Thanks to the lovely people at PushON, I’m the lucky winner of a Chromebook. I’ve had my eye on the platform for a little while, and have been curious to give one a try. The problem? I’m a Mac. I’ve been one since the 80s. I’ve used PCs in that time (at work, under sufferance), but my love has always been for macs. I’m the proud owner of a Macbook Air, which I think is probably the most complete computer ever made. That’s right, EVER MADE.

As technologists, we should always be aware of other platforms, not just the one we ally ourselves to on a daily basis. Whether that’s a love for Windows and it’s pecadiloes, or the open sourceness of Ubuntu, we might often find ourselves embroiled in a semi drunken conversation about which is best, and how we’ll never use anything else.

We’re wrong. But being truly cross platform requires budget, time, and patience. And that, as technologists, is something we have in short supply. We simply want to use our tools, and make things that other people love to use, no matter the platform. But if you’re a mac, when did you last really look at something on an Android phone? Reed Hastings (of Netflix fame) has the right idea – he changes platform every month, from Windows and Windows mobile, to Apple and iOS, to Android and Chrome, all so he can experience his own UX and product from a variety of perspectives.

So, to me and a Chromebook. The ballad of new platforms. I’ve decided to use my new toy to fulfil as much of my day to day as possible for five whole days. My macbook is still in my bag, in case something get’s suitably hairy and I have no other option but to fire up Keynote (or of course, I could use that in it’s brand spanking new web app edtion), but my suspicion is that the Chromebook will keep me more focussed on certain activities. Here’s the other thing: My Macbook was £1100, the Chromebook significantly cheaper. So let’s divide my thoughts into two parts; OS and hardware.

Operating System

We’ve all used Chrome. I don’t think I’ve met an internet user who hasn’t tried it at some point (including my Mother). Largely, it’s a great browser, though it was proving to be such a memory hog on OS X I ditched it for Safari last year. That’s another story.

Google have worked hard with Chrome, and the effort shows. It’s rapid. It looks nice. You can add bells and whistles to it. And it’s the cherry on Google’s core USP – they’re a web platform after all.

Chrome is the total operating system. It runs web apps, and save for something resembling a desktop, and a sort of dock come launcher, that’s all it runs. It comes with 100gb of Google Drive (for two years), but aside from that, that’s it. Even the laptop’s settings can be found in Chrome’s preferences. A bold move.

And I bloody love it. It’s so simple. There really is nothing to it. It’s a computer, with a web browser. So fresh, so clean. Sure, there’s an app store, but in a broad stroke, I can say that it’s one epic sea of piss. Apps aren’t apps in many cases, they’re links to websites. Games are webgames. So by and large, I’m ignoring them all. And I think that might be the platform’s biggest challenge: WIth a lack of decent apps, convincing the hard-core to move over to a device which can only run web apps will be tough. We needs our Adobe products. We need presentation software. We need dev tools. There are apps which try and match each need, but not in the native way we like or to a sufficient standard.

Hardware

As I mentioned, the Samsung Chromebook I’m playing with is a good £800 cheaper than my Macbook. And despite it’s silver casing and black keys, it’s a pretty steep climbdown. In contrast, it’s tacky, and not as well made. The screen leaves a lot to be desired, and the trackpad is tacky and not a joy to use.

And that’s all I can say to criticise it.

It’s quiet. It’s got some ports (USB 2, USB 3, SD and Expansion slots, HDMI). It’s pretty small (about the same size as a netbook), and weighs a couple of pounds. It’s not particularly speedy, and video chugs a bit, but what do you expect from a machine which costs a bit over £200? The battery life is great – it doesn’t consume anywhere near the same amount of juice as my Macbook. It’s pretty good looking, but lacks the feeling of quality on touch. The co-working space I frequent largely looks like an Apple store, and it looks are akin to it’s aluminium cousins.

This isn’t to say I don’t appreciate it – I truly do. I’ve been faced with a few poorly made netbooks over time, and despite their compact nature and first look cuteness, using them is a drag. And they’re awfully constructed. The Chromebook trumps them by miles.

I did try to use my iPhone with it, you know, for giggles like. The phone can be charged using it’s USB ports, but that’s it, the machine simply isn’t bothered by having an Apple device connected. I hoped it would let me browse the phones files, seeing it as an external drive, but it didn’t. I wasn’t really disappointed with that either.

