Android and iOS smartphone owners no longer have to knock on the door of BlackBerry to release its popular mobile messaging service on other platforms.

BlackBerry, formerly Research In Motion, has announced its plans to make available BlackBerry Messenger to Android and iOS devices this summer. But before that, it needs approval from the Google Play Store and Apple App Store.

Once available, Android and iOS users with friends and family who use BlackBerry devices can start sending messages to each other through BBM.

The mobile messaging service has been in the forefront of the entire BlackBerry OS suite. It offers a fast, reliable, and secure service that businesses and professionals have looked up to for years now.

Donny Halliwell, blog manager for Inside BlackBerry, wrote in a blog post that the extended support for BBM on other platforms will offer real-time connection to friends.

The initial multiplatform BBM will come with four features: real-time BBM chats, multi-user chats, voice note sharing, and BlackBerry Groups.

BlackBerry Groups allow BBM users to create groups of up to 30 users and share files with each other.

Halliwell said the BlackBerry team is working hard to port BBM to give users on other platforms the widely popular BBM experience.

BBM for Android and iOS announced at the BlackBerry Live 2013. Featured image from Inside BlackBerry.

Andrew Bocking, BlackBerry’s Executive Vice President for Software Product Management and Ecosystem, said in a press release at the BlackBerry Live 2013 that it is the right time for BBM to become a multi-platform mobile messaging service.

Halliwell said BBM caters to more than 60 million active users each month, and more than 51 million of these users chat with friends or colleagues everyday. And users send and receive more than 10 billion messages daily. He said nearly 50 percent of BBM messages are opened and read less than 20 seconds after receipt.

Along with the announcement, BlackBerry unveiled BBM Channels, a new service that allows BBM users to connect with their favorite brands, businesses, personalities, and groups. This new feature, as well as voice and video chatting, will be added to the Android and iOS versions later this year, if Google and Apple will allow it.

Once approved, the BBM app will be free to download and install from the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store.

BlackBerry said the availability and system requirements of both apps will be announced during the days before it launches.

BlackBerry, the pioneer of smartphones and once the top mobile platform, has lost ground against its tough rivals: Google’s Android operating system and Apple’s iOS.

Android is now the leading smartphone platform worldwide, and iOS features have convinced U.S. government agencies to switch from BlackBerry phones to iPhones.

Is this a smart move by BlackBerry? Will BBM for Android and iOS be as popular as it is on BlackBerry devices? Share us your thoughts below.

BBM for Android and iOS Will Arrive This Summer Social Barrel - The Latest on Social Media

Finding a worthy read in your website and sharing it with friends encourages better engagement and loyalty, says Google+. The team behind Google’s social networking site merged elements of Google+ and Google Search to recommend the right content from your mobile site, at the right time.

Google+ Recommendations makes suggestions to keep users, or friends, engaged and updated about the latest posts on your mobile site.

The Google+ team said the new feature considers three factors to deliver high quality content: Search Authorship, Google+ activities such as +1′s and shares, and the content found on the visitor’s current page.

A recommendation is always based on the visitor’s current page, and it only appears when tapped for more content. This avoids unnecessary interruption from other browsing activities.

Google+ Recommendations for Mobile Sites

Google+ Recommendations may appear even if the visitor is not signed in to any Google service. If signed in, he or she will see content +1′d or shared by his or her circle of friends.

The team added that these content recommendations are easy to add and set up. You may add a line of JavaScript to your mobile site and modify the “For your site” section of your Google+ page dashboard without a Web editor.

The dashboard of Google+ Recommendations for Mobile Sites

Forbes now offers the new feature on any article within its mobile site. You may visit the pages through an iOS or Android device.

In other news, Google will consolidate storage between three of its major platforms: Drive, Gmail, and Google+. It now offers users 15 GB of free cloud storage across all three products.

Clay Bavo, Director of Product Management at Google, wrote in a blog post about the integration that this change will make the Google products work efficiently together.

He said this update will streamline the said services, whether that means inserting, or attaching, a file from Drive to an email, or sharing photos from Drive to Google+.

Thinking of a seamless, unified library of files in the future for each user, Bavo believes that separate storage for each platform will not make sense anymore.

The combined storage gives you free space to keep items you want, in places where you want it. For example, you can store all your files in Gmail or distribute documents and multimedia files in Drive, Gmail, and Google+.

Before the announcement, Gmail users had a limited free storage of 10 GB, while Drive and Google+ users only had 5 GB of combined storage. And the change will remove the 25 GB cap from accounts with upgraded Gmail storage.

The combined storage for Google Drive, Gmail, and Google+

Google updated the storage page of Google Drive. It now has a pie chart that breaks down your personal storage across the platforms. The page offers easy access for users who want to upgrade their storage space. For example, you may upgrade to 100 GB of storage at $4.99 per month.

All images courtesy of Google

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With RoboForm established as a highly reliable, user-friendly program, Siber Systems now is pitching its latest software product GoodSync to help Internet users sync and store files, with access from across multiple platforms.

This review will try to cover as much ground as it can on GoodSync and more.

Brief Overview

As its name suggests, Siber Systems’ GoodSync efficiently synchronizes and stores files in various formats such as documents, emails, music, and images across desktops, laptops, external storage drives, and servers.

GoodSync aside, Siber Systems has a long string of reliable software and user-friendly products such as RoboForm. And it uses an advanced bidirectional synchronization algorithm.

After months of gathering feedback from its users, Siber Systems has developed the latest version of its synchronization software – GoodSync 9.

But before completely engrossing into the review, let’s scrape the surface of GoodSync 9 and summarize its most popular features.

Most Popular GoodSync 9 Features

1. GoodSync Connect. This feature directly links two computers in peer-to-peer (P2P) style – without intervention from servers. It easily installs on each computer you want to synchronize and creates sync jobs that synchronize folders between the computers.

