News & Tips

The Rapid wins first place at the APTA's 2010 AdWheel Awards competition in the Social Media Category with its blog: getonboard.org - As a first place winner, The Rapid will be recognized at a special ceremony during the 2010 APTA Annual Meeting in San Antonio.

Some useful tips on how to keep things organized. The comments provide a fair amount of helpful information and ideas as well.

While Microsoft's Bing might be getting a lot of attention, Google is still king of all things search. Google's search rivals, such as Bing and Yahoo have been pulling out the stops over the last several months trying to take a chunk out of its market share, but so far it's not working, according to numbers released Wednesday from Experian Hitwise, an online market tracker.

Micro-blogging site Twitter is having a positive effect on the number of consumers using their mobile phone to access the web, says Novarra.

Most e-patients go online to read about a health condition. But that seems almost passive compared to the way a group of Internet-savvy people are connecting to get their health information. About 20 percent of e-patients go to Internet and social-networking sites where they can talk to medical experts and other patients "The Internet now is not just information, There is a social life of information online. And people are using all these tools to connect with friends and family, to connect with health professionals. And people are accessing a much deeper level of information now than they were five years ago."

JavaScript's creator claims JavaScript has displaced Java as a Web client, outlines projected enhancements

The new MSN homepage debuts tonight and you would be completely correct for thinking the recipe Microsoft (MSFT) has cooked up to inform its design ethos–white, clean and hiply modern–has definite echoes of a certain longtime tech rival. That would be Apple (AAPL), of course, with a big dollop of Twitter and Facebook tossed in and finished off with a generous sprinkling of Microsoft’s new Bing search service.

Dan Frakes describes how a 3rd-party site offers a simple bookmarklet to help you make any other site... well... more readable.

Jim Ray talks about how to get rid of IE6... without getting rid of it. It's an early attempt, but I'm pretty certain your mom (or your client) will end up being able to implement this eventually... "Chrome Frame potentially makes designing for progressive enhancement even more realistic. Imagine being able to design with all of the modern tools like HTML 5, CSS 3, SVG, and performant javascript and telling all of your users, even the ones using IE 6, that this can all be theirs if they’ll just install a quick plug-in."

Paul DeLeeuw (rhymes with 'bamboo') has agreed to slave away in ddm's interactive/web development group. Aside from the requisite knowledge of PHP/Javascript/etc, Paul brings some additional skills with WordPress implementations, dynamic Flash creation, PDF generation experience and an entire video/film production degree. Won't be long before we draw on all those skills.

The Rapid wins first place at the APTA's 2010 AdWheel Awards competition in the Social Media Category with its blog: getonboard.org - As a first place winner, The Rapid will be recognized at a special ceremony during the 2010 APTA Annual Meeting in San Antonio.

Micro-blogging site Twitter is having a positive effect on the number of consumers using their mobile phone to access the web, says Novarra.

Most e-patients go online to read about a health condition. But that seems almost passive compared to the way a group of Internet-savvy people are connecting to get their health information. About 20 percent of e-patients go to Internet and social-networking sites where they can talk to medical experts and other patients "The Internet now is not just information, There is a social life of information online. And people are using all these tools to connect with friends and family, to connect with health professionals. And people are accessing a much deeper level of information now than they were five years ago."

The new MSN homepage debuts tonight and you would be completely correct for thinking the recipe Microsoft (MSFT) has cooked up to inform its design ethos–white, clean and hiply modern–has definite echoes of a certain longtime tech rival. That would be Apple (AAPL), of course, with a big dollop of Twitter and Facebook tossed in and finished off with a generous sprinkling of Microsoft’s new Bing search service.

Recent moves suggest that the social networking site Facebook wants to be the next Google instead of the latest MySpace, according to PC World's Tony Bradley.

To enhance the firm’s ability to manage growth and new opportunities, ddm has named Bob Taylor, Director of Strategic Business Development. Bob will focus on new opportunities within targeted markets and existing channels, and provide leadership in emerging specialties like; social media and interactive digital solutions.

When Facebook launched its latest redesign, it became evident that the company was putting a lot of emphasis on real-time information—inspired, undoubtedly, by the runaway success of Twitter. Now the company has rolled out two small but crucial new features that put instant updates even more front and center.

