Facebook Vs. Google Plus

Facebook, the number one social networking platform on the Internet right now, has some very stiff competition with Google Plus . Google plus, which was recently created just a few months ago, already has over 20 million users. Facebook , which has been around for several years, is used by hundreds of million users. And while Facebook is still in the lead, many people are wondering whether or not Google Plus will eventually outshine Facebook and become the number one social networking platform on the Internet. What does Facebook offer? The two different websites both have positive things to offer its users. Facebook is much like an online hangout that allows people to keep in touch with one another even after graduating, moving to another state or even across the world. Facebook keeps families, friends, and acquaintances connected with one another

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Facebook Vs. Google Plus

4 Steps to Automate Twitter Relationship Building in 15 Minutes

This is a guest post by Jon Cooper from Point Blank SEO . Building relationships is at the heart of link building, because people are the ones giving links, not websites. The newest and hottest way to build relationships in your niche is to engage with them on social media, but we all know how time consuming this can be. Take, for example, twitter. Although an awesome tool to use to talk to influential people in your niche, the hours you spend each day pile up over time. I recently just started doing SEO for a client who didn’t have a company twitter account, so I had to start from scratch. I didn’t want to spend much time on twitter, but at the same time I wanted to yield it for all it’s worth.

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4 Steps to Automate Twitter Relationship Building in 15 Minutes

Top 10 Android Apps for College Students

Do you have everything you need to finish out the semester?  Notebooks, pencils, pens, that messenger bag you saw that looked like it could hold half your textbooks and your laptop and not drag you down.  But what about all those other things designed to make your life much easier that weren’t around when your parents were going through their own college experience?  Anymore, the smart phone is as much an academic tool as it is a functional device to call home to the parents suffering from an empty nest.  There are apps for everything from document sharing to voice recording, and a lot of these can be put to good use in the classroom.  We’ve gathered together the ten apps most likely to make getting through your studies easier and definitely without breaking the bank. 1.  Amazon Kindle/Barnes & Noble (B&N) Nook The primary tool of any successful college student is having the right books.  Both Amazon Kindle for Android and B&N Nook for Android apps allow you to download your existing e-book library for fast and easy reference.  Most Android-based phones come with the Kindle app already installed, but both apps are free, user-friendly, and grant access to thousands upon thousands of books and textbooks and often at a significantly lower cost than buying the same texts from the campus bookstore.  Features include bookmarking, highlighting, an in-house dictionary, and word/phrase search function.  If you are serious about having e-book copies of all your text books, equipping yourself with both apps is highly recommended.  Neither retailer has the e-book rights to everything, but between both, most bases can be covered. 2. Gdocs for Android Google Docs has taken their revolutionary web-based word processing software and made it applicable to the smart phone.  Access existing files, create new ones, generate .pdfs, import and export documents, and share your files with others with this free app—just as if you were sitting right at your computer.  The best part?  You can print straight from your phone via Google Cloud to any printer connected to the internet via a computer or Wi-Fi. 3.  Study Droid Use flashcards to study?  Don’t bother getting pack upon pack of 3-by-5 cards anymore.  Study Droid is an independently designed free application that works on both your computer and smart phone to create, organize, and study with flashcards.  There is even an extensive database of cards made by other users (the site claims over 10 million) to add to your own collection. 4. WikiDroid The full power of Wikipedia comes to your fingertips with this free WikiDroid app by Sirius Applications Ltd .  Search articles, find sources, or delve deeper into a subject to get you started on that research assignment.  We just recommend keeping your phone put away when exam time comes around.

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Top 10 Android Apps for College Students

Bit-Defender Internet Security Review

It’s that time of year again, all of the various security suites are coming out with their 2012 versions and redoing interfaces and making it all bigger, stronger and faster. Of course, Bit-Defender is no exception to this rule. As we begin to evaluate our internet security options for this year, we can certainly see that this program, while a bit on the touchy side, may possibly be a way to turn. Changes, Changes The interface will be one of the places where you begin to see the wide host of differences that have been made with this year’s edition of Bit-Defender. Now showing a dark minimal interface that lacks the options of the past for their intermediate and advanced options panels, they have cut down on clutter and chaos by deciding for you which options you need available right at hand. You can, of course, change this in the options panel and make sure that you have your advanced tools there as well, but starting out, this is it. However, finding the menu to do so if you choose to change these options might prove a bit tedious and confusing.

