The Secret Behind the “Like” Button

Facebook header

I have long held suspicions that the Like button on Facebook is not your friend.

I’m sure you’ve seen some of the pictures floating around Facebook that seem to make no sense. There seems to be no end to the litany of crossword puzzles asking you to “type the first word you see.” Maybe you’ve seen a picture of… well, almost anything that might elicit a reaction, asking you to “share if you agree, Like of you don’t.”

How about the innumerable political posts, calling for impeachment or support? Are all those posts really put out there by people who care? Then, of course, you see a good number of “If I get 100,000 likes, my dad will take me to Disneyland.” It all seems quite innocent, but you need to understand that this is big business, and commenting or liking is not in your best interest.

prism

Here’s a perfect example: have you seen the colorful picture of a prism with the image from the cover of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon album in it? It’s accompanied buy the caption: “OMG it really works! Step 1: Click on the Picture. Step 2: Hit Like. Step 3: Comment “MOVE” Then see the Magic!!” The picture has 1000’s of likes and comments, so there MUST be something to this. You make the leap, click and comment, and BOOM… crickets.

While what you expect to happen obviously doesn’t, something else happens. Your activity has now spread this image and the page into the news feed of all your friends.

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What Happens When an iOS Fanboy Buys an Android Tablet

Nexus7I fully admit I am an avid, Kool-aid drinking fanboy of Apple products. I have used 2 different iPads in my past couple of jobs, going from an iPad2 to the 3 with the retina display. I am on my 3rd iPhone. I’m still using my 2008 Macbook Pro and it continues to run like a champ in 2013 and I just recorded a new album on my 2006 Mac Pro Quad and it never even hiccuped. Apple just has great quality products that deliver consistently excellent results.

Since I’ve begun working for myself at Moyers Design, I had to give up my iPad3 and have been without a tablet for over a year. I got to the point that I needed a tablet in order to fully function as a mobile professional. The trouble was, I didn’t have $350 to drop on an iPad mini. After some exposure to the Android operating system (you can read my account of that in this post), I decided to give it a try for about a third less in total cost.

This Apple fanboy bought a Google Nexus 7.

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Content Marketing: What is it and Why Use it?

There’s a lot of buzz going around about “content marketing.” Most people are slightly confused about what that really is, much less whether they should use it or not. In this episode of JemullyTV, I shed a little light on the concept of content marketing and what it might be able to do for you and your business.

Here’s a Good iGoogle Alternative

I’ve been a faithful user of iGoogle for a long time. It’s been my home page through several different browsers.

And now it’s going away.

Some of you may ask, “what is iGoogle?” Never mind. It’s going away. For those of you who used it and are looking for something to replace it when Google pulls the plug next year, I’ve found something I really like. For those of you who have no clue, let me ‘splain, Lucy.

iGoogle is a user-definable homepage that Google offers. It aggregates the RSS feeds from wherever you’d like. For instance, on my iGoogle page, I have three columns. Gmail is in the upper left, followed by three different Tech blogs. The middle column is local weather, headlines, Mashable, and 3 different bloggers. The far right column starts with Fox News (appropriate, eh?) and then entertainment news, People.com and 3 different music-related blogs. In one quick look I get the headlines from all the areas in which I have interest. That’s great, except that Google has made the cock-eyed decision to discontinue the service in 2013. No one seems to know why. In my opinion (and many others as well), it’s a dumb move.

NetVibes.comIn a few quick searches this afternoon, I could see that the Internet is alive with many people asking about a good alternative to iGoogle. I believe I have landed on NetVibes.com. NetVibes does everything that iGoogle did, but on a much larger scale. You can see on the picture here (click it for a larger version) that it offers a ton of information on one screen. Here you see my Technology homepage (yes, I know Mashable is not necessarily a tech site. I’m still configuring). Notice across the top that there are tabs for different categories. All of this is configurable to your hearts delight.

I can easily add new categories (tabs) and new sections within each category. It was extremely simple to add new stuff. I didn’t even need to know the actual URL for the RSS or Atom feed. I just entered the website or even just the name and it found it for me automatically.

The look is entirely configurable as well. What you see here is the basic list feed. You can go even more simpler than this and do the “reader” version. Or you can do more. They offer layouts from magazine-styled all the way to news tickers. It’s really pretty cool. And the best news? The basic version is FREE.

If you’re the kind of person who doesn’t want to go running all over the Internet to find the information you want, NetVibes.com is a great option. If I had known about this earlier, iGoogle would have been gone already. Now I see why they decided to discontinue it. And it actually surprises me that Google hasn’t bought them out.

How does it look to you?

20 Search Tips That Make You a Google Ninja

Not all of us can be real ninjas, but with these tricks you can be just as amazing with your searches. Google provides a wide array of options for modifying your searches. They make it very easy to drill right down to what your needing without a lot of extraneous fluff.

The official term is Boolean search. I like Ninja Hunt better. Walk through these 20 slides and be prepared to take notes. Or come back and see it again. It will change your online experience.

Interactive graphic created by OnlinePhD.org

Google Chrome Fail – Pt.2

Google and Chrome Fail again

Ok Google, you’re killing me here. I am trying to get everything I do online to be Google-oriented so that syncing things up will be a breeze. I am sticking with you because I had being doing this long before I bought into Apple products – which would offer the same services for me. Alas, I am heavily invested into all things Google, so I stay with you for now (which incidentally is why I bought a new iPhone… I was too deep into apps to choose otherwise).

But why, oh why, do I continue to have troubles using Chrome (your product) and Gmail (your product) together? About a third of the time it hangs up. Sometimes it just sits there with a blank page looking at me (see earlier post). And today, you tell me you don’t trust yourself? So what am I supposed to take away from that?

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