Barack Obama's 'Four More Years' Is The Most Retweeted Tweet In Twitter History

 Four More Years |Source: Barack Obama

President Barack Obama after winning the U.S Presidential election announced his win on Twitter at 11: 14 p.m ET Tuesday :

Niche Blogging for Mommy Bloggers

The Mommy Bloggers or generally Female Bloggers' has been around for more than several years now. These are the most important people in the world. The mom blogging community comprises of a wide range of blog topics. Mommy Bloggers are those with at least one child in their household and has contributed to a blog or turn to a blogs for advice. 14% of all American mommies are Mommy Bloggers. In a study conducted by Scarborough Research, Out of 3,900,000 mom bloggers in United States 500 mommy bloggers are considered influential among other mothers.

Rowling's Pottermore Website Opened to the Public

Are you missing Harry Potter after all the books and movies? Don't Worry! Harry Potter will come to life on Rowling's new website.

J.K Rowling with the Potter Books and Movies all finished, have started a new Potter Website, and it's time to head over to Pottermore developed by J.K Rowling. The site is now open to all fans of boy wizard.

Pinterest Now 3rd Most Popular Social Network

Pinterest is now the third most popular social networking site in the U.S. and could help foster "meaningful connections" between retailers and consumers. That's according to a lengthy new 2012 Digital Marketer report from Experian.

Retailers should also consider advertising on Facebook. The report found that retail advertisers saw conversion rates of almost 50 percent through Facebook ad campaigns in 2011.

According to Experian, Pinterest attracted 21.5 million visits in the week ending January 28, 2012 – nearly 30 times the number of total visits six months before giving it a larger audience than LinkedIn. As reported by other firms, Pinterest skews female; 60 percent of the site's users are women, and 55 percent are between the ages of 25 and 44, according to Experian.

Californians and Texans made up the largest share of visits to the site, and its users over index in visits from Midwestern, Northwestern, and Southeastern states.

"This data indicates that Pinterest visitors have a different profile versus their counterparts visiting other social networking sites such as Facebook and YouTube," notes the report.

Pinterest users post photos of "Products They Love," from L.K. Bennett shoes and Kate Spade purses to iPhone cases, laptop bags, and Reyka Vodka. So, it's no surprise Experian sees the site as full of potential for retail marketing. "As communities become less about friends and more about common interests, retail brands in particular need to take note if they want to make more meaningful connections with their customers," the company states.

Retail brands that ran at least four ad campaigns on Facebook in 2011 drew some of the highest conversion rates as measured by Experian. Retail Facebook ads resulted in a 49 percent conversion rate, compared to 40 percent for travel advertisers and 58 percent for consumer goods brands. In contrast, auto brand ads on Facebook generated just 18 percent conversion.

Facebook ads can be a "significant source" of company site traffic, added the report. Twitter remains the second largest social site in the U.S.

Pinterest making Money from Pins

 The Pinterest similar to other Social Networks that came early, appears to be doing a few things behind the scenes. Pinterest is really entertaining but I haven't seen any ads on this sites. Then HOW do they generate revenue?.  So they are generating income by using an affiliate program.

Social Media Monitoring

The Europeon Union Court says that the Social Service Network cannot be forced to install monitoring solutions to prevent the piracy and the forcing is illegal.

The EU Court mentions that Installing a montoring system just to see if the people are downloading copyrighted materials creates a complicated as well as a costlier burden on the sites.

The Social Media Life with Pinterest

Social platforms are still in their phase of massive expansion with new services emerging and consolidating large audiences almost faster than they can be tracked.

Who are the Wikipedia Donars ?

At the DLD Conference in Munich last month, Pavel Durov – creator of Russian social network Vkontakte — pledged his support to Wikipedia live on stage, announcing he would donate a cool $1 million dollars to the online encyclopaedia, representing one of the largest contributions the website has received since it launched back in 2001.