So what next?

As a creative strategist, my role is to help organisations get to the best digital solution for their often complex needs and products. This means my typical toolkit comprises Keynote (for wireframing, designing, and presenting), Illustrator (for knocking up the occasional vector), Photoshop (for editing images). iA Writer (for writing) and my extensive music library all running through iTunes Match. This means that sadly, I can’t devote my entire life to Chrome.

But it can fulfil another role in my life. I’m a scatty worker, and easily distracted when writing. So on the days I need to write, or use a spreadsheet, I’m going to leave my mac at home, and just use the Chromebook instead. It doesn’t meet my every need, but due to it’s single use nature, it’s perfect for immersing myself in.

Pixels and Parallel universes

The tablet destroyed the netbook, which in my opinion, is a pretty good thing. In a way, the Chromebook is a computer from a parallel universe where tablets never happened. Google simply took the netbook, and evolved it into a cloud device.

As for the Pixel, the luxury version costing about the same as a Macbook Air, I can honestly say that I’m not bothered. Yes, a super nice laptop with a better screen running Chrome OS would be cool, but overkill. The apps, and therefore usage, just isn’t there at the moment, so if you’re looking to spend that level of cash on your next laptop, I’d go for a MBA every time.

The Future

As much as I like the machine, I don’t think they’re going to be massive sellers in the long term. I can see the advantage for a company, already using Google Apps to manage their comms and document infrastructure issuing certain staff with the machines, but they won’t work for all. They’re also good for students who don’t have the need for native applications. I also think they’d be good for the many who don’t use a computer at all, with the simple nature good for digital inclusion.

For the Chromebook to succeed as a product, apps need to be better. A lot better. Even Google’s offerings need to be far better. As it stands at the moment, it’s a bit, amateur. Sure, for single uses, it’s great, but the platform needs better buy-in from developers. I’d like to see the platform mature, and new user interfaces specifically for the device and it’s eventual place in the world. And I’m sure it will have one, we just need to find a reason to have a Chromebook in our lives.

The world won’t be any less evil in doing so, but it will mean we can use the internet in a slightly less cluttered way than we have before.

Summing up

The Chromebook is a lovely piece of kit. It doesn’t carry a chip on it’s shoulder, and does exactly what it’s supposed to do – browse the web – with aplomb. But it’s faced with challenges, such as it’s pathetic app store, which shows the level of contempt many developers have for the platform. Sure, you’ll find everything you’d want in terms of top level web apps in Chrome app form, but power users will be left expecting more.

As I said, it will get used occasionally when I need to concentrate on working within the confines of a web app, something like Google Docs or Draft. But unless my world changes drastically, or the quality of apps improves by several hundred percent, OS X will still be my number one platform.

Bio

Jon is a Creative Strategist and Digital Planner based in Manchester. He specialises in helping clients achieve more from their digital products, all solved with a holistic approach and creative thinking. He’s also a member of the Manchester Digital council. Follow him on twitter, or catch his musings on his blog.

The post FocusON – My New Chromebook: Has it changed my life? appeared first on PushON Ltd.

Apple Unveil iOS 7

Apple unveiled the new operating system this week with drastic changes from previous versions. iOS 7 is expected to be released in the autumn, and responses to the new design have been both positive and negative, with many android users saying the iPhone is adapting in a similar way to the android operating system.

So what’s new?

All new design:

iOS 7 started with a desire to take an experience people love and make it better. To make it even simpler, more useful, and more enjoyable — but still feel instantly familiar. The design of iOS 7 is beautiful because it’s all of those things. And it’s the start of a new chapter for iOS.

All new features:

Control Center, AirDrop for iOS, and smarter multitasking are just a few of the great new features in iOS 7. And all your favourite apps have been enhanced to make everything even easier to get to and use. So with iOS 7, not only is your device more capable, you are, too.

PlayStation 4 vs Xbox One

The console wars have begun! As Microsoft and PlayStation renew their rivalry at this year’s E3 convention in Los Angeles, both showed off their much anticipated new consoles. 

The PlayStation was the console to steal the show, with Sony chief executive Andrew House describing the PlayStation 4 as “unparalleled power” at the unveiling event. For US citizens, it will cost $399 when it hits the market, $100 cheaper than Microsoft’s Xbox One, which will cost $499 when it is launched this November. The PS4 will cost £349 in the UK in comparison to the £429 price tag for the for the Xbox One.

