All the Texts, Without All the Costs

All the Texts, Without All the Costs - Frank Radice, the former president of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and now a media consultant, is a compulsive texter. But after racking up more than $1,000 in texting charges on a monthly mobile phone bill two years ago, he began searching for a less expensive way to communicate.

He found apps that allowed him to text free. “Once you try them, you’ll never go back to regular texting,” said Mr. Radice, 62, who texts on an iPhone and iPad using either TextNow or Skype IM.

Even though a text message usually costs the carriers less than a penny to route between mobile phones, they charge customers as much as 20 cents to send a text and another 20 cents to receive one. This adds up to an estimated $20 billion a year in revenue for the wireless industry and a lot of grumbling from consumers who feel abused.

But in the last two years there has been a proliferation of mobile apps, the latest being Apple’s iMessage, that allow users to text free. While they differ in format and ease of use, they all work on the principle of sending and receiving texts via cellphones’ data streams.

“Traditional texts are sent over a defined protocol, like their own channel, that is different from the voice and data channels,” said Michael O’Brien, senior vice president for marketing solutions at Syniverse Technologies, a company in Tampa, Fla., that develops products and services for the wireless industry.

A single text message sent via a texting app uses no more than 160 bytes of data. Most cellphone data plans are 2 to 10 gigabytes (one gigabyte is about a billion bytes). So even if you texted someone all of “War and Peace,” 160 characters at a time, you would still have ample data left on your plan — although you might lose a friend.

TextFree is one of the oldest (circa 2009) and most popular texting apps, particularly among teenagers and preteenagers, who use it to text beyond the limits of their parents’ payment plans. They can also use it to text from their laptop computers, iPod Touches and iPads (bad news for parents who thought they could keep their children from texting by taking away their cellphones). Pinger, the company that offers TextFree, says the median age of its 15 million subscribers is 14.

Advertising supports TextFree and its chief competitors, TextNow and textPlus. Ads flash and bob on the bottom of the screen as you type messages, although your recipients see nothing but your text.

Or you can pay to remove the ads. On TextFree and TextNow, it costs $5.99 a year to avoid ads imploring you to buy, say, Energizer batteries. To use textPlus ad-free costs $4.99 a year, but the company is now offering it for $1.99 per year as part of a promotion.

Registered users of these apps get a new phone number for texting. Texts sent to this new number are automatically forwarded to your cellphone or other wireless device. It also appears as the originating number when texts are sent using the app. TextFree and textPlus work on iOS (i.e. iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch) and Android devices, while TextNow is only iOS compatible. But the apps are agnostic about recipients’ devices. You can send texts free to just about anyone, including the more than 60 percent of Americans who don’t have smartphones.

“Some of my friends complain about having to text to a different number,” said Barry Asch, 40, a middle-school teacher in Wellington, Fla., who uses TextFree on his iPhone. “But in this economy, if I can save $20 a month on texting fees, they can get over it.”

TextFree, TextNow and textPlus allow transmission of picture files within texts and have customizable options like special ring tones (sounds like tropical birds, marimba and even flatulence) to announce texts from particular people in your address book. And of course, they have a full range of cartoony emoticons, called emoji, if you’re into that.

On a recent test run of all three services, TextFree was the fastest, most reliable and easiest to use. It also allows you to send texts free to 25 foreign countries while its rivals do not support international service beyond Canada. Moreover, TextFree allows you to text from your computer — a boon to all who prefer a full-size keyboard over a tiny touch screen when they have the choice.

Another option for free texting are instant messaging apps like iMessage, Skype IM, Kik, Google Talk, Facebook Messenger and GroupMe. These might be thought of as digital cliques that offer free texting as long as the people on the other end, even if they are in different countries, have the same app. Regular texting charges apply if users send a text via Facebook Messenger, GroupMe or iMessage to nonusers. Kik, Google Talk and Skype Chat allow correspondence only between users.

You don’t get a new phone number when using instant messaging apps but rather a user name. These services tend to sling messages back and forth with lightning speed and allow texting to groups as large as 100 people, which is good for organizing gatherings. Picture files are also accommodated.

With the exception of iMessage, which is available only on iOS devices, instant messaging apps tend to work well on all types of smartphones — iOS, Android and BlackBerry. Those with a Windows Phone, however, are limited to Kik and GroupMe. Skype IM and Facebook Messenger have the bonus of allowing you to send text messages from your computer when you log onto the Skype and Facebook Web sites.

