Technologies to Watch That Will Change Businesses in 2014

Business Intelligence
The ability to mine business data in order to identify and capitalise on customer trends has always been out of the reach of the majority of businesses, until now. Business Intelligence (BI) or business analytics is now widely available and, unlike the systems of the past, it doesn’t require expensive software and hardware, and it shouldn’t need too much input from IT. The latest BI software is downloadable as an app for your iPad and takes just a few minutes to setup and can be revealing trends in your data within minutes.


Creating individual customer experiences
Providing customers with a tailored service is expensive and normally requires additional manpower. However, the rise of automated technologies such as customer relationship management software, combined with techniques such as segmentation, can allow businesses to provide a level of service that looks and feels like an individual experience, without you having to add extra manpower and without adding substantially to your costs.


Employee apps
Apps are everywhere and most businesses are using apps as part of their regular business toolkit, but why stop there? With an employee app your staff can have secure access to business data and forms on their own devices wherever they are, and you can control the level of access.

For most businesses, the ability to create apps specifically for your business has always been regarded as expensive. However, thanks to the success of Apple’s App Store there are now tens of thousands of well-qualified and cheap app developers. There are also more simple drag-and-drop tools like Appery.io, Codiqa and Conduit that allow you to create apps without too much programming knowledge.


The virtual desktop
One of the big trends in enterprises over the last year is ‘bring your own device’ (BYOD). Hundreds of thousands of employees now use their own smartphone or tablet alongside their work computer to complete business tasks. However, some businesses are now going that one step further and allowing their employees to use their own devices entirely. While this may be a trend that works well in tech-savvy IT departments, it’s not something that works everywhere. Ideally, there still needs to be some sort of work device that users can fall back on, which is where virtual desktops come in. A virtual desktop can be accessed either from a web browser or as a dedicated application and gives the user access to all of their applications and data, no matter where they are or what device they are on. With a virtual desktop you still maintain control over your businesses data, you also have access to as
much computing power as you need, so you can work on the most complicated spreadsheets on a smartphone. And, unlike a real desktop, it doesn’t need to be upgraded every couple of years. What’s more, adding a new desktop for a new employee takes a few seconds and, even better, you only pay for what you use.


Everything as a service
As the use of cloud computing continues to increase, businesses won’t be just using the cloud to provide applications online such as Box or Salesforce, it will also be used more and more to outsource all of the things that aren’t central to the business or require an expensive expert such as a recruitment, delivery, warehousing, telesales, customer service, through to creating new ideas and raising finance.

There are now cloud-based services to source specific skills, services such as Odesk, Guru and Elance, which can be used to fulfil either full-time posts or specific projects on an ad-hoc basis. Other services like Crowdcube and Kickstarter allow you to use the cloud to get outside investors interested in a project without having to spend weeks and months trawling around angel investors.

http://www.cambridgenetwork.co.uk/news/five-technologies-change-business-2014/_____________________________________________

Why is it Important to Know If Your Website Was Built in Open or Closed Source Code

Realizing that most website owners are just happy that their site is functioning well and looks great. Have these businesses ever realized that they need to educate themselves about the technology on the back side of their website?

Craig Reardon has some great advice to give on the subject.

There are three really important questions smaller business operators need to know about their website technology: Who recommended the website technology you are currently using? How impartial was that recommendation? And why is it important anyway?

The answers to these lie in a debate the software industry has been battling out for decades now. That of ‘open’ versus ‘closed’ source development code.

Before you click over to something a little more interesting than computer code, it’s important that you read on. Because not knowing the difference can greatly impact your expenses, your sales and even your reputation.

The open source community method

By definition, ‘open’ source means that software and now web developers are able to access the computer programming of the software or website in question and alter it to create new functionality.




The closed proprietary alternative
On the other hand, ‘closed’ source software or technology does not allow ordinary developers to access the development source code in this way. Typically companies create such software and deliberately ‘close’ the source code so that only they can modify it.

This is not just for purely profit motives. Closing the code in this way allows you to control the quality of the software by preventing ‘enthusiasts’ from inadvertently creating faulty or insecure programming code, which of course can compromise the software brand and reputation.

As a result, any issue you have with the software is generally directed back to the company who provided it, sometimes via licensed local developers. As in any manufactured product, warranties and service level agreements cover any fault that might occur to your program.

