Pinterest – More Than Just a Pinboard

Having revealed itself just over a year ago, Pinterest has recently surpassed 10 million users, a fact which itself proves that Pinterest has evolved from a clever start-up into a fully-fledged network in its own right.

Already loved by many people, the concept of Pinterest is to create a number of pinboards/scrapbooks of all the things that you as an individual ‘like’ in the digital environment. Recently this has started to turn into endorsement as Pinterest has opened its doors to more users and also welcomed brands in with open arms.

What is the potential benefit for brands and their respective digital PR / social media agencies? Brands can achieve benefits from the network without even being on it as an official presence, the primary focus of Pinterest is content first and foremost. Below are some further thoughts on what could be the most important aspects of Pinterest for brands moving forward:

Retail –

The gifts section is the perfect portal for ecommerce promotion, and the network will ensure that the items that resonate with the audience the most are the ones that achieve the most visibility. Just add a price to images and they will be added to the gift section of the site – great visibility, and for free.

Follow/pin it button –

As well as being able to add the Follow button for Pinterest to a website, to me the most interesting aspect of Pinterest’s buttons is the ‘pin it’ button. Brands with a great deal of high quality imagery and video content on their website could stand to benefit significantly, since once pinned the content isn’t just on Pinterest for everyone to see and reshare, it’s also possible for users really interested to click back through to a website. This could be a hugely influential traffic tool for brands in future, not to mention a great way of generating SEO value from backlinks too.

Use of search –

Pinterest’s internal search function is great – you’re able to find people who have tagged content relevant to a brand, find pin boards that are relevant to a brand, or a locale should the brand be a local business (posting to a shared board for “London” for example to get visibility of users specifically in London). This could be a great way for brands to proactively market on the network without actually being too intrusive for other users, whether done through employee accounts (more natural) or a branded account. Obviously having employees pinning brand content on the network is also a huge plus in itself.

Ultimately, Pinterest is a way of people creating a scrapbook that is a digital representation of their interests in pictures – perhaps (like Path) a strong element of what Facebook timeline wants to be. It represents a shift in social media that is increasingly pointing to the fact that brands need to become part of users lives to the extent that they are represented on their digital social media ‘scrapbooks’ in order to reap the most benefit. It will be very interesting to see how Pinterest evolves over the next year – we could see some entirely new trends emerging as a result. One thing is certain – in Pinterest content is king and brands that can create unique pictures and videos that are intrinsically shareable for a mass audience will be the ones that get the most out of it

Source: socialmediatoday

Google Chrome Update Brings Faster Browsing

The new stable release of Google’s web browser Chrome brings several improvements, most importantly faster browsing and more protection from malicious downloads.

From now on, when you start typing in Chrome’s address box (or omnibox, as Google calls it), as soon as Chrome autocompletes the URL you’re likely to visit, it will prerender the page, making your overall browsing experience faster.

As far as security goes, Chrome now does checks on executable files you’ve downloaded from the net. It matches the executables against a whitelist – a list of programs known to be safe – and if it can’t find the file there, it does some additional checks. For example, if the site you’re visiting hosts a high number of malicious downloads, Chrome will let you know.

The update comes just one day after Google announced Chrome for Android mobile devices.

Google also promises some updates to Chrome OS for the “near future,” including a new image editor and an improved Verizon 3G activation portal.

You can download the latest version of Google Chrome here.

Pinterest: Covert Affiliate Link Scheme Exposed

Although nearly every start-up and fledgling company battles to find new ways to monetize its users, Pinterest appears to have been secretly capitalizing on its customer base through the use of affiliate links. The two year-old social network site, which allows users to “pin” photos, recipes, and products to a “virtual pin-board,” has quickly grown to millions of visitors per week and is one of the top traffic referral sources on the Internet.

According to a recent discovery, which was made public by digital marketer and blogger Josh Davis, Pinterest is modifying links to ecommerce sites to include their own affiliate tracking links. Now, when a Pinterest user clicks through a “pin” on Pinterest and makes a purchase at an ecommerce site, Pinterest receives a percentage of the sale. Pinterest has been using the skimlinks service, which automatically adds affiliate links to any products that may be associated with an affiliate program, to quietly modify the links.

