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Why I Am Loving The New Pinterest Layout

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In January, pinterest asked a small group of pinners to test a new look designed to make discovering things on Pinterest easier.

New discovery features

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They have  added a few new things to the close-up view of pins to help you discover things you love that you might not have known about otherwise, including:

-Pins from the same board: You can explore the entire board without leaving the page you’re on.

-Pins from the same source: Here you’ll find other things pinned from the same website.

-People who pinned this also pinned: This is literally what it says it is. Clever, we hope. We’ll be updating our Android and iOS apps soon to include this.

Other changes

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Pinterest wanted to make things simpler and cleaner, without requiring you to learn anything new. What you’ll find are some subtle but useful changes, like bigger pins, so you see more of what you love.

They also responded to some feedback from pinners who told us they hated losing their place while browsing. Now, when you scroll through pins and click on something that interests you, the back button lands you right back where you were no matter how far you’ve gone.

Finally, they have rebuilt the foundation on which the website is built. This makes Pinterest more reliable for you and easier to improve for us.

Share your thoughts

Thanks so much to everyone who tested our ideas and gave us invaluable feedback along the way. If you have any other feedback or comments, please leave them below.

Happy pinning!

Google Launches 4 Improvements To Real Time Analytics

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Real-time reports provide useful insights for businesses that help them understand how their systems are reacting, instantly, such as when you send out an email campaign or engage in marketing that has a temporal nature. It provides alerting / intelligence, giving insight into things that are new or different such as a sudden increase in site traffic. Real-time also lets you win social by capitalizing on trending topics. For example, if you noticed a blog post you published previously is suddenly gaining attention due to something happening in the news, you could highlight it on the front page of your site to draw additional attention and ‘pour fuel’ on the social fire. 

Today, we’re announcing 4 improvements to real-time reports. You can now:

  1. Analyze Events in real-time
  2. Breakdown real-time by Desktop/Tablet/Mobile traffic
  3. Create shortcuts to your favorite real-time segments
  4. Compare real-time filtered data against overall real-time data

Let’s go through the changes in more detail:

1. Realtime Events Report

With the real-time events report, you can now not only see the top events as they occur but also filter on particular event categories (and actions). Additionally, you can see whether particular segments of visitors trigger different events and debug your events deployment in real time.

To access this report, navigate to the real-time section of Google Analytics and click on the Events section. You should see a report similar to this:

Clicking on any of the Event Category will drill down and show all the Event Actions and Event Labels for that particular category.

If you are trying to see what events a particular segment of visitors generate, that is easy as well. Any filters you set up in any part of real-time are preserved in the Events report. For example, in the above screengrab we have set up a filter here to see what events are triggered from visitors coming via organic search.

2. Content Breakdown by Desktop/Tablet/Mobile

We live in an increasingly multi-screen world, and now you can see in real-time the type of device that visitors are using to visit your web site (desktop, tablet and mobile). This is available in the content report as shown below:

As with real-time reports, you can easily see your visitors filtered by the device type (by clicking on either of “Desktop” “Tablet” “Mobile”).

3. Shortcuts for your important real-time segments

We’ve heard from users that you like to look at certain segments of visitors in real-time, but dislike setting up the filters each time. Now, you can use the “Create Shortcut” feature to store your favorite segments. 

Now all you need to do is open up Shortcuts from the left navigation menu and click to any of your shortcuts.

4. Comparison real-time to overall data

Finally, you can compare the pageviews of your segmented visitors to overall traffic as shown below. This is nifty if you want to see quick comparison trends. For example, many times, after a G+ post, I create a filter by device type of “Mobile” and can see that the mobile traffic picks up much faster and also contributes more to the initial increase in pageviews.

Stay tuned for continued improvements to real-time, a growing area of importance for your digital marketing.

What Is Possible When You Want to Become An Entrepreneur?

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Remember, when you where a kid and you thought you could do anything? But then your thinking changed, here is the infographic showing what happened since then from our upcoming book on kickstarter:

As time went on you started wondering if you will ever achieve anything big. One day you read about someone who had the same idea as you. She made it into a company. Now she is a hero. And you think, “Why not me?”

What new billion dollar markets are currently being created and/or will emerge over the next 5 years?

