Let it Snow Snow and Snow !

Mt. Seymour, where I had the priviledge to practice my snowboarding skills for the second time had high winds and icy slopes, which did not help my improving process. As a result of that I am still in pain, even though I fell a couple of times, falling on hard ice hurts more than falling on snow hundred times… I understand ice hockey players better know why they have so much protective shields on themselves

Mt Seymour - Vancouver

Biggest advice would be ask ask ask before you go to any mountain about their current slope and weather conditions. Especially if you are a learner or not very fluint.

scenary was awesome though and would recommend everyone to just go for that purpose at least… Can’t wait to go again.

Facebook + iPhone = Mobile Gaming

Facebook Connect and iPhone combination creates a new era in gaming. Combining two important platforms is exciting serious mobile gamers. Social web couldn’t get any higher than this level.
Facebook Connect, launched last summer amid some concerns from privacy advocates, allows you to use one login for multiple Web sites that partner with the social network. Members can cast their Facebook identity, profile and friend information

People prefer to play games on social network levels. This would be an essential stage for iPhone and Facebook to attract consumers from other sides.
main article

Google’s New Browsing System

Google released Chrome as Beta 1.0 and launched a distribution site for consumers to use it and report back possible bugs to be fixed. It is very new so some web pages won’t able to open on this browser.

“…in September of 2008; a final-release 1.0 version come out in December. By last month, it had grabbed 1.12 percent of the market behind Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari, according to data from Net Applications. Since then, Google has issued 29 updates, each revision finessing Google Chrome’s speed, stability and usability, according to a post in the new blog by Jason Toff of the Google Chrome team.”

These additions focus on convenience and usability factors. They include form autofill, full page zoom and autoscroll.The form autofill feature keeps track of visited Web sites and the content entered in text boxes there. On return visits users can autopopulate the text field with the saved information.

This last feature definitely is a clear example of customization and making consumers loyal to the program.

more info on chrome

Microsoft’s New In-Development Search Site

Kumo.com is the name of their in-development search site. Microsoft was held constantly third place in search site rankings so this is an effort to climb the ladder to higher positions.

“Kumo appears to set itself apart from today’s Live Search by giving Web surfers clearer clues about the kinds of results that exist. A search for a country music star yields results separated into such categories as Web, songs, lyrics, music and biography. Buttons on the left let users quickly pick just one of those categories to peruse. “

As we can see companies are fully aware of the importance of search market and search engine sites. They are trying focus on individuals’ search targets and preferences for better and precise service.
article itself

Facebook tries to capture Twitter’s users

Competition with microblogging site Twitter, Facebook wants to make more money on its social networking platform. Because of that Facebook decides to redesign their customer home pages. The new design focuses on real-time streaming of friend posts. It provides several new features that give users more information about their networks in real time. The design itself is cleaner as well. Content is neatly laid out in a three-column format, with the main navigation engine on the left side.

As we can see from this article too Web 2.0 is going into another level for communication and connection. Keeping up with competitors’ positive features are important to maintain your market share and customer satisfaction.

 

rest of the link.

Tweets might be hurtful…

When we were talking about 7Cs and Groundswell (talking, listening and energizing) it was mentioned that the companies which scans the online commenting and complaint sites would do better in communication and customer satisfaction. Here, I read this event which would be a great example of companies do go online and see what people talk about…

Another note that everyone has to be careful about what they are saying:

Someone has received a job offer and decides to put it on his tweeter account and look what happens;

-Cisco just offered me a job! Now I have to weigh the utility of a fatty paycheck against the daily commute to San Jose and hating the work.

This tweet caught the attention of Tim Levad, a channel partner advocate for Cisco. Who is the hiring manager. Look what he said to this person.

- I’m sure they would love to know that you will hate the work. We here at Cisco are versed in the web.

A little warning from a classmate!

An Attack from Yahoo !

Yahoo created new three advertising tools that they believe will help advertising online to connect target audience better and more effective.

“The theory is that by observing user search behavior and activity on a site, a system can make adjustments to deliver the most relevant messages — and the greatest ROI.”

One way Yahoo is doing that is by combining its search and display ad strengths in a single offering. Someone searching for information on home improvement techniques, for example, would see ads for hardware stores.

So, this technology brings Web 2.0 effect onto surface and also parts of 7Cs. Which is mainly customization where the website adapts itself to customer needs.

Rest of the article.

Another Service From GOOGLE !

Yes, they came up with another service. This time it will be used to track your employees or devices like laptop and such or even your loved ones

This new service is a geo-locator and called Latitude.
It is towards small businesses but anyone can use it of course. Latitude transmits the user’s location back to Google for display using Google’s online maps. This can be a big save up for small business so they can track their delivery guys better and also keep track of their employees, whether they are anywhere they weren’t supposed to be. Ordinary tracking systems are expensive and assuming this would be at acceptable levels however the application builders might come up with commercial version of the software later on…

One thing that people might be iffy about would be the involvement of extremely personal information and them being transferred to GOOGLE !?!?!?!

here is the article it self

A small detail that makes a HUGE difference…

So many of surf on the internet and most likely won’t able to remember the webdesigns of even our daily used sites… Why is that? Probably, the reason is that they are too classic and/or ordinary.

BUT, when a website has a unique ‘next’ or ‘previous’ icon to click or a different shopping cart then the website can stand out and the user woul most likely remember that site. People remember strange things…

This article contains a lot of information that should be read.

PM Stand Out at Davos Economic Forum

The Prime minister of Turkey walked away at the Davos Forum. Now he is a Hero in the Arab world but nowhere else and only his followers appreciated what he has done back in Turkey too. Not everyone in Turkey enjoyed it and saw it as a publicity Stunt.
Some claim that he did because of the moderator, who didn’t let him answer back Shimon Peres.

A newspaper columnist:

OKTAY EKSI IN SABAH

 Our prime minister reprimanded the Israeli president in Davos… in an unimaginable way, at an international meeting, and before the eyes of millions of TV viewers. The entire world saw how Turkey was ruled by a politician who was not able to ‘control his nerves’.

To read the article…