Are you an online shopper or a crowd-braving mall shopper? There are advantages and disadvantages to both, but nobody says you have to pick a side. You can always do both!

Read on to find out what motivates both types of shoppers, and see if your loyalties lie on one side or the other–maybe you use both methods, and that’s okay, too!

(Click to enlarge)

46.7% of shoppers will buy something online for the 2011 holiday season–nearly a 3% increase from 2010. This year, tablets and smartphones will play a big role in holiday shopping, with 70% of tablet owners and 52.6% of smartphone owners using their mobile devices to shop or research products.

By 2014, over half of retail sales will involve the internet–whether it’s price comparison, research or actual purchase.

Similar to the social media-oriented, collaborative, open nature of hosted SharePoint, product reviews and 24-hour availability are online shoppers’ favorite reasons for staying at home to buy gifts–83% of consumers consider product reviews, and 63% are more likely to buy when there are reviews present, while 43.2% say that the ability to buy any time is what convinces them online is king.

However, 37.2% of people just want to stay away from the mall, and 29.6% of people like to compare prices online.

Over 1/3 of online shoppers admit to purchasing more if there is free shipping available.

While online shoppers will spend about 19 hours shopping, and that sounds like a lot, mall shoppers visit the mall on average 5 times to finish shopping!

Also, 45% of online shoppers only spend less than an hour per purchase.

Music and video are the most common online purchases, followed by electronics, books, and magazines. Home furnishings come next, and clothing/accessories are the fifth most popular category.

Cyber Monday purchases reached over 1 billion in 2010–it was the single biggest shopping day of the year, with about 106.9 million shoppers. Purchases were more than double the amount on Cyber Monday 2005.

On Black Friday, there were 212 million shoppers–but this year, in 2011, there were 226 million, and people spent nearly $400 per shopper.

Online shoppers are young (25-34), often have kids and want a convenient shopping experience. They’re also typically female.

For the entire holiday season this year, shoppers will spend $704.18, with the average online total being $353.51 per person. People tend to spend 22% more when shopping online, and they’ll complete 36% of all their holiday shopping from their computers or mobile devices.

Knowing this, will you stick to the computer or the crowd this year? Not much time left now; don’t forget those aunts and uncles!

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Despite a rise in reality television, it’s fake celebrities and corporations that thrive on Twitter. In many cases, the hilarious, witty and sometimes raunchy tweets of fabricated personalities garner in tens and hundreds of thousands of amused Twitter followers.

Reality aside, if you want to know what dressing room Bill Clinton prefers to hide in, or what Burt Reynods is doing in that truck stop restroom with a package of bacon, check out these hilarious fake Twitter accounts.

1. @Santa_St_Claus – Santa has many faces and it’s hard to choose just one. @Santa_St_Claus falls into the Santa that you want to hear from every day. He’s got jokes, he’s got gifts, he’s a little perverted, and he enjoys deer hunting.

Recent tweet: “I’m climbing in yo’ chimneys, snatchin’ yo’ cookies up. Hide yo’ kids, hide yo’ wife.”  http://bit.ly/say14j

Alternatively, if you want Santa’s drunken alter-ego, @LoadedSanta, he doesn’t even know how to tweet without slurring his somewhat-funny masochistic obscenities together. On the opposite side of the spectrum, @NORADSanta is great for the kids when Christmas Eve comes around, because he tweets all about his around-the-world journey.

2. @TheeBuddha – Buddha has mastered the art of the re-tweetable tweet by offering insights into the little things in life; like buying $5,000 car rims for your $2,000 car, and making you think about the ironic stance of Born Again Christians. After all, shouldn’t they believe in reincarnation?

Recent tweet: “If success is 90% perspiration, then the other 10% is deodorant.” http://bit.ly/rDula0 

3. @PimpBillClinton – If Bill was a college student in 2011, we’re guessing that this is pretty close to what you’d expect from his Twitter feed. So that makes it almost real, right? Pimp Bill doesn’t cut any crude corners and has probably insulted just about everyone from Helen Keller, overweight women, Indian Americans, anyone with a handicap, and most especially, Hillary Clinton.