2. Real-time Auto-Sync. Whenever a user enables the On File Change mode, synchronization starts automatically with each file change of a sync folder or sub-folder. This feature works in remote computers through GoodSync Connect.

3. Support For Multiple Cloud-Based Services. GoodSync 9 supports synchronization with third-party services such as Amazon Cloud Drive, Google Docs, SkyDrive, and Windows Azure.

4. Parallel Sync For Multiple Threads. This feature allows you to run sync in several parallel threads. Parallel synchronization offers faster transfer speeds, with each thread having its own server connection.

5. Syncs Moved or Renamed Files and Folders. GoodSync 9 monitors a renamed file or folders and executes it through a Move command.

6. Multiple Folder Sync. You can choose many folders to sync in a single task. Previously, this was done through Filters.

7. Individual File Sync. GoodSync 9 now allows individual files to sync, not only folders.

8. Fixes Access Denied Errors. Part of GoodSync continuously runs in the background to hand file operations that may cause Access Denied errors and need User Account Control.

GoodSync Connect In A Nutshell

As mentioned above, GoodSync Connect links two computers directly in P2P style. This setup entails several advantages: faster upload/download speed, free unlimited sync and storage, better data security, faster sync of large files, resumable upload/download jobs, SSL-encrypted file transfers, and multi-platform synchronization, among others.

Several cloud-based services control the speed of data uploads and downloads, whereas GoodSync Connect syncs files at your Internet connection’s speed, without intervention from a server.

Moreover, GoodSync Connect stores data on your computer, not on third-party servers provided by most traditional cloud-based services. This means your limit is the size of your computer’s storage memory. And most of all, it’s free and flexible.

With data directly stored in your computer/s, you have privacy and security from potential data sniffers and hackers in the cloud. And GoodSync Connect’s communication channels are encrypted with SSL.

GoodSync 9 also determines the changes you have made on a file and synchronizes those specific alterations, not all of it. This means faster backup speeds and synchronization of small changes in large Outlook and QuickBooks files.

Your Internet connection is unreliable and far from perfect. But GoodSync Connect has you covered with its automatic upload/download resumption from the point of stoppage.

When it comes to multi-platform synchronization and interoperability, GoodSync Connect efficiently handles connections between Windows, Mac, and Linux computers.

Other Features and Benefits of GoodSync Connect

– GoodSync servers are listed per user on a Mediator server.
– Local discovery of GoodSync servers do not need a mediation server.
– Quick automatic recovery from dropped or intermittent connections
– GoodSync client can access a GoodSync server via a feature called Forwarder.
– Multiple retries of the same transaction will lead to one single action.
– MD5 checksum computation for files happens on the server and sent to the client.
– Copies ACL security and other file attributes
– GoodSync client can use proxy servers.
– Uses digest authentication for better password security

GoodSync Block-Level Synchronization

GoodSync 9′s P2P connection allows computers to connect with each other to synchronize or backup files directly, without storing files at a central location such as a web server.

Siber Systems used various connection methods to implement GoodSync on computers of similar LANs and across the Internet.

When two computers installed with GoodSync can finally connect with each other, block-level synchronization technology comes into play. It cuts network traffic but simultaneously synchronizes large files such as databases, email archives, and logs.

Block-level sync technology transfers files across Siber Systems’ GSTP protocol. It moves only the altered parts of a file. So GoodSync identifies the updated file, computes its binary data, and sends only the modified information.

With GoodSync, each file transfer transmits only the data needed to update the stored copy of the modified file, whereas a normal file transfer would send the entire file despite small alterations.

In perspective, when a new line is added on a 2 GB log file, a standard file synchronization will see that the file has changed and will transfer the entire file to the stored destination file.

With block-level transfer, only the exact number of changed bytes and the appended information are sent, not the entire 2 GB of it. And this means faster sync operations.

GoodSync File Synchronization

GoodSync not only synchronizes all your data, but it also examines, filters, and shows its findings to avoid duplicated files, to synchronize only the files you need, and to prevent wrong file deletions.

Automatic file synchronization offers the option to sync folders or files at a specific time of the day or whenever changes to the system occur. This is useful when you insert a USB drive or in system start-up.

GoodSync has powerful filters that allows you to choose only the folders and files you need to sync.

GoodSync also supports several platforms to store files: an internal hard drive, LAN, internet, external storage memory, FTP, SFTP, WebDAV, or Amazon S3.

The software may be installed on a Windows or Mac computer, a server, a USB drive, or a workstation.

GoodSync makes sure that file transfers are completely accurate and that data remains secure from potential losses. This is useful after sudden power outages since it picks up where the file transfer left off.

GoodSync File Backup

Files are backed up with copies from the source to a destination folder. To secure the backup files, users can only change the files on the source folder.

GoodSync’s file backup uses a complex sync algorithm to determine files altered on the source, and backs up only the changed files to the destination folder. This is more efficient than backups of entire source folders each time files are backed up in traditional counterparts.

The software backs up and updates directly data files, rather than make images of the source data. It creates a copy of the files in the source during file transfers to the destination.

Downtimes are non-existent in this setup because files in the destination folder launch immediately when it detects data loss in the source folder.

GoodSync Explorer

GoodSync 9 comes with GoodSync Explorer, a hybrid of FTP and Windows Explorer.

GoodSync Explorer allows you to upload/download files between a local computer and an Internet server. But it does this reliably for first-time users and experts.

Features

– Publishes and maintains your website

– Uploads and downloads photos, documents, videos, and audio files

– Shares files with close friends and colleagues

– Backs up and syncs local and remote files

– Browses folders

– Sets up bookmarks for server accounts (connectoids)

– Shows connectoids from GoodSync jobs

Free vs Pro

GoodSync2Go

This service installs and runs from a USB flash drive or portable hard drive. It can keep more than two computers synchronized via any portable device.

