Mashable: Latest 21 News Updates - including "Microsoft Office 2010 Ready for Release" |  |
- Microsoft Office 2010 Ready for Release
- Celebrate Earth Day, Dr. Seuss Style
- Rec.fm: Recommend Your Favorite Products for a Cause
- Formerly Friendless "South Park" Character a Hit on Facebook [Randomly Viral]
- "Glee" Explained in 60 Seconds [VIDEO]
- Thanks to Mashable's Socially Savvy Supporters
- Apple Patents Ticketing System for iTunes and iPhone
- HOW TO: Boost Your SEO with a YouTube Channel
- AP Stylebook Finally Changes "Web site" to "website"
- HOW TO: Maximize Your Content's Reach on the Social Web
- Our Top YouTube Videos This Week
- New iPhone to Arrive in June [RUMOR]
- Facebook Twice as Popular as Google in the Workplace [STATS]
- Iceland Volcano Satellite Image Shows Massive Ash Cloud [PIC]
- Apple Remains America's Most Innovative Company [REPORT]
- The Top 12 Social Media and Tech Stories This Week
- Seesmic Founder to Twitter Naysayers: "F— You" [VIDEO]
- Will Foursquare Hit One Million Members on Foursquare Day?
- 5 Ways For Small Companies To Better Engage Reporters
- Interview: Jamie Oliver Launches Online Campaign For Healthy Eating in Schools
- Sony Ericsson Returns to Profitability
- Google Cloud Print Reveals the Future of Printing
| Microsoft Office 2010 Ready for Release Posted: 16 Apr 2010 08:47 PM PDT  
In general, when a piece of software reaches the release to manufacturing stage, it is ready for mass distribution. Microsoft manufacturing partners and computer makers will get the software first, followed by businesses and then finally general customers. Product downloads for Volume License Partners begin on April 27th, while general customers can expect to see Office 2010 on shelves starting in June. "RTM is the final engineering milestone of a product release and our engineering team has poured their heart and soul into reaching this milestone," said Microsoft Corporate Vice-President Takeshi Numoto in a blog post earlier today. "It is also an appropriate time to re-emphasize our sincere gratitude to the more than 5,000 organizations and partners who have worked with us on rapid deployment and testing of the products. Since the start of our public beta in November 2009, we've had more than 7.5 million people download the beta version – that's more than 3 times the number of 2007 beta downloads." Microsoft Office 2010 had one of the largest software beta tests ever; it's the same approach the company took with building Windows 7, a tactic seems to have paid off for the technology giant. Reviews: Windows Tags: microsoft, microsoft office, microsoft office 2010, Office 2010
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| Celebrate Earth Day, Dr. Seuss Style Posted: 16 Apr 2010 05:35 PM PDT 
 Lorax Garden for the iPhone is $2.99 and while it will work with the iPad, it was designed for the iPhone. Lorax Garden is a game for young users that picks up where "The Lorax" ends and asks kids to replant Truffula Forest using the one remaining seed. You "plant" the trees by watering potted plants and growing flowers to earn extra "care" hearts that can make the trees grow faster. After repopulating the forest, e-mail postcards of the revitalized place can be sent from the app. The game is cute, but the replay value is pretty limited, so our vote is for The Lorax eBook if you're looking to expand your Dr. Seuss digital collection. Despite being written in an era that was far different from the world we live in now, The Lorax remains a valuable and entertaining story and is a great way to bring the concept of "Going Green" to younger kids. Tags: dr. seuss, earth day, ipad apps, iphone apps, Kids, the lorax
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| Rec.fm: Recommend Your Favorite Products for a Cause Posted: 16 Apr 2010 04:00 PM PDT 
Quick Pitch: Trusted recommendations and social media for the social good. It's Aardvark meets Amazon reviews meets Twitter and Facebook. Genius Idea: Friends love to share information about great products with each other. According to a survey by Publicis last year, 46% of Facebook users said they would discuss or recommend a product on Facebook, while another 44% have already recommended a product on Twitter. And almost a third of respondents said they had learned about a product, service or brand via a social networking site. Not only do friends love to recommend products to each other, but friends also trust these recommendations. According to Nielsen, recommendations from personal acquaintances is the most trusted form of advertising worldwide. Enter Rec.fm. Rec.fm allows you to recommend products to your friends via your social networks in three easy steps. First, search for the product you want to recommend on their website. Next, explain in 140 characters or less why you're recommending it. After completing the prompt to log in via Facebook or Twitter, you'll then be given a shortened rec.fm URL to share information about the product via e-mail, Facebook, Twitter and nearly a dozen other social networking platforms. If someone makes a purchase via your recommendation, the charity of your choice will receive the majority of Rec.fm's revenue from the sale — you are not compensated. You will also receive an acknowledgment of your contribution via e-mail.  I tried out the service myself by recommending an edition of one of my favorite novels, Howard's End by E.M. Forester, to my Twitter followers. If anyone follows through on my referral, a percentage of the proceeds will go to the Red Cross. The best part about the service, in my opinion, is that it lends credibility to your recommendations. Reviewers on blogs and other media outlets are often accused of being secretly compensated for the recommendations they make via affiliate marketer programs like Amazon's. If you use rec.fm, readers will know that your recommendations are genuine because there is complete transparency about the compensation process. Even better, your favorite cause can benefit from your love of sharing great products with your networks. Sponsored by Microsoft BizSpark
Entrepreneurs can take advantage of the Azure Services platform for their website hosting and storage needs. Microsoft recently announced the "new CloudApp()" contest – use the Azure Services Platform for hosting your .NET or PHP app, and you could be the lucky winner of a USD 5000* (please see website for official rules and guidelines)." For more technology coverage, follow Mashable Tech on Twitter or become a fan on FacebookReviews: Aardvark, Facebook, PHP, Twitter, rec.fm Tags: affiliate marketing, facebook, rec.fm, twitter
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| Formerly Friendless "South Park" Character a Hit on Facebook [Randomly Viral] Posted: 16 Apr 2010 03:16 PM PDT 
The page is replete with fan photos and comments, all showing support and devotion to the previously bereft fictional boy. (If you become his fan, a person named "Kipling Drordy" friends you on the social networking site — the person in question is not affiliated with South Park, he's "a guy from North Carolina… [who is] just having some fun with this and trying to make some people smile," or so he told us via FB message.)  This little cartoon dude is basically the new Norwegian Olympic Curling Team's Pants. Enjoy it while it lasts, bro. One is indeed living the sweet life when a status update reading, "Drank a glass of water" yields more than 4,000 "likes." For more entertainment coverage, follow Mashable Entertainment on Twitter or become a fan on FacebookReviews: Facebook, Twitter Tags: facebook, humor, television
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| "Glee" Explained in 60 Seconds [VIDEO] Posted: 16 Apr 2010 02:05 PM PDT  Are you confused by this whole "Glee" thing currently overtaking the Interwebs? Then watch this video that the brilliant minds at Babelgum and LandlineTV put together. This parody pretty much sums up everything you need to know about FOX's hit TV show in just over a minute. After you get clued in, we highly recommending hitting up Hulu or iTunes to watch past episodes before Gleeking out with the insanely awesome iPhone app. For more web video coverage, follow Mashable Web Video on Twitter or become a fan on FacebookReviews: Facebook, Hulu, Twitter, iTunes Tags: Babelgum, GLEE, humor, television, tv, viral video
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| Thanks to Mashable's Socially Savvy Supporters Posted: 16 Apr 2010 02:05 PM PDT 
Advertise with us and get noticed.
