The stats depicting the depreciation of Facebook use among teens are really surprising. Ebersman, the much worried CFO of the social media giant admitted that they have “seen a decrease in the usage of Facebook, especially among the teenagers”. He was referring to the recent surveys done for the Facebook hits around the world for the period of second to third quarters of 2013.

Facebook’s anguish is testified by GlobalWebIndex, a leading market survey conducting company. They surveyed the use of Facebook in more than 30 countries and found that Facebook activity graph has depleted by 56% in the third quarter of 2013 which was 76% in the first quarter of the same year. This is really alarming because the rate of decline is swift and exponential.

After reading the above stats, you must be wondering where in the world teens are going. No they are not into studies, they are not paying attention to outdoor games nor healthy activities rather some other social media perks are keeping them busy. GlobalWebIndex was generous enough to issue a great self-explanatory info-graphic which depicts which social media apps are grasping the teenagers attention. Have a look.

The preponderating bar you see at the top is for the “We Chat” mobile service, an app by Chinese which has a dramatic growth of 1,021% among the teens of 16 to 19 years of age. Vine, Twitter’s social media app for video sharing is hitting the second slot. Flickr by all means is surprising me because there is not much in this for teens except for photo sharing but somehow it’s rated third in the chart having a growth rate of 254%.

Mark Zuckerberg’s workplace must be yowling around on these stats. Les hope Facebook comes up with something much spiced up to keep the teens active on Facebook apart from boring likes and hitting the share buttons.

“Each airline will determine how and when this will happen,” FAA administrator Michael Huerta told reporters Thursday morning at Reagan Washington National Airport.

You still can not chit chat on your cell phone, but this is an awesome victory for passengers!

It is believed that the FBI and the NSA are directly responsible for illegally collecting millions of pieces of information from web based companies like Goggle, Skype, and YouTube. This includes data such as pictures, voice or video chats, emails, and even Facebook status updates.

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook and all of the other alleged businesses claim that they have never participated in any government based programs. Furthermore, the United States government is never surrendered any personal information unless it is deemed necessary by law.

In a rebuttal released by Zuckerberg in defense of Facebook, he strongly denied any cooperation with PRISM or other government based programs. To continue, Zuckerberg does state that there are times when the government does request data. In order for the government to be given any data, it must be within accordance to all legal protocol.

To continue, in his press release, Suckerberg ( I am sorry, Zuckerberg) even goes as far as reprimanding the United States government. Recommending that the next time that the NSA or the FBI decides they want to have a program that collects personal data that they should just be more “transparent” about any attempts to protect public safety and the free will of citizens everywhere.

Thus far, as of Friday, Facebook has been the first of any of the blamed companies to release a statement to claim their innocence. The bright,young CEO said he had never even heard of the governmental program called PRISM in his entire career.

Jason Johnston caught a 1,323 lb. mako shark off of Huntington Beach in Southern California this Monday, making it the biggest capture of a mako shark since a 1,221-lb. mako was caught in Chatham, Massachusetts in 2001. Johnston caught the shark after a reported two and a half hour battle with the gargantuan animal. Southern California is known to be a common nursing ground for mako sharks but usually the sharks caught in the area are smaller in size. The International Game Fish Association has only 23 records on hand for sharks 1,300 lbs. or larger. It is very rare to catch any fish that weighs in over 1,000 lbs.

The shark is on ice and will eventually go to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association so that they can conduct research. However, many are disappointed and dismayed that the shark was not released back into the ocean but instead kept and killed as a sort of trophy. Johnston was fishing with two pals about fifteen miles off the shore. The shortfin shark they have caught may be the largest shark catch ever made for a mako. The largest catch on a shark currently stands at a 2,664-lb. Great White shark that was caught off the Australian coast back in 1959.

The mako shark stands at eleven feet in length and eight feet wide. The three were on a chartered fishing boat called the Breakaway. Despite criticism of the catch, passengers are allowed by law to catch two mako a day per person. The skipper of Breakaway, Matt Porter, made clear that the boat had been out for three days with 18 passengers, and only kept one mako shark. The catch was filmed for a reality show on Outdoor Channel called “Jim Shockey’s The Professionals”. Critics are using the catch to voice concern for overfishing of sharks, currently a major issue.

Stand Up to Cancer’s Steaming Video

Image via Look to the Stars

Stand Up to Cancer, a non-profit that raises money for cancer research and education with the help of stand up comedians, took a different approach to the typical telethon in 2012. The organization aired its fundraising telethon on the four big network TV broadcasters, but it also streamed the show on Hulu.

Hulu also had extra content, such as celebrity interviews and backstage chats that drove more people online to see what they were missing from the basic TV broadcast.

PETA Gets Savvy With Facebook

Image via CNBC

PETA saves animals with ad campaigns that get a lot of positive and negative attention. In recent years, though, the non-profit has become one of the savviest social media users in the world. In 2010 PETA showed that it could think way outside the box. Donna Karan New York (DKNY) had recently announced that it would start selling clothes made of real animal fur. PETA responded to this announcement with an inventive Facebook message on DKNY’s page.

By using several accounts, PETA was able to post a vertical message. The first letter of each message spelled out the phrase “DK BUNNY BUTCHER.” It took DKNY some time to realize that it had been outsmarted, and PETA earned an even bigger reputation for spreading its message in creative ways.

