Google's NewYork Office

Google CEO Larry Page announced today that Google will allocate 22,000 square feet of its New York headquarters to CornellNYC Tech for free, while the university completes its campus on Roosevelt Island. He was joined by New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, Cornell President David Skorton and Technion’s Director Craig Gotsman at a press conference this morning at Google New York. The space will allow Cornell to build its presence in New York in close proximity to the tech companies and entrepreneurs with whom it will collaborate. This arrangement represents Google, Cornell, Technion and the City of New York’s commitment to educating and developing tech talent in New York City.

I think Google wants to invest in Silicon Alley. But when comparing 2011 numbers to 2010 numbers, VC investments in New York are rising 64.3 percent in terms of dollars and 10.2 percent in terms of deals, while investment in California is only rising 24.4 percent in terms of dollars and 5.0 percent in terms of deals (as shown in this post via VentureBeat).

Cornell's proposed campus on Roosevelt Island. Copyright Cornell University.

Google is giving Cornell 22k square feet of office space on July 1, 2012. The free lease will last for 5 years, 6 months, or until Cornell’s Roosevelt Island campus is completed. Google has provided the university with the option to expand the space that it uses up to 58,000 square feet over the course of its time there.

Microsoft’s new social network So.cl has arrived. So.cl (pronounced “social”) is an experimental research project, developed by Microsoft’s FUSE Labs, focused on exploring the possibilities of social search for the purpose of learning. So.cl’s aim is to combine social networking and search, to help people find and share interesting web pages in the way students do when they work together. So.cl is trying a way similar to the early days of Facebook: “Focus on students”. Microsoft is formally partnering with selected schools (including University of Washington, Syracuse University, and New York University).

So.cl’s most unique feature, however, is the rich post, which is like a meta-status update and can include multiple links and images that are assembled together in a visual montage. Rich posts (pictured below), just like status updates, can be commented on, but they can also be tagged and embedded elsewhere on the web.

Would you like to use So.Cl? Tell us in the comments.

Mobile Marketing Association defines Mobile Marketing as “Mobile Marketing is a set of practices that enables organizations to communicate and engage with their audience in an interactive and relevant manner through any mobile device or network.” Most popular types of  of Mobile Marketing are SMS Marketing, MMS Marketing, In-Game Mobile Marketing, Mobile Web Marketing, QR Codes and Location-based services.

HighTable, a startup social website for professionals, compiled data about the key factors in the growing mobile marketing space in the infographic below.

FaceBook Founder Mark Zuckerberg Married with longtime girlfriend Priscilla Chan day after the IPO of Facebook. That means they were waiting for IPO to get married. The FeceBook CEO had a very big week. In the span of just seven days, he has turned 28, taken his company public, become world’s 29th richest person after Facebook’s IPO and married his college sweetheart.

Mark Zuckerberg shared the event on his FaceBook Timeline as it’s expected

Congratulations Mark and Priscilla…

LinkedIn is a business-related social networking site mainly used for professional networking. As of 2012, LinkedIn has more than 150 million registered users Worldwide. The below Infographic summarizes How LinkedIn Works.

This was originally produced and published for Nanapi.jp

SecondMarket is an SEC-registered alternative trading system for private company stock. SecondMarket just released its Q1 2012 report about the most popular privately-held or venture-backed companies on SecondMarket.

SecondMarket’s most popular stock is FaceBook’s.  After its long-waited IPO FaceBook will leave SecondMarket and Twitter seems to be leading the pack.

Interest in Pinterest is still growing very quickly — followed quickly by Warby Parker and payment provider Stripe.

When we look at SecondMarket’s VC Scoreboard, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers made the most deals in the first quarter this year. Andreessen-Horowitz was on the lower end.

Overall, SecondMarket saw $165 million in completed trades, up 32 percent from the previous quarter and up 42 percent from the same time a year ago. You can discover more information about SecondMarket  in this report.

iPhones with built-in pico projectors is still a dream but this solution may be the best alternative at this time. This Pop Video accessory from Micron Technology turns your iPhone or iPod into pico projectors for only 99$. The Pop Video has a Built-in Lithium-ion rechargeable battery with up to two hours playtime.

