It seems that this campaign received its share of online buzz, but it wasn’t before a friend of mine tweeted it that I stumbled upon it. So for that, I say thank you to Shara.

Watch below and let me know what you think in the comments. Is this the future of online video? You can also reach out to me on Twitter here.

An Absolutely Brilliant YouTube Campaign by Tipp-Ex is a post from: Mobile | Social Media | Newest Technologies by Tech N' Marketing

We are living in very interesting times. With Facebook’s growing dominance and Twitter’s expanding user base, hundreds of millions of people share every last detail about themselves openly on the Web. This of course changes everything. Going to a meeting is not what it used to be. The question “how will I recognize you in the crowd?” is no longer relevant. Before I meet anyone, I generally look them up on Facebook or Twitter to see who the person is and learn a little bit about them. Rapportive is an add on for Gmail that brings that information to your inbox.

The concept could not be simpler. Gmail is a wildly popular Web-based email client where people are spending hours of their time throughout the day, and Rapportive integrates flawlessly into Gmail’s interface. So how does it work? When you receive an email, the sidebar, where you would usually see Google’s advertising, is now occupied by the sender’s various social network profiles.

Many people would claim that eliminating Google’s only source of income from their free email client is nor an ethical not intelligent thing to do if you are a small startup, but putting that debate aside, Rapportive brings your Gmailing experience to a whole new level.

The add on is available for Chrome, Firefox, and Safari, and like other extensions, takes less than two minutes to install. Once installed, upon clicking on an email, you will see the sender’s picture, email address, current professional position, Twitter account, latest tweets, Facebook, Linkedin, and MySpace accounts. In addition, there is a field to add a note about the person, which will be displayed every time you get an email from them.

I could think of so many scenarios in which Rapportive would be beneficial, and it has provided me with added value on countless occasions. One feature I had not noticed until recently is that you can actually see how many times people have viewed your Rapportive profile and you can edit or remove the parts you do not like.

Some people have expressed concerns over privacy issues, which brings us back to the famous debate of online privacy. Rapportive takes all its data from sources that are already available to the public, so if you do not want that information displayed to your email contacts, perhaps you should think twice about tweeting it or posting it on Facebook. Just a thought. To me, this is a non issue.

If everything you have read so far about Rapportive has not convinced you to install the add on, maybe this will. The company has already raised over $1 million from leading people in the industry including Jason Calacanis, Gary Vaynerchuk, and the actual developer and creator of Gmail, Paul Buchheit.

I would strongly recommend installing Rapportive. If not for the ability to find out more about the person sending you an email, Rapportive also solves another well known problem of finding interesting and relevant people to follow or connect with on the various social platforms.

The company has an active presence on Twitter and when I voiced a concern about the add on not always finding information about people, they responded to me immediately saying they are always looking for ways to improve their databases.

While Gmail, like many Google products is simplistic in its user interface, Rapportive is a necessary addition and one that enhances the overall experience. In fact, with all of Google’s attempts at social integration into their various Web services, perhaps someone over there should throw out the idea of acquiring Rapportive since they seem to have perfected the concept of bringing social media into your inbox.

Watch the video below in which the developers of Rapportive talk about their product, its launch, and growing popularity. If you have tried Rapportive or if you have an opinion on it, please share it with us in the comments or reach out to me on Twitter here.

For Gmailers, Rapportive is an Absolute Must! is a post from: Mobile | Social Media | Newest Technologies by Tech N' Marketing

As you might have noticed, I have been trying to land interviews with some of the main people that inspired me over the years, mainly in the tech space. Robert Scoble has to be number one on that list. The guy is a legend in the tech world yet he does not let it go to his head at all and spends time talking to people like me on Twitter and even IM. He is one of the nicest people I have met in the industry, and that in and of itself is amazing given everything he has accomplished. Yes, most people of his stature will not give the little person the time of day.

Just a short introduction, Robert is a former Microsoft employee who now works for Rackspace, a leading server and hosting company. Robert travels around the world discovering new technologies and interviewing the entrepreneurs behind them. His HD video interviews are world famous and I have been lucky enough to be present and watch a few of them in person, the man is an artist.

When I asked Robert how I could possibly describe him since he has to many titles, he answered me in the simplest of ways “I search the world for world-changing technology for Rackspace.” Why is that note worthy? Well because Scoble has been known to have serious influence over companies like Microsoft, Google, and even Apple.

To name one example, Robert interviewed two young startup founders who no one had heard of called Siri. He was so impressed with their technology that he predicted on the spot that they would be bought out soon. Guess what? soon after, Siri was bought out by Apple for a whopping $200 million. Now, no one knows what role Scoble’s prediction played in that acquisition, but suffice to say, when Robert makes a statement like he did with Siri, people listen.

He did the same thing with Soluto and said they would win TechCrunch Disrupt, which almost got them banned, at least according to Arrington’s tweet, and sure enough, they took home the gold medal. He has been going on and on about Flipboard before it was even available and again, the product launch was absolutely huge with Flipboard’s servers crashing repeatedly due to high demand.

OK, enough about Scoble, chances are you know who he is and what he is capable of, now take a look at his thoughts on the hottest tech topics. Just keep in mind that this was an interview I was trying to get for close to a year and the man is busy, so we did this over IM. You will notice a few instances of back and forth dialogue in the below interview, but that is just the nature of an IM interview.

