VIDEO: Google Priority Inbox For Gmail Explained

Google to roll out Priority Inbox for Gmail. Mails will be sorted according to priority i.e., based on your email habits like which the people you email the most to, your email habits and keywords. These emails are marked as important and appears at the top.

Check the video on how Google's Priority Inbox works for Gmail. The more you use it the smarter the feature gets.

Source: Google

The Social Network Official Website

Columbia pictures has launched the official website for "The Social Network". The site is designed like a collage just like Facebook. The site carries the same message like the trailers and the poster.

Check out the website of " The Social Network "

The Social Network Trailer 1 & 2 from Columbia pictures.

VIDEO: History Of Google

We have discussed often about Goolge, the worlds largest search engine. With the development of Page Rank alogrithm in 1997 google has never looked back again, with everyone preferring goolge for online information. This Video provides a brief history of google. Google has redefined the usage of internet.. Google kept on innovating and passed on the benefit to the users by providing "all for free".



Source: Edugiansante

VIDEO: Facebook Opens Office In India - Hyderabad

Facebook is opening its much awaited India office at Hyderabad. The timing could not have been any better with Facebook overtaking Orkut as the most visited social networking site. ( Facebook Surpasses Orkut In India )

Video Of Facebook Office opening in India - Hyderabad

Message from Facebook Blog:

"The new offices come at a significant time in our international growth. Seventy percent of the people using Facebook are outside the U.S. and are accessing the service from more than 70 languages. In India alone, we’ve seen rapid growth and now have more than 8 million people there actively connecting on Facebook with their friends, family, and other people they know, both within India and around the globe."

The office officialy opens in September.

Source: TechCrunch

Foursquare Now Has 3 Million Users

Foursquare now has 3+ million users. Foursquare has been growing at an increasing pace. Foursquare had hit the 2 billion mark in July. Foursquare reached one million users in 1 year, reached 2 million in the next 3 months and has grown at a phenomenal rate to 3 million users within one and half month. We had earlier reported that Foursquare Records 100 Million Check-ins Averaging 1 Million Per Day.

It was expected that once Facebook released its location based service "Facebook Places" Foursquare would take a hit.. but Foursquare grew at a much increased pace "Facebook Launches "Facebook Places" Foursquare Experiences Record Signups".

As of now Foursquare is experiencing a healthy growth rate, with Facebook Places having some privacy concerns we will have to wait and see the turn of the tide in location based services.

INFOGRAPHIC: Why People Follow Brands On Twitter

The infographic by Rosaura Ochoa details on why people follow brands on twitter. We earlier discussed on Why We Follow Brands On Twitter? With 38% of respondents saying to get updates on future products, 32% to stay informed and 31% saying for offers and promotions. Further the infographic also details on the online activity of Twitter users and non users. Twitter users tend to do more online activities than their counterparts.

Source: Rosaura Ochoa

Diaspora The Facebook Alternative To Release On September 15

Diaspora the much hyped about alternative for Facebook is set to release its code on 15 September. The startup which aimed to raise a capital of $10,000 ended up making $100,000 in just 20 days, much due the Facebook making lot of changes to its privacy settings causing a revolt.

Diaspora ended up making $200,000+ on the crowd sourced fundraising site Kickstarter the most ever raised on the site. Diaspora which started as a summer project of four NYU students, have turned to become a alternative to open source networks due to the interest and support it received in the funding stages.

With time how ever the hype for the project has died out and Facebook is continuing to grow at an increased pace.

Our earlier article on this : Open Facebook Alternative, Diaspora Raised $50,000+ In Micro Funding

Facebook Surpasses Orkut In India & List Top 10 Social Networking Sites

It is official now Facebook has overtaken orkut as the most visited social networking site in India. When Orkut launched in 2004, it was the leading social networking site in India and Brazil (still the leading social networking site). Orkut has been seeing a lukewarm increase of 35% when compared to Facebook which recorded a growth of 179%.