Recent tweet: “If my phone company charged me by the pound for booty calls I’d be as broke as Bob Dole’s hand.”  http://bit.ly/sqFf4J 

4. @FakeSarahPalin – There will be Sarah Palin jokes long after people even forget who Sarah Palin was, or the things that may or may not have even come from her mouth. As a posterchild for dropping thoughtless ideas and debates, @FakeSarahPalin has no trouble coming up with jokes. Her Twitter list, “People I Hate” include CNN, John Gruber, David Hasselhoff and even poor little @Sockington, Twitter’s first celebrity cat.

Recent tweet: “Did you know Katy Perry is a republican? Listen to Firework: “After a Herman Cain comes a Rainbow.” GOP IS HIP YO’”  http://bit.ly/rpIf3r

5. @Jesus_M_Christ – Jesus appears to have many Twitter faces, but if he was still alive, we’d like to believe that this crude and often obscene account would get the “verified” Twitter stamp. Tweets often mock current events and play on every religion, including Catholicism.

Recent tweet: “A bunch of angels and I started an #OccupyHell campaign just to piss off Satan.” http://bit.ly/u6Zdab

6. @ColonelTribune – Colonel Tribune was born from the social media department of The Chicago Tribune, but his popularity far outweighs that of his more corporate counterpart, @ChicagoTribune. Climbing close to the million-follower milestone, the Colonel’s quirky take on select articles from the Chicago Tribune is embarrassingly high, compared to @ChicagoTribune’s 64k count.

Recent Tweet: “There is a big backlash over People’s choice for Sexiest Man. Every year, I cross my fingers. http://trib.in/sCnfnl”  http://bit.ly/vff1bb

7. @NotBurtReynolds – Burt is a Moustache-wielding tough guy, and according to his (fake) Twitter accounts, he’s big into hookers and rolling around naked in waffles and jelly doughnuts.

Recent tweet: “Met a hooker at a truck stop who proved that everything IS better with bacon.” http://bit.ly/rsM3pH

8. @TheWaltWhitman – Walt, circa 2011, is apparently a 200 year-old man who loves Chipotle, enjoys jowel-rubs, believes in zombies, shops on Amazon and owns a mountain lion that may, or may not, eat girl scouts.

Recent tweet: “As an older gay man trying to look hip, allow me to ask: when will deluxe remastered editions of Hootie & The Blowfish’s albums come out?” http://bit.ly/v58Z7x

9. @Nick_Nolte – If you love drug jokes, Nick’s got a pocketful of them. If you’ve ever mistaken your parmesan cheese for cocaine, or wondered if Nick really did inherit his voice from a grizzly bear, @Nick_Nolte can fill you in on those secrets.

Recent tweet: “What happened to the three-speedball lunch? This town was great once.”  http://bit.ly/roOQN0

10. @Queen_UK – You don’t get to learn the (fictional) inner thoughts of royalty just any day, and this Queen even got her own book deal out of it, Gin O’clock. @Queen_UK portrays the queen as a boozebag, with tweets like, “practically mummified in gin” and “One o’clock, two o’clock, gin o’clock rock!” Gin is to the Queen what hosted Exchange is to SherWeb.  She also dips into politics and other bits of British humor.

Recent tweet: “Having a large gin and tonic with no tonic. #ginoclock”  http://bit.ly/tP72vW 

And we couldn’t end without paying homage to the once brilliant account of @ceoSteveJobs, which once raised over 450,000 followers, but was closed by Twitter after he passed.

Any fake Twitter accounts you love that didn’t make it on this list? Drop a comment below!

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Occupy Wall Street lives in the streets, but it was born on the Internet. The NYC camp has its own wi-fi and it’s a popular topic of conversation on Twitter, Facebook and other online channels.

Learn about the ways OWS is occupying the Internet.

(Click to enlarge)

Adbusters, a Canadian anti-corporate group, first tweeted the hashtag #occupywallstreet on July 4 of this year.

Just over a week later, they expanded on the idea in a blog post asking for protests–led and decided by the people.

Most of the conversation about OWS is happening on Twitter–82.5% of mentions take place there.

The runner-up is blogs, with 12.6% of the coverage.

Even smaller than that is Facebook at 2.8%.

@OccupyWallSt began the same day as the blog post, and now has over 107,000 followers.

The main Facebook page has over 311,000 likes.

On September 17, the designated day of protests in New York City, there were 18,817 tweets with the #occupywallstreet hashtag–that week saw 2004% more tweets with the hashtag than the previous week.

Between October 3 and November 8, the Occupy Seattle Facebook page increased its “likes” by 500%.

