News, Ideas & Advice on Technology for Small Business - Yahoo! Small Business

4 Spring Cleaning Tips For All Your Devices

Thu, 23 May 2013 14:30:47 -0400

It started small: You saved a document to your computer’s desktop and left it there instead of filing it properly. In small businesses, disorganization tends to quickly snowball. When a third friend just happened to loan you a copy of the popular workflow manual Getting Things Done, you took the hint. After spending a week cleaning your out-of-control workspace and organizing your data and files, you feel strangely calm.

Robust VoIP Services at Affordable Rates for Small to Mid-Sized Businesses – Review of 8×8

Thu, 23 May 2013 13:50:48 -0400

VOIP or “Voice over Internet Protocol” is a technology that enables you to make and receive phone calls using your Internet connection. While VOIP has been around for many years, only recently has it been offered as a robust hosted business solution. One such VOIP provider is 8×8 which specializes in offering a hosted online...

Developers Choosing HTML5 Over Native Apps

Thu, 23 May 2013 12:07:32 -0400

Back in 2011, Facebook encouraged developers to use HTML5 technology. The platform is the site’s central piece to mobile strategy and Facebook wanted developers to choose HTML5 over building native iOS or Android apps. Doing so would enable the world’s most popular social networking site to sidestep relatively closed intermediaries like Apple when it wants...

GIF Inventor Weighs in on Pronunciation Debate

Thu, 23 May 2013 11:58:51 -0400

We now have before us the answer to one of life’s greatest mysteries: how to pronounce the word “GIF.” Creator Steven Wilhite gave his opinion on how to pronounce the word at this year’s Webbys. During his acceptance speech for the lifetime achievement award, he confirmed it is pronouced “JIF” not “GIF.”

Xbox One Designed to Take Over Your Living Room?

Thu, 23 May 2013 11:41:01 -0400

Microsoft has revealed the new Xbox One, the company’s new flagship device. So what’s new and cool? The device boasts TV integration and voice control, and that’s big! Xbox One builds in Skype and streaming services, and even uses an HDMI pass-through to present your TV content. Plus it has a Blue Ray drive for...

Doing Magic with Membership Management — Review of Wild Apricot

Thu, 23 May 2013 09:05:47 -0400

Setting up a membership site can be intimidating, especially if you have different member levels, want to accept payments and have limited tech skills. Poetically named membership management app Wild Apricot says it provides Member Management Magic. As a freelancer, I have worked with a client who used Wild Apricot before and I must confess...

Tips On Appealing To Your Mobile Audience :: Magnet Media Minute [Video]

Wed, 22 May 2013 21:15:19 -0400

This week on the Magnet Minute, Amy helps you tailor your web content to appeal to a mobile audience. In growing numbers, people are using their mobile devices to engage on social media platforms, so you’ll want to make sure your mobile bases are covered in order to avoid discouraging your audience due to the...

How to Make it Easier to Reduce Risk When Recycling IT Assets

Wed, 22 May 2013 20:30:39 -0400

Even if your company never intended to break environmental regulations, it could find itself charged with doing so anyway. When you’re planning environmental policies and procedures, it’s not just your own company’s practices you need to worry about. If the vendors your company partners with don’t follow responsible and compliant environmental practices disposing of your...

How Cloud Integration Is Defining The Future Of CRM

Wed, 22 May 2013 15:50:53 -0400

The future of customer relationships depends more on context than transactions. And this trend is accelerating, driven by the integration of social media into customer relationship management (CRM), rapid gains in usability of CRM and integration applications, and the global growth of the API economy. Gaining a clear, contextually-based view of customers isn’t easy. Fine-tuning...

Cloudy with a Chance of Integration: The Great iPaaS Goldrush has Begun

Wed, 22 May 2013 15:15:04 -0400

I was recently with a client who is looking for a new BPM solution and they have a very positive outlook towards Cloud. They love it, so much so that they weren’t interested in on-premise solutions. This represents a real shift in attitude, and the company is no slouch or tadpole in size either. And...

Easy-To-Use Tools To Manage Contacts And Projects – Review Of Insightly

Wed, 22 May 2013 14:50:55 -0400

Most small businesses don’t have a lot of time on their hands and trying to manage unwieldy IT solutions are hardly at the top of their to-do list. But many small businesses, that are sales oriented, still need a good repository for their contacts; a workable project management solution to keep them on track and...

Online Social Learning Platform LurnQ Partners With Plancess. Takes The $2 Billion Engineering Test Preparation Market Online

Wed, 22 May 2013 12:48:25 -0400

LurnQ, the online social learning and teaching product from Technium Labs has announced its partnership with Plancess, India’s first company to provide study material for engineering entrance examinations prepared by top hundred IIT-JEE rankers. The partnership will help Plancess to leverage LurnQ’s technology for running engineering test preparation courses online. The engineering test preparation industry...

