Which one is right for you?

Everyone knows that if you own a business, these days you need a website. In fact, people will go further and say you need a website plus various other online presences like Facebook and Twitter.

One of the major reasons it is essential to have some sort of online presence is because you need your business to be found. And where do people go when they need to find something? Google of course! Personally, when I am looking for some type of business I usually head to Google Maps and run a search including the city and state (or even nearest address).

Google Maps is fast becoming the ‘Yellow Pages of the Internet’ — especially with Google Maps standard on the iPhone and Android mobile operating systems and a great downloadable version for BlackBerry. Taking control of your presence on Google Maps is one of the smartest things a business owner can do and it’s FREE. Follow the ‘via’ link to learn how…

On Sunday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg promised simplified privacy settings “in coming weeks.” It now looks like that timetable has been bumped up, with an executive at the social network revealing at an event in New York that new features will launch tomorrow.

What those features might look like is still anyone’s guess, but we’d expect to see an alternative (or outright replacement) to the granular controls that Facebook currently offers.

While that may appease some of those who think the site confuses users into sharing more information, the biggest question is whether or not recent feature additions –- specifically instant personalization and a series of social plugins -– will move from automatic opt-in to manual (a.k.a. –- default opt-out).

We see that as unlikely given the rapid adoption of the tools by web publishers, but we should have answers within the next day or so. Stay tuned.

h/t Kelly Neuville of Envano…

While most of the Facebook’s generation kids who populate the Internet nowadays have no idea about what RSS feeds are (but likely “follow” CNN on Twitter), there is still some percentage of tech-savvy people (me included) who take a look to their favorites feeds every morning before starting their day.

Not many RSS feeds reader product exists, and the few are pretty much all the same. The most widely used online RSS aggregators are probably Google Reader and Bloglines.

While Bloglines is clearly supported by online advertising, why do you think Google created its own for free? Yes, you guessed it: to get your traffic information.

They probably use the number of people subscribed to each RSS feed and the frequency of their visits to Google Reader to optimize the frequency of refresh (i.e., when and how often they should recrawl it) for that particular feed/domain. Then, they look at how many people open each post/link and use that information to make decisions on its priority in the crawling queue or ranking of those pages.

Buffeted by privacy snafus and the lingering fallout from a damning, years-old instant messaging thread, Facebook chief exec Mark Zuckerberg switched into full-on damage control Monday, confessing that the sprawling social network had “missed the mark” when it comes to its complex privacy controls — and pledging to do better.

In an open letter published Monday in the Washington Post (whose chairman, Donald E. Graham, just so happens to sit on Facebook’s board of directors), Zuckerberg wrote that Facebook has been “growing quickly” and admitted that “sometimes we move too fast.”

“Many of you thought our controls were too complex,” Zuckerberg’s letter reads. “Our intention was to give you lots of granular controls” — uh, you can say that again — “but that may not have been what many of you wanted. We just missed the mark.”

Zuckerberg promised, in “coming weeks,” privacy controls that will be “much simpler to use” — including an “easy way to turn off all third-party services” that can access your account.

How are you leveraging YOUR fan page?

If you don’t want Facebook to know something, why publish it? Granted, they have the trending tools to make some pretty accurate assumptions, but it’s pretty simple to not share on Facebook. What is the cost of not sharing? Therein lies the rub: the less you share, the less you connect, the less likely you will be to truly benefit from the Facebook experience (and other online social networks). In the end, if you’re a private person or concerned about your information, status, etc… there is only one option: don’t publish, don’t network and don’t connect.

Mitch Joel has some great, common sense advice on Facebook and the whole privacy kerfluffle. Follow the ‘via’ link to read the rest of the article…

Missing cool events, hot jobs, great deals, and important news stinks. Having an inbox stuffed with email alerts is just as bad. Here’s how to stay alert with the best email alert services, but avoid a cluttered inbox.

With a smart inbox setup, you can choose to see all the new things you’re interested in—albums from your favorite artists, new episodes of favorite TV shows, Facebook and Twitter happenings, local concerts, and more—without having all those alerts become inbox annoyances you’re more apt to ignore than mark on your calendar. You can check in once a day, on breaks, or whenever you want to see what’s coming up, and save your inbox for things you actually need to act on. We’ll start off this guide by highlighting our favorite email alert services, covering everything from TV and concert alerts to notifications for Facebook or cellphone minutes. After setting up your various alerts, we’ll explain how to use smart email filters to keep your inbox clean and your alerts useful.

The way we’re setting this up, it’s best to go ahead and sign up for these services first, then filter them all down.

Some good stuff to remember — especially #1! Follow the ‘via’ link…