Davis said the following of the automatic affiliate link-swapping in his post:

“I, like many people, don’t have a problem with Pinterest making money off of user content. The links are modified seamlessly so it doesn’t affect the experience. Pinterest likely should disclose this practice to users even if they aren’t required to do so by law, if only to maintain trust with their users.”

Even though the majority of Pinterest users will not have a problem with the rapidly growing site making money off of affiliate links, it is a questionable decision from both a business and ethical standpoint to not disclose this fact to Pinterest users. If Pinterest wants to regain the trust of its users, they should fully disclose the details of the affiliate program and issue a statement as soon as possible.

Source :- Search Engine Journal

Twournal - Get Your Tweets In PDF Format

For anyone passionate to Tweets, you probably twitter more than 20 times a day. When you regularly tweets, you gradually end up developing a tale made up of exciting articles, personal ideas, and spur-of-the-moment images. Before you know it, you have actually designed an online journal.

Although Twitter posts is fantastic for obtaining those normal periods, it is certainly not so fantastic when it comes to re-visiting them. It is certainly not like Fb where you can click around on your image albums; Twitter posts needs A LOT of scrolling down.

And if you would like to look back and keep those moments easily accessible, you would be pushed to discover a way of dispatching those twitter posts into a fun and reader-friendly format.

Well here is an excellent tip off on how to get those twitter posts off the stream and into digital format.

Launched just last week, Twournal is a brand new service that allows you to turn your tweets into print. They publish your tweets in a stylish and professional looking book complete with front cover, dedication page, and photos.

Twournal offers hard copies of your tweets starting at $15 (USD). However, it has the more appealing option of getting a free PDF version you can easily download and view in your PDF reader.

The best part is you can personalize your publication. For both hard copy and electronic editions, you can choose to include replies, determine which twitter posts you want your publication to start and end at, and get your cover custom made with a picture of your own choosing.

As mentioned, you can also include Twitter photos which you posted on Twitter in your book–a great option to jazz up the presentation of your tweets. For these, Twournal supports Twitpic, Tweetphoto or Yfrog posted pictures you can include in either colour or black and white.

Of course, you’ll need to provide Twournal with access to your account, and the time it takes to complete your Twitter PDF book depends on the number of tweets you want included. Twournal even has seller options for you if you’d like to put your Twitter book up for sale.

Google Plus Promotes Network and New Security Features to Young Teens and Parents

Google+ announced that the rapidly growing social network is now available to teens ages 13 and up. Although minors can sign up for and use Google+, the social network also introduced new privacy and security changes designed to protect underage users.

Bradley Horowitz, Google’s VP of products, said the following of the new target demographic in a Google+ post:

"Teens and young adults are the most active Internet users on the planet. And surprise, surprise: they’re also human beings who enjoy spending time with friends and family. Put these two things together and it’s clear that teens will increasingly connect online."

The launch of the new Google+ Safety Center includes the following parental control features for teen accounts:

Sharing Content—

When a teen tries to share content with someone outside their circle, Google+ will encourage them to think responsibly.

Receiving Notifications—

The default setting only allows the teen to share with people that are in their circles and blocking someone they don’t know only takes on click.

Hanging out with friends—

Since Google+ Hangouts enable people to use video to connect face-to-face, Google+ will remove a teen when a stranger joins the Hangout. However, the teen can rejoin the Hangout if they choose to.

In addition to an explanation of the Google+ security features for underage users, the Google+ Safety Center also provides valuable resources to teens, parents, and educators. For example, teens can find helpful information related to digital reputation and online bullying.

Google+, which has approximately 90 million registered users, is undoubtedly hoping that the number of registered users will increase dramatically as a result of making the network available to underage users. Although the social network has grown at an unprecedented pace, it faces an uphill battle against Facebook, which has over 800 million users.