To buy an additional controller for the PS4, the DualShock 4 will cost £54 in the UK, so it might be worth waiting for a Christmas bundle before you go out and pre-order the new console.

Will you be putting a deposit down on the PS4 or Xbox One?

Facebook Hashtags

IT’S OFFICIAL!! They introduced hashtags onto Facebook! A few week after we post: FocusON: Social Trends – Are we seeing the demise of Facebook? 

Facebook have this week decided to join all the other social network platforms and help out the people who have the Twitter/Facebook post sync to ensure they don’t get left behind with their useless hashtags.

After slowly being rolled out in America, we finally have the ability to use hashtags. Are you happy that they have introduced hashtags? We will now see the Facebook hashtag meme slowly dieing out, so here is one of our favourites:

Google+ Business page update

This week saw an update roll out for Google+ business pages. According to Google Engineer Pavni Diwanji, the following features can be achieved through the new dashboard system:

Ability to update your business info (such as website URLs, store hours and phone numbers) across Maps, Search and Google+ – all from the Overview tab.

Monitor your notifications, assign page managers, share photos and videos – even start a Hangout with followers.

View your “at-a-glance” data for the AdWords Express account, with the creation and management of offers through Google Offers. 

Insights into you business using top searches, top locations requesting driving directions, and performance data for their Google+ posts.

Google buy Waze for $1.3 Billion

It had been speculated for many weeks, but finally we saw Google buying Waze, an Israel-based start-up, reportedly paying $1.3bn (£835m), according to Reuters.

Waze is a mobile app that combines online maps with updates from other users about traffic jams, road works and accidents. Waze was founded four years ago, and now has over 47 million users worldwide.

But what does this mean for the future of Google Maps after buying a crowd-sourced navigation app? Will we be getting traffic and roadwork updates through the Google Maps app soon?

Thats the end of the RoundUP for this week, we will round off with the SEO Periodic Table from Searchengineland.com (Click to view full image): 

The post Digital RoundUP 17/06/2013 appeared first on PushON Ltd.

increasing site engagement: Lee duddell from whatusersdo & Panel

Presentation from Lee Duddell, MD of WhatUsersDo – a company who deliver online user testing

Shown a few amusing examples of bad user experience in the buying process – users unable to locate sections of site or operate it

Appliances online increased conversions by 9.5% just by observing users “ripped up their development plan”

There is an issue of companies basing design decisions on hunches and guess work rather than involving users

Often cited stat from google, that 67% of users start on a smartphone and finish in a computer

Users move to desktop because they want the full site experience, feel like they are missing something on a simplified version of a website

Interesting fact – Germans actually read the T&Cs and About Us pages, they really care

Suggestions to increase site engagement:
- watching users on your live site
- watch users journey through the whole search process

Stop guessing about why users leave your website – find out why

Panel discussing examples of good and bad sites in terms of usability, and which work well

Amazon a good example of a lot of user testing and constantly improving their design and process. Appearance may be cluttered but usability is good. Great app. Everything they do is geared towards the consumer

With the way search is going, previous conflict between SEO and design is now gone, as user experience is directed related to conversions – which is the whole point of the site!

The post PushON at SAScon 2013 – Day 2: Increasing Site Engagement appeared first on PushON Ltd.

FOLLOW OUR LIVE BLOGS BELOW:

INCREASING SITE ENGAGEMENT – FOUNDER AND HEAD OF WHATUSERSDO

INTEGRATING SEARCH AND SOCIAL WITH THE WIDER MARKETING MIX: SPEAKERS INCLUDE ANDY BETTS, JUDITH LEWIS, JON MYERS AND ANDREW WARREN PAYNE.

DELIVERING INSIGHTS FROM SOCIAL MEDIA: SPEAKERS INCLUDE KRISTAL IRELAND AND SEAN WALSH

The post PushON at SAScon 2013 – Day 2: Live Blogs appeared first on PushON Ltd.

