5 Most Social Networking Sites You Should Join

There’s a constant curiosity and global battle to have the top ranked social networking site. If you’re spending the majority of your social networking time on a less popular site, are you getting the results you could be getting if you did more research? eBizMBA Rank offers a routinely updated average of each website’s Alexa Global Traffic Rank, and U.S. Traffic Rank from Compete and Quantcast. Here are the Top 5 sites for February.

FACEBOOK

750,000,000 Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors

Mostly everybody is on it, whether they admit it or not. It’s quick, easy to navigate and addicting. It presents ads in an unobtrusive way. Many users enjoy checking themselves into places and this creates more buzz for businesses utilizing social media. You can promote your posts or advertise on a variety of budgets. Many people are on Facebook more than their personal email now, so it’s a very convenient way to reach people.

                                            

It’s very easy to get sucked up into the Facebook vortex and waste time looking at your friend’s vacation photos or what your high school prom date is making for dinner. It’s pretty much always at your fingertips and you have to use your Facebook time wisely. Setting an alarm in your cell phone can help monitor your Facebook time so you don't over do it and end up with uncompleted tasks for the day.

TWITTER

250,000,000 Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors

You have to get your point across in 140 characters or less. People love the simplicity and immediacy of Twitter. You can share a thought or a link and get in and get out without a major time suck of distractions. It forces people to get to the point quickly. There’s something very liberating about that. Hashtags are a great way to get more eyes on your posts and potentially more followers. It allows you to get in on a trend or start one. It’s allowing all of us to enter in an international conversation while we’re sitting in our living rooms. It many ways, it’s become the ultimate chat room.

                                                         

While Super Bowl commercials were once just water cooler buzz, now viewers can immediately tweet their thoughts on the impact of an ad. We can instantly tweet our opinions out on everything from the Olympics to a political speech to comments on how a contestant just performed on “American Idol.’ Twitter has created a sort of “Twitter Vision” phenomenon and it involves everyone in the conversation 

LINKEDIN

110,000,000 estimated Unique Monthly Visitors

LinkedIn is obviously the most professional social networking site. It’s also the most efficient way to show colleagues in your industry and potential employers what you're up to. As the unemployment rate continues to hover around 8 percent, all eyes seem to be on LinkedIn these days. Whether you're looking for a job, want a better job or simply want a freelance job, LinkedIn is the go-to place for employers and employees. There is also nothing like LinkedIn on LinkedIn’s level.

                                              

People can tell if you've looked at their profile and probably don't want to get caught going on LinkedIn at work unless it’s to update something related to your current job.

PINTEREST

85,500,000 Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors.

There are dozens of reasons to hop on Pinterest, especially if you’re trying to attract a mostly female audience. According to The Social Media Report 2012 released by Nielsen, Pinterest’s audience has been predominantly females ages of 24 to 49. The breakdown of usage for Pinterest is 70 percent women; 30 percent men.

The report also states over the past year, 84 percent of women have accessed Pinterest via app, which means their utilizing this social networking medium on the go. But perhaps the most impressive aspect of this site its 1,047 percent increase in year-over-year growth. If you're not on Pinterest, you need to get on board.

MySpace

70,500,000 Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors.

This is one of the first major social networking sites and old habits are hard to break. While this narrowly beat out Google Plus to take the No. 5 spot, MySpace has been revamped with a whole new look and feel. Since it’s probably been awhile since you last logged in, you can log into the new MySpace with Twitter or Facebook or opt for the classic page design.

With Justin Timberlake putting some of his own star power and bucks behind the site now, the new MySpace is moving more in the direction of Pandora and Spotify with the option to make up your own radio stations and create playlists.

Facebook Declined To Comment: Google Didn't Return Requests For Comment

The travel app company Waze is believed to be the subject of a billion-dollar bidding war between Google and Facebook, in a move apparently aimed at tying its social functions more closely into the rival firms' networks.

A fortnight ago reports suggested that Facebook had bid $1bn for the business, in order to wrap the "social travel" element into its billion-strong social network. But those initial approaches seem to have been rebuffed – and now Google is said to have entered the fray.

Any buyout by Google or Facebook could also have implications for Apple, which buys data from Waze for its much-criticised Maps application on the iPhone and iPad. In January, Waze was said to have been in takeover talks with Apple, for which it is a supplier of some map data. Apple was reported to have been offering about $500m for the company – an amount that was apparently rejected by Waze chief executive Noam Bardin, who was holding out for substantially more.

