Stature Software

Archive for February, 2011

Visualize Your LinkedIn Network

February 24th, 2011 by Erin Posted in LinkedIn | No Comments »

Social media and networking are no longer just about status updates and sharing information. These days people are just as concerned about visualizing their contacts and connections as they are about hearing what they’re up to.

Twitter has many of its own visualization tools – like Twiangulate and MentionMap. Now, LinkedIn has joined in on the visualization fun by developing what they call InMaps.

If you’ve ever wondered what your personal network looks like – now you can see it. In January, LinkedIn launched InMaps as an experimental project that lets users visualize the connections within their business networks. InMaps technology filters through a users connections to see how everyone knows each other – and then groups people together into network clusters based on their associations.

InMaps can basically shed light on who the major connections and influencers are in your network. People with bigger dots and larger fonts have more connections – and typically more influence.

This application will no doubt help business executives branch out and raise their profiles within certain network clusters. With the help of InMaps, you can make targeted recommendations based on the most influential people identified.

Check it out and see what InMaps reveals about your own business network. What you see may surprise you.

 Tags: linkedin inmap, visualize linkedin, visualize linkedin connections

Chrome Lets Users Blacklist Websites

February 17th, 2011 by Erin Posted in Technology | No Comments »

It’s not a secret. I love Google Chrome – and why everyone is not using it is beyond me. But perhaps, this next piece of information will light fire under the rest of the world.

Google has released an *experimental* extension for Chrome that allows users to BLOCK “content farms” from appearing in Google search results.

While they’ve been around, people are just now starting to talk about content farms and the shady nature in which they appear at the top of a list of search results. These websites specialize in producing tons of material – usually bad quality – to maximize their traffic from search queries. They’re suspect – yet quite effective at crowding out better, original material in search results.

Thankfully, people have caught on to content farms’ wiley ways – and so has Google.

Google Chrome’s Personal Blocklist extension lets users eliminate unwanted websites – like content farms – from search results. Users who download the extension also can edit their block lists, if they wish.

Now, here’s the best part – in my opinion.

Google will pay attention to the sites that users block and could *possibly* use the data to revise the quality of its search results.

I believe this extension is a step in the right direction for personalized search, but other tech-watchers aren’t so convinced. TechCrunch writes that most users probably won’t use the extension and also notes the possibility that rival content farms may use it to sabotage each other. VentureBeat adds that users could block sites that are uninteresting to them, rather than target spammy content farm-riddled search results.

I’ll admit that the average person probably doesn’t know how to spot a content farm and may end up flagging a legit Website. But, I have faith that those “in the know” will find this new Google tool helpful and will hopefully use it rid the search engine of spam once and for all.

 Tags: block content farms, chrome extension, google tool, personal blocklist extension, personalized search

Google Translate iPhone App – A HUGE Help for Business and Travel

February 10th, 2011 by Erin Posted in Business, Technology | No Comments »

There were many noteworthy things going on in technology this past week, like exciting talk of Apple releasing the iPad 3 in the fall and the ho-hum news of Facebook moving its headquarters from Palo Alto to Menlo Park, CA.

But what was of real interest to me, and I’m sure a lot of other people, was the new Google Translate app for iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch.

Available for free from the iTunes store, the new app translates voice input for 15 languages!

Google Translate for iOS also translates words or phrases into 50 languages and can read translations aloud in 23 languages.

According to the Google Mobile Blog, “the app also includes all of the major features of the web app, including the ability to view dictionary results for single words, access your starred translations and translation history even when offline, and support romanized text like Pinyin and Romaji.”

In January, Google launched a similar Translate app for Android devices.

Traveling for business or pleasure? Be sure to have Google Translate in your back pocket. This will no doubt be a handy tool for anyone traveling abroad – or even a boardroom businessman who has to communicate via satellite with, let’s say, foreign investors. Just talk right into the phone and have the translation read back to you aloud.

While handy, I do have to say that Search Engine Land may be over-dramatizing the launch of this app just a tad. They call Google Translate “a small glimpse at the future of search” – meaning that Google has broken ground in the new “search for words (and their meanings) in different languages” territory.

That is dicey terrain that will take many, many more years to dissect. Let us, instead, focus on the here-and-now – and use Translate for what it’s intended: Translation.

 Tags: Business, google mobile, google translate iphone app, search engine land, translation, travel

Password Generator – More Security, Less Thinking

February 3rd, 2011 by Erin Posted in Technology | No Comments »

Have you ever stopped and counted how many passwords you have?

While we need a password for just about everything these days, chances are you use the same password, or some sort of variant, for every login.

Security experts tell us this is a big “no no” – but do we listen?

No way.

We don’t want to have to actually think when we’re logging in somewhere – we want to get in, and get in quick!

The creators of ObPwd, thankfully, understand our plight. Their unique password generator application promises to give us our security back – and do so without requiring us to use too much brain power.

Here’s how it works.

For starters, ObPwd is a password generator, not an application for storing your passwords. It is available as a free application for computers running Mac OS X and it is a free extension for anyone running Firefox.

ObPwd reads images and will create a unique password based on that image. For example, if you click on a picture of your car, it will generate the same password everytime you click on that particular picture.

Even if you change the name of the image, ObPwd will always generate the same passcode. According to the program’s creators, if you copy images and store them in various locations, the application will still generate the same passwords.

You can also click on images on websites to generate passwords. But, if the image gets replaced, you’re out of luck.

Advantage:

- ObPwd is great for creating a limited number of passwords that you regularly use. Because you need different images for each password, using more than a couple different images could make it difficult to remember which password is used for each purpose.

Disadvantage:

- If you use multiple computers – or a tablet device like an iPad – you need to have all the images available on all computers in order to have your password generated. Difficult? Yes. But, it’s what makes your passwords more secure.

ObPwd may not have the most memorable, user-friendly name for consumers – but its application is unique and provides us with an extra layer of security. It’s probably not the best option for mobile people who need quick access to password-protected sites… but, hey, I’d try it.

I’d try just about anything – once.

 Tags: application, firfox, mac osx, number of passwords, password generator, storing your passwords