Prior to yesterday’s announcement, users had to 18 or older to join Google

Source:- Search Engine Journal

How To Tweet More Content From Anywhere On The Web

Here an interesting update coming from Tweet publishing Tool Buffer. The app was reviewed here on SEJ a few months ago. It allows you to add tweets to your Buffer which are then posted at conveniently spread out intervals throughout the day. So you can add a lot of tweets in one sitting without drowning your followers in a flood of tweets.

One of the pitfalls mentioned by readers was the lack of a fully fledged Firefox plugin they could use to Buffer tweets from anywhere on the web.

The team has been busy and published the fully functional Firefox add-on today. You can download it from inside the App, or if you’re already a Buffer user you can download it from here.

The Features

The new add-on boasts a set of interesting features, which are already available for the equivalent Chrome extension and Safari extension.

• You can Buffer tweets from any webpage by clicking the Buffer icon
• You can Buffer Retweets from inside Twitter.com

* Use the keyboard shortcut “ctrl+alt+b” to bring up the Buffer Box

* Highlight some text on a page and then click the Buffer Button to make it into a Tweet

The recent feature add-ons with Buffer make for an even simpler sharing experience. Co-Founder Leo Widrich stated that “It is our goal to make genuine, optimised sharing on Twitter from anywhere on the web even simpler. The creation of the Firefox add-on is hopefully a big step towards sharing from no matter where you are online”.

You can give Buffer a go here: BufferApp.

5 Free Browser-Based P2P File Sharing Sites With No Size Limits

Most email programs only allow for up to 10MB at a time so email was not an option. Who wants to put it on a USB drive and drive over to their friend’s house?

Any one to just send it to them. No hassles. No installing funky programs. No waiting to upload to some server in cyberspace and have them wait for it to download again. So what to do?

Let’s narrow down what the file-sending needs (or wants) are:

1. Free – as in no charges whatsoever
2. Browser-based – no installation of some program and, therefore, cross platform
3. Peer to peer – no waiting for uploading and downloading; just the send time
4. The ability to send large files – no file-size limit

We all have standards, don’t we? Check out these five choices which meet the criteria shared above.

FilesOverMiles

FilesOverMiles does what it sounds like it does: it helps you send files over miles.

Their subtitle “Browser-to-browser Filesharing” tells us that it fits our criteria. When someone sets up a file to send, a URL is created. Just share the URL and stay online for the actual sending.

JetBytes

I like the name “JetBytes” because it speaks to the speed in which peer-to-peer transferring actually affords.

This file sharing site makes it easy referring to “on-the-fly” transfers and all that. Be careful, just as in any of these peer-to-peer tools, don’t try to open the created link yourself. Doing that will only be letting you download the file back to yourself and blocking your friend from downloading it. No too smart.

PipeBytes

From the site: “Instantly send music, movies, presentations or any other files to anybody!” Thanks, for telling us what any of these peer-to-peer tools do for us. OK, I’m just kidding around.

You’ll notice that PipeBytes actually gives some sharing options. You can either send the recipient the URL or a pick-up code which they’ll enter at the home page. Easy-peasy either way.

xFiles

Oh, you have to love the name for this one. Some weird television show is creeping around in my mind now.

All sci-fi weirdness put aside, this file sharing site puts peer-to-peer into easy to understand words: “Exchange big files directly without uploading to a server.” If you are transferring peer-to-peer, the uploading and downloading all happens at once making everything quick and easy.

Dushare

Dushare is a tool not recently mentioned here on MakeUseOf. You can share a file peer-to-peer, password protect it, and even chat while the transfer takes place because who wants to pick up a phone?

Seriously though, out of all of the rest of the file sharing sites mentioned here, Dushare has the prettiest looking website design. Oh, and in case you are wondering what sequence things will happen in, you have some nifty icons showing you. You can’t beat that.

You’ll notice that there wasn’t much to say about each of these tools. That’s because they all pretty much do the same thing: send any sized files, directly to another person quickly, easily and for no charge. And that’s about all they do. Test them out and see which performs the best and which is the easiest to use. Then come and tell us in the comments which is best.