Quoting Wikipedia -
"As of May 2016, the only countries to ban access around the clock to the social networking site are China, Iran, and North Korea. However, since the vast majority of North Korean residents do not have access to the internet, in reality China and Iran are the only countries where access to Facebook is actively restricted in a wholesale manner."
China has the largest internet user base in the world, 513 million people compared to 245 million in US, and a large part of the users are active social media users. Hence, we can see why Facebook is desperately (link here and here) trying to win the favor, and approval of the Chinese authorities.
However, even if great firewall of China opens its door to Facebook, it remains to be seen if Mark Zuckerberg and team would be able to replicate their success in the Middle Kingdom - the reason being most young internet-savvy Chinese are now accustomed to the use of the likes of WeChat, RenRen, Weibo.
If the social media giant agrees to strictly censor content delivered to Chinese users, then it would seem pointless for people to ditch their current platforms for Facebook.
Wednesday, November 23, 2016
The X-number of books a year challenge and why it's pointless
Way back in January 2015 (which was 2 years ago), Mark Zuckerberg issued this challenge to himself - to read a book every other week (https://www.facebook.com/zuck/posts/10101828640656261).
And so his post garnered much likes and fanfare from Facebook users around the world, with many vowing to follow his lead and start reading one book fortnightly or even weekly.
Why then, you may ask, would I disagree with it and think it's pointless to set such a challenge?
While reading is a good and relatively inexpensive (some may argue books arent cheap!) hobby, most people do not take time to think over what they read.
In essence, reading without understanding is actually detrimental to knowledge cultivation. This is akin to following an idea on a whim and taking it at face value. Either that or the motive is simply to add to the book count and post it as a shameless and perfectly pointless achievement on Facebook.
Reading is just a knowledge acquisition tool and a means to crafting a thinker out of a person. If a person does not understand what he reads, then the time could have been better spent doing something much more productive like sharing dumb news over social media.
And so his post garnered much likes and fanfare from Facebook users around the world, with many vowing to follow his lead and start reading one book fortnightly or even weekly.
Why then, you may ask, would I disagree with it and think it's pointless to set such a challenge?
While reading is a good and relatively inexpensive (some may argue books arent cheap!) hobby, most people do not take time to think over what they read.
In essence, reading without understanding is actually detrimental to knowledge cultivation. This is akin to following an idea on a whim and taking it at face value. Either that or the motive is simply to add to the book count and post it as a shameless and perfectly pointless achievement on Facebook.
Reading is just a knowledge acquisition tool and a means to crafting a thinker out of a person. If a person does not understand what he reads, then the time could have been better spent doing something much more productive like sharing dumb news over social media.
Sunday, March 20, 2011
HTML 5 and how it will revolutionalize the world
As we know, websites rely on the HTML standards. The upcoming revision of HTML will promise changes to the entire web scape and Apple is betting on it by not committing to Flash nor Java.
HTML5 is a language for structuring and presenting content for the World Wide Web, a core technology of the Internet. It is the latest revision of the HTML standard (originally created in 1990) and currently remains under development.
So what will it bring? There is a likelihood of a major change that will allow more complex web applications to be created and run more efficiently on web browsers, allowing more sophisticated multimedia and providing a new experience for users once it is released.
Industry watchers believe that the new HTML 5 extends, improves and rationalises the markup available for documents, and introduces markup and APIs for complex web applications, pushing for interoperable implementations between current web standards.
It is also an attempt to define a single markup language that can be written in either HTML or XHTML syntax
As to what beholds the coming of HTML5, we will have to wait for it to roll out tentatively over the next few coming years and improved upon in the ongoing process before it is slated for "Recommendation" in 2014 by W3C
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML5
HTML5 is a language for structuring and presenting content for the World Wide Web, a core technology of the Internet. It is the latest revision of the HTML standard (originally created in 1990) and currently remains under development.
So what will it bring? There is a likelihood of a major change that will allow more complex web applications to be created and run more efficiently on web browsers, allowing more sophisticated multimedia and providing a new experience for users once it is released.
