Facebook – QuadroNation Blog

Facebook will double its share of online advertising in 2011

By Jemma | Posted in Social networking, Twitter at 12 | January 24, 2011 – 12:49 pm

Throughout the past year, Facebook has become not only an important and key influence in the world of social networking advertising, but in online advertising itself.

It has built up its global presence over the past six years and in 2011, it will be hard for advertisers to overlook the effects of advertising on Facebook.

eMarketer has released some interesting figures on how Facebook has evolved when it comes to advertising and it gives us something to think about in the future.

- eMarketer estimates ad spending on Facebook will reach $4.05 billion worldwide in 2011 – more than double the 2010 figure of $1.86 billion in global ad revenues.

- By 2012, worldwide ad spending on Facebook is expected to reach $5.74 billion, up 42 percent over 2011.

- The 2011 forecast for online ad spending in the United States is $1 billion higher than eMarketer’s last estimate of US social network ad spending, made in August 2010.

- eMarketer predicts ad spending on the world’s top social network will reach $2.19 billion in the US this year, more than double last year’s figures.

These are some incredible increases for the year ahead but there has also been recent speculation that Mark Zuckerburg will close the amazing social networking site for good. Here at QuadroNation, we hope that this is just gossip and he wont actually go through with it…

Tagged: Social networking |

The Gadget Timeline…

By Jemma | Posted in Fact Friday, Gadgets, Gaming, Google, Mobile | December 17, 2010 – 12:59 pm

Gadgets have been around forever, even over ten years ago there were exciting new Toys to play with.

In our Fact Friday this week we are doing a Doc Brown and going back in time to see the gadgets that have moulded our society of today.

Playstation 1 – 1995

It was released September 29 1995 and was a massive hit, with games like Crash Bandicoot and street Fighter.

Digital Cameras – 1995

Everyone owns a digital camera of some sort and it all started back in 1995. It is said that

Eastman Kodak invented the first ever digital camera and the technology has just grown from there.

Windows 95

Design and planning started for this three years previous to the actual release date. It was said that Windows 95 was released with the single “Start Me Up” (Rolling Stones) on it and Microsoft paid them between $8-$14 million dollars for the privilege.

DVD 1996

DVD was a massive change from VHS and it took a while for people to adapt to the huge improvements, like being able to watch a film again without having to rewind it! Toshiba and JVC are the two known companies who made the first generation of DVD players and are as popular today as they were back then.

Flat screen 1998

Even though these are now the most popular, must have necessity in our living room they have been round quite a while. They were a lot more expensive back in 1998 thus not as popular as today.

Google 1998

The one and only Google.com, this is one of the (if not the most popular) site on the web. With about 320 million hits a day this has become the search engine of the century and I don’t think things are about to change any time soon.

Nokia 3210 1999

The infamous Nokia 3210 was extremely popular and was the beginning of a revolution when it came to mobile phones. It was one of the first mobiles to hide the big awkward antenna and have a choice of three games. Everyone loves a game of good old snake!

Apple iPod 2001

This was an amazing gadget which could hold up to 1,000 songs and was very small and compact in form. You could automatically download songs off iTunes onto this tiny 6.5 ounce design.

Sky+ 2001

Sky plus has been a revelation and when it first came out back in 2001 everyone was wowed at the fact that you can record programmes and watch them at any time you want. For us busy folk this was perfect!

Facebook 2004

Social Networking site of the past six years, Facebook is forever growing in users and popularity. Even with the competitor Twitter, Facebook is still going strong.

Apple iPhone 2007

2007 brought the unveiling of the iPhone, it was known as a widescreen iPod but turned out to be much more. It came with wifi, camera, visual voicemail, email and web browsing. It was extremely popular and sought after and still is today.

Apple iPad – 2010

This year came the sensation that is the Apple iPad. Basically like a hand held computer, this gadget has sold over two million and the number is only increasing.

So there is a look back at technology over the past 15 years. I personally used to be a fan of the Playstation 1 – couldn’t beat a bit of Crash Bandicoot on a Saturday night!

Tagged: Apple, Cameras and Camcorders, Google, Mobile phone, Social networking |

Facebook and Twitter puts friends at top of wish lists

By Nicola | Posted in Social networking, Twitter at 12 | December 16, 2010 – 1:09 pm

With Christmas just a matter of days away, most of us are looking forward to a well earned break and overindulging (mostly on food and alcohol).

The average family spends a staggering £600 on food and drink over Christmas. That’s £50 a month per year in savings.

