Why the Interest Graph Is a Marketer’s Best Friend

Since the dawn of companies like Twitter, one question has baffled marketers: How do we demonstrate ROI in our social media strategy? For example, we know that Facebook “likes” don’t equal sales. So what’s the alternative?

Enter the interest graph, which offers a new way to develop connections based on what people like, not who they know. The interest graph also gives marketers the chance to demonstrably generate revenue. Here’s how other companies are experimenting in this space and the results.

Enable Opportunities for Social Discovery

People make connections on Facebook for all sorts of reasons, but rarely do they make friends with total strangers based on a shared interest in products and services. The company Step2 is changing that and enhancing the shopping experience by promoting social discovery through their Facebook page. For starters, they allow users to follow individual products and product categories, and get updates directly in their newsfeed. Even better, their “follow a reviewer” feature enables individuals to subscribe to product reviews from someone with similar tastes and preferences.
There’s a social component, and everything is opt in, but it’s also a marketing opportunity that has the potential to directly increase revenue. Step2 uses the interest graph to recommend users to follow, but beyond that, users are connecting in a genuine way based on real interests.

Personalize the On-site Experience

Ever since Facebook released its Open Graph, brands and retailers have had a unique opportunity to learn about the interests of their customers and use this information to serve them compelling, personalized experiences. Amazon.com is one of the best examples of companies currently using the Open Graph. When a customer logs onto Facebook Connect from within Amazon.com, their profile data is pulled so that Amazon can suggest products they might be interested in.
Compare this with the old way of doing things when Amazon made product suggestions based on what you’d already purchased. But what if a user purchased a book about golf for his brother and perfume for his wife? Recommendations based on this information wouldn’t be very engaging. That all changes with the interest graph. Amazon can make sure that the first thing users see are options deeply connected to their personal preferences. It’s a great way to keep users on the site, increase the likelihood of purchase, and generate more revenue — short and long term.

Create Interest-based Communities on Pinterest

Pinterest has quickly become an Internet darling, and it’s particularly valuable for marketers. Pinterest users “like” and pin the things they love. Sometimes that means inspiring images, but more often than not, they pin items they want to buy. There are two key ways that retailers can leverage this as a marketing tool.
For starters, companies should be present on Pinterest and create boards that include pins of their own products and items their customers might be interested in. For example, Diapers.com does a great job of cultivating a strong presence in the Pinterest community. Not only do they post their own content, they develop relationships by liking pins on other users’ boards. Those relationships drive traffic to their own page, increasing awareness about their products and brand.

Modcloth uses Pinterest’s multiple-contributor feature to invite customers to pin their own photos to Modcloth’s pinboards. Paying attention to what other kinds of things inspire your customers can help shape future product development. It also creates a community hub around your brand. So when you want to push new products, you have a captive audience.

Additionally, you can add the “Pin It” button next to products on your website, so that you can track which products your customers are interested in and tailor your marketing messages accordingly. Pinterest offers huge opportunities to customize special offers, online ads, email campaigns and even on-site merchandising according to the interests expressed by users.

Use the Interest Graph to Jump-start Your Online Ad Strategy

There’s no better indication that a user is interested in a product than learning that he or she’s placed it the shopping cart. But what do you with that information? Targeting online ads based on a user’s browsing behavior is a great way to sustain and fuel interest in a product and market related products that individuals are likely to find compelling. When ads are fueled by true, indicated interest, they’re much more likely to resonate and ultimately lead to a sale.
Twitter also provides an ideal environment to serve personalized ads based on what people follow, click on, and tweet about. For example, Virgin America used Twitter’s Promoted Tweets to announce their expansion into Canada, and offered a 50% discount for the first 500 travelers. Due to the highly-targeted distribution of the ad based on users’ declared interest in the airline, the offer sold out in three hours and Virgin experienced its fifth-highest day of sales on record.

Ultimately, when marketers use the interest graph to craft campaigns, it’s a win for both the brand and the consumer. Marketers want to drive revenue, and consumers want to see products that interest them. The personalized web is the way of the future, and the marketers who recognize it will be the ones who lead the future of ecommerce.

Julian Assange Seeks Asylum at Ecuador’s U.K. Embassy

Julian Assange, founder of secret-spilling website WikiLeaks, is seeking asylum at Ecuador’s embassy in London.

The embassy confirmed Tuesday that Assange took refuge there, according to the Associated Press. Ecuador’s foreign minister, Ricardo Patino, is considering approving the request.

Assange’s asylum request comes less than a week after the U.K. Supreme Court denied his legal team’s request to re-open his extradition case on a legal technicality.

