This news article brings a worrying announcement for site owners, be it of small or large scale.

Amy Chang, Group Product Manager of Google Analytics, posted a very concise announcement on the service’s blog, informing everyone how Google Analytics is about to change for all those who use it.

Focusing on those who unbeknownst to them share with website owners details that aid them to refine the information they share with visitors, Google is about to release a new feature on Google Analytics that will let users stop sharing that information, allowing them to keep their privacy.

Site owners ever since the Internet took off and became what it is today, have gained high interest in wanting to know what it is that their visitors want to see and read. Google Analytics provides information to site owners about their website traffic, allowing for their marketing and audience targeting to be fine-tuned.

While it is still early to tell, depending on how this Opt Out feature is brought out, it could have a heavy blow to web site owners all across the world.

As an enterprise-class web analytics solution, Google Analytics not only provides site owners with information on their website traffic and marketing effectiveness, it also does so with high regard for protecting user data privacy. Over the past year, we have been exploring ways to offer users more choice on how their data is collected by Google Analytics. We concluded that the best approach would be to develop a global browser based plug-in to allow users to opt out of being tracked by Google Analytics. Our engineers are now hard at work finalizing and testing this opt-out functionality. We look forward to make it globally available to our users in the coming weeks.

(via Google Analytics blog)

Through the use of geo-location, Twitter has also been able to identify which parts of the world are having discussions that are common in their area and now it’s began to offer users the ability to discover topics that may be relevant to them.

By changing the trending location, you can immediately see an updated list of trending topics in the right-hand sidebar of your Twitter’s homepage display. Currently the list of cities and countries is limited for now, but Twitter is working on providing further options to its users.

In addition to the trends, it’s also possible of identifying topics relevant to your area by utilising Twitter.com’s search engine. For example, by entering in the search engine “Cardiff”, you can see all conversations relevant to Cardiff.

During the bad weather, I used that feature a lot to find out what is going on in Cardiff and Trefforest.

1. Get the most up-to-date information

When the incident occurred where a plane made an emergency landing in Hudson River in New York, Twitter was lively with reports of the event containing immediate pictures.

One of the big advantages of Twitter is that it operates in real-time, so you know what’s going on right now. When you first start using twitter you may not know what to expect. One thing you can count on is that the information on twitter is the most current you can possibly get.

Keep in mind some of the most influential people and brightest minds in the world are using twitter. Barack Obama, Al Gore and many other business owners, marketers, bloggers and celebrities are regular tweeters as well so you can get access to information that you probably would not have otherwise or might take much more time to research.

On a further note, bear in mind that not every person being represented on Twitter or any other social network or website is actually the same person updating the information. Recently Barack Obama stated that he doesn’t use Twitter (click here to see my article about it).

2. Viral Conversation

It may take some time to get the hang of twitter and find all the people you would like to follow. But once this happens twitter can become a very valuable and enjoyable tool.

As you join the conversation and people get to know you, they may be able to give you some valuable insight and perspective about your situation. Of course, you would have to take the initiative and ask people most of the time, but like the saying goes “Ask and you shall receive”.

For example, if you are undecided about a certain product to buy, you can simply ask your followers if they have had any experience with the products you are considering. Chances are somebody will be able to give you some feedback that will help you make a more informed buying decision. Another example would be asking about something more casual like which movie to go see. If you have some movie-watching followers they may give you some good feedback about their thoughts on some movies.

3. Market your business or yourself

if you have a website or blog as I do, you can utilize twitter to gain more notoriety and drive more traffic. For example, if you make a new blog post you can simply make a tweet telling people that you have made a new post and many people will click on the link in your tweet to read it.

If you are an affiliate marketer, you can make a tweet about a coupon or update from a merchant that might help monetize your website as well. Make sure that you are making other tweets in the interim, there is nothing more annoying than following somebody who only says “hey go check out my blog” or “hey go to my website”, but just know that you can use twitter to build your business.

