More and more I contemplate the future of Facebook as I become increasingly frustrated with Mark Zuckerberg’s devil-may-care approach to running his business. From a personal standpoint it’s been a painful ride watching our privacy erode with virtually no apology and no affirmation that we can control our reputations on facebook. From a business standpoint, the medium is becoming increasingly difficult for businesses to leverage for a variety of reasons that I won’t dive into here (that’s another article in itself). But on the dawn of the Facebook IPO, perhaps it’s no surprise that “Big-G” has launched their own social networking site called Google+.

The first indication that perhaps Google has been listening to the vocal majority of disgruntled Facebook users like myself is the explanation of their concept of ‘Circles’ which reads, “You share different things with different people. So sharing the right stuff with the right people shouldn’t be a hassle. Circles makes it easy to put your friends from Saturday night in one circle, your parents in another, and your boss in a circle by himself – just like real life.”

Ahhhhh, sounds comforting, doesn’t it?

Many other features are similar to Facebook, but I think the approach overall is geared toward privacy and connecting people on a deeper level. Other features include smart phone compatibility that allows you to chat with multiple people simultaneously. Google+ also provides a forum for sharing common interests by streaming news and related info into your dashboard and connecting you with others who share the same passions.

In total, I’m excited to see a real competitor enter the market raising the bar so to speak. For the time being, Google+ is available only to those lucky enough to have been invited. In the mean time, check out the features and sign up for the waiting list: http://www.google.com/intl/en/+/demo/

In the world of search advertising, there is but one dominant force…and that’s Google. Now the fed is looking into the biggest money-making aspect of it’s business to determine whether Google is unfairly steering users to it’s own products & services. Sites like TripAdvisor and Expedia claim “Google promotes links to its own services—such as local-business information pages—depriving their sites of potential traffic.” It will be interesting to what the feds uncover given the fact that this comes fresh off the heels of a legal settlement with the FTC for violating users’ privacy with it’s own social network Buzz.

Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303339904576403603764717680.html#ixzz1QDi1kODL

When we think of smartphones and geo-location the two main use cases that come to mind are mapping and check-ins. These are fine and dandy, but what if you could use smartphones to keep tabs of where your child is? Footprints lets you do just that.

The new app (iTunes link), available for both iPhone & iPad, tracks the location of the device and shares it with family and friends. These can then know in real-time a person’s exact location. The app can have several use cases, but the parent/child one seems the most compelling.

What about privacy? With more and more parents shelling out the cash to equip their tweens and teenagers with iPhones, I don’t see why a basic requirement couldn’t be running Footprints in the background. As my father put it when I grew up, our household was run as a totalitarian democracy. Ergo, he buys my iPhone, he gets to run whatever app he likes in the background. Parenting rocks. Read More

Facebook has found itself the subject of another lawsuit after a father has sued the company for not obtaining permission from parents or guardians before letting members of the social network “Like” products or brands.

The AFP reports that the civil suit, filed by Scott Nastro in a US district court in New York calls for all Facebook members in the state that are younger than 18 years of age which have had their names of photos used in Facebook’s “Social Ads” to be listed. Facebook remains accused of “misappropriating names or likenesses” of not only Nastro’s child but other minors, to promote products or services and boost registered members on the service.

Read More: http://thenextweb.com/facebook/2011/05/05/facebook-sued-for-allowing-children-to-like-products/

Facebook has found itself the subject of another lawsuit after a father has sued the company for not obtaining permission from parents or guardians before letting members of the social network “Like” products or brands.

The AFP reports that the civil suit, filed by Scott Nastro in a US district court in New York calls for all Facebook members in the state that are younger than 18 years of age which have had their names of photos used in Facebook’s “Social Ads” to be listed. Facebook remains accused of “misappropriating names or likenesses” of not only Nastro’s child but other minors, to promote products or services and boost registered members on the service.

Read More: http://thenextweb.com/facebook/2011/05/05/facebook-sued-for-allowing-children-to-like-products/

As a creature of habit, it’s notable that I have finally decided to use Google Chrome as my default internet browser. The decision came after discovering that my(distant) second-favorite browser Firefox was taking up 4x as much processing resources on my laptop than ANY other single program! As I look at my desktop at the moment, I’m a living resource hog with at least 15 different browser tabs, Dreamweaver, Outlook, Excel, Skype and more all open at once. Oh hang on, I have to answer this Skype….

K, I’m back. Anyway, when it comes to running many programs at once and still maintain quick processing speeds, it’s purely unacceptable to have one that takes up ALL the juice, especially when you spend as much $$ on RAM as I did. So here are the top 10 reasons I dig Chrome.

5. SPEED: This browser is the fastest in the land. It’s considerably faster then FF or IE. From a technical standpoint, this browser is built on a multiprocessing foundation that allows it to isolate slow-loading elements on the page without interfering with other content

4. EASE OF USE: This took some getting use to, but you’ll find there are fewer buttons, menus and navigation on the screen that most other browsers. The address bar doubles as a search box.

