From the outset of Google+ creation – we were told not to create business accounts, and if you have one it’s suggested someone from the business converts it over to an individual account. Because of my genuine interest in how Google+ develops, I watched Christian Oestlien video where he asked people to “hold off” on creating business accounts:

Now I’m sure the general Google+ user wouldn’t have seen this video, and I don’t know whether there was anything detailed in the Terms & Conditions of using Google+, as I didn’t read them.

The point I’m making is, if Google+ developers did not want people to use the service for business purposes, should they have not made it very clear to everyone at the time you received your invitation? For example, large bold writing across the top of the email perhaps?

I for one, if I had spent time creating a business profile, I would be rather aggrieved if Google+ then closed it down.

I suspect 1 of 2 situations have occurred here:

1. Google released Google+ knowing there would be a demand for Business Pages; however, did not have this part of the business developed, but wanted to go ahead in making Google+ available via invitation to individuals and failed to make it clear to users this was for personal use only.

2. Google didn’t anticipate the demand for business pages; however, I do find this hard to believe, and have been since been playing catch up.

So where does this leave someone who’s created a business page and subsequently had it closed by Google? Would you feel aggrieved enough to not go back to Google+, and continuing using your existing platforms? Or, do you accept the situation and wait until Business Pages are available?

Twitter is like an adolescent child. Talking none stop to anyone and everyone who will listen. Mostly, the content is garbled and non-descriptive. All the content is repeated over and over again until a point the original message is lost in translation. What’s popular or trending isn’t popular or trendy. It’s quick, simple and no attention span required.

Facebook – The Teenage Years

Pointless status updates of what you did last night. Sharing of information in a language that only teens can read.  Silly photos, videos and link sharing that everyone has already seen over and over again. The cryptic updates from the attention seekers.

Linked In – The 18-30ths

Network, connect, recommend, spam, brag, resume, jobs – it’s all for the taking here. Only connect to your past, present or future colleagues, but only if you know them personally. Build a network of people you don’t know to impress future clients and employees.

Google+ – Middle Ages

Maturity prevails over at Google. Be selective with whom your share with. Hangout with colleagues during the day, and friends or family after hours. Be free and add people you know, people you admire or simply people you like. Spark a discussion, or share that photo with only who you want to see. Have respect for your work colleagues who don’t want to see last weekends bbq snaps.

NB. This post is published to be amusing and doesn’t represent my view of the above mentioned social media websites.

I saw an article yesterday on washingtonpost.com that the announced tax raises had been frozen for the middle classes in a bill passed by the The House. At first I browsed over this article and moved on, and it was only a little later that part of the headline began nagging me: “middle class”.

Since moving to the United States 6 months ago, I’ve become aware that ‘class status’ is very much alive and kicking in this Country. Your class isn’t determined by the way you speak, it’s established (usually by others) based upon your income. I don’t know how to determine what the different class financial brackets are; however, any average intelligence person could make a rough guess based on an individuals stature by their clothing, the vehicle they drive and the way they speak.

The reason why I am writing this article is a find it difficult to swallow the fact that we now live in a politically correct society; however, a leading news paper refers to people from a specifically demographic and labelling them as such. Not everyone is as they seem, and although one could be wealthy, but may choose to buy off the rack rather than made to order. Would this make you middle  or upper class, because you choose to live against the social able accepted grain. Or, due to your spending power you are automatically fit into a specific class regardless of the fact your shop at Wal-Mart?

In today’s modern world, with information available at our fingertips, you would expect finding reliable job information should be relatively easy? Unfortunately, it’s not! Having moved to the United States I am now in a position, having successfully obtained my work permit, to find employment. My first port of call was the biggest job website around, monster.com. I completed a profile, uploaded my resume and signed up for email alerts. At this point I was unable to locate an RSS feed for my search criteria.

