Google Brings Location Search History to Mobile Browsers

We've talked before about some of the tools Google has made available in order to help bridge the gap between the time you spend working on your computer and time spent on your smartphone. There's stuff like Chrome to Phone, for example, which lets you access information your pulled-up while browsing from your PC while later on a mobile device. Today the company has a tweak along those lines to introduce to its mobile site, letting you easily access information on places you've researched from your smartphone.

If you've got Google's Web History enabled, letting it keep track of your queries, it's now going to pay special attention to the details on any physical places you end up searching for. Later on, when you pull up Google on your phone's browser, you'll be able to review those locations through a new "Recent" icon. Unlike Chrome to Phone, there's no special software to install on either side of this equation; you just need to be logged-in to Google on your phone with the same credentials you use on your PC.

For now, the new feature works on Google's Android browser and with Mobile Safari on iOS.

MSN Launches msnNOW Social Trends App on Facebook, Web and Mobile

One of the Web’s oldest portals, MSN, is about to dive headfirst into one of the Internet’s hottest trends: Social Media.
No, Microsoft, which runs MSN, is not launching its own social network. Instead, the 17-year-old content destination is unveiling a new social reader, msnNOW, on Facebook, the Web and in a new web-based mobile interface.
The initiative is actually two components. According to MSN General Manager Bob Visse, a team of 20 editors will use a new Demand Dashboard to measure velocity and volume of trending topics across Facebook, Twitter, the Bing search engine and BreakingNews.com (a joint MSN/NBC venture).
Stories that are trending will appear on msnNOW in a constantly updating “Biggest Movers” box. In addition, a team of editors will select topics and stories from among those social (and search) trends and create 100 word write-ups for posts that will appear in msnNOW’s What’s Trending homepage.
The page, which will look pretty much the same on the web and in the new Facebook app, will feature a large main story and a grid of other popular stories below. Visse described it as a “river of real-time content”. Within each area, reader will find small icons for Twitter, Facebook and BreakingNews.com. The presence of each will indicate on which social networks the stories and topics are trending.
These are not icons for sharing these posts, but Visse promised that sharing options would be obvious on the Web site and in the Facebook app, where there will be opportunities to share and comment.
Along with each MSN-created post, readers will find related Bing search terms, Tweets and other content. Not every topic or story will get an MSN write-up. For those, What’s Trending will link to a Bing result, which will also offer a link directly to the original content source. “We give the best of the web regardless of where that content or hot story originated from,” Visse told us.
Visse explained that MSN is targeting a younger “always socially connected consumer who lives an online lifestyle for information gathering and seeking.” That may mean that some of the trending content will be a little edgier than what you traditionally see on the portal. It’s all designed to start a conversation. Even the design has the younger demo in mind. It’s image-centric, with what Visse calls “short, pithy headlines.”
It’s also one of the first times that MSN has launched a new product across three separate platforms at once and, as Visse noted, it’s the first time MSN “has done anything interesting with the Facebook social reader experience.” msnNOW, however, will not launch with Google+ integration, though Visse said Microsoft is open to tracking volume and acceleration on the still young social network at a future date.
Visse calls the msnNOW project a “transformative experience for MSN.” Even so, the design is still decidedly MSN-centric across all platforms. Visse contends that while msnNOW is not yet a Metro design (the cubist-look Microsoft is painting across virtually all of its interfaces), msnNOW’s “component-like design is not a big leap to get a Metro-like design.”
The intention with the current look is for a really good, super-easy-to-use interface. The mobile interface, in particular, is designed for easy touch and swipe consumption across multiple mobile devices (the mobile web site should work well on the latest iOS, Windows Phone and Android browsers).
Though MSN currently enjoys a reported 125 million monthly visitors, with 75 million visiting the MSN portal homepage each month, msnNOW will not take over that hot destination. Visse told that msnNOW will have a hard and visible link from the MSN homepage and msnNOW content that does make the main homepage will feature msnNOW artwork and insignias.
msnNOW is an interesting bet for Microsoft, the big software company without its own big social network. Can it be the aggregator instead of the creator? And will content and media companies like the 100-word write-ups — or will they think such stories are cannibalizing their content?
Visse, though, has other concerns. “I’m waiting to see how it works out. Did we connect with the younger demo in the way I think we’re going to? Are the edit choices and the way we package them together interesting and exciting for users?” All good questions and Visse acknowledges that he won’t know the answers until they launch the product.

