Pinterest Tips from the Pros

How many of you have heard of Pinterest? Okay, hands down.

Now, how many of you actually know what it is and how to use it for your business?

Unfortunately, those of you who didn't raise your hand are already losing the race. Millions of companies, large and small, are flooding the site realizing Pinterest's business value. In fact, "[Pinterest is] driving more traffic to company websites and blogs than YouTube, Google+ and LinkedIn combined." ("How Pinterest is Becoming the Next Big Thing in Social Media for Business", Jason Falls, Entrepreneur.com).

We've turned to the pros at Pin Savvy Social to provide an answer to our second question, and, hopefully, help you catch up in the Pinterest race.

How to Make Pinterest Work for Your Business

Pinterest is one of the fastest growing sites in social media. It is the one place where consumers can search for and share the products they are most excited about and a necessary addition to the social media tool box of any growing company.

The unique aspect of Pinterest is that it is one of the few social media sites that is completely consumer-driven. If you look at a major brand on twitter or Facebook you will notice the brand has thousands of followers or “likes.” If you look at the growing number of companies with Pinterest accounts you will notice, in almost every case, the company is following many more Pinterest accounts than are following them back.

Pinterest is about finding the best of the best, “pinners” repin things they love and things that represent their own personal taste. They tend not to pin all of the products from one company thus giving them less of a reason to follow a brand, but there are a few ways that companies can help make sure their products have a decent pin-life:

1. Don’t pin solely your own products. Pin things to your boards that show your taste in other areas, books you enjoy, products that inspire your style. If pinners know you will be doing nothing but self-promotion there is no reason to follow you on Pinterest when they can just visit your website.

2. Create timeless boards. If you create a board of your Winter 2012 line no one will follow it in Spring 2012. Create your boards according to the types of products you produce such as “boots” or “linens.” If your fans love your shoes or the bedding you sell then they will be more likely to follow one of your boards in order to get a peek at what you are launching next.

3. Pin sparingly. No matter how fantastic your product is, if you pin every photo from your latest line at once it is going to fill up my whole Pinterest screen. Even if I LOVE your products I will not love seeing only your self-promotion. Pin three or four items at a time, wait a few hours or even a day and then pin more, giving your followers a little bit at a time.

4. Give Pinterest users a reason to follow you. Consider launching a promotion that gives your Pinterest followers a unique reason to follow you. Maybe you release your new line on Pinterest first or offer a giveaway once you reach 1000 Pinterest followers. Just like all other forms of social media, you will get out what you put in, interaction with your consumers is the key.

These suggestions are a few quick ways to become a Pinterest-friendly company and increase your likelihood of gaining followers and repins. The trick to Pinterest is not only gaining followers but keeping them, following a bit of pin-etiquette will keep your fans coming back for more.

The Pin Savvy Social team is available for individual consultation to help you effectively market to your consumers. Contact us for more information.

How to Sign In to Multiple Google Accounts, Simultaneously

Google has been making a lot of changes lately, and change is hard. We love Google for the most part, but with new improvements come new headaches! One issue brought by the new changes that has been frustrating for us is juggling personal and business accounts. Previously, you could have multiple Google Accounts open in the same browser, however now (after accepting new terms and conditions) it is harder to use multiple Google Accounts simultaneously. Given Google's responsiveness to user feedback, I'm assuming this account consolidation is still in BETA (at least I'm hoping this is true).

We came across a good how-to-guide to fix this problem, (See Reverse Symmetry) and wanted to share it with you in our own adaptation in 5 simple steps!

Step 1 - Click on your account name in the top, right hand corner. Select "Account Settings."

Step 2 - Go to "Security," and check status of "Multiple sign-in" field. If "Off", click edit.

Step 3 - On the following screen (below) select "On" and check all boxes below. Save.

You'll notice that Google currently only allows for multiple sign in for a handful of their products. Therefore, you will still encounter some difficulties when attempting to access several Google Products (i.e. Blogger, Adwords, Analytics) that you control via different accounts. Hopefully, they will add multiple sign in to the full suite of products soon.

