The past week has been a busy week on the news front, what with the resignation of Apple CEO Steve Jobs for example. Here's a quick rundown of some of the topics that has hit the news recently...
Apple CEO Steve Jobs Resigns
Apple co-founder Steve Jobs resigned last Wednesday as chief executive of the technology giant and will be replaced by chief operating officer Tim Cook. Mr Jobs, who underwent a liver transplant following pancreatic cancer, said he could no longer meet his chief executive's duties and expectations.
The 56-year-old has been on medical leave for an undisclosed condition since January. In a short letter to the board of Apple, Mr Jobs wrote: "I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple's chief executive, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come. I hereby resign as chief executive of Apple."
He continued "I believe Apple's brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it. And I look forward to watching and contributing to its success in a new role."
Steve Jobs co-founded Apple in the 1970s with Steve Wozniak, and thanks to innovative and hugely popular products such as the iPod, the iPhone and more recently the iPad, Apple has become one of the most sought after brands in the world. His extraordinary vision and leadership has guided it to its position as the world's most innovative and valuable technology company.
Although no longer CEO, Steve Jobs will still play a vital role in Apple's future with Tim Cook at the helm.
Do you think Apple will be as successful without the former CEO? I would love to read your thoughts on this.
Google +1 Button New Features
Internet search giant Google have added two new features to the +1 button, including the ability to directly share a webpage to Google+.
In a recent post on the Official Google Blog, Senior Vice President of Engineering Vic Gundotra announced: "Beginning today, we're making it easy for Google+ users to share webpages with their circles, directly from the +1 button. Just +1 a page as usual and look for the new 'Share on Google+' option. From there you can comment, choose a circle and share."
The second new feature added to the button is the +snippets. The +snippets feature will automatically include a link, an image and a description of the webpage you've shared using the +1 button. These +snippets are a great way to jumpstart conversations with people in your circles.
To encourage more sharing of content on the Google+ social network, Google have made is easy for publishers to customise their +snippets. More details on this can be found on the Google Webmaster blog.
Since it's launch in June, the +1 button has gathered momentum and is now installed on more than 1 million websites with over 4 billion daily views, according to Google. These numbers are very impressive and only time will tell how successful the +1 button will become.
Note: If you're on Google+, you can add me to your circles by visiting my profile at: https://plus.google.com/104849975941505117776
Do you like these new features? Please let me know.
Bing Webmaster Tools Now Includes Yahoo! Data
The Bing Webmaster team have recently announced on the Webmaster Central blog the integration of Yahoo! traffic data into Bing Webmaster Tools reports. Bing Webmaster Tools will now be showing integrated data from Yahoo! within certain areas and reports.
The areas you will notice the changes are on the Traffic Tab. The "Traffic Summary" and "Page Traffic" reports will be impacted with Impressions, Clicks and Click Through Rates (CTR) increasing based on combined data numbers across both search engines.
As a visual reminder that data is now combined, you will see both the Bing and Yahoo! logos directly above the graphs shown on these pages. At this time, the data will be combined and not selectable with September being the first full month of combined data. The data will also update in any market where Bing is powering Yahoo! search.
Facebook New Sharing Improvements
Facebook announced last week a bunch of new improvements that makes it easier to share posts, photos, tags and other content with exactly the people you want.
According to Facebook, the main change is moving most of your controls from a settings page to being inline, right next to the posts, photos and tags they affect. There are several other updates that will make it easier to understand who can see your content (or your friends') in any context.
Here's a quick rundown of the improvements (courtesy of AllFacebook.com):
These changes, according to Facebook, have already started to be rolled out across their system. Once your account has been updated, you'll see a prompt for a tour that walks you through these new features from your homepage. You can read more about these changes from the links that are available on the Facebook blog.
Do you like these new improvements? Do you think Facebook is copying Google+ by changing the word "everyone" to "public" in the privacy settings. I would love to read your thoughts on this.
Google Translate For Google+
Ever wanted to read posts and comments written in another language on Google+? Well now you can.
As of writing this post, Google have just released a Chrome Extension, Google Translate for Google+ that translates posts and comments into more than 50 languages.
In an update on Google+, Josh Estelle (Leading frontend and mobile development for Google Translate) writes "We've heard from a lot of Google+ users wanting an easier way to understand posts written in other languages. I'm an engineer on Google Translate and thought we could do something about that. That's why I'm happy to announce our Chrome extension, Google Translate for Google+, that using the power of Google Translate, can automatically translate any post or comment into more than 50 languages.