But top of our festive wish list of things we most want to do over the Christmas break is to spend the time with our friends and family, according to an online analysis of social networking messages.

Experts have studied exactly what we put on the likes of our Facebook and Twitter pages and captured all of the messages from a real time feed mentioning the word ‘Christmas’.

In the first day of the study, which was put together earlier this month by a social media agency, more than 40,000 messages were processed.

The man behind the wish list analyser, Steve Richards, said: “People want everything from iPads to a divorce.

“Putting the code together to analyse messages took about a week and the trickiest part was tuning it to properly recognise messages genuinely dealing with Christmas wants but smart enough to avoid spam.”

The system behind the study worked by looking at people’s messages for certain keywords and then breaking down all of the wishes and wants into individual categories. The top category here was ‘people’, which included wishes to spend time with family members and friends at Christmas or a specific individual such as a celebrity (mine would be Take That FYI!)

In terms of other results, there was much talk online about requests for certain Christmas presents. The list was endless but the ones that stood out for us were leopard cubs for men and tummy tucks for the ladies!

Tagged: Twitter |

Ten Most Addictive Sites on the Net

By Jemma | Posted in Fact Friday, website | December 10, 2010 – 1:02 pm

How many of us could not survive without the internet? I know I couldn’t…

But what are the specific sites that you just couldn’t survive without?

We did our best Columbo impression earlier this week to find out what are the Top Ten Most addictive Websites out there at the moment.

1. Youtube

Youtube is like Pringles ‘once you pop you can’t stop’. This site can keep you entertained for hours with videos from music to even how to clone yourself a Big Mac. It currently gets around a staggering two billion hits per day. Our favourite video at present would have to be the one and only Keenan Cahill from the US. Check him out here – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lm_n3hg-Gbg

2. Fail Blog

This is a great site that will definitely raise a few laughs. It is basically a site were people upload their amusing pictures for all too see. Take a look at this if your boss can’t afford a Christmas tree this year – http://work.failblog.org/2010/12/02/job-lols-also-you-can-forget-your-christmas-bonuses/#comments

3. Overstock

Similar to Amazon, Overstock is fantastic website where you can buy goods at a discount price. You can be looking through thousands of products all day and night. Take a look – http://www.overstock.com/

4. Totally Looks Like

A very fun site that does exactly what it says on the tin; compares famous people to other famous people (which can be quite amusing). I got really confused between these two because he totally looks like the guy off Strictly Come Dancing – (scroll down the page)

http://totallylookslike.icanhascheezburger.com/

5. Facebook

Everyone knows what Facebook is and what it does, we also know how addictive it can be. From keeping your farm up and running to finding out the latest gossip, this is most definitely worthy of being in the Top Ten.

6. Cute overload

This has to be the cutest website well……EVER! It is basically a collection of really sweet and comical animal images that would put a smile on anyone’s face. Especially loving this one http://cuteoverload.com/2010/12/04/lets-check-in-on-boo/149245_478965538253_80329313253_5710148_160413_n/

7. Twitter

Tweeting is now generally a part of everyone’s daily routine – it’s even a real word in the dictionary! Where else can you find out what your favourite celebrity has had for breakfast or see a pic taken backstage at the T4 Awards? It’s a great way to be nosey in our opinion…

8. F*** my life

This site allows you to vent your anger and frustration at whatever disaster may have occurred that day. You can also sit for hours reading through other people’s miseries and misfortunes. (Harsh but genuinely entertaining).

9. Ebay

Similar to an auction, EBay allows you to bid on goods and whoever has the highest bid gets the product. This is one of the main reasons why this site is addictive, you have to keep checking to see where your bid is upto, also to see if your own items are doing well.

10. 2Leep

2Leep Brings people and blogs from around the world together on one site. You can read all kinds of different blogs and view the same amount of weird and wonderful pictures from the globe. Here is a fine example, Art made out of pencils http://www.dumage.com/no-way-these-are-pencils/

So that was our Top Ten addictive sites; lets see how many of you go on many of the sites listed purely out of curiosity, we know we will!

Tagged: Twitter, YouTube |

New Facebook

By Jemma | Posted in Social networking, Twitter at 12 | December 8, 2010 – 12:58 pm

Facebook has unveiled a new and improved look this week and since its launch, there have been mixed views regarding the change. Being the kind soul that I am (!), I decided to list some of them for you to see what you think…

What are the changes?

