Yahoo! Directory shuts down! A historic monument has been taken down!

Yahoo! Directory (formerly at http://dir.yahoo.com) the starting of Yahoo! what it originally was, a hand curated list of websites, the first search engine since 1995 has finally been taken down after 20 years!

Yahoo! originally started as a directory, a hand curated list of authentic websites. Later the company evolved into an internet conglomerate with business & services ranging from Yahoo! Mail to Yahoo! Small Business Center to acquiring Tumblr & what not!

But finally, the original Yahoo! directory has been taken taken down. It is like a historic monument from the world of internet being taken down.

Google Authorship : The End

Google has withdrawn its authorship program from showing into the Search Results

Google had started the authorship program 3 years back when it started supporting the rel='author' tag & later started showing author photos in the search results. Now, since June 2014 Google stopped showing the author photos & later in August 2014 stopped supporting the rel='author' tag altogether.
Reasons stated were :

1. Low adoption rates by authors & webmasters.
2. Low value for searchers.
3. Minute difference in clickthrough rates

Orkut to Shut Down on September 30, 2014

Orkut, the original social media network by Google, will be permanently shut down on September 30, 2014.

Google Plus hangouts with girls

It just occurred to me today, if a girl asked me, 'Would you like to hangout with me sometime?'

I might just say, 'I am new to Google+.'

And I am actually blogging about it!

Verified pages by Facebook

Facebook has launched the official Verified Pages & Profiles on Facebook.

For famous public figures & pages, (eg. Sachin Tendulkar, Selena Gomez, ToI) you will see a blue tick mark next to the name, on their official Facebook pages. It means that the pages have been verified by Facebook as official. I am not sure how they verify, maybe they just call up, hey Sachin is http://www.facebook.com/SachinTendulkar your official page?

Here is an example

Flying Off the Chart - Power of Social Media

Real Social Media Optimization

Why Quora rocks!

This Answer tell you all - Why Quora Rocks!

Facebook launches Admin Roles for business Pages

Facebook Pages for Businesses

Facebook Page Manager for iPhone is here!

Facebook Page Manager's ad on facebook app for iphone

Facebook raises 5000 friends limit.

Snapshot by Mahesh Murthy

Iphone app sold for 1 Billion Dollars!

Forget about diamonds, rubies & fine jewelry, mobile apps is where the money is! Instagram, the sensational fastest growing iPhone app was acquired by facebook today for 1 Billion Dollars!

New Facebook Feature : Interests List

Facebook has launched a new feature today!

Interest Lists :

What is it?
A collection of facebook pages & people whose updates will be available in the list, to which anyone can subscribe (if the privacy is public)
It is like a personalized interest based newsfeed, similar to hashtags (#facebook for example)  in twitter using which you can see everything related to #facebook in one news feed.

Check out this example, https://www.facebook.com/?sk=fl_10150660106619803 for high-end jewelry & watches that I created.

How do you plan to use this feature with your friends?

Hint : You can also make private lists with exclusive stuff only for your friends.

Facebook Timeline coming for Pages!

YUP! That is true!

Now Facebook Pages will look like your new profile, the TIMELINE! With some rules, though.

Check out facebook timeline for pages at http://www.facebook.com/FineRuby

1. Your cover photo may not contain promotional material.
2. Your cover photo cannot be only text-based.
3. You cannot incentivize download or sharing or liking of your cover photo or use your cover photo for the same.
4. Your cover photo should not ciolate a copyright or infringe other trademarks.

Here's the Big Bonanza
FANS can MESSAGE to the page now! :D :D

If you manage multiple facebook pages like I do, you know how important the Big Bonanza is!

What do you think about timeline for facebook pages?

Why Videos go Viral?

Presenting this TED talk

"Don't be evil (Google)" tool

Haha! This is amazing! Exactly what I pointed out in my post, Real reason why Google Plus exists
outlined in this post by Danny Sullivan.