Diabetes Hands Foundation Raises Awareness With Twitter

Image via Lil’ Dean Fam

The Diabetes Hands Foundation, a non-profit organization sponsored by Roche Diabetes Care, has an annual campaign that raises awareness to promote healthy lifestyle choices. The campaign also raises money for people who cannot afford diabetes supplies, such as blood glucose monitors.

On 2012 the organization launched the Big Blue Test campaign. This campaign encourages people to test their blood sugar, take a picture of their readings, and post the images on Twitter or Instagram. The participants then exercised for 14 to 20 minutes, took new pictures, and posted those images to show the positive impact that exercise has on one’s blood sugar count.

Malaria No More Gets Malarious

Image via BizTechAfrica

People in the developed world rarely think about malaria because it the disease has essentially been eradicated from their areas. Some parts of Africa, however, still struggle to meet the health care needs of people facing this disease.

How do you get people in the United States to think about a disease they’ll never see? Malaria No More decided to make highly viral content with its Malarious campaign. Malarious features entertainers such as Rainn Wilson, Penn & Teller, and Aubrey Plaza doing some pretty hilarious things. Penn & Teller, for instance, have a video about snorting beans. With this kind of content, Malaria No More’s message spreads quickly through Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms.

Practically all organizations have to use social media in today’s highly competitive non-profit environment. What cool ideas have your favorite organizations used?

These are some of the reasons why:

Sheriff Joe Arpaio created the “tent city jail” to save Arizona from spending tens of millions of dollars on another expensive prison complex.Inmates sleep in tents!

He has jail meals down to 20 cents a serving and charges the inmates for them.

He banned smoking and pornographic magazines in the jails, and took away their weightlifting equipment and cut off all but “G” movies. He says: “They’re in jail to pay a debt to society not to build muscles so they can assault innocent people when they leave.”

He started chain gangs to use the inmates to do free work on county and city projects and save taxpayer’s money. Men work in Pink “Clean and Sober” Shirts. Their underwear is also Pink!

Then he started chain gangs for women so he wouldn’t get sued for discrimination.

He took away cable TV until he found out there was a federal court order that required cable TV for jails. So he hooked up the cable TV again but only allows the Disney channel and the weather channel.

When asked why the weather channel, he replied: “So these morons will know how hot it’s gonna be while they are working on my chain gangs.”

He cut off coffee because it has zero nutritional value and is therefore a waste of taxpayer money. When the inmates complained, he told them, “This isn’t the Ritz/Carlton. If you don’t like it, don’t come back.”

He also bought the Newt Gingrich lecture series on US history that he pipes into the jails. When asked by a reporter if he had any lecture series by a Democrat, he replied that a democratic lecture series that actually tells the truth for a change would be welcome and that it might even explain why 95% of the inmates were in his jails in the first place.

With temperatures being even hotter than usual in Phoenix (116 degrees just set a new record for June 2nd 2009), the Associated Press reported: About 2,000 inmates living in a barbed wire surrounded tent encampment at the Maricopa County Jail have been given permission to strip down to their government-issued pink boxer shorts.

On the Wednesday, hundreds of men wearing pink boxer shorts were overheard chatting in the tents, where temperatures reached 128 degrees.”This is hell. It feels like we live in a furnace,” said Ernesto Gonzales, an inmate for 2 years with 10 more to go. “It’s inhumane.”

Joe Arpaio, who makes his prisoners wear pink, and eat bologna sandwiches, is not one bit sympathetic. “Criminals should be punished for their crimes – not live in luxury until it’s time for parole, only to go out and commit more crimes so they can come back in to live on taxpayers money and enjoy things many taxpayers can’t afford to have for themselves.”

The same day he told all the inmates who were complaining of the heat in the tents: “It’s between 120 to 130 degrees in Iraq and our soldiers are living in tents there too, and they have to walk all day in that sun, wearing full battle gear and getting shot at, and THEY have not committed any crimes, so shut your damned mouths!”

Sheriff Joe was just re-elected for the fourteenth time as Sheriff in Maricopa County, Arizona.

That doesn’t sound shady, right?

Apparently the 26-year-old failing actress is faced with the problem of owing rent for a storage locker – a debt now totaling somewhere around $16k – which the strip club gladly wants to pay. If Lohan doesn’t pay the bill, the storage company will auction off the locker’s contents sometime in December. The locker is thought to contain personal items, clothing, and family heirlooms.

A strip club offering $16k to Lohan is only a small chunk of her actual debts: Lohan owes around $233,904 to the IRS for 2009 and 2010 taxes. But it’s hard for Lohan to pay those back since the IRS has since frozen her bank accounts, and rumors says she’s begging friends and family members for help.

Charlie Sheen has already offered to pay $100,000 of those taxes, though no one knows what Sheen expects in return, if anything. When asked about paying her debt, Sheen said, “She got shorted and I found out, so I said, ‘Here.’ I’m still waiting for a text to say thank you. Or anything, you know?”

Lohan also owes another $8,000 in rent for her Beverly Hills mansion. This is in addition to misdemeanor charges in both New York and Los Angeles from an auto accident in November and an assault charge in June, respectively. Both could lead to jail time if she’s convicted since she was on probation when both incidents happened.