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  1. Cloud resellers. (I borrowed this one from Marc Bennioff of Salesforce, he says there will be “cloud sherpas”)
  2. Variants of platform as a service with other models.
  3. Mobile payments.
  4. Social e-commerce
  5. Language & intercultural literacy. (new business models & delivery methods).  China, Africa, and India are just the start.
  6. Saving.
  7. Mobile health care.  Both in the developing world & here at home.
  8. Mobile education.
  9. Government data transparency to solve waste or fight corruption.
  10. Government 2.0 (crowd sourcing, ATM-like transactions modeled on E-choupal experience, data transparency, service delivery, etc..)
  11. Green data about the supply chain (major cost cutting & green innovations).
  12. Impact assessment for the supply chain (both for corporate social responsibility and for greater efficiency)
  13. Filters & silence (solves filter failure & the scarcity of silence).
  14. Online delivery (see Amazons entry in this space & it will grow as traffic continues).
  15. Making virtual events more like face to face engagement (obviously cutting hotel hosting, air fair, time, and other costs).
  16. Self-coaching.  Digital lifestyle design. (for goals, education, budget, etc…)
  17. Mass automation in human resources.
  18. Customized self-publishing (i.e. I have x, y, and z issue….and I need info in 48 hours)
  19. Mass customization (by industry segment).  CK Prahalad from the University of Michigan wrote a book about this 2 years ago before he passed.
  20. Project based education combined with more modular education
  21. Entrepreneurship. Business in a box by segment. (or businesses you can run from your mobile or your iPad application–just add salesperson and accounting software)
  22. College education changes to lifelong learning (delivery either on campus or via digital platform)
  23. Lifestyle health care & nutrition (health care data transparency for individuals to make better decisions)
  24. Health Informatics. (data becomes more ubiquitous and more mobile.)  Every health care worker will have a mobile phone to do their work.
  25. Products & services & business model adjustment for the rise of emerging markets (BRIC countries).
  26. Self-driven real estate process. (Red Fin is attempting to do this in the Northwest US)
  27. Entirely new models of books beyond the audio book, e-book, or PDF.
  28. DIY data.  Build your own dashboard. (Zoho I believe already has some of this, but I don’t think its real-time and I’m sure the UI could use work)
  29. Process automation + empathy (design thinking + demming, six sigma, or lean)
  30. New concern with data forces companies to find hard data to support “soft” results and “soft” functions.  (other forms of ratings & certifications to help fill the gaps in information)  Professional service firms and educational institutions may have to focus more on these issues.
  31. Outsourcing innovation.  Not the typical discussion of outsourcing, but rather the ability to get innovation done on the cheap, effectively, quickly, for a particular target market, or with fewer failures along the way.  Most companies aren’t geared to do this, but there will be an increasing number of services around this area.  They may even be brought in to help create a culture of change around innovation or to support internal company incubators, or 20% time type initiatives.
  32. Support services and products for mobile workers (for community, accountability, or training in adopting a new lifestyle).

Top Employers Of Pakistan : Via Rozee

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Employer brand strength is one of the most critical factors in attracting talent. A recent study conducted by ROZEE.PK found that highly branded employers can attract up to 900% more applicants than weakly branded employers. Employer brand impacts a company’s ability to attract top talent and often results in lower cost of human capital with higher retention rates. In today’s highly competitive environment with a “war for talent”, strong HR branding is powerful business asset.

ROZEE.PK surveyed more than 9,000 students and professionals from 196 different cities of Pakistan to create a ranked list of the most sought after employers in the country by asking the simple question, “If you could work at any company in Pakistan, where would you like to work”. The survey was done in partnership with YouGov, a global leader in public opinion and consumer behavior polling. Tremendous care has been taken in ensuring the statistical integrity and impartiality of the survey. No sponsorships were accepted to conduct this study.

“The results are fascinating and yet not surprising. Did you know that the most sought after workplace by females nationwide is from the NGO and Social Services Sector? The #1 aspired company is different in Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad and Faisalabad? The overall top ten HR brands tend to dominate rankings in other segmented categories as well?”

Marissa Mayer Tells The World Why She Became The CEO Of Yahoo While Being Pregnant : Challenge

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Marissa Mayer is leaning in.

On June 18th, I got the call.

“I’m doing a CEO search. It’s a Fortune 500 company. It’s in the consumer Internet space. It’s in Silicon Valley—you wouldn’t even have to move. It’s the perfect job for you. The board is asking for you by name. Are you interested? It’s Yahoo.”

I had received similar calls before, and I wasn’t interested. I loved my job. I was proud of my role in growing Google, and I loved every new challenge that was thrown my way. But this time it was Yahoo, and that changed everything. I started using Yahoo before it was even called Yahoo. Yahoo defined the Internet. They helped get Google started. Yes, they had their ups-and-downs—but, the potential was huge. The alignment with my experience and career was uncanny: search, email, homepage, news, finance, maps, social, mobile and more.

