Crenk » Analysis

Apple February Mac Sales Were Up 43%

Steven Finch — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 01:22:22 +0000

Apple has continued their growth with iPod and Mac sales in February growing 43% year on year.

Analyst Gene Munster with Piper Jaffray issued a note to investors Monday afternoon detailing the latest retail sales data from the NPD Group. Mac sales in the month of February were up 43 percent for the month, which followed a similarly strong January increase of 36 percent. In all, Mac sales for the first two months of 2010 are up 39 percent year over year.

The latest retail data suggests that Apple will sell between 2.8 million and 2.9 million Macs in the March quarter, which is above Wall Street’s consensus of 2.7 million Macs.

Strong Mac sales were accompanied by better-than-expected iPod sales as well, influencing Munster to call February an “impressive” month for Apple. iPod sales in the first two months of 2010 were up 7 percent, an increase in sales for the first time in over a year.

Top 100 Engineers on Twitter

Steven Finch — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 09:25:12 +0000

We received a great tip this morning about a list of the Top 100 Engineers on Twitter. Nearly everyone knows what Twitter is these days, but its so hard to find quality people to follow. Here is the top 8 Engineers to follow on Twitter. For the full 100 list you can check it out here.

Top Engineers on Twitter

The below feeds are solely or mostly dedicated to the profession of engineering.

Kevin Mastaw

Mustafa Yusuf

3. Tyrone Taborn : Also known as the Black Engineer, he is the Chairman and CEO of Career Communications Group. Engineers, along with those looking to bring diversity to the field, will enjoy this Twitter feed.

4. Angela Melick : If you are an engineer who feels they are wasting their talent, visit here for someone who feels just like you. Angela is both a mechanical engineer in the sustainability sector and author of a webcomic entitled “Wasted Talent.”

5. David Rush : Visit here for the Twitter feed of an engineer with an ecologic frame of mind. David is a civil/environmental engineer who promotes sustainability and the reduction of man’s impact.

6. Manny Jimenez : This engineer is actually in recording and mixing. He is also a computer nerd and not shy about it.

7. Matthew Anderson : He is a civil engineer from the suburbs of Chicago. His other interests include AutoCAD, hydraulics, and being a father of five.

8. Chris Gammell : Chris is an electrical engineer who uses Twitter to blog about analog electronics and renewable energy. Check out interesting engineering tweets, along with daily life.

Publish Over the Weekend and You’ll Get More Facebook Shares

Augusto Alvarez — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 14:36:57 +0000

There’s no news to you if I say that having a lot of Facebook shares for your articles can bring you a lot of traffic; and also you should know that the time schedule for publishing articles it is an important factor to get a lot of hits. So, when is the best time to publish an article and get a lot of shares on Facebook? Weekends says this report.

Dan Zarrella always brings some interesting reports about social networks, the name of social media scientist fits perfectly on him; and this special report could make a huge difference among bloggers and writers. Here’s the graph:

Besides the massive Facebook sharing over the weekend, notice the following:

The weekend is the time where fewer articles are posted but most of the sharing is happening there.
The data is considering and remarking an average sharing line.
One of the considerations of this increase over the weekend could be, as Dan says, that the most of the companies in the US blocks Facebook.

And you? When do you share the most?

Tumblr Is Growing Fast: Perfect Tool for Quick Blogging

Steven Finch — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 03:23:42 +0000

Tumblr is a very simple blogging platform in which users can make a blog in minutes. Tumblr is the perfect tool for users who want to have a blog with photos, videos, and other content embedded, but simply hasn’t got the time or the will to struggle with a complex blogging platform.

How is this working out for them? Well, according to the neat infographic which they’ve sent us (see below), their traffic and user base is growing fast, and they’ve recently hit some major milestones.

My Banner Ad Stats Dont Match My Google Analytics Stats?

Steven Finch — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 13:59:47 +0000

Most analytics tools measure different things using different techniques, so its rather inevitable that they wont correlate.

I don’t know what system or package you’re using for counting your banner ad impressions, but I’m going to spin out a scenario and then you can tell me in the comments if I matched what you’re doing.

You have a number of different ways through which you get traffic to your site, ranging from banner ads running on other sites to search engine traffic, and perhaps even just good old-fashioned inbound links from sites that like your content or material.

Let’s say for purposes of discussion that the traffic I get from the Internet Movie Database site (imdb) is due to a banner I have running on the site (though it’s not, in actuality. I can’t afford to run a banner ad on that site!

