These are my links for February 4th through February 8th:

• Top 5 Social Sites for Film Fans – If you ranted and raved about the recent Oscar nominations on Facebook, but none of your friends seemed to care, it’s time to either A) find new friends or B) find a social network that caters to your cinematic needs.
• Teenagers ‘prefer social media to TV’ – Telegraph – Teenagers now list using social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter as their number one pastime, overtaking watching television, according to a new report.
• Skoda successfully seizing social media | PR Examples – Here’s a lovely article on how Skoda uses social media to engage with journalists – in this case James Baggott, editor of Car Dealer Magazine.
• Astroturfing: what is it and why does it matter? – Creating the illusion of widespread support for a policy used to take place in papers – now it's online and even more powerful
• Good write up from @ruskin147 about this week’s #savefieldproducer drama – I'm betting you've never heard of Neal Mann, but for a while on Tuesday this young producer at Sky News became a cause celebre, on Twitter at least. Under the hashtag #savefieldproducer he became a trending topic, one of the most-discussed subjects on the social networking service.
• Paul Dacre: Leveson quotes… – some real doozies here – Paul Dacre, editor-in-chief of the Daily Mail today appeared in front of the Leveson Inquiry. Here are some of his more interesting quotes. 
• Earthquake Strikes Philippines: The Rapid Social Media Response [VIDEO] – Chaos struck the Philippines on Monday after a magnitude 6.7 earthquake struck the central island of Negros, causing fears of tidal waves and a tsunami.
• QR Codes Hairstyles Raise Money For Underprivileged Kids @PSFK – To get the word out for the non-profit organization OneXOne, the charity decided to shave QR codes on the back of students’ heads to raise awareness. Talented stylists etched or stamped the barcodes onto the scalps of high school and college students who participated eagerly as ‘hope agents.’ When these codes were scanned, supporters were able to donate $5 by text message or credit card to help improve living standards for children around the world.
• A really interesting read from @dmscott: MYTH: "My buyers are not on the Web" – In fact, there are more mobile phones in the world than toothbrushes. Of the 6 billion people on the planet, 4.8 billion have access to a mobile phone.
• 99 Tiny Stories to Make You Think, Smile and Cry – Sometimes the most random everyday encounters force us to stop and rethink the truths and perceptions we have ingrained in our minds.  These encounters are educationally priceless.  They spawn moments of deep thought and self-reflection that challenge the status quo and help us evolve as sensible individuals.
• North Somerset vicar invites ‘tweets’ while preaching – A vicar from North Somerset is inviting members of his church congregation to "tweet" him whilst he preaches.
• What Pinterest is Doing That Facebook Isn’t – Pinterest is growing fast, and 80% of the site's users are women ages 25-44.

These are my links for February 1st through February 3rd:

• 100+ Brands on Pinterest – Pinterest is emerging to be one of the hottest social networks of 2012. A recent report found that Pinterest drives more referral traffic than Google+, YouTube and LinkedIn (some analyisis by Brian Solis here).
• How To Pimp Your LinkedIn Profile –
• 8 Things You Should Know Before Building a Mobile App – App appeal is obvious. The barrier to entry? So low! The upshot of producing the next Angry Birds or beer-chug simulator? So high! Heck, with just a small investment of time and cash, it’s not hard for would-be mobile moguls to turn a concept into a steady stream of cash. And thanks to today’s app stores, it’s never been easier to try your hand at becoming the next tech tycoon.
• Social Media as Grief Counselor? | CKSyme.org – Strength in numbers. When it comes to grief, experts agree that getting support of other people is paramount. A key to understanding the grieving process is that people express it differently at different times. The Kubler-Ross stages of grief include denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. A community of grieving people around a single person or event can be in any stage at a given time.
• Noteworthy Social Media Facts to Begin 2012 – January came and went, and so did unforgettable social media developments
• Flying people spotted in New York City PR stunt | PR Examples – To create the illusion of people flying and to promote movie ‘Chronicle‘, a movie about high school friends who gain superpowers, 20th Century Fox had three human shaped remote control planes fly around New York.
• McKinsey report: Death of the homepage? – A new report from McKinsey predicts that mobile and social will replace the homepage as the mainstay of digital communications within four years. It also suggests that digital is helping businesses to form more collaborative relationships with consumers – a step closer to social business.
• Stuffed Animals Sleep Over At The Library To Get Kids To Read (CUTE!!!) – Struggling libraries could taken inspiration from this fun event hosted by the Darien Library in Connecticut. An in-house slumber party for stuffed animals invited kids to see what their soft toys got up to when they were let loose in the library. The children picked up their stuffed animals the next morning and the librarians showed them some photographs taken during the night, getting the kids really excited about what happens to their toys when they were not looking.
• 5 Ways to Brand Your New YouTube Profile – Are you wondering what to do with the new YouTube look and feel?
• Tiger bread renamed giraffe bread by Sainsbury’s – Sainsbury's is renaming its tiger bread after a letter a three-year-old girl wrote to the company, saying the bread looked more like a giraffe, went viral.

