Social Media Marketing and SEO Strategies Blog

Apple boss's brave cancer battle - how his company kept it secret

2011-10-07T01:32:00.000-07:00

LONG BATTLE WITH CANCER

August 2004: Apple CEO Steve Jobs discloses that he had been diagnosed with a rare form of pancreatic cancer called an islet cell neuroendocrine tumor. He says he has been cured through surgery.

Oct. 14, 2004: In his first public appearance since undergoing surgery, Jobs, then 49, attends a news conference to unveil a new Apple store at a shopping mall near Palo Alto, Calif.

June 12, 2005: Jobs tells Stanford University graduates that his bout with cancer underscored the need to live each day to the fullest.

July 21, 2008: Speculation mounts that Jobs is ill, given recent weight loss. During Apple's earnings conference call, Apple Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer says Jobs has no plans to leave the company and his 'health is a private matter.'

Sept. 9, 2008: Jobs kicks off an Apple event with a projected slide that says, 'The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated' - a play on the Mark Twain quote after Bloomberg accidentally publishes an obituary it has prepared in advance for Jobs.

Dec. 16, 2008: Apple says Jobs won't be giving the keynote presentation that's usually the highlight of the annual Macworld trade show in January.

Jan. 5, 2009: Jobs explains what is now severe weight loss by saying he has a treatable hormone imbalance. He says he will continue to run the company.

Jan. 14, 2009: Jobs backtracks and announces he will be on medical leave until June, saying his health problems were 'more complex' than he had thought.

June 23, 2009: A doctor at Methodist University Hospital Transplant Institute in Memphis says Jobs received a liver transplant and has an 'excellent prognosis.'

June 2009: Jobs returns to work.

Sept. 9, 2009: Jobs presides over an Apple event for the first time since the nearly six-month-long medical leave. He gets a standing ovation. Looking thin and speaking quietly, he tells the audience he had received the liver of a young adult who died in a car accident, and urges everyone to become organ donors.

January through October 2010: Jobs serves as master of ceremonies at several Apple gadget launches, including the unveiling of the much-anticipated iPad. He is still very thin, but public speculation is overshadowed by buzz around the new product.

March 12, 2010: Apple gives Cook $5 million bonus plus stock for 'outstanding performance' running the company while Jobs was on leave.

Jan. 17, 2011: In a memo to Apple employees, Jobs announces a second medical leave with no set duration. Jobs says he will continue as CEO and will be involved in major decisions.

Aug. 24, 2011: Jobs, still on leave, says he is resigning as Apple CEO because he can no longer meet his duties and expectations. Apple and Jobs make no reference to his medical condition and provide no update. Jobs is elected chairman of the board.

Oct. 5, 2011: Jobs dies at 56. Apple does not give a specific cause in announcing his death

Google change AdWords To Give More Weight on Landing Page Quality

2011-10-07T01:25:00.001-07:00

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After quietly testing in Brazil, Spanish-speaking Latin America, Spain, and Portugal, Google will roll out a new algorithm globally that gives more weight to landing page quality when it comes to AdWords Quality Score. This means ads with landing pages that Google deems to be most relevant to the query will be able to rank higher for lower cost-per-click bids.
“What we’ve seen is that there are ads available in the auction that are as good a quality as the top ads. But the landing pages — the merchant sites, the advertiser landing pages — are of much higher quality than the ads that we see at the top of our auction,” Jonathan Alferness, director of product management on Google’s ad quality team told me. This, says Alferness, means the user experience isn’t what it could be. Hence the change to give more weight to landing page quality. “In the end, we believe that this will result in better quality experience for the users.”
Landing page quality has long been a factor in Google AdWords, but more as a negative signal. If an advertiser’s landing page was particularly terrible or misleading, advertisers could have their ads rejected or their accounts suspended or revoked — depending on how bad the policy violation was. The new change will assign landing page quality a positive value, incentivizing advertisers to make sure the landing page’s keywords and content are closely aligned with the keywords for which they’re bidding. Ads with high landing page quality will get a “strong boost” upward in the auction, according to Alferness.
Alferness says Google will crawl the landing pages associated with every ad and make a determination as to its quality.
“What we always ask our advertisers to focus on is relevance — choose a landing page or site experience that is both relevant to the keywords that you’re targeting and also a good experience for end users,” said Alferness. “This is just continuing to sort of push on those best practices. I gives us the ability to really reward those advertisers that have been doing this, whose landing pages really are some of the best in our systems.”
The change will roll out in the next week or two. Advertisers may see some variations in ad position and keyword Quality Score at first, but things should settle down within a couple of weeks, according to Google.

