Integrity systems.
Eric Lundquist of SmarterTechnology.com share us his insights into the top 5 technologies that started to shape our digital world this year. From Cloud Computing to mobility devices and the online social networking arena, Eric gives us these things that should shape us and our businesses this year.
The surprise of it all: Volkswagen does a lot better than its competitors last May 2009 because of its new Golf VI hatchback and Tiguan SUV, grabbing more share of the world’s market especially in it’s biggest markets – Germany and China.
Dell recently said that it made more than $3 million in sales through Twitter, providing its followers a link to its website that many came to purchase. Dell has been Twittering for about 2 years already. However, $3 million in sales of 2 years doesn’t match the $12 billion it made in the first quarter of this year alone. This makes Dell one of the few companies to successfully use the 140-character messaging service in profiting from the free service. Dell would post about 6 to 10 messages a week on its http://twitter.com/DellOutlet account which has about 600,000 followers.
Twitter has about 17 million US subscribers and 24 million worldwide.
Now, here’s how a business succeeds using Twitter!
Peter L. Bernstein, the author of Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk and other books, died on June 5 at the age of 90. In this McKinsey Quarterly video, the well-known author discusses the meaning of risk and explains why sophisticated mathematical models to control it sometimes go awry.
Starbucks Coffee Company recently invited bloggers and journalists to their Seattle, WA head office for some sessions of Coffee 101 or “coffee college.” Here’s part one of what transpired.
How can you tweet beyond the 140 character limit that Twitter and all its corresponding apps allow you? Simple. Just record your message and publish your audio recording directly to Twitter (as a link to the voice file.) TweetMic is a client app that’s only available for the iPhone. There’s no limit to your audio message recording and you don’t have to sign up to use TweetMic – cool! (“Does this mean I can send my entire podcast in a single Tweet?”)
108 Time Box is a monthly 9 year calendar in a box – a representation of time that flows from the container in one continuous sheet. The calendar spans 9 years (from 2006-2015) with a unique type-based design for each of 108 months. Available in two box colors – black and white. I’m considering sending one as a gift
Instead of creating your own background using Powerpoint or Paint (now, there are those who don’t really Photoshop – like me), why not get these 33 freebies and paste it on your twitter page?
From Yahoo to Google and Cuil (did that really fly?) now comes Bing.com, Microsoft’s new entry into the world of search engines. Steve Balmer recently tripped in announcing the new search engine even before it went live – when you went to the site (before), it only showed you a “blank screen.” All’s well that really didn’t end well. But many pundits say it’s still nothing compared to Google. One says the quality of results from using Bing was nowhere compared to the might of Google. At a glance, here are some of its highlights:
Categorized Search & Web Groups
Related Searches
Best Match
Quick Previews
Instant Answers
Infinite scroll of images
Shopping search
Local search
Travel search
Health search
Everyone’s entitled to their own opinion. It’s always best to try and see how you experience it. (Good luck!)
Microsoft’s “Project Natal” aims to replace your Xbox 360 controller with your hands, feet, body, and voice. It will work with all existing Xbox 360s and all future Xboxes, via an add-on sensor. Microsof just showed off a very cool and new way to control your Xbox 360 – with your body!
Pepsi seems to be doing better than most this year, despite the economic turmoil that’s hitting the financial sector and accompanying industries. The company raised its earnings forecasts because of increased domestic (US) sales and lower commodity costs.
Bill 44 introduced to Alberta’s Human Rights Act the right for parents to pull their children from classrooms in which teachers discuss sexual orientation, sexuality, or religion. The parental rights amendment was included with a motion to enshrine gay rights in the province. Opposition says the law substandard to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
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