This week, our valued sponsors are Waggener Edstrom, Syncapse, Wix, Fuze Meeting, MarketingProfs B2B Forum, LG's Design the Future Competition, Gist, phpFox, Yield Software, Clickatell, Influxis, Microsoft BizSpark, MailChimp, Sun Startup Essentials, MaxCDN, and Eventbrite.  How do you build influence in an increasingly diverse and unpredictable media landscape? Many brands have difficulty connecting campaigns with social media to reliably generate action from fans. Winning influence in this environment takes calculated management of messages, trends and responses. Waggener Edstrom Worldwide's Social Influence System offers help engaging rising volumes of customers and audience segments. Please visit us at Waggeneredstrom.com/nozombies to learn more.  SocialTALK is developed by Syncapse Corp., a global leader in the practice areas of community building, technology solutions, and digital measurement. Founded by entrepreneur Michael Scissons in 2007, Syncapse Corp. has offices in Toronto, New York, London, and Portland. Syncapse works with Fortune 500 companies and global media agencies to reinvent how organizations use social media to their competitive advantage. To learn more visit www.syncapse.com  Wix.com offers you a simple, powerful, drag & drop editing platform to create stunning Flash websites, social network layouts, and more, for free. You can choose from 100's of high quality, professionally designed templates that are completely unique and customizable. Or, create your own design from scratch. Upload image files, videos and mp3's. Add Twitter, Facebook, and blog links with ease. Use a Wix domain or connect to your own. The options are practically limitless. With added e-commerce features, search engine visibility and other professional tools, Wix is the ultimate solution for creating and publishing spectacular web content for free. Start Creating!  One Desktop, Multiple Users: Fuze Meeting Reinvents Online Collaboration. Fuze Meeting's patent-pending synchronization and desktop sharing enables everyone to work on a project at the same time — they see exactly what you see during every point of a web conference. The perennial question — "What slide are you looking at?" — becomes a relic of the past! – 30 Day Free Trial.  In Making Ideas Happen, Scott Belsky chronicles the methods of exceptionally productive creative leaders and teams – companies like Google, IDEO, and Disney, and individuals like author Chris Anderson and Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh – that make their ideas happen, time and time again. After interviewing hundreds of successful creatives, Belsky has compiled their most powerful – and often counterintuitive – practices for managing projects, marketing, executing bold ideas, and leading ideas to fruition.  Drive sales and make social media work for you at MarketingProfs B2B Forum! You'll learn the ins-and-outs of social media as part of your overall B2B marketing mix – from integration and engagement to measurement. Get 1-on-1 access to the best and brightest B2B marketing stars who will share best practices and FREE advice! Plus, our loyal attendees say our events are ridiculously fun, interactive and the kicker is – we have the best Freebies in the biz! (no keychains here…FREE industry research reports & memberships—stuff to help you really drive sales in 2010!) Register today!  In LG's Design the Future Competition, design your dream phone and win. Over $80,000 in prizes!  Gist helps you build stronger professional relationships by bringing together information from across the web for all your contacts and their companies, giving you the right information at the right moment to get a first meeting, deliver an amazing pitch, or just find a better way to make a connection. Gist does all the work for you by assembling a dynamic collection of all your contacts and their companies from your e-mail inbox, your social networks, or even your CRM system, automatically building and updating their profiles as new content is published by them or about them.  phpFox is a feature-packed social networking script. Our goal is to provide your community with features found on major social networking sites. The platform offers you full control with your website's layout, giving you the ability to easily create a unique look directly from the comfort of your Admin Control Panel. Try the new phpFox2 with a brand new engine; our fastest, coolest and most feature-packed version ever. Start tomorrow's next big thing today with phpFox!  Yield Software's Yield Web Marketing Suite optimizes paid search (PPC) natural search (SEO) and landing pages, all in one easy-to-use Web-based system. A simple, intuitive interface together with sophisticated algorithms work seamlessly to optimize SEM campaigns every minute of every day, enabling growing businesses and their agencies to lower costs, improve performance, and increase profitability. Yield also offers a free SEO Analyzer, which delivers a report covering how well a site is optimized and suggestions for improvement. Yield Software—Web Marketing Made Easy.  Clickatell offers mobile social networks the opportunity to measure their return on investment. Not only does Clickatell offer an Interactive Campaign Manager tool that allows you to monitor and intervene in your customer campaigns in real time, it also generates and manages database integration and comes with additional marketing tools. Track the delivery status of your text messages and the responses; take the guesswork out of campaigning. Your valuable messages will always be delivered as our products allow for message escalation to alternative delivery gateways. Social networks are also, through the account management package, given control over network channels and connectivity options. All necessary tasks have been automated and our central interface allows you to manage multiple connections and projects at the same time. Which leading social networking companies have chosen Clickatell as a mobile messaging partner? Read our success stories here.  Influxis is an official Adobe hosting partner and resource for the Adobe Flash Media Interactive Server. Influxis provides Flash hosting plans for all levels of use – beginner to enterprise. With a reputation for exceptional customer service, Influxis provides an extremely reliable international network of FMS servers in the U.S., U.K. and Germany.  BizSpark is a program which offers new software businesses and entrepreneurs access to Microsoft design, development, and production tools with no upfront costs for up to three years. Members can also connect with a nationwide community of Network Partners – investors, incubators, service providers, and entrepreneurial organizations – who are keen to help. For more information, or to connect with a Microsoft BizSpark advisor, please visit MicrosoftStartupZone.com/BizSpark.  MailChimp is a powerful, easy-to-use e-mail marketing service. You design, me deliver.  If you're working for a startup, Sun can help you get it off the ground fast. We created the fee-free Sun Startup Essentials program offering deep discounts on industry-leading, power efficient systems and storage products, optimized open-source software, massively scalable Web hosting services, plus free visibility via Sun's co-marketing engine. It's time to build your business on the kind of infrastructure that can scale right along with the skyrocketing demands of success. Find out about Sun Startup Essentials today!  