According to PoP’s site, the 3.5 ounce peripheral’s capable of 960 x 540 video output to share your favorite photos, movies, TV programs, and video clips on the fly. Micron apparently uses something called FLCOS microdisplay technology, which is cheaper to produce and allegedly more energy efficient.

The projector is designed to be used with a free app that allows you to tweak the projector settings and project content from your iPhone or iPod.

The $99 PoP Video is up for pre-order now, but you can watch the Pop Video’s Capabilities in the video below.

When some people hear the words “home automation,” they think about the Jetsons or multi-million-dollar concept homes of the future. Others think home automation is just a geek fantasy that wouldn’t add any real value to their lives. They would be wrong. 

First of all let’s define Home Automation: For some it may be something as simple as remote or automatic control of a few lights. For others, security may be the central application. Still others may choose to install advanced controllers or use voice recognition. As a very basic definition, we tend to refer to home automation as anything that gives you remote or automatic control of things around the home. For Wikipedia; Home automation is the residential extension of “building automation”. It is automation of the home, housework or household activity. Home automation may include centralized control of lighting, HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning), appliances, and other systems, to provide improved convenience, comfort, energy efficiency and security.

Technology has started to have bigger roles in our lives and day to day we become more technology dependent. Most of us can’t imagine living without using technology, anymore.

The word “Home Automation” has started to become more popular nowadays. Automation appliances are cheaper and easier to implement than it was in the past.

A University of California at Berkeley freshman named Derek Low uploaded a video to YouTube of what he’s calling the “BRAD”, or the Berkeley Ridiculously Automated Dorm. Apparently, Low set out three months ago to make “the most ridiculously automated dorm room in the school ever.” That’s a hard claim to verify, but by the looks of the results which apparently only set Low back a few hundred dollars.

You should really just watch the video below; I mostly liked the party mode.

Apple has been criticized for the labor conditions in the factories that make iPhones, iPads and Macs. When Apple joined the Fair Labor Association, the Association investigated the factories Apple uses, the most famous of which is Foxconn. The report found cases of excessive overtime, unsafe working conditions, and instances when workers weren’t paid the wages due to them. Apple has vowed to fix those problems.

After recent media reports about working conditions in Foxconn, people wonder how chinese workers assemble Apple products.

American Public Media’s Marketplace Shanghai Bureau Chief Rob Schmitz is only the second reporter ever to gain access to visit the factory floor at Apple’s Chinese producer Foxconn. You can see highlights from his tour of the assembly line, the Foxconn facilities and how an iPad is made in this video.

For most young people, playing games on a computer, video game console, or handheld device is just a regular part of the day. Most are able to juggle the multiple demands of school, sports, work or chores, and family life. Gaming becomes an addiction when it starts to interfere with a person’s relationships or their pursuit of other goals, such as good grades or being a contributing member of a sports team.

Game addiction is a growing problem all over the World and there are lots of video game-related health problems. I have seen on the news that a cambodian father chained up son over gaming activities. Video games addiction is responsible for serious problems.

On the other hand, latest researches show that video gaming can have good effects on our healths. This infographic shows games can do some remarkable things for your brain and body.

Source: Frugal Dad

Thomas Suarez has two published apps, a startup company and a compelling TED talk under his belt; all at the tender age of 12.

Most 12-year-olds love playing videogames — Thomas Suarez taught himself how to create them. After developing iPhone apps like “Bustin Jeiber,” a whack-a-mole game, he is now using his skills to help other kids become developers.

Thomas Suarez’s interest in technology and programming led him to learn Python, Java, and C “just to get the basics down.” He built an app and then coaxed his parents into paying the $99 fee to get his app, “Earth Fortune,” in the app store. Thomas also started an app club at school to help other kids build and share their creations, and is now starting his own company, CarrotCorp.

You should watch his inspiring speech at TEDx conference in Manhattan Beach, LA in the video below.

The first few weeks of college can shock your system. Many students are living away from their parents for the first time and their roommates are strangers. They may have visited the campus only once or twice before school started, are eating unidentifiable residence hall meals with the terror of gaining the “Freshman 15″ and they are entirely responsible for their own well being. And whether just starting college in a traditional campus setting or opting for the convenience of online education classes, there are ways to cope with the education transition.