5 things to look for from Microsoft in 2012

It's not that 2011 was a particularly difficult year. The company posted record revenue for the fiscal year that ended June 30. And its 2-year-old PC operating system, Windows 7, hit 500 million copies sold, further embedding it as the most widely used operating system in the world. But 2011 had few big product launches at the company, Office 365 and Internet Explorer 9 notwithstanding.

Next year will be altogether different. Microsoft is prepping the big kahuna of its product arsenal,Windows 8. The company hasn't set a date, though most analysts expect the flagship operating system to debut before the end of the year, and perhaps in time for back-to-school shopping. From that product, much else from Redmond flows.

So here are five things to look for from Microsoft in 2012:

1. Windows 8 tablets

Windows 8 is one of the boldest bets Microsoft will make, radically changing the interface on the operating system to the company's tile-based Metro look, first used by Windows Phone 7 last year. The familiar desktop photo covered with application and file icons will be available to PC users who want it. But Microsoft is pushing the new touch-friendly interface to convince consumers to buy tablet computers that will run it.

It won't be an easy sell. Microsoft will be coming to the tablet market more than two years after Apple iPad launched and quickly became a commercial success. And this holiday season, Amazon debuted its Kindle Fire, which became the first non-Apple tablet to gain a meaningful foothold. Market analyst Forrester recently reported that consumer interest in Windows tablets is waning.

As the core of computing moves beyond the PC, Microsoft needs Windows 8 tablets to succeed. It's all the more pressing as PC growth sputters and the tablet computer market soars.

The market muscle of Microsoft and its partners will help propel Windows tablets at their debut. But unless Microsoft can convince developers to create tablet-specific apps that users can't live without, the devices will have a hard time making a dent in iPad's massive lead.

2. Xbox moves farther into live TV

Even in its earliest days, Microsoft's video game console business was pegged as a Trojan Horse to bring the company's technology from the office to the living room. But the brains behind Xbox knew they had to make a great gaming experience job No. 1. Now, leading the United States in console sales in 2011, Xbox is pushing in earnest beyond gaming.

Microsoft just brought the first hint of live TV to Xbox consoles with an updated look to its Xbox Live service earlier this month. In addition to introducing the Metro-style look to Xbox, it also let customers of Verizon's Fios cable television service choose from 26 different live TV channels--Comedy Central, HBO, and Nickelodeon. A handful of other partners are offering live programming through Xbox as well.

That's clearly just the start for Microsoft. The company is moving toward the goal of getting consumers to fire up their Xbox whenever they flip on their TVs, not just when they want to play a game. Next year will see more live television content come to Xbox Live. It's a foundation that Microsoft will build out as it readies the next version of the Xbox console, something a source on the Xbox team says will happen in 2013.

3. Windows Phone: We're No. 3

It may be a measure of the decade-long struggle to succeed in mobile telephony that, for Microsoft, a victory would be grabbing the third place spot in terms of smartphone market share for its Windows Phone software. While the company has wrestled to arrive at a winning formula, rivals Apple and Google have introduced mobile-phone operating systems that have seized business that Microsoft had hoped to grab.

Microsoft rebooted its phone effort at the end of last year, introducing a passel of new phones from partners running its brand new operating system, Windows Phone 7. The slick-looking software, refreshed in September with an update dubbed Mango, has won plaudits from reviewers for its animation and app integration.

While the technology is catching up with rivals, Windows Phone's market share hasn't. According to market research firm Gartner, just 1.5 percent of the smartphones worldwide run Microsoft's operating system. And rivals aren't standing still. Apple's new iPhone 4S has outsold every other mobile phone since its debut in October. And despite the market fragmentation of Google's Android, with different handset manufacturers running different versions of the mobile operating system, it continues to pull ahead in the marketplace.

There's little doubt that Windows Phone share will grow, if only because of the marketing push Microsoft and partners, particularly Nokia, will make, coupled with the tiny toehold it currently has. But it's most likely to grab customers from Research In Motion's foundering Blackberry business rather than established Apple and Google customers.