MaxCDN – Content Delivery Network. MaxCDN makes it easy and affordable to get maximum global performance from your site and enable your visitors to get the most out of their visit! MaxCDN offers: resistance to the Digg effect, SSL Integration, No Setup Fee, US-based customer service, No Commitments. Get 1 TeraByte for just $10 today!  Eventbrite is an online events marketplace where tens of thousands of individuals, businesses and organizations of all sizes manage, promote and sell tickets to their events. Make your event a success on Eventbrite. Additionally, thanks to the following partners for making Mashable happen: Since 2007 W3 EDGE has assisted with creative, web development and search / social media marketing Mashable.com and its numerous projects and other web properties. Day-to-day maintenance and support is also handled by Frederick Townes and his W3 EDGE team. Thanks to ConVerdge for implementing our My Mashable social network.  Mashable would also like to thank AttentionPR for their PR support. AttentionPR proves that PR today is measurable, transparent, and yes, social. Learn more about AttentionPR.  Rackspace is the better way to do hosting. No more worrying about web hosting uptime. No more spending your time, energy and resources trying to stay on top of things like patching, updating, monitoring, backing up data and the like. Learn why.  iStockphoto offers easy, affordable inspiration with millions of safe, royalty-free photos, illustrations, video, audio and Flash® files. Using the most accurate search in the business, customers download a file at least every second from a collection of more than five million files for business, marketing and personal projects. iStockphoto started in 2000, pioneering the micropayment photography business model, and has become one of the most successful and profitable user-generated content sites in the world. iStockphoto pays out approximately $1.2 million weekly in artist royalties. iStockphoto is headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Getty Images. Mashable readers save 10%.  Founded in 1998 as a free service, Dynamic Network Services Incorporated (Dyn Inc.) now operates two extremely reliable, "rock solid," global DNS platforms; DynDNS.com for home/SMB users and the Dynect Platform for corporations and enterprises. As a leading provider of managed DNS services, Dyn Inc. plays a key role in keeping the Internet's DNS infrastructure running smoothly, handling trillions of queries per day and servicing nearly four million active users. With a range of innovative solutions, from domain name and e-mail services on DynDNS.com, to failover, load balancing, traffic management and CDN balancing services with the Dynect Platform, Dyn Inc. remains committed to world class customer service and engineering excellence. Uptime is the Bottom Line. For more information about Dyn Inc., visit www.dyn.com, e-mail hello@dyn.com or call +1-603-668-4998.  With over 50,000 publishers serving more than 300 billion ads per month, OpenX is the world's leading provider of ad technology for web publishers. We offer our global community comprehensive and customizable ad-serving technology. OpenX Ad Server empowers more than 150,000 websites with the ability to take control of their ads and maximize their ad revenue. Our ad serving products are translated into 25 languages and used in more than 100 countries. By delivering world-class ad serving functionality along with ad revenue optimization through OpenX Market, OpenX helps publishers everywhere make more money.  ConcentricSky offers web development and strategic consulting services with a focus on emerging technologies such as Social Media and iPhone Apps. From simple websites to integrated web applications, we deliver innovative solutions that exceed your expectations – not your budget. We can get your name out there.Contact us for more information about supporting Mashable's growth and development. Alternatively, visit our advertise section for more details about:
CPM-based advertising is available through our partner, Federated Media, but if you contact us directly, you'll be entitled to exclusive unpublished discounts. Reviews: Digg, Facebook, Google, Mashable, iStockphoto, social media
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| Apple Patents Ticketing System for iTunes and iPhone Posted: 16 Apr 2010 01:45 PM PDT 
Apple's patent application shows off several other potential benefits of the iTicket platform as well. For instance, by making a connected device like the iPhone the ticket, vendors have the opportunity to offer event-goers easy access to live recordings of the event, exclusive interviews or additional content, direct access to merchandise, discounts on refreshments and digital seating maps. Apple uses its WWDC summer event for developers as an example in the filing. Rather than having to rely on physical tickets, attendees could simply have an iTicket that would also get them direct access to other content, talks, schedules, maps of after-parties and so on. Delta Airlines, which is headquartered in my hometown, supports digital boarding passes at some of its bigger airports. I love this because it is one less thing to print out and one fewer line to stand in for a boarding pass. We all take our cellphones with us everywhere anyway, why not make the cellphone the event ticket? Whether it's Apple or someone else, this is an idea that has tons of potential.  iTickets actually makes even more sense in the context of the iGroups patent that was revealed last month. Think about the additional possibilities, on a social level, of linking together people who are attending the same event and then utilizing granular social interaction features. Would you use iTickets? Let us know. For more Apple coverage, follow Mashable Apple on Twitter or become a fan on FacebookReviews: Facebook, Twitter Tags: apple, etickets, itickets, patents
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| HOW TO: Boost Your SEO with a YouTube Channel Posted: 16 Apr 2010 01:34 PM PDT 
While many companies are still focusing SEO efforts on their websites, there are many other ways to boost search results, especially since results are now comprised of all kinds of content, including videos, images, maps, business listings, tweets and even Facebook Page posts. So how do you expand your efforts without breaking the bank? To boost SEO, consider creating a YouTube channel. Every video you post to your channel can be tagged and indexed, increasing the odds your brand name will appear in natural searches for keywords associated with your business. Creating your own channel is pretty simple — here are four easy steps to kick things off right. Step 1: Choose Your Topics You might be thinking "Who would want to watch a video about what I sell?" Well, the answer is probably a lot of people, but they won't want to watch "commercials" about your products on YouTube. Instead, people will appreciate informative or entertaining videos about your products that illustrate how to choose the ones for their needs, how to use or fix them, and what special features are available. But don't stop there. Consider what other expertise you can offer beyond your products. Whatever business you're in, you're probably an expert at what you do, so share your knowledge. For example:
