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Personal Profile Page Startup About.me Is Ready To Take Your Money With New Premium Service, Plans For Wefollow Integration

Tue, 21 May 2013 11:59:02 -0400

About.me, the online identity platform that spun out from Aol* at the beginning of the year before acquiring the one-time Digg spinout Wefollow, is now lifting the curtains on its plans to generate revenue, with today’s debut of About.me Premium. Via this new, paid tier to the service, the company is adding some of the more advanced features users have requested, including domain mapping, Google Analytics integration, the ability to remove the About.me branding, and more, for a $4 per month fee. And that’s just to start. This is the first time About.me has charged users for any aspect of its service, co-founder Ryan Freitas tells us. With today’s release, the site will begin to offer features aimed at professional users, like the ability to display their About.me page on their own custom domain name – the most in-demand user request to date, he says. The site will walk users through the process of adjusting their DNS settings to map the new domain to their page. To accompany this change, Premium users can also remove the branding on their page, which includes the “about.me” logo and the top navigation bar entirely. However, branding won’t entirely disappear. A small button at the bottom will still say “me,” pointing those who are interested to more details about the About.me service. Users will also be able to check site statistics using Google Analytics, and jump to the front of support queues with priority email support. The company isn’t yet committing to a guaranteed turn-around time, however, because they’re currently unsure what user support volume will be. But Freitas says the company has always taken support seriously, and is now staffing up on the customer service side of the business. The company also announced its future plans with Premium, which speaks to how it will integrate the technology acquired by the purchase of Wefollow, which today still serves as a discovery tool that helps Twitter users find others to follow by interest. “There will be a secondary tier that allows for people who want to be discovered,” explains Freitas. “We’re going to be able to create a paid tier using the algorithms from Wefollow to promote [users] into a variety of different mechanisms that we’ll be unveiling over the next few months,” he says. This will include a search directory, similar to the one Wefollow offers today, as well as tools that will allow premium users to pay for

How a marketing genius like Randi Zuckerberg was entangled in a privacy mess?

Sat, 29 Dec 2012 06:27:23 -0500

To understand what had happened in Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s sister How Randi Zuckerberg and how she was entangled in a privacy mess? —- “It’s complicated”. It all started when Randi Zuckerberg posted a photo of her family’s reaction to Facebook’s “Poke” app, and Vox Media’s Callie Schiweitzer spread the photo on Twitter. [...]

The post How a marketing genius like Randi Zuckerberg was entangled in a privacy mess? appeared first on CEOWORLD Magazine.

There’s A Difference Between Private And Personal

Fri, 28 Dec 2012 20:03:50 -0500

While most of us were enjoying the holidays with our families all over the world, While most of us were enjoying the holidays with our families all over the world, someone who is related to the CEO of Facebook posted a photo of her family to friends, and then some journalist person downloaded it and tweeted it. There’s a real difference between something being private and something being personal. And that, as the aforementioned incident highlights, is a notion that a lot of people — including Randi Zuckerberg — have forgotten, online and off. What I mean by this is that just because you post something online, doesn’t mean it’s meant for public consumption. Yes, this all sounds very conflated, and yes, Facebook privacy controls are about as easy to understand as left-handed scissors for a right-handed person. However, somewhere in this slow news big news cycle, publications started to tell the story that said Facebook CEO’s sister clearly didn’t understand Facebook’s privacy controls. This is simply not true, because the photo wasn’t private, it was personal. Allow me to explain the difference. Private As A Peacock If something is “private” in your mind, it’s probably not a good idea to share it on the Internet…anywhere. I don’t care what types of controls a social network gives you. There’s no such thing as full-on “privacy” on the Internet. Do you know what is private? A good-old-fashioned photo in a scrapbook, passed around one by one at the dinner table during the holidays. If you see someone try to pull out their phone to snap a photo for Instagram purposes, you can say “HEY! That’s private.” This can’t be done on the Internet. Once something is out there, it can be screen-shotted, captured and re-shared just as easily as it was uploaded in the first place. As we learned with Snapchat and Poke, those sexy private photos and videos aren’t really “private” either. I’m not even going to get into the difference between public and private, because I feel like that’s fairly obvious. Privacy is a lost art in humanity these days. We’re so used to sharing every darn thing that happens to us, myself included, that we have lost a sense of self, therefore leaving ourselves open to the shit show that ensued during the boringest news week of the century. No matter what Randi Zuckerberg said after the fact, people

