YouTube has opened up its new design for channels, so far available only as limited beta, to all users.
The YouTube One Channel, as it’s called, gives users the ability to slap a big header (called Channel Art) on the top of their channels and to have a video trailer which starts playing for all visitors who aren’t yet subscribed to the channel.
The new Channel Art-adorned channels, YouTube claims, will look good on any screen size and any device.
via YouTube One Channel Now Open for Everyone.
The most successful companies now understand that high-quality content draws people in, builds trust, drives traffic, mobilizes social media sharing, and results in sales. With more and more businesses jumping on the content bandwagon, there will be even more competition for audience attention. That means it’s more important than ever to make sure your content is useful, interesting, and engaging enough to draw readers in.
You must understand your audience. Go out of your way to learn their needs, desires, and frustrations. Once you know your target customer intimately, you will be able to craft content that stands out, gets attention, and has a long shelf life.
What it means for your business: Don’t just decide to ramp up your content marketing. To stay ahead of your competition, develop specific content marketing goals. By keeping a strategic focus, you’ll stay well ahead of those who are blindly jumping on the bandwagon.
READ MORE: 5 new developments in content marketing (single page view) – iMediaConnection.com.
Never mind Al Gore, Neil Gaiman, or Elon Musk, all of whom spoke at SXSW over the last few days. It’s Grumpy Cat that has been on everyone’s lips. Whether for good — after all, who doesn’t love a sweet kitty, even with a taciturn expression? — or for bad (the poor kitty has had to deal with an unbelievable number of people pawing at her), it would be hard to find a bigger story here this week.
This cannot be good for SXSW.
Over the years, this interactive festival has been the launching pad for some pretty amazing technology. Twitter exploded here in 2007, and Foursquare launched here in 2009. GroupMe had its public coming-out at SXSW, and so did people discovery apps like Highlight.
This year, no one really expected any new apps to break out, or for there to be any real big news or controversy. But I’m willing to bet that no one expected that the biggest story of all would be a small cat with a grumpy face.
For several days now, tens of thousands of people have been prowling around the streets of downtown Austin, attending a billion panels, keynotes, featured sessions, parties, meetups, and so forth. Many of the smartest people in the industry have shared their wisdom, and thousands have happily listened during an impressive selection of talks available to badge-holders.
But ask any veteran SXSW attendee, and I’m willing to bet that you’ll hear a similar story: the energy level has been low. There’s no buzz about anything. There’s a few interesting new apps — Takes and MessageMe come to mind — but in general, there hasn’t been much worth talking about, at least among companies that had yet to be in the public conversation.
READ MORE: If Grumpy Cat is the biggest news of all, is SXSW in trouble? | SXSW – CNET News.
Last month Opera announced it would be abandoning the Presto rendering engine that has been the basis of the browser since its inception. Instead the company will use the WebKit rendering engine for all its future releases, starting with this Opera Mobile for Android beta.
The revamped Opera for Android isn’t just different under the hood, Opera has redesigned the entire browser from the ground up opting for a more Android-native look. The new user interface is cleaner and reminiscent of Chrome for Android with a single menu button at the top of the screen rather than the space-eating toolbar found in the old Opera Mobile. While I prefer the new UI, it’s worth noting that the new design is decidedly less thumb-friendly.
Other cosmetic changes include combining the URL bar and search bar, and a new tab switching interface also similar to what you’ll find in Safari on iOS.
However, while the first WebKit-based Opera Mobile is clearly different it manages to retain, and even improve on, much of what made (makes) Opera unique.
For example, Opera Mobile’s trademark “Speed Dial” page
READ MORE: Reborn Opera Mobile Sings on Android | Webmonkey | Wired.com.
Here are 30 blogs I read consistently. They’re well written, informative and actionable. Read these blogs and you’ll have strategies you can use today. Each recommendation includes a description of the value proposition and a link to a good article to start with. I’ve sorted the blogs into general categories.
