6 Dinner Table Setting Steps for Optimizing Your Blog Posts
September 24, 2010
6 Dinner Table Setting Steps for Optimizing Your Blog Posts
Writing a great blog post is 
just like making a fantastic dinner. You spend a lot of time producing remarkable content that you want potential customers to eat up and rave about to all of their friends. Still, the meal isnt the only critical ingredient to a truly great experience. You need to create a clear and relevant menu while setting an inviting table to draw them in and get them to read what you serve up.
Here are 6 steps to setting a great SEO table after youve made the meal.
1. Setting the Right Utensils – Choosing Target Keywords.
Before you begin setting the table, you should know what youre going to eat with. You wouldnt set the table with different sized spoons if youre eating sushi, would you? Keywords should be focused around what potential customers may be searching for or discussing on social media sites. Most meals will only require a couple pieces of silverware. You should follow the same rules by choosing 1-2 specific keywords or keyword phrases for each blog article.
2. Be Clear About Whats on the Menu – Write a Great Page Title, Headline and URL.
Your page title, headline and page URL are the most heavily weighed factors in on-page SEO. The keyword you selected in step 1 should be included in all three areas. Menus are categorized so that restaurant patrons can easily find a specific section of food they feel like having. Your website should also be setup so that visitors can easily find the content theyre most interested in, because search engines spiders were able to properly index it.
Feel free to spice up the page title and headline a little beyond just inserting keywords to make it enticing enough for someone to want to read, but keep in mind you have other opportunities to further describe the content in the page description.
3. Getting People to Choose Your Dish Crafting a Compelling Page Description.
Although it doesnt affect how you rank, a great page description can get a search engine user to click through to your site over another. It still helps to include keywords in the description to reinforce what the content is about to search engines and users.
This is your chance to really describe the content, and in the case of menu that specific meal and why its so great. You may even want to include a call to action. Our angel hair pasta is served in our superb garlic sauce with fresh jumbo shrimp. Try it today!
4. Setting the Table with Flowers and Candles Enhancing the Visitors Experience with Descriptive Imagery.
The mood and setting of a restaurant will have an impact on your experience. By using appropriate images associated with the blog post youll keep the visitors attention and give them a visual reminder of what the blog article is about. Images are great for humans, but search engines cant understand images unless you describe it with text. Include the keywords or keyword phrases for that page in the image caption, alt-text, and file name of the images.
5. Give Visitors the Opportunity to Rave About the Meal – Add Social Media Buttons to Every Post.
Restaurants love it when people tell others about the great experience they had. Word-of-mouth marketing is extremely effective, and getting your readers to share your articlewith their network can help drive considerably more traffic back to that post. Add social media and social sharing buttons to the top of each article so content can be easily shared right from your blog. The more sharing that goes on, the more opportunity there is for people to find that article remarkable and attract inbound links.
6. Putting a Meal on the Right Dish Making Sure Your Blog Sits on Your Own Domain.
Its important to put your meal on the right plate. It all has to fit and be on the appropriate dish. In order to get all the credit from the inbound links you acquire, your blog needs to be connected to your website through a subdomain or subdirectory of your main site. Many blogs are actually hosted by outside providers such as WordPress or Blogger and look like this:
Yourcompany.wordpress.com
In this scenario, all of the authority from inbound links you gain are passed to the blog software provider’s website and not to your own website. The number and quality of inbound links accounts for 75% of how you rank in search engines, so it is critical that all of the authority youre gaining from your blog is passed on to your website.
Make sure that your blog is either setup as a sub-directory of your website like yourcompany.com/blog or a subdomain like blog.yourcompany.com.
What other tips can you apply from the kitchen to optimizing your blog articles?
