Google Analytics, the super dominant free web analytics platform, has to date offered analytics that were roughly 24 hours behind. The wait to stop waiting has come to an end and today the company announced that Google Analytics is now rolling out real-time reporting to its users.
via Google Analytics Finally Goes Real Time (Plus New Premium Accounts).
Sure, it’s easy to say you’ll quit Facebook. Even without the most recent changes, its sheer size and near-ubiquity is enough to make the more paranoid amongst us want to opt-out. After all, the world existed for billions of years before Facebook; certainly life would continue to be just fine without it.
This is true. Still, quitting Facebook is much more difficult than it sounds. After all, what happens when someone sends you a link to a photo, video or conversation, but requires a Facebook login to see? Facebook is unique in its broad social reach. Unlike earlier social networks like LiveJournal, Friendster or MySpace, Facebook isn’t just for younger users. Despite getting its start on college campuses, Facebook is now just as popular amongst adolescents as it is with Baby Boomers.
That broad social reach means cutting the service out of your life is easier said than done. Sure, it’s fun to say “I’ll delete my account and never log in again,” but as soon my cousin posts photos of her new baby and makes those photos only visible on Facebook… well, that kind of kills my resolve.
Google Plus’ big killer feature from the start has been that it lets users organize their friends and acquaintances into Circles to control what is shared, and with whom. But creating all these curated groups seemed a little like a half baked feature seeing as you couldn’t let anyone else in on that perfectly organized group. Well, now you can. Google is rolling out the ability to share circles on Google+.
To share a Circle, just click on the Circle in question and choose Share. This will pull up the familiar composition field where you can choose who to share it with.
ZipShare is an application from WinZip that quickly and easily allows users to share up to 100 megabytes worth of data on Facebook, either to their groups or on their Wall. The app brings you through Facebook Connect, asks you to upload your files and where you want to post them (group or Wall). The app then converts this data into a zip file and publishes a download link.
via ZipShare Allows for Sharing of 100MB Worth of Files to Your Facebook Wall, Groups.
Technologist Benjamin Bojko and art director Dan Mall, on behalf of digital agency Big Spaceship, give us an exclusive look behind the creation of Activatedrinks.com and explain how they pulled off the loading process and added depth and fluid parallax motion to the particles effect on the site
ACTIVATE engaged Big Spaceship as digital agency of record to oversee digital strategy and production, including the brand’s social and mobile marketing. The redesign of Activatedrinks.com and establishing their Facebook presence emerged as the primary initiatives in re-setting their online presence for this growing brand. When the Big Spaceship team began brainstorms towards these goals we didn’t have a lot of time to pull this off.
via Building an immersive environment with CSS and JavaScript | Tutorial | .net magazine.
All your e-books are belong to us. That sums up Amazon’s Library Lending service pretty well. Get ready to borrow all the free e-books your Kindle (or Kindle app) can handle, because the service is live, as of today.
Going to the library is something of a trip, or adventure, depending on how you look at it. Our generation doesn’t go to library because we have the Internet and we read most of our books on e-readers or through e-book apps on tablets, smartphones and laptops.
Back in April, Amazon unveiled its plan to allow Kindle and Kindle apps to borrow books from libraries. The only downside was having to actually go to a physical library.
That’s no more. Borrowing an e-book from a local library requires only a visit to its website and a working library card.
via Borrowing Kindle e-books at over 11,000 libraries begins today | DVICE.
In the last of our .net Awards 2011 profiles, we showcase the 10 websites of the year that you have nominated. They all are rich in visual flair and imagination but which one really pushed the boundaries of the web this year?
Over the last weeks we’ve profiled eight categories in the .net Awards 2011. Today it’s the turn of the big one: site of the year.
via .net Awards 2011: the 10 sites of the year | Feature | .net magazine.
Over the last few weeks, we’ve gathered together some great resources and information on constructing amazing user interfaces. Here, we’ll take a closer look at 10 beautiful interfaces — five for the web and five for mobile — that you can use as reference points in your own design.
Users part of the initial roll out of the news feed redesign announced yesterday are also receiving several other unannounced changes to Facebook’s interface. These include an expansion of the character limit on posts from 500 to 5,000, a rollout of the floating navigation bar we saw tested last week, the ability to edit bookmarks in the home page’s left navigation bar, and a more convenient way to leave birthday greetings. Over the last few days Facebook has also buried the poke button within a drop down menu, and removed the ability to accompany a friend request with a message.
By launching these interface alterations now rather than amongst other sweeping updates at the f8 developer conference on Thursday, Facebook may be able to reduce the shock to users. The timing will also help the site keep attention focused on Platform-related updates that directly impact developers. Unfortunately, the combination of so many changes with the prompts necessary to explain them gives the home page a foreign look that may turn off some users.
Facebook has made two significant changes to how users interact with Pages. Now, users don’t need to have Liked a Page to be able to post on a Page’s wall or comment on its updates. This allows more users to join conversations, which could add more perspectives to discussions but also dilute them with unrelated comments, or drown them with complaints.
via Facebook Allows Users to Comment on Pages Without Liking Them, Adds Friend Activity Tab to Pages.