Five Platforms Enabling Seamless Functioning Between Teams During Remote-Working

Usually, in an office setting, it’s easy to coordinate the work. You likely have your manager and the team around to discuss and close the set tasks. But since the outset of the pandemic, things have changed. As the remote-working setup has become normal for small as well as big organizations, teams are several or thousands of miles away from each other. Unquestionably, it has made individuals more disciplined to stay on track and meet the deadlines.

However, not every day with work-from-home is the same. There are days we struggle to make it productive for the assigned tasks. Thus, we have curated a list of some of the best apps and platforms for you that can manage your tasks efficiently and effectively during remote-working.

1. Microsoft Teams: Microsoft Teams is your hub for teamwork, which brings together everything a team needs: chat and threaded conversations, meetings & video conferencing, calling, content collaboration with the power of Microsoft 365 applications, and the ability to create and integrate apps and workflows that your business relies on

2. Clink: The recently launched app helps organizations and teams to advance themselves on a higher growth trajectory. It does so by improving their feedback sharing in real-time and unlocking relevant actionable insights. This app is amazing because it has a ‘Cheer’ and ‘Boost’ framework, plug-ins easily with Gmail and Slack, and Integrates with Jira and Google Calendar thus Enabling feedback sharing to encourage continuous performance.

3. Dropbox: Dropbox lets anyone upload and transfer files to the cloud, and share them with anyone. Back up photos, videos, docs, and other files to cloud storage, and access files synced with any of your computers or mobile devices—from anywhere. And with advanced sharing features, it’s easy to send files—large or small—to friends, family, and co-workers.

4. Workplace by Facebook: Workplace by Facebook is a collaboration and communication tool that connects employees to one another via an internal social network.

5. Slack: Slack brings team communication and collaboration into one place so you can get more work done, whether you belong to a large enterprise or a small business. Tick off your to-do list and make progress on your projects by bringing the right people, conversations, tools, and information you need together. Slack is available on any device, so you can find and access your team and your work whether you’re at your desk or on the go.

It’s official; Microsoft buys Skype for $8.5 billion

After rumors that first Facebook and then Microsoft were in talks to acquire Skype, the latter announced that it has acquired the VoIP giant for $8.5 billion in cash.

Skype will be integrated into Microsoft devices and systems such as Xbox and Kinect, Xbox Live, the Windows Phone, Lync and Outlook, Microsoft said in a report. The company has pledged to continue supporting and developing Skype clients on non-Microsoft platforms as well.

The deal, which was spearheaded by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer with assistance from Charles Songhurst, the company’s head of corporate strategy, was completed Monday evening,

The acquisition is an expensive one for Microsoft. Not only is it the largest price Microsoft has paid for a company in decades, Skype is not yet profitable. Despite revenues totaling $860 million last year and operating profits of $264 million, the company lost $6.9 million overall, according to documents filed with the SEC. And the company carries $686 million in debt.

Much of the company’s appeal rests in its largest user base of 663 million, 145 million of which use Skype monthly (Update: Microsoft says Skype has 170 million regular users), and 8.8 million of which are paying customers.

There is one clear set of winners here: Skype’s investors. A group including Silver Lake, Index Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz and the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) Investment Board purchased the company from eBay for $2.75 billion in September 2009.

In August, Skype filed for an IPO but put plans on hold after Tony Bates joined the company as CEO in October. Bates will take on the title of president of the Microsoft Skype Division and report directly to Ballmer.

Source: Linkedin News

Will Facebook Buy Skype?

Reports indicate that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is talking to Skype about either buying the company or forming a joint venture, according to Reuters.

One of the sources said Facebook is considering a buyout of Skype at a price of between $3 billion and $4 billion.

The other source told Reuters the deal won’t be a purchase by Facebook but rather a joint venture between Facebook and Skype.

Skype and Facebook are no strangers. In October, when Skype released its version 5.0 software for Windows, it included a Facebook tab that let users chat or call Facebook friends via Skype, right from the Facebook newsfeed that can be viewed from within the Skype application.

Facebook isn’t the only one chasing Skype. One of the sources talking to Reuters added that Google was also in “early talks” with Skype about a joint venture.

When we contacted Skype Wednesday night, the company responded, “As a practical matter, we avoid commenting on rumor and speculation.”

Let us know in the comments what you think of this deal and who stands to gain the most.