Since it runs outside of a host computer, you can install and run it without administrator privileges.

One GoodSync2Go license can keep many computers in sync. But a Windows Server OS will require a GoodSync Server license.

GoodSync2Go is available for free in 30 days and will remain gratis with three or less jobs with 100 or less files per job.

GoodSync2Go Pro costs only $39.95. But it offers 25 percent savings ($29.95) if you already own a GoodSync Pro license.

Conclusion

GoodSync comes from a well-trusted software developer, the same company that created RoboForm. And this means a robust program and service that will cater to all users who want to synchronize and back up all their files across multiple platforms.

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Internet security and a very long list of sophisticated passwords may slow down access to your account on a website, especially when you often change devices. But not when you have RoboForm Everywhere. (Click here for more info on RoboForm.)

RoboForm maker Siber Systems has made a name for itself as developers of password management software for more than 10 years in the industry. And it continues to introduce new security features and adds support for multiple platforms on its products.

RoboForm comes in three different licenses: RoboForm Everywhere, RoboForm Desktop, and RoboForm2Go. (More on this later.)

RoboForm Everywhere – the license in this review – covers PC, Mac, mobile phone and USB devices packed into a single purchase.

RoboForm easily adapts to how most people who have multiple online accounts use the Internet. And it includes more than one ID for one login page.

The technology also allows you to access your accounts across multiple platforms, such as mobile phones and tablets on different mobile operating systems.

To top it all off, you can use whatever web browser you want because RoboForm is compatible with all of them.

Why Use RoboForm?

Hackers are relentless. And Internet security experts highly recommend online users to make long passwords with at least 12 mixed characters of numbers and letters, and to change it often.

RoboForm manages each password of up to 512 characters and reminds you when to change it if configured properly.

Siber Systems used 256-bit AES encryption on RoboForm to make sure your lost or stolen USB device will remain inaccessible to other people who have no idea of the master password.

The password manager has an option to log-in only when a biometric device confirms your fingerprint.

Hackers now are so good that password methods used in previous technologies are no longer secure. Large-scale hack attacks now use brute force and other methods to nab passwords and gain acess to private accounts.

Security experts now recooment the use of password managers, such as RoboForm, to secure your multiple online accounts.

RoboForm Licenses

But before we dig deeper into RoboForm Everywhere (visit RoboForm), allow me to briefly tell apart RoboForm Licenses.

1. RoboForm Everywhere: A single license from this option allows one user to use RoboForm on an unlimited number of computers, and use RoboForm2Go on up to 3 USB keys (similar data). Annual payment includes all upgrades.

2. RoboForm Desktop: A single license from this option allows the user to to use RoboForm on one computer. Annual payment includes all upgrades except major upgrades.

3. RoboForm2Go: A single license from this option allows you to use RoboForm on one USB key or portable disk. Annual payment includes all upgrades except major upgrades.

Password Management

RoboForm comes with several tools that easily adds and secures passwords and other private information you need to fill up forms.

After your login information goes into the system, RoboForm automatically enters it into the Passcards list. And then it’s all about using the toolbar to log-in to all your online accounts with just one click.

RoboForm uses the identities users create to save all personal information for the one-click fill-up of online forms. This saves you time from filling up applications and forms.

Credit card application, membership, subscription, or an application for a job online is simple and straightforward with RoboForm. It manages all personal information, from driver’s license numbers to almost every detail on your resume.

RoboForm now installed, you have to make a master password. You can import existing usernames from your web browsers or manually enter a new username with a new Passcard for each online login information you have to save.

RoboForm can also save usernames and passwords automatically as you enter these data into forms. While this may take longer, it will get better with time, as all website usernames and passwords are saved and prepared for one-click logins the next time you visit the pages.

The password manager has a quasi-notebook feature called SafeNote. As its name suggests, SafeNote securely stores, documents, files, notes, and other information you need to keep private.

RoboForm’s bookmark organizer saves your favorite website URLs for automatic log-in, including sites you frequently visit. It easily transfers bookmarks with a drag-and-drop tool and synchronizes with RoboForm for mobile devices.

Security

RoboForm efficiently secures information and avoids key loggers and phishing attacks. Its database protection comes with strong encryption algorithms: 3DES, AES, Blowfish, among others.

If you manage to make your master password strong and private, no one in the world can easily access the information stored in RoboForm’s database server.

Support for the Eikon biometric devices allows the password manager to add an option that requiers your fingerprint to access stored information.

RoboForm’s generator creates passwords of up to 512 characters to ensure maximum security for your online accounts. The random series of numbers, letters, and symbols will be hard to crack and remember by humans.

RoboForm automatically inserts passwords into the log-in fields of online forms, so it bypasses key loggers. And the most convenient part is to stop memorizing and repeatedly typing your long passwords.

Automatic log-in software only use URLs given to them, and bypass phishing attacks with link to fake versions of popular websites infested with malware.

Thus it will be wiser to store personal information across multiple locations. RoboForm helps save and restore all your passwords, and save a backup copy on the desktop computer.

RoboForm Everywhere can store all you information online. This allows you to print copies of all your data stored by RoboForm. But make sure those hard copies are hidden and secure.

Mobile Tools

Licenses for RoboForm Everywhere include the PC, Mac, and RoboForm2Go licenses. And you can get free apps for the Apple iPhone and iPad, Android, BlackBerry, Palm, Symbian, and Windows Phone devices. There’s not much to complain about its support for multiple platforms.

A RoboForm2Go license works with a USB drive, or portable key. It provides full access to all your bookmarks, contacts, and passwords on every computer you access it from.

The mobile versions of RoboForm allow you to see and use your usernames, passwords, identities, and safenotes.

RoboForm for mobile devices can do one-click log-ins and synchronize all your information from the RoboForm Everywhere desktop version.