Step 4 - Complete steps 1-3 for all necessary accounts.

Step 5 - Now, when you want to open another Google Account: click on your account name again, then "Switch Account". You should see a drop down with your multiple accounts. Select the name of the additional account to switch from one to the other OR right click the additional account you'd like to open and select "Open in New Tab" in your browser prompt.

That should do it! According to Reverse Symmetry, Google is now completing this process for you whenever you make a second account, but should you need to do it manually, this guide should cover you! Happy tab toggling! Hopefully, Google will soon improve this process...keep hope alive.

Entering the Mobile Sector with Sokol Blosser and Aeries Development

Since the launch of the iPhone in 2007, the mobile web market has exploded in annual triple digit growth to become a multi-billion dollar industry with increasing smartphone and tablet options for consumers. Some sources even say that now 1 in 5 Internet users do NOT access the web with a "traditional" computer.

cascade has officially jumped into mobile web development and has slick new mobile site for Aeries Development and optimized form for Sokol Blosser!

Sokol Blosser was in need of a "cool" way for users to sign-up for their e-newsletter when handling Sokol Blosser's new iPads in the tasting room or at an event. When building the mobile form, we made several aesthetic changes (i.e. larger fonts and fields, field title overlays) and accounted for the variety of formatting differences between mobile devices, and the orientation of the devices (i.e. whether you're holding the device horizontally or vertically).

Aeries Development required an entirely new website fully optimized for mobile devices. If you view their site on your computer and then on your mobile device, the visual differences are slight. This is because the largest pain point of viewing their previous, non-optimized site on a mobile device was the time it took for the pages to load. Since the majority of their work is visually displayed, this was a large issue. By altering the way images and content were rendered, we vastly decreased loading time and provided a more efficient user experience. Other adjustments were also made to improve navigation both on the home and internal pages.

Here are a few items to consider when optimizing your site for mobile devices:

1. How should navigation be altered? - The vast majority of mobile devices' navigation is driven by touch. Therefore, your main navigation and buttons used throughout the site must be adjusted for fingers (accounting for skinny and fat figures should definitely be a consideration...no joke). Here few examples of issues you might want to look for: buttons/links that are too close to one another, buttons/links that are too small to pinpoint with your finger, and if buttons/links can be easily identified as such.
   
2. Screen size - Websites are normally designed to account for anywhere between 640 and 1280+ pixels. Mobile devices are obviously much, much smaller. Therefore, more often then not you'll need to reconsider the way your website navigation and page content is displayed (i.e. most websites switch from horizontal to vertical navigation during optimization). This can also include "cutting the fat" or removing some non-essential main navigation items and content since your "real estate" on a mobile screen is limited.
   
3. Loading time - Although mobile loading speeds have improved over the past few years, the load speed for bringing up a non-optimized site is leagues behind that of a traditional computer. There are however many ways to get around this snag. Some easier than others. This is usually determined on a case-by-case scenario.
   
4. Flash - Steve Jobs, why are you so stubborn?
   

Please contact us if you're interested in learning more about mobile optimization and/or want to explore this opportunity with your current site.

Down Time

There are certain words, or combinations of them, that can cause any web development team to cringe. "Server" and "Crash" are, ideally, to be separated at all times and uttered in the same labored breath as rarely as possible.

A server going down usually translates into justifiably unhappy clients, an over-stressed web team, a very long night for all of thee above, and, in many cases, a loss of confidence internally and externally.

Unfortunately, the scenario of a tech team pounding away at keyboards in the middle of the night, slightly resembling character geek stereotypes from a TV drama (I’m picturing Chloe from 24), is not rare enough. Despite the efforts of the best technical minds our there, it happens. Taxes will be collected, we will all grow old (even with the best plastic surgeon), and your site will go down. The real trick is expedient recovery and, in the worst case, restoration of data on a new server. For some companies, the website is an extension or tool of marketing. For others, its a hub of vital business logic and process. For cascade, we fall under each category and treat them accordingly.