Source: Reuters+Agencies

Watch TV anywhere with new Nokia mobile TV phones

Nokia has announced the launch of Nokia 5330 Mobile TV Edition, which will allow users to watch television anywhere. The phone is an entertainment hub that combines mobile broadcast TV (DVB-H), social networking, music and gaming in one compact 3G device. Nokia says that broadcast TV consumption is on the rise and by 2012 there will be over 300 million people worldwide watching TV on their mobile phones.

"The introduction of the Nokia 5330 Mobile TV Edition responds to the arrival of DVB-H broadcast mobile TV networks in new markets and offers an affordable device for new and existing customers alike. Customers are increasingly watching a variety of programmes on their mobiles, such as drama programs, news and sport, for a longer period of time. The Nokia 5330 Mobile TV Edition has the sound and image quality to hold audiences captive," said Mark Selby, Vice President, Nokia.

Nokia 5330 Mobile TV Edition's DVB-H technology allows programs to burst through the QVGA 2.4" screen in full-colour, crystal clear, sharp images. A user can set reminders for favorite shows and create personal channel lists with Nokia's Electronic Program Guide (EPG) for a good mobile broadcast TV experience.

The Nokia 5330 Mobile TV Edition provides broadcast picture quality while the headset acts as an antenna for outstanding reception. Long battery life gives up to six hours of DVB-H usage. "It is essential for DVB-H service providers to have a variety of devices capable of serving the mass market. Having a complete portfolio of handsets is pivotal for the commercial success of mobile TV. The new Nokia DVB-H enabled mobile phone, the Nokia 5330 Mobile TV Edition, is a great addition to the current portfolio of broadcast TV-capable handsets," said Franklin Selgert, Chairman, Broadcast Mobile Convergence Forum.

The Nokia 5330 Mobile TV Edition comes with all the latest social networking software, making it simple to stay in touch with friends via Ovi Contacts, Facebook, MySpace and YouTube. Post status updates for friends and family to follow or instant message (IM) them via Windows Live(TM) Messenger, Google Talk, Yahoo! Messenger, ICQ, AOL and many others.

Users can capture photos and video clips, day or night, using the 3.2 megapixel camera with 4x digital zoom and LED flash before uploading and sharing favourite shots via sites such as OviShare and Flickr.

Nokia and Nokia Siemens Networks work with more than 30 operators worldwide on Mobile TV implementations. Commercial launches with Mobile TV services based on DVB-H and OMA BCAST standards include Austria, Finland, Ghana, Kenya, India, Italy, Namibia, Nigeria, Netherland, Philippines and Switzerland. Nokia 5330 Mobile TV Edition costs around Rs. 11,000 excluding taxes.

Agencies

Banks, social networks new target for computer viruses

Cyber criminals are increasingly focusing their attacks on the hundreds of millions of users of social networks and on loopholes in bank security systems, security software vendors said on Wednesday. At the same time, spam e-mail messages rose sharply in the third quarter, Symantec Corp said.

And as Facebook reached 300 million accounts in September, social networks and social media continued to attract criminals, smaller research firm F-Secure said in its quarterly virus report. "As Twitter has grown in popularity, it has been increasingly targeted by worms, spam and account hijacking," F-Secure said.

Cyber criminals choose targets that are widely used, allowing them to go after the largest number of potential victims. "Cyber criminals continue to follow the money," said Yuval Ben-Itzhak, technology chief at a small security software vendor Finjan, who on Wednesday revealed a new method criminals use to steal money from bank accounts and hide their tracks.

Finjan said it expects a growing trend of using new software that forges on-screen bank statements, concealing the true transaction amount to dupe account holders and their banks, and then sends the stolen money to money mules accounts.

"With the combination of using sophisticated Trojans for the theft and money mules to transfer stolen money to their accounts, they minimize their chances of being detected," Ben-Itzhak said.

The amount of spam in all e-mail traffic rose to 88.1 percent in the third quarter from 81 percent a year ago, said Symantec's MessageLabs in its quarterly report. MessageLabs said botnets are now responsible for sending 87.9 percent of all spam. Hackers take advantage of the PC vulnerability by booby- trapping websites with a malicious code that loads onto computers.

Infected PCs are commandeered into a botnet, a network of hijacked computers. They are used for identity theft, spamming and other cyber crimes. "Over the past year, we have seen a number of ISP's (Internet service providers) taken offline for hosting botnet activity resulting in a case of sink or swim and an ensuing shift in botnet power," MessageLabs analyst Paul Wood said in a statement.

