Google by the numbers [infographic]
Considering Google will one day rule the world, making us all peons in the Goog Empire, we should probably understand the facts and figures that make the mighty internet giant so powerful. Pingdom has put together an interesting infographic that includes plenty of data tidbits perfect for breaking out at your next internet-themed geek gathering.
Full infographic at Plingdom.
Oodles of Google news.
10 majestic chess sets for nerds
The game of chess is well-known as the be all and end all of competitive strategy, but the iconic game board and its pieces are apparently also a hotbed for artistic inspiration and interpretation. Check out the ten nerdiest chess sets of all time:
Yep, not only is it a Simpsons chess set, but the whole Simpson clan is sporting regal garb. Best. Chess set. Ever.
The holy trinity of geekdom has indeed arrived. Dungeons and Dragons meets Lego meets chess. Amen.
See all ten at Topless Robot.
Check and mate! More chess news is just one strategic click away.
How Google works
Want to learn how Google tweaks its search engine? Steven Levy of Wired has written an in-depth article about how the people behind Google's search engine work and what their goals are. It's a fascinating piece.
Full story at Wired.
Total coverage of Google.
The art of trust
Matthew May, someone who literally wrote the book about Toyota, has crafted an analysis of the intangible art of trust and what this means to Toyota. My favorite paragraph is:
"Intangible value gets to the heart of what motivates customer behavior. If you can positively answer the tougher questions of what tangibles like quality, cost, and speed actually do for the consumer—how speed improves life or what quality really buys in the mind of the customer—you transcend the mere economic transaction, because the emotional bonds that result are much stronger than the dollar exchange."
Full story at the American Express Open Forum.
Much more on marketing.
2 words that can kill innovation
What two words can kill innovation in your company? Scott Anthony of Harvard Business Review believes that they are "what about?" The problem with this question is that it leads to more research, discussion, and, eventually, inaction.
At the start of great leaps of innovation, you can't know what's going to happen. Frankly, if you knew what's going to happen, it's probably not a great leap of innovation.
Full story at Harvard Business Review.
Awesome collection of innovation tips and tricks.
4 steps to shiny, healthy hair
Dry, harsh winter air can wreak havoc on our tresses. To ensure yours make it to spring without any battle scars, follow these four steps to shiny, healthy hair.
- Sleep on it. Whip your hair back into shape overnight by using a nightime hair mask treatment. And feel free to do this nightly—there is no such thing as over-conditioning your hair.
- Give your scalp some TLC. Your scalp, like any skin, gets dry in the winter. If your noggin seems tight or flaky, treat it to a massage. Just two minutes of kneading a night will boost healthy blood circulation and slough off dead skin cells.
See all four steps at Daily Makeover.
More beauty tips and tricks.
Photo credit: Fotolia
40 amazing works of edible art
Apparently not everyone got the "don't play with you food" memo. These imaginative artists have created forty incredible pieces of edible art that will put that mashed potato volcano you used to make to shame.
See all forty at Noupe.
Fill your imagination and your stomach with more news on art and food.
U.S. Mint debuts new penny
The U.S. Mint rolled out the new penny this month, giving the copper-colored coin a mid-life crisis style face-lift, sans botox and a new trout pout. Old Abe looks the same, but the reverse side of the one cent piece got a new look featuring a union shield with thirteen vertical stripes representing the original states.
The penny has earned the unwanted distinction as the coin that just won't die, like the Jason Voorhees of currency. Anti-penny group Citizens for Retiring the Penny argues that the penny is nothing more than a waste of time and money, pointing out that it costs more to make the coin than it's worth. Although, despite its loss in prestige, four out of five Americans will still pick a penny up off the ground.
Full story at MSN Money.
Cha ching! A ton of finance news.
Selling Beads - Kate
Top 10 things you should not share on social networks
Just like in real life, there's such a thing as sharing too much information (TMI) on the Web. It's easy to get caught up in the social aspects of sites like Facebook, but what you choose to share is there for all to see if you don't limit who can view your information.