Twitter grew faster than any other Web site in May, when its unique visitors rose almost 1,500 percent year-on-year to 18.2 million, according to Nielsen Online.

The power of Twitter is in the public timeline and the search. With the two combined things becoming viral quickly. Facebook has built its >300 million user base on trust and connectivity (friends/family). Will they be able to carry it to the next level and beat out Twitter on news and buzz through the open timeline/search?

It seems strange to us here @teamddm but it took a couple of years and >300 million users worldwide for the U.S. user base of Facebook to surpass that of MySpace. ~70 million. Humble pie= realizing that the U.S. population on Facebook only represents less than a quarter of the total user base. Oh and Twitter is up to 17 million.

It has inspired a host of imitators and quite a lot of speculation over when or how it would become profitable and if or when it would be acquired. Now the site is launching Digg Ads, its bid to move away from static banners and apply the social nature of the site to advertising.

Our own Jordan Buning was a panel member for a MSHDA conference. The panel was titled Rethinking Transit. Rapid Growth Media made this video of Jordan as an Introduction.

Facebook is finally going to provide custom usernames — and hence Web addresses — for its 200 million users.

According to AdWeek, Izea is planning to launch a program called Sponsored Tweets next month that will work much like its product for bloggers. Sponsored Tweets will “offer Twitter users the option of sending their followers messages about brands and products. Twitterers will get paid based either on the number of clicks they receive or on a flat fee per Tweet.”

Twitter’s favorites feature is underused by many, but it’s very useful if you want to compile a list of your favorite Tweets and links. Yet while you can favor and create a list, it’s not something you can share or send to others. ...It’s a great way to create a mosaic of Tweets, to promote a hashtag, compile the best tweets about an event, or even promote yourself on Twitter. It also comes with the ability to reply or retweet individual tweets, as well as share the entire Twttrlist page.

With the fragmentation of Twitter mobile and desktop apps resulting in a great volume of tweets no longer coming through the Twitter web interface, sussing out @replies can be tricky. Not only does that app, one Twitoaster, conveniently thread Twitter conversations; it also generates charts and statistics, sorts hashtags and link details, and delivers tweets in excess of 140 characters.

Our children will inherit a world profoundly changed by the combination of technology and humanity that is social media. They’ll take for granted that their voices can be heard and that a social movement can be launched from their laptop. And they’ll take for granted that they are connected and interconnected with hundreds of millions of people at any given moment. What’s most profound is that these represent parts of a greater whole. They represent a shift in power from centralized institutions and organizations to the people they represent. It is the evolution of democracy by way of technology, and we are all better for it. For most of us, social media has changed our lives in some meaningful way. Collectively it is changing the world for good. Given the pace of innovation and adoption, change has become a constant. Every so often we find the need to stop and reflect on its most recent and noteworthy developments, hence the following list.

Content is king, we're here to help you generate great content and then leverage that content, Smashing Magazine suggests the following ten ways to leverage content: 1. Desktop app 2. Mobile app 3. Twitter 4. Blog for others 5. Facebook 6. Widget/API 7. Better Feeds 8. Multimedia 9. Streaming Content 10. Email

There are multiple Twitter clients and applications that attempt to make it easy to link tweets to @replies. The goal is to make Twitter into a more conversational platform by seeing how a conversation unfolds.

Martin points out that both Facebook and MySpace had retention rates around 70 percent when they were emerging sites like Twitter is now, while Twitter languishes below 40 percent. I think Nielsen could be way off base with this report. Martin didn’t say how Nielsen came to these numbers, but if the evaluators simply determined Twitter’s popularity by measuring visits to Twitter.com from Web browsers, then Nielsen’s numbers are completely inaccurate. The reason is that, unlike other social networks, Twitter’s primary use is not really as a Web site but an Internet-based communications service.

Though you may be smaller, there’s no shortage of opportunities for small and medium-sized businesses to compete in search. And that statement is made even more true when you consider that nearly 40 percent of searches include local intent and that the search engines are now using local results even when a user doesn’t implicitly ask for them. If you’re a small business, that’s an opportunity.

What surprised the folks at ComScore was that the average age for Tweeters was in the 25- to 54-year-old range, with the over-45 set stealing the bulk of the user pie. ComScore says people aged 45-54 are 36 percent more likely to use Twitter than the rest of us, while those aged 25-34 are 30 percent more likely. The numbers are not that surprising when you consider that many businesses are turning toward Twitter for public relations, brand management and even customer service.

