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Jonathan’s Links November 3, 2011

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Jonathan’s Links October 20, 2011

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Jonathan’s Links October 18, 2011

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Jonathan’s Links October 13, 2011

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Jonathan’s Links September 23, 2011

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Jonathan’s Links September 22, 2011

September 22, 2011 By Leave a Comment
  • If This Then That: Connect & Automate Any Two Of Your Web Apps

    automate web applicationConnect any two of your favorite web apps in creative ways. A sort of “digital duct tape” according to Linden Tibbets, the app’s creator, If This Then That (ifttt) lets you find new uses for web apps you’re already using by making it easy for you to combine them. The vision is to make the digital world, where programs exist in isolation, more like the physical world, where we combine things to make other things all the time.

    “When a 12 year old wants a lightsaber,” says Tibbets, “[he] cuts the handle off an old broom and shoves a bike grip on the other end.” Similarly, with iftt, “you can take two things in the digital world and combine them in ways the original creators never imagined.”

    What kinds of combinations are possible? Any RSS feed can be automatically tweeted. New results for searches on Craigslist can be emailed or SMS’d to you. You can be notified by text message when certain people email you. Your tweets can be automatically added to a Google calendar, giving you a timeline of your life. Basically, any action on the web can be assigned a reaction in order to automate a web application. It’s the one ring you need to bind all your isolated web apps.

    A Simple Sentence

    So how does this all work? Basically you pick two things: a trigger and a resulting action. For example, check out this sequence:

    automate web application

    This setup automatically tweets any item I share in Google Reader, along with my comments. The trigger is me sharing something on Google Reader, and the action is a tweet linking to the shared article. Once I’ve set this up with ifttt I can expect anything I share to automatically be tweeted.

    That’s the idea here – automation. It all starts with a simple sentence:

    automate web apps

    To get started, click the word “this.” You’ll be asked to choose the program you want to use for the trigger:

    automate web apps

    There’s a lot to choose from. For example, we could pick the weather app and make the action a prediction for rain tomorrow:

    automate web apps

    With our trigger selected, we can pick an action. For example, we could set ifttt to call us with the weather update:

    web automation

    With the “this” and the “that” set, we now have a complete command:

    web automation

    Every time tomorrow’s forecast calls for rain I’ll get a phone call telling me so.

    This is one of thousands of combinations, of course. I could get an SMS, email or Facebook message instead of a phone call; I could even have the news saved to my Dropbox. All of these items are called channels, and are easy to add to the service.

    Explore this and you’ll find thousands of possibilities. I can get a phone call when a certain person mentions me on Facebook, or when an item I want on Craigslist is on sale. I can automatically send everything I tweet to Facebook, and vice-versa. I can set up a hotel-style wakeup call.

    I could think of many more examples, but you really need to play with this tool yourself to appreciate all it can do.

    Enable Channels

    Head to the Channels section of the service and you’ll see a collection of apps:

    web automation

    Color apps are already activated; black and white ones need some attention from you. Click them to activate. You’ll probably need to give ifttt permission to access your various services, which can take a while. Don’t worry, it’s more than worth it.

    Browsing Other Recipes

    Like this in principle, but aren’t sure what sort of commands you’d create? You can browse other people’s commands. They are called recipes, and can really get your creative juices flowing:

    automate web application

    Explore the recipes for a while and you’ll get a solid idea of what’s possible with this tool.

    Supported Tools

    As of September 2011, the following channels are supported:

    I sincerely hope more are on the way, particularly Remember The Milk.

    Conclusion

    Ready to get started? Just head to ifttt.com and register for an account. This is that rare web app that’s so amazingly useful I find myself stunned it didn’t already exist. The ability to make web apps interact with each other directly is just one more reason the operating system just doesn’t matter anymore.

    What cool recipes did you come up with? Share them in the comments below, along with your thoughts about ifttt.

  • VIA Technologies Files Patent Lawsuit Against Apple Over iOS Device Processors
    Bloomberg reports that Taiwanese company VIA Technologies has filed a patent lawsuit against Apple, alleging infringement by the processors used in Apple’s mobile devices.
    Via, a semiconductor maker based in Taipei, seeks a jury trial and an order to prohibit Cupertino, California-based Apple from selling products containing the inventions in the U.S., according to a complaint filed yesterday in federal court in Wilmington, Delaware.

    “The products at issue generally concern microprocessors included in a variety of electronic products such as certain smartphones, tablet computers, portable media players and other computing devices,” Via said in the complaint.

    The patent lawsuit is clearly targeting Apple’s custom ARM-based A4 and A5 processors used in its recent iOS devices, as the filings name the following devices as being addressed by the complaint: iPad, iPad 2, iPhone 4, iPhone 4 CDMA, iPod touch 4th generation, and Apple TV 2nd generation.