Apple founder Steve Jobs dies

2011-10-05T21:13:00.001-07:00

Apple founder and former-CEO Steve Jobs died at the age of 56, Apple stated on its website Thursday.
"Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being," RIA Novosti quoted the company as saying. "Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple."
Jobs had been struggling with cancer since 2003. He underwent a successful surgery in 2004 and a liver transplantation in 2008.
"Steve's brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives. The world is immeasurably better because of Steve," the company's board of directors said.
Steve Jobs was one of the greatest examples of success in the history of American business. He dropped out of college after one year, and never received a degree in technology. This future Apple CEO earned his living by collecting empty bottles before he started working at a company that produced video games.
Jobs and Stephen Wozniak founded Apple Computer in 1976. Its products gained a cult following for several consumer generations all over the world.
He is credited with being the mastermind of the company's iconic products - iPhone and iPad.
This August, the legendary chief executive officer of Apple Inc., resigned and had named Cook to the post. (IANS)

Google Panda Update: New Winners and Losers

2011-10-05T02:13:00.000-07:00

This past week, Google rolled out its latest iteration of the Panda update, which the company (as usual) downplays as only one of roughly 500 yearly algorithm changes.

It doesn’t sound like such a big deal when they put it that way, but for those who have lost major traffic because of it, it was a bigger deal than most of those other roughly 499 changes. Ask Dani Horowitz from Daniweb, who noticed the big traffic drop and tipped us about it before we confirmed the update with Google.

Daniweb was hit by Panda earlier this year, and was able to get all the way back to a 110% recovery – something few have been able to achieve. Then along came Panda “2.5” (as the industry is calling it) early in the week and took away more than half of Daniweb’s traffic overnight. All of the hard work that Daniweb put into that recovery might as well have been erased.

But Daniweb is far from being the only victim here. SearchMetrics, which has regularly released data about Panda winners and losers throughout the year, has compiled another list of the top winners and losers as a result of 2.5.

Facebook Broken for Some Users

2011-10-05T02:07:00.001-07:00

Given that Facebook has become so integrated with the web at large, and in many people’s lives (wait until the Timeline feature rolls out), it can really suck when Facebook isn’t working like it’s supposed to. It can suck for general users, and it can suck for businesses who rely on it for one reason or another, whether that be people logging into their site, using their app, sharing their content, or gaining traffic to their site.

The web relies a lot on Facebook, and with its recent announcements that may just turn out to be the case even more than ever. To put it simply, it can make people a little uneasy or downright frustrated when things aren’t working.

Facebook, while not experiencing a total outage by any means, does appear to be having some issues today. A lot of users are complaining about different ones on Twitter.

iPhone 4S, New iPods & Siri - Apple’s Big Day

2011-10-05T01:39:00.000-07:00

Apple gathered the world’s tech press at its headquarters in Cupertino to announce its latest products — and to dash the hopes of anyone expecting the iPhone 5 — on Tuesday.

What CEO Tim Cook did reveal during his first major product announcement was the iPhone 4S — which, if you extend a belief that beauty is on the inside to your electronics, isn’t such a bad deal. The phone is much faster than its predecessor, has a better camera and displays more vibrant colors. And it understands human speech!