For this traffic, we’d see that in thirty days I had received 232 visits from that banner.

Now let’s continue our hypothetical situation and say that Amazon, owners of the imdb.com site, sent me a banner traffic report that indicated that it had been shown 1000 times and of that 350 people had clicked on it.

Here’s the dilemma I believe you’re talking about: how can the banner display site claim 350 click-thrus when Google Analytics only shows 232 visits from the site where the banner is running?

Actually, there are two common causes. The most common is that many Web browsers let you mask or completely disable the “REFERRER” data, so that some of the people who are coming from the other site show up as “direct” or “unclassified” traffic.

The second reason could well be that they don’t actually make it onto your site long enough for Google Analytics to kick in. This can happen if there’s what I call a “fast bounce”: your page starts loading and they immediately say “oh, no, that’s not what I want” and click on the back button or a bookmark or something. You’ve probably done this yourself, actually.

Those are the two main reasons I can come up with but I suggest that if you are paying for banner ads and you are finding inconsistencies like you say, ask them to justify their numbers and see what they say.

Sex is Banned from Bing (in Middle East)

Augusto Alvarez — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 13:05:57 +0000

Microsoft’s search engine Bing, that offers 41 different languages, just removed and banned from the Arabic language search any sexual related term.

A very complete report made from Open Net Initiative where they describe about the words that have been tested in Arabic and English languages from Bing. Here’s a summary:

You are probably thinking that since the religion that prevails in most of the countries in Middle East is Islamic (and some variations), it could sound normal that Microsoft was obligated to remove sexual and explicit content; but the restriction also applies for other countries like India, Turkey, Thailand, China, Malaysia and Singapore.

There’s always going to be a lot of discussion regarding to sexual content available on the internet, restricting content over the web, religions involved, etc. etc. But someone actually starts thinking if any of these measures actually solves anything? Banning these words would prevent from any kid to access some of unrated material?

Social Media Cheat Sheet

Steven Finch — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 11:00:17 +0000

Google By Numbers

Steven Finch — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 00:38:02 +0000

TrendsBuzz: Latest Trending Keywords from Google, Yahoo, etc

Dean Sherwin — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 09:28:32 +0000

A big part of writing online, and even just being alive today, is knowing what’s happening around the world. One way I do this is to set up Google Alerts so I know what’s happening in my field. Another way is to use an online tool to see what’s being searched and posted on the Internet such as Trends Buzz. This is how many news firms pick up stories in far away lands quickly.

As you can see from the screenshot above, it takes note of what people are searching for in Google and Yahoo!. They also have Twitter monitored so you can find out what’s happening there too which is significant considering news spreads fastest on Twitter. Then, smaller sites such as the New York Times and Alexa are covered followed by smaller search engines.

The service is currently in public Beta and it will be interesting to see what the team comes up with once its ready for the full launch.

Electronic Cars – Concepts But No Cigar

Dean Sherwin — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 20:02:48 +0000

As reported here on Crunch Gear, concepts for Electronic cars are popping up all over the place. Some look like the creations of a sci-fi fiction writer. But you know what? Some seem like viable forms of transportation.

The thing that annoys me about all this jazz concerning global warming and emissions is the fact that the politicians are addressing all the right problems bar one. The most important one at that.

The image. As of now, it’s not cool for an 18 year old to hop into a tiny lithium powered car to go to college. But I think if they spent more time creating a sense of image and maybe lowered the driving age for electronic vehicles (in European countries) to sixteen and slashed insurance costs because it’s not like they’re going to be speeding any time soon, then these things would take off as cheap, viable forms of transportation. Right now, they’re hippy mobiles and uncool.

Unfortunately for mother nature, we don’t live in a dictatorship and nobody is just going to go out and buy these things to solve what is an invisible and speculative problem. What we need is for three-wheeled electronic, two-seater cars to be cool. Much like the Volkswagen Beatle and camper van were popular back in the 50s and 60s.

Evernote: Updates, Success and Big Ideas

Dean Sherwin — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 22:16:08 +0000

Evernote has been doing very well recently. It has been praised in the professional world for being the best way to make notes and store them. The iPhone and Android apps are some of the most popular downloads from their respective app stores and it appears the Evernote team knows no limits. Recently they’ve a new version (rebuilt from the ground up) and also surpassed two million users (it’s now creeping towards two and a half million).

