Let me take you back.  The year was 2008.  Bush was in the White House, gas was under three dollars, and the Blackberry Storm was sweeping the nation.  (Yes, you should probably read that last bit in an old-timey newsreel announcer voice.)  And no wonder, as Verizon had just unleashed the first ever touch-screen Blackberry; no roller ball scrolling or stylus for this generation.  Since then, phones have continued to evolve; there’s a new iPhone, the Droid is gaining popularity, and of course there is a slew of new touchscreen phones dominating the market.

If you remember, two years ago half the 360 PSG office got Blackberry Storm smartphones, and a few of us either still had “old-fashioned” flip phones or iPhones.

Two years later, after contracts had expired, Blackberries had been cursed, and iPhones broken, lost, stolen, or replaced (thanks Apple Care), I thought I’d see what the office was using now that smartphones dominate the market.

Since that last blog, Kelli, Dan, Eric, and I have all upgraded to the iPhone 4, Jason and Ben both got the Samsung Fascinate, and Joel upgraded to the Motorola Droid X.  No matter the make or model of phone, every 360 PSG employee loves his or her phone.  So what makes them so great?  Most of us split work and personal time on our cell phones, and we all love to have our email at our fingertips.  Since phones have become extensions of ourselves, here’s what some of us had to say about our phones:

How does your phone help you with work?

Dan:

It’s a mini computer, good while on the go.

Jason:

Allows me to easily check my email and see and update my appointment schedule on the fly.

Kelli:

It let’s me listen to my entire music collection while working

Jena:

I don’t have the internet on my phone so I don’t use it for any work purposes.

Ben:

Constant internet access, email and calendar

Joel:

All my email, meeting schedules, task list, browser… basically can perform company-wide communications anywhere, anytime.

Eric:

I have all my ims, e-mails and server notifications going directly to my phone so I know what’s going on at all times.

Favorite phone feature?

Dan:

Touch Screen

Jason:

App store and the ability to quickly search and download new apps.

Kelli:

Who needs a GPS when you have an iPhone? I’ve driven all over the Northeast using just the Maps app to guide me.

Jena:

I didn’t buy this phone with any specific features in mind.  I just use it for calling and texting.

Ben:

It’s FAST and I haven’t had any annoying lockups or anything yet.  GPS app is awesome and so is the browser.

Joel:

The app store makes it easy to find tools and apps that help organize and streamline processes all the time.

Eric:

The beautiful screen.

Least favorite phone feature (or bug)?

Dan:

Keyboard

Jason:

No cancel button on the phone itself.  Blackberry has one, the Android phones have a ‘search’ button instead.

Kelli:

The inability to remove default applications.

Ben:

Bing as the default search engine (unchangeable).

Joel:

No real complaints. Early on, it had some software boot up hiccups/delays… but a patch they released in Nov/Dec of 2010 cleared it up and booting quickly since.

Eric:

Notifications. When you get a lot of them it’s hard to keep track. Androids notification pull down is a far superior method than anything we have on the iPhone (without jailbreaking).

If you already have an iPhone, have you ever considered switching to a different phone?  Why?

Kelli:

No. Why would I? It’s like having an extension of my macbook on me at all times. I don’t need anything else.

Eric:

Windows phone looks rather interesting.  It’s nice Microsoft came up with a fresh idea rather than the same old crap.

Joel added, “As these phones become more and more robust and fast… many of the common tasks like customer communication, time management, and remote collaboration will become easier and faster. We will see a major shift in user adoption of the smart phone as a major work-life everyday asset over the next few years.”

Another holiday season has come and gone, and while last-minute gift ideas bounced around the office as shopping days diminished, one of our employees pointed out that this year was the biggest Cyber Monday to date.  So I did a little research and found out that he was right.  According to comScore, 2010’s Cyber Monday was the first ever $1 billion online shopping day.

Curious about the world-wide shopping trend, I asked the office about their shopping habits this year.  Did they shop primarily online or do they prefer brick and mortar locations?  Here’s what they said:

Did you shop online this holiday season?  If so, what were some of the things that you were looking for?

Ben:

50% of my shopping was done online.

Kelli:

I have browsed items online, but have yet to purchase. Mostly snowboarding related items such as bindings and jackets. Nothing big ticket so far.

