Google has been developing new technology to crawl and index websites faster, a new publishing/subscribing protocol they've called PubSubHubbub.

Pub stands for the publishers, Sub the subscribers, and the Hubbub is the communication hub through which both communicate online. Right now when publishers put up new content, a ping, or signal, goes out to the Web crawlers to show there is new content. The PubSubHubbub technology would eliminate the need for a ping, thus shortening the time, most likely in an attempt to keep up with the pace of social media tools.

While the PubSubHubbub system won't increase your rankings in search engine results per se, it will see your content is found faster by the indexing service. Having good content is key to increasing your rankings.

Read more from Gahlord Dewald on Inman News.

Posted in Technology And You, Online Education

In a recent report from comScore, Inc., social networking using mobile devices has shown much growth: 30.8% of smartphone users accessed social networking sites via their mobile browser in January 2010, up 8.3 points from 22.5% one year ago.

Between the two, Facebook's jump in users accessing the services via their mobile device was 112% in the past year, with Twitter experiencing a 347% jump.

Social media's unprecedented growth on the computer-based and mobile-based web demonstrates how everyday people are connecting more and more through these tools and their phones.

Read more about the trends and data at RISMedia.

photo credit: A-Butcher

Posted in Technology And You, Online Education

Real estate technology company Roost has launched a free beta version of its new Facebook application, Social Real Estate℠.

With the app, real estate agents and brokers can now place a "Real Estate" tab on their Facebook page that displays city-specific housing from Altos Research, school information from Education.com and walkability data from Walk Score™.

In coming months, the full version of the app will be released and will include MLS, plus lead generation and drip marketing tools for agents and brokers.

"Facebook has passed 400 million users and is arguably second only to Google in mass consumer engagement, but most real estate brokers and agents struggle to use the platform effectively. Our application solves that problem by delivering content consumers want and engagement tools real estate agents need within Facebook itself," said Alex Chang, CEO of Roost.

Read more in the press release from Roost.com.

photo credit: CoreyHarris

Posted in Technology And You, Marketing, Online Education

One of the most astonishing statistics relayed by Vanessa Fox at this year's Real Estate Connect conference in New York that two-thirds of all Web visits are generated from offline resources. Most people use the Internet to find information, but when it boils down to it, trust and connection are still the two critical factors for clients who are choosing agents.

Building trust takes meeting face-to-face, being genuine and connecting with a client on a more personal level. More than half of all buyers in 2009 used an agent with whom they had a previous relationship or were referred to the agent by someone they trusted.

How does building trust and long-term clients fit in with social media technology?

Bernice Ross at Inman News gives more facts and insight about building trust and clients for life, including how to capitalize on using social media to engage people with whom you have common interest: Meetup, Facebook and Foursquare. Those who are active on social networks are actually looking to interact with others, making it more effective in some ways than traditional prospecting.

Read Ross' entire post on Inman News here.

Posted in Technology And You, Marketing, Online Education

In this 2008 video from Inman News, Personive's Jack Horton explains how to manage your online personas and identities to successfully form relationships and engage your clients so they trust and listen to you.

View the original post on Inman News.

Posted in Technology And You, Marketing, Online Education