Category Archives: Search Engine Optimization

The Transition of One Simple Emoji to a Powerful Anti-Bullying Message

In late October, a new initiative has been launched in an effort to give those witnesses a simple way to express themselves and shut down bullying the moment that it starts

The campaign is a collaboration between major tech companies and marketing agencies which his dubbed as “I Am A Witness.” Though you might not have noticed this it yet, the campaign is shared with its logo, and has already made its way into your iPhone’s emoji set which is basically a simple icon depicting an open eye within a speech bubble.

Giving kids a way to call out bullying in text messages or online communications is what the idea revolves around it. One can simply respond with the emoji instead of using words if someone’s trashing a peer.

Lisa Sherman, CEO of Ad Council said, “This emoji felt like it could give teens something to say when they don’t know what to say.”

The one who spearheaded the I Am A Witness campaign is the Ad Council which garnered financial as well as creative support from several companies including the likes of Apple, Adobe and Facebook. Goodby, Silverstein and Partners who are advertising firms work hand in hand together in designing the campaign logo which was then converted into an emoji and presented to the Unicode Consortium, the organization that standardizes special characters across several platforms.

With that being said, there is always a unique challenge when you want to convey a message though emojis as they are not always clear on what exactly they mean. For instance, the eggplant emoji is used to refer to a certain part of the male anatomy which can be a bit misleading.

Kate Baynham, a copywriter at the agency said, “Victims of bullying feel so isolated. And online, bullies feel they have the power to bully because they think they have anonymity. So an eye felt like a no-brainer. It says, ‘I see what’s happening here and I’m not into it.”

At the same time, Adobe agrees with such sentiments who were the ones provided financing to the campaign and helped put the emoji in front of Unicode.

The Ad Council is producing a series of videos on YouTube that explore bullying prevention if you remain a bit skeptical about the emoji. Just last week, three different clips have been debuted.

Sherman added, “At the end of the day, our hope is that this truly incredible and unprecedented collaboration is really going to move the needle on this issue.”

Comments Off

Google Now Uses Artificial Intelligence, and I’m Freaking Out!

The most recent email app from the Gmail team, the Google launched Inbox touted the app’s ability to act almost like an assistant. Google is now making the app more like an aide than ever after a year.

A new feature called “Smart Reply” is what the company will be rolling out soon which uses artificial intelligence to suggest replies for your messages. According to the company, the feature will be coming to Inbox’s iOS and Android apps later this week.

A predictive text in keyboard apps is what the Smart Reply feature works a bit like, except that it predicts phrases you’re most likely to use when replying to messages. Basing on the message, the feature will show up to three short sentences and how people have responded to similar emails in the past.

Software engineer Bálint Miklós writes, “For those emails that only need a quick response, it can take care of the thinking and save precious time spent typing. And for those emails that require a bit more thought, it gives you a jump start so you can respond right away.”

Miklós, explains that the feature took quite a bit of engineering to get it working behind the scenes. In order to surface relevant responses in realtime, it makes use of machine learning techniques. Smart Replies should improve over time as people use the feature more as with other tools that use natural language technology. When they first began testing it, Miklós notes that, a commonly suggested reply was “I love you,” which is probably not appropriate for most work-related correspondence. (He promises that reply suggestions have been tweaked to be more Safe From Work.)

Privacy of course, is another very important factor in working with email. Miklós stressed that they adhere to the same rigorous user privacy standards that they’ve always held in the development of Smart Reply – in other words, no humans are reading your email. Basically, researchers have to get machine learning to work on a data set that they themselves cannot read, which is like trying to solve a puzzle with your eyes closed.

How much of an impact the feature will have on Inbox and how people respond to email, is something that is still too early to tell, however it offers an enticing look into how Google is using artificial intelligence to make some of the most ordinary tasks we do on a daily basis — like answering emails — a little easier.

Comments Off

These Simple Keyboard Shortcuts Will Make Become a Twitter Pro

Social media has become one of the most sought after service over the past few years. It is an effective way to express one’s opinion and share it with their friends. This is the reason why it is used by millions of online users on a regular day to day basis. Twitter for example, is an online social networking service that enables users to send and read short 140-character messages called “tweets”. This makes it easy to share your thoughts to the online community in short bursts without making it a hassle to read.