And then there is Google Voice (not to be confused with Google Talk), which is a no-cost comprehensive communication app that is in a class by itself. While it has a range of useful services — like voice mail, call recording, call forwarding, telephone number porting and voice mail transcription — it also offers unlimited texting to anyone in the United States. Users can elect to have texts sent to their mobile phones as well as have them delivered to their e-mail inboxes.

Texts can also be viewed from the Google Voice Web site, which allows texting from a computer. And since this is a service offered by Google, the texts saved online can be searched using keywords. But, unlike other texting and instant messaging apps, you cannot attach pictures to Google Voice texts.

Deryck Wong, 21, a senior at the University of California, Berkeley, who is majoring in business and economics, uses Google Voice to do all his texting. “I got tired of all the fees from my carrier,” he said. “I’ve gone over my limit before and it was ridiculous how much they charged me per text.” Now he has a cellphone plan that includes just voice and data. He has no texting charges at all, saving him at least $15 a month.

“I spend the extra money on sandwiches at the school’s cafe,” said Mr. Wong, which spares him the frozen food or ramen he would otherwise make for himself at home. “It’s more convenient and tastes a lot better.” ( nytimes.com )

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Gaddafi Shows Why Google is Failing Its Mission in Search

Gaddafi Shows Why Google is Failing Its Mission in Search - Don't expect Twitter-based realtime search anytime soon

As you may recall, Google used to have a realtime search feature. When some topic was hot at any given time, and you did just a plain Google search on that topic, Google would show realtime results mixed right in with the regular results, and you can actually see them rolling in in realtime. It was quite useful in many cases, particularly in breaking news situations. Even when it didn't automatically show up in the search results it was available as an option from the left panel. It was always a useful tool to see what people were saying about anything during the moment.

Do you miss Google's realtime search feature? Let us know in the comments. Find this topic interesting? Why not share this article on StumbleUpon, Facebook, Twitter, or Google+?

The absence of realtime search is glaringly evident on a day like today. This morning, everyone was scrambling to find out the latest on Muammar Gaddafi. As of the time of this writing, the best Google could do on search results, in terms of timeliness, was a news story from about a half hour ago. That may or may not be the best result, but it doesn't help me for finding the very latest, especially in a situation like this where people are frequently tweeting from Tripoli.

No, in this case, Google is no doubt driving a lot of people to Twitter Search, simply because they're not meeting the demand. It seems like a fundamental problem for Google when it is not meeting a search-related demand, given that Google is at its core, still a search company. It's mission is "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful."

Well, realtime information is generally useful when it is accessible in real time.

All Twitter is reporting that Twitter CEO Dick Costolo indicated we should not expect Twitter and Google to come to an agreement to renew their deal any time soon.

That said, Google has indicated in the past that it would bring realtime search back, using data from other sources, including Google+. It had other sources before, but it was clear that Twitter dominated the results. This point was made even clearer when they just removed the feature entirely after losing Twitter data. Apparently, it just wasn't even good enough to offer without Twitter.

So now, they want Google+ updates to replace it. I'm not so sure if there's enough material there, however. Larry Page announced during the company's earnings call last week that Google+ surpassed 40 million members, but how many of them are posting public updates as often as Twitter users tweet? One key obstacle here is that Google+ was designed to offer users the maximum amount of control when sharing updates. This Circles method of sharing practically encourages people not to share data publicly, so that's less data for the realtime search engines, although I could see Google including results from people in your Circles that were shared with you. But I don't know if that's enough to make a huge difference.

One thing, in terms of data from other sources, that could work to Google's advantage, is the subscribe feature recently launched by Facebook. Facebook users can now let people subscribe to their profiles without having to actually be friends with them. This no doubt encouraged a lot of people to share more stuff publicly, knowing that people might want to subscribe to their posts, as if they were following them on Twitter. Again, though, I don't know if there is enough here to make a huge difference, because Facebook and Twitter are just different in the way most people share info.

Twitter is public by default. It's just a better source of public realtime data that is unrivaled at this point. That's just how it is. Without Twitter, Google's realtime search will never be as good as it could be with it. Unless people stop using Twitter, and it doesn't look like that will be happening anytime soon.

Just how important is realtime search? Well, that depends on the user, but as I said, this whole Gaddafi thing is a prime example of when its absence is incredibly obvious. On the anniversary of 9/11, Danny Sullivan reminded us of how awful it was trying to find the latest info about the attacks when they happened. Imagine how much easier that would have been in the realtime search era.

Realtime search is clearly important enough for other companies to continue to try and improve upon it. Just in the last week or two, we've seen new offerings from Bitly, Topsy, and even Google+ itself.