Jason:

I did most of my shopping online this year.  I typically do a large Amazon order and then look at specialty online merchants like ThinkGeek for unusual or fun gifts.

Joel:

I shopped online for video games for my kids and shoes for my wife.

Jena:

Yes, I shopped online this holiday season and many other years in the past.  I used it this year to look for gifts for my family.  I ended up buying some DVDs, CDs,  and iPod accessories.

Matt Wetter:

I did online shopping for two of my gift items this year.  Only one of them was a cyber Monday purchase.  The two purchases I made was a devotional book and the second was the Star Wars Triology DVD.  The Star Wars was a Cyber Monday purchase from Family video.

Bryan:

I usually use a combination of brick and mortar and online shopping.  It is a tradition for me, fighting the crowds, finding parking spaces, the cold weather, going shopping with my wife/family, walking in and out of dozens of stores to find the right gifts.  This enhances my Holiday spirit.  Although, it is not as efficient as shopping online.

Dan:

I shopped for a TV, Blu Ray Player, and TV mount.

How did this year’s online deals compare to other years?  Did you find any deals on Cyber Monday vs. Black Friday?

Jason:

I keep a close pulse on electronic deals and it is interesting that sales on Cyber Monday are not really much different then ongoing sales from Black Friday until Christmas.

Joel:

I didn’t really do much with the two special days this year. Seems like a lot of the deals carried on past just the two days.

Matt Whelan:

I actually bought a TV on Amazon about a week before Black Friday and the price went significantly UP after I bought it.  I made out by not waiting for Black Friday.

Jena:

I didn’t notice specific differences.  I did not shop on specific days like Cyber Monday or Black Friday, just days I had time to search.

Matt Wetter:

There is no way I was going to go out on black Friday and get trampled at Target.

Dan:

Yea, there was a TV online that was a better deal than in stores but it was sold out online by the time I found it.

Have you found better deals online or in brick and mortar stores?

Ben:

I’ve found that the best deals are online (probably because they are easier to find for me).

Kelli:

Almost always online, which is really hard because I would really like to support local business. Half of the time, I end up supporting local business in other parts of the country because they have a retail outlet online.

Jason:

A mixture of both.  Some stores have unadvertised sales that are lower than anything you can find online.

Matt Whelan:

Always online, though I’m such a last minute shopper I usually don’t have a choice. Most places can’t deliver on Christmas morning after ordering on Christmas Eve.

Jena:

I usually find better deals online.  The only thing that can have negative impact on online deals is the shipping and handling fees.

Matt Wetter:

Shopping online gave me the ability to compare prices right in front of me.  I will often do online shopping for that reason, so I can get the best deal.

Do you prefer shopping online or in brick and mortar locations?  What are the advantages to your preference?  Convenience? Price? Availability?

Kelli:

I prefer shopping in brick and mortar stores to online because I like to see items up-close, but I generally use a combination of the two. I research online and buy in-store or check it out in-store and buy online. Price is usually the determining factor.

Jason:

I like to do a little of both.  Online is easy, but sometimes you don’t know what you want to buy until you find it and simply ‘browsing’ for unknown items is a lot easier at a brick and mortar than online.

Joel:

Browsing the aisles in a store, it is easy to see things that catch your eye.  But knowing that nothing is ever out of stock online is much better. So if it is something I know I want specifically, I go online. For example, my wife wants a new coffee maker, so I am going Target locally so I can see and touch even if there is more selection online.

Jena:

Normally, I prefer to shop at brick and mortar locations.  Especially if I don’t have specific ideas in mind, I like to browse and enjoy the shopping experience.  During the holidays, when the stores are a lot busier, I prefer to shop online.  When I know exactly what I’m looking for, I always check online sites first for prices.

Ian:

I prefer brick and mortar so I don’t have to worry about shipping.  There’s less chance of buyer’s remorse and a better browsing experience.

Matt Wetter:

I was happy with all my gift purchases this year.  I find that the advantage of going to a store is that you can browse and find something when you don’t have a clue what to get someone.  Online is king if you know what you want and want to get a good deal and not have to fight off other people to get it.

Bryan:

With online shopping, I can browse 10 times more stores than at the malls and do it from the comfort of my home.  Plus, with Cyber Monday, I found great deals online.