I sat back and waited for some responses. They never came. I began to receive daily emails from monster. The job details where not even in the location I specified. After a few days I went back to monster.com and stopped the email notifications as they were pointless. One month later, I’m still receiving irrelevant emails from monster. I began conducting manual searches on monster. After week of doing this it struck me the same jobs on monster were being regurgitation and marketed as a new jobs. In my experience to date, this doesn’t only happen at monster, there are lots of other sites that do this. Eventually, I figured out that monster does have a RSS feed for your specific search criteria; however, this was only available in their old basic search function. Having now added this RSS feed to Google Reader, I am now receiving 1 or 2 new jobs per week, which meet my search criteria. For some reason (and I am thankful for it), the RSS feed only provides new job positions and not the same jobs regurgitated over and over again.

Simultaneously, I also subscribed to less known job sites, which not only provided the same information as monster, but many many more opportunities that met my search criteria. I am not sure why monster.com performs poorly against smaller, less known websites, but they certainly need to improve their services if they wish to stay top dog.

Having finally got to a place, where I can actually find the positions that I am interested in, comes the next stage of the hair pulling, painfull frustration, and mind boggling ridiculousness.

Receiving job positions from multiple sources involves multiple processes for applying for a position. These include:

1. Faxing your resume.
2. Emailing your resume.
3. Applying online through the job agency website.
4. Applying online through the employers website.
5. Calling the job agency.
6. Calling the employer directly.
7. Attending a job fair.
8. Attending the employers premises.
9. Completing a paper application form and mailing it to the employer.
10. Sending smoke signals to the employer or agency.
11. Using telepathy to the employer or agency.

1. Faxing your resume: In today’s modern world, I wasn’t aware that tech companies and job agencies still use fax machines. I don’t have access to a fax machine, and I certainly don’t have a fax modem that I could attached to a computer to send a fax from. This is an absolute ridiculous notion, that a company or job agency can only accept applications for jobs via a fax machine.

2. Emailing your resume: Emailing is paperless, efficient, instant and my preferred method of communication. I can attach my resume and craft a cover letter/email to the company expressing my interest in the position advertised.

3. Applying online through the job agency website: Whenever I’ve had to do this, I grimmest before I have even started. The nightmare begins depending on which job agency website you have seen the job advertised on. At the bottom of most of the job descriptions is an ‘apply’ button. Clicking on the button sends you into the realms and depths of your darkest nightmare. More often than not the ‘apply’ button sends you off to a completely different website, where the same job information is presented and normally with further instructions on how to apply for the position. To date, the highest number of website jumping I’ve been sent on to get to the source of applying for a position was 5 different websites. Finally, you can apply. But first you have to register, complete another profile and sign up for email alerts before you can even apply for the position. Most websites give you the opportunity to upload your resume and then you have the joy of duplicate the information contained within your resume on their online forms. Pointless? Of course, so why ask for my resume if you are going to require me to fill out the same information anyway? Who knows!!

4. Applying online through the employers website: There have been positions that I have been interested in applying where I’ve been taken to the employers website. More often than not you have to registered, create a profile, and sign up for email alerts before you can apply. Again, duplication of uploading a resume vs. the online forms applies here too. In some cases I have had to undertake an online job selection process that has included situational questions, personality questions, and ‘what would you do if’ questions. All of which can take between 30-60 minutes to complete. In most cases there isn’t any notification that it will take 30-60 minutes.

5. Calling the job agency: These are very few and far between because no one wants to talk to you personally as that would involve employing staff to be on the end of phone. I have only ever spoken to one job agency on the phone, and the phone call was generated by me, and the person I spoke with directed me to their website. What’s the point of advertising a phone number to call if you don’t want to speak to a potential client?

6. Calling the employer directly: As yet I’ve never seen an employer publish their telephone number on an agency website. In fact, most job agencies don’t even tell you who the position is with, as you don’t have to be rocket scientist to track down the employer and contact them directly.

7. Attending a job fair: I’ve only even seen this advertised once, whereby you are requested to attend an event or job fair to apply for a position advertised. Completely ridiculous!  At the time I doubted whether there was in fact a job, and thought it was a marketing ploy to get people to attend.

8. Attending the employers premises: As yet, I have never seen this advertised for obvious reasons; however, I’ve added it to my list out of pure frustration when there have been times when I thought it would be easier to simply go to the employers premise and ask to speak to someone from HR.

