New FaceBook Profile Page Mandatory

Last month, Facebook rolled out a new profile page format for users of its website. The new profile page was met with mixed reactions from users. Well, whether you like Facebook’s new profile feature or not, the company recently announced that it will now be a permanent feature of the social networking service.

Facebook is the world’s largest online social network and recently announced that it had crossed the 600 million member mark.

According to a post on Facebook’s official blog, members were given the option to upgrade to the new profile early during the month of December. The post stated that hundreds of millions of users made the switch and the feature will now be rolled out to everyone making use of Facebook.

Many users indicated that they did not like the new feature. Many users openly stated that the new feature sucks, while others requested Facebook to implement a ‘Dislike’ button. The majority of users not liking the new feature have requested Facebook to make the profile page a voluntary decision.

When visiting the new feature, the profile page begins with a quick summary of who a member is and includes a strip of photos in which a member has been tagged. The member’s common interests are displayed as small thumbnails to make them easier to quickly be identified.

Members are also in a position to highlight important friends on their profile page, as well as see connections with friends, events attended together and shared photos, wall posts and more.

Facebook has been under pressure for some time now in making the profile page a more user-friendly experience. Many new users of Facebook have complained that they are finding the profile page and privacy setting difficult to use. After its privacy row in 2010, Facebook has invested a lot of time in re-inventing the user profile page, which is in fact easier to use now.

Iceland Opposed to U.S. Twitter Data Demand

Iceland called in the United States ambassador in Reykjavik on Monday to express its concerns at a U.S. court’s demand for information of an Icelandic lawmaker’s Twitter account, according to a statement by the State Department.

A U.S. court has ordered the social networking website to give up information of the accounts of Wikileaks and of several supporters as part of a criminal investigation into Wikileak’s release of hundreds of thousands of U.S. diplomatic cables and classified documents relating to the war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The U.S. diplomatic cables, released by the Wikileaks website, have been a severe embarrassment to the United State government, who has been looking at avenues in instituting criminal proceedings against Wikileaks.

State Department spokesman, P.J Crowley told reporters: “Our ambassador was called in. The government of Iceland expressed its concerns. I’ll leave it to the government of Iceland to describe those concerns.”

The subpoena was obtained on December 14 and subsequently published by online magazine, Salon.com. The subpoena said that records sought from Twitter were relevant to an ongoing criminal investigation.

The subpoena ordered Twitter to provider account information Wikileaks founder Julian Asange and Bradley Manning, the U.S. analyst suspected of leaking Pentagon documents published by Wikileaks last year.

The subpoena also included information on the accounts of Wikileaks supporters Jacob Appelbaum, Rop Gonggrijp and Birgitta Jonsdottir.

The subpoena also requested information on connection records and session times, IP addresses used to access Twitter, e-mail and residential address information along with billing records, bank account and credit card information.

Over the weekend Wikileaks issued a statement condemning the United States demand for the information, describing its request as ‘harassment’ by the government.

Icelandic Foreign Minister Ossur Skarphedinsson told its state radio on Saturday that the United States’ behavior was unacceptable and his government would do everything in its power to protect Jonsdottir.

MySpace China Suffering Under the Internet Market

It has been reported last month that MySpace’s China offices has scaled down around 30 employees last month and also suffered the loss of its CEO, which is a sign that the company may be pulling back from the Internet market within China.
An employee of MySpace China confirmed the staff cuts, but did not reveal the number of employees that still remains. According to a Chinese news report, around two-thirds of the staff had already left the office.
MySpace was launched in China in 2007 and primarily focused its advertising campaigns as a social networking platform for music fans. The service, however, continued to become a minor role-player in the country’s online social networking scene.

MySpace, in recent months, have been overtaken by FaceBook in terms of number of users in the United States, as well as globally.

During October 2010, MySpace launched a remake of its site in an attempt to lure more visitors. It failed in doing this successfully and subsequently announced that it was preparing to downscale its total staff of around 1,100 employees by 50%.

According to a report, China has one of the world’s largest Internet user markets, with around 450 million online users. Around half of these users actively visit social networking websites.

Analysys International analyst, Dong Xu, said that MySpace continued to market itself as a service for music fans, which led to them claiming only a small market-share in the social networking market. She added that even among music sites, MySpace China still has to make a breakthrough in tapping real user potential.

Dong said that MySpace was never able to meet the demands of music fans, and it did not have any products to attract them to the service.
Western-based companies are continuously finding it more difficult to get a proper foothold in the Chinese Internet market. MySpace competitors, FaceBook and Twitter, have both been blocked in the country. Search engine giant, Google has lost market share to China-based giant Baidu after continuous fallouts with the Chinese government.

Another problem MySpace faced is the fact that it entered the Chinese market at a time when a number of local social networking communities have already been established and showed tremendous growth rates within the country.

This comes as no surprise that MySpace may have struggled to launch itself as a successful social networking service within the Chinese market.

