Posted on: August 13, 2011 by Jordan Hardy
Flickr allows users to manage and share their photos and videos for free online. New users can create an account through either their Google Gmail or Yahoo Mail account. Upon first sign in, one can personalize their profile, upload first photos, find friends, and explore.
Flickr offers users profiles, photostreams, galleries, tags, archives, favorites, popular photos, and maps. With Flickr, users also can tag photos with notes, people, or Exif data (camera settings). Flickr users can email photos and videos, get links, get HTML code, or share with friends through Facebook, Twitter or Tumblr.
Beyond the large number of features Flickr offers, it also stands out due to the large number of photos one can explore. With so many users joining since launch in 2004, Flickr photos are embedded in many blogs, Websites, and social media.
Also see our post about Photobucket.
Posted on: August 13, 2011 by Jordan Hardy
Photobucket offers free and paid image and video hosting as well as sharing. Upon signing up, Photobucket at the current time quickly prompts new users to select a paid upgrade. It isn’t necessary to accept, and a free account is still available. Photobucket is currently also prompting users to submit feedback early in the sign up process. Feedback is also optional.
Photobucket allows users to upload their images and videos. They can link directly to files, get HTML, email links to friends, and also share images and videos on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and Messenger. Photobucket also allows users to view a slideshow, follow people, and compete in photo competitions.
I place Photobucket as a second choice to Flickr, since Flickr offers more options and is also still more widely used. I was impressed that in the recent twitter platform updates, photo uploads in twitter are now automatically hosted on Photobucket!
Posted on: August 13, 2011 by Jordan Hardy
Google Plus, also known as Google+, was launched in June 2011. Google Plus is a social networking Website run by Google, meant to compete with Facebook, twitter, and LinkedIn. The number of Google Plus users has grown quickly in recent months while the number of those users replacing Facebook and twitter with Google Plus has not grown quickly.
- Google Plus utilizes Google Profiles and Google Buzz. It features Circles, allowing sets of people to be grouped. This isn’t currently offered by other social networking Websites.
- Google Plus offers hangouts, where people can hang out using group video chat, to feel as if in a coffee shop or the same room.
- Huddles in Google Plus allow users to communicate through mobile devices with instant messaging within circles.
- Sparks in Google Plus allows users to leverage Google search to find interesting topics and share with contacts.
- Google Plus has a Google +1 button where users can show their interest in items.
- Instant upload allows quick upload to Google Plus from mobile devices.
- The stream in Google Plus displays updates from contacts on one page.
- Today there are 16 games in Google plus, including Angry Birds and Zynga Poker.
- Google Plus allows easy access to Google Profile to view and edit.
- Photos in Google Plus show a slideshow type view of photos from connections.
Google Plus has quite a number of innovative new ideas, the best being circles and hangouts. The problem is that not enough people are yet using Google Plus to make it a Facebook competitor. In addition, with the failure of Google Buzz and questions about Google search results prioritizing Google profiles, reviews, and other Google content, it isn’t yet clear if Google Plus will be a long term unbiased social media option which will gain traction.
Posted on: June 8, 2011 by Jordan Hardy
With hundreds of most used social networking Websites in the US and around the world, Facebook has now become the most popular. Here are 5 reasons I feel Facebook can be very useful:
- Facebook now has over 600 million users. With such a large number of people using Facebook, it is easy to find and reconnect with people.
- Companies and groups have a number of avenues to grow their business on Facebook. They can create an account, page (with campaigns), and/or ads.
- Facebook gets quite a bit of free advertising, which makes it more and more well known every day. Many companies promote their Facebook, Twitter, and other accounts from ads, commercials, emails, Websites, etc.
- Generally in a day, the Facebook News Feed in a profile offers plenty of updates. Updates including smooth embedded videos, links to articles, photos, and more.
- There is an excellent selection of companies and groups to connect with via the “Like” button.
Posted on: July 6, 2010 by Jordan Hardy
Google Caffeine was launched with the objective to more quickly locate and display the most relevant, rich Web information such as videos, images, and social media updates for users. Google Caffeine provides 5 major improvements I’ve noticed to date, which not only benefit Google users but can also help SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Google Caffeine has now been live exactly four weeks, launched June 8, 2010.
- Some Social Media Website Listings Now Rank Higher
Social Media Websites with elevated current activity and higher perceived value can be given priority. As an example, at this time FriendFeed.com has gotten a boost in Google SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages) due to a sustained recent increase in user activity. From an SEO perspective, designating resources for ongoing strategic efforts on the hottest social media Websites may be a worthwhile business decision.
- Google Caffeine is Faster
Results from Google Caffeine are displayed roughly 50% faster than before launch. Website speed is an important SEO factor especially within the last year. As part of a strong SEO program, Google and Website visitors will appreciate fast Websites. Rapid Website speed will complete a seamless experience after a user initially finds expeditious load times with Google Caffeine.
- Google Caffeine Presents More Fresh Content
Google’s previous index was engineered with a number of layers. This construction resulted in some Website listings within Google search results not being refreshed for weeks. Google Caffeine now continuously updates the Google index globally so that it is about 50% more fresh. New pages posted on the Web may now be indexed in seconds on Google and are frequently served in search results almost immediately. For SEO this means if more fresh, interesting content is posted on a given Website, there are additional opportunities for SERP listings possible for a business.
- Keyword Strings are More Important
The new Google Caffeine algorithm relies more on keyword strings than before so that results will be more relevant for users. My SEO keyword strategy best practices, which have evolved over time, emphasize keyword strings more than individual keywords. In many cases, keyword strings provide more necessary information than single keywords.
- Google Caffeine Indexes More Pages
With hundreds of thousands of pages indexed at any given time, Google Caffeine is adding roughly one million gigabytes of information every week to the Google index. A SEO friendly Website with extensive useful relevant information and no duplicate content indexed can secure more indexed SERP listings with Google Caffeine.
Beyond these 5 recent improvements with the Google Caffeine launch, Google Caffeine is also built to scale and allow more new developments to launch in coming months. I look forward in the future to discovering more techniques Google develops to deliver more relevant search results to users.
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