The year of WEB: 2011

We've been living in the age of social media for a long time, but 2011 was the year that all the information we share online began to accrete into something greater than the sum of its parts. It is creating a layer of intelligence that anyone can mine in Web searches and that content creators can use to hone their services.

This is happening more readily because sharing our opinions and photos and status updates online isn't just a stand-alone application anymore—it's now an activity embedded into other things. If you're reading an article online and want to recommend it, you don't have to click over to Facebook to tell your friends you liked it; now that more and more sites are connecting themselves to Facebook's "Open Graph," you can register your approval on Facebook directly from the article's page. This means that your friends can be guided to it when they show up at the same site. Google launched something similar this year, so that you might see certain search results higher if they've been recommended by friends. That was just part of Google's efforts to improve its grasp on social networking this year. After failing last year to gain traction with a Twitter-like network called Buzz, the search giant rolled out Google+, a service that embeds information sharing into many of Google's services.

             At the same time, the data we generate with our sharing continues to make it easier for advertisers to target product pitches more directly. In some cases, this is leading to new business models, in which intelligence gleaned from social-media chatter is gathered and brokered by companies such as Bluefin Labs. It also is turbocharging Facebook's existing ad model, setting the company up for the largest Web IPO of 2012. 

The stock market was receptive enough to Web companies in 2011 that several had IPOs, including Zynga, Groupon, Pandora, Zillow, LinkedIn, and Renren, a Chinese version of Facebook. However, they quickly ran into skepticism about the sustainability of their growth rates, keeping their stock prices in check.
On the political front, 2011 brought intriguing and important developments as well. We saw the powerful ways social media can amplify dissent and free expression. That challenges authoritarian regimes—and anyone with secrets they'd rather keep. Because of government pressure, several payment providers stopped facilitating donations to WikiLeaks, which made for a rocky year for the organization.

7 Best ways to save the value of Brands @ Internet

Even Brands are not spared @ Internet

CyberSquatters are siphoning away increasing numbers of users from the Web sites of businesses large and small. Using variations on trademarked names, cybersquatters may lure prospective customers to pornographic Web sites, malware sites, sites hawking counterfeit goods, or pay-per-click advertising sites, some of which lead viewers to competitors' products and services.

They're doing so right under the noses of trademark holders, but many businesses remain blissfully ignorant of what's going on -- or how it can affect their business. In addition to lost revenue from customers who never reach a company's true Web site, businesses may find that cybersquatters have irrevocably damaged their brand's reputation.

While cybersquatters have been around almost as long as the Web itself, the problem is getting worse.

What should you do to protect your business?

        Establish a policy to deal with the problem

Take the time to create a detailed policy, then follow up with surveillance and policing.

Monitor new domain registrations

IHG, based in Denham, England, uses a monitoring service that alerts the company when potentially infringing domain names are registered. Those services aren't cheap -- basic monitoring services from Cyveillance Inc., for example, run $5,000 to $10,000 per year. But at least you can identify unauthorized registrations and know what's registered and who's registering it.

Incomplete or fictitious registration information is a tip-off that the entity is not aboveboard. Organizations that do their own monitoring often use Google to see if common misspellings and other variations on a trademarked domain name have been registered. The Domain tools Web site allows "who is" lookups of trademarked name variations to see they've been registered as domain names. It also offers other monitoring and lookup services.

When checking for misspellings of your brand, remember that not all keyboards are in QWERTY format, Va.-based Cyveillance. Stay on top of what devices are selling well and what logical thumb mistakes are being made on those devices.

Build a portfolio of defensive domain-name registrations

This includes common misspellings or other typographic errors users might enter when typing your brand names. Registering a domain name can cost as little as $6 per year.

Check your trademarks

Make sure your trademark portfolio is up to date in all parts of the world, A trademark application can go a long way in a domain-name dispute.

Choose your battles

"You can't go after every cybersquatter out there. But you can go after those causing the most damage or creating the most problems for you ,which means prioritizing domain-name abuse cases. Lego, for example, looks at how much traffic the offending site receives, as well as the domain name and content on the site, before making a decision.

Pursue violators

Depending on the circumstances, victims may be able to sue under the federal Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act or the Lanham (Trademark)Act. If content infringes on copyright, it may be possible to have the site taken down immediately -- sometimes the same day -- under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

Lawsuits are expensive but can work. Picking a few high-profile cases can act as a deterrent. You create a reputation that you aggressively pursue [cybersquatter] domain-name registrants.

But the least expensive approach is to file a complaint with a Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) dispute-resolution provider such as the World Intellectual Property Organization or the National Arbitration Forum. The complainant must successfully argue that the domain name is identical or confusingly similar to the brand name , and that the owner has no rights to or legitimate interests in that name and is using it in bad faith.