The following are Scoble’s thoughts on Apple, Google, Facebook, tablets, location based-services and more. Enjoy!

1. When did you first start blogging and why?

December 15, 2000. I started because I was helping Dan Shafer run the CNET Builder.com Live conference, which was for web developers, and two of our speakers wanted to do a session on blogging (Dave Winer and Dori Smith). They didn’t convince me blogging was important enough for a conference session, but they did get me to start blogging.

2. Given your last answer, looks like blogging was not how you started out. Please tell me a little bit about how Scoble became Scoble. How did you meet Dan Shafer for example?

Well, short answer is 1980s were spent helping manage camera stores. Then went back to school, first to try to get a computer science degree, later switched to journalism (after the 1989 earthquake hit while I was in physics class).

In the 1990s worked for Fawcette Technical Publications, which published BasicPro magazine. That was before Microsoft shipped Visual Basic, which after it shipped took off in a huge way. We went from eight employees to hundreds. I helped with online communities, editing, and with conference planning. That’s what led to working with Dan Shafer.

During the 1990s I left FTP to run marketing for Winnov, a video capture card startup, then came back after a couple of years to work more on conferences. All that time I was online. Microsoft gave me an MVP award after noticing I’d written more than 10,000 newsgroup posts in a month. Whew!

But none of that work gave me the opportunities that blogging did. I soon left Fawcette (almost got fired for covering Microsoft .NET before anyone else, which pissed off people at Microsoft). Went to work for Dave Winer, helped launch Radio Userland, which was influential software on the world of blogging.

I ran the books at UserLand too, in addition to evangelizing its use, and blogging and doing a lot of online work. I soon laid myself off because we were out of cash, then found a job at NEC.

At NEC I was in sales support, but I got there a few months before they shipped their tablet PC (which was a LOT like the iPad is today, except it had crappy battery life and cost $2,000). Anyway, a guy named Vic Gundotra called and bought the first one. He was an exec at Microsoft I’d learn later (now he is an exec at Google). Soon he was reading my blog and eventually bought a few hundred for Bill Gates to hand out to CEOs at his CEO Summit.

After a few months he told me I was the only OEM factory rep that was working online (he first found me in a newsgroup where I was talking about the NEC Tablet, later he read my blog). Asked me if I would be interested in coming up to Microsoft to work in evangelism. The rest is history.

3: Since clearly you have been around the tech block and accomplished a lot, what is something you aspire to? What is on your bucket list?

I’ve always been interested in technology. My dad was an engineer at Lockheed and he bought an Apple II in 1977. Growing up in Silicon Valley it just was part of the culture here. Friends of mine were into Ham Radio. Other friends were building BBS’s, or programming games. I remember building a radio, among other electronics projects, and stringing my own antenna along the roof of our house.

Anyway, if you left me at a party I would quickly find the other geeks in the room and start talking to them about what they were working on.

That’s what gives me joy, and is something that continues to today. I live for finding world-changing technology and learning how it works.

The things I hope to accomplish are to find the next great technology and tell all my friends about it. That said, I do have some professional aspirations that involve mostly finding ways to continue doing that.

4: OK, moving on to geek talk. Where is Google going to be ten years from now? Still a search company. a social network, a mobile company or all of the above?

Google hasn’t been a search company for more than five years. It’s an intention-satisfaction company. IE, an advertising company.

So, it will be all the above, because we use all the above to communicate to the world our intent.

Search is just the easiest way to study intention.

5. OK, now Apple. Will it dominate the mobile space? Any huge iPhone-like surprises you anticipate in the next five years?

Anyone who says that they can predict five years into the future is either Douglas Engelbart or is lying. Since I’m not Doug, I’ll stay out of that game for the most part.

That said, Apple has the best supply chain and best management in the business right now. Will they be important in five years? Companies like that don’t stop being important that quickly. Heck, look at how long Microsoft has been on top, mostly based on its momentum that it gained from the 1990s.

Well Robert, you DID predict Siri and Soluto, did you not?

Yes, but Siri and Soluto weren’t five years away when I predicted them. It’s easy to predict the future after you’ve already seen it!

That said, let’s talk about what’s in the labs: voice control that actually does a lot more than just get recognized and search. Siri is one to watch there. But we’re already seeing that trend, so, again, it’s easy to predict that future.

6. Awesome, moving along the tech spectrum, will Facebook be the next MySpace and become “uncool” soon?

That would be an easy prediction to make, but I don’t think this will go away as easily as it looks like MySpace is. For one, Facebook has management that’s focused wholly on Facebook. MySpace’s management wasn’t keeping its eye on the ball.

That said, when Facebook does start getting boring or getting passed, we’ll have years of warning .

7. So what do you say to all the privacy freaks who do not believe in Facebook, Twitter, and Foursquare due to privacy issues?

I think they are nuts.

The world has demonstrated over and over to me that we will trade our privacy when we get something in return.

It used to be taboo to tell people about your weird disease. Now people do that every day online. People share their credit card info. That used to be weird too. And they check in their location.

That still seems weird, but is getting less weird every day. OUR BEHAVIOR AND MORES CHANGE and that’s what the privacy nuts don’t get.

8. OK, now to your baby, the iPad. Tell me about the tablet market, the Samsung Tab, and your thoughts on the future of this space.