READ MORE: 30 Must Read Blogs For Entrepreneurs Running a Startup – LaunchRock.
We were confident Maxis was the studio to deliver a proper sequel, but the studio’s choice of an always online DRM solution has proven to be a complete disaster. Maximum PC online managing editor Jimmy Thang has criticized EA’s handling of the situation, and the company’s PR department has been pulling overtime trying to repair the games reputation.
Firstly EA has clarified that it is not banning customers for requesting a refund, but you probably won’t get one either. The company points disgruntled customers to its return policy, which states in no uncertain terms that digital customers are out of luck. Disputing the charges with your bank weren’t specifically mentioned, but we would guess this would be handled more severely.
Secondly EA is hoping to mend a few bridges by offering up a free game.
READ MORE: EA Patches SimCity and Throws Free Games at Disgruntled Customers | Maximum PC.
Linkedin and Pinterest are among the top 2 social networks that has seen considerable scale in revenue and users last year and in an interesting research ” shows why Ecommerce and online retailers are throwing their might with Pinterest instead to spending on Facebook A recent chart from Comscore showed that ” Pinterest user base” outspends Facebook users and its ” Spending Power” or consumption patterns are more lucrative to marketers compared to any other social media site
The nature of Pinterest social community is more transactional as compared to other social networks . This is because its not only the numbers but the kind of ” product mix” Pinterest users engage in .
Not many know that 80% of the top Pinterest categories are related to commerce, and its no wonder why more jewelry,Apparels,and Cosmetic, Fashion and beauty chains are heavily investing on it As a result, Pinterest users who shop at Sephora spend 15 times more on its products than the brand’s Facebook followers.
READ MORE: Why Facebook is Loosing out to Pinterest:Pinterest Users Buy 15 times more – Online Marketing Trends.
Can’t make it to this year’s South by Southwest (aka SXSW) show in Austin? At least you don’t have to miss out on the music.
As part of its SXSW: Live from Austin series, NPR is offering The Austin 100 — a collection of 100 songs by 100 artists, all in MP3 format, all absolutely free.
And I mean really and truly free: There’s nothing to register for, no form to complete, and not a single Facebook or Twitter sharing requirement.
Just scroll down a bit until you see the Download the Music box on the left, then right-click the Zip file to download the entire batch of songs. You can also scroll down a bit further and download individual tracks if you prefer.
READ MORE: Get 100 free MP3s from SXSW 2013 | The Cheapskate – CNET News.
We asked designers to change the future by designing an app for Windows Phone that would help us create, connect or simply impress our future selves. You answered the call with hundreds of amazing and inspiring submissions from scrapbooks and font managers, trip trackers or convoy road managers, to diaries that don’t broadcast your every thought or will even seal them up for the future. After hours of review and deliberation by our fantastic jurors Chris Caldwell (GSkinner.com), Jennifer Bove (Kicker Studio), Corrina Black (Microsoft), Pratik Kothari (Techark Solutions), and Eric Ludlum (Core77), we are proud to announce our 50 finalists and five winners!
READ MORE: App to the Future: Design Challenge Winners – Core77.
3D printers are gaining in popularity, with uses spanning the spectrum from moon bases to firearms, but there’s another area where the ability to construct complex shapes is beginning to provide benefits: getting high.
Online magazine Motherboard has published the story about the slow but inevitable rise of 3D-printed bongs. MakerBot’s Thingiverse site returns almost two dozen template results when searching for “bong,” all of which are downloadable in STL format and printable on tons of different 3D printers.
Common resin-based 3D printers can’t create glass, so a water pipe produced from these templates wouldn’t be entirely print-n-toke, but most appear to be ready to go as soon as glass pipes are added. The descriptions for many of the pipes indicate that they should be printed with PLA, which the Ice Bong creator notes “is biodegradable and poses no health risk and also has no smell.”
READ MORE: Download this bong: 3D printer templates for getting your buzz on | Ars Technica.
