MySpace was eventually overtaken by Facebook as the most popular social networking site in 2008. Since online social networking and online social media’s early beginnings there have been a number of off shoots that have their own unique niche markets. The most popular of these has been compiled into a list by socialmedianews.com.au.

Amongst the most popular but perhaps unknown to some are sites such as: Google Plus, LinkedIn, Flickr, Reddit, Digg, StumbleUpon, Delicious, WordPress, Blogspot and Tumblr.

Google Plus is a social networking site, LinkedIn is a business related social networking site, Flickr is a photo sharing application, Reddit and Digg are social news websites where users can view and  upload content,  StumbleUpon is a discovery engine that finds and recommends web content to its users based on the users interests, Delicious allows you to bookmark your favourite webpages and content into a ’stack’ which can be shared and viewed by your social network.

Finally, WordPress, Blogspot and Tumblr are all blog hosting platforms.

The list below is sourced form socialmedianews.com.au and indicates Australia’s most popular social media and networking sites from December 2011.

1.   Facebook – 10,721,020 users 13,000,000 UAV

2.   YouTube – 11,000,000

3.   Blogspot – 3,500,000

4.   LinkedIn – 2,000,000

5.   Twitter – 1,800,000

6.   WordPress – 1,600,000

7.   Flickr – 1,000,000

8.   Tumblr – 1,000,000

9.   Google Plus – 570,000

10. MySpace – 560,000

11. Reddit – 160,000

12. StumbleUpon – 150,000

13. Digg – 83,000

14. Delicious – 48,000

Socialmedianews’ graph below makes a comparison of Australian traffic between these popular websites throughout the year of 2011.  It is easy to see that Facebook  remains popular with a steady increase. Youtube enjoyed a huge rise in numbers during the month of March and continues to rise in popularity. Australian Twitter and LinkedIn users have grown nearly two fold over the year.

Reddit, Flickr and Tumblr also increased their user base significantly whilst MySpace and Digg dropped in numbers. Facebook is predicting to reach one billion members in August 2012, for a breakdown of memberships and Facebook activity visit http://checkfacebook.com.

As Social Media becomes ever more prevalent, a number of new marketing  strategies become open for businesses to expand into. According to the above data it would be appear feasible for businesses to open up and invest some time in creating a business profile on some or all of the social networking sites.

A recent survey of 500 US businesses by Webmarketing123 indicated that  47% of participating companies generated leads from Facebook, 34.8% from LinkedIn, and 33.8% from Twitter. Social media  however, is not the be all and end all of creating Lead Generation for businesses. According to the same study only 21.4% of Lead Generation was from social media marketing. Search Engine Optimisation ranked higher with (SEO) generated 49.2% of Lead Generation (See Graph 2)

A few good rules of thumb for companies that haven’t signed up to any of the social networking sites are to:

1. Share your content

2. Listen to your audience and tailor your webpage accordingly.

3. Post good content only. Good content will bring regular visitors and your content is more likely to be shared and interacted with.

4. Build relationships with other people, companies and professionals.

Learn more about Search Engine Optimisation click Here.

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Panda is the latest search algorithm rolled out by Google to ensure valid and relevant webpages are generated by its users when they enter a search term. Google Panda is designed to reduce spam, fight content farming sites, improve scraper detection and filter low quality content. In fact Panda was originally labelled “Farmer” because one of its main objectives was to  tackle content farming sites, the name changed to “Panda” in honour of a key developer of the algorithm.

How can you ensure that your website is not penalised by Google Panda and climbs higher up in the search results? The problem is two fold and requires a basic understanding of what Google Panda has been designed to do, and an understanding of basic search engine optimisation (SEO).

The basic rules of thumb for SEO

Good Content

First and foremost is writing good content for your webpage. Good content means relevant, well written, grammatically and factually correct information that connects with your target audience. Why is this important? Good content will be ReTweeted and linked to by other websites. This is fantastic news for your search engine ranking, especially if those links and ReTweets are from sites with a high ranking and have a large audience.

Another aspect of good content is good spelling. Some extra thought may need to go into spelling depending on your target audience. If you are targeting US audiences key words such as ‘optimisation’ need to be spelt ‘optimization’ and vice-versa for Australian and UK audiences.

Fresh content

By regularly adding fresh content you are encouraging readers to revisit your site and create fresh links and hopefully retweet your most recent articles. Search engine robots (spiders) will also check your site more often meaning that any new content you add will be indexed faster.

Headings and descriptive page titles

Employing descriptive and relevant title pages not only makes the navigation of your site easier for visitors, it also makes it easier for search engines to determine what each page is about. In addition the title page is used to link to your site in search result listings. It is also important to use the h1-h6 elements for headings within your content. This not only breaks up large chunks of text and gives your article structure but it also makes it simpler for spiders to construe and categorise the main points of your article.