FaceBook Not Shutting Down

A recent rumor has exploded on the Internet alleging that FaceBook will be shut down on March 15, because CEO, Mark Zuckerberg ‘wants his old life back’ and ‘put an end to the madness’. The origin of the rumor has not been established, but the rumor spread like a wildfire, especially amongst users of the social network.

Other related rumors stated that Facebook was under severe pressure to go public after it may be forced to do so by law, due to the number of employees it employs and the number of investors currently investing in the social networking service. The rumors stated that Zuckerberg have no intentions on going public and being forced to do so have contributed towards his decision in closing down the service.

Smaller rumors stated that Zuckerberg was not interested in living a ‘public life’ after the release of the new movie, The Social Network. According to the rumor, Zuckerberg can no longer ‘handle the attention’.

In a recent development, FaceBook have answered to the questions put to them in regards to the possible closure of FaceBook on March 15, as alleged by the rumors. Director of Corporate Communications, Larry Yu, confirmed that all rumors are indeed false. In an e-mail to Mashable, Yu confirmed that FaceBook will not be closing down.

Yu jokingly stated in the e-mail: “We didn’t get the memo about shutting down and there’s lots to do, so we’ll just keep cranking away like always”.
FaceBook also recently announced that the company secured financing of $450 million from Goldman Sachs and $50 million from Russian investment company, Digital Sky Technologies. According to reports the new investments values FaceBook at an enormous $50 Billion, this is more than companies like Yahoo! and Microsoft.

We think it is quite safe to put these rumors to rest, knowing that FaceBook will not close down on March 15!

Would you get benefits from the brand new easy to get SQL server expert certification?

In my experience the very best DB platforms are Microsoft and Oracle. I’ve come to discover that MySQL is popular in start-up companies and DB folks who know this platform will make higher salaries, but I honestly rarely ever found MySQL in job searches.

One reason why I like MS SQL Server is because it also includes the SSRS BI platform that is powerful and popular. DB folks who know SSRS (SQL Server Reporting Services) have become very sought-after candidates in lots of companies. Typically, companies end up needing to buy licenses for third-party BI (Business Intelligence) applications which often can cost a lot of extra money.

With SQL Server, BI and ETL (extract, transform, load) tools come with the original license. I know that maybe the interest in databases is especially to learn DB construction, however you can’t predict when or if you opt to branch out and get more information.

An advantage of SQL is the language is fairly universal. I only say fairly because each vendor has added their unique functions and syntax. Microsoft and Sybase both use T-SQL, Oracle uses PL/SQL and MySQL uses ANSI-SQL. Ultimately that which you learn on one platform could be used on other platforms.

To become a SQL Server Microsoft Certified Master (MCM) is a small task now. Lower than 1 percent of certified professionals hold a Master certification, and even for good reason: In addition to having difficult minimum competencies (5 years SQL Server experience and deep knowledge in every issues with SQL Server), training for a SQL Server MCM has always come at a significant cost. In fact, that cost have been about $18,500, when you accumulate the necessary three week training and four exams.

The SQL Server MCM certification is the highest technical certification that Microsoft offers to SQL Server professionals. It’s designed for those that have five or more years of hands-on SQL Server experience in critical environments. Competencies include designing and implementing high-performance, scalable enterprise environments and troubleshooting the most challenging SQL Server issues.

Well, at PASS (The Professional Association for SQL Server) this week, Microsoft announced all of that is beginning to change. Based on the company, the changes are in response to requests from experienced SQL Server experts who wish to earn MCM’s but (go figure) don’t possess $18,500.

Now, candidates can earn the certification by passing just two exams: the four-hour Knowledge Exam, and also a six-hour hands-on Lab Exam, which will be available in early 2011.

Fortunately, Microsoft has made some significant changes on the program, including:

* The 3-week in-person training has stopped being required. So, if you think like you have the required steps, it is possible to march right up and take the certification exams. You only pay the expense of the exams, and that is about $2,500.
* There are now only two exams instead of four: 88-970 (Knowledge Exam) and 88-971 (Lab Exam).
* To assist SQL Server professionals prepare for the exams at a lower cost, Microsoft now offers some free MCM videos.

And you? Do you think the brand new MS SQL Certification can help you in your job?

About the author: Michele P. Rouse is writing for the sql certification online blog, her personal and non-commercial in nature hobby blog aimed at recommendations to provide free info for data base beginners/professionals to help them find a new profession.

Guide to iPad SIM cards – tips for webmasters working on the go

One of the greatest gadgets currently doing the rounds has to be the Apple iPad. It allows you to get access to the internet and email no matter where you’re going, it’s wonderfully portable and has a fantastic design too. Sure, it’ll cost you quite a bit to buy one in the first place but it’s also worth spending around £100 more for the 3G version for added connectivity.

By plumping for the 3G variant of the Apple iPad you can subsequently gain access to the mobile broadband network across the UK. The more basic version only comes with Wi-Fi, which is all well and good if you’re at home or near a hotspot, but 3G adds much more convenience thanks to pretty good mobile broadband coverage across most of the country.