With a bit of creative thinking, you can come up with some really interesting ideas that would be a perfect fit for a regular or even semi-regular video series. Though it doesn't specifically use YouTube, take a look at Gary Veynerchuck's WineLibrary.tv for an excellent example of using video to sell your products. WineLibrary pulled in $60 million last year. Step 2: Record Your VideosOnce you come up with ideas, you're ready to record. You can use any high-quality consumer-level camera, and you don't need to hire a professional videographer. In fact, it's great if your videos look "home made," as that just increases the viral appeal and makes them look less like commercials. Before you record your video, make a bullet list of 5-10 points you'll talk about and keep the edited recording under two minutes. At both the start and end of the video, it's OK to plug your website or business. Make sure to always include a link to your website in the video, which will deliver viewers from YouTube to your product pages. I record the videos for our YouTube channel using a $600 Sony HD video camera, and edit with the free iMovie software that came with my MacBook Pro laptop. At the beginning and end of each video, I include a five-second promo for software and also a link to learn more on our blog, which gets people to come to our website for more educational content. Step 3: Optimize for VSEO After you've uploaded your video to YouTube, you'll be asked to enter a title, description and tags. This is where VSEO begins. Let's say your company sells shoes and you just recorded and uploaded a video about "casual sneakers." You want to use the phrase in the title twice to maximize SEO impact –- once at the front and once at the end, like this: "Casual Sneakers — How to Choose Casual Sneakers 101." Next up is the description. Always include a link at the front of the description back to your website, followed by a carefully crafted paragraph around your key phrase, like this: "http://www.casual-sneakers-101.com — In this video, Casual Sneakers 101 coach Jim Smith explains how to choose casual sneakers that best suit your needs. Casual sneakers, when chosen correctly, will make it easier to jog and play low-impact sports. Jim gives clear advice in choosing casual sneakers for men of all ages." The video description is shown in the search results on Google and is also used to determine which keywords or phrases your video should show for. Lastly, remember to use a lot of supporting words that give context to your video. Words such as "jog," "sports" and "men" help Google figure out exactly what the video is about. Finally, for tags, repeat your key phrase and common variants. Similar to website SEO, stick to 10-15 phrases. For phrases with more than one word, make sure you enclose them in double quotes, like this:
Step 4: Build a Base of Viewers There are a few creative ways you can begin to "seed" your video beyond posting links on Facebook and Twitter. One idea is to post your content as a "video reply" to other related videos. This gives YouTube context as to what your video is about and starts a steady flow of traffic. To do this, search YouTube for the exact phrase you want to rank for (in this example, "casual sneakers"). Click on each video that comes up and post your new video as a "video reply" to those. Next, start building links back to your video. The more websites that link back to your video on YouTube, the more relevant that video will appear in searches. The best way to do this is simply to find out who is linking back to the most popular videos in your category, searching for that URL in Google to see where it appears, and then reaching out to these sites to ask them to link to your videos. Once your video has had a few hundred views (which doesn't take all that long), it should start appearing on Google for your key phrase. For more social media coverage, follow Mashable Social Media on Twitter or become a fan on FacebookMore social media resources from Mashable:
Reviews: Facebook, Google, Twitter, YouTube Tags: business, Google, how to, MARKETING, Search, SEO, small business, social media, web video, youtube
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| AP Stylebook Finally Changes "Web site" to "website" Posted: 16 Apr 2010 12:12 PM PDT 
We'd actually gone rogue on the issue ourselves several months ago, thinking that "Web site" was a rather antiquated way for describing "a computer connected to the internet that maintains a series of web pages on the World Wide Web." According to a tweet from the AP Stylebook, the change is noted as of today on its web version, and will be included in the next print edition, due out next month. We're pretty ecstatic about the change, and hold our collective breath for other possible updates, such as changing "e-mail" to "email." For more technology coverage, follow Mashable Tech on Twitter or become a fan on FacebookReviews: Facebook, Twitter Tags: ap stylebook, trending
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| HOW TO: Maximize Your Content's Reach on the Social Web Posted: 16 Apr 2010 12:01 PM PDT 
We have all heard that "content is king" — Sumner Redstone deemed it so, then Rupert Murdoch upped the ante, calling it "emperor." But how do we make sure content is delivered to the right places, at the right times? How can we measure the effectiveness of this content and its distribution? The model for publishers is changing due to today's social media growth and the reliance on "stream consumption." Audience attention is increasingly fragmented and traditional ways to reach them with content and advertising are becoming less effective. Brands must transcend many different platforms to remain relevant. Some numbers on this:
These indicators point to the future of a "siteless" web — a consumer-centric online economy where audiences decide when and where they will receive content, with less emphasis on single destinations. This doesn't mean you shouldn't have a website, but rather that content needs to be distributed across many websites, platforms, social networks, new devices, and so on. Today, content producers have a lot more to keep up with if they want to stay relevant. There are social media purists who believe automating the delivery of content to social networks is taboo. But if you manually post a headline and link to your content on each of your social networks, is it really that different from automating the process? We're all short on time, and there is nothing wrong with creating some efficiencies. But you do need to be smart about it, and make sure you're adding value. Here are a few tips that can help you do it. Measure This is the most important thing you can do to make sure you are reaching your audience. You cannot improve what you do not measure. The goal is to know and understand when your users are the most engaged with your content.