"However, this won't always be the case as botnet technology has also evolved since the end of 2008 and the most recent ISP closures now have less of an impact on resulting activity as downtime now only lasts a few hours rather than weeks or months as before," Wood said.

Agencies

Motorola's Android system banks on Google's Web power

Struggling phone maker Motorola unveiled its first device using Google's Android system Thursday, expecting it will power features that promise easier access to hot Internet sites like Facebook and Twitter.

The phone, called Cliq, will go on sale at T-Mobile before the end of the year. Pricing info has not yet been released.

Motorola has reorganized its handset biz around Google's Android system, hoping the partnership with the Web search leader can help it win back customers.

The centerpiece of Motorola's Android development is its MOTOBLUR software, which integrates contacts, e-mails and text messages along with postings and photos from social networks by feeding content from these sources into "easy-to-manage streams."

For example, Motorola's live "Happenings" application delivers updates posted by friends automatically on multiple social sites to one place, and gives the user a choice of ways to reply to those updates instantly.

Agencies

Ex-lovers most popular online search on the Net

Most people look for their long lost love on the internet, a new survey has found.

The study found that one out of four people are using social networking sites like Facebook to search a childhood sweetheart.

Search engine Ask Jeeves claims that 9% even confessed trying to know details of a one-night stand.

Nearly 37% said that they wanted to learn about their ex to just “see what they were doing these days”, reports the British tabloid the Sun.

Surprisingly, 4% even looked for former flames just to inform them how happy they were without them, while 3% searched to find out how miserable their ex were.

Apart from searching for previous lovers the poll also suggested that a trend of “vanity searching”, which means looking for yourself on the net, has become increasingly popular.

Agencies

Co-founder of Netscape, Andreessen now joins HP board

Two years after selling his software company to Hewlett-Packard, Marc Andreessen has joined the PC giant's board of directors.

HP announced the appointment, effective immediately, on Thursday. In a statement, HP's chairman and CEO Mark Hurd described Andreessen as "a software pioneer whose leadership has helped shape the Internet...Marc's entrepreneurial background and industry expertise will be a welcome addition to the HP board of directors."

Andreessen and HP's relationship goes back several years, culminating with HP's purchase of Opsware for $1.6 billion in 2007. Since then, Andreessen, best known as the co-founder of Netscape, has helmed social network creation service Ning, and a new venture capital firm Andreessen-Horowitz. He also sits on the boards of eBay and Facebook.

Agencies

Atlast! Facebook finally becomes profitable

Facebook is making enough money to cover its costs and now has 300 million users, the world’s largest social networking site, said on Tuesday, proving the Internet’s newest star industry can be a viable business.

Facebook is now generating enough cash to cover its operating expenses, as well as the capital spending needed to maintain its fast-growing service.

Analysts said this shows the financial viability of Facebook, which has faced questions about its underlying business model, despite its popularity, and was a good sign for a potential initial public offering.

“It’s certainly meaningful to show that this is absolutely the real deal,” said Broadpoint Amtech analyst Ben Schachter. “They are executing. People are spending money on the site.”

Since its creation in a Harvard dorm room five years ago, Facebook has emerged as one of the Internet’s most popular destinations and is increasingly challenging the Web’s established powerhouses like Yahoo and Google.

Facebook unveiled a revamped search engine last month and is currently testing an online payment system. Facebook users have tripled from about 100 million a year ago.

Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said in a blog post on the company site on Tuesday that Facebook reached its goal of being free cash flow positive in its most recently ended quarter. The company had previously projected reaching the target sometime in 2010.

“This is important to us because it sets Facebook up to be a strong independent service for the long term,” said Zuckerberg in the blog post.

Facebook spokesperson Larry Yu said the free cash flow metric does not include any cash from private investment.

In May, Facebook announced a $200 million investment from Russian investment firm Digital Sky Technologies in a deal that valued the company’s preferred shares at $10 billion.

DST valued Facebook’s common shares at $6.5 billion in a subsequent deal to purchase shares from Facebook employees.

Facebook’s becoming cash flow positive ahead of schedule provides another nugget of data to back up the lofty valuations, and according to one analyst, makes Facebook a more attractive candidate for a potential public offering.

“They can command higher confidence from investors now,” said Collins Stewart analyst Sandeep Aggarwal, who noted that he believes Facebook could go public in the second half of 2010, or in 2011.