For those that don’t have a website or blog, you can simply use twitter to market yourself or build your brandname. Many employers are checking facebook and myspace pages nowadays to make a more informed decision about the candidates they may potentially hire. If they find you on twitter, it may give you another opportunity to make a good impression and show them you are socially conscious, which is always a good thing. Also keep in mind that people are much more likely to buy things from people they know, so if you are selling anything or plan to sell anything in the future, twitter can definitely be beneficial to you in this way as well.

The bottomline is that twitter is more than just telling people about what you are doing. I would recommend starting off slowly to see what others are doing and how they utilize twitter. Then as you gradually get the hang of it, you can get more involved and it will become much easier. You should be advised that twitter can get very addicting though, and like everything I would also recommend using twitter in moderation.

As a general rule, the more people that you follow, the more people will follow you. So you might have to do some legwork in the beginning and do some searches to find people. Search for topics that you are interested in and you will find tons of interesting people to follow that will provide valuable information. Chances are that many of these people will follow you back. This will be well worth the time because the more people that you have to converse with, the more enjoyable twitter will be for you.

Keep in mind though that content is king in twitter, so don’t forgot to make good tweets and people will find you. You can also re-tweet other comments that you think people will be interested in, just make sure to keep their @name in the beginning of it so the person that made the original tweet will get credit for it.

Some will still prefer to socialize with only people that they know on Facebook or MySpace, which I can understand.

I would argue that you can get to know people pretty well through socializing with them on the internet and that many people thought they were too cool for MySpace and Facebook when they first came out; now more than 30 million people have a Facebook account. Whichever you prefer, it’s all about being social and having fun.

Originally designed to keep friends and family up to date on what you’re doing, Twitter can also be a great place to share your latest book project, promotional ideas as well as interacting with fellow tweets (folks who twitter) and writers. And yes, you can have a blog and a Twitter page. I have both but I feed my blog into my Twitter site so that my Twitter page gets updated each time I add new content to my blog. There’s an easy application to add your blog feed to Twitter, it takes just minutes to do. Head on over to: Twitterfeed.

To sign up for a Twitter account just complete their short sign up form. Remember to brand yourself! This is important. Once you create a Twitter account you can’t go back and change your name so find something that works for you. Maybe it’s fictionwriter or businesswriter or whatever you want. My Twitter page is bookgal which is fun play on words for what I do (and what I love). Once you have a Twitter account you can immediately start tweeting. The service is completely free and you can also keep up with other people’s tweets by “following” them. Their micro-blog entries will show up on your Twitter home page so you can easily keep track of them. You can also be notified by phone when they add a tweet. You can twitter from anywhere, even your phone. I’ve been known to twitter from my blackberry.

Why on Earth Would you Want to Twitter?

When Twitter first started, people were a little perplexed. I mean why on earth would you want to blog in 140 characters? Well since the site emerged in 2006, it’s grown enormously in popularity. With Twitter pages from sites like CNN and every one of the political candidates, the site’s popularity can’t be overstated. Nor can its applications for the future. Also, even if you don’t have a ton of people following your tweets, keep in mind that Twitter search sites are popping up everywhere. This means that if you tweet using keywords that matter to your reader/market, you could be found and followed! For one such search site check out: summarize. Also, if you’re trying to gauge the popularity of a certain word or phrase and how often it’s being used or referred to, you can head on over to Tweet Volume and find out. Just plug in your search term or terms and up will pop a list of results!

Most Well-Known Twitter Users

• Many organizations (such as the Los Angeles Fire Department) have embraced the technology and put it to use in situations such as the October 2007 California wildfires.

• Higher education is also using the technology to relay important information to students in a more timely manner. The University of Texas at San Antonio College of Engineering is one such example.

• Several U.S. presidential campaigns use Twitter as a publicity mechanism, Ron Paul, John Edwards, Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton all have Twitter pages.

• Media outlets such as CNN have also started using Twitter to break news.

