Google, oh Google, what would we ever do without you?

One may suppose that this question is addressed to the Google founders: Sergey Brin and Larry Page. While one question is fairly rhetoric, the other has a genuine sense of foreboding attached to it.

Larry Page has lost his voice. Don’t fret, people. According to the various sources at Google, he still continues to lead the company. Now, whether this condition of his is serious or not is unclear. He missed Google’s annual meeting and is going to miss two further engagements.

While Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, is making light about Mr. Page’s illness, there are few in the Silicon Valley who seem to think anything about this matter is funny. The reason, you ask? The demise of Apple CEO, Steve Jobs is fresh in their minds for the reason that very little information was disclosed by Apple about his condition. We wish Mr. Page a speedy recovery and hope that his voice is heard again soon.

Let’s get to the rhetoric bit now. Two words: Google Glass.

It is an augmented reality head-mounted display. It is a hands free display of information that is currently available to all smartphone users and it allows for interaction, via natural language voice commands. Project Glass is under development at Google X Labs, which has worked on other futuristic technologies such as the “Self-driving car”.

Though not a new idea, the very good thing about this product from Google is that it is smaller and slimmer than previous head-mounted displays. Future designs may allow integration of the display into people’s normal eyewear.

Sergey Brin, the showman that he is, decided that the best way to unveil the wearable computing device to the world was by showcasing a live sky-dive by an employee sporting the device. Everyone at Google seems to be pretty excited about the potential of Glass. It isn’t expected to be on sale soon, but when it does, it may soon take the world by storm.

On the other, lighter side of things, Gmail has finally overtaken Hotmail in terms of number of active users. This was long coming and inevitable.

Interestingly, according to ComScore, as far as home and business use of email services is concerned, Hotmail remains at the top with 325 million unique visitors and Yahoo follows with 298 million and Gmail comes third with 298 million. The ComScore numbers do not take into account, smartphone and Internet café users, which cause a discrepancy. And it is this discrepancy that makes Gmail the #1 email client in the world. Good times these, for Google, it seems.

Lastly, Google Maps now goes in-door in the UK. This means that once you are inside the location, you can use Google Maps to find what you are looking for, like in a museum for example, you may find where a certain display is put up. Pretty darn amazing, we say.

While the overall trend suggests that the dominating style of running your company is now passé, and that cooperation and integration is the new ‘in’ thing, looking at how Google is going, one could really say that they still look to dominate our very lives with their revolutionary ideas.

Lo and behold! You no longer have to suffer or bear the misery for making the mistake of putting up incorrect comments on a post on Facebook despite having impeccable English; you can finally edit your comments! People can see your history of editions though, mind you. You’d think that this feature would have been integrated into the social network a lot sooner, but it comes after a long wait.

We can all be happy now that the upgrade is here. It doesn’t exactly make the biggest difference to our lives (maybe most of us have gotten used to the incorrectly posted comments). The point is that it will take a while for us to get used to the idea that there need not be any mistakes or misgivings in our comments. Now, after much ado, we can finally write our long criticisms of someone’s status, blog, video update, and Godknowswhatnot. If an error is to be made, it is all in fate’s hands.

But it need not be in fate’s hands for long because if you read your super-long comment again, for review (as most of us tend to do. Don’t. Lie.), and don’t like something about it, you can change it. A Godsend, maybe, is what this update is.

On the brighter side of things, the delay in this update seems to have taught us something too. It has taught us how to avoid those irresistible “foot in mouth” situations; the staple food of the mockers, the very soul of the cynics.

A word out of line, even a careless typo would mean social suicide, at least virtually.

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You suddenly become like the sheep that is being watched endlessly by the big bad wolf from the veil that is the tall grass.

He waits patiently for you to make one wrong move.

Then he runs at you with everything he’s got.

He finally pounces on you and does this:

Never before did you ever put so much thought into what you wrote, and were careful to check and double-check how the meaning came across to the reader. This is mostly because of the pressure of having other people read what you wrote; the complex web that the concept of social media weaves.

So the invaluable lesson learnt in the process has been the need to measure your words carefully before you speak them. Now I need to give credits before I end this post or it could cause a stink, so that’s all for now folks.