Packaged, branded technology

The best analogy to this community versus company scenario lies in your standard book-keeping programs. In the very early days of personal computing, you could hire a programmer to develop or ‘write’ a book-keeping program for you. Because ‘off the shelf’ book-keeping systems were still new (and we are talking 25 years ago or more) your only real option was to pay the hourly rate for a programmer or developer to create it for you.

But because computer code can easily be duplicated in much the same way music now can, it made sense for the developer in question to make the software available to others for a price much lower than having to re-create it each time.

So very quickly entrepreneurial developers packaged up their programs and mass produced and marketed them, much like MYOB, Quicken, etc do today.

Whilst you pay an initial and usually ongoing license fee to purchase and use closed software, you also get teams of trained professionals ensuring its upkeep and quality control – particularly in an industry renowned for disgruntled or otherwise meddlesome hackers constantly trying to create havoc.



Famously, this battle of Open vs Closed was fought out between Microsoft and Apple when it came to the way they licensed their operating systems and software. Microsoft’s ‘open’ approach allowed pretty much anyone with any development nous to incorporate its operating system into its hardware, regardless of its quality, and in so doing allowing the market for it to flourish. And it’s the reason why it held up to 94% of the operating system market at one point.

The core of Apple

On the other hand, for all but a few years Apple completely closed its operating system to outside providers so as to control the complete product in much the same way that many car manufacturers do. Whilst this approach came very close to ensuring its demise at one point, it eventually led to hugely successful vertical integration possibilities as is now being realised by its hardware, operating system, iTunes, app store, etc, products.

Actually, Apple may not have happened at all if co-founder Steve Wozniak had his way. He wanted the original Apple 1 to recoup only the cost of the hardware, add a small profit margin and essentially give away the operating system before Steve Jobs talked him out of it – a decision that took the fledgling business out of the hobbyist market into the consumer market, with revolutionary results.

But coming back to website technology, business operators can now choose from an open source website platform or a closed proprietary one – something that few actually realise or are even alerted to by their web professional.

The cost of freedom

But whilst an open approach may provide developers with all the freedom they need to be able to create pretty much any kind of website, it also creates the potential for a number of problems that closed systems don’t.

These relate to quality, upgrades, maintenance, security, other improvements and the cost of each of these.

But whilst an open approach may provide developers with all the freedom they need to be able to create pretty much any kind of website, it also creates the potential for a number of problems that closed systems don’t.
These relate to quality, upgrades, maintenance, security, other improvements and the cost of each of these.

Unlike a license with a closed or proprietary provider, there is no obligation on the part of your web developer to ensure that your website platform is kept up to date with all the various ongoing maintenance requirements web technology require.

So, say browsers such as Internet Explorer or Chrome alter their operational specifications? Your developer must keep up with these (regular) changes and ensure your website meets them; whereas proprietary providers do this regular maintenance as a matter of course – because at some point you have paid for it.

So what has all this background information got to do with you as a smaller business operator? As it now turns out, plenty.

http://www.smartcompany.com.au/technology/34246-is-your-website-built-in-open-or-closed-source-code.html

Tips for Ensuring Your Company's Website Continue to Rank High in Search Engines

Most businesses are worried about keeping their high position in search engines. This is a valid worry due to the fact that Panda and Penquin can move a top ranked website and push it down to a lower ranking. There are some good tips that you can implement that will help to stay to the top on the web.



Search Friendly Structure:

For dynamic website address URLs (like the default URL links used in WordPress pages) it is important to use the "Permalink" settings. For example, “mysite.com/page-name” vs. “mysite.com/?page_id=123” can be easier for users to remember and better “symantically” for search engines. Another good suggestion is to create a Site Map to help search engines “crawl” the company website. This can be especially important for larger sites with complicated navigation. Also good for Search Optimization is a well thought-out web page description for every page on the site.

Content

Integrating great web content in 2013 is paramount for not only communicating with site visitors, it also helps a website get a boost in rankings. Good content helps build brand awareness and authority in a sea of competitors all trying to convey why they are the best at what they do. Ensuring the site has an up-to-date list of company ethics, privacy policies and product/service guarantee’s, can go a long way to build loyalty. The web page content should include a “sprinkle” of important key phrases related to the company business for search engines, but more importantly, good content should convey information that will prompt site visitors to return to the website at regular intervals, guide visitors to make contact with site owners or perhaps make visitors want to "bookmark" site pages for return visits.

