A new tool is available to give users options when it comes to Google Hangout graphics. Hangout Magix was unveiled on May 4 by entrepreneurs Alex Kozak and Bertrand Diouly.
The app is intended to work alongside Hangout Toolbox, a Google+ extension that is available on the left sidebar of Google Hangouts.
“Hangout Toolbox already lets you add some graphic elements to your presentations, but it’s very basic,” said Kozak. “Hangout Magix gives you more options.”
The tool requires minimal design skills or experience, according to Kozak. Anyone can use the tool for free directly on hangoutmagix.com. Users can change around the design elements that appear on the screen during Hangouts, including text, backgrounds, colors, and logos. The design elements can be made to appear on the lower third of the screen, the sidebar, or even toward the top.
By simply clicking on the text part of the demo screen and typing a new title and subtitle, users can change the text to include their name, job title, social media accounts, a call to action, or whatever they choose.
Then they can choose from a predetermined group of background styles and colors to appear behind the text.
They can also add a logo to appear to the right of their text by choosing from a selection of popular logos or uploading a custom company logo. Once all the elements have been customized, users can download the file and then use Hangout Toolbox to add the design to their Hangouts.
Once Hangout Toolbox is open, users need to turn on the custom overlay option on the right side of the screen. Then upload the file created with Hangout Magix. Users can upload graphics to use with both Google Hangouts and Hangouts On Air.
Kozak is a self-proclaimed “Google Hangouts fan.” He said that the idea for Hangout Magix came to him just a few months ago out of a desire to have more options to customize his own Hangouts. Diouly had been involved in creating some similar graphics tools, so the two were able to form a partnership and quickly launch the new tool.
Hangout Magix is still a work in progress, according to Kozak, as the creators are looking to gain feedback from users.
The post Hangout Magix: New Tool Lets You Add Branding to Google Hangouts appeared first on Small Business Trends.
A new tool is available to give users options when it comes to Google Hangout graphics. Hangout Magix was unveiled on May 4 by entrepreneurs Alex Kozak and Bertrand Diouly.
The app is intended to work alongside Hangout Toolbox, a Google+ extension that is available on the left sidebar of Google Hangouts.
“Hangout Toolbox already lets you add some graphic elements to your presentations, but it’s very basic,” said Kozak. “Hangout Magix gives you more options.”
The tool requires minimal design skills or experience, according to Kozak. Anyone can use the tool for free directly on hangoutmagix.com. Users can change around the design elements that appear on the screen during Hangouts, including text, backgrounds, colors, and logos. The design elements can be made to appear on the lower third of the screen, the sidebar, or even toward the top.
By simply clicking on the text part of the demo screen and typing a new title and subtitle, users can change the text to include their name, job title, social media accounts, a call to action, or whatever they choose.
Then they can choose from a predetermined group of background styles and colors to appear behind the text.
They can also add a logo to appear to the right of their text by choosing from a selection of popular logos or uploading a custom company logo. Once all the elements have been customized, users can download the file and then use Hangout Toolbox to add the design to their Hangouts.
Once Hangout Toolbox is open, users need to turn on the custom overlay option on the right side of the screen. Then upload the file created with Hangout Magix. Users can upload graphics to use with both Google Hangouts and Hangouts On Air.
Kozak is a self-proclaimed “Google Hangouts fan.” He said that the idea for Hangout Magix came to him just a few months ago out of a desire to have more options to customize his own Hangouts. Diouly had been involved in creating some similar graphics tools, so the two were able to form a partnership and quickly launch the new tool.
Hangout Magix is still a work in progress, according to Kozak, as the creators are looking to gain feedback from users.
The post Hangout Magix: New Tool Lets You Add Branding to Google Hangouts appeared first on Small Business Trends.
The Meta 1 is a pair of augmented reality goggles that performs some very unique and useful tricks. While they are still in beta stage, the glasses are coupled with a Kinect-like camera to sense objects in real space and allow users to interact with virtual worlds with the swipe of their hand.
The company founder, Meron Gribetz, says that the company is on track to create a mass produced solution shortly, but until then they have brought on Steve Mann, a real cyborg and wearable computing researcher, to act as a chief scientist. You’ll recall that Mann was assaulted in a Parisian McDonald’s for wearing a Google-Glass-like headset.
“We brought Mann on board because of his expertise in two key areas: miniaturization and mediated reality. Mann has been developing a Google Glass-like device for years but recognized now was not the right time for something of that scale, because of the limitations of such a device. Rather than a phone accessory, Mann is keen to work with us to develop a fully fledged new interface for computers,” said Gribetz.
“His scientific leadership in mediated reality will be a huge advantage for us when delivering an immersive augmented experience. Occlusion (hiding or modifying real world objects) is a key part of full augmented reality and Mann’s experience in mediated reality will allow us to bring the best solution to market in this area.”
Gribetz is a Y Combinator alum and the project, which is still on Kickstarter, is nearly funded with 26 days to go. Users can receive a Dev Kit for $550. Epson will help build Meta’s next-generation VR glasses which will look considerably less DIY than the beta developer version.
“The entrance into consumer wearables needs to be a high powered immersive device capable of fully replacing the computer and more. Heads up notification systems have their use cases, but they won’t be game changers. Mann’s commitment to a fully wearable future is why he chose to join us,” said Gribetz. Considering Mann has been wearing his computing power for most of this decade, it seems like a good fit.
About.me, the online identity platform that spun out from Aol* at the beginning of the year before acquiring the one-time Digg spinout Wefollow, is now lifting the curtains on its plans to generate revenue, with today’s debut of About.me Premium. Via this new, paid tier to the service, the company is adding some of the more advanced features users have requested, including domain mapping, Google Analytics integration, the ability to remove the About.me branding, and more, for a $4 per month fee. And that’s just to start.