The Australian-born Assange is wanted by Swedish authorities to answer allegations of sexual assault made against him nearly two years ago. He appealed extradition from the U.K. to Sweden on the basis that the Swedish prosecutor who made the request lacked the legal authority to do so. He’s been living under house arrest at a supporter’s house near London while the Supreme Court considered his appeal.

Assange and his supporters fear that if he was sent to Sweden, he would be immediately extradited to the U.S. Assange believes that the U.S. wants to charge him with crimes related to the leak of classified American military and diplomatic documents.

Soon after the news of Assange’s asylum request first broke, WikiLeaks tweeted a message that more details would be released shortly. AkramiTechnology will update this post with new information as it’s released.

UPDATE: The London Embassy of Ecuador has released the following statement: “This afternoon Mr Julian Assange arrived at the Ecuadorian Embassy seeking political asylum from the Ecuadorian government. As a signatory to the United Nations Universal Declaration for Human Rights, with an obligation to review all applications for asylum, we have immediately passed his application on to the relevant department in Quito. While the department assesses Mr Assange’s application, Mr Assange will remain at the embassy, under the protection of the Ecuadorian Government. The decision to consider Mr Assange’s application for protective asylum should in no way be interpreted as the Government of Ecuador interfering in the judicial processes of either the United Kingdom or Sweden.”

UPDATE 2: Julian Assange interviewed Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa for his television show last month

Facebook Mobile Ads Earn 2.5 Times More Than Desktop Ads, Studies Find

Facebook‘s mobile ads are performing significantly better than its desktop ads, according to multiple studies released Tuesday. That’s great news for the social network and its investors, who have worried about the company’s revenue prospects as its 900 million-strong user base shifts more of its time to mobile devices.

At the beginning of the month, Facebook began allowing advertisers to purchase Sponsored Stories solely on mobile devices for the first time. Sponsored Stories are posts companies and individuals have paid to highlight in the News Feeds of its fans and their friends (see right screenshot).

Early data from SocialCode, a Facebook Ads API partner, shows that ads that appear in mobile News Feeds get more clicks and more Likes than ads that appear in desktop News Feeds, proportionally. (It’s worth noting, however, that other kinds of ads, including display and search, also have higher click-through rates on mobile compared desktop. Because of the smaller screen sizes on mobile devices, accidental clicks are also more common.)

The findings were culled from 7 million impressions served between June 8 and June 18, of which 242,000 were shown on mobile devices.

Mobile click-through rate averaged 0.79% in the study, compared to 0.327% for desktop feed ads. A separate study by TBG Digital recorded an even higher click-through rate for mobile at 1.14%.

Because of the relatively high click-through rates, Facebook was able to generate 2.5 times as much revenue from mobile ads than desktop feed ads for the same number of impressions. Mobile feed ads generated roughly $7.51 per thousand impressions, while desktop feed ads came in at $2.98. Marketers, who purchased the ads on a cost-per-click basis in the study, paid only slightly more for mobile ads, as shown in the chart below.

There is one other promising finding: The number of Likes each 1,000 mobile impressions generated was also higher on mobile, averaging 0.62% compared to 0.219% on desktop feeds.

AT&T Galaxy S III Preorder includes unique Red option

Now that the big four mobile service providers have become the big five as far as Samsung is concerned, it’s more important than ever to differentiate one’s self from the pack – which is why AT&T is bringing a red iteration of the Galaxy S III to the table this summer. AT&T is one of the top four mobile carriers in the United States, while U.S. Cellular joins the pack this time around for one fabulous launch of Samsung’s new flagship. AT&T’s contribution is a device that’s essentially the same as the other carrier’s are presenting, only this time it’s got AT&T’s 4G LTE as well.

This device will be one of the most advanced smartphones to be released with AT&T. With its 4.8-inch HD Super AMOLED display, 1.5GHz dual-core processor from Qualcomm, and a lovely 8.6 millimeters thin package to contain it all, the Galaxy S III is set for a big win. This device has an Exynos quad-core processor internationally, with carriers in the USA opting for the tried and true Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 dual-core processor in its place. This change has likely been made to accommodate for 4G LTE and HSPA+ 42 that USA carrier’s are offering for data speed in their releases.

This device will be offered up for preorder starting on June 6th and will be costing you $199 on-contract for the 16GB version. AT&T is also making a point to show that they’ve got a $39 USD 16GB microSD card they can add to the package for a total of 32GB if customers do so desire.

Have a peek at our hands-on and USA release posts collection so that you can be fully informed before the big drop!