Now those bids seem to have arrived for the company, which has more than 40 million users, and which has attracted attention in the US for its ability to provide real-time information about traffic. Its social influence was highlighted after Hurricane Sandy, when the White House and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) contacted Waze to ask its users to indicate which petrol stations in New Jersey were short of fuel after the devastating storm so they could be prioritised for deliveries.

Waze, founded in Israel in 2007 but now headquartered in Silicon Valley, provides a free smartphone app which uses GPS sensing when the user is in traffic to determine their speed; by amalgamating it with other Waze users' data, it can generate real-time information about holdups, accidents and other problems. That, in turn, helps to predict optimal routes avoiding congestion or roadblocks. After Hurricane Sandy, the company sells anonymised data sets of maps and traffic to third parties.

The travel app company Waze is believed to be the subject of a billion-dollar bidding war between Google and Facebook, in a move apparently aimed at tying its social functions more closely into the rival firms' networks.

A fortnight ago reports suggested that Facebook had bid $1bn for the business, in order to wrap the "social travel" element into its billion-strong social network. But those initial approaches seem to have been rebuffed – and now Google is said to have entered the fray.

Any buyout by Google or Facebook could also have implications for Apple, which buys data from Waze for its much-criticised Maps application on the iPhone and iPad. In January, Waze was said to have been in takeover talks with Apple, for which it is a supplier of some map data. Apple was reported to have been offering about $500m for the company – an amount that was apparently rejected by Waze chief executive Noam Bardin, who was holding out for substantially more.

Now those bids seem to have arrived for the company, which has more than 40 million users, and which has attracted attention in the US for its ability to provide real-time information about traffic. Its social influence was highlighted after Hurricane Sandy, when the White House and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) contacted Waze to ask its users to indicate which petrol stations in New Jersey were short of fuel after the devastating storm so they could be prioritised for deliveries.

Waze, founded in Israel in 2007 but now headquartered in Silicon Valley, provides a free smartphone app which uses GPS sensing when the user is in traffic to determine their speed; by amalgamating it with other Waze users' data, it can generate real-time information about holdups, accidents and other problems. That, in turn, helps to predict optimal routes avoiding congestion or roadblocks. After Hurricane Sandy, the company sells anonymised data sets of maps and traffic to third parties.

For Facebook, Waze would provide a further route into the burgeoning mobile space, where purchased photo-sharing app Instagram for $1bn in April 2012. Buying Waze could give it more opportunities to sell mobile ads, as well as getting better data about its users' movements.

For Google, Waze would help to enhance the social side of its new maps app, which was unveiled at its recent I/O conference earlier this month. Waze has received a total of $67m of venture capital funding, the most recent a $30m injection in October 2011 which valued it at around $250m,.

Facebook declined to comment. Waze and Google did not return requests for comment. For Facebook, Waze would provide a further route into the burgeoning mobile space, where purchased photo-sharing app Instagram for $1bn in April 2012. Buying Waze could give it more opportunities to sell mobile ads, as well as getting better data about its users' movements.

For Google, Waze would help to enhance the social side of its new maps app, which was unveiled at its recent I/O conference earlier this month. Waze has received a total of $67m of venture capital funding, the most recent a $30m injection in October 2011 which valued it at around $250m.

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Hi, I'm Vivek S Nair an professional SEO Worker and pure content writer. You can catch me and follow me, or could join me too.

Google Reviews Are Prominent With An Official Knowledge Of Graph Update

Google GOOG +1.66% officially announced that some big changes to a Google Local LOCM +1.19% Search feature with its new “Carousel” of local results at the top of the search page. These results show above advertisements in a large banner (see image to right) and are quite prominent. This change has been coming for a while, however, its roll-out signals a range of opportunities for business owners and marketing executives.

Google Officially Launches Knowledge Graph Carousel

While these new results are at their most visually-compelling on the desktop, the results are mirrored on mobile devices. They do not look the exact same, but when I compared the results on the iPhone 5, iPad 2, and Samsung S3, the results were very similar and highlighted most of the same results in a Maps/Places “box.”