Occupy San Francisco grew by 310%, and Occupy Wall Street grew 163%.

Since blogs are such a big part of the mentions about the movement, what’s the general opinion?

Between September 17 (protest day) and October 25, 46% of blog posts mentioning Occupy Wall Street were in support of the movement. 35% of the posts were against OWS, and 18% were neutral.

Occupy Wall Street was the #3 most covered story on all blogs.

On YouTube, Anonymous posted a video supporting Occupy.

Protesters have used YouTube to share videos of police confrontations and the movement on the street.

There are over 10,600 YouTube videos about Occupy, and the one with the most views has nearly 3 million.

The internet has gained a few websites in solidarity with OWS, including the Move Your Money Project (anti-big banks) and Occupationalist (covering worldwide protests).

Here is a conversation you wouldn’t see on a hosted SharePoint discussion board… In a badly-timed outreach stunt, the New York Stock Exchange declared November 4 to be social media day.

The tweets from NYSE folks were optimistic, but OWS protesters soon retaliated.

They latched on to the #NYSESMD hashtag and tweeted sarcastic, antagonistic remarks against “the 1%.”

“It’s really creepy how NYSE ignores people on their hashtag,” one user tweets. “Maybe they’re afraid we’re going to ask for a quarter.”

The Occupy protests are still going strong. Only time will tell how long the 99% will keep their voices and fists raised.

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Anonymous, a loosely organized group of Internet hackers, have been initiating civil disobedience while maintaining anonymity since forming on the image board 4chan in 2003. Beginning in 2008 the group started taking on more collaborative, international hacktivism by initiating protests and other actions with the overarching goal of promoting Internet freedom and freedom of speech. In 2011, following several high profile attacks, the group was added to NATO’s list of enemies.

Below is a breakdown of Anonymous’ most notorious hacktivism feats since 2008:

(Click to enlarge)

Project Chanology

In early 2008, Anonymous started “Project Chanology”; a protest against the Church of Scientology. The group felt that the church was engaging in Internet censorship when they demanded that all leaked videos of a Tom Cruise rant be taken off of YouTube.

Project Chanology included a call to action on 4chan that drew 30 users to join over night and launched over 200 attacks.

The group also released a video on YouTube outlining the purpose of Project Chanology and even engaged in real life protests of Church of Scientology offices.

Bay Area Transit

In 2010 Anonymous struck again with their attack on Bay Area Transit, which arose after the organization blocked cell phone service following the protest against police shooting of Charles Blair Hill.

The BART attack included:
• MYBART.org becoming hacked and defaced with the Anonoymous logo
• The release of MYBART.org customer information
• Leaking of 102 BART officer’s information from the Police Officers Association website

Operation Payback

Throughout 2010 and 2011 Anonymous ran campaigns against anti-piracy organizations and hacked websites of banking companies who withdrew funding to WikiLeaks.

The hacktivist group was able to take down the websites of both Visa and MasterCard. Other targets included PayPal and Amazon.com.

The repercussions of Operation Payback included the arrests of 5 men in the UK.

Public Enemy #1

Although Anonymous denied their involvement of the 2011 Playstation network hacking, once Sony took legal action against hackers, Anonymous lost their cool.

They attacked Sony in April 2010, which resulted in the arrest of 3 Anons in Spain. Ay yi yi…

Most recently, Anonymous launched their second attack against the New York Stock Exchange in 2 years. The attack threatened to erase the NYSE, but also caused division among Anon members.

Perhaps they could have benefited from an online CRM system to sort out their internal issues!

Anonymous Attacks Deserving Honorable Mention

Anonymous has targeted a wide array of individuals and organizations.

Individuals that have been the target of Anonymous Attacks include the Australian Prime Minister and White Supremacist Radio Host Hal Turner.

Westboro Baptist Church has also been attacked along with Habbo, Egyptian Government sites, Support Online Hip Hop, and Bank of America.

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What are your thoughts on how an Anonymous collective operates? Do you believe this is a viable method for achieving freedom of speech and information for all?

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Check out our detailed article about other websites that have felt the wrath of Anonymous.

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Changes are scary. Changes on Facebook (for some) are even scarier. It seems like anytime Facebook makes a change people react as if they’ve just watched a really bad, 3D remake of The Exorcist and are going to sue the theaters for allowing such a film to exist. People just get angry or vent about it, when in reality, the changes are for the better. Believe it or not but this new Timeline is an amazing opportunity for you to customize and control your profile.

