by bintangkecil on Tuesday, February 9th, 2010 | News, Tech/Gadget | No Comments

Tuesday morning, Google launched Buzz; the latest Google product for sharing links, media, and status updates with your friends.

Google Buzz is integrated in Gmail. So, if you have a Gmail account, you can go to buzz.google.com to turn the feature on right now!

Buzz is more than a little bit like Twitter — and a whole lot like Facebook and FriendFeed. Anything you post is automatically sent out to the people on your Google Contacts list you interact with the most. All updates are real-time, and anything you share is open for comments. You can also post privately to a select group of friends.

During the Buzz press conference, Google expressed eagerness to integrate Buzz with the company’s existing properties (Wave, Latitude, Voice) the way it has with Gmail.

	No setup needed Automatically follow the people you email and chat with the most in Gmail.
	Share publicly or privately Publish your ideas to the world or just to your closest friends.
	Inbox integration Comments get sent right to your inbox so it's easy to keep the conversation going.
	Photo friendly See thumbnails with each post, and browse full-screen photos from popular sites.
	Connect sites you already use Import your stuff from Twitter, Picasa, Flickr, and Google Reader.
	See updates in real time New posts and comments pop in as they happen. No refresh required.
	Just the good stuff Buzz recommends interesting posts and weeds out ones you're likely to skip.

Google Buzz in Action!

Google Buzz for mobile

Tags: buzz, buzz google, Facebook, friendfeed, gmail blog, gmail buzz, gmail google buzz, google buz, google buzz, google buzz for mobile, google buzzing, google facebook, Google Latitude, google social, google social media, google social network, google social software, google twitter, google voice, Google Wave, googlebuzz, social network, twitter

by wildcherry on Monday, February 8th, 2010 | News, Tech/Gadget | No Comments

Gmail is set to become Google’s next major push into social media. According to The Wall Street Journal, the popular webmail service will soon launch a new feature for sharing content and status updates with friends. [Update: We think Google might announce these features on Tuesday]

In other words, your Gmail contacts aren’t necessarily the same people you want to share status updates, photos and videos with. This is an issue that shouldn’t be overlooked in evaluating the new features Google is soon to unveil.

As WSJ points out, Gmail users can already update their statuses — sort of — through Gmail’s chat feature. Currently, this feature is more akin to the traditional IM “away message.” However, with this new social push, Gmail will offer a timeline-view of your friends’ status updates, just like on Facebook and Twitter.

Those updates might come from both Gmail and third-party services. According to WSJ, Google-owned YouTube and Picasa will be integrated into the stream. The huge question then is whether or not the new feature will include updates from Twitter and Facebook.

If so, the new features could be thought of more like a TweetDeck or Seesmic, looking to provide an aggregate view of your friends’ social media activities along with the ability to push status updates to the services you use from inside of Gmail. If not, it could be thought of as a major competitor to Twitter and Facebook as Gmail looks to covert its millions of e-mail users into adherents to a whole new breed of social media service.

Full article:Mashable

Tags: Facebook, gmail, gmail social, google, trending, twitter

by wildcherry on Tuesday, January 19th, 2010 | Entertainment, News | No Comments

Microsoft’s founder and the world’s richest man, Bill Gates, has just jointed Twitter. You can start following him at @BillGates. The account is indeed real: it is officially a verified account and is confirmed by Twitter’s Caroline Mizumoto.

Bill’s follower count escalated after Caroline’s tweet, meaning his real rate of growth is about 20,000 new followers per hour. The last time we’ve seen a new Twitter user with this kind of momentum was Oprah when she first joined.

Well even though we are not Bill Gates, please feel free to add blogoncherry on Tweeter!

Tags: bill gates, bill gates tweets, bill gates twitter account, microsoft, twitter

by wildcherry on Friday, January 8th, 2010 | Knowledge, Life | 1 Comment

When Twitter first started, people were a little perplexed. I mean why on earth would you want to blog in 140 characters? Well since the site emerged in 2006, it’s grown enormously in popularity.

Before you continue reading, please add blogoncherry to your Twitter friend list!

With Twitter pages from sites like CNN and every one of the political candidates, the site’s popularity can’t be overstated. Nor can its applications for the future. Also, even if you don’t have a ton of people following your tweets, keep in mind that Twitter search sites are popping up everywhere. This means that if you tweet using keywords that matter to your reader/market, you could be found and followed! For one such search site check out: summarize. Also, if you’re trying to gauge the popularity of a certain word or phrase and how often it’s being used or referred to, you can head on over to Tweet Volume and find out. Just plug in your search term or terms and up will pop a list of results!

