How To Add and Claim Your blog to Technorati

The common reason that people start a blog is to gain exposure and recognition. However, not that many people realize that it is not as simple as they thought it would be. It is not a matter of setting up a blog and then just writing about stuff. there are tons of blogs that start up and are never viewed once. In order to gain a lot of traffic, you have to seek it and pursue it. One of the ways that you can gain exposure is by submitting your blog to blog networks. One notable blog network is Technorati.

Technorati is a highly popular blog network. Thousands of people use it everyday to search for blogs. Adding your blog to Technorati is quite simple. First, if you haven’t yet, sign up as a user. You just have to click the “register” or “join” link in order to be taken to the page where you enter in all of your information. While signing up, make sure that you choose a username that is easy to remember as well as catchy. Make sure that you enter a valid email address.

As you sign up, there is a section that allows you to add your blog. Make sure you include your complete URL. While adding your blog, you want to fill in your blog title, site description, categories and tags. After that, you must proceed to the next step which is where you claim your blog. This is part of the process of verifying your blog. You will receive an email that contains a code for you to publish in a new post. Make sure that it appears in your RSS feed as well. After you have posted, go back to Technorati and click the “verify claim ticket” link. This will get Technorati to verify your blog.

Technorati is one of the simplest sites to use for adding your blog. this is one of the main strengths of Technorati. A lot of people use this site because it is very simple to submit your site for. After submitting your site, you want to keep up with the updates. If your site is not regularly updated with good content, your ranking will drop and you will lose views. Another strength to Technorati is that it is not just a blog directory. There are other activities that you can take part in that will be very beneficial to you.

Tags: Blog Submission, Technorati, Technoratti Submission

Source : techtalkafrica[dot]com

Minority Report alert: FBI launching $1 billion face recognition project

The FBI is creating its own photo database. And you thought Facebook's face scanning system was scary.

A little over a year ago, Facebook introduced face recognition software to the masses when it included the feature in its photo uploading process. And the masses, as you may assume, didn’t react all that well. There was plenty of conspiracy theory and privacy-concerned backlash, which died down as soon as everyone started talking about how the service was opt-in only. Since then, the feature has faded into the background and taken its rightful place among other Facebook-announcements-that-cause-us-to-wield-pitchforks-for-a-week-but-then-everyone’s-over-it.

But now, concerns over consumers’ image privacy have been resurrected by a billion dollar FBI project. According to New Scientist, the Federal Bureau of Investigation is launching a $1 billion effort called the Next Generation Identification (NGI) program, which will use face detection as well as “biometrics such as iris scans, DNA analysis, and voice identification to the toolkit.” The system is already being ushered in, as some states have started uploaded images (currently it sounds as if this is limited to mugshots); it’s expected to be implemented nationwide by 2014.

As all things start, intentions are good: Such highly accurate identification systems would be used to focus on criminals faster, result in quicker arrests, and potentially stop illegal activity before it happens. Of course, all of that sounds incredibly Minority Report-ish – including this example use:

“Images of a person of interest from security cameras or publics photos uploaded onto the Internet could be compared against a national repository of images held by the FBI. An algorithm would perform an automatic search and return a list of potential hits for an office to sort through and use as possible leads for an investigation.”

While current states that have participated in the pilot program have been uploading mugshots for the NGI, it’s uncertain whether this will eventually extend to include all of our images. In fact, New Scientist pointedly asked the FBI this question and no response was given.

In case it isn’t clear enough, what we very possibly have in the works here is a national civilian photograph database. Right now, the FBI hasn’t reached that far, but it’s very easy to assume it will – and it’s all legal under the US Privacy Act.

Before you start pointing fingers at Facebook and user-facing (pun intended) face recognition software companies out there (think Face.com – now Facebook-owned – and Lambda Labs), consider the amount of state and federal operations that have your images. Your license, your passport, your public transportation ID… it goes on and on. If the government wants to harness image identification, it can and it will, and it won’t have to rely on social networks for help. That said, our increasing comfort with putting our likenesses all over the Internet is only making it easier for this type of system to be enacted. 