4. Patent litigation aggressor

The ground Microsoft hasn't been able to take away from Android in the marketplace may well be covered by the revenue it's able to generate through the threat of litigation. The software giant has persuaded several handset makers--including HTC, Wistron, and Compal-- to pay it a vig for each Android device they sell to settle allegations that the mobile operating system violates Microsoft's patents.

The Android device makers that don't pay? Microsoft's taking them to court. Two high profile cases will move toward resolution next year-- Microsoft's suit against Barnes & Noble, whose Nook e-reader runs Android, and a separate suit against Motorola. (Google is in the process of acquiring Motorola Mobility.)

The tactic has proven so successful that in 2011, Microsoft started collecting fees from companies that make devices running Google's Chrome operating system as well, including Acer and ViewSonic. Expect Microsoft to continue to press device makers that use its rival's technology. Likewise, count on those manufacturers, particularly the smaller ones, to pay up rather than face Microsoft in the courthouse.

5. Growing search through social

Like the mobile-phone business, Microsoft has bounced from one strategy to the next in a bid to be more relevant in Internet search. It's re-branded its search engine a few times, added key partners, and cycled through senior executives, and still significantly trails market leader Google.

There's one Microsoft partnership that could start to pay off in 2012, and it's not the deal to handle search queries from Yahoo. It's Microsoft's deal with Facebook. In May, Microsoft began including recommendations from Facebook friends into its Bing search engine, creating customized results by elevating the ones that receive a "like" from someone in the searcher's Facebook network. So when someone is looking for a Thai restaurant in Seattle, for example, a spot that earned a like from a Facebook friend will rise in that person's particular search rankings.

Google is on to the same formula too, creating its Google+ social network to infuse its search results with customized answers to Web surfer queries. But in social networking, Facebook remains king. Using Facebook "likes" are just the first step. Microsoft clearly plans to add more social signals to Bing in 2012. And while that won't topple Google, it does offer the opportunity to grab a large slice of the search business by providing more relevant results.

Google gets Makeover: Google+ Improves it's features

While Facebook's Timeline is rolling out to users in time for the new year, Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) is fitting a handful of features into its own social network in time for Christmas.

Over the next few days, Google+ users will be able to access a noise filter, a redesigned photo application, administrative designations for Google+ Pages and improved notifications.

First, the noise filter is a control that lets users fine-tune their Google+ Stream so that they don't miss posts from people they enjoy following most on the network. The tool sits atop the Stream as a "slider" that lets users tell their Stream to show no posts, fewer posts, most posts or every post from a specific stream.

Google Inc’s vice president of Google+ products Bradley Horowitz said, “Today we’re pleased to announce a goodie basket full of Google+ features and functionality for you to unpack and enjoy over the holidays. Some of these were on nearly everyone’s wishlist… and some we hope will be welcome surprises. These features will be rolling out over the next couple of days, and we hope you’ll find them useful this holiday season and beyond”.

Watch the video to know How to Adjust the volume of Circles your Stream ?

Google also significantly improved the Google+ Photos application. When users view a photo in Lightbox, a JavaScript application that lets users click an image to have it magnified in a window, they will enjoy better navigation and comments.

Moreover, a new photo-tagging experience lets users "quickly focus on the people in your photos," according to Horowitz. See the Lightbox and tagging improvements in action here.

Google launched Google+ Pages for business brands in November, allowing companies, celebrities and organizations to tout themselves on Google+.

Thanks to user feedback, Google is now allowing brands to delegate as many as 50 managers as administrators who can lord over a brand Page. There is also a new "notification flow" so that managers of brands can gauge all the activity that takes place on a page. Think of it as a social media monitoring aid for Google+ business users.

Google said it will also show an aggregated count of users who have engaged with a brand page by +1  it or by adding it to a Circle. The idea is to give brands some quick and dirty feedback about who is visiting and engaging with their brand page.