Most Well-Known Twitter Users

• Many organizations (such as the Los Angeles Fire Department) have embraced the technology and put it to use in situations such as the October 2007 California wildfires.

• Higher education is also using the technology to relay important information to students in a more timely manner. The University of Texas at San Antonio College of Engineering is one such example.

• Several U.S. presidential campaigns use Twitter as a publicity mechanism, Ron Paul, John Edwards, Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton all have Twitter pages.

• Media outlets such as CNN have also started using Twitter to break news.

How to Use Twitter Effectively

If you’ve pondered using Twitter but aren’t sure how to use it effectively, here are some quick tips to give you some great twittering-ideas:

• Teach stuff - teach a little mini-lesson on Twitter. Delve into your area of expertise or just talk about book publishing and how to get published.

• Showcase your book - don’t do this in a “my book is so fabulous” kind of way but offer to give advice (like I mention in Teach Stuff) or share with your Twitter followers how the promotion of the book is going.

• Use Twitter as a news source: you can easily announce news both from your world (as long as it relates to your topic) and from the world of your expertise. So for example I’ve done tweets on book industry stuff, breaking news, etc.

• Widen your network - follow other Twitter folk, this will not only give you some ideas for your own “tweets” but it’s a great way to network with other writers or professionals.

• Keep the buzz going when you’re on the move - it’s hard to keep blogging when you’re on the road (trust me, I know this first hand) - so when I travel, I tweet. I share what I’m doing, what’s happening in my world and try to offer insight and advice.

• Market yourself - remember that while Twitter may seem like a fun little tool, it’s also a great way to market yourself. Just like the ideas we mention above, there are a hundred+ more things you can do.

Golden Rules of Twitter:

Here are a few rules to live by when tweeting:

• Be Original, useful and helpful.

• Every Tweet counts (don’t tell people you’re washing your cat) don’t just tweet on useless stuff or you’ll lose followers.

• Ask questions: you’ve got a network (or you want one) now use it! Ask questions, take surveys, get your followers involved in your message and marketing!

• It’s not all about you (again, back to the cat) people want to know useful stuff, I know, it’s getting repetitive but there’s a reason: it’s important.

• Promote your Twitter account in your email signature line and on your blog.

• Network: don’t expect your followers to grow if you’re not following other people. Network, search for others in your area and follow them.

• Personal is ok. Even though I said not to post useless information it’s still not a bad idea to (from time to time) post a personal Tweet or two. Provide value and twitter-followers will beat a path to your door.

• Keep Twittering, followers will come if you keep updating your Twitter account.

Tags: Authors, Books, marketing, Micro-blogging, SEO, tweets, twitter, Virtual Tours, writing

by wildcherry on Sunday, December 20th, 2009 | News, Tech/Gadget | No Comments

Twitter was hacked early Friday morning. Visitors to its homepage and domain saw a message from a group calling itself the “Iranian Cyber Army”:

A Google search for “Twitter” turned up a message in Farsi below the link:

The translation from Farsi/Persian reads: “In the name of God, As an Iranian this is a reaction to Twitter’s interference sly which was U.S. authorities ordered in the internal affairs of my country…”

It’s not clear who the Iranian Cyber Army is, or if the group is actually responsible for sabotaging Twitter. During the unrest that followed Iran’s elections this past summer, people in Iran and around the world used Twitter to organize opposition protests and inspire dissent. At the U.S. State Department’s request, Twitter even rescheduled an upgrade to minimize any problems for users in Tehran.

Twitter sent out a tweet at about 2:36 a.m. ET, acknowledging that the site’s DNS records were temporarily compromised. It said that the problem was resolved and in a blog post that followed, explained that the site was “redirected for awhile,” but that “API and platform applications were working.”

Tags: Hackers, Iran, Iranian Cyber Army, Iranian Cyber Army Twitter, Mawjcamp, Mawjcamp.Org, twitter, Twitter Hacked, Twitter Hacked By Iranian Cyber Army, Twitter Hacked Iran, Twitter Hacked Iranian Cyber Army, Twitter Iranian Cyber Army

by wildcherry on Sunday, December 6th, 2009 | News, Weird | No Comments

A groom interrupted his own wedding to get his phone out at the altar to update his relationship status on Facebook and Twitter.

He whipped out his mobile immediately after the minister pronounced the couple man and wife, reports The Sun.

The audience then burst out laughing as the minister, who was in on the stunt, tells them the groom is updating his relationship status.

He also Tweeted: “Standing at the altar with TracyPage where just a second ago, she became my wife! Gotta go, time to kiss my bride.”