Some pundits have argued this is a move toward “smarter search” and not necessarily “social search” and no doubt that is true to some extent. However, I see it as an incredibly social search type move. By making consumer-driven reviews more prominent in local search results, Google makes results far more social than before. The first thing you notice after the photo is a Zagat score and the number of reviews, which are done by consumers and possibly those within your network although that is not clear at this point.

Google Reviews Lean On Google Maps

As others have written here before, and I have said in my own posts, Google Maps is at the very core of much of Google’s work. The latest acquisition of Waze proves some of that out, for sure, and how Google desires to make its social efforts far more practical and useful – more than simply showing you photos of cats. Social media-driven maps are a slice of how local search/places could become more significant to searchers. Google is always iterating on search and on how we experience it. Bringing real-world locations to the top of search results benefits consumers and certainly local  merchants who are also potential advertisers.

With its new “Carousel” of local results at the top of the search page, Google presents users with a faster way to get local information. If the carousel can deliver a more accurate result, packed with more useful information at-a-glance, that will likely have far-reaching implications for how consumers use Google on the desktop, on mobile devices, new tech gadgets — for example, those all-too-fashionable, up and coming, glasses that Google introduced recently. I’m sure it isn’t far behind that the reviews you see from Google Places will be pulled out or highlighted if they come from someone in your Google+ network. Smarter search, for sure, but social as well.

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Hi, I'm Vivek Nair an professional SEO Worker and pure content writer. You can catch me and follow me, or could join me too.

Google's Panda and Penguin Are Replaced By SEO With Social.

As a blogger who can't tell a Panda from a Penguin, at least the ones prowling on the web, I decided to investigate when I noticed changes in the Google search results of my posts and was told I might be the victim of the pair of these lovely creatures. Happily, I also noticed significant increase in visits to my blog from Google.

As they were intended to maul the Mal-practitioners of SEO badly enough to ensure a cleanup of the ecosystem of the Web, Google must have chosen, names like Panda and Penguin for its ferocious algorithms, with a purpose.

If Google counted on lovable creatures like Panda and Penguin to assuage the mayhem it intended to unleash on its own support network, albeit with a good purpose to weed away the undesired, it seems to have created only bad blood. The truth and Irony is, if SEO will eventually die, it will not be because of these poor creatures who take the blame but on account of Google's own measures to personalize search for each of us.

Like all ethical rules Google play to, personalized search may be what we want and even be the best thing for us but it takes away all other definitions of natural selection of what is most relevant.

The Great SEO Turf War Of 2012

The trouble started when influences like Forbes magazine declared "Google is in the process of making the SEO industry obsolete, SEO will be dead in two years." and appeared to advice the Industry "not to waste any more money on SEO".

"The Death Of SEO": The Rise of Social, PR and Real Content" appeared to lead to a turf war between SEO Heavy weights who were miffed by the advice being given to business to save millions of dollars spent on SEO and the evangelists of PR eager to be rehabilitated together with the new breed of Social Media Gurus, who will love a piece of the cake.

Google Panda and Google Penguin

Has Google's Penguin Bitten?

No one (except Google perhaps?) really knows exactly how the Panda and Penguin and their various updates have worked and caused and how much irrevocable damage to the SEO fraternity.

Naturally, the SEO specialists who have been affected and consequently lost their contracts and revenues do not come forward, at least in public. However a new generation of real marketers seem to know how to repair the damage and take corrective actions as part of the service they offer.

Google has zeroed in on duplicate content and now shows only the authority sites where I have recently published in the search results and ignore numerous syndication and re posting on my own blog. On the other hand It looks like Google is showing my own blog posts more prominently, sending more visitors for the search terms I have used.

What is not clear is how Penguin has affected big content providers like News Cred who engage in generating in-house content by big corporations and its distribution through syndication. News Cred has recently blogged assurances about how Google does not object to legitimate syndication.

How Google Will Rule the Roost Over Search and Our Lives?

What is not noticed in the battlefield of SEO is how Google is implementing its own scheme of total control of search and your life by it, making any form of SEO less relevant.

It is already clear that as long as people continue to use Google as the default engine & Google continues to push organic results further down the page or below the fold then any form of SEO will effectively be obsolete before long. Recent changes and consolidation of Google's own products including Google+ have significant influence on how search will be personalized and how results can be presented. This is what one expert had to say.

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By: Vivek Nair.

David Cameron avoids asking questions for Google boss and in despite of new whistleblower.