Photo credit: urbanitystudios
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CommentsPosted by Billy MacDonald on Fri, Sep 24, 2010 @ 08:30 AM
Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/HubSpot/~3/o4ZrJItJw2I/6-Dinner-Table-Setting-Steps-for-Optimizing-Your-Blog-Posts.aspx
10 Almost Instant Responses to Your Google Instant Questions
September 24, 2010
10 Almost Instant Responses to Your Google Instant Questions
Yesterday, we hosted an incredibly popular webinar called Google Instant: Major Change for SEO. It was attended by over 1,500 viewers, and by the end of the webinar, we had collected close to 200 questions. If you missed it, you can watch the webinar on-demand in our archives! We couldnt answer them all, but Ive done my best to answer some of the most common questions and address some of the major changes we feel the release of Google Instant has brought about. Im no Google, but I hope these responses were quick enough for you 
1. How is Google Instant going to change my ranking for keywords and keyword phrases?
In releasing Google Instant, Google made no change to the ranking algorithm. This means your rankings for specific keywords immediately before and immediately after the release of Google Instant would be unaffected. What Google Instant does change is the user experience and how people interact with Google. Because Google is now predicting what people are searching for and displaying the results before the user even hits enter, more and more website are going to be targeting predicted keywords. This will most likely cause these keywords to become more competitive and, in turn, make it much more difficult to maintain a high ranking for these specific keywords.
2. How does Google Instant affect my SEO strategy?
Because Google Instant presents results before the user even hits enter, there is little reason for the user to visit the second page of search results or possibly even scroll below the fold. It is also much easier for the user to just rephrase the search they are attempting if they’re not getting the results they’re looking for. This makes it much more important to rank on the first page and, more specifically, in the top three results for specific keywords and keyword phrases, since these are the results that are going to be getting the majority of the traffic.
3. Are there any specific aspects of SEO that are heavily affected by Google Instant?
We believe that page titles and meta descriptions will now play a more important role than ever. Even though the page title is just a minor part in a website’s SEO relevance and the meta description doesnt affect ranking, these are the two items that a user will see as they scan the page when they search. If you can write something compelling, grab searchers’ attentions, and stop their search process, you will get a better click-through rate. If the keyword is present within the page title or meta description, it will be bolded and even more likely to grab searchers’ attentions, so make sure to focus on creating great page titles and interesting, relevant meta descriptions.
4. How does Google Instant affect my PPC strategy?
Once again, the importance of ranking in the top three positions is increasing. When thinking about the effect Google Instant is having on PPC, it is important to remember that Google is still a business with the main objective of making as much money for its shareholders as possible. The increased competitiveness due to the desire for companies to rank in the top three will most likely lead to higher CPC costs (and more money in Googles pocket). This makes it even more important to do thorough keyword research before you start your campaign and to constantly monitor your keywords and analytics to adapt to the ever-evolving search ecosystem.
5. How does Google Instant affect the definition of an impression?
Google now defines an impression as an instance when a user clicks on the page causing the search results to be displayed, when the user hits enter, or when the user types in the search box and pauses for 3 or more seconds.
6. How will this affect my PPC campaign?
Users that use Google AdWords do not pay on an impression basis. Google AdWords charges users on a CPC (cost-per-click) basis, so your spending will not be affected by the new definition of impression. However, what is likely to occur is that the total number of impressions will go up. This will cause your click-through rate (clicks/impression) to decrease since the total number of impressions is likely to increase.
7. Should I optimize for short tail or long tail keywords?
There is no clear-cut answer as to whether you should optimize for short tail or long tail keywords. The factors you should consider when trying to decide are how competitive the short tail is versus how much traffic the long tail keywords receive. You should also look at the traffic each type of keyword drives to your site and try to determine which keywords drive the most qualified leads (the ones that are most likely to convert to customers). The key to this is keyword research (please excuse the horrible pun). Once you have the data to analyze the cost and benefit of optimizing for each type of keyword, you can make an educated business decision.
8. Should I optimize for partial searches? For instance, if my keyword starts with a W and weather is the first keyword Google Instant returns when a user types a W, should I try to optimize for this keyword?
