All 250 million Facebook users will now have the ability to browse, order, purchase and ship flowers and other gifts without ever leaving the site. A partnership with ad network/app developer Alvenda made it possible, giving Facebook users even more access the outside world from inside the cozy little blue and white world.
Before I go any further, I invite you all to take advantage of this new setup and send me flowers. Peonies are preferred but really, I’ll take anything. No allergies here, and my birthday is September 18.
Back to the topic, this is all very fascinating, but what really peaks my interest is the fact that 1-800-FLOWERS are such trailblazers! I only just learned from this TechCrunch article that the flower retailer was the first to ever offer online transactions via AOL. Prior to that, the company had begun investigating e-commerce before such a thing even existed. Who knew they were so ahead of the game when it comes to online marketing?! That being said, let’s see if anyone actually uses this thing.
You’ll have to visit 1-800-FLOWERS.COM fan page to use the store, but the good news is, you’ll get a discount code when you Become a Fan (REMEMBER: PEONIES.)
Before you know it, we’ll be doing EVERYTHING from Facebook. Now, if only they could do something about that truly awful internal messaging system.
I originally posted this on the SocialVibe blog, where the teens loved it (and had plenty of harsh comments) but it’s too good not to share here too, since this blog is all about… well, technology.
A 17 year-old Romanian girl experienced an untimely death after being electrocuted while simultaneously taking a bath and tweeting. The teenager experienced a jolt of electricity after attempting to plug in her charger with a wet hand.
Let this be a warning to all of you: DO NOT TWEET IN THE BATHTUB. Your life is far more important than telling your friends that “this strawberry shampoo smells, like, so good.”
Sure it’s sad, but I’d say this one has a Darwin Award coming her way fo’ sho.
Draaaaaama! I love it. Check out this clip of Leo Laporte blowing up at TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington over a Palm Pre review unit. Let’s just say, he doesn’t even get to the actual review.
It’s obvious that Facebook is quickly overtaking MySpace, which has ruled the US social networking scene for the past several years. But which websites have the rest of the world panting, logging on daily and updating their status? This map, created by IBM’s many-eyes.com, decodes which social networks are dominating and where.
The popularity is based on Alexa ranking and Google Trends, and although Facebook isn’t QUITE ahead of MySpace yet, this map says it is. I wonder what this will look like in five years.
I spend about equal parts of my time online (and offline) using Twitter and listening to music. When I heard about Song.ly, the service that allows you to share mp3s with your tweets, my initial reaction was “duh, that’s brilliant.” Now let’s see if it actually works.
1. Copy the mp3 URL of the song you want to share.
2. Visit Song.ly and paste into the space provided.
3. Test the pop-up player to make sure it’s working.
4. Click the green button that says “Tweet.”
Your Twitter followers will be able to click the compacted URL, which will take them to Song.ly, where they can then listen to the tune… though it doesn’t seem they can easily download it, which would be a nice bonus.
I just left the most geeky, techy and AMAZING conference of my life. 2009 SxSW Interactive in Austin, TX. I went on behalf of SocialVibe, spreading the good word about raising donations for your favorite causes via branded widgets, but I left with much more than business contacts – I left with new friends. Techy friends. LA friends. Social media friends. Memorable moments (some of which I can’t remember).
I could do a post recapping the entire experience, if you’re interested, but for now I think I’ll just share ironic claim tag on my baggage:
Here’s a great example of how being TOO connected can come back to smack you in the face. It’s social media gone wrong!
This 21 year old dorkus in Australia, Kyle Doyle, calls in sick after a night of too much partying. I am sure we have all been there once or twice in our life, no shame, especially at 21. But lets at least try to be smart about it, Kyle! Moments later the brilliant lad updated his Facebook status to read “Kyle Doyle is not going to work, fuck it i’m still trashed SICKIE WOO.”
His company’s HR department e-mailed him demanding proof of his “medical appointment,” and when he denied, they replied with the above screenshot of his Facebook profile.
BURN!
Maybe next time he’ll think before he updates his status. We’re watching you, Kyle!
It’s about freaking time. We have apps for everything from language translators to bubble wrap. Location-based social network BrightKite allows users to broadcast their location to their friends (with photos!), but it has been lagging in the iPhone application department. Thankfully, all that is changing.
What advantage does BrightKite have over the many other geo-enabled social network iPhone apps? It is available worldwide, while many of it’s competitors are not.
Great. Yet another reason for me to get sucked back into BrightKite.
The latest addition to the Sugar family is OnSugar, a new online publishing platform that allows you to create your own bloggeries featuring text, photo galleries and fun add-ons like polls, quizzes, audio and video. It’s free, it’s cute, and you also have access to hundreds of thousands of Getty Images … you know, for all those wanna-be celebrity bloggers. It’s like Blogging 101. The Easy Bake Oven of blogging, if you will.
Already have a blog and want to move to onSugar? No problem, they make it easy to import your content from Blogger, Wordpress or Typepad.
Who isn’t on Twitter these days? My good friend Peter was just whining to me that even his Mom is on Twitter, much to his disappointment. You’re nobody if you’re not on Twitter, at least according to this guy!
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