So this year, I only purchased gifts at the mall that I planned a head of the time.  I left the browsing and research for online shopping.

Dan:

It’s nice to shop online because it’s so much easier to compare with the help of customer ratings and reviews.

What was the one essential gift that you tracked down this year?  Did you find it online or in a store?

Ben:

A 5lb Gummy Bear was the gift I wanted to find.  I’ve only ever seen it online.

Jason:

Oversized T.V. trays, and a local store on Black Friday had the best deal.

Jena:

My dad wants an electric train to go around my parent’s Christmas tree.  I did research online but ended up finding one in the store for a great deal.

Ian:

Wait, I should have started shopping already?

Dan:

I bought a 42″ LG T.V., in store, at Walmart.

We’d like to hear from you.  Use our comments section to tell us where you prefer to shop.

Project Titan, Facebook’s “modern messaging system,” is not a Gmail killer; at least it’s not according to CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Monday November 15, 2010 that Facebook plans to roll out the new project piece by piece (probably as an invite-only to start) over the coming months.

Zuckerberg stated, “I think Gmail’s a really good product…we just think that this simpler kind of message is how people will shift their communication.”

Project Titan has its sights set on three key areas: seamless messaging, conversation history, and social inbox.  Seamless messaging encompasses all of the ways you communicate: Facebook, IM, chat, SMS, e-mail, etc.  Project Titan aims to combine all of your communication on a single platform: Facebook.

Conversation history with each user (e.g. all of your Facebook messages, IMs, SMS, and e-mails) will be displayed in a single thread rather than broken up into individual ones for each service.

Finally, according to digitaltrends.com, your Social Inbox will work as “a spam filter. It’s a tiered system, ranking message importance by the amount you interact with another Facebook user.  Your list of priority contacts is automatically created.”

Titan will also attempt to recognize a user’s messaging preferences, and that’s where it gets a little confusing.  How does Titan decide what kind of message to send your desired user?  If a user mostly communicates with a Facebook friend via chat, but attempts to email that friend and they happen to be on Facebook at that very moment, will they actually receive the message as a Facebook chat instead of the intended email?

While some features remain speculation, as surely all of the kinks haven’t been worked out yet, Facebook’s Project Titan looks to be promising evolution of the social network’s services.

The Tide is Turning

Last year Google rolled out Wave, a web-based computing platform that, like Titan, merged email, IMs, and social networking.  However Google has since stopped developing Wave as a stand-alone product due to confusion from users and usability criticisms.

Perhaps what Google Wave neglected to do (integrate with its already existing product, Gmail), Facebook will improve upon by expanding their already-existing services with new features rather than trying to reinvent the wheel.  It’s still up in the air whether or not it will actually work and how users will respond.

@facebook.com

Finally, it looks like Facebook will compete with Gmail after all, even if it is “indirectly”, as it plans on giving users the option of adopting an @facebook.com domain.  Will businesses buy into a Facebook email address?  And how will Facebook’s email compare to the features of Gmail and other email services?  We’ll have to wait for more announcements from Zuckerberg to find out.  It will be interesting to see what Facebook’s Project Titan has to offer over the coming months and how it could potentially revolutionize the way we interact online.

The Fission Web System has already started integrating with Facebook with its Social Media component and future development is certain.  Click here to get more information on 360 PSG’s Social Media Component.

This Halloween 360 PSG’s creative team got clever with costumes ranging from a Free Credit Report.com Pirate to a Space Invader to our very own Joel Colombo.  Employees donned the costumes the Friday before Halloween rounding out a busy work week with some fun.

Be sure to vote your favorite 360 PSG Halloween costume in the comments section!

Photos:

And 360 PSG programmers Ian and Eric came dressed as 360 founders Matt and Joel:

Did your office dress up for Halloween?  Share your Halloween costumes with 360 and let us know what you think of our costumes.

Happy Halloween!

Whenever anyone asks me what I do, I like to tell them “I work for the Internet.”