Site Promotion


There are many ways to promote one’s website which can include writing articles with a link back to one's website, creating a company blog to post updates and events, participating in online forums within the company niche, creating quality press releases and listing a site in local web directories, just to name a few. Business owners must also understand that when it comes to "links", quality, trumps quantity. In other words, understanding what a quality back-link is, will ensure owners look to gain links from web pages that are important, relevant, newsworthy or "nich" sites, rather than trying to obtain a mass quantity of low-quality links.


Don't Put All the Eggs in One Basket

There are many search engines on the internet today. And although Google controls the market share in traffic, those website owners that follow all search engines guidelines and utilize other methods of generating qualified traffic by not depending on just one or two search engines for business, will never see major declines in business. This is especially true when Google decides to make a major update in their algorithm.

Analytics

In weather circles, they say "if you don’t analyze it – you can’t track it". The same principle apply to website statistics. Knowing how much traffic a site is getting, how many visitors are “returning” and “new”, how long visitors stay or how quickly visitors leave the site, are just a few important statistics to consider reviewing, on a regular basis. These statistics allow web developers to make small subtle changes to websites to generate positive results.

These are just a few suggestions to help business owners maintain good website positioning in an ever changing Internet landscape. Contact a local web developer for more suggestions on how to improve one's website and search positioning to take on new business this year and in 2014.

FM Web Services offers Responsive Web Design, website analysis, SEO Press releases, Search Optimization and Facebook pages for businesses. Located in the Toronto area (GTA), IFM has helped business achieve an effective online presence and has helped clients as far away as Bermuda and Mexico. For more on Social Media, SEO or Web Design for businesses, visit IFM at http://www.ifm.ca


http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/9/prweb11152104.htm

Chatwing Company Develops a Premium Chat Box For Career Support Websites

Are you looking for a great way to get information concerning careers in your area?  What about a using a chat box where businesses and those needing to find a place of employment can communicate. Chatwing has developed this great application for websites.

                                                   www.techinfoblog.net


Chatwing.com launches an informative widget that can be embedded and utilizes social media well.

Chatwing chat software has undergone improvements aiming to provide users with a communication leverage that will further social connectivity and expansion. One of the latest upgrades includes Yahoo and Gmail log in methods, which makes the chat app raises the website’s level of accessibility. Career support websites can still interact with Facebook and Twitter users and transfer important chat messages from chatbox to one’s own Facebook wall as a form of announcement and promotion. The process of looking for the right people for a certain profession will not be tedious and challenging.

Chatwing’s thousand user capacity can definitely accommodate web surfers across the globe. Sharing interview tips, professional advices and job descriptions can be accomplished in just a few seconds and can stay in the chat box for a longer time. This will allow new web visitors to view previous messages where they can also gain from earlier conversation exchanges. Job help websites can also engage in group chats through Chatwing vanity URL form. This is possible with the generation of username and shortlinks, thus career assessment can be done efficiently online.

Chatwing chat app is highly customizable. Web admins can design the chat tool in ways that can add up to the site’s professional reputation or entice more web surfers into the web page. Users can experiment with the color combinations and upload photos as the widget’s background image. In the coming months, Chatwing chat software team plans to release more advanced chat software that can also help business oriented websites and niche blogs improve online presence. The Chatwing.com is always updated with effective tips on how to use the improved chat tool in website developments and communication advantage. About Chatwing.com
Chatwing.com specializes in the new field of live website chat software. Over years, the development team has introduced live chat widget for hundreds and thousands of blogs. The application bridges people from many parts of the world, creating global synergy through the Internet. The shout box can be installed in just seconds, and it can be used for varying purposes such as leisure and Internet marketing. It also allows a user to customize the size, color, and name of the widget.

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/8/prweb10982826.htm

Amazon Is Taking on the Style of Pinterest with "Amazon Collections"

                                                 www.engadget.com

Amazon has quietly launched its own direct challenger to Pinterest with the debut of a feature called “Amazon Collections.” It’s a more attractive, image-heavy website where consumers can save, share and discover new products by browsing those others have saved. Like Pinterest, users create separate lists, called Collections, such as “Want List” or “Fashion,” for example, and they can find and follow other users who share their same interests through the service.
The company had been testing this feature beginning with a number of bloggers ahead of a larger, public debut, and some of those with early access have already detailed their experiences using the site to put together outfits, or other initial impressions. Some were even paid to be advisors. The earliest references we’re seeing from beta testers writing about the service were posted in late April.
Today, the link to “Your Collections” appears in the list of options when you hover over “Your Account” from the drop-down menu on Amazon.com’s homepage, which gives the service a more prominent placement on Amazon’s site.
Initially, all users start off with a few empty collections (“My Style,” “Want List,” and “Possibilities”) but you can make your own Collections, too.  To add an item to a Collection, you simply click on an “Add to Collection” button below the product image on Amazon.com’s website. However, because Collections is a new feature, this button has not yet been rolled out to all the products on.

                                              techcrunch.com

To work around this problem, Amazon provides a “Collect” button that can be dragged to your browser’s bookmarks bar, letting you add any product on Amazon to your collections. This does not appear to be a way to “collect” non-Amazon products at this time, though, as nothing happens when that buttons is clicked off-site.
Users can add descriptions for their saved items, edit or remove them from their lists, or even delete entire collections at once. The service also offers a way for users to browse through default categories like Books, Men’s Fashion, Movies, Music, Women’s Fashion, Featured, and more, all of which are laid out in a Pinterest-inspired image pinboard format where there’s heavy emphasis on the item photo and little other info besides the product name and a “heart” button for favoriting things. In order to see pricing and further product details, you have to click through.
Currently, Amazon Collections’ friending and following model is limited — the site shows the popular items others are pinning to which boards and when they posted those items (e.g. “3 minutes ago”), and you can then click on those users’ names in order to follow them on the service. But there doesn’t seem to be an option for discovering your friends who are on Amazon Collections, such as through address book upload or Facebook integration.

This is not Amazon’s first experiment with providing consumers with an alternative way to shop its site, we should point out. In years past, it has launched a number of other product visualization tools, like its 2008 grid-like storefront Amazon Windowshop, which later arrived on iPad in 2010, or its 2011 dabble in augmented reality via Amazon Flow. It has also worked to make the site more social, through integrations with Facebook for tracking birthdays or figuring out what things Facebook friends want as gifts.
But this is the first time Amazon has gone so far as to boldly duplicate the overall look-and-feel of a competing service, which, to some extent, validates the traction Pinterest is seeing with e-commerce referrals. The move also comes at a time when Pinterest has been beefing up its e-commerce efforts, with new tools for online retailers, including web and mobile product pins, analytics, personalized recommendations, and, just today, price alerts.

Read more :https://www.google.com/search?q=amazon+collections+pinterest&client=firefox-a&hs=Tkc&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&channel=fflb&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=icX7UaPOGbXc4APvn4HYAw&ved=

Nick D'Aloisio Strategy on Becoming an Internet Millionaire

                                                            www.wired.co.uk
Andy Yates of Real Business gives us the strategy it takes for this 17 year old to be a financial success.

1. Find a real problem and a worthwhile solution
For Nick D’Aloisio the problem was wasting hours trawling the internet for decent content. He wanted an easy way to access key information quickly. His solution saved people time and effort. Yahoo! serves content to hundreds of millions of users - that is a lot of time and effort that can be saved and the reason they snapped up the business.
Successful entrepreneurs find a big enough problem - big enough that people will pay to solve it. Pay to ease the pain or to be able to do something better and more productively.
If you can find something that is better than the competition, or better still, a new way of doing things that disrupts the current market, then you have answered the first question on "Who wants to be an internet millionaire".
2. No pain, no gain
Becoming an internet millionaire is hard work (especially if you have to fit your A-Levels in, too). I have yet to meet any entrepreneur who gets their product right first time. The idea has to be tweaked and perfected. Old plans are thrown out, new ones tested.
D'Aloisio’s original product needed a fair amount of seed investment to turn it into Summly. It didn’t happen overnight and, no doubt, involved a lot of blood, sweat and tears (and, if my kids are anything to go by, the odd teenage tantrum).
Customer testing can be a testing time for any business - but it is vital. Then, when you find what people will buy, what will really ease the customer’s pain, it is well worth it.
3. Think big
To make a million you have to find somebody to buy your business. And buyers are only likely to stump up their cash if the problem you are solving is big enough. There is nothing wrong with lifestyle businesses that can support you, your colleagues and your family. But buyers are not looking for lifestyle businesses. They are looking for scale and the ability for a business to make big in-roads into a large potential market.
In other words, do enough people really need and want your product?
On its own, an online or mobile app is not a business (a mistake too many people make) - but you can certainly build a business out of the right app.
In other words, if you want to make it big, think big.
4. Get by with a little help from your friends
In reality, most internet businesses don’t have huge barriers to entry and competition could be just around the corner. However, generating PR and buzz can be a great differentiator. D’Aloisio appears to be a past master at this - highly impressive for one so young.
After his original product was named "App of the week" by Apple he caught the eye of a venture capital firm, which in turn led to some celebrity backers, including Stephen Fry, Ashton Kutcher and Yoko Ono, no less. Basking in the limelight of high-profile backers helped his app get more than a million downloads after its launch.
Getting noticed, getting networked and standing out in a very crowded market is crucial.
5. Don’t think about the money
Yes, I know this point is ironic given the title of this article. But money is not the primary driver of many entrepreneurs. It is the buzz of success, the sense of achievement, the desire to see a product out there and change the status quo.
Put all your energy into getting the product right and grasping the opportunity rather than dreaming of untold riches and counting the money in your own head. If the business is strong, your chances of making money are strong - but lose focus and you may lose the prize.
Asked what he would do with the money D’Aloisio said he wanted to buy a new pair of trainers and a computer. After that he was a bit stumped. All his time and effort had gone into business reality, not dreams.
D’Aloisio got so much press because he is one of an all too rare breed in the UK - a young internet millionaire. And it is not just internet millionaires we are lacking. I would love to see so many more successful business people.
So, a parting thought: come on, entrepreneurs across the UK (young and old alike). I hope the D’Aloisio story eggs you on to real and deserved success of your own.