I’ve been excited by Tablets for a very long time. But why didn’t Microsoft succeed? Because they didn’t build every piece of their OS for use with touch. Apple did. The iPad is an awesome device that doesn’t have a lot of features. No camera. No multitasking. No printing. No Flash. But that’s why it feels good, no matter what you do with it.

Other companies just don’t get that you must make your experience feel really great all the way deep.

My Samsung Galaxy S phone, for instance, came with more than 50 icons. My iPhone only had, what, 12?

Samsung and other manufacturers don’t take a customer-centric approach. They load their stuff up with crapware to make a few extra pennies. Apple doesn’t do that

So, I don’t see many ways that other manufacturers will be successful here. There are a few, but I haven’t seen them yet.

People aren’t buying the iPad because it’s a slate. If they cared about that, they would have bought previous Tablets that had Windows on them. They care about having a great experience and right now Apple is the only one I can look at that has the ability to get consumers that hot and bothered by a new form factor.

What do you think?

You’re asking me? I agree 100% but Android is catching up with Froyo, no?

A bit, but I still like Apple’s OS better. Google is the one company I see who can mount a serious challenge. HP is the spoiler with Palm’s OS.

So you think Palm is dead in the water?

No.

HP has been working on a tablet for three years.

They have the market power to make a lot happen. They bought Palm to be free of Microsoft (and/or to give them negotiating power with Microsoft).

9. Very interesting! So how do you think Android will do in the long run? Will fragmentation and piracy continue to be an issue?

Yes, fragmentation is already a big issue. I was at SmugMug today and they were complaining about all the testing they had to do with their new Android app just to make sure it worked OK on all the different phones.

But Android is more like Microsoft’s Windows. I think it could take a good chunk of market share. I think it won’t go to 90% like Windows did, because of the role of carriers and other factors that are in play, but developers don’t like the threat that Apple has over them. Look at the Camera+ app.

It’s gone from the app store and they are effectively out of business unless they find a way to convince Apple to put them back in.

10. Facebook Places and location, is it a trend or something that will stick around and become the future of tech?

Yes, but Facebook did a poor job on designing it so people actually find some value in using it. For instance, when I check in at Apple it treats my checkin the same as if I check in at my grocery store. That causes very spammy behavior on my wall, and, even worse, if I check other people in and push those updates onto their walls.

Location is important, though, and when designed into apps well brings a lot of great utility. But we’re at the very beginning of that industry, much more to come. Did you see the Vail app released today that automatically checks you in as you ski?

No, will look for it.

Just to clarify, you said yes, as in it is here to stay?

Yes, location is here to stay.

People who say it isn’t just aren’t facing facts and looking at what you can do with apps that share location.

I just want to thank Robert for this interview and all the help and support he has given me over the past year. He is a true role model both as a tech guru and just a human being.

You can watch Robert’s exclusive video with Mike McCue, the founder of Flipboard below. Speaking of Mike, I hope to be posting my interview with him in the coming days.

Scobleizer on Google, Facebook, Location, iPad, and Android is a post from: Mobile | Social Media | Newest Technologies by Tech N' Marketing

Before I continue with this story, let me say that I am the world’s worst task manager. Don’t misunderstand me, the tasks I need to do get done, but managing them is where I fall short. I hate Excel sheets, I hate reports, and most of all, I hate task management software. The way I see it, anything that takes me away from the actual task at hand, to record, report, or organize my tasks, is actually counter productive if you think about it.

I generally use my inbox to manage my tasks and what that basically means is that when I am assigned a task, I request an email with the task request, and only archive the email once the task is completed. It works for me, but can get messy when you are part of a team, which I am, a majority of the time.

Now back to the story. So my friend asked me for a good task management application and I have to admit, my first instinct was to reply with the words “Sorry bro, but I have no freakin clue”. Instead I did what any geek would do and asked my Twitter followers.

To much surprise, many people were actually passionate about this one product called Producteev. That got me thinking that maybe there is hope for me after all, but then I thought to myself, this is managing tasks we are talking about, how are these people so excited about this? Then something very cool happened. I got a tweet from a guy named Ilan Abehassera, who is the CEO and Founder of the very same Producteev. Ilan told me he saw my tweet and he would love to demo his product for my friend.

That put me over the edge and made me a Producteev fan before even trying out the software. If all my friends are recommending this product and the CEO cares enough to reach out like this, I figured this product was worth checking out. Boy, was I right.

Producteev is in fact Task Management software, but that is about all it has in common with its competitors. The concept is simple. Like I said above, if the software has to take you away from your normal and comfortable work environment, then it is actually counter productive. Producteev is designed to solve this exact issue and integrates beautifully with the normal tools we all use. That includes email, with a special Gmail add on available as well, IM including all the popular protocols such as AIM, Yahoo, MSN, and Gtalk, as well as Twitter and Facebook.

The actual Web interface reminds me very much of your average Google interface, which is generally intuitive and pretty basic. See Gmail for example. However, putting aside the Web interface for a second, what I loved about Producteev the most is how it integrates with email. Take the average case as an example. Someone emails you a task telling you to complete it by the 10th of the month. With most task managers, you would need to open the application and manually add this new task.

With Producteev, simply forward that email to task@producteev.com and watch how the service knows to add the task automatically. You can also add text in the email such as “Due Sep 10th” and Producteev will then configure the due date in the Web interface accordingly. Additionally, you can easily assign a task from within the email or IM.

The service is available for free for up to thwo users and comes in various packages depending on the number of users on your team as well as the amount of file storage you need for your tasks. You can check out the pricing of Producteev here.

