I will have to admit that when Google Chrome came out, I was really impressed by its features and looks. It was a refreshing respite from both Firefox and IE7 that I was both using then. I was enjoyed using Google Chrome at first but noticed after awhile that it starting to run slow. Even when Google put it out of beta, Chrome’s speed was not commendable. But finally, Google probably heard users’ complaints and so they decided to release a new Google Chrome and put the browser back to beta mode. [Read more…] about Google Releases a Faster Chrome in Beta
News Aggregator Alltop Launches a Personalized MyAlltop Page
Anybody here using Alltop? Frankly, I used this before during its intiial launch but stopped using it since it practically mimics what Techmeme is doing. Although Alltop has a broader coverage topic-wise, I still find Techmeme enough for my daily dose of Technews. But since, Alltop has just announced a new personalization feature, I decided to re-visit the site again to check out MyAlltop. [Read more…] about News Aggregator Alltop Launches a Personalized MyAlltop Page
More People Are Using their Mobile Phones To Check Daily News
If newspapers that are planning to put their operations online rather than closing them down would take note of a new comScore report, it would tell them how to perhaps drive more readers to their publication. According to a comScore report released today, the number of people using their mobile phones to access news has more than double from January 2008 to January of this year.
Of the 63.2 million people who used their mobile phones to access news and information in January 2009, 35% or 22.4 million of them have done it on a daily basis. This is twice the number of people who did the same thing in 2009.
Aside from accessing news, the report also revealed that these people use their mobile phones to do their social networking activities, financial-related transactions, accessed business directories and entertainment news.
All these point out to one thing – that mobile phone usage is becoming part of people’s daily lives. Not only are mobile phones now being used only for calling or texting but also for other online activities.
And like I said, newspaper publishers must take note of this fact. Redirecting their publications online while stopping the printed media can be more successful if they will make their publications more mobile phone-friendly, regardless of mobile platform.
A good example of this is the way websites are optimizing for the iPhone. There are more and more iPhone optimized websites being created since the iPhone came out. These iPhone optimized websites tailor fit the design, usability and navigation of their sites on the iPhone’s display capability. Hence, providing users with an almost exact replica of the website on the iPhone.
New York Times Feels the Effect of the Economic Crisis
Among the top online news dailies I really like New York Times for one simple reason – it’s free. While others offer the online editions of their newspapers on a subscription basis which is tied up to print subscriptions, the New York Times managed to provide free source of relevant news. But this might start to change, as Bloomberg reports that NYT is seriously revisiting the charging fees of some its content. [Read more…] about New York Times Feels the Effect of the Economic Crisis
Facebook Becomes More Like Twitter Now
By now, you have probably read that Facebook is gradually rolling out its new home page. If you haven’t check out, the different features of the new home page are here, and here. While I may have discussed the different features of the new home page in those articles, I would like to focus more on the news feed feature in this post.
Like I said, the new Facebook News Feed feature which sits on the middle column of the new Facebook home page is now more like Twitter. If you have the new home page already activated on your Facebook account, you’d notice that this News Feeds contains stream of content coming from your friends, and other connections including updates from fan pages and groups which you’ve subscribed to before.
The News Feeds updates in real-time and lets you add comments and participate in conversation with the people who created the contents. Of course, if you’re a Twitter user, you’d know that this is similar to your Twitter public timeline.
What’s nice about this News Feed is the fact that you can filter the contents that you want displayed on your home page. These filters are listed on the left side of your Facebook home page. It lets you filter contents to photos, links, video, and more. You can also immediately hide/unhide updates from your specific Facebook friends. This is particularly useful if you have a Facebook friend who is fond of updating his/her status every single second. Don’t get me wrong if you’re in my Facebook contact and you do this, but sometimes it gets annoying to read those non-sense updates, especially if they become too often.
Like I said in my two other posts, I really like this new Facebook home page. It would be interesting to find out if Twitter users would use the Facebook News Feed as an alternative to their Twittering habits.
Would this affect Twitter’s popularity and usage? Feel free to tell us what you think by leaving a comment below.
Gmail Gains More Visitors than YouTube
Although the difference in their page views is very minimal, it’s still interesting to note that Gmail has overtaken YouTube the past two weeks. This was according to some data released by Hitwise. [Read more…] about Gmail Gains More Visitors than YouTube