For active twitter users, they may already be quite familiar on how to use this social media platform. This includes sharing or retweeting a particular tweet. However, most of them are not aware with its integrated keyboard shortcut features. Listed below are simple keyboard shortcuts will make become a twitter pro

There are a number of simple shortcuts that will come in handy if you use the microblogging site on desktop. For example, hitting the “n” key will open up a box where you can compose a new tweet; then hold down Command + Enter to send out that tweet. Other actions include pressing the “f” key for favorite, “r” for reply, “t” for retweeting, “m” for direct messaging, “u” to mute a particular user and “b” to block a user.

Pressing the “enter” key will open tweet details, while pressing “c” will close all open tweets, the “o” button is used to expand photo, while the “/” key will open up search. A combination of “cmd + enter” sends a tweet.

For navigation, the “?” key for this menu and “j” for see the next tweet. Pressing “k” will get you back to the previous tweet. Pressing “space” for page down and “.” is used to load new tweets.

To check timeline, a combination of “g+h” leads you back at home, “g+n” for notifications, “g+r” for mentions, “g+p” for profile, “g+f” for favorites, “g+l” for lists, “g+m” for messages, “g+s” for settings, “g+u” to go to user.

These are some of the simple keyboard shortcuts that you can use to make tweeting effortless and simple while also make you look like a pro. Be sure to try some of these keyboard shortcuts outs on your next few tweets. You can also share this information with your online friends or you can tweet it through them. Start tweeting today!

Comments Off

5 Reasons Why Your Website Will Never Be Successful

There are currently more than 1 billion live websites. In the time you’ve taken to read this sentence, four new websites have been created. With the proliferation of websites it’s difficult to stand out among competitors and businesses are increasingly challenged to leave a unique mark in the rapidly evolving Internet landscape. This, in addition to the fact that we’re in the middle of an information overload, makes it easy to lose sight of the basics that make a good website. A website should tell a story and communicate information seamlessly to the end-user, otherwise it runs the risk of turning visitors off completely.

Below are five reasons that your website will never be successful and basic tips companies should keep in their back pocket and utilize in order to prevent their websites from becoming uninteresting and outdated.

1. Lacks Usability

A website can often be the first impression of a company and a confusing website will push potential customers away just as quickly as they landed on it. Users need to be able to find what they are looking for with easy-to-navigate pages and readily accessible information that promotes further exploration. A clean layout with clear headers and information displayed in a user-friendly way encourages repeat visitors to frequent the site and obtain the information effortlessly.

2. Information Overload

A bunch of words staring at potential customers is a surefire way to get them to leave a website. Customers crave information but businesses need to be mindful not to over communicate main points. It’s easy to upload copious amounts of text and images on a website to make sure all of the bases are covered but in many cases it’s too much information that ends up overwhelming the user. Provide key information that customers are looking for and relay it in a way that’s easy for them to digest. Write in short sentence and in bullets when possible. By presenting focused information in a logical way customers can address their questions sufficiently.

3. Poor Website Name

Choosing a website name is one of the toughest parts of the branding process. Finding an available URL that aligns with the company’s image and can be easily optimized for search rankings are essential factors to consider. Previously, a company was only recognizable if it had a .com domain extension but times are changing and with the onset of a number of generic top level domains (gTLDs) – like .business, .brand and .website – companies have the option to choose from a growing pool of extensions that are ideal for the company in the long term. A notable name creates a unique opportunity to align a company, individual or new product website to better reach the target audience.

4. No Call-to-Action

Unfortunately the work doesn’t end once a customer gets to the site and sees a visually-appealing layout with easy-to-use tabs. There has to be a call-to-action (CTA) that encourages customers to go beyond “window shopping” and take the plunge by making a purchase either directly on the website or being able to search locations where the product is available. Service providers can ask customers to contact a representative to learn more or have a virtual assistant available online for questions. Smaller CTAs such as encouraging customers to follow the business on social media or sign up for email newsletters keeps both potential and existing customers up to date on the latest news. Making the site interactive and determining what the end result and call to action needs to be for the company’s business model is crucial.

5. Not Mobile Ready

Mobile growth has surged and more and more customers are accessing websites directly from their smartphones and tablets than ever before. Therefore it’s critical that websites are mobile ready so customers can easily view the content on smaller screens. Customers have a short attention span so information should be easily readable regardless of what device they’re viewing the website on. It’s also important to ensure the website loads quickly on any device so sticking to simple HTML instead of flash may be ideal.

Websites are essential to a company’s success and take a great deal of time and dedication to build and maintain. It’s important that resources are dedicated to ensuring that this platform is constantly up to date and working correctly. Companies that use these tips when creating their websites will be pleased with the uptick in visitor traffic to their page and overall outcome of having a rich Web presence.

Originally published by Karn Jajoo on websitemagazine.com.

Comments Off