OK, so as soon as we think we got search figured out Google changes it. Change is good! GULP… So on Tuesday Google posted on their blog. Read excerpt below that they are bring search to a more personal level…..

Google Search has always been about finding the best results for you. Sometimes that means results from the public web, but sometimes it means your personal content or things shared with you by people you care about. These wonderful people and this rich personal content is currently missing from your search experience. Search is still limited to a universe of webpages created publicly, mostly by people you’ve never met. Today, we’re changing that by bringing your world, rich with people and information, into search.

Search is pretty amazing at finding that one needle in a haystack of billions of webpages, images, videos, news and much more. But clearly, that isn’t enough. You should also be able to find your own stuff on the web, the people you know and things they’ve shared with you, as well as the people you don’t know but might want to… all from one search box.

We’re transforming Google into a search engine that understands not only content, but also people and relationships. We began this transformation with Social Search, and today we’re taking another big step in this direction by introducing three new features:

1. Personal Results, which enable you to find information just for you, such as Google+ photos and posts—both your own and those shared specifically with you, that only you will be able to see on your results page;
2. Profiles in Search, both in autocomplete and results, which enable you to immediately find people you’re close to or might be interested in following; and,
3. People and Pages, which help you find people profiles and Google+ pages related to a specific topic or area of interest, and enable you to follow them with just a few clicks. Because behind most every query is a community.

Together, these features combine to create Search plus Your World. Search is simply better with your world in it, and we’re just getting started.

 

For full recap here is the original article GOOGLE NEW SEARCH

Related articles

• Google introduces Search plus Your World (e27.sg)
• Google Search, plus Your World (davidmurrow.com)
• Get Ready for Search Plus Your World (epiphanysolutions.co.uk)

At the start of a new year, it’s natural to look back on the year gone by and take note of significant trends or topics. Fortunately for mobile app developers, a couple of trends reached important turning points in 2011, and indicate a potential for considerable sales increases in 2012.

The first trend was the shift from desktop and laptop computers to mobile devices. In 2011, for the first time ever, sales of mobile devices outpaced computers. Increases in mobile devices means increased demand for mobile apps, which brings us to our second trend -

People spent more time in mobile apps than Internet browsers. For example, instead of opening a Safari window to access Facebook, people used apps on their mobile devices. As the graph shows, as of June,people spent 74 minutes a day in Internet browsers, and 81 minutes per day in mobile apps. The number of minutes spent in apps nearly doubled from the previous year, from 43 to 81 minutes.

As these trends continue, people will be looking for mobile apps that entertain, organize, and keep them connected with their friends and family.

Related articles

• Mobile Apps Continue to Gain Users
• Intel Takes a Big Leap Into Mobile with Medfield Chip – Quick Take
• Facebook Access Soars Among Mobile App Users

Do you want to learn WordPress yourself? I have been getting many questions lately about do it yourself WordPress training. Yesterday as I was searching I found this site that had a nice selection. See link below.

Learn WordPress For Free With These 10 Great Resources.

No matter where you’re at in your WordPress journey – rookie, rock star, or anywhere in between – all you need is a bit of time and bit of patience, and you can teach yourself to do anything.

Related articles

• Back with WordPress.com (billbennett.co.nz)
• Important Facts about WordPress Designers (skyje.com)
• Daily Tip: Where to Find Official WordPress Logos (pressography.com)

In most cases, chiropractor are smaller businesses, and small businesses need to advertise. Making sure you have a website may be the first step to expanding your client base. Many business people believe that paying anyone to create a website and set up online will instantly bring a flow of customers in;

Unfortunately, this is not the situation. There’s a lot more to setting up an online business and it’s called SEO (Seo). Most people have heard this term however they don’t truly know very well what it means. When you begin a website, the search engines will automatically begin to “crawl” your website. In other words, it will read all your website content. Once it reads your website, it’ll determine in which category to put it in: health, medicine, sports, etc. Once it has determined the category of your website, it will start to follow a certain algorithm that’s based on google creators. The point of this algorithm would be to determine your ranking for the content on your website.

Using a website is simply the first step in competing in the search engines and it’s possibly the easiest. When starting your website, you have to thoroughly research the keywords that you want to be ranked. Google has very good free tools that will help you look at keywords according to monthly searches. Usually when you start your website, you should search for less competitive keywords. Rather than competing for the keyword “Hamburger”, you need to take a look at other alternatives and compete for that keyword “Best Hamburger” or “Hamburger recipe” or “how to grill a hamburger”. Even though these keywords have less monthly searches, they’ll improve a steady flow of traffic and still slowly rank you for “Hamburger”. Once you find these keywords that you want to position for, you need to insert them in your Meta data. (If you don’t know about meta data, I’ll be writing articles in a few days about the subject and just how they help search engines crawl your website.)