I have to say that one of Google’s unsung heroes within its rapidly shrinking portfolio of products (thanks to the cannibalistic personality of Google+) is undoubtedly Google Goggles – the completely genius image recognition service for mobile phones.

Launched just under two years ago, Google Goggles has gone from strength to strength and is available across multiple mobile platforms including iPhone and (obviously) Android handsets.

I have to say that I prefer using Goggles’ image recognition capabilities to secure further web info than having to rely on often gimmicky QR codes to achieve the same thing. Not only can Google Goggles recognise brand logos, it can also do a whole host of other incredible stuff which continuously push the boundaries of mobile search.

For instance, the other day, somebody in the office had a picture of a building that they believed to be a French palace but didn’t know what/where it was. With a single scan with my trusty HTC Android phone, I was (rather smugly) able to inform them within 7 seconds that it was in fact the Royal Palace in Brussels, Belgium.

Also, I’ve found that the app can also find online versions of articles simple by taking a photo of a small snippet of text from a print version of the publication. So, when reading an article on the train in last week’s Economist I scanned a paragraph of the page using Google Goggles and was immediately taken to the online version of the article.

Google also reckons that the app can be used to translate text from one language into another – something that I can attest to but with varying degrees of success.

But the main reason for this post is to show the awesomeness that is Google Goggles’ Suduko-solving capabilities that have recently been added to the app’s bank of features.The point is that Google Goggles is more than just a novelty app. It is continually finding new ways to unlock the potential of image (and text) recognition. Think of it more as a platform upon which different services and features can be built – much as in the same way that Google Maps has managed to be a valuable tool for developers. Of course that would mean Google releasing a separate API for Goggles to the developer community but I’m sure that this is already in the pipeline somewhere.

Take a snap of any Sudoku puzzle and then click on solve. The gaps in the problem are filled in automatically by Google. It really works (make sure you crop the puzzle in the image finder)!

Take a look at the following video and have a go yourself if you still need convincing…

How do YOU use Google Goggles? Do you use it to capture labels from wine bottles? Have you used it to digitise business cards? Has it helped you translate a menu when you’ve been on holiday in France? Let us know in the comments below…

 

Many years after I closed my agency Flux PR, I still used to receive the odd email now and again destined for another company which had a very similar name (and also happened to be a PR company).

Instead of ignoring the emails, I always made a point of forwarding them on or letting the sender know that they had made a mistake.

It’s all about serendipity, I guess. Which is why the following story is completely amazing:

In January 2007, Rachel P. Salazar and Ruben P. Salazar were living 9,000 miles apart and completely unaware of each other’s existence. But when an email meant for Rachel accidentally went to Ruben, it wasn’t long before an ordinary mistake began to look like an extraordinary stroke of luck.

To RP Salazar, with Love from StoryCorps on Vimeo.

