1-800-HOSTING Blog » myspace http://blog.800hosting.com Inside 1-800-HOSTING Wed, 02 Nov 2011 17:00:58 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Google+ http://blog.800hosting.com/2011/08/google/ http://blog.800hosting.com/2011/08/google/#comments Thu, 04 Aug 2011 18:36:34 +0000 Christopher Leisure http://blog.800hosting.com/?p=2123 I’m not really a fan of Facebook, or even Myspace (Does that still exist?) but recently converting to Google+ I’ve found it to be pretty cool. So far the interface could use work, features added, and security options expanded, but the great thing about its early development is that we Google+ users get to see the interface in its infancy, and knock the tires on it. Much like was done on Gmail. The only thing keeping Google+ from being used instead of Facebook for social media is that it’s by invite only still, and some users just don’t want to convert over. I guess that is the same situation as with Myspace users to Facebook, but eventually I think Google+ will be pretty competitive with Facebook for the social media market.

Related Posts

]]> http://blog.800hosting.com/2011/08/google/feed/ 0 A Website for the Rest of Us http://blog.800hosting.com/2010/05/a-website-for-the-rest-of-us/ http://blog.800hosting.com/2010/05/a-website-for-the-rest-of-us/#comments Fri, 07 May 2010 15:53:38 +0000 John Cunningham http://blog.800hosting.com/?p=1431 Not a web savvy interactive designer? Not everyone has the time, skill, and patience to create and maintain their own personal website. Enter the ‘Personal Landing Page’ a.k.a. online business card. These sites are designed to help even the technically deficient user create a simple, informative online information booth for the public.

“Ideal for personal homepages, lifestreaming, splash and microsites, celebrity fan pages, commercial promotion, brand marketing – and everything in between.” Flavors.me, a brainchild of parent company, HiiDef Inc., offers more customization while still maintaining wicked style. Their three minute intro video below shows just how many custom flavors you can use to add spice to your mini site.

Flavors.me offers easy-to-configure connections with the most popular social networks out there, making it easy for visitors to find your online presence tastefully.

Related Posts

]]> http://blog.800hosting.com/2010/05/a-website-for-the-rest-of-us/feed/ 0 Social Networking – A Private Playground? http://blog.800hosting.com/2009/11/social-networking-a-private-playground/ http://blog.800hosting.com/2009/11/social-networking-a-private-playground/#comments Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:08:30 +0000 Christopher Leisure http://blog.800hosting.com/?p=895 Today, just about everyone is on at least one of the social domination networking sites like Facebook, Myspace, Linkedin, Twitter, etc. I would guess that 90% of the people I know post their daily activities on Facebook or Twitter for everyone to see. A friend of mine who has no TV or computer, is on Facebook. Often times, there are posts revealing things I would rather not know, and other times, basic narration of daily activities like “going to the grocery store.” I know that I’m in the minority, but I’ve never been a big fan of the social networking sites. I do like to get on Facebook occasionally to keep in touch with old friends, but rarely do I ever post anything for everyone to see. I value my privacy enormously and what really scares me is the fact that most of the things you put on your Facebook and Twitter are being saved for anyone to search for an indefinite amount of time.

An individual’s views and opinions can vastly differ over say 10 years. There’s a good chance that our president 20 years from now is on Facebook or Twitter (or whatever comes next), informing everyone of his daily activities, political opinions, and habits among other things. What kind of effect might that have on an election in the future? Arguments could be made that this would provide greater transparency for voters in the United States when it comes time to elect a new president. It would most likely allow voters to make a more informed decision and ensure the candidate isn’t just saying what they want to hear.

Trying to get a new job or acceptance to a school? There’s a very good chance they are looking at your social networking sites to see what they can find out about you. The amount of resumes that are automatically disqualified because content found on the internet is amazing. You would assume it to be common sense to not put incriminating pictures of yourself on the internet and otherwise hurt  your reputation with prospective employers. It does however make an employer’s job a bit easier, quickly weeding out candidates that aren’t up to our standards.

Facebook privacy is another misunderstood concept. Even if your Facebook profile is private, your friends could be giving your information out to a lot more people than you realize. Naturally, individuals assume that because their profile settings are set to private, it is safe. Is that really the case though? All the games, quizzes, and other add-ons for Facebook that everyone willingly confirms access to could be saving all your data and potentially selling it. The ACLU recently put together a campaign to raise awareness about privacy issues surrounding Facebook applications and have some great information on their Facebook site. The ACLU reveals that a quiz author can see just about anything on your profile after you take their quiz including pictures, profile information, and comments.

Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing to hide from the general public. However,  I candidly enjoy having my privacy and communicating with people in person,  rather than reading about them online.

