Sunday, July 4, 2010
Google Apps Marketplace highlights, 6/29/2010
Google Apps Marketplace highlights, 6/29/2010: "
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Editor's note: This is the latest in a series of posts on new apps in the Google Apps Marketplace – things that have caught our eye here at Google. We’ll do this every few weeks or as we see things that we'd like to share. Look for the label 'marketplace highlights' and subscribe to the series if you'd like to stay tuned.
Businesses that use Google Apps not only get access to Google's applications, they also get easy access to some of the best business apps on the web through the Google Apps Marketplace. These Marketplace apps are easy to try and buy, and integrate with Google Apps 'out of the box,' making it even easier for businesses to run more of their systems in the cloud.
You can learn more about the Marketplace and watch a short video on how it works here.
Get Satisfaction – Customer communities
Businesses that use Google Apps not only get access to Google's applications, they also get easy access to some of the best business apps on the web through the Google Apps Marketplace. These Marketplace apps are easy to try and buy, and integrate with Google Apps 'out of the box,' making it even easier for businesses to run more of their systems in the cloud.
You can learn more about the Marketplace and watch a short video on how it works here.
Get Satisfaction – Customer communities
Get Satisfaction is a social platform that helps businesses and organizations create customer communities that facilitate conversations, reduce support costs, and gather real-time market feedback.
- Build better customer relationships
- Reduce support costs
- Collect valuable market data
Jobscore – Recruiting and applicant tracking
JobScore is a "hiring headquarters" where your entire team can securely see and search your jobs, resumes & feedback.
- Free applicant tracking system and careers site
- Easily post to multiple job boards with one click
- Unlimited users = more referrals & better feedback
Concur Breeze – Expense Reports
Concur Breeze is designed specifically to help small businesses take the hassle out of expense reporting, enabling employees to spend more time making on productive work.
Concur Breeze is designed specifically to help small businesses take the hassle out of expense reporting, enabling employees to spend more time making on productive work.
- Expense reports created from credit card charges
- Built-in best practice setup
- 30-day free trial
gTrax – Timesheets
gTrax is an integrated tool for recording and reporting on your employees time usage on a per project basis.
gTrax is an integrated tool for recording and reporting on your employees time usage on a per project basis.
- Identify and apply resources to projects
- Explore employees' activities
- Create time budgets and monitor progress
Surveymonkey - Online Surveys
Quickly and easily gather the insights you need to move your business forward.
- Powerful yet simple survey creation
- Fast & flexible response gathering
- Intelligent reporting & analysis
Posted by Scott McMullan, Google Apps Partner Lead, Google Enterprise
Mark Zuckerberg: Facebook 'almost guaranteed' to reach 1 billion users
Mark Zuckerberg: Facebook 'almost guaranteed' to reach 1 billion users: "
Russia, Japan, China and Japan only remaining countries where Facebook not leading social network says founder
Facebook's global dominance is almost complete with just Russia, Japan, China and Japan yet to be converted and the social networking giant aiming to reach 1 billion users, founder Mark Zuckerberg revealed today.
Zuckerberg, who said he had recently met Prime Minister David Cameron 'for just a minute [when] he was busy rolling out the budget', also admitted that one day he could see Facebook floating on the stockmarket – just not anytime soon.
He added that there was 'no chance' Facebook, which has cracked the 500 million user mark, would hit 1 billion this year but argued that 'it is almost a guarantee that it will happen'.
'If we succeed [in innovating and remaining relevant] there is a good chance of bringing this to a billion people… it will be interesting to see how it plays out,' he said speaking to two packed auditoriums – one via video link – at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival.
Facebook's global domination is almost complete, he said. 'We are down to just four countries where we aren't the leading social network.'
Zuckerberg added that in Russia Facebook had just 1 million users, the kind of numbers that saw AOL sell off Bebo and ITV relinquish Friends Reunited. But in Facebook's case, growth is 'doubling every six months', according to Zuckerberg, and Japan and Korea have similar user bases.
He said that Facebook can tell when an explosive growth 'tipping point' is about to be reached by who is 'friending' who. When Facebook first launches in a country, nearly all the friend connections are with foreign Facebook users.