Have you ever had the email equivalent of a “wrong number”? Love to hear your story in the comments below…

[via]

These are my links for January 26th through January 29th:

• LikeBelt concept encourages a very physical kind of Facebook liking (video) — Engadget – This is the LikeBelt: a concept device that inserts an NFC chip into a belt-buckle. Instead of tapping your mobile device on a "check-in" tag, you get the belt buckle close enough to do the same. There are only two downsides: how close you have to get and where most people's belts are situated.
• FBI to use Twitter to predict crimes – Telegraph – The FBI is trying to develop software that will scan Twitter and Facebook to look for ‘emerging threats’.
• The phone number is dead: Long live the social media profile! – older generations grew up with landline telephones, paper phone books and the need to remember a host of 10 and 11 digit telephone numbers. Mobile phones changed everything, storing the details of everybody you know for calls at the touch of a button, but the next step could be to ditch phone numbers altogether.
• Use #mom when you check-in and let her know you got there safe. Bloody genius! – Let mom know you got there safe
• New Subscription Model Is Disrupting The Digital Music Industry @PSFK – The L.A.-based indie record label Stones Throw has launched its own “Digital Discography,” which offers subscribers every new release from the label via email for $10 a month. This new artist-supporting business model for the digital music industry is based on consumer trust in a label.
• Facebook Loyalty Program Is Changing The Face Of Customer Rewards @PSFK – Plink has launched a Facebook Credits-based loyalty program that rewards Facebook users for dining at chain restaurants. Once logged into the Plink program via their Facebook account and securely registering a credit or debit card, users earn Facebook Credits whenever a registered payment card is used at a participating restaurant. This seamless loyalty program rewards users automatically and doesn’t require any loyalty cards, additional steps or training in restaurants.
• Twitter Upgrades Will Include Analytical Tools – Twitter will unveil a series of new tools in the next few months, including sophisticated analytical tools, according to Erica Anderson, Twitter's manager for news and journalism.
• A police constable uses foursquare to check in with his community! #4sqFun | Foursquare Blog – Toronto Police Constable Scott Mills, who’s also the Social Media Adviser for Crime Stoppers International, is encouraging officers everywhere to use foursquare to connect with their neighborhoods! Scott checks in when he’s giving community talks, to let people know when and where he’s on patrol, or to keep them posted on breaking crime scenes.
• HR Role in Social Media Strategy – It’s easy to look at social media as the responsibility of your marketing or public relations department. But there is another department that has an equally valid reason for tapping into the social channels. It’s your Human Resources department.
• Bayern’s ‘new striker’ Facebook stunt backfires (thanks @souljaof4tune for the heads up) – Bayern Munich have angered their fans after a media stunt in which they claimed to be unveiling a new striker backfired.
• African Twitter map reveals how continent stays connected | World news | The Guardian – Analysis of 11.5m tweets in last three months of 2011 shows South Africa generated the most, with more than 5m recorded
• Tom Watson’s Twitter account ‘hijacked’ by intern – Telegraph – Tom Watson, the Labour MP, had his private Twitter account 'hijacked' by a female intern, who then posted unauthorised tweets while he was in a meeting.

These are my links for January 25th through January 26th:

• H&M sparks internet fury with its latest design | PR Examples – H&M have sparked a flurry of angry complaints online, following the release of its latest homeware collection.
• Schweppes App Scans Facebook To Reveal Your Future @PSFK – Beverage company Schweppes has launched the Unexpected Future app that predicts how the year would pan out for the user through snippets of posts in the Facebook Timeline format. By analyzing your Facebook data, the app reveals your potential larger-than-life achievements with grand predictions in categories such as wealth, career, adventure, romance and fame. It takes you through Facebook posts that have comments left by friends in your social network.
• Digital ‘right to be forgotten’ will be made EU law – Telegraph – Embarrassing, inaccurate or simply personal data will have to be deleted from the internet and company databases if consumers ask, under a new set of European laws.
• Why Social Media is the New Public Relations: another good post by @bradleyesmith –
• The Social Analyst Manifesto by @kemipa – some good insights here – 2012 seems to be the year of many things. Businesses are going to take social media engagement seriously; they’ll become more comfortable in the space; they’ll hire data analysts to measure all sort of stuff in new ways. They’ll slay the dragon known as social data.
• The Shift From Watching TV to Experiencing TV – Over half of all devices at this year's CES, the world's largest consumer electronics trade show, were Internet connected devices. Nearly 60% of those were non-traditional computing devices such as TVs, car devices, refrigerators and washing machines. In fact 90% of the TVs at CES were Internet-enabled.
• Controversial Indian Film Released On YouTube Evades Film Board Censorship [Headlines] @PSFK – When Ashvin Kumar started putting together 300 hours of footage containing  testimonies of Kashmiris, he knew the finished product would not go down well with the Government of India. That his documentary, Inshallah Kashmir: Living Terror, which features ex-militants narrating stories of human rights violations at the hands of Indian forces, would face stiff resistance from the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC).
• How to Start Using Google+ for Your Business Before It’s Too Late | Social Media Today – Unfortunately whether we like it or not, we all have to adopt Google+… fast. Especially if your business relies on SEO as a main source of traffic.
• 5 Workplace Strategies to Supercharge Team Productivity – Extraordinary management requires extraordinary thinking, and these creative workplace strategies are proven to supercharge team productivity over a sustained period. The following are innovative ideas used in companies all over the world to help high-performance teams crank efficiency up a few notches.
• Orange offers free Wikipedia access to mobile users in Africa and the Middle East — Engadget – There are more than 70 million Orange customers across Africa and the Middle East, but only about 10 million are able to access the web from their handsets. That gap may be narrowing, though, now that the provider has decided to offer free mobile access to Wikipedia for users throughout the region.