- There is a basic overview on the home page of your profile e.g. hometown, school etc. Basically to get conversation going with a new or old friend. Or just to save time and effort to see if you’re interested.

- It will also show some of the most recently tagged photos of you, this could go either way really, the last couple of photos you were tagged in could have been your wedding day where you looked absolutely stunning or, a photograph of you feeling a little merry dancing mid movement (we’ve all been there….)

- You can pick your favourite buddies and showcase them on your page or you can even put a few of your friends together in a group (e.g. five people that enjoy the same hobbie, i.e. football) so people know what your interested in and what you like to do.

- The new profile is generally more visual because you can add photos to your interests and you can tag people when listing projects done in work or achievements.

- A most definite upside is that you can search for friends a lot quicker and look at photos easily – this is because of the infinite scroll feature that has been introduced.

Facebook has been going strong for six years now and no one can predict how the new style will go down with everyone. I do know one thing though, here at Quadronation, we love it!

TripTrace – The Visual Holiday Planner

By Cheryl | Posted in Social networking, Twitter at 12 | November 8, 2010 – 1:08 pm

TripTrace, formally PlaceBook before Facebook sent the lawyers in, is a location-based application, allowing you to keep track of the places you’ve been and places you want to go.

I know your all thinking “What? Another location-based service?!”, but stick with me; this is different from the rest and looks extremely promising. The application itself is visually pleasing and it’s a great idea for all those (lucky) people planning their holiday.

Books
The website contains two books called ‘Atlas’ and ‘Travel’ (PlaceBook, get it?), which is where you pin all of your destinations on the maps.

Atlas (places you’ve been)
Atlas holds all of your location information and this is the book where you will add all the destinations you have visited, which are then marked by red pins across the map.

Travel (places you want to go)
The Travel book allows you to plan an itinerary for any upcoming holidays. Like the Atlas book, this book also adds pins to the attached map, with these being blue rather than red.

TripClipper
This TripClipper tool could come in handy for planning your holiday. The application allows you to take notes as you are browsing the web, and bookmark any trips or places you would like to visit while you are there e.g. restaurants, bars; these notes are then sent to the TripTrace application and saved within your books.

But it’s not only the data you have saved that appears within your book, the application also pulls in information from around the web, this is done from location tags. This means that plenty of information on events and even pictures are pulled in from popular sites such as Flickr and Fourquare.

TripTrace gives you a good idea of holiday costs too as it can gather information for hotels and flights based on your location.

Integration
TripTrace is integrated with some popular sites including Flickr, Fwix and Eventful. While the news and events services will come in handy, for me, Flickr is the perfect union for an application such as this. Within the book, Flickr images occupy the right-pane whilst the left-pane holds the map. When the thumbnails are clicked, the location were the picture was taken will be highlighted on the map.

Work in progress
The application is currently in Private Beta, with testers working their way through the various bugs and issues. The application is currently pulling in data for around 20,000 cities, with more being added daily, and the team are hopeful that public release is only a few weeks away.

On your phone
As the application is still in the development stage, phone integration isn’t fully operational at the moment, but that doesn’t mean ideas aren’t being thrown about. The team are working on a number of applications including phone trace by location, allowing you to see what’s going on in the area you are in.

Will it be a success?
There’s a place in the market for an application like this and their dispute with Facebook has only allowed them to get their name out their further. The fact that it brings so much together visually, I think will make it a huge success and I for one can’t wait to try it.

Tagged: Flickr, Social networking |

Facebook Gaming. The Facts.

By Jemma | Posted in Fact Friday, Gaming, Social networking | October 22, 2010 – 11:42 am

Social games are extremely popular these days and Facebook gaming is no exception. For all you gaming addicts out there, some of these figures may be of interest….

• 50% of facebook log-ins are purely to play games.

• 69% of Facebook Gamers are actually women.

• 56 Million people play daily. 290 Million play monthly.

• The average amount of time spent on Facebook per month is a 7 hours and 1 minute which is a whopping 85 hours 2 minutes a year!

• 20% of people have actually paid cash for in-game benefits.

• 19% of people say they are addicted!

The Top 5 Games of the moment are:

1. Farmville
2. Texas HoldEm Poker
3. Frontierville
4. Mafia Wars
5. Café World

Tagged: Games, Social networking |

Yahoo bids to get its cool back…Move over Facebook and Bing

By Nicola | Posted in News, Twitter at 12 | September 22, 2010 – 11:59 am

Yahoo, formally known as the world’s most visited home page, is bidding to ‘get its cool back’ according to its chief products officer with the use of a new product strategy to make the web more personal.