This is the first time About.me has charged users for any aspect of its service, co-founder Ryan Freitas tells us. With today’s release, the site will begin to offer features aimed at professional users, like the ability to display their About.me page on their own custom domain name – the most in-demand user request to date, he says. The site will walk users through the process of adjusting their DNS settings to map the new domain to their page.
To accompany this change, Premium users can also remove the branding on their page, which includes the “about.me” logo and the top navigation bar entirely. However, branding won’t entirely disappear. A small button at the bottom will still say “me,” pointing those who are interested to more details about the About.me service.
Users will also be able to check site statistics using Google Analytics, and jump to the front of support queues with priority email support. The company isn’t yet committing to a guaranteed turn-around time, however, because they’re currently unsure what user support volume will be. But Freitas says the company has always taken support seriously, and is now staffing up on the customer service side of the business.
The company also announced its future plans with Premium, which speaks to how it will integrate the technology acquired by the purchase of Wefollow, which today still serves as a discovery tool that helps Twitter users find others to follow by interest.
“There will be a secondary tier that allows for people who want to be discovered,” explains Freitas. “We’re going to be able to create a paid tier using the algorithms from Wefollow to promote [users] into a variety of different mechanisms that we’ll be unveiling over the next few months,” he says.
This will include a search directory, similar to the one Wefollow offers today, as well as tools that will allow premium users to pay for better search placements. “That will probably be one of the first things we roll out – improved search and promoted search,” Freitas adds.
About.me is working on improvements to its mobile application, which launched around a year ago. The app today serves more as a mobile-optimized way to use About.me’s service, by allowing users to create personal pages, discover and network with others, and similar to another startup called Highlight, it also helps you find nearby people. That latter feature – serendipitous discovery – hasn’t proven to be as successful a use case as originally thought, however. On mobile, the app needs to find a way to have a regular draw – something that would addict users to have them checking it or using it often.
What that might be is a little bit up the air, but when we asked Freitas if the company would ever want to inch into the “social contacts” space to compete with apps like Brewster or Cobook, for instance, he didn’t rule it out.
“I think there’s a defined space for mobile apps that try to handle contacts,” he says. “I think that if we were to do something, we would take a little bit of new tack on it…We know we have a little time to experiment, but we know we need to update the app.”
Premium tiers for the social service aren’t the only potential sources of revenue for About.me. Though the company today offers a variety of page customization tools, it’s in desperate need of complete themes where everything from font choice to background images is chosen for those users (ahem) lacking design chops.
Freitas agrees that’s an avenue they want to explore, noting that the WordPress theme marketplace model is “fantastic,” and that there is a “cohort of users who needs our help, and would love to be able to purchase those things.”
But that’s further down the road.
The new subscription-based Premium tier, however, is live today. You can sign up from the About.me homepage here.
Disclosures!: About.me’s previous owner, Aol, is TechCrunch’s parent company. CrunchFund, a fund backed by TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington, also invests in the startup.
Big data is big news in today’s digitized world. With the explosion of Internet usage and social media networks, there’s a massive cloud of data being generated about people all over the world, and it’s growing at an exponential rate.
Until recently, big data has been a mining center for big business to learn more about customer behaviors, desires, trends and browsing or buying patterns. It takes a sophisticated system and considerable computing power to sort through all that information and pull something useful out of it.
However, technology has advanced in power—and come down in price. Now, even small businesses can tap into the power of big data to improve the customer experience and boost bottom lines.
Analytics: The Key to Using Big Data
The term “big data” covers a lot of ground. Data is collected from every action that’s performed on an Internet-connected network—sending an email or tweet, posting to Facebook or a blog, commenting or rating, updating a profile, shopping online, using a cell phone or tablet, even swiping a credit card at a physical store. Every action generates a digital footprint that’s stored somewhere in the ether.
That’s a lot of data. To obtain useful information from this vast ocean, you’ll need some serious analytical power that can find the relevant bits and display them in a format you can understand. Fortunately, that power is both affordable and accessible through various platforms from free programs like Google Analytics to inexpensive business tools like customer relationship management (CRM) software.
What Can Your Small Business Do With Big Data?
If you’re looking to tap into the vast, rich landscape of big data, there are a number of avenues to explore.
Sort Through Your Social Media
You’re already connected to many of your customers through your business social media networks,aren’t you? Well, the data collection doesn’t have to stop there. Tools like Social Mention, Twilert, and Kurrently let you set up alerts and notifications whenever a subject is mentioned online like your business itself, the products or services you offer or any relevant keyword.
Once you start tracking these mentions, you can tailor your responses and conversations to build buzz, generate more interest and improve customer satisfaction and engagement.
Collect Customized Data With CRM
There are many inexpensive (even free) CRM systems that offer fully featured platforms to track interactions with customers and prospects. Programs such as Insightly, Zolo, and Nimble not only provide an inside line to big data, but also help you sort through it and pinpoint the most helpful information.
These platforms also include social media functionality, so you can streamline your big data collection from multiple sources.
Monitor and Mine Customer Calls
Whether you’re working with a few office lines, a VoIP system with mobile capabilities, or a third-party call center, customer service calls can be an important source of data. Be sure you’re collecting your call logs and analyzing the information.
Customer call data can help you:
- Discover the demographics of your callers.
- Identify the most common problems that result in a phone call.
- Analyze inbound calling trends.
- Optimize customer service through strategic call routing.
Many web-based VoIP systems include analytics and automated call logs, and they’re also an inexpensive solution for business voice needs.
How can your small business take advantage of big data?
Data Photo via Shutterstock
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