Apple also had plenty to announce about iPhone prices, new partner carriers, the iPod, and iOS 5. You may know this already — but in case you’re one of the millions who didn’t take time off work to follow the story tweet by tweet, here’s a handy summary of what’s new.

    * The iPhone 4S looks almost exactly like the iPhone 4, but has a better camera and, according to Apple Vice President Phil Schiller, runs “up to seven times faster” than its predecessor. The phone will cost $199 for a 16 GB model and $299 for a 32 GB model. It will be available for pre-order on Oct. 7 and start shipping Oct. 14
    * Siri, a new iPhone 4S feature, is voice activation on steroids. Because it is capable of parsing natural human language, it can respond to a question such as “What is the weather like today?” with an answer it finds online, such as a weather report. It can read messages, search Wikipedia, make a calendar appointment, set a reminder, search Google Maps and more.
    * Apple is giving away its 8 GB iPhone 3G — with strings attached. The free phone comes with a new two-year contract. You’ll also be able to purchase the iPhone 4 for $99 with the same contract. Both pricing options will go into effect when apple releases the 4S on Oct. 14.
    * Sprint is getting the iPhone 4S. Becoming the third carrier to offer the iPhone is a big bet for Sprint, which has reportedly agreed to purchase $20 billion in iPhones regardless of whether or not it can sell them.
    * The new iPod Nano has watch-like features and bigger app icons. It comes with 16 different clock faces (including Mickey) and tracks runs, steps taken and calories burned without any additional sensors or devices.
    * iOS 5 is available for free on October 12, two days before the iPhone 4S comes out. Apple announced new features for the updated version of iOS in June. You can expect a new notification center, BBM-like messaging, a folder for magazine and newspaper app subscriptions, a new to-do list app and Twitter integration.

Facebook Will Never Charge You to Use It

2011-09-30T01:06:00.000-07:00

Of course, Facebook is in business to make money. Beyond advertising, it has found ways to profit directly from its users through Facebook Credits, a form of currency that can be used on the site in social games like FarmVille and Mafia Wars.

In the future, we expect Facebook to find additional ways to monetize. The company could grow its credit system to become a rival to PayPal. We could also see Facebook extending its ad platform beyond the social network itself and onto the wider Web — in order to compete with Google’s AdSense.

There’s also potential in ecommerce. Although Facebook’s Deals product fell flat, an increasing number of merchants are starting to sell their wares directly on the social networking site. Might Facebook one day provide its own tools for powering such activity? It’s certainly possible.

The one thing that all of these models have in common is that they need a critical mass of users to be successful. Facebook has that, and would never risk losing it by charging people for basic access to the tools that make its multi-billion dollar business work.

HOW TO: Find a Job on Twitter

2011-09-28T21:04:00.000-07:00

Twitter is evolving as another resource, in addition to traditional methods, for both job searching and recruiting.

Get the most out of your page

• Make your Twitter presence “employer-friendly”

o Put your job pitch in your Twitter bio (which is 160 characters)
o Use a professional looking avatar
o Tweet about your job search

• Utilize your Twitter background. There’s lots of space you can use to promote yourself. Don’t know how to create a professional-looking Twitter background? Use this free template to design your own.
• Include a link to an online CV or resume in your bio. Use a tool like VisualCV.
• Establish yourself as an expert in your field on Twitter. It’s important to note that you should not misrepresent yourself. If you’re not a medical doctor, don’t play one on Twitter. As those on Twitter become interested in your content, when employers are looking at you, you’ll have more than just your resume to back up your knowledge and experience.

“It’s about who you know”

How do you get to know the right people? It’s not always about who you’re looking for, some people on Twitter are actually looking for YOU.
There are many job recruiters who use Twitter to look for potential candidates. Before contacting a recruiter via Twitter, check out:

• Their bio
• Follower/Following ratio (Have they been around a while? Do they follow people back?)
• Click the link to their website
• Ask others in your network whether or not the recruiter is a credible source

Job search accounts

There are a variety of Twitter accounts dedicated to providing job listings by field, company, region, and more. Once you’ve decided which best match your job search, consider turning on mobile alerts for these accounts to be among the first to receive messages (if your mobile phone plan includes SMS messages).

