BiziBrand

DECODING QR CODES

You may not have used them, but you’ve probably seen them. QR codes, the small black and white square barcodes, are popping up on everything from billboards to magazines to airplane boarding passes.

QR (short for Quick Response) codes are unique 2-D matrix barcodes that contain information such as text and URLs. By aiming your camera phone or barcode scanner at a QR code, you can “read” the information stored in that QR code. For example, scanning a QR code that you see on a movie poster may bring up the movie’s trailer or a link to buy tickets, all on your phone.

People such as small business owners can also create QR codes to market their products and services. Using a website like uQRme, you can put individual QR codes on business cards, products that you sell, T-shirts, and stickers to direct customers to your website and social networking pages.

Indeed, QR codes offer a bridge between the virtual, online world and one’s physical environment, providing a new way to give or receive information quickly.

FORCING PRODUCTIVITY ONLINE

Facebook, Twitter, blogs, emails, and frequently updated news sites make the Internet a very distracting place. Since most people do the majority of their work on computers, it can be hard to resist the temptation to check social networking sites instead of focusing on work. When you’re engrossed in fun sites online, it’s also easy to lose track of time, and some people view spending time on the Internet as a potentially addictive activity. Several web-based applications are now available to help keep you on task, including SelfControl, StayFocusd, RescueTime, and Write or Die.

SelfControl is a Mac application that blocks your access to e-mail and websites for a set amount of time. After you download SelfControl, you type in any websites that you want to block and an amount of time. Beware: Turning your computer off or deleting the application won’t let you access the sites you blocked – you must wait for the timer to run out.

StayFocusd is an extension for Google’s Chrome browser that lets you spend a limited amount of time each day on certain sites before blocking your access to them. By using StayFocusd, you can limit your Facebook usage to, for example, 15 minutes a day. The application also allows more flexibility, letting you access Facebook but blocking your access to Facebook’s games or photos.

RescueTime is an application that tracks how much time you spend using software programs and browsing websites. Some businesses install RescueTime on company computers to make sure that employees are not wasting time on non-work related Internet activities. RescueTime works for both Macs and PCs.

Write or Die uses fear to motivate people, especially college students, to be productive when writing essays. Once you start typing in the application’s text box, you must continue typing or a reminder box will appear, telling you to keep writing. If you don’t resume typing, Write or Die will play a shrill noise until you start typing again. If you still don’t type enough words, the program enters Kamikaze Mode, in which your writing will unwrite itself – i.e. delete – until you reach your word count goal.

USING MOBILE MAPS AND GPS

Last month, I walked out of Penn Station and onto the busy streets of Manhattan. I had half an hour to get downtown to meet a friend, so I made my way to the line of cabs in front of the train station. The line, however, was daunting – I simply could not wait in the cold that long. So, I started walking south, immediately pulling out my iPhone and turning on the built-in Maps app. Tapping the arrow at the bottom left of the screen, I could see my location – a blue dot – on a map of Manhattan. As I continued walking, the blue dot began blinking and moving along with me. By activating the iPhone’s built-in Compass app, I could also confirm that I was walking in the right direction.

Other mobile apps such as MotionX, Mapquest, and TomTom can help you get from point A to point B efficiently, whether you’re on foot or in a car.

MotionX offers two GPS apps, one for people on foot and one for drivers.On MotionX you can look at topographic and road maps, record and save up to 101 tracks if you want to retrace your steps, calculate your speed and distance traveled, look at graphs showing your altitude, and tag yourself in photos from your journey. MotionX is also integrated with Facebook Places, so you can check-in with your Facebook friends when you reach your destination.

Mapquest’s mobile app lets you see color maps of the US and Canada, follow step-by-step driving directions, view gas station locations and prices on the map, and view your expected travel time and mileage.

TomTom’s road maps are global, covering 102 countries and over 33 million kilometers of road. TomTom can connect to current traffic and weather reports, giving you the most up-to-date report of the fastest route to take.

In addition to saving time, my phone’s GPS capabilities gave me a sense of relief and feeling of independence – with my iPhone as navigator, I could make the journey from Penn Station to downtown on my own.

THE REBECCA BLACK PHENOMENON

 

In the last two weeks, a previously unknown 13-year-old girl named Rebecca Black has become a trending topic on Twitter, received almost 50 million YouTube views, and appeared on Good Morning America and the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. How? Black paid a vanity music label to write a song and shoot a music video, resulting in “Friday,” a celebratory song about the weekend. The video got modest views (4,000) until a Comedy Central blogger posted a mocking review of the video, sparking interest in it and helping it become a viral video.