Credits: 9gag.com, link to actual post: http://9gag.com/gag/4463358

We’re hiring and here are the details on the positions currently available with us. To apply, please email your resume to info@bloggersmind.com

Art Director

Responsible for creative input for planning and strategizing of Digital Social Media campaigns.

Conceptualizing viral strategies and concepts.

Provide creative strategic direction to campaigns and brand strategy.

Develop innovative and thought provocative Digital Social Media concepts.

Years of experience: 3+

Preferred industry background: Advertising/Creative Agency, Digital Marketing, Social Media,

Skill sets: Creative strategy and input, viral campaigns, exposure in Digital Marketing. Proficient in photoshop, illustrator, flash, animation (2-D & 3-D), video-editing softwares (FCP), visualization, ideation.

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Digital Account Manager

Responsible for building relationships with a portfolio of clients by gaining an understanding of their business and objectives.

Discovering opportunities and writing winning proposals.

Development of strategic insight and recommendations.

Preparing and delivering presentations.

Client liaison and management.

Managing flagship campaigns for clients.

Years of Experience: 2+

Skill Sets: Great organisation skills, excellent writing skills, the ability to run a meeting and negotiate deliverables, an understanding of digital strategy and its application to a wide variety of businesses, have great interpersonal skills and the ability to manage client relationships.

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Digital Community Manager

Build brand reputation with  online customer and rest-of-Web community.

Populate online communities and drive engagement with fans and followers (Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, You Tube)

Participate in community discussions, provide information, and moderate content.

Lead cross-functional teams to develop and execute online marketing programs with high visibility that will impact communities, influencer networks and prospective customers

Develop work plans, set milestones, and achieve objectives.

Track campaign performance using platform analytics.

Years of experience: 2+

Skill sets: Creative, strategic and analytics capabilities, Content Management and Optimization, Knowledge of Social Networking platforms

Here are some myths about smoking that you can consider hereby dispelled.

“Quitting smoking will make me gain weight.” – While this is true to a certain extent, it is not necessarily the only case. People often mistake the craving for nicotine to be the craving for hunger.

“Smoking just a few cigarettes a day is okay.” – Coming down from 2 packs of cigarettes a day to 3 cigarettes a day cannot be considered quitting. You might as well smoke the twenty if you are coming down to three. There is no such thing as a safe cigarette.

“My smoking harms only me” – Then one should never have any issue with passive smoke blown in one’s face. There’s a very good reason why no one likes it.

“Cigars and chewing tobacco are safe alternatives to cigarettes” – Again, it’s the other way around. Cigars have more cancer-causing tar per gram than cigarettes and a higher concentration of toxins. Cigar smokers have a heightened risk of developing lip, tongue, mouth, larynx, oesophageal and lung cancer, as well as heart disease. Chewing tobacco, meanwhile, is highly addictive, since one pinch has the nicotine of five cigarettes and is full of salt and sugar. Risks of chewing tobacco include cancer of the mouth, throat, cheek, gums, tongue, neck, jaw, face and lips, the treatment for which can leave a person disfigured. One would simply drop the habit after going through the list above, one would think.

“I’ve smoked for so long; why bother quitting now?” – Because, if you do, then you will live better. The years are gained back, and if you quit smoking before the age of 35, you may live as long as a non-smoker.

“I’m not really hooked; I can quit at any time.” – Nicotine is more addictive than heroin, cocaine and alcohol. That being said, nearly 70 percent of smokers want to quit, but only four to seven percent actually manage to do so without help. That’s because once nicotine, a component of tobacco, reaches the brain, it heads through reward pathways, increasing dopamine levels and giving the smoker a feeling of pleasure. The effects dissipate rapidly, leaving the smoker craving the pleasure-causing substance once again. Other chemicals in cigarettes are also thought to cement addictions. Smokers are often emotionally addicted and may need professional help in the form of therapy or a support program to learn to manage stress without tobacco.

Now here I am and I’ve managed to quit smoking without any help whatsoever and it feels great. What worked for me was being occupied in a routinely manner at almost all times. So I suppose I can say that my professional journey began with  breaking this awful habit.