No, you should not try to optimize for keywords that are not relevant to your business or the product you are offering. If someone is searching for something else and your website did pop up as a result, it is unlikely that they would not be a good lead anyway. You should continue to focus on the keywords relevant to your business/product and continually monitor your keywords and analytics to see which ones are producing good results and which ones are performing poorly. Then focus on the well-performing ones.
9. How will Google Instant affect the Bing and Yahoo alliance?
We dont really see this as a play by Google to try to completely knock Bing and Yahoo out of the game. Googles main goal is to try to return the most relevant result to the user. This means attempting to return more personalized search results, an area that companies like Yelp and Facebook have been trying to secure. Early polls show that not many people have strong enough negative feelings to actually switch away from Google, so it is likely that if people used Google before, they will continue to use Google. Only time will tell how much more search traffic Google gets because of the Google Instant change.
10. How does Google Instant affect people who use browser-based search boxes?
Google Instant does not affect how users interact with browser based search boxes. Users who use these search boxes must continue to type in their query and hit enter in order to display search results. It is important to remember, however, that once a user hits enter, they will be taken to Google and any subsequent searches will take place using the Google Instant interface.
Google Instant: Major Changes for SEO
CommentsPosted by Eric Vreeland on Fri, Sep 24, 2010 @ 01:00 PM
Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/HubSpot/~3/Da_lvxJWjzU/10-Almost-Instant-Responses-to-Your-Google-Instant-Questions.aspx
October 19th, 2010 – Audubon Park Condo Auction in the Fenway Neighborhood
September 24, 2010
The Audubon Park Condominium Development announced today that it was going to put twenty-five condominium units up for auction in just a few short weeks on October 19, 2010. This building borders both the Fenway and Kenmore Square neighborhoods.
Minimum bidding for studio units will start at $195,000. Minimum bidding for one-bedroom units will start at $225,000. Minimum bidding for tw0-bedroom units will range from $285,000 to $325,000. Please note that garage parking spots are being sold separately for $60,000 – $70,000 depending on the level.
41 units at Audubon Park were bought in April by an affiliate of the Davis Cos. at foreclosure. David Cos. has decided to auction off 25 of these units to re-establish pricing for the remaining 16 units that will be available after the auction.
Units available include two studios, five one-bedroom units and eighteen two-bedroom condominiums.
Since 2008 unit sales in this building have average $620/Sq.ft. so you can see by the pricing chart below that opening bids should really keep things moving. There are some deals to be had here.
Open House touring of the properties are available from September 23rd through October 18th. The auction will take place on October 19th, 2010 at the Colonnade Hotel in Boston.
Bidders should arrive at check in by 6:00 p.m. The auction begins at 7:00 p.m. and should last approximately 1 1/2 hours. All approved bidders will need to bring a $10,000 certified check as well as a blank personal check. If a registered bidder has been prequalified for FHA financing, said registered bidder will be required to bring a $5,000 Cash Equivalent and must bring a blank personal check.
Word of advice. Have representation on auction day. It’s no charge to you. The seller will pay the commission fee. If you are interested in learning more about this auction please contact me at abrahamsc@raveis.com or on my cell at 617-686-1318.
HOW TO: Find the Best Fall Travel Deals on the Social Web
September 24, 2010
Mollie Vandor is the Product Manager for Ranker.com and Media Director for Girls in Tech LA. You can find her on Twitter and on her blog, where she writes about the web, the world and what its like to be a geek chic chick.
The sweet memories of summer vacation may be fading, but that doesnt mean travel season has to end too. In fact, fall is one of the best times to travel, as many airlines and hotels try to fill their books between the summer and winter vacation seasons.
But, with rates falling faster than the autumn leaves, how do you hone in on the hottest deals happening right now? Fortunately, there are plenty of ways the social web can help you save money on major travel expenses like airfare, lodging and car rentals.
