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Most Gmail users will have received at least one message from Google this week (I received ten) explaining the company’s new privacy policy.  The company has more than 60 privacy policies tied to its various products and services and so, in March 2012, it will be streamlining this all down into one policy.
Many bloggers and Internet industry pundits are saying this new approach is all a little too ‘Big Brother’ for comfort.  Maybe it is.  But this unified approach seems inevitable considering Google ubiquity across the Web.  The only surprise …

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On Wednesday of last week it went dark in many corners of the Internet. Thousands of websites went black in protest of a bill currently being considered by Congress in the USA: the Stop Online Privacy Act (SOPA).  Here’s Clay Shirkey’s explanation of why SOPA affects us all…including folks outside of America.

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SOPA, PIPA and Online Piracy (siddheshabhivyakty.wordpress.com)
Day of Darkness: How Can You Help …

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Google is personalizing  search results by including more Google+ profiles, business pages, posts, and Google+ and Picasa photos in a significant new initiative called Search plus Your World.
It will allow each user to surface content that has been shared with him or her on Google+ along with information that has been shared publicly integrated into typical Web search results.
Three types of Google+ content will be included in  Search plus Your World results: personal results, profiles in search and profiles and pages. Results may include non-public Google+ photos and posts that …

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Jeff Jarvis is coming to Ottawa on Friday to launch his new book Public Parts: How Sharing in the Digital Age Improves the Way We Work and Live.  Folks attending Third Tuesday will get a personally autographed copy the book!
Jeff is a recogised social media pioneer…he was the man behind Dell Hell, the defacto case study on brand social media engagement.  He’s a blogger at Buzz Machine and the author of What Would Google Do?  He’s also associate professor and director of the Tow-Knight Center for Entrepreneurial Journalism at the …

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The three biggest myths of social media marketing include that it’s free, it’s fun and it’s for everyone.
Yes, social media platforms such as wordpress.com, Facebook and Twitter are free to use, but it takes considerable time and effort to gain traction. Therefore it’s only free if you place no value on time and expertise.
Yes, social media is fun for individuals. Facebook is a great way to keep up on family news and communicate with friends. But, as industry user statistics  show, for companies and organisations, social media engagement is an …

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The Ottawa chapter of the eWomen Network asked me to come along this week to give a talk to members about Google+ and I was happy to visit them at the Arc Hotel in Ottawa and spend some time.
About 20 members were on hand for my session and they had a lot of really great questions. I really enjoyed meeting these ladies (and one gentleman) and I hope I inspired them to take on another social network.
The eWomen Network is a resource for connecting and promoting women and their businesses …

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The folks at the Ottawa’s eWomen Network have asked me to give a talk about Google+ on 19 October at the Arc Hotel. The event starts at 16.30 and runs until 19.30
A lot of women in business are discovering how to use Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social networks to help build their companies, but now there’s Google+ added to the fold.
My talk will cover why Google+ is important for business and I’ll give a brief history of Google’s history with social networks. We’ll discuss why you need another social …

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Here’s a good example of social media  working to effect change. More than 1,600 people signed an online petition at change.org  asking Google to separated South Sudan from Sudan on Google Maps to recognize the newly-independent nation of South Sudan.
South Sudan became an independent, sovereign nation on 9 July after nearly 99% of the population voted in favour of independence. The referendum followed 50 years of civil war and brutal conflict which resulted in more than 2 million deaths and hundreds of thousands of refugees and internally displaced people.
Six weeks …

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Any company that invests time and resources into creating a web presence without make a parallel effort on developing social networks is seriously undermining its search engine ranking.
That’s because Google and Bing now serve search results on a per-person basis depending on the searcher’s social connections. So, if someone ‘likes’ a company Facebook page or follows its Twitter profile, that company’s site will feature higher in searches conducted by that person.
This development is a game changer in online marketing .  Social networks are no longer focused purely on word of …

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Finally, Facebook has launched its new messaging service. It sounds a lot like Google Wave, but a lot more inclusive. Early access is by special invitation only and it’s going be rolled out over the next couple months to the rest of the world.

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