Once you've installed the extension, refresh Google+ and you'll see Translate links next to posts and comments. Click the links to instantly see translations."
Although still in the experimental stage, this is a very helpful extension and one that I'll be using quite regularly. You can get the extension by visiting:
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/jfppgkomfopklagggkjiaddgndkgopgl
HootSuite Adds Friendly Facebook Features
HootSuite (the popular social media management system) has today added new Facebook features to it's dashboard. The social media dashboard is now equipped with even fuller Facebook functionality which means you can do even more in the dashboard than ever before.
Now you can manage your Facebook Groups and Events, along with your Profiles and Pages from within HootSuite streams. You can also attach and upload photos directly to Facebook, search all public updates for brand mentions and even geo-locate your campaigns.
All these new features are now readily available the next time you login to HootSuite.
If you found this or any of my other posts helpful, don't forget to +1 or share the posts to your favourite networks using the toolbar below or by using the "+1" and "Share" buttons located at the bottom of each post.
As ever, if you want to stay up to date with the latest blog posts, don't forget to follow via Google Friend Connect (button on sidebar), on Facebook or subscribe to our feed at: http://feeds.feedburner.com/DereksHomeAndBusinessBlog
You can also follow me on Twitter @djones1509, Google+ and on Facebook at:
http://www.facebook.com/djones1509
http://www.facebook.com/DereksHomeandBusinessBlog
Until my next post, have a wonderful week!
Apple CEO Steve Jobs Resigns
Apple co-founder Steve Jobs resigned last Wednesday as chief executive of the technology giant and will be replaced by chief operating officer Tim Cook. Mr Jobs, who underwent a liver transplant following pancreatic cancer, said he could no longer meet his chief executive's duties and expectations.
The 56-year-old has been on medical leave for an undisclosed condition since January. In a short letter to the board of Apple, Mr Jobs wrote: "I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple's chief executive, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come. I hereby resign as chief executive of Apple."
He continued "I believe Apple's brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it. And I look forward to watching and contributing to its success in a new role."
Steve Jobs co-founded Apple in the 1970s with Steve Wozniak, and thanks to innovative and hugely popular products such as the iPod, the iPhone and more recently the iPad, Apple has become one of the most sought after brands in the world. His extraordinary vision and leadership has guided it to its position as the world's most innovative and valuable technology company.
Although no longer CEO, Steve Jobs will still play a vital role in Apple's future with Tim Cook at the helm.
Do you think Apple will be as successful without the former CEO? I would love to read your thoughts on this.
Google +1 Button New Features
Internet search giant Google have added two new features to the +1 button, including the ability to directly share a webpage to Google+.
In a recent post on the Official Google Blog, Senior Vice President of Engineering Vic Gundotra announced: "Beginning today, we're making it easy for Google+ users to share webpages with their circles, directly from the +1 button. Just +1 a page as usual and look for the new 'Share on Google+' option. From there you can comment, choose a circle and share."
The second new feature added to the button is the +snippets. The +snippets feature will automatically include a link, an image and a description of the webpage you've shared using the +1 button. These +snippets are a great way to jumpstart conversations with people in your circles.
To encourage more sharing of content on the Google+ social network, Google have made is easy for publishers to customise their +snippets. More details on this can be found on the Google Webmaster blog.
Since it's launch in June, the +1 button has gathered momentum and is now installed on more than 1 million websites with over 4 billion daily views, according to Google. These numbers are very impressive and only time will tell how successful the +1 button will become.
Note: If you're on Google+, you can add me to your circles by visiting my profile at: https://plus.google.com/104849975941505117776
Do you like these new features? Please let me know.
Bing Webmaster Tools Now Includes Yahoo! Data
The Bing Webmaster team have recently announced on the Webmaster Central blog the integration of Yahoo! traffic data into Bing Webmaster Tools reports. Bing Webmaster Tools will now be showing integrated data from Yahoo! within certain areas and reports.
The areas you will notice the changes are on the Traffic Tab. The "Traffic Summary" and "Page Traffic" reports will be impacted with Impressions, Clicks and Click Through Rates (CTR) increasing based on combined data numbers across both search engines.
As a visual reminder that data is now combined, you will see both the Bing and Yahoo! logos directly above the graphs shown on these pages. At this time, the data will be combined and not selectable with September being the first full month of combined data. The data will also update in any market where Bing is powering Yahoo! search.