These are my links for January 15th through January 24th:

• 5 Trends Behind the Growing Shift to Video Explanations | Common Craft – With YouTube came the potential for video to be more democratized, more experimental. Suddenly there became room for new uses of video, new audiences, new genres. In 2006, anyone with a video camera and an Internet connection could make videos and share them on a worldwide scale for free.
• Facebook to offer free advertising – News – Gadgets & Tech – The Independent – Facebook announced plans today to help thousands of small firms by
  offering free advertising to boost their chances of growing their
  business.
• Pope Benedict praises Twitter-like forms of communication | World news | The Guardian – Pontiff says social media can help people find answers to life questions, but urges relentless chatter be balanced with silence
• Wi-Fi access to be available on London’s Tube network by this summer – Telegraph – Transport for London has announced that commuters will be able to access the internet in advance of the London 2012 Olympic Games.
• Report: Young Urban India Ditches Social Media – India Real Time – WSJ – The young and educated have been largely responsible for the phenomenal rise of Facebook and other social-media networks in India and elsewhere around the world. But a new report suggests urban Indian students are over social media networks and focusing instead on mobile applications that allow them to talk directly and instantly to their friends.
• Lego Launches Its Own Social Network For Fans @PSFK – Lego has launched a social media platform where fans aged 13 and above can upload their own creations and projects, share them, and comment on others they discover. ReBrick is designed to be a hub for all Lego-based works made by the Lego fan community.
• McDonald’s #McDStories Twitter campaign backfires – Telegraph – A Twitter campaign by McDonald's, aimed at highlighting good news relating to the fast food chain, completely backfired when people used the hashtag 'McDStories', to highlight their horror stories.
• Why newspapers are closing the shutters on staff photographers | Media | guardian.co.uk – Newspaper photographers are in retreat. Staff jobs are vanishing as publishers look for new ways to cut costs.
• Facebook applications and opengraph | immediate future. – With the launch of 60 new applications using the Timeline and Open Graph, Facebook is about to expand beyond the Like.  The new functionality will allow users to share perpetual actions (‘love’, ‘want’, ‘need’) via applications through the Open Graph. There are obvious benefits for brands, especially given the buying signals of user actions such as wanting and needing.
• How to Incorporate a Custom Facebook Page Tab to Your SM Strategy | Social Media Today – Facebook has come a long way from the closed social network that started at Harvard in 2004. Presently at 800 million users, recent projections are predicting 1 billion members by August. Facebook is also growing beyond membership numbers. The social networking website becomes more dynamic with each update, increasing features and functionalities like custom Facebook Page tabs.
• How Google’s Social Search Shift Will Impact Your Brand’s SEO –
• 12 Fun Hacks for Getting More Out of YouTube – There’s no doubt that plain old YouTube can be tons of fun, but when you get bored of watching clips the traditional way, there are a ton of sites that can help enhance the experience.