Follow our live blogs Below: 

KEYNOTE – ALISTAIR THORNTON MARKETING DIRECTOR, THOMSONLOCAL.COM

ADVANCED PPC TECHNIQUES – PETER COBLEY, HOMEJAMES, BEN WIGHTMAN, LATITUDE AND LAURENT BONInFANTE, ACQUISIO

WINNING IN A MULTI-SCREEN WORLD – RICH QUICK, ARNOLD CLARK

SOCIAL PROOF – ZMOT : MATT ROBERTS, LINKDEX, NICK GARNER, SEARCHWORKS, KEVIN GIBBONS, BLUEGLASS AND CLAIRE THOMPSON, WAVES PR

MAXIMISING BRAND REPUTATION ONLINE – KRISTAL IreLAND, ENJOY DIGITAL, NILS MORK-ULNES, BEYOND AND ROBIN WILSON, MCCANN MANCHESTER

EMBRACING ENHANCED CAMPAIGNS – JON MYERS, MARIN AND ELROY CONDOR, STICKYEYES, CHRIS JOHNSON, GOOGLE

SOCIAL MEDIA MEETS PR MEETS SEO – JUDITH LEWIS, BEYOND, CHARLOTTE WALKER, CARAT AND KARYN FLEETING, STOWE FAMILY LAW

The post PushON at SAScon 2013 – Day 1: Live Blogs appeared first on PushON Ltd.

Social MEdia meets pr meets seo – judith lewis, beyond, charlotte walker, carat and karyn fleeting, stowe family law

Judith introduces the session and hands over to Karyn and Charlotte…

Karyn Says…

I’m not a PR cheerleader. I built a comms team from the ground up, had to consider all elements (including SEO, PR & Social). I had to consider how to combine these three successfully. This requires people with flexible and agile skill sets. I’m also a blogger myself, so I’m used to being on the other side of online outreach.

Charlotte Says…

Previously each discipline has been quite siloed… nowadays people require a more varied skill set.

Judith says…

I work in SEO so most of my life revolves around building links. Nowadays, this requires and understanding of PR and social. You need to have a foot in each of these worlds.

So, do SEOs make good PRs?

Charlotte says…

In a word, no. For me it doesn’t really make sense to try to shoehorn and SEO into PR which is a completely different profession. We have a PR team and an SEO team and it’s important that they work together and understand each others roles, but it should be the right expert for the right job.

Karyn says…

I disagree. I wouldn’t have always – I used to think SEOs are awful at PR. But I do think it’s now impossible to be a good SEO without good PR skills, and vice versa. I get an avalanche of emails every day requesting all types of link. I’ve noticed that over the last few year these requests have improved dramatically. That said, I do find the best approaches are coming from PRs, but I find SEOs are closing the gaps. You do see a lot of digital agencies setting up their own PRm teams so it’s clearly become an important part of the process. I find that SEOs sometimes have a blinkered view of what PR is and what it can achieve. PRs take a more holistic approach.

Judith says…

Do SEOs make good PRs? Sometimes yes… sometimes no. I run a blog too and some of the approaches I get from SEO are great and some of them are PANTS. So I’m going to sit on the fence.

Any questions?

A man in a purple shirt asks…

Who’s going to be the lead in the SEO/PR/Social relationship? Who takes control in a multi-agency situation?

Charlotte says…

- This is something we deal with on a daily basis. I say the client should choose who’s taking charge as they have the best idea of what they want to achieve.It’s important to set clear objectives and KPIs for each agency.

The man in the purple shirt says…

I don’t think if often works out like that though because a lot of marketing managers just don’t know. Maybe that’s where multi-discipline agencies can really clear up.

Karyn says…

From a marketing pespective, the problem with that is, what if one team within the agency is not as good as the others? But there is also the issue of the tension and fighting between agencies. The marketing manager should insist on regular inter-agency meetings to encourage good teamwork.

PushON’s own Dan Collier (wearing a blue sweater) asks…

What do you think makes a PR better than an SEO for outreach? Do you think the SEO label actually hinders them?

Karyn says….

I don’t think the SEO label is necessarily an issue. PRs tend to do more research and present more creative propositions that fit in with my blog, while SEOs tend to throw money. There is still this divide, but the gap is closing.

Judith says…

- I have  sign on my site that says “I am not your link bitch, so don’t treat me as such”. So I don’t get much contact from SEOs.

Charlotte says…

- We have an SEO outreach team, which works much like the PR team, considering how we can build up relationships with bloggers and the like. It’s all about real life contact.

The post PushON at SAScon 2013 – Day 1: Social Media Meets PR Meets SEO appeared first on PushON Ltd.