Another awesome and extremely important aspect of Producteev is that it is cross platform. What that means is that you are sending yourself tasks via email or IM, and you can see them on the Web interface immediately. However, it does not end there. Producteev also has a free iPhone app that has push notifications as well as offline access. If that is not enough, there is also a native Producteev Mac program so you can access the full interface from your Mac as well. Of course Producteev is always synchronized across these multiple platforms, something that makes it the ultimate business tool for someone who uses different computing devices throughout the day.

All in all, Producteev is super intuitive and completely accomplishes its declared goal of keeping it simple. Ilan is an extraordinarily nice guy who from what I have heard and from my short acquaintance, is also extremely professional and intelligent. I already sent Producteev to my entire company with the hopes to convert them all, and we are already using it as our main task management tool.

One last nice addition offered by Producteev is a feature called Producteev Academy, which is a game-like functionality that rewards the user badges in productivity when completing a task. The Academy feature can be disabled, but it does add a nice Foursquare-like experience to an otherwise boring job of task management.

After trying out Producteev for a few weeks now, I can safely say that I now understand why I originally received so many enthusiastic replies on Twitter to my question. It really does take a superior product to make task management enjoyable and that is exactly what Producteev does.

You can watch Scoble’s interview of Ilan below and read some more about the many Producteev features here.

Have you tried Producteev? What did you think? I would love to hear your impressions in the comments below or on Twitter here.

Producteev Does the Impossible: It Makes Managing your Tasks Enjoyable is a post from: Mobile | Social Media | Newest Technologies by Tech N' Marketing

This post is going to be a little different. Over the past two years, ever since I joined Twitter (Follow me here), I, along with many people I know, have had a lot of questions about the micro blogging service. I have tried to cover the topic from all possible angles, and when I am asked about Twitter, I generally send the person an email with a whole long list of links to posts I have written.

I decided it was time to put all that Twitter material into one place, so if someone has a question or simply does not get it, I will be able to refer them to this post.

The questions I have been asked and asked myself have been anything from “What is the point of Twitter?”, “I signed up, now what?”, “Who do I follow?”, “How do I get people to follow me?”, to “Why do I want to know what you are eating or when you go to the bathroom?” and “Why do I need Twitter if I have Facebook?”

I tried to make the titles of the posts clear and obvious enough so you know what to expect. Most of them are organized into lists, so they are easier to digest. I hope you find the information useful and of course, feel free to pass it on to anyone who does not yet get the Twitter concept.

The following is a list of Twitter articles (plus a small bonus at the end) that should answer any question you have about the micro blogging service that has gone viral over the past few years:

• Top 6 Ways to Benefit from Twitter
• Top 5 Reasons to Tweet
• Ten Things you Must Know before Using Twitter
• Top 5 Steps after Joining Twitter
• 11 Things to Avoid When Using Twitter
• Top 5 Ways To Optimize your Twitter Network
• 9 Advanced Twitter Tips
• The Greatness of Twitter
• 7 Valuable Lessons Twitter Has Taught Me About Life
• 5 Ways To Guarantee You Won’t Get Followed Back on Twitter
• A Twitter Tip that Changes Everything
• 6 Twitter Tips You Should Have Figured Out on Your Own
• 5 Twitter Practices People Have to Stop Doing
• Five Myths/Misunderstandings about Social Media
• How Social Media Completely Changed Overnight
• The First 99 People to Follow on Twitter
• 8 Social Media Treasures We Learned from Old Spice
• Top 5 Twitter Apps for your Mobile Phone
• Two New Tweetdeck Features that Change the Game
• Five Rules Businesses Must Follow To Succeed on Twitter
• Bonus: Ten Steps to Maximize your LinkedIn Network

I would love to hear your thoughts on some or all of the above articles. Please drop a comment below or reach out to me on Twitter with your feedback. As always, thanks for reading.

Everything You Need to Know about Twitter and Tweeting is a post from: Mobile | Social Media | Newest Technologies by Tech N' Marketing

Apple seems to have done it again, opened up a new market. Yes, there have been tablets in the past, but do you know anyone who has one? I don’t!

Upon the release of the iPad and the millions sold, seems everyone wants a piece of the action and I can’t blame them. LG says their tablet will be better than the iPad, but somehow I doubt that. The only tablet I would take seriously in a brawl against the Apple debut into the tablet market is one with Google (or their partner in crime, HTC) branding on it.

Then again, let’s not forget that the LG Optimus (what is this? Transformers meets tablets?) will run Android, but still, I don’t associate LG with stellar hardware. HTC on the other hand…

Well, according to this CNN post, we should expect a whole bunch of Android tablets in the very near future… In fact, you can see one in action in the video below. Looks pretty awesome to me…

What do you think of the tablet space? Can Google compete? Please let me know in the comments below or on Twitter here.

Android Tablet Spotted (VIDEO) is a post from: Mobile | Social Media | Newest Technologies by Tech N' Marketing

Thanks to Twitter, I was fortunate enough to connect with one of his colleagues, Kara Swisher, who is quite the talented reporter herself, not to mention someone I can always depend on for a good laugh. Kara was nice enough to vouch for me and ask Walt to provide me with this interview, although truth be told, I have personally emailed Walt in the past and he was always very responsive.