Once you have located the keywords that you are competing for, the hardest part gets them ranked. This is when most business people have problems; it is not as easy as putting the keywords in your tags and hoping you rank. Some of keywords will rank however, many will not and that is in which you have to know how to build backlinks. A backlink is really an url redirecting to your site from someone else’s website. What’s important when creating a backlink is the anchor text, this only denotes the text that’s the anchor for your backlinks. Example: For those who have a link on Myspace dot com and also the anchor-text is hamburger recipes so when they click it redirects for your url. That is a good illustration of a backlink with a targeted anchor text. Finding websites that allow you to put backlinks on their website using the defined url isn’t an easy task, there are many tools that can help you see them however they cost a pretty penny. The following problem that you run into is how do you make sure these backlinks stick and don’t get deleted by the sites admin. In next week’s blog post Let me tell you how to locate a few of these websites and the way to make sure they do not get deleted.

Related articles

• SEO- How To Increase Your keyword Ranking (ronmedlin.com)
• How to Backlink to be able to Dominate the first Page (bigsexymedia.com)
• Exactly how to Obtain Backlinks With regard to a Newcomer Marketer (bigsexymedia.com)
• Find custom SEO articles from Article Writing Services

Mobile phone apps can be had for a lot less for local small business.
I will pepper this post with news from sites about mobile phone.

Google also improved abilities for Apps administrators to manage mobile devices and broadened availability of a cloud-based data analysis service.

As a small business owner, you know that money isn’t “everything.” But you also know, that in many situations, nothing else can take its place. And that’s probably what led you to me – you not only want to get by – you want to prosper in your marketplace! And if you’re wondering if we can help you do that, our answer is this: Yes! We probably can!

Recent IDC data indicates that mobile developers are more keen on making apps for Windows Phone than Research In Motion’s BlackBerry platform. While iOS and Android still top the charts, Microsoft’s relatively new platform leapfrogged RIM‘s BlackBerry, a longstanding favorite among IT departments. RIM’s recent troubles and an incoming flood of Nokia Windows phones could greatly alter the mobile landscape.

Will a mobile app strengthen your base and help grow your business? Is mobile marketing a “no-brainer” for you? Let’s find out! In an effort to earn your respect and trust, we’ll build – with our proprietary software – a “locked and loaded” DEMO app for your business, at no charge. Your only “obligation” is providing some basic information to help me get started. Do that, and your industry-specific Smartphone application will be ready for your review and consideration in a matter of days. Your success is our mission. We look forward to hearing from you soon.

When Locals Seafood opened for business in the summer of 2010, cofounder Lin Peterson knew it would be beneficial for the company to accept credit cards. But selling seafood at farmers markets and on roadsides in the Raleigh, N.C., area meant a traditional point-of-sale setup wouldn’t be ideal.

Related articles

• Windows Phone the clear third mobile ecosystem according to IDC (winrumors.com)
• Can This Phone Save BlackBerry? (RIMM) (businessinsider.com)
• Mobli Is a Camera App That Uses Photo Filters Smarter Than Instagram [IPhone Apps] (gizmodo.com)

Hello Readers,

Today we will be posting a Gift Basket contest. Now I know you all like contest as a way of winning something. And Christmas is coming up very soon and what better way to offer a Christmas Basket.

Contest are a way you can get more than what you put into it and this contest is just such a thing.

How many people think gift baskets are traditional baskets with just candy, fruit, jam, and occasional bags of popcorn.

Well they are! But sometimes its MORE!

Laurel Mountain Basket is just such a place that makes all kinds of Gift baskets.

So here is the contest that will run for a week, starting Wednesday November 9th until Monday November 14th

To be entered to win a great gift basket from Laurel Mountain Basket Co all you need to do is visit their website and pick your favorite basket. In the comments section leave a little feedback about which basket is your favorite and why or what you would suggest we do to make it even better. The holidays are coming up and it’s important  for us to offer the perfect gifts for you to give to your clients or loved ones. We are a community company and would love the community’s input.

On Monday they will be combing through all of the comments you all left them. Their team will pick the winner from all of the entries. If you are chosen they will contact you based on the email/contact info you leave in your comment so make sure it’s accurate. They will contact you and make arrangements to get your basket out to you as soon as possible! Good Luck!

So what are you waiting for? Off to the races!

PS. They make awesome custom gift baskets too! Wink!!