Now, May 31st is ‘World No Tobacco Day’, and if you need any more motivation, then you may refer to Mona Lisa for further help. Have a great day!

Credits: www.huffingtonpost.com

Aditya Singhvi, chief editor at worldofphones.net was here at the Bloggers’ Mind office on the 25th of May. Here’s a look at our world through his eyes:

As a mobile blogger, I’m always writing about phones, platforms and pretty much all that.

Then what am I doing here? Well I’ve been interacting with Bloggers’ Mind for a long time, be it launches, events, reviews, and what not.

So this time when I was in Delhi I thought I’d visit the people behind the emails and tweets and handles. Little did I know
at this was gonna be one crazy day!

Blogger’s Mind is located in this posh area in Delhi and let the entrance not fool you. Inside those doors are some crazy people.

A total of eight people sit in the front and they’re the people who run the campaigns from the frontlines.

The day started normally, with coffee and welcomes. Seemed like a fun bunch of people.

In between all the work that these guys do, there’s a lot of weird things that go on. A day here isn’t your average day at an office. So what’s all the crazy stuff that goes on out here. Well, tons of it.

From constructing over the top versions of Antilla with Jenga, to collecting insects, creating hilarious hashtags, it’s all happening out here. There’s never a dull moment. Everyone’s always up to some mischief. A quick look at their desks will reveal a lot of about the people that reside there. Bags of chips, Gatorade, calcium munchies, caricaturized plastic bottles, cigarettes, parking notices from nearby people… In the midst of that, well in the midst of all of that you’ll find their workstations and phones. When they’re not eating and tweeting, they’re conjuring up hilarious pranks to pull on each other I’m sure!

So while Abhishek begins almost all his sentences with ‘Dude’ and ‘BTW’, he is known as the ‘candid’ fellow around here, because he lays it straight and makes you love it. He claims to love Mario and shows his adulation with the old NES video game tone as his phone’s ringtone. Rachit, the ‘Content Gaaye’ is continuously engaging in all forms of stretching, maybe he loves Yoga? Navratra which is the nine days of fasting is passe, it’s all about ‘sauratra’, a hundred days of fasting! And fasting here isn’t just about abstaining from food, it’s about abstaining from anything that’s a habit that you can’t let go of – be it drinking, smoking or even something as vague as not cracking jokes! All this from the fertile mind of the ‘Content Gaaye’.

Sanjay is equally creative, the fellow loves to bang his phone at any given time in the hopes of reviving it and powering it on! But at the same time his hands are a blur on the keyboard as he goes about conducting yet another contest on twitter. As a result, his ramblings are now limited to 140 characters, his exclamations and hashtags. His claim to fame – invited for a Beerathon.

Aditya’s sitting on his MAC and while he answers the important emails and calls, he’s quick to share anecdotes involving each of his work mates. Twisting words is a favorite past time of his! Red Bull becomes Tread Mill and as a result, every one now has a name that wasn’t theirs originally.

Perhaps the most interesting bit is when a 5 minute discussion is had over a twitter handle which has been tweeting modern day slang in Shakespearean English. Good Shit gets translated to Intriguing Faeces!

When the guys over at the creative section are not making creatives for the clients, popular bollywood stars are subject to mutilation via photoshop and as a result, hilarity ensues.

In the middle of all this, Revant walks in holding a couple of brand new guitars. He rues over the fact that he’s not as famous as Mick Jagger because he’s trying hard to emulate his look, replete with a striped shirt and loose denims. When he’s not being a humble content writer, he’s busy moonlighting as a band member of a rock band he’s got going.

Harshita is constantly the butt of jokes from the “Content Gaaye”, and while she doesn’t show any resentment at the face, she’ll probably be thinking of ingenious means to murder him, may be in the middle of a dimly lit street in some obscure part of Delhi, perhaps? Make it look like an accident? Clearly she’s one of them now, transformed from the once docile, fun loving good girl to someone who is as sadistic, crazy and hilarious as the rest.

