Google innovated the way people find their next meal or drinking hole yesterday by adding a carousel of local restaurants to their desktop search listings for keywords such as “Mexican Restaurant Orange County”. Hotels and other local venues have been given a similar search results makeover. The listings include their Google review score, address, phone number, and photos. This isn’t brand new for Google. They’ve offered this type of display on other devices such as the iPad and Nexus tablet since late last year. According to their Google+ post: Give it a go—type or say “mexican restaurants,”…

There really is more art than science when it comes to getting retweeted on Twitter. For individual influencers and organizations with a lot of clout, it’s easy. Justin Bieber could post a link to a blank white page, call it “A white bunny in a snow storm”, and still get thousands of retweets. For the rest of us, it takes practice and creativity. The infographic below is good in that it has some strong statistics and best practices, but businesses wanting to use Twitter the right way should take much of it with a grain of salt. For example, it recommends saying things like “Please Retweet” or “PleaseRT”…

For a few months now, I’ve been discussing the idea that local businesses should never fall into the trap of trying to be funny or interesting through the use of irrelevant pictures and memes. “No cat or dog pictures” has become a mantra of sorts with the concept being that businesses should try to stand out, not fit into the mix on Facebook and other social media sites. As some have argued, there are definitely exceptions to the rule. One such exception is when the interesting dog or cat picture is relevant to the business or local area. Here’s an example of an acceptable dog picture post on a business…

Call of Duty has become one of the most popular franchises in the history of video games. The series has undergone an almost complete transformation since its early days, as many gamers overlooked the original World War II titles for the then more popular Medal of Honor first person shooters. However, Call of Duty has used several different improvements to not only launch it past Medal of Honor, but essentially all other video games and shooters. However, with the latest announcement of its new PlayStation 4 and Xbox 1 title, set to come out towards the end of 2013, some people are wondering if the…

Flow is a productivity tool that offers an intuitive, sensible solution to all of your personal tasking needs.  With a clean, user-friendly interface, Flow makes managing your tasks a simple process from start to finish. From the moment of a project’s conception, Flow users can oversee its progress entirely. Once a task has been created, you’re able to include a comprehensive list of each notation or piece of information you’ll need to make sure the task is completed successfully. Flow also makes delegating tasks a simple process with intuitive commands and an interface that leaves nothing…

Anyone who loves the Vine app for Twitter knows two things – it can be a lot of fun and it’s a shame it shows up as a link on Facebook rather than a video. This could change if Techcrunch is correct about their report that Facebook is adding a Vine-like video feature to Instagram on June 20th. We are still looking for more information because we understand that Facebook has not wanted the details of June 20 to leak out — so this could be an intentional blind alley. But if the Instagram video report is true, you could say the event invite itself — sent by snail mail, coffee cup stain charmingly in one corner…

When a group of people from a business begin to engage in ways of promoting their businesses what are some of the ways that pop into their heads right away? Some think through commercials other through billboards and some might think by putting ads in the newspaper and magazines. But in today’s fast paced business world you need a platform that will be able to effectively communicate in a fast manner with customers if you want a good turnout for your business. So as you hear these tips what do you immediately think, Facebook, twitter, or other social media platforms. Well the answer is the newer social…

This past Friday was the release of the highly anticipated summer blockbuster Superman: Man of Steel. The film brought in $125.1 million in its opening weekend – more than any other movie ever released in the month of June. On Twitter, the words “Man of Steel” are still trending as fans flocked to their computers and mobile devices to share their thoughts on the movie. With all the buzz surrounding the man in blue, I thought it’d be good to see what superheroes best represent our favorite social media sites. So here it is: the @Social #LeagueofJustice! Facebook: Superman Everybody should…

Google has added a brand new venture to its roster, Project Loon. Loon allows people to connect to internet, not from your standard wireless router, but a floating balloon that connects you to a worldwide network of other balloons that can bring you the web across the world.   How it works Loon may look like a giant jellyfish, but a lot of engineering has gone into this. Firstly, the balloon is powered entirely by solar panels. This powers the electrical box that hangs from the balloon and transmits the data. This data travels at speeds similar to that of 3G, which isn’t too bad considering these…

Business is business until becomes personal. For Google, it’s more important that they help to slow the expansion of child pornography on the web than to have an edge over their competitors, so they’re sharing. The search giant has access to billions of pictures on the world wide web. Now, they’ve developed a solution to identify known illegal images and remove them from as much of the web as possible. To do this, they need the help of their competitors in a cooperative effort to make it a reality. According to the Telegraph: The new database, which is expected to be operational within a year, will…