Eric Schmidt will not be grilled on corporate taxes when he visited No 10 but former executive says he has 100,000 emails showing how search giant has ‘cheated’ UK taxpayers. David Cameron failed to raise Google’s tax affairs when he met the company’s chairman Eric Schmidt in Downing Street yesterday, it has emerged.

Mr Schmidt was attending a meeting as a member of the Government Business Advisory Group.

But while Mr Cameron outlined his plans to use the UKs chairmanship of the G8 to tackle tax evasion and avoidance he did not specifically raise the issue of Google’s tax bill in the UK. The company has been heavily criticised by MPs for technically outsourcing all its UK advertising sales to Ireland where it pays lower corporation tax – even though most of the sales are promoted and agreed in the UK. The Independent understands that while Mr Cameron did not directly tackle Google on the tax bill in the meeting Mr Schmidt disclosed that he would support any efforts by the Prime Minister to clear up international tax law. The Google boss was later allowed to leave the meeting in Downing Street by the back door to avoid answering questions from journalists.



Mr Schmidt has previously made clear his company would not support measures that would increase its overall global tax bill. A spokesman for Mr Cameron said that he had raised the issue of tax in general with the Business Advisory Group and outlined what the Government intended to do to simplify international tax rules, increase transparency and close loop-holes in the current system. “The Prime Minister talked the group though his G8 agenda,” he said. “That has transparency at the heart of it. But he confirmed that he did not specifically be raised Google’s tax affairs. “We don’t talk about individual companies’ tax affairs. Asked earlier in the day why Mr Cameron had commented on the tax affairs of the comedian Jimmy Carr but was refusing to talk about the tax of Google the spokesman said: “The Business Advisory Group brings together a range of businesses.”

News of the Prime Minister's reluctance to single out Google for criticism came as a former Google executive-turned-whistleblower said he has 100,000 emails that expose an "immoral" tax avoidance scheme used by his former employer, that has "cheated" British taxpayers out of hundreds of millions of pounds. Barney Jones, who worked for Google from 2002 until 2006, said the company has "pulled the wool over the eyes of HMRC and the British population." Jones claimed that Google operates an elaborate system which diverts British profits through Ireland to the Bermuda tax haven.

Mr Schmidt is unlikely to get as easy a ride when he appears alongside the Labour leader Ed Miliband at a Google ‘Big Tent event’ on Wednesday. Mr Miliband is expected to criticise the company’s tax policy and warn that a future Labour government would take a stronger unilateral line on aggressive tax avoidance than the Conservatives.

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Hi I am Vivek Nair and professional cover for google and experts in IT field work. For further details of Google updation and want to know about SEO work. Join me on Twitter and Follow me on Google+.

Petrol and Diesel Comparison

Goa has become the first state to sell petrol at cheaper rates than diesel after oil companies recently announced a hike of Rs. 1 per litre for diesel.

Petrol Becomes more Cheaper.

Goa has the lowest price for petrol in the country after the Manohar Parrikar-led government slashed VAT to 0.1% as part of the party's 2012 poll manifesto, which slashed petrol prices by a whopping Rs. 11 per litre. This was the fourth such hike this year. Diesel is now priced at Rs. 52.70 per litre in Goa while petrol costs Rs. 52.10 per litre.

With fuel prices tilting in favour of petrol, the head of All Goa Petrol Dealers Association Paresh Joshi, thinks, "Consumers may now go for petrol cars instead of diesel vehicles unlike elsewhere where the trend is opposite.

If you are complaining about the fuel prices in India, a research compiled by Evans Halshaw last year would interest you. It revealed that Norway is the most expensive country to buy diesel in the world, in spite of being the fifth largest exporter of oil.

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Hi I m Vivek Nair and you can catch me on Google+ and can follow me on Twitter, you can have my details on Facebook too.

The New Ford EcoSport On Road

The Ford EcoSport has been an object of infatuation since it broke cover at the Delhi Auto Expo in 2012. It basked in the limelight for a year and a half for three reasons – an unconventionally attractive design, the 1-litre EcoBoost petrol engine and the sub-Rs 10 lakh price tag. In a sign that the wait is finally over, Ford has recently conducted the pre-launch test drive for media in Goa.
I know most of you have already seen the EcoSport in-person as part of Ford’s pre-launch campaign and formed an opinion about its design and features. But does the 1-litre EcoBoost engine pack enough punch to take this urban SUV to the top of its game? Read on to find out.

