Foursquare basically enables your social network friends to know where you’ve been. To use it, just install the foursquare application in your phone, and submit your location. Fairly simple.

This little application, as great as it is, will also be the ultimate tool for jealous girlfriends/boyfriends.

Imagine the following scenario:

You told your very jealous girlfriend/wife you were going to run late at the office tonight (a classic), when actually your going for a few drinks with the new office receptionist, ex-girlfriend, etc… The normal thing is that your girlfriend is likely going to call you at some time in the evening to see how your handling in at the office, comment on the fact that your boss is cruel, tell you how she misses you right now, and finally ask you what time you think you’ll be getting back home.

All good for you. You perfectly manage the conversation, and tell her that you can’t wait to get back home and cuddle (while sipping a martini in the company of the new receptionist’s, ex-girlfriend, etc… cleavage).

All good? Yeah right… Remember how much you have been bragging to your girlfriend about how awesome foursquare is. Now imagine the new development in the above classic scenario: Suddenly, your girlfriend/wife grows a cyberculture brain and calls you back as you are about to order your third martini and drops the bomb question: « Honey, would you mind foursquarring yourself now? « .

Foursquare: A curse or a benediction?

From the 20th to the 22nd of May, the Esplanade de Beaubourg in Paris will be displaying a 6 meters tall BlackBerry bold.

This unusual phone  will display messages and photos sent by fans on Facebook, and the event will be live-streamed to BlackBerry’s French Facebook channel.

Good thing I live nearby. Will go check it out. The address is: Place Georges Pompidou
75004 Paris

See you there

The glitch had the unfortunate effect of setting all accounts with some unusual stats. 0 followers, 0 following is what you may have witnessed on your account at the time of the glitch.

Since all accounts were affected, the top 10 most followed twitter accounts (as registered on Monday 11th of May) including Ashton Kutcher, Britney Spears or Barack Obama ended up with accounts dry as a desert.

PS: Sorry the source of the image is in French.

This brings us to this post’s main topic: How can I delete PERMANENTLY my Facebook account?!

Have you ever seen a « delete your account » button/link anywhere on Facebook? Hmm, how bizarre. If one day you actually decide to delete your Facebook account, do you have any clue on where to start? Don’t laugh. You may think it’s a piece of cake but you actually have to dig quite a bit.

You’ll tell me that one simply needs to go to « account settings » and deactivate the account from there. But if you think your out, you are way wrong. Deactivating your account simply means that Facebook can still keeps records of all your profile information data, that your tagged pictures are still tagged and that if you login again, your account will be automatically reactivated with all your info intact (pictures, contacts, etc). Deactivating your account is just a scarier way of logging out.

So to permanently delete/erase/destroy your Facebook account follow my lead.

Step one: just login into your account. Easy enough so far.

Step two: Now this is where it gets tricky. On your Facebook page check the bottom right corner of your page and click Help Centre.

Step three: Still no sign of a « delete your account » link, but after going through a couple of options in the help centre menu you eventually get to Security parameter. Click it.

Step four: Now this is where I personally think the magic arrives. To find the holy graal you have to go to the Hacked account section. « Hacked account » as described by Facebook: « My account has been compromised, but it has not been phished nor affected by the money scam. » They could eventually add: « I want to delete my account ». But if it were that straightforward I wouldn’t be writing this post.

Step five: Your in the « Hacked account » page and at the bottom of the page menu you finally find some indication on how to delete your account. Click it and a text will scroll down. You are now just two steps closer to permanently deleting your Facebook account. Skip the part where Facebook lures you into deactivating your account,  and click directly the here link.

Step 6:  Finally after going trough a couple of links you are left with the final option: Submit or Cancel. Click submit and you’ll be permanently deleted from Facebook. Or so you think. A final message lets you know that your account will be officially erased after 14 days. So unless you want to go through all these steps again, don’t login into your Facebook account within the next 14 days you submitted for deletion or Facebook will gladly reactivate it.

On a personal note, I think Facebook is a fantastic tool, and if you adjust manually your privacy settings and don’t install too many applications that require to access all your personal infos, you should be relatively safe. I don’t intend to terminate my account any time soon, but if I witness a big trust breach from Facebook, I’ll strongly reconsider.

Google really outdid itself with its latest Chrome navigator upgrade. It’s faster than ever, and it’s got this cool video to prove it. I have been using Chrome for quite a while now and i’ve got to admit, it is  the best navigator I have ever used so far.

Watch video below

Space Monkey

Official text: Created as a collaboration between World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Ben Lee and Leo Burnett, « Space Monkey » carries a message about our planet, and features Ben Lee’s track, « Song for the Divine Mother of the Universe ».

Unoficially: When I first watched this video a couple of days ago I embarked in a journey that outreached the sheer duration of the video. The images are therapeutical and the song is to fly with. A pure hot chocolate moment.

Space Monkey from Leo Burnett on Vimeo.

Just a word about the Bui Gallery space. If you ever stop by Hanoi, make sur you pass for one of their numerous events. You’ll be charmed. Otherwise just go for a coffee at the gallery’s garden space. Just as good…

Bui Gallery: Ha Manh Thang – Not Memory from Ehrin Macksey on Vimeo.

In this article I will underline some of the reasons why you should consider blogging, and how it can improve your website’s rankings.

Adding a blog to your website can translate into the following results: increase your rankings, increase your traffic, bring credibility and attract links.

A blog is a great way to add more content relevant to your website’s main topic and increase the value and relevance of your website. The more relevant content you add, the more your site becomes an authority. And an authority site usually enjoys a higher page rank and improved search rankings.

Blogs are also great to increase the ranking potential on long tailed search phrases. Those are phrases that are less commonly searched, including three to four words, that are very targeted to your products or services.

Blogging is also a great way to improve your website’s traffic. An interesting and informational blog will get you repeat visitors. Even better, an interesting blog will benefit from word of mouth, as readers who liked your blog might likely pass your link to their friends

Establishing yourself as an expert on your website main topic is quite important for anyone who wishes to reach credibility for their products/services. Why is that important? Readers that acknowledge what your are blogging about are more likely to become customers. Sharing your knowledge will encourage your visitors to trust you and might lead to increased conversions.

A good, well written blog can result in free one way links to your site. Visitors that like your site can very easily add your link to their blog roll. And link by link, by link, you find yourself with a strong linking component which is quite important when it comes to search rankings.

All in all, if you want to grasp those extra conversions, try out a blog and see how it impacts your objectives.