How to Use Twitter Effectively

If you’ve pondered using Twitter but aren’t sure how to use it effectively, here are some quick tips to give you some great twittering-ideas:

• Teach stuff – teach a little mini-lesson on Twitter. Delve into your area of expertise or just talk about book publishing and how to get published.

• Showcase your book – don’t do this in a “my book is so fabulous” kind of way but offer to give advice (like I mention in Teach Stuff) or share with your Twitter followers how the promotion of the book is going.

• Use Twitter as a news source: you can easily announce news both from your world (as long as it relates to your topic) and from the world of your expertise. So for example I’ve done tweets on book industry stuff, breaking news, etc.

• Widen your network – follow other Twitter folk, this will not only give you some ideas for your own “tweets” but it’s a great way to network with other writers or professionals.

• Keep the buzz going when you’re on the move – it’s hard to keep blogging when you’re on the road (trust me, I know this first hand) – so when I travel, I tweet. I share what I’m doing, what’s happening in my world and try to offer insight and advice.

• Market yourself – remember that while Twitter may seem like a fun little tool, it’s also a great way to market yourself. Just like the ideas we mention above, there are a hundred+ more things you can do.

Golden Rules of Twitter:

Here are a few rules to live by when tweeting:

• Be Original, useful and helpful.

• Every Tweet counts (don’t tell people you’re washing your cat) don’t just tweet on useless stuff or you’ll lose followers.

• Ask questions: you’ve got a network (or you want one) now use it! Ask questions, take surveys, get your followers involved in your message and marketing!

• It’s not all about you (again, back to the cat) people want to know useful stuff, I know, it’s getting repetitive but there’s a reason: it’s important.

• Promote your Twitter account in your email signature line and on your blog.

• Network: don’t expect your followers to grow if you’re not following other people. Network, search for others in your area and follow them.

• Personal is ok. Even though I said not to post useless information it’s still not a bad idea to (from time to time) post a personal Tweet or two. Provide value and twitter-followers will beat a path to your door.

• Keep Twittering, followers will come if you keep updating your Twitter account.

Twitter makes Retweet feature available to all users

Not long after Twitters initial beta release to a small percentage of the Twitter community, they have now rolled out the feature to everyone.

Users can now retweet messages posted by other members and allow for the retweets to appear in the stream by clicking on the newly added Retweets section (located below Direct Messages).

Twitter has added a retweet button next to the reply button on the tweet, so you can choose any message you want to share with those following you or in the public timeline (those who post on Twitter, with the exception of users protecting their tweets, have their messages viewed by everyone).

Once a message has been retweeted, it will show under the original tweet a notification indicating the users who have retweeted that message. This also allows for message authenticity as users can see the message exactly as it was written by the user who initially posted it.

Have you started using this feature? What do you make of it?

(via Twitter)

Following the brief mention of Chrome OS that I made at an earlier date, Google has now revealed more details of Chrome OS.

For those not previously aware, in July an announcement was made by Google that they were in the process of developing and distributing their own operating system: Chrome OS.

Not a lot of details were available at the time, and assumptions were made based on existing knowledge of Google’s Internet browser, Chrome. Their operating system was expected to be lightweight, open source and that it would seamlessly integrate into Google’s existing web applications.

Currently, a lot of Linux operating system distributions utilise Google’s web applications to allow users to write emails, chat, save documents, collaborate on projects, view and share calendars, and much more.

Google’s Chrome OS, aims to take that cloud capability to the next level.

Key features of Chrome OS:

1. Chrome OS according to Google is both the browser and the operating system.
2. All applications are web-based, with no installations.
3. Chrome OS focuses on security, with all web applications being placed in their own “security sandboxes”, aimed to protect the OS from malware or viruses.
4. Chrome OS boots up for user use in 7 seconds.
5. Chrome OS whilst open source, will not have drivers allowing you to run it on your laptop. It will have specially dedicated Chrome OS netbooks.
6. Chrome OS netbooks will not have traditional hard disk drives. Instead they will use non-volatile flash memory, focusing on internet-based storage for saving all of your data.