He then hands his new wife her phone so she can update her Facebook status from “in a relationship” to “married”.

A clip of the stunt has been posted on YouTube (see below) where it has become an internet hit with nearly 180,000 viewers to date.

On YouTube, the un-named groom says: “This was just done to be funny - we really don’t Facebook THAT often:).

“I have a lot of family scattered around the country and we all use Facebook a lot to keep in touch. So when Tracy and I were engaged, most of my family found out via Facebook because we updated our statuses.

“I surprised not only my guests, but also Tracy by pulling out my phone and posting on Facebook and Twitter from the altar during our wedding.

“I had her phone ready in my pocket, so when she asked for it I could hand it to her. No one knew about this except the minister, and myself.”

Technorati:facebook,twitter,twitter groom,facebook wedding,facebook twitter,twitter wedding

Tags: couple facebook, couple twitt, Facebook, facebook groom, facebook wedding, twitter, twitter groom, twitter wedding

by bintangkecil on Sunday, November 15th, 2009 | News, World | No Comments

About 100 of NASA’s geekiest fans will be on hand, pecking away at iPhones, BlackBerrys, laptops and other Twittering gadgets, to tweet on Monday’s space shuttle Atlantis launch.

They plan to let loose with electronic messages — provided they aren’t so swept away by the afternoon liftoff that they fall uncharacteristically silent for a moment or two.

“I’ll be uploading stuff as it happens,” promised Steve Wake, 38, a computer programmer who flew in from Denver. “On launch day, who knows? I may be too excited about everything else to even think about doing that stuff. When it’s over with, I’m sure I will.”

Laura Burns already has a strategy. She figures she’ll have the words typed in and her finger hovering over the button so she can send a tweet at the moment of liftoff.

“I’ll have to be like juggling my iPhone and my camera and my eyes, and trying to get everything all at once,” said Burns, 33, a software systems engineer from Columbia, Md. She’s using the Twitter name “moonrangerlaura” to chronicle her entire trip — including the drive to Cape Canaveral and a pit stop for MoonPies.

For the first time ever, NASA last month invited its Twitter followers to sign up online for the chance to see a space shuttle launch up close.

The 100 slots — and 50 backup positions — filled in less than 20 minutes Oct. 16.

The two-day gathering got under way Sunday at Kennedy Space Center with talks by NASA bigwigs, including the first Twittering astronaut, Michael Massimino, aka Astro_Mike. The discussions were streamed live on the Internet, and the “tweetup” gathering was near the top of Twitter’s trending topics Sunday morning.

Nearly half the attendees are from Florida, making for an easier trip, especially if the mission ends up being delayed. Atlantis’ six astronauts have thousands of pounds of spare parts to deliver to the International Space Station. The 11-day flight will keep the astronauts in orbit over Thanksgiving.

Monday’s launch time is 2:28 p.m. Excellent weather is forecast.

The tweeps, as they’re called, represent 21 states plus the District of Columbia, as well as five countries, including Morocco and New Zealand. They’re traveling on their own dime.

NASA estimates the 100 have more than 150,000 Twitter followers. It’s a dream outreach program for a space agency looking to drum up support.

With only six shuttle flights remaining and still no word from the White House on a future course for astronauts, NASA is tapping into social media — Twitter, Facebook and the like — to spread its stay-in-space message.

Astronauts have been tweeting from Earth and orbit since spring. While NASA already has held a few of the tweetups — so-called meet ups of people who use Twitter — it’s the first for Kennedy Space Center, a high-security area requiring government clearance.

Even the most staid NASA types see the benefit of reaching out to a younger, hipper crowd.

Atlantis commander Charles Hobaugh — who acknowledged last month he doesn’t even text message — assigned the crew’s Twittering tasks to Dr. Robert Satcher Jr. Satcher, who will become the first orthopedic surgeon in space, uses the handle ZeroG_MD.

“It’s exciting that this is generating more interest in space exploration and certainly interest in the last few missions of the shuttle, which we hope are not the last few missions of the shuttle,” Satcher said.

With five children of his own, the director of NASA’s space shuttle program appreciates the importance of reaching out to the next generation.

“It’s the right thing to do, is to use the tools available and get them excited about things that are real, not virtual,” program director John Shannon said.

Neal Wiser, a 41-year-old Internet marketing strategist from Philadelphia, is fulfilling a lifelong dream. The biggest thing he’s ever seen lift off is an 8-foot model rocket.

This is Wiser’s third NASA tweetup. He’ll be blogging and Twittering throughout.