Compared to high school classes, college courses require more independence. Students need to study more on their own than they did in high school, and assignments may come with less guidance from the instructor. Students are expected not only to answer the questions, but also to figure out, without necessarily being told by the professor, where to find their information. Suddenly, you’re supposed to be an expert researcher.

That may seem like a formidable request, but the good news is that it’s feasible. Even better, your transformation into a true researcher can be quick and fun. Your participation in social media can be excellent training for collaborating with your classmates to develop college-level research skills.

Common Research Difficulties

Many students are not even aware that their research techniques are inappropriate, or that they are not coming up with the most reliable information. Many students may not be using Google properly. They may not use the proper search filters or keywords, and search results are limited or from paid or unreliable sources. Students are also unfamiliar with academic databases.

Hard versus Soft Research

A great trick to help you figure out what research approaches to use is to determine whether you need soft research, hard research or both. Soft research is what you probably already do all the time when you need to look up a general idea. It is also appropriate when you need to write about people’s opinions that you might get from blog posts. In college, assignments often require hard research. Facts need to be specific, and you need to be able to point to a credible source for each fact that you include in your work.

Where to Turn

Librarians, online or on-campus writing centers and professors are all good resources for help with research. Students can also use social media to help each other improve research skills. They can create web-based files, such as in Google Docs, to compile helpful tips, resources and links to share with each other. Video chats and instant messaging let them brainstorm for resource ideas before starting their assignments.

Don’t let the thought of intimidating assignments prevent you from enrolling in college. If you’re already in college and you feel like you’re struggling, don’t get discouraged. Plenty of options are available to help you master the research skills you need, and one of your weapons can be to join forces with your classmates using your experience in social media programs.

One of the goals of every business is to make money. Sometimes turning a profit is a secondary or tertiary goal, but it’s always there and is always a motivating factor in every decision made by the people who run the company. How do you increase your profits, though? You can do it by cutting costs, certainly, but that can result in poor support or inferior products. Many companies would have a hard time remaining ethical and cutting costs, too.

If you run a business selling wheelchair accessible vans, you don’t want to potentially sacrifice any quality in order to make more money. What other options do you have if you’re a company that provides mobility to the disabled? You can increase your visibility and consumer awareness. By making your advertising efforts more focused and efficient, you can essentially cut down on the money you have to spend making potential customers aware of your existence.

Branding is the key issue here and everything from email newsletters to billboards and even search engine optimization (SEO) are used to support this single issue. It may seem odd to say that SEO is primarily concerned with branding, but it’s true. Even when you’re not engaging in keyword branding, you’re still working to build brand awareness and reputation. Once you realize that SEO is part of the branding process, you can form a more focused, driven SEO strategy that will aid you in the process and help you achieve your desired result: higher levels of consumer awareness.

Why Brand?

Your brand is how consumers identify your company, service and product. It’s encompassed by your logo, motto, name and the relations those aspects have to your customers and anyone else associated with your company. Regardless of what you do, you have a brand. If you don’t care to manage it, then you have no control over whether your brand is positively or negatively regarded. By developing a specific strategy for branding you can help guide consumers’ awareness of your brand and ensure that people associate it with a positive experience and an excellent product.

What Does SEO Do?

When you develop an SEO strategy, you’re also working on your branding. When searchers see your website consistently ranking at a high level in Google for their searches, they’ll begin associating you as a knowledgeable, quality company. Their trust in Google’s ability to weed out inferior products and companies is near absolute, which is why most searchers click on the first three search results.

How Do You Brand?

By utilizing branding keywords and gearing your SEO toward service-oriented keywords, you can ensure your business’s name stays at the top of results and that consumers begin to draw an unconscious correlation between your industry and your company specifically. By focusing your keyword choices on only the ones that will strengthen your brand in your niche, you reduce the potential keyword pool and make it easier to rank. Once you begin ranking on your chosen branding keyword you can branch out into supporting phrases with the strength of your brand driving your SEO tactics the entire way.