Finally, Google added "sneak previews" for notifications that alert users to what's new and why it might be important, as well as the ability to see +1s and posts that have been shared since the user last checked.

Google plus is determined to end the year on a high note.

Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) shares were at 621.83 at the end of the last day’s trading. There’s been a 14.5% change in the stock price over the past 3 months.

YouTube’s New Homepage Goes Social

YouTube is launching what the company calls the biggest redesign in its history today, including sweeping changes to its homepage and channel pages. The goal is better personalized video discovery and viewing, with a notable emphasis on social features. Think of the changes as the latest example of Google’s campaign to create a unified social layer for all of its products.

The new homepage looks a lot like Facebook, or Google+ for that matter. An activity feed view dominates the middle of the page, while a left-hand navigation bar provides a set of filters for what you see in the feed.

The default Subscriptions feed appears to include algorithmically determined video uploads and activities determined by information like what videos you’ve watched and which channels you’ve subscribed to, although YouTube group product manager Noam Lovinsky wouldn’t tell me exactly how it worked. The previous version of the homepage feed, which launched early this year, doesn’t appear to be algorithmically tuned to the same degree.


Google+ and Facebook also get prime-time spots in the navigation bar, listed right beneath the first feed. Click on either and you’ll be able to view videos shared by friends on those networks. Google+ videos are automatically in there since YouTube accounts are linked to users Google identities. Facebook requires an opt-in login.

Google is playing up the already social aspects of YouTube to help it bolster Google’s cross-product G+ push. The Facebook integration is a bit more surprising considering that it’s the main social competitor out there. But Lovinksy downplayed that point when I brought it up, noting that only around 10% of YouTube’s views are from embeds, meaning that Facebook is just a part of that percentage.

He went on to explain that the prominent locations for Google+ and Facebook are to help with onboarding for newer users. Instead of looking through the entire site for interesting channels, or trying to see what YouTube’s general recommendations tell them, they can get started by seeing what their current friends are already sharing.

The rest of the left-hand bar includes other options for filtering the feed. You can pin any subscribed channel to the top section as well. Click on any of those subscriptions and you’ll see a reverse-chronological feed of all the activity in that channel.


bar includes a YouTube-curated section showing Trending, Popular and Music channels, and another section showing recommended channels.

The new homepage has a lot in common with Facebook’s left-hand navigation lists, its algorithmic feed, and its right-hand side recommendations and ads. But that’s a reflection of the design paradigm for all social products, as Lovinksy tells me. Users need a homepage that can help them consume new and interesting content as easily as possible, paired with landing pages that let you add subscriptions. In YouTube’s case, the homepage emphasis on filtering channels is based on users’ desires to watch sets of videos in a single sitting. Like, you know, television, channels.

To that end, YouTube is also adding some new templates for channel pages. Here’s what they include, according to the company:

• The Blogger template: A featured video, a reverse chronological list of videos from 1 playlist of your choosing, playlists, and other Channels.
• The Creator template: A featured video, featured playlists, and other Channels.
• The Network template: A featured video and featured Channels
• The Everything template: A featured video, featured playlists, and featured Channels

These additions, which are more analogous to template options in Tumblr or MySpace rather than Facebook’s one-size-fits-all style, let producers promote their works in the most natural style for what they offer. These templates come with a Feed tab showing any of the following actions from the channel owner:

• Liking a video
• Commenting on a video
• Subscribing to a Channel
• Favoriting a video
• Uploading a video, and
• Adding a video to a playlist

Importantly, any of these social actions can also potentially appear in users homepages, similar to how activity on a Facebook page appears in users news feeds. The Feed tab includes a section for users to post their comments, another section for the owner to feature other channels, and an About form.