That’s usually sufficient to garner some laughs, maybe an uncomfortable pause in anticipation of a “real answer,” and inevitably a few completely warranted but extremely rare ‘okay-well-if-you-didn’t-want-to-tell-me-then-why’d-you-say-anything-at-all’s’.  Of course I only say that to be funny and break up the happy hour monotony of business card swapping and work-related word vomit, but in all honesty I do essentially work for the Internet.  And I love it.  It’s fun and rewarding, but let’s be honest it’s not necessarily a glorified profession.  At least not until someone made a great movie about it.

Last Wednesday the 360 PSG team attended a late-afternoon screening of David Fincher’s latest opus The Social Network at the AMC Maple Ridge 8 in Amherst.  The Social Network (written by Aaron Sorkin) examines the inception, development, and legal troubles of Facebook as developed by Mark Zuckerberg, Co-founder, CEO and President.

Call it research if you will, or possibly just the desire of a thriving web development company to examine the life of a 26 year-old billionaire made rich by, what else, the Internet.  Maybe, just maybe by attending we’d learn the secret of striking it rich on the web and be sent on our ways, back to our offices ripe with knowledge ready to build our empire.  Or maybe we’d just see a really awesome movie about the Internet…?

The tagline of the film is: “You don’t get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies.”  And in the film we see Zuckerberg  (Jesse Eisenberg) do just that.  From the “antagonistic” identical twin Winklevoss brothers (Armie Hammer and Josh Pence) to Zuckerberg’s close friend and business partner Eduardo (Andrew Garfield), Zuckerberg is portrayed as a socially inept genius incapable of making or retaining real friendships and quite possibly becomes the true antagonist of The Social Network.

Honestly, it’s hard to root for anyone in this film save Eduardo, Zuckerberg’s wealthy Harvard roommate who puts up the original funds to kick-start “The Facebook”.  Zuckerberg dreams up The Facebook after he’s approached by the brothers Winklevi, star crew athletes at Harvard, to create an exclusive social networking site for them; any member of the site would be required to have a Harvard.edu email account (a major difference from Zuckerberg’s idea).

The film manages to be enthralling by intricately weaving two lawsuits against Zuckerberg, one filed by Eduardo and the other by the Winklevoss brothers, with flashbacks of Facebook’s development, power struggles, and ultimate public success.

Oh, and in case you’re wondering why I keep referring to the popular social networking site as The Facebook, don’t worry, that’s covered in the film as well; that was the site’s original moniker until Zuckerberg befriended Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake), co-founder of Napster and eventual 7% owner of Facebook, who suggests, “Drop the ‘the’. Just ‘Facebook’. It’s cleaner.”

Can we believe everything we see on the silver screen?  Of course not.  Zuckerberg refused to have anything to do with the film and has spoken out publicly about its inaccuracies.  But one lesson to take away from this film, and I can only speak for myself, is that knowledge mixed with determination and perseverance can pay off, big time.  (That and possibly befriending Sean Parker…) 

I asked the 360 PSG employees who attended The Social Network screening a few questions about the film.  Here’s what they had to say:

Do you have a Facebook page?  If so, how long have you had it?

Eric: yes, around the time public registrations were open (Sep 26, 2006).

Joel: Yes. 2 years.

Ian: Yes.  Not sure when exactly I got it, my earliest email is from August 2005,
but that is when I changed my email

Kelli: Yes.  As soon as UB joined the network… sometime in early 2005?

Matt: Yes, a couple years now.

Jena: Yes. I created an account in the Spring of 2005 when you had to have .edu email address.

Do you like Facebook?

Eric: No.  It’s too busy for my tastes and I can’t stand all the “Games” and applications.  Twitter is where it’s at.

Joel: Yes, but only on every few days.

Ian: It’s a love-hate relationship.

Kelli: I liked the old Facebook better.  It was simple and didn’t hoard all sorts of personal data.

Matt: I don’t like it for personal use, yet I end up using it a couple times a week.  I like it as a business networking tool.

Jena: Yes. Great way to connect with/stay in touch with friends and family.

Has your opinion of Facebook changed since watching The Social Network?  If so, how?

Eric: Nope.

Joel: No. Nice to see where it came from, but it is still the same product it was before the movie.

Ian: Not really.

Kelli: Not really.  If anything, it made me nostalgic for the old version.

Matt: No, but nice to know more of where it came from.

Jena: No. It was just interesting to see how fast the site took off and how much it’s changed since the beginning (I forgot about the blue guy that used to be in the header).