'We know that a country has tipped when local-to-local connections outnumber local to foreign,' he added. 'It is a long-term thing [and with regard to the four left to tip] we are probably not going to win in six months, not in a year [but] things look promising in three to five years out.'
He also said that the company would make an initial public offering. 'At some point, sure,' he said. 'It is probably not that different [running a public company compared with a privately held one].' However, after many sceptical guffaws in the Cannes audience he backtracked and said: 'OK, I'm sure it is a lot different.'
Zuckerberg added that one of the issues was that he was in it with a long-term view, which most investors are not if you go public, which he admitted was a 'challenge'.
He also addressed concerns over privacy, explaining that Facebook's meteoric growth had meant the company had been caught out while it was in 'transition'. However, he added that the changing face of how privacy is perceived now that users are in a digital age meant that there were always going to be 'natural tensions'.
'Six years ago most people didn't want any information about themselves on web,' he said. 'To start off people were a bit reticent about this. Then over time people think it is great to be connected and share things. I think the world looks a lot different now. There is a real natural tension between people seeing the value of sharing more stuff but wanting control over what they share.'
Zuckerberg added that as Facebook developed it built privacy controls for everything. At one point there were more than 100 individual settings users could change, which it had been important to simplify as the company had to 'transition [and be] pretty quick to adjust and evolve to 500 million users'.
'People have very legitimate questions and it is an important dialogue,' he said.
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Facebook payment application will let friends 'share money' online
Facebook payment application will let friends 'share money' online: "
Buxter software is expected to take the market for game credits and gifts to £554m
Facebook users are expected to spend millions of pounds online following the release of a new application which allows developers to make money out of previously free games.
Platogo, a developer of games on the social networking site, has said it has begun using the application to enable its players to use real money – up to €50 (£40) at a time – to buy virtual currency in its Facebook games.
The new application, called Buxter, was released by the payments company ClickandBuy earlier this year, and is described as an online wallet to allow Facebook users to send and receive money, for example to contribute towards a friend's birthday present, or to repay a share of a restaurant bill.
Buxter's website says: 'It used to be only messages, images and videos that you could share with your friends on Facebook. With Buxter, you can now also share money.
'Whether it is the lunch money you owe a friend, or the virtual item you want to buy in your favourite game, Buxter is there to provide you with safe and simple payment solutions.'
However, Platogo, an Austrian games company that has developed games such as Veggie Snake and Whac-A-Pal, believes that Buxter could also hold the key to helping developers generate revenues from previously free-to-play social network games.
Jakob Sommerhuber, chief executive officer at Platogo, said: 'Research from the Inside Virtual Goods Report shows that the market for games and gifts within social networks will be worth $835m [£554m] by the end of this year. For any business operating within Facebook this is a potentially huge market. The problem until now has been how to make it easy for users to make payments – to buy virtual goods within games, for example. Buxter has solved that problem in a stroke.'
In an interview for Inside Social Games, Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive of Facebook, said it made sense that there should be one currency that could be used on games developed by different companies, including Farmville creator Zynga. 'If I go play a CrowdStar game right now and get credits there, I can't go use those credits in a Zynga game, so that kind of sucks.
'One of the biggest inefficiencies in buying virtual goods is all the friction of having to take your credit card out, so having one store of [virtual currency] that you can use everywhere is both good for users and good for all the apps.'
But this could be bad news for parents who are trying to keep tabs on their children's Facebook activities. The Guardian recently reported on a 12-year-old boy who used his mother's credit card to buy £900 of virtual currency on the Farmville game.
Michael Arrington, founder of the Techcrunch blog, criticised Zynga last year for monetising Farmville, accusing the games developer of generating 'hundreds of millions of dollars' from unsuspecting players, many of whom are children.
ClickandBuy has welcomed Platogo's adoption of its application. Charles Fraenkl, CEO of ClickandBuy, said: 'This is a fascinating piece of innovation by Platogo. They were quick to spot that Buxter is just as suited for use by businesses within Facebook that use micro-payments as it is for Facebook users.'