Lean and clean markup

High quality, clean markup will aid in SEO as will a high content to markup ratio. Search engine robots can sometimes find it difficult to read through complicated and unclear markup thus reducing your chance of a higher search rating.

Simpler URLs

Simplifying URLs makes it easier for search engine robots and users to find and access your site, this in turn naturally optimises your webpage to move up the list of  search results.

Be patient and don’t try and cheat the system

If you have been doing all of the above correctly you should see your webpage moving up in the search results page. Keep in mind that employing all of the above will not automatically sky rocket your webpage to the top of the list overnight. It takes time for people and search engine robots to find and engage with your website.

Resist the temptation of link farming, keyword spamming and other methods to try and cheat search results. Much like card counting in a casino it may work initially, bringing in large numbers. Eventually your subterfuge will be exposed, you may not have both knee caps broken like in some mob casinos but your site will be removed from the search results listings.

SEO with the Panda

All of the above basics of SEO still remain important with the new Panda algorithm but even more importance has been placed on good content.

Keeping in mind that Panda has been designed to reduce the amount of low quality sites from Google searches, chiefly it is important that your webpage has good content. Panda is achieving this by measuring ReTweets and the amount of social sharing of your content. The bounce rate of your site has been given greater importance therefore encouraging websites to use engaging and quality content. Finally, the amount of adds in your webpage, especially in relation to content affects SEO.

Finding a voice or a platform to be heard used to be a lot simpler on the internet. Although the potential audience has grown significantly over the years, finding a platform to be heard is becoming more competitive. Following the above guidelines is a great place to start for most. If you are not achieving the desired SEO success you were intending consider hiring an SEO consult to help. No doubt that Google Panda’s new changes are necessary and will make relevant websites more accessible to all.  As I am sure is Google Panda’s intention, happy hunting!

Who is participating in the blackout?

Wikipedia has joined the the ranks of Reddit, Boing Boing, WordPress.org, Mozilla and several other high profile sites by shutting down their website for a 24 hour period starting at 12am (4pm in Australia) on January the 18th in protest to the proposed SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) Act before the United States Senate.

Those that log onto Wikipedia during this time will be presented with the banner above. The decision for Wikipedia to move to a whole site blackout was reached after a discussion between 1800 Wikipedians voted in favour of the action.

What is SOPA?

SOPA is one of two bills before the US Senate aimed at curbing illegal copying and sharing of copyrighted content via the internet. The bills primary objective is to shut down what the US senate calls ‘rogue sites’ that upload copyrighted material onto the internet.

The majority of SOPA supporters are from the entertainment industry including Electorinic Arts, Sony, Walt Disney Company and Viacom.

Those opposed to the bill argue that it could be used to shut down several legitimate websites on home soil and place responsibility for sites such as Facebook to remove copyrighted content uploaded by their users. Reddit.com expresses “The freedom, innovation, and economic opportunity that the Internet enables is in jeopardy. Congress is considering legislation that will dramatically change your Internet experience and put an end to reddit and many other sites you use everyday.”

Who else is protesting?

Other major websites that have spoken out against the bills and will be protesting in one form or another include AOL, eBay, Facebook, Yahoo, Twitter and Google. For the full list of participating sites visit sopastrike.com.

Australia will not doubt be watching closely what happens in the US Senate as our government is pressured by the entertainment to put in similar measures. While SOPA is not likely to pass the United States Senate it is alarming that it ever reached there in the first place. Let’s hope that if everyone screams loud enough, people will listen.

The software named iSpy uses video footage to read the target’s text messages. It works by identifying the magnified visual key press confirmation letters that pop up in larger bubbles when the target is typing a message into an iPhone or Android phone. The UNC team reported their findings in the paper iSpy: Automatic Reconstruction of Typed Input From Compromising Reflections at the Conference on Computer and Communications Security in Chicago. The iSpy team’s goal was not to create a commercial version of their software but simply to illustrate the potential vulnerability of peoples privacy when using their Smart phones.

According to the team’s research, iSpy recognises letters correctly 90% of the time. With high definition video it was possible for the team to read SMSes through reflections from sunglasses and even the victim’s eyes, all from a distance of 12 metres.

If this article is beginning to make you a bit paranoid, there are ways of beating big brother if he was monitoring you with the aid of iSpy. Firstly you could of course shield your Smart phone with your hand whilst you are typing, thus blocking a potential direct line of sight. Failing this (probably because you look a little crazy) you could turn down the lighting settings on your phone or simply disable the visual confirmation bubbles which iSpy uses to read texts. In my opinion, the least inconvenient way to hinder the iSpy peeping Tom is to apply an anti-reflective coating to your Smart phone.

The research is being driven by Professor Babak Parviz of the University of Washington and his pupils (sorry bad pun) in conjunction with scientists from the University of Aalto in Finland. Their research was recently published in the journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering.