3. LIGHT-WEIGHT PLUGINS: Like Firefox, there a many 3rd-party application you can install to enhance the functionality of your browser. I’m making use of a host of SEO tools that provide insight with the click of a button.

2. SEARCH TOOLS: As mentioned, the address bar is also your search box. But this thing is slick. As my wife says, Chrome knows what I’m looking for before I do! Even if you have never visited xyzwebsite.com, by the time you get ‘xyz’ typed in, it offers up xyzwebsite.com for you as a suggestion.

1. ADDING VALUE: This browser doesn’t stand in my way by drawing more resources that I can afford to lose. All the while adding considerable value to my browsing experience.

There are far more than 5 reasons to make the switch to Google Chrome. Check it out for yourself: http://www.google.com/chrome

While no official announcement has been made by Yahoo, the owners of the popular bookmarking site Delicious.com, signs point to the demise of this site. While some are calling for Yahoo to make Delicious an open-source site, others believe this site will go away in it’s entirety and offering bookmarking site alternatives. As a Delicious bookmark fiend myself, I’m not overly concerned. Bookmarks can be easily exported from Delicious and imported into one of the many alternatives out there. Personally, I’ll probably move to Google Bookmarks which does support the importing of bookmarks from Delicious.  Happy bookmarking!

-Ryan

Magento is one of the fastest growing, easiest to use, and most comprehensive ecommerce platforms available. And FFWD Brands uses it exclusively as base code for our ecommerce website projects.

Reasons why we dig Magento:

1. Open Source: Well established open source technology is fantastic. Not only is the software free, but the developer community is huge, the knowledge base is plentiful and there is an abundance of free/low-cost templates, modules and plugins for added functionality.
2. Developer API: Via the API, your developer can tie your website into other 3rd party applications including email, CRM and related business management software.
3. Scalability: Manage multiple stores in an easy to navigate user interface. Deploy a product to multiple stores with the click of a checkbox.
4. Implementation: Setting up your database, uploading files and basic configuration are relatively easy. Custom mods on the other hand are a little more complicated. But we have seen much worse/more complicated file structures.

The advantages of using Magento don’t stop here. Call to learn more about Magento’s benefits and how we have used it to deliver some top-notch results for our clients. Our most comprehensive implementation to date is http://www.officefurniturecenter.com.

Ryan Goodin is Director of Marketing for FFWD Brands. Ryan has over 12 years experience developing and executing digital marketing strategies for small and mid-size businesses, across a variety of industries.

Vets Prevail has teamed with FFWD Brands on a nationwide campaign to bring veteran mental-wellness issues to the foreground and break the stigma of seeking help to address Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

In what many would consider a shocking statistic, more soldiers were lost to suicide in 2009 than to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq combined. In an attempt to minimize this statistic and reduce the stigma of seeking help, VetsPrevail has released the viral video, “Veterans Suicide – We Must Overcome.”

Please view this video in it’s entirety and forward to the vets in your life, their families and friends.

To combat these issues, VetsPrevail has developed a free, e-learning program (www.VetsPrevail.com) for veterans and service members who are struggling with the debilitating effects of PTSD, depression and anxiety. The program lasts six weeks and provides members with the tools they need to increase self-awareness of their issues, and receive support from fellow military members who have completed the program. Anonymity and privacy are the hallmarks of this program which is available to veterans at no cost.

Vets PrevailSM is a service of Prevail Health Solutions LLC, created For Vets, By VetsSM. Vets Prevail is an anonymous, free, e-learning program that helps Veterans and Service Members reintegrate into civilian life and build resilience against Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, stress, anxiety, and other deployment-related mental health issues. For more information, see www.vetsprevail.com. View the video below and please do not hesitate to pass this along to veterans, their friends and family.

I actually wanted to title this: “Recommendations for Getting My Attention and Having Me Write a Blog Post About Your Poorly Formatted and Misguided Email Newsletter.” But that was too long and perhaps a little harsh.

I received this email today and had a good chuckle. Continue reading below…

It’s evident this company is keen on using LOTS of graphics in their email newsletters and perhaps puts little thought into how it is perceived after hitting Send. For reference, I use Outlook which is one of the most popular email clients used by businesses in the US. That being said, it’s important to consider how your email will look when delivered. My Outlook, like many others, is setup to hide all graphics for security purposes. And unless I click the “download images” button, this is what it looks like! So my suggestions for getting read and avoiding criticism from marketing snobs are as follows.

1. Design your emails with minimal images: I receive hundreds of emails in the course of a week…you have half a second to catch my attention. If your email is confusing and not to the point, I delete.
2. The call to action belongs at the top, left corner of the screen: Many email clients are setup to show a “quick view” of the email message. We read from left to right, so the natural placement of your message belongs at the top, to the right.
3. Be simple, direct, and to the point: Perhaps this is more of a personal recommendation, but I can’t stand long emails. Give me short blurbs, and provide a link to a web page with more details. Beyond that, my ADD kicks in and you’ve lost me.
4. Consider email and mobile devices: You should see how this email looked on my Blackberry, but I’ll spare the further criticism. You get the point