Saturday, January 31, 2009

About Google Friend Connect

Google Friend Connect
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

What is Google Friend Connect?
Google Friend Connect is an online service by Google that allows users on the internet to connect with their friends on different websites.

About us
Google Friend Connect is an Open Social application offered by Google that started in May 2008. Google Friend Connect main focus is to simplify the connection between social and non-social websites and standardize the handling and presentation of social applications and content. It uses a blend of open standards, such as OpenID for signin, oAuth to control data, and Open Social for applications.

How Google Friend Connect?
Google Friend Connect is free but requires approval of the website using it. It requires no knowledge of web programming and enables any website to offer social applications and content from Facebook, Hi5, Orkut, Plaxo, MySpace, Google Talk and other social networks.

At the time the interface is in English and there's no option to choose other languages. Google didn't announce any plans to translate it and most words can't be translated by the site that implements it.

Examples of use are:
  • E-commerce site: Allow users to check whether friends purchased or review the product you are interested in on the product web page.
  • News sites: Allow users insert comments and opinions with their real profile.
  • Organization Sites: Increase marketing and communication within members of the organization.
  • Blogs and Personal Websites: Increase communication within author friends.
You may also like to follow and twit with us at Twitter iGoogle Friends and grow our website traffic together. Its a 'Win Win Situation'...Watch the video about Google Friend Connect below;

Google Friends Newsletter - January 2009

Google Friends Newsletter - January 2009

Our warmest new year's greetings to all of our Google friends. We hope
you enjoy this month's update on our products and services.

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POWER TIP

Google Hot Trends gadget

Google Hot Trends is a fascinating real-time tool for seeing what
people are searching for right now. Add the Google Hot Trends gadget
(from the gadget directory) to your iGoogle page to see search queries
that have sudden surges of popularity in the U.S., Japan, India,
Korea, Hong Kong/Taiwan and Singapore.
http://www.google.com/ig

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NEW PRODUCTS & UPDATES

Explore New York City with Google

We joined Mayor Michael Bloomberg at a press conference to announce
nycgo.com and the brand new Official NYC Information Center located in
midtown, both of which use Google tools and technology to help
visitors and residents explore all there is to see and do around New
York City. Plan a trip there using the Google Maps features available
on nycgo.com, navigate using Google Maps for mobile, and stop by the
Information Center to create a personal itinerary using the
interactive map tables.
http://m.google.com/nyc

Google Maps Transit layer for 50 cities

The Transit layer is a visual overlay of public transit options on
Google Maps, which offer an alternative to driving directions wherever
possible. The next time you visit London and want to visit the Tate
Modern, you can simply search for [Tate Modern] on Google Maps, and
then click on "More" and activate "Transit" to see nearby tube
stations and which lines serve them. You can even click on a station
and see which transit lines are passing through right now. The layer
is available for 50 cities around the world, including Chicago,
Dallas, London, Madrid, Paris, San Francisco and Seattle, and you can
find schedule data and itineraries for any transportation agencies
that are part of Google Transit.
http://maps.google.com

Picasa for Mac

We recently rolled out our photo organizing software, Picasa, for the
Macintosh, bringing all of the advanced sharing and sync features of
Picasa to the millions of Mac OS X users who use Picasa Web Albums.
Now sharing your photos with friends and family is as easy as pressing
a button. Picasa for Mac also includes all of the key editing and
photo-management features from Picasa 3 on Windows, ranging from basic
fixes like automatic red-eye correction to creative tools such as
photo collages.
http://picasa.google.com/mac

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MISCELLANY

On January 28, the U.S. and Canada joined 27 European countries to
celebrate Data Privacy Day. As the volume of data uploaded to the
Internet every day grows exponentially, it becomes more and more
important to understand the benefits and risks of online
communications -- and to learn how to use tools to control and manage
information you share online. To mark this special day of awareness,
we joined U.S. and European government officials and key members of
the privacy community on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., to discuss
how to increase public awareness about data privacy. In addition to
these efforts, we work to connect directly with everyone who uses our
products too. Our Privacy Center offers information, tips and videos
that explain how we're committed to protecting your online privacy and
how you can control what data you share. If you haven't been there
yet, we encourage you to visit. And, we'll continue to add new
information, so check back often.
http://www.google.com/privacy


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The Google Blog offers frequent updates and insights about our technology and products, and the company at large.
http://googleblog.blogspot.com

--------------------------------------------------
Share Google Friends with a friend through Google Groups (includes subscribe/unsubscribe information).
http://groups.google.com/group/google-friends

--------------------------------------------------
Google Friends archive:
http://groups.google.com/group/google-friends/topics

Google Friends archive prior to May 2005:
http://www.google.com/googlefriends/archive.html

To unsubscribe from the Google Friends Newsletter, send an empty message to:
google-friends-unsubscribe@googlegroups.com

Google, Inc.
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043
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Thursday, January 29, 2009

[Inside AdSense] Add on to AdSense

Do you regularly work with your webpages and AdSense implementation, tinkering with HTML or PHP and creating images and code on the fly? If you do, Firefox add-ons can help streamline the process of creating webpages. Here are some in particular that you may find useful:

ColorZilla
This extension tells you which RGB or hex color you're looking at, to help you make sure you created that logo for your business with just the right shade of blue, for instance. The tool also creates custom color palettes while you're browsing, so you can use them in your designs.

MeasureIt
Like the name says, use this add-on to measure the width and height in pixels of any element you see on a webpage. It's very simple to use, and you can define how much space you have left for that AdSense ad unit on the right-side. :)

IE View
Do you frequently use Internet Explorer to check how your website renders on that browser? This add-on allows you to view the way any page would look if it were opened in IE, without the hassle of opening another browser. You can also see pages that aren't Firefox-friendly much more easily.

WebDeveloper toolbar
This all-in-one toolbar gives you quick control over things like JavaScript display, form and CSS elements, screen resizing (so you know what your website looks like in smaller resolutions), HTML validation, and much more.

Hopefully, we'll soon have a similar set of add-ons for Chrome, and we'll be sure to share them with our readers.

What are your favorite add-ons for web developing? Leave us a comment below.



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Posted By Inside AdSense Team to Inside AdSense at 1/28/2009 09:38:00 A
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Unable to view the links or images in the message above? Want to comment on this post? Visit http://adsense.blogspot.com/ .

You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Inside AdSense" group.
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to Inside-AdSense-unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Inside-AdSense
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Monday, January 26, 2009

Twitter - A free social networking

Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?

What is Twitter?
Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows its users to send and read other users' updates (otherwise known as tweets), which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length.

Updates are displayed on the user's profile page and delivered to other users who have signed up to receive them. Senders can restrict delivery to those in their circle of friends (delivery to everyone being the default). Users can receive updates via the Twitter website, SMS, RSS, or email, or through applications such as TwitterMobile, Tweetie, Twinkle, TwitterFox, Twitterrific, Feedalizr, and Facebook. Four gateway numbers are currently available for SMS: short codes for the United States, Canada, and India, and a United Kingdom-based number for international use. Several third parties offer posting and receiving updates via email. Twitter had by one measure over 3 million accounts and, by another, well over 5 million visitors in September 2008, a fivefold increase in a month.

Get Started Now! Join the conversation!

iGoogle newly updated widget content

I'm an iGoogle addict and also a Google Friend Connect biG fan. Today, Google (NSDQ: GOOG) rolled out an updated design for iGoogle to all U.S. users, which includes full canvas views for gadgets and support for full feed reading. These changes make iGoogle a more useful homepage.


According to the official article, the change was made to allow "canvas view" widgets. These are useful. I do like being able to access my Gmail without leaving iGoogle, and I can see how more of these widgets would make things even better, but I don't see how that necessitated moving the tabs and wasting horizontal screen space.


Some of the gadgets that can access the canvas view are:
  • News: New gadgets from The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post give full-page views of what’s new in the world.

  • Games: The Sudoku gadget lets you play thousands of full-page Sudoku puzzles without squinting at 6-point type. The GoComics gadget gives you your fix of Garfield and Doonesbury and lets you choose from all of their other comics.

  • Entertainment: You can configure the TV Guide gadget to your ZIP code and use it today to figure out when the newest episode of The Office is playing. The iLike gadget lets you browse news, concerts, and free MP3s from your favorite musicians.

  • Google stuff: The new Gmail gadget lets you read your full e-mail and perform simple actions like send or reply to e-mails without leaving iGoogle. Google Finance now provides full-screen finance charts and news of the stocks in your portfolio.

There also is a new navigation system on the left side of the page so you can jump to your gadgets quickly with one click.

In all, this constitutes a major upgrade for iGoogle. Check it out.

Why Google Friend Connect is a Must For Bloggers

Usually when Google Friend Connect is mentioned, most people assume it is used exclusively with websites. This is not completely accurate as the Google Friend Connect widget can often prove very helpful to blogs. Namely, the widget can greatly expand a blog's readership potential.

Blogging is incredibly popular as evidenced by the multitude of blogs proliferating on the internet. Many blogs have large audiences and, in most cases, readers are allowed to comment on the entries in the blog. While this is a decent method of interaction between the Google Friend Connect blogger and the readers, it is also quite limited. Simply commenting on the blogs does not always stimulate excitement. Additionally, due to the design of the average blog, comments have a tendency to drop down the page and out of sight. If they are out of site then the comments probably will do little for increasing interest in the blog. That is why Google Friend Connect can provide a mega boost to a blog.

Google Friend Connect is a free system that can add social networking functions to a blog. Simply cutting and pasting a widget code onto the blog will have you in business in a short period of time. Once the widget is in place, readers can create profiles, create their own friends list, and communicate with one another. All of these tactics can work wonders for making a blog popular and lively. Now, some may think this is not necessary for a blog's success but it has a potentially huge benefit. If a blog becomes ground zero for a huge social network, the blogger can reap a number of rewards. Namely, the blogger might become very well known and popular while also greatly increasing potential revenue streams.

This inclusion of social network function into blogs is a huge leap forward from bloggings early days. Originally, blogs started out rather innocuously. The early "weblogs" centered almost exclusively on computer information and technology related subjects. In time, these subjects would expand to include a multitude of subjects. With the great variety of subjects, more and more readers became attracted to blogs. Eventually, the readership of blog rose into the hundreds of millions. This took the traditional media by surprise as many individuals were able to achieve fame through their blogging. To say this was a radical departure from the traditional, established mean of gaining notoriety for writing and news presentation would be a major understatement. In the past, the only way to reach a large media audience was through the major cable television channels, newspapers, or magazines with high circulations. Blogging changed all that and now Google Friend Connect may take blogging to the next level.

Why is Google Friend Connect so potentially helpful to bloggers? Keep in mind merely launching a blog does not mean it will automatically draw a huge audience. The audience has to be built and sometimes that can take a lot of time. This is why a proactive method for building an audience is so critical. Google Friend Connect can aid in developing that audience.

Once Google Friend Connect starts to connect like-minded readers into the blog's social network, the network will start to take a life of its own. That is, the members of the blog network may become members of other Google Friend Connect networks. This will lead to traffic deriving from these other avenues. Also, there is nothing stopping the publisher of the blog proactively becoming a member of other Google Friend Connect networks. This will lead to even further traffic and popularity. Best of all, this method is much cheaper than taking part in a number of traditional search engine optimization methods.

Another huge benefit to using Google Friend Connect is that the increased popularity and traffic will greatly enhance the ability to monetize a blog. Most blogs rely on pay per click advertising and affiliate marketing. With more and more people actively investing time with the new found Google Friend Connect social networking applications on the blog, the ability to convert these visitors into ad revenue generating visitors will increase dramatically.

The bottom line is that blogs need an audience and some form of publicity in order to be successful. A Google Friend network can deliver on both of these goals. Provided, of course, it is teamed with a very motivated blogger.

For Tips on Increasing Exposure to your Blog with Google Friend Connect, visit http://friendconnectdirectory.blogspot.com

© 2008 Friend Connect Directory - All Rights Reserved Worldwide

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Brian_Schwartz

List Building Formula

List Building Formula That Works!

If a person visits your website and leaves, chances are that he or she will not come back, especially if there are no compelling reasons to do so. After all, we all behave rather impulsively on the Internet, so much so that we can easily forget where we were 10 web pages ago.

But the bottom line is that your visitor may not come back to your website again. If 1,000 visitors visit your website, leave and never come back again, you can imagine the amount of potential revenue lost, simply because they do not come back. You could have converted a fraction of the visitors into your customers.

Some may say that creating unique content can keep some of the visitors coming back, but very often, unique content is not the solution. The real, long-term solution lies in converting your visitors into subscribers of your mailing list.

Before your visitor leaves your website, you want to convert him or her into your subscriber via a simple opt-in to your mailing list. You do this by asking for your visitor’s name and email address through your opt-in form.

And if your visitor signs up to be on your mailing list, you can still follow up with him via email. You can get your subscriber to consider your offer, or endorse another offer to him or her.

All in all, you want to convert as many visitors into subscribers as possible and obtain the potential revenue you rightfully deserve – the easy, wise way.

May be if you have another ways of list building formula but here an ebook that I get 15 powerful more ways CBmall makes you money e-course or subscribe to their free newsletter using any email address you have and use that newsletters etc., and tweak a little to make like yours and use that in your autoresponder to promote any of your affiliate program that you have!.

Friday, January 23, 2009

Add Friend Connect to Blogger

Google Friend Connect is easily added to Blogger

It may seem like there is some Friend Connect missing instructions on Blogger or on the Freind Connect site. But there is not, it is easy to connect Blogger to Friend Connect. Google owns them both, that is the thing to keep in mind.

Boy did I feel stupid when it was obvious that adding Google Friend Connect (dubbed GFC) was so easy… Thanks to Chris Lang for his tutorial video below;

Google Friend Connect: now available

We know that people want to be social on the web, and Friend Connect makes it easy for anyone to sign in to a website, share a little bit about themselves through a personal profile, discover other people with similar interests, invite their contacts, and interact with friends. Even better, you don't have to deal with the hassle of creating yet another username and password — Friend Connect lets you log in using an existing account from Google, Yahoo, AOL, or OpenID. Similarly, you can choose to either establish a new profile or use profiles and friend sources from other social networks that have opened up their services, like Plaxo and orkut. To learn more, watch the video tour below:

iGoogle Twitter

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