Facebook’s Status Box Gets More Personal, Asks You “What’s Going On?” By Name

Fri, 21 Dec 2012 18:27:02 -0500

Here’s something quite interesting, coming from Facebook on a day when it launched its SnapChat competitor, “Poke”. It seems like the company is testing out a design that is a bit more…personal. We’re familiar with the prompts within the status box when we log into Facebook and sit on our News Feed. Today, I noticed something different. It asked me what was going on, by name. We’ve reached out to Facebook for comment, but these are the types of design and user experience tests that we see in the wild all of the time. It’s interesting to note that this might be a very interesting technique to get people to share more. Seeing it was like getting a call from someone and them saying “Hi, Drew” rather than “May I speak to Mr. Olanoff?”. That slight difference might increase the number of status messages that people share on a daily basis. At least, that’s what Facebook is hoping, I’m sure. Either way, it’s an interesting experiment, and one that makes Facebook look a little more human, something I feel that it’s been lacking as of late. Sure, it’s a social network, but when your friends’ content is surrounded by ads all of the time, you tend to lose that personal touch. Having said that, the more items that are shared, the more you’ll come back to the site and to more opportunities for Facebook ads. Have you seen this on Facebook? Update: A Facebook spokesperson told us: “This is something we’re testing … We’re testing different variations to see how people like them.” [Photo credit: Flickr]

The Problem with Personal Financial Management Tools

Tue, 16 Oct 2012 06:50:00 -0400

DailyFinance.com: Richard Eisenberg You'd think that the Internet and mobile apps would be fantastic ways to help people manage their money. So why do so few of us in our 50s and 60s take advantage of personal financial management online and mobile tools from banks, ... Read more

What happened to all my old clever ranting blog stuff?

Sun, 08 Jul 2012 13:14:12 -0400

I sure miss blogging here at JoeDuck, where I used to rant, rave, or just observe the world. That’s what makes blogging so much fun but I’ve let other things get in the way of that too much lately. What … Continue reading →

our anchors.

Tue, 26 Jun 2012 13:48:57 -0400

Traveling was a great chance to get lost in my thoughts. Interestingly the bulk of the threads in my head were ideas that I’ve long thought about, but now got to pull on further. For most of my trip I traveled alone. Though, in practice, this just meant that I was constantly surrounded by new [...]

A.R.O. Reveals Saga, An “Ambient Companion” That Watches What You Do To Make Personal Recommendations

Sat, 16 Jun 2012 14:30:05 -0400

We've just been given a first look at Saga, a new mobile companion emerging from Seattle startup A.R.O. You can think of Saga as Siri's little sister, perhaps. Instead of asking it questions or giving the app simple tasks (what's the weather, add meeting calendar, e.g.), Saga is there, quietly tracking your behavior, your location and learning about your preferences, in order to make smarter recommendations about what you should do next. It's the next evolution of those "ambient location" apps which were all the rage at this year's SXSW, perhaps.

beauty vs the world.

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 13:48:06 -0400

For a long time, I assumed that like most things, there was a natural balance between the horrors and the beauty of the world. The yin and the yang that was part of the normal harmony of things. While this might still be true, I’ve learned that it’s wrong for me. I’m in the middle [...]

infinite possibilities.

Tue, 29 May 2012 03:15:48 -0400

Every now and then I’ll read some thing that just instantly floors me. I get goosebumps and my mind can’t help but slow down and try and process what I’ve read. Marina Keegan had just graduated Yale when she died in a car accident. Her last column in the Yale Daily News is magical in [...]