We have reported earlier that Facebook was closing on Orkut in terms of visitors ( Facebook Over Takes Orkut in India ). It was just a matter of few months from then, Facebook recorded 20.9 million visitors while Orkut had just 19.9 million in July 2010.

Below is the list of Top Social Networking sites in India and the list of countries where Social Networking is recording high growth.

Read the full article on Penn Olson

VIDEO: Social Media Revolution In Europe & Germany

The revolution in social networks has already happened, it is high time you joined in the revolution to take your business to the next level. Which effects do you have to consider for your business? The Video puts the latest figures into perspective.

Source: KmfSocial

INFOGRAPHIC: History Of Facebook Privacy Issues

Facebook has a long history of crticism when it comes to privacy, the launch of facebook places is no excemption to this. Critics of the feature point out that under Places’ default setting, a user can tag a friend’s location even if that friend is not physically in that location. What’s more, all checkins will appear in the News Feed and activity stream for that place, unless otherwise specified.

The Infographic from Mashable details on the privacy issues Facebook has faced since its creation.

Source: Mashable

Facebook Catching Up With Yahoo On Unique Visitors

Facebook might overtake yahoo for the most visited site. At the moment Google has the highest visitors followed by Microsoft and Yahoo at 622 million unique visitors worldwide. Yahoo might just lose it lead over facebook which attracted 572 million unique visitors in july. With Yahoo handing over its search results in the U.S. to Bing today it might lose its spot to the ever growing social network giant Facebook.

The gap between Yahoo and Facebook is only 50 million visitors, which has narrowed considerably since the end of 2009, when the gap was 125 million. In July, Facebook gained 20 million visitors from the month before, whereas Yahoo stayed completely flat.

Read the full article on Tech Crunch

INFOGRAPHIC: E-Commerce An Overview

E-Commerce has changed the way business happens, our entire global economy has become more dependent on the transactions online. The Infographic details on the growth and perfromance of E-Commerce as a medium for business transactions. More on the Infographic.



Earlier we have posted a infographic on the " History Of E-Commerce "

Source: Online MBA

Customize Your Facebook Pages

Facebook with its immense user base has not created a editor that lets users create a super fan page, instead facebook has kept the facebook page design constant and allowed application developers to come up with their own apps and tabs to encourage creativity. This move by facebook is to ensure that there is uniformity in the way pages look and function.

It is important for facebook page owners to note that you will need to customize the page under the tab to width of 520 pixels as facebook has rolled out this change for all pages. Here are 12 best services for making facebook page tabs:

Read the full article on TechCrunch

VIDEO: Google Live Search Updates

The search engine giant Google is testing a new feature that displays live updates as you enter search queries. Google presents with instant live updates as you enter your queries, this feature is not available to all as Google conducts test runs on improving it search feature with a select few users only.

Video on the new Google search engine feature.



Source: Roedou

INFOGRAPHIC: Do's And Dont's Of Social Media

Infographic on the DO's ad Dont's of Social Media. The infograph gives a brief on the best practices for individuals and brands online.

Source: The Steel Method

Social Trends To Watch Out For

With customers spending more time on social networks, businesses are more actively managing their social presence online. Social networks are evolving everyday, so should brands which are looking to leverage social media reach out to its consumers?

6 Social Business trends to watch out : 

a) Value creation shifting to outside the enterprise.
b) Business processes as opt-in community-powered activities.
c) Mobile as the primary social channel
d) Social Analytics to drive business engagement
e) Engagement strategies that scale across all important social channels
f) Preparing for loss of control

Read the full article on Dachis Group

INFOGRAPHIC: The Geosocial Universe

Infographic on the size of social networks, online services like Skype, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Foursquare, Yahoo Mail and more... The Infographic also details on the proposition of the user base that access these services through mobile.