Did you like the film?

Eric: Yes, because Trent Reznor is the man! (Trent Reznor scrored the film)

Joel: Yes. Reminded me very much of “Pirates of Silicon Valley” that had the same styling but told the parallel stories of the formation of Microsoft and Apple. I highly recommended for those that haven’t seen it.

Ian: Yes.

Kelli: Yes.

Matt: It was ok.

Jena: Yes. Again, good to see the history of something that’s so huge right now.

Would you see it again?

Eric: Yes, but just for Trent.

Joel: Yes, on DVD.

Ian: Sure.

Kelli: Yes.

Matt: No, generally I don’t watch movies more than once.

Jena: Yes. Will probably just rent it.

Did the film inspire you in any way?  How?

Joel: It is great to see someone with an idea and passion take off.

Kelli: It actually made me think about how I’m not willing to sacrifice friends for success.

Matt: I want to have a “1 millionth Fission Customer Party” … still working to get there.

Jena: No. But it did remind me that I know nothing about programming and that I am not smart enough to attend Harvard.

360 PSG has a Facebook page.  Will you be our friend?

Should you be concentrating your online marketing efforts on Twitter over Facebook?

According to an ExactTarget study, “Subscribers, Fans and Followers,” businesses are seeing more return from their Twitter followers than their Facebook friends.  However, just having a Twitter account isn’t the easy fix for making more online conversions.

In a study of 1,500 consumers, 37% of Twitter users are “more likely to purchase from a brand after becoming a subscriber, fan, or follower,” as opposed to only 27% of email subscribers and only 17% of Facebook fans.

So why Twitter?

It could all be in the process.  Facebook friends are likely to casually “like” a product or service, whereas on Twitter they tend to go the extra mile if they like a product.  When someone chooses to follow a specific brand on Twitter however, they must take an extra step to make that commitment, which, in turn might solidify their loyalty to that brand.  Often times, when a Twitter user comes across something they like, they will start following an account and probably even RT (reTweet) something that they like when they read about.

While, according to the study, Twitter has a higher return, Facebook still remains a valuable marketing tool helping to advertise products and services to thousands of people daily.  That’s something that every business or organization should “like.”

However, Jeff Rohrs, principal, ExactTarget’s Marketing Research and Education Group did say, “Consumers don’t isolate their communications to email, Facebook or Twitter and expect brands to communicate consistently across the channels.”  He added, “Marketers should focus on developing and implementing an integrated strategy that combines—not isolates—the powerful strengths of each of the online channels.”

Tim Kopp, ExactTarget’s chief marketing officer, added, “The Collaborative Future report provides marketers key insights and recommendations to develop effective online marketing across all three channels.”

The idea is to spread more information to a wider audience by combining your marketing powers.  For example, promote Facebook contests through an email marketing campaign to leverage more Facebook fans from your current mailing list.  The same goes for Twitter.  Want more people to sign up for your newsletter?  Tell your Twitter followers about exclusive deals only available for email subscribers.

Remember it’s all about how effective your marketing campaign is when it comes to social networking.  Combine your efforts to include communication via all three platforms (Twitter, Facebook, and email) to reach a wider audience.

360 PSG offers their Social Media Plugged-In Package which integrates Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn seamlessly with every Fission Web System website.  For more information on how you can start utilizing Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or to set up an email marketing campaign, contact 360 PSG today.

You can learn more results of the ExactTarget study here.

Have you ever heard of the acronym K.I.S.S.?  It stands for Keep It Simple, Stupid and it can be applied to almost anything: writing, design, and even your social media.

Social media is a great way to give your followers quick updates about your business or organization when they’re on the go, but if your Facebook status update turns into a long-winded recounting of your weekend adventures then it could probably use the application of the K.I.S.S. principle.

Keeping it simple means that you’ll need to administer a bit of self editing which can be tough for some writers.  If you are a writer, then you probably love the way your words sound when you read them back to yourself.  But are you considering your readers when you’re using frivolous phrases?

Embracing brevity in your writing can actually make you a better writer.  If you’re limited to 140 characters on Twitter for example, then you’re forced to feed followers only the most important information and you get to exercise your robust vocabulary.