Personal Takes Its Secure Vault For All Of Your Private, Digital Data Mobile With iOS App

Mon, 07 May 2012 09:14:40 -0400

Startup Personal, which aims to give consumers control over their digital data, is debuting an iPhone app today, adding to the company's existing web and Android apps. Personal is a free web and mobile service that helps you take control of all the digital information about yourself and your life, decide who gets access to it, and use it for your benefit. This information ranges from your passwords, your kids allergies, emergency contacts, credit card info, and more. Basically, any information you may not want to store in email but want to be able to share with your loved ones or friends.

Personal lets people get the most of their small data

Mon, 07 May 2012 09:00:23 -0400

While the latest business trend is in tapping the power of big data, Personal.com is helping people find the potential in wielding what it calls small data, the private information they have about themselves. The company announced a new iPhone app Monday to further its plans.

the best luxury.

Sat, 07 Apr 2012 19:40:00 -0400

While the broader economy struggles, Silicon Valley sits apart. Things are red-hot. With Facebook’s impending IPO, the crop from 2011, and the current venture climate: money is rampantly in the air. Lots of talk of buying condos, building homes, new cars, and awesome global trips are everywhere. It’s been interesting to see how people treat [...]

What happens when social surveillance goes mainstream?

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 13:32:33 -0400

The UK government considers a law that would allow for surveillance of online activity, U.S. universities admit they track what their athletes are saying on Twitter, and employers are asking for Facebook passwords. At this point, advertisers tracking us online is the least of our problems.

with age.

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 21:31:14 -0400

I’ve long thought about what changes. As I get older, how I change. My tastes. How I make decisions. How I interact with the world. What I value. How I spend my time. What I worry about. What makes me happy. All that stuff. Recently I’ve found that my random thoughts on this have sort [...]

the white earbuds society.

Mon, 26 Dec 2011 12:23:50 -0500

Over the past year, whether I was in New York, Chicago, San Francisco or Cincinnati, there was always one unmistakable sight. White earbuds. Walking in the morning across Madison Ave, getting on the El headed downtown, or out for a run along the Ohio river. White earbuds dangling. I was heading in to the office. [...]

Those poor folks in the 99% who only have 8 million to their name.

Tue, 22 Nov 2011 02:02:23 -0500

After some time looking I finally found the number I’ve been after, which is the cutoff point in terms of the wealth of those elusive and mysterious ”1% people” everybody is talking about. Here’s the excellent research document: http://www.levyinstitute.org/pubs/wp_589.pdf We learn that the cutoff for moving from the impoverished 99% to those nasty ONE PERCENTERS [...]

Personal Is A Secure Vault For All Of Your Private, Digital Data

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 23:00:09 -0500

We wrote about stealthy startup Personal earlier this year when the company announced $7.6 million in funding from Steve Case's Revolution LLC, Allen&Company, and others. This week, Personal finally launched its service, which aims to give consumers control over their digital data, to the public. Personal is a free web and mobile service that helps you take control of all the digital information about yourself and your life, decide who gets access to it, and use it for your benefit. This information ranges from your passwords, your kids allergies, emergency contacts, credit card info, and more. Basically, any information you may not want to store in email but want to be able to share with your loved ones or friends.

Best Personal Tax Software

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 08:46:33 -0400

941 InstructionsAre you looking for a software program that can do it all? Choosing the right tax software can be a challenge. Hopefully the following information will be helpful. Allowable Federal Irs Medical Expense Tax Deductions Online tax filing programs should provide the following features: •Step-by-step guidance. •Fast and easy filing, even for a more [...]

5 Credit Union Myths Debunked

Tue, 01 Nov 2011 04:00:00 -0400

DailyFinance.com: Between the public outcry over Bank of America's (BAC) new fees and the Nov. 5 "Bank Transfer Day" event that has spread virally over the past few weeks, normally low-profile credit unions have been receiving a great deal of attention as an ... Read more

One Story of Many

Fri, 27 May 2011 19:57:23 -0400

I am supposed to write once a week… I may be a week or two behind – simply because things have been just a little crazy in my neck of the woods. As you may have seen in Cindy’s post a couple of weeks ago – I have accepted a position at Brownfield Ag News [...]