With its vapid lyrics (“Yesterday was Thursday, Today it is Friday…Tomorrow is Saturday, and Sunday comes afterwards), nasal and highly auto-tuned singing, and out-of-place rap interlude, the “Friday” music video has been criticized as the worst song ever. Its 75,000 YouTube “likes” are nothing compared to its 650,000 dislikes. Despite this criticism, the song has sold enough digital downloads on iTunes to break onto the Billboard music charts, providing evidence that the popularity of viral videos does not have to be isolated to YouTube – viral videos can create real economic ripples offline.

“Friday” is a great case study for examining how social media, when done right, can work astonishingly effectively. The song’s message offers a universal experience – everyone can relate to looking forward to taking a break from school or work when the weekend arrives. Also, viral videos pick up steam as more and more people watch them: “Friday” is gaining thousands of YouTube hits every hour by leveraging the countless parody videos that it has inspired. So, creating a hit viral video in the vein of Rebecca Black requires timing, luck, a relatable message, something that sparks discussion, and the legwork of other Internet users – such as the Comedy Central blogger – who spread the word for you.

WHERE TO BUY E-BOOKS

More people are buying e-books rather than physical books because e-books save time and space, are portable, and allow more interactivity with the text than physical books. In January 2011, Amazon sold more e-books than paperback and hardback books for the first time in history. The best places to buy e-books online are Vook, Smashwords, Amazon, and Kobo.

Vook offers enhanced e-books, combining text with videos that add to the story. Vook also emphasizes social media, inserting opportunities to connect with other readers and the author. To read a vook, you can either use an Internet browser on your computer or the Vook application on your iPhone or iPad.

Smashwords lets independent authors publish and sell their e-books. Before you buy an e-book on Smashwords, you can search by genre, download a sample of the text, and choose the digital file format you want. Smashwords offers many free e-books, and they are readable on any e-reading device.

Amazon released the first version of the Kindle, a software and hardware platform that lets users buy, download, and read e-books in November 2007. Since then, Kindles have skyrocketed in popularity because Amazon offers the most book titles in e-book form. Amazon also has a direct publishing program, allowing anyone to self-publish an e-book on the store.

Kobo sells e-books that can be read on any device – smart phone, computer, or Sony Reader. Kobo’s approach is global, and its customers come from over 200 countries. To help you find books to buy, the site offers recommended readings lists, including business books, NY Times bestsellers, and what the Kobo staff is reading.

FINDING COMMUNITY AT WebMD

When you’re confronted with puzzling or seemingly inexplicable symptoms, you may turn to the Internet for answers. While it’s always preferable to have a doctor examine you, sometimes you can save time, gain peace of mind, and become informed when you do your research online first.

One of the first few search results for your symptom will most likely be WebMD. WebMD is a medical information website where people can check symptoms and research illnesses. In addition, WebMD is a community for health-minded individuals to connect, share stories, and get support from one another.

WebMD’s multiple message boards, newsletters, and official magazine (distributed to almost 90% of all doctors’ waiting rooms) form the basis of WebMD’s community. You can ask questions, share your experiences, and meet other people going through similar illnesses on the message boards. Medical professionals and health experts also answer questions and contribute to discussions, providing comfort and reassurance. Special communities include mental health, parenting, cancer, digestive disorders, diabetes, and pain management. You can also sign up for WebMD’s newsletters, which are personalized by your area of interest.

THE BEST ALTERNATIVES TO YOUTUBE

Most people enjoy watching videos on YouTube. Despite YouTube’s popularity, more and more people are using Vimeo, Revver, and Dailymotion to watch videos. These sites are the best alternatives to YouTube because they lack YouTube’s cluttered comments section, advertisements before select videos, and removal of certain videos due to copyright infringement.

Started in 2004, Vimeo lets users upload, share, and watch videos. Vimeo’s website describes its user community of over 3 million people as positive, creative, and encouraging. To upload a video on Vimeo, you must have created it, so commercial videos and gaming videos are not allowed. If users want more weekly uploads, unlimited HD videos, no ads, and higher quality, they can purchase Vimeo Plus for $60 per year. Compared to YouTube, Vimeo has a much cleaner look and more personal feel – users scroll down to comment, each user has a photo next to his or her username, and the side bar shows videos created by the same uploader rather than topically related videos.