Related Posts

]]> http://blog.800hosting.com/2009/11/social-networking-a-private-playground/feed/ 0 Secure Social Society? http://blog.800hosting.com/2009/11/secure-social-society/ http://blog.800hosting.com/2009/11/secure-social-society/#comments Fri, 06 Nov 2009 22:52:05 +0000 John Cunningham http://blog.800hosting.com/?p=839 keyboard security

In the world of social networking, security is essential. You wouldn’t want your identity compromised would you? Perhaps a major news outlet’s Facebook account is compromised; this can be detrimental and extremely embarrassing for the entity. We can all imagine the outcome of such an event. But what about the average person? While your identity can’t be completely compromised via the social web, you can have often embarrassing information posted to your profile without your consent. A few years back on MySpace, you would repeatedly see unauthorized bulletin posts. People would unknowingly give out their password to a third party, thus allowing the third party to post unsolicited items on that particular profile. To combat this, MySpace implemented notifications that you where being directed off-site, and this issue virtually ceased. Today, you really don’t see compromises of that nature anymore.

This being said, Social networking has the uncanny ability to inform your average user of certain security flaws inside and outside the social web. Does it mean it’s their responsibility? Not necessarily, but things like unnecessary bandwidth consumption were introduced with those security flaws. Essentially, that means more money and energy wasted; no responsible business would condone such a practice.

Roughly a year ago another serious Adobe Flash exploit was discovered. Noticing this, I quickly configured the Noscript plugin on Mozilla Firefox to block flash. A few weeks later I was surprised that MySpace practically forced users to download the new version of Adobe Flash player. If you didn’t do it, you couldn’t listen to any music. The many audiophiles I know, myself included, happily accepted the update.

Social networking has a huge role in how society functions today. It can also play an informative role in maintaining a secure system.  That being said, should administrators of social networking entities inform the average person of security flaws that can impact anything outside the social web? If changes like this where implemented, I’m sure the web would be a slightly more secure place. And who wouldn’t want that?

Related Posts

]]> http://blog.800hosting.com/2009/11/secure-social-society/feed/ 0 Does Social Networking = More Business? http://blog.800hosting.com/2009/05/does-social-networking-more-business/ http://blog.800hosting.com/2009/05/does-social-networking-more-business/#comments Fri, 01 May 2009 21:35:13 +0000 John Cunningham http://blog.800hosting.com/?p=280 I’ve thought long a hard about this and by far the most difficult concept I’ve grappled with lately is how social networking = more sales. Can we really tweet our way to success and does Facebook really matter? Personally I feel the answer is yes, no and maybe. Let me explain..

The Yes:
Unlike 99% of the businesses out there, if you fall into that 1% who continuously update all of your social networking accounts with fresh and relevant content, people will read it. If your content is well written, thoughtful, insightful and relevant, there is a high probability that some person or organization might reach out to you for advice or better yet, to buy something from you.  At a minimum they might see your content and you will have made some impression on them. Viral marketing at it’s purest form and better yet, it costs nothing more than a few minutes to bang out your thoughts and hit the publish button. So why not jump on that bandwagon and see what happens.

The No:
If you sell a service or product that in no way can benefit from social networking than you’re pretty strange. None come to mind except for maybe someone in the witness protection program. So if you are a fugitive from either the law or the mob, don’t ditch the cheek implants and fake mustache just yet. Another NO would be if your Company only sold crappy products or services. So crappy in fact that not only you knew they sucked, but your clients and entire organization also knew. If so you might consider keeping things on the down low because in your case, any discussions would be counterproductive for you. However it would be highly productive for someone reviewing your business.

The Maybe:
Since demographics on the web are as much about guess work as they are statistical analysis (I can’t be the only one who put their birthday as Jan 1st ,1900 on a website) consider this scenario. Lets assume your business sells diapers, make that adult diapers. It’s safe to say the majority of your target market would be elderly folks. It’s also unlikely this group is trolling fling.com, hanging out on Facebook or Tweeting. In fact, expecting them to participate on social networking sites at all is a stretch. However if their kids are buying their diapers, it’s far more likely they might seek out reviews or read blog posts about the impending purchase. Now if you also happen to be that blogger, your post just might encourage them to have a look at your diapers. I’m not picking on the elderly because I’ll probably be wearing a diaper one day and I also volunteer at a senior center, it’s just all I could think of.

My opinion tends to lean towards YES in all instances. I’ve grappled with this issue and have had numerous discussions with friends about this topic with the most common response being, huh? I suspect that those who ignore social networking for their business might just compel a segment of tech savvy users to ignore them.

Time will tell.

twitter


Related Posts

]]> http://blog.800hosting.com/2009/05/does-social-networking-more-business/feed/ 0