Honestly, this train wreck continues getting worse, and one can only wonder where it’ll end. Will Lohan get it together, or will she crash and burn?

So what if they have my email and password?

What do hackers do with millions of email addresses other than the potential embarrassment to these users?  The hackers can use these emails and passwords to try and access more sensitive accounts like Facebook, PayPal, etc…  Recently someone got a hold of my Gmail account, and let me tell you, it wasn’t pretty what they did.  I learned a valuable lesson: If you use one password across the web, a hacker can access almost anything.  For example:  if you use your “myname@gmail.com” account and password “1234” in your gmail, facebook, some random site, another random site, anther site you forgot about, then all it takes is for a hacker to gain access to one of those sites to get into all of your accounts.  They can even reset passwords so you can’t access accounts.  Soon I’ll explain how I got hacked and you’ll understand better!

In it, Imbach utters a series of seemingly preposterous statements referencing social media and information technology, all of which we’ve either heard spoken before or sadly said ourselves.

Gems include:

“It’s like Pandora for cats.”

“I don’t really think you can call it a platform yet…”

“I don’t really get Tumblr.”

“I met him at LeWeb. I met him at Burning Man. Wait, no, I met him at Davos. Was it Davos, or LeWeb? I get those two confused. Or maybe it was the Lobby. I don’t know. There was a beach.”

“I already reblogged that. I reblogged it AND RTed it. I RTed it, reblogged it, and checked into it.”

“This app is so elegant.”

“I saw it on TechCrunch”

“Who throws a party in Palo Alto?”

As of late Friday evening, “S#%t Silicon Valley Says” was up to one million views after only two days of being posted.

Anyone in the market for massive sprawling estate right on the coast in Malibu?  Better yet, what about the fact that Brad Pitt is the owner of this Malibu beach house?

That’s right folks, this can all be yours for a cool $13.75 million, and my guess is that the price is negotiable since Brad Pitt bought the estate for only $8.4 million back in 2005 just after splitting up with former wife Jennifer Aniston.

The list price and availability is confirmed on Realtor.com where you can also view more pics of the Brad Pitts beach house.

Here’s the sales pitch for Brad Pitt’s beach house from Yahoo.com:

Situated stunningly between the Pacific Ocean and the Point Mugu State Park, the gated mid-century modern home features four bedrooms and four bathrooms and 4,088 square feet of space — plus a modern stainless kitchen with top-line appliances, bamboo flooring, walls of glass overlooking the ocean, a private cove on the beach, three fireplaces, a tennis court and a state-of-the-art security system.

Are you ready to write up a contract?

If so, maybe you can remember where you first heard of the new listing and slip me a little bit of a kick back… what’cha think?

Why is Brad Pitt selling his beach house?

I can’t say for sure why Brad Pitt is looking to sell his Malibu beach house other than he wants to put the Jennifer Aniston years behind him completely.  Of the other reason could be that him and his wife Angelina Jolie have their own home, a newly renovated estate in Chateau Miraval in Correns, France.

Or who knows, maybe he just has a real estate agent who talked him into listing the home and Brad Pitt could really care less one way or another.  My guess is this scenario is probably more realistic.

What do you think?

The Verizon Motorola Droid Bionic has been long anticipated.  And when I say long, I mean that more in a fast moving, smartphone world sense where long is like six months ago since the Droid Bionic was first introduced at CES.

Within just a few months, the Droid Bionic was delayed in order to make changes and incorporate improvements based on customer feedback.

But now it seems the Droid Bionic is back on the burner and this time it may be ready to release.  According to BGR, the Motorola Droid Bionic, Verizon’s next 4G LTE flagship phone, could be here by September 8th and sell for $299.99.

Verizon Motorola Droid Bionic specs:

• Verizon 4G LTE speed
• 4.5 inch screen
• qHD display
• 8 megapixel camera
• 1080 HD video
• front facing camera for video chat
• HDMI-out port

Ok, first of all I never realized that the official Facebook fan page has over 50 million fans.  Wow… that sort of caught me off guard (not sure why…).

Facebook announced they will be starting to group stories and updates in your news feed together by topic.  Facebook’s objective is to show you the most relevant and interesting information, and this test is designed to show you trends among what your friends are saying.

And as is the case with most every other Facebook update, the people who are most unhappy about the changes are the first ones to pipe up.  Here’s some of the initial reactions to Facebook grouping status updates:

—————

end it! It sucks

I think these news feeds that are grouped together are really annoying. I like it better the other way.

Hate it!

rubish, hate it.

Ridiculous…the adjustments made recently are confusing enough without more pointless changes being made. Whatever happened to the “simple” facebook -_-

Is this why I get posts all mixed up times ways ? I prefer them posted in the order they arrive !

so far, I am unimpressed

Bring back the old chat. Today only active online chatters are being displayed. Not showing anyone who is online and not using chat. WTF? Fix it!!!!!

This fails because language is too contextual & ambiguous. If I post about my hispanic friend Jesus, that post should not be grouped with another person’s post about their god, Jesus.

Last month, Facebook announced a partnership with Skype that brings video calling and video chat to the Facebook chat platform.

The web went nuts on the day the announcement was made, and people were instantly searching for “how to’s” on launching the new video chat feature on Facebook.

