This is just a little creepy, Target knows your pregnant first.

How Target Figured Out A Teen Girl Was Pregnant Before Her Father Did!

Every time you go shopping, you share intimate details about your consumption patterns with retailers. And many of those retailers are studying those details to figure out what you like, what you need, and which coupons are most likely to make you happy. Target, for example, has figured out how to data-mine its way into your womb, to figure out whether you have a baby on the way long before you need to start buying diapers.

Charles Duhigg outlines in the New York Times how Target tries to hook parents-to-be at that crucial moment before they turn into rampant — and loyal — buyers of all things pastel, plastic, and miniature. He talked to Target statistician Andrew Pole — before Target freaked out and cut off all communications — about the clues to a customer’s impending bundle of joy. Target assigns every customer a Guest ID number, tied to their credit card, name, or email address that becomes a bucket that stores a history of everything they’ve bought and any demographic information Target has collected from them or bought from other sources. Using that, Pole looked at historical buying data for all the ladies who had signed up for Target baby registries in the past:

Pinterest: Everything You Wanted to Know About 2012?s Hottest

A client was the first person to alert me to Pinterest so I signed up and I am surprised how many friends have contacted me about it. It is clearly developing into a major social media website.

Here is a good article if you want to learn a little more.    http://mashable.com/2012/02/14/pinterest-daily-users-are-up-125-percent/

 

Kind words from one of our clients

We have been fortunate to work with a number of Landscaper and maintenance companies.  This is a website we built to help improve Garden States internet visibility. Scott is doing his own social media work but we can also help with that. We did add a “Like us on FaceBook” box that also lists all the “Likes” to his FaceBook Page.

Garden State Groundskeeping, Inc. is a full service landscape and maintenance company located in Long Valley, NJ. Our specialty is the beautification of the outside of your home.

• Scott Montgomery (client)

• Scott hired you as a Graphic/Web Designer in 2008 and hired you more than once
• Top qualities: Great Results, Personable, Expert
• “Jeff has designed and implemented our website over the past 3 years. He is a great listener who uses his knowledge and insight to build a comprehensive yet simple website for anyone to navigate through. He is to the point and I would recommend him to anyone looking to develop a website or internet marketing plan.” December 22, 2011

Testimonial from LeTip In Kelso

Testimonial from www.sterlinghort.com

From  Susan Olinger, APLD

“Top qualities: Great Results, Personable, Expert”

“Jeff and his staff did a great job designing our site, and is always available and willing to make changes or help out with technical support. Our site has never looked better.” January 5, 2012

More proof of the power of FACEBOOK

As if we need more proof of the tremendous power and reach of FACEBOOK, it was the most searched term on the internet in 2011 and occupied 4  of the top 10 positions plus Facebook.com was the most visited website in 2011.

Here is an excellent article on the subject written by Todd Wasserman

In another illustration of Facebook‘s top-of-mind status among web surfers, “Facebook” was the most-searched term of 2011, according to Experian Hitwise.

This was the third year in a row that Facebook topped the list. The company’s name accounted for 3.1% of all searches in 2011, a 46% jump over last year, the researcher reports. However, if you take into account four variations of Facebook — Facebook, Facebook.com, Facebook Login and www.facebook.com — the social networking giant’s share of the top 50 searches was 3.48%, an increase of 33%. The four terms also appeared in the top 10:

• 1. Facebook
• 2. YouTube
• 3. Facebook Login
• 4. Craigslist
• 5. Facebook.com
• 6. Yahoo
• 7. eBay
• 8. www.facebook.com
• 9. Mapquest
• 10. Yahoo.com

YouTube, meanwhile, accounted for 1.36% of searches, a 21% increase over last year. Searches for Yahoo were also up 15%.

In a statement from Hitwise, Simon Bradstock, general manager of the researcher, noted that single-word searches rose 11% as consumers got used to predictive search technologies like Google Autocomplete. Bradstock noted that searches for “face” and “you” cracked the top 50 as web surfers let Google and other search engines finish the terms “Facebook” and “YouTube.”

Looking at the most-visited websites, Hitwise gave Facebook more reason to celebrate as Facebook accounted for 10.29% of all website visits, a 15% increase from 2010. Google’s network of websites, excluding YouTube, drew 7.7% of all web visits, a 7% increase. However, if you include YouTube in Google’s ranking, Google bests Facebook with 11.98% of all visits, a 22% jump over last year.

Read More…………

A new Holiday Tradition

This one is worth sharing as most of us will be scrambling this weekend to finish up..
Christmas 2011 — Birth of a New Tradition..shop local:)

As the holidays approach, the giant Asian factories are kicking into high
gear to provide Americans with monstrous piles of cheaply produced goods –
merchandise that few of us need, and does nothing to foster our local community.

This year will be different. This year Americans will give the gift of
genuine concern for other Americans. There is no longer an excuse
that, at gift giving time, nothing can be found that is produced by American
hands. Oh…. Yes there is! It is time to think outside the box, people.