Design
In appearance, the EcoSport is unmistakably avant-garde. The front end features a large, ‘gaping fish mouth  grille flanked by slim headlamps and big fog lamps, reflecting Ford’s global design language. Two bold lines on the bonnet flow onto the roof, highlighting the car’s aerodynamic prowess. I particularly liked the muscular fenders, tailgate-mounted spare tyre and the sleek roof-rails that enhance the vehicle’s SUV stance. The tailgate handle is beautifully integrated within the tail lamp and that’s a nice touch. The only thing missing is a pair of sidesteps that could greatly accentuate the SUV’s ruggedness. Overall, the EcoSport has a quirky design -- love it or hate it, the car certainly makes a statement on the road.

Space, Comfort and Convenience
Frankly, the EcoSport doesn’t look as big in flesh as it does in pictures. It can comfortably seat five but going by the SUV standards, the fifth person wouldn’t be really happy. However, those upgrading from a hatchback would find ample head, shoulder and leg room in the EcoSport. The boot that Ford claims could accommodate even a washing machine is expandable up to 705 litres, with the rear seats tumbled.

The driver seat offers a commanding position and excellent outward visibility. Ford seems to have employed a wide range of sound-deadening features in the EcoSport - there’s very little noise intruding on your comfort The EcoSport is the first vehicle in its segment in India to feature Ford SYNC® connectivity platform, which provides customers with the convenience and flexibility to control their media players and mobile phones with voice commands.

The Eco Sport’s strongest selling point is certainly the 1-litre EcoBoost engine. It is hard to imagine a 999 cc three cylinder engine under the hood of an SUV, but guess what; this engine delivers the power and performance of a naturally aspirated 1.6-litre engine. Helped by a turbocharger, direct injection and variable valve timing, the EcoBoost motor develops 123 bhp of power at 6000 rpm and 170 Nm of torque from 1,400 to 4,500 rpm.

Dip the clutch and press the start button, the engine fires up smoothly and idles without clatter. It has enough low-end grunt to nip in and out of traffic but once you floor the pedal, there’s detectable turbo lag. However, once past 1800rpm mark, the engine revs happily and displays good power delivery. On the flipside, it becomes very audible at higher rpms. Overall, the 1-litre EcoSport is more of a practical cruiser than a fun-to-drive car. The engine is mated to a five-speed manual gearbox that offers slick gearshifts. Two other engine options will be available, too - a 110 bhp 1.5 petrol and a 90bhp 1.5 diesel. The diesel EcoSport will have more takers and I’m sure, be more fun-to-drive.

Fords are generally regarded as great handlers and the EcoSport is no exception. Dampers and springs achieve an optimal balance between handling and ride comfort. The car stays absolutely pinned to the tarmac even at a close corner. I didn't think twice about rolling over big potholes or pesky curbs, thanks to the all-absorbing suspension and the 200 mm ground clearance.

The light steering is a blessing in city, yet precise enough at high speeds and around tight corners. Ford's Electric Power Assist Steering (EPAS) system is equipped with ‘Pull Drift Compensation’, which automatically makes imperceptible steering corrections when it notices a pull caused by wind, potholes or even differences in tyre pressure.

Mileage
Ford has quoted an ARAI certified mileage of 18.7 kmpl for the 1 litre EcoBoost variant. However, I rarely saw a double digit figure on the real-time fuel consumption monitor; blame it on the performance tests and aggressive driving. Otherwise, the engine is definitely capable of returning an average of 13-14 kmpl in normal conditions. The 1.5-litre petrol and diesel variants return 15.8kmpl and 22.7 kmpl respectively (ARAI figures).

Conclusion
If I were to sum up the EcoSport in one word, it would be: intriguing. It has got all right ingredients to stay true to what Ford calls it – the urban SUV. Although the long wait of almost 17 months has led to an inevitable loss of interest, I’d dare to say that the EcoSport is indeed worth the wait. The vehicle enjoys tax benefits of a sub-4 metre car, but the 1-litre engine will be available only in the top Titanium variant, making it an expensive option. Ford really needs to price the EcoSport wisely to take it to the top of the charts.

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Hi I m Vivek Nair and you can catch me on Google+ and can follow me on Twitter, you can have my details on Facebook too