Over the last week millions of articles have come out about Facebook Timeline. Some have been rather nasty about the changes, most have focused on what this means for brands and marketers, and others have shown you cool examples of what you can do with your Timeline. Out of all these opinions only one of them seems to be excited for you as a person (not as brand or a marketer), and that’s Facebook.  Let’s take a closer look at this…

Timeline Let’s You Look Good

source: mashable.com

It’s true. The new Timeline profile allows you to choose how your Facebook Friends perceive your life via Facebook. You can virtually pinpoint the best parts of your life to visually brag about – new/old jobs, new friends, great pictures…and the list goes on. Like your very own online CRM except the only customer you’re managing is yourself. You literally get to organically BRAND yourself the way you want. It’s all under your control.

This makes some people panic because, well, let’s all admit that at least once or twice we may have done some bad Facebooking. Don’t sweat it though because you can choose to hide or delete certain Facebook posts/videos/comments. You can also go through your Activity Log and delete anything you don’t want to share.

Creative Expression

source: pcauthority.com.au

Remember a couple of months ago when Facebook added the profile banner, and all of sudden you could be more visually expressive on your profile? It was pretty neat. Think of the Timeline like this: you get to create who you are to exact facts, pictures and videos.

Timeline gives you the opportunity to feature the very best of you and your personality. Your favourite video? Make it a feature on the Timeline. That job promotion? Feature. That great picture of you that you’re friend took while you were traveling around Europe? FEATURE! Every great moment, thought, expression can now be enhanced and brought to the forefront, and all those ‘not-so-proud’ moments…they can be hidden. POOF! Facebook magic!

Timeline is your Lifeline

source: mashable.com

Yes it’s true; the Timeline goes all the way back to your date of birth. You can choose to upload a picture of yourself as a child or not. Think about the Timeline as a virtual scrapbook. All your best memories or moments that you want to share with your friends, family and coworkers are right there, organized the way you want.

I can understand if this seems ‘creepy’ to some people, but is it not the same as whipping out that scrapbook in person? The number one common sense rule that has been a rule from day one is: if you don’t want someone to see what you’re doing on Facebook don’t add them as a friend. On that note…

One of the biggest debates about the Timeline is that it increases the opportunity for your Facebook friends/stalkers to “creep” your profile. My answer to that is: delete them off from your friends or change your settings. There will always be the issue of “stalking” or “creeping” on Facebook, yet it’s you who chooses to allow it to happen. Remove the people you don’t want on your Facebook. It’s good to do a “Facebook cleanse” every couple of months to make sure you’re in control of who you’re connecting with.

Whether it’s in the virtual world or the ‘real’ world, you choose who you connect with. You also get to choose what you display online and what you talk about in person. Changes on Facebook are inevitable. How you choose to approach the changes, is up to you. I think this is great opportunity for us to redefine our virtual reputations. So, go ahead…make your Timeline the best it can be!

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You’ve been in school for a few weeks now, how does it feel? Do you feel you are missing something? That one thing that you know could help you be the smartest kid in class? Well we’re here to help. Here are the top 10 school gadgets you need to make you an A+ student this year.

1. HP TouchSmart Desktop – $999

Source: gottabemobile.com

Nothing says “studious” like an HP SmartTouch. Yeah sure.. Macs’ may be the hot laptop on campus but, they don’t have the sleek touch screen that makes you look oh-so much cooler.  Not to mention, they’re terrible for gaming! The HP TouchSmart redefines touch screens thanks to its awesome Intel Processor, wireless capability and high-definition widescreen and TouchSmart applications. Once you’ve graduated and started your own online business, you can seamlessly implement hosted Exchange software to create a rocking and efficient website. Doesn’t it feel good to be smart?

2. Logitech Cooling Pad N100 – $39.99

source:http://www.fnac.com

A hot laptop is a sad laptop (and a leg burner!).  Instead of taking the heat, cool your lap off with the Logitech Cooling Pad N100. This sweet cooling pad includes a built-in quiet fan that allows air to flow around your legs and laptop, without sucking up all your battery.  The cooling pad isn’t just for your lap either. Thanks to its versatile design you can use it on any surface without having to worry about your laptop overheating.