Facebook New Sharing Improvements
Facebook announced last week a bunch of new improvements that makes it easier to share posts, photos, tags and other content with exactly the people you want.
According to Facebook, the main change is moving most of your controls from a settings page to being inline, right next to the posts, photos and tags they affect. There are several other updates that will make it easier to understand who can see your content (or your friends') in any context.
Here's a quick rundown of the improvements (courtesy of AllFacebook.com):
- The privacy settings are moving toward individual post windows and profiles.
- Users are gaining the ability to approve tags of themselves in others' posts and photos.
- All tags will include an attribution of the person who did the tagging.
- Places no longer require physical check-ins, so people can add locations to posts, even from the desktop.
- You don't need to be friends with someone to tag them in a post or photo.
- You don't have to like a brand to tag it in a post or photo.
- Facebook has changed the word "everyone" to "public" in privacy settings, for clarity.
- You can customize privacy, or visibility of information, on a post-by-post basis.
- Users can edit the visibility of individual bits of content anytime after they post.
- The changes don't affect mobile users, at least not for now.
These changes, according to Facebook, have already started to be rolled out across their system. Once your account has been updated, you'll see a prompt for a tour that walks you through these new features from your homepage. You can read more about these changes from the links that are available on the Facebook blog.
Do you like these new improvements? Do you think Facebook is copying Google+ by changing the word "everyone" to "public" in the privacy settings. I would love to read your thoughts on this.
Google Translate For Google+
Ever wanted to read posts and comments written in another language on Google+? Well now you can.
As of writing this post, Google have just released a Chrome Extension, Google Translate for Google+ that translates posts and comments into more than 50 languages.
In an update on Google+, Josh Estelle (Leading frontend and mobile development for Google Translate) writes "We've heard from a lot of Google+ users wanting an easier way to understand posts written in other languages. I'm an engineer on Google Translate and thought we could do something about that. That's why I'm happy to announce our Chrome extension, Google Translate for Google+, that using the power of Google Translate, can automatically translate any post or comment into more than 50 languages.
Once you've installed the extension, refresh Google+ and you'll see Translate links next to posts and comments. Click the links to instantly see translations."
Although still in the experimental stage, this is a very helpful extension and one that I'll be using quite regularly. You can get the extension by visiting:
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/jfppgkomfopklagggkjiaddgndkgopgl
HootSuite Adds Friendly Facebook Features
HootSuite (the popular social media management system) has today added new Facebook features to it's dashboard. The social media dashboard is now equipped with even fuller Facebook functionality which means you can do even more in the dashboard than ever before.
Now you can manage your Facebook Groups and Events, along with your Profiles and Pages from within HootSuite streams. You can also attach and upload photos directly to Facebook, search all public updates for brand mentions and even geo-locate your campaigns.
All these new features are now readily available the next time you login to HootSuite.
If you found this or any of my other posts helpful, don't forget to +1 or share the posts to your favourite networks using the toolbar below or by using the "+1" and "Share" buttons located at the bottom of each post.
As ever, if you want to stay up to date with the latest blog posts, don't forget to follow via Google Friend Connect (button on sidebar), on Facebook or subscribe to our feed at: http://feeds.feedburner.com/DereksHomeAndBusinessBlog
You can also follow me on Twitter @djones1509, Google+ and on Facebook at:
http://www.facebook.com/djones1509
http://www.facebook.com/DereksHomeandBusinessBlog
Until my next post, have a wonderful week!
I think apple will still run successfully without Steve. As someone else said, the people there are all selected with a certain mentality and way of running things and that will go on. And no, I don't like some of the FB changes espcially the way chat has changed. I can't figure out who's online anymore as it just gives a list of my friends with no green dots.
ReplyDeleteDerek thanks for this round-up! I welcome all the additions and changes to Google+ and Facebook, but sometimes it's hard to keep everything straight. As soon as you get used to something it changes! Lol! But I guess that is the nature of social media.
ReplyDeleteI think Apple will be just fine. Steve will still be a force behind the scenes and has filled his company with other genius minds. I'm not worried about them.
http://lyricfire.typepad.com/lyric-fire/2011/08/lyric-fire-look-at-my-fabulous-life-episode-3-home-alone-with-vanessa-stone.html
Very interesting post.
ReplyDeletekeep it up. thanks for sharing.
Great updates, a little bit of both good and bad news. On the upside, I think these new tools will help me.
ReplyDelete