Find Your Digital CenterWhat is the one tool that you are comfortable using to create content on a constant basis? This could be Flickr for pictures, Twitter for status updates, or a blog. Whatever it is, make it your central command. You shouldn't feel overwhelmed about creating totally different content on each social network. Pick one and focus on that. Distribute Once you have identified your digital center, connect it to all your other social networks. Think of your digital center as the hub and the other networks as the spokes of a wheel. The idea is to create the content once. In today's world of the siteless web, your customers are choosing their own digital centers, and chances are, they're not the same as yours. You need spokes to make sure you're reaching everyone you need to and, more importantly, everyone who wants information from you. And, since we're all short on time, making this process automated and intelligent is key. Here's how you can do this:
GrowHere are some tips on how to grow your audience: ConclusionWhy is it so crucial to find services that enable and support this siteless strategy? For publishers and bloggers it's simple: The fastest wins. In a world where the half-life of a story is 50 minutes, real-time updates enable you to start that clock as fast as possible after publishing your story. If you and your competitor hit the publish button at the exact same time, and your feed is push-enabled and theirs isn't, your readers see the story first. You've just won by getting traffic to your site where you can monetize those visitors. For brands, consumers tend to be more responsive to content marketing than other forms of online marketing. With content flowing freely on the siteless web, your fans will be more likely to share it. Good content reaching the right people in the right way builds loyal customers. For more social media coverage, follow Mashable Social Media on Twitter or become a fan on FacebookMore social media resources from Mashable:
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, AndrewJohnson Reviews: Facebook, Flickr, LinkedIn, Twitter, iStockphoto Tags: business, facebook, List, Lists, small business, social media, social media marketing, tips, twitter
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| Our Top YouTube Videos This Week Posted: 16 Apr 2010 11:45 AM PDT  I'm guessing that by now, oh readers, your collective mind is mush and you're hankering for some rad videos of cats (Cats!). Well, we don't have any of those, but we do have a lovely array of some our favorite YouTube videos this week. Plug in your headphones and tune out the sound of mouth-breather Bob laboriously slurping his afternoon coffee. It's time for our favorite vids of the week. Happy Friday! Chatroulette Sexy Dance Lessons with Two Hot GirlsBarb Dybwad: I'm loving the ways people are turning Chatroulette into a creative platform. Merton and Ben Folds still corner the improv music market, but this is a fun attempt at an actual music video using the site, and compelling enough to forgive a bit of the "let's use hot girls stripping" angle (which I'm sure just sold the other half of the audience who were unsure about watching… so it goes). Alice for the iPadLauren Indvik: My favorite is definitely the Alice in Wonderland iPad video. It's made me tremendously excited about the future of e-books and animated illustration. Insane Clown Posse – "Miracles"Brenna Ehrlich: I'm not really sure I understand how the Insane Clown Posse has broken back into the cultural landscape, but I'm sure glad they have. This song is truly epic. Music is all magic — you can't even hold it. [NSFW language] Tiger Woods Ghost DadChristina Warren: Even though I think Nike's "Earl and Tiger" ad is brilliant, this parody is pretty amazing. I'd like to think this is what my dad would say to me. A Dog Tests the iPadSharon Feder: I'll admit it, I'm a sucker for dog videos. When I saw this week's "A Dog Tests the iPad" video from Tested.com in which a corgi tests out the iPad (and is not a fan), I knew I had to to try the same out with my lhasa apso, Sunny. Let's just say Sunny wasn't a fan, either… Bonus PicTell us how you really feel, Sunny. [img credit: Christina Warren]  For more web video coverage, follow Mashable Web Video on Twitter or become a fan on FacebookReviews: Alice, Facebook, Twitter Tags: humor, ipad, pop culture, viral video
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| New iPhone to Arrive in June [RUMOR] Posted: 16 Apr 2010 11:31 AM PDT 
Boy Genius Report confirms from multiple sources that AT&T has blocked its employees from taking vacations during the month of June. The only time the carrier has done this previously was for earlier iPhone launches. We know that the iPhone is due for a refresh and that it usually happens during the summer, but this is the strongest evidence to date that the new iPhone will arrive in consumers' hands this June. The new iPhone is rumoured to have a better camera and potentially a touch-sensitive case backing like the panel used in the Magic Mouse. Only time — and perhaps the rumor mill — will tell for sure in the coming months, so stay tuned. What features do you want to see in the next version of the iPhone? For more mobile coverage, follow Mashable Mobile on Twitter or become a fan on FacebookReviews: Facebook, Twitter Tags: apple, att, iphone, Mobile 2.0, rumor
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| Facebook Twice as Popular as Google in the Workplace [STATS] Posted: 16 Apr 2010 10:44 AM PDT 
The company looked at 13 billion URLs used by businesses in the first quarter of 2010 and found that 6.8% of all business Internet traffic goes to Facebook, which is double the amount of business traffic that goes to Google and nearly triple the amount that Yahoo gets. Network Box also found that Facebook consumes a significant portion of business bandwidth: 4.5% of all bandwidth. However, YouTube reigns supreme in that department, accounting for 10% of all business bandwidth used. An accompanying survey showed that 43% respondents are concerned about this seemingly excessive use of social media in the workplace. Facebook certainly appears to dominate business users' attention while at work. If previous findings that Facebook is the fourth largest destination site for news are accurate, then perhaps we can safely assume that in-office use of Facebook is for more than just social networking. We can only hope that the YouTube video viewing is as educational in nature. Business Traffic and BandwidthTop five websites visited by businesses:
Top five business bandwidth sites:
[via All Facebook] For more social media coverage, follow Mashable Social Media on Twitter or become a fan on FacebookReviews: Facebook, Google, Twitter, Yahoo!, YouTube
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| Iceland Volcano Satellite Image Shows Massive Ash Cloud [PIC] Posted: 16 Apr 2010 10:27 AM PDT   A volcano in Iceland with probably the coolest and most formidable name ever, Eyjafjallajokull, erupted this Wednesday, April 14. As we wrote earlier, European travelers have since been stranded around the world — including the Norwegian prime minister, whose trusty iPad is thankfully keeping his country's government afloat. NASA's Terra satellite captured the above image depicting the enormous ash cloud migrating from the Eyjafjallajokull Volcano into Northern Europe yesterday. It's unknown how long it will take the hazardous cloud to disperse, but estimates start at 48 hours — leaving much of Europe grounded in the volcano's wake. For more imagery from the Icelandic eruption, check out this curated gallery on Flickr from photographers across Europe documenting the volcano's impact. For more technology coverage, follow Mashable Tech on Twitter or become a fan on FacebookReviews: Facebook, Twitter Tags: Eyjafjallajokull, Iceland, imagery, NASA, satellite, volcano, worlds news