Unlike the desktop version, the mobile versions only use existing login information. It cannot insert new login information. Only the desktop version can send data and sync with the mobile versions.

Summary

In hindsight, if more than 6 million LinkedIn customers used RoboForm’s services and security tools, they wouldn’t have taken part in one of the largest password hacking incidents in history.

RoboForm Everywhere (more info on RoboForm) uses long, sophisticated passwords and regularly reminds you to change passwords often to fight hack attacks.

Password managers, such as RoboForm, helps save your valuable time, as it automatically logs into your accounts and fills up online forms.

With its portability and secure tools, RoboForm offers more options in mobile devices than its competitors.

RoboForm Everywhere Review Social Barrel - The Latest on Social Media

A WordPress website owner who wants to take things up a notch should mull over the hosting company to use. The speed and services offered by a web host actually affect traffic because Internet users prefer websites with faster loading times and secure pages.

So which web hosting company is the best at what it does and costs less than what it offers? Enter WP Engine.

WP Engine, short for WordPress Engine, arguably is the best web hosting company in terms of return on investment.

While Social Barrel has yet to give WP Engine a test run through its 60-day free trial, we think the testimonials and positive reviews speak for itself. And here we thought WP Engine is worthy of a comprehensive review.

Social Barrel had been through server changes over the recent years due to two malware attacks we think are associated with an insecure server.

We now are mulling over WP Engine as our hosting company of choice since it only focuses on improving its services for WordPress-based websites.

But before anything else, we would like to share how WP Engine caught our attention. And there’s no better way to do it than listing its pros and cons, and talking about its key services before making a permanent decision.

So allow me to start our WP Engine review after the break.

Background Check

WP Engine began in 2010 as a two-man company founded by Jason Cohen and Ben Metcalfe in Austin, Texas.

Cohen is the founder of several startup companies. He built and grew these companies to earn millions and then sold them to buyers.

Metcalfe made a name for himself after he helped build the BBC News website. He jumped into the WordPress bandwagon ever since its early days.

Not-So-Brief Overview

Say for example you own a website on WordPress. The site has gained traction in your niche, has been successful with increasing traffic, and has pages with decent loading times. But how can you keep up and increase traffic as fast as the professional websites of rival companies? Remember that these company websites also compete with your traffic.

When it comes to speed and web page loading times, it’s almost a guarantee the problem persists in your hosting company. And now you have decided to make the switch. But to which hosting company?

WP Engine is a hosting company with topnotch services spread across its surprisingly low-cost plans.

As a WordPress-dedicated hosting service, WP Engine has its eyes fixed only on the websites and blogs in the platform. The now team will do the job of updating software and focus on your site’s improvements, making sure to choose the best among the various versions WordPress releases.

Since it only focuses on WordPress, WP Engine has tweaked its servers to use the best standard WP plugins with faster page loading times in mind.

WP Engine boasts having a 25-member support staff who are well-versed in any technical problems you may come into. It could just be a highly unlikely incident due to its superb, round-the-clock service.

The Downside

While we can go on for several pages praising its top tier service, WP Engine is not perfect. Its plans have a downside – and here we’re talking about the pricing, not the service.

Some users will find that the most suitable plans for them are a little steep for their budget.

The WP Engine staff also needs to sleep, so the 24/7 technical support you have been dreaming off may have dozed off right now.

These issues are really nonessential stuff for Social Barrel but some website owners and bloggers need it.

Testimonials and Reviews

Hugh Hancock of mmomeltingpot.com summed it all up when he said,

“I don’t need to spend hours reading about the difference between Hypercache and WP Total Cache, or whether I should use Memcached, Varnish, a reverse proxied Nginx server, or all of the above. All that stuff’s interesting, but it’s not the best use of my time.

Basically, I’ve decided to stay with WPEngine not because they provide very expensive hosting – although it’s excellent – but because they provide a very cheap, very good, very agreeable full-time dedicated sysadmin for my blog.

Which means I can concentrate on, you know, writing it.”

Click To Read More

Thank you, Hugh, for making that part of our review easier for us.

Migration and Getting Ready

Moving from one hosting company to another can sometimes spell trouble and get to your nerves. But WP Engine provided all the documents you need to help make the jump easier and well-organized.

You can choose to do the whole site transfer process on your own, or you can ask for assistance from the WP Engine staff. Expect this part of the transition to be smooth and painless.

From what we have read, most customers of WP Engine have been very pleased with the transfer, so no point arguing with that.

Just a Review and More

For simplicity’s sake, here are the pros and cons of WP Engine in bullets.

Pros:

• WordPress Specific
• Managed WordPress Hosting
• Very Fast Servers
• Tech Support of WordPress Experts
• Managed Upgrades
• Easy Content Delivery Network (CDN) Addition
• Unlimited LargeFS Storage
• Stage and Deploy with Git
• Daily Backups
• One-Click Restore Points
• Enterprise Architecture
• No Caching Plugins
• Global Data Centers
• Top-Shelf Hardware
• Firewall
• Malware Scanning
• Money-Back Guarantee (for each hour of downtime)
• No Long-Term Contracts

Cons:

• High Pricing
• No Email Hosting
• No 24/7 Tech Support

WP Engine vs Standard Shared Hosting Company

While a managed WordPress hosting company differs by class to a standard shared hosting company, most website owners and bloggers plan to move up from shared hosting. So we thought this comparison is important for your decision.

Without question WP Engine beats shared hosting in server speed. A managed WordPress hosting company has dedicated servers compared to oversold shared hosting servers. The latter is designed to cater as many sites as possible on a single server to reduce costs.

WP Engine plans cost thrice as much as an equivalent shared hosting company’s pricing plans. But WP Engine offers more benefits despite its steep price, making it very hard to make a direct comparison on this one.

