Liveshare: How does it work

There are many destinations on the web for you to upload your photos and share with family and friends. You have Picasa, Flickr and even Facebook, these sites allow you to upload your photos and then share it with family friends or specific people. Liveshare does all this for you with one big difference, it allows real-time sharing. This means you can create a stream and invite your friends to join-in, in that stream. Let's say you are your pals are on vacation and  all of you, can together keep uploading photos or videos to that stream. The photos or videos show up real-time and is available for all to see. So there is one photo or video stream but many contributors. These stream can either be public or private. So while all of you'll are uploading photos or videos people in that stream can check it all out at once, like one big giant album. There is no need to go to each friends profile (Think Facebook) to check out their personal collection of the holiday photos.

You can create either private or public stream. If you create public streams, like when you go for a concert, you can invite everyone at the venue to feel free to contribute to the stream. This way you get a whole lot of people at the concert to add their photos and videos and this really generates a crowd-sourced album for all to check out and enjoy. If you create a private stream you can share it with a few people and only show them photos or videos you want them to see. All of this is synced with the cloud so you and your friends can view stream no matter where you are. There is an iOS app and so your photos can be uploaded from your iPhone or iPad. There is also an Android App available. You can views photos and albums using any modern web-browser. 

To get started

Visit Liveshare on the net

click on upload photos

select photos to upload (works real quick)

Name your stream

choose private or public

Share with friends

That's it - real fast and fun

Liveshare
Liveshare iOS App
Liveshare Andriod App
Live Share is brought to you by Cooliris

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Sociolatte

Don't Be Evil Bookmarklet: How does it work

When Google launched 'Search Plus Your world' (SPYW), users were told that this new feature will help them get better results when they search Google. There were other things that users were not told, results from Twitter, Facebook and many other sites were being omitted. The reason Google gave was that Twitter and Facebook did not allow the search engine access to information, as much as it needed to. You therefore get a whole lot of Google+ profiles in your search. Most of these profiles are not even updated regularly and the same person's Twitter profile would actually be much relevant, but Google choose to ignore it. They would like to have people forcefully sign-up for a Google+ Profile.


Don't be evil: Is the philosophy Google built their business on. Show results keeping the user in mind and not the company. So no one results gets precedence over the other. With SPYW this does not seem to apply at all.


A few engineers from Facebook, Twitter and MySpace have decided to fight back and prove to everyone that Google can sometimes be evil and manipulate search results. The result -  a Bookmarklet that can be used on Chrome, Firefox and Safari. It does not work on Internet explorer.


How to get the Don't be evil bookmarklet, add-on or extension now and try a more relevant Google search.
1. Head over to their site focusontheuser.org


2. Click on Try a more relevant Google

3. Click and drag 'Don't be evil' to your bookmark bar. If it is not visible change your settings to make it visible and then drag and drop.

4. Now go to Google and search for anything
5. when you get the results click on 'Don't be evil' bookmarklet located in your bookmark bar

You can also get the Chrome App (Extensions) for the same in the Google Chrome Store and add the App. What the app does is it Modifies Google's hardcoded Google+ search results and replaces them with real social media results.
Don't be evil App for Chrome.

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Sociolatte

Google Search Plus Your World: How does it work

Google has released a new product that it has begun rolling out to all users. If you do not have it already you certainly will over the next few days. To explain this new concept briefly it would be: Google has now integrated Google+ much more deeply in its search results. So when you now perform your regular search on Google. You will be shown results from Google+ and people you are connected to. So when you search for say images of elephants. You will be surprised to see pictures of elephants either which you or your friends have shared on the web. Especially shared on Google+ and Picasa. This means a lot of the recommended search results from Google will have a personal touch to it. This personal touch is not theirs but yours. People you are connected to on Google+ will become a part of your search results. So when you search, results will incorporate pages, post, images and videos shared by people you already know. This is 'Search Plus Your world.


In addition when you search for friends of yours, you will get their personal profiles popping up and not the wrong people. which means if you search for your pal 'Ben Smith', only his profile will show up and not all the other Ben Smiths in this world. In addition you will also get recommendations of highly ranked authors on Google+. If you want to be a person whose writing is recommended on Google+. You will need to join the Google+ Authorship Pilot Program.


Important Q&A
1. Can I toggle or switch between normal Google Search and Google Your World
yes you can do so by click on the human figure and world icon found on the top right-hand side of your screen. Clicking on the figure will give your 'Google Search Plus Your world Results'. Clicking on the world icon will give you results without personal recommendations.

