OK I use Twitter, infact you can follow me at my main account which is http://twitter.com/SeanJC I do have other twitter accounts http://twitter.com/potissimus and http://twitter.com/buzzproperties so please feel free to follow me and stay in touch.
Why do I use Twitter?
I continue to use Twitter as unlike the typical social networking sites on Twitter you can say what you want and people will see it, and as you are not looking for a direct interaction I find it a good place to update people who are actually interested in what you do, with why you are doing.
As people who follow you on twitter have chosen to be kept up to date with your world. Unlike typical social media where people are looking for direct interaction, I use Twitter as its more like shouting out your news, after all you watch the evening news without any interaction back you just absorb what they tell you.
I find Twitter is the same as I only follow people I find interesting, so when I read my Twitter timeline its full of interesting things, which I can absorb and if I find something really interesting I can retweet, direct message or mention someone in my own tweet. So for every tweet I do I am not looking for anyone to confirm they have read it, such as we do with Likes on FaceBook and +1' on Google+, this way you can remove the stress of trying to be popular with the benefit of simply getting your message across to people that want to hear it.
The Future of Twitter
I think that Twitter will be around for a long time to come, as it takes the best element of social media and breaks it down, as everyday you may update your status on your chosen social media site, but you can't get a list of interesting stuff that you want to know about. So unlike social media Twitter is centred more on interests than people, and this I think will mean people like myself will use it for a long time to come.
I do think that there may be a time where we see more advertising directly on twitter, sponsored or otherwise, but in short I think the idea of Twitter is here to stay.
Please follow me on Twitter - http://twitter.com/SeanJC
Thanks
Sean J Connolly
FaceBook Me
BuzzProperties.co.uk - Online Property Sales and Letting
Wednesday 30 November 2011
Tuesday 22 November 2011
Google Checkout Becomes Part of Google Wallet
OK so today I attended the Google Wallet webinar about the intended changes to
Google Checkout and its intended integration with the new Google Wallet system, so here are my thoughts on both systems and what the future holds.
Google Checkout
The first thing I will be is explain just what Google Checkout is incase you have never used it or heard of it.
Google Checkout is an online payment service provided by Google, and much like the other services available such as World Pay, Paypal, etc it simply allows you to buy good and services online by paying using a registered payment card. Just like the other services available with Google checkout not only can you buy goods and service but you can also sell goods and service via you own website.
To find out more about buying goods and services using Google Checkout visit http://checkout.google.com/
To find out more about selling goods and services using Google Checkout visit http://checkout.google.com/sell
Note - if you have a merchant account to sell your stuff you will most likely be redirected on logging in to Google Checkout to that account, to access your purchases just click the Purchase History link at the top
For more information about Google Checkout visit http://checkout.google.com
Google Wallet
Google Wallet is a new idea from Google to connect your cards that you hold in your wallet with both offline and online purchases, how this works is simple. After you create your Google Wallet account and have registered your credit cards to your account, you can then use your Google Wallet to make purchases, which them in turn are billed directly to your registered cards.
This means that when shopping online, where you see the Google Wallet logo (currently the showing as Google Checkout) you can use Google Wallet to make your purchase. The added benefit of Google Wallet over other providers currently is that you can also use Google Wallet to make real purchases on the high street, so anywhere you see the Google Wallet sign you can just take out your mobile phone with the Google Wallet application installed and make the purchase directly from Google Wallet. Thus allowing you in theory to leave your actual wallet at home.
So in short online Google Wallet will work just like any other online payment provider, however offline Google Wallet will work just like your real wallet, only via your mobile phone and the installed application / website.
For more information about Google Wallet visit http://wallet.google.com
Google Checkout Becomes Google Wallet
So Google has had Google Checkout around for a few years now and have decided to bring out Google Wallet, now they are taking this one step further and incorporating Google Checkout into Google Wallet, this will give you a single place online to manage your sales, purchases and any active cards you wish to use. A very well thought through idea.
What does the Google Checkout and Google Wallet Integration mean for you?
The only major change following the incorporating of Google Wallet and Google Checkout will be that you will have a single point of management for both your Google Checkout and Google Wallet accounts, in this new screen you will be able to see all purchase you have made, all sales you have made and edit or amend your chosen payment cards.
I already use Google Checkout on my website what changes will I need to make to my website?
Now if you currently use Google Checkout on your website, these changes in the short term don't really mean that much, all integration code, login urls will all continue to work as normal.
So as normal to login to your checkout merchant account go to http://checkout.google.com/sell and you will be able to continue to manage all your transcations there. However over time your will need to go to http://wallet.google.com to manage both your sales and purchases.