Senators Grill Apple CEO Over Tax Evasion Charges

Wed, 22 May 2013 11:55:02 -0400

Apple executives went before a US Senate panel Tuesday facing accusations of tax evasion. The California-based company’s CEO says they’ve done nothing wrong. Senators John McCain and Carl Levin have leveled claims of tax evasion at the tech giant, claiming they’ve used off-shore entities, mainly Ireland, to skip out on billions of dollars in taxes.

Watched The IPL? Now Find and Tag Yourself in the Stadium With Vodafone Fancam

Wed, 22 May 2013 11:40:12 -0400

An experience can be relived through memories and photographs really help. For all those lucky souls who have had the good fortune and time to watch key IPL matches at the stadium, you have been captured no matter where you were sitting in the stadium. Telecom service provider Vodafone, the official partner of the IPL6...

Secure Cloud Archiving: What’s Realistic For Your Email Archive?

Wed, 22 May 2013 07:00:03 -0400

The downside of the digital landscape is that hackers have easier access to corporate data, because almost all businesses are now operating online to some extent. For example, LivingSocial’s recent data security breach saw 50 million of their customer usernames, passwords, and emails being compromised. Unfortunate events such as these really highlight the need for...

The Shorthand of Digital Communications

Tue, 21 May 2013 23:50:06 -0400

Living in the digital world of online connectivity and technology, we have been able to broaden our reach, create deeper relationships and have many avenues to share our voice. With this explosion of technology and new forms of media expression, we have become accustomed to communicating in 140 characters on Twitter, sending a quick IM...

The Top 3 Data Security Concerns of Startup Biotechs

Tue, 21 May 2013 23:21:05 -0400

It is easy to think that your startup is too small or too new to face threats to your data security. But the simple fact is that in the current competitive climate of the biotech industry, when many companies of all sizes are rushing to develop innovations, the security of your data is more important...

Save Time: Windows Keyboard Shortcuts

Tue, 21 May 2013 22:50:49 -0400

Save time and enhance productivity with keyboard shortcuts If you are like most entrepreneurs or solo-business owners you are always looking for ways to save time and learning a few keyboard shortcuts could be one of your time management tools. Reducing the amount of keystrokes and mouse clicks can add up to enhance your productivity...

5 Criteria For Choosing Business Cell Phones

Tue, 21 May 2013 20:27:44 -0400

The last several years has seen big changes in IT departments in businesses of all sizes. Gone are the days when all companies deployed standard issue Palm Treo or BlackBerry devices. These days, there has been a big push by employees to be able to use the latest and greatest devices including iOS, Android, and...

Yahoo!’s Marissa Mayer Makes Big Social Media Move, Buys Tumblr

Tue, 21 May 2013 19:15:25 -0400

In what The New York Times is calling a “a splashy move by Marissa Mayer to shake up her company,” the fairly new Yahoo! CEO led the charge to acquire social networking and microblogging site Tumblr this week for $1.1 billion. In that same article, it describes the purchase as a significant shake up of...

Run, Walk, Stand, And Live Better With Technology [Video]

Tue, 21 May 2013 18:43:12 -0400

What would you say if I told you your brain gets way too much credit? It’s a powerful piece of equipment, don’t get me wrong. However, did you know without your spinal cord, your brain’s powers go down quite a bit? Every human being on the planet has one, and as an adult your spine...

Manage Your Projects and Documents Efficiently — Review Of Projectplace

Tue, 21 May 2013 16:50:13 -0400

Projectplace is an online cloud-based project management software that lets you manage single or multiple projects with a quick method and easy-to-use interface. Projectplace allows you to choose from a variety of membership plans, depending on the number of projects you will need and how many members you need to add. If you have been...

Japanese Messaging App Line Planning To Censor Politically Sensitive Phrases In China

Tue, 21 May 2013 11:35:00 -0400

The word ‘Censorship’ has been synonymous to the Chinese Government. Social networking companies like Facebook, Twitter and the search giant Google have been legally blocked in the country due to their support to free speech. In fact allowing a phrase related Tiananmen Square massacre got the location service Foursquare blocked in China. However, the Japanese...

What the New Google Maps Means for You

Tue, 21 May 2013 09:24:46 -0400

The new Google Maps layout is coming. Technically it’s still in beta and only available by invitation but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be concerned about the effect it will have on your business. Take a look at what happens today when you do a search on Google Maps. The first thing you probably see is the listing of...

The Trust Factor – The First Steps of Mobile Management

Tue, 21 May 2013 09:17:16 -0400

In the last 12 months, the ICO issued public sector fines of over £2 million, with private firms such as Welcome Finance also incurring hefty fines relating to data breach. Recent research shows the average cost per incident is around £1.25m. However, with business reputation on the line potential loss is not only financial. Customer...

Why Your ITAD Vendor’s ‘Certificate of Recycling’ Might be Meaningless

Tue, 21 May 2013 07:00:39 -0400

Has your company’s IT asset disposition partner (a recycler or remarketer that handles your IT equipment after it has outlived its usefulness to your company) given you a “certificate of recycling” or another similar document meant to certify that your material will be handled according to all environmental laws and standards? If your company is...