However, since the launch, one of the biggest questions users have is this:

Can I make multiple video calls at once or make group calls?

It’s actually interesting, because this question is now the #1 question in Facebook’s Top Questions list.

Anyway, the answer to the question of whether you or not you can make multiple video calls or make group calls is, for the time being, no.

However, it wouldn’t surprise me if we see Facebook video chat platform advance very quickly to support multiple video calling and group calling via Skype.

Now, if you’re anything like me – when you’re on the move and you have a few moment’s spare I often find myself going into the Facebook application on my Blackberry and checking out my Facebook feeds.

With the current Facebook application one thing that I can’t do so easily is engage and chat with my friends on the move – the Facebook Blackberry application simply isn’t designed for it.
And that’s what Chit Chat for Facebook (Blackberry) is excellent at – allowing you to communicate with your Facebook friends on the move.

Blackberry Facebook App’s User Interface

The first thing you’ll notice about Chit Chat for Facebook (Blackberry) is its colourful, almost completely colour coded interface design – visually Chit Chat is very appealing.

In terms of chat experience, Chit Chat deviates from the norm – and in my opinion, that’s a good thing particularly because you’re likely to have a lot of buddies when using your Blackberry on Facebook Chat.

Uniquely sporting three “tabs” for your contacts – one for your ‘buddy list’, the second for your ‘active conversation’ list and the third for your unread message. Whilst different from what you’d normally expect from a chat application, you’ll find yourself at home with this interface design fairly quickly since you’ll notice how effective it is when chatting with your friends.

Searching for friends really has been made super easy in this application, even for those of us with large buddy lists. Firstly, since offline Facebook friends are not shown by default you’ll only see your friends whom are online (you can show offline friends if you choose in preferences), secondly  your Facebook friends can be sorted by last logged in or alphabetically and thirdly, friends can be filtered on each list by entering keys.

Furthermore, you can quickly scroll your contacts by using shortcut keys such as the space bar (scroll by 10) and Alt + scroll quickly scrolls your buddy list to the top or bottom. Your spoilt for choice in ways to manage your buddy list, personally, I prefer the filter.

If you’ve ever used other chat applications on your Blackberry, I’m sure that you’ll consider this buddy list management style to be an improvement to what you’re used to.

Chatting with Chit Chat for Facebook (Blackberry)

When first starting a conversation with someone on Chit Chat (Blackberry) the first thing that you’ll notice is a nice deep blue gradient,  and where messages that are sent and received are shown in bubbles. In short, it looks great.

For those of you with an artistic disposition, you’ll be pleased to hear that that the conversation window can be customised to be shown in your favourite colour. That said, if you’re somewhat lazy – like me, the defaults are great. But if pink is your thing with green large text – you’re covered.  Users with sight impairments may find this particularly useful.

As you would expect from a Blackberry application designed for chat and communication, Chit Chat is very good at letting you know when a message has been received.  Although, I would have liked to have seen inbox integration.

The default setting for letting you know when a message is received is to vibrate, provide an audio notification and flash the light – kinetic, audio and visual notifications! Overkill?  Moreover, if you’re actually using the app at that given moment that a message is received the application will let you know that a friend is typing to you.

Exiting the conversation window and returning to the buddy list, will embolden the contact that sent you a message, although it’ll also appear on your unread message list. In case you forget you’ve received a message, a flashing icon at the top of the instant message screen will show you messages unread from other friends. In summary, the app is very good at enabling you to handle many Facebook chat conversations at once.

Personally, however, I found the notifications a bit much and turned off the vibrate notification in “preferences.” On the subject of customisation, you’ll find that Chit Chat (Blackberry) can be customized in more ways than a Swiss Army pen knife – it lacks many of those restrictions that you find in other Blackberry apps.

In summary, why would you want Chit Chat (Blackberry)? If you’re an active Facebook user get you’re self a copy of Chit Chat for Facebook (Blackberry) – it’s pretty damn good. It’s available at Mobihand for $1.99 and is compatible with the following Blackberry curve/bold devises:

9780, 9700, 9650, 9520, 9550, 9530, 9500, 9000, 8530, 8520, 8900, 8800, 8820, 8330, 8320, 8330, 8320, 8220, 8100, 8110, 8120 аnԁ the 8130.

Verizon is aggressively expanding their 4G LTE coverage across the United States.  Obviously, Verizon (nor AT&T for that matter) are going to sit back and let Sprint dominate the 4G mobile internet market.  Having faster internet connectivity means more data will be consumed via mobile devices faster.  The more data being consumed, the more money mobile phone carriers can make.  Especially since mobile phone carriers are going away from the unlimited data models – the days of all you can eat data are becoming a thing of the past.

So with the economies of scale leaning toward limited data, and data packages based on how much data you consume, expanding a faster mobile internet makes sense for Verizon and all other mobile phone carriers.