Having gone head-to-head with the likes of Facebook and Bing, who it lost its number two search engine spot to in the US, Yahoo has started to go down a steep hill, which has seen its page views slipping and a number of product launches failing to excite the world’s press.

But there is one man who believes he can change all that. No, not Superman, Batman, not even Captain America… it is a guy called Blake Irving.

After just 100 days in his new job, he has decided to unveil what he believes to be a fool proof plan to get Yahoo back to its former glory.

He said: “You are going to see things that happen fast, that are innovative and that make customers and advertisers delighted. Yahoo in three years is a global series of web experiences across a variety of different devices that gives people what they want; the content, the folks that they care about.”

“There is a bunch of bringing cool back to Yahoo saying a lot of the things that you want to do on the web are here.”

So there.

In fact, in the next few months as part of his plans, Yahoo will be showcasing a number of new products. These will include:

a version of Yahoo mail that is faster, has an improved user interface, blocks spam and integrates with Facebook and Twitter

a fresh layout in Yahoo Search that presents more content around entertainment and news searches

a Yahoo iPad and tablet app due for release in 2010/2011

revamped ad formats

connected TV partnerships with video-on-demand content sources, social networks, games and shopping

Talking to BBC News, Mr Irving said: “I think in the next 15 years more than half of users will be accessing services through mobile devices. I see it with my own kids who are just as comfortable typing on glass as they are on a keyboard.

“It’s going to be a different world and a huge percentage of what Yahoo will do, will not be on PCs.”

Makes sense really?

Irving looks like he is already getting the backing of the remainder of Yahoo’s committed fans, who have continued to stick with the brand when the ‘new guys’ came on to the scene.

And even his new colleagues are loving his ideas.

Yahoo’s chief technology officer Raymie added: “You have to be committed to building leading edge experiences and that is what we at Yahoo are doing and I think all these mobile connected devices represents a tremendous opportunity for us to recommit ourselves and to engage and delight users.”

Tagged: Shopping, Social networking, Twitter, Yahoo |

Facebook test new ‘subscribe to’ user feature

By Jemma | Posted in Social networking, Twitter at 12 | September 9, 2010 – 11:26 am

Facebook are trying out a new feature called ‘subscribe to’, which lets you know when an individual you choose, updates their status or upload photos etc.

Facebook said “We are testing this feature with a small percentage of users. It lets people subscribe to friends and pages to receive notifications whenever the person they’ve subscribed to updates their status or posts new content, such as photos, videos, links, or notes.”

Everyone knows that when you log on to Facebook you can easily get sidetracked and end up speaking to someone on chat or looking through a friend’s holiday snaps. This feature could be useful for people with specific needs or users that would like to know certain information.

Sounds pretty good, but is this new feature dangerous for users?

The feature is only at the testing stage and is already receiving a lot of criticism from industry experts. They think that it could be a tool for people to stalk users on the site.

1 in 12 women and 1 in 45 men will be stalked in their lifetime, these are frightening figures and maybe this new ‘subscribe to’ button could cause some people serious hassle.

Is this too much of a risk for Facebook?

Tagged: Social networking |

MySpace comeback?

By Jemma | Posted in Social networking, Twitter at 12 | September 1, 2010 – 11:47 am

MySpace introduced a new sync button yesterday which can be used to connect with popular social networking sites, Facebook and Twitter. The feature will allow users to sync status updates between each site and is one of many steps MySpace are trying to boost their popularity within the social networking world.

The fall of MySpace
Myspace was first launched in July 2003 and was extremely popular, but by 2008 is was overtaken by Facebook and the popularity continued to dwindle. We are now seven years on from the introduction of the music based site, so can it turn round it’s luck?

‘This is particularly exciting for artists who can now use this tool as a complement to their MySpace Music presence and share their vast library of content, including full album catalogs, to people who’ve liked their Facebook page.’ explained MySpace in a press release.

Comeback?
As well as the introduction of the sync button, MySpace launched a new colour scheme this year, resembling the look and feel of Facebook; an obvious attempt to attract more users back to the site.

This looks like a great opportunity for new music artists of today and it is an all round better and faster way of updating your status.

So MySpace is coming back on the map, but when did you last update your MySpace status?

The phrase ‘if you can’t beat them join them’ comes to mind, and this is certainly the case when it comes to Facebook.

Tagged: MySpace, Social networking, Twitter |

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