To find additional Twitter job resources, use the Twitter search function and type in keywords important in your job search. For example, “job openings,” “looking for a job,” or “healthcare career.” Additionally, you can search out others in your desired career field on sites like Twellow, Just tweet it, and TwitterTroll.

Facebook Users Beware: Facebook’s New Feature Could Embarrass You

2011-09-28T20:58:00.000-07:00

If you didn’t watch Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook announcements last week — and of course the vast majority of Facebook users did not — you may be in for a surprise. Aside from the dramatically redesigned Facebook Timeline profile pages, which roll out in the coming weeks (and which I’ve grown to love), Facebook’s new system to auto-share what you do around the web may catch many Facebook addicts off guard.

In fact, even those people who know exactly how this new feature works may need to be on guard against sharing some seriously embarrassing updates.

For those not in the loop: Facebook is making sharing even easier by automatically sharing what you’re doing on Facebook-connected apps. Instead of having to “Like” something to share it, you’ll just need to click “Add to Timeline” on any website or app, and that app will have permission to share your activity with your Facebook friends.

What activity, you ask? It could be the news articles you read online, the videos you watch, the photos you view, the music you listen to, or any other action within the site or app. Facebook calls this auto-sharing “Gestures.”

I’m not saying this is a bad idea as such, but people need to be aware of what they’re signing up for when they add apps to the Timeline. Even my tech-savvy friends seem to set up these auto-share apps, completely forget about them, and return to doing things they wouldn’t necessarily want to share with all their friends.

Google In Talks To Acquire Katango

2011-09-28T20:54:00.000-07:00

We’re hearing that Google is in talks to acquire Katango, the Kleiner-backed startup that uses algorithms to automatically sort your friends into different groups, with very little effort required on the user’s part (see our full post on their launch here).

Katango would be a very obvious fit for Google (in fact, we hear that Google has been interested in the company since they launched in July). Why? Because Google+ revolves around grouping your friends into different Circles, be it acquaintances, family members, and so on. But at this point, while Google+ is great at telling you who you might know, it doesn’t suggest to you which of these Circles to put them in.

It may also make a lot of sense for Katango to take the deal. At launch the service was tightly integrated with Facebook Connect, but Facebook recently rolled out Smart Lists, which do basically the same thing (and Facebook has more data at its disposal to generate its lists).

NASA To Invite 150 Of Its Twitter Followers To Mars Rover Launch

2011-09-28T20:53:00.000-07:00

While giveaways and “follow us and win!” contests aren’t always worth calling out, this promotion from @NASA is too great to pass up. They’re planning on inviting 150 of their followers to watch the Curiosity Mars Rover launch. Yes, the actual launch, from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The tweetup will take place just prior to the launch window, which begins at 10:21 a.m. EST on Nov. 25. That is, of course, the day after Thanksgiving, which is a NASA holiday. So activities commence on the 23rd and you can forage around Orlando for spare turkeys. You’ll return for the launch on the 25th, and you’re welcome to stick around for up to an extra 24 hours if the launch is delayed by bad weather or sabotage.

Google Makes Site Search Analytics Easier

2011-09-28T20:51:00.000-07:00

Google is making it easier for site owners who use Google Custom Search to add Google Analytics Site Search tracking from their custom search engine.

“Google Analytics Site Search reports provide extensive data on how people search your site once they are already on it. You can see initial searches, refinements, search trends, which pages they searched from, where they ended up, and conversion correlation. In the past we admit that setup was a little challenging,” says Google software engineer Zhong Wang.

“If you are already a Google Analytics user (and your site has the Google Analytics tracking code on its pages), go to the Custom Search Engine management page, select your CSE’s control panel and click on Google Analytics from the left-hand menu,” explains Wang. “We’ll display a list of your Google Analytics web properties so you can select one and tell us the query and category parameters that you want to track.”