Source: Gigaom

The Best Social Media Campaigns

See how all the brands are optimizing the use of Social Media and creating a buzz about their brand, resulting in increased sales and WOM. To name a few of them Old Spice's Does your Man Smell like a Man, Evian's Roller Babies, Volkswagen's Fun Theory and more.

Read the full article on Forbes
In Pictures: Best-Ever Social Media Campaigns

VIDEO: What is Facebook Places?

This Video on facebook places tells exactly as to what it is all about and how it is useful for the users. To share your experiences about a place you visited, to find out who is nearby etc... With launching of Facebook places most of the location based service providers are biting their nails as to how it would effect their services, as facebook is backed up with a mammoth 500+ million user base.



Source: The Official Facebook

Facebook Releases API for Facebook Places

Facebook has released the API for facebook places, developers can now create their own applications and using this you can access a users and his/her friends check-ins as well.

You can also get check in data from specific places, pages. All the information made using the places or through the applications developed can be accessed.

Read the full article on Mashable

Facebook Launches "Facebook Places" Foursquare Experiences Record Signups

The launch of Facebook places has resulted in Foursquare having record signups. Facebook with a massive user base of 500 million have entered the location based services with the launch of "Facebook Places".

Foursquare is reaching 3 million users at a growing rate but when compared to Facebooks 500 million it is a vast differentiation. We have to wait and see if Foursquare will be able to withstand the immense competition which Facebook Places would pose. Check the Infographic comparing Location based social networks, we can expect to see a major change in the numbers within a month of Facebooks launch of "Facebook Places".

Read the full article on Mashable

INFOGRAPHIC: Comparing Location Based Social Networks

Infographic comparing location based social networks, their present user base, services offered and much more. With Facebook having entered the location based service arena with facebook places it will be interesting to see the shift in importance and usage of the other location based social networks. At the moment Foursquare is making inroads in location based services.

Source: Seekomega

Blogging By Marketers Is Likely To Increase

1 in 3 companies will have a blog by 2012, a rise of 43% according to a forecast by eMarketer's.

"Companies are finding that blogs fill a specific niche that other forms of social media do not,” said eMarketer senior analyst Paul Verna.

Here is a chart on the rise of blogging for marketing purposes.


Blogs are perceived to have higher value when compared to other social media sites, with over 144 million blogs the number is all set to raise more. We earlier saw about the Importance Of Corporate Blogging where 31% of respondents felt blogs are critical and 71% rated blogs as useful, according to the study by HubSpot.

Read the full article on Penn Olson

Why We Follow Brands On Twitter?

Twitter has become a integral part of many brands online strategy, but why is that consumers follow brands inspite of knowing they are there to make a sale? Exact Target conducted a survey and released this analysis as to why people follow brands on Twitter.

With 38% of twitter users saying they follow to get updates, 32% saying to stay informed companies have a right reason to make their presence felt in social media through Twitter as a platform... People also follow brands to save money.

Read the full article on Penn Olson

YouTube Launches "YouTube Charts" For Top Videos

YouTube is set to feature its top videos in a new section "YouTube Charts". This section will hold all trending videos, all time classics etc...

YouTube Charts filter top videos by several criteria. You can grab a list of videos that got the most views, the most likes or the most subscribers over the past day, the past week, the past month or all time. You’ll be able to see the top 100 videos from each list; that means the YouTube Charts will feature 900 videos and channels (likely with some redundancies) every day...

Read the full article on Mashable

INFOGRAPHIC: History Of Internet 1962 - 2009

Infographic on the history of internet, from 1962 when J.C.R. Licklider proposed the idea of Intergalatic Network till 2009 when mobile data traffic was more then voice traffic every month. The Infographic covers on milestones of the development and evolution of internet as a service. From Mosaic being the first web browser, pizza hut offering online ordering till facebook and twitter. More on the Infographic..