Winning In a multi-screen world – rich quick, arnold clark

In this session, Rich Quick from car dealer Arnold Clark discussed how we are now living in a multi-screen world and what we need to be doing to adapt. Here are a few of the key points:

• In 2011, just 7% of online transactions were made on mobile. In 2012, this rose to 25%.
• People viewing emails on mobile is about to overtake desktop.
• 58% of marketers (your competitors) ignore mobile email in their campaigns.
• Desktop email clients tend to have a small viewpoint, so design email campaigns for mobile then give same experience to desktop.
• When designing emails for mobile, make sure calls to action are above the fold.
• Responsive web design is your friend, avoid having a separate mobile site as it can cause technical issues.
• Number of iOS users about to overtake number of Windows users.
• Mobile needs to be straight to the point as people are busy and have shorter attention spans.
• Apps have their place, but it’s all about context. For example, The Trainline app uses your phone’s geo-location in order to tailor content for you, a mobile site would not be as effective.
• Designing for mobile is not about making things smaller, it’s about making things bigger. When people out and about they cannot be as focused or accurate as on desktop.
• When designing for mobile – empathize with the user, consider what they are looking for. It’s all about context. For this point, Rich used the SAScon website as an example. The homepage of the mobile site provided no relevant information about the location or time of the event. Rich then contemplated a mobile site that adapted depending on the user’s location or time of day etc. in order to provide the most relevant information at that moment.
  

And I’ll finish with one of my favorite quotes from the session:

When designing for mobile it’s not just the number of pixels that are changing, user behavior is changing.

The post PushON at SAScon 2013 – Day 1: Winning in a Multi-Screen World appeared first on PushON Ltd.

Social media is a term that many would struggle to defy, with the exchange of opinions and useful information being the key driving force.

Wikipedia defines Social Media as –

the means of interactions among people in which they create, share, and exchange information and ideas in virtual communities and networks.

Is this a generic way of looking at the interactions that we create using all these variations of social media? How would you define the use of your social media habits?

For me, I’d say that I haven’t shared any opinions or information on my personal Facebook in years! Facebook was useful for creating groups at University, similar to a forum to ensure information can be shared and helped enormously with group work and arranging times to ensure work was done to meet deadlines. Having a forum on Facebook using the groups can help anyone with queries or questions that they may have and the feedback from the University groups was positive and helped quieter members of the class, ensuring that everyone in class was involved in discussions.

In a recent study on Internet trends published by Mary Meeker of KPCB, Facebook was shown as the major social network in decline but the user base still tops the others followed by YouTube and Twitter.

Looking at the figures we can see that the only social network to decline from year to year is Facebook, showing a huge shift towards YouTube and Google+.

The full report can be found below:

The key information found from the study shows growth in shared and created digital content, from documents to pictures, tweets and other social media sharing. An interesting figure also showed that 100 hours of video were uploaded onto YouTube per minute.

Figures released by Facebook on May 1st also showed a decline for year on year growth for Facebook however, monthly and daily active user numbers are higher than ever, topping 1.11 billion and 665 million, respectively.

Is this due to the fact that everyone has already signed up to Facebook? or are people joining other social networks?

My Facebook Timeline currently appears to be a stream of news due to the vast amount of people who have been removed from the stream because of the pointless statuses that have no place on Facebook. Status updates such as ‘Just been to the shops its great there’, or ‘The weather is great outside’, get on my nerves with bragging also being the annoying traits you see on Facebook. People checking in on holiday and uploading pictures while you are enjoying the cold weather in England get a straight timeline removal with ‘ My life is great… Just won £1 on a scratch card’ being something you would see on Facebook.

Similar behaviour that many find annoying is the use of ‘Vaguebooking’ – this is where someone writes a vague Facebook status update that prompts a response from friends to ask what’s going on. Keep an eye out for the ‘Vaguebooking’, with statuses like ‘Why me?’ or ‘This would only happen to me’ etc, and avoid asking them any questions.

Users on Facebook who have their Twitter and Facebook synced up also get a lot of criticism, its just lazy and pointless making all of your social networks synced up so you can update from one place. Hashtags currently have no place on Facebook with other social platforms incorporating the use of hashtags, such as LinkedIn, Pinterest and Google+.

6 Possible Reasons for Facebook decline:

1. Parents or Relatives sign up and ask to be your Facebook friend
2. Better Social Networks
3. Annoying habits found on Facebook
4. Not able to create alias like on Twitter
5. Minimal interaction without ‘Vaguebooking’, bragging or sharing holiday pictures
6. People asking for likes and comments on pointless photos or memes

So which social platforms are catching up to Facebook?