2. Why is Twitter so upset with Search plus your world.
Because Twitter and Facebook have been omitted. Twitter says that the latest news breaks first on Twitter and not on other social networks. It is therefore unfair that results from Twitter are not show first.


3. What is Google's response?
Allow us access and we will show results from Twitter and Facebook. There is no deal now between these companies and therefore Google seems to be making good with what the have access to.


4. Can search plus your world surface public content from across the web?
Matt Cutts answers this by saying 'surface public content from sites across from the web, such as Quora, FriendFeed, LiveJournal, Twitter, and WordPress'. 


5. How deep is Google+ integration with search plus your world.
It is very deep and this is incentive enough for people who are into SEO (Search Engine Optimization), Blog owners and website owners to make sure they get onto the Google+ bandwagon real quick.


 If you have already tried it and when you do get a chance to experience it please let us know what you think in the comments section below.
Read More: Google+ Blog

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Sociolatte

Pinterest: How does it work

This is the hot new social network on the web, which everyone is talking about these days. It has been in the news for a lot of good reasons and the main one being its phenomenal growth. This social network builds on the fact that people like to collect stuff online converting everyone with internet access into online curators. Breaking down this a little further is Pinterest - which allows you to create a virtual pinboard based on just about any conceivable topic one can imagine. Please go through our small Guide we have put together below. 


1. What is Pinterest?
A place for you to create a board based on images collected from the internet and then pin it up. ONce you create a Pinboard, you can then share it with the public and people who find your content interesting can then follow you. People use Pinterest to collect and share all sort of things. From DJ Equipment to interesting recipes to wedding ring collections, you name it you can now find it on Pinterest.


2. What is a person who uses Pinterest know as?
A pinner 


3. What is the purpose of Pinterest
Now there can be varying purposes and you can use the site as best suits you. Having said this, there is however something that comes across very clearly. The purpose seems to be that people like to create and share things that mean a lot to them. So from creating and sharing meaningful pins, you can also complete your research on something that matters to you on Pinterest. You can find Pins that would match you interest exactly and done by people who really have knowledge on a certain subject. So it will help you by finding people with similar interests and you can follow them and this of course puts people who have similar interests together and knowledge sharing is something we cannot live without.


4. How do i get started?
You will need to land on their official page and request an invite. Be prepared to wait as it might take sometime before the invite arrives.


5. How do i create a Pin?
Pinterest has an official Pin it button with is a simple browser extension. When you come across something you like on the web just click the pin it button and select the corresponding picture. 

Check the video below if you want to know how to create a 'Pin it' and pin stuff to your board.



6. What can I do if I like someone's virtual pin-board
You can Repin, like or comment. You can either follow all of someone's boards or just individual boards. 


7. Can I share my pins on other social networks?
Yes you can tweet your pins or share your pins on Facebook. With the new Timeline on Facebook your pins will lend a lot of glamour to it.


8. Can I create a Pin with my own material
Yes, absolutely. You can create a board based on all the material you have created online.


9. How to navigate Pinterest?
before you get started with creating your board click on the Everything Feed and start looking at what other people are doing. This will give you an idea on how to make your new pin-boards interesting. This is something you might want to do before creating Pins.


10. How to get started?
This question has come last because if you are new then the background above really helps you to understand the service before jumping in. So once you get your invite the first thing is to set up your profile page. You can then start with your Pins. You are given five boards by default. You can use the same topics given on the boards or click on edit to change it to what you like. 


11. Can I Pin a video?
Most pics are pics but you can easily pin videos. Go the the videos section on Pinterest to find an awesome collection of Video Pins and Video Boards. 


12. What is a Pinterest Board?
A pinterest board is a set or collection of pins.
So go ahead now and start pinning your interests and share it with other people. Please leave a comment with what you think about this fantastic new service.
Pinterest
Pinterest for your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch

Pinterest Tutorial Video:

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Sociolatte

How to make a Facebook-to-Facebook video call from within Skype

Image: 424help

Skype and its partnership with Facebook has just gotten a little bit more social. You can use Skype to chat with all your Facebook pals. It is very simple to set-up and enable and once done you can chat with your Facebook buddies from within Skype. The move strengthens the bonds between Skype and Facebook and takes social networking to a whole new level. 


How too use, enable or start a Facebook-to-Facebook video call.
1. Login to Skype
2. Click on the Facebook button within Skype and sync you Facebook and Skype accounts together
3. Once done you Facebook contacts appear alongside your Skype contacts
4. Click on your Facebook contact to start a video chat.


So go ahead and use this to have loads of fun with all your Facebook buddies.