The homepage and channel changes are the two biggest updates today, but the company is also introducing a site-wide design upgrade to all the elements — typography, iconography, etc (like the new logo at the top of this article). It’s separately adding new versions of its Xbox and Google TV applications, that feature magazine-style tile interfaces showing various channels. Finally, the company is touting the success of its advertising platform, saying that it’s seeing strong demand for its new cost-per-click style of video ads.

Going forward, look for YouTube to introduce more social features, Lovinsky said. While he didn’t get into specifics, my impression was there’s going to more fine-tuned discovery options coming, like channels on the homepage that show you content on topics related to videos you like. A “hip hop” video channel for instance. And, of course, look for YouTube to add tighter G+ integrations across the site.

Online Security: 11 Tips to be Followed

Billions of dollars will be spent online over the course of this month and, unfortunately, there are those that will be looking to steal some of it. Make sure you will not be a victim.

There is many reason in the world to shop online. The bargains are there. The selection is mind-boggling. The shopping is secure. Shipping is much fast during the festive season. Even returns are pretty easy, with the right e-tailers. Shopping has never been easier or more convenient for consumers.

But what about the bad guys who lay in wait? ECrime Report for 2011 indicates that use of phishing attacks (where thieves attempt to swindle you out of your sign-in credentials and even credit card info by pretending to be a real website, or even an online bank) is down, as much as eight percent since the second quarter and 11 percent since the third quarter of last year. That's great news—except the same report says sites with malware (malicious code aimed at compromising your privacy) has increased by 89 percent since the second quarter.

Stay calm. While somewhat alarming, these stats should not keep you from shopping online. You simply need some common sense and practical advice. Follow these basic guidelines and you can shop online with confidence. Here are 11 tips for staying safe online, so you can start checking off items on that holiday shopping list.

1) Use Familiar Websites
Start at a trusted site rather than shopping with a search engine. Search results can be rigged to lead you astray, especially when you drift past the first few pages of links. If you know the site, chances are it's less likely to be a rip off. We all know Amazon.com and that it carries everything under the sun; likewise, just about every major retail outlet has an online store, from Target to Best Buy to Home Depot. Beware of misspellings or sites using a different top-level domain (.net instead of .com, for example)—those are the oldest tricks in the book. Yes, the sales on these sites might look enticing, but that's how they trick you into giving up your info.

2) Look for the Lock
Never ever, ever buy anything online using your credit card from a site that doesn't have SSL (secure sockets layer) encryption installed—at the very least. You'll know if the site has SSL because the URL for the site will start with HTTPS:// (instead of just HTTP://). An icon of a locked padlock will appear, typically in the status bar at the bottom of your web browser, or right next to the URL in the address bar. It depends on your browser.


Never, ever give anyone your credit card over email. Ever.

3) Don't Tell All
No online shopping store needs your social security number or your birthday to do business. However, if crooks get them, combined with your credit card number for purchases, they can do a lot of damage. The more they know, the easier it is to steal your identity. When possible, default to giving up the least amount of information.
4) Check Statements
Don't wait for your bill to come at the end of the month. Go online regularly during the holiday season and look at electronic statements for your credit card, debit card, and checking accounts. Make sure you don't see any fraudulent charges, even originating from sites like PayPal. (After all, there's more than one way to get to your money.)

If you do see something wrong, pick up the phone to address the matter quickly. In the case of credit cards, pay the bill only once you know all your charges are accurate. You have 30 days to notify the bank or card issuer of problems, however; after that, you might be liable for the charges anyway.
5) Inoculate Your PC
Swindlers don't just sit around waiting for you to give them data; sometimes they give you a little something extra to help things along. You need to protect against malware with regular updates to your anti-virus program. PCMag recommends Webroot SecureAnywhere Antivirus (4.5 stars, Editors' Choice, $39.95 direct), which has extras to help fight ID theft, or at the very least the free Ad-Aware Free Internet Security 9.0 (4.5 stars, Editors' Choice).
6) Use Strong Passwords
We like to beat this dead horse about making sure to utilize uncrackable passwords, but it's never more important than when banking and shopping online. Our tips for creating a unique password can come in handy during a time of year when shopping around probably means creating new accounts on all sorts of e-commerce sites.