How to Effectively Protect Your Site from Spam Attacks

Tue, 21 May 2013 00:42:58 -0400

Spamming is the act of sending unsolicited messages to websites or emails, usually in large quantities. Spam messages generally take the form of commercial messages and various advertisements that would entice an individual to open it and/or click on a link included in the text. At times, these are even used to inject malware or...

What is a Content Management System and What to Look for When Shopping For One

Mon, 20 May 2013 23:52:32 -0400

A content management system is a widely known web term. In a nutshell, a content management system gives you the ability to add, edit and delete content on your website. There are two types of content management systems – open source (which is free to use) and closed source (paid software and/or not publicly available...

How Nintendo Can Win E3

Mon, 20 May 2013 23:45:47 -0400

Is there really such a thing as ‘winning’ E3? There is the external victory of being the thing most talked about in the mass media, in the game media, and on social media. Those are really three different audiences: The broadest possible audience of anyone who sees, hears or reads news; the audience of gamers...

Why Android Dominates the Low End

Mon, 20 May 2013 19:00:17 -0400

While people may lust over Apple’s iPhone, Android smartphones dominate the low end of the market. As hardware improves and component prices get cheaper, Android phones can be had for under $100. This explains how Android racked up 75% of smartphone sales in the third quarter of 2012. So if you have any connection to...

A Mobile Device Can Put An End To Food Insecurity [Video]

Mon, 20 May 2013 17:35:21 -0400

Food Security vs. Food Insecurity So often on the news we hear about terrible things happening abroad, however many of those same things happen here in the United States. Take for example food security. In 1995 at the World Food Summit food security was defined as “when all people at all times have access to...

Rumor Mill Was Right: Yahoo to Buy Tumblr for $1.1 Billion in Cash

Mon, 20 May 2013 15:18:46 -0400

Acquisitions by big tech companies is always an enjoyable subject to read and talk about. I still remember all of the talk about Facebook’s purchase of Instagram back in April of last year. There is plenty to talk about when covering acquisitions in terms of strategy, but it’s also interesting to discuss whether the investment...

SuperBrands and the Unreasonable Screen: How to Lead in Mobile

Mon, 20 May 2013 11:30:54 -0400

I was speaking with David Epstein, the founder of The Unreasonable Institute, the brainchild of Unreasonable at Sea, the Google sponsored innovation ship that is presently sailing from port to port globally. Mr. Epstein’s mission statement is borrowed from George Bernard Shaw who in 1903 wrote in Man and Superman: “The reasonable man adapts himself...

eHarmony Looking to Matchmake in Jobs Market

Mon, 20 May 2013 11:12:06 -0400

eHarmony has been matchmaking for more than a decade — but now it’s looking to expand that service into the office. The company has redesigned its entire site to be geared toward being a relationship company, not just for dating, but also for finding a job.

Sellout: Yahoo! Rumored to Buy Tumblr

Mon, 20 May 2013 09:19:37 -0400

News broke over the weekend that Yahoo! has agreed to buy microblogging site Tumblr for an estimated $1.1 billion. Responses to the news have been, to say the least, negative: Mashable has a list of user reactions on Twitter and Tumblr that range from shocked and angry to outrageous and silly. The general consensus from...

Wagging the Dog and Old Internet Services

Mon, 20 May 2013 07:00:45 -0400

So with a click I watched two things happen. First, I started the change over to a new backend to my daily RSS feed reading and more importantly I shut down my Google Reader services. I said goodbye to an important tool in my arsenal but it has given me some time to reflect on...

EDI – What is it, and Why Do I Need it? (Part 5/5)

Sun, 19 May 2013 17:30:37 -0400

An established business tool across the food industry, Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) is gaining traction across the wider spectrum of wholesale companies. Here, we look at some of the reasons why. EDI – the key to genuine supply chain integration For businesses looking to achieve genuine supply chain integration, EDI is an absolute must. It...

7 Steps To Leverage Design Thinking For Your Mobile Strategy (Part 2)

Sun, 19 May 2013 17:00:23 -0400

Design Thinking For Your Mobile Strategy Design Thinking is a powerful problem-solving approach that spurs innovation and growth by combining what is desirable from a human perspective with what makes the most sense technologically and economically. In Mobile Minute #10, we discussed how design thinking could help you create an unbeatable Mobile strategy. In Mobility...

Revisiting The Question: What Do You Call A Group Of Clouds?

Sun, 19 May 2013 16:00:00 -0400

In a very short time the number of computing related clouds have exploded, Public, Private, Hybrid etc. Everything seems to be rebranded/ cobranded/ reinvented/ paint jobbed as a ‘Cloud’. Many questions are being raised, e.g. will a SaaS cloud float at a higher level than a PaaS cloud and will they all float on top...

Poetic Revolution Case For Samsung Galaxy S4 Review

Sun, 19 May 2013 14:50:04 -0400

YourPoetic.com Poetic Revolution Case For Samsung Galaxy S4 Review