The new version of Gmail has been released with many new features and display options including – Line Spacing.  

The first thing you will notice when you invoke the new Gmail is that line spacing between things like email items, mailbox categories, etc. has gotten a lot wider. This line spacing setting in Gmail is called Display Density and is very easy to adjust / personalize.

Enjoy the control.

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If you haven’t looked at your Klout achievement badges in a while, you’d better go take a peek.

For those not familiar with Klout, it is a web service for measuring online influence, particularly in the social media arena. Klout has used badges, aka “achievements,” to represent differing levels of engagement with friends and followers. In early 2011 the original Klout achievement program was put on hold with the promise of something new and improved coming soon.

Well, the new style of Klout achievement badges started being phased in this week based on users’ current interactions with friends and followers with little little fanfare other than this tweet (to the best of my knowledge).

Below is a screenshot of a few of the initial badges to give you some idea of what to expect. Click on the Achievements tab in your profile to see your new badges.  You will notice that the new achievements in your profile are not retroactive and do not reflect historical activity or previous achievements.

Here is the list of new Klout achievement badges found to date with a description of each from the Klout website. Please let me know when you find something new — I would like to add it and continue to grow this list. Note: it will be helpful if you send a link to the profile displaying the badge as well.

• Klout OG – You’ve been around the block with us and then some. Thanks for being there in the early days and sticking it out… (This was the first of the new badges, coming out early in the year)
• Summer of Klout - Way to go! Your Klout Score braved the dog days of summer and still came out on top… (This was the second of the new badges, it was released in the Summer — I expect to keep us watching for more)
• Profile Surfer - You’ve visited “x” Klout profiles
• Klout Addict - You’ve visited klout.com “x” days consecutively
• Making it Rain +K - You’ve given +K “x” times
• Rolling in +K - You’ve received +K “x” times
• On My List - You’ve been added to “x” lists
• The 20s, 30s, 40s… - You’ve finally earned a Klout score in the “30s, 40s, 50s, etc.”
• Perk Magnet – You’ve received “x” perks

Achievement badges are always a great way to enhance and reward social media engagement. Way to go Klout… keep ‘em coming!

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I never was one for all things Apple. Particularly the controlling nature of their systems. However, one cannot deny that the way in which Apple products were developed, manufactured and marketed represent the best of the best.

Under Steve Jobs’ leadership, Apple changed the way we think and more importantly, changed the way we do. It was one of those companies that created products that truly represent the very best in American innovation.

Thank you Steve Jobs… you made the world a much cooler place.

Google’s tribute to Steve Jobs -

Google Tribute To Steve Jobs

Facebooks’s tribute to Steve Jobs -

Mark Zuckerberg Tribute To Steve Jobs

Apple’s tribute to Steve Jobs -

Apple Tribute To Steve Jobs

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Monday starts the week.

Next thing I know it’s Thursday.

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Where did the week go?

All the days are just a blur.

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It feels like putting

five days of work into three.

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Then you remind me,

time flies when you’re having fun.

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Friday here we come!

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In what appears to be a very well timed event, Google Plus has gone public… just as the world was wondering if it was dying on the vine.

 http://plus.google.com/up/start/

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We pause to reflect;

loves lost, heroes remembered;

one nation, one heart.

#haiku

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I am always impressed when I see someone kicks off a great social media or search marketing presentation with a witty quote that sums up the current trends in the world of social media marketing. I also like creating lists to help me to remember all of these bits of wit, wisdom and double entendre.

Terms, conditions and other medium-fine print: I will update this list periodically when something new strikes my fancy. You are welcome to send me your favs as well. If something in this list is yours, let me know I’d be more than happy to attribute.

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My list of favorite social media quotes and other quickly outdated social marketing cliches and double entendre:

– LinkedIn is for people you know, Facebook is for people you used to know, Twitter is for people you want to know.  Author Unknown

– Marketing is no longer about the stuff that you make, but about the stories you tell. @ThisIsSethsBlog

– In social media marketing, viral is an verb not an adjective.

– Social media is like a cocktail party, don’t be that over-assertive guy.

– Focus on how to be social, not how to do social.