Walt with Bill Gates and Steve Jobs

In any case, Walt definitely provided me with some great insights here as only a true tech expert can. I hope you enjoy the following interview, I know just receiving a response from Walt made my day, seeing his insightful answers made it all that much better.

1. When did technology first speak to you on a personal level?

I became hooked on computers around 1981. My first computer was a Timex Sinclair, which cost around $100, and had, as I recall, 2 KB of memory. I taught myself BASIC on this machine and then, a couple of years later, bought an Apple II, and then a DOS PC. In 1985 or so, I bought a Mac.

2. How did you end up as the tech reviewer for the WSJ?

In 1991, I was the WSJ’s National Security correspondent, after having held various beats in the Washington bureau for years. I was covering the end of the Cold War, the Gulf War, and other things. But I decided there was a need for a consumer-centric, plain-English column that would review tech products. I convinced the editors, and, by October of that year, my Personal Technology column was launched.

3. What was the most exciting tech product you ever reviewed and why?

A lot of them have been exciting, so it’s hard to say. Some examples include the Sony Vaio 505, Windows 95, the early ThinkPads and other small laptops, the first consumer digital cameras, the Palm Pilot, the early smart phones like the Palm Treo, IE and Netscape, various early web sites, the iMac, iPod, iPhone and iPad, Yahoo, Google, Android, and the Kindle.

4. What are some of the hottest trends in tech you think we will see in 2011?

More and better smartphones, lots of tablets, the rollout of 4G wireless networks, better and simpler mobile video calling, and internet on the TV — to name a few.

5. What kind of mobile phone do you use?

I obviously use them all as I test them, but my daily phone is an iPhone.

6. What do you think of Mac VS PC? Which do you prefer?

I have for years given a big edge to the Mac, mainly due to its better OS and built-in software, and to the fact that Mac users generally don’t have to bother with security software. Windows 7 has closed that gap considerably, making the OS choice essentially a tossup, and it has some strengths the Mac lacks. But I still give a narrower, but real, edge, to the Mac, mainly because of its built in apps, admirable hardware, and fewer security hassles. I use both platforms daily.

7. iPhone or Android: Which will own the future of the mobile industry?

Neither. There will be several big players when the smartphone wars settle down. I believe Apple and Android will be among them, but not alone.

8. Is BlackBerry dead with the new Torch or can they make a comeback?

The Torch and the new 6.0 OS are good products, regardless of the lack of excitement that seems to have greeted them. RIM has a large and loyal user base, despite some erosion. The company has interesting plans for the future. More changes will be needed, but, if they are made, I don’t believe RIM is in any way dead. It all depends on whether they can evolve the platform significantly enough to match Apple and Android, yet still retain the loyalty of their strong base.

9. What about the future of mobile apps? Native or Web?

I think both will thrive, but the app system, whether curated or not, is powerful and important.

10. What are your thoughts on Facebook Places? Will it kill Foursquare?

I have no idea.

11. What is the most important advice you would give a small tech blogger like myself?

Decide who your audience is — techies, average consumers, businesses, whatever — and be laser-focused on that audience. Be ethical: never accept money or free products from companies you cover, never own stock in them, but be fair to them. Test everything you review, never relying on demos and press releases. And have a thick skin.

Just a quick thank you to Walt for this opportunity, it is a huge honor!

You can see Walt’s famous review of the iPhone before it was on the market in the video below.

Exclusive: Walt Mossberg on iPhone, Android, 4G, and RIM is a post from: Mobile | Social Media | Newest Technologies by Tech N' Marketing

By now, you have definitely heard of the viral micro blogging service called Twitter. Some will say it has reached the masses, while others will say it is still not mainstream. Whatever you think about Twitter, there is no denying that it has become part of regular people’s conversations all around the globe. While Twitter is growing at rates that are unprecedented and actually pretty insane, statistics show that a very high percentage of people join Twitter, send out one or two tweets saying things like “OK, now what do I do?” or “Joined Twitter, I don’t get the point”, then never log in again.

The truth is there are multiple factors that prevent Twitter from going mainstream, but there is no denying that one of the very first and largest obstacles a new person on Twitter faces is the million dollar question of who to follow. There are countless directories that are categorized by tags and keywords so you can easily find people who are in your industry, but I thought I would make it even easier for your newbies to follow interesting tweeps (you see what I did there? Combined peeps with Twitter. You think that’s corny? Just wait till you hear what people on Twitter come up with).

Over my two years of intense tweeting, I have built some real relationships with people I now consider to be good friends, even though I have never met some of them face to face. I depend on these people for information, advice, tips, and an occasional good laugh, and I want to believe they depend on me as well.

You will notice a common thread in the descriptions I write about these people and a recurring word you will see is “nice”. The reason is that I did not choose these people based on popularity or influence, some you will find have very few followers. I carefully selected these people based on the connection I have made with them. The one thing they all have in common is that they use Twitter properly. By that I mean, they use it to connect with people and create dialogue and open communication.

OK, one last thing before I get to the list. You will find that a lot of the people mentioned below do have a nice amount of followers, but rest assured, the reason they have a lot of followers is because they deserve to be on this list and not the other way around. What I mean is that their follower count looks the way it does because these people truly provide added value to their followers. For that reason, they are included in this list.