Below is a list of new cities and airports that Verizon just brought online with 4G LTE.  You can see a complete list of Verizon 4G LTE cities here (and I’ve updated it with these new listings already)

New Verizon 4G LTE cities:

•  Decatur, AL
•  Huntsville, AL
• Phoenix, AZ
• Los Angeles, CA
• San Diego, CA
• Colorado Springs, CO
• Bradenton, FL
• Lakeland, FL
• Sarasota, FL
• Augusta, GA
• Hilo, HI
• Honolulu, HI
• Kahului, Lahaina, Wailuku & Kihei, HI
• Carbondale, IL
• Wichita, KS
• Louisville, KY
• Baton Rouge, LA
• Springfield, MA
• Northern New Jersey, NJ
• Las Vegas, NV
• Durham, NC
• Greensboro, NC
• High Point, NC
• Winston-Salem, NC
• Toledo, OH
• Tulsa, OK
• Scranton-Wilkes-Barre, PA
• Charleston, SC
• Chattanooga, TN
• Knoxville, TN
• Dallas, TX
• Ft. Worth, TX
• San Antonio, TX
• Olympia, WA
• Seattle, WA
• Tacoma, WA
• Charleston, WV

*BOLD* = EXPANDING COVERAGE IN EXISTING MARKET

New Verizon 4G LTE Airports:

• Charleston, WV – (CRW) Yeager
• Toledo, OH – (TOL) Toledo Express
• Milwaukee, WI – (MKE) General Mitchell International
• Rochester, NY – (ROC) Greater Rochester International
• Wichita, KS – (ICT) Wichita Mid-Continent
• Greensboro, NC – (GSO) Piedmont Triad International
• Greer, SC – (GSP) Greenville-Spartanburg International
• Sarasota/Bradenton, FL – (SRQ) Sarasota/Bradenton International
• Colorado Springs, CO – (COS) City of Colorado Springs Municipal
• Hilo, HI – (ITO) Hilo International
• Kahului, HI – (OGG) Kahului

Articles and topics that I never thought would gain too much traffic could end up gaining massive popularity with literally thousands of visitors a week visiting them.

Articles ranging from Justin Bieber to Apple’s iPhone 5 gain massive momentum sometimes, and it’s always humorous to me, mainly because of how different the topics are in nature.

Below is a list of the top 10 articles here at SMSEO, and some of these articles that have made it to the top 10 might just surprise you:

#10 – PlentyOfFish.com login problems  (view article here)

Plentyoffish.com is one of the world’s most popular dating websites where it free for people to join and for people to add a profile.  However, it doesn’t always want to work for some people.  So when someone goes to login and the doesn’t work, people search for “plentyoffish.com login problems”.  This one simple search phrase brings this article in at #10.

#9 – SocialMediaSEO.net (view here)

Then 9th most popular article here at SMSEO this week is none other than the homepage of my blog.  Now why exactly, I’m not sure.  But a wide range of keyword phrases bring in quite a bit of traffic – which is interesting in itself.

#8 – 2 Ways to Remove Scroll Bars From Your Facebook Page iFrame Apps (view here)

This is a great article because it shows developers how to remove that pesky little scroll bar from Facebook Fan Page iFrame apps.  It’s simple really, in most cases, and people are relieved to find a simple solution to the problem.

#7 – Justin Bieber Kissing A Boy (view here)

This is a “celebrity gossip” article – of which, I don’t really write too much of.  But ocassionally, for some unknown reason, I will write a gossip column.  This was a rumor that Justin Bieber actually kissed a boy.  I knew the rumor was ridiculous, but I went ahead and wrote the article anyway.  Lot’s of people are now searching for information on this, and the article comes up quite frequently.

#6 – My iPhone Won’t Charge (view here)

Coming in at #7 is a fix for an iPhone issue.  Sometimes when you plug your iPhone in via the USB charger, it simply doesn’t charge.  In the case of what motivated me to write this particular article, when I plugged my phone in, the charge symbol appeared for a second and then disappeared.  The “how to” article shows people how to resolve this issue and get their iPhone back up and running again.

#5 – How To Setup Facebook – Skype Video Calling (view here)

At the beginning of this month, Facebook made a huge partnership with Skype to bring users video chat and video conference calling through the Facebook chat interface.  Instantly, people wanted to know how to setup the Facebook – Skype video chat feature.  And that curiosity allowed this article to land at #5.

#4 – Amanda Bynes Plastic Surgery – Before & After Pics (view here)

Another celebrity gossip column… I told you, I can’t help myself sometimes.  But this one is about Amanda Bynes and her alleged plastic surgery.  So I found some “before and after” pics to share with everyone.  Now, a lot of people come to the article to see exactly what she looked like before and after the surgery.

#3 – Apple iPhone 5 tag (view here)

Apple is getting ready to release their next generation iPhone called iPhone 5 sometime in September.  The Apple iPhone 5 tag here at SMSEO is a collection of articles about the iPhone 5.  This tag gets a lot of traffic because people are wondering about the iPhone 5.  For example, when will it be released, what will the spec be, etc…

#2 – Justin Bieber Pictures & Images (view here)

And yes… here is another celebrity article.  Man, with how popular these celebrity articles are, you’d think I would write more of them.  Anyway, this is a collection of images and pictures of Justin Bieber.  And as it is in the world today, some people just can’t get enough of ol’ Bieber.

#1:  How to Find Your Facebook ID (view here)

Drum roll please….. the #1 most popular article at SMSEO this week is a “how to” on finding your Facebook ID.

A simple “how to” on how to go about finding the official ID of your Facebook page.  Lots of people are interested in this for various reasons.  Some need the Facebook ID for app development, and some just out of pure curiosity.  Regardless, this article gets lots of traffic and comes in at number 10.