Fraenkl added: 'Platogo's imagination looks set to have opened up a way for thousands of Facebook businesses to begin generating revenues from apps that were previously free to use.'
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
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How To Become Instantly Rich: Learn How To Program
How To Become Instantly Rich: Learn How To Program: "
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Everybody Wants A Developer Ninja/King/Expert/….
There are a million words to describe a qualified developer. The most critical thing all companies want to avoid is a developer who will drag their feet or simply doesn’t know how to program efficiently. If you are a developer and you can’t program efficiently and keep churning out crappy code, don’t be too hard on yourself, just realize that the key aspect that separates the “developer geniuses” from the rest is that they are constantly learning, everyone else just sucks at life.
Granted, talent is important. If you aren’t the most logical (or intelligent) person on the block, you may want to try another profession and leverage your strengths. However if you are a curious individual, programming may be the profession for you. Best of all, developer salaries are rising quickly. Every company I know is looking to hire developers. Yes, you need experience. Don’t have experience? Sharpen those swords ninja!! Practice makes perfect so start building the “next hot app” and even if it doesn’t work out, you’ll at least improve your programming skills.
Who Wants You?
Facebook, Google, Apple, Twitter, are just a few companies looking for talented developers. Don’t want to work at a big name company or one with thousands of employees? Every single small startup is looking for you. I want you!! Qualified developers don’t need me to tell them this though because they’re too busy turning down job offers and not replying to half the emails in their inbox. Sounds pretty baller, right? Hell yeah! Learn how to code and you too can become a rockstar! Just make sure you keep learning, otherwise you suck at life (as previously mentioned).
Is There A Lack Of Smart People?
Let’s be honest, any developer that’s talented most likely already has a job and if they don’t, they think they are building the next Facebook, Google, YouTube, or [Insert successful internet startup name here] and turning down job offers left and right while they spend long nights programming. Your best bet is those programmers. While they may indeed come up with a great idea, most of them are going to run out of money eventually because 95 percent of startups fail in the first year. However if they were an early Google or Facebook employee, they are probably already funded, CTO of that next hot startup, and really are building the next Google. Sorry!
With so much demand for quality development talent, one has to wonder if there is a lack of logical and intelligent thinkers. Most of the time I find that the only startups that aren’t working or can’t find quality talent is that they have a lack of inspirational leadership. Mark Zuckerberg, for example, may not be the most sociable developer, however he did some bad ass shit in college by hacking into some computers and developers respect that.
He’s also a talented developer which is why he has been able to attract other world class software engineers like Bret Taylor, Paul Bucheit, Blake Ross, and Joe Hewitt, just to name a few.
The Whole Credit Thing
Want to be put on the front cover of Forbes for that sick product you just built (and your billion dollar bank account)? So do I! However programming talent alone will not get you there. Being sociable and confident is also critical. I’m not going to list all the personality traits that will make you attractive to others, however if you spend more time learning how to become a leader and not just a talented developer, you’ll have a chance to rise above the others. It all starts in one place though: learn how to code.
Steve Jobs may not be the best software engineer but he sure as hell tried his hand at it when starting Apple. He also focused heavily on leadership and building culture. Anyways, the bottom line is this: if you really want to build that next hot startup your best bet is to learn how to code, everything else will follow.
This public service announcement was brought to you by your friendly next door developer and entrepreneur!
"
Facebook Stops Allowing HTML In App Info Tabs
Facebook Stops Allowing HTML In App Info Tabs: "
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If you are the developer of an application, I highly suggest making the change. Additionally, Facebook application pages can provide you with an interesting way to engage new visitors to your application. In other words you should be able to create a pre-installation tab which is used to convince users to install your application. So far I’ve seen no application developers use this strategy at all, however there’s a good chance that a large percentage of visitors to an application’s page fail to make it to the next step of the installation process.
So developers: go create more effective landing tabs for your applications an increase new install conversions! In the meantime, remove HTML from the HTML tab of your application.
"
Study: Facebook Profile Ads Are More Effective Than Homepage Ads
Study: Facebook Profile Ads Are More Effective Than Homepage Ads: "
"
Here were the main finding of the survey:
- 71% of users looked at adverts on their Profile pages, 31% of users looked at adverts on the News Feed page (homepage).
