Category Archives: SOCIAL MEDIA

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Iconic Photographer Steve McCurry Talks Blogging and WordPress


A very nice interview with some amazing photographs.

Iconic Photographer Steve McCurry Talks Blogging and WordPress.

Steve McCurry, a professional photographer and author of several photography books, shares his reasons for why he blogs on WordPress.com. His iconic photo, Afghan Girl, graced the cover of National Geographic and was named one of the 100 Best Pictures of the magazine. McCurry has been recognized with some of the most prestigious awards in the industry, including the Robert Capa Gold Medal, National Press Photographers Award, and an unprecedented four first prize awards from the World Press Photo contest, to name a few. Read the rest here >>>>

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Thanks you Worpress.com for a quick service


A little note to say thank you to WordPress.com tos team for their quick and accurate service after an automated anti-spam control had flagged my blog as potentially in breach with the terms of service and/or advertisement policy. Thanks again Anthony also for the additional advice.

So I’ll say it again: WORDPRESS ROCKS and the service is great!

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Alzheimers: Google+ and Facebook all good


    

In the past weeks I have been discovering Google+ and what an amazing bunch of people I have discovered there. Some of the best photographers in the world, more on that in another post. Some great artists, musicians, worship musicians and leaders, well it is amazing and never before have I found a social network, social networking site, that tickles my creative tingles than on Google+, and with all the other services available through Google, I hope this will quickly integrate into my own social portal.

For those who have not received an invite yet, leave a comment with an email address here and I am happy to send you one.

Google+ v Facebook v Twitter

In the past weeks many have written about Google+ and especially compared to Facebook and Twitter. I have to admit, my preference for several reasons goes out to Google+ over Facebook and Twitter taken together, but that is my personal taste. At the same time like many I am inclined to break away from both of them completely but there are still so many friends on there. I guess I’ll wait a little while but everytime I go to either Facebook or Twitter, I find it less appealing. With developers picking up on the Google+ enthusiasm, almost daily there is a new extension for G+ or an app  to make life on Google+ even better.

Some are more fanatical in their comments and opinions and urge everyone to leave Facebook and Twitter if they have not already done so, exchange your flickr account for picasa and more like that. I’ll just wait and see, and while my preference for Google+ far exceeds Facebook currently, I also remember how I have enjoyed Facebook and remember how it was such a breeze after some of the other network sites I used to be a member of. Just because Google+ is great that does not mean that all of a sudden Facebook is useless, although some recent changes are less favorable.

Google+ and Facebook all good

In the Star ( a local rag) of last Wednesday 20 July, the Health section had an article by Jolene Williams,  on the matter of Alzheimer’s and the importance of a national strategy. In the side bar on the page there were some pointers as to how to reduce your chances on Alzheimer’s and among them were the use of your brain by playing games and to be social which involves both real life interaction and participation and use of social networking sites.

So then it became all clear to me: Facebook for the games and Google+ for the meaningful communications, the learning new things and the being inspired.

Then I also realized how I do not play online games (anymore) and that brought me the last question: what would keep me on Facebook if all my friends would be on Google+ as well? ACTUALLY NOTHING. hmm.

And for the sake of your mental well being, you now have a good reason to go out on Facebook or Google+ of one of the many many others. But to limit myself to these two, just ask yourself, am I a puzzler, that likes his/her little games, sudoku, scrabble, word puzzles etc or am I always keen to learn more?

 

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Start G+ Extension: Google+ + Facebook + Twitter



If the Google+Facebook Extension was cutting it for you (me actually), than this the G+ extension for Chrome will probably do the trick for you if and when  you have Facebook and Twitter accounts and you are a Google+ user.
It adds your Twitter and Facebook streams to your Google+ account and also allows you to simply click once to post something to your Google+, Facebook, and Twitter accounts.  Especially for power-users this will prove to be a timesaver

The Start G+ extension can be downloaded Here >>>

If there are any Google+ extensions you can recommend let me know either here or on Google+ or of course any add- on for Mozilla Firefox, handy for Google+ users.

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Google+ the first days


For the last few days I have been trying out Google+ and I have to say I am pleased with what I am seeing. That is not entirely fair as I have always been a great supporter of Google. Not that really matters to anyone but I would like to have it said anyway.

Google+ v Facebook?

I see that there is a lot of speculation going on about whether Google+ is going to be the new Facebook. I will not look at this from a business perspective but all I can say is that so far I can imagine both having their own charm. At the same time, looking at all the other tools that Google already has, I could imagine a that in the future this can all be brought together to have yourself you own social portal. A place to share, read, work, be in contact with your friends, follow the news and all the other things that Google has made available.

At the same time, I like Facebook as well and over time it has proven to be one of my sites of choice both from a social and business perspective (although admittedly these two are harder and harder to separate lately). However with the Google+ to Facebook app, I can follow and update everything that’s going on Facebook. The immediate convert can go for even more drastic measures and export his or her photos from Facebook to Picasa for sharing on Google+

Google+ Features

Personally I have not seen anything on Google+ that can not also be done on Facebook, with a little more or less work. Facebook has lists, Google has Circles. Sure enough I am pretty simple when it comes to matters like privacy or being overblown with comments etc, it’s all fine.

Profile

The Google plus profile page is nice and clean, with not to many distractions. I am curious to see how that’ll pan out after the official launch and when the advertisements are incorporated. So far all good.

Circles

Circles is what the lists are in Facebook, a way of organizing your friends business network, family and whatever you may come up with. It is handy and at the same time I can already see how it is very easy to get over the to with. I could imagine some good use for it, but at the same time nothing too new under the sun here.

Stream

Stream shows you what everyone in your network is posting and sharing. I am particularly happy with the ability to filter out according to specific streams and like facebook those that overdo it and crowd your stream too much can be blocked or hidden.

Further Features

Further features include the possibility to share photos, videos, post status updates and more. There is a buzz option which shows you stream from twitter, wordpress blogs etc works great and a +1 button which I do not quite get yet but seems to be similar to a like button.

For the immediate convert there is already a number of facebook related apps available such as the option to see and update your facebook home page, an option to export to your facebook photo albums to (picasa) google+, an app to export your facebook friends to your google+ account.

Looking Back

Looking back on the first experiences I am pretty happy with it and so far Google+ is seems to be the one with the least amount of deep sighs in trying to get things to work the way I want it. Whatever the experts say I could see this proving to be serious competition.

Looking Forward

Given all the other things Google I already use: email, calender, search, specialist search, docs, picasa (as a backup for flickr), google earth, google reader, notofications, google sites, you tube, google talk and translate I could imagine a merge of all these functionality and see myself having one big social portal with everything in there.  For the time being, Google+ has won my heart.

Want an invite? leave your email address as a comment.

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