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Sociolatte

Music Notation Training helps budding musicians to practice reading staff notes for free

Looks like I still remember all my notes

You know how difficult it is to practice reading sheet music. Every person who want to learn music will need to first get used to these staff notes. Web App music notation training comes to the rescue. If you need to practice your music notations you can do so here. The idea is to keep practicing even when you not playing and it's only that that you will be able to get your , e.g.b.d.f and f.a.c.e  right.


With this app which is also available for the iPhone and iPad, you get to see the music notations on the stave and there is a space below each note you you to type in the corresponding music note. If you type the right note in the app shows you it's correct and if you type the wrong note then the app will display the correct one. This is one good way to get a hang of music notations. You can also change the clef from treble to bass.


Check it out now if you need a little help with speed reading music notes. 


Notationtraining.com

An original post by

Sociolatte

Vinswer will let you make money with your expertise via live video chat

Vinswer is a web app the promises to help you make money via live chat. With this service you can set up a widget within your blog, website or facebook profile advertising your expertise on any given subject. People who have questions regarding your subject of expertise can set up a Q&A with you for a flat fee.


How Vinswer works
You need to sign up and then create your video answer to sell with anyone on the internet. Once your account is created you can then start embedding your widgets anywhere to spread the word. Yes you can embed the widget anywhere on your blog, site, Facebook, Twitter anywhere for people to be able to see you. Once someone is interested in listening to your answer they can show their interest and you can set up a chat. Once both parties have agreed, the listner can then pay the sum before your share your answer. 


For Blog and Site owners
If you have a blog or a site you can embed the widget on your site and users can search for experts who have answers. You earn 20% commission from the entire exercise.


So if you are an subject matter expert you can avail this service to begin selling your answers. So give it a whirl and see if it works for you. Please leave a comment in the section below to let us know what you think about it. 


Vinswer

An original post by

Sociolatte

Chill lets you watch fun videos with freinds

Chill: How does it work

Chill is a cool site that lets you and your buddies watch videos together. Once you connect with Facebook you will be ready to set up your video room. This kind of works like turntable.fm, meaning you can set up a video room and people can watch your videos. There is also a like and dislike button for users to give feedback and live comment system to enable you to chat with your audience. There is a lot of interaction with the audience. Once you connect you can join any room or decide to start your own. The room looks like a theater with a big screen in the center. You can choose an avatar and you're set to go.

If you do decide to start a room you can then watch videos from YouTube, Vimeo, Justin.tv, Ustream, Livestream, Twitch.tv, and YouTube Live with your pals. So once you set up your room there is a lot of interaction to keep you busy, real-time chat, points, avatars, like and dislike button. A cool place to chill with your friends. 

Chill

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Sociolatte

Discover LinkedIn Groups with the new statistics dashboard

LinkedIn have announced via a block post that all groups will now have group statistics. With group statistics you can now see what the group is all about, how active it is, demographics and does it contain the right professional group that will help you the most. With the new statistics dashboard you will be able to easily figure out if the group is meant for you or now. 

How to find the groups statistics before joining one on Linkedin

If you go directly to the Groups Directory on LinkedIn you will find the same old page and the new statistics dashboard is not located there. You will need to click on the group, open it and find the statistics located in the right-hand-side tool bar. There will be an image which looks like the one below which will need to be clicked before you can see the statistics. If you visit your groups on LinkedIn you will be able to see the statistics by clicking on the Bar Graph below the name of any group.

Once you click on it you get to see a summary and you can further break it down into demographics, growth and activities. This should give you a fair idea on how the group has grown, where most of it's members are located and how active the group is. Please check out the video below to see how these statistics are further broken down.

An original post by

Sociolatte

Google has the intelligence to decide whether your searching for fresh or historical data

Google have announced via their blog post that their search engine has gone through another change. When you now input a query into Google, the search engine can decide whether you are looking for fresh results or something older. This change is going to effect 35% of all search results. Meaning two things you will get better results and some blog and site owners might see a little less traffic coming their way. Google has always been known to be innovative and fresh and this is further proof of their constant ability to keep things fresh and spruced up.

The way Google explains this is that if you type Olympics you are probably searching for the 2012 Olympics and therefore without you specifying it, the search engine will determine it and show you up-to-date results for Olympics.

Another significant improvement is that ability for the search engine to show you updated information on events that occur regularly. Like 'Dancing With The Stars'. When you search you expect fresh information and without specifying it the search engine will deliver these results.

There are incidences where historically old data might have more significance to you like when your searching for 'tomato sauce recipe'. In this case you might want something older, maybe a post with a lot of comments attached to it. Proving that, that recipe is one of the best available online. 