Industry watchers believe that the new HTML 5 extends, improves and rationalises the markup available for documents, and introduces markup and APIs for complex web applications, pushing for interoperable implementations between current web standards.
It is also an attempt to define a single markup language that can be written in either HTML or XHTML syntax
As to what beholds the coming of HTML5, we will have to wait for it to roll out tentatively over the next few coming years and improved upon in the ongoing process before it is slated for "Recommendation" in 2014 by W3C
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML5
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
The new Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the visibility of a website or a web page in search engines via the natural and unpaid ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results (as opposed to SEM is which paid advertising on search engines).
In general, the relevance and popularity of a website determines its ranking on the Web.
SEO is the process of improving websites based on how search engines work and what most people search for. Optimizing a website involves editing its content and HTML and associated coding to both increase its relevance to specific keywords and to remove barriers to the indexing activities of search engines. Search engine optimization is also about removing unrelated or outdated content, broken links, organizing information and cleaning up messy web codes so that search engines like Google and Yahoo are able to "crawl" web pages more effectively.
Promoting a site to increase the number of backlinks, or inbound links, is another SEO technique.
As information is propagated real-time in this new era, content on websites have to be regularly updated as well to ensure that they are timely and correct. The use of social media and networks to help promote websites is also one aspect of search engine optimization.
In general, the relevance and popularity of a website determines its ranking on the Web.
SEO is the process of improving websites based on how search engines work and what most people search for. Optimizing a website involves editing its content and HTML and associated coding to both increase its relevance to specific keywords and to remove barriers to the indexing activities of search engines. Search engine optimization is also about removing unrelated or outdated content, broken links, organizing information and cleaning up messy web codes so that search engines like Google and Yahoo are able to "crawl" web pages more effectively.
Promoting a site to increase the number of backlinks, or inbound links, is another SEO technique.
As information is propagated real-time in this new era, content on websites have to be regularly updated as well to ensure that they are timely and correct. The use of social media and networks to help promote websites is also one aspect of search engine optimization.
Is Social Media Overhyped?
More and more companies are using social media to help with building presence online.
Indeed, public relations have to be managed and with the advent of the Internet, more people are joining online communities to make themselves heard. However, social media is still in its infancy and there seems not to be any clear indication of their impact on organizations in the long run.
Needless to say, this presents boundless opportunities for organizations. It is also much easier to track and monitor trends online using tools such as MyBuzzMonitor, Google Rankings, BlogPulse and Technorati. In fact, these are probably the newer generation of web trends' monitoring tools. All the above-mentioned are free monitoring tools, however, there are also paid subscription services such as Radian6 and Meltwater Buzz.
You can read reviews on some of the tools here
Social media tools like blogs, social networks such as Facebook, microblogging services, social bookmarks are still a way of informal communications and not suited for all organizations. Professions such as doctors (or those in medical sector) and lawyers might not find using social media useful and sometimes it might even backfire. For many other industries such as those in construction, engineering and sciences, social media is still something that has yet been proven to work (bringing about a more professional image, branding, reputation). And until technologies becomes even more pervasive, many of these industries might just steer clear from social media altogether.
Indeed, public relations have to be managed and with the advent of the Internet, more people are joining online communities to make themselves heard. However, social media is still in its infancy and there seems not to be any clear indication of their impact on organizations in the long run.
Needless to say, this presents boundless opportunities for organizations. It is also much easier to track and monitor trends online using tools such as MyBuzzMonitor, Google Rankings, BlogPulse and Technorati. In fact, these are probably the newer generation of web trends' monitoring tools. All the above-mentioned are free monitoring tools, however, there are also paid subscription services such as Radian6 and Meltwater Buzz.
You can read reviews on some of the tools here
Social media tools like blogs, social networks such as Facebook, microblogging services, social bookmarks are still a way of informal communications and not suited for all organizations. Professions such as doctors (or those in medical sector) and lawyers might not find using social media useful and sometimes it might even backfire. For many other industries such as those in construction, engineering and sciences, social media is still something that has yet been proven to work (bringing about a more professional image, branding, reputation). And until technologies becomes even more pervasive, many of these industries might just steer clear from social media altogether.
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