Why Terrific Leaders Can Behave So Badly

Tue, 17 May 2011 12:05:03 -0400

How did an IMF chief praised for his leadership could end up accused of sexual assault? Simple: narcissism.

Rotator Cuff Exercises

Sun, 10 Apr 2011 15:16:19 -0400

After starting up Tennis again I’m already experiencing what I think is a rotator cuff irritation so it’s time to look for some rotator cuff exercises so hopefully I can play without injury or pain. It’s hard getting old! The Rotator cuff is a complex of thin muscles on your shoulders that allow the [...]

Berkeley Earth Project

Thu, 31 Mar 2011 20:19:32 -0400

The Berkeley Earth Project is a very ambitious attempt to accurately assess the state of “Global Warming” in a very systematic and scientific way, free from the many biases, politics, and advocacy challenges that have arguably plagued the process to date. Preliminary findings are just out here a bit prematurely, as the director [...]

RIM Gets Desperate: Brings Messenger to Android, iOS

Fri, 04 Mar 2011 10:08:03 -0500

Research in Motion's plans for stripped down Android version for BlackBerry Messenger is necessary to stop customer flight and maybe even win some converts.

obama’s failure.

Tue, 25 Jan 2011 19:01:53 -0500

When you’re talking about presidents, it should be declarative. They should own things. Think ‘Bush’s War’ for Iraq. Or, I guess, as I’ve now read ‘Obama’s War’ for Afghanistan. So, I’m declarative here. Obama’s failure. I’ve wanted to write this for a long time. It really built up over 2010. As my feelings grew stronger, I felt [...]

Personal Raises $7M From Steve Case And Others To Help Consumers Protect Their Digital Data

Thu, 06 Jan 2011 17:23:10 -0500

Under the radar startup Personal has just announced a round of funding from a group of impressive backers. Personal has raised $7.6 million in a Series A round of investment from Grotech Ventures and Steve Case's Revolution LLC with participation from Allen & Company and Eric Semler of TCS Capital Management (although this SEC filing indicates the startup raised $7.3 million) Founded by the same management team that built business mapping application The Map Network (which was acquired by NAVTEQ in 2006), Personal aims to give consumers control over their digital data. Details are still sparse on how Personal does this, but the company says that it helps users prevent companies tracking, compiling and selling digital information without the consumer's consent.

Walgreen CFO Arrested on Drunk Driving Charges ... Again

Tue, 19 Oct 2010 09:03:00 -0400

Walgreen Chief Financial Officer Wade Miquelon was arrested on drunk driving charges last month -- his second such arrest in a little more than a year. The drugstore chain calls it a personal matter, but when it comes to executives, when does personal irresponsibility become a corporate problem?

Continue reading Walgreen CFO Arrested on Drunk Driving Charges ... Again

Walgreen CFO Arrested on Drunk Driving Charges ... Again originally appeared on DailyFinance on Tue, 19 Oct 2010 09:03:00.

Filed Under: Company News, People, Biz Brief

How Your Second Job Can Make You Better At Your First

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 10:00:34 -0400

Sari Crevin has a full time at Microsoft and runs her own baby-accessory production and marketing company. Here's how each job makes her better at the other.

Real-time May Be Nice For Search Engines, But What About Personal Lives?

Mon, 19 Jul 2010 19:00:45 -0400

The lives of journalists online are increasingly hectic and frenzied, according to a somewhat sensationalistic piece in the New York Times. But the underlying phenomenon the Times is describing seems far more universal than that: it is the increasingly "real time" nature of all our lives.

Misplaced compassion … kills

Fri, 14 May 2010 16:17:43 -0400

One of the most obvious things I assert is also the thing that bothers people the most. It’s that most of us tend to fret or show compassion over trivial or questionable things while we ignore the catastrophic circumstances that plague so many people around the world. A great recent example is the effort [...]