An original post by

Sociolatte

stories.twitter.com read stories of how people have used Twitter in amazing ways

Twitter now has stories which can be found at stories.twitter.com which allows you insight into real-life events that unfolded on Twitter. Some of these stories are amazing and bring out the usefulness of Twitter in the way it has actually helped and even saved people's lives and businesses. Twitter has been accused in the past of  having conversations going on by it's users that is just mindless jumble. Teens tweeting about the favorite celebrities and if you are familiar with the service then you are also familiar with Belibers. They are the Justin Bieber fan army that try to keep their idol always trending in the topics. 

This also goes to show that you cannot underestimate the power of one little Tweet. 140 characters is the Twitter Tweet limit and 140 characters is now mightier than the sword. The impact of Social Media is amazing if you look at the way the message is spreading. Twitter with it's power to share a short message quickly has brought out once again it's power to save, help change people's views and connect you with your friends to spread  the word.

Share your story by mentioning @twitterstories or by using the hashtag #twitterstories. Include a photo or video that helps illustrate your story. http://stories.twitter.com

Check out the below from Twitter Stories

An original post by

Sociolatte

Use Pen.io to create and publish a beautiful webpage in seconds

This is one of the simplest web apps available out there to create and publish a webpage. You might ask why do I need to create a webpage when there are so many blog services I could use. With all the new services that have come with the new web, a page still holds the good old joy of the internet. Creating a single web page can also be very specific. Let's say you want to share info about a concert you have organized. use this service to create a webpage in seconds which can then be shared on Facebook, Twitter and Google+ to name a few services. It is all about speed and when you first go to Pen.io 

How does Pen.io work and how to use

all you need to do is to enter your webpage name and a password and you're good to go. All web-pages you create however will have the URL ending with pen.io. 

If you do have HTML knowledge for creating a webpage you can add your HTML scripts to create a page. Here are a few ideas that Pen.io has come up with for ways to best use their service.

Publish Essays

Create Pages for Upcoming Events

Share Code Snippets

Publish Ebooks

Share Recipes

There is no end date and so the pages you create are going to stay on the service for as long. If you are done with a page you can then delete. You can also edit your page online and it is all very simple to use. just remember your password and you can edit at anytime. No scripting and other website creating knowledge is required. Simple to use and you can have your poems or ebooks published in seconds. 

An original post by

Sociolatte

YouTube Merch Store

YouTube has just announced the launch of 'The Merch Store', Symbolizing 'Merchandise'. The store gives artists and content creators the ability to sell merchandise right from their YouTube Channel Page. Fans visiting their favourite channels do not need to go to an external website to buy T-Shirts they can do so right from YouTube. Artists and content creators can offer digital downloads, concert tickets and even unique experiences like meetups. This comes as a boon for all those popular YouTube Channels, who till now had to rely on external websites to see merchandise to their fans. YouTube says all this is made possible through strategic tie-ups with  Topspin for merchandise, concert tickets and experiences; Songkick for concerts; and iTunes and Amazon for music downloads. YouTube has also indicated that only a small percentage of sales will be taken to cover costs of the new feature. YouTube will be rolling out the merch store over the next several weeks and announcing Global Partnerships. 

Source: YouTube Blog

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Sociolatte

How to access multiple cloud files from a single place

Otixo how does it work.

If you are one of those people who have used multiple cloud storage space system to store your large files. Then it is only logical that you would want to have the ability to access all those files from a single place. Otixo is a webapp that lets you do just that. With the service you can access your files stored in services like like Dropbox, Box, Google Docs, MobileMe, FTP,Picasa, Amazon S3 etc from one single place. You can also transfer files easily across cloud services. You can also access and search all your files from a single place without having to download then to your computer first. 

How to transfer files across cloud services.

To get started you will need to associate all your online storage account with Otixo and then you gain easy access to all your files. You can then manage all of them from a single location you can also transfer files across services. Otixo also supports FTP and therefore you can transfer files from your FTP to Google Docs etc.

Otixo 

An original post by

Sociolatte

Twitter for iOS 5 now available

Twitter for Apple's iOS 5 is available for the first time today. Twitter is fully integrated into iOS 5. To get connected all you need to do is to enter your Twitter login information and you will be automatically connected. Available on all you iOS devices. Making it easier to read and share Tweets on you iPhone iPod Touch and iPad.

This brings about the ability to Tweet from your Apple Apps like Camera, Maps, Photos, Safari and YouTube. You can also Tweet from third party Apss like  Chomp, Flipboard, LivingSocial, Instagram, MadPad, PopSugar, Showyouand SoundTracking.  The App also allows you to directly upload images to Twitter (pic.twitter.com) Download the Twitter App for your iOS 5 iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad now. Twitter for iOS 5 takes out a lot of steps and makes Tweeting from your Apps much easier. 