Zuckerberg said in May that any IPO is “a few years out.” Facebook did not provide any other financial details on Tuesday. The company has previously said its revenue was on track to grow 70 percent this year.

Facebook board member Mark Andreesen told Reuters earlier this year that the company will surpass $500 million n revenue this year.

Zuckerberg said in his post that the company is exploring ways to make the service perform faster and more efficiently as the number of Facebook users continues to grow.

Agencies

Motorola unveils Cliq smartphones

Motorola introduced its first smartphone based on Google's Android software, in a move that's key to the company's goal of regaining its place among the world's top cellphone manufacturers.

The device, dubbed the Cliq, will first be made available later this year in the US through T-Mobile. The touch-screen phone will run a new service from Motorola called MotoBlur, which synchronises all user messages and contacts, Motorola chief executive Sanjay Jha said at the Mobilize conference in San Francisco.

"MotoBlur makes text, e-mail, Facebook, Twitter feeds and photos from sources like MySpace, Gmail, Yahoo and corporate e-mail appear in a single stream and sync them together with no different logins," Jha said. "This means you can focus on what people have said instead of how and where they said it."

The Cliq will feature a full, slide-out keyboard, a 5-megapixel camera and access to all the Google programmes and applications available for the company's Android platform.

The phone will be called the Dext in markets outside the U.S. and will launch in France, Britain and Latin America later in the year, Jha said. No pricing was available for the device.

Analysts said the integration of social networking into phones could give Motorola and other manufacturers a foot in the door in their battle to challenge the iPhone as the world's dominant smartphone.

Motorola has been especially hard hit by the move to smartphones, selling just 18.8 million handsets in the most recent quarter, down from 28.1 million a year ago. Earlier this decade, the company's Razr was the world's most popular cellphone.

Jha said that Motorola was now refocused on producing cutting-edge mobile devices. He said the Cliq was crucial to the company's recovery.

"It's a very important starting point for us," Jha said. "I see smartphones as the future of computing. If it doesn't fit in your pocket, I don't think it's going to be a relevant device."

Agencies

Make-or-break bet for Motorola as it takes on Android

Motorola Inc needs to spark some serious gadget lust next week when it unveils new phones to convince consumers and Wall Street that it's still a player in the global mobile industry, but the odds may be heavily stacked against it.

After losing market share for years, Motorola has made what is viewed as a make-or-break bet on Google Inc's Android mobile software, hoping the partnership with the giant Web company can help it win back customers.

Shares of the one-time market leader, now ranked fourth in global handset sales, jumped 11 percent earlier this week on investor hopes that the new phones could generate enough excitement to make Motorola's bat-wing logo famous again.

But while no one is expecting an iPhone-killer at the San Francisco unveiling on September 10, analysts say the risk is still that the new phones will not be unique enough to wow consumers, especially when other vendors also sell Android phones. "Early devices will not be significantly differentiated and could disappoint those playing the 9/10 launch," said Macquarie Research analyst Phil Cusick, who expects Motorola to display two new Android phones that day.

Motorola has given few details about the announcement, which will come during Co-Chief Executive Sanjay Jha's keynote at GigaOm's mobile conference. Jha first revealed his plans for creating Android phones in October.

He has said the new phones will be integrated with popular online social networks; but rivals such as Apple Inc, Research in Motion Ltd, HTC Corp and Palm Inc already have features for services like Facebook.

Shareholders have been impressed enough with Jha that they have more than doubled Motorola's share price since May. Still, the stock is down 70 percent from its 2006 peak of $26 and has been trading below $8 per share. "It's going to be extremely significant to the company's future," said Current Analysis analyst Avi Greengart. "If the phone does well, they live to fight another day."

Comparisons will inevitably be drawn to Palm's Pre phone unveiling, which was also seen as a last chance for that company. Pre reception was good and caused Palm's share price to quadruple, in part on the perception that the company has become a more attractive takeover target.

Should the initial reaction to Motorola's devices be as strong, the company could have a good chance of luring back consumers, investors and mobile service providers, analysts say.

PRETTY HARDWARE

Motorola turned to Google for phone software because its own strength has been in hardware. This was demonstrated by the Razr, whose slim form inspired imitations for two years before it started to fall out of favor in late 2006.

Analysts expect Motorola's new phones to have stylish enough hardware to secure distribution by mobile carriers, but the question is whether the software will be different enough to spur holiday season sales -- especially when the bar has been set very high by Apple's iPhone and the thousands of apps available for download from Apple's online store.