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Fact-checking Facedeals: A little background about the retail-focused consumer scanner

Recently announced face recognition and rewards system Facedeals is raising all sorts of eyebrows, so here's a little more background on the device that's certainly coming to a store near you.

Recently, a new device and platform called Facedeals created quite a bit of Minority Report buzz. The product, designed by integrated advertising industry RedPepper, is a camera put into retailers that scans consumers faces, identifies their Facebook profiles, checks them in, and can then offer discounts.

The natural reaction here is to cry privacy infringements: Facebook’s face recognition feature has been criticized since its launch, and it’s clear that users aren’t quite comfortable with the technology yet. So it’s a given that RedPepper’s Facedeals has been met with quite a bit of privacy and identity fear-mongering.

RedPepper, which thinks of itself as “an ad agency by day and an invention lab by night,” says that it’s interested in “connecting the ‘face’ to Facebook. The company’s CEO, Tim McMullen helped us answer some of the more pressing Facedeals questions.

Q: Is RedPepper working with Facebook on this project?
A: According to McMullen, while Facedeals is not affiliated with Facebook, the company is familiar with Facebook’s guidelines for a device like this. So while in the future it’s possible we could see this thing get off the ground with a little help with Facebook, at the moment the two are entirely independent.

Q: Would Facedeals be opt-in?
A: I can’t stress enough how very much the answer to this questions is “yes.” In order for Facedeals to scan and identify your likeness, you would need to download and install the app, and opt-in. McMullen also says that there’s a double opt-in step to make sure no one who doesn’t want to use Facedeals is.

Q: What happens with the images that Facedeals scans?
A: There was some hesitation when Facebook first launched its own face recognition technology that this meant we were heading toward a world where all you needed was a photo of someone, anyone, and that you could search and find identities by it. This made me ask RedPepper about what happens to the images that Facedeals is scanning and using. “Once a user has approved their likeness for matching purposes and it is stored in our database, we make no efforts to store additional information,” McMullen says. “We have no intention of selling the database to third parties.”

Q: Could this help Facebook Offers become the feature it just hasn’t managed to be yet?
A: Alright, this one isn’t very user-focused, but it’s still relevant. Facebook shut down Deals, only to relaunch the effort with Offers, but it’s been an area of struggle. McMullen points out that Facedeals will let retailers know, without question, what deals and offers are sticking and what isn’t. It also means patrons aren’t relying on hit or miss deal-a-day emails.

Q: When can we expect to see Facedeals in the flesh?
A: It’s in product development and beta testing right now, and I’m told to check back in September when the iPhone 5 is released. I also asked for some under-the-hood details on how precisely Facedeals connects with Facebook and reads user images, but I’m told to check back when testing has been finalized.

And there you have it. Ultimately, you can expect Facedeals to hit a store near you within the near future, and you can also rest easy knowing it’s opt-out and available via download only. It’s still admittedly a very futuristic piece of augmented reality, and as such, it’s going to take a lot of getting used to from consumers. Convincing the general population of its merits remains an uphill battle.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Siri’s in for some Google competition on iOS, Voice Search coming soon

Google is on track to revamp its Search app on iOS and improve the voice search by adding Google Now-flavored recognition.

The update will be available soon with no further specifics provided as to when exactly.

Google Voice Search will be better at interpreting natural speech and can even give you spoken replies at times. It can check weather for you, give you cinema schedules and more. It will be a direct competitor to Siri on iOS although it won’t be able to launch apps or work with the built-in navigation in iOS 6.

Also Google is bringing its Knowledge Graph outside of the US to the entire English-speaking world. Knowledge Graph combines more than 500 million people, places and things with more than 3.5 billion connections between them. It will provide users with location-specific answers to online queries, for example if you search for “chiefs” in Australia you’ll get the Aussie rugby team complete with scores, players and history.

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com