    VIA had previously been part of a joint venture behind S3 Graphics, which won a U.S. International Trade Commission judgment against Apple several months ago in a separate complaint, but sold the company to HTC just days after that victory.

    Recent Mac and iOS Blog Stories
    • Hong Kong Apple Store Opens to Press, Tim Cook to Attend Opening?
    • KDDI to Break Softbank's iPhone Exclusivity in Japan
    • Newsstand Publications Can Update (Automatically) Only Once Per Day [Updated]
    • FaceTime Calls Are Doctor-Patient Friendly
    • Instagram Releases Version 2.0 With Higher Quality and New Filters

  • YouTube adds Magisto’s ‘magical’ editing, removes 15-minute limit for verified users

    YouTubeThat was fast. Only a day after automated video editing service Magisto announced it had received $5.5 million in second-round funding, YouTube has integrated the service into its offerings. YouTube took the opportunity to announce that it has removed the 15-minute limit from verified user videos and added a 2D-to-3D beta tool.

    YouTube appears to be adding a lot of new free tools in the hopes that it will improve the general quality of clips on the service. Just a week after adding the ability to do basic video editing inside YouTube itself, the service is pushing for more through partnerships with Vlix, for adding effects and text, and Magisto for automating the video editing process altogether.

    A YouTube-Magisto partnership makes good sense, as Magisto’s free service automates the video editing process for newbies. Users submit video clips and Magisto does the work of cutting a short video in an interesting fashion. Magisto scans the clips for noteworthy action and packages it with tricks like transitions and split-screens. Then users give the video a title and pick a soundtrack, and the video is ready to go. The option to use Magisto appears on YouTube’s “Create” page as well as during the video uploading process.

    YouTube also upped the ante for what users can do with the service by letting verified users upload videos longer than 15 minutes and letting users convert 2D videos to 3D. To become a “verified user” you have to give your phone number to YouTube. To use the 3D beta feature, you have to do so at the end of the uploading process by selecting “Edit Info”, then “3D Video” on the clip you’ve uploaded.

    What do you think about YouTube’s new features? Have you tried Magisto’s editing yet?

    Filed under: media

  • Cisco’s New Branding To Rollout 4th Quarter Of 2011 (Zennie Abraham/SF Gate)

    Zennie Abraham / SF Gate:
    Cisco’s New Branding To Rollout 4th Quarter Of 2011  —  More at Zennie62.com |  Follow me on Twitter!  Get my widget!  Visit YouTube |  Visit Facebook.com  —  According to a source, Cisco's in the process of rebuilding its entire brand all over again after laying off 6,500 people three months ago.

  • Salesforce Buys Customer Service SaaS Assistly For $50M To Reach Small Businesses
    62667v8-max-250x250

    Salesforce has just bought social customer service SaaS startup Assistly. The purchase price is $50 million, and the deal is all-cash.

    Assistly helps companies collect and organize all of their customer conversations into a prioritized actionable list and equips support staff with the tools to respond to customers. The application allows businesses to filter conversations, access customer histories, automate processes and even tap into social media conversations on Facebook, Twitter and other sites. And Assistly provides users with key metrics and analytics, such as case volume, interaction volume by channel, response time, service levels, agent performance and more.

    Update: TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington is reporting that the acquisition price is $50 million, plus an additional $30 million in deferred payments over two years for a total of $80 million.

    Assistly and Salesforce already had a previous relationship. Salesforce made a strategic investment in Assistly. And the startup recently launched an app on the AppExchange that allows sales and support teams see data, like customer contact info and status while working on cases direct from Salesforce.

    Assistly, which only launched to the public last September, offers companies an option of paying for total usage instead of seats, so people can jump in occasionally and only be billed for time spent on the platform. This is especially ideas for small to medium sized businesses. The company is backed by Bullpen Capital, Index Ventures, Kenny Van Zant, True Ventures and Social Leverage and is used Instagram, Klout, One Kings Lane, Spotify and Square.

    The startup was founded by Alex Bard, Gary Benitt, Jeremy Suriel, and Brad Birnbaum, each of whom previously worked together in building customer service-based companies back in the 90′s. The first, called eShare, was acquired in 1999; the second, called eAssist Global Solutions, was eventually acquired in 2004 after stumbling through the dot com bubble burst. Following the eAssist acquisition three of the team members left the space to start Goowy, a Flash widget maker. The team reunited to develop Assistly in the customer service space.

    Salesforce’s CEO and founder Marc Benioff said of the acquisition: Salesforce has spent over a decade democratizing enterprise applications in the cloud…The Assistly acquisition doubles down on that strategy by putting us at the heart of the new trend of customer service help desk applications that have instant sign up and zero-touch onboarding, expanding the potential reach of the Service Cloud to millions of companies around the world.

