Technology Reviews | Internet Startups | Social Media

Twitter has long been heralded as a valuable marketing and lead generation system for businesses, and for all practical purposes it is.  Business or marketers seek out and follow other people with similar interests or tweet subject matter, and slowly work their way into a relationship which may or may not result in sales.  The great thing is, this whole process works in reverse and often to the benefit of the shopper/service seeker.

I have been thinking about switching things up soon webhost-wise, and so decided to tweet about it making sure to contain the key words “web hosting”.  Sure enough, within 5 minutes I had the first hosting company contact me in an effort to promote their service and sell me some hosting.  Not long after I got a second hit, and then a third.  The trick is to turn these marketer’s solicitations into deep discounts and product trials.  With just a little pushing and interaction I was able to manage a 10% discount – nothing too much, but it could be much more if you are into haggling and deal hunting.  The key is to make yourself the target rather than becoming one at the mercy of a pushy marketer.

And with that, I will try to come up with some content that is a bit less twitterish…

Susan Boyle completely owned the Twitter Top 10 trends list once again on Sunday.  Susan Boyle is still a trending topic, but she is now at about number eight and will most likely fall off the map at the mercy of a few sporting events yet to happen this week.  Twitter trends are a great way to find out what the majority of twitter users are talking about, but the trends are only temporary.  It would be nice if someone developed a twitter app to track the most consistently tweeted words or phrases.

If someone were to develop such an app and perform the analytics I am almost convinced that, excluding all articles and pronouns, the “f”-word would be near the top of the list – if not at the top.  Now, the f-bomb is no Susan Boyle, but [click to continue...]

I have always held PartnerUp.com as an invaluable resource for entrepreneurs looking to join up with others, grow their team, network, or simply learn from and interact with other like-minded individuals.  However, until now I have always found PartnerUp to be a bit old fashioned and poorly designed.  It seemed as though it was unable to really live up to its full potential.

While design should not diminish the helpfulness, effectiveness, value, or overall usability of a website it does affect a users overall impression and will to use a website.  PartnerUp’s user interface [click to continue...]

A growing trend amongst the increasing amount of social media adopters is to take advantage of integration tools which cross-network certain social networks and social media applications.  As more internet users (namely those from FaceBook) adopt twitter, they are making an attempt to kill two birds with one stone by porting their twitter updates to FaceBook.  It is my position that those who use social media in this way to not have an accurate understanding of the services that they are using.

Whether intentionally or not it seems the the prompts for updates are somewhat reversed based upon current usage of the services.  Twitter begs of users “What are you doing right now?” where as FaceBook kindly wonders “What’s on your mind?”  More often than not users are more apt to tweet what is on their mind in the form of [click to continue...]

Often times when employers adopt new technology it is for the better.  New technology can make the job easier for employees, increase workplace productivity, allow for better metrics reporting, and increase communication in the workplace.  Despite the advantages, employers have taken one large step backwards in the past few months.

The move from paper job applications that can be completed at the physical location of a business to online applications and application management has proven to be extremely detrimental to job seekers.  Couple that with automated phone systems where callers are only allowed to leave a voice message, and you have an impenetrable employer.  These technological advancements have only made it easier for employers to ignore new candidates and have left many candidates frustrated and left in the dark. [click to continue...]

Healthy and fit bodies have long been a priority in the lives of many.  Countless diets and exercise regimens have gone in and out faster than junior high fashion fads.  In recent years, many inventors have sought to utilize technology as a mechanism to maintain healthy lifestyles.  Technology for healthy lifestyles goes far beyond the techcessories like the Nike Plus Pedometer and Chuck Norris’ newest home gym.  Check out a few of the newest interactive pieces of exercise equipment and healthy lifestyle stat-trackers that are available to the aspiring health nut and you, should you be so ambitious.  (Remember to always consult a physician before starting a dramatic new diet or exercise plan).

Wii Fit. Nintendo’s release of the Wii console [click to continue...]

In terms of search engines, Google is Old Faithful.  Since 1996ish, Google has managed to guide internet users through the interwebs to answer queries and find nuggets of knowledge.  While Twitter has been around and fully functional since 2001, it wasn’t until late 2008 going into early 2009 that users and popular internet personalities pointed out the extreme value of the real time twitter search engine.  WolframAlpha was released this week to much fanfare and while it is not a search engine in the traditional sense of the word, it is sure to make certain regular queries much easier to answer.

Google. Google has been the go-to search engine for all queries – common, niche specific, or otherwise.  Trendwise, Google can expect more of the same.  Their large search portfolio including trends, blogs, [click to continue...]

Thanks to the brilliant exclusive partnership struck up with Apple’s iPhone AT&T has gained some sort of expert status in the arena of smartphones, data plans, and wireless mobility.  Whether it was calculated or not, the iPhone effect is in full force at the Dallas based Data/Com company as they announced a program to sell subsidized netbooks with 3G mobile internet access.

AT&T is looking at the future of mobility with wide eyes and open minds.  AT&T peeked into the crystal ball and saw [click to continue...]

Ben Kauffman, entrepreneur and founder of mophie and Kluster, has struck again.  Quirky.com is somewhat of a  follow through on Ben’s original mental concept of Kluster.  Kluster was originally meant to be a platform where ideas and inventors collaborated with designers, engineers, creative namers, etc on product ideas.  Kluster quickly morphed into an online collaboration platform and their software is now used by many for such collaboration.  Kluster’s NameThis.com has seen moderate success for both business owners seeking to name their product or business.

Quirky.com takes a few elements of both of the Kluster platforms and combines them into one stunning product development service.  Quirky.com’s main purpose is to address the common inventor’s conundrum.  People have ideas, but lack the capital and perhaps innovative improvements and feedback needed to bring that product to the market.  For $99 [click to continue...]