Here’s what Evernote had to say about their new update:

“Evernote 3.5 for Windows is completely new. We rewrote it from the ground up to make it faster, more reliable, and just plain better than Evernote for Windows has ever been. Our goal was to use everything we’ve learned since our launch to make a great Evernote experience on Windows. ”

Evernote have also been busy making lots of new friends and partners in the tech world including players as big as Sony and Nokia. Every Sony laptop sold from now on will come with Evernote pre-installed and Evernote is now usable on the N900 because of a newly released plug-in! Other partnerships include:

TimeBridge: This helps you organize better meetings. Now, you can save all your meeting notes into Evernote.
Cliqset: Evernote and Cliqset create a permanent memory for your social streams and activity.

They ended their release on a very promising note about the iPad. Their apps have have already been a hit with iPhone users so everyone was anxious to know what they had in store for the upcoming iPad. Here’s what they said:

“We know you’re wondering. Rest assured, we have big plans for Apple’s amazing new device. Read our CEO’s blog post about Evernote’s history with tablets and plans for the iPad and other devices”

School Laptops Could Spy on Students

Dean Sherwin — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 16:46:14 +0000

I honestly don’t know who’s crazier, the school for implementing a policy like this or parents who just accepted it. Basically, Lower Merion School District in Pennsylvania installed a program on all of its laptops which could be used to spy on students.

The program is used to track and trace stolen laptops but could potentially be used to spy on students at home. Basically, if the principal decided to turn on the tracking for a specific laptop (only supposed to be done if the laptop is stolen) then the web cam begins taking pictures and screenshots are also taken. These are then sent back to the principal. What I’m wondering is how this is any different than hacking into someone’s computer, remotely turning on their web cam and spying on them?

The school policies are even more frightening:

possession of a monitored MacBook was required for classes, and possession of an unmonitored personal computer was forbidden and would be confiscated.
disabling the camera is impossible

The case is now on its way to court and I hope for the safety of the children, and just their own peace of mind that they can’t be tracked and spied on, this stupid program is abolished.

Korean Classrooms will have Robot Teachers by 2012

Dean Sherwin — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 12:03:02 +0000

We’re entering an age where robots are beginning to think and act for themselves. Many have even become celebrities such as ASIMO. Programming is no longer necessary for them to do every little task. They can learn. And now, apparently, they can teach.

The South Korean government has announced its plans for robots to being teaching in pre-school classed by 2012. They won’t be the sole teacher just yet. However, the robots will be responsible for things such as reciting stories and even acting as a portal into the class room so parents can check up on their kids.

This will start off as a trial and if it proves successful they will expand the program and bump it up to Kindergarten level also.

I think it will be many years until it advances further though. At the moment, robots can only act a a supplement or a teacher for the most basic and least interactive of tasks and need human guidance. Crucial tasks such as helping kids with their problems and teaching new material to children can only be done by trained professionals.

Cancel Google Account

Steven Finch — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 15:00:15 +0000

Canceling your Google account and the Google services you use can be a little difficult at times.

Google maintains a help page that explains the process. The Google user needs to log into the account first, click on Settings > Google Account Settings afterwards and then on the Edit link next to My Products.

This leads to a new page with the option to cancel the Google account completely by clicking on “Close account and delete all services and info associated with it”.

But canceling the complete account is sometimes not the user’s intention. Some users want to cancel a specific Google service, like Gmail or Google Picasa instead.

The steps outlined above to cancel the Google account can also be used to cancel Google services that the user has signed up for.

Both solutions require that the Google user is able to log into the Google account. Users who have troubles doing that can request a password reset if the password that they enter is not accepted in the login.

Facebook Gets On Board With ‘Safer Internet Day’

Dean Sherwin — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 02:57:14 +0000

Facebook, being the biggest of social networking sites, has decided to get on board with Safer Internet Day, which was on the 9th of February. The day, which is promoted across the EU, is aimed at keeping Internet users safe online – in particular, children. They opened their official company blog to Will Gardner who is CEO of Safety Advisory Board at Facebook and also to Childnet International.

“Safer Internet Day is an important event in the Internet safety calendar and provides a great opportunity to showcase some of the key messages about staying safe online. Held for the past four years on the second Tuesday of the second month, Safer Internet Day has grown beyond its origins in the EU and is now celebrated in countries across the world. The theme this year is “Think Before You Post,” a vital message not only for children and young people but, let’s be honest, adults as well.” said Will in the blog post.