9. Complete a paper application form and mailing it to the employer: To date I’ve only had to do this once for which I am eternally great full for. It’s time consuming, non-efficient and non-environmentally friendly. The postal system is unreliable and whether your application ever gets there is in the hands of the gods.

10 & 11: I’ve added both these as there have been occasions when I have seen jobs advertised with no means what so ever of being able to apply for the position. No ‘apply’ button, no email address, no telephone number, no fax number, and no address. Completely pointless, frustrating and a waste of everyone’s time.

Okay, having gotten through the trauma of applying for a position through one of the above processes, what happens next? Where does your application go after hitting the ‘send’, ‘finish’, ‘complete’, or ‘submit’ buttons? As far as I can tell the following happens:

1. Abyss.

2. Spam folder.

3. Deleted folder.

4. Black hole.

15% of all the online positions I’ve applied for have resulted in an email acknowledgement, thanking me for applying, with a footnote at the bottom of the email which states something along the lines of: “A company representative will contact you directly if your qualifications or experience match the requirements of the position.” What this means, if you are deem as not meeting the required requirements, you will not be contact at all. Furthermore, they are making it clear they will not be prepared to provide any feedback as to why you were not successful.

In some cases, after not hearing anything for a couple of weeks, I have sent an email chasing up my application. In every case these have gone unanswered. I find it diabolical that job agencies are being paid rather large sum of cash to advertise a job, receive applications, paper sift these applications and offer no form of communication to the applicant.

Most of these job agencies websites have a privacy policy. Usually, you need to have a magnifying glass to find the link and if you can find it and you do read it, they clearly state that your personal information provided will be kept securely and not forwarded or sold onto third parties. Why is it, since applying for jobs online, my gmail spam folder is currently capturing approximately 200 spam emails a day? Prior to this process, it was roughly 10 a day!

As time has progressed I have very little faith in online job websites. To summarize:

1) They are cumbersome.

2) Unregulated.

3) There is no standard process.

4) You cannot speak to an individual.

5) Applications are sent into an abyss.

6) There is no communication.

7) Chase ups go unanswered.

Your email account receives a 200% increase in spam.

9) Who knows how secure your personal information is.

10) Do the jobs advertised actually exist?

I am 100% sure I am not the only person to experience the above. Let me know your experiences and leave a comment below.

We are all aware that Geolocation is becoming big business for many mainstream businesses. If you cannot be found on Facebook Places, Foursquare or Gowalla you are behind the times. I understand Twitter is playing with the idea of utilizing their geolocation tags for business purposes. These services offer local businesses huge potential revenue streams, and the ability to offer locational discounts, vouchers and promotions by physically checking in at specific locations.

But what if you have a local business, servicing a specific location but you don’t have a physical location that clients or customers can check in at? Before you can claim a location on any of the above services, you have to specify a location, and you have to be able verify that you own that location. If you don’t have a store or an outlet people can visit, how can you utilize these services?

Unfortunately, I don’t have the answer. However, I am wondering whether there is an opportunity here to develop a new platform, or enhance the existing services that allows non-physical local businesses,  to participate in the geolocation buzz.

Google has released it’s url shortener url service. However, it would appear the only way to access the web page is to type in the url: goo.gl. I cannot find a link from the drop-down menus once signed into your Google account. The service is also not listed in on their More Google Products page.

With this in mind, I guess one can only bookmark it.

[geolocation]

Google has released an update to their popular email service by introducing priority inbox system designed to help heavy email users manage their inbox more efficiently and effectively.

The below is a quick guide how to maximize the system:

Step One:

Once logged into Gmail, you should see a link in red to the left of your email address along the top right of the screen. Click this link, and a short video introduction appears. Watch the video, and click try now.

The below screen will appear where you can amend various settings:

Step Two:

Default Inbox: Select from the drop-down menu ‘Default Inbox’ Priority Inbox. Using this option will always display the Priority Inbox in Gmail.

