How to buy hosting

 Internet News, Web Design  475 Responses »
Jul 242012
 

Whether you’re buying for the first time or pricing for a new project, Karl Hodge shares his checklist that will help you choose the right hosting

This article first appeared in issue 229 of .net magazine – the world’s best-selling magazine for web designers and developers.

When you buy hosting, you’re entering into a contract that is going to last for quite a while. That’s why it’s important to get it right. We spoke to hosting expert Jacob Colton, director of Catalyst2, and asked him what elements every customer needs to take into account. Whether you’re new to hosting contracts or an old hand who hasn’t shopped around in a while, Jacob’s advice should help you make a better choice.

“There needs to be an understanding of disk space,” Colton told us, “At least an order of magnitude. Are they building a five page brochure site with 10 images, in which case 20MB of disk space will more than suffice, or is it going to be an ecommerce site with 10,000 products, each having 10 images?”

MORE:  How to buy hosting | Opinion | .net magazine.

 

16 lesser-known marketing blogs you should read

 Internet News, Marketing  129 Responses »
Jul 232012
 

It’s a big internet. There’s always something new going on, and there’s always something new you need to understand. So what is the essential reading list for people who want to make sense of the digital world? That’s what you’re going to find in this article. And while you might already be familiar with some of these blogs, there are almost certainly others that you haven’t come across before.

Of course, this list isn’t comprehensive. In fact, it’s a starting point. That’s where you come in, dear reader. I know you have a few of your own blogs that are go-to sources for information. All I ask is that you be so kind as to share your essential reading list with the rest of the community in the comments section.

Tech and business
I’m sure you know the usual suspects in this category, such as The WSJ’s All Things Digital blog, TechCrunch, The NY Times Bits Blog, and PaidContent. But the truth is that good tech news and business analysis doesn’t have to come from a major media company. In fact, some of the best information comes directly from the trenches.e best information comes directly from the trenches.

MORE:  16 lesser-known marketing blogs you should read

 

Facebook adds new duplicate page finder tool for admins to report unofficial pages

 Internet News, Your Brand  298 Responses »
Jul 172012
 

Some Facebook page owners are seeing a new “Report Duplicates” module that allows them to search for pages related to their own and report those that are unofficial. Facebook will review the duplicates and then recategorize them as community pages that link back to the official fan page.

 

MORE:  Facebook adds new duplicate page finder tool for admins to report unofficial pages.

 

Less than 10 percent of traffic to Facebook pages comes from outside Facebook.com

 Internet News, Marketing  268 Responses »
Jul 172012
 

About 5 to 10 percent of traffic to Facebook pages comes from external sources rather than from within Facebook, according to data from PageLever.

The Facebook analytics company looked at 500 Facebook pages each with more than 100,000 fans and found that the average of 7.56 percent of traffic to pages came from external referrals between March 2011 and February 2012.

 

MORE: Less than 10 percent of traffic to Facebook pages comes from outside Facebook.com.

 

9 buzzwords that ignite followers

 Internet News, Marketing, Your Brand  494 Responses »
Jul 172012
 

What makes for a great post in social media? It’s the question that haunts community managers and marketing directors. First, the bad news. You know it. I know it. But I have to point it out: The most effective posts and updates are going to depend on your community. If you have good analytics reporting and pay attention to your fans, you’ll figure it out eventually. (More good info on this here.)

Now, for the good news: There are, in fact, a few magic bullets for Facebook and Twitter. The following discussion covers only Twitter and Facebook. The best research is available for these two platforms more than any others. So let’s take a look at some of the available data to find the buzzwords that ignite your social media followers.

The buzzwords: “Please” and “thank you”

Why they’re powerful

Didn’t your mother teach you anything? Sheesh. The exact same behavior that keeps everyone in the real word from thinking that you’re an asshole applies to the social media world too. Every time you post content for your fans, you are implicitly asking, “Take time from your day and look at this thing that I just posted.” You’re asking them to do something for you, so say “please.” And if they engage, say “thank you.”

MORE:  9 buzzwords that ignite followers (single page view) – iMediaConnection.com.

 

Facebook scans chats and posts for criminal activity

 Internet News, Law  326 Responses »
Jul 162012
 

Facebook has added sleuthing to its array of data-mining capabilities, scanning your posts and chats for criminal activity. If the social-networking giant detects suspicious behavior, it flags the content and determines if further steps, such as informing the police, are required.