View the video on YouTube here: Google Reveals Details of Chrome OS

(via Google Blog)

Twitter is constantly providing new features to its users, with the newest addition being the Retweet (also known as RT). Essentially a Retweet is a message created by one user, then repeated by another while giving credit to them.

The common format of a Retweet is to begin the tweet message with RT, then add the name of the person quoted, e.g. ‘RT @lukedench’, and then continuing with the message they originally posted. Twitter users tend to retweet in their own way, others rewriting the messages and then giving credit to the initial poster by saying ‘via @lukedench’.

Once Retweet started to become popular, Twitter 3rd party clients started to roll out features to automatically be able to retweet messages, some of which are TweetDeck, Twitterific, CoTweet, and many others.

This new Twitter feature, currently only available to a small segment of the Twitter network’s users, offers the users the ability to retweet (essentially, repost) any tweet from Twitter.com using the web-based interface, taking away the need to use a 3rd party application, or having to copy/paste the message and include the Retweet abbreviation.

Twitter has added a retweet button next to the reply button on the tweet, so you can choose any message you want to share with those following you or in the public timeline (those who post on Twitter, with the exception of users protecting their tweets, have their messages viewed by everyone).

Once a message has been retweeted, it will show under the original tweet a notification indicating the users who have retweeted that message. This also allows for message authenticity as users can see the message exactly as it was written by the user who initially posted it.

An unfortunate note to make is that retweets made using this feature cannot be edited, which means that comments cannot be added to the tweet or allow it to be rephrased or rewritten in another language.

Furthermore, as this is part of the new Twitter API, 3rd party tools currently not supporting it, will not feature the official Retweet and may not show up on the application until the developers have made adjustments to the programs and released new updates.

Being fully aware of the positive and negative features that come with the official retweet function, would you use it, or would you instead prefer the popular practice of writing RT where you can rewrite the message as you seem fit before posting it?

(via Twitter)

Twitter has taken its service one step further by offering MMS to its UK Twitter users.

According to Kevin Thau of Twitter, Orange UK carrier users can send picture messages (MMS) to 86444 without being charged through Twitter; only carriers standard messaging rates apply.

Its as easy as 1-2-3:

1. Take a photo on your Orange mobile phone
2. Select Send via MMS or Send multimedia message
3. Send it to 86444

You can test this service out by sending a text message to 86444 with the word START.

This means that with the same shortcode, 86444, UK users can tweet via SMS with Vodafone, O2, and now Orange.

Now the question that remains, is will users find this useful considering the high prices that Orange charges for MMS services.

Source: [Twitter]

Google from the first moment of its existence has been focused on enhancing customer experience across different platforms, and now it’s focusing on developing and releasing an Operating System (see my previous post).

At the same time however, employees in a different department are focused on developing a new protocol that will be able to handle data transfer from websites at a faster rate, using less bandwidth, resulting in a faster and more responsive Internet.

During tests across top 25 websites while simulating home network connections, Google was able to improve loading time by 55 percent.

This is a sign of the continuing development of the Internet, constantly being reformed and improved, with large organisations like Google reshaping our online experience as we know it.

Of course, it won’t be a straightforward and seamless transition. It will take time for website owners to transfer across to the new protocol, but with such high promises of speed and efficiency, it won’t take long for it to start happening.

After all, Apple’s iPod and iPhone have both quickly become well known across the world as the MP3 player to have and respectively the mobile phone to develop for, with many designing software and websites to cater to its users. On a similar note, Android, a Google production, is quickly becoming a powerful device on its own with many applications already proving its worth.

It is definitely worth keeping an eye on its progress and seeing how Google’s experimentations continue. What do you think, will SPDY become the new HTTP successor?

Source: [Chromium Blog, Google and Ars Technica]