In September of 2010, JPMorgan Chase, the second largest bank in the world’s largest economy, with an IT budget and staff that would rival some small nations, suffered a complete outage that lasted not for an hour, not for half a day, but for THREE DAYS! For three long days, customers were unable to log-in, transfer money, make payments, or even check their balance. In January of 2009, then popular blogging platform JournalSpace actually ceased operation. Not only could they not get the site up; they literally could not retrieve any data. For an unknown number of users, six years of witty family reenactments and how-to posts were instantly gone. (Could you imagine the uprising of Mom bloggers if this happened today? Horrifying.) After weeks of failed attempts at data recovery (reportedly costing the company more money than they had made the prior year), users were informed that the site would cease operation.

Cascade has been fortunate enough to have impressive collective up-time, but we don't take this for granted. When we have had problems, we've generally been able to isolate the issue (i.e. a site going down does not mean you don't get email) and bring things back up in a comparatively expedient manner. The fact that we backup early and often is what allows us to sleep at night. When we do encounter an issue, our first priority is to do whatever it takes to get things back up and running. Our second priority is to evaluate exactly what went wrong and how we can prevent recurrence. In the event that prevention is not possible, how can we minimize the risk or at the very least improve recovery time? This is the silver lining for us as a smart web company. Having an outage is a huge problem but what we learn from it almost always makes us more stable in the long run.

After hosting our clients web sites for almost a decade, we have a robust set of protocols for prevention and recovery but will never call it “good enough”. Regardless of whether you are hosting with cascade web//development or anyone else, realize that the most important questions are, not whether your site will go down (it will), but how fast it will come back up and are the proper backups in place to ensure it will come back up at all.

Portland Chosen for Google Hotpot

Santa isn't the only one delivering presents across Portland.

Today on Google's Places blog, the tech company announced our beloved PDX was chosen for the launch of their first local Hotpot campaign. Hotpot is an enhanced feature of Google Places. It allows users to rate local businesses and see friends' ratings both during Google searches and in the Hotpot rating app. Google summarizes Hotspot best as:

a local recommendation engine powered by you and your friends

Why was Portland chosen? Because we're awesome. Literally, that's what they said...or at least that's how I read it. You be the judge:

Portland is a tech savvy, forward-thinking city with a history of innovation and some of the best coffee houses, microbreweries and parks in the country. Whether you know it as The City of Roses, Stumptown, P-Town, Rip City or just PDX, Portland’s thriving local business community and strong heritage of being a trailblazer made it a great choice for us to try something new.

Google will be working with several Portland businesses educating them about Places and providing them with Business Kits (businesses can request one if they have a Places page). These kits mainly include marketing material and instructions on how business can benefit from Places and Hotpot.

Voodoo Donuts and fans at tonight's Blazers v. Magic game are already benefiting from Google being in town. They're also taking a group of the top 5 Hotpot users in Portland out for dinner through their second Hotpot Jackpot.

Read more about Hotpot, Google Places and where you might see them around town in the Hotpot Portland announcement, "Trailblazing in Portland".

By Kyle Bridges

Cascade Brand Announcement

We recently announced the launch of our new brand, logo and website. Here is an excerpt from our new story regarding our make-over. For the full story with more about how our company has evolved, check out our news page.



Cascade Web Development is quickly breaking free of our web development tag and transforming into engineers of industry leading online solutions. With the introduction of brandlive by Ben and Fritz Brumder, a Cascade Web Development veteran, more and more national and local companies are beginning to adopt these technologies. The Portland Developmental Commission (PDC) saw this potential and recently awarded the Portland based company with a working capital loan.

To culminate our rapid growth and better explain our brand structure, we realized we needed a new identity; One that provides stronger brand recognition and does not limit our abilities in consumer's eyes. In a similar situation to companies like Apple and Google, we decided to establish an umbrella brand which houses our current solutions. With that said, we would like to introduce a new look and ideology behind our family of brands.

Cascade was chosen as the name for the parent brand using web//development as a secondary title. Cascade appropriately represents the company in a strong and memorable manner yet personifies a more modern feel than Cascade Web Development was able to accomplish. The logo specifically expresses our strengths as a web services provider and our ability to develop custom solutions to meet our client's needs.