The Internet World is growing at rapid pace. On average, more than a billion new pages are added to it every day. To give you an idea of how big world wide web is, this Infographic by GO-Gulf.com covers some really interesting facts about websites that we use on day-to-day basis.

In 60 seconds, there are 98.000+ tweets, 695.000+ Facebook updates, 600+ new YouTube videos and 168 million emails sent. ,

As 2011 ends and 2012 begins, we wish you a merry Christmas and happy holidays and a happy new year. If you wonder, you can follow Santa on Christmas Eve on Google Maps.

With 2011 drawing to a close and 2012 just around the corner, businesses may be a little worried about what the New Year holds for them. Indeed, many are predicting that 2012 will be a difficult year. Due to the ongoing economic crisis in Europe and ongoing worries about a double-dip recession, it should be obvious that these worries are well-founded. However, with a little preparation and understanding of successful business and marketing strategies, you will weather 2012 like a champ, and you may even flourish a little.

So what can I do?

The first thing to remember is to not, under any circumstances, freak out about these predictions. This may lead to a decrease in spending and fewer new hires, which will play right into these naysayers’ diabolical plans. Indeed, a recently released report by a group of University of Massachusetts economists suggests the current unemployment crisis could be solved if America’s largest banks and non-financial companies would cough up some of the $3.6 trillion in cash that they have been hoarding over the last few years.

“There is no reason that the US needs to remain stuck in a long-term unemployment crisis, Robert Pollin, lead author of the report and co-director of the Political Economy Research Institute, said in a statement. “Getting the banks and corporations to move their hoards into productive investments and job creation requires carrots and sticks—policies such as a new round of government spending stimulus as well as taxes on the banks’ excess reserves—that can both strengthen overall market demand and unlock credit markets for small businesses.”

Okay, what next?

After you are able to breathe a sigh of relief and stop worrying about things over which you have no control, it’s time to focus on the things that you do have control over, in order to strengthen your company and ensure that your year is productive and profitable.

Like it or not, the Internet is here to stay. The stats from this past Cyber Monday only serve to prove that this medium is not only highly effective for marketing, but that it can literally make the difference between a successful year and one that is not-so-successful. Learn to use every aspect of the Internet, in order to gain a toehold in the virtual marketplace.

And how exactly do I go about doing that?

Here are five places on the Internet where you should focus your attention in order to have a stellar 2012.

1. Social media sites, which were originally dismissed as being a frivolous waste of time, have really helped small businesses. Not only do they offer consumers a way of spreading the word about your business in a new-fangled word-of-mouth manner, but some sites like Facebook now offer advertising. If you were going to plan a weekend trip to the Windy City and were looking at Chicago hotels and events for your itinerary, would you choose one that you had never heard of, or go with the one that your Great Aunt Rhoda raved about on her Twitter account? You get my point.
2. Blogs are important, whether they are your own or someone else’s. By starting your own blog, you give consumers an insight into your business, and also open the floor for discussion and/or constructive criticism about what’s working and what’s not. By reading others’ blogs—particularly “mommy blogs” and those sites geared toward consumers—you are able to hear what consumers are saying, in their own words, and can strategize accordingly.
3. Google is more than just a way to pass the time or find directions to the theatre. By using white hat SEO tactics, you can increase your site’s visibility and brand recognition; this is done by raising you in the search results, which equates to more revenue for your company. The key is to learn everything there is to know about white-hat SEO and Google’s various algorithmic updates, in order to avoid angering the Google gods (hint: think relevant, quality content over spammy junk).
4. As I previously mentioned, Google and Facebook now offer advertising that is affordable and far more efficient than traditional advertising methods. In addition, email marketing is the new way of targeting consumers that doesn’t involve wasted paper, expensive postage, and annoyed consumers. Each of these methods is better able to target the specific demographic that you desire than previous methods.

Learn everything you can about web design and HTML code. This way, you can create an aesthetically-pleasing, intuitive site that will lure customers in and keep them there. There are multiple guides on the Internet for doing this, or you can hire a professional. Whatever your choice, be sure that your site is always at its best.