At present the researchers have successfully managed to create and test a single pixel contact lens on live rabbits eyes. The unit is powered wirelessly encompassing an antenna, radio circuit, transparent sapphire chip and micro light emitting diodes of which all are integrated onto a single contact lens.  This single pixel contact lens can be used to perform simple operations. Before we are able to read emails using this technology, hundreds of pixel resolutions need to be incorporated which may be many years away.

A number of challenges and obstacles faced the team in the development of the Android contact lenses. Some of these were finding ways to power the wireless device, making it biocompatible and integrating all of the components onto such a small surface. Tests so far have been limited to the eyes of live rabbits. At present the unit can be powered from a maximum distance of 1 metre away and only 2cm away when it is being worn.

The wearable technology created by the team demonstrates that Android contact lenses can be produced in the future to serve a number of purposes. Perhaps in the coming decades, many of us will be looking through android contact lenses much like Arnold Schwarzenegger in the Terminator movies…Hasta La Vista Baby!

In Australia the tit for tat feud saw the Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 banned from sale due to a temporary injunction won by Apple in September. This decision was overturned in late November allowing Samsung to resume Galaxy Tab 10.1 sales in Australia. Samsung countersued Apple by seeking a ban on theiPhone 4S sales, in Australia. This lawsuit will not be heard until March next year.

Getting the claws out

Apple and Samsung haven’t just been at each others throats in the courts. A recent advertisement by Samsung takes a snipe at iPhone customers forming lines around the block to buy the latest iPhone that ‘looks the same as the old ones’.

Samsung hit below the belt with another stunt occurring outside the official Sydney Apple Store on the release of the iPhone 4S. Samsung stole Apples thunder by offering $2 Samsung Galaxy SII normally valued at $79 in a temporary pop up shop metres away from the entrance to the Apple store.

In the last quarter of 2011 Apple creeped ahead of Nokia in the Smart phone market share behind Samsung. Predictions from IDC research are that with the release of the Iphone 4s and the re-pricing of older models across the globe Apple may surpass Samsung’s in market share.

It appears that the emergence of the tablet and smartphone market has been a ‘powder keg’ waiting to explode between Samsung and Apple as they both battle it out for the top spot. It will be interesting to see whether these two will continue to duke it out in the courts and media press release rooms throughout the world or whether they will eventually kiss and make up. At present both parties have a lot invested in the smart phone and tablet market and do not appear to be giving any ground. Perhaps it will allow other platforms a chance to catch up in the market? Whatever happens,  let’s hope that it doesn’t end in tears.

IBM researchers at a laboratory in Zurich have sought inspiration from the human brain and are intending to create a liquid metal processor prototype by 2014. IBM’s Bruno Michel’s told New Scientist “The human brain is 10,000 times more dense and efficient than any computer today. That’s possible because it uses only one, extremely efficient, network of capillaries and blood vessels to transport heat and energy, all at the same time.”

Computer chips have increased in processing power considerably over the years and the next step appears to be Chips in 3D. A Chip in 3D is when a chip has two or more layers of active electronic components which integrate both vertically and horizontally into a single circuit. Chips in 3D allows more components to be stacked into a smaller area providing a far superior processing power to the 2D chips of today. Of course stacking all of these chips on top of each other is going to use a lot more power and create a lot more heat. This is where the liquid metal idea comes into play. IBM intends to create a network of channels through the processor which allow liquid to cool the unit and because the liquid is metallic it can be used to carry charged particles that also provide power to the chip.

If IBM can build a successful prototype we may end up with devices as powerful as today’s super computers in the palm of our hands.

Sourced from: http://www.microsoft.com/surface/en/us/purchaseprocess.aspx



Before you dismiss the Surface 2.0 as television with legs or a super sized iPad, look again because it is actually capable of a lot more. The Surface 2.0 uses an exciting technology called PixelSense which allows the LCD display to recognise different objects placed on the screen. Pixels in the display see what’s touching the screen and recognise it. Whether it be a glass, your fingers , hands, phones or credit cards the computer can recognise what has been placed on its screen and respond with context sensitive information. In addition to this, the screen has more than 50 simultaneous touch points allowing several actions to be performed at once. What does all this mean?

As an example lets imagine you are sitting at a Surface 2.0 in an airport bar. You could choose to access online flight information using the Surface 2.0, search for music, movies or literature and transfer it to your smart phone by simply placing it on the work surface. Simultaneously you may be viewing the drinks menu and ordering via the Surface 2.0. For the clumsy and people that may have consumed one too many beverages waiting for their flight, the Microsoft Surface 2.0 is reinforced with Gorilla glass allowing it to withstand the impact of a beer bottle dropped from a height of nearly half a metre.