Priority Inbox Sections: This option allows you to display up to four levels of email settings within Gmail. Here you can select:

1) Important and Unread
2) Important
3) Unread
4) Starred

Each of these options are customizable, and will depend on your own preference as to how you want Gmail to priorities your emails.

Filtered Mail: To maximize the feature of Priority Inbox you will need to select the ‘Don’t Override Filters’. I’ll come on to Filters in a moment and how they will affect your Priority Inbox.

Importance Markers: Again, this a personal choice whether you would like to see emails that are marked as important or not.

Show Priority Inbox: You will need to select ‘Show Priority Inbox’, as the emails selected as a priority, will appear here.

Once you have amended the settings, don’t forget to save them.

Step Three:

In order to ensure every email appears in the correct Priority Inbox, you will need to set up Filters for each email you receive that you want to appear in your Priority Inbox. The alternative is to allow Gmail to automatically do it for you. I tested this for a couple of hours this morning, and it was very hit and miss.

Create a Filter:

1. Click on Settings along the top right row.
2. Select Filters across the top of the page.
3. At the bottom click on ‘Create a new filter’, and you should see the following screen:

4. Type in the email address in ‘From’ which you would like to appear in the Priority Inbox upon receipt.
5. Click ‘Next Step’.
6. Place a tick in ‘Always mark it as important’ and any other Filters that are relevant to this email.

7. Click ‘Create Filter’.
8. You will need to repeat the process for email address.

If you have any questions or need any help with this, please either leave a reply below or use the Contact Us section.

After deciding that I wanted to purchase the HTC Desire, the Desire is only available on the US Cellular network. Upon checking their web site I have found that they do not provide coverage in the area that I live. Therefore, and for obvious reasons, the HTC Desire isn’t going to be the phone I purchase.

Having conducted some further research, the options are limited to one of the following:

Samsung Galaxy S

or,

HTC Evo

Both look as if they are really great phones. At the moment I swaying towards the Evo, as it has a better camera and video capturing hardware. At this moment I am going to hang fire on buying the Evo, as currently, the Evo is only available on Sprint, and it’s rumored the Evo will be available on other networks in a month or two.

Facebook Places has now been released in the US only and I’ve had a little time to play around with Facebook’s latest addition to its services. Firstly, Places can only be accessed via the Facebook iphone app and Facebook plans to release apps for other platforms including Android and Blackberry. Alternatively, you can access places via a brower at touch.facebook.com.

There are three flip sides to Places and I will discuss each individual as they are unique and offer different functionality depending who you are:

The End User:

The end user is me and you. We have a Facebook account and use the social networking web site to stay connected with friends and family. Facebook Places offers this facility to share our location with the people we have added as friends. You can also tag one another at the same location, or check in each other at the same location.

Local Business Owner:

Facebook Places is a local business owner’s vehicle for advertisement on the web for free. Places offers a locational based social side of the coin to help people share information and promote a business, offer discounts and loyalty bonuses for customers.

Developers:

Facebook has now released Places API, which will allow users to scrap data from checkins of their friends and their friends friends. Developers can surf the data in their applications to create a variety of social experiences, such as:

• A travel application that gives people the ability to see which of their friends have already been to the place they are visiting
• A conference application that makes it easy for attendees to find colleagues and connect with them
• An event application that enables attendees to see where their friends are at a concert

Facebook has stated that in the coming months they will offer additional location features through the Graph API and the Open Graph protocol, including the ability to check in with Facebook through your application and discover places nearby.

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The media are reporting that Facebook will be making an announcement on Wednesday (tomorrow) detailing their location service. So what will this service look like, and how will we use it?

This has been an anticipated move by Facebook for some time now, and I personally am surprised it has taken them so long to jump on the geographical location service, which is already provided by Google Buzz, Twitter and the specific geolocation service, Foursquare.

It is reported that there will be two key functions:

1) It’s own feature for sharing your location with friends.

2) APIs to let other apps like Foursquare and Gowalla offer services to Facebook users.

There are some clear privacy issues here, of which one hopes Facebook will address with their recent awareness of users desire to unsure they have control over their own data.