Academy of Art University’s Foursquare Special

Posted on 01. Dec, 2010 by Zahid Lilani. 2

There are different ways businesses are using Foursquare’s “Special Here” feature but I was surprised that a University would also engage in something very unorthodox but trendy. Here is Academy of Art University’s Foursquare Special which allows you to check in for extra credit.

Academy of Art University's Foursquare Special

Two classes in question are COM 202: Multimedia Formats & Trends 1 and COM 635: MS: Advanced Multimedia Broadcast Distribution.

Wish we had Foursquare when I was in school…

Blast from the Past; CEO Business Cards

Posted on 24. Nov, 2010 by Zahid Lilani. 1

Recently images of business cards of two of the most famous people in the world, Steve Jobs and Larry page, have surfaced. According to most accounts, they seem legit.

Pascal Finette, head of Mozilla Labs, got hold of Steve Jobs’ business card from 1979. At the time, Jobs was the Vice-President of Apple. A really simple business card that is dull looking, misaligned, and lacks a logo (my opinion).

Here is the business card:

Larry Page’s business card from 1998 was shared by a Reddit user named Zestyping. Page was hiring at the time and gave the card to Zestyping and told him Google was hiring. He (Zestyping) said “Nah, who needs another search engine?”

Page’s card is decent looking than Jobs’. I think Page was trying to be the next Yahoo!. Look at the logo, Google has an exclamation mark. Google!

I am glad they dropped the exclamation (!)

Here is the business card:

5 Online Tools for Converting Youtube Videos to MP3 Audio

Posted on 22. Oct, 2010 by Zahid Lilani. 2

Has there been a time when you were on Youtube and fell in love with a jingle or a song and wished if there was a way to get the audio/song in an mp3 format? Yes? Read on…

There are quite a few really good tools available online but to my surprise most people think it is not possible to convert Youtube videos to Mp3. They are WRONG! It is very much possible and most of the time very simple to convert Youtube videos to mp3 and other formats.

Here is a list of my favorite 5 websites online that let you convert Youtube videos to Mp3. When I say Youtube videos to Mp3 I mean that you will be able to have the audio used in the video converted to mp3 format and ready for your mp3 player like iPod etc.

1 – YoutubetoMp3 (visit site) – Very simple Youtube to Mp3 converter with an option to share the Mp3 with friends.
2 – Dirpy (visit site) – It’s like a DVR for Youtube, you can edit the start and end time of the video you want to convert to mp3. Neat.
3 – FLVto (visit site) – Simple YouTube video to mp3 converter. You can also convert to MP4, DivX etc and they also support other video sharing sites such as Veoh, Dailymotion, Myspace, Facebook, Metacafe, Lulu, Vimeo etc.
4 – Soundzaa (visit site) – Very simple, non nonsense Youtube to Mp3 converter.
5 – BenderConverter (visit site) – Convert Youtube and videos from other video sharing sites to mp3 and numerous other formats such as .wav, .flv, .avi, .mov etc.

[Book Review] Marketing in the age of Google by Vanessa Fox

Posted on 01. Oct, 2010 by Zahid Lilani. 10

Vanessa Fox used to work for Google and created Webmaster Central. That’s probably the only reason I picked up Marketing in the Age of Google because almost everyone these days is writing a book about ranking high on Google. Vanessa is different because she understands how Google (search) works from inside out and how it will evolve to better serve the needs of its users. That’s what makes her book better than most other books that give you an outside view of how to optimize your site for Google.

She makes a case that search is not what it used to be, it is now the fabric of our society. In other words, you might hear about something or someone offline but the tendency to search that thing or person online has never been so high. Offline marketing attempts translate into online search and businesses that can figure out the formula of better integration will succeed.

Businesses need a strategy online as much as they need one offline. It matters to consumers how a business is perceived online. Understanding consumer psyche is a step in the right direction because now it is easier than ever to gather useful data about consumer behavior, needs, and motivations.

I can summarize the entire book but I don’t think I will be able to do justice. There is a lot of content in the book that you won’t find on blogs or other books. There are strategies that can help a business understand search and effectively utilize it in order to gain market share.

My Personal Opinion

While reading the book I felt that there was overwhelming amount of information and the book might not be for someone who has never experimented with search optimization. The book is more geared towards executives in the marketing department who can influence change within their departments and communicate effectively with developers who make things happen. You need to have a tech savvy background to read this book.

If you are a geek, start reading the book from the last chapter. I read it from 1-10 and then read it again from 10-1. Chapters 6, 7, and 8 is were the real VALUE is. I am in no way discounting the rest of the book, all chapters are informative and easy to understand. (mostly jargon free)

This book is a must read if you are into speculating the future of social media and Google.

Vanessa Fox Website | More about the Book | Vanessa Fox on Twitter | Buy the book from Amazon (affiliate link)

Twitter Stepping in to Privacy Waters

Posted on 02. Sep, 2010 by Zahid Lilani. 1

If you gave a valid email then you probably received one of the few million emails sent by the Twitter team announcing two new changes. One deals with OAuth which is too geeky for my taste and you don’t really care about it anyways. The second one is interesting because it deals with privacy (they both do but this one is what will affect you more).

I think I have your attention now.

Twitter is going to roll out “t.co” URL shortener which will help you shorten the long URLs that you are currently used to shortening using Bit.ly etc. The purpose of this new feature is to serve as a benefit to the end user (you) and help Twitter’s bottom line. So far so good…

Clicks will be logged by Twitter if you use “t.co” URL shortener. Data will be used to figure out what works and what doesn’t in terms of popularity and then algorithms will be implemented to help advertisers maximize ROI.

It’s capitalism dude, businesses have the right to make money.

True, I am all for Twitter being successful and making money but I don’t think Twitter can safeguard my privacy.

Fail whale, anyone? How reliable are Twitter data centers? How secure are its servers?

It will take one hacker with a simple yet devastating exploit to access the logs and then make it available to the world. Twitter click data can be a goldmine for advertisers. They will pay for access to YOUR clicking habits and interests.

In a perfect world I would say that even that is harmless.

The real problem is when the click data is used to prosecute you on the basis of circumstantial evidence. Government, Lawyers etc requesting Twitter to turn over data that can then be used against you in court of law. That’s frightening!

Here are few suggestions for Twitter team:

- Let user opt out of click tracking.
- Anonymize the data after 72 hours
- Hire a decent privacy lawyer wiling to fight the government from accessing private data derived from clicks.

That said, I simply love Twitter. Why?

Twitter sent me an email announcing it’s new features. When was the last time Facebook sent an email saying they are going to introduce new features? They don’t even do it when they make private data available to the advertisers and the world.

I know it is ironic, on one hand they care about users and on the other they are implementing features that track user habits. Why not just charge people with over 5000 followers a low monthly fee? That would solve quite a few problems, #1 being spam.