When changes are saved, Google generates a new code snippet that you can copy and paste into your site. Then, you can access Site Search reports from the content section in Google Analytics.

In other Google Analytics news, sites in German got the go ahead to start using it, as Google announced in a German blog post.

How To Enable Facebook Timeline

2011-09-28T01:20:00.000-07:00

Here’s how to do it:

1. Log into Facebook

2. Enable developer mode, if you haven’t already. To do this, type “developer” into the Facebook search box, click the first result (it should be an app made by Facebook with a few hundred thousand users), and add the app.

3. Jump into the developer app (if Facebook doesn’t put you there automatically, it should be in your left-hand tool bar)

4. Create a new app (don’t worry — you wont actually be submitting this for anyone else to see/use). Give your shiny new app any display name and namespace you see fit. Read through and agree to the Platform Privacy agreement. This is the step you need to be verified for.

5. Ensure you’re in your new app’s main settings screen. You should see your app’s name near the top of the page

6. Look for the “Open Graph” header, and click the “Get Started using open graph” link.

Create a test action for your app, like “read” a “book”, or “eat” a “sandwich”

7. This should drop you into an action type configuration page. Change a few of the default settings (I changed the past tense of “read” to “redd” — again, only you can see this unless you try and submit your application to the public directory), and click through all three pages of settings

8. Wait 2-3 minutes

9. Go back to your Facebook homescreen. An invite to try Timeline should be waiting at the top of the page

And you’re done!

Facebook Kills Rumor, Announces ‘Facebook Will Always Be Free’

2011-09-27T20:42:00.000-07:00

Perhaps you saw a friend post a message over the weekend that Facebook is planning to charge for “gold,” “silver” and “bronze” membership services. This rumor became so widespread, Facebook was forced to address it on their own page last night.

The false rumor: FACEBOOK JUST RELEASED THEIR PRICE GRID FOR MEMBERSHIP. $9.99 PER MONTH FOR GOLD MEMBER SERVICES, $6.99 PER MONTH FOR SILVER MEMBER SERVICES, $3.99 PER MONTH FOR BRONZE MEMBER SERVICES, FREE IF YOU COPY AND PASTE THIS MESSAGE BEFORE MIDNIGHT TONIGHT. WHEN YOU SIGN ON TOMORROW MORNING YOU WILL BE PROMPTED FOR PAYMENT INFO...IT IS OFFICIAL IT WAS EVEN ON THE NEWS. FACEBOOK WILL START CHARGING DUE TO THE NEW PROFILE CHANGES. IF YOU COPY THIS ON YOUR WALL YOUR ICON WILL TURN BLUE AND FACEBOOK WILL BE FREE FOR YOU. PLEASE PASS THIS MESSAGE ON IF NOT YOUR ACCOUNT WILL BE DELETED IF YOU DO NO PAY

You know a cut and pasted message has to be true if it’s in all caps, right?

The response from Facebook: “A rumor on the internet caught our attention. We have no plans to charge for Facebook. It's free and always will be.”

“Free to use,” anyway. The hidden cost to users is a lack of privacy, and as Nik Cubrilovic, who describes himself as a serial entrepreneur, writer, and hacker, notes in this blog post, Facebook can track every page you visit, even if you’re logged out. The UK government has come out and said they don’t trust Facebook with customer data.

As with any free product, same as Google, people are the product. Advertisers are the users.

As for the rumors of Facebook charging for its services, these are nothing new. We’ve seen them off and on since 2009.

While the timing isn’t surprising, considering the backlash to numerous changes rolled out last week, including the big changes to profiles announced at f8 last week, it still shows that there are some gullible people on social networks who don’t bother to check facts.

Facebook will take in $3.8 billion in ad revenue globally this year and $4.27 billion total, eMarketer forecasts. CEO Mark Zuckerberg is one of the richest men in the world, and will get even richer next year, when Facebook is expected to go public.

iPhone 5 Release Event Officially Announced By Apple

2011-09-27T20:39:00.000-07:00

It appears as all of those rumors surrounding an official iPhone launch event were correct, as an invitation has surfaced that officially declares October 4th the date for the big media event.