Users pay more attention (53% vs. 31%) to page updates in their News Feed Wall rather than adverts to the right-hand side of the Wall. - 30 out of the 40 users log on to Facebook once a day or more.
- The average number of pages these users are fans of is 28 pages.
- Games were mentioned as a popular Facebook activity in pre-test questionnaire. When questioned directly if they play any games on Facebook, only 11 out of 40 indicated that they do, the most popular game is Farmville.
- Just over half of these users currently share videos via Facebook. Younger rather than older users are more likely to share videos. Posting a URL link to their own status update in Facebook or commenting on a friend’s status was their preferred way to share video.
If you want to view the full study, you can find it here.
"
Facebook Launches A New Suggested Interests Box
Facebook Launches A New Suggested Interests Box: "
"
Remember all the controversy surrounding Twitter’s suggested interests box? Whether or not you do, Facebook is now offering a feature which automatically suggests Pages that new users should become a fan of. Right now the suggestions appear to be among the top Facebook Pages so there shouldn’t be as much controversy, given that most pages are mainstream. This contrasts Twitter’s initial strategy which effectively built popular individuals and helped launch a few media companies in a matter of months.
So who’s included on this new suggestions list? Right now we found the following pages:
- Barack Obama
- Lady Gaga
- Skittles
- Monster Energy
- Dr Pepper
- Shane Dawson
- Xbox
- World Cup
- Eminem
- Justin Bieber
- Toy Story
- Futurama
- Playstation
- The Office
- Many more!
For the time being, Facebook’s suggested interests box which will be displayed to users will not be as controversial as Twitter’s which was initially a relatively biased list. Instead, this is simply a way to get users posting more information and a great way to automatically populate the feed of new users who are just joining Facebook.
"
City Tours
City Tours: "
Ever fumbled around with guide books and maps when visiting a new city? Why should planning your day be any more complicated than
opening up your browser and entering your current address?
Given a starting address, City Tours finds nearby points of interest and suggests a walking tour which visits as many points of interest as possible in the time available. We take each attraction's opening hours into consideration and will never suggest a visit to an attraction when we think it's closed.
If you already know what you want to visit, City Tours can also create a tour from any My Map. Share your favorite maps and allow others
experience your city tour, customised to exactly where and when they are staying and visiting!
Google Reader Play
Google Reader Play: "
"
Google Reader Play a new way to browse interesting stuff on the web. It's super easy to use - after you've read an item, just click the next arrow to move to the next one. Let us know which stuff you enjoy by clicking the 'like' button, and we'll use that info to show you more stuff that you'll like.
What kind of stuff do we include in Reader Play?
- The most popular items on the web
- Items that several of your friends have shared
- Other great stuff we think you'll enjoy, based on your Reader Play history
"
Web Application Exploits and Defenses
Web Application Exploits and Defenses: "
This codelab shows how web applications can be exploited and how to defend against that. The best way to learn things is by doing, so you'll get a chance to do some real penetration testing, actually exploiting a real application. Specifically, you'll learn the following:
"
This codelab shows how web applications can be exploited and how to defend against that. The best way to learn things is by doing, so you'll get a chance to do some real penetration testing, actually exploiting a real application. Specifically, you'll learn the following:
- How an application can be attacked using common web security vulnerabilities, like cross-site scripting vulnerabilities (XSS) and cross-site request forgery (XSRF).
- How to find, fix, and avoid these common vulnerabilities and other bugs that have a security impact, such as denial-of-service, information disclosure, or remote code execution.
Google Mars
Google Mars: "
"
Google Mars allows you to view some of the most detailed maps of Mars created by NASA scientists. Explore the Red Planet's surface, keep track of orbiters and see the 'face' in the planet's surface.
We've included three different types of data in Google Mars:
Elevation - A shaded relief map, generated with data from the
Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter
(MOLA)
on NASA's Mars Global Surveyor
spacecraft. This map is color-coded by altitude, so you can use the
color key at the lower left to estimate elevations.