The WP Engine tech support are real WordPress experts. They are some of the best minds in the business. A shared hosting company stops support once WordPress starts. But a typical shared host does offer 24/7 tech support, whereas WP Engine tech support is online on a standard work week, with support hours ranging from 9AM to 6PM CST (since it is based in Austin).

WP Engine Plans

Personal: For $29 per month, you can install one WordPress site for up to 25,000 visits per month and 10 GB of storage, and all of the standard goodness (listed at the Pros section of this review) that comes with a WP Engine account. You can add a CDN for $19.95 per month.

Professional: For $99 per month, you can install up to 10 WordPress sites for up to 100,000 visits per month and 20 GB of storage, and all the features on the Personal plan. The CDN is now free, along with SSL and WordPress Multisite support. A dedicated IP address for SSL support can be added for $5 per month.

Business: For $249 per month, you can install up to 25 WordPress Sites for up to 400,000 visits per month and 30 GB of storage, and all the features on the Professional plan. Dedicated IP and telephone support are included free of charge.

Premium: A custom service designed for a specific number of installations and excessive traffic of millions of site visits per month. Prices are not listed on the WP Engine website but it will surely hit the ceiling.

WP Engine WordPress & Technical Stuff

• SFTP Access
• Out of the box Memcached
• Redundant Firewall Protection
• Web Application Protection
• Redundant DoS/DDoS Mitigation
• Weekly Backup & Encrypted Daily Differentials
• 24/7/365 Monitoring

WP Engine Support

• Phone Support: Yes (Business and Premium Plans)
• Email Support: Yes
• Support Ticket System: No
• Live Support Chat: No
• Support Forums: Yes
• FAQ & Knowledge base: Yes
• Video Tutorials: No

Conclusion

Social Barrel finds WP Engine a top-class, managed WordPress hosting company that will certainly cater to its needs.

Even though WP Engine will most likely not be on any “cheapest hosting company” list, it provides superior hosting services and employs some of the best minds in the business, who know the ins and outs of WordPress.

And with that we consider WP Engine bang for the buck, money well-spent.

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With all the social networks sprouting out from nowhere and taking the world by storm, businesses and organizations need a trusted service (1) to manage their social media campaigns, (2) to pinpoint and grow specific audiences, and (3) to disseminate custom messages.

Enter HootSuite.

A well-known social media management system, HootSuite helps carry out a collaborative campaign across major social networks from a web-based dashboard.

The company says it effectively launches the campaigns of businesses and organizations on social media, streamlining team progress by scheduling and through targeted tools and reaching audiences worldwide by geo-targeting.

HootSuite allows its users to invite multiple collaborators to handle social profiles, and provides personalized reports with its tools for social analytics.

What probably sets this social media management system apart from most of its kind is its deep integrations with the four major social networks: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+. It also has an app directory for users to add more social networks and marketing tools.

But enough with the not-so-brief introduction and allow me to dig deeper – and to be as detailed as possible without crossing the lines of jargon.

Social Network Management

HootSuite’s dashboard is one of the best – if not the best – dashboards you will find on a social media management system. It keeps you productive by supervising all social media accounts within the website and from one simple graphical user interface.

Facebook

HootSuite’s integration with Facebook allows you to post status updates, upload photos, monitor news feeds, and more on the world’s largest social network (now with more than one billion active users). And teams can manage complex Facebook marketing campaigns, including Events, Groups, Pages, Profiles, and Search.

Twitter

HootSuite’s integration with Twitter allows you (1) to send regular or scheduled Tweets, (2) to listen in on keyword, list, and search tracking streams, and (3) to monitor sent tweets, Favorites, Mentions, Direct Messages, and more in dedicated streams.

LinkedIn

Through its LinkedIn integration, HootSuite allows you to interact with customers, send news, expand recruitment campaigns, and monitor conversations in your industry.

You can post directly to your Company Pages, Groups, and Profiles, and even create job search streams.

Both Twitter and LinkedIn claim to have more than 200 million users.

Google+ Pages

Integration with Google+ Pages allows businesses and organizations to take advantage of HootSuite’s account management and targeted messaging to Circles.

You can share or comment on posts, search for updates, monitor a user’s recent activity, and see +1’s and comments on Google’s social network.

Google says that Google+ has 500 million registered members as of December last year, including 235 million monthly active users.

Foursquare

Do not brush off HootSuite’s Foursquare management, because it mixes geolocation, gaming, and social marketing.

With its gamification features, Foursquare allows you to check in or become “mayor” at locations, and share valuable tips to friends through HootSuite.

Foursquare has 20 million registered users as of April last year.

Myspace

Through HootSuite’s MySpace management, you can connect with common fans of music, films, and video games by synchronizing your social messaging with one-time social network leader Myspace (previously known as MySpace, with a capital “S”).

You can also send, schedule, and see updates from the social network in HootSuite’s dashboard.

MySpace has 25 million registered users as of June last year.

WordPress

HootSuite’s management for WordPress, the world’s most popular blogging system, allows you to post regular or scheduled content to multiple accounts on the platform.

The integration allows you to republish important posts and to create a stream for blogs you follow.

Mixi

Not to be trampled by its English language counterparts, Japanese social network mixi is also integrated into HootSuite’s dashboard.

Mixi currently has more than 30 million users.

App Directory

The social networks you can add into your HootSuite dashboard does not stop there.

App Directory allows you to add more social networks and marketing tools, such as Constant Contact, InboxQ, MailChimp, SocialFlow, and more.

Custom Social Analytics Tools

A service is not a social media management system without its analytics tools, and HootSuite covers almost all the social graphs, charts, and tables that your business or organization needs.

What’s with the emphasis on “almost”? Read on.

Facebook Insights

Any decent social media management system cannot thrive without an analytics tool dedicated to Facebook.

HootSuite has Facebook Insights, allowing you to monitor and gauge comments, fans, likes, and pages from the dashboard.