The Pew Research Center found that found that 40 percent of social network users have open access to their profiles, allowing anyone to view their information. And with 35% of adults on the internet having at least one social network profile, that's a lot of open information on the Web! Sharing personal information with strangers can be dangerous business, and there are some things you should definitely put on your "do not share" list. HowStuffWorks.com goes over 10 of those items in this article.
- Social Plans: As silly as it may seem, burglars and thieves used the old "call and see if no one is home" and "check and see if the lights are on" trick for years before breaking into a house. Broadcasting that you're on vacation for a week with an open profile (containing too much personal information) could be an invitation for similar methods of breaking and entering.
- Linking Sites: You may post something you find innocuous on Facebook, but then it's linked to your LinkedIn work profile and you've put your job at risk. If you link your various profiles together, be aware that what you post in one world is available to the others.
- Personal Finance Information: You would think that nobody would share things like where they do their banking or what their stock portfolio looks like, but it happens. Consider this scenario: You're posting to a long thread on a friend's wall about the bank crisis. You say something along the lines of, "We don't need to worry because we bank with a teacher's credit union." If you're one the 40 percent who allow open access to your profile, then suddenly identity thieves know where you bank and where you have the bulk of your investments.
Full list at HowStuffWorks.com.
Total aggregation of HowStuffWorks.com.
Photo credit: Fotolia
How to change things awesome offer
This could be the best $20 you've spent in a long, long time. The deal is that if you donate $20 to Teach for America, you'll get a free copy of Dan and Chip Heath's new book, Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard.
I've read Switch. Trust me, you'll find it very useful. This is a total win-win deal.
Learn more about this special offer.
More on marketing.
Does stress really make your hair go gray faster?
Relax! We've all been told to take a deep breath on occasion when things got too stressful. Everyone know stressing out does no good for you, either mentally or physically. Too much stress has been linked to a variety of health problems including heart disease, headaches, stomach problems, and sleep disorders, just to name a few.
But can stress turn hair gray faster, as an old wives' tale would have you believe? When Marie Antoinette showed up for her date with the guillotine with gray hair, it was believed that her hair color changed overnight as she stressed about her fate. When you uncover the science of it, does this old wives' tale hold truth?
Full story at HowStuffWorks.com.
Total aggregation of HowStuffWorks.com.
Photo credit: Fotolia
State of the Internet
Cool stats about the state of the Internet.
Embedded media -- click here to see it.
JESS3 / The State of The Internet from Jesse Thomas on Vimeo.
More coverage of tech news.
Lady Gaga scarecrow
A British wheat farmer hopes to make his crops "Just Dance" with the help of a scarecrow designed after Lady Gaga. Nigel Britten was so inspired by the quirky outfit the pop star wore to the Brit Awards that he recreated the look on a 7ft tall hay doll. Scarecrow face, scarecrow face, you can't be my scarecrow face.
Full story at Newslite.
How will 4G networks change business?
Today's cell phones are generally great at what they were originally intended to do -- make calls, send text messages, that sort of thing. But with an ever-growing amount of Internet-related activity taking place on modern mobile phones, the current networks can't keep up.
Fourth generation, or 4G, networks promise increased bandwidth and throughput capabilities -- meaning faster, more reliable service for your smartphone. But how could 4G change your business?
Full list at HowStuffWorks.com.
Total aggregation of HowStuffWorks.com.
Photo credit: Fotolia
Overheard stupidity: Sales meeting edition
Even the slickest salesperson can ruin a perfect pitch with a blush-worthy foot-in-mouth moment. Catalyst:SF Senior Partner Jim Nichols surveyed his buyers and sellers pals to track down the fourteen most idiotic things ever uttered in a sales meeting. Check out a few of the d'oh gems:
- From a Buyer: "Spelling my name wrong on slide one. It's Smith."
- From a Buyer: "The all male ad agency team telling my female marketing team that they understood tampons better than us."
- From a Seller: "A seller said, 'What's your title? We usually present to someone higher up than you."