Top 10 Best Personal Finance, money management and budgeting Software

Thu, 08 Apr 2010 06:50:07 -0400

Do you want to buy a house or car, plan trips or a vacation, finance your children’s studies, save for a special occasion, or simply keep track of your budget? Personal Finance Software can provide you an accurate portrait of your financial situation and shows you that your projects really can come true! Microsoft Money- Microsoft [...]

10 Essential Personal Finance and Investing Resources You May Have Missed

Sun, 04 Apr 2010 17:26:12 -0400

We’re very cognizant of how busy your lives are and assuming that you simply can’t search for and read all of the brilliant personal finance or investing resources around the blogosphere, we’ve corralled some of our favorites below. We hope to make this a weekly feature and we really hope you enjoy it. Among the resources [...] Related posts:

Personal Income Flat – Economic Highlights

Mon, 29 Mar 2010 10:09:08 -0400

Personal Income remained virtually unchanged, increasing by $1.2 billion in February, or less than 0.1%, to $12,179.7 billion seasonally adjusted at annual rates, and was expected to increase by 0.1%, following a 0.3% increase in January, originally reported as an increase of 0.1%. Net of taxes Disposable Personal Income increased by $1.6 billion, or less than 0.1%, to $11,053.1 billion, after falling 0.2% in January, revised from a 0.4% decrease. Personal Consumption Expenditures increased by 0.3%, matching expectations, following a 0.4% increase in January, revised from a 0.5% increase. With personal consumption expenditures rising at a faster pace than income levels, the Personal Savings Rate decreased to 3.1% of disposable income from 3.4% in January.

Upcoming Releases

Case/Shiller Home Price Indices (03/30 at 9:00 AM EST)
Consumer Confidence (03/30 at 10:00 AM EST)

Factory Orders (03/31 at 10:00 AM EST)

Crude Inventories (03/31 at 10:30 AM EST)

Zacks Investment Research

Does your Storytelling Trump the Truth?

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 14:30:55 -0500

One of the greatest confusions of my life has been watching otherwise very sharp folks descend into a sort of silly crazed madness – or at least incoherency – with respect to complex topics like politics, economy, global warming, etc. AT THE VERY LEAST a thinking person should realize that we generally don’t have enough data [...]

Feb 1: ISM Index at 6 Year High – Economic Highlights

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 10:21:53 -0500

Personal Income increased 0.4%, by $44.5 billion in December, to $12,253.1 billion seasonally adjusted at annual rates, and was expected to increase by 0.3%, following a 0.5% increase in November, originally reported as an increase of 0.4%. Net of taxes Disposable Personal Income increased by 0.4%, by $45.9 billion, to $11,179.5 billion, after rising 0.5% in November. As incomes grew, Personal Consumption Expenditures increased by 0.2%, lower than the expected 0.3% increase, following a 0.7% increase in November, revised from 0.5%. With the rate of spending lower than the rate of income growth, the Personal Savings Rate rose to 4.8% of disposable income from 4.5% in November.

The ISM Manufacturing Index increased to 58.4 in January, following an increase to 55.9 in December from the 53.6 level in November. After showing expansion for 6 consecutive months, the figure had reached its highest level since August of 2004, when it was at 58.5.

Construction Spending fell by 1.2% to $902.5 billion, worse than the expected 0.4% decline. Year over year, construction spending had declined by 9.9% from the December 2008 estimate of $1,002.8 billion.

Upcoming Releases
Pending Home Sales (02/02 at 10:00 AM EST)
ISM Services Index (02/03 at 10:00 AM EST)
Initial Claims (02/04 at 8:30 AM EST)
Factory Orders (02/04 at 10:00 AM EST)

Zacks Investment Research

Top Best Scheduling and Time Tracking Management Software

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 05:31:46 -0500

Chaos Intellect- Intellect is fully networkable. Share complete databases or just one area such as a shared calendar, shared contact list, or shared mailbox. All users on a network can even use the same databases at the same time to collaborate without requiring expensive server software. E-mails sent and received, as well as appointments and [...]

Happy Thanksgiving From South Dakota!