The process takes about two months from complaint to decision. If the complainant wins and the owner does not file an appeal, the site must be taken down within 10 days of the decision.

Get involved

Join the Intellectual Property Constituency (IPC), which represents the interests of trademark and copyright owners to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the organization that coordinates the Domain Name System on the Internet.

"Many decisions made by ICANN have a critical impact on the interests of intellectual property owners who seek to protect their rights online. The Intellectual Property Constituency is a key channel for input into those decisions.

Chrome VS Firefox: Guess who won this year

Google’s Chrome Web browser has leapfrogged Firefox to claim the number two slot in the browser battle, according to Web analytics firm StatCounter.

Chrome held 25.69 percent of the worldwide market in November 2011 compared with Firefox's 25.23 percent. Internet Explorer remains the top browser globally with a 40.63 percent share of the market.

Of the top five browsers, only Chrome is seeing rapid growth -- in November 2009, it held just under 5 percent of the market. Firefox and Internet Explorer have been slowly losing market share the past two years, while Safari and Opera have been more or less flat.

Chrome has often been cited for its superior speed and stability over other browsers. Each Chrome tab is assigned its own process, so one buggy site won't crash the whole browser. Recent versions of Firefox, by comparison, have seemed a bit slow and bloated. Word of mouth about Chrome seems to have slowly accelerated over the past few years, according to StatCounter data.

NetMarketShare, another Web analytics firm, shows Chrome still in third place, but on a similar trajectory to overtake Firefox soon.

In the United States alone, StatCounter finds Chrome still in third place, but also not by much.

Technically, it's still Microsoft's world on the Web, but not quite like it was in the days when Internet Explorer had more than 90 percent of the browser market. Perhaps by the time Windows XP is no longer a dominant operating system, Chrome may have a shot at the browser crown.

7 ways to organize your Email effectively

                                                             A cluttered and unorganized mailbox can make it difficult to find the email you need. This messy situation can be remedied. Microsoft Outlook offers great tools that help you sort your email and organize your messages in meaningful, easy-to-control ways. Outlook can even help increase your efficiency and productivity. Whether you’re using Outlook 2010, Outlook 2007 or Outlook 2003, you’ll be better able to stay on top of your mail.

1.Sort Messages Quickly
 Outlook 2010 has a great new feature for organizing messages by date and arranging them by Conversation. Using this feature, messages that share the same subject appear as Conversations that can be viewed and expanded or collapsed by clicking the icon to the left of the Subject line. The messages within each Conversation are sorted with the newest message on top. When a new message is received, the entire Conversation moves to the top of your message list, helping to make tracking email threads a snap. To turn on Conversations, on the View tab, in the Conversations group, select the Show as Conversations check box. You can reduce the size of a conversation with the Clean Up feature, which deletes duplicate messages in the Conversation. On the Home tab, in the Delete group, click Clean Up, and then click Clean Up Conversation.In all versions of Outlook, you can find messages in mailbox folders more quickly by changing how they’re sorted in your email folders. For example, you can arrange your email by date, sender, file size, or level of importance.

2. Group similar messages in folders
By creating new mail folders, you can group messages related to each other. For example, you can group messages by topic, project, contact, or other categories that make sense to you. You can even create a folder for all the messages from your manager or one that include tasks that you have to complete. To create a new folder in Outlook 2010, on the Folder tab, in the New group, click New Folder. To create a new folder in Outlook 2007 or in Outlook 2003, on the File menu, point to New and then click Folder.

3. Create Search Folders to find messages fast
Search Folders are a quick and convenient way to look at predefined collections of email messages. They don’t actually store any messages themselves but, instead, are virtual folders that offer a view of all the messages stored in your mailbox depending on the attributes you’ve defined. Outlook provides default Search Folders—such as Unread Mail—but you can also create your own. For instance, you can use Search Folders to help you find all the information related to a particular project, an important client, or an upcoming conference. To create a Search Folder in Outlook 2010, in Mail, on the Folder tab, in the New group, click New Search Folder. To create a Search Folder in Outlook 2007 or Outlook 2003, in Mail, on the File menu, point to New, and then click Search Folder. In all versions of Outlook, specify whether you want to use a predefined Search Folder or to create your own custom folder, and then follow the instructions on the screen.

4. Route mail efficiently using mailbox rules
By creating rules for Outlook, you can automatically perform actions on both incoming and outgoing messages based on criteria you establish. For instance, you can automatically forward to your manager all messages sent by a certain person as soon as they arrive, assign the category Sales to all messages you send that have the word “sales” in the Subject line, and more. Routing mail efficiently not only organizes your mail for you—but also frees up your time from performing routing tasks.