10 Apps That Make Me More Productive

We’re becoming an app happy world. Apps that run on our laptops, apps for mobile, apps for iPads and tablets—even better are the apps that sync across all of our chosen devices, keeping us on track in an increasingly online world.
Below are 10 applications that I use on a daily basis to get more done, manage more information, communicate more ideas and generally keep the plates spinning.
1. TweetDeck. This is my primary social media dashboard. It’s a desktop application that runs on Adobe Air and while there are lots of alternative choices, I’ve just always stuck with TweetDeck. (I do however use the Twitter app for my iPhone.) I have groups, lists and searches set up at all times and use the scheduled Tweets feature to meter out content I want to share throughout the day.
2. Evernote. This is my brainstorming, idea clipping, bookmark storing powerhouse. Evernote syncs beautifully across all devices and allows me to outline my life in many ways without having to commit anything to memory. I’ve stored everything from ideas for my books to wines I want to remember.
3. Dropbox. This is my online backup and file storage tool of choice. I probably overuse this tool, leaning on it as a file server for my team as well as a backup for important files, but it just works well. I also use it to share large files and grant conference attendees access to my PowerPoint presentations.
4. Reeder. This is an app that turns my chosen RSS reader, Google Reader, into something much more functional and much more attractive. I do most of my blog reading on my iPhone or iPad and the Reeder app gives me a ton of functionality. I can easily share a post on Twitter, clip to Evernote and bookmark to Delicious right from the post—great time saver.
5. Dragon Dictation. This iPhone app (at least that’s the only version I use) allows me to speak a memo and have it converted to text. I haven't really tested this out, but I think I could compose a blog post using this tool. The app then allows me to e-mail the text or manage it in various other ways. I use this tool whenever I get a flash of brilliance while driving or think of something when trying go to sleep and want to capture the idea right away.
6. HelloFax. This app is billed as a fax machine replacement, but I don’t really use that function. What HelloFax allows me to do is receive a document—like a contract, agreement, vendor form or non-disclosure—that need edits and my signature. Instead of editing, printing, signing, scanning and e-mailing back, I simply download the document, upload it to HelloFax, make my edits, drop in my stored signature and e-mail it back.
7. Text Expander. There are dozens of snippets of text that I need to use frequently. Text Expander allows me to write chunks of copy once and then paste those chunks whenever I need to with a couple keystrokes. I have entire e-mails that I send in response to certain requests, e-mail signatures, blog sponsorship messages and even HTML code  that I use frequently committed to short, time saving keystrokes that are easy to recall.
8. Pixelmator. This is my replacement to Photoshop. Now, I’m not a graphic designer, so I don’t have major league design challenges, but I’ve used Photoshop for years and for $29 this tool does everything I need it to do and is much easier to use than Photoshop. I’m sure Adobe would challenge this statement, but this tool is at least on par feature wise with the $99 Photoshop Elements.
9. Adium. I use Adium for all things related to IM. This Mac-only client allows me to converse with folks via instant message regardless of the IM platform they use—Facebook, Google Talk or AIM.
10. Transmit. This is my file transfer tool. It’s lightening fast and allows me to upload and manage files via FTP to my websites. I also use it to access my Amazon S3 file storage as I use Amazon’s cheap hosting and streaming for my videos and other larger downloads that I make available on my sites. I also use Transmit to move files around on my laptop. Instead of using two instances of the Finder on my Mac, I use a split window in Transmit that allows me to drag and drop files more easily.
Image credit: dougbelshaw via Flickr CC
John Jantsch is a marketing consultant, speaker and author of Duct Tape Marketing and The Referral Engine and the founder of the Duct Tape Marketing Consultant Network.