The new tidbit about the company’s monitoring system comes from a Reuters interview with Facebook Chief Security Officer Joe Sullivan. Here’s the lead-in to the Reuters story:

A man in his early 30s was chatting about sex with a 13-year-old South Florida girl and planned to meet her after middle-school classes the next day. Facebook’s extensive but little-discussed technology for scanning postings and chats for criminal activity automatically flagged the conversation for employees, who read it and quickly called police. Officers took control of the teenager’s computer and arrested the man the next day.

Facebook’s software focuses on conversations between members who have a loose relationship on the social network. For example, if two users aren’t friends, only recently became friends, have no mutual friends, interact with each other very little, have a significant age difference, and/or are located far from each other, the tool pays particular attention.

via Facebook scans chats and posts for criminal activity

 

Tired of all those facebook app and game invites? Here’s how to block them.

 interface, Internet News  655 Responses »
Jul 152012
 

Mafia Wars, Farmville, Poker, we all get those endless notifications from friends asking us to join games they’re playing. Some people don’t care that they are spamming you, some just don’t know. Many apps are sneaky abut sending requests to all your friends. So what do you do?

Facebook has several help posts involving privacy and app settings. The easiest way we’ve found is shown below, with some helpful links after that.

1. View your notifications. When you see an annoying invite you wish to block, click ‘see all notifications’ at the bottom of the list.

2. When you click ‘see all notifications’ you should get a page that looks something like this. Find the invite on the page. When you move the mouse pointer over the app notice, a small ‘x’ will appear to the right.

3. Click the ‘x’. When you do, it will say ‘turn off’. Click ‘turn off’, and a notice will appear telling you you’ve successfully blocked the game or app. That’s it!

 

 

There are other ways to do this through privacy settings and blocking all notices from a friend. Here are a couple of links that may also be helpful:

http://www.facebook.com/help/?faq=202866049749634

http://www.facebook.com/help/?faq=121070141307903

 

Another 10 WebGL sites that will blow you away

 interface, Internet News, Web Design  60 Responses »
Jul 112012
 

Creative coder and developer Paul Lewis rounds up 10 of the best new WebGL sites and provides some handy tips along the way, if you, too, want to join the 3D revolution

WebGL, then. It’s been around a while, and it looks like it’s here to stay. As you’ve hopefully seen it’s incredibly powerful, capable of pushing around thousands of polygons and particles all the while giving us tons of visual goodies. It’s fair to say I’m a big fan and, if Twitter reactions are anything to go by, so are a lot of other people!

Right now virtually all the major browser manufacturers support WebGL in their browser, although sometimes it needs to be enabled manually. So that’s Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Opera that will all let you see the wonder of WebGL. Still no word on Internet Explorer yet, although hope springs eternal!

About a year ago we ran a feature on 20 WebGL sites that will blow your mind. In internet terms a year is a phenomenally long time, so what we thought we’d do is take a look at what’s new. So once again sit back, crank up your latest browser and feast your eyes on these beauties!

MORE:  Another 10 WebGL sites that will blow you away | Feature | .net magazine.

 

Facebook pages now show top related articles and videos based on users’ Open Graph activity

 interface, Internet News  482 Responses »
Jul 112012
 

Page owners and fans can now view the most popular videos and news articles about a topic by visiting the brand or public figure’s Facebook page.

In the “posts by others” view of Timeline, some pages have “news” and/or “video” modules that shows what users have been reading and watching in Open Graph-integrated apps like Socialcam, Washington Post Social Reader, ESPN, Hulu and others. It’s unclear when Facebook added these modules to pages’ Timelines, but with more media apps integrating Open Graph and more people using them, the data here is increasingly valuable.

MORE:  Facebook pages now show top related articles and videos based on users’ Open Graph activity.

 

Facebook now allows pages to make ‘unpublished’ posts to test creative options

 Internet News, Marketing  249 Responses »
Jul 112012
 

Facebook recently added an option for pages to make “unpublished” posts through the Pages API. Unpublished posts do not appear on a page’s Timeline or in fans’ News Feeds, but they can be promoted with ads.

Facebook ad and page management platforms can integrate this feature to help page owners test different creative options. Previously, page owners using the self-serve ad tool or Ads API could not run page-post ads without creating a post that would also show up in fans’ feeds. Now, for instance, a business can target non-fans with an ad that includes an intro video that might not be relevant to users who have already Liked the page.

MORE:  Facebook now allows pages to make ‘unpublished’ posts to test creative options.

 

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