I could go on, but then I’m sure you’ve got the point. Blogger’s Mind and its people aren’t just busy at being crazy, they are actually getting a lot of work done. Twitter contests, replying to emails from clients, consumers of clients and even spotting spelling errors. They’re focused on work when they’re doing it, but they always make it a point to have fun while they’re at it. That shows in the quality of work they put out and in their willingness to tackle issues head on. I’ve seen them interact with people and addressing problems, and emotional outbursts with equal enthusiasm that they have at making each other laugh.

The fact is, in this madness resides a team that is happy to work with each other and even encourage someone for a new initiative. A day at Blogger’s Mind is not an ordinary boring day, it’s a place where people come to have more fun and engage the scores of followers of their clients and keep the tempo going.

At one of the first Social Media agencies in India, it’s never a dull day at work!

Jon Lord, Janne Wirman and Jordan Rudess – what do these names have in common (besides the fact that their first names begin with ‘J’… seriously)? The answer is that all three are legendary musicians from the bands Deep Purple, Children of Bodom and Dream Theater, respectively, with their instrument of choice being the synthesizer. Today’s Google doodle is in the memory of the father of the instrument that makes the above said names simply awesome – Bob Moog.

About this doodle – it’s a synthesizer! Also, it’s not just any synth; it’s probably one of the first. If that wasn’t already innovative enough, it has recording capabilities!

Being a musician myself, the doodle holds a lot of appeal for me because at first I thought it was just an image. Then I pressed one of the keys and – bravo! There was music!

Now I have exceeded my quota of exclamation marks for this post, so I have to pretend to be calm for the rest of it.

Anyway, here are a few facts related to the recent-most doodle by Google:

• The doodle celebrates the 78^th birthday of American electronic music pioneer, Robert Arthur “Bob” Moog (pronounced ‘Mohg’).
• He was born on the 23^rd of May, 1934 (which would be pretty obvious given that today is his 78^th birthday right? Or were you really wondering along those lines?). He passed away on August, the 21^st, 2005.
• He is best known as the inventor of the ‘Moog Synthesizer’ (Yes that is what you call the doodle.)
• His innovative electronic design is employed in numerous synthesizers including the Little Phatty, Moog Taurus Bass Pedals, Moog Minitaur, the Animoog iOS app, and the Moogerfooger line of effects pedals and all that jazz.
• Moog earned his bachelor’s degree in Physics from from Queens College, New York (1957) and also did a PhD in engineering physics from Cornell University.
• For his exceptional work he was conferred with several awards including an honorary doctorate. In 1970, he received the Grammy Trustees Award.

Oh, did I mention that the doodle has recording capabilities?! Wait, yes I did. Must. Stop. Now.

Image credit: moogmusic.com

Sources for info: wikipedia.com, timesofindia.com

Lets look at the chain of events that took place over this past week leading up to the launch of the Facebook IPO.

Monday, 14th May – CNBC Web Producer, Lee Brodie says that the Facebook IPO is a “sign of new revolution”.  Venture capitalist John Frankel of FF Venture Capital says that ‘the Facebook IPO is much more than a hot stock coming onto the market – it’s a meaningful sign of the times.’

Tuesday, 15th May - The world’s biggest car company General Motors has pulled $10 million USD of Facebook advertising just days before the social network begins trading on the stock exchange.

Wednesday, 16th May - Encouraged by strong market demand, social networking site Facebook has increased the price band and number of shares for the initial public offer that could garner up to USD 18 billion (up from USD 16 billion, which was earlier upped from USD 12 billion).

Thursday, 17th May – Is Facebook California’s savior? Facebook’s IPO, by some estimates, will turn a thousand of its employees into instant millionaires. So many suddenly wealthy taxpayers in California couldn’t come at a better time, especially when “The Golden State” has a growing budget deficit.

Friday, 18th May - Just hours before Facebook opened on the public market today, a group of Facebook users sued the company in a $15 billion class-action lawsuit over privacy, according to Bloomberg.

This was the working week prior to the much anticipated Facebook IPO launch (at $38), and in all this anticipation Facebookipodayclosingprice.com was born, and it predicted the closing price of the Facebook share to be as high as $54.