3. Livescribe Pulse Smartpen – $199 (+ $13 to $25 for “dot” notebooks)

Source: product-reviews.net

Being smarter than your classmates has never been easier thanks to Livescribe’s Pulse smartpen. Instead of feeling confused, lost and annoyed because your five mile-a-minute professor won’t slow down, just record it, scribble what you can and sync it to your computer for your own personal study session later.  How is this possible?

Well, Livescribe’s Pulse smartpen holds up 2 GB of voice recording and digitally remembers all your scribbles. Once you’re done class sync your Livescribe pen to your computer and vola – you’ve got the whole class at your finger tips. What’s the catch? Livescribe’s infared sensor  only works with the tiny dots on the Livescribe notebook (mandatory) to make notes magically digital.

4. Optoma PK-101 Pico projector – $299

Source: fareastgizmos.com

Remember those old projectors that resembled four-five large textbooks stacked on each other? Not to mention it took any teacher 30 minutes to it turn-on, and it was usually the students who ended up getting it to work.  Well forget that age-old projector and meet the PK-101. The PK-101 is the size of a cell phone and can project an image up to 60 inches (150 cms) on any blank wall. It comes with iPod/iPhone connection cord, and works with any DVD player or digital camera. It might not be a big screen but it’s portable and easy; just what you need right now.

5. Kensington ComboSaver notebook lock – $24.13

Source: maclife.com

A stolen laptop could potentially give you a nervous breakdown. So instead of lugging it around with you to the bathroom or when you go looking for books, lock it up. The Kensington ComboSaver notebook lock is only $25. It easily connects to your laptops security slot and has a sweet coiled cord and that old four-wheel combination lock – just like a locker. Thanks Kensington, you’ve saved students from one breakdown this year.

6. Gadget Protection GadgetTrak – $4

source: geeky-gadgets.com

If you choose not to buy lock for your computer than we suggest you at least get this wicked app. The Gadget Protection GadgetTrak is an application that you can download on your smartphone, laptop or tablet and if something happens to your precious tech toy you can run to the nearest computer and log in to your account and click enable tracking and poof! You can find out exactly where your tech toy is! What’s really cool is that the GadgetTrak produces location reports including map points that show longitude and latitude, as well as IP addresses to help you track down your toy.  It can also take a photo of the thief!

7. X Mark Mouse by Canon – $60

Source: pinoytutorial.com

Attention Finance and Business Students: If you’re going to be crunching numbers for the majority of your academic career, you need this calculator-mouse. The 3-in-1 wireless mouse X Mark Mouse is a calculator and keypad with Bluetooth connectivity, helping you punch those numbers in your assignments faster than your internet speed. It makes those awkward single-line numbers at the top of your laptop forgettable – as they should be! It’s just made math that much more fun, and modern.

8. Rocket Mobile Hotsopt – Novatel MiFi – $0 (with 3 year plan)

Source: rogers.com

How annoying is it when you can’t find WiFi? Or how about when your computer gets hacked because you’re using “free” WiFi? Well, the Rocket Mobile  from Rogers is the solution to those problems. This little gem has an integrated Wi-Fi router and 3G modem, offering you instant internet access for up to 5 Wi-Fi devices.  Connect laptops, iPods, iPads, printers… you name it! To make you feel even safer it comes your WiFi is password-protection and encrypted.  Bonus feature: it has 16 GB of expandable memory for your papers, photos and makes secure file sharing with your friends, classmates and professor easier than ever.

9. Mobile Power Station – $8

Source: acetore.com

Nothing sucks more than having your computer die in the middle of writing a paper. Well have no fear because this inexpensive mobile power station is a mini battery extender and charger will help make sure your computer, smartphone, MP3 player and life are always charged and ready to go!

10.  Noise Cancelling Earphones – $119

Source: store.shure.com

I think we can all agree there’s nothing worse than having to listen to someone else’s music spew out of their ear phones, and we know you don’t want to that person. So, get some noise-cancelling earphones. While these little buds are a bit expensive they’re worth every penny. The  Shure SE115 noise-cancelling earphones are the best ear buds in town thanks to their SE115 MicroSpeaker, which balances out the sound between each ear to give you a blissful (depending on your music) and equal headphone experience.  Don’t worry, you can keep these little buds protected and working because of their stronger cord and a sturdy little nylon case.

There you go. We’ve suggested it, now you just have to buy it! I’m starting to think university should be giving these things away for free – don’t they care about our education? Have a good semester!