"Short-term, Motorola needs to win the purchase decision of specific carriers," Greengart said. "Long-term, they're going to need to do something more than selling pretty hardware running an operating system other competitors have access to."

Motorola's Jha has said several times that carriers were impressed with the Android phones. He told Reuters in a recent interview that he was encouraged when one operator executive told him "bat-wings are back."

Analysts expect Motorola Android phones to be sold by Verizon Wireless, owned by Verizon Communications Inc and Vodafone Group Plc, and by T-Mobile USA, owned by Deutsche Telekom AG. But Verizon said it is not involved in Motorola's announcement next week. T-Mobile said it will launch new Android phones this year but declined to give details.

Even if carriers did back the phone, some of Motorola's former shareholders say they would be wary of betting on the company unless it started to show sustainable improvements.

"I wouldn't touch the stock until they've launched three, four or five phones and they've gained market share for at least a year," said Jane Snorek, an analyst for First American Funds, which manages $35 billion in equities that used to include Motorola shares.

Deutsche Bank analyst Brian Modoff said he is impressed by Jha but agreed that investors should look beyond September 10. "If you get to several phones and they're all disappointing, then you have to start writing the obituary. I don't see that," said Modoff. He said he will focus on the reaction from young consumers who crave cool gadgets: "We'll see what the 20-year-olds think. That's what really matters."

Agencies

Major slice of Web ads goes to social networking sites

About one of every five Internet display ads in the United States is viewed on a social networking Web site like MySpace and Facebook, according to a new report.

The report by analytics firm comScore underscores the increasing prominence of social media sites in the Internet landscape and broadening acceptance of the sites by brand advertisers.

It also illustrates the increasing competition between social media sites and established Internet companies like Yahoo Inc and Time Warner Inc's AOL which have long billed themselves as the top online destinations for brand advertisers.

The study by comScore, released on Tuesday, said social media sites represented 21.1 per cent of US Internet display ads in July, with MySpace and Facebook accounting for more than 80 per cent of those ads.

"Because the top social media sites can deliver high reach and frequency against target segments at a low cost, it appears that some advertisers are eager to use social networking sites as a new advertising delivery vehicle," said Jeff Hackett, senior vice president of comScore.

According to comScore, AT&T Inc, Experian Interactive and IAC/Interactive Corp's Ask Network were the top three advertisers on social networking sites in July.

While social media sites have enjoyed a surge in popularity in recent years -- Facebook is now the world's fourth-most visited Web site -- some observers have questioned whether the sites can be effectively monetized.

Because the content on social media sites is created by users, and could therefore prove racy or offensive, some have questioned the willingness of marketers to place their brands alongside that content.

"They are sensitive to some extent, but nowhere near to the extent you might think," Sanford Bernstein analyst Jeff Lindsay said of advertisers.

The price of placing ads on social networking sites is significantly less than on a Web portal like Yahoo or AOL, said Lindsay. The vast amount of Web pages available on social networks means that advertisers can purchase a massive volume of ad impressions at bargain prices.

The strategy may not be ideally suited to smaller marketers, or advertisers seeking a direct response from their ads, said Lindsay.

"For big, national brands it works just fine, just like TV," said Lindsay. "It's a huge, huge volume game."

Agencies

Is Koobface dangerous for networkers?

If you have been getting tempting messages with video links in your accounts in social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter,
IT Exploring Internet Explorer 8, Myspace, Bebo, Friendster and Hi5, beware. Any attempt to download the promised video will make you another victim of Koobface, a worm that could steal critical and personal information from your computer.

The government's India Computer Emergency Response Team has warned that Koobface, a play on the name of social networking site Facebook, comes with an enticing tagline and spreads by spamming the contacts of the victim on networking sites.

With more than 3 million members of Facebook alone in India, Koobface's potential for wreaking havoc on the country's computer systems is immense — a fact that has prompted the government to issue the warning alert.

Typically, Koobface victims get a message from one of their contacts inviting them to click on a video link. The link leads you to a site mimicking the video-sharing site, Youtube. Once there, you are asked whether you want to download a software needed to watch the video.

If you click `yes', the worm gets activated, leaving your computer vulnerable. The worm not only disrupts your internet experience by sending your searches on engines like Google elsewhere and return garbled replies, it also steals data that may have been left in your computer's memory.