The only other changes you will need to make to your website will be to change the wording mentioning Google Checkout to mention Google Wallet instead, the exact wording will be issued by Google to your register email address in due course. You will not need to make any coding changes, including existing buttons provided by Google as these will be updated automatically by Google as they need to.
I have made purchases using Google Checkout what do I do now?
Now if you have made purchases using Google checkout again nothing in the short term will change, you can still go to http://checkout.google.com to check any purchases you have made, but you can now in addition go to http://wallet.google.com and you will see any purchases you have made using Google Checkout shown in your transactions screen. As you can now use the Google Wallet website to manage your credit cards and purchases, I recommend using the Google Wallet URL http://wallet.google.com from now on rather than the Google Checkout url http://checkout.google.com
The Future of Google Wallet
I have to be honest and say I think that Google Wallet is definately a step in the right direction by Google, as not only can you make online purchases but you can make offline purchases too, now whilst this may seem stupid to get out your mobile phone to make a payment on a card that is in your wallet. I think the major of this will be that if you use Google Wallet online for your website, shop or whatever and are building up funds in your online account, these funds are no longer simply for use with purchasing online, you can now make real offline purchases form this account. This puts Google at a huge advantage over other online payment providers as with Google Wallet what you make from sales online can now be used in the real world offline.
I see the offline and online link being a major selling point of Google Wallet, especially when you consider other online payment providers have payment cards you not only have to purchase in order to be able to use funds held in your online account in the offline world, but these provider have also stopped issuing these cards outside the US.
Google Wallet bank account integration
At the time of writing this you can not link Google Wallet with a bank account in order to fund your account, this is due to the speed at which Google wanted to roll out the new Wallet system and using existing card networks is faster and more secure than trying to incorporate all banking systems.
You can however still add your bank account to your wallet account in order to transfer funds out of your Google Wallet account into your real world bank account. I think that over time the ability to add funds via a bank account will be added, but for now you cant use your bank account to fund your Google Wallet account its credit cards only at least for now.
So in short good call Google, lets just hope that Google Wallet has a better uptake than Google Checkout ever did.
Thanks for Reading
Sean J Connolly
FaceBook Me - Google+ Me
BuzzProperties.co.uk - Online Property Sales and Letting
Google Checkout
Google Checkout is an online payment service provided by Google, and much like the other services available such as World Pay, Paypal, etc it simply allows you to buy good and services online by paying using a registered payment card. Just like the other services available with Google checkout not only can you buy goods and service but you can also sell goods and service via you own website.
To find out more about buying goods and services using Google Checkout visit http://checkout.google.com/
To find out more about selling goods and services using Google Checkout visit http://checkout.google.com/sell
Note - if you have a merchant account to sell your stuff you will most likely be redirected on logging in to Google Checkout to that account, to access your purchases just click the Purchase History link at the top
For more information about Google Checkout visit http://checkout.google.com
Google Wallet
Google Wallet is a new idea from Google to connect your cards that you hold in your wallet with both offline and online purchases, how this works is simple. After you create your Google Wallet account and have registered your credit cards to your account, you can then use your Google Wallet to make purchases, which them in turn are billed directly to your registered cards.
This means that when shopping online, where you see the Google Wallet logo (currently the showing as Google Checkout) you can use Google Wallet to make your purchase. The added benefit of Google Wallet over other providers currently is that you can also use Google Wallet to make real purchases on the high street, so anywhere you see the Google Wallet sign you can just take out your mobile phone with the Google Wallet application installed and make the purchase directly from Google Wallet. Thus allowing you in theory to leave your actual wallet at home.
So in short online Google Wallet will work just like any other online payment provider, however offline Google Wallet will work just like your real wallet, only via your mobile phone and the installed application / website.
For more information about Google Wallet visit http://wallet.google.com
Google Checkout Becomes Google Wallet
So Google has had Google Checkout around for a few years now and have decided to bring out Google Wallet, now they are taking this one step further and incorporating Google Checkout into Google Wallet, this will give you a single place online to manage your sales, purchases and any active cards you wish to use. A very well thought through idea.
What does the Google Checkout and Google Wallet Integration mean for you?
The only major change following the incorporating of Google Wallet and Google Checkout will be that you will have a single point of management for both your Google Checkout and Google Wallet accounts, in this new screen you will be able to see all purchase you have made, all sales you have made and edit or amend your chosen payment cards.
I already use Google Checkout on my website what changes will I need to make to my website?
Now if you currently use Google Checkout on your website, these changes in the short term don't really mean that much, all integration code, login urls will all continue to work as normal.
So as normal to login to your checkout merchant account go to http://checkout.google.com/sell and you will be able to continue to manage all your transcations there. However over time your will need to go to http://wallet.google.com to manage both your sales and purchases.