The entire initiative is aimed at educating children about what is and what isn’t sensitive information about themselves and why they shouldn’t give it out. They also instruct kids about who they should and shouldn’t ‘friend’ on social networking sites.

The main points made in the post are as follows

Using privacy setting provided by the network (a bit ironic given Facebook’s recent privacy ‘updates’)
Choosing friends carefully and knowing who sees your content
Thinking about the consequences of uploading photos and videos
Asking permission of friends to publish photographs of them.

Good to see that the industries leading site is promoting security for kids online.

Techcrunch Moves Their 125 x 125 To Below Each Article! Advertising Strategy Shift?

Steven Finch — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 13:29:02 +0000

I was browsing around Technology related sites as I do nearly every morning and came across some strange changes over at Techcrunch.

You will noticed from the image above Techcrunch has made some big changes to their advertising. Techcrunch was the leader in 125 x 125 advertising in the early days and now this format seems to be used nearly every blog, however Techcrunch has since removed the 125 x 125 ads from the top of their sidebar and placed them below each article.

By placing the 125 x 125 ads below each article this will decrease the visibility of these ads and also decrease the click through rate of the advertisers. Has Techcrunch decided that its difficult to sell 125 x 125 advertising? or have they just simply decided it is much easier and more profitable to add Google Adsense to the top of their sidebar, so they can gain more clicks and a higher margin on their advertising costs?

Facebook: Social Media by Numbers

Steven Finch — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 13:22:55 +0000

Pingdom is a great service and they have put together another great viral article.

Facebook has announced that it now has 400 million active users. Just one year ago Facebook had 150 million users, so 2009 was an incredible year for the social media giant.

There can be no doubt that Facebook is pretty much unstoppable at the moment, a real juggernaut.

Thinking iPad?

Augusto Alvarez — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 15:02:26 +0000

… you better get used to those blue legos…

A Girl’s Guide to Dating a Geek

Augusto Alvarez — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 12:25:23 +0000

Yes girls, the book you’ve been waiting for so long is finally here. The book that will let you know everything you should to get what you’ve always wanted: A geek boy: A Girl’s Guide to Dating a Geek.

Well the book starts with a simple question: “Are you dating a geek?” (if you already bought this book, I’m pretty sure you are in fact dating one); then it takes you to “The Geek Test”, to sense how geeky he actually is.

Besides a geek dictionary (to follow everything he says and not getting lost in the way), you’ll get important tips in “Getting what you want” and “How to exercise your geek”; the perfect gift for your geek, etc etc.

Should I even say that this is a must-read for all you female geek lovers?

Skype Outage Resolved?

Luis Sandoval — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 06:59:13 +0000

On Thursday Skype users experienced error messages when attempting to sign into their accounts. For many users it was initially thought that there must be a mishap with their password, and many of us were even double checking our screen names, but it was not long until many us took to Twitter and the Skype forums complaining that Skype was having issues. It’s been reported that users who were already logged in did not experience the problems, but those that attempted to sign on during the 3.5 hours it was down were being rejected.

The problems disrupted communications world wide, though it appears North America was the hardest hit. Users were forced to find alternative means to communicate, which was not so much the issue, but at the time Skype’s Twitter messages and website was offering up little more than what we already knew, that the service was experiencing problems.

If you go to both Skype’s blog and their Twitter page, there is never a definite answer as to what the issue was. There’s a lot of “standby” and “we’ll be up and running soon,” but no tangible explanation as to what happened. Kudos to Skype for keeping us informed and even redirecting people to follow their Twitter account due to the heavy load on their site, specifically in the forums, but what happened with sharing what caused down downtime in the beginning?

Music Social Networks: Attack of the Music Communities Recap

Steven Finch — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 22:59:32 +0000

Since starting Crenk a couple of years ago I have written a lot about the music industry. The music industry has been a real fascination of mine and when I finally thought things were getting sorted out a lot has changed. In recent months Imeem was purchased by Myspace and then Myspace themselves really lost their way about what the site is actually about.

On Crenk we have written about the Top 5 social networking sites, World best music streaming service, but our key music article was the Attack of the Music Communities. Today I want to revisit that article and run through these leading music communities and recap their current situation (remember the previous article was written on the 8th April 2008).

