I have always been savvy with technology and computers – I started working with my first computer at the young age of 8 and when I was 10, I taught myself how to program in BASIC literally overnight. For some reason, though, I didn’t immediately jump on the Facebook bandwagon the moment it became mainstream. It seemed silly, frivilous and simply trendy. I had been using MySpace and enjoyed the ability to control the look and feel of my page. I managed to find a few old friends on it, but most of them never posted anything. Mostly I just used my page as a personal blog to track my mundane life.

Then one day, I finally took the leap. I joined Facebook.

At first the pages looked dull and boring. A stark contrast to MySpace’s colorful pages, flashing blinkies and auto-loading music and videos. But what I quickly realized is that everyone I had on MySpace was also on Facebook and… guess what… they were actually posting! Next I realized that not only were my old friends there, but so were dozens more. To date I have connected with nearly my entire High School class, a childhood best friend I thought I would never find, old teachers, college friends, remote family and even old boyfriends (most of whom I was already still on speaking terms with). While these may not be people I feel the need to converse with on a regular basis, I feel priviliged that I can know what great (or terrible) things are happening in their lives, offer congratulations or condolenses, provide advice, wish happy birthday’s or just simply “Like” their status because… well… I liked it!

Today, like many people, I am hooked on Facebook. I have not only used it to connect with friends, but I have also used it to promote businesses I have been a part of and to follow other businesses I have interest in. And let’s not forget the oh-so-addicting games. So what if Facebook never existed? Where would be then?

Perhaps MySpace would have remained more popular. Or perhaps social networking as we know it today wouldn’t exist – at least not at the level it is now. Businesses would still rely solely on expensive advertising, email marketing and banner ads. While these methods are still used, Facebook’s advertising has been, in my experience, invaluable.

Some say people would call, write or speak in person more. But let’s be honest here, when was the last time you called someone just to update them on your life or find out about theirs? In High School? 15 years ago or so? People tend to stay in their own circles – in their comfort zone. Facebook allows us to open up and reach outside of our circle. It extends our comfort zone.

One thing is for certain, the world would be a less “friend”lier place. I never would have found my childhood friend or connected with classmates who had been outside my circle in High School. This also means I never would have intended to attend a reunion, which I now look forward to. Facebook has given me the ability to reach outside my daily circle and laugh, cry and vent with old and new friends alike. It has rekindled friendships and connected me with people I thought I would never get to talk to again.

So despite the addicting games and countless hours easily wasted away with Facebook, I am thankful it was created. I am thankful I took the leap. I am thankful for finding friends.

Case in point: Life just wouldn’t be the same without Facebook.

• Raptr Is the Ultimate Gaming Service: Connects PSN, Xbox and More – May 16, 2011
• PopCap Games Acquires ZipZapPlay and Their Facebook Games – May 2, 2011
• History of Social Media – November 19, 2010
• Virus Infecting Mac and Linux – October 31, 2010
• Social Media Demographics – July 9, 2010

Where Would We Be Without Facebook? originally appeared on: Crenk
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Companies and their subsequent brands are realising that their audiences are largely located on social networking hubs online and are having to change their marketing tact to reflect the needs of their target markets. It has also been suspected for a while that social is becoming more important to the mysterious algorithm which determines the rankings of web pages in relation to certain search terms in Google. This was seemingly confirmed by the search engine’s recent announcement of Google “+1” (which provides SERPS based on a system similar to Facebook’s “Like” button) which is expected to be rolled out within the next 6 months.

Social elements have even been employed by the videogame industry too but for a different reason; to extend the longevity of interest in games. Well, at least one game anyway…

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit (the 16^th title in the NFS series) was released in November last year. The game’s trailer opens with the following statement:

“WARNING:

Those in relationships are advised against playing of this videogame.

Connecting to the NEED FOR SPEED AUTOLOG enables extreme competition through exact documentation of records and stats from your friends.

Hard feelings, creative profanity and grudge matches are likely.”

The NFS: HP Autolog comprises a “wall” akin to the type that you would find on social networking website Facebook but it is localised within the game only. When a players console is connected to the internet, Autolog automatically keeps connected friends updated with regards to new records set, career progress and challenges from peers. The feature also provides players with recommendations based on the latest activity of their friends.  Players can also leave visual snapshots of in game moments on the wall and as well as comments next to the posts announcing newly achieved records. This makes for a dynamic competitive element and thus; helps longevity of interest in the game for as long as possible after their release date.

Autolog is to be featured in the next Need for Speed title (‘Shift 2: Unleashed’) but I am more interested to see whether other games developers follow suit and integrate this type of social arm into their own titles in the future. You think that they would when you consider the fact that Hot Pursuit won a BAFTA for its multiplayer element and the gaming press couldn’t commend the Autolog enough. NFS: HP is also the most highly critically acclaimed racing game of the decade (receiving an average of 90% in reviews) and it has shifted over 5 million copies to date, indicating that the feature was both embraced and loved.

Guest post by: Kat Cole is keen XBOX 360 gamer and thinks that her skills should not be underestimated simply because she is female! This year she is most excited for the release of the extremely long awaited Duke Nukem Forever which she has already pre-ordered from GameStop – even though it is not released until June!

• Women in the Video Game Industry – October 25, 2011
• SMELLIT: Smellivision for your Video Games and Movies – October 21, 2011
• Where Would We Be Without Facebook? – April 29, 2011
• Activision Has Axed Guitar Hero – February 10, 2011
• HTC Invest in Streaming Video Game Service OnLive – February 9, 2011

Social Networking within the Video Games Realm originally appeared on: Crenk
Join our Community: Twitter, Facebook

Flock, the social browser, is not built on Chrome.

and browsing. Since then Flock, the social browser, has always been that fringe browser that a few people used but didn’t grab the audience it was hoping for. What did help Flock was the fact that it was built on the Firefox browser framework which made it easy to develop for since it was open source. The Flock browser allowed for many unique plug-ins very similar to Firefox, thus offering a seamless user interactive experience with the added bonus of social networking.

This week a huge announcement was made that Flock was leaving the Firefox backbone and moving to Chrome. Touted as a social browser there is definitely something to love about it, but does it really know where it wants to go? The interface has undergone a drastic overhaul moving away from the complex menus and tabs and moving more towards a simple interface with fully customizable group and friend options.

In a world where social platforms like Tweetdeck, Seesmic, and Hootsuite have been integrated into desktops and/or browsers, it feels like Flock is still running too many steps behind. Has Flock lost its luster? Perhaps, but there’s nothing wrong with reinventing yourself.

• First 5-minute Impressions With Google Chrome – September 3, 2008
• Google Release Google Chrome 11 for Download – April 29, 2011
• Google Flattens Their Chrome Logo – March 16, 2011
• Internet Explorer 9 Launch February 10 – February 1, 2011
• Improve your Typing with Typing Speed Monitor – October 24, 2010

Flock Changing Out Firefox Framework for Chrome originally appeared on: Crenk
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Hi5 have just acquired the gaming company ‘Big Six’ in order to flesh out the gaming sector of their website, a popular social network. Hi5 has been up an running for quite a few years now. Although it has never really taken off in Europe it is big in the US and is following the lead of others such as Facebook in terms of integrating gaming into their network.

As of now, 15% of their revenue comes from gaming by its users so I guess it makes sense to buy up a popular games developer in order to give the feature a shot of adrenaline. But they’ll have some stiff competition as the likes of FarmVille on Facebook have millions of active players.

An emphasis will also be put on developing the social network’s currency further to encourage people to spend their money there rather than on other networks.

“We are excited to be joining a company that shares our philosophy and vision for how social gaming will evolve,” said Kevin Gliner, co-founder and CEO, Big Six. “This deal is a perfect match because it enables us to accelerate our go-to-market plans by leveraging hi5’s huge global audience.”

• Raptr Is the Ultimate Gaming Service: Connects PSN, Xbox and More – May 16, 2011
• Where Would We Be Without Facebook? – April 29, 2011
• Save your Photos, Videos and Documents in one Place with PhotoRem – November 7, 2010
• Play Need for Speed for Free – September 26, 2010
• Play FIFA Online for Free – August 8, 2010

Hi5 Acquires Big Six the Game Developer to Improve their Network. originally appeared on: Crenk
Join our Community: Twitter, Facebook

Facebook, undoubtedly the biggest social network at the minute, has been promoting and ramping up its ‘credits’ system over the past year or so. These ‘credits’ afford users the opportunity to use real world money to purchase gifts, apps and songs which can either be used by themselves or given as presents to other Facebook users.

Now, they are allowing users to pay with PayPal, which has in excess of 80 million users. Previous to this one could only purchase Facebook credits via credit card or by using their mobile phone. By intergrading with PayPal, Facebook will undoubtedly allow more people to use the service, particularly young people who may not have access to a credit card themselves but do have a PayPal account.

Recent speculation as to whether Facebook would be opening their own payment service to compete with PayPal have pretty much been put to bed with this recent update. Many people said that you would soon be able to “pay with Facebook” on eCommerce sites. However, it seems unlikely that Facebook and PayPal would be cooperating on such a big revenue-making deal whilst one party was plotting the downfall of the other.

• Where Would We Be Without Facebook? – April 29, 2011
• Hi5 Acquires Big Six the Game Developer to Improve their Network. – February 26, 2010
• Paystr, Friendlier Alternative to PayPal – May 31, 2009
• PDF to Microsoft Word Converter Facebook Edition – December 4, 2011
• Washington Post Facebook Social Reader News Application – November 26, 2011

Facebook Now Accept PayPal originally appeared on: Crenk
Join our Community: Twitter, Facebook

Screenjelly is perhaps the easiest screen recorder you'll ever use.

There are a lot of applications that claim to be the leader in capturing and recording your screen. Well I’m not making that claim with Screenjelly, but I will say it’s the easiest I’ve ever used.

Why?

Well unlike most other free screen capture applications, you don’t need to create a profile or sign up for an account. You also don’t need to download anything or log-in for access, you simply go to the site and start the process. The ease of use is a welcomed approach for new users who are not familiar with existing screen recording applications. There is little barrier into the service and users do not get mired down with having to check their emails to authorize emails and other such necessities when creating a new account.

Screenjelly also has a close relationship with Twitter, where you can easily share your recordings directly with your followers, and instantly get feedback. It’s pretty tempting if you’re looking at doing something quick. There are no screen share capabilities to pass it on to someone else, there’s not meeting function for chat function to share with other users, this is just purely setup to record what’s on your screen and the audio being sent via your microphone.

• Classy, Unobtrusive Twitter “Follow” Badges – June 29, 2009
• Create a Screencast and Share it in Twitter – November 7, 2010
• Personal Search for Your Twitter Contacts – December 31, 2009
• Online Tribes Can Avoid GigaTribe – November 10, 2009
• Web App Buffers Timely Online Communication – November 6, 2009

Screenjelly Records Your Screen originally appeared on: Crenk
Join our Community: Twitter, Facebook

Lots of sites out there offer Twitter badges that you install and more often than not they can take up valuable real estate on your site, so here’s a nice SITE that can help you instantly create a very unobtrusive “Follow” badge for your site that users can click on, while saving space on your site.

It’s not an issue for everyone, but I thought it would be useful for some.

• Screenjelly Records Your Screen – July 20, 2009
• Personal Search for Your Twitter Contacts – December 31, 2009
• Online Tribes Can Avoid GigaTribe – November 10, 2009
• Web App Buffers Timely Online Communication – November 6, 2009
• Blellow, Social Network for Freelancers – June 12, 2009

Classy, Unobtrusive Twitter “Follow” Badges originally appeared on: Crenk
Join our Community: Twitter, Facebook

Filmaps basically allows for movie searches by title or location including the interesting ability to find out what movies were made at a specific location. For instance, looking for movies by title and then narrowing by location might show you that San Francisco has a theater playing the film you’re looking for. Switching the search and looking at what films were made in San Francisco will show you Dirty Harry.

Once you find a movie (or movies), you can leave comments about the film for others to read, send Tweets (each film has a permalink), and otherwise share you film finds with friends. Users can ad information (comments, locations, movies not listed) easily and no registration with the site is required—an unusual feature.

Filmaps also works on the iPhone and was created with the idea that sometimes you’re watching a movie and wonder “wow, I wonder what else is there?” when watching scenes. So you can use Filmaps to find out where the film was actually shot, what other movies were made there, and otherwise explore the area with Google Maps.

This is a good idea that, if kept simple, will be one to see a lot of interest from everyday Web users. It’s appeal seems limited until you actually go and use the sight. Pretty soon, you’ll be looking up all your favorite movies and seeing what else was filmed there and maybe hitting the nearest Redbox to grab some of them.

• Where Would We Be Without Facebook? – April 29, 2011
• Social Networking within the Video Games Realm – April 7, 2011
• Flock Changing Out Firefox Framework for Chrome – June 16, 2010
• Hi5 Acquires Big Six the Game Developer to Improve their Network. – February 26, 2010
• Facebook Now Accept PayPal – February 22, 2010

Filmaps.com: Movies Come To Online Social Networking originally appeared on: Crenk
Join our Community: Twitter, Facebook

It was just a matter of time before something like this happened. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, especially since it was established due to the perceived harshness of Twitter conversation. Gospelr looks to focus on connecting people for motivation and to share their faith with one another. No longer do you have to pay for missionaries to reach the far parts of the world or into the homes of people, now you can do it all online, and Gospelr looks to work that angle.

Because it’s based on Twitter’s API, integration into Tweetdeck and various other apps that play well with Twitter. An interesting addition to the Gospelr homepage is that the site will refresh for you, keeping you current at all times with the latest messages to hit the network.

If you need to hear the Word, be uplifted or encouraged by those strong in their faith, then check out Gospelr. While your there, check out the cool RSS button, now that’s creative!

• Screenjelly Records Your Screen – July 20, 2009
• Classy, Unobtrusive Twitter “Follow” Badges – June 29, 2009
• Twitter redesigns interface, still somewhat unstable – September 19, 2008
• Search Twitter in real time with Summize – June 6, 2008
• Twitter Photo Sharing Service is Growing Fast: Third Party Services are Struggling – November 10, 2011

Spread the “Good Word” with Gospelr originally appeared on: Crenk
Join our Community: Twitter, Facebook

Here’s a summery of what is new and changed:

• Smaller tabs that were on top of the timeline to the right sidebar, where they can occupy more space, making them larger clicking targets. They also moved the following/followers/updates stats to the top of the page and made them larger, so now I can really see how deflated my follower numbers are.
• The most important change, in terms of functionality is the addition of AJAX to the “Home” and “@Replies” pages. Their new implementation allows you to refresh the items in your timeline without having to reload the whole page.
• New design customizer with this release, which allows you to change the colors on your Twitter profile with the help of a color wheel.

Great, new ways to make it look pretty, but still barely works properly.  I’ve been using Twitter on and off for a year now (follow me at twitter.com/mikepanic) and while I did manage to crack 12,000 text messages by subscribing to some major news outlets and having them sent SMS to my cell phone, most of what I’ve found is that it’s just noise, even from people I know in real life.  For more than 3 months now I haven’t had tweets coming into my cell, I’m very happy about this and do not miss it one bit.  I also rarely go to the official Twitter site, rather I use Twitterific on my Mac to read and update tweets.

What is most frustrating, outside of the noise and constant “read my new blog post” tweets that I myself am guilty of sending is the lack of stability.  The service seems to be going down, still, several times a month.  How can I stand behind and love an app just because it’s pretty looking when it isn’t stable?

• Create a Screencast and Share it in Twitter – November 7, 2010
• Save your Photos, Videos and Documents in one Place with PhotoRem – November 7, 2010
• How to Add a Sidebar with Facebook, Twitter, Delicio.us and Digg – October 31, 2010
• How to Handle Several Twitter Accounts – September 19, 2010
• Your First Tweet and Your First Follower – July 28, 2010

Twitter redesigns interface, still somewhat unstable originally appeared on: Crenk
Join our Community: Twitter, Facebook

Some might say that MySites tries to be too much, but I think they execute their offerings very well. Let’s take a look at the Virtual Desktop aspect first.

MySites does a great job of storing up to 10GB of items, to include photos, movies, and music. While it can’t necessarily import files from Flickr, iTunes, or any other site, you can personally upload your own files. With 10GB of space available you can set up your virtual desktop with more than enough to keep it functional. The files are stored in folders that you have to double click to open, just like your real desktop. You have access to the full customization of MySites which makes it a great addition to the usual items you can place on there like calendars, emails, sites, etc.

The flipside of MySites is the Social Networking aspect. MySites fully intends for you to share your content with friends and across as many sites as possible. With the ability to add buddies and designate which files can be accessible, it’s sure to be a great place to gather to share all of your uploaded files. Seeking others with similar interests is also possible, and is encouraged to fully extend your network via MySites.

As of last week MySites could not connect to any currently existing social network site, but again the site is in beta. I was assured that future offerings would be made available as the site is built out.

• iLike – Soical Networking for Music Fans – August 19, 2009
• First Google+ TV Advertising: Sharing, but like real life – November 25, 2011
• Larry Pages Doesnt Even Use Google Plus – September 19, 2011
• Diglo: Social Network for File Sharing and Media Hosting – July 31, 2011
• Official Google Social Network: Google+: Facebook Competitor – June 29, 2011

MySites: Social Site/Virtual Desktop Hybrid originally appeared on: Crenk
Join our Community: Twitter, Facebook

Lately, I’ve actually been really into twitter and have been following people left and right; in return I’m getting followed.  The trouble, in my eyes, is that twitter’s search tool for finding relevant people is far from good.

Welcome to Summize.  It allows you to search, in real time, people’s tweets.  This is really cool if you are looking to meet people who tweet on topics that you are into.  I actually found out about Summize from someone who started to follow me, based on thinks I tweet about.

It’s a fast, simple site that allows you to meet and follow all kinds of new and creative people on twitter.  I’d also like to throw out an invite for everyone to follow me at, http://twitter.com/mikepanic.

• Screenjelly Records Your Screen – July 20, 2009
• Classy, Unobtrusive Twitter “Follow” Badges – June 29, 2009
• Twitter Search App for the iPhone – September 23, 2008
• Spread the “Good Word” with Gospelr – September 19, 2008
• Twitter redesigns interface, still somewhat unstable – September 19, 2008

Search Twitter in real time with Summize originally appeared on: Crenk
Join our Community: Twitter, Facebook