The only other changes you will need to make to your website will be to change the wording mentioning Google Checkout to mention Google Wallet instead, the exact wording will be issued by Google to your register email address in due course. You will not need to make any coding changes, including existing buttons provided by Google as these will be updated automatically by Google as they need to.
I have made purchases using Google Checkout what do I do now?
Now if you have made purchases using Google checkout again nothing in the short term will change, you can still go to http://checkout.google.com to check any purchases you have made, but you can now in addition go to http://wallet.google.com and you will see any purchases you have made using Google Checkout shown in your transactions screen. As you can now use the Google Wallet website to manage your credit cards and purchases, I recommend using the Google Wallet URL http://wallet.google.com from now on rather than the Google Checkout url http://checkout.google.com
The Future of Google Wallet
I have to be honest and say I think that Google Wallet is definately a step in the right direction by Google, as not only can you make online purchases but you can make offline purchases too, now whilst this may seem stupid to get out your mobile phone to make a payment on a card that is in your wallet. I think the major of this will be that if you use Google Wallet online for your website, shop or whatever and are building up funds in your online account, these funds are no longer simply for use with purchasing online, you can now make real offline purchases form this account. This puts Google at a huge advantage over other online payment providers as with Google Wallet what you make from sales online can now be used in the real world offline.
I see the offline and online link being a major selling point of Google Wallet, especially when you consider other online payment providers have payment cards you not only have to purchase in order to be able to use funds held in your online account in the offline world, but these provider have also stopped issuing these cards outside the US.
Google Wallet bank account integration
At the time of writing this you can not link Google Wallet with a bank account in order to fund your account, this is due to the speed at which Google wanted to roll out the new Wallet system and using existing card networks is faster and more secure than trying to incorporate all banking systems.
You can however still add your bank account to your wallet account in order to transfer funds out of your Google Wallet account into your real world bank account. I think that over time the ability to add funds via a bank account will be added, but for now you cant use your bank account to fund your Google Wallet account its credit cards only at least for now.
So in short good call Google, lets just hope that Google Wallet has a better uptake than Google Checkout ever did.
Thanks for Reading
Sean J Connolly
FaceBook Me - Google+ Me
BuzzProperties.co.uk - Online Property Sales and Letting
Friday 18 November 2011
Stop Online Piracy Act - SOPA
OK so you may have heard all the hype recently about the Stop Online Privacy Act or SOPA being discussed. First off the main thing to remember is that this act will only be in force in the USA, although the idea of it is good to protect peoples online IP and privacy, it is also solely aimed at protecting American online privacy, nowhere else.
The basis of the act is simply is will give additional powers to the US attorney to combat privacy from websites that are hosted outside the USA, this means that anysite hosting or offering information on how to infringe copyright will be a target, such sites includes torrent sites (hosting illegal movies, games, software, etc) and sites giving away source code for copyrighted materials.
Now I fully agree with the idea of protecting peoples IP and what this means for the world, I am not fully on the side of the Web giants on this one. It appears to me that the have not fully read and understood the new act, namely the fact that the act is not seeking to be a censorship of content, but simply to protect what people have created.
If we take youtube as a prime example, there a literally millions of videos on there, and not all of them are on there legally. Now whilst Google owns and hosts this site, it is Google that takes the wrap for this, yet under this new act Google will have additional powers to not only take the normal steps to remove the content, but can now take additional action outside the US on the people who uploaded the content and the ones who actually broke the IP.
So what I am saying is thay in my view this act is not intended to be a censorship act, more a protect the US act from foreigners. Now this is where I see the problem, we have a major organisation for keeping world peace, known as the UN or United Nations, it is in my view that there should be a higher act in place to protect everyone from IP theft, not just the US. Whilst I do understand that the US congress can only enforce US law, we all need to work to stop privacy and need to realise that there are lots of things online that are stolen, such as
What I think needs to happen is that the major web giants, Google, FaceBook, AOL, etc need to work together with all countries in order to come up with a more global act to protect their and everyone elses IP. After all its unfair to blame Google, FaceBook, AOL or anyone else for one of their users posting links to illegal content.
So in short the act is a step in the right direction, but we need a more universal solution that covers all countries and not just the US, after all the internet and more specifically the World Wide Web is global (and a british invention).
Thanks
Sean J Connolly
FaceBook Me
BuzzProperties.co.uk - Online Property Sales and Letting
The basis of the act is simply is will give additional powers to the US attorney to combat privacy from websites that are hosted outside the USA, this means that anysite hosting or offering information on how to infringe copyright will be a target, such sites includes torrent sites (hosting illegal movies, games, software, etc) and sites giving away source code for copyrighted materials.