Also check out the Infographics on History Of E-Commerce , Web Browser History & Search Engine History

Source: MBA Online

VIDEO : Rounds For Facebook Live Video Chat

Rounds was launched over a year ago as "6rounds" a consumer facing video chat platform. Rounds is debuting a video chat application for facebook "Video Chat Rounds". Rounds is a totally new and awesome way to video chat on Facebook! This app lets you to take snapshots together, play games, watch YouTube, share pictures, listen to music, do funny webcam effects and much more...



Source: 6round

INFOGRAPHIC : Social Media Flow

Infographic on the flow of social media and how it is integrated to website. The Infographic illustrates on the flow of information from one site to another and how all these sites can be used to generate a viral effect leading back to the home site (website).

Source: Ethan Hein

Foursquare Talks About Privacy Before Facebook Launches Location Service

With Facebook getting ready to announce the launch of location feature, Foursquare the present leader in the location based industry has tweaked its privacy settings. Foursquare is now focusing more on privacy of its users.

Nearing 3 million members, Foursquare is growing fast and wants to ensure that users understand their privacy setting. More than that, the start-up is trying to empower users to take control over their privacy. It will be interesting to see Facebook's move on privacy in location based service

Read the full article on Tech Crunch

Turn Any Non-Metal Surface Into A Interactive Touchscreen

Displax a interactive hardware company has come out with Skin, a thin flexible film that would transform any non metal surface into a interactive touch screen.

This unique hardware operates via a grid of nano wires embedded Skin’s polymer film. Each time a user makes contact with the surface, either by blowing on it or directly touching it, “a small electrical disturbance is detected allowing the micro-processor controller to pinpoint the movement or direction of the air flow,” according to Displax.

Read the full article on Mashable

Advertising On Social Networks To Hit $3.3 Billion

Social Networks are making a stir among the advertisers. It is estimated that social networks are estimated to bring in $3.3 billion in ad revenue in 2010. This is an increase by 31%, last year the revenue stood at $2.5 billion.

Without any surprise facebook is set to gain the maximum part of the spend with 39% i.e., $1.3 billion. The Ad Revenue for Facebook has increased 10 fold according to a facebook spoke person. In US facebook is set to generate nearly 50% of the Social network Ad revenue with $835 million. Once again MySpace is the one social network which is set to lose major online ad revenue.

Read the full article on Tech Crunch

INFOGRAPHIC: Internet Usage by Age Difference

Blogging has been the choice of teens and young adults traditionally to inform the world about what they are doing or thinking. The growth of social media networks is luring these teens away from blogs and blogging has become popular among adults. Infographic on the usage of internet and blogs based on age difference.

Source: NG Online News

Women Are More Social Savvy Internet Users

The global population trend dictates that there are more men then women on the planet, but the new planet defined by Internet is made up by nearly 46% women. Women have more then caught up to men when coming to the usage of internet and the varies services it offers.

Women spent more time on Social Media, Instant Messaging and E-mail. Women spent an average of 16.3% of their online time on social networks globally in 2010 when, men spent only 11.7% of their online time.

See below the chart comparing the online time spend of Women and Men:


Read the full article on Penn Olson

Facebook Ad Revenue Has Grown 10 Fold

Facebook is attracting more advertisers, with a ever growing user base of 500 million plus. Facebook is set to reach an revenue of $1.28 billion in 2010 when compared to $665 million the previous year. MySpace is again seeing a decline in Ad Revenue with a forecast of $347 million dollars down form $400 million last year.

The rates for advertisement in Facebook has remained in the same price point, in-spite of this the Ad Revenue has grown 10 fold. It is also estimated that Facebook will raise a revenue of $1,760 in 2011.

Read the full article on Tech Crunch

INFOGRAPHIC: The New Marketing Pillars

Social Networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc... email and mobile have become a part of the daily routine in one's life. Infact Mobile is the next major driving force for in marketing, eRoi conducted a study among more than 500 marketers to find the impact mobile marketing is having on email and web marketing programs. The Infographic portrays on how marketers are using Mobile, email and social media sites.