Visible - A mosaic of images taken by the Mars Orbiter
Camera (MOC)
on NASA's Mars Global
Surveyor spacecraft. MOC is like the digital camera you have
at home. Basically, this is what your eyes would see if you
were in orbit around Mars.
Infrared - A mosaic of infrared images
taken by the Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) on NASA's
Mars Odyssey
spacecraft. Warmer areas appear brighter, and
colder areas are darker. Clouds and dust in the atmosphere
are transparent in the infrared, making this the sharpest
global map of Mars that's ever been made.
"
Google News Timeline
Google News Timeline: "
Google News Timeline is a web application that organizes information chronologically. It allows users to view news and other data sources on a zoomable, graphical timeline. You can navigate through time by dragging the timeline, setting the 'granularity' to weeks, months, years, or decades, or just including a time period in your query (ie. '1977').
Available data sources include recent and historical news, scanned newspapers and magazines, blog posts and Twitter status messages, sports scores and various types of media like music albums and movies.
Get started with some of our favorite queries like Nobel
Physics Prize, Jack
Nicholson movies, Barack
Obama quotes, Baseball
news photos.
Google Squared
Google Squared: "
Google Squared is an experimental tool that takes a category (like US presidents, roller coasters, or digital cameras) and attempts to create a starter 'square' of information, automatically fetching and organizing facts from across the web. You can modify your square by removing rows and columns you don't like--or by adding new rows and columns and having Google Squared attempt to fetch the relevant facts. Verify and correct the facts in your square by exploring the original sources and investigating other possible values. If you're happy with your square you can save it and come back to it later. Google Squared does the grunt work for you, making research fast and easy."
Google Squared is an experimental tool that takes a category (like US presidents, roller coasters, or digital cameras) and attempts to create a starter 'square' of information, automatically fetching and organizing facts from across the web. You can modify your square by removing rows and columns you don't like--or by adding new rows and columns and having Google Squared attempt to fetch the relevant facts. Verify and correct the facts in your square by exploring the original sources and investigating other possible values. If you're happy with your square you can save it and come back to it later. Google Squared does the grunt work for you, making research fast and easy."
Android Scripting Environment
Android Scripting Environment: "
The Android Scripting Environment (ASE) brings scripting languages to
Android by allowing you to edit and execute scripts and interactive
interpreters directly on the Android device. These scripts have access
to many of the APIs available to full-fledged Android applications,
but with a greatly simplified interface that makes it easy to get
things done. Scripts can be run interactively in a terminal, in the
background, or via Locale. Python, Perl, JRuby, Lua, BeanShell,
JavaScript, Tcl, and shell are currently supported, and we're planning
to add more. See the ASE
Video Help playlist on YouTube for various demonstrations of ASE's
features."
The Android Scripting Environment (ASE) brings scripting languages to
Android by allowing you to edit and execute scripts and interactive
interpreters directly on the Android device. These scripts have access
to many of the APIs available to full-fledged Android applications,
but with a greatly simplified interface that makes it easy to get
things done. Scripts can be run interactively in a terminal, in the
background, or via Locale. Python, Perl, JRuby, Lua, BeanShell,
JavaScript, Tcl, and shell are currently supported, and we're planning
to add more. See the ASE
Video Help playlist on YouTube for various demonstrations of ASE's
features."
Google Apps highlights – 7/2/2010
Google Apps highlights – 7/2/2010: "This is part of a regular series of Google Apps updates that we post every couple of weeks. Look for the label “Google Apps highlights' and subscribe to the series. - Ed.
In the last couple of weeks, we added a set of new features to help you handle various file types more efficiently in Google Docs and Gmail, and new capabilities to help large complex organizations manage Google Apps. We also have some exciting news about new customers in the education sector.
Google Voice available for more users
Last week we were happy to open up Google Voice for everyone in the U.S. Now millions more people can get a phone number that rings all their phones, voicemail that works like email, free calls and text messages to the U.S. and Canada, low-priced international calls and more. Google Voice isn’t ready for businesses and schools quite yet, but we’re exploring additional functionality for organizations.
View more file types right in your browser
Gmail already lets you view .pdf, .ppt and .tiff attachments in your browser without downloading these files to your computer, and last week we added support for viewing .doc and .docx files. Just click the “View” link next to the attachment in Gmail to see the file.