If you do or have already been Koobfaced the only way to protect your machine is to delete all files and registry keys that have been added by the worm. Internet users have also been advised by the government agency to install and maintain updated anti-virus software in their computers, as also a desktop firewall, and block ports which are not required.

While you may not be able to notice the worm rummaging through your electronic files searching for personal data, including passwords, the visible signs of the worm would show up on your internet browsing where you would get abnormal results to your searches and be misdirected to other sites.

Agencies

Social network with Delhi University students now

Move over Facebook, Orkut. Here comes Delhi University's own networking site, Network DU. With over 2,000 registrations in just four weeks, this site is a virtual campus in which you can look for anyone and anything -- from old friends to scholarships and even information on paying guest accommodation.

Started by Honey Arora, a technical expert, Network DU has all the features of other social networking sites and more.

"Our aim is to get DU more connected through this site. In the IITs and IIMs, the alumni really help their juniors in getting internships and job placements. Network DU will do something similar. Besides friends, a student can get in touch with alumni of the university through this portal and seek help in terms of their career," Arora told IANS.

Of the 2,000 people who have registered, 1,500 are at present studying in the university while the rest are alumni. There is, however, no restriction on a non-DU member joining the network.

Arora himself is not an alumni of the university.

"I was a student of Punjab Technical University. But I, along with some others from IIT Delhi and IIM-Bangalore, zeroed in on Delhi University because I think DU is very tech-savvy," said Arora, who owns Sparks Logics, the firm which started Network DU.

With blogs, music, chat and even an online shopping link, the site gives you all that other networking sites have to offer. It also has debates raging on hot topics like "Should ragging be banned in DU?"with two students in Kirori Mal College getting arrested recently for ragging a junior.

The site also has space for classified information like contact addresses of hostels and PG accommodation around the campus. So if you are looking for a place to stay, all you need to do is log in. Besides this, it has information on the institutes in the campus, scholarships and internships.

Although he is happy with the response that the site has been getting, especially since the advertisement has only been through word of mouth, Arora said that he is planning to go to ex-DU bigwigs like Kapil Sibal and convince them to join the network.

"I am planning to go to Kapil Sibal and ask him to join Network DU and spread some good word about the site. DU has produced some of the most well-placed professionals in the country in every field. If someone like Sibal, who is active on Facebook, joins the site it will make others interested too," he said.

"However I will go to him only after we have got a stronger registration number like 5,000," Arora added.

Arora's mission does not stop at DU. He now plans to create similar networks for other universities.

"I am going to Amity University next and create a portal for their students. The officials of the private universities like Amity are very encouraging and eager to help in such initiatives.

"Money is a problem now but I am looking for investors so that I can create such networks for students of major universities of the country and then connect these networks so that the whole student community can come together in a single platform and interact," Arora said.

Agencies

Does use of Facebook kill productivity?

Companies effectively lose an average of 1.5 percent of total office productivity when employees access social networking sites like Facebook during work hours, a study has revealed.

The study by Boston IT advisory firm, Nucleus Research shows that nearly half of office employees access social networking sites such as Facebook during work. Moreover, one in every 33 workers built their entire Facebook profile during work. Nucleus interviewed 237 randomly selected office workers about their use of Facebook for the report.

It has been found that nearly 77 percent of workers have a Facebook account. The average worker uses it for 15 minutes a day, and 87 percent of those who access it couldn't define a clear business reason for using it. "Given that 61 percent of employees access Facebook at work, companies can reasonably estimate a cost of 1.5 percent of total employee productivity," the report said. The findings are significant especially since most companies are facing constricting bottom lines due to recession.

Nucleus Research Vice President (research) Rebecca Wettemann said, "If your company is facing tight margins and low profitability, as many are now, then how can you accept any work distractions that drain your overall productivity?"

However since most organizations do not monitor and manage these sites as closely as email, it opens up the potential to violate corporate communication policies. The report concludes that companies should evaluate their Facebook policy and the cost in productivity in allowing access to Facebook, as blocking the site may actually result in a 1.5 percent gain in productivity.

"While it won't make you popular, restricting Facebook can reclaim lost productivity. If your profitability is say two percent, this could be the difference between staying open or closing shop," Wettemann added.