“We’re all geeks together,” he said. “I actually joked to my wife that I’m turning into a NASA groupie.”

Tags: atlantis astronauts, atlantis launch time, Cape Canaveral, Computing And Information Technology, Consumer Electronics, Florida, Internet Technology, kennedy space center, Mobile Communications, nasa and twitter, nasa atlantis launch time, nasa geekiest fans, nasa geeks, NASA tweets, nasa tweetups, nasa twiter, North America, Online Media, shuttle atlantis, space shuttle atlantis, space shuttle atlantis launch time, tweetups, twitter, twitter followers, United States

by bintangkecil on Friday, September 18th, 2009 | Humour, Life, Tips | 1 Comment

Balancing your work and personal life on social networking tools such as Facebook has become more complex than ever — and the dangers go beyond the well-publicized examples of posting party pictures to your profile.

A more subtle faux pas can affect your online reputation and even future job path, as your friend list on Facebook includes both personal and professional contacts. Information you post can mess up your work relationships and personal ones in one quick swoop.

For example, the immediacy and ease with which you can post a quip on Facebook may get you into trouble if you’re teasing your significant other — plus tell work colleagues more than they need or want to know about your relationship. This recent story of a man caught cheating by his wife when she perused his iPhone got us thinking: In this day of gadgetry and near-constant contact via social networking, how can you avoid blunders that will deem you a thoughtless spouse, friend or colleague?

Kirsten Dixson, a reputation management and online identity expert, has some tips to keep you on the appropriate social networking etiquette path. Because Facebook mixes your personal and professional life, she says it requires more careful attention than LinkedIn, the social network for professionals, which keeps a strictly all-business look and feel due to its design.

Here are Dixson’s suggestions for managing your Facebook profile and your overall social networking persona, and warnings about places where you can get into trouble with people who matter to you personally and professionally.

1. Choosing your profile picture

Thoughtful: Some people militantly believe that Facebook is all personal while LinkedIn is all professional. If this sounds like you, you might choose a Facebook pic of yourself fishing, hanging out at a party or playing a guitar. But Dixson says you’re better off to err on the side of caution here, by keeping your profile picture professional, or at least neutral. Your photo doesn’t need to be in a studio with a boring canvas backdrop - it could be outside on your deck or on a mountain side, for instance - but it has to be fairly even-keeled. (This is different than LinkedIn, where photos should be strictly professional, Dixson says).

Thoughtless: According to Dixson, don’t post profile pictures that are “too sexy, cartoonish or that might alienate your audience.” A look through your friend list can usually reveal the ones she’s talking about. The stylized glamour shot, the quick snapshot of slicked up hair or low-cut dresses taken right before heading to a party, or worse, costume-like pics: wet suits and surfboards, bike gear, Halloween outfits -the list goes on.

2. Filling Out Your Biography

Thoughtful: The biographical section of social networks vary. On Facebook, the service provides fields for a variety of interests, both professional and personal. Don’t be afraid to post some nuggets that convey who you are, within reason. On Facebook, you can decide with great granularity what information people can view by altering your privacy settings. For instance, you can set it so every visitor to your profile sees that you enjoy golfing, reading and civil war history, but maybe only a certain group of people see your religion, political affiliations and relationships. For Facebook’s “About me” section, building on the Twitter doctrine, Dixson says to be short and concise. Don’t worry about being clever.

Thoughtless: While there aren’t many numbers to back this assertion (because Facebook is a private company, and data can be hard to come by), most social networking and identity experts believe a great many Facebook users never so much as glance at their privacy settings pages. The same probably holds true for other social networks. Remember that social networks plan to monetize their service by ensuring that you share as much information as possible. As such, you should believe that they’ll share as much information about you as they can, and make it available to the widest audience.

The default settings for Facebook, for example, make all your profile information available for everyone on the service to see. “Assume from the get go that anything you put in there is viewable on the public internet,” Dixson says. “Go in with that line of thinking. Then go in and say, if you don’t want to make certain information available to certain people, go turn them off with the privacy settings.”

With the information you do share, avoid being vain. Social networks do enable, if not encourage, a bit of narcissism. But don’t assume people want to read a novel about your life. Also, be protective of your family. It’s fine to list yourself as “married” in the info section, for instance, but don’t necessarily feel that you have to put down a link to your significant other. If you have young children, for their protection and privacy, Dixson recommends you don’t include their names anywhere in the bio or in pictures of them that you decide to share.

Oh, and a word about age. While you may want to include your birthday on your Facebook profile, so people can message you on the big day, you should exclude the birth year, Dixson says. Your friends and family know how old you are, and there’s no reason for your professional ones to know.