With a price tag of $8400 in the United States, Microsoft’s target market for the Surface 2.0 is big business. In the coming years you may see these units in hotel lobbies, at visitor centres, in hospitals, car dealerships and a multitude of other service orientated industries. Microsoft already has some big launch partners developing software for the new console. Some of these include Red Bull, Bing, Hard Rock Cafe, Disney and the RBC Bank. Perhaps shortly we will see it in your home!

To use the service, customers simply call an NTT Docomo service number and follow the voice prompts to input information such as the persons number that they wish to call.

Once the call has been connected users speak into their device and wait for a voice interpretation of what’s spoken to be played back in the native language of the other user. If using the service on Smart-Phones users will be able to see the original and translated conversation on their mobile screens.

NTT Docomo asserts the speech recognition service has a success rate of 80% for English translation and 90% for the Japanese language.

A trial service is first being offered to 400 individual consumers and to various organisations related to tourism and education in Japan.

If tests run smoothly NTT Docomo plans to roll out the translation service to its 56 million subscribers in 2012. NTT Docomo also plans to add other languages to the service.

With other languages soon to be added, we here at Conduct are certainly looking forward to when this service becomes available in Australia. Hopefully the wait is not to long.

Home screen organisation

1. Re arranging apps

You can customise the layout of app icons on the home screens by holding any icon until they all jiggle. Then simply drag the apps to their desired locations. Icons can be moved from various home-screens by dragging the app to the side of the screen. Press the home button to save.

2. Creating new home-screens

To create additional home screens flick across to the rightmost home-screen then drag an icon to the right edge of screen. Press the home button to save.

3. Creating new folders

Reducing clutter on your homescreens can be achieved by creating folders to store all of your various apps. To create a folder hold an app until they all jiggle, next drag and drop an app on top of another to create a folder storing the two apps you have selected.

4. Closing background applications.

If you do not know about this feature, chances are that you have lots of background apps running on your phone potentially slowing down its processing speed. To close the background apps firstly double tap the home button. At the bottom of the screen you will see will see a list of all the apps that are open. This is called the multitask view. To close them press and hold an icon until a red minus signs appear on the application icons. Simply press on the applications that you no longer need open.

Emailing and messaging

5. Sharing contacts

To share a contact with another person open your contacts list, click on a contact and press the share contact button at the bottom of the screen.

6. Deleting messages and Emails

To delete Emails push across to the right on an Email link, a red delete icon should appear on the right hand side. Push this to delete the message. This same method can be used to delete entire SMS conversations. To delete individual SMSes click edit whilst in the conversation viewer, select the messages you wish to be deleted and press the delete icon.

7. Typing alternate characters

Whilst typing to enter an alternate character hold down a key and wait for a list of options, slide to the desired replacement character and release.

Sourced from: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4896

8. Capitalising individual letters

There are two ways of capitalising individual letters. The least efficient is to press the shift key and then press the letter you wish to be capitalised. Alternatively you can press and hold the shift key, dragging it to the letter you want to capitalise. The same method can be used with the keyboard switcher key (123/ABC). Doing this will revert you straight back to the alphabet keyboard immediately after inserting punctuation.

9. Caps-lock

In order to be able to access caps-lock we first need to turn it on in the settings. Open settings from your home screen, tap General, Keyboard and turn on the enable caps lock button. To use caps-lock when typing double tap the shift key, this will turn caps-lock on. To turn it off again, simply tap the shift key once.

Web Pages

10. Saving images from the Web

In Safari, touch and hold an image to bring up a menu. You can choose to save it to your camera roll or copy and paste it into an Email or MMS.

11. Immediately return to the top of a webpage

To return immediately to the top of webpages tap the status bar at the top of the screen.

12. Scrolling inside frames and text

In some Webpages you may have the opportunity to scroll within a frame or text area on a webpage. To do this use two fingers and scroll with the same action you do for navigating normal webpages.

13. Zooming in

Whilst in Safari you can double tap parts of the page you wish to zoom in on, double tapping again to zoom out. Alternatively you can pinch to zoom in or out manually.

Miscellaneous

14. Accessing music controls and volume from the multitask view

Open the multitask view by double tapping the home button. Swipe to the left to enter the music controls. A further swipe to the right lets you adjust the volume.

15. Portrait lock

To access portrait lock open the multitask view and swipe across to the left. Click on the icon on left hand side of the multitask bar to lock the portrait. This will stop your iPhone from changing views when you are tilting the phone.

16. Taking a screenshot

Press the Home and Sleep buttons simultaneously to take a screenshot. You should hear a camera shutter noise letting you know your current screen has been saved automatically into your camera roll.

17. Voice control

Press and hold the Home button until the Voice Control screen appears.

18. Scientific calculator

Open the Calculator application and rotate the screen horizontally to access the scientific calculator