Many times when working on InDesign you would need your shortcut keys Well here it is:

Courtesy of Business Stationery

Truck Eating Bridge art past article was written before the new art was selected. The New art, Water Music by David Teeple, is being installed now. These are a few excerpts:

The Northampton Arts Council announced in May the selection of  Water Music by David Teeple as the artwork to replace Leland Johnston’s “Dream” Mural on the bridge entering Northampton. Following an open call for proposals, a selection committee selected Teeple’s artwork, which is currently under construction and will be installed by October 14, 2011.

And…

In his proposal he explains, “The Connecticut River symbolizes the sustainable and ever evolving nature of Western Massachusetts – one of the most politically, culturally and socially progressive communities in the country. A river is fluid and open. It is life itself. It nourishes us, offers a place for personal reflection, provides energy, cleanses and feeds us. Water is both feminine and masculine and embodies the possibility of living with social, political, economic and environmental balance.

And…

The railroad trestle over Route 9 will soon sport a new piece of sculpture and it is the epitome of a flowing work of art.

“Water Music” by Holyoke artistDavid Teeple will feature the long blue ribbon of the Connecticut River mounted on 18 stainless steel panels separated by spaces meant to invoke the railroad ties behind them. Teeple’s work is the winning entry in a competition sponsored by the Northampton Arts Council to replace the popular but aging “Dream” by Leland Johnston that has graced the trestle since 1991.

Teeple, 54, a Hampshire College graduate, divides his time between his Holyoke studio and New York. He was one of 28 artists to apply for the $20,000 grant to decorate the bridge, which is the last thing east-bound motorist see on Route 9 before coming into the heart of the city. Teeple said he tried to keep that aspect of the location in mind as he pondered a theme.

“I think it’s important not to see the bridge simply as a canvas to do my art on but as a way to engage with the community,” he said.

Water has been an important theme in Teeple’s work for more than 20 years, and he feels the Connecticut River symbolizes the dynamic nature of the Pioneer Valley.

While walking around town today I found a small sign with what a local resident thinks the art should look like:

Here is a good resource for finding online photography classes

I think this is soo coool!

INTRODUCING THE INFINITELOOP : The InfiniteLoop is a simple solution to making the iPad truly useful. It helps the iPad to deliver on it’s versatility when reading in bed, watching a movie on a plane or doing Facetime on the go. The InfiniteLoop was born out of the frustration with not being able to find an iPad stand that could accommodate all uses.

Twitter name: @getinfiniteloop

For retail and distribution, please email: sales@getinfiniteloop.com

Correction in Pledge section :

In the $35 pledge section it should read 4 foot Infinite Loop not MiniLoop.

2″ and 4″ should read 2′ (foot) and 4′ (foot).

Did you know you ipad could do this?

How many of you know that there is a Twitter for MAC in the wild. Here is what Twitter has to say:
“When Twitter for Mac launched at the beginning of the year it received praise for its simplicity, speed and look. It also came packed with features like auto-shortened URLs, Tweets appearing in real-time, and multi-account support.Today, we’re releasing the first major update to Twitter for Mac. Some of the highlights:

• See multiple timelines at once. You can open more than one Twitter for Mac window at any time, giving you a chance to view your home timeline, @mentions, lists, multiple accounts, and more – all at once. Just go to the Window menu and then scroll down to “Open in New Window”.
• Take actions more quickly and easily. We made design changes that make the app easier to use and look even cleaner.”

So I bet you are thinking is creating a custom Twitter background time is now? While this is a valid question, and the final answer is up to you, there are a range of benefits to making your Twitter backdrop your own. Both the creative and the brand-conscious can (and have) benefited from unique background designs. [read more...]

Dear friends of Cinema,

This week’s cinematographic journey begins in the mad world of Wes Anderson, with a trip on the Darjeeling Limited.  We’ll add in a little Pryor and Wilder, then have your heart rate increased by the one and only Sonny Chiba!  We’ll end the evening cloaked in espionage, traveling by train from Istanbul with Mr. Bond as he battles a very young Robert Shaw and outwits the steely Rosa Klebb.   Continue Reading…

Plexiglass is the past (The Graduate) and the future. In the video from Corning Glass in Corning NY, which I interview with just before I graduated from college, suggest our future is in glass. This video titled “A Day Made of Glass” was Continue Reading…

The Roost!
Following a near-death car accident, four friends on their way to a Halloween wedding, venture to a secluded farm for help. Little do they know however, they will soon disturb an ancient evil with far more ghastly plans in store for them! In the true spirit of classic horror cinema, “The Roost” revisits the land of low-budget offerings with a fresh independent look…sure to put a demented smile on the faces of fright fans everywhere! Continue Reading…

Neil Pasricha’s blog 1000 Awesome Things savors life’s simple pleasures, from free refills to clean sheets. Continue Reading…

Small businesses know by now that they need a website AND visibility in the popular social media sites like Facebook and LinkedIn, and maybe Twitter, YouTube, and others too. It’s not just about having your own website anymore.