The following are some of the best people I have connected with on Twitter and the first 99 people anyone should follow when first joining Twitter:

1. Diana Adams: Blogger, friend, and always smiling.
2. Robert Scoble: Geek, tech influencer, and nice guy.
3. Shelly Kramer: Vlogger, so friendly, and always helpful.
4. Susan Cooper: Sweet, informative, and real.
5. Alyssa Milano: The only celebrity on this list for a reason!
6. Calvin Lee: Great content, nice guy, very happy to help.
7. Blair Semenoff: Twitter machine, top content, and great guy.
8. Richard Darell: Talented blogger, friendly guy, and awesome content.
9. Jeff Pulver: 140conf founder, great guy, profound tweets.
10. Lori Moreno: sweet, helpful, and always tweeting top content.
11. Aniya Adly: Smart, caring, and geeky.
12. Ruhani Rabin: Talented writer, nice guy, and good friend.
13. Jeb Brilliant: Mobile enthusiast, smart guy, and stellar content.
14. Ilan Abehassera: Entrepreneur, extraordinarily nice guy with a vision.
15. Hilla Ohayon: Fashion junkie, BlackBerry lover, and overall awesome woman.
16. Luca Filigheddu: Major tech lover, mobile enthusiast, and brains behind Twimbow.
17. MG Siegler: Brilliant writer for TechCrunch, enough said.
18. Alex Wilhelm: Excellent writer for TheNextWeb, and really nice guy.
19. Zee Kane: Editor-in-Chief of TheNextWeb and extremely talented writer.
20. Liz Philips: Community Manager for HP and overall awesome chick.
21. Itamar Weisbrod: Mobile geek, good friend, introduced me to Twitter.
22. Sebastian Page: Huge Apple fanboy, talented blogger, and great content.
23. Aaron Lee: Self proclaimed social media addict and an awesome friend.
24. David and Sara Larson: Top source for all things Twitter. True social media experts.
25. Chris Rauschnot: Social media lover, Apple enthusiast, and really nice dude.
26. Michael Sarles: Marketing consultant, sports fan, and extremely nice guy.
27. Guy Malachi: Chief Geek is his official title, need I say more?
28. Shira Abel: Marketing expert, good friend, and constant flow of top content.
29. Ben Parr: Mashable Co-Editor, crazy talented writer, and really really nice guy.
30. Mike McCue: The brilliant mind behind Flipoaord, and an extremely nice and down to earth guy.
31. Brett Petersel: In charge of community and events at Mashable and an overall great guy.
32. Jessica Gotlieb: Mom blogger, extremely smart and talented writer.
33. Michael Gartenberg: Talented mobile blogger for various leading sites and really nice guy.
34. Ezra Butler: Old friend with witty tweets that will always make you smile.
35. Natasha Shine: Marketing Manager of Rounds, crazy nice chick, and totally gets it.
36. Matt Cutts: Head of the Webspam team at Google, and really nice guy.
37. Del Harvey: Head of Safety team at Twitter and responds to every single Twitter reply.
38. Dell: The company that uses Twitter the way all companies should.
39. Tremendous News: One of the funniest bloggers on the Web and really nice guy.
40. Xan Pearson: Sports, marketing, and social media are just some of her topics of expertise.
41. Pramit Nathan: Top blogger from New Delhi who has an awesome stream of content.
42. Katie Boehret: Talented writer for The Wall Street Journal and extremely nice person.
43. Brodie Beta: One of my geekiest friends and definitely the biggest fangirl I know.
44. Kara Swisher: Writer for The Wall Street Journal and overall  awesome person.
45. Gina Stark: Great blogger, always optimistic, and extremely friendly.
46. Pete Cashmore: Founder of Mashable.
47. Jason Calacanis: Talented writer and blogger and CEO of Mahalo.
48. Kim Sherrell: Tech, film, education are just some of her interests.
49. Roger Byrne: Huge geek, great guy, and killer content.
50. Chris Brogan: Marketing guru, nice guy, and stellar content.
51. Douglas Idugboe: Marketing expert and talented blogger with constant stream of awesome posts.
52. Ahad Bokhari:  Crazy nice guy with top content and always a nice word.
53. Krys Chong: Lover of video games, iPhone, and other geeky things.
54. Richard Barley: Community Manager of Tweetdeck and responds to every reply.
55. Ayelet Noff: Good friend, New Media PR, and top blogger.
56. Evan Williams: CEO of Twitter.
57. Biz Stone: Co-Founder of Twitter.
58. Chetan R: Leading content, graphic designer, and really nice guy.
59. Misty Belardo: Talented blogger, top content and always willing to lend a hand.
60. Gerald Weber: Top Twitter personality and an extremely friendly guy.
61. Tamar Weinberg: Talented writer and really really nice person.
62. Jason Pollock: Multi dimensional interests, nice guy, and good friend.
63. Loic Le Meur: Mind behind Seesmic and other great products.
64. Oren Todoros: Good friend, online marketer, and nice guy.
65. Mike Arrington: Founder of TechCrunch and talented blogger.
66. Robin Wauters: Gifted Techcrunch writer and really really funny dude.
67. Gary Vaynerchuk: One of the most inspiring people online.
68. Ouriel Ohayon: Entrepreneur, Apple lover, nice guy, and good friend.
69. Michael Eisenberg: Partner in Benchmark Capital, talented blogger, and old friend.
70. Joshua Topolsky: Editori-in-Chief of Engadget.
71. Talia Klein: Highly talented and moving writer, sweet person, and good friend.
72. Lance Ulanoff:  Editor-in-Chief PCMag, huge geek, and really nice guy.
73. Walt Mossberg: Tech reviewer for The Wall Street Journal, technology guru, and old school reporter.
74. Scott Stratten: Marketing expert, influential personality on Twitter, and really nice guy.
75. Sharon Hayes: Entrepreneur, Email marketing expert, and top Twitter content provider.
76. Natali Del Conte: Cnet tech reporter and mommy blogger.
77. Barry Schwartz: SEO guy, mobile app developer, and great guy.
78. Joseph Cannizzaro: Old Twitter friend, nice guy with a flow of top content.
79. Orli Yakuel: Top blogger, tech enthusiast, and friend.
80. Marcome: Musician, awesome content, and always a smile.
81. Sarah Blow: Support for TweetMeme, huge geek, and really nice person.
82. Brad McCarty: TheNextWeb writer, tech lover, and overall great guy.
83. Greg Wilson: Social media, travel, and family guy who tweets top content.
84. Dvir Reznik: Blogger, tech lover, good friend, and always willing to help.
85. Benji Lovitt: Top comedian on Twitter, nice guy, and good friend.
86. Christine Lu: Entrepreneur, online video expert, and always shares top content.
87. PurpleHayz: Leading personality on Twitter with a constant feed of great content.
88. Mahei aka Iconic88: Top content, always happy, and spreading good things on Twitter.
89. Aditya: 16 year old Web entrepreneur with a Twitter addiction and top content.
90. Mark Korman: High tech lawyer, family guy, and old friend.
91. Amir Harpaz: Always tech informative, helpful, nice guy, and good friend.
92. Martin Polley: Always willing to help, smart dude, and great content.
93. Chris Luzader: Flowing stream of tech tweets, nice guy, and always happy to help.
94. Debra Askanese: Non profit and social media marketing expert, nice woman and good friend.
95. Shelley Shafran: Photographer, designer, founder of Twittabling, and really really nice person.
96. Kevin Rose: Founder of Digg.
97. Keith Crawford: Network engineer, social media geek, nice guy who is always willing to help.
98. Yaniv Golan: CTO of Yedda/AOL, geek, and a really nice guy.
99. Branko Rihtman: SEOer, internet addict, and overall really really smart dude.