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| Apple Remains America's Most Innovative Company [REPORT] Posted: 16 Apr 2010 10:27 AM PDT 
For the sixth consecutive year, Apple ranked number one in BusinessWeek's 50 Most Innovative Companies report. When you consider that BusinessWeek only started this ranking system in 2005, that statistic becomes even more impressive. James Andrew, senior partner and head of global innovation at Boston Consulting Group (the company that provides the data to BusinessWeek) claims that every year Apple is the "hands down winner," although Google remains a strong second. Furthermore, when those surveyed were asked what company would replace Apple as the most innovative over the next five years, the most common response was "no one." See the video from BusinessWeek below for more insight into the changes and trends among the most innovative companies of 2010. Apple Gains Ground in Fortune 500In the annual Fortune 500 rankings, Apple is ranked 56, up 15 places from last year. That sort of move is impressive for any company, but Apple is also gaining major ground in its own industry. In its designated industry, Computers, Office Equipment, Apple remains in third place behind Hewlett-Packard and Dell, but unlike every other company in its category, it saw an increase in revenues and profits between 2008 and 2009. If you extrapolate that even further and compare Apple to the Top 10 companies in the Fortune 500, Apple outperformed every other company in terms of increases in revenues and profits — except J.P. Morgan Chase and Bank of America. Just remember that Apple didn't get $45 billion in TARP money. FutureWhile Apple faces stiffer competition in the mobile sector, the company continues to not only meet but beat estimates every quarter and gains in revenue and profit margin. We think that the Boston Consulting Group partner makes a good point in the BusinessWeek video: Innovation is more than just being something new, it's being something that is successful. Apple is sometimes criticized for not being an inventive company, i.e. they don't create completely new ideas or products. The iPad, for instance, builds off of not only Apple's own history with touchscreen devices like the iPhone and the iPod touch, but also on tablet computing devices that go back literally decades. However, what makes a company like Apple (and Google) innovative is not that it creates something completely new every single time, but that it is able to iterate designs, devices and functionality so that products are popular with consumers and successful financially. What do you think of the BusinessWeek and Fortune 500 rankings for 2010? Let us know in the comments. For more Apple coverage, follow Mashable Apple on Twitter or become a fan on FacebookReviews: Facebook, Google, Twitter Tags: apple, business, BusinessWeek, fortune 500
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| The Top 12 Social Media and Tech Stories This Week Posted: 16 Apr 2010 09:51 AM PDT 
If you had trouble keeping up with all the latest SM-related news this week, never fear — Mashable has compiled a list of the top stories from the past seven days. Read up before brunch tomorrow and impress your friends/cat with your superior knowledge of all things social media. 1. Meteor in Wisconsin: Images and Video Hit Twitter – Several folks in Wisconsin, Minnesota and various midwestern states got a free light show this week in the form of a large fireball — probably caused by a meteor. Images and video soon made their way onto Twitter. 2. Norway Uses iPad to Run the Government During Icelandic Volcano – Natural phenomena mingled once again with social media after a volcanic eruption in Iceland grounded European flights. Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg found himself stuck in the U.S., with only an iPad with which to execute his duties. 3. Google Launches People Finder to Help Victims of Quake in China – A massive quake in northwest China's Qinghai Province prompted Google to lend a hand. 4. Twitter Promoted Tweets Are Live - Twitter's new ad platform finally went live, but this was only one of the many innovations the microblogging site announced this week — even more came to light during the Chirp developer conference. 5. Adobe Employee: Go Screw Yourself, Apple - Passions heated up this week around Apple's recent ban on building iPhone apps via Flash, prompting Adobe Platform Evangelist Lee Brimelow to go on the offensive for seven paragraphs on the company blog. 6. Twitter Acquires Tweetie – After Twitter acquired Tweetie and renamed it Twitter for iPhone, developers began to fear for their futures. 7. HTC Incredible's Specs Sound, Well, Incredible – There's yet another new Droid on the block. Start saving your pennies in anticipation of its April 29 release date. 8. Tax Procrastinators: You're Not Alone - This week tax day came and went. Some of us wept. Many of us lost hair. Happy weekend, all. 9. Online Journalists Make Pulitzer History – This is the first time any online-only publication has won the prestigious award for editorial content. 10. Kin: Microsoft Launches Social Networking Phones – Microsoft launched its own Microsoft-branded phones targeted at younger users, "Kin," also known as Project Pink. 11. Conan O'Brien to Host Late Night Show on TBS – After months of speculation about his future, Conan O'Brien announced on Twitter on Monday that he'll be starring in a new show on TBS in November. For more social media coverage, follow Mashable Social Media on Twitter or become a fan on FacebookReviews: Chirp Blu, Facebook, Google, Mashable, Twitter, tweetie Tags: adobe, apple, china earthquake, conan, Flash, Google, Hardware, iceland-volcano, MARKETING, meteor, microsoft, pulitizers, television, twitter
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| Seesmic Founder to Twitter Naysayers: "F— You" [VIDEO] Posted: 16 Apr 2010 09:32 AM PDT 
Le Meur, whose company is launching its own platform, is a big believer in the opportunities for those who develop Twitter apps. Innovative apps that add value and diversity will always find a place in the market, and Le Meur is confident about Seesmic's current position. Seesmic currently has a web client, Windows and AIR desktop apps, and mobile applications for the BlackBerry and Android operating systems. Twitter has or is soon releasing official versions of all of these except the desktop app, which the company told us it doesn't plan to develop. However, this was the company's original position on mobile apps, as well. Historically, we've learned that Twitter doesn't plan to develop (or acquire) native apps — until it does develop (or acquire) them. Le Meur knows he might have to compete with Twitter in the desktop client category one day, but it's not certain if or when that day will come. In the meantime, Seesmic does many things that Twitter will likely never do. For one thing, it integrates multiple platforms including Facebook and LinkedIn. Its all-in-one dashboard solution is something that power users (and perhaps, one day, average end users) need and love, if it's done correctly. Le Meur's confident position is one Seesmic needs right now. With a shaky ecosystem of third-party apps and an uncertain future for Twitter app developers, his be-awesome-or-get-out-of-the-way stance is refreshing, the flip side of the capitalistic coin that Twitter has tossed to developers as it grows from a startup into a profitable company.