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 08:56:51 -0500

Wishing a warm, safe and happy Thanksgiving from my family in South Dakota to yours. Where will you be spending the holidays? What are you thankful for this year? In echoing the sentiments of Cindy’s Thanksgiving post, today is a day to be thankful and count our many blessings. While most of [...]

Give Up Meat To Save the Planet?

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:25:36 -0400

A group called the Vegetarian Society is standing up once again attribute global warming and the end to the universe to meat eaters. The article, Climate chief Lord Stern: give up meat to save the planet, published in Times Online, urged folks to turn vegetarian in order for the world to conquer climate [...]

Catch Me On The Road!

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 14:18:11 -0400

It’s looking like things are going to continue to stay busy for me in my first year as an agriculture writer and speaker. In addition to my work on the ranch, I have been traveling across the country speaking to various agriculture groups on hot topics such as the next generation of food [...]

Catch Me in Pierre Tomorrow!

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 07:57:42 -0400

Today, I’m hitting the road to attend an event with the South Dakota CattleWomen’s Association. I will be their keynote speaker at the Ramkota Inn in Pierre, S.D. during their noon luncheon. I will be speaking on my life since being the 2006 National Beef Ambassador and explaining the importance of getting [...]

What I’ve Been Up To Lately…

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 07:59:31 -0400

It’s been a few weeks since I have had the chance to sit down and blog on AgWired. I can’t believe how crazy busy the summer got, and how quickly it is fading into fall. In the past two weeks, I was at the Minnesota and South Dakota State Fairs with cattle [...]

fighting the world’s fight.

Sat, 09 May 2009 16:30:51 -0400

In The Unforgiving Minute, Craig Mullaney talks about his Rhodes Scholar experience a bit. In introducing it, he speaks of one of the criteria for selection being ‘a demonstrated passion for “fighting the world’s fight.”‘ I was immediately struck when I saw this phrase. What did it mean to fight the world’s fight? How do [...]

reading joker one.

Sat, 02 May 2009 12:56:26 -0400

At one point in 2004-2005 I was tearing through a book or two a week. In retrospect, it was a phenomenal time. I’d stay in for hours at a time on a weeknight or weekend and just read. Since my earliest memories, reading has been one of my favorite experiences. For a while, I remember [...]

does twitter improve memory?

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 00:04:59 -0400

There was an article in Wired last month about a woman who seems to remember everything. You could literally name a date from her life and she could tick off hundreds of events from that date. She got a ton of publicity which eventually attracted the Wired mag writer. The article reaches the new conclusion [...]

what do we value?

Wed, 04 Mar 2009 23:58:33 -0500

What is it that we value? As a society at large, I’ve heard a lot of suggestions. That we value our environment. That we value our children. Education. Progress. Peace. Health. Knowledge. Kindness. All kinds of stuff. I never really thought long and hard about this question, and now that I’m thinking about it, these [...]

it’s always the same.

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 01:38:50 -0500

Months ago I looked around me at what was going on in the economy and stock market and it literally gave me tightness in my chest. It was hard for me to concentrate on work, or much of anything. Things that I had read about and worried about were coming to life and the pace [...]

could vs should.

Fri, 27 Feb 2009 01:49:52 -0500

For the past few years the one thought that has never been far from mind is my “could vs should” debate. Essentially, I think we’ve become a society that has stopped asking if we “should” do something and instead default to if we “could” do it. “Could we get away with it?” has become our [...]

religion vs spirituality.

Tue, 24 Feb 2009 14:19:02 -0500

I’ve long listened to the discussion between being “religious” vs “spiritual.” Of late, I’ve heard of a lot of fatigue with people classifying themselves as “spiritual.” I suspect this has to do with how nebulous a term “spiritual” actually is and how many people have chosen to identify as such. There’s a great article [...]

send me your thoughts.

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 02:31:31 -0500

I love posting on this blog. Why? Because I guess I love writing and this forces me to just get something out there. And I love getting into discussions about the stuff that gets written– sometimes in the comments, sometimes over email, and often in person. Anyway, I don’t post [...]