Technology to help run your business
Is your website secure? Internet security is no joke. And your website is no exception.
But did you know there are some changes coming that can seriously impact your ability to attract new clients with your website?
These changes can also have an impact on how you show up in a Google search.
If you act now you can avoid the damage.
Let me explain. Read More→
I love Google but recently I was pulling my hair out with Google Chrome.
It was running slow, I couldn’t have more than a couple of tabs open (trust me, that was a big problem), I couldn’t download things without clearing the cache every third item and I couldn’t do a Google Hangout unless I cleared the cache and restarted the computer. Even then I had problems.
It was driving me crazy.
I tried deleting Chrome and reinstalling it. I scanned for viruses and malware. Nothing worked.
But I couldn’t give it up. I’ve saved all my passwords to my Google account and I love having all my bookmarks on my desktop, laptop and phone. Plus I’ve reached a point in my life that if I learn one new thing I have to delete something from my brain to make room. I didn’t want to have to get used to a new browser.
Then my brother-in-law told me about Google Dashboard.
www.google.com/settings/dashboard brings you to your Google Dashboard. It shows you all your Google tools.
If you go to Chrome Sync you can see how many bookmarks you have and how many open tabs are in your Chrome 
browser.
That’s where the problem was. It seems that when you use your Google account across multiple devices there’s a glitch in the system.
When I went to my Dashboard it showed that I had over 10,000 bookmarks (I don’t) and over 3,000 open tabs. That’s a lot, even for me.
For some reason Google Sync keeps all your tabs in it’s memory and the Dashboard thinks they’re all still open and running. No wonder things slowed down.
I clicked the “stop and clear” button and it cleared all the open tabs and excess bookmarks from the system. I then re-enabled Sync. All my bookmarks where exactly where they should be on all my devices and I am now in love with Chrome again.
However, you can see from the photo to the right that the number of open tabs is creeping up again. Clearly this needs to be a regular part of my routine.
Hope this helps.
The following is a guest post by Marc Itzkowitz, Senior Director of Product Marketing for Support.com. I suspect many baby boomers are still on the fence about smart phones and I hope this post helps you decide if one will work for you. Or, if you already have a smart phone, you’ll pick up some tips on how to get more use out of it.
The technology for smartphones and tablets improves every day, and a large number of these devices now run on Google® Android™. According to Canalys, the leading global provider of smartphone market data and analysis, Google Android has quickly become the world’s leading smartphone platform with 32.9 million devices shipped worldwide.
Thus, if you’re planning on buying an Android device, or already own one, the following 5 tips will help you get the most out of your device:
1. Install Applications:
Just like with desktop and notebook computers, you can install additional applications on Android devices that are actually fun and help make you more productive. With more than 150,000 apps to choose from there are a few you should definitely consider getting.
Shopping is always a good place to start, and you should consider Barcode Scanner, which enables instant access to product information and competitive pricing. When done shopping perhaps you’ll want to grab a bite, and Yelp can help find the nearest restaurant that meets your needs (filter by cost, cuisine, quality, noise, etc.)
Unfortunately, during dinner, suppose work calls and asks you to send a file that unfortunately is sitting on your computer at home? No problem, use File Transfer by Support.com® to help find that file on your PC (while you remain sitting at the dinner table), and send it out while you finish dessert.
Now that you don’t have to go home for work you can locate friends nearby and go hang out together using Foresquare. And for the drive home, why not stream your favorite music (and possibly learn about some cool new artists) using Pandora.
Be daring/have fun: make sure to explore some of the other hundreds of thousand apps available which are easily available at the Android Market or from Amazon.com.
2. Online/Offline Media:
Just like a multimedia PC and notebook, you can use your Android device to watch videos online, as well as offline. Tablets were designed for the mobile lifestyle which means they are powered efficiently, weigh less and offer excellent battery life (upwards of 2-4 times that of a conventional and much heavier laptop).
If you’re not sure where to get your video content, then check out Netflix for Android which allows you to stream thousands of instant movies to your connected Android device.
Conversely, if you’re looking for a TV-sized bite of entertainment, check out Hulu for the latest popular television shows. Of course don’t forget about the largest free video library around by using your device to browse YouTube®!
3. Control All Your Emails:
The high-end touchable interface of Android-based smartphones and tablets are ideal for sorting through emails. If you haven’t configured your email client on your device yet, configure it right away!
Configuring the email client on your Android device is very similar to configuring email clients (Microsoft® Outlook®, Outlook Express, Mozilla® Thunderbird®, etc) on a notebook or desktop PC. Most importantly, remember that you can configure ALL of your email accounts on the device so you have instant access to work, home, and your blogging account all from one interface.