5.Reduce unwanted email with junk filters
Keep distracting and unwanted messages out of your Inbox by using Outlook Junk Email filters. These filters send email flagged as junk to a separate mail folder in your Mailbox. You can review the contents of this folder to ensure that no legitimate messages have been sent there, and if they have, you can adjust the filter to avoid flagging such messages in the future.

6. Assign a color
Assign a color category to a group of interrelated email messages and to other items in Outlook, such as notes, contacts, and appointments, so that you can easily identify and organize them. For example, keep track of all the messages, meetings, and contacts for the Morris project by creating a category named Morris project and assigning items to it.

 7. Flag for follow up
You can use the Flag for Follow Up feature to flag email messages and tasks to help categorize them or to mark them for action. Flags can remind you to follow up on an issue, indicate a request for someone else, or set a reminder for a message or contact. They can also make organizing your mail folders a breeze, because you know exactly what to do—and when to do it. Note that when you create a task and set a due date, the task is automatically flagged so that you don’t let that due date slip past you.

New added features of Windows 8

Windows 8 New Taskbar

This is a guess made by everyone, I suppose. In Windows 8, there are full chances that Microsoft includes a new Windows 8 taskbar. Just like Windows 7 had a new taskbar, though not entirely different than Windows Vista but then the new features made the customers / users of Windows 7 delighted. I am sure that in Windows 8 also, Microsoft adds a new feature.

No Compatibility Issues in Windows 8

The biggest reason that Windows Vista could never make it up to the mark of the sale it could have that, it was not compatible with many applications of Windows XP. I am sure there won't be any such problem and this will rather prove to be a Windows 8 new feature for the users.

Windows 8 – 128 Bit Operating System

Some people say that after the labor of 2 years, the Microsoft engineers will able to design a 128 bit Operating System which they will call Windows 8. Though it sounds impossible in one sense but it is also a rumor that Microsoft has allied with Intel to make 128 processors as soon as possible.

If this is a fact that Windows 8 is going to be a 128 bit operating system, then it will surely be a revolution in the operating system industry because no other operating system other than Windows 8 will be a 128 bit Operating System.

Windows 8 RAM support – 512 GB

When practicality goes hand in hand then Windows 7 64 bit edition supports 192 GB of RAM. According to that, if Windows 8 will be a 128 bit Operating system, then Windows 8 is surely going to support something around 512 GB of RAM, which I think would be a very big advantage for the server runners.

Windows 8 new looks

There is a rumor that the upcoming looks of Windows 8 are going to be something at which the users will become a fan just by seeing itself. I heard that some of the Windows 8 pictures were leaked on the net somehow. The Windows 8 new look can entirely be different than what it was in Windows 7 and Windows vista, with full change in the icon arrangement, program management, window flashback and Windows 8 taskbar.

Windows 8 Libraries

Windows 7 was full of new libraries in it. There may be many more such libraries in Windows 8 so as to enhance the Windows 8 new features functionality. The Windows 8 libraries might be able to include more functionality as well as security safeguards.

Windows 8 Security                                                 

Windows 7 became popular, far more popular than Windows Vista could ever become because of great security inclusions. Such security can also be called as Windows 8 security inclusions that mean that the Windows 8 people can also add new security inclusions and a better firewall to Windows 8.

                                                                                                                                                    

Microsoft CEO says Windows 8 will have touch optimizations.

                          
Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Mr. Ballmer said that Windows 8 which is the next-generation desktop operating system from Microsoft Corporation, certainly will have touch optimizations in future for a better tablet functionality. It is a big question that whether Microsoft Corporation will release touchscreen tablets which may run on Windows Phone 7 or not and it is still very much uncertain. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer who spoke in an event at London told that they will be presenting a Windows 7 tablet by the holidays / year end. It is certain that Microsoft's successful entry into the tablet market, which is mostly consumer-centric, would definitely place the Windows Operating system in competitive terms with some of the mobile operating systems offered by Apple and Google Inc.

However, the CEO of Microsoft declined to elaborate on the fact that if these tablets with Windows 7 would be available for consumers to purchase, or they will just be prototypes refined or may be pre-production models.

6 ways to increse the internet speed

                                           

1. Send multiple files faster by compressing them

If you're sending multiple files—for example, several files related to a single project—you can reduce their combined size by using a compression utility. Compressing your files can dramatically reduce the time needed to send files online, and compressed files don't take up as much space in your (or the recipient's) email Inbox. WinZip is one of the more common compression tools.

Compress files

·         Windows 7

·         Windows Vista

·         Windows XP

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2. Increase browsing speed by turning off graphics in Windows Internet Explorer

Graphics are important to web pages, but they also take time to download if you're online. You can turn them off to speed your Internet browsing.

Disable graphics in Internet Explorer

1.   On the Tools menu, click Internet Options.

2.   In the Internet Options dialog box, click the Advanced tab.

3.   In the Settings box, scroll down to the Multimedia section. Clear the
      following check boxes.

· Play animations in web pages

· Play sounds in web pages

· Play videos in web pages

 Note: This option is available in Internet Explorer versions before
 Internet Explorer 8.