YouTube – Since Google bought out YouTube, the social elements have drastically grown allowing for integration with Google+ and other social platforms. Has the increasing popularity of Vlogs helped YouTube to have the largest growth from 2011-2012?

Google+ – Google+ saw massive growth year on year for 2011-2012. Will the new redesign bring in more users?

Pinterest – Pinterest has always been a steadily growing social platform, allowing for simple use of image share and interaction with others in a similar industry.

Which social network annoys you the most? Answer on the PushON Prizes Facebook App

The post FocusON: Social Trends – Are we seeing the demise of Facebook? appeared first on PushON Ltd.

Reaction to Penguin 2.0

Google rolled out its fourth Penguin update last week – Penguin Two Point Oh!! The update ended up being a bit of a storm in a teacup after the huge build-up it got in the weeks leading up to it. A lot of SEOs were predicting a massive hit on guest posting, while others thought it would further target paid links and suspicious anchor text. Early results posted by Search Metrics found that sites with thin and untrusted links took the biggest hits.

Big names that were affected include pornhub.com (along with many other porn sites), salvationarmy.org, and dailydot.com. Matt Cutts confirmed that around 2.3% of English-US queries were affected, not the game-changer everyone was expecting!

Xbox One

Microsoft unveiled the next generation of Xbox console on the 21st of May, dubbing it ‘Xbox One – The all-in-one entertainment system.’ The Xbox One has a dashboard similar to the Windows 8 system with boxes showing each game, film, music, or app that you have running on the Xbox. They have also introduced an internet browser into the system allowing you to browse the internet on your TV. Another new feature is the introduction of Skype, using the Kinect camera to broadcast your calls with friends and family.

Xbox One has been designed to wake up instantly when you say, “Xbox On,” and even turns on your TV. Downloads and updates happen behind the scenes, so you start straight away. When you pause any game, they are suspended right where you left off, so you can resume instantly.

As the Xbox One has been labelled an Entertainment system is would only be right for them to allow you to watch TV through the console. You can now connect your satellite box to Xbox One and watch television shows through the console. You can even create your own personal channel by pinning the shows and apps you watch most.

Another new feature is the ability to jump from TV to a movie to a game in an instant. And then snap them side by side to do two things simultaneously. Music and games. Skype and live sports.

How will this compete with the PS4? Will you be going for Xbox One of PS4?

We found a useful infographic showing a comparison of the two consoles.

Flickr Profile Overhaul + 1TB of Free Storage

Flickr, the photo-sharing service this week offered members one terabyte of storage for free. Flickr’s website also got an overhaul, changing the design of profiles and the way you view or search for images. There was also a new version of its Android app to download, fitting in with the new design and layout.

Champions League Tweets - #ChampionsOfEurope 

On Saturday we saw the first all-German final at Wembley stadium, with Bayern Munich playing Borussia Dortmund. To show the social impact of the event, Twitter wrote and exclusive blog showing you the statistics of tweets and trends during the match – The full blog can be found here.

The biggest peaks in Tweets per minute were as follows:

1. - 77,009 21:01 BST – Mandzukic’s first goal for Bayern Munich
2. - 71,299 21:09 BST – Gundogan equaliser for Borussia Dortmund
3. - 78,096 21:14 BST –  Dortmund’s Lewandowski scores a disallowed goal
4. - 107,229 21:31 BST – Robben’s late winner for Bayern Munich
5. - 117,601 21:37 BST – In the moments after the referee blew the final whistle

#PushONPrizes 

Final calls for #PushONPrizes with the closing date for this months sweepstakes being Friday the 31st of May.

We’re giving away a Google Chromebook to one lucky reader. Simply visit the PushON Prizes app over at the PushON Facebook page and follow the three simple steps to be in with a chance of winning. HINT: You may want to read FocusON: An Introduction to PPC Marketing first!

Tumblr Bought by Yahoo

Yahoo announced last week its acquisition of Tumblr, the popular social service that hosts more than 105 million GIF-filled blogs, for $1.1 billion in cash. 

What will this mean for the service? – Will we see people switching to alternative microblogging platforms?