So most of you have got at least one social media profile kinda sorta thrown together, like a basic LinkedIn profile. But then I hear: uh, what, huh? What now? One of the goals of my blog (and my business) is to help folks get past those stuck places. So here are some tips.

Sorry to say, you won’t actually be that visible in social media without some optimization of your profile, for starters. So let’s focus there for this post.

As a business coach and as someone who gets a lot out of social media, I often get asked how it works.

Both beginners and regular users of social media can benefit from these tips. I see even the most advanced users skipping key steps.

At Least Do These Things for All Your Social Media Profiles

1. Link to your website within your profile description.
   Can’t believe how often this gets left out! Add a link even if there’s no stated place for a link. For instance, use the left sidebar area on your Facebook Page to include a link.
2. Add links to your social media profiles in your email signature and on your website.
   You’ll need a custom URL to make it look nice in email. See below.
3. Include a real photo of yourself to make it more human.
   Virtual world connections increase when there’s a real face.
4. Use real names so people can find you.
   Use your real name and your real business name wherever those fit. Avoid abbreviations and lesser known names for your business. (If you or your business have common nicknames, use those in the description so that you’ll be found by those names too.)
5. Use your target keywords throughout.
   Use them in your profile description, tags, your “interests,” your summary, video tags, and in some of your posts. Don’t stuff with keywords. Use them as would be helpful for a real member of your audience. (Psst, choosing keywords is a fine art. Hiring an SEO pro for that is usually worth the investment.)
6. Connect with others; be helpful; recommend others.
   The more you give value to others, the more they’ll do the same for you. You link to them, they’ll often link to you. Kindergarten rules still apply.
7. Focus on connecting with influencers.
   Focus more attention on people who might influence your ideal customers (AKA “target audience”). This includes popular bloggers in your subject area. It also includes people who might commonly refer to you. Consider where your influential folks are active on the web and focus more attention there. (This is one of the main reasons Twitter is so popular and effective. Bloggers and other influencers hang out there.)

Specific Optimization Instructions for Your Profiles

• Video: Optimize LinkedIn Profile for SEO (Hubspot)
  Short and sweet by one of the experts in social media and search engine optimization (SEO).
• Video: How to Create and Optimize a Facebook Page (Tyrone Shum)
  Step-by-step tutorial in only 8 minutes.
• Where to Get Your Custom URL for Facebook (Facebook)
  Facebook Pages have long URLs that are tough to add to your email signature. Here’s how to change that.
• Twitter Grader (Hubspot)
  Get suggestions for your Twitter profile with this free tool.
• It’s Time to Prioritize Video (AKA YouTube) (by me)
  Includes everything you need about why and how to optimize videos and YouTube profiles.

Taking It to the Next Level

• 7 Ways to Get More Out of LinkedIn (Mashable)
  If you do at least the first 5 of these things in LinkedIn, you’ll see results.
• Video: Using Twitter for Linkbuilding in SEO (Seer Interactive)
  When you’re ready for some advanced creative ideas for getting big results in Twitter, check out this talk.
• Webinar Archive: Social Media Optimization (SMO) is the new SEO (Hubspot)
• Ask for ratings, comments, and “likes.”
  Don’t just sit there and wait for them to come to you. Suggest it by doing things like adding a Facebook “like” widget on your website so people can spread the word about you with one click. Also, send people to your online videos, slideshows, online business listings, and other postings and invite them to post reviews there. Reviews, ratings, and “likes” lead to higher ranks.
• Don’t forget blogs.
  Blogs are social media too. Blogging is SEO on steroids. Even if you don’t have your own blog, you can comment on other people’s blogs and gain visibility. Heck, I hope you’ll comment below. My blog gives “link juice,” meaning search engines will give value to the links in my blog comments. (I delete spammers.)

Where to Learn More

Of course there are zillions of resources about getting the most out of social media. Here are my favorite resources for staying on top of my game:

• Search YouTube for your particular question and you’re bound to find answers.
• Hubspot – leading-edge web marketing business offering lots of free webinars and tools
• Mashable – THE social media news and web tips blog
• Book: The Referral Engine, by John Jantsch

See you online somewhere. Find me on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and of course here on my blog. (See how I cleverly threw that in. Just trying to be a good role model.)

I’m always searching for wireframe ideas and I can across this neat tool called Wirify by Volkside. What it does is makes an instant wireframe from any website from any browser. This is what the site says “Interaction designers spend a fair bit of time creating and revising wireframes in the early phases of our online projects. Whatever your take on wireframes is, they are a mainstay in the user experience professional’s toolkit.”
It’s also available in Chinese.

Here also is a short intro vid.