What Google+ Means for Social Media Marketing

Anyone who has seen and played around with Google+ knows the crazy amount of potential and usability vested in this new social network. Google is essentially adding a needed layer (or more) of complexity to the status of “friend” in traditional social media (i.e. Facebook), so that privacy can finally become a less awkward and rigid social process. Let’s face it; not all friendships are mutual or similar, so why should they be online?

For those of you still unfamiliar with Google+, allow me to give you a rundown of how the friending and sharing model works:

• Friends are grouped into various “circles.”
• When you add someone to a circle, you push your content to them when sharing with that particular circle. You can also see their public content in your stream.
• When someone adds you to one of their circles, you see their posts in an “Incoming” stream but not in your circles’ stream unless you add them to one of your circles.
• If you and someone else are both in each other’s circles, but neither of you share to each other, you can only view each other’s public content.

Now, Facebook actually has a similar capacity to privatize certain content you publish to a certain group or list of friends, but Facebook’s interface doesn’t lend itself well or naturally to this function, and most people don’t even know about it.

In addition to this sharing model, you can also create “Hangouts” in which you can chat video-conference style with up to 10 friends or colleagues at a time. For Androids, there is also a “Huddle” function which basically puts you in a chat-room style conversation with a group of people.

So it appears that Google+ is a type of social media hybrid between Twitter and Facebook but with some additional features that almost make it a different beast entirely. Like in Twitter, you can still “follow” anyone’s public content by simply adding them to a circle. However, the level of personal interactivity available with “Hangouts” and “Huddles” lends itself to a more interpersonal, “friend-based” interaction like you would say on Facebook. Still, these functions could also really serve well for businesses (conference call, anyone?) too.

What Does This Mean for Social Media?

At the very least (unless Google+ completely collapses, which I don’t think is too likely), this means that social media gurus will have one more outlet to tinker with. The idea of circles is very intriguing in the world of social media marketing because now you can market your site or blog or professional online content without having to create another account or fearing that you are annoying and driving away your online friends.

For some reason, the idea of something “going viral” on Google+ seems incredibly possible. While reposting is almost unheard of in Facebook, it’s very common in Twitter (the retweet), so it seems very likely to occur in Google+ as more people (and marketers) start using it.

Most importantly, there is huge potential for Google+ to be very impactful in search engine results pages (SERPs). This hasn’t really been implemented yet, but we can only assume that Google is heading in that direction to compete with Facebook and Bing’s social search results. Time will only tell exactly what effect Google+ will have on SERPs, but I imagine using it right now and trying to get ahead of the curve is definitely a good idea.

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This guest post is contributed by Patricia Garza, who writes about gadgets, technology, design, social media, e-learning related articles at online university rankings.

Android 2.3.4 release has been leaked, but unfortunately it doesn’t look like its ready to the US.  One of the major features that will come on Android 2.3.4 is GTalk video – Google video chat.  And the Android OS is expected to be released on the new Galaxy S2 device.

Of course, with Facebook video calling released this week, there seems be a war brewing in the video chat marketspace.  The next obvious iteration from Facebook would be a video calling option integrated into the Facebook iPhone and Facebook for Android app.

via PCWorld

With all the hype out now on Facebook video calling, people are trying every way they can to get the new video chat feature up and running.

One major problem though, Facebook video calling doesn’t work in the Opera browser.

The only browsers that Facebook specified were compatible with Facebook video calling are Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and Internet Explorer.

However, if it were up to me, I would have excluded Internet Explorer as well.

So now the question I have is, why was Opera excluded from Facebook’s list for being compatible with Facebook video calling?

As you probably know by now, Facebook has integrated Skype into the Facebook chat platform so that you can now video chat (or video call) your friends.

Getting setup for Facebook video calling is super easy if you are using the following browsers:

• Firefox
• Chrome
• Internet Explorer
• Safari

Sorry Opera users, Facebook / Skype video calling is not supported (yet anyways…).

Here’s how to set up Facebook / Skype video calling and video chat in three easy steps, plus one additional step that I’ve added which I think makes it easier.

1. You will be asked to complete the setup the first time you try to call a friend, or the first time a friend tries to call you. To call a friend, click the video icon at the top of your chat window.
2. Simply click the “Set Up” button and follow the instructions for how to set up video calling on your browser.
3. Once you’ve successfully completed the setup, the call you’ve started with your friend should connect automatically. If it doesn’t, you can call again by clicking the video icon at the top of your chat window.

Or (and here’s my added step), simply click the Facebook video calling link below:

Get started with Facebook video calling   

And that’s it… everything else seems pretty seemless and easy to use.

Let us know in the comments below about your experience with the new Facebook video calling with Facebook and Skype.

These days, it’s hard for anyone at Microsoft to be excited about anything. However, while I’ve been criticizing Microsoft over the past couple of years over the terrible product launches, they’ve been making some pretty impressive business partnerships that might really start to pay off.

We know that on Wednesday, Facebook has “a really awesome” announcement to make.  And from leaked information, Facebook is going to announce a partnership with Skype to bring video chat to the Facebook chat platform.

Currently, Skype has only 150 million users compared to Facebook’s 750 million users.  So the Facebook / Skype marriage will mean a significant increase in Skype usage.