For more social media coverage, follow Mashable Social Media on Twitter or become a fan on FacebookReviews: Facebook, LinkedIn, Seesmic, Twitter Tags: Chirp, developers, seesmic, twitter
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| Will Foursquare Hit One Million Members on Foursquare Day? Posted: 16 Apr 2010 09:10 AM PDT 
According to Co-Founder Dennis Crowley, who joined me on NBC San Diego earlier this morning (see video below), the company had nothing to do with the day except the creation of a special badge — it was devised 100% by fans of the service. It all started in Tampa, where optometrist Nate Bonilla-Warford decided that since four squared equals 16, 4/16 should be known as Foursquare Day. With just a few weeks of lead time, Foursquare's passionate user base has managed to turn the day into a global social media festival that will be celebrated at more than 150 swarms (a.k.a parties). Foursquare's having its own official party in New York City at The Hotel on Rivington, but you can check out the hundreds of other parties and events scheduled — it's not too late to add your own — on the Foursquare Day website. Crowley also noted that Foursquare is fast approaching one million members; last time we checked it had about 725,000 users and 22 million checkins. In a follow up conversation, Crowley said that Foursquare is about 80,000 shy of the one million mark and that it normally adds 10,000 to 20,000 new members a day. We have a feeling that today will be a landmark day for the startup, but is it enough to get them to one million on Foursquare Day? We can only wait and see. For more social media coverage, follow Mashable Social Media on Twitter or become a fan on FacebookReviews: Facebook, Foursquare, Twitter Tags: foursquare, foursquare day
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| 5 Ways For Small Companies To Better Engage Reporters Posted: 16 Apr 2010 08:10 AM PDT 
While a good public relations person can do wonders for any business, some smaller companies just don't have the budget, especially at early stages when every cent counts. But, even someone with no public relations experience can utilize a few simple, and most importantly, free, tricks to make their company's news and assets more easily accessible to reporters. We're not talking about marketing strategy here, just some easy pieces you can put in place today that might well mean it will help someone get your exciting news out — more easily — tomorrow. 1. Make Press Releases Available OnlineSending out a press release via a paid distribution service is all well and good, but what you also need is a permanent online press area where all releases are posted — preferably at the same time as the release is distributed. Ideally this press area will be on your website and offer a simple link from the homepage as well as a logical URL, i.e., www.yourcompanyname.com/press. By setting up an online press area, you are ensuring that reporters have a place to go to find the news on your site as soon as they hear any kind of rumor or murmur, as well as offering an online archive of data about your company that can easily be referenced. All you need to do is list the press releases in date order with a click through option to see the entire release. If you send out a lot of press releases then archiving older ones in month-based folders is the logical approach. After all, it's much better a reporter gets relevant data via your site, rather than get it wrong because they were short on time and relied on Wikipedia. It's also important to offer a distinct method of contact for press and bloggers for two reasons. The first is a bit of an ego trip for your company, making you look big enough to need such a channel (which no doubt one day it will, even if you're not quite there yet), and the second is so that email inquiries from journalists don't get lost in the noise and can be easily identified for a prompt response, even if they do just go into the general inbox. 2. Keep a Company Blog For smaller announcements that don't quite merit a press release, but will still be of interest, a company blog fills the gap nicely as well as gives your company the chance to offer reporters (and of course, the wider public) a more informal or personal voice. This is best hosted on your main site, but if this is not possible there are some rather tidy free solutions out there. Just two among many are Tumblr, which offers tons of really nice template designs for super quick set up, while rival Posterous works along the same lines. Both offer the ability to email content to your blog, a wealth of options to connect with social networking sites, iPhone apps offering varying functionality and boast URLs that are personalized to a certain degree. Examples of companies using Posterous to good effect include TweetDeck, the social media desktop client that posts company and other relevant news via its Posterous-powered blog, while, Tumblr offers an entire "startups" directory category so you can see how others are using the blogging platform for inspiration and ideas. Aviary.com and Foursquare are just two examples of companies currently using the Tumblr platform. 3. Distribute News To Your Social Network When you have news you want to get out, don't overlook your existing followers. Sure, your first thought might be to get the release distributed to the big boys, but remember to also acknowledge those who have been watching your company from the start. If you are using a press release distribution agency then make sure to also push the news out through your own channels. Stick the release up in your online press area, write a short blog post about it with a link to the release, create a Facebook wall post with a link to the news, and send out a tweet stating there's an announcement, pointing to where the info can be found. 