You can drill down fan data based on demographic, location, language, and source.

HootSuite also optimizes messaging with various insights on each post, including engaged users, reach, “talking about this,” and virality. And its comparisons allow you to see trends.

Google Analytics

Through HootSuite’s Google Analytics tool and URL parameters, you can track revenue and online conversions to your social outreach.

You can drill down into a website’s traffic data, source, and region, and see sparklines (very small line charts) for bounce rates, page views, and more.

Twitter Profile Stats

If you monitor Twitter most of the time, HootSuite tracks your number of followers, mentions, following, lists, and more.

It allows you to monitor through keyword comparisons over time and sentiments on the microblogging site.

Ow.ly Click Stats

Arguably the most criticized feature of HootSuite is its choice of only one URL shortener: ow.ly.

The social media management system only offers aggregated click stats for URLs shortened by ow.ly, and not from any other shortened URL providers, such as bit.ly and TinyURL.

“Ow.ly click stats” allows HootSuite to drill down by date and region, track popular links and referrers, and analyze link summaries.

Google+ Pages Analytics

This analytics tool is exclusive to HootSuite Enterprise and offers teams five analytic modules for direct measurement of results, including +1 shares, daily growth, number of new users on circles, and posts per day.

Organization Analytics

Another analytics module that is only available to HootSuite Enterprise.

Through Organization Analytics, you can make reports based on the organization’s metrics, such as assigned, resolved, and sent posts.

Analytics Reports

The owl-logoed company keeps its members informed through analytics Reports, combining social media analytics integrations to produce full reports that are shareable to other HootSuite users.

You can keep reports updated through daily, weekly, biweekly, or monthly schedules so the team knows where the company is in the campaign’s workflow.

HootSuite allows you to talk to teammates about social initiatives so they can point out successes and opportunities.

Other Reports features include a choice between Quick and Custom Analytics and among more than 40 analytics modules, downloadable PDF reports, custom tiles and headers, drag-and-drop for layouts, and templates.

HootSuite Teams

Businesses with small to large teams can take advantage of HootSuite Teams for its organizational structure, easily scaling the company or organization and enabling teams to engage while keeping control.

Social media management is cumbersome because of its scope, but HootSuite allows you to map it to your teams in the real world.

HootSuite Teams is built for all kinds of organizations – from multinational companies and multiple client agencies to small businesses with external collaborators.

If you only have one Organization, you can have multiple Teams with a large number of Team Members and Social Networks for management.

This means individual permissions for Team Members, allowing multiple social media contributors to manage accounts and profiles for all customer-focused teams, including Human Resources, Marketing, Public Relations, Sales, and Support.

The low-level permissions give you an easier time to manage team members at various levels: Organization, individual Teams, social networks, and profiles.

HootSuite’s Message Assignments provides administrators the option to see all assignments in an Organization or Team.

HootSuite Conversations

With the help of Conversations, your team’s or organization’s members can talk to each other from within the HootSuite dashboard.

The key features of this service include team chats or company-wide discussions and conversations about content pushed from social networks to HootSuite. Anyone can even broadcast to each member’s social network.

HootSuite Conversations brings team members’ messages together on your inbox and saves time-consuming email threads.

You can still communicate with the team even when looking at other desktop workspaces because of the popped out conversation window.

Another nifty feature to love about HootSuite Conversations is that you can import Gmail contacts, and it recognizes colleagues that are also online.

You can freely add anyone to a conversation to discuss and receive approved social messages.

Message Management

 HootSuite’s message management eases the way you see and post updates to your social network accounts.

With all social profiles on a single dashboard, HootSuite allows you to monitor mentions, schedule campaign messages, and answer audiences in real-time.

HootSuite has publishing features for broadcasting campaign messaging, including bulk CSV uploader (Pro & Enterprise versions), geo-targeting for Facebook posts (Enterprise), message drafts, message scheduling, and RSS feeds.

Modern listening and monitoring techniques from HootSuite enables you to do and save advanced searches, filter content, and create and manage Twitter followers and lists.

In addition, the company’s built-in ow.ly URL shortener – the most criticized HootSuite feature because you cannot add other URL shorteners – allows shortened links, file sharing, and monitoring click-through rates and traffic to find the most effective messages on your target audience. (I do have to reiterate the issue about its URL shortener.)

Mobile Apps

Putting forward the shortest section of the review as succinctly as possible, you can carry HootSuite’s web-based dashboard on iOS (iPhone and iPad), Android, and BlackBerry devices. (Yes, the deliberately verbose introductory clause has 12 words and defeats the meaning of “succinctly.”)

A direct comparison among HootSuite mobile app versions on different platforms is beyond me because I do not own all these devices. (I only have an Android smartphone.)

So I provided the download links for you to choose the right one for your operating system, but I leave the mobile app’s review at your discretion.

HootSuite Security

Above anything else, find a social media management system that ensures data security and protects valuable social resources.

HootSuite assures its users “the greatest possible return and brand consistency” on your social network campaigns and expansion.

The service has security options for both Platform and Teams to give you full control on publishing your social content

As a user, you need a social network management system’s dashboard to be a secure gateway to your social media accounts.

HootSuite’s dashboard allows you to log-in to multiple accounts even on the go, making sure you can access valuable data on any device without downloading and saving it.

With HTTPS security, HootSuite protects your login information when using public wireless connections.

HootSuite Pro provides different permission levels to suit your needs, granting team members enough access to post to your social networks on your behalf.

HootSuite Enterprise has secure profiles as an extra layer to prevent accidental posts to the wrong social account, and the highest control level Limited Permissions for read-only access.

HootSuite University

If you are looking for social media certification, HootSuite has one.

With HootSuite Univeristy, you can stay updated in the fast evolving social media landscape.

The company offers a lecture series with 20- to 30-minute webinars that feature the best practices in the industry.