These are my links for January 4th through January 15th:

• BBC News – Twitter feed gives Swedes a new picture – An organic sheep farmer, a priest and a Bosnian immigrant are among those who have helped double Sweden's Twitter followers in the past month.
• The Awkward Handshake Disorder –
• Murdoch: we screwed up MySpace ‘in every way possible’ – Telegraph – Rupert Murdoch, the chairman and chief executive of News Corporation, has tweeted about how his company “screwed up MySpace in every way possible”.
• FedEx Customer Video Turned Good PR | Social Media Today – Always answer with a real apology. Not a “I’m sorry, but…” apology, but a real one. And answer it on the same social network where the crisis is happening.
• Facebook launches new social music feature – Telegraph – Facebook has added a new ‘listen with’ feature which allows users to enjoy the same song as a friend via the site at the same time.
• slideshare for b2b social media. – There is no doubt that the growth of Slideshare has got B2B marketers excited about using social media again. It has become the world’s largest content sharing community. Combine this with the reach of Twitter and LinkedIn and the platform has become a vital part of the best B2B social media strategies. The site has seen dramatic growth amassing more than 60 million visitors and 3 billion slide views a month.
• Google Turns Its Maps Feature Into Old School Maze Game [Video] @PSFK – Google has recently announced that it will be launching a game on Google+ in February using its maps tool. The 26-second teaser video shows a blue ball navigating around Google Maps cube. The labyrinth game will allow users to control the ball by tilting the cube and collect points for visiting certain points and places on the map, such as restaurants, retail shops, parks etc.
• Executive ‘forced out of job’ over LinkedIn CV – Telegraph – A human resources executive was forced out of his job after angering his employer by putting his CV online and advertising that he was interested in other “career opportunities”, a tribunal heard.
• In-car internet ‘to become norm’ in survey about future – In-vehicle internet access is close to becoming reality, according to the world's top car bosses.
• 5 Ways to Use Google+ to Improve Your Search Engine Optimization – Here are some ways you can ensure that your Google+ usage will help with your search rankings.

These are my links for December 31st through January 3rd:

• The Verified Twitter Account for Rupert Murdoch’s Wife Was Fake – Rupert Murdoch joined Twitter last week. So did his wife, Wendi Deng Murdoch. "Joining my husband @rupertmurdoch in our new digital adventure on Twitter," reads her bio. Cute, right? Rupert was verified, Wendi was verified, and so began another cute chapter of celebrities figuring out how to use Twitter.
• Twitter Faces Another Call To Close Terrorist Group Accounts – Lawyers say Twitter will likely weather legal challenges from an Israel-based group that tries to combat terrorism through litigation, which is claiming the San Francisco-based company is violating U.S. law by allowing groups like Hezbollah and al Qaeda affiliate al-Shabaab to use its microblogging service.
• 23+ Essential Facebook Page Applications to Improve Fans Engagement in 2012 – a list of cost-effective facebook apps you can use not only to improve your fans engagement but hopefully enhance your brand visibility at the same time.
• Adopting Social Media Company Wide by @jordanv – The concept of social business is quickly becoming a reality for companies. And a number of advantages come with adopting social media as a company. Your entire organization can share the responsibility of communicating on behalf of your company – beyond just Marketing.
• Teachers warned over Facebook and Twitter use – Scottish teachers are being warned that their use of social networking sites could put their careers at risk.
• Old Spice Named The Most Viral Brand Of 2011 – Perennial heavy-hitters like Old Spice and Nike continued to dominate the viral-video field in 2011, using new executions to keep their brands on top in the web-video world — but often benefiting from new views for old clips as well.
• Rupert Murdoch joins Twitter? ‘Now this will be fascinating,’ says Piers – News Corporation chief seemingly tries to break with 2011's annus horribilis by tweeting 'in his own voice, in his own way'
• British POW’s 1940 ‘Twitter’ diary released – The wartime diary of Private Ross Taylor, a British prisoner of war whose daily jottings never exceeded 140 characters, is to be broadcast on Twitter.
• Twice as many 18 year olds use Facebook than are registered to vote – A watchdog has renewed concerns about young people failing to take part in elections after research suggested almost twice as many 18 year olds use Facebook than are registered to vote.
• Apple’s Siri gets sweary with British child – The mother of a 10-year-old boy in Coventry has been expressing her shock after a demonstration model of Apple’s iPhone 4S swore at her son.