If you are still reading, then I hope you found this post to be useful and not too long. There are many more people I can include here, but they either tweet in another language mostly, do not tweet content I think my audience would be interested in, or they somehow slipped my mind when preparing the list.

In any case, I hope you enjoy following these people and get the most out of their content like I do.

If you think I forgot someone great, please let me know in the comments below or reach out to me on Twitter.

UPDATE: Follow the entire list in one click here!! It might take some time to load, but be patient. A huge thank you to a member of the above list, Keith Crawford with his help creating that link.

The First 99 People to Follow on Twitter is a post from: Mobile | Social Media | Newest Technologies by Tech N' Marketing

Since I spend somewhere between 85% and 95% of my day on the Web, I try out a lot of new services/applications. Most of what I try, I end up ditching, but there are the few that stick with me long term and truly change my daily work habits. I am talking about services like Dropbox, Mozy, Skype, and Tweetdeck. The ultimate example of a service that has completely replaced its predecessor is of course Gmail.

Hotmail worked for me for years, and since I stopped using it, it has gotten a whole lot better, but Gmail is my email service of choice and I do not see myself leaving it any time soon. I am not going to sell Gmail to you, since chances are you use it, but what I am going to tell you about is a little icon on the top of your Gmail that you probably never noticed. I am referring to Gmail Labs. Once you enable one of the Gmail Labs features from within Settings, the icon appears on the top of the Gmail interface right next to Settings and looks like a little green test tube.

Gmail Labs has over 50 experimental features to add to your Gmail, but I would like to focus on five that have helped/saved me on multiple occasions and which I would recommend strongly to any Gmail user.

• Right Side Chat: Sometimes a small change like this can make all the difference. When it comes to a Web-based service and especially something you use as often as email, the user interface is of utmost importance. On the left side of the Gmail interface, you will see your labels as well as your chat contacts. Now, that is not too intuitive, is it? Why not move your Chat contacts to the right and thereby lower the clutter of the Gmail experience? Pretty simple concept, but one that will change everything for you.
• Send and Archive: How many times have you replied to an email, and by your reply marked the end of a long conversation? Well instead of sending the email then archiving the entire thread, this feature just replaces the traditional Send button with the Send and Archive option. In our busy schedules, saving that one step in the hundreds of daily emails we send, can save you a nice amount of time, which is then freed up for more important tasks than mass archiving old emails.
• Signature Tweaks: This was one of my biggest annoyances in Gmail before I found this Lab feature. Every time I sent a reply to an email, my signature would appear at the end of the thread instead of under my latest reply. This drove me nuts and I did and still do not understand why Google set it this way. Well this feature just places your signature in its correct place and removes the unnecessary line that Gmail places before your signature by default. If I am already talking about signatures in Gmail, as of recently, you can add HTML with a full HTML editor in the signature box of Gmail. Very awesome!
• Undo Send: OK this feature is pure awesome! How many times have you sent an email and immediately upon pressing that Send button realize you just made a mistake? That mistake might be a typo, a missing attachment, or any other error you always realize one second too late. This feature enables you to undo a sent email. It basically just delays the delivery of the email so you can modify its content. Until now, this feature enabled you to undo up to ten seconds after sending. As of today, you can set it to up to 30 seconds, but just remember, that means all your emails will take 30 seconds longer to arrive. Something tells me sending hate mail about your boss to your boss is worth the 30 second delay. Which brings me to the next and final Gmail feature.
• Got the Wrong Bob? Yet another very common email mistake, sending an email to the wrong person. This has happened to me on many occasions and this Gmail Labs feature is not 100% in preventing this, but it might help in some cases. What it does is lets you know if based on previously sent emails, you are sending this email to the wrong contact. It will only work if you are sending the email to two or more people and it decides based on the group of contacts. So, if for example, you often send emails to David Johnson and Mike Smith and you are now sending to David Johnson and Mike Thomas, Gmail will ask you if you meant to send it to Mike Smith instead. That sounded a lot simpler in my head, but I am sure you got the idea. You did get the idea, right?