Source: Penn Olson

Twitter Rolls Out You Both Follow

In June Twitter was testing the "You Both Follow" feature with just 10% of the Twitter users initially. Now it is testing this feature on most if not all the twitter users.

To see if this feature is activated, just visit another user’s profile and see who you have in common on their sidebar, right above the full list of people they follow. You can click a “view all” link to see the full list of mutual follows.
Read the full article on Mashable

INFOGRAPHIC: Have We Shared Too Much Info Online?

Infographic on Good or Evil in sharing information on Facebook, Google and Apple. An analysis on what impact it has and how private is our information these services have collected.

Source: Focus

Video: "The Twit Network" The Twitter Story Trailer

The "Social Network" is stimulating some spark. The movie on the early days of Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg is set to play on the big screen on October 1st. Columbia pictures released an Exclusive trailer and later another 60 sec TV spot, following this a fun trailer of MySpace story was made and now it is Twitters turn...

Check out the exclusive (parody) trailer for "The Twit Network" right here on Rated Awesome!



Source: IndyMogul

Facebook Pages As Customer Support Center

Facebook is continuing to grow and more users are looking to connect with brands through Facebook pages. Leading to more users using the "Like" option. Parature is set to release a application which will enable brands to enhance customer service through Facebook. With this application the facebook page will be acting as a customer support center as well. A support tab will be added to the Facebook page where customers can ask questions and find answers. Ensuring a faster customer service..

For demo on how the application is designed to work Click here

Read the full article on Parature

HootSuite Introduces Freemium

Following in the steps of industry giants like Salesforce, Basecamp and Flickr, HootSuite will now offer more advanced tools for businesses and organizations with new premium packages -- while also continuing to provide a free version for most users.

Based on this all new customers will be required to select a plan when signing-up. Then, the following week, all current HootSuite users will be asked to choose a package. HootSuite has created a migration wizard to assist in choosing the best plan.

All customers (aside from Enterprise accounts) will enjoy a 30-day free trial to experiment and discover the benefits and features of the tiered plans. HootSuite aim's to providing free service to approximately 95% of our current users. Based on a customer survey...

Read the full article at HootSuite

INFOGRAPHIC: The Facebook World

Yet again it is the Facebook number game. The Infographic covers the growth statistics of Facebook. An average Facebook user has 130 friends, Facebook pages have amazed 5.30 billion fans. 55 million status updates are made in a day and Facebook is available in 70 different languages. The Infographic also consists an analysis of Facebook's time line from 2004 till 2010. More interesting stats on the Infographic.

Source: BlogHerald

Avoiding A Social Media Disaster

A dissatisfied consumer can take the brand image for a toss, the invent and mass use of social media has ensured this. Also consumers can help in building brand loyalty and positive image for the brand. The first thing to understand is that a Brand cannot control what its customers says about it... not completely.

The biggest opportunities for brands to engage and expand the user base is through social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Blog etc... to avoid — or circumvent — a negative PR storm about your brand online you can follow these strategies.

* Creating A Social Media Plan
* Having an Escalation Plan
* Plan for the worst situation and how you could handle it
* Respond to your customers queries
* Avoid the blame game...

Read the full article on Mashable

VIDEO: Twitter Is Hiring In Style

Twitter is hiring and it is doing it in style. This Video just shows a few snippets on what is being done in Twitter and their work culture. Portraying the employees in their element.



Source: Twitter

INFOGRAPHIC: The Facebook Business

The worlds largest networking site was launched in 2004 by Harvard students Mark Zuckerberg and his friends. It did not turn profitable until 2009. The service was so popular in Harvard that half the students had a profile in "The Facebook" within the month.

In the next 5 years millions of dollars was invested in the service with Peter Theil investing $500,000 in the summer of 2004 for the first round of funding. The investments came from different corners of the business world even before facebook turned profitable.