On Monday we also added the ability to view .pdf, .ppt, .doc and .docx files that you have in Google Docs on mobile devices. From your iPhone, iPad or Android device, you can quickly flip from page to page and pan/zoom within a page.
Optical character recognition (OCR) in Google Docs
You were already able to upload and share images and PDF files with Google Docs, and last week we launched a feature that converts images of text into editable text. JPEG, GIF, PNG and PDF files can be uploaded as editable Google documents with this feature. Supported languages include English, French, Italian, German and Spanish, with more languages and character sets on their way.
Support for Google Apps customers with multiple domains
Until last Wednesday, Google Apps customers with users at more than one domain (like bob@domain1.com and sue@domain2.com) had to manage Google Apps separately for each domain. Last week we added the ability for customers to administer two or more domains together. This feature also makes it much easier for employees to share information through Google Docs, Calendar and Sites with their counterparts in different divisions. For example, Brady Corporation is using this feature to streamline the use and administration of Google Apps across 88 domains!
Google Apps Innovation in the first half of 2010
Businesses using Google Apps not only save money, but also their employees get access to new features and functionality at a much faster pace than with conventional business technologies. We've launched over 50 improvements to Google Apps in the last six months, and last week we hosted a webcast to recap noteworthy recent updates for businesses, including more powerful search in Gmail, next-generation editors in Google Docs, Google Wave, the Apps Marketplace and more. If you missed the webcast, you can watch it on YouTube.
Who’s gone Google?
We’re thrilled about the news from Colorado and Iowa, both of which have opened the doors to Google Apps for teachers and students at schools state-wide, right on the heels of Oregon’s decision to use Google Apps at their schools, too.
We also wanted to shine the spotlight on a couple other new customers: Brown University and Imagination, an 800-employee marketing and communications agency based in the U.K. You can watch their stories here:
I hope you're making the most of these new features, whether you're using Google Apps with friends, family, coworkers or classmates. For more details and updates from the Apps team, head on over to the Google Apps Blog.
Posted by Jeremy Milo, Google Apps Marketing Manager
"
In the last couple of weeks, we added a set of new features to help you handle various file types more efficiently in Google Docs and Gmail, and new capabilities to help large complex organizations manage Google Apps. We also have some exciting news about new customers in the education sector.
Google Voice available for more users
Last week we were happy to open up Google Voice for everyone in the U.S. Now millions more people can get a phone number that rings all their phones, voicemail that works like email, free calls and text messages to the U.S. and Canada, low-priced international calls and more. Google Voice isn’t ready for businesses and schools quite yet, but we’re exploring additional functionality for organizations.
View more file types right in your browser
Gmail already lets you view .pdf, .ppt and .tiff attachments in your browser without downloading these files to your computer, and last week we added support for viewing .doc and .docx files. Just click the “View” link next to the attachment in Gmail to see the file.
On Monday we also added the ability to view .pdf, .ppt, .doc and .docx files that you have in Google Docs on mobile devices. From your iPhone, iPad or Android device, you can quickly flip from page to page and pan/zoom within a page.
Optical character recognition (OCR) in Google Docs
You were already able to upload and share images and PDF files with Google Docs, and last week we launched a feature that converts images of text into editable text. JPEG, GIF, PNG and PDF files can be uploaded as editable Google documents with this feature. Supported languages include English, French, Italian, German and Spanish, with more languages and character sets on their way.
Support for Google Apps customers with multiple domains
Until last Wednesday, Google Apps customers with users at more than one domain (like bob@domain1.com and sue@domain2.com) had to manage Google Apps separately for each domain. Last week we added the ability for customers to administer two or more domains together. This feature also makes it much easier for employees to share information through Google Docs, Calendar and Sites with their counterparts in different divisions. For example, Brady Corporation is using this feature to streamline the use and administration of Google Apps across 88 domains!