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Once upon a time we had a magical box that lit up in technicolor, and came alive when plugged it into our wall. It was the invention that changed how the world and people would view each other, their countries and themselves for years to come. This mystical item was called a, TV.

Alright, maybe I’m being a bit drastic. But, to me (and the majority of my friends) TV is a thing of the past. Sure we use to sit around and watch our favourite cartoons, teen dramas and whatever else was on past 12am after our parents went to bed. But now, we, us, generation Y, we barely and rarely watch the box set that was once made us zombies. Oh, but we’re still zombies, just instead of being TV zombies we’re hooked on another screen – our computer’s. Thanks to modern streaming and technology we have become addicted to watching web series.

Web series are much like TV series only shorter, free and online. If you haven’t made the transition yet from TV to Web, you’re in luck because today we’re going to talk about the top five web series (as nominated by the 2010 Streamy Awards).

First let’s do a quick history lesson on web series.  Web streaming first emerged in 1995. The first web series ever released was Scott Zakarin’s, The Spot: Homicide: Second Shift. Ever since, web series have been bulldozing their way through internetland, making waves through our internet channels and popping up when least expected.

Enough of my banter! Here are the 2010 Streamy Awards winners:

Best Comedy
Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis

Before Zach Galifiankis starred in the Hang Over he was an underground web series star. In Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis, Zach interviews popular celebrities between two plotted ferns. As I’m sure you can guess, Zach asks some pretty hilarious questions and trys to make his guests feel comfortable – all between two ferns.

Best Drama
The Bannen Way

http://youtu.be/1c-3FQap7iw

Starring: Mark Gantt as Neal Bannen
The Bannen Way centres on a third generation criminal who is tired of living the life of a con man and is determined to turn his life around after gambling away all his funds. But, just before he can do that, Bannen has to pay his debts to his mob uncle and take one more criminal job. Just like any good criminal show, The Bannen Way includes a beautiful woman, a sidekick and all powerful father-uncle duo.

Best Animated
How it should have ended

This series is pretty awesome. I think we can all attest to watching movies and thinking, “that was a crappy ending, it should have ended this way…”. Well, How it Should Have Ended does just that, it gives popular and classic movies a new ending in an animated way.

Best Companion
The Office: Subtle Sexuality

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAvGpgKQcoc

Who doesn’t love The Office? Well, here’s an online-only spin-off of the popular American TV show. Basically it’s some of the cast members showcasing their bizarre behaviour via mini online music videos. It’s somewhat like watching “extra scenes” that weren’t aired on television. So, if you love The Office, you’ll die laughing over Subtle Sexuality.

Best Reality/Documentary
The Secret Life of Scientists

This educational series focuses on introducing new American scientists. Each interview is comprised of 10 questions and at the end the scientist must spill a secret.  While the series takes a serious look at new and emerging scientific trends, cutting-edge research and interesting experiments, it also shows the humanistic side that we sometimes overlook when it comes to braineacts.

And my personal favourite, which isn’t on the list is: Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. About a year ago a good friend of mine introduced me to the Dr.Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog web series (he also produces them). At first I didn’t know what to think about it, but I soon got hooked (I had to unleash the nerd in me!). All I’m going to say about this series is it stars the much loved Neil Patrick Harris, as a villain singing his evil plans and perhaps falling in love. Try it out.

So, instead of watching reruns of CSI or Law and Order, why not change it up and watch a web series? Let’s be honest here… those CSI episodes aren’t getting any better.  Enjoy the streaming!

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At the end of 2010, the cable industry saw a record-breaking 711,000 subscribers give up cable television. Just in the last quarter, from April-June, eight of the nine largest subscription-TV providers in the U.S. lost another 195,700 subscribers. As the economy plummets (again) and unemployment rises (again), cheaper entertainment options are in high demand.

In the past, the high cost and limited capabilities of computer hardware made web streaming a real challenge. However, in the late 90′s to early 2000′s- technology advancements traveled to ludicrous speed and the rising popularity of the Internet resulted in home computers having greater network bandwidth and Internet users getting access to a much broader range of networks than ever before. Thanks to these advancements we’ve entered a new dimension of entertainment where regular netizens can upload and share their own videos and watch their favourite TV shows and movies for free, or close to free.

Here is a look at how far web streaming has come over time.