http://realbusiness.co.uk/article/22293-who-wants-to-be-an-internet-millionaire_22293

Best Practices in Optimizing SEO Videos

The following article has great advice in using videos in providing information to potential customers for your business or organization.

                                                www.internetsearchinc.com

The Best Practices in Optimizing SEO Videos

SEO videos are a great way for you to expose your brand to users who are not familiar with your brand, your products or your services. All marketers and site owners continuously experiment with video as a way of intercepting their target markets. And because of this, we see more and more video-driven content surface on the Web. The popularity of video content on the web depends on the study or data you're reviewing and the results always vary.

Nowadays, there are a lot of vids out there that are useless and lacking in information in their content. Although there are a lot of great "How To" videos out there, there are still a lot of video footage that are just a noise and an interruption to those who are looking for useful and relevant information.

The growth of SEO videos has been quite explosive. Because of this significant growth, the need for online video optimization should take place. These are some best practices that one should consider when planning to optimize online vids.

1. Make sure that the clips of your videos are relevant and informative. You must ensure that your video gives useful and informative information. Vids that show step by step procedures are great while videos that express opinion about a specific topic can also be useful. Some videos that have nothing to do with your brand or service offering and also a general or vague one in nature will only confuse your audience. Save your viewer some trouble and don't upload for the sake of uploading a vid.

2. Give your video a catchy title - The best way to get users to view your vid is to give it a catchy title that should contain related key phrase which are relevant to your product, service or brand. This is one search engine optimization trick you can use.

3. Use your video as a portal to other contents on your website. You can upload some vids to Youtube and provide links back to your related content as well as other vid content on your website.

4. Optimize your video for important key phrases. Tag your vids with terms then, consider naming the file-name with terms in mind.

5. Provide transcripts of your vids. In order for your video to rank well, you need to give the search engines something to index and rank.

6. Keep your SEO videos to five minutes or less. Make sure your vid is just five minutes or less because if it's of long duration, it makes it boring to watch and your visitors might lose their interest in watching it.

7. Make use of a Video-Sitemap. Ensure that users and search engine spiders can find your content; and the easiest way to do this is by using video-sitemap on your site. Make sure you use important keywords in the anchor text links on your videos.

8. Brand your vids with Logo.

9. Offer the option to embed your SEO videos. You can allow the users to access the coding that will allow them to embed your video on their site or blog.

10. Allow your users to rate your Video. Let your users rate your vids because vids that have high ratings are the ones that users tend to favorite and save.

11. Submit your video to RSS.

The best way to optimize your vid content is to think about the user and the people you want to engage in your video. Don't just post a video just for the sake of posting it. Consider your audience. Keep in mind that SEO videos are also important factors for search engine optimization

 Article :http://www.promotionworld.com/se/articles/article/130716-best-practices-optimizing-seo-videos