Plush Talk – What’s New?
The Trouble with Auto
Jul 15th
No doubt you probably have a smartphone of some sort, be it an iPhone or other device with Android.
And no doubt then, you’ve been smacked by the Auto Correct feature.
I sent my significant other to pick up my nephew’s birthday present. The conversation (via text) went as follow:
SO: “What am I getting him?”
Me: “Any kind of legislation”
Me: “Lego. [expletive] you, auto correct!”
That’s pretty poor intuitiveness when a four letter word becomes twelve. It honestly slows me down more than anything and I should have the option to turn this off.
But alas, I don’t. I’m sure if I tried to send a strongly worded text message to Android, it would auto correct into some compliment about the feature.
Maybe that’s why the feature still exists. Their inbox is full of compliments.
The Skype – Facebook Partnership
Jul 12th
I, for one, welcome our new Video Chat overlords!
Last week, Facebook announced it has partnered with video chat giant, Skype, to give Facebook users in browser video conferencing. This is a significant move, considering one of my favorite features of Google+ is the Hangouts feature where you can video conference with multiple people in your Circles at once.
As the Project Manager here at Plush Marketing, what does this mean for me? Not much. Facebook is used surprisingly little here at the office, aside from the company page, which I also update. We do, however, use Skype fairly regularly just for calling our overseas contacts. Video conferencing isn’t something we have deemed necessary in the office yet. If I need to demonstrate something, I’m pretty good at scribbling on a screenshot and drawing out what I’m trying to communicate. Sometimes “Can we move that squiggly thing beside that input box and move it up about 5 pixels?” doesn’t make sense, but drawn arrows work wonders!
So for now, I will not get excited about this latest feature of Facebook, one of many I am already indifferent to.
Except Polls. I should have the option to remove that feature altogether.
More >Google+ living up to the hype?
Jul 4th
Search Engine giant Google is polishing their swords and shields, preparing to enter the social networking arena. Google has launched many “innovative” features in the past, including Google Wave and Buzz. What makes Google+ different? Well, it seems to be actually pretty good, according to reports from the lucky individuals who managed to snag an invite. It has its drawbacks, sure, but it also has a good number of advantages over Facebook, including webcam chats, better privacy and safer content sharing.
Right out of the gate, Google has many advantages just in how much more experience they have in handling a user’s data and privacy, something Facebook should take some cues from who has had many issues, past and present. It seems like every other week I have to go turn off another “feature” Facebook has included in their latest update that compromises my account’s privacy. But back to Google+.
One of the features I’m most looking forward to is Hangouts. Right now free video conferencing is dominated by Skype, but if you want to video chat with more than one person at a time, you’ll have to pay for the upgraded version. In my family, video chat has become a wonderful feature because More >
What is Search Engine Optimization?
Mar 1st
SEO (short for Search Engine Optimization) is the process of optimizing an internet website page to gain the highest rank under selected keywords. Today we are starting to see the demand increase because businesses are starting to realize the long term potential of search engine ranking. Imagine if you did not have to pay a single penny after your initial SEO to show your product to millions of targeted prospects. These prospects are searching through search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN looking for products they are interested in. The term that they use to search is called a keyword like “Car Parts Canada”. There are hundreds, if not thousands of keywords for each industry and in order to generate free traffic from all potential keywords requires high ranking on the first page.
Its a basic idea, generate traffic through search engines by optimizing your website to get the first three spots under each keyword. The norm is that most prospects will compare the first three websites that they find from their search results before they make a decision. How many of those visitors a website can convert is dependent on the design and functionality of the website. The process is easy to understand if you are More >
A great new addition
Feb 22nd
Plush Marketing team would like to welcome Raza Ahmed as the latest addition to our wonderful team. Raza is going through Plush boot camp and quickly catching up on our products, methodologies and vision. He will be working as our Outsourcing Manager based in Pakistan. We all wish him best of luck and hope he has a great time working at Plush.
Happy Family Day Alberta!
Feb 22nd
We wish everyone a happy family day and we hope everyone had a great time with their families. Its back to work and time to focus on finishing due web design projects.
Meta Tag Relevancy Is Still Important for SEO
Feb 21st
If you’re familiar with how to use Meta tags in the coding of your website – or in the website of a web design client – you should not just insert almost any Meta title, Meta description, and keywords into the coding area, but also try your best to perfect Meta tag relevancy.
The Meta Tag Title
The Meta title should match the title that visitors to the site can see on the page. It is also a good idea that both closely match the words in the URL of the page – even if only the second part of the URL can be used:
If your website page URL is yourownwebsite.com/meta-tag-relevancy, then it would be better to have the title of your page as well as your meta tag title saying “Meta Tag Relevancy” than “How to check the relevance of Meta tags.”
The Meta Tag Description
The Meta description should be a summary of what the main body of text is about. For excellent Meta tag description relevancy it is a great idea to have a summary of about 15 to 25 words at the very top of your website page, even if using a slightly smaller font size than the font size on the More >
The Basic Design of a Website
Feb 18th
A modern phenomenon has developed over the past several years. The internet has become a large source of new information. Building websites these days is a form of art that few people currently understand and can do well. The first websites created in the 90’s are nothing in comparison to some of the most visually appealing websites we have today. Some good examples of these modern marvels in the website industry are subcide.com and crowdspring.com.
The key to an attractive, modern website is the layout and organization. Any good website consists of three main parts: the header, the footer, and the body. Generally, the first thing you see when you open up a website is the header. A header usually consists of an image and the navigation bar. The header image is often the website’s name and logo, immediately welcoming visitors to the site. The navigation is a series of buttons that serve as links to separate pages within the website. These can either be aligned vertically or horizontally. When creating a website, it is important to develop a well structured navigation to maximize functionality. The structure of the navigation is known as Information Architecture. The term Information Architecture refers to the way More >