Agencies

Win Big Prize Money at Facebook Developer Contest

Facebook would become the first social networking site to showcase apps in Hindi as it calls for entries in English and Hindi to showcase web development skills in two categories of Facebook apps & Facebook Connect Integrations

The day for which the Indian developer community had been waiting has finally arrived. Facebook, whose mission is to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected, announced today the launch of ‘Facebook India Developer Contest’ – a contest for Indian developers to showcase their web development skills by creating Facebook applications and Facebook Connect Integrations. The contest began on July 2 and ends on September 11, 2009 and is located at www.facebook.com/developercontestindia.

This is the first time Facebook is organizing a developer contest in India. Entries will be judged on originality, business potential, social utility, usefulness, expressive features, intuitiveness and potential of the application. There are three cash prizes; $4000 for the first place, $2000 for the second place and $1000 for the third, in each of the two categories.

To enter the contest, participants are required to create a Facebook platform application for use on the Facebook site or Facebook Connect integrations in English or Hindi and register their application in the contest’s homepage. The contest is open to Indian residents over the age of 16 with a facebook.com account

Ruchi Sangvi, engineer and manager of the Facebook platform said, “India ranks second in the number of software developers with 3.9 million software developers; we are very excited to engage with the developer community. Facebook has experienced a tremendous growth in India. Through the contest, we hope to see many rich experiences that leverage the social graph and empower Facebook users to share and connect.”

Facebook Connect enables people to combine their Facebook experiences with any participating Website, desktop application or mobile device. When websites incorporate Facebook Connect, Facebook’s more than 200 million active users around the globe can automatically import profile information and bypass the need to build a friends’ list from scratch. More than 10000 websites have incorporated Facebook Connect since its general availability in December 2008.

Will MySpace slash 30% of US staff?

US Internet social networking giant MySpace said Tuesday it would cut 500 jobs, nearly 30 per cent of its domestic staff, in a restructuring aimed at boosting efficiency.

MySpace, a unit of media magnate Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, said it was cutting payrolls "as part of a plan to restructure itself into a more innovative, efficient, and entrepreneurial business."

The restructuring plan affects all US divisions of the company and the round of job cuts will lower the domestic workforce to 1,000 employees, it said in a statement.

"Simply put, our staffing levels were bloated and hindered our ability to be an efficient and nimble team-oriented company," said Owen Van Natta, MySpace chief executive.

"I understand that these changes are painful for many. They are also necessary for the long-term health and culture of MySpace. Our intent is to return to an environment of innovation that is centered on our user and our product."

Van Natta, who was named MySpace CEO in April, was a chief revenue officer and vice president of operations for Facebook when he resigned from the rival company in early 2008.

Facebook's popularity has soared amid a surge in social networking in the United States.

Facebook was the top social networking site when ranked by total minutes for the month of April, showing a gain of 700 per cent from a year earlier, according to a recent study by Nielsen Online.

MySpace was in second place, with its total minutes declining from 7.3 billion in April 2008 to 5.0 billion in April 2009.

Agencies

Social Networking sites surface from Mumbai ashes

Bloggers across Mumbai fed live updates of the unfolding action after terrorists launched waves of attacks in the heart of India's financial capital, bringing the emergence of citizen journalism in news coverage to the fore in India.

Social networking sites, such as Twitter and Facebook, were instantly updated with on-the-scene information by people. Minute-by-minute updates on social networking and micro-blogging sites not just satiated the writers’ hunger for expressing themselves, but also gave people more diverse news.

In fact, instead of switching on the television, many followed the action live on microblogging Twitter by searching the site for Bombay and Mumbai. In certain cases, Twitter updates reportedly appeared hours before the first TV stories.

The minute the news of the terrorist attacks broke out, sites like Twitter were inundated with a huge volume of messages. Twitter seemed to be the most popular choice among other social media sites. Just minutes after the first shots were fired; Tweeters (Twitter users) in Mumbai gave instant eyewitness accounts of the unfolding drama.

Messages, known as `tweets', were being posted to the site at a rate of around 80 tweets every five seconds when the news of the tragedy first broke, according to some estimates. Some bloggers provided running descriptions and commentaries from near the action, while others gave vent to their emotions.

"I've been tweeting almost all night from Mumbai. Upset and angry and bereft," said businesswoman Dina Mehta on her blog, http://www.dinamehta.com/blog.

Images of the attacks also surfaced on photo-sharing website Flickr. The site proved a useful source of haunting images chronicling the aftermath of the attacks.

Photographer Vinukumar Ranganathan has attracted hundreds of thousands of visits to his Flickr photo page where he has published a chilling slideshow depicting the aftermath of the attacks.