Myspace – Myspace was once the leading social networking site online, but in recent times they have really lost their way. Myspace is now a place for crazy glitter webpages done by 16 year old kids claiming they are really 18, either that or people trying to spam you with stupid messages and comments. Myspace’s biggest disadvantage is that it just has no focus! Myspace doesnt know if they are a social network, if they are a music focused site, or even an entertainment hub. Every band seemed to be on Myspace, but it has quickly become an empty space for music.
Bebo – Bebo was once focused on being a music community, but after being sold to AOL it just seemed to lose direction all together. Bebo is now a social network that is largely in the distance behind Facebook. Music community Bebo is no longer!
Last.fm – Last.fm was purchased by CBS and has been growing pretty constantly as a music community. However, Last.fm is more focused on music streaming and discovering new music. Last.fm doesnt allow musicians to chat with each other in a transparent environment and nor find new gigs, selling their tickets and merchandise and even sell their music.
Purevolume – Purevolume has stayed pretty steady. Purevolume has really released anything new, they have just focused on giving bands a website and showcasing their music. I find Purevolume an interesting site with a great amount of potential, but has never really lived up to it!
Imeem – Imeem was the darling of web 2.0 music startups. However, quickly the site turned into a weird music social network that just couldn’t pay the bills. Imeem ending up having no choice and sold to Myspace recently, losing huge amount for all investors involved.
MOG – MOG has transformed several times and is now heavily focused on providing a music streaming service to USA only users. Previously MOG tried focusing on music news, but that seemed to only be filling the site while they got their music streaming licenses setup. MOG is no long a music social network, its just about listening to music online.
iLike – iLike is a great music service, but focused very much on providing music streaming and discovery. iLike can fit in nicely with a music larger music service, but as a standalone service it really doesn’t grab the worlds attention.
JamNow – Shut down.
Haystack – Shut down.
Sonific – Shut down.
Sellaband – Sellaband has been a great success for helping unsigned bands fund their new albums. However, this community has not been gaining that much attention from around the world. Sellaband has a very limited appeal that will soon most probably be sold and added to another service.
iJigg – iJigg is a music service in which users listen to music. Its that simple, nothing more, nothing less.
Flotones – Flotones has to be the ugliest site in the list, plus they just don’t have any traction or users. I pronounce Flotones dead!
ReverbNation – ReverbNation has grow into the leading digital marketing platform for musicians. ReverbNation tried to provide the best marketing solutions for bands while at the same time make revenues from their affiliate services. ReverbNation has a great platform, but it would be good to see them develop into something more than just providing digital music tools.
Jango – Jango has developed into a very interesting online radio service. I think Jango has a lot of potential but the site itself isnt very pretty, plus they are playing head on with services like Pandora (which are just so much better). Jango needs to lead in the markets Pandora isn’t in or soon they will be behind and struggling for survival.

Conclusion:

There doesn’t seem to be anyone taking music social networking seriously at the moment. There are a lot sites that focus on specific areas, but seem to be to scared to launch a much larger initiative. Someone needs to launch a open platform which promote bands to build their fan base, pushes new music to users, while also adding in the other features within the music industry. If someone can work out a service that has all these features, then they could be a force to be reckoned with.

Twitter De-stablizing Celebrity Presence

Luis Sandoval — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 21:15:56 +0000

For those of us who are heavy Twitter users, we can remember the day when we signed up for an account and were offered suggestions of people to follow. Typically that list featured heavy hitter news agencies, a number of celebrities of varying backgrounds, and perhaps some large tech companies or sites. Chances are a few of these interested us, but for the vast majority it meant very little. Online networking has transcended more into a place for relevant conversation with people we feel we have common bonds with, rather than just a chat forum of open ended conversations. While others may comment in the public stream or friends us based on who we have friended, more of us are looking for real conversations as opposed to connecting with the likes of Ashton Kutcher who more than likely does not respond to his 1 million plus fans.

How do you follow people on Twitter?

So you can imagine it was interesting when I read an article on CNN from founder of Mashable, Pete Cashmore, on this very topic. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting and talking to Pete at a variety of tech events, and a celebrity in his own right, is naturally a down to earth guy. Nevertheless, the article he wrote discusses how Twitter has altered the focus on specific celebrities and news agencies in their suggestion methods and now offers up categorized lists based on general interests.

Does this work any better?