Don’t burry the Lede

Consider this, how many of your readers are checking your updates or blogs on their lunch breaks or from their mobile devices?  Probably most of them.  If your readers only have a few minutes a day to check for updates, give them the important information first.  Provide a phone number or email link and if they’re really interested in what you have to say then they can contact your business or organization.

For Example: Tweet about a promotion you’re running.  Include a link in the Tweet that sends the visitor to your web page where you have a short description (this link could send them to a blog as well), and at the end of the article or copy give them a number or email address to contact you for more information.

Avoid Unnecessary Words and Redundancies

Using unnecessary words or saying the same thing in consecutive sentences can lengthen your message.  CopyBlogger has some great examples of word omissions and sentence restructuring that create more concise messages:

The Elements of Style says that “the fact that,” “who is” and “which was” are the most commonly used needless words.  For the former phrase you can often use a single word, and for the latter two simply omit them.

Here are examples:

Before: Because of the fact that people benefited from reading my article, I decided to follow up with another.

After: Because people benefited from reading my article, I wrote a follow up.

Before: Brian, who is a writer and a consultant, is an interesting person.

After: Brian, a writer and consultant, is an interesting person.

Before: The article, which was written by Brian, was well received.

After: Brian’s article was well received.

Apply the K.I.S.S. principle to all of your writing to give your readers concise clear messages about your business, organization, or product.

360 PSG’s new Social Media Plugged-In Package takes care of your updates for you by automatically sending linked messages to all of your social media accounts (Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn) when you post a news article or press release to your website.

For more information on how you can take advantage of 360 PSG’s Social Media Plugged-In Package, contact us here.

Google has rolled out its new search engine indexing system, aptly dubbed “Caffeine,” boasting 50% fresher search results.

Under their old system, Google’s engines crawled the entire Web to update pages in its index.  Pages could not be updated until the entire batch (every site on the Web) was updated causing a significant delay between a Web page being found and then being updated in Google’s search index.  Caffeine analyzes smaller portions of the web more frequently and subsequently updates its search index on a continuous basis.

Google software engineer Carrie Grimes blogged, “As we find new pages, or new information on existing pages, we can add these straight to the index.”

More frequent updates to search engine indexes mean better results for businesses and organizations focused on improving search engine ranking with SEO efforts that include frequent content updates.

Grimes added, “We’ve built Caffeine with the future in mind. Not only is it fresher, it’s a robust foundation that makes it possible for us to build an even faster and comprehensive search engine that scales with the growth of information online, and delivers even more relevant search results to you.”

With Google’s implementation of Caffeine and 360 PSG’s new SEO packages, now is the perfect time to look at your website and determine how you can make it more search friendly.

For an explanation of what actually happens when you do a web search, Google engineer Matt Cutts offers some insight into the world of Google’s search index.

No matter how many social networks you belong to or how many blogs you keep, it’s important that you protect your private data from falling into the wrong hands.  I’m always amazed at the personal information that some people will put online.  From birthdates, to cell phone numbers, to your children’s names, you need to be aware of what information makes it on the web.

No matter how secure you think a website is, there is always someone looking for ways to exploit you and steal your identity.  Here are five ways that you can protect yourself online:

1. Have a back-up email or “side” email

Many times you may need to provide an email address to sign up for a service.  It’s probably a good idea to keep an extra email address on the side for this very occasion.  Don’t provide your primary email address for something especially if you don’t know a lot about the service that you’re signing up for.  You never know if your address will be posted or sold to other organizations, which in turn can generate a sudden influx of unwanted SPAM to your inbox.

2. Don’t give your personal information away

There’s really no need to add your phone number, birthday, and home address to your Facebook page.  Keep your personal information private.  This includes pictures and names of your children.  Never post pictures of your children online and never give out their names.  If one of your friends posts or tags a picture of your kids on their Facebook profile, politely ask them to remove the picture.  And be cautious; just because you’re friends with someone on Facebook or Twitter, you still might be strangers in real life.  Be careful about the information you divulge to others online.