You'll also notice a different visual expression of our three solutions: evergreen, whitepass and brandlive. Each brand features a similar style and color pattern yet individually elicit a unique and distinguishable brand image. We hope these logos will become commonplace in our industry and personify each solution's features and functions at first glance.

As always, we thank you for your commitment to cascade and will continue to support your business with innovative solutions and tools to help you evolve.

Taking Home Some Hardware

Finally, we have a trophy to put on the shelf. The Cascade crew had a great time last night at the Portland Business Journal's 100 Fastest-Growing Private Companies banquet at the Portland Art Museum. Congratulations again to our clients who also made the list:

• AKT Services, LLP #88
• Papa Murphy's International #89
• Info Group Northwest #32
• Lewis and Clark Bank #16
  

Honored by the Portland Business Journal

The Portland Business Journal released their annual list of the Top 100 Fastest-Growing Private Companies, and we were thrilled to see Cascade Web Development included in this prestigious group. We are extremely humbled by our inclusion in this list and proud that we are able to keep are heads above water in this difficult economy.

We sincerely thank you for supporting us and for your commitment to Cascade.

We thoroughly enjoy our relationships with our great clients and partners (well, at least 90% of the time). It is amazing to be able to say that we genuinely love what we do.

We also want to congratulate several of our clients who were included on the list as well:

• AKT Services, LLP,
• Papa Murphy's International,
• InfoGroup Northwest,
• and Lewis and Clark Bank

The ranking of the companies is currently "Top Secret" but will be announced at the reception on June 24 from 5:30-8:30 at the Portland Art Museum. Please visit the Portland Business Journal to register for the event.

WebVisions 2010 Hits PDX

The circus is in town, and I'm not referring to Cirque du Soleil. Webvisions is back in Portland for its 10th year as the mecca for future web trends, designs, innovations and strategies.

Webvisions breaks the mold giving you more than just all the bells and whistles associated with the other 80% of conferences you'll attend this year. The event also hosts several parties (including a 10th anniversary bash), concerts, and their own awards show w/ karaoke (which will probably get awkward).

WebVisions explores the future of design, content creation, user experience and business strategy to uncover the trends and agents of change that will shatter your assumptions about the Web. Be ready to network, share ideas and be inspired by an all-star lineup of speakers.

The conference begins tomorrow at the Oregon Convention Center and runs until Friday (May 19-21). Keynote speakers such as Agnieszka Gasparska, Merlin Mann, and Luke Williams as well as numerous local faces will be on hand to wow you during sessions, panels and web design workshops.

Online registration is closed however passes are still available at the conference center.

Also, if you see Cam from Cascade be sure to say hello!

Portland Vies for Google's Heart with...Hops?!

They say the best way to win a man's affection is through his stomach. So then how does Portland win the affection of one of the most popular tech companies in the world?

Beer!?
Gigabit IPA, invented by master brewers at Hopworks, is one of the ways Portlanders hope to entice Google to choose our city as the test site for Google Fiber, their ridiculously fast high speed network. For a video with the brewer and more info on the beer, please visit Silicon Florist's post on the Google phenomenon.

The tech giant has had over 200 cities respond to their RFI, and we're not the only ones with an over-the-top sales pitch.

• Peoria, IL - Deemed "Google Day" as a new city holiday and recorded a song "Google It Now"
  
• Grand Rapids, MI - Organized a large support group and steering committee, created a YouTube video, and has the largest facebook group (over 22,000 strong) supporting the city's bid. Oh yeah, the city also organized a huge rally earlier in March where people joined hands to create a "Human Fiber". These guys are pumped.
• Duluth, MN - Not to be outdone, Duluth is hosting "Googlefest" (read more in the link below). Mayor Don Ness took it to a new level and plunged into the freezing waters of Lake Superior to show his devotion to the city's Google Fiber bid.
  

Check out this Fast Company article "Cities Go Gaga for Google Fiber..." with videos and more stories on the lengths cities are going to in order to win Google's affection.