Read on for ways to save money on every leg of your trip, from take off to lights out.
Airfare
Every airline, from JetBlue to United to Virgin, seems to be jumping on the social networking bandwagon these days. You can follow them all on TwitterTwitter
or FacebookFacebook
for good, last-minute deals on flights theyre looking to fill. Check out these master lists of all the airlines on both networks to make finding your favorites even easier:
For a more diverse selection of deals, follow an aggregator like CheapestAirfareorAirFareWatchdog, which feature offers from multiple companies at once. Theres also the Twitter-sanctionedEarlyBirdaccount, which has previously featured major discounts from Twitter advertising partner JetBlue, and has plans to release more travel deals in the future.
Another good resource is FareCompare, a site where you can see a map of multiple Twitter-based airfare deals happening at the same time. You can also LikeFareCompare on Facebook to get deals sent directly to your Facebook stream all day long. And, if theres a specific city that you like to visit or fly out of, you can find a feed from Fly.com that features fares for that particular place, like NYCFares, ChicagoFlightDealsand DenverFlightDeals. They even have a Twitter list of all their city-specific fare alerts, so you can browse deals from all over or find an account thats listing flights for your city of choice.
Hotels
Aggregator sites are still the way to go when it comes to surfing for hotels on the web. Sure, a single hotel is likely to post some special offers on their site from time to time, but youre bound to get a better deal if you search multiple sites at once to compare their coupons.
Online coupon company EBates recently released a service that helps you do just that. Additionally, if you book through Ebates, you become eligible for easy cash back rebates on whatever you spend. Similar sites like Kayak, GetARoomandTravelZooallow you to search all sorts of offers at the same time and quickly compare rates on everything from luxury hotel rooms to amusement park admissions.
Private sale siteJetsetter.com an offshoot of Gilt Groupe lets you sign up to receive exclusive e-mails full of deals and discounts from the best luxury travel brands. For luxury deals, you can also check outOff Away, which lets you bid on high-end room rates in an eBay-style auction format. Many of these sites also offer RSS feeds, so you can keep a constant stream of assorted travel deals coming into your regular RSS reader.
Another great way to get access to multiple hotel and attraction deals at once is to follow the social networking profiles of a company with many properties, likeJoi De Vivre Hotels,Mandarin Oriental HotelsandW Hotels, who have locations around the world and loyalty programs that can mean big discounts during the off season. These sorts of deals are also starting to pop up more and more on servicesFoursquareFoursquareand Whrrl, as hotels look to capitalize on the popularity of location-based social networks by offering special rewards to customers who check in regularly. Similarly, you can sign up for TopGuest, a service that turns check-ins from all of your services including Twitter, Facebook and GowallaGowalla into points that earn you perks from any hotel loyalty programs youre a member of.
Finally, if you have a specific destination in mind, one of the best quick tricks for tracking down great lodging is to GoogleGoogle newly-opened hotels in the area. A brand new hotel looking to book up its rooms and build up its reputation is likely to charge a lot less in its first year or two than it will once it has already made a name for itself.
Housing
You could significantly cut your lodging costs by skipping the hotels entirely. For example, instead of booking a hotel, you can find a couch to crash on at CouchSurfing.org. Advocates of couchsurfing say it allows them to meet new people in the place theyre traveling to and get access to locals-only experiences they may not have found otherwise. Plus, its almost always a whole lot less expensive than a hotel room.
Alternatively, you can find someone to swap houses with at HomeExchangeor HomeLink, and get the benefit of becoming a temporary resident of your vacation destination cooking your own meals, interacting with neighbors and enjoying the comforts of a home even if its not your own. Even if you dont want to swap your home for a strangers, you still have plenty of similar options at short-term vacation rental sites like AirBnB,VRBOandHomeAway, where you can often book lodging for a lot less than what youd pay for a hotel, especially during non-peak travel times.