I’ve written that Google has plenty of public data to allow parts its new Search Plus Your World feature to be inclusive of rival social networks like Facebook and Twitter. Now, those networks are proving that true, through a new “Don’t Be Evil” tool that lets anyone leverage Google’s own results to see this.
The tool — a bookmarklet that works in your browser — changes three parts of Search Plus Your World that currently shows information only from Google Plus. These are:

• People & Pages results
• Google+ Sitelinks
• Google+ Suggestions In Autocomplete

How SOPA & PIPA Acts affect non-americans

A lot of non-americans in touch with me, a lot of them Indians with
e-startups, are not really concerned about SOPA & PIPA. But I think
there are reason to be concerned about.
If you do not know, these acts are giving ISPs, the Government &
Domain Registars the power to pro-actively censor any website, not
just content, they deem as piracy with 'considerable evidence' or 'in
good faith'.
Sounds close to internet dictatorship?
1. The acts do not just cover US businesses & websites but also
foreign websites located on US servers (like this blog) as well as any
foreign website that has 'piracy content' from being accessed from
within the United States.
2. This is a deadly blow to user-generated content, crowdsourcing &
e-businesses.
3. It gives dictator-ly powers to ISPs & domain Registrars.
4. Similar laws might be enacted in other countries on the same lines.
5. It 'awards' ISPs & Registrars that pro actively take action in good faith.
6. It has a clause to take down the whole website & not just the
acclaimed pirated content. i.e. If one piece of your content is
pirated, your whole site can be taken down & not just the 'pirated
content'
7. It places the responsibility of action on the website. which in
simple words means, if you post some 'pirated content' on Facebook,
then Facebook not you, will be penalized.
Impact - Websites will discourage user-generated content as it is
impossible to check all user-generated content being generated on a
big website. This could also lead away investors & venture capitalists
from internet startups. So much, for the golden era of the internet.
All in all it could mark the beginning of the end of free & open
internet that we enjoy today.
Hope that helps clear why even Wikipedia blacked out today. Wikipedia
might become illegal under the acts & we will have to live without
Wikipedia if the acts are passed!
--

Best regards
Sambhav Karnawat
JeweloveTM
K.K. Exports
The Ruby King
+91-9828012999
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Groupon - Too much of a good thing?

Groupon Wild Success almost made them bankrupt!

Sometimes, there can be too much of a good thing.

Baker frosts a chocolate cupcake April 19, 2011, in New York City. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

A small bakery experimented with using Groupon to attract customers, and the decision -- which in some ways proved wildly successful -- almost shut down the business.

Rachel Brown of Need a Cake bakery in the United Kingdom put an ad on Groupon, a group-discount website, offering 75 percent off on cupcakes to those who bought a dozen, BBC reported. The $40 cupcakes suddenly cost $10.

Turns out, people like their cupcakes. And their deals.

The bakery, based in Woodley, received 8,500 requests for a dozen cupcakes, far above the normally 100 it produces a month. Brown suddenly had to make 102,000 cupcakes. Brown's company only employs eight people, and she had to bring in an outside agency to handle the orders. The temporary agency cost her $19,500, effectively wiping out her year's profits, MSNBC reported.

"Without doubt, it was my worst ever business decision," she told BBC. "We had thousands of orders pouring in that really we hadn't expected to have. A much larger company would have difficulty coping."
Brown told the Daily Telegraph that her staff was working around the clock, and one person came in at 3 a.m. because she couldn't sleep as a result of the cupcake stress. Brown said she does not plan on doing this again.

News courtesy : Globalpost.com

Real Reason why Google Plus exists

It has nothing to do with Social Media or competing with facebook. Not even closely.

What I think the real reason for existence of Google Plus is not social media but social searching. Think of it, where do you see the Google Plus button or icon most often, on the Google Search results page.

Facebook's most talked about brands!

With the new facebook metric finally people are understand what me & other social media marketers have been trying to tell for years (2 years in my case lol), engagement is more important than the number of likes. Below is a list of the top ten facebook brands sorted by engagement :

1. Starbucks: 508,526
2. Coca-Cola: 220,867
3. Victoria’s Secret: 145,125
4. Skittles: 137,558
5. Oreo: 114,454
6. Red Bull: 112,051
7. Playstation: 104,837
8. Converse: 52,866
9. Pringles: 50,488
10. Converse All Star: 40,858

Now, for the traditional metric folks, below is a list of brands sorted by no. of likes.

1. Coca-Cola: 34,511,504
2. Starbucks: 25,446,846
3. Oreo: 23,092,391
4. Red Bull: 22,427,254
5. Converse All Star: 20,780,055
6. Converse: 20,141,021
7. Skittles: 19,348,317
8. Playstation: 17,420,065
9. Pringles: 13,602,128
10. Victoria’s Secret: 15,343,727

Why Blogger Dynamic Views are Awesome!

September 27, 2011 Blogger announced the launch of Dynamic Views on September 27, 2011 & it really looks good! (Check out a preview at http://blog.jewelove.in/view/flipcard)

Blogger has become so much cooler! The 7 new dynamic ways to present your blog to your readers. Animation by Blogger Buzz