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There are a large number of factors to consider for usability but these are the seven most important ones that anyone who wants to have a successful website must take into consideration: Cater to All Devices The days of accessing the internet exclusively from a desktop computer are long gone. There are now dozens of different devices with varying screen sizes and using different operating systems. You need to make sure your website is accessible and easy to use on all of them....

The equation is simple. Repeat after me: Always Be Communicating (Bonus: Consistently). At this point, you’re probably thinking, “I know this. So, how do I achieve this in a time efficient way and connect with my audience? “ Here are a few ways to always be communicating consistently in your digital marketing campaigns: Newsletters I have previously written about the importance of newsletters, but it’s worth mentioning again because newsletters are underutilized....

Conventional wisdom says the first option, a healthy economy, is the best. But who said the tech community was conventional? The Sub-Optimal Time Is the Best Launching during a poor economy for startups will mean that VCs are more careful, more cautious, and more demanding. For a great startup, that’s a good thing. For a bad one, it’s terrible. Basically, a poor economy will supercharge the successes and bulldoze the failures....

The Celebrate conference capped off with the top five finalists competing for the grand prize of Startup of the Year. Each finalist was allowed five minutes to pitch followed by a few minutes of Q&A with the judges. Obviously all five finalists have solid products and great potential for success. They wouldn’t have made it this far if they didn’t. They also wouldn’t have made it this far without a standout pitch....

Since we all know success rests heavily on learning new things, innovating new ideas, and competing better to achieve more with the same resources, this scenario is a dangerous one because in all this flurry of activity, there’s simply no opportunity to learn. When I ask product managers what they’re learning, I often get one of two responses: a dry-winded summary of a book they read a few months ago or verbal diarrhea of the 99 things they learned since lunch....

Alpert’s new book, The Mobile Marketing Revolution: How Your Brand Can Have a One-to-One Conversation with Everyone, offers concrete tips on how to create a winning mobile marketing campaign. For him, that means integrating with databases and CRMs for personalized communication and working in concert with other marketing on the web or social media. Startups can use mobile not only for engagement, but also for soliciting the feedback that powers iteration and product improvements....

And it looks like the enterprise agrees. According to a recent survey, 75 percent of businesses have increased their 2015 budgets to adopt more security-minded applications. By 2016, EMC expects that 96 percent of enterprise applications will be run in a private cloud. Clearly the question is no longer “Should you use the cloud?” but “How do you implement it?” Better yet, ask yourself these three simple questions: Who, what, and where?...

Founder and CEO Matt Thazhmon walked me through a demo yesterday afternoon. PowerInbox was originally created to house social media in your email, so you’d get a Facebook comment in your Gmail account, open it up, and respond right from the email. Same with Twitter – you can reply to a tweet right from the email – and Google+. Because this was working so well, Matt said they started hearing from other companies who wanted to make their own emails interactive....

Marvel’s latest film, Captain America: Civil War, even went so far as to provide an answer. Delivered by its most philosophical character, The Vision, who affirms superheroics (technological creations, in this non-superpowered world) act fundamentally independent from their creators, perhaps going as far as to determine the actions of them, “I wish to understand it. The more I do, the less it controls me.” One need not look further than Iron Man to find an example of this phenomenon, the hero who blatantly nominally embodies the harmonious juxtaposition of human and machine....

There are two main categories of user feedback: Free users and paying customers. Here’s what each category means. Free User Feedback Is Marketing Advice Free users haven’t committed to paying for your product or service. You can’t trust them to tell you how to improve it. But you can trust them to guide your marketing process: It’s the process that will help them know whether they want to move forward into your funnel and lay down some money....

Stimulate the Production of Hydrochloric Acid Drinking coffee early in the morning on an empty stomach can stimulate the production of hydrochloric acid. This is problematic because hydrochloric acid is only supposed to be produced when food is being digested. If your body produces hydrochloric acid after you drink coffee, then it may not produce enough hydrochloric acid after you eat a meal. Protein cannot be digested if there is a lack of hydrochloric acid in the stomach....

Understanding malware Malware is short for “malicious software” and it is, essentially, a term for any software that is unintentionally installed on your machine that then performs unwanted or harmful tasks. In most cases, malware is used for the benefit of a third party. There are an increasingly large number of organized cybercrime rings. These rings net a lot of money when they are successful. What once began as a way to play pranks on others has turned into a lucrative business that is based on harming computers and devices that are at risk....

Google, Wikipedia, Reddit, Cheezeburger, The Oatmeal, and others are either blacking out their sites or doing similar awareness campaigns today. Nilay Patel of The Verge said it well in their post this morning, Tech Cocktail opposes SOPA and PIPA too. If you’d like to protest SOPA and PIPA, here are a few simple ways.

Get your customer to like you! I can’t stress this enough. People buy from people they like, period. Put yourself in the shoes of the customer. Have you ever bought anything from someone who made you uncomfortable or you couldn’t relate to? Most people would answer no. LinkedIn is a great way to look up your potential customer and find out what you have in common. It may be where they went to school, where they previously worked, or what organizations they took part in....

This week, we have everything from reimagined classics to brand new games that will make your fingers ache for more. Check out these five apps that are perfect for the holiday season. Angry Birds Blast Yes, the classic pig-and-bird chase has wrapped itself in a new package. The little ones will surely enjoy popping their Angry Birds free from the balloons that the pigs had trapped them in. This version comes with rockets, bombs, and laser guns and has over 250 levels to get them busy until the New Year....

TradingView is the fintech software that wants to make trading a public affair rather than a private errand. The simple, comprehensive charting tool doesn’t only give you insights that can lead to big financial victories; TradingView provides communal space to view and share trading ideas to better improve the variety and potential of your portfolio. While sharing culture has taken more of a selfish angle in social media with personal brands and like farms become more and more popular, TradingView wants to create a fintech community of traders and investors that work together to get the best deal on the market....

The acquisition would have been an all-stock deal valued at around $14.7 billion, and it seems that Five9 shareholders chose to reject it after that stock valuation dropped in the months since the announcement. It’s just another bump in the road for Zoom, which has risen to massive success over the past few years thanks to a global pandemic that’s dramatically boosted everyone’s interest in video conferencing software. Zoom’s Plans to Expand Zoom needs aggressive expansion in order to compete with the biggest consumer video chat options like Google Meet, but this deal would have also helped Zoom expand further into the small business space....

But Smart TVs are now. As technophiles, we are constantly concerned with what’s next. According to 2014 International CES, the below 3 characteristics will dominate the future of televisions. 1) Curves One major trend from this year’s CES was curved displays. Aside from standing out for being different, curved screens are said to make the viewer feel more enveloped in the program or movie (a mini-IMAX effect), cut down on glare, and improve the viewing experience for those sitting at the side of the TV....

The accused are alleged to have accessed private company information on dissidents of Saudi Arabia, with thousands of accounts targeted by the pair, including Twitter accounts belonging to high profile journalists. The case raises questions about the protections in place by social media companies, especially of those who criticise foreign governments, as well as straining the US relationship with the country. See where Saudi Arabia ranks in our list of The Worst Countries for Internet Censorship...

In recent months, Uber has been utilizing the gyrometers, accelerometers, and GPS technology found in smartphones to keep track of how well drivers are taking care of their passengers. By analyzing data, Uber can find out whether or not drivers are braking too hard, driving too fast, taking the correct route, or even using their phone while driving. This data is then used to provide detailed reports to drivers on a weekly basis, as well as in-route notifications to drop the phone, slow down, and stop braking so harshly....