4. Use Wi-Fi over 3G/4G:
Your tablet offers multiple connectivity options, 3G, 4G and Wi-Fi being the viable choices for wireless Internet access. If you have subscribed to a 3G/4G data plan and your tablet supports Wi-Fi as well, choose Wi-Fi instead of 3G/4G whenever possible. Wi-Fi generally uses less battery power, and is faster.
When travelling, look for free Wi-Fi hotspots. The best place to look is around any coffee shop, especially Starbucks, which now offers free Wi-Fi in all their stores. However, be careful if you are connected to an open/unsecured Wi-Fi network as they can pose security threats!
5. Use it as an eBook reader:
You probably don’t feel comfortable reading your favorite novel on your desktop or laptop because of the weight or how hot it gets sitting in your lap — not to mention the persistent noise of the cooling fan.
Guess what? You can use your Android device as an eBook reader as well. Your tablet’s light weight, decent screen size and long battery life will let you read your favorite book and won’t scald your thighs while reading Fahrenheit 451 (not quite the temperature of your laptop!). Your Android-based device supports multiple digital book formats (e.g. PDF, ePub, iBooks, Kindle, etc.) and you can buy those books online using services like Amazon.com.
Finally, if you need help setting up your Android, Apple® iPad®, iPhone®, or iPod touch® device, the Personal Technology Experts® at Support.com can ensure all systems are running smoothly on the technical side of things.
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About the author
Marc Itzkowitz is Senior Director of Product Marketing for Support.com. Prior to helping launch Support.com in 2002, Marc founded SeniorNetConnect, and before that held marketing positions with companies including Informix and General Motors, Inc.
Support.com and Personal Technology Experts are trademarks or registered trademarks of Support.com, Inc. or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. Google, Android and YouTube are trademarks or registered trademarks of Google, Inc. or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. Microsoft and Outlook are trademarks or registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. Mozilla and Thunderbird are trademarks or registered trademarks of Mozilla Foundation or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. Apple, iPad, iPhone and iPod touch are trademarks or registered trademarks of Apple, Inc. or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. All Other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
I suspect I’m not terribly different from most entrepreneurs. I’ve got a lot of balls that I’m trying to keep up in the air. Not only that, I continually get new ideas. Some of 
them are crap, but some of them are actually things that I plan to implement. I’ve tried a number of ways to keep my planning, my projects, and my new ideas organized.
One of the things I do is use binders. Each project has its own binder, as does planning. This has been a relatively useful way to keep track of ongoing work (when the labels don’t fall off the binders).
New ideas were little harder to track. For a while I was doing the Post-it note method. Every time I got a new idea I’d write it on a Post-it note and stick it up on the wall next to my desk.
This didn’t work for two reasons. One, after a while the Post-it notes just became visual noise; I just didn’t see them anymore. The second reason is the mental clutter they caused me. Although I can block out the content on the Post-it notes, I still knew they were there. Although I wasn’t consciously aware of it, it was causing me constant stress.
I moved away from the Post-it notes to whiteboards. Now whenever a garden idea I could just write it on the whiteboard. The nice thing about the whiteboard is it’s one continual surface so it’s less visually cluttering than Post-its.
However, the whiteboard method isn’t perfect either. It’s great for recording an idea as it occurs to me, but what do I do later? Eventually the whiteboard gets full. I needed some way to deal with the ideas.
Then I thought about Microsoft OneNote. This is a software program that comes as part of Microsoft office. I knew it was part of the package but hadn’t looked at it. Last week I decided to open it and take a look. I’m glad I did. Read More→
Monitoring your connections, updating your status and just staying on top of your social media presence can become a challenge as your numbers of connections grows, particularly when you have more than a couple of hundred connections.
Even for just Twitter, if you want to be able to connect with people and follow what they say, eventually logging into Twitter.com just doesn’t do it.
That’s where a tool like Hootsuite comes in. I’ve been test-driving it for the past couple of weeks and so far I like it.
I really like the pop-up profile. It saves me having to switch over to web browser when I want to see who the tweeter is. It also allows me to Follow, Unfollow, DM and add to a list just from the profile, as well as showing their most recent Tweet.
The “show conversation” button is awesome. It appears below any Tweet that is a reply to another. No more Twitternesia for me, where I forget what I said to the person replying to me. But it’s not just for my @conversations. When other people I follow are having a conversation the button appears so I can view the entire thread.
Speaking of Twitternesia, the Sent Tweets column on Hootsuite is great. Then I can remember what and when I said things, ‘cause I can’t remember.
Scheduling Tweets is pretty cool. Now let’s be clear, I’m not a big fan of automation on social media. It’s about networking and conversations with individuals; you can’t automate that. But I have these bursts of Tweeting where I’m reading blogs and finding cool links so I Tweet a whole bunch at once, which may be annoying to followers or may cause others to miss some interesting material. Read More→