Revver actually uses advertisements before videos as a way to pay its uploaders. Users who upload a video to Revver can track how many views it gets, and ad revenue that the video earns is split 50/50 between the user and Revver. Revver caters to vloggers (video bloggers) who can create original content, share it, and post video responses to other videos on the site.

Dailymotion is a video sharing site based in France. Featuring video channels such as music, film & TV, funny, sports, art, and tech & science, Dailymotion is the world’s biggest video site after YouTube. By joining Dailymotion’s MotionMakers group, users agree to only upload their original content. In exchange, they can upload HD videos of any length and customize their profiles.

SOUNDCLOUD

SoundCloud is an audio publishing platform founded in 2007 in Berlin, Germany. SoundCloud is to music what Flickr is to photos and Vimeo is to videos. In other words, SoundCloud allows its three million users to share and distribute their audio files – anything from music to interviews to podcasts.

SoundCloud incorporates interactivity by letting users connect to their Twitter or Facebook accounts. SoundCloud can automatically tweet your followers when you upload a new track, and users can write comments about any part of the recording directly on the SoundCloud player. Aesthetically pleasing, the SoundCloud player shows the shape of the sound waves as they play, so you can visualize the sound as you hear it.

Unlike MySpace’s music player, the SoundCloud widget is versatile because it can be embedded anywhere on the Internet. SoundCloud audio files, which have no limit on file size, also have a distinct URL, in contrast with MySpace’s central control of its files. For these reasons, some commentators argue that SoundCloud is a contributing factor to MySpace's possibly imminent demise.

MATCHMAKER, MATCHMAKER

Although resorting to Internet dating once elicited mockery and pity, online dating has become a legitimate way for millions of people to date and meet their spouses. Most people have already heard of matchmaking sites such as eHarmony and Match.com, which match their members based on compatibility and personality. In honor of Valentine’s Day today, here are the best other dating social network sites.

OkCupid is a free dating and social networking with over three million active users. OkCupid gives suggested matches for its members, who can create quizzes, write on blogs, instant message others on the site, and post in discussion forums.

Zoosk, another free online dating community, has more of an international emphasis – Zoosk users, called Zooskers, come from over sixty countries. Almost three million people “like” Zoosk on the sites’s Facebook page. Zooskers can pay for a premium account to access virtual gifts and full listings of potential matches.

Plenty of Fish first gives users a personality test and relationship coaching based on the results of the test. For a fee, users can see who has looked at their profile. The Plenty of Fish forums, which feature discussions on everything from dating to cooking to philosophy, are so popular that some people join Plenty of Fish just to post on the forums.

BEFORE YOU WATCH THE MOVIE

Prior to the Internet, movie-going was a relatively simple activity – look up movie times in the newspaper, head to the theatre to buy the tickets, and watch the movie. Today, however, movie-going can be a much more interactive experience involving research and planning before you even set foot in the theatre. Moviefone, Fandango, MovieTickets.com, and Rotten Tomatoes are the best sites to visit before you head to the theatre.

Moviefone lists the movies that are currently playing in theatres, organized by city or zip code. Featuring movie posters, trailers, show times, plot details, and advance tickets, Moviefone has all the information you need to decide what movie to see. Each movie page also has a comments section at the bottom where you can write a quick review of the film.

Fandango offers similar services as Moviefone, such as trailers, movie details, and show times, but it sells tickets to more movie theatres (16,000 screens). Fandango also offers film clips, movie news, and interviews with actors.

MovieTickets.com strives to be a “virtual box office” – users can buy tickets online or from their smart phones. MovieTickets.com has an international presence, reaching outside the United States into Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Mexico, and Argentina. For most theatres, MovieTickets.com lets you print your tickets at home, saving time (and possibly waiting in line) at the box office. If you register (for free) at MovieTickets.com, you can buy tickets faster without having to reenter your credit card information, and you can get invited to free movie screenings.

Although you can’t buy tickets at Rotten Tomatoes, you can get in-depth information and reviews about current box office movies. Percentages appear all over the site, indicating how well-liked a particular movie is according to critics and users on Rotten Tomatoes. The Tomatometer (also called T-meter) measures how good a movie is – a good review (above 60% approval) gets a fresh red tomato, while a bad review (below 60%) gets a rotten green tomato.