While each of these options may have be useful, and can probably co-exist with one another, I think most people that think about searching for what's happening right now, think about Twitter. In fact, if you go to Twitter's search page, it actually says, "See what's happening right now."

Without the ability to search "what's happening right now," Google has at least one weakness in search, and is simply not a complete search engine.

What do you think? Does Google need to get Twitter data back for realtime search? How important is realtime search to you? Let us know in the comments. ( WebProNews.com )

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What are the biggest obstacles you’ve encountered in blogging success?

What are the biggest obstacles you’ve encountered in blogging success? - WebProNews recently interviewed reality television blogger Reality Steve (Steve Carbone). The interview wasn’t entirely about how to launch a successful blog, but as he shared his story with us, there were plenty of nuggets of wisdom that naturally came out of the conversation, which if you’re trying to become a successful blogger, you might be able to learn from.

What are the biggest obstacles you’ve encountered in blogging success? Let us know.

1. It’s ok to start small.

Reality Steve started by sending emails to a few friends. The friends liked his work and started forwarding his emails to their friends, and so on and so on. Social media has made it even easier to reach even more of your friends’ friends. Even Facebook started small, and grew virally.

2. Find a subject area where you know there is interest.

People have all kinds of interests. Some of them are already well-covered by bloggers, and others there is more leeway. Even still, just because the web is saturated with bloggers in any particular subject, it doesn’t mean you can’t bring a unique, helpful and/or entertaining voice to the table. Number 3 is directly related to this.

3. Cater to a niche audience.

If you’ve chose a specific subject to blog about, you’re already catering to a niche audience to some extent. However, it is that bringing a unique voice to the table that really adds to that. The thing is, this niche audience is probably already reading the other bloggers who are writing about the same niche, which is why you have to bring something different to the table.

4. Keep up with your niche religiously.

Reality Steve doesn’t blog about every single reality show, but the ones he focuses on, he keeps up with fanatically. This means fans can consider him a go-to source when they want the latest news and analysis related to these shows. That keeps them coming back.

5. Do diligent work.

Essentially, if you want to be considered such a go-to place, you don’t want to half-ass it. Be thorough. If in some cases you can’t be thorough in detail, at least be thoroughly entertaining, or informative. That doesn’t mean you have to put out long post after long post, just try not to miss things that matter.

6. Collect trusted sources (and use them).

Reality Steve has his regular sources, which he trusts, where he can get key information that he needs to be on top of news related to his area of coverage. This helps keep him at the forefront of breaking news in this space. Having these sources can also be useful for driving links to your blog from other blogs and publications.

7. Develop a good track record.

This is directly related to number six. It’s easier to have a good track record of accuracy, when your sources are trustworthy, but sometimes you may get tips that turn out to be busts. Always indicate if there is any doubt to what you’re reporting. If you can’t take it for fact yourself, you shouldn’t report it as fact to others. If you ever make a mistake, acknowledge it as a show to your audience that you can still be trusted.

8. Use social media.

Use social channels to connect with fans and promote your content (these channels can also add to your visibility in search engines – as an added tip that Reality Steve didn’t really talk about, it can’t hurt to employ basic SEO practices). “Both have been a godsend for my website,” Reality Steve tells WebProNews about Facebook and Twitter.

9. Product-related material can interest both readers and companies.

This isn’t so much a step, but just something to keep in mind, and I don’t mean this from the receiving goods for positive reviews standpoint. You might want to read up on the FTC’s guidelines if you’re interested in that. However, Reality Steve brought up an interesting point about how the networks don’t seem to mind his blogging about their shows, even when he’s spoiling their outcomes, because it brings attention to their products.

If specific products are within your niche, you can reach out to people within the companies that deliver these products, for possible trusted sources, and they might be willing to give you the occasional exclusive story or first shot at breaking news, which can also get you links and help you build credibility.

10. Stick with it.

You may start small, but obviously the goal is to become big. This can take time. Reality Steve has been doing this for 8 years. Following these previous steps over time, they should start to pay off. ( webpronews.com )

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The No. 1 Danger of Using Facebook

The No. 1 Danger of Using Facebook - Spending too much time on it and neglecting other stuff? Your boss finding embarrassing photos? Nope, and nope. People have been getting obsessed with stuff long before Facebook, and "Facebook addictions" making the news now mostly because it's so new. Meanwhile, not everyone finds themselves turned down from a job because of embarrassing pictures, but every Facebook user is affected by the No. 1 danger.

It's not Facebook addiction, in the sense that you need to get your fix like a shot of caffeine. It's Facebook dependency, in the sense that you need Facebook. And that a single, profit-driven corporation is becoming as much a part of our lives as email and the Internet. No one individual controls either of those, but Mark Zuckerberg holds the keys to Facebook. And he doesn't answer to you.