IT’S PRONOUNCED “JIF” NOT “GIF”

Steve Wilhite, the creator of the Gif graphics format has said that his invention should be pronounced so it starts with a “j” rather than with a hard “g”.

He told the New York Times that he was “annoyed” there was still a debate over how to say the acronym. It was also suggested that The Oxford English Dictionary was wrong to say it could be pronounced both ways.

So here are a few of our favourite JIF’s!

The post Digital RoundUP 28/05/2013 appeared first on PushON Ltd.

Facebook Home hits 1 million Users 

Facebook Home has hit 1 million downloads one month after being made available for Android. Despite this number it appears that demand is on the wane, with 500,000 downloads achieved with the first 10 days of release. However it took twice as long for another 500,000 downloads.

Home has also attracted negative attention in the form of reviews on the Google Play page with over 16,000 two star reviews.

It is perhaps too early to write off Facebook home but with a user base of 1 billion and only 1 million users signed up,the signs do not look good. Have a read of our Facebook home review here.

Matt Cutts – Taking down network of links  

Matt Cutts the head of Google’s webspam team said this past week Google had taken action against several thousand link sellers that were part of a link network.

In fact, we took action on several thousand linksellers in a paid-link-that-passes-PageRank network earlier today.

— Matt Cutts (@mattcutts) May 15, 2013

Twitter CEO resignation

Dick Costolo has resigned as Twitter director of the UK arm of Twitter. This is due to Twitter UK being struck off companies’ house after failing to return any accounting data.

Tweetdeck, a Twitter subsidiary, was also struck off on May 7^th and due to these irregularities Costolo felt it necessary to leave his post.

In reality being struck off from Companies House will not impact on Twitter’s overall business but the restructuring of the company in the UK points to a possible relisting with Companies House in the near future.

European Search Awards 2013

PushON had fantastic news last week after being shorlisted for the European Search Awards for Best Use of Search in Retail for Defib Shop – putting search at the heart of the campaign along with ChillFactore hit the slopes. Our third nomination was for Thomson Al Fresco – making holidays personal, in the Best Use of Search Travel & Leisure category.

Google I/O 2013

Google Wallet - 

On Wednesday we saw Google I/O 2013 getting underway with Google unveiling a host of updates and features to their current services. A new Gmail feature allows users to send up to $10,000 via an email message using Google Wallet.

Will this be able to compete with Paypal?

Google+ Redesign -

Google also introduced a new design layout for Google+, with a similar layout to Pinterest, having stories spread across your timeline featuring photos from that story.

At Google I/O 2013, the company announced 41 new features for Google+, the most important being related to design, messaging, and photo sharing.

Google+ has taken a step towards the focus of the photo and video content similar to Pinterest, improving visibility of stories, and creating an addition to Hang Outs by introducing the stand alone app that can be used for chat.

Automated hashtags have also been introduced, which work similar to those for Twitter, by suggesting a topic for you to include in the hashtags. Google have suggested that it will provide better chances of finding the desired content by adding trending tags.

Another feature is the addition of photo hosting and sharing. The images that are uploaded onto Google+ using the Auto Backup option, now use higher resolutions (up to 2048 pixels) and allow for editing – Autofix, Add Text and Rotate. Autofix allows users to edit with a single click the image saturation, brightness, or contrast. Auto Highlight and Auto Awesome will provide automatic options for Best Shot or creating animations form consecutive photos.

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Google Glass potentially illegal in UK

John Lanchester who writes for London Review of Books, suggested that the technology breaches basic data protection provisions, adding that the recording facility is a breach of ECHR privacy laws.

“In the UK anyway, many or most of the recording functions of Google Glass seem likely to be illegal,” Lanchester said.

“The 1998 Data Protection Act defines data as ‘information which is being processed by equipment operating automatically in response to instructions; or is recorded with the intention that it should be processed.’ I don’t speak fluent lawyer, but it seems clear that definition encompasses the recording function of Glass.”

Google announce Voice Search 

The way we search as we know it could be extinct in a few years if Google’s bold new idea becomes widespread. Google has announced it is bringing voice search to the desktop, via apps such as Chrome we could go about our business without having to type a key.

Although it has been announced details are sketchy about when and how it will all work, watch this space!

That is the end of the RoundUP this week, we will roundoff with a site that we have recently discovered and had alot of fun with. It is called Geoguessr and works using Google’s Streetview, check it out and let us know what you think.

Until next week, farewell

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