So Many Internet Changes in Just One Week

We all made it back safe and sound from Sage Insights. We met lots of great people and got to connect with many of our customers face-to-face (which is priceless). During the conference we got to talk shop with lots of interested parties. One major underlying theme in our conversations about social media is that it all happens so quickly.

As SMBs we are very busy and the thought of not only participating in multiple social media sites but also keeping up with the changes from day to day are overwhelming. I have mentioned before about having social media travel agents to follow and keep you in the know. This past week while we were away, I felt the way many of you told me you feel. I wasn’t in front of my computer all day and news was happening, things were changing and I didn’t have time to read about it or react to it.

With that, I want to try to do a better job at keeping our blogging audience ‘in the know’ of big things that are happening in this online space. Each week I will add to our blog schedule a short post on improvements, changes, shortcuts, fun stuff and news that will help us in the B2B and SMB space be more efficient and successful with our use of social media.

This new post series will start right now (but generally I will try to add this list every Friday):

Twitter just says no to sponsored ads by third parties – Twitter finally made the call on sponsored tweets from third parties and they said ‘no thank you’. People have been trying to figure out to make money from Twitter since its inception and it looks like this is not their easy fix. In the shortest way possible, Twitter doesn’t want to take away from the users experience by having it crowded by sponsored (commercial) tweets. This came as tough news to many startups and third-party developers who invested in capitalizing on sponsoring tweets but twitterers themselves seem pretty happy about the decision. If you want to know more Twitter talks about it directly on their blog.

Google Pac Man logo wastes thousands of hours – To celebrate Pac Man’s 30th birthday Google made their logo a playable Pac Man game with all 200+ levels. Analysts are saying this fun distraction caused millions of hours of lost productivity and cost the economy billions (bah humbug). Nonetheless it was fun and if you missed it last weekend the game is still live at www.google.com/pacman.

Facebook still tries to explain privacy issues – Facebook is still dealing with the backlash on its ever changing privacy policy, including making the cover of Time Magazine. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has promised to simplify the privacy setting and it looks like that will happen this week. If you haven’t already, you should carefully review your privacy settings in Facebook. Make sure you know what you are publishing publicly and what only your Facebook connections can see.

Google makes a more private search option – As you may know, if you look in the URL (web address) of any website you are on you can tell if the site is completely secure or not. A secure site will not scrape or save any information you enter in it. This is very important for a site like your bank, or a shopping site where you plan on entering your billing and credit card information. If the website address starts with HTTPS:// that last S stands for secure. Google is trying to give us a safer way to search by adding a SSL offering in Google search. If you do a Google search on httpS://www.google.com you can protect your search terms and search results from third parties.

Google TV – We all know it is going to happen… we are going to get less dependent on our televisions for entertainment and rely more heavily on our computers (if we haven’t already). Sites like Hulu try to give you the best of both worlds but the experience of watching television on your home entertainment system is still easier and more pleasant than watching a computer screen. Google thinks they have an answer. Last week Google introduced Google TV so you can use your television as a computer. I do not think this will be the wave of the future but it shows how people are trying to develop technology to be more user-centric. Short video below explaining Google TV.

Small Business Week – Lastly, this week is Small Business Week. Are there any special events in your area or online that you should be checking out?

That is my quick list for this week. Next Friday I will have a new list of important things that have changed online. If you see something you want me to include in this list please contact me and I will try to share it.

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