Pete Cashmore seems to think it’s a step in the right direction. I’m inclined to agree, but I still feel like the suggestions are not people I would communicate with on a regular basis. More than likely I’m going to seek out local thought leaders and conversation instigators. Why should third party developers be the ones I turn to for niche suggestions, I think Twitter could be of great service if they did that from the start. Many new Twitter users are not typically well versed in the world of social networking, so third party developers are foreign to them. They make not seek out the latest Twi-(put your own ending, everyone else is) that can help them find specific people. Their only base of reference will be the suggestion lists.

So yes it’s a good first step, but perhaps more can be done. Pete Cashmore states that celebrities might see their follower numbers start to slow down due to this categorizing done by Twitter, and perhaps they will. Ultimately if people want to follow celebrities they will seek them out anyways. Personally, as much as I love celebrities, I’m looking to connect with real people that I can carry real conversations with.

What are your thoughts?

Microsoft Registers a New Income Record

Augusto Alvarez — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 17:34:10 +0000

By the end of December of 2009, Microsoft set a new company income record: 19 billion dollars in only three months. Transforming it in a 6.6 billion dollars profit.

Not only that, these numbers had a 60% growth comparing last year’s digits, around 4.2 billion. And what is the main reason of this new breaking record? The one and only, Windows 7.

Take a closer look to this numbers:

60 million of Windows 7 licenses sold between October and December of 2009.
1.7 billion dollars (of the total 19 billion) corresponding to Windows 7 licenses.
Operative benefit of 8.15 billion.
5.4 billion Correspond for the Windows and Windows Live area.

Peter Klein, Microsoft’s CFO, said “Exceptional demand for Windows 7 led to the positive top-line growth for the company”. And considering also that there’s a new perspective in the global economy.

“We are thrilled by the consumer reception to Windows 7 and by business enthusiasm to adopt Windows 7.” added Klein. I bet you are.

Random Posts

MSI’s Tablet Will Compete With Apple’s iPad

Dean Sherwin — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 20:41:08 +0000

Remember a few weeks ago, right around the time of CES, when everyone was yammering on about the Apple iPad. All the other prospective touch screen tablets which were ‘up and coming’ took a back seat. The HP Slate was given the cold shoulder and the MSI 10-inch tablet? Forget it.

Now however, the sobering release of the real Apple iPad (not the wishy-washy dreams of Apple fan boys) have us looking at the competition. And according to DigiTimes, MSI’s tablet will retail at a pricy $500. Ouch.

However, I do smell a level of success for this one. You see, the iPad has been bombarded with criticism for being an oversized iPod Touch. Everyone wanted a slim, touch screen computer but that just didn’t happen. MSI might fulfil the prophesy.

It’s got a desktop much like that of your standard PC and has numerous ports and external ports. It’s not as sleek looking as the overgrown iPod iPad but it does have an aura of practicality about it.

This is a tough one to call. And to be honest, it’s destiny (and perhaps even that of the HP slate) relies on how well publicity goes for the iPad over the next few weeks. If the launch goes well and people get over the iPod feel, then MSI might be in trouble. If things keep going as they are though, then the MSI tablet might just be the next big hit for portable touch screen computing!

Will AT&T’s Buzz Search be a Success?

Dean Sherwin — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 17:39:49 +0000

Back when the internet was gaining huge amounts of users at the turn of the millennium, everything was about the World Wide aspect. But now, it’s worn a little thin. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still useful and connects people and companies all over the planet. But local search is where there are big bucks to be made. Think about it, aren’t you more likely to click on an advertisement when it’s a 20% discount for the Chinese restaurant around the corner, instead of an offer for the Chinese HiPhone?

All the major online services have caught on with Twitter being the latest having launched Local Trends. Now, Buzz.com looks to catch in on the local .com boom. At the minute it’s still in Beta testing. But more and more tech blogs are talking about it.

While Buzz.com will rely heavily on social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook, At&T have stressed that they have not built a social networking site, although you will be able to share many things with friends and family. By indexing what people are talking about as well as working with companies and advertisers, buzz.com will provide people will accurate search results for things like clubs, restaurants, shops, deals and much more. It’s like social media for local businesses.

I can’t wait until Buzz comes out of private Beta. It sounds like a great service to get the skinny on what’s going on in your locale. If you want to try your luck at getting a private invitation, click here.

Want to know the best places to go or businesses to call? Let buzz.com help you tap your social net for business recommendations from the people you trust most – your friends and family. – Buzz.com