(Click to enlarge)

How Web Streaming Has Evolved Infographic Embed Code
<br /> <p style=”text-align: center;” mce_style=”text-align: center;”><a href=”http://sherweb.com/” mce_href=”http://sherweb.com/”><img alt=”How Web Streaming Has Evolved” src=”http://imgur.com/dLBtx.jpg” mce_src=”http://imgur.com/dLBtx.jpg” width=”498″ height=”2811″ border=”0″></a><br/><a href=”http://sherweb.com/services/web-streaming” mce_href=”http://sherweb.com/services/web-streaming”>Web Streaming</a>

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Your Online Social Life is up for Grabs: Google+ vs Facebook Parodies

Let the battle for your online social life begin. Google+ has been rapidly invading the lives of tech and business professionals over the past couple of days, and is said to soon take over everyone else. Seriously, everyday there is a new article about how “awesome” Google+ is or about how Google’s profits are exploding thanks to Google+ and yadda yadda.

The newly launched network has people saying that it could eliminate the other network we have given our internet souls to: Facebook. This is a pretty heavy statement considering it’s still in the early stages of becoming the world’s #1 procrastination resource.

So, to take a better look at exactly what the flaws are of Google+ let’s watch some parodies. Of course, to make sure we are being objective, we’ve included Facebook parodies too.

Parodies are great for pointing out what you’re thinking but sometimes don’t want to say or even the obvious facts of how certain things or certain people act or are. In this case, it’s your online social life that’s up for grabs, so I suggest you choose wisely.

To + or to Facebook? That is the Question…

Think about it this way: isn’t categorizing people a form of discrimination? And are we going to have to deal with not being selected to be in certain social circles, kind of like not accepting a friend request? Is Google+ junior high and Facebook High School? Or is Facebook high school and Google+ university? Will Google+ dictate my personal and professional life like Facebook does (you know what I’m talking about i.e. relationship status)?

Or is Google+ going to put some substance back in our online social lives? Will it finally teach us some social media etiquette when we connect with others, whether it’s friends, co-workers and families?
Doesn’t this whole selection of newsfeeds for certain circles seem like a lot of work? Or can it help lower the risk of offending certain people or keeping your life more secretive?

Like said, it’s far too early to tell what kind of effect Google+ will have on us, our social lives and professional lives. So, after all those questions, let’s kick back and watch four hilarious parodies about Facebook and Goolge+.

Oh, and we’re rating them out of five. Tell us what you think.

WARNING: Some of these videos may contain coarse language.

Parody 1: Google Minus Project   3.5/5

This hilarious short YouTube Google+ parody makes cracks at the reasons why categorizing our friends into circles is refreshing or as they say, “like in Kindergarten when you exclude the smelly kids”.

Facebook Infomercial: Let Facebook Take Over Your Life  4.5/5

Remember the days when one of the relationship status options was, “whatever I can get”. This parody is probably one of my favourites. It’s like the best dating informational that’s not for dating at all. It also points out just how much Facebook can make you go coo-coo and influence your ‘real’ life. Basically it says (to me anyway) that instead of categorizing your friends like Google+ suggestions, Facebook makes you label and categorize yourself.

Parody 2: Dmitri finds out about Goolge+  4/5

“Dmitri finds out about…” has gained some serious notoriety  and has been re-purposed for a variety of internet sensation topics/people (Rebecca Black, Osama Bin Laden… etc). It’s pretty similar to the series of YouTube videos about “Hitler learns about…”. Anyway, this is the first “Dmitri finds out about…” for me, and I thought it was worthy of being included. Not to mention, it addresses reasons why Facebook is annoying i.e.” your mom tagging you in stupid photos”.

Parody 3: 10 Reasons Why We Hate Facebook

Who doesn’t love puppets? This wicked video states 10 reasons why we all hate Facebook. Seriously, why do people take pictures of the food their eating? Or cartoon gifts from “friends” who play Facebook games like Farmville.

Well, hope you liked the selection of parodies, and I’m sure you’re just as excited and interested as us to see how this whole Goolge+ network plays out. (We’re also eager to see how SharePoint 2010 will evolve on the social business end of the spectrum.)

So where do you stand on the Google+/ Facebook debate? Would you or have you made the switch?