The invitation was first received and reported by The Loop’s Jim Dalrymple, a longtime follower of Apple who was formerly with MacCentral and Macworld.

Without further ado, here is the invite:

As you can see, it’s quite simple but still pretty clever. Consisting of four well-known iOS icons, the calendar says Tuesday the 4th, the clock says 10 (a.m. P.T, says The Loop). The map shows that the event will be held at the expected location, Apple’s campus in Cupertino. And it simply states “Let’s talk iPhone.” Of course, there is no indication of a “5″ in that statement – but it it widely assumed that it will be the headlining new product at the event. There might also be a cheaper iPhone 4 model announced, if rumors prove correct.

People are still speculating as to the design and new features of the device. A big hint came yesterday when details about an iOS feature called “Assistant” surfaced. It is described as a game-changing voice control software that allows users to run almost every aspect of the phone via voice commands.

The October 4th event will be hosted by new Apple CEO Tim Cook.

Facebook cookie collection 'could be dangerous'

2011-09-26T03:33:00.000-07:00

Facebook tracks you even after logging out

An Australian technologist has caused a global stir after discovering Facebook tracks the websites its users visit even when they are logged out of the social networking site.

Separately, Facebook's new Timeline feature, launched last week, has been inadvertently accessed by users early, revealing a feature that allows people to see who removed them from their friends' lists.

Facebook's changes - which turn profiles into a chronological scrapbook of the user's life - are designed to let its 800 million members share what they are reading, listening to or watching in real time. But they have been met with alarm by some who fear over-sharing.

Facebook is a lot more than a social network and ultimately wants to be the premier platform on which people experience, organise and share digital entertainment," said Ovum analyst Eden Zoller.

Of course, Facebook's bottom line improves the more users decide to share. Reports suggest that Facebook staff refer internally to "Zuck's law", which describes Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's belief that every year people share twice as much online - a trend that has caused Facebook's valuation to skyrocket towards $US100 billion.

Whenever you visit a web page that contains a Facebook button or widget, your browser is still sending details of your movements back to Facebook, Cubrilovic says.

"Even if you are logged out, Facebook still knows and can track every page you visit," Cubrilovic wrote in a blog post.

"The only solution is to delete every Facebook cookie in your browser, or to use a separate browser for Facebook interactions."

"Facebook are front-and-centre in the new privacy debate just as Microsoft were with security issues a decade ago," Cubrilovic said.

"The question is what it will take for Facebook to address privacy issues and to give their users the tools required to manage their privacy and to implement clear policies - not pages and pages of confusing legal documentation, and 'logout' not really meaning 'logout'."

Spotify on Facebook Means No Invitation Necessary

2011-09-26T03:27:00.000-07:00

Spotify joined Facebook yesterday at f8 to talk about its new Facebook integration. While, there, CEO Daniel Ek reportedly said that Spotfiy will no longer be invite-only in the US, and that unpaid users will get six months of free service. Users will have to use Facebook to bypass the invite system, a Spotify community manager is quoted as saying.

“Spotify users who connect to Facebook listen to more music on a weekly basis. They also listen to a wider variety of music,” Ek said on stage.

“We have over 400 million playlists to back that up,” he added. “They’re also more engaged and more than twice as likely to pay for music.”

Listen to Music on Facebook with Spotify

2011-09-25T23:28:00.000-07:00

The details on listening to music on Facebook, specifically with Spotify, were finally unveiled at the 2011 F8 conference last Thursday.

Facebook has done a lot of work with their “Open Graph” API which allows third party developers to create applications that interface with Facebook.

Instead of launching a self-hosted music service, Facebook has decided to partner with third-party companies that are already offering music and video services.