Facebook gets its revenue form Ads, Applications and credits. Games are big in terms of business for facebook. Currently facebook is valued at $20 billion. More interesting facts on the Facebook Business in the Infographic.

Source: Online Phd Programs

How Well Do Brands Use Twitter?

Twitter has evolved into a social networking site which enables brands to communicate wit consumers in a effective way. The 140 character social networking platform is still not been used effectively by brands inspite of its high consumer engaging ability. Only 16% of tweets made by brands are conversation builders the remaining tweets are just to pass on information to the followers.

However 60% of social followers of a particular brand do so only for information about new products, features or services. This is no reason for brands to not engage in conversation with the followers.

Read the full article on Penn Olson

INFOGRAPHIC: Web Browser History

The Web Browser which is a major cause and reason for the expansion and popularity of Internet as a medium has quite a long history. The battle still goes on for the web browser dominance. The Infographic details on the rich history of Web Browsers.

Source: Entreclick

VIDEO: What Is Social Media? & Why Is It Required?

In this Video we will see the 10 key facts on why brands need to take notice of social media.



Source: Time To Get Social

144 Million Blogs and 1 Million Posts In A Day

The number of blogs that are up and running at the moment stands at an astounding number of 144 million, this is according to a stat from Blogpulse. There are 1 million posts made in a day.

Earlier we saw how crucial a blog is for a business. To differentiate and reach to the target audience the business should have a clear strategy and goal from the very beginning. Still content is the key for success in the Blogosphere.

Read the full article on Penn Olson

Facebook Open Graph For Online Retailers

Facebook is making the headlines and this time it is for the application which allows the shoppers to receive product recommendations. Once the users access this application, the merchants can collect the user information like what pages he/she likes. The collecting information is the easy part, the merchants have to correlate the products with the likes of the users to recommend the right products.

Ultimately, the success of the recommendations driven by these apps will be predicated on how relevance is extracted — particularly from the social graph — and how recommendations are presented to shoppers.

It does not mean that "liking" would lead to purchase...

Read the full article on Mashable

INFOGRAPHIC: The Blogosphere & Who's In It?

Infographic on the state of blogosphere. Who are the bloggers? What is their education? How much do blogger's earn? Where are they located? How often do they update their blog? and some more details in the Infograph from Flowtown based on the study conducted by Technorati.

Source: Flowtown

VIDEO: How the Internet is Changing Advertising

Video on How the Internet is Changing Advertising, a short history of communication and how the internet is a new medium that has thrown out the old rules of communication.



Source: Epipheo

Blogging History and 9 popular Blogging Platforms

Blogs have become one of the most used social media platform by brands and individuals to share their experience or market ideas or connect with like minded blogger's from around the world.

In 1994, then Swarthmore College student Justin Hall started an online diary called Justin’s Links from the Underground. The site, which first started as a guide to the web, soon became an account of Hall’s life, and earned him the surely coveted title of pioneer blogger. Three years later, Jorn Barger would coin the term “weblog,” and it’s short form, “blog,” was later coined by Peter Merholz.

Here is a history of 9 popular blogging platforms...

Read the full article on Mashable

Will Facebook Ever Be Replaced?

Many Social Networking sites pop up every week or so. The problem with these start-ups is that they do not last long, they fail to keep and increase the user base. Facebook cannot be considered a start up anymore.. but facebook withstood the time and pressure.

MySpace was a great success and the users enjoyed the overall look and feel of the original interface and appreciated the additional features. Unfortunately for MySpace, the designers continued to overhaul the interface, adding new features and making the entire experience feel different. Many Users were upset that the MySpace experience was not the same anymore.

Facebook on the other hand has also overhauled their interface several times, but each time their popularity barely takes a hit. The changes also met with lot of disdain but the developers at facebook understood their users and made the required changes if required...

Read the full article on Flowtown