4. Give Background Information If you're not exactly a household name, then it's important to provide some extra information for the press — don't be afraid to mention your competitors or give background info, either in a press release (the "notes to editors", or "about" area are suitable places) or on the about page of your website/blog. The reason for this is twofold. One, you're not pretending there isn't an elephant in the room if your company model/product is not unique, and two, it might mean more coverage for you if you put yourself in a wider industry context — reporters quite often have to pitch, or sell in, stories to editors, so by providing background you are giving them the ammunition they need to get an editor's attention. For example, pitching a story about "a new website selling handmade objects" might well be dismissed for sounding like an Etsy-wannabe, but "a Pennsylvanian start-up that works along similar lines as Etsy" takes the "sounds-like-Etsy" argument right out of the equation by addressing the similarity right off the bat. 5. Provide Easy Access to Imagery Although some public relations and marketing folk have traditionally offered imagery on request (said to be so they can gauge interest and help towards monitoring coverage), today this is an old-fashioned and impractical approach. Making relevant imagery easily available to reporters anytime and anywhere makes sense on so many levels — it certainly makes it convenient for the journalist on a dramatically different time zone or the out-of-hours, part-time blogger to source images. It saves time in getting the news article live by doing away with the to-ing and fro-ing of image requests (as well as your time in dealing with them) and, most importantly, even if the imagery is just a logo or screengrabs (rather than product shots) at least by offering these it's more likely your company's assets will appear as you want them to, rather than risking a dodgy logo crop or unsightly screengrab. Achieving this is super simple. If you can't set it up within the press area of your website, then simply get a free account from the likes of Flickr, or even Picasa or Photobucket. Try and get the account name as close to your company's own as possible, do ensure to tag the images (if relevant to the service) and organize them in a logical way, preferably by folders if there's a lot and add the link in to the press release. And back to that argument from the old school PRs about monitoring coverage? Just set up a Google keyword "Alert" that will email you when your company's name is mentioned anywhere on the web. For more business coverage, follow Mashable Business on Twitter or become a fan on FacebookMore business resources from Mashable:
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, Devonyu Reviews: Facebook, Flickr, Foursquare, Photobucket, Picasa, Posterous, Tumblr, TweetDeck, Twitter, Wikipedia, iStockphoto Tags: BLOGS, business, journalism, List, Lists, press, reporting, small business, social media
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| Interview: Jamie Oliver Launches Online Campaign For Healthy Eating in Schools Posted: 16 Apr 2010 07:31 AM PDT 
Last week, Mashable spoke with Oliver about his efforts both offline and on — he had just started using Twitter hardcore last Friday. He told us about his new television show, Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution — which airs Fridays at 9 p.m./8 p.m. CT on ABC — his dream for a more nutritious future and how he's using social media in an attempt to realize it. According to Oliver's website, celebs like Larry King and Oprah Winfrey have already shown their support for the project, and as part of today's Internet-driven effort, Oliver is asking people to use Facebook, Twitter and e-mail to spread the message. He tells us that you can:
For more entertainment coverage, follow Mashable Entertainment on Twitter or become a fan on FacebookReviews: Facebook, Mashable, Twitter Tags: trending
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| Sony Ericsson Returns to Profitability Posted: 16 Apr 2010 07:09 AM PDT 
This morning, however, Sony Ericsson posted a 21 million euro ($28 million) profit for Q1 2010. On the downside, it also shipped 10.5 million handsets — 4 million fewer than the number shipped in Q1 2009 and 4.1 million fewer than the number shipped in Q4 2009. Yes, fixing the business side of things helps. However, for the last two years, smartphones have been the most important part of the mobile market and Sony Ericsson has been steadily losing market share in that area. A return to profitability will surely make shareholders happy, but Sony Ericsson's new smartphone strategy — with Android-based Xperia X10 and Symbian-based Vivaz at the forefront — has yet to produce results. For more business coverage, follow Mashable Business on Twitter or become a fan on FacebookReviews: Facebook, Twitter Tags: financial results, mobile phones, profits, Sony Ericsson
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| Google Cloud Print Reveals the Future of Printing Posted: 16 Apr 2010 05:29 AM PDT   To print out a document, you rely on your local operating system, which must have a driver installed for the printer you intend to use. Most of the time, it's not an issue; at home, you probably have one printer and all of your PCs have the required drivers. Things get a bit more complicated when you want to print something from a mobile device, like an iPad, or from a laptop based on Google's Chrome OS, which relies entirely on web apps and services. This is why Google is working on Google Cloud Print, a service that enables "any application (web, desktop, or mobile) on any device to print to any printer." Google Cloud Print is still in the early days of development, but Google made the code and documentation public as part of the Chromium and Chromium OS projects. The documentation reveals how Google plans to solve some of the issues it will inevitably face, such as making Cloud Print work with legacy printers.
There are obviously some obstacles ahead, but it's an amazing idea. If print jobs are handled in the cloud you won't need drivers, and most of the problems users have with printing from devices like smartphones and tablets will be solved. For more technology coverage, follow Mashable Tech on Twitter or become a fan on FacebookReviews: Facebook, Google, Twitter Tags: cloud, Google, Google Cloud Print, printing, trending
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Microsoft Office 2010 has reached the release to manufacturing (RTM) stage, marking the end of development for the popular office software. Now the software will be distributed to manufacturers, followed by businesses, retailers, and customers.
Just in time for Earth Day, 
This post is part of Mashable's Spark of Genius series, which highlights a unique feature of startups. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details 
Patently Apple has uncovered some new patents filed by Jobs & Co. indicating that an 
There has been widespread speculation about the release date of Apple's next generation 
Business employees are visiting 
There was a veritable barrage of social media news this week — from various and sundry natural disasters to Steve Jobs's face-off with Adobe to Conan's return to TV to Pulitzers to taxes to a whole lotta Twittering.
Loic Le Meur, 
It's 4/16 and for fans of the social network application 
It's no secret that Sony Ericsson has been struggling for the last couple of years. It hasn't reported a profitable quarter since 2008 and 2009 has been especially tough for the company, which ended Q1 with a 293 million euro ($397 million) net income loss.| You are subscribed to email updates from Mashable! To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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