    Salesforce already offers the Service Cloud to companies, which helps businesses connect with customers across both traditional and social channels. But Assistly extends this offering to the small business community, and helps Salesforce reach this audience.

    Salesforce recently bought social media monitoring company Radian6 for over $300 million.

  • Pandora Relaunches Site in HTML5, Removes Music Listening Cap

    Pandora, the customized Internet radio streaming service, has pushed out a redesigned interface to all users. The new UI comes with an added bonus: the company has removed its infamous 40 hour listening cap, enabling users to streaming an unlimited amount of music for free.

    The Web interface for the popular music service has been totally overhauled, offering a sleeker, cleaner design with simplified controls. The top of the page contains iTunes-esque controls for playing, pausing and skipping songs, as well as voting them up or down. From the same toolbar, users can type in the name of any artist, composer or song to automatically generate a radio station based on their musical preferences.

    Sponsor

    The site’s player new player was built using HTML5 and JavaScript, rather than relying heavily on Flash. If this change was made as part of a tablet-friendly strategy, that strategy must still be under development. We tried loading the new Pandora from our iPad, but were still redirected to a page prompting us to download the native iOS app. Update: As some of our loyal commenters have pointed out, the Pandora Web app still streams content using Flash, but has wrapped the player in an HTML5 skin. Thus, it won’t work on non-Flash compatible tablets like the iPad.

    Pandora also has new social and sharing features on the way. The service will soon be rolling out a Twitter-style feed of recent music-listening activity from friends to serve as “a centralized place to find, like and comment on what friends and like-minded listeners are discovering and enjoying on Pandora.” With this update, stations finally get their own dedicated URL, which makes it easier for users to share stations with each other.

    Until today, Pandora had a 40-hour monthly listening cap in place as a way to keep artist royalty payment costs under control. That cap has been lifted, but the service still limits the number of times you can skip songs within a given station, due to licensing restrictions.

    new-pandora-ui.jpg

    Discuss

  • Avatar Rides Coming to Disney World



    Fans of Avatar, the 2009 hit movie, will get an experience that goes beyond even IMAX 3D when Walt Disney World launches rides based on the film in 2017 or so, according to a report.

    Disney has lined up exclusive agreements with Avatar distributor Twentieth Century Fox and Lightstorm Entertainment, director James Cameron’s production company, reports The Wall Street Journal. Construction on the $400 million project will begin in 2013 in Disney World’s Animal Kingdom. Disney ride designers, a.k.a. “Imagineers,” will be collaborating with Cameron on the effort.

    Cameron, who appeared at a press conference Tuesday, said the rides will recreate environments from Avatar and possibly two sequels planned for 2014 and 2015. Full terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, but Cameron is set to collect a fee, rather than a percentage of ticket sale. He will also get royalties on merchandise, food and beverages.

    The Avatar rides will join other attractions based on movie franchises at Disney, such as Star Wars and Indiana Jones.

    Are you excited about Avatar rides? Let us know in the comments.

    More About: avatar, disney world, Fox, imax

    For more Entertainment coverage:

  • TechStars raises $24M, hands out $100k to each start-up

    TechStars announced it has raised a new $24 million fund that will allow it to up the amount of money it provides each startup to $100,000. The new funding is being raised by Foundry Group, IA Ventures, Avalon Ventures, DFJ Mercury, SoftBank Capital, SVB Financial Group, RRE Ventures, Right Side Capital Management and TechStars Alumni.

    The new money will be applied to all of TechStars classes in 2012 including Boston, Boulder, New York City and Seattle. TechStars supports about 60 startups a year and previously raised money from 75 venture funds and angel investors. It used to provide up to $18,000 a year for startups who were selected into its program. The program, which launched in 2007, has been on the pioneers in the start-up accelerator space and has spread its model around the world.

    The new money seems to acknowledge the rising interest in accelerator programs now that Yuri Milner and SV Angel have pledged $150,000 for each Y Combinator company.

    TechStars Founder and CEO, David Cohen:

    Acceptance into TechStars now means an additional $100k of funding from a diverse group of top tier investors. This additional funding will allow TechStars companies to stay focused on making progress during the three-month program instead of spending that valuable time on early fundraising in order to make ends meet. It’s also enough funding to entice a broader spectrum of would-be entrepreneurs to consider TechStars. This funding comes from a wide swath of the venture community nationally which means that TechStars companies will now enjoy tremendously broad support from a large number of investors that are each vested in their ultimate success, while avoiding the signaling problems associated with taking money from a single venture fund or investor.

    Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
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  • How to Mask Affiliate Links

    Post image for How to Mask Affiliate Links

    How to mask affiliate links is one of the most common questions new affiliates often ask. In this post, we will take a look at the hows and whys of why you should mask affiliate links and how to do it effectively, with an eye towards maintaining long term low maintenance.