Twitter came in for some criticism as well in the blogosphere for divulging too many details that could prove helpful to the gunmen holed up in the hotels with their hostages and who may have been monitoring blog sites.

"It's a terrorist strike. Not entertainment. So tweeters, please be responsible with your tweets," said one blogger identified as primaveron@mumbai.

Unfortunately, the site also contained misleading threads, some of it purporting to be from intelligence services. In fact, many of the posts on Twitter amounted to unsubstantiated rumours and wild inaccuracies.

According to CNN, a rumour that the Indian government was asking Tweeters to stop live updates to avoid compromising its security efforts was published and republished on the site.

This was reportedly fueled by certain news websites, which posted the Tweet on their live update. It read: "Indian government asks for live Twitter updates from Mumbai to cease immediately. ALL LIVE UPDATES - PLEASE STOP TWEETING."

Several local Indian news channels were reported to have carried a live feed of the Twitter updates on the Mumbai attacks.

Twitter's contributors also questioned the veracity of certain TV news reports, pointing out contradictions and errors. When Indian reporters announced an end to Taj hotel siege time and again, Tweeters contended that gunfights were continuing. "Locals say gunfire still happening at Taj," said one feed, hours after fighting was said to have finished.

Many social network users also sent pleas for blood donors to make their way to specific hospitals in Mumbai where doctors were faced with blood shortage and rising casualties. Throughout the night, bloggers were active compiling news reports and contact information and information on blogging sites like mumbaihelp.blogspot.com.

Tweeters were also mobilised to help with transcribing a list of the dead and injured from hospitals, which were quickly posted online. mumbaihelp.blogspot.com also offered advice to those with friends and family in the city. "Suggest you avoid calling. Lines are bound to be jammed."

Other websites also quickly filled up with information: Wikipedia had a page up on the attacks by early Thursday morning. A Google map was created just hours after the explosions to mark the locations that had been hit.

Dozens of videos of the attacks have flooded the YouTube too. Gauravanomics has an exhaustive list of online coverage of the attacks. Slained Anti-Terrosism Squad (ATS) chief, Hemant Karkare, was reportedly the most searched topic on Google for nearly an hour after his death was declared.

Even Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s address to the nation on Thursday was highly viewed, followed by angry comments.

Source: Indiatimes Infotech

Techies turn to social media to reach consumers

Recognizing the limits of traditional advertising, established technology companies are diving headlong into the sometimes chaotic landscape of social media to promote their products.

Companies ranging from PC maker Dell Inc to storage equipment maker NetApp are increasingly turning to outside blogs, viral videos and websites such as FaceBook, Twitter, FriendFeed and Digg — and their tens of millions of users — to reach consumers.

These social networking sites harness the age-old power of the word-of-mouth recommendation and can be potent marketing tools. If nothing else, they demand a higher level of consumer engagement than conventional ads.

“This is 180 degrees from that sort of advertising,” said Debra Aho Williamson, a senior analyst at eMarketer. “Having a conversation with them (consumers) is a very new skill.”For tech companies with big marketing budgets, the shift to social media is an implicit acknowledgment that television and print are not necessarily the most effective ways to reach buyers, particularly younger ones.

In addition, with a recession looming, corporate budgets are being slashed. UBS has forecast global ad spending will fall 3.9 per cent in 2009. In such an environment, social media could prove to be a cost-effective way to sell to consumers.

But the strategy is not without some risk. While every company wants to generate buzz, online backlash can be brutal.

Consumer healthcare giant Johnson & Johnson learned that the hard way with a recent Web video ad for its Motrin painkiller. While apparently trying to be irreverent about the pain of wearing a baby in a sling, the ad offended many mothers who savaged it on Twitter, the wildly popular “micro-blogging’’ site where users communicate with short “tweets’’ of 140 characters or less. J&J was forced to apologize on Monday.

Brian Keeler, a vice president at media consultancy VShift, said the key to social media is credibility and enlisting consumers in the act of marketing itself. But if you upset your audience, it can mean trouble. “With the online media, things can go viral and spin out of control really fast,’’ he said.

Dell has a dedicated team of around 40 people that interacts with consumers through its blogs, community forums and third-party sites. The company began its social media push last year as it moved to repair its public image.

“There’s been a realization over the last several years that your customers are going to talk about you online and you have a choice to join that conversation,’’ spokeswoman Caroline Dietz said.