The end of the summer is upon us, and what a summer it has been!
Facebook surpassed 500 million users in July and Twitter logged more than 20 billion tweets. But what were the best technology tools for real estate and business professionals?
Here’s my list: the Top Ten Tech And Social Media Tools to come out during the Summer of 2010.
Number 10: Facebook Announces Places. Only days ago, Facebook announced its new location feature which puts it on a head-to-head collision course with Foursquare. Facebook Places has great potential for marketing and location-based ads, but as is often the case with new features on Facebook, many users have concerns about privacy. As a result, it’s too early to guess its true business impact.
Number 9: Make Bank Deposits With Your Smartphone. Chase Bank has put technology to work and created a system that allows us to deposit checks using an iPhone app and camera. It won’t be long before there are more time saving features like this on our phones.
Number 8: Make Phone Calls from Gmail. In the last week of August, Google announced that it had integrated Google Voice into Gmail. It’s kind of like adding Skype to your email. Make free phone calls from your computer to U.S. and Canadian numbers and save your cell phone minutes; pay only two cents per minute for international calls.
Number 7: YouTube Ups its Time Limit. Couldn’t make it fit in 10 minutes? No problem. YouTube has given us all 5 extra minutes. This means we can add more time to the videos we make, but it also means we’ll spend more time watching other people’s videos.
Number 6: Google Allows Rich Text Signatures. Now your Gmail signature can include images like your company logo. Very nice touch.
Number 5: Google Expands Real Time Search. It’s been there for sometime. Do a search and Google includes what people are saying about that topic on the Internet. But now Real Time is its own application, which you can use to look up trending topics or to find out what people are saying about you and your company.
Number 4: Google Voice Opens Up. Google Voice lets you have one number for all of your phones so that callers can find you wherever you happen to be. It’s a great application for busy business people and as of mid-June, it’s available to anyone with a U.S. phone number without an invitation.
Number 3: WordPress Unveils Version 3.0. This newest version of the most complete blogging platform incorporates multi-user functionality and a beautiful new default theme, Twenty Ten.
Number 2: Starbucks Offers Free Wi-Fi. While other establishments were getting rid of wi-fi or putting limits on how long customers could use it, Starbucks was tearing down the barriers. They’ve invited us all to stop in with our computers, they’re giving us free one-click wi-fi, and they’re letting us stay as long as we like.
Number 1: iPhone 4 Hits the Market. Multitasking, HD video recording and editing, 5 megapixel camera with LED flash: can it get any better? Yes it can. The snazzy FaceTime videophone feature puts us up there with the Jetstons. Can Jet Packs be far behind? Even with its antenna problems, the iPhone remains the leader of the smartphone pack.
What’s your choice for the best tech or social media product of the summer?
This is a FANTASTIC look at the best tech tools from this past summer. However, I have to disagree with you on 2 things. In my opinion;
The best Tech Product for the Summer of 2010:
goes to the HTC Evo 4G why? Because the iPhone 4 was the “worst talked about” tech product of 2010. I do believe, though, that this generation of iPhone is definitely the one to upgrade to. But, the Evo came out of no where with it’s 4.3″ screen, HDMI output, 720 P video recording, 1.3 MP front facing camera, 8MP camera on back, dual LED flash, and 4G awesomeness.
Best Social Media Tool of Summer 2010:
Facebook Places because it’s going to set the “social check-in” sector on it’s rump! The world’s largest social network now competes where Gowalla and Foursquare dominated for years. They’re making it super easy to get started and more than likely all your friends are using the service already. It’s a killer app. Not to mention the endless possibilities once Facebook really opens it up to Small business owners and not just national brands.
One thing I definitely agree on is Google’s dominance this summer. They’ve been all over the place and truly deserve to be on this list. Great job again!
Rod,
I agree that Facebook Places has the potential to be on of the killer apps of the year. We’ll have to watch and see. As for the HTC Evo 4G: I’m not so familiar with it, but I’ll take a look. I could be that I’ve swallowed just a little too much Apple hype.