3. Stay away from online giveaways and contests

I’m sorry but you’re NOT going to win a free iPad.  No matter how promising it looks.  If it seems too good to be true, then it probably it is.  I’m sure you’ve gotten an email from a third party that makes it seem like a cinch to get your hands on a coveted iPad for free; just fill out three promotions with your name, email address, and phone number.  The only thing you end up winning is an inbox full of SPAM.  Refrain from providing your email address or any personal information to online contests that you aren’t 100% familiar with.  Your name and address could be sold to other marketers.

4. Mind your numbers!

Never put your credit card number online unless it is through a trusted site.  Check for secure URL tags or HTTPS in the address bar.  Is your browser displaying the safe lock icon?  Only provide credit card information to trusted, secure websites.  And NEVER put your social security number online.

5. Pass on these Words:

Have you seen that list of the worst passwords to use online and laughed?  Did you shake your head in amazement that someone would actually use “123456” as their banking password?  Or did your eyes swirl with wonder when you saw one of your passwords on the list?  Whatever the case, it’s a good idea to use a different password for everything.  And never use your online banking password for anything else, ever.

According to a recent article in the Huffington Post, “The recent hack of the website RockYou exposed around 32 million user passwords, which data security firm Imperva has analyzed to create a list of the worst passwords.”

Here are the 10 Worst Passwords:

1. 123456

2. 12345

3. 123456789

4. Password

5. iloveyou

6. princess

7. rockyou

8. 1234567

9. 12345678

10. abc123

Of course these are just five tips to help you protect yourself online.  Remember, if you join a new network or sign up for a new service, check the site’s privacy policies and settings before sending your sensitive data soaring into cyberspace.

Buffalo, NY – Internet Explorer 6 (IE 6), 8 years and 7 months, died Monday, March 1, 2010 on the worldwide web following a brief… bug.

IE 6 is survived by its two younger brothers Internet Explorer 7 and Internet Explorer 8.

Born on August 27, 2001, IE 6 was the default browser shipped with Windows XP.  Although debunkers branded IE 6 the “worst tech products of all time” lists, with some publications labeling it as the “least secure software on the planet” due to its security issues and lack of support for modern web standards, it thrived well into the 2000’s.

Of course, Internet Explorer isn’t truly dead.  You can still use it.  Why you would want to use it is another matter in itself.  But CNN reported that one company in Denver, Colorado actually held a mock funeral for the out-of-date browser and saw nearly 100 mourners, all dressed in black, attending to bid a fond farewell to IE 6.

Where did this start?

Earlier this year, Google announced that they were going to start phasing out support of older browsers like IE 6.  What that really means is some of your online applications like Google Docs or your calendar may not function properly on older browsers unless you upgrade.  But before you panic and throw your Internet in the garbage, consider this: there are other browsers out there.  Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari, and even Opera for example all have their own unique features that make them worth-while upgrades from IE 6.  Still want to remain loyal to Internet Explorer?  Upgrade your browser to IE 7 or 8 at the very least.

Why should you upgrade your browser?

First and foremost, you should update your browser so your website works better.  There are more efficient ways to surf the web.  Newer, more up-to-date web browsers can run video and audio applications more efficiently for example.

Think about it like this: do you want to watch your favorite TV shows on a 12” black and white unit or on a 42” LCD flat panel?  It seems like an easy choice.  You should want your websites to display with the same quality.  And the great part about upgrading your browser is that it doesn’t cost you anything.  It’s like getting the big-screen HD TV for free.

Second, it’s simple: browser upgrades are free and only take a few seconds to complete.

Finally, the security of your information online should be a priority.  IE 6 has many security issues, mainly because Microsoft stopped developing it nearly four years ago to concentrate on their newer versions.  IE 6 is susceptible to all sorts of Malware (malicious software).  Upgrade your browser to protect your information online and surf the web securely.

360 PSG recommends that you upgrade to a better browser (if I didn’t mention it before, Firefox is a great browser), but in the end we don’t really have any say.  We do check all of our sites across all major browsers before they go live.  However, they all have their own deficiencies, and Internet Explorer continues to reign as one of the “buggiest” browsers.

Helpful Hints

Not sure what a browser is or which one you’re using?  Don’t be embarrassed, you’re not alone.  From dictionary.com, a web browser is defined as: A software program that facilitates entry to and usage of the Internet.

Need help figuring out which version of your browser you’re using?  Here are some screenshots of where the help menus and browser version information is located on four of the most popular browsers: