They have a new News Feed tool showing you whose taking up most of your news page. This new tool will let you unfollow them without unfriending them. There’s also a tool for hiding posts from your feed and you can tell Facebook whether to unfollow or see less of a certain author, friend, page or app. For years, Facebook has been making suggestions on who we should friend or follow. This can be annoying at times. But if you ask most Facebook users, this annoyances pales in comparison to feeds and pages full of repetitious, boring and just plain irritating posts.
So for many, this should make Facebook life easier. I’ll have to read less about drama between two exes. I’ll be reading less posts with F bombs and looking at far less pictures of deformed people or near naked people. On the other hand, this new tool makes me more conscious about what I post. While being unfollowed hurts a lot less than being unfriended, it’s still a blow to the ego. Will you be using this new tool on your feed?
Good news: One day you can have a You Tube with no commercials or any other advertising. Bad news: You’ll be the one paying for it.
You Tube CEO Susan Wojcicki is working around the clock to make this social medium a better place. One option includes ad-free service. It would be up to the customer to decide whether deal with advertisers or pay a monthly fee for no ads at all. In May 2013, You Tube allowed channels to sell either videos or subscriptions. For example, if a TV show wants to put reruns for the previous season, they can charge .99 cents per episode or $9.99 for the season. She also talked about the relationship between You Tube and it’s parent company, Google, and other ways You Tube can make profits. Another thing Ms. Wojociki noticed it You Tube is being uploaded from smartphones and mobile devices at least half the time. As of today, You Tube attracts over a billion visitors a month, and has made over 5.6 billion dollars in ad revenue alone in the last year alone.
I bring this up because it’s obvious ad revenue is paramount to You Tube’s success and has been for throughout the company’s nine year history. So for those of us (I’m talking to myself) fearing we’re all going to have to pay for You Tube, I wouldn’t worry. They’re smart enough to know not to let this good thing go. I understand how some are tired of the ads and would rather pay out of pocket. And I appreciate paying for subscriptions for certain shows. But You Tube needs to keep that advertising option open. Keep in mind these are just options being thrown around, except for channel and video subscriptions. Nothing is set in stone. These are just You Tube’s options. What do you think of these options and how would you make You Tube, already good, even better?
Medicine and medical information has come a long way in the past few decades. If you felt you had a symptom, you either called a doctor, or even 911. You’d maybe make a doctor’s appointment or even check yourself in the emergency room.? Now you can look it up online. Google is taking notice.
Google is now working on a Helpouts-style feature where people can chat with doctors online about their symptoms. In these chatrooms and through video chats, people can learn about their symptoms, and maybe even get a proper diagnosis. For example, say that you have back pain. Under this system, you would type in back pain. You could click talk to a doctor now, where you can chat with a doctor online about your symptoms. Below that, there are other illnesses and conditions the patient might have. During the trial phase, Google will cover the cost of these chats. It’s not known how long this trial period will last, or even if this helpout-style feature will even get off the ground at all. But I can imagine this service won’t be free for long. Then comes the debate of how and who will pay for it. Will this be out of the patient’s pocket or can insurance take care of it? At least it would be cheaper and easier than going to a local doctor or emergency room.
But even today, well, especially today, you can feel sick, look up a symptom and still get a bad diagnosis. This can be true even if you look at a respectable medical website. Don’t even get me started on these fly-by-night whack job websites. So maybe getting a real doctor to talk to is a good thing. In order for this Google experiment to work, you need to check, double check and triple check these doctors’ credentials as well as their personal character. If they don’t, they will be no better than the questionable websites. What do you think of this Google, MD experiment?
Computer Geeks in commercials? Yes my friends it is true. Meet Joe, our technical manager here at Computer Geeks. Joe is the friendly face you will normally see if you pop into our Beacon Hill office in Boston, MA. And more than likely he will be the one saving your bacon when you computer goes down. ?We often sit here on our blog and give you the latest and greatest in technology day after day, but every now and then, it is good to pimp the actual service that we offer.
Computer Geeks provides on site computer repair service, within 24 hours of your phone call. Computer Geeks has been around since 1996 doing computer repair. ?We service anything from virus removal on you Nana’s home computer to installing 20 computers and 2 servers at your new law office. Computer Geeks can handle it all. We are open 7 days a week and even on holidays. If you are in the Boston area, you can feel free to stop by our office on Beacon Hill and drop off your computer, or just stop by and ask us a question.
Also, we are not just a PC crowd here at Computer Geeks! Our technicians are versed in both MAC and PC. So bring us your Apple computer and we can fix it too! We can even help you transfer from Mac to PC or the other way around. Whatever help you need with your computer, Geek ?Choice is there for you, when you need it.
Some of the other Computer Repair services we offer include
Occupy Central Hong Kong is now underway. The Chinese government, in control of Hong Kong since 1997, stripped Hong Kong’s right to free elections last month. Over this past weekend of Sept. 27-28, 2014, tens of thousands took to the streets and shut the city down in protest. This is where social media comes in, or maybe not.
Instagram was blocked in China, according to Hong Kong journalists. It’s funny how Instagram was blocked when people were posting pictures of Chinese police officers using tear gas and pepper spray on demonstrators. And now that the site are blocked, protestors can’t use Instagram to let the world know the police brutality that’s going on over there. Then there’s FireChat, the new app in town. You can get it with your Apple and/or Android device. It’s a chat room, a huge one at that, where people from all over the world can communicate over WiFi, cellular, Bluetooth, even Apple’s Multipeer Connectivity Framework. So FireChat? can survive anything, even an ahem…sudden…network shutdown. So one activist leader named Joshua Wong started using FireChat to talk about his experiences with Occupy Central. Others followed. At one point, over 33,000 people from Occupy Central were in the same chat room at once. Most of the chats I found were in Chinese. But I found one quote in English saying, “MTR has boom tears 3 times”.? I’m not sure what that means, but I’m sure it wasn’t pleasant. And add that to the pictures we’re seeing.
So thank goodness for Fire Chat. Eventually, someone is going to translate to what’s really going on. At least those who’re in the midst of the battle can communicate with each other. And of course, it’s all over mainstream media. My takeaway is, no matter how much a government tries to block or censors things, social media is going to expose it. Remember Iran 2009?
You’ve invented a new product that has lots of potential. You know social media is a powerful force in advertising. So on what social media stage do you launch your product?
According to a study done by AOL Platforms, You Tube is the clear choice. It especially helps in introducing new products and demonstrating those products to win over customers. They studied over 500 million mouse cliques and 15 million social media conversations in Q1 2014. They studied which social media sites most affected online sales and when the purchasing power influences the customer. You Tube leads in both categories. Some believe You Tube being owned by search engine king Google is critical to this success. They also credit You Tube’s descriptive content.
This model uses three stages of social media advertising: purchasing decision, re-targeting, and research. The first stage, they’re introduced to a product for a decision. In the second stage, they see advertising for the same product over and over, driving it in the consumer’s head in hopes the customer gives in and purchases The third stage, the customers will research the product themselves, even compare and contrast rival companies before the purchase. Then the purchase is made. You Tube leads in all these categories. Google and Facebook came in second and Twitter came in last.
With Google, you can search and compare products, which is great for step three. With Facebook, every time you log in, you’re often bombarded with the same products and advertisements over and over. They’re good with the second stage. You Tube carries out all three stages beautifully. Their commercials introduce the product. These same commercials bombard you over and over again until you eventually cry uncle. You can use You Tube video to research, critique, compare and contrast products before making an informed decision whether to purchase. So again I ask, what social media stage do you launch your product?