Portland's Finest Find a Home

Thanks to Rick Turoczy of the Silicon Florist for turning me on to an awesomely simple site. If you weren't aware, Portland houses some of the most creative and artistically gifted minds in the country. Thanks to Chris Kalani (who also created yayeveryday.com), they now have a home.

we are PRTLND showcases Portland's community of designers, developers, photographers and a combination of innovative minds in a layout impossible to turn down. There isn't much to the site: profiles can be filtered by profession, click on a someone's witty picture and you'll be taken to their website, or select LOAD MORE to view more profiles. But that's what makes it great.


Whether you're a freelancer or employed and looking for talent, PRTLND is a fun place to explore and see what this city has to offer (the pictures are pretty awesome too)!

Reinventing American Business--One Bike at a Time

The recession, depression or just bad economy (you choose) hasn't been very inviting to new businesses ventures, however many entrepreneurs have ignored the warning signs and dove in head first. Case in point, I just read an article, "Young Guns Change Rules of Retail" from the Bicycle Retailer and Industry News (BRAIN).

The story showcased several young (pre-25) bike enthusiasts who've started custom bike shops in Colorado, New Mexico, Atlanta, and all across the US with a pretty cool spin on the normal retail business model. Rather than hustling customers with bikes off their sales floor, they've created an environment encouraging road warriors to hang out and tune up their bikes hoping sales will grow through a genuine relationship. They're basically selling the experience more than the product. The experience is basically a recreation of your old dorm room i.e used furniture and tight spaces. Regardless, this unique sales method seems to be working well for these young start-ups. They've found their niche and have viral marketing supporting their cause. I mean they did make it into BRAIN and (roll out the red carpet) the Cascade Web Development blog.

People in what seems like every industry have ditched their day job, whether forced or voluntary, to pursue their dream of being their own boss. The success stories sound great, but roughly 70-80% of start ups, in a normal economy, go under within the first 3 years of operation. You have to give credit to those who try but applause and pats on the back don't pay the bills.

Those new companies who do survive will be on the forefront of new business models and practices that we'll all be trying to emulate soon. New products are always popping up, but innovative thinking and breaking out of the mold might be the best solution to getting out of this mess (and the banks not throwing parties with government bailout money.....just a thought).

Okay, gather and discuss...I'll expect your feedback on Facebook.

CWD's Ben McKinley on Portland's 40 under Forty 2010 List

Look out Brad Pitt.

Ben McKinley, Cascade Web Development founder, was recently nominated to the Portland Business Journal's annual "40 under Forty" list of notable business and community figures in the Rose City. He will be honored at a reception on February 18, 2010 at the Gerding Theater at the Armory. If you'd like to join us in congratulating Ben and enjoy a great night out, please register here through the Portland Business Journal.

I'll provide more information after the reception (so check back in a few weeks). In the meantime, I found a post from the Silicon Florist, a blog about NW start-ups, which provides an opinion about the type of individuals nominated.

Social Media: Outdoor Product Companies Building Online Communities

Outdoor product companies are flooding the web to take part in social media in hopes of building online communities to build their brand, engage their customers and create new levels of brand loyalty. Unless you have been out on the trail or high in the hills for the last several years, this is old news. With the help of Twitter, Facebook and/or blogs, you have seen this take hold and evolve over in recent years. Below are some striking examples of how this medium is turning into a game changer for companies selling products to get people from behind their computers and into the great outdoors... ironic as that sounds.

- IF Bikes did a major site overhaul last year in an effort to better serve its customers and position itself as a clear leader in the custom bike world. So far, they have been successful in this effort. Their blog site that has garnered significant attention, as well. Just under half the number of total visitors to the main site visit the blog each month to learn more about the build process, see new bike pics and hear about where IF is showing up to promote their brand the cycling community. Most impressive.

- Tecnica and Blizzard are two well known international ski brands. They combined forces to create TecBlizzBuzz.com this fall. The blog was launched in early October the number of visitors has increased 25% in month two. This is off to a strong start as they create this new platform to communicate with their customers and dealers.