Full list at Venture Beat.
Learn some sales tips that won't make you look like an idiot.
Photo credit: Fotolia
10 meals that are proven to make you happier
No matter our differences, one common denominator brings us all together: food. We need it in order to survive and thrive. In fact, a good meal impacts our overall moods as well as our bodies.
Science has proven that some foods can actually improve our moods. So-called "happy foods" affect us physiologically because they contain higher levels of vitamins and minerals that impact the production and release of serotonin, the neurotransmitter scientists believe is largely responsible for fostering feelings of happiness. On the other hand, comfort foods have a psychological benefit. Would you choose these so-called happy foods over rich, bad-for-you comfort foods? You don't have to. HowStuffWorks.com replaced the naughty with nice in these favorites for you.
- Salmon and Brown Rice: Although most of us wouldn't consider salmon a comfort food, it's certainly one of the most nutritionally beneficial foods available. Multiple studies have linked depression to imbalances in omega-3 fatty acids, found abundantly in fish. So, by that logic, more fish= more omega-3 fatty acids= more happy.
- Spaghetti and Lean Meatballs: There are many benefits of whole-wheat pasta: It's high in folic acid and helps increase serotonin levels. Ambitious chefs don't have to let the nutritional gains end there, however. Meatballs or sauce made with lean beef are great sources of protein, selenium and B6, the vitamin that facilitates serotonin production.
- Sweet Potato Souffle: Complex carbohydrates, such as sweet potatoes, are packed full of energy and mood-boosting vitamins and minerals. Although many dieters malign carbs of all shapes and sizes, low-carbohydrate diets have been linked with a reduced desire to exercise and increased fatigue in overweight adults. So c'mon, treat yourself to something sweet, and let it be a vitamin-packed, serotonin-boosting sweet potato.
Full list at HowStuffWorks.com.
Total aggregation of HowStuffWorks.com.
Photo credit: Fotolia
The Elephant in the Room
Girl Scout Cookie recalled
Back away from the Girl Scout cookies. Little Brownies Baker, the manufacturer of Lemon Chalete Cremes Cookies, has announced the recall of the lemony cookies because of complaints about an odd smell and taste in some of the batches. Pfft, as if you needed another reason to stop stuffing your face with delicious goodness of cookies.
The Kentucky-based company said testing has found no evidence of bacteria in the cookies, but say they are just "not up to our quality standards."
Phew—thank goodness for no contaminated Thin Mints!
Full story at Huffington Post.
Bake your own delicious cookies.
Top 5 tips for preventing underarm odor
Some scientists believe that long ago, underarm odor helped attract humans to their mates. But it's obvious that for most of us, any such attraction has vanished from our culture. In fact, underarm odor is such a turn-off that a large amusement park in Surrey, England, recently banned customers from raising their arms when riding scary roller coasters during hot weather.
Underarm odor isn't pleasant for anyone -- not for the poor sweaty sap experiencing it, or his neighbors. Luckily for everyone, effective remedies abound. For five ways that work -- and to sweeten the smell of your armpits -- read on.
- Remember That Cleanliness Counts: In generally healthy people, it's not the underarm sweat itself that stinks. The culprits are the bacteria that feed on the sweat that's manufactured by the specialized apocrine sweat glands. Showers or baths are crucial to the destruction of these bacteria -- maybe more than once a day when the weather is hot or you're especially active.
- Take a Look at Your Medicine Cabinet: Home remedies that are likely to be in your medicine cabinet can be effective in fighting underarm odor. Some people swear by them. Witch hazel has astringent properties that make it an effective odor fighter. It contracts tissues, thus helping to reduce the production of sweat.
Full list at HowStuffWorks.com.
Total aggregation of HowStuffWorks.com.
Photo credit: Fotolia
Thanks to the folks at emergen-c for a case of goodies!
Avatar + Pocahontas: The trailer [video]
A clever person with a few editing skills has created a mash-up of Disney's Pocahontas trailer set to the audio of James Cameron's epic 3D flick Avatar. So, can we definitively say that Avatar is just Pocahontas with blue people?
