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Google Voice Are You Ready For It?

I just received my invitation to join Google Voice and now my big decision is do I want to do so. Google Voice is a revolutionary way to tie all your phones together. You can read the Google Voice details here.  You should take a moment and watch the video.

In a nutshell a Google Voice number is a portable number that you then decide where the call is forwarded to. You can send a call to your home, number, to your office phone, to your home phone, or directly to voice mail. What is really great about the service is that you can assign which callers go where. With a Google Voice number even if your phone numbers change your Google Voice number doesn’t. You just update your profile with a new phone number for work, home or cell – which ever has changed.

Additionally you can use any of your phones to bridge to Google Voice and then call for free in the US and Canada making any of your phones tied to Google Voice now a toll free phone. You just call into your Google Voice account press 2 and then enter the number your want to phone and Google Voice connects the phone you are calling from to the phone number you want to talk to at no charge. Google Voice even helps you to select a phone number in your local area so calls in to use their free long distance service are really free.

For messages sent to your Google Voice voice mail account, Google Voice will even transcribe a message and send it to your computer if you desire. I have not tested out all the features yet, but it sure sounds like it could be a very interesting new platform for Google. I have no idea how they will monetize it, but certainly that will come. 

If you are currently using Google Voice drop me a note I’d be very interested in know what you think about this new program. If you want to try out Google Voice yourself,  just visit this link to get a Google Voice invitation.

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Refusing to Join the Social Networking Phenomena

Are you refusing to get a Facebook account? Do you think that Twitter is for people who have nothing better to do? The Washington Post print edition did an article last week on this new phenomena of young twenty to thirty somethings that literally refused to connect on Facebook. I found the article interesting reading and wanted to share my thoughts.

First in both cases the participants who refused to join their friends on Facebook either had a significant other keep tabs on Facebook for them or act as their “secretary” and also both said that they preferred “real face to face or phone to ear” interaction. Both mentioned that they were out of the loop with their friends. One missed important appointments for his band, the other missed auditions that the friends shared with each other on Facebook. Hmm, an interesting case study especially for the age of the individuals involved.

There are some who have decided to not join Facebook and purposely and rabidly declare that it is a waste of time. Usually the age of the individual is a factor on if they consider Facebook important. It is a real rarity to see a college student or for that matter really even and older high school student who is not using Facebook as an alternative to regular email.

Facebook is here to stay. In fact for many young people the email and chat function on Facebook now are their email and instant messaging programs. As for me, I think that Facebook is fun. It is a great way to stay connected with family and friends, and a wonderful way to deepen the interaction with colleagues and clients.

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Google the Webmasters Friend

Google with the improvements made in the webmaster control panel has rapidly become the webmasters best friend. So what are some of these improvements?

Well one of the first is to let you know if your website is spewing malware. In the spider section if you have a problem that Google has detected, they will now identify the page and the script embedded in your page that is causing the problem. Although this is not typically a problem for most websites, it can be a problem for blogs that have been hacked in some manner.

One of the next features that Google has added to the control panel is to allow you to identify and target the correct canonical address from within the control panel. With just one click you can let Google know if you prefer http:// or http://www in your links.

The HTML suggestions tab helps you to know and correct any duplicate meta title tags, short title tags, long title tags, and even non-informative title tags.

There is real value in verifying your website in the Google Webmaster Control panel, so if you are not set up, sign up for a free account today.

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Just How Connected Are You? Take Our Test

So just how connected are you to your business with your gadgets? Take our test below to find out. Each yes answer is worth one point.

  1. Do you take your cell phone everywhere you go including the bathroom?
  2. Did you grow your fingernails long and shape them into points so you can type better on your itty bitty phone keyboard?
  3. Do you now pay more to Verizon or your cell provider than you spend for food in one month at the grocery store?
  4. Do you text under the table during boring meetings?
  5. Do you tweet while you are waiting online at a store telling us how slow service is?
  6. Do your kids have to text you to get your attention while you are sitting in the same room?
  7. Do people call your cell phone first instead of your home phone or office phone?
  8. Do you actually answer your business phone after 9:00 PM?
  9. Do you carry refuse to turn off your cell phone even when the sign says to do so like at church or the doctor’s office?
  10. Do you have an internet and email enabled cell phone?

Score:

If you answered yes 8 to 10 times you need some help. Your family would probably be glad you had surgery to cut the umbilical cord that has grown from you to your phone.

If you answered yes 5 to 7 times there is definitely hope that with professional help you could break your addiction to the Internet in your downtime – if you have any.

If you answered yes 2 to 4 times it sounds like you have a life and should give me a call as I am looking for friends to do things with and it sounds like you may actually have some free time.

If you answered yes 0 to 1 time, you really need to get more connected. You may be out of the loop and friends and colleagues would appreciate being able to “hit you up” more frequently.