Either way, youll likely pay less than what youd shell out for a hotel room, and youll definitely save money on meals and activities by having a home base where you can cook, eat and hang out. During the fall season, many more gorgeous vacation homes are available for rental, as their regular owners return to their full-time homes, making must-see destinations like the Hamptons more affordable for the average traveler.
Transportation
Once you get to your destination, you have to get around. Social media can save you money on that as well. Use Google MapsGoogle Maps to plan public transportation routes in a strange city or save on cab fare by finding the fastest route to your destination. If youre driving yourself, use Bings Gas Prices app to figure out the cheapest place to fuel up for your big trip. You can also use sites like ZimRide and RideShare to find people to share the driving load, and cost, on the way to your destination, or from one attraction to another.
While enroute, do some social media research on your destination, or use the time to sign up for Groupon, Gilt Groupe or LivingSocialto check out daily deals waiting for you when you arrive. Often, youll find great prices on food and attractions this way. You can always cancel your subscription when you leave that city, if need be.
Just because summer is over doesnt mean your fabulous travel plans have to be too. Thanks to the combo of off-season fall travel deals and social media sites that help you track them, an impromptu excursion doesnt have to break the bank. Affordable travel means more travel. Who doesnt love that?
More Travel Resources from Mashable:
– Tech Tourism: 10 Great Geek Destinations
– 5 Great Sites for Exploring Cities Around the Globe
– How the Resort Industry is Using Social Media
– 5 Ways Airlines and Hotels Can Drive Revenue with Social Media
– 11 iPhone Apps for Stress Free Family Travel
Image courtesy of iStockphotoiStockphoto, Sportstock
Article source: http://feeds.mashable.com/~r/Mashable/~3/h8AZIBv7LPI/
Our Favorite YouTube Videos This Week: The Do-Gooder Edition
September 24, 2010
All tuckered out from a week of do-gooding? I know we are over at Mashable, having taken part in UN Week as well as our own Social Good Summit. Well, dont slack off, friends just cause the week is over doesnt mean the job is done. Thats why this weeks YouTube roundup theme is: Do-Gooders.
(Yes, it is a silly word.)
Regardless, check out the below collection of do-gooding vids some are serious and some are not so serious (hint: drunken monkeys). Because laughter can be charity, right?
Image courtesy of FlickrFlickr
, Eneas
Article source: http://feeds.mashable.com/~r/Mashable/~3/4ieaWnp7_4s/
Access Your Business Documents from Your Android Device
September 24, 2010
Cloud storage and collaboration platform Box.net has just released its Box for Android app to the Android Market.
Like the Box for iPhone and Box for iPad, Box for Android lets users access, share and manage business content on-the-go all from their Android device.
The app works on any Android phone running AndroidAndroid
OS 2.0 or later. This includes most of the biggest sellers like the DROID, DROID X, Galaxy S, Nexus One and HTC EVO 4G.
The app is pretty similar to its iPhone and iPad cousina, allowing users to browse files and folders, preview documents, media and web documents and share links to a file or folder via e-mail.
However Box for Android includes the ability to search for files and sort your results directly from the app a feature the iOS version doesnt currently support. Additionally, because Android has a more visible file system, its a bit easier to upload files and folders that are already on your Android device directly to Box.net. You can do this in iOS, but it sometimes requires the use of external programs like GoodReader.
Android is taking off in a big way with consumers and that trend is extending to business users too. Despite all this growth, the number of apps for business users in the Android MarketAndroid Market
is limited when you compare those offerings to iOS or even BlackBerry. More vendors are working on getting Android versions of their apps into the marketplace, but Box is one of the first non-GoogleGoogle cloud companies that weve seen take on this growing sector of the market.