3. Posting content, links, and news

Thoughtful: Post content that highlights your personal interests and your professional areas of expertise. A marketing professional might post some interesting links for a relevant trade publication he or she wanted to share, for example. Posting personal picture slideshows is fine — again, within reason. You clearly want to avoid the aforementioned pitfalls of displaying shots of wild revelry. But for all the agony about what’s acceptable and what’s not, remember that offering contacts a decent glimpse into what makes you you can have business benefits. “It strengthens relationships,” Dixson says. “It really helps establish connections. People like to do business with people they know.”

Thoughtless: Spamming people is a big no-no, as it can irrevocably ruin your social capital. It’s great to be so passionate about things in both your professional life and personal life that you feel compelled to share it with people who are important to you, but remember that people can only take so much time out of their day. Also, don’t assume they care about every little thing in your personal life. People know you’re proud of your kids, for example, and that speaks to your commitment as a parent. Yet you need to know when to draw the line somewhere in how much they want to hear.

Definitely keep your romantic break-ups and get-togethers in private forums, like e-mails, IMs and (who still uses it anymore?) the phone.

Oh, and this one should be self-explanatory: don’t go flapping your gums about your company’s affairs.

4. Talking to One vs. Many

Thoughtful: Posing a question to your entire network is OK, provided it’s relevant to all of them, or at least won’t be viewed as a nuisance. For instance, you might ask, “Getting a new phone. iPhone or BlackBerry?” Such a question will be relevant to a lot of folks who have gone through the same issue. The key is, if you’re on the receiving end and want to weigh in on such an issue, be sure to respond to that person only - unless it’s been made clear that he or she wants your comments public. This way, you avoid spamming people.

Thoughtless: Know that self-satisfied guy who unrelentingly decides to hit reply-all to every group e-mail that’s sent in your company? You don’t want to be that guy on social networks. On Facebook, one of the most utilized features is the Wall. It’s a fun place to leave publicly displayed messages and a bit of witty banter. However, making specific plans with a person on the Wall, for example, is rude to that person’s other profile visitors. Too many times, you see “let’s get a drink at 5 today” posted to someone’s Wall. Unless you want to include all of that person’s friends in on the social engagement, there’s no reason not to pose that question in the private messaging section of Facebook (or any social network for that matter; Twitter, for instance, has the direct message function).

5. Watching Your Tone

Thoughtful: It’s important to keep a polite and measured tone on social networks; after all, the mainstream ones like Facebook are an extension of our lives in real life (that’s not necessarily the case in virtual worlds, but that’s a whole other topic). Say things you’d feel comfortable saying in person, and avoid inside jokes that only a few of your contacts would understand.

Thoughtless: With a social network that is fairly open, nobody is really going to be impressed when you post inside jokes that they don’t understand; in fact, you run the risk of insulting people if they think you’re making some veiled or coded comment about them. Remember, within most social networks, you can set up private groups where those kinds of exchanges will not only be more appropriate, but also encouraged. “It’s better to be clear than clever,” Dixson says. “Don’t expect people to get it. Be very explicit.”

Finally, sarcastic humor and anger can be dangerous in social network postings, just as they are in e-mail messages. Think twice before sharing.

Source: PC World

Tags: bill gates facebook, bill gates facebook profile, biography on facebook, Facebook, facebook doctrine, facebook don'ts, facebook dos, facebook dos and don'ts, facebook etiquette, facebook profile funny picture, facebooking etiquettes, Kirsten Dixson, LinkedIn, posting comments on facebook, posting contents on facebook, posting links on facebook, privacy on facebook, twitter

by wildcherry on Friday, April 3rd, 2009 | News, Tech/Gadget | 1 Comment

TechCrunch claims that Google is in advanced negotiations to acquire Twitter. TechCrunch said that the asking price is more than the $250m (£170m) valuation that Twitter’s recent round of funding would suggest.

Twitter has recently reworked its search feature, prompting many to think that this makes the firm more appealing to potential suitors. Search facilities have been added to the ‘tweet’ pages, and users can search tweets from this view. Twitter claims that the new additions were planned from the start.

Such features would have obvious benefits for marketing and advertising purposes.

“Twitter Search is an engine for discovering what is happening right now,” said Twitter co-founder Biz Stone in a blog post.

Stone and co-founder Evan Williams have already sold Blogger.com to Google, and TechCrunch guesses that any deal would involve a straight cash or stock transaction.

Tags: biz stone, evan williams, google, google purchase twitter, twitter, twitter sold