    Should I Mask My Affiliate Links

    This is one of the first questions people who start adding affiliate links have to deal with. As with most things in internet marketing, it depends. If the website is primarily a hobby website, not a money making or a business site, then the answer is no, you don’t need to mask affiliate links. However, what often happens is that people start with a hobby website, build nice traffic, and then look for ways to monetize it. I can’t tell you the number of hobby websites I’ve seen turn into $1,000 dollar a month sites. So, unless you are 100% positive it’s never going to turn into a money website, it’s better to be safe than sorry. Do it right and mask affiliate links right from the beginning.

    Free Plugins to Mask Affiliate Links

    If you are only going to be promoting a handful of affiliate products, or even less than 100, there’s no real need to use a premium product. There are plenty of free plugins like affiliate link cloaker, URL cloak & Encrypt, affiliate marketing tool. I’ve been a long time user of Go Codes. It has served me here without any issues or problems. Two recommendations,though: change the default directory to something other than “/go/” and block that directory from being crawled. This really is critical. The affiliate links are there for the users, not for the search engines. Until Googlebot gets its own American Express card, there’s no benefit to letting it crawl your affiliate links. In fact, the whole point of masking your affiliate links is to keep search engines from knowing what’s going on.

    Premium Plugins to Mask or Hide Affiliate Links

    If the primary goal of a website is to make money via affiliate links, then investing in a premium plugin is a smart investment. There are a few on the market like SEO Smart Links and Affiliate Link Cloaker Pro, but my favorite is Eclipse link cloaker (see Eclipse link cloaker review). A premium link cloaker has a lot of advantages such as:

    • Masking all outbound links
    • Working with datafeeds
    • Importing a large number of links
    • Direct naming of links
    • Google Analytics integration

    Subdomain Affiliate Link Masking

    If your website is primarily focused on selling one type of product (like travel bookings) and you work with an established merchant, you can often set up a branded subdomain. This is a little complicated, but basically you set up a CNAME entry for your subdomain to redirect from your website to the merchant. This does require someone with some technical expertise, which is beyond the scope of this post. Usually the merchant will give you instructions, like this document from IAN. The merchant usually lets you upload a stylesheet, header, and footer, so the website has your branding. Again, the specifics are beyond the scope of this post, but you can usually get help from the merchant. You need to make sure to block this subdomain from being crawled by the search engines. I can’t stress enough how important that is. Blocking it via robots.txt is better, but meta tags are an alternate solution. I recommend setting up a Google alert for indexed pages in the subdomain so you will know if Google does somehow find a way in.

    Hybrid Solution

    In some cases, you will want to mix approaches and use a hybrid solution. For example, I run a travel website with a booking engine on a subdomain. I then use Eclipse link cloaker to mask affiliate links for travel related products.

    Dangers of Not Masking Affiliate Links

    Letting Google see too many straight affiliate links is a dangerous game to play. Numerous quality rater documents have shown it to be something they are told to be on the lookout for, so it may work against you. Using JavaScript to mask links is also dangerous because Google is getting much better at crawling JavaScript, so it is not recommended. Using nofollow on straight affiliate links is much closer to a band-aid solution, so it is  not recommended as well.

    What are the takeaways from this post:

    • Showing affiliate links to a search engine are of little benefit to you. Unless you do it sparingly, masking affiliate links isn’t a good idea.
    • If you will only have a few affiliate products, a free light-weight solution is fine.
    • If you are running a serious website in which affiliate marketing is a primary goal, invest in a premium link masking solution (I like Eclipse link cloaker review).
    • In some cases, a subdomain is a better solution. Be sure to keep search engines out via robots.txt or meta tags.
    • You can mix solutions, such as a subdomain and masked links.
    • The key here is to block the search engines from seeing/deciphering your intent and quality raters from easily detecting that links are affiliate links.

    Disclaimer: If you purchase Eclipse link cloaker review from the links in this post, I do receive a commission; however, I use Eclipse link cloaker on this website and many others and am very comfortable recommending it.

    photo credit: Photospin

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    Related posts:

    1. How to Be Crafty and Mask Affiliate Links Fine since Matt started this whole thing on hiding links…
    2. Cloaking Affiliate Links, How and Why Today’s topic is one that gets asked about pretty regularly,…
    3. Can Google Detect an Affiliate Website One of the questions that often comes up is does…
    4. The Affiliate Marketing Newbie’s Guide To Finding Niches When I started out in internet marketing, I browsed around…
    5. Is This the 11th Hour for Thin Affiliate Sites While some people realized affiliate marketing has has slowly been…

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    How to Mask Affiliate Links

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Today’s a Great day of Links

September 21, 2011 By Leave a Comment

I really love being able to browse all my RSS feeds using Google Reader.

Today was a day of some really interesting posts. Here’s a recap of what I found interesting.

I’ll post some other link round-ups, here’s the start.

Filed Under: Fav Links