Dark Souls - Official Artorias of the Abyss DLC Trailer [HD]

Title: Dark Souls - Prepare to Die Edition
Release Date: August 24, 2012
Platforms: PC, Xbox 360, PS3
Label: Namco Bandai
Genre: Action RPG
Age Rating: M

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Will you be Tango'd in 2012?

New screenshots showing a future version of the Windows Phone operating system have been leaked and been posted on a Russian website.

Windows Phone 7.x Tango is rumoured to be the next version of the operating system and is to be rolled out for low cost devices. The trend this year seems to be for manufacturers to release a wide range of devices for every price point. For budget devices and those at the entry level, they don't have the same kind of powerful processor that flagship devices have, so they might struggle running all the same features of the operating system. Microsoft's strategy with Tango is to run on devices with slower hardware. It is said to be a stripped back version of WP 7.5 Mango.

The forum the screenshots have appeared on show there will be revised hardware standards. It shows the OS is designed for handsets with 256 MB of RAM which is half the minimum for Mango. Tango will support 120 languages, suggesting the update is designed to grow the WP market across the world. It is likely that Tango will not have the same features of Mango, or example the Live Tiles will not work on Tango devices. However it looks as though Tango will have features that Mango does not have. There is a shot of a roaming option for domestic and international.

The new version of WP will be ideal or Nokia, in particular, who are said to be announcing a budget-friendly handset at Barcelona's World Mobile Congress later this month. Leaked reports suggest Nokia will be releasing a Lumia 610. This would be an entry level device for the Lumia range which also includes the 710, 800 and the newly announced 900. Nokia announced a partnership with Microsoft last year and the Lumia range are the first Nokia smartphones to run that operating system, sitting alongside Nokia's own OS powered Symbian devices.

The 900, which was originally a US exclusive but is now expected to have a global roll-out later this year, is the top-end flagship device. The Lumia range then works down to the 610, which it is expected will be the cheapest and least powerful of the range, but will be more affordable to those who want smartphones without a hefty price-tag.

The partnership between Nokia and Microsoft is important for both brands. Both want to make more of a dent in the smartphone market. Nokia brings iconic and solid design while WP has been praised as a solid operating system. Sales may have dipped for Nokia at the end of 2011 but since the Lumia 800 was launched in the final quarter, a rash of new handsets, it is hoped will boost its profile and availability.

Having an operating system that works especially for those entry-level devices will only make them more attractive to consumers. Better that than having an OS that doesn't work properly or is too slow. Just because a device is not a top-end flagship smartphone there is no reason that it should not operate smoothly and effectively.

No news on when Tango will be rolled out but if Nokia does announce the Lumia 610 at Mobile World Congress it is likely that launch dates for both will coincide.

Changes in the Games section of Google +

GooglePlus is improving its games section. New additions to the gaming section are made like descriptions have been added, new sections for recommended games have been created and much more.

Recently new games were added like The Godfather and GT Racing. Both games are highly recommended, in action playing and race cars genre respectively. I recommend a good internet connection to play smoothly. As per new additions, in the right first column, we have those games which we played earlier. Then there are listed "Featured Games", where we have three categories:

New games: new games that are added recently.

Best games in a week: I do not know what form of selection does it follow, but it seems by the number of users who played a game.

Staff Picks: games are chosen by the developers which is a good list.

Beneath, you can select "All games" where all 11 different categories were described: Action, Games Room, Board Games, Cards, Family, Puzzle, Racing, Role Playing, Simulation, Sports, Strategy.

One of the most important thing is calling a lot, but now we have a brief description of the games. When passing the mouse pointer over each image of the game, it will open a box there. It shows us a brief description, contacts and a link to "More Information" where we will have enough information about the game, with videos, comments, pictures and other. This is very useful to know what kind of game it is before wasting time with the permitting process and loading. With this information we can get a good idea and better decide whether to play a particular game or not.

Games that we played recently, that game will be shown in "Latest Games" section where we have rights to delete the game and permission to play in just one click.

Author Bio:
Greg Salter is a freelance writer and has been writing about Dual Sim Phones, Tablets and other technology related content. He has written in-depth reviews of Samsung Dual Sim and Android Smartphones.

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The 5 Phases of a hacker attack: Anatomy of an attack

Phase 1 - Reconnaissance (Reconnaissance)

Recognition refers to the preparatory phase where the attacker obtains all necessary information from your target or victim before launching the attack. This phase may also include scanning the network that the hacker wants to attack no matter whether the attack will be internal or external. This phase allows the attacker to create a strategy to attack.

This phase may include social engineering, scavenging (dumpster diving), find the type of operating system and applications use the target or victim, which are the ports that are open, where they are located routers (routers), which are hosts (terminals, computers) more accessible, search the Internet database (Whois) information such as Internet addresses (IP) addresses, domain names, contact information, email servers and all information can be extracted from DNS (Domain Name Server).