For more information, visit this link.

Companies and organizations using HootSuite

Sony Music

Virgin

WWF

Hard Rock Café

NCAA

McDonald’s

Seagate

PepsiCo

Lamborghini

Many industry experts and large companies consider HootSuite as the best social media management system around. And so should you.

Mashable CEO Pete Cashmore says HootSuite is a key tool to manage social networks by allowing teams to track conversations and to measure campaign results effectively.

Based on The Next Web’s experience, the popular HootSuite is the best option available for managing all your social media accounts in one single dashboard.

It’s hard to refute their claims. These people and companies really know what they are talking about since they have been in the business for some time now.

Just A Head Start

1. If you do not want to spend money right away, you can use HootSuite Pro at no cost on a 30-day trial. Simply sign-up and give it a whirl. HootSuite will inform you once it expires so you can decide whether to continue using HootSuite Pro at a price or go Free.

2. HootSuite allows you to adjust your plan’s options anytime to suit your needs.

3. You can use the help desk archive and forums at help.hootsuite.com. But Pro and Enterprise accounts with improved support have quicker responses on trouble tickets.

4. Supported platforms include Web (IE 7 or 8, Firefox 3, Safari 4, Chrome 4 and higher), mobile (iPhone, iPad, Android, BlackBerry, Keitai), and desktop.

5. HootSuite’s online payment methods include American Express, MasterCard, PayPal, and Visa.

Conclusion

HootSuite has one of the best – if not the best – social media management system in the business.

If the limited use of one URL shortener does not bother you,  HootSuite’s native URL shortener ow.ly will be enough to suit your needs.

Other than that, HootSuite pretty much covers everything that I need as a professional social media user. But there’s still room for improvement and new features.

Get Your Free 30 Day Trial of HootSuite Pro Here

What do you think? Feel free to drop your comments below.

All images and screenshots used in this review were grabbed from HootSuite.

HootSuite Review – A Social Media Management System Social Barrel - The Latest on Social Media

Valentine’s Day is here but many people still cannot gather enough courage to open their gate and ask someone special on a date.

A new comprehensive survey by TNS found that more than half (54 percent) of its respondents agree they are doubtful if it’s still friendship someone wants or something more special.

Forty percent of those who answered the survey say they are too nervous to tell someone their true feelings.

According to the study, more than half (51 percent) of Americans want an easier way to tell someone they like them.

And more men (56 percent) than women (46 percent) wish for a low-risk approach.

Another survey question revealed that almost four in ten (39 percent) Americans wish to hide their names to tell someone of their interests.

Featured image by SashaW / Flickr (CC)

Apparently, this is where SlipperFits steps in.

Based in Melbourne, Australia, the team behind the new Norton-secured app says it is on a mission to help people who have a crush with a Facebook account.

The developers say they designed the app to help users safely show their interest for a Facebook friend.

According to its press release, SlipperFits is a convenient way to connect Facebook friends who wish to increase their level of closeness without the risk of embarrassments.

But how safely?

SlipperFits allows users to make a HOTLIST in secret and choose the Facebook crush they want to include.

After SlipperFits receives the green light from the user, it automatically sends an app request to 50 of the user’s friends.

This request secretly includes the crush or crushes listed on the HOTLIST.

Moreover, friends who received the app request will receive a prompt to make their own HOTLIST.

The crush’s identity will only appear when there’s a match, and it depends if they want to nurture the newfound connection or not.

Michael Scanlan, founder of SlipperFits, says people sometimes look for the right moment to open up to someone how they feel towards that person.

It will take too long – and sometimes too late – before they make a move, he adds.

Scanlan and company believe SlipperFits, founded in September last year, can help Facebook friends worldwide to share mutual feelings when social norm may have stepped in the way.

SlipperFits assures that its users’ personal data will always remain private, safe, secure.

It is now available on Facebook, but the team behind it is now working on an Android and iOS version.

SlipperFits Vows To Help Nervous Admirers Reveal Their True Feelings Social Barrel - The Latest on Social Media

Facebook has inked a deal with Opscode to install software that automates configuration and management on the social networking firm’s web-tier infrastructure.

The cloud infrastructure automation leader revealed that Facebook’s infrastructure team used its Opscode Private Chef program to handle thousands of administrative access policies, configurations, and servers within its active computer environment.

Phil Dibowitz, production engineer at Facebook, says the social network usually considers three aspects of scale for infrastructure: the number of servers, the bulk of different structures, and the number of maintenance personnel.

He adds that Private Chef offered a sufficiently supple solution that bends to Facebook’s scale dynamics, without the need to change its workflow, and brought topnotch support, early access to future modifications, and more rich features than open-source Chef.

Private Chef on top of open-source Chef lines up with Facebook’s own open attitude, and allows it to give back to the Chef community, says Dibowitz.

Featured image by IntelFreePress/Flickr (CC)

Facebook continues to back the open-source community and joined Opscode during the development of Chef 11, where it conducted field tests of the open source code base and helped speed up the software’s delivery to the market.

Adam Jacob, chief customer officer at Opscode, says Facebook’s infrastructure is exemplary for the future of enterprise computing, and the use of Private Chef to power and manage it shows Chef’s ability to solve the hardest tasks in IT.

The use of Chef proves that the social network still vows to support open-source and share its best practices to help everyone manage from a handful to tens of thousands of servers, adds Jacob.

The software offers a supple model for reuse to allow an easier but stable configuration of a certain company’s wide infrastructure.

With Private Chef, customers can control access policies that govern thousands of developers and system admins.

According to Jacob, Opscode Services backs Private Chef to provide customers with top-tier support and ensure uncompromised productivity.

Facebook’s Dibowitz will be at the Hyatt Embarcadero in San Francisco on April 24-26 to attend #ChefConf 2013, Opscode’s second annual user conference, and deliver a keynote address.