However, it wasn’t a foregone conclusion that I would or could make it work when I got that first phone call. At the time, I was pregnant, and I was thrilled. My soon-to-be-born son already had the most delightful personality—jumping and kicking hundreds of times a day, making me laugh out loud. After 13 years of really hard work at Google, I had been envisioning a glorious six-month maternity leave. However, if I took the new job, a long leave couldn’t happen. The responsibilities were too big, and time was of the essence—it just wouldn’t be fair to the company, the employees, the board, or the shareholders for me to be in the role, but out for an extended period of time.

I’ve now been at Yahoo for eight months, and I’m having a ball—there are great people and terrific ideas. It’s hard work, but I love to work hard. At the same time, starting a family with my husband has been all I hoped it would be and then some—joyful, intense, challenging. At five and a half months old, Macallister is tremendously fun—a big personality already. I live to spend time with him—be it to teach him sounds and songs, play a game of peek-a-boo (his latest obsession), or be his sidekick as he explores the world around him.

I’ve come to realize that being a mother makes me a better executive, because motherhood forces prioritization. Being a mom gives you so much more clarity on what is important. I’m very close to my own mother; she has always been my most important role model. I’m grateful to her and to my father for a lifetime of their love, attention, teaching and sacrifice. Over the past five short months, my appreciation has grown for all parents, especially those balancing work obligations, because I know they have that same clarity of dedication and purpose.

Looking back to reflect on the question: Could I really take the helm of Yahoo when I was 28 weeks pregnant? Even now, it sounds absolutely crazy. I considered if and how I could make it work: learning more about the role, getting words of encouragement from close friends and family, and developing a plan. I’ve always believed you can never have everything that you want, but with work and dedication, you can have the things that really matter to you. If I took the opportunity, it was clear that I would have to find a way to have time with my baby without a long maternity leave. I also knew going forward that there wouldn’t be much time beyond my job and my family for anything else. Ultimately, I decided I was fine with that, because my family and my job are what really matter to me.

Then, on July 11th, I got another call:

“You… should be smiling. You are the next CEO of Yahoo.”

New beginnings – professional, personal, or come what may – are always uncomfortable, but being open to them is the only way to grow. In the end, we are all capable of so much more than we think.

Lean in.

WordPress New Education Vertical Adds to Versatility, Criticisms

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Since its May 2003 debut, WordPress has gradually taken over the world of blogging and content-management systems (CMS). According to a study conducted by Pingdom, 48 percent of the top 100 blogs on the internet use a WordPress platform. This marketshare could grow larger now that Automattic, the parent company for WordPress, rolled out its new education vertical. The offering, released Feb. 20, was created to assist educators at all levels in lesson planning and provide a means of communication with students and parents. The new vertical is WordPress’s first direct involvement in the business of education, according to the company website. WordPress simultaneously released its new Chalkboard theme, which looks exactly like it sounds. The company said the education themes can be password protected so only participating parents and students can view what some would deem sensitive information.

WordPress has released several other business-specific verticals in the past few months, which shows the company’s desire to graduate from the perception of being just a simple blogging platform.

Portfolio Vertical

There have always been several WordPress themes available for painters, photographers and videographers to showcase their work. The portfolio vertical, for a $30-per-year fee, allows full customization of your site’s appearance. For instance, artists who make gold sculptures from melted US Money Reserve bullion can not only have a domain without the “wordpress.com” in the URL, but also add high-definition videos (of course, for a $60-per-year fee). The portfolio vertical was released in January and has more than 30 themes for users to choose from.

Restaurant Vertical

Tony Schneider, the CEO of Automattic, told TechCrunch.com that many restaurant websites were built before smartphones took off. The new restaurant vertical, released last November, was specifically designed to work with mobile platforms since many people spontaneously look for restaurants while driving and choose based on what they find. Schneider specifically pointed to how the vertical, regardless of theme, will display the restaurant’s phone number so smartphone users can simply click and call. The vertical also has built-in maps and is formatted to display both on larger computer screens and smartphones.

New Verticals Useful or Gimmicks?

Automattic expected to earn in $45 million in 2012, company founder Matt Mullenweg told AllthingsD.com last April. It is by far the No. 1 content-management platform on the internet, with Joombla being a distant second. But some in the industry have criticized WordPress for creating new verticals that offer nothing new. James Farmer, founder and CEO of Edublogs.org, said the WordPress education vertical offers no extra functionality or education-specific support. Others have said WordPress is simply trying to figure out which verticals are most successful before committing too many resources. Regardless, WordPress is still free for most users, is SEO-friendly and has a huge community of users willing to help you with just about any technical or otherwise issue.