• Networking with other platforms (blog, web site, Twitter etc.) • Creating a resource (be useful) • Creating contests that include participation • Empowering pre-existing pages • Targeting the proper demographic Creating a Facebook fan page is simple, but getting it to work well takes time, dedication, and some planning. Don’t expect to create a page and then have a huge following instantaneously. Build good content, make it easy to share, and let people know about it, and over time the community will grow.

Gartner predicts that by 2011, enterprise microblogging will be a standard feature of 80 percent of social software platforms, even though most are currently consumer orientated.

In a speech given at the Morgan Stanley Technology Conference, Google CEO Eric Schmidt questioned the future of Twitter, calling it a "poor man's email system," and raising further speculation of Google potentially buying Twitter.

This may not help a company with the ultimate Twitter question: What benefit would we get from being on Twitter? This list of 10 things to get started with will make it more interesting than finding out what Jonathan Ross is having for lunch.

We're glad you are going to join, but do you have any idea how it works? Read this article on 20 tips, from backgrounds to tweet ideas.

We use a few of these tools to maintain a high level of dialog for our clients on Twitter. Check them out and see which tools might work best for you.

There are a few influential groups online, and a couple in the twitterverse. But nothing quite as influential as Twitter Moms. It just some how seems to fit into their schedule and their passions.

Even though TechCrunch posted this information a year ago, we are finding that people do not know about trending in Twitter. You may have seen Google Trends, but have you seen Twist? Our personal favorite: Determine weather conditions historically: When was it icy? Better than twist for generic topics (not timezone specific) is Twitscoop.

There are more than 10, but Kevin gives some good links and good advice here.

Qwitter monitors your followers and notifies you via email if anyone unfollows you.

Large brands are using Twitter in multiple ways.

See the differences in the two largest social networks, long comment trail offers quite a bit of value.

Think what you will about the politics but the fact of waging war online is here.

Businesses tend to resist using Twitter. Here are some helpful ideas of how it can help your site.

So the Internet is generating a lot of information every day. How do you stay on top of it? RSS, don't know what that is? This site will help. The video on the bottom is good for those with no patience to read, aka visual learners

Twitter offers a nice way to monitor what people are saying about a topic, or your brand, or your market.

The Rapid wins first place at the APTA's 2010 AdWheel Awards competition in the Social Media Category with its blog: getonboard.org - As a first place winner, The Rapid will be recognized at a special ceremony during the 2010 APTA Annual Meeting in San Antonio.

Some useful tips on how to keep things organized. The comments provide a fair amount of helpful information and ideas as well.

While Microsoft's Bing might be getting a lot of attention, Google is still king of all things search. Google's search rivals, such as Bing and Yahoo have been pulling out the stops over the last several months trying to take a chunk out of its market share, but so far it's not working, according to numbers released Wednesday from Experian Hitwise, an online market tracker.

Micro-blogging site Twitter is having a positive effect on the number of consumers using their mobile phone to access the web, says Novarra.

JavaScript's creator claims JavaScript has displaced Java as a Web client, outlines projected enhancements

The new MSN homepage debuts tonight and you would be completely correct for thinking the recipe Microsoft (MSFT) has cooked up to inform its design ethos–white, clean and hiply modern–has definite echoes of a certain longtime tech rival. That would be Apple (AAPL), of course, with a big dollop of Twitter and Facebook tossed in and finished off with a generous sprinkling of Microsoft’s new Bing search service.

Dan Frakes describes how a 3rd-party site offers a simple bookmarklet to help you make any other site... well... more readable.

Jim Ray talks about how to get rid of IE6... without getting rid of it. It's an early attempt, but I'm pretty certain your mom (or your client) will end up being able to implement this eventually... "Chrome Frame potentially makes designing for progressive enhancement even more realistic. Imagine being able to design with all of the modern tools like HTML 5, CSS 3, SVG, and performant javascript and telling all of your users, even the ones using IE 6, that this can all be theirs if they’ll just install a quick plug-in."

Paul DeLeeuw (rhymes with 'bamboo') has agreed to slave away in ddm's interactive/web development group. Aside from the requisite knowledge of PHP/Javascript/etc, Paul brings some additional skills with WordPress implementations, dynamic Flash creation, PDF generation experience and an entire video/film production degree. Won't be long before we draw on all those skills.

Recent moves suggest that the social networking site Facebook wants to be the next Google instead of the latest MySpace, according to PC World's Tony Bradley.

Caffeine: Google’s New Search Index Google has just unveiled a “secret project” of “next-generation architecture for Google’s web search“. This new architecture appears to include crawling, indexing, and ranking changes.

Chrome threatens Safari's browser share spot, Firefox falters; Net Applications' revised data shows Microsoft's IE8 converting IE7 users at even faster clip

Microsoft's Bing search engine will power Yahoo's search site, and Yahoo will sell premium search advertising services for both companies.

Google's announcement of its Chrome OS was the big tech news this week. But did we get the story right?

ComScore reports that Bing continued to tick up in market share in the past week and is now up about 3 percentage points from where Microsoft was pre-Bing.

Since unveiling its own browser, Google's continued support of Firefox has been somewhat puzzling. But to the world's dominant Web search provider, helping to increase the amount of Web use ultimately means more Google searches.

Yahoo previewed a new way of presenting search results that could be introduced within two to three months.

Google has apologized for yesterday's service outage that left 14 percent of its user base without Google's wide variety of online services for a few hours. Google said in a blog post the outage came down to a simple traffic jam at an Asian data center...

Content is king, we're here to help you generate great content and then leverage that content, Smashing Magazine suggests the following ten ways to leverage content: 1. Desktop app 2. Mobile app 3. Twitter 4. Blog for others 5. Facebook 6. Widget/API 7. Better Feeds 8. Multimedia 9. Streaming Content 10. Email

Google released software called O3D to bring accelerated 3D graphics to browsers, a significant effort but not the only one to try to endow Web applications with some of the computing muscle that PC programs can use.

Google released a new version of its Chrome browser Thursday to fix a high-severity security problem...

Better browsers. Better standards. Better tools. So why are Web pages still breaking?

Promise of doom and gloom... "Organizers of next week's Black Hat Europe conference are promising a security presentation that could impact anyone who uses the Internet."

A new report by the Pew Research Center attempts to categorize people into 10 different types of tech users.

The beginning of a series (originally run earlier this year) that points out several ways to deal with the flood of legitimate email we all have to deal with.

Because, despite common perception, you do have a choice about how you experience the Internet... A comparison of 9 browsers - including some not yet released. Here's the scoop (according to maximpc.com). And yes, it looks like we coders are going to have to learn some more IE specific hacks (again!).

The newest version of Apple's web browser (for PC & Mac) offers a number of tools that could affect how you cruise the Internet— including making everything faster. Follow the discussion at MacWorld.

Run-of-the-mill Google searches usually turn up useful results, but you can supercharge your searching—saving time and getting more relevant matches—with these tips.

Palm pulls the plug on Palm OS, bets the future on Pre's webOS.

Microsoft Internet Explorer loses 7 percent of its browser market share to browsers like Firefox, Safari and Chrome. The percentage of use for Internet Explorer 6 fell from roughly 31 percent to 19 percent in that same timeframe.

It's not a new idea, but dynamic style sheets can really help minimize the complexities of having dozens of separate-but-integrated display functions across hundreds of pages... let alone the benefit you can realize when trying to update the site after the project's been completed. Simple variables inside the style sheet (e.g., for colors or spacing/distances) can keep things nimble and still maintain consistency.

More from Smashing Magazine on up and coming trends for online design.

Interesting insight into the search patterns as observed by Google during, about and surrounding the Inauguration of the 44th President.

This is not rocket science. If you pay attention and spend time surfing the Web you will have seen these coming.

Google has changed their favicon, We're not sure we like it. Do you?

The major press outlets are abuzz with news of a major new security flaw that affects all versions of Internet Explorer from IE5 to the latest beta of IE8. The attack has serious and far-reaching ramifications — and they're not just theoretical attacks. In fact, the flaw is already in wide use as a tool to steal online game passwords, with some 10,000 Web sites infected with the code needed to take advantage of the hole in IE.

It has been just shy of two weeks since the first release candidate of Firefox 3.5 became available for download, and reports say that the latest version of Firefox should go official tomorrow. Yet already, the Mozilla team is wasting no time in preparing for Firefox 3.6 — the next, next big version of the world’s second most popular web browser.