YouTube Tests Sreaming Service Live

YouTube is testing its streaming service live on Sept. On Sept. 12 and 13, 2010, YouTube is running a live test of its live streaming service. Howcast, Next New Networks, Rocketboom and Young Hollywood are providing content for the test.

The new platform integrates live streaming directly into YouTube channels. All broadcasters need is a webcam or external USB or FireWire camera.

Included in the test is a “Live Comments” module which lets you engage with the broadcaster and the broader YouTube community.

Based on the results of this initial test, YouTube will evaluate rolling out the platform more broadly to its partners worldwide.

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New Twitter Design and Features Launched

Twitter has crafted a new design featuring scrolling Tweets (no need to click "more"), ability to embed photos and videos, a details pane that shows "additional details."

"Mini profiles" allow users to click a username to see a mini profile without navigating from the page, which provides quick access to account information, including bio and recent Tweets.

Verizon Introduces "Computing as Service" for Smaller Businesses

Boosting bandwidth, adding more servers and turning up additional storage capacity to meet changing business needs quickly are among the many things small and medium-sized businesses now can do affordably with Verizon's new cloud computing offering, "Computing as a Service, SMB," that can be billed on a credit card.

Verizon's new offering is tailored to companies that have limited IT resources and do not want to own or manage their IT infrastructure. "CaaS SMB" is suited to smaller businesses such as retailers, manufacturers and professional services firms as well as independent departments within larger organizations, Verizon says. It also appeals to online businesses and application developers who want to code, test and stage in a reliable and scalable cloud environment.  All that's needed to get started is a credit card.

With Verizon CaaS SMB, customers can customize the server, storage and network resources required to manage a Web presence or enable company applications.  Unlike many other available cloud offerings, Verizon CaaS SMB offers built-in security including virtual private networks while allowing companies to add more security features.  CaaS SMB also lets companies retain previous computing configurations of their data and servers so data can be easily accessed in the future.

Anchor Text Loses SEO Influence with Google

Using and repeating "Anchor text" used to be one of the top ways search engine optimizers would suggest writers position their text for higher rankings by Google.

But SEO changes all the time, and anchor text might not be as important as it once was. One of the main factors now is getting more links to your domain as a whole, not just the homepage, you need to show Google that you have a whole range of pages that are worth visiting, a domain filled with worthwhile material that is liked and referenced by as many people as possible, one analyst suggests.

In order to benefit you need to get links from as many different unique domains as possible. Some of us might think that an improvement. Instead of SEO "tricks," just do a better job with a site's content.

Anchor Text Loses Influence and Building a Brand Becomes Even More Important

Why Social Now Matters

Why the rush to get into social networking, social media and social ecosystems?

Why T-Mobile is Sprint's best hope

As much as the notion of a T-Mobile USA merger with Sprint has been bandied about and criticized, the ways the two competitors might work together has taken a new tack of late as T-Mobile USA looks for a 4G partner and Clearwire, majority owned by Sprint, looks for expansion capital.

While T-Mobile has not officially announced its own 4G plans, Deutsche Telekom CEO Rene Obermann stated earlier this year the company was exploring options and will be open to cooperation when it comes to 4G, which could include working with other network operators such as Sprint.

Sprint seems conflicted about allowing T-Mobile USA to become an investor in Clearwire. But such a move would have obvious benefits and some strategic issues as well.

Over time, both firms will probably need to consider bulking up in some way to compete more effectively with Verizon Wireless and AT&T. Getting both carriers on a common LTE platform would solve some important practical issues longer term.

In the nearer term, a T-Mobile USA investment in Clearwire would help both firms in obvious ways.

Why T-Mobile is Sprint's best hope

Text Campaigns are About Immediacy, Email Less So, Exec Says

Immediacy is what differentiates text message marketing from its email counterpart, according to an ExactTarget executive.

While the two channels are complementary ones that should tie together in multichannel campaigns, the campaign that simply mimics an email strategy in mobile will fail.

Consumers expect more immediacy from mobile than email