Who says a gift needs to fit in a box? Wrapped in Chinese wrapping paper?

Everyone — yes EVERYONE gets their hair cut. How about gift certificates
from your local hair salon or barber?

Who wouldn’t appreciate getting their car detailed? Small, independently owned
detail shops and car washes would love to sell you a gift certificate or a
book of gift certificates.

Are you one of those extravagant givers who think nothing of plunking down
the Benjamins on a flat-screen TV? Perhaps that grateful gift
receiver would like his driveway sealed, or lawn mowed for the summer, or
driveway plowed all winter, or games at the local golf course.

There are a gazillion owner-run restaurants & caterers — all offering gift
certificates.
And, if your intended isn’t the fancy eatery sort, what about a half dozen
breakfasts at the local breakfast joint.

Remember, folks this isn’t about big national chains — this is about
supporting your home town neighborhood businesses with their financial lives on the line
to keep their doors open.

How many people couldn’t use an oil change for their car, truck or
motorcycle, done at a shop run by the local working guy?

Thinking about a heartfelt gift for mom? Mom would LOVE the services of a
local cleaning lady for a day.

My computer could use a tune-up, and I KNOW I can find some young guy who is
struggling to get his repair business up and running.

OK, you were looking for something more personal. Local crafts people spin
their own wool and knit them into scarves. They make jewelry, and pottery
and beautiful wooden boxes.

Plan your holiday outings at local, owner operated restaurants and leave
your server a nice tip.

And, how about going out to see a play or ballet at your hometown theatre.
Musicians need love too, so find a venue showcasing local bands.

Honestly people, do you REALLY need to buy another ten thousand Chinese
lights for the house? When you buy a five dollar string of lights, about fifty
cents stays in the community.

If you have those kinds of bucks to burn, leave the mailman, trash guy or
babysitter a nice BIG tip.

You see, Christmas is no longer about draining our economy so that the 1%
shareholders in national chain big box stores can improve things for themselves.

Christmas is now about caring about US
(We the People), encouraging our hometown small businesses to keep plugging away to
follow their dreams. And, when we care about other Americans, we care about
our communities, and the benefits come back to us in ways we could not
imagine.

THIS is the new American Christmas tradition!!

This is a revolution of caring about each other, and isn’t that what
Christmas is about?

25 new twitter tips

New Twitter: 25 Tips and Tricks for Savvy Tweeters

by Brian Anthony Hernandez

The reorganized and refashioned Twitter.com is a markedly different beast than it was just 48 hours ago. Now millions of users who call Twitter’s web destination home are looking for help. Perhaps just 25 soupcons of it. If so, look no further than this list of 25 new Twitter tips.

Sound off in the comments if you have other Twitter tips and tricks to share.

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Use These 22 Keyboard Shortcuts

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Twitter’s keyboard shortcuts got an update during Twitter’s design overhaul on Dec 8. In the image above, you’ll see the new key strokes. Below is a quick how-to guide to clear up any immediate confusion.

Actions for tweets:

• Click “f” to favorite a tweet (must have an individual tweet open; test it here)
• Click “r” to reply to a tweet (must have an individual tweet open; test it here)
• Click “t” to retweet (must have an individual tweet open; test it here)
• Click “m” to send a direct message (must have an individual tweet open; test it here)
• Click “n” to create a new tweet (can do this on anywhere on Twitter)
• Click “Enter” to see tweet details (must use navigation shortcut “j” first to make this one work; test it here)
• Click “l” to close all open tweets (open a few tweets using the “Enter” shortcut and then try closing them)

Navigation:

• Click “Shift” and “?” for a list of all keyboard shortcuts
• Click “j” to go to the next tweet (can do on homepage or your timeline)
• Click “k” to go to the previous tweet (can do on homepage or your timeline)
• Click the space bar to page down
• Click “/” to search
• Click / to jump to the search box
• Click “.” to load new tweets

Timelines

• Click “g” then “h” to go home
• Click “g” then “c” to go to the Connect page
• Click “g” then “m” to go to your direct messages
• Click “g” then “d” to go to the Discover page
• Click “g” then “p” to go to your profile
• Click “g” then “f” to go to your favorites
• Click “g” then “m” to go to your direct messages
• Click “g” then “u” to search for any user’s timeline

Hidden iPhone feature useful of a waste of time?

The Iphone has the ability to change the settings for your keyboard. I personally am really starting to get the hang of having Siri transcribe my typing for me. Here are some tips to add a slew of emoticons and symbols, check it out and let me know what you think.

If you’re tired of embarrassing Auto Correct errors or composing emoticons based on punctuation marks that only make sense if you tilt your head sideways, there’s a somewhat hidden iOS 5 feature you’ll like: Emoji.  read more……

Clearwater Construction’s new website is up

Clearwater Construction, L.L.C. had us rebuild their website to accurately show how their business has changed and to display their current portfolio.

http://www.clearwaterconstruction.org/