Embedded media -- click here to see it.
Word has it the plot of Cameron's next project revolves around a pale chick and her seven little buddies.Full story at BuzzFeed.
Tons of movie news.
10 important social media metrics
Many of us know that social media metrics are important—but what's less clear for folks is what social media metrics are important. While each business must associate their metrics with their specific goals, Social Times lists 10 great metrics that could be crucial. For instance:
Bounce rate. Are visitors coming to your site from SM sites but quickly leaving? Maybe your landing page needs better, more relevant copy. Maybe the information they're seeking isn't easily found.
Virality. Social members might be sharing Twitter tweets and Facebook updates relevant to your company, but is this info being reshared by their networks? How soon afterwards are they resharing? How many FoaFs (Friends of Friends) are resharing your links and content?
Engagement duration. For some companies, engagement duration is more important than page views. For example, if you have a Facebook application, how much time are social network members spending using it? Is per-member usage increasing over time? Alternately, if people visit your your company websites from SM (Social Media) sites, how long are they spending? (Also consider tracking which pages they visit.)
Read all 10 metrics at Social Times.
More on social media.
Photo credit: Fotolia
Strategies to lower your bounce rate
Are your first-time visitors bouncing like super balls? Mallary Jean Tenore from E-Media Tidbits shares some great advice on how to lower your bounce rate. For instance:
- Collect data about what people are looking at on your site and show them more content like it.
- Use the search terms that bring people to your site to mine for additional relevant content.
- Linking within stories to your own related content.
Read all the strategies at PoynterOnline.
Browse more great advice from Poynter in one easy-to-read page.
Photo credit: Fotolia
Thanks to friends at GrandePlaine.com for sending stunning shirts! #schwag
Thanks to friends at GrandePlaine.com for sending stunning shirts! #schwag
Beating creative blocks
What's another word for creative block? If you can't think of one at the moment, ISO50 interviews a whole group of recognized creatives to determine their strategies to get their juices flowing again. For instance here's what Khoi Vihn (shown above), the design director of the NYTimes.com shares:
Lots of reading and lots of sketching. The reading part is a long-term strategy: constantly consuming ideas, influences, details, angles, metaphors, symbols, etc. and storing them in the back of your brain so that later on—sometimes much later on—you have a rich catalog of starting points to draw upon. The sketching is a way to activate all of that background information when faced with a problem in the present: the act of drawing, of giving visual expression to many different ideas in short order helps you sort through all of those random elements and to make unexpected connections between them. The key is to sketch quickly, without getting caught up in the execution or technique, that way you stay in the realm of content, without getting bogged down in form.
Read the full story at ISO50.
More on creative pursuits like design.
Steve Jobs's sneakiest statements
Ever the one for words, Steve Jobs has certainly said some crafty things over the years. Wired.com pulls together six of the sneakiest. Recognize these, for instance?
No Movies on a Tiny Little Screen
No Plans to Make a Tablet
Not Interested in the Cellphone Business
Read the rest of the sneaky statements and their explanations at Wired.com.
Ten questions about the Bloom Energy Server (home fuel cell)
MSNBC has a ten-question Q and A analysis of the Bloom Energy Saver. This is the mythical fuel cell: $3,000 for a home version, size of a brick, and available in under ten years. I can hardly wait. I'd buy one in a second. Heck, I'd buy two and carry one around to keep my iPhone charged.
Full story at MSNBC.
More on green technology.
Cheers! 5 affordable sparkling wines
Epicurious has done the picking for us and chosen its top five affordable sparkling wines, ranging from $11 to $30. For $19, for instance, you can get Lucien Albrecht Crémant d'Alsace Brut Rosé NV, Alsace, France, which the article describes as "packed with rich strawberries-and-cream flavors, along with an earthy richness and a fine citrus finish."
Read the full story at Epicurious.
More on wine.
Photo credit: Fotolia
