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Archive for the ‘Social Networking’ Category

Now I Remember Why I NEVER Use Internet Explorer

Tuesday, July 20th, 2010

Do you feel trapped by your place of work? Is the computer you use every day locked down tighter than the doors on a submarine? Are Facebook and Twitter considered “colorful metaphors” to the IT staff? Well, there may be some relief and a way to get back to the social networking world you desire. Firefox Add-Ons!

I recently went back to work, this time for a very large company with an IT staff dedicated to keeping things on total lock-down so we (the employees) can’t waste time or share corporate secrets via the internet or installed programs. What this meant for me was a return to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer as my one and only browser choice. My first thought was “how bad could it be?”

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Tags: add-ons, AIM, AMO, computer, Facebook, Firefox, Google Talk, internet access, Internet Explorer, LinkedIn, lock-down, mozamo, Mozilla, Thunderbird, Twitter, work, Yoono, YouTube
Posted in Firefox, Free Programs, Social Networking, Tips and Tricks | View Comments

Google Voice Will Change The Way You Communicate

Monday, June 28th, 2010

There have been very few game-changers in phones and phone calls since the invention of the cellular phone. Sure, we have more sophisticated devices that rival the PCs of just a few years ago and those devices are capable of storing the phone numbers of our friends and family, but the way two people connect hasn’t been improved by much. If you want to call your friend (let’s call him Troy), you need his number and he needs to be there to answer the call. If Troy isn’t answering, you can leave him a voice mail (which he can check when he gets a chance) or you can send him a text and see if he responds to that message.

In a world where most everyone we communicate with has a cell phone, a work phone, a home phone, an email address, a Facebook page and (sometimes) a Twitter account, “getting in touch” with someone should be easier than ever. Instead, you have to play the guessing game of where to start “looking” for Troy. I think that must have been the issue that Google focused on when they decided to start Google Voice. I was lucky enough to participate in the BETA of Google Voice (for about a year now) and the application/tool is now available for everyone to use.

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Tags: application, Contacts, FREE, Google, Google Voice, Mobile App, Personalize Greetings, phone number, Screen Callers, SMS to Email, texting, Transcribe, Voice, voice mail
Posted in Free Programs, Social Networking | View Comments

Norton Helps Protect Facebook Users with a FREE App

Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010

A recent survey by Norton revealed that 44% of people have been “victim of a cybercrime perpetrated via a social network – viruses, online credit fraud, unsolicited pornography, receiving excessive spam and ‘phishing’ e-mails (bogus messages sent by fraudsters posing as banks and other retail companies).” This number is increasing and the users of Facebook are growing more and more vulnerable to attacks from cyber-terrorists. So, as a user of the largest social networking site on the planet, how do you protect yourself? Norton is here to help answer that question with a FREE application called Norton Safe Web (BETA).

“The truth is that the security team at Facebook works hard to counter threats on their site — it’s just that policing 350 million users can’t be an easy job for anyone…” said Graham Cluley (Sophos) in a recent CNET article. That is where Norton Safe Web steps in. The new tool works much like Web of Trust (WOT) and has already been available as an online service for some time. The folks over at Norton have just integrated it into Facebook for the specific purpose of testing your feed for links to unsafe/malicious content. There are some limitations to this new application, but it is a step in the right direction for Facebook users and their computers.

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Tags: bookmarks, cnet, Facebook, feed, FREE, links, malicious, Norton, pre-scan, pre-scanning, safe, safe web, shortened, test, unsafe, URL, warning
Posted in Free Programs, Social Networking, Tips and Tricks | View Comments

Convert Your Gmail Ad Space to a Contact Info Sidebar

Thursday, March 11th, 2010

Every once in a while, I stumble onto a product that just makes life easier. Rapportive, defined as a social CRM tool for Gmail, is the most recent add-on to find it’s way onto my PC. Rapportive (available for Firefox and Chrome users) replaces the advertising space in individual emails with up-to-date social networking contact information on the people you correspond with.

My first thought was “this looks like XOBNI for Gmail” and, according to the comments and feedback I have read on this product, I am not alone. XOBNI is another fantastic tool, but unfortunately is only available for Outlook users, and a product that I have missed terribly since switching from Outlook to Gmail. Both of these products make it very easy to see what social networking services your friends, family and even customers are using.

Once installed, the social networking information on the person/company that emailed you appears out to the right of an open email. Icons (with links) are provided for services like Twitter, LinkedIn, Flickr, MySpace, Facebook, etc. Simply click on any of these to open the profile page of that individual in a new tab. Below the links you will find a comment area that you can use for keeping track of customers, but I am sure individuals will find some other creative and unique ideas for this space.

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Tags: Add-on, contact information, email, Facebook, Firefox, Flickr, Gmail, LinkedIn, MySpace, Rapportive, Social, Social Networking, Twitter
Posted in Firefox, Social Networking | View Comments

ShareThis Adds New Features and Makes Easy even Easier

Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010

“Sharing” has to be one of the biggest buzz words of the internet over the last few years. With the introduction of services like email, instant messaging, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter and now Google Buzz, people have been provided with the tools for staying in contact with friends and family continuously. These services are used mostly for staying in touch, catching up on recent personal events and chatting but they have also introduced one of the most used functions of our day, sharing. People share photos, videos, links to web sites, links to music, favorite articles… the list goes on forever. “Sharing is the center of the social web.”¹

In the beginning, digital sharing was done via email. Attachments were sent and frustrations elevated when emails were not received or “kicked back” because the attachments were too large. Sharing methods have evolved and changed over time and we are now inundated with hundreds of ways to share information with one another. Facebook and Twitter are by far the most popular, but many others have great feature sets and large followings. Only one service pulls them all together seamlessly, ShareThis. That little green button (the trademark of ShareThis) has made it’s way onto 130,000+ sites and reaches over 400 million users per month.

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Tags: button, email, Facebook, Google, links, share, ShareThis, text, Twitter, web sites, Yahoo
Posted in Firefox, Free Programs, Social Networking, Tips and Tricks | View Comments

With Location-Aware, Thieves Know When to Move In

Thursday, February 18th, 2010

With all of the social networking tools available today, it is easy to get wrapped up in the fun of it all and forget about the basic rules of life. One of the biggies – Don’t announce to the world that you are not home. Unfortunately, people are happily volunteering this information (along with plenty of other personal tidbits) to the entire world without understanding the potential dangers of doing so. Social media sites/tools are making it increasingly easier for thieves to track your moves and know when you are not home. A great new site PleaseRobMe.com pokes a bit of fun at the phenomenon and aims to educate the masses by showing what NOT to do.

“Listing all those empty homes out there” is the tagline for PleaseRobMe.com and categories like “Recent Empty Homes” are used to demonstrate the dangers of location-aware services. Location-aware services is a broad term that basically means any software, device or site that allows you to share your current geographical location with others. There are a lot of advantages to sharing your location (mostly social) but users should understand the dangers associated with broadcasting your whereabouts. Mainly, telling people you are at point X means you are not at home, thus making your home a target for thieves.