Where to start

The Apple iPad can be purchased from all over the place, although cheap deals are hard to come by due to the fairly exclusive nature of Apple products. However, shopping around for an iPad SIM card can be much easier, thanks in particular to a comparison website like Broadband Genie. Inside here you’ll find all of the current iPad micro SIM deals listed, along with prices and other invaluable information.

Remember that when buying an Apple iPad you’ll need to get yourself a dedicated iPad SIM card, as they are much smaller than regular SIM’s that are used in traditional mobile phones. The range is currently fairly small, but you can get them in two basic variants.
Firstly, there is the pay-as-you-go option, while the other route to take is the contract angle.

Pros and cons

The iPad SIM card is obviously an essential thing to have in order to gain connectivity for your new device, but which option to take is completely down to the users needs. PAYG can be a handy route to take if you need to keep tabs on how much you spend because you can top these up as you go and only pay for the time that you’re connected.

Contract iPad SIM cards offer more in the way of flexibility and these are now available starting from one month rolling contract versions, so you can simply keep renewing the contract for as long as you need to use it. The other things to consider with an iPad micro SIM deal are the speed of service that you can hope to get, which is often slower than advertised despite claims of ‘up to’ a certain level.

Then there’s the area of data usage, which can be different depending on what kind of deal you go for. This covers the amount of data, or content, that you can download (and upload) from the internet during any given period. Be sure to read the terms and conditions of any deal to make sure it will adequately cover your needs. Mobile operators can instigate penalties if you overstep the mark on that front.

One other thing to remember is using the device overseas too as there can be high charges for ‘roaming’, which is effectively accessing mobile broadband while you’re away. It’s probably better to use an internet cafe or tap into an available Wi-Fi source if you really need to get online, to avoid any nasty surprises when you get back home.

BBG

About the author: Rob Clymo writes on behalf of www.broadbandgenie.co.uk, the independent comparison website for broadband, mobile broadband and smartphones.

The Many Perks of Blogger.com

Google is the owner of a really great website called Blogger.com which is an excellent source for anyone who wishes to keep a blog. Not only is the website an excellent place for writing blog, one of the best features is that it is totally free.

Blogger has created several different template styles that you can choose from when you are creating your blog account. These templates are also free. In addition to the use of the template, you will also be provided with a domain name for you blog.

Adding to the benefits of getting a free template and domain name, there are several other reasons why you should use blogger.

Firstly, you are going to find that blogger makes it very easy to manage your blog. Even if you have no experience blogging, you will quickly learn how to navigate your way around the site. Just minutes after you have set up your account, you will be ready to start writing and publishing your blog. You can update your blog as frequently as you like. The more frequently you update your blog, the better your search engine ranking will be.

Since most of us are keeping a blog as a means to advertise either ourselves, or to promote a product which we want to sell, it is important that we are able to attract the attention of all search engines. You want to provide the search engines with a reason to send their spiders to your blog and to index it. The great thing about Blogger.com is that it frequently gets updates, and this is important when it comes to SEO.

If you are someone who writes freelance articles, then you know that it is important to encourage people to read your articles. One way to introduce people to the content you have written is to publish them on your blog. This is another key feature that Blogger allows you to do; when you do submit your writing, you will also have the option to reprint your content for free. Overall, publishing your articles on your blog will dramatically increase your search engine ranking.

If you are the owner of a successful blog that gets a high amount of traffic, you have the chance to earn some extra money by selling advertisement space. Advertisements that are posted on a blog are referred to as Blogads, and most of them are advertising for large companies. You can also use AdSense as a means for earning an income form your blog

Once you have created a successful blog, it is highly likely that you will want to stay in touch with your readers. An excellent way to make sure that your loyal readers are informed about your blog updates is by getting yourself syndicated. All they have to do is add your blog to their My Yahoo and My MSN.

Not only are blogs a great way to market yourself, they are also a lot of fun. Who knows, maybe keeping a blog will awaken a love of writing that you never even knew you had.

Google Introduces Click-To-Call Numbers In Ads

The best ad – from the perspective of both users and advertisers – is often something that will immediately let the two sides connect.  Google’s taken an intelligent step forward, then, by allowing businesses to include clickable phone numbers in their mobile ads.

Continue to read on Top News – WebProNews

Intel Shows Off Interesting Way to Access Content

At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas earlier this month, Intel had a lot of things going on. For one, they introduced a whole new family of Intel Core Processors. They also had a cool proof-of-concept device on display. This was something they call the Intel Infoscape.

Infoscape is a giant display featuring cubes of information, and users can walk up to it and access all kinds of different content – Google News, Tweets, blogs, Flickr images, etc. While on display at CES, the content dealt with CES-related info.

Continue to read on Top News – WebProNews

Online Gaming Revenue To Hit $5 Billion

Americans who play online games like “World of Warcraft” and “EverQuest” generated $2.8 billion in subscription revenue in 2009, and are on track to pay an annual $5 billion in game subscriptions by 2015, according to a new report by market research firm Pike & Fischer.

Continue to read on Top News – WebProNews

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