And Microsoft is a Facebook shareholder and has a pending acquisition of Skype.

So while we criticize Microsoft for their product launches, they may end up getting the last laugh with Facebook and Skype.

So that has the web buzzing with speculation over what it is that Facebook is about to announce that’s so awesome.

Here are some top rumors that I’ve read, and that I think so far about what Facebook has up it’s sleeve:

1)  Video Chat via Skype: one of the rumors that are at the forefront of the buzz comes from Mashable’s speculation that Facebook is teaming up with Skype to bring video conferencing and video chat integration into the current Facebook chat platform.

I’m not so sure though if I’d call this “awesome” since Gmail has been offering video chat for quite some time now. But I will admit that with Facebook being as popular as it is as a social network, video chat could gain more traction on Facebook than it has with Gmail.

2)  The Facebook Browser: and no, I’m not talking about RockMelt.  Rumors are flying high that Facebook will be launching their own browser.  If this happens, they will be joining the already hyper competitive market of the likes of Google Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, and others.

3)  Facebook Media Dashboard: that’s right, all of your music, videos, and photos in one place for all your friends to interact with and share.  Of course, no media dashboard would be complete without the ability to purchase media, and if Facebook integrated this capability, we could be talking also about an iTunes competitor.

Rumors are out that the official Skype iPad app will be released as early as next week.

Although I know for a fact that Skype works just fine on the iPad with the current app, an iPad only app would be much more user friendly – at least that’s what it looks in the leaked Skype for iPad video below.

What’s cool about the Skype iPad app is that it will work over both WiFi and 3G, and it will support full screen video calls.

Some other rumored features are an option to swap cameras in the middle of a chat, as well as built in messaging that layers over video calls.

Needless to say, the Skype iPad app is heavy on video conferencing calls.

Now to the good stuff – the leaked video that Skype posted on YouTube to promote their iPad app.  Skype, for some reason, removed the video within just a few hours.

Thanks to Razorian Fly, the video was able to be retrieved (without audio) – and there’s no guarantee it will stay available on YouTube.

But for now, here’s the Skype iPad app promo video (without audio) – enjoy:

via IntoMobile

Amazon Lightning Deal currently is the Ear Force X11 Amplified Stereo Headset with Chat

Currently less than 2 hours remain on this deal.

List price: $59.99

Deal price: $47.12

Savings: $12.87 (21% off)

With an in-line amplifier and separate connectors for mic and line signals, the X11 also makes a great PC gaming headset.

Playing your favorite game with the X11 gives you a significant advantage because you can hear sound cues that are missed with speakers, such as the soft footsteps of an enemy sneaking up on you, or the click of a loading weapon in the distance. That means you’ll react faster and take them out before they take you out, giving you a competitive edge that can make the difference between winning and losing. You’ll also enjoy unsurpassed comfort during extended game play thanks to the large, deep-cushioned ear cups and rugged, lightweight design.

If you’re serious about your XBOX or PC gaming, then get serious about the sound. Move up to the Ear Force X11 and become a better player while experiencing your games as they were meant to be heard.

Google just announced plans to launch video chat for Android smartphones.  This is a big deal for Android, especially in light of the mobile video chat competition coming from Apple’s FaceTime app running on iPhones and iPads. The major difference with Android is you’re now talking about video chat capabilities across multiple smartphone and tablet devices. Whereas with FaceTime, you get video chat on iOS devices.

Google video chat is available on Android 2.3+ devices.

Google explained, “You can now video or voice chat with your friends, family and colleagues right from your Android phone, whether they’re on their compatible Android tablet or phone, or using Gmail with Google Talk on their computer… you can make calls over a 3G or 4G data network (if your carrier supports it) or over Wi-Fi.”

“In your Google Talk friends list, a video or voice chat button will appear next to your contacts and you can simply touch the button to connect with them,” the company adds. “Any text chats from the person you’re talking with will be overlaid on your phone’s screen so you can read them without having to leave the video.”

Video on Android’s Video Chat

Fring announced today the limited beta test version of group video calling via Fring.

Fring is a free mobile app that let’s users make completely free voice calls, video calls, and chats over their mobile device anywhere there’s an internet connection.

The group video calling feature will allow Fring users to initiate free video calls on their mobile devices, presumably over Wi-Fi or 3G, with up to four participants.

According to the blog post via Fring, this is super-exciting as it’s the 1st time the world will get to enjoy free Group Video calls. This fring-feature lets 4 friends video call each other simultaneously, making it a mobile video calling party of sorts.”

If you’d like to be included for the beta testing of the group video calling, then fill out the form here.

via Mashable

Verizon has a reputation for being the most stable wireless phone carrier in the United States. And although companies like Sprint have been aggressively expanding their 4G coverage, Verizon is quickly becoming the dominant player in this hyper competitive market.