– Social Media puts the “public” into PR and the “market” into marketing. @ChrisBrogan

– Social media doesn’t create negativity, it uncover’s it.

– Social media is the ultimate canary in the coal mine.

– Social media is an ingredient, not an entree.

– Social Media is like teen sex. Everyone wants to do it. No one actually knows how. When finally done, there is surprise it’s not better. Author Unknown

- Passion is the gasoline of social media.

- Social media isn’t inexpensive, it’s different expensive.

- The goal of social media is to turn customers into a volunteer marketing army.

- Activate your fans, don’t just collect them like baseball cards. @JayBaer

- It’s not viral unless it is.

- Social media allows big companies to act small again.

- Facebook fan pages are newsletters with smaller pictures.

- The problem with trying to determine ROI for Social Media is you are trying to put numeric quantities around human interactions and conversations, which are not quantifiable. @JasonFalls

- Social media changes the relationship between companies and customers from master and servant to peer to peer.

- You must fight social media fire with social media water.

- Every company is not its own TV station, magazine, and newspaper.

- Social media is about people, not logos.

Initially inspired by Jay Baer’s presentation “18 Social Media Quotes My Wife is Sick of Hearing Me Say“ and other random tweets and googley searches.
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This information became obsolete a couple weeks after the initial change when Facebook introduced Timeline and other major changes at f8 2011.

The default News Feed for Facebook has changed… again.  Unless you make this edit to your settings, you will only see updates from people with whom you have most recently interacted.

How to change your default Facebook News Feed to include all friends:

• Go to top of your Facebook page where it says “Most Recent”
• Click on the Down Arrow
• Click on Edit Options
• Select “All Friends”
• Click on Save

Share this with your friends, otherwise only a few of your friends will actually see your posts.

(Special thank you @ChrisKenney for sharing this with me)

• Title Tags – Are your title tags unique on every page? Pages will perform better in Google rankings if the title tags are unique to every important page
• Content Order – How does your content load? Do the sidebars loaded before the main content? This is an SEO no-no
• Header Tags – Do you have more than one H1 tags on a single page? Google recommends one per page
• Hierarchy – Is the heading structure optimized? Category titles should be in an H1, and subsequent posts should be H2, etc.
• Clean Code – Is your code tight? Messy or bloated code does not perform as well in search results
• Load Time – Does your site load slowly? Google takes page load time into account with search rankings
• Flash Navigation – Just say no. Search engines can’t spider it. iPad users can’t see it.

This can all happen when you are more concerned about the frontend “look” of the website than the backend “structure” or framework of the website.

You should work to have as close to a perfect infrastructure (framework) as possible when developing a competitive website. There needs to be an understand all nuances of HTML, CSS and other scripting languages and how these nuances affect search engine results.

The site owner’s time is better invested writing good content, engaging visitors and developing lasting relationships. A properly developed framework in combination with great design and engaging content will help drive search engine traffic, thereby enhancing conversions and ultimately increasing your return on investment (ROI).

]]> http://billboardinthewoods.com/2011/06/how-your-websites-code-can-hurt-your-search-engine-ranking/feed/ 0 http://billboardinthewoods.com/2011/01/how-to-keep-you-address-and-mobile-number-private-in-facebook/ http://billboardinthewoods.com/2011/01/how-to-keep-you-address-and-mobile-number-private-in-facebook/#comments Mon, 24 Jan 2011 14:31:53 +0000 Jay http://billboardinthewoods.com/?p=646 .

Simple steps on how to protect your phone and contact information in your Facebook profile

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Facebook changed to its privacy policy last week… again.  However this one has some serious implications.  It can provide 3rd-party application developers access to your contact information, including street address and phone number(s).

The good new is that Facebook will ask you each time you attempt to download a new app whether you would lik to allow access to your contact information.  However, may people may not realize the information they are releasing, so I recommend that you remove contact information from your profile.  It is very easy to do.

The step below will prevent the accidental release of this valuable personal information:

1. Log into Facebook and click  on either the Facebook logo or the Home link in the upper right corner
2. Click Edit My Profile next to your avatar image in the upper left column
3. Click on Contact Information in the left column
4. Make sure that the Mobile Phone, Other Phone, and Address fields are blank

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That should do it… for now.