This phase may take some time to Hacker as he has to analyze all the information it has obtained to launch the attack with more precision.

Phase 2 - Scan (Scanning)

This is the phase that the attacker performed prior to launch an attack on the network (network). In scanning the attacker uses all information obtained in Phase Recognition (Phase 1) to identify specific vulnerabilities. For example, if the attacker Phase 1 found that the purpose or the victim uses the Windows XP operating system specific vulnerabilities then seek to have that operating system to know where to attack.

It also makes a port scan to see which ports are open to know which port is going to come and use automated tools to scan the network and host for more Vulnerabilities that allow access to the system.

Phase 3 - Gaining Access (Gaining Access)

This is one of the most important phases for Hacker because it is the penetration phase of the system, at this stage the hacker exploits the vulnerabilities found in step 2. Exploitation can occur locally, offline (not connected) on the LAN (Local Area Network), or on the Internet and may include techniques such as buffer overflows (buffer overflow), denial-of-service (denial of service) session hijacking (session hijacking), and password cracking (breaking or guessing passwords using various methods like: dictionary attack and brute force).

The factors that help the Hacker at this stage to have a successful penetration into the system depend on how the system architecture and how it is configured by the target or victim, a simple security configuration means easier access to the system, another factor to consider is the level of skills, abilities and knowledge of computer security and networks that have the Hacker and the level of access that was the beginning of penetration (Phase 3).

Phase 4 - Maintaining Access (Maintaining Access)

Once the hacker gains access to the target system (Fase3) its priority is to maintain the access gained to the system. At this stage the Hacker uses its resources and system resources and uses the target system as a launching pad for attacks to scan and exploit other systems that want to attack, it also uses programs called sniffers to capture all network traffic, including sessions telnet and FTP (File Transfer Protocol).

At this stage the hacker may have the ability to upload, download and alter programs and data.

At this stage the hacker wants to remain undetected and that removes evidence of its penetration into the system and makes use of Backdoor (backdoors) and Trojans to gain access at another time and try to have access to highly privileged accounts such as Administrator accounts. They also use Trojans (Trojans) to transfer user names, passwords and even credit card information stored in the system.

Phase 5 - Covering tracks (Covering Tracks)

This phase is where the hacker tries to destroy all evidence of their illegal activities and does so for several reasons among them still maintain access to the compromised system and erase your tracks if network administrators do not have clear tracks of the attacker and the Hacker can still entering the system at any time, in addition to covering their tracks to avoid being detected and getting caught by the police or the Feds.

The tools and techniques used for this are Trojan horses, Steganography, tunneling, Rootkits and alteration of the "log files" (files that store all the events in a computer system and allows detailed information about the habits of users), once the hacker was able to plant Trojan horses in the system is assumed to have total control of the system.

Author Bio
The above article is composed and edited by Greg Salter. He is an author at PC tricks Blog and writes about latest ethical hacking tricks.Lately he also got interested in other Internet technologies like Facebook and money making tricks.

Principaux avantages de la surveillance CCTV à distance

video surveillance dans le marché d'aujourd'hui offre un grand nombre de différents systèmes de surveillance qui permettent de sécuriser d'affaires, l'immobilier, ainsi que d'assurer la sécurité de vos proches. C'est pourquoi la popularité du système de surveillance CCTV continuer à prendre de l'élan.

Jusqu'à récemment, les caméras de surveillance analogiques qui ont été la transmission d'un signal à l'écran a statué sur le marché. Pour se connecter à ces systèmes de surveillance des câbles d'antennes vidéo ordinaire ont été utilisés.

Puis apparurent les systèmes plus complexes pour la surveillance composé de caméras, enregistreurs vidéo numériques et les moniteurs. Le composé a également été réalisée par le câble d'antenne.

Avec l'avènement et le développement rapide des technologies numériques, la vidéo surveillance à distance est de plus en plus sophistiqué, et ses caractéristiques vient émerveiller simpliste innovations techniques des humains.

Surveillance de CCTV à distance est un ensemble assez complexe de techniques, d'exploitation sur Internet. Ce système de caméras IP ayant codeur intégré, faisant de signal numérisé reçu de la CCD. Ces systèmes offrent la possibilité de contrôler votre propriété de partout dans le monde.

Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection : Official PSN Launch Trailer [HD]

Title: Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection
Release Date: December 12, 2011
Platforms: Xbox Live | PSN
Label: Microsoft
Genre: Fighting
Age Rating: M