As I mentioned these are only five of the more than 50 Labs features available for Gmail. Other awesome ones include Offline Gmail, Picasa, YouTube, or Flickr previews from within your email, and many more. If you like Gmail and want to push it to its limits, I highly recommend you check out the Labs section.

Would love to hear what Labs features you are using and what you thought of the above additions to Gmail. Feel free to drop a comment down below or reach out to me on Twitter here.

5 Gmail Labs Features That Enhance Productivity is a post from: Mobile | Social Media | Newest Technologies by Tech N' Marketing

Let me just start off by saying that the number of 3rd party Facbook apps I have used can be counted on one hand. I find them to be intrusive and completely irrelevant to what I and most people use Facebook for. Yes, that includes Farmville, never even tried it. However, when my friend Natasha, who is the Marketing Manager of a company previously known as 6Rounds (just changed their name to Rounds) asked me to take a quick look at their new video chat Facebook app, I agreed.

Let me back up a little. Before I get into the app and all its features, let me just say to all you developers out there, that there is a lot to learn from the way Rounds markets themselves and their products. I am not going to talk about Natasha specifically, so as not to embarrass her too much, but contrary to the press releases I get from various companies, Rounds makes it their business to have a relationship before blasting you with promotional material. They (when I say “they”, I mean their marketing manager) spends the time demoing their products to people who are interested. They showed it to me on Google Wave at the time and they showed it to me on Facebook three times yesterday when I was showing it off to various friends.

I would not even have responded to the email I got from them, had I not known the company and the way they conduct themselves. In simple terms, I trust them and that is mainly due to the way Natasha works and carries out their marketing tasks. Sorry Natasha, back to the Facebook app.

Just to be clear, and I made this very clear to them, I still think the app needs some polishing when it comes to the UI and overall experience, but after a few minutes of using it, I began to really get it, and it is now the only 3rd party app that remains installed on my Facebook account.

OK, so what does Video Chat Rounds (I am pretty sure that is what it’s called) do? The app’s motto says it all “Video Chat. As It Should Be”. Basically, anyone who you are friends with on Facebook can install the app, which of course requires no download and within seconds, you can video chat with them.

OK, I know what you are thinking. “Video chat has been available on Skype forever. It has even been on Gtalk for quite some time. In fact, it is now available on mobile, so what is the big deal?” Well, as I wrote in my post about Facebook Places, the answer to that question is a numbers game. Most people have more friends on Facebook than they do on Skype. Facebook has a whopping 500 million users and enabling video chat across such a mainstream platform is what makes Video Chat Rounds so amazing.

However, video chat does not even scratch the surface of what Video Chat Rounds offers. When connected with a friend via Video Chat Rounds, you can apply funny and impressive visual effects to yourself or send your friend a virtual gift that will be displayed on their video feed. Once again, when demoing the product, Natasha did not spare herself the funny effects and hilarious faces in order to demonstrate the app’s capabilities. Take note, all these little things matter.

Moving along, forget cute effects and virtual gifts, that might seem childish to some. The app also enables you to interact with your friend by playing a Flash-based game including Chess, Checkers, and let’s not forget Truth or Dare. It is completely flexible in terms of its capabilities and can only be compared to the real life game play. At any point in the conversation, you can easily take a snapshot and post it to your various social networks.

You can also interact with your friend and view a YouTube video together, browse your Facebook together (imagine the abilities in the dating world of showing your friends the profile of another single friend in real time), view Flickr photos together, and even view Google Maps from within the app.  Just in case you are thinking this is all a little too childish for you, the app enables you to collaborate and edit a document with your friend in real time. Thus can potentially be huge in a business setting.

The list of features goes on and on, but the important thing here is that the app is available for free, with no download, and adds a totally new social level to an already exploding social network.

In terms of features I would like to see, I was surprised that alongside YouTube, Flickr, and Google Maps, there was no Web browser, so you and your friend can browse a website together, but was told this feature is in the works and will be added in the future. Other future features include Virtual Currency, Random Rounds, Multi User, and Many-to-Many Broadcasting capabilities.

The entire app is based on Flash technology, which means of course, us iPhone/iPad users will miss out on the fun, but something tells me Rounds has something up their sleeve here. Let me just add that in addition to loving the app and the company, as a person who deals with companies and online video, their Video Chat Rounds video (see below) impressed me on so many levels as well.

That’s all folks, please let me know what you think of Video Chat Rounds once you install it here. You can share your opinion in the comments below or on Twitter here.

Rounds Finally Brings True Video Chat to Facebook is a post from: Mobile | Social Media | Newest Technologies by Tech N' Marketing