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Bit-Defender Internet Security Review

How to Boost Your Wireless Router Signal for Free

There are few things more frustrating than installing a wireless network in your home and finding out that, no matter what you seem to do, you get a spotty or dropped connection, unreliable bandwidth, or—worse—no connection at all.  Nothing is wrong with your internet service itself, so what do you do?  Before you dash out to buy new equipment and end up wasting your money, try these simple fixes that are fast and free. The best part is that you don’t need to be an IT specialist to pull them off! 1.                  Move the Router This can often be an immediate fix especially if your house or apartment is older, full of other electronics, or both.  Older buildings very often still have lead paint in the walls, the metallic traces blocking signal.  Other electronics, such as cordless telephones, can generate signals of their own that interfere with wireless internet—even if on separate frequencies.  For both situations, the solution is the same: Make sure to find a place to house your wireless router that is more open, has fewer walls between the device and your computer, and a distance of six feet or more from any other signal-generating electronics.  This is also a good fix if your wireless signal simply isn’t strong enough, even if you don’t have to worry about conflicting electronics or lead paint.  Metal objects can also easily interfere, so make sure the router is away from such objects as filing cabinets or shelving as well. If this doesn’t solve your problem, try solution #2: 2.      Update the Router’s Firmware Wireless routers need software to run just like other electronics.  And just like a computer or smart phone, the router needs to have its software updated periodically, too.  To do this, all you have to do is log into your router per its instructions which is usually no more difficult than clicking on the icon in your computer’s taskbar. Then, select the option for a firmware upgrade.  If there is one, the router will be able to download and install what it needs.  Older routers don’t automatically check for updates like some newer ones, so it is generally a good idea to check now and again.  Updates are typically accompanied by release notes that tell you exactly what was updated, which will let you know one way or another what all changed that contributed to fixing the connection issue.  This is a good thing to keep in mind just in case the problem occurs again. 3.       Update Wireless Drivers Another factor that can affect how your computer sees the wireless router is whether or not the network adapter software of the computer itself is up to date.  This is handled the same way you would update any other drivers and is generally self-governed by whatever operating system you use so it doesn’t matter whether the OS is Microsoft, Mac, or Linux 4.      Change the Channel Just like a television or a radio, wireless routers operate on different channel frequencies to function.  By default, they are supposed to select the channel with the lowest amount of traffic, but, in reality, this isn’t always the case.  At the same time, multiple routers from the same company (especially if your internet provider sells or rents their own wireless routers) are predisposed to select the exact same frequency.  If most of the people nearby or even in your same apartment building all use the same routers, you will need to select your own frequency, if for nothing else than to avoid this issue to begin with!  A free downloadable software that is excellent to help with this is inSSIDer.  The only column that you really need to pay attention to is the one labeled “Channel”. This column will show you whatever channels are handling the most traffic and the least.  Go ahead and select a low-traffic channel to see if that fixes the connectivity issues. Hopefully, it will! 5.        DD-WRT This is an open-source software program that can be installed to the router much like any other driver.  This is really only a recommendation for the adventurous or those with a stronger level of technical experience.  The program does not work with all routers, though the list of compatible hardware is growing, and you always run the risk of negatively affecting the router.  Installation also very possibly violates most warranties, so it is not recommended if your router is still under the manufacturer’s warranty or you’re part of a business network.  If the software does work for you, however, it improves router performance overall and adds a feature set beyond the router’s default software.

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How to Boost Your Wireless Router Signal for Free

HostGator Black Friday 2011 Special Offer

For a very limited time, HostGator offers 50% OFF on ALL hosting services . This includes shared hosting, reseller hosting, VPS hosting, Dedicated servers and Windows hosting! This does not include domain names. This is an incredible deal and it will only run for 1 DAY! The promotion will begin just after midnight, Friday, November 25th, 2011 Central Standard Time (-6 GMT). The special offer will run until 11:59PM CST Friday, November 25th, 2011. Visit http://www.hostgator.com for more information. This promotion will bring HostGator’s already competitive hosting packages as low as: Shared hosting: As low as $4.95 Now only: $2.48/month (pre-paid) Reseller Hosting: As low as $24.95 Now Only: $12.48/month (pre-paid) VPS Hosting: As low as $19.95 Now Only: $9.98/month (First Month) Dedicated Servers: As low as $174 Now Only $87/month (First Month) You do NOT need to insert any coupon code to receive this special offer. The correct coupon code will automatically be inserted on all orders placed on Black Friday. About HostGator HostGator, a world leading provider of web hosting since 2002, is privately owned and based in Houston, Texas

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HostGator Black Friday 2011 Special Offer

Top 5 Social Networking Platforms

The world has definitely changed within the last 10 years. Before, communication was challenging and time consuming. To connect with others, there was a simple phone call or perhaps a trip. Now, individuals can come “face-to-face” with their friends and relatives through web cam, Skype and Yahoo Messenger. The process of communicating is virtually easy as there seems to be an endless supply of instant messaging services as well as chatting options with popular social networking sites such as FaceBook or MySpace . Not only do these platforms connect relatives or friends, but also corporations. Virtual meetings can be held over the internet with GotoMeeting and reports are easily sent with emails. The internet has vastly improved the communication world.

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Top 5 Social Networking Platforms

Internet Discount Clubs: A New Way to Save

In the current economy, everyone is searching for new ways to save a few dollars wherever they go. From websites like Groupon and Living Social that offer gift-cards to various local merchants at a highly discounted price, to Amazon Subscribe and Save which helps you save money on gas by sending items you use a lot of each month to your home automatically on a subscription service model, every company out there is looking for ways to save you a few dollars and keep your business. With so many options to choose form, which ones will provide the best deals? Will a combination of a few of them make life easier? Let’s take a look at some of the options available. Groupon Groupon is one of the first largely publicized savings programs on the net. First launched in 2008 in their home town of Chicago, their first deal was a half price pizza from the pizza place that was on the first floor of their office building. They have come a long way in a short period of time, now being a publicly traded company that is worth well over 6 billion dollars USD at this time.

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Internet Discount Clubs: A New Way to Save

The WePay Surge: Why They May Dethrone PayPal

We’ve reminded you here in this column before of one critical and forgotten truth when it comes to online supremacy: all empires crumble.  As much as we list the Lycos’s and Compuserve’s of the online world, though, this truth can be hard to remember.  That is because it can be hard to see how anyone can make inroads into a well-established internet semi-monopoly. Oftentimes the reason this is the case is that whoever is #1 is there for a reason.  Google offers the most extensive search results; Apache offers the most stable web hosting package, and so forth.  Sometimes, though, #1 doesn’t try harder.  In those cases, their top ranking is based on little more than momentum, meaning that it’s only a matter of time before a competitor sweeps in, finding that company’s weak spots, and seizes the day. PayPal: a decadent king PayPal has been ripe for this seizing for a long time.  It is still easily the #1 payment processor online.  For years, though, this has been a title rather grudgingly awarded.  The complaints about the company have been piling up.  Most of these have centered around customer service, which branch out into various subcategories, such as bad decision making on fraud determination and poor customer communication. These complaints were highlighted by an incident in which PayPal froze the account of the Flux Foundation.  The group was planning an historic exhibit at Burning Man, and though PayPal responded to the negative publicity by quickly granting them an exception, the story shined an embarrassing light on the company’s approach to their customer base. It was from a far smaller incident, though, that a competitor to their services was birthed.  In 2008, Rich Aberman, now 25, was attempting to raise money for his brother’s bachelor party.  The hassle of trying to get the $4,200 from 14 different people presented the kind of headache that, in the right kind of mind, results in that very special realization otherwise known as, “There has to be a better way”.  While PayPal provided, and still does, some small types of group fundraising, it didn’t have a lot of the functionality for this kind of purpose that he required. WePay steps into the ring Aberman soon found investors who agreed with both the general complaints about PayPal and the belief regarding that “better way”.  They received $17,000 in seed money.  That was 2008.  Today, their investment capital has hit the 8-figure mark.  That’s an amazing increase.  What’s even more amazing is the list of people that this comes from, a list which includes PayPal founder Max Levchin.  Big names are seeing reasons to bet big on WePay . It’s not just venture capital that’s increasing.  WePay’s revenue, transaction stream, and employee count are all shooting up with the kind of geometric growth that gets a company’s CEO’s grinning picture on the front page of financial magazines.  So what is it that makes this company so hot? The selling points There are several things that WePay is doing right that could mean PayPal has a serious challenger to contend with here.  Some of them are as follows: Customer service : Recognizing that this is one of PayPal’s primary weak points, WePay has been putting serious effort into making sure that their customers don’t feel brushed off.  24/7 support by phone, chat or email is available.  One subtle sign that they take this seriously is that tech agents and customer service agents are located next to each other.  Many in the tech community have experienced the phenomenon wherein a customer service agent wants to communicate an idea to the tech team, and feels like it has to cross a guarded moat to do so.

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The WePay Surge: Why They May Dethrone PayPal

The Living Room Convergence

Back in 2004, we started hearing the words “Living Room Convergence.” This was a marvelous idea that one day all of our data would be easily accessible through a computer, Laptop, etc. This would replace our pile of DVDs and CDs along with our cable boxes and home phone service.  As the words started dying out, the reality began to hit us. Here, in 2011, we have certainly hit the critical “Living Room Convergence.” Let’s take a tour of this phenomenon, shall we? Life Has Become Wireless Over the last few years, we have seen a proliferation of things going wireless, from phones to computers and even our digital displays. More and more of our lives are hosted “in the cloud” than ever before. What this brings us is the ability to have all of our media and computing needs met with a minimum of wires stringing along our homes, turning our living spaces back into beautiful designs with fewer tripping hazards. Our video game consoles also offer wireless connections, now

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The Living Room Convergence

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