Convergence of Internet, mobile, and social media

Anywhere, anytime access to information, relationships and networks! How is it possible? The most probable answer would be “Social Media”. But as per my thinking, the ideal answer should be “the convergence of Internet, mobile, and social media” can be coined as “Digital signage”.

In the other way around, it’s what you’re going to do with it at all! Every one of us loves real time messaging, information and engagement. When we did not have mobile, internet, social media, we used to get stuck in the screen of Television. But in reality, a TV is nothing more than a screen. And our culture is rapidly reaching a saturation point with screens. Nowadays we find ourselves surprised when we are in a venue without a screen; because now we love to make content on a screen, for a screen.

Thus convergence of mobile, internet and social media could happen and now we are able to share information across almost universal platform like Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, or YouTube etc.

Internet presents a companion to digital signage in the potential for engagement while networks facilitate this easy interactivity and mobile technologically provides the screen. For example, how do you follow Starbucks.com? You don’t follow Starbucks.com directly. You follow Twitter.com/starbucks, or Facebook.com/starbucks. That’s how Starbucks promotes them and engages with consumers.

How are you following? Through the internet on your mobile device. When you see a screen offering to post your SMS, where is the SMS coming from? Your mobile device. Where are you seeing Starbucks? On social media.

Coupled with the interactive nature of mobile devices, digital signage will be a complementary channel of engagement for both the network and the audience.

Agree? Disagree? Chime in. I’d love to hear what you think.

Free phone calls from your Gmail! Another useful feature on Gmail, yet to be coming this fall!

Gmail users will be able to make free phone calls from their Gmail account. Calling will be free within U.S. and Canada through 2011.
When calling was added to Gmail back in August, the company said that it’d be making such calls free “for at least the rest of the year,” with per minute rates starting at $0.02 per minute for international dialing.
The service made a major splash initially, with 1 million calls placed in the first 24 hours and pundits predicts that the service is a potential Skype killer.
There is yet no clue for the traction of the service. Free calling for all from 2011, will certainly stand to lure more users.
But I am not yet much aware of this service. Keep me informed, if anyone has any update. I will be reaching out here with tidings if I hear back.

Do you know about e-mail delegation? Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what it is all about? – Not many people do.. But you may have multiple Gmail accounts. How can you open them in one browser?

Email delegation is a feature, enabled by Google. It will allow you to easily manage numerous accounts without signing in and out of those Gmail and switching accounts manually.
Originally, e-mail delegation was useful for granting others access to your primary Gmail account — personal assistants, for example.

Now, this feature is going to be more useful for any Gmail user with their multiple accounts. When you sign into your primary Gmail account, you can choose to grant access to another account. Just navigate to your Gmail settings by clicking the link in the top right corner of Gmail’s web interface.
Under the Accounts tab, there’s now a new section entitled, “Grant access to your account.” Here, you can add any other Gmail accounts you control to your primary Gmail account.
When you add an account, you’ll have to accept access from a verification e-mail sent to the to-be-added account. Once the account is successfully added, you can simply toggle between your Gmail accounts without logging in and out.
Also, when you send a new e-mail message while signed into a secondary account, your primary address will also appear in the e-mail details.

Don't worry! Pete Cashmore is teaching how to customize your background for the New twitter.

Search and Location-based Search is similar in Google Search Engine from today. Google puts the emphasis on Location in Search from today. Do you think this change will get more users to utilize location in their searches? With a few tweaks and an interface change, Google has placed location and location-based search front-and-center in its search engine. Google has moved the user location setting to the left-hand panel of the search engine results page. This feature automatically detects your current location and tailors search results based on that. For example, searches for “pizza” or “gyms” will provide local business results near your location, which tend to be a lot more relevant than a Wikipedia article on everybody’s favorite cheesy snack. The change rolls out starting today and will be available to users in 40+ languages sometime soon.

Today a press meet, called by Facebook is being held at its headquarters. But they didn't disclose the agenda for the meeting. What do you think Facebook will be announcing? Any new feature is coming up with Facebook? Facebook Video Chat? Integration with Skype? Dislike button? Facebook for iPad? ....

Facebook's invitation letter .....

Hey, Do you know the Golden Ratio (User's Visual Path) of Twitter Layout? We have noticed the newest version of Twitter’s web interface rolling out last evening. There are so many navigation controls you might found on the newest version