When I spoke to Box.nets co-founder and CEO, Aaron Levie, he noted that mobile is an important part of Boxs overall vision for cloud collaboration. As smartphone usage continues to grow, having access to your files and documents wherever you are becomes more and more important. This is where Levie sees Boxs real advantage over more traditional content management and collaboration platforms. Because Box.net takes place on the cloud, gaining access from mobile devices doesnt require the headache that dealing with internal firewalls and on-site networks.
Mobile access is actually one of the best arguments for using cloud content and collaboration systems. Thats why the big cloud companies like Box.net, Salesforce.com and Google are investing so heavily in mobile.
For Box, coming to Android doesnt stop with just the mobile app. Just like Box has OpenBox Mobile APIs available to iOS developers to integrate with their own programs, Android developers will be able to connect their apps to Box for Android. That means that photo applications or sound recording apps can build in the ability to save directly to a Box folder or access content from those folders, in addition to offering to save or access content from an SD card.
We hope that Box for Android is the beginning of a new trend to bring more business-focused apps to the platform. Do you use your Android device for business? What apps do you use to access files and documents? Let us know.
Article source: http://feeds.mashable.com/~r/Mashable/~3/3pH4Uch7OYY/
Access Your Business Documents from Your Android Device
September 24, 2010
Cloud storage and collaboration platform Box.net has just released its Box for Android app to the Android Market.
Like the Box for iPhone and Box for iPad, Box for Android lets users access, share and manage business content on-the-go all from their Android device.
The app works on any Android phone running AndroidAndroid
OS 2.0 or later. This includes most of the biggest sellers like the DROID, DROID X, Galaxy S, Nexus One and HTC EVO 4G.
The app is pretty similar to its iPhone and iPad cousina, allowing users to browse files and folders, preview documents, media and web documents and share links to a file or folder via e-mail.
However Box for Android includes the ability to search for files and sort your results directly from the app a feature the iOS version doesnt currently support. Additionally, because Android has a more visible file system, its a bit easier to upload files and folders that are already on your Android device directly to Box.net. You can do this in iOS, but it sometimes requires the use of external programs like GoodReader.
Android is taking off in a big way with consumers and that trend is extending to business users too. Despite all this growth, the number of apps for business users in the Android MarketAndroid Market
is limited when you compare those offerings to iOS or even BlackBerry. More vendors are working on getting Android versions of their apps into the marketplace, but Box is one of the first non-GoogleGoogle cloud companies that weve seen take on this growing sector of the market.
When I spoke to Box.nets co-founder and CEO, Aaron Levie, he noted that mobile is an important part of Boxs overall vision for cloud collaboration. As smartphone usage continues to grow, having access to your files and documents wherever you are becomes more and more important. This is where Levie sees Boxs real advantage over more traditional content management and collaboration platforms. Because Box.net takes place on the cloud, gaining access from mobile devices doesnt require the headache that dealing with internal firewalls and on-site networks.
Mobile access is actually one of the best arguments for using cloud content and collaboration systems. Thats why the big cloud companies like Box.net, Salesforce.com and Google are investing so heavily in mobile.
For Box, coming to Android doesnt stop with just the mobile app. Just like Box has OpenBox Mobile APIs available to iOS developers to integrate with their own programs, Android developers will be able to connect their apps to Box for Android. That means that photo applications or sound recording apps can build in the ability to save directly to a Box folder or access content from those folders, in addition to offering to save or access content from an SD card.
We hope that Box for Android is the beginning of a new trend to bring more business-focused apps to the platform. Do you use your Android device for business? What apps do you use to access files and documents? Let us know.
Article source: http://feeds.mashable.com/~r/Mashable/~3/3pH4Uch7OYY/
Access Your Business Documents from Your Android Device
September 24, 2010
Cloud storage and collaboration platform Box.net has just released its Box for Android app to the Android Market.
Like the Box for iPhone and Box for iPad, Box for Android lets users access, share and manage business content on-the-go all from their Android device.
The app works on any Android phone running AndroidAndroid OS 2.0 or later. This includes most of the biggest sellers like the DROID, DROID X, Galaxy S, Nexus One and HTC EVO 4G.