Innovation is the creation of better or more effective products, processes, services, technologies, or ideas that are accepted by markets, governments, and society. Innovation differs from invention in that innovation refers to the use of a new idea or method, whereas invention refers more directly to the creation of the idea or method itself.

Innovation and creativity are essential for sustainable growth and economic development. In today’s competitive economy, innovation becomes main driver for sustainable growth both for individual companies and for entire countries.

In this infographic from Good Magazine, the world map shows what percentage of Thomson Reuters’ “Global Innovators” list is headquartered in each country. In this list, Thomson Reuters names World’s 100 Most Innovative Companies. The U.S. leads, with 40 percent of that list’s companies based here. It’s followed by Japan (with 27 percent), France (11 percent) and Sweden (6 percent).

The most innovative industries on Thomson Reuters’ list were electronics and semiconductors, followed by chemical manufacturing, computer hardware, consumer products, machinery and telecom equipment.

In the mobile operating system war, Apple’s iOs still dominates Worldwide but Android gained significant momentum in the last year. Android app downloads passed 10 billion mark and Android has become an important platform for developers.  Android is already the world’s most widely-used operating system. The operating system now spans more than 400 devices on 231 mobile carriers in 123 countries, Google says, and the sheer number of eyeballs landing on Android screens is making the platform more appealing than ever.

Android has a volume advantage over iOS but it has an important disadvantage:

Fragmentation. Its open nature means dozens of manufacturers and more than 200 carriers globally can distribute Android phones. So different versions of the software on phones with different screen sizes, user interfaces, and capabilities all operate in the wild at once. Android users can choose from Google’s official Android Marketplace, carrier app stores, and other independent venues—each with potentially different rankings, reviews, and standards. While consumers get more choice and developers more opportunities to share their apps, the overall experience is inconsistent and potentially complicated.

In order to make it easier for Android developers to get started with creating robust applications, the Android team announced an Android Development School site: Android Training. The tutorials, or classes, are very well put together, with splits into logical steps to make them flow well, along with sample code you can utilize to “do your homework.” Thanks to Google, all the content is free and waiting for Android developer candidates.

It’s been more than four years since Apple introduced the iPhone at the end of June, 2007. iPhone wasn’t the world’s first smartphone, but it totally flipped the mobile industry upside down. Since then, smartphones have evolved from an expensive luxury to a common tool. After iPhone, Google’s Android came and powered other manufacturers against Apple and has helped smartphone market grow. But as much as the mobile industry has grown and changed since then, it’s just getting started. In 2011, the mobile space saw profound growth and a vast array of new wireless innovations and services emerge.

Nielsen’s “State of the Media: The Mobile Media Report” provides a snapshot of the current mobile media landscape and audiences in the U.S. and highlights the potential power of mobile commerce in the near future. So what’s coming? Matt Galligan, co-founder of SimpleGeo says “In my opinion, the ‘future of mobile’ is the ‘future of everything’ “ .

Key findings From The Report:

• The majority of 25-34 and 18-24 year olds now own smartphones (64% and 53% respectively);
• The majority of smartphone owners (62%) have downloaded apps on their devices and games are the top application category used in the past 30 days;
• The number of smartphone subscribers using the mobile Internet has grown 45 percent since 2010;
• 87 percent of app downloaders (those who have downloaded an app in the past 30 days) have used deal-of-the-day websites like Groupon or Living Social;
• Younger groups text the most. In Q3, teens 13-17 sent and received the most text messages (an average of 3,417 each month).

In my opinion, the future of mobile will largely be defined by creative entrepreneurs and companies that leverage the device capabilities in new and interesting ways. The next few years will be about thinking of the phone as a networked sensor. New technologies like NFC and GPS on phones and applications like Foursquare and Square will shape the future of Mobile.

We expect to see huge growth in the Smartphone and Mobile markets in the next years. Since then, I suggest Internet entrepreneurs to consider Mobile and Smartphones markets seriously to invest in time and money.

Here’s one more surprise from Google to celebrate holiday season. Type ‘let it snow’ in Google search, and you’ll see snowflakes falling down the page. Don’t miss out the opportunity to write your name in the frost. Enjoy and have a good holiday season