Yellowseed Blog http://www.yellowseed.com/blog/ en rik@yellowseed.com Copyright 2010 2010-03-01T15:50:56-08:00 What are People Really Buying Online? http://www.yellowseed.com/blog/comments/what-are-people-really-buying-online/ What people buy online differs substantially from what they buy in-store. According to a study by the US Census Bureau, the bulk of sales still in-store. There are, however, several categories in which online sales dominate each product marketplace. These include: books and magazines, clothing, and electronics. Below, we have broken down the sales for each category, to show the percentages of both online and in-store sales as a part of the total marketplace, as well as a comparison of the two in absolute terms. eBusiness and CRM Click here to read the full article

]]> 2010-03-01T15:50:56-08:00 Which Social Network Is Right For You? http://www.yellowseed.com/blog/comments/which-social-network-is-right-for-you/ Between Twitter, Facebook, and Google’s new social networking tool, Buzz, it’s hard to turn a corner without running into another social network. But how do you know which networking tool fits you best? We’re here—with big charts and all—to help. Last week Google Buzz made us ask ourselves what we wanted out of social networking. To answer that question, we charted what we liked and disliked about setup, privacy, usability, and other aspects of Buzz, Twitter, and Facebook. Here’s the result. Read Full Article from Lifehacker Social Media 2010-02-17T18:32:30-08:00 Last Pass - the ultimate password management tool http://www.yellowseed.com/blog/comments/last-pass-the-ultimate-password-management-tool/ LastPass is a free online password manager and Form Filler that makes your web browsing easier and more secure. LastPass supports Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Safari for Mac as a browser extension (and Opera, Safari for Windows, Opera Mini and more via Bookmarklets). Get Lastpass here. Cool Technology 2010-02-12T17:48:35-08:00 Mobile Phones: The 7th Mass Media http://www.yellowseed.com/blog/comments/mobile-phones-the-7th-mass-media/ Choice quote: “The Internet is old media. It will still grow, for awhile, but mobile is where the future is, where all the money and growth is.” Media and Culture 2010-01-10T07:32:51-08:00 Google launches Energy Utility http://www.yellowseed.com/blog/comments/google-launches-energy-utility/ With opportunities abounding in renewable power and energy efficiency, traditional IT companies are making some rather aggressive moves into this market. This week, Google announced that it will launch its own utility, while Yahoo has found a source of funds for a new data center: the Department of Energy. Read original article Cool Technology 2010-01-08T17:15:25-08:00 Twitter search deal: five things you need to know http://www.yellowseed.com/blog/comments/twitter-search-deal-five-things-you-need-to-know/ The deal between Twitter and search giants Google and Microsoft to blend the microblog into their search results will have a big impact on the search marketing industry. Doug Platts, head of natural search at iCrossing, tells you what you need to know. Here’s the article. Thanks to Richard Young for sending me this link. Internet Marketing 2009-10-27T19:02:16-08:00 Keeping your Google documents safely backed up. http://www.yellowseed.com/blog/comments/keeping-your-google-documents-safely-backed-up./ With the massive increase in cloud computing, a lot of us have started to use Google’s online document service on a regular basis. Personally, I use it as my primary location for word-processing, and I really appreciate the sharing abilities, the comfortable interface, and the auto-saving features. The only characteristic that held me back from using Google was that if Google lost my information, then I would be left with nothing. So, every week, I would find myself boringly trying to back up the files I primarily use through the export feature. However, doing that one by one becomes quite boring and I never could seem to get to it on a regular basis. So, I must say that I was a little surprised when I went to my familiar window and discovered that Google Documents is now able to export in bulk! This allows for me to finally back everything up on a regular basis and get to using my cloud information without a nagging worry. There are a large amount of options available in the export process. You can choose to export one, a few, or even all documents into either Open-office, Microsoft Office, or PDF formats. Google will then compress your files into a ZIP file for an easy download. If you have a long time to wait for all your documents to be converted, then Google offers you the option to email you with a link when they are ready for download. Very nice features, and very attuned to what the standard user is looking for.

The process is very simple, and here are some simple steps that I made while doing my first batch export.

1. When you are in the “All items” window of your Google Docs; you can place a check-mark next to the documents you wish to export. If you want to select all your documents, then look for a check-mark in the upper left corner of the document pane. Clicking on it offers you the option to “Select all Visible”

2. After selecting all your files (or only some of them), right-click and choose “export”. A dialog lets you choose the download format for each kind of file: Microsoft Office formats, Open-office formats, PDF or some other formats.

3. Google starts to compress your files and create an archive. If you have a lot of documents, Google can send you an email when the files are zipped.

It is really that easy to keep a full backup of all your Google-doc files. By doing this once a week, you can save yourself from a headache from a Google data outage or even an accidental deletion.

]]> 2009-10-27T03:36:27-08:00 An Entrepreneur’s Guide to Social Media http://www.yellowseed.com/blog/comments/an-entrepreneurs-guide-to-social-media/ Here’s the presentation I gave at the Small Business Bootcamp in Nelson and Castlegar, BC. For more information on how we can help, visit our services page.           It might be hard to appreciate without the audio, but that will come soon. Internet Marketing 2009-10-26T04:18:26-08:00 Amazing Video showing the power of CollectiveAction http://www.yellowseed.com/blog/comments/amazing-video-showing-the-power-of-collectiveaction/ Estonia Clean Up Last year 50,000 Estonians got together and did in one day what it would have taken the government 3 years and 22 million euros to do -clean up all the garbage in the country! More than 600 volunteers came together to organize Campaign “Lets Do It!”, a grassroots initiative to clean up the country from 10,000 tons of illegal waste in just one day. campaign site Yellowseed News 2009-10-22T08:47:13-08:00 Google announces Social Search http://www.yellowseed.com/blog/comments/google-announces-social-search/ The timing for this is amazing: 10 minutes after telling an audience that Google is going to do some major upgrades to it’s search to expand it’s social media features, they go and announce that they are about to launch it from Google Labs (and I was just speculating). Here are the major features: - The bottom of search results will soon have social networking information from your friends, like their Flickr (Flickr) photos or their status updates. It’s a blended search integration, similar to seeing news or image results. - These are pulled from social networks connected to your Google Profile. The more that are connected, the more social information that will appear in search results. - They have also improved searching for images using social networks. Images become more relevant using social networking data. - It will launch in Google Labs in the next few weeks. Thanks Mashable. Internet Marketing, Media and Culture 2009-10-22T08:37:46-08:00