Dibowitz will talk about best practices, systems management philosophy, and the effective application of strategies regardless of the size of the physical servers.

Opscode helps small to large firms build automated server infrastructures that scale without difficulty, flexible in any environment, and cost- and time-efficient for developers and systems engineers.

The company boasts a team of web infrastructure experts that builds and runs some of the world’s leading websites and cloud computing platforms.

Facebook Uses Opscode’s ‘Private Chef’ To Automate Its Web-Tier Infrastructure Social Barrel - The Latest on Social Media

Purchasing Apple iTunes gift cards is quite tempting for music lovers to customize their iOS devices, but software developer iMobie has a more economical replacement for it. The firm has developed flexible software AnyTrans to import songs from various sources onto an iPhone, iPad, iPod and iTunes.

iWizard Guide

AnyTrans comes with a feature called iWizard to help manage transfers of iPhone, iPad and iPod content. It provides a direct and intuitive guide to backup audio and video files from iOS devices to a computer or the iTunes library before the transfer will ensue. AnyTrans iWizard automatically saves personal data such as tags, play counts, artworks, ratings, and more.

iWizard fills up an iPhone, iPod and iPad from iTunes on several desktop and laptop computers. Users no longer need to think of lost songs that previously were kept on the device.

Playlist Compatibility

Unlike the conventional iPhone/iPod transfer, AnyTrans allows users to create, remove, and transfer playlists from outdated iPods to the latest iOS devices: the iPod nano 7, iPod touch 5, iPad mini and future Apple devices.

Apps Transfer

Hardcore gamers, who already spent thousands of dollars and hours on iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch games, may encounter roadblocks in the game’s development when upgrading to a newer iOS device despite having iCloud or iTunes.

AnyTrans avoids the risks of jailbreaking and helps transfer apps between iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch devices and the iTunes library, with or without app data, saved games and custom settings. iMobie ensures users the safety of their existing applications with AnyTrans.

Compatible Formats

The ongoing hunt for an iPhone/iPod/iPad media converter to hush the iTunes “Incompatible Format” window is over. AnyTrans comes with an advanced transcoding engine to convert incompatible video/audio media to a friendly format for iOS devices. It automatically enhances audio/video quality based on the device’s standard during the transfer.

The perfect 720p or 1080p HD h.264 video for an intended Apple device is within reach. Users can take delight in them through AirPlay or on the go. AnyTrans also presonalizes iPhone Ringtones with hi-quality AAC audio.

Faster Data Transfers

The latest Lightning interface and USB 3.0 standard has brought users up to thrice the speed of previous implementations. Those who have made a habit of transferring data via Wi-Fi will find AnyTrans a big help when upgrading twice the speed by using ultrafast wireless.

iMobie said its updated software supports multicore processing, hyper-threading and other hardware accelerations to cut 20-minute conversions to only around 5 minutes.

Key Features

• Compatible with all generations and versions of iOS devices: the iPhone, iPad and iPod. iMobie continually releases updates for future hardware support.
• Moves music, video clips and apps to supported devices. It directly transfers music from old iPhones to newer models.
• Retrieves and reconstructs the iTunes library from iPhones and iPods in case of emergencies.
• Provides a new synchronization experience for users with iWizard.
• Transfers apps between multiple devices but keeps all app data, game saves and personal settings.
• Creates, combines, deletes and moves playlists between iPhone, iPad, iPod and iTunes but keep the ratings, artworks, tags, play-counts and all media information.
• Imports music and videos without fear of losing existing ones; no need for jailbreaking or full iTunes synchronization.
• Detects incompatible audio and video file formats and converts it to iOS supported format during the transfer.
• Supports USB 3.0, Lightning, Ultrafast Wi-Fi, multicore CPU, Hyper-threading and hardware acceleration.

System Requirements

• Operating System: Windows 7, 8, Vista, XP (32-bit and 64-bit)
• Resolution: 1024×768 pixels display or higher
• Processor: Pentium 4 (2.4 GHz) or higher
• RAM: 512 MB
• Display Card: Accelerated 3D graphics – 64 MB RAM minimum
• Sound Card: Windows-compatible sound card
• Hard Disk: 100 MB hard drive space
• Others: iTunes 9.0 or above; iTunesMobileDevice driver installed

10 Copies of AnyTrans Giveaway

While iMobie’s $39.99 48-hour time-limited discount promo is about to end, it has given Social Barrel ten free copies of AnyTrans as a holiday gift for our dearest readers. You only need to like our Facebook page and post on the page to request a free copy. The first ten posters will each avail one free copy of iMobie’s AnyTrans software.

iMobie AnyTrans Review (10 Free Copies Up For Grabs) Social Barrel - The Latest on Social Media

Skype revealed today that its iPhone and iPad apps have passed the mark for 120 million downloads, and it has released the latest update for both iOS apps.

According to Skype’s Jonathan Watson, the photo sharing service has shared over 20 million photos in the first couple of months since its release.

“Every month, one in every three iPhone and iPad owners use Skype on their device, and according to a report by Distimo, Skype is one of the top 10 free iPhone apps of all time,” said Watson in a blog post.

Apart from the milestone, Skype also released version 4.2.1 of Skype for iPhone and Skype for iPad.

The new version adds several user-requested features on both the iPhone and iPad:

• In-app Skype account registration to create a new Skype account within the app from an Apple iPhone or iPad
• Microsoft account sign in to Skype
• Windows Live Messenger and Outlook.com integration to merge contacts automatically
• Editing of sent IMs by simply tapping and holding an instant message
• Skype emoticons (with animations for Retina displays)

Visit the Apple App Store to upgrade to the latest versions of Skype for iPhone and Skype for iPad.

Image: Skype

Skype For iPhone, iPad Passes 120 Million Downloads, Latest Update Released Social Barrel - The Latest on Social Media