Google Apps Innovation in the first half of 2010
Businesses using Google Apps not only save money, but also their employees get access to new features and functionality at a much faster pace than with conventional business technologies. We've launched over 50 improvements to Google Apps in the last six months, and last week we hosted a webcast to recap noteworthy recent updates for businesses, including more powerful search in Gmail, next-generation editors in Google Docs, Google Wave, the Apps Marketplace and more. If you missed the webcast, you can watch it on YouTube.
Who’s gone Google?
We’re thrilled about the news from Colorado and Iowa, both of which have opened the doors to Google Apps for teachers and students at schools state-wide, right on the heels of Oregon’s decision to use Google Apps at their schools, too.
We also wanted to shine the spotlight on a couple other new customers: Brown University and Imagination, an 800-employee marketing and communications agency based in the U.K. You can watch their stories here:
I hope you're making the most of these new features, whether you're using Google Apps with friends, family, coworkers or classmates. For more details and updates from the Apps team, head on over to the Google Apps Blog.
Posted by Jeremy Milo, Google Apps Marketing Manager
"
Friday, January 22, 2010
Making Facebook Accessible for Everyone
I am a huge music fan. I played in two garage bands when I was younger and today, I can still be found playing guitar, listening to music and updating my "best of" music lists. When I first heard about Facebook, I thought it was the perfect place to reconnect with former band members and talk about music, but then I ran into a problem. As a blind person using Facebook, I had trouble updating my profile and using the site.
You may be wondering how people with vision loss use computers or surf the web. The answer is quite simple: People who are blind or visually impaired use a screen magnification program to enlarge fonts in order to optimize the screen for reading, or they use a screen reading program that reads the text aloud. These are quick, efficient and helpful solutions — that is, if the websites and computer programs are properly designed.
The challenge is that not all Web pages are compatible with screen readers and magnifiers. When a website is built without regard to accessible design, screen reading software cannot interpret the information, which prevents the blind person from accessing the site. Social networking sites present some especially difficult challenges. For instance, images are an important part of the site experience, but it is rare that photos get described. Even while in the middle of reading a page, comments or links can change in ways that are undetectable to the screen reader or fall outside the viewing window of screen-magnification.
About two years ago, AFB approached Facebook in order to combat the accessibility problems of blind members who were having trouble using the site and its applications, including AFB's own cause on Facebook. From our very first interaction, Facebook has been responsive to our feedback and committed to finding solutions to these problems. This has underscored the fact that Facebook is a community dedicated to all of its members, including those with disabilities.
Because of our collaboration with Facebook, there is an accessibility-specific help center page to channel feedback from the disability community and provide instructional tips on using assistive technology with Facebook. We're also working together on design changes that will make the site more usable for people with visual impairments.
While our ultimate goal of making the Internet fully accessible is far from being attained, we are making progress toward reaching that goal by working together with organizations like Facebook. Source link...
Good News link...
You may be wondering how people with vision loss use computers or surf the web. The answer is quite simple: People who are blind or visually impaired use a screen magnification program to enlarge fonts in order to optimize the screen for reading, or they use a screen reading program that reads the text aloud. These are quick, efficient and helpful solutions — that is, if the websites and computer programs are properly designed.
The challenge is that not all Web pages are compatible with screen readers and magnifiers. When a website is built without regard to accessible design, screen reading software cannot interpret the information, which prevents the blind person from accessing the site. Social networking sites present some especially difficult challenges. For instance, images are an important part of the site experience, but it is rare that photos get described. Even while in the middle of reading a page, comments or links can change in ways that are undetectable to the screen reader or fall outside the viewing window of screen-magnification.
About two years ago, AFB approached Facebook in order to combat the accessibility problems of blind members who were having trouble using the site and its applications, including AFB's own cause on Facebook. From our very first interaction, Facebook has been responsive to our feedback and committed to finding solutions to these problems. This has underscored the fact that Facebook is a community dedicated to all of its members, including those with disabilities.
Because of our collaboration with Facebook, there is an accessibility-specific help center page to channel feedback from the disability community and provide instructional tips on using assistive technology with Facebook. We're also working together on design changes that will make the site more usable for people with visual impairments.
While our ultimate goal of making the Internet fully accessible is far from being attained, we are making progress toward reaching that goal by working together with organizations like Facebook. Source link...
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