So we waited with bated breath to see if this was really going to happen, hoping to witness history being made.

So, what happened in the end was that the IPO opened and closed at roughly the same price.

Conclusion: Everyone added fuel to the fire, and now they say that the Facebook IPO disappointed them. Does this seem logical to you??

The thrill, the exhilaration and the excitement of it all is just amazing. If you are wondering what we are talking about, then here it is laid out plainly:

So, Bloggers’ Mind was trending today according to Trendsmap New Delhi on twitter.

“Okay”, some people would say,”So what’s the big deal? So you were trending for like, a half an hour or so. What’s there to be excited about?”

There’s everything to be excited about! These things do not happen on their own. They require a focused effort from people who work together as a team. And good things should be celebrated, even if in a small way.

Bloggers’ Mind held a twitter contest today the winners of which were Abhishek Patiyal and Shagun Sharma. We express our heartiest congratulations to them and hope that they enjoy the takeaways.

But its time to toughen up again, because bigger mountains lie ahead.

Peace out, people.

So many of us have created pages on facebook with a motive to either raise awareness or promote a band, or a short film, or a famous personality, the list goes on and on.

Don’t you wonder what is it that brings people to your page and keeps them interested? When is the iron hot so that you may strike it? Not once, not twice, but as many times as necessary?

Here are a few pointers that should help you maximize the number of people checking in to your page, and getting engaged.

We all know how important it is to get likes and comments on our Facebook page. The reason for that is to keep a good EdgeRank. Facebook admits that the average Facebook page reaches only about 17% of its fans, and since less than 1 to 2% of fans go back to your page, EdgeRank and newsfeed visibility are critical. These statistics are of course based on an average.

Once you get a new fan, if your page makes him happy or intrigues him, he will continue to come back to your page, otherwise he would simply stop.

Now you need to know who you are appealing to and when these people are most active. Therefore, it is necessary to know which days of the week your fans are most and least responsive. This factor differs with every company and industry.

For instance, recent research indicates that the most responsive day for high fashion brands is Wednesday, while the same for outdoor clothing brand pages is Thursday. So, even if you post every day, you should make sure that your most engaging posts are kept for the most responsive day of the week. It’s true that there is no sure way of determining how any post will be received but data from past experiences really helps one to trace a pattern of sorts that works for him/her.

Facebook provides you with methods to study this data for strategic planning for your page. Here are the steps:

• 1. Go to your Facebook page insights and click on likes.
• 2. Click on export data. Choose post level data, and then select at least a two-month range so you have a good sample.
• 3. Save it and open it in Excel.
• 4. There’s not a quick way in Excel to group dates by day of week, but with a bit of manual work, you can find the average lifetime of engaged users per post, per day of the week.

Now you know what happens and why it happens the way it happens, and how to change what happens to something you want should happen. You get it right? That’s good, you’re smart.

Credits: mashable.com, edgerankchecker.com

What DO they teach at Harvard and MIT that only geniuses are allowed to get into these world renowned uber-prestigious colleges? While we have only been allowed glimpses into the on-campus lives of such people by means of movies like Love Story, The Social Network, Good Will Hunting, Legally Blonde, A Beautiful Mind, etc., we can only begin to wonder what the whole experience must be like.

We watch in awe, flabbergasted at the sheer brilliance and pace of the conversations that happen between these nearly super human minds in the movies that we never actually get to the part where we imagine ourselves studying there (and that’s why we don’t get into these places).

But the big boys at Harvard and MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) are making a change:  they are choosing to embrace the openness and radically democratic accessibility the Internet makes possible by pouring $30 million, each into a non-profit partnership, edX, which they hope will make the top notch facilities and courses of their schools available for free to millions of people around the world. All you will need now is an Internet connection to access the course material being taught in a classroom at Harvard, or MIT, or even both!

The core idea is that the excellence of education available at these schools should be made available, in an online format, to anyone who has the desire and commitment to make it through an online course.

In the meanwhile, here’s a video you should probably watch.

Big things are happening, can you feel it?

Credits: mashable.com, youtube.com