Now I fully agree with the idea of protecting peoples IP and what this means for the world, I am not fully on the side of the Web giants on this one. It appears to me that the have not fully read and understood the new act, namely the fact that the act is not seeking to be a censorship of content, but simply to protect what people have created.
If we take youtube as a prime example, there a literally millions of videos on there, and not all of them are on there legally. Now whilst Google owns and hosts this site, it is Google that takes the wrap for this, yet under this new act Google will have additional powers to not only take the normal steps to remove the content, but can now take additional action outside the US on the people who uploaded the content and the ones who actually broke the IP.
So what I am saying is thay in my view this act is not intended to be a censorship act, more a protect the US act from foreigners. Now this is where I see the problem, we have a major organisation for keeping world peace, known as the UN or United Nations, it is in my view that there should be a higher act in place to protect everyone from IP theft, not just the US. Whilst I do understand that the US congress can only enforce US law, we all need to work to stop privacy and need to realise that there are lots of things online that are stolen, such as
- movies
- games
- software
- software code
- documents
What I think needs to happen is that the major web giants, Google, FaceBook, AOL, etc need to work together with all countries in order to come up with a more global act to protect their and everyone elses IP. After all its unfair to blame Google, FaceBook, AOL or anyone else for one of their users posting links to illegal content.
So in short the act is a step in the right direction, but we need a more universal solution that covers all countries and not just the US, after all the internet and more specifically the World Wide Web is global (and a british invention).
Find out more about the act Stop Online Piracy ACT - SOPA
Thanks
Sean J Connolly
FaceBook Me
BuzzProperties.co.uk - Online Property Sales and Letting
Tuesday 8 November 2011
Google Pages have Arrived
After a long wait and what has seemed that a million changes of mind. Google + has finally launched pages. In short its Googles answer to FaceBook and LinkedIn meaning the worlds of business and pleasure are finally connecting on Google.
The way that the new Pages will work is that you can connect your existing Google Place entry to your page and use the existing information on your Google Places page to create your new Google+ Business Page.
The added bonus of Google Pages is that you can now use Google+ as your page, make comments and alike as your page not you, just like FaceBook pages. The good thing is this only took Google a matter of months to do, unlike FaceBook taking years to get it right.
PLUS
You can even create a hangout and chat live to your customers right on Google+, that is pretty cool and has to be a shot in the arm of FaceBook who are yet to release the video service promised.
Good job Google on this, lets hope Google+ continues to grow and add new and exciting features.
Just so you know after you create your Google+ page for your business, in order to edit it select the page from the little drop down list to the left, and once on your page click on your page icon on the left hand side of the page name, this takes you to the edit page.
Thanks Sean J Connolly
FaceBook Me -
Visit AJAX Web Development Store
BuzzProperties.co.uk - Online Property Sales and Letting
The way that the new Pages will work is that you can connect your existing Google Place entry to your page and use the existing information on your Google Places page to create your new Google+ Business Page.
The added bonus of Google Pages is that you can now use Google+ as your page, make comments and alike as your page not you, just like FaceBook pages. The good thing is this only took Google a matter of months to do, unlike FaceBook taking years to get it right.
PLUS
You can even create a hangout and chat live to your customers right on Google+, that is pretty cool and has to be a shot in the arm of FaceBook who are yet to release the video service promised.
Good job Google on this, lets hope Google+ continues to grow and add new and exciting features.
So get over to Google and create a page for your business NOW - https://plus.google.com/pages/create
UPDATEJust so you know after you create your Google+ page for your business, in order to edit it select the page from the little drop down list to the left, and once on your page click on your page icon on the left hand side of the page name, this takes you to the edit page.
Thanks Sean J Connolly
FaceBook Me -
Visit AJAX Web Development Store
BuzzProperties.co.uk - Online Property Sales and Letting
Sunday 6 November 2011
Google Wallet Launched
Google today announced the official launch of Google Wallet, along with some exciting news. Although the cards at launch will be limited it has agreed with other card provider thats they can use they NFC specifications.
In reality this means that although a limited launch is happening, it should not be too long before Google Wallet is open to more cards.
Watch this space, and Good Luck Google.
For more info on this, check out the Google Blog
Thanks Sean J Connolly FaceBook Me - Visit AJAX Web Development Store BuzzProperties.co.uk - Online Property Sales and Letting
In reality this means that although a limited launch is happening, it should not be too long before Google Wallet is open to more cards.
Watch this space, and Good Luck Google.
For more info on this, check out the Google Blog
Thanks Sean J Connolly FaceBook Me - Visit AJAX Web Development Store BuzzProperties.co.uk - Online Property Sales and Letting
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