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There has been a lot of talk about the dangers of geo-tagging lately. The explosion of the Smartphone market has caused the atomic bomb of location-based services, which use geo-tagging as a key feature in their applications. If you use Foursquare, Facebook Places, Gowalla, or Twitpic on your mobile, (Hosted Exchange for mobile is safe from this, by the way!) unless your geo-locator is turned off, the applications will automatically add geo-tags to the places you check-in to and the pictures you upload, specifying your exact location. That’s information you wouldn’t want in the hands of criminals.

How It Works

Basically, geo-tagging gives the longitude and latitude of your location. The coordinates don’t just appear with the picture, but it’s very simple to get them running a number of free programs that can read images, and even audio and video metadata (data within data) to pinpoint your location.

Smartphones and newer digital cameras come equipped with the geo-tagging feature. Great if you went on a trip and can now recover information about the city and place you were at when the photograph was taken. Not so great when strangers can too.

The United States Army has even been trying to raise awareness among soldiers not to use location-based social networking services. Considering they are deployed all over the world, some locations are classified and publishing photos of classified locations can be detrimental to mission success.

ICanStalkU

Scientists at the International Computer Science Institute (ICSI) in Berkley, California and a handful of Web security analysts have been warning the public about why geo-tagging can be dangerous.

To make their point the ICSI scientists developed a simple software program capable of identifying YouTube videos shot in proximity to their institute, tagged with words like “home”. In some cases the location data embedded in the videos was precise enough to identify the house where the videos were shot.

ICanStalkU.com is a website which has been designed specifically to raise awareness of the privacy risks of geo-tagged images. The creators, Ben Jackson and Larry Pesce created a software tool that searches location data in images shared on Twitter, then produces a stream of messages in real-time that say “ICanStalkU was able to stalk [@Twitteruser]” then provides a Google Maps link to the user’s exact coordinates, which you can then view in Streetview. Pretty scary stuff. Now I know where Jo_Jo Fo Sho lives and a host of other unknowing Twitterters using Twitpic.

While these programs and websites would appear to actually facilitate a criminal’s job, what they really do is highlight just how simple it is to find and track people that aren’t aware of their technology’s full potential.

Here are 3 cases of people who got a geo-tagging wake-up call:

Carri Bugbee

Carri Bugbee is about as social as you get in the digital world. She is a social media marketing strategist, speaker & instructor and award-winning tweeter with over 9,000 followers on Twitter.

But social media gave her the scare of her life when she checked into a restaurant on Foursquare. Foursquare, which allows members to note their locations with their mobile to find out where friends are, posted her location. Moments later, the hostess came up to her to tell her she had a call on the restaurant telephone.

Confused, she answered the phone but did not recognize the male voice on the other end. Without so much as an introduction he told her she shouldn’t use Foursquare because if she did, certain people might find out where she lived.

She laughed his comment off diffidently but this only angered the creepy caller. “You stupid bitch,” he said to her and went off on a string of insults. She quickly hung up the phone.

Bugbee slept with the lights on that night. The next day, she quit Foursquare and hired a house sitter. Later it was discovered that the caller had tracked her down through a website called PleaseRobMe.com. Like ICanStalkU, the website was designed to warn people about the risks of geo-tagging, however the site was shut down after other incidents like Bugbee’s.

MythBuster’s Adam Savage

The host of the popular science program MythBusters shared a picture on Twitter of his new Toyota Land Cruiser parked in front of his house with a comment saying “Now it’s off to work in my beast […]”. Though Savage had not stated where he lived the coordinates of his home were linked to the picture. Moreover, his comment mentioned that he wasn’t home, greatly increasing his chances of getting robbed.

Well-known personalities should be especially concerned with the dangers of geo-tagging as they are prime targets for robbery and stalking.

Oregon Couple Nearly Robbed

Todd Clark, an Oregon Real Estate expert says one of his past buyers almost got robbed because they didn’t realize that every picture they uploaded with their iPhone was geotagged. Someone following the couple on Twitter looked at their pictures and figured out exactly where they lived by the pictures from inside their home. Luckily a neighbor alerted the police when they saw something unusual going on and when the couple got home only a window was damaged.

Now, some insurance companies are starting to ask customers to disclose all social media accounts upon enrollment. If a customer, who posts on social media that they are away when their home is robbed, then the insurance policy may not cover such losses.

How to Disable the Geo-Tagging Function

To disable the function, the ICanStalkU website provides full details for how to disable the function on all types of Smartphones.

Lesson for all: Watch what you post!

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