Spotify, Rhapsody, MOG, Rdio, Soundcloud, Earbits, Vevo, Slacker Radio and Songza are the big music providers that Facebook has decided to partner with to allow users to listen to music on Facebook.

Since the announcement on Thursday, I’ve enabled the new Facebook Timeline interface and I’ve connected my Facebook account to my Spotify account.
What Exactly is Spotify?

Before I explain how Spotify interfaces with Facebook, it is important to understand what exactly Spotify is.

Spotify is a “social” streaming music service. Once you download Spotify, you can search for artists, songs and even genres of music to listen to. The service doesn’t have everything in terms of music but it has almost everything and I expect their music library to grow now that they’ve entered the U.S. market.

The feature that makes Spotify “social” is the ability to add friends to Spotify, view their playlists and view their most listened to songs.

You can also “send” songs to friends for them to listen to. If you send a song to a friend, it will appear in their Spotify inbox and they can then stream the song.

Until recently, Spotify was its own service that did not interface with any other social media platform.

Overall Opinion of Using Spotify on Facebook

After using Spotify through Facebook for a couple days I’d have to say that I’m quite impressed. If you can get past some of the privacy concerns then you’ll definitely enjoy the ability to see what music your Facebook friends are listening to and, at the same time, share your favorite music with all of your friends.

One of the most amazing parts of this new partnership is the speed at which Facebook updates based on what you’re listening to in Spotify. Your Spotify activities are published to Facebook in real-time!

One must also realize that this service is brand new and will most definitely be tweaked and improved as bugs are noticed and user feedback is taken into account.

We’re entering a whole new age of social sharing, online presence and even digital lifestyles. The ability to socially listen to music on Facebook through Spotify is just the beginning of what is to come and, I for one, am very excited about it!

Try it out for yourself and let me know what you think!

Tips to protect your Facebook account - Social Updates

2011-09-23T22:23:00.000-07:00

Facebook is a social utility that connects people with friends and others who work, study and live around them. People use Facebook to keep up with friends, upload an unlimited number of photos, post links and videos, and learn more about the people they meet.
Faceboook tries to explain the many security issues that have arisen for users of social networking and give tips for keeping accounts secure.

1. Proper Facebook Login - Never click any URL in email or other document to open Facebook Login page. Always, goto http://www.facebook.com/ and enter your login details to access the account. Redirected clicks in most common way to hack Facebook account and it can be easily avoided.

2. Secured version - Use more secured https version of Facebook website as against default http version. The https version is more secured as connection between you and Facebook is encrypted. SSL encryption does not allow hackers and sniffers to intercept your data being exchanged and transferred with Facebook website.

3. Strong Password – Use strong password with proper mix of numbers, alphabets and capital letters. Never use your nickname, date of birth, pet name of password as these can be easily broken into. You can use strong password by re-creating strong password version from existing password.

4. Interaction on Facebook – Be careful while interacting with other people using Facebook. Only friend people you know on Facebook website. Beware of ‘goofy’ posts from anyone including friends, as someone might hack your friend’s account and start sending links with intention of spreading malicious content.

5. Facebook usage & apps - While logged into Facebook account, never paste any code or script in the address bar of the browser. Malicious codes and scripts can easily extract your personal information from Facebook account. Also, be careful while connecting your Facebook account with Apps as few Apps may have bad motive as against advertised functionality.

6. Keep PC clean – Make sure your computer is free of viruses, spyware, adware and other type of malicious infection. You can use any security software or go for free anti-virus and free anti-spyware software for protected computer.

7. Internet Etiquette – Most of use follow basic internet etiquette unknowingly. However, some of us miss on them resulting into un-protected web accounts. Make sure you do not store or share login information in public interface like forums, sending emails and other social networking websites. Always confirm is the offer is genuine where participation require your account login details.

8. Update software – Make sure operating system updates are installed in timely manner. Also, web browser being used to access Facebook is updated with latest security fixes. Checkout more security tips at Facebook Security group. Incase your Facebook is hacked as a result of lack of security, there is procedure to recover hacked Facebook account.