Source: Twitter Blog

An original post by

Sociolatte

Google now offers instant site preview right from the search page

Google.com have come up with another innovative feature for the search engine. Now when you search, especially when you are searching for a site which has many pages you get the result with link to other categories within the site. When you hover over these smaller links you now find a double arrow and when you click on it. You get a popup within your search page with a screenshot of the site or page. This means you can view the page you intend to visit right from your Google search page and then decide whether you want to visit the site or page at all. This page preview offers users of the popular search engine an option to view the desired page right within Google and then decide whether to click it and go on. This is Google's site preview and they have just taken it one step further. 

Google instant preview is also available on mobile. Once you click on the instant preview option you also get two more options. One is to view the cached version of the page and the other is to view similar pages. text call outs also show you where your search terms appear on the page you are about to visit. You also get to see the layout of the page before you click the page and visit. Check on the image above to get a better understanding of how it works. 

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Sociolatte

YouTube now offers movies for rent in the UK

YouTube first offered full length feature films for rent in the US and then in Canada. The renting service now comes to the UK. Britons can now rent and watch full length feature films and movies on YouTube. YouTube also says that many of these movies come with extras like behind-the-scenes clips, interviews with the cast, documentaries, parodies and remixes. The partners providing movies for the UK service include Universal, Lionsgate, Entertainment One, and independent British film makers, Metrodome and Revolver Entertainment.

How YouTube rentals work

YouTube rent works essentially like video on demand. You click to play and you will be asked to pay a price, something that the uploaded has fixed. Once you pay the movie will be available to watch for however long the uploaded or partner has sent. Sometimes it could be forever and the movie will always be available for you to watch. http://www.youtube.com/movies

Source: YouTube Blog

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Sociolatte

giftiki for social gifting

giftiki is a website for social sharing, when you want to give one of your Facebook pals a gift you and your friends can pool in and get that friend a gift.

How does giftiki work

When it's time for all your fiends to chip-in and get that one person a gift, you can use giftiki. The occasion cna be a birthday, wedding, honeymoon or any other occasion. It works on Facebook and a bunch of friends can pool in and get that special someone a gift. Eliminates the need of collecting money especially if your gang is scatted all over the place. 

Uses can give anywhere between $1 and $10 and each gift gets posted to the recipients wall and is accompanied with a message or an icon of a gift, cupcake or banana. The person who receives the gift cannot redeem it for actual cash but can redeem it for an American Express gift card or with online retailers like Amazon, Macy’s, Starbucks or Sports Authority.

Giftiki is still in beta but you can connect with your Facebook account to learn more. 

www.giftiki.com source: 

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Sociolatte

Siri: How does it work

 

With the announcement of the iPhone 4S comes the news that Siri is coming with it. She will be your virtual personal assistant and help with a whole lot of tasks on your new phone, Siri is a part of iOS 5 and is capable of making you life a lot easier. For instance you get a message or text on your phone it will be read out to you be Siri and you can reply to that message or text with your normal voice. You do not need to touch your phone at all. It is all done automatically and you keep on doing your work and Siri will keep working in the background.

You can ask Siri to set your timer, tell you about the weather, remind you of all your appointments, and ask questions like which route to take and what the traffic situation is like. Siri will also speak to you in an intelligent way and has the ability to ask for clarifications. 

How does Siri work

Works just like a personal assistant, albeit a very wise one. Speak the the assistant in your normal voice and give it all your commands and everything gets done. Will also bring down accidents that happens while texting and driving. Just speak to Siri and ask for nice places for dinner around here. You will get a reply and choose a nice place. You do not need to hold it close and keep using your fingers as it is a voice based assistant that will go on the net and do your research for you. will reply to you in a female voice and keep you updated. Please see video below for more information. 

An original post by

Sociolatte

Google Analytics has gone real-time get early access now

Google Analytics the ever popular website and blog tracking tool has now gone real time. For those of us using Google Analytics it is a known fact that your site analytics would update every 3-4 hours. With this new feature release things are set to change. You can now track your site visitors in real-time and there are 3 main metrics that are being used. You can see where your visitors are coming from, how they found your site and what they're reading on your site. With this new data you can keep a track of your site and visitors and if there are an spikes in traffic you can see it instantly. 

Another important feature of real-time site analytics is that when you share something on Twitter or Facebook  or Google+ you can jump straight back in to your analytics dashboard and check the response to what you share. This way you can also measure the impact of your traffic in relation to links that you share. The possibilities are limitless and you can request for early access here. 

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Sociolatte