Webinspire on the ground

Facebook Fanpage upgrade!!

Updates to the Fan pages are:

1. Be able to interact in other areas of Facebook as your Fan page and not your personal profile, includes commenting, liking etc.
2. New layout, share images of your Fan pages experiences at the top of your page
3. Highlight other pages you are connected with as well as people that are helping you manage your page
4. Increasing relevancy on your page, allowing you to choose a new setting ‘Everyone’ which allows you to view the most interesting articles first
5. A new section to discover other users and friends that share your interests too

There will be more to come!

Facebook Valentine’s Day Scams

With Valentine’s day just around the corner, scams are spreading their love, gearing up to steal your confidential details. 

Look out for anything related to Valentines day - make sure you don’t follow any unsolicited links to external sites you don’t recognize.

Most of these scams are constantly changing names and are proving difficult to stop. Look out for names like Valentine locator, Fun Valentines and so on. 

Another Scan attacking page Administrators under the name of ‘Van Gogh Museum’s’ Photo’s attempts to take you to an external website. Please be advised, it is a Scam!

Also, a virus called Mal/FBJack-A is spreading across Facebook. It falsely links to a ‘school teacher stripping’ but clicking the Facebook app only spreads the virus further. 

(Source: allfacebook.com)

Internetria thieving credit

One of the most frustrating issues designers and developers face is when credit isn’t given where it’s due. Even more frustrating is when another company takes credit for your work. 

South American Web development company Internetria go to a whole new low claiming they developed the official http://rafaelnadal.com website.

Brad Powar from Webinspire makes the statement:

“Internetria was an unheard of agency through the development of the Rafaelnadal.com website. They only became a part of the process in December 2010 - and were incapable of comprehending the complexity of the website and requested us (Webinspire) to aid them in a multitude of simple tasks. 

Since then, they have gone on to claim that they ‘developed the Rafaelnadal.com website’. “

Webinspire has since restored it’s footer credits on Rafaelnadal.com, but claim that “It is a stark wake up call for us and should be for all Australian businesses, that this International giant and many others should give credit where it’s due.”

(Source: webinspire.com.au)

2011 Tech Trends http://bit.ly/f6nmXe

New Social Media Sites will emerge

If you look at the main types of social media that’s currently out there, you quickly begin to realise that Social media is about context. Take for example LinkedIn. Its ideal for professionals who are serious about networking and meeting other like minded people.

Social Media Policies will become a standard for all businesses

Social media puts the power in the hands of the people at large, resulting in a much more dynamic arena in which the reputation of a company hangs by a thread. All of a sudden the thoughts and opinions of an employee(s) has weight, and even if the corporate entity for whom they work for doesn’t listen, there is an audience that hanging onto every word. That audience being a potential customer, a group of customers or even a social media savvy journalist.

Smart phones and Tablets will become even more widely used

This is by no means a stretch of the imagination. Smartphones are already the #1 choice for business users, and there’s a huge variety of Smartphones available- there’s definitely one out there with the right set of features for anyone.

Tablets on the other hand are something that have been a long time coming. People love the idea of a device having a big screen, great battery life and being thin and light weight. Tablets are just that. If you look at what Samsung have done with the Galaxy Tab and the latest launch of the Microsoft tablet devices -some which are capable of running a full version of Windows 7, it’s a safe assumption that tablet’s may even rival, maybe overtake the smart phone ?

Video Conferencing

Why don’t we video conference more often? There’s still a lot of issues, such as every one requiring a phone that supports video calling, additionally the cost associated with it and then the fact that no one is actually doing it, itself!

2011 should bring a change to this, with greater availability to a diverse range of phones that naturally support video calls (that don’t cost an arm or a leg) and most of these devices supporting Skype and other video conferencing tools that are free to use on our data plans (I mean seriously, who is really using all their mobile data quota to its limit anyways?).

Mobile phones will use more data

Again, not a far stretch of the imagination, and it’s something that’s already in motion. With access to youtube, Skype (which now works on cellular data connections, with video support as of recently) and the use of video calls on the rise, it’s to be expected. Also, we like having access to information where ever we go. Instead of look for the movie times on our computers, we’re more likely to look up the website on our phones while we are on our way to the cinema. It’s convenient, and sitting in front of a computer is… let’s face it, so 2010.

Source: http://socialmediatoday.com/jkim/259681/what-would-2011-have-us

Cloud computing, the future?

As a very simple view, think of the electricity grid. In its essence, you sign up to an energy provider, whether it’s Energy Australia, Click Energy, AGL, etc it doesn’t really matter - and thats it, you plug in whatever appliance you want into your power point and away you go. 

What’s really happening here?

1. You’re subscribing to a service 
2. Tapping into its pool of resources. 
3. Not only that, but you’re also only paying for what you use.

That is the basic concept of Cloud Computing. You subscribe to a service and you get access to a whole lot of resources, and you only pay for what you use.

A real world example is Google and it’s product: Google Documents. 
Google Documents allows you to create, edit and update almost the entire Office Suite, from Word, Excel, PowerPoint and so on from any computer, running any operating system, from OS X to Linux and Windows, from anywhere in the world. What’s more, you save your data online, meaning you have access to those files wherever you are in the world - as long as you have access to the internet.

If you look at how technology is moving on a grander scale, with people having greater dependence on smaller, more portable devices, Cloud Computing solves many of the issues by providing essential applications and data on the go.

Take for example the operations at Webinspire. Recently we acquired the Galaxy Tab by Samsung, its slim, portable and very compatible with Google Documents.

One of the biggest things we pride ourselves at Webinspire is that we give our clients 1 on 1 time, meaning we take the time to understand you and your business to deliver exactly what you are after. 

Lets say I’m having a meeting with you. I arrive, we settle and I load up a new Google Document online on my Galaxy Tab. The document I have created is also shared with the developers back at Webinspire headquarters.

They immediately see the notes I’m typing up at our meeting in real time, not only that, but they are also providing direct feedback to me, editing my notes as they feel necessary to ensure what I offer you, the client, has as much thought and input as you would receive if you had been in a meeting with the entire Webinspire development team, but without the hassle of organizing 2-5+ people for a meeting.

By the end of the meeting, the Webinspire development team is already briefed, a quote developed on the fly which I can provide to you right then and there.
If you accept, by the time you get back to your office, your project has already begun. Say we were too expensive, we can renegotiate immediately and save another 2-3 meetings and again, by the time you reach your office, your project is already under way.

One example, of what cloud computing can be used for. Powerful right? We think so ;)

We get you, we’re with you. We are you. Webinspire ;)