· Show pictures

4.   Click Apply.

To turn graphics on again, on the Tools menu, in the Internet Options dialog box, on the Advanced tab, under Multimedia, select the same check boxes, and then click Apply.

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3. Send email using Contact Groups (Distribution Lists)

If you're sending an email to multiple people, create a Contact Group (previously known as a Distribution List) instead of listing each recipient separately. Messages are sent more quickly and efficiently when you're using a Contact Group. Your company may have established procedures for creating mailing lists.

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4. Reduce email size with simple email signatures

Email signatures leave a professional stamp on your messages, but elaborate signatures that include multiple images take up a lot of unnecessary storage space in each email. Ultimately, they can slow down the time needed to send each message. Instead, create distinctive text signatures combining fonts, type sizes, and colors to make your email signature smaller and quicker to transmit and receive.

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5. Work offline using Cached Exchange Mode in Outlook

Even if you lose your network connection, you can continue working in Microsoft Outlook if you're using Cached Exchange Mode. With Cached Exchange Mode, a copy of your mailbox is stored on your computer. This copy provides quick access to your data and is frequently updated with the mail server. If you work offline, whether by choice or due to a connection problem, your data is still available to you instantly wherever you are. Cached Exchange Mode does require you to work with a Microsoft Exchange Server email account.

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6. Browse offline by saving web pages on your computer

If you use or reference a specific webpage often, save it locally to your computer. If you lose your connection or are working on a slow connection, you'll still be able to read and find the information you need.

Save a web page on your computer

1.In Internet Explorer, go to the web page you want to save.

2.On the Page menu, click Save As.

3.In the Save As type drop-down menu, select web page, complete.

4.Select the location where you want to save the webpage.

5.Click Save.

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7. Open webpages faster by increasing your cache

If you increase the size of the temporary Internet files cache in Internet Explorer, your computer won't have to work so hard when you revisit webpages. Many of the images will already be downloaded on your computer, decreasing the amount of time it takes to open a page.

We are in NEED of Something new IN INTERNET MARKETING

The idea of clean air in racing is that being in front of a pack allows for clean air to run through the engine, improving the aerodynamics of the car. Also, it’s about not having to maneuver around ever other car in the pack to get anywhere. The better the engine runs, the better aerodynamics and the less traffic to get around simply means having a huge advantage over the others trying to get to the front. Simply put by one driver:

“[It was] the cleaner the air, but that’s normal; that’s not new, is it? Every time you’re in traffic, you suck; every time you’re in clean air, you look like a hero. That’s normal.”

So where does this fit with Internet marketing? It’s obvious if you really look around. There is a huge pack of Internet marketers stuck in a pack sucking each others’ bad air and thus not running well. It’s all exhaust and no innovation, which is the marketers’ version of clean air.

The continued recycling of the same information without any new thinking is really doing nothing to improve performance in the Internet marketing space. In fact, it’s causing the industry to sputter and knock much like an engine might when not it’s able to take in the best air for a clean run.

As marketers it is imperative to step outside of the pack as often as possible. Conventional wisdom often serves to only bog down true creativity. Conventional wisdom is the middle of the road, the middle of the pack. As stated above, “That’s where you suck.”

I for one am tired of rehashed and reused Internet marketing air. If I hear one more “Basics of SEO” talk (or give one for that matter), I may get ill. I realize that there are times when the most basic information is required, but we seem to have applied the basics to everything without really getting outside of these norms.

I suspect that the reason behind this recycling of years-old ideas is Internet marketing protectionism. Everyone is so afraid to give away the million-dollar idea that we have created a cacophony of mediocrity in the space. That’s sad and incredibly boring.

I am simply suggesting with this post that, whether you are an Internet marketing educator, teacher, practitioner, or all of the above, you must step away from the pack. Move away from the norm. If you have heard advice over and over and over, it simply means that it is time to either put it to practice or move on.

We need to get tougher on ourselves and stop presenting day-old baked goods with a “made fresh daily” sticker on them. Technically, that sticker is correct because even the old stuff was once made fresh on a day. But for those that can see through that kind of marketing trickery there is an extreme letdown. We do this every day and repeat it often. I am guilty of it as well but I am growing weary of not being in clean air.

So what do you need to do to be in clean air? You need to move away from the conventional wisdom crowd. You need to step outside the boundaries of the group-think that has become the Internet and social media marketing industry. You then need to see where you are in your industry, take note where the competitors are and then look to be elsewhere. It’s likely that if you are all in the same place that you are in some bad air.

Move today and breathe in deep. Ahhhhhhhh! Doesn’t that feel good?