- While Cascade Web Development is not an outdoor product company, we too have put more attention to our social media efforts. As a reward, our blog traffic has increased 40% in recent months. We are finding that more like minded people and organizations are following us on twitter and facebook. And the most exciting result of all is the increased number of inbound inquiries for web solutions. Hard to argue with the merit of those results.

The rate of evolution in the social media realm is often mind numbing, but with results like these, its hard to argue the value of these efforts. We're all learning valuable lessons with each new post and review of analytics. One truth is that customers like to participate in the conversation. Its now up to brands to create and lead that charge. Stay tuned as the experiment continues...

Cutting Edge Cycling Manufacturer - Cutting Edge Web Presence

I recently visited Serotta Competition Cycles (if you don't know about Serotta, they make handmade, custom-fit bicycle frames using titanium, steel, and carbon fiber) at their Saratoga Springs, NY Headquarters to kick off the strategy phase our web development effort to provide a more dynamic web experience for current and potential customers and for dealers.

First Impressions - I've never met a more passionate team dedicated to providing its customers with the most technically advanced cycles for road and track through the use of cutting edge production technology, fitting methodologies, and materials.

The visit only added to our excitement about this project, which we are hoping to launch in the January/February timeframe.

Each member of the Serotta team that I met with has a vested interest in the project...

Amy Roxin (VP of Operations) - How can we use this technology to showcase our cycles, develop a community for customers and communicate better with dealers?

Paraic McGlynn (Director of Applied Cycling Science) - How can we convey our message that the very best of materials, technology, and fitting go into making a superior cycle?

Jared Porter (Production Manager) - How can we keep dealers informed of where the bike is in the manufacturing process?

The following pictures were taken during my Factory Tour:

Every frame build starts with a fitting using Serotta's Size Cycle



My Tour Guide Jared with customer bikes returned from accidents for repair



Frame during the build process



Frames being prepared for paint



Final polish



Customer frames ready for shipment

From Good to Great with Live Video

How does your agency stack up against Ogilvy, Crispin Porter + Bogusky, and AKQA?

"Good" agencies move into the ranks of "Great" with ideas, smart risk and execution. Great clients help too, but that is a chicken and egg discussion.

I believe Live Video presents a unique platform for new ideas. Clearly I am not the only one (ADWEEK article "Marketers Get Real"). The best agencies and brands in the world are experimenting with live video. Diet Coke interviewed actor Ed Norton. Burger King broadcasted Tony Stewart taking a lie detector test professing his love for the burger. Nordica got 'face time' with 130 retailers, 3,500 miles appart in one hour. (A CWD project)

I think we are onto something here, the right mix of a great idea, risk and execution.

The idea: Create a live video platform that is dead simple to use, high in quality and scalable. Video itself is the ideal communication tool; if a picture tells a 1,000 words, a video explains a million. Surround the video with core brand messaging. Then incorporate a chat function that allows hundreds of viewers to communicate in a way that makes them feel connected.

The risk: Cost must be considered in today's world. We solved that, starting at $5,000 even smaller brands can dip their toe in the water. Time is also valuable. What does it take to produce a live video? Well not nothing, but if you KISS it the product will probably be better and it will take less time. Basic lighting and audio needs to be tested but all things can be overcome. Monetize it. If the goal is large audience communication, there is a risk that people will not show up or find value in it. I think that risk is just about gone, video is the hottest thing on the web right now.

The execution: It is all about having the right people or knowing the right people to be able to execute. At face value this stuff looks simple, but there are very real technological hurdles you need to get over. If you want to mitigate some of the risk find the right partner that has proven the execution.

----------------------------------------------------------
Where I am coming from:
Cascade Web Development is a Portland and Boston custom web development firm. We support advertising agencies across the US. We have developed a module for live video communication called Brand.Live on our platform Evergreen, a content and data management system.

e-commerce software: Pro's and Con's

<Return to www.cascadewebdev.com>

When evaluating e-commerce software the options are endless. Paypal to Shop-a-tron; Amazon to Volusion, Custom to Evergreen? Recently we traveled down a few different paths and this is what we learned:

Volusion:

• Pro: Endless off the shelf solutions (live chat, inventory, affiliate programs, refer a friend, ect.)
• Con: VERY limiting on design. Even a custom template is miss-leading because it is far from the custom I know. 