7) Think Mobile
The National Retail Federation says that 5.7 percent of adults will use their mobile devices to do comparison shopping before making a purchase. (And 32.1 percent will comparison shop online with a computer, as well.) There's no real need to be any more nervous about shopping on a mobile device than online. The trick is to use apps provided directly by the retailers, like Amazon, Target, etc. Use the apps to find what you want and then make the purchase directly, without going to the store or the website. (For more complete information, be sure to also read our tips for shopping safely on a mobile device.)

8) Avoid Public Terminals
Hopefully we don't have to tell you it's a bad idea to use a public computer to make purchases, but we still will. If you do, just remember to log out every time you use a public terminal, even if you were just checking email.

What about using your own laptop to shop while you're out? It's one thing to hand over a credit card to get swiped at the checkout, but when you must enter the number and expiration date on a website while sitting in a public cafe, you're giving an over-the-shoulder snooper plenty of time to see the goods. At the very least, think like a gangster: Sit in the back, facing the door.

9) Privatize Your Wi-Fi
If you do decide to go out with the laptop to shop, you'll need a Wi-Fi connection. Only use the wireless if you access the Web over a virtual private network (VPN) connection. If you don't get one from your employer, you can set up a free one with AnchorFree Hotspot Shield, if you're willing to put up with the ads, or pay $4.99 a month or $44.99 a year to skip the ads. There's even an iOS app version of Hotspot Shield, but that will cost you $.99 per month or $9.99 a year after the first seven days.

Now it is not a good time to try out a hotspot you're unfamiliar with. Stick to known networks, even if they're free, like those found at Starbucks or Barnes & Noble stores that is powered by AT&T. Look for the network named "attwifi," then open a browser to click into the "walled garden" to get final access. You can also find free Wi-Fi at McDonalds, Panera Bread, and FedEx Office locations, not to mention libraries and local cafes.

10) Count the Cards
 Gift cards are the most requested holiday gift every year, and this year will be no exception. Stick to the source when you buy one; scammers like to auction off gift cards on these sites with little or no funds on them.

11) Know What's Too Good to Be True
Once again, McAfee has compiled a Twelve Scams of Christmas list, all things to be aware of while shopping. The "coupon scam" offers of a free product with purchase, in particular an iPad (a very coveted gadget at any holiday) or even holiday job offers. Many of these "offers" will come in via social media. Beware even of your friends, who might innocently forward such a thing. Be very wary even if you get a message from friend claiming he or she has been robbed, especially a friend overseas looking for money to be wire transferred, unless you absolutely can confirm it by talking to him or her personally. Skepticism in most cases can go a long way toward saving you from a stolen card number.

LinkedIn decide to RAISE $100 Million in Cash

Sometimes you can't win for winning. LinkedIn's stock price fell more than 10 percent Friday morning.On Thursday, LinkedIn reported higher-than-expect third-quarter revenue of US$139.5 million, more than doubling last year's revenue of $61.8 million. The company also beat analyst expectations of $128 million for the quarter.

 

LinkedIn reported losses of 2 cents per share. This, too, was better than expected; analysts had forecast a 4-cents-per-share loss. Non-GAAP earnings per share were 6 cents, beating estimates of 1 cent. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was $24.7 million, considerably higher than the company's projected $12.5-$13.6 million.
Even before its IPO earlier this year, LinkedIn made it clear the company would experience short-term losses. Even so, investors seemed nervous about the company's earnings report.
As for the guidance, LinkedIn increased its overall 2011 revenue expectation to the $508-$512 million range, higher than the August guidance of $475-$485 million. For the fourth quarter, the company projected $154-$158 million with EBITDA of $19 to $21 million.