The app is pretty similar to its iPhone and iPad cousina, allowing users to browse files and folders, preview documents, media and web documents and share links to a file or folder via e-mail.
However Box for Android includes the ability to search for files and sort your results directly from the app a feature the iOS version doesnt currently support. Additionally, because Android has a more visible file system, its a bit easier to upload files and folders that are already on your Android device directly to Box.net. You can do this in iOS, but it sometimes requires the use of external programs like GoodReader.
Android is taking off in a big way with consumers and that trend is extending to business users too. Despite all this growth, the number of apps for business users in the Android MarketAndroid Market is limited when you compare those offerings to iOS or even BlackBerry. More vendors are working on getting Android versions of their apps into the marketplace, but Box is one of the first non-GoogleGoogle cloud companies that weve seen take on this growing sector of the market.
When I spoke to Box.nets co-founder and CEO, Aaron Levie, he noted that mobile is an important part of Boxs overall vision for cloud collaboration. As smartphone usage continues to grow, having access to your files and documents wherever you are becomes more and more important. This is where Levie sees Boxs real advantage over more traditional content management and collaboration platforms. Because Box.net takes place on the cloud, gaining access from mobile devices doesnt require the headache that dealing with internal firewalls and on-site networks.
Mobile access is actually one of the best arguments for using cloud content and collaboration systems. Thats why the big cloud companies like Box.net, Salesforce.com and Google are investing so heavily in mobile.
For Box, coming to Android doesnt stop with just the mobile app. Just like Box has OpenBox Mobile APIs available to iOS developers to integrate with their own programs, Android developers will be able to connect their apps to Box for Android. That means that photo applications or sound recording apps can build in the ability to save directly to a Box folder or access content from those folders, in addition to offering to save or access content from an SD card.
We hope that Box for Android is the beginning of a new trend to bring more business-focused apps to the platform. Do you use your Android device for business? What apps do you use to access files and documents? Let us know.
Article source: http://feeds.mashable.com/~r/Mashable/~3/3pH4Uch7OYY/
Access Your Business Documents from Your Android Device
September 24, 2010
Cloud storage and collaboration platform Box.net has just released its Box for Android app to the Android Market.
Like the Box for iPhone and Box for iPad, Box for Android lets users access, share and manage business content on-the-go all from their Android device.
The app works on any Android phone running AndroidAndroid
OS 2.0 or later. This includes most of the biggest sellers like the DROID, DROID X, Galaxy S, Nexus One and HTC EVO 4G.
The app is pretty similar to its iPhone and iPad cousina, allowing users to browse files and folders, preview documents, media and web documents and share links to a file or folder via e-mail.
However Box for Android includes the ability to search for files and sort your results directly from the app a feature the iOS version doesnt currently support. Additionally, because Android has a more visible file system, its a bit easier to upload files and folders that are already on your Android device directly to Box.net. You can do this in iOS, but it sometimes requires the use of external programs like GoodReader.
Android is taking off in a big way with consumers and that trend is extending to business users too. Despite all this growth, the number of apps for business users in the Android MarketAndroid Market
is limited when you compare those offerings to iOS or even BlackBerry. More vendors are working on getting Android versions of their apps into the marketplace, but Box is one of the first non-GoogleGoogle cloud companies that weve seen take on this growing sector of the market.
When I spoke to Box.nets co-founder and CEO, Aaron Levie, he noted that mobile is an important part of Boxs overall vision for cloud collaboration. As smartphone usage continues to grow, having access to your files and documents wherever you are becomes more and more important. This is where Levie sees Boxs real advantage over more traditional content management and collaboration platforms. Because Box.net takes place on the cloud, gaining access from mobile devices doesnt require the headache that dealing with internal firewalls and on-site networks.
Mobile access is actually one of the best arguments for using cloud content and collaboration systems. Thats why the big cloud companies like Box.net, Salesforce.com and Google are investing so heavily in mobile.