Evergreen:

• Pro: Customized look and feel; configurable to any business process.
• Con: Middle range upfront cost and longer development timeline when compared to turnkey. 

Paypal/Google Checkout:

• Pro: VERY easy to implement and integrate; brand familiarity for users checking out.
• Con: Their brand must live along side your brand.

Shop-a-tron:

• Pro: Provides manufacturers with a clean way to manage their retailer channel and capture direct sales.
• Con: Time consuming to implement and pricing is based on % of sales. 

Check a few screen shots from the various applications:

<Return to www.cascadewebdev.com>

JustAnswer.com - Ask A Question, Get An Expert Answer

Every now and then I come across an online service that gets me really excited. A month ago, it was Microsoft’s unveiling of their new SkyDrive service (providing free online data storage of up to 25 GB). Now, I’m writing about JustAnswer.com, an online service that connects inquiring laypeople with qualified “expert” respondents.

Here’s how it works:

1. You submit a question.
2. You select which “field” your question falls into from Taxes to Computers to even Pets!
3. You offer a deposit ranging from about $9 to $13. The higher your bid, the more attractive you’ve made your question. You only have to pay this amount if you are satisfied with the answer you receive.
4. Wait for an expert to reply.

Boasting over 20,000 experts, JustAnswer.com pretty much guarantees that they’ll be someone online 24/7 who can answer your question. The amount of your bid will likely determine how fast and thorough of an answer you receive.

While paying for answers isn’t for everyone, if you’re someone who needs an answer fast and just can’t seem to Google it for the life of you, JustAnswer.com may be exactly what you need.

If you’re interested, then go ahead of check out JustAnswer.com for yourself!

Google Chrome v Internet Explorer: Pt. 5

This post will be the last in my five-part series on why Google Chrome beats Internet Explorer as an internet browser. If you've missed one or all of my previous posts in this series, feel free to catch up now:

1: Tabs
2: Amazing Address Bar
3: Screen Size
4: Reliability

The last feature of Google Chrome which I'll tout today is its speed. This may come as a shock to those of you who've never used anything but IE to browse the internet, check your email, etc, but chances are your browsing speed could be significantly improved just by switching internet browsers.

From the beginning, installation alone of IE7 can take upwards of 10 minutes depending on your connection and hardware. For me, Google Chrome has consistently installed itself in less than 3 minutes (and without requiring me to restart my computer!).

Loading new windows in Google Chrome is extremely snappy with its IE counterpart feeling sluggish and impeding. I'm guessing this has more to do with the difference of weight in each browser's chrome, but it could well be something a lot more technical. The same thing goes for loading new tabs--though to a lesser extent.

In addition to these big ones, there are many more subtle ways in which Google Chrome can speed up your online activities. Perhaps the most hyped has been its new JavaScript rendering engine, V8. According to Google, V8 enables its browser to interpret JavaScript code (an increasingly popular internet programming language) at extremely fast rates compared to the preexisting technologies currently employed by other leading internet browsers.

What does this mean for you? It means faster responsiveness when loading and interacting with JavaScript-based web applications like Gmail and Youtube.

See how Google Chrome can accelerate your online pace by trying it out for yourself. Enjoy.

SkyDrive - 25 GB Free Online Storage

Microsoft recently unveiled the latest and greatest version of their online backup service, SkyDrive. The service allows users with Microsoft Live IDs access to 25 GB of free online storage. The idea seems to be two-fold: first, you could use your 25 GB for backing-up your files and documents to ensure that even if your house burns down, your data is safe. Or, you could use the service as a channel to securely share photos and other multimedia with friends.

Whether or not SkyDrive is going to succeed in the long run, 25 GB is a LOT of free space which will hopefully serve as a trendsetter in the expansion of free online storage services.

For more information or to sign up for 25 GB of free online storage, check out the Microsoft SkyDrive website.