Below is the currently list of Verizon 4G LTE enabled cities in the U.S. along with the list of additional cities that will be turned on by the end of 2011:

• Phoenix, Ariz.
• Los Angeles, Calif.
• Oakland, Calif.
• San Diego, Calif.
• San Francisco, Calif.
• San Jose, Calif.
• Denver, Colo.
• Washington, D.C.
• Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.
• Jacksonville, Fla.
• Miami, Fla.
• Orlando, Fla.
• Tampa, Fla.
• West Palm Beach, Fla.
• Athens, Ga.
• Atlanta, Ga.
• Chicago, Ill.
• West Lafayette, Ind.
• New Orleans, La.
• Baltimore, Md.
• Boston, Mass.
• Detroit, Mich.
• Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minn.
• St. Louis, Mo.
• Las Vegas, Nev.
• New York, N.Y.
• Rochester, N.Y.
• Charlotte, N.C.
• Akron, Ohio
• Cincinnati, Ohio
• Cleveland, Ohio
• Columbus, Ohio
• Oklahoma City, Okla.
• Philadelphia, Pa.
• Pittsburgh, Pa.
• Nashville, Tenn.
• Dallas-Ft. Worth, Texas
• Houston, Texas
• San Antonio, Texas
• Seattle/Tacoma, Wash.

Additional areas to be covered by Verizon Wireless’ 4G LTE network in 2011 include:

• Decatur, Ala.
• Huntsville, Ala.*
• Mobile, Ala.*
• Montgomery, Ala.*
• Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers, Ark.
• Fort Smith, Ark.
• Little Rock, Ark.*
• Tucson, Ariz.
• Bakersfield, Calif.
• Fresno, Calif.
• Modesto, Calif.
• Sacramento, Calif.
• Salinas-Monterey, Calif.
• San Luis Obispo, Calif.
• Santa Barbara, Calif.
• Stockton, Calif.
• Colorado Springs, Colo.*
• Fort Collins, Colo.
• Fairfield, Conn.
• Hartford, Conn.
• New Haven, Conn.
• Daytona Beach, Fla.
• Fort Myers, Fla.
• Gainesville, Fla.*
• Lakeland-Winter Haven, Fla.*
• Pensacola, Fla.*
• Sarasota-Bradenton, Fla.*
• Tallahassee, Fla.*
• Augusta, Ga.*
• Hilo, Hawaii
• Honolulu, Hawaii*
• Kahului-Wailuku, Hawaii*
• Lahaina, Hawaii*
• Davenport, Iowa
• Iowa City, Iowa
• Boise-Nampa, Idaho*
• Bloomington/Normal, Ill.
• Carbondale, Ill.*
• Champaign, Ill.
• Rockford, Ill.
• Springfield, Ill.
• Fort Wayne, Ind.
• Indianapolis, Ind.
• Lafayette, Ind.
• Wichita, Kan.*
• Louisville, Ky.
• Baton Rouge, La.*
• Hammond, La.*
• Springfield, Mass.
• Worcester, Mass.
• Hagerstown, Md.
• Flint, Mich.*
• Grand Rapids, Mich.
• Lansing, Mich.
• Saginaw-Bay City, Mich.
• Starkville, Miss.
• Asheville-Henderson, N.C.
• Fayetteville-Lumberton, N.C.*
• Greensboro-Winston Salem-High Point, N.C.*
• Raleigh-Durham, N.C.*
• Wilmington, N.C.*
• Fargo, N.D.
• Omaha, Neb.
• Albuquerque, N.M.
• Las Cruces, N.M. Santa Fe, N.M.
• Reno, Nev.
• Albany, N.Y.
• Ithaca, N.Y.
• Syracuse, N.Y.
• Dayton-Springfield, Ohio*
• Lima, Ohio
• Toledo, Ohio
• Tulsa, Okla.*
• Portland, Ore.
• Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton, Pa.
• Erie, Pa.*
• Harrisburg, Pa.
• Johnstown, Pa.
• Scranton/Wilkes Barre, Pa.
• State College, Pa.*
• Charleston, S.C.*
• Columbia, S.C.*
• Greenville-Spartanburg, S.C.*
• Hilton Head, S.C.*
• Sioux Falls, S.D.*
• Chattanooga, Tenn.*
• Clarksville, Tenn.*
• Cleveland, Tenn.*
• Dyersburg-Union City, Tenn.
• Jackson, Tenn.
• Kingsport-Johnson City, Tenn.-Bristol, Va.*
• Knoxville, Tenn.*
• Memphis, Tenn.*
• Beaumont-Port Arthur, Texas*
• Bryan-College Station, Texas*
• El Paso, Texas
• Temple-Killeen, Texas
• Provo-Orem, Utah*
• Salt Lake City-Ogden, Utah*
• Olympia, Wash.*
• Centralia, Wash.*
• Spokane, Wash.
• Charleston, W.Va.*
• Madison, Wis.*
• Milwaukee, Wis.*

* Indicates a metro area previously announced in 2011

via Verizon.com

Apple’s latest iteration of the iPad, the iPad 2, went on sale at Apple stores, AT&T and Verizon Wireless outlets, as well as Target, Wal-Mart and Best Buy, and by Saturday evening, the iPad 2 was completely sold out.  The reports coming in on Saturday put the sales figures for the weekend at 1 million units.  The first iPad that was launched in April of 2010 took 28 days before it sold 1 million units. Crowds of fans waiting for hours, sometimes even days, outside of the flagship Apple stores in both New York and San Francisco just be a part of the frenzy that surrounded the iPad 2 launch.  The iPad 2 is a serious upgrade from the first iPad with it being lighter, faster, and has front and page cameras for Facetime (video conferencing and chat).

via Reuters