For Box, coming to Android doesnt stop with just the mobile app. Just like Box has OpenBox Mobile APIs available to iOS developers to integrate with their own programs, Android developers will be able to connect their apps to Box for Android. That means that photo applications or sound recording apps can build in the ability to save directly to a Box folder or access content from those folders, in addition to offering to save or access content from an SD card.
We hope that Box for Android is the beginning of a new trend to bring more business-focused apps to the platform. Do you use your Android device for business? What apps do you use to access files and documents? Let us know.
Article source: http://feeds.mashable.com/~r/Mashable/~3/3pH4Uch7OYY/
Facebook Now Worth More Than Dell, eBay, Yahoo or Starbucks… on Paper
September 24, 2010
Did you know that Facebook is worth more than Research in Motion, Starbucks, Dell, Yahoo, Adobe, Intuit or eBay? Thats according to a wide variety of investments and valuations that have shot Facebooks stock into the stratosphere.
Although Facebook is a private company, investors have been buying and selling shares of the Silicon Valley darling in private transactions and through services such as SecondMarket and SharesPost for some time now.
FacebooksFacebook
actual value depends on who you ask, though. Forbes thinks its worth $23 billion. SharesPost pins its value at $26.3 billion. And finally, The Financial Times says its a $33 billion company.
These valuations are based on real-world trades and transactions. Still, you cant help but be bewildered by Facebooks soaring worth. In February 2009, Facebook valued itself at $3.7 billion. By November 2009, it tripled to $9.5 billion. And since then, its more than tripled again in value, if you rely on these private transactions for Facebooks valuation.
Facebooks Value in Perspective
Lets reflect on Facebooks $33 billion valuation relative to publicly traded companies. If Facebook is worth $33 billion (just play along), then what companies does it trump in value? We wondered that too, so we referred to the NASDAQ to find out.
While Facebook still has a ways to go before it surpasses GoogleGoogle, Microsoft or Apple, it does beat or even dwarf some of the worlds most iconic companies. Oh, and were talking about companies with tens of thousands of employees (for comparison, Facebook has roughly around 1,500).
Heres a short list of the companies that are worth less than Facebook, as well as their current market capitalizations:
- eBay: $32 billion
- Costco: $27.5 billion
- Research in Motion: $26 billion
- Dell: $23.8 billion
- Starbucks: $19.2 billion
- Yahoo: $19.1 billion
- Staples: $14.8 billion
- Intuit: $14.3 billion
- Adobe: $14 billion
Heck Yahoo and Adobe could announce a merger and its value would barely equal the value of Facebook. If you divided Facebooks worth between its 1,500 employees, youd end up with $22 million per employee. Note that eBay has 15,000 employees and Starbucks has more than 120,000.
Breaking Down the Numbers
Were not here to rip on Facebook or say that it is not worth $23 billion or $26 billion or $33 billion. Were here to put those numbers in perspective, though.
Facebook is still a private company that hasnt completely figured out the profit equation. While it should surpass $1 billion in revenue this year, its infrastructure costs are also high.
eBay, while not as sexy, brought in $2.215 billion in revenue during just the second quarter of this year.
Facebook is benefiting greatly from both hype and high expectations for its future ability to generate revenue and dominate markets. There are legitimate reasons for the optimism and high valuation, though: it has more than 500 million users, rapid growth and Silicon Valleys best and brightest talent. It would be silly not to applaud Facebook for everything it has done, and all signs point to its value continuing to go north, not south.
Heres our word of caution, though: Facebooks ultimate worth wont be established until the day it has its IPO. Theres a lot that could happen between now and then. Until that time, dont forget to put Facebooks rapidly growing valuation in perspective.
Image courtesy of Infosthetics
Article source: http://feeds.mashable.com/~r/Mashable/~3/OXc8YsXXMVM/