A single point of failure

The danger isn't that Facebook will stop working all of a sudden, a la Twitter's "fail whale." It's that a lot of power is being given to someone who wasn't elected, and who has no accountability to the people on Facebook. The only people Mark's accountable to are Facebook's investors, and they have only one request of him: Make money.

That's why Facebook can experiment with stuff like its unpopular new "Timeline" system and make everyone who uses Facebook deal with it. Where are you going to go if you don't like Facebook? LiveJournal? Maybe that new thing Google is doing? Yeah, right. How are you going to see what your friends and favorite brands are up to if you're not on Facebook? Plus all your crops in Farmville will die!

Having a Facebook account is like having a car. Everyone assumes you have one, and there are things you can't do and places you can't go if you don't. Even online games and websites' comment forms require you to have a Facebook account these days. Unless you want to give all that up, you're not allowed to stop using Facebook.


And Facebook's not like other companies

Not even other monopolies like AT&T and Verizon are in some places. Because to the phone companies, you're the customer, even if it's mostly because there's no one else you can buy from. But to many Internet companies, like Google and Facebook, you aren't the customer. You're the product.

No, they're not grinding you up and making Soylent Green. They just need your eyeballs, because they're selling advertisers the right to put ads in front of them. And while there's nothing especially sinister about online advertising (please do click on one of our fine sponsors), in Facebook's case you can't just change the channel or go to a different website.

You're the perfect, powerless, captive audience. And Facebook can censor what you say about it, too. ( yahoo.com )

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10 Top Smart Web Design Tips

10 Top Smart Web Design Tips - When in the thoughts of producing a website, think hard on the some important key points you must deploy. To give you a few hints and tip I have set out below some useful sources of information that can help you to develop a good looking and profitable website.

1. Time is money, save both by managing and processing work carefully and logically. They say that an impression is made by the viewer in the first four seconds of reviewing a site. Thus it's this time that you have to make a good impact on your reviewer.

To miss this opportunity only leaves you with a large amount of ground to catch up on. So, you have only four seconds to persuade your visitor to continue navigating around your website, otherwise they may well already be thinking of trying the next one.


2. Convenient and simple menues guide your users. When first they enter the site, they examine it and look for the all important navigation aids. Again, these are features that must appear very obvious and in clear sight, users must see everything they need simply classified on the shelves as they would expect to see them.

Once you have grabbed the user's mouse pointer, they will have a desire to click further and drill down.


3. What is the most eye-catching place on a web page? It is a well recognised fact among web presenters that the upper-left corner is the most desirable position and it's where the eye tends to sink to. Why is this so? This is natural as in European countries people usually start reading books or writing articles from this position.

Of course, it will appear different for those that are surfing from and Oriental or Middle Eastern country. Thus your target market has to be well thought out before selecting the information starting position. Thus most Western websites and applications are mainly designed from the up-left corner. Here you can place a logo or slogan, search box or any other piece of information that you feel would benefit from such a position.


4. Other psychological studies say that web information is in fact scanned in an "F" way. What does this mean? The top area is scanned horizontally, and the middle area and lower one is scanned only on the left side- vertically. So again please consider this research when arranging content for your website.


5. Another interesting fact is that of advertising. In the whole users deplore adverts and their eyes will ignore all of them just by association, remember the brain is a very fast processing device and scans the page without you thinking and has already decided very early on what an advert looks like and will ignore if it recognizes a pattern.


So again remember that people are busy and have just small amount of time to devote to finding what they need. So respect their time and be patience but plan the your advertising carefully and not too aggressively!


6. Do you think that images are more alluring than texts? You are possibly wrong, as sometimes word can seize you more attention that any bright graphic. So, if you want to deliver an important message to a person, use a slogan rather than a pretty image!


7. What else can grab users' attention? Slogans, buttons, textual headlines...- they must be simple and bright and well thought out. Dirty childish graphics will turn people off very fast.


8. Text must be formatted in a proper way. Make it simple, understandable with continuity of size, font and colour. Different fonts and sizes of letters, paragraphs, underlined, bold, italics and other means of word expression can help you but must be used sparingly and within the overall look and feel of the site.


9. People faces in graphics will catch the users' attention. You can apply various ideas around this idea. especially if an image's look is directed straight at the reviewer...


10. White spaces are a worthy